Perhaps you would never get another. The emperor shall not return this
time.... _Diable d'homme!_ There was just a moment here in Paris, soon
after Waterloo, when he frightened me. It looked as though he were going
to begin again. Luckily one never does begin again really. You must not
think of breaking your sword, general."
General D'Hubert, his eyes fixed on the ground, made with his hand a
hopeless gesture of renunciation. The Minister of Police turned his
eyes away from him and began to scan deliberately the paper he had been
holding up all the time.
"There are only twenty general officers to be brought before the Special
Commission. Twenty. A round number. And let's see, Feraud. Ah, he's
there! Gabriel Florian. _Parfaitement_. That's your man. Well, there
will be only nineteen examples made now."
General D'Hubert stood up feeling as though he had gone through an
infectious illness.
"I must beg your Excellency to keep my interference a profound secret. I
attach the greatest importance to his never knowing..."
"Who is going to inform him I should like to know," said Fouche, raising
his eyes curiously to General D'Hubert's white face. "Take one of these
pens and run it through the name yourself. This is the only list in
existence. If you are careful to take up enough ink no one will be able
to tell even what was the name thus struck out. But, _par example_, I am
not responsible for what Clarke will do with him.
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