"Yes, assuredly," replied the minister; "but he is advancing by Gap and
Sisteron."

"Advancing--he is advancing!" said Louis XVIII. "Is he then advancing on
Paris?" The minister of police maintained a silence which was equivalent
to a complete avowal.

"And Dauphine, sir?" inquired the king, of Villefort. "Do you think it
possible to rouse that as well as Provence?"

"Sire, I am sorry to tell your majesty a cruel fact; but the feeling
in Dauphine is quite the reverse of that in Provence or Languedoc. The
mountaineers are Bonapartists, sire."

"Then," murmured Louis, "he was well informed. And how many men had he
with him?"

"I do not know, sire," answered the minister of police.

"What, you do not know! Have you neglected to obtain information on that
point? Of course it is of no consequence," he added, with a withering
smile.

"Sire, it was impossible to learn; the despatch simply stated the fact
of the landing and the route taken by the usurper."

"And how did this despatch reach you?" inquired the king. The minister
bowed his head, and while a deep color overspread his cheeks, he
stammered out,--

"By the telegraph, sire."--Louis XVIII. advanced a step, and folded his
arms over his chest as Napoleon would have done.

"So then," he exclaimed, turning pale with anger, "seven conjoined and
allied armies overthrew that man. A miracle of heaven replaced me on
the throne of my fathers after five-and-twenty years of exile. I have,
during those five-and-twenty years, spared no pains to understand the
people of France and the interests which were confided to me; and now,
when I see the fruition of my wishes almost within reach, the power I
hold in my hands bursts, and shatters me to atoms!"

"Sire, it is fatality!" murmured the minister, feeling that the pressure
of circumstances, however light a thing to destiny, was too much for any
human strength to endure.

"What our enemies say of us is then true. We have learnt nothing,
forgotten nothing! If I were betrayed as he was, I would console myself;
but to be in the midst of persons elevated by myself to places of honor,
who ought to watch over me more carefully than over themselves,--for my
fortune is theirs--before me they were nothing--after me they will be
nothing, and perish miserably from incapacity--ineptitude! Oh, yes, sir,
you are right--it is fatality!"

The minister quailed before this outburst of sarcasm. M. de Blacas wiped
the moisture from his b