"Do you not think that is enough to oppose to your five thousand?" "You say you are sure of the number?" asked Bonaparte without replying to the other's question. "Perfectly so, since I am one of their principal leaders." A flash gleamed in the young general's eye, and he stared at Cartaux. "How comes it that the citizen-Sectionist is here?" he asked; "is he your prisoner?" "No, citizen-general," replied Cartaux. "Did he come under a flag of truce?" "No." Bonaparte frowned. "But there must be some reason why he is in your ranks," he said. "Citizen-general," said Garat, advancing, "I was with one hundred and fifty men, whom I had recruited in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, when we fell in with citizen Morgan and his troops. In order that neither I nor my men should suffer harm, he himself brought me here with a generosity and loyalty deserving of the utmost gratitude. Citizen Morgan, I thank you for the service you have rendered me, and I assert that not only have we no pretext for detaining you here, but that if we did so it would be in flagrant violation of honor and the rights of man. Citizen-general Bonaparte, I therefore ask your permission for the citizen to retire." And Garat, advancing toward Morgan, clasped his hand, while Bonaparte, waving his hand toward the Sectionist outposts, made a sign to Morgan to return to his men. The latter bowed courteously to Bonaparte and walked slowly off, whistling the air of "La Belle Gabrielle." CHAPTER XXI THE STEPS OF SAINT-ROCH As soon as Morgan had joined the Sectionists, and stood facing Bonaparte, the latter saluted him by drawing his sword, and then, turning to Cartaux, he said: "You did well, general, to abandon the Pont-Neuf, in spite of the order which I gave you. You could not hold it with three hundred men against thirty-two thousand. But here you have more than a thousand men, and this is the Thermopylæ of the Convention; you must die rather than yield a single step. Come, Barras!" Barras saluted General Cartaux and followed Bonaparte as though he were already accustomed to receiving orders from him. Then, continuing along the Quai, the young general ordered two guns to be placed a little below the balcony of Charles IX., to command the flank of the Quai Conti. Then, continuing to follow the Quai, he entered the court of the Carrousel. He had left by the swing-bridge at the extreme end of the Tuileries, had crossed the Place de la Révolution--where there was a strong reserve force of men and artillery--had followed the line of the Feuillants, the Place Vendôme, the Cul-de-sac du Dauphin, the Rue Saint-Honoré, and had then returned by way of the Louvre and re-entered by the Carrousel.