"Hide me in the boudoir, Suzette," said he. "Citizen Barras will be here shortly to tell your mistress that he cannot sup with her. It is I who will sup with your mistress." Scarcely had he uttered these words when a carriage drew up before the door of the house. "Here! Quick, quick!" cried Suzette, opening the door of the boudoir. Coster de Saint-Victor darted in just as a hurried step sounded upon the stairs. "Ah! there you are, citizen-general," said Suzette; "I guessed that it was you, and, as you see, I was holding the door open for you. My mistress is waiting impatiently for you." "To the Convention! To the Convention!" shouted a band of young men who were passing through the street and striking at the pillars with their sticks. "Oh! what is the matter?" asked Aurélie, appearing at the door, her color heightened with impatience and uneasiness. "As you see, dear friend, a riot has occurred which deprives me of the pleasure of supping with you. I have come to tell you of it myself, so that you may not doubt my regret." "Ah! how unfortunate!" exclaimed Aurélie. "Such a lovely supper." "And such a sweet companion," added Barras, trying to bring forth a melancholy sigh. "But my duty as a statesman before all." "To the Convention!" howled the mob. "Au revoir, sweet friend; as you see, I have not a moment to lose if I am to get there before them." And faithful to his duty, as he said, the future director stopped only long enough to reward Suzette's fidelity by thrusting a handful of assignats in her hand, and then rushed down the stairs. Suzette shut the door behind him, and as she was bolting and locking it, her mistress called out: "What are you doing?" "As you see, madame, I am fastening the door." "And Coster, you wretched girl?" "Look behind you, madame," said Suzette. Aurélie looked, and as she looked she uttered a cry of joy and surprise. Coster, who had come out from the boudoir on tiptoe, was standing behind her, with his arm held out to her. "Citizeness," he said, "will you do me the honor to accept my arm and let me conduct you to the dining-room?" "But how have you done it? What did you do? What did you devise?" "I will tell you while we are eating citizen Barras's supper," said Coster de Saint-Victor. CHAPTER XIII THE ELEVENTH VENDÉMIAIRE One of the resolutions passed at the royalist agency in the Rue des Postes, after Cadoudal's departure on the evening to which we have referred, was that a meeting should be held the following evening at the Théâtre of the Odéon. During the evening, as we have seen, a crowd of men, led by some fifty of the members of the _jeunesse dorée_, had repaired to the hall of the Convention, but their chief, Coster de Saint-Victor, having disappeared as completely as if he had vanished through some trap-door, the mob and the _muscadins_ beat in vain against the doors of the Convention, whose members had been forewarned by Barras of the attack which was about to be made upon them.