"With that number it is useless to think of attacking forty-five or fifty thousand in the streets. I tell you that plainly." "Would you evacuate Paris?" "No, but I would convert the Convention into an intrenched camp. I would await the attack of the Sections, and I would annihilate them in the Rue Saint-Honoré, the Place du Palais-Royal, and along the quays and the bridges." "Well," said Barras, "I will adopt your plan. Will you attend to the execution of it?" "I?" "Yes, you." "In what capacity?" "As second general of the interior." "And who is to be general-in-chief?" "General-in-chief?" "Yes." "Citizen Barras." "Then I accept," said the young man, holding out his hand, "but on one condition." "What, you are making conditions?" "Why not?" "Go on." "If we succeed, and order is restored by to-morrow evening, I can count upon you if war is declared with Austria, can I not?" "If we succeed to-morrow, in the first place you shall have all the glory, and I shall ask the chief command of the Armies of the Rhine and the Moselle for you." Bonaparte shook his head. "I will go neither to Holland nor to Germany," he said. "Why not?" "Because there is nothing to be done there." "Where do you wish to go?" "To Italy. It is only in Italy, on the battlefields of Hannibal, Marius and Cæsar that there is anything to be done." "If there is war in Italy you shall be placed in charge of it, I give you my word of that." "Thank you. And now let us think of to-morrow. There is no time to lose." Barras drew out his watch and looked at it. "I should think not," he said; "it is already three o'clock in the morning." "How many cannon have you at the Tuileries?" "Six four-pounders, but no gunners." "They can be found. Bronze is scarcer than flesh. How many rounds can be fired?" "Oh! eighty thousand at the outside." "Eighty thousand--just enough to kill eighty men, supposing that one shot out of a thousand does execution. Luckily we still have three hours of darkness left to us. We must have all the guns brought from the camp at Sablons, so that, in the first place, the enemy cannot seize them, and then because we need them ourselves. We must take enough men from the gendarmerie and from the battalion of '89 to man the guns, and we must send for at least a million cartridges from Meudon and Marly. Finally we must find officers upon whom we can depend." "We have all those who were deposed by Aubry and who have enlisted in the Holy Battalion." "Splendid! They are men of action rather than intelligence, and that is what we need." And the young officer rose, buckled on his sword, buttoned his coat, and blew out his light, murmuring, "Oh! Fortune, Fortune! do I at last hold you within my grasp?" The two men went out and directed their steps toward the Convention. Barras noticed that the young man did not lock his door, which showed that he had nothing of value to lose.