ke the emperor; then gliding before them to the
room, he drew back the _portieres_ of the chamber. The officers followed,
stealing along on tiptoe, and gazed curiously, anxiously, into the quiet,
curtained room. Yes, there on the low camp-bed, lay the emperor. He had not
even undressed, but lay as if on parade in full uniform, with his military
cloak flung lightly across his feet. He had sunk down in this attitude
twenty-two hours before, and still lay motionless and rigid.

But he was sleeping! It was not stupor, it was not death, it was only sleep
which held him captive. His breath came slowly, regularly; his face was
slightly flushed, his eyes were calmly closed. The emperor was sleeping!
His generals need feel no anxiety; they might return to the drawing-room
with relieved hearts. They did so, stealing noiselessly again through the
private office into the hall, whose door had been left ajar that the noise
might not rouse the sleeper.

Yet, once within the hall, they looked at each other with wondering eyes,
astonished faces.

He was really asleep; he could sleep.

He was untroubled, free from care. Yet if the Archduke Charles desired it,
the whole army was lost. He need only remain encamped with his troops on
the bank of the Danube to expose the entire force to hunger, to
destruction.

As they talked angrily, with gloomy faces, they again gazed at each other
with questioning eyes, and looked watchfully around the drawing-room. No
one was present except the group of marshals, generals and colonels. No
one could overhear them, no one could see how one, Colonel Oudet, raised
his right hand and made a few strange, mysterious gestures in the air.

Instantly every head bowed reverently, every voice whispered a single word:
"Master."

"My brothers," replied Colonel Oudet in a low tone, "important things are
being planned, and we must be ready to see them appear in tangible form at
any moment."

"We are prepared," murmured all who were present. "We await the commands of
our master."

"I have nothing more to say, except that you are to hold yourselves ready;
for the great hour of vengeance and deliverance is approaching. The great
Society of the Carbonari, whose devoted members you are--"

"Whose great and venerated head you are," replied General Massena, with a
low bow.

"The Society of the Carbonari," Colonel Oudet continued, without heeding
Massena's words, "the Society of the Carbonari watches its faithless