, Court and Ministers. Our friend Marie was advocate for that
wretched old man, Pepin, Fieschi's accomplice, more a ghost than a
living creature."

"You are entirely right, friend Rollin," said Louis Blanc, "in the idea
that every one of these attempts strengthens the Government and recoils
on the opposition. No one should so vigilantly and vigorously watch for
and suppress such attempts as we. Heaven defend the old despot from the
assassin's weapon, as it seems well inclined to do, or the deed will
surely be attributed to us. Every unsuccessful attempt at assassination
is viewed like an unsuccessful attempt at revolt on the part of the
opposition, and injures our cause accordingly. Better never to attempt
than never to succeed."

"Do you think it true, Louis, as was reported," asked Marrast, "that as
soon as the smoke of Fieschi's explosion swept off, and the old man
found himself standing unharmed amid a heap of slain and mangled,
Marshal Mortier and Colonel Rieussec being among the killed, his first
exclamation was this, with, ill-concealed gratification, 'Now I shall
get my appanages and the dotations for the boys.'"

"Nothing is more probable," said Louis Blanc. "That old man has but one
impulse--selfishness, and but one attachment--to his family--his family,
because it is his. His purse and family have for years been his sole
objects of love. To aggrandize his own has been for years his sole end
and aim. He parcels out the thrones and kingdoms of Europe among his
children as if it were but a family estate."

"What thoughtful selfishness!" exclaimed Flocon; "and at a moment, too,
when he had but just escaped an awful death, and all around him flowed
the blood and lay scattered the lacerated limbs of his faithful
servants, either dead or dying with groans and shrieks of most agonizing
torture, and all because of himself; how disgraceful that, at such a
terrible moment, his first thought should have been of the few more
francs his trembling hand was striving to tear from a people by whom he
had already been made the richest man in Europe, and which the
occurrence of this dreadful event might serve to win for him."

"Well," said Rollin, "whether this event aided to win the appanages and
dotations, and was so designed, or not, it is very sure the aforesaid
appanages and dotations were secured. No wonder that such attempts
succeed each other so rapidly--one every year, at the least! When was
the next, Louis--that o