The Rising Storm

Prince at once sent for Talleyrand, recalled their meeting on the night that the Bastille had fallen, and sought his counsel; and he became in turn Grand Chamberlain to both Louis XVIII and Charles X.

Roger was still pondering this revelation of the revolutionary Bishop's true feelings when he was almost startled out of his wits by the subtle prelate adding: 'However, I should not have told you of the matter had I been averse to your mentioning it in your next report to Mr. Pitt.'

'Eh!' Roger exclaimed. Then he laughed. 'Why in the world should you imagine...'

With a wave of his elegant hand, de Perigord cut him short. 'To others you may pass as a rich young man who likes to spend a good part of his time in France; but not to me. I am probably the only person in Paris who knows it, but your family are not of sufficient fortune to keep you in idleness. Someone in Whitehall had the sense to realize that your training here as confidential secretary to Monsieur de Rochambeau fitted you admirably for your present work; and your recent comings and goings this year opened my eyes to it.'

The wily Bishop paused and quizzed Roger through his glass, obviously much amused by his young friend's discomfiture. Then, relenting, he went on with a smile: 'But you need have no fear that I shall give you away, unless it comes to my knowledge that your opera­tions are in the long run likely to prove harmful to my own country. On the contrary, I have for some time had it in mind to put a proposal to you. If you will be guided by me I believe that we may both serve our countries well, and be of great use to one another. So I suggest to you that we should agree to work together.'

Roger had to make a quick decision. If he denied de Perigord's assumption the odds were all against his being believed, and there would then be no guarantee that the prelate would keep his shrewd guess to himself. Moreover, to reject the offer might turn a good friend into a dangerous enemy. On the other hand the Bishop was in the position to give him invaluable information from time to time, so a secret alliance with him might prove extraordinarily valuable.

'Since Your Grace has faced me with the matter,' he replied after only the briefest hesitation, 'I will admit that I am here as an observer. I am as anxious as yourself to see France in a settled and prosperous state again; so I willingly accept your proposition.'

De Perigord smiled and held out his hand. 'Let us shake hands upon it then. For my part I have always believed that France and Britain should forget their old differences and enter on an alliance. If united they could ensure the permanent peace of Europe, and that should be the first aim of all right-thinking men. De Mirabeau, who should be here shortly, believes that, too; otherwise I would not have asked you here this evening. I shall, of course, make no mention to him of our personal pact. To disclose it to a single soul might later jeopardize its usefulness. But we may not now have much time left to talk alone together, so tell me the matter upon which you sought this meeting with a view to pumping me.'

' ‘Tis the making of the Constitution,' Roger said frankly. 'I have followed the deliberations upon it to the best of my ability, but the subject seems of an incredible complexity. Since you sit on the Com­mittee I was in hopes that you would be able to tell me what shape its final form is likely to take.'

'You ask something that it is beyond my powers to predict,' the Bishop replied with a shake of his head. 'Even the declaration of the 'Rights of Man', that Lafayette was so anxious we should proclaim in imitation of America, took weeks of work to formulate. Most of my foolish colleagues thought that it could be drafted in a single sitting, but every clause provoked most bitter argument; and now 'tis done 'tis little more than a long hotch-potch of mainly irrelevant aphorisms. As to the Constitution, it would not surprise me in the least if another year or more elapses before the Assembly will accept it. And who can tell to what degree its present draft will have had to be twisted to meet with the approval of the men who may then be the masters in that bear-pit ?'

'How far has it progressed up to the moment?' Roger enquired.

'To the extent of settling the organization of the legislature; no more. The first Committee recommended that it should consist of three parts, as with you in England; a Representative Chamber, a Senate, and the King with power to exercise an absolute veto. But the recommendation was rejected. The Assembly would agree neither to the creation of an Upper House nor the King being allowed the right to quash its measures.'

'So much I gathered from the debates. The last did not surprise me; but I should have thought the whole of the Centre as well as the Right would have supported the project of two Chambers. Is there no hope of its being revived ?'

'None; and it was not killed by the moderates but by the reaction­aries. The grand seigneurs are so stupidly jealous that they feared the Senatorial dignity, if conferred on men of lesser birth, might create a new nobility with a prestige greater than their own; so they combined with the Left and cut off their noses to spite their faces.'

'What incredible folly to sacrifice the safeguard of an Upper House to such a paltry consideration!'

'It was indeed. And that made it infinitely more important that the right of exercising an absolute veto should be conferred upon the King; for it then became the only safeguard left against the people's representatives running amok, as they did on the famous 'Night of Sacrifices'. Mirabeau, with his usual sound common sense, saw that, and declared that he would rather live in Constantinople than in France if the legislature were to dispense with the royal sanction. Mounier, Malouet, Lally, Cazales, Maury, all the soundest leaders worked desperately hard to get it through, and we had the backing of every prudent man in the Assembly.'

'What, then, caused your failure to do so?'

De Perigord sighed. 'Again, 'twas not the bitter opposition of that monarchy-hater Sieyes, and other champions of the mob. 'Twas a combination of ill-applied idealism and timidity, in men who should have known better. That honest fool Lafayette is so imbued with the perfection of all American institutions that he can scarce abide the thought of our having a King at all, and feels impelled to use all the influence he has to reduce the monarchy to a cypher. Apparently, quite forgetting that the United States has a Senate to put a check on any rashness in its Lower House, he wrote to Necker urging him to advise the King to win popularity by voluntarily forgoing an absolute veto and asking only for a suspensive one. Necker, whose one object in life now is to regain his own failing popularity, naturally jumped at the chance to get the credit for a further abasement of the Court, so he advised the Council and the King in that sense. I need hardly add that the royal weakling ran true to form; so the very ground was cut from beneath our feet, and France is today in all but name a republic.'

'Should a sudden international crisis arise, and the country be threatened from without, what is the King's position? Could he still declare war upon his own authority?'

'At present he could; for his right to do so has never yet been called in question. But I greatly doubt if he will be allowed to retain that power without certain restrictions. It is one of the many problems involved in the Constitution that the Committee has so far not had time to consider.'

Through the window Roger saw a richly gilt coach drive up, and he said quickly: 'About Monsieur de Mirabeau. From his speeches in the Assembly I have never yet been able to decide to which party he belongs. A word of guidance on that would at the moment be most helpful.'

'He belongs to no party,' de Perigord smiled. 'Whatever he may be in other things he is at least honest in his politics. Being a very clear­sighted man he is quick to see the weakness in the policies of others, so he will tie himself to none. Only so can he retain his liberty to criticize every measure that he feels to be unsound. Like myself, although he frequently supports the Left, he is a convinced Monarchist; and in the Assembly there are many men of a similar disposition. It is that great floating vote that makes Mirabeau such a power in debate. Upon whatever subject he may speak his common sense attaches to him all those who are not committed to a course of action in advance; and men of the most diverse opinions will rub shoulders in order to follow him into the lobby.'

'Think you, in view of the reduction of the Monarch to near a cypher, that he is likely to emerge as virtually the new ruler of France ?'

The Bishop sadly shook his head. 'I fear that things have now gone too far for anyone of such moderate views to long remain master of the situation. Do not be deceived by the present comparative quiet of Paris. Terrible forces have now been set in motion, and no man can gauge the destructive power with which they may yet sweep not only France but the whole world. This year, for the first time in history, the proletariat has become conscious of its power. The fall of the French monarchy is a threat to all others, and a new kind of war may result. Instead of Kings fighting Kings there may be a bloody clash of ideologies in which class will fight class, throughout the length and breadth of Europe.

In such a war no true democracy could survive, and the proletarian leaders will inevitably be men of utter ruthlessness; dictators, driving their peoples on with a tyranny and ferocity greater than they have ever suffered