irators parted and one after the other, by different routes,
shortly disappeared. As for M. Dantes, he threw himself carelessly in
the way of the Ministerial Secretary to whom he had alluded, who was no
other than our friend Lucien Debray, and saluted him with most marked
and winning courtesy.

"Will the Ministerial Secretary suffer me to compliment him upon his
indefatigable industry and exertions to-night to fortify order in Paris
and sustain the administration?"

Debray bowed somewhat confusedly at this remark, and having returned a
diplomatic reply, from which neither himself nor any one else could have
elicited an idea, M. Dantes continued the conversation.

"Let me see, it is now nearly three o'clock," he said, consulting his
repeater; "at half-past two you received an order, signed by the Duke of
Montpensier, and directed to the War Ministry, commanding that
seventy-two additional pieces of artillery be transported from Vincennes
to Paris before dawn. That order was issued, and the ordnance is now on
the boulevard!"

"How!" exclaimed the astonished Secretary.

"At Vincennes, the horses of the flying artillery stand harnessed in
their stalls! All night infantry have been pouring into Paris, and,
obedient to midnight orders, every railway will disgorge, at dawn,
additional troops!"

"Are you a magician?" asked the astonished Secretary.

"Shall I reveal to you the Ministerial tactics for the morrow's
apprehended insurrection?" coolly asked Dantes, with a smile. "The
salons of the Tuileries have not been deserted to-night. 'Can you quell
an insurrection, General?' asked the King of the Marshal Duke of Islay.
'I can kill thirty thousand men,' was the humane answer. 'And I, sire,
can preserve order in Paris without killing a score,' said Marshal
Gerard, the hero of Antwerp, 'if I can rely on my men.' 'What is your
plan, Marshal?' asked the King. Shall I give you the Marshal's reply, my
friend?"

"You were present--you know all!" exclaimed Debray.

"Not quite all," thought Dantes, "but I shall before we part. Well,"
continued he, aloud, "the Marshal's strategy was this--exceedingly
simple and exceedingly efficacious, too, provided, to use the Marshal's
own words, he can rely on his men. It is this: Occupy the Tuileries, the
Hotel de Ville, the Halles, the Louvre and other prominent points with a
heavy reserve of infantry and artillery, and sweep the boulevards, and
the Rues St. Honore, de Rivoli, St. Martin,