"Oh, the idea!" shouted the Marquis, with another burst of forced laughter, "So now our bare-feet have thirty thousand guns--and some cannon--which they don't know how to use!" "You have nothing else to tell us?" said Plouernel to the steward. "No, my lord." "Then send our men out again for information. The instant they return, come to me with what they have learned." The steward bowed for the third time and withdrew. Upon the faces of the convivial friends blank consternation reigned at the news he had brought. They gazed at one another speechless. "Do you know, gentlemen," at last spoke up the Cardinal, "that all this is getting frightful? The very marrow in my bones is chilled." "It is my opinion," the Duke answered, "that France will soon be no longer habitable. We shall have to flee abroad." "Come, come, my dear Duke," said the Count of Plouernel, "a few regiments of infantry, supported by a piece of artillery or two, will suffice to exterminate these upstarts. The French nobility will whip them down. We shall unsheath our swords." "I think the rabble will whip better troops than those, once they have got the smell of gunpowder," said Abbot Morlet. "You are talking nonsense, Abbot," replied Mirabeau. "It is impossible that bare-footed ragamuffins, poorly armed, and without discipline, should be victorious over seasoned troops. If it ever came to that pass, I should snap my sword." For the first time since the arrival of the momentous news, Victoria spoke: "A traitorous King would prevent you from breaking it; he would order you to return it to its scabbard." "It is for us to have the courage to sacrifice the King to the safety of the monarchy. We shall have all the brave ones--" Mirabeau began. "By heaven!" interrupted the Duke, "this is serious, and requires thought. Sacrifice the King!" "What shall we do with the King?" questioned the Cardinal. "In other times," replied Victoria, "they shut up do-nothing Kings in, the depths of a cloister. Force Louis XVI to abdicate. The Dauphin is an infant, you will constitute a council of regents, composed of men of inflexibility. The shameless plebeians have too much blood; it will rise to their heads and give them a false energy. Bleed them, bleed them white, by repression and defeat. You have cannons and muskets; bombard them--blow them back into the depths they sprung from!" "Ah, Marchioness," answered Plouernel, "you are the terrible archangel who with her flaming sword will defend the monarchy and nobility. You are right. Safety lies in the abdication of the King and the formation of an inflexible council of regents. The monarch must be eliminated."