hand and
striking with the other on his desk, while Lord Tanlay was standing
calm, erect and silent near him, he understood immediately that
England's answer had irritated the First Consul.

"Did you call me, general?" he asked.

"Yes," said the First Consul, "sit down there and write."

Then in a harsh, jerky voice, without seeking his words, which, on the
contrary, seemed to crowd through the portal of his brain, he dictated
the following proclamation:

SOLDIERS!--In promising peace to the French people, I was your
mouthpiece; I know your power.

You are the same men who conquered the Rhine, Holland and Italy,
and granted peace beneath the walls of astounded Vienna.

Soldiers, it is no longer our own frontiers that you have to
defend; it is the enemy's country you must now invade.

Soldiers, when the time comes, I shall be among you, and
astounded Europe shall remember that you belong to the race
of heroes!

Bourrienne raised his head, expectant, after writing the last words.

"Well, that's all," said Bonaparte.

"Shall I add the sacramental words: 'Vive la Republique!'?"

"Why do you ask that?"

"Because we have issued no proclamation during the last four months, and
something may be changed in the ordinary formulas."

"The proclamation will do as it is," said Bonaparte, "add nothing to
it."

Taking a pen, he dashed rather than wrote his signature at the bottom of
the paper, then handing it to Bourrienne, he said: "See that it appears
in the 'Moniteur' to-morrow."

Bourrienne left the room, carrying the proclamation with him.

Bonaparte, left alone with Lord Tanlay, walked up and down the room for
a moment, as though he had forgotten the Englishman's presence; then he
stopped suddenly before him.

"My lord," he asked, "do you think you obtained from your uncle all that
another man might have obtained in your place?"

"More, citizen First Consul."

"More! more! Pray, what have you obtained?"

"I think that the citizen First Consul did not read the royal memorandum
with all the attention it deserves."

"Heavens!" exclaimed Bonaparte, "I know it by heart."

"Then the citizen First Consul cannot have weighed the meaning and the
wording of a certain paragraph."

"You think so?"

"I am sure of it; and if the citizen First Consul will permit me to read
him the paragraph to which I allude--"

Bonaparte relaxed his hold upon the crumpled note, and handed it to Lord
Tanlay,