Invasion

'Je suis desole, m'sieur,' the man said sorrowfully, clearly untroubled by Renzi's English appearance.

An older man nearby removed his spectacles and cocked his head to one side. 'Pardonnez-moi, monsieur,' he said. 'I could not but help overhearing. I rather feel he would be most offended were I not to make mention of his Briefe zur Beforderung der Humanitat recently to print.'

'You are so kind, sir,' Renzi said, with a bow. 'I find Herr Herder at a refreshing distance from Goethe's classicism.'

'Are you then a scholar, monsieur?' the gentleman said, with rising interest.

'In the slightest way, sir. I am as yet unpublished, still to mature my hypotheses on the human condition.'

'Then surely the swiftest way to an enlightenment is disputing with the author himself.'

''Was ist Aufklarung?'' Then what is enlightenment? Renzi could not resist Kant's pungent epigram. Then he hurried on, 'And I should wish it possible, sir.'

The man's eyes twinkled. 'Tonight you shall. It is the first Thursday of the month so there is a lecture at the Institut and I am sure your author friend will be there. Oh, may I introduce myself? Pierre Laplace, astronomer and mathematician.'

Renzi was stunned. This was the very savant whose work on celestial mechanics and advanced mathematics had earned him the title of the French Newton—and, if he had heard aright, he was inviting him to the famous Institut to mingle with the finest minds of the age. 'B-but I am English, sir,' he said faintly.

'You may be a Hottentot for all I care. This night you shall be my guest, Monsieur . . . ?'

'Oh—er, Smith, Nicholas Smith.'

'Quite so.'

Close by, an anonymous individual continued to concentrate on his book—Renzi noticed it was upside- down.

The lecture, on the taxonomic peculiarities of seaweed, was persuasively delivered, and afterwards Laplace went in search of Herr Herder. However, it seemed that the elderly gentleman was ill and they dined alone.

For some hours Renzi had been able to throw off his feeling of hopelessness, and taste something of what it must be to reach a level of recognition that would find him welcomed into the company of great thinkers such as these. Would his own contributions to knowledge ever achieve such greatness? 'Sir, I must express my deepest sensibility at your kindness in inviting me here,' he declared sincerely.

'Nonsense, monsieur. You will go from here with renewed purpose, a higher vision. This is what la belle France is giving to humanity—a world where all are equal, each may enter the Temple of Learning as a consequence of their gifts of logic and scholarship, never the circumstances of their birth.'

'Sir, our Royal Society—'

'Is prestigious but class-bound. In France we order things differently. Why, where would be your Genevan Rousseau, even your Pole Kosciusko had they not slaked their thirst for philosophies at the fountains of wisdom only to be found here in Paris?'

Renzi murmured an agreement, and Laplace continued expansively, 'Why, there are sages and philosophes from all corners of the world flocking here to be recognised—I honour these savants—and even original thinkers, like the American who came here desiring, of all things, to create a submarine boat.'

'A—a what?' Renzi could hardly believe his ears.

'A species of plunging boat that submerges completely under the water. A most amazing device. I have seen it myself, for I have the honour to count the inventor among my friends,' Laplace said.

'It—it immerses under the water and stays there?' Renzi's mind was flailing wildly. 'Come, come, sir, this is hard to accept.'

'No, it is true, monsieur, you have my word. I was able to intercede on his behalf to secure the funding—I have the ear of the Emperor, you know, and he was concerned even in these busy times to allow the gentleman to realise his undersea dreams.'

'How generous,' Renzi said, as heartily as he could. 'Can you conceive of it? A boat that swims freely in the realm of the creatures of the deep and allows the brave Argonauts aboard to view their disporting in safety and comfort. This is a marvel indeed.'

'Quite so.'

'And it may remain under the water for a—a period of time?'

'I myself and three score distinguished witnesses observed its disappearance beneath the Seine to reappear whole, the crew unharmed, after a full hour had passed. And later the craft was transported down-river to the sea and he repeated the miracle. The submersible—he calls it Nautilus—may be relied upon to navigate unseen, travel many leagues at sea and carry quantities of men.'

'A magnificent opportunity for science,' Renzi enthused. 'Does it have a window at all? And how might the brave sailors breathe for so long in such confines? This is a mystery that must seize the imagination of even the most hopeless dullard. How I wish I might see this wonder of the deep.'

'Ah. That may be difficult. I believe the inventor is under contract to our government for its development and, naturally, there is much discretion involved in such. It is tedious but governments being as they are . . .'

Renzi allowed his disappointment to show. 'I understand. Such a pity. In my old age I might have recounted how I set eyes on the first submarine boat of the age, and now my curiosity must remain for ever unsatisfied . . .'

'A vexation for you. The pity of it all is that the man himself is most probably in the library below us. It is his practice that when he concludes at the ministry he invariably spends time there. He does treasure it for its quiet.'