After Scipio Dumas’ vote, the same thought had come at the same time to both the Government and to the officer, to the Government that the officer was a dangerous man, and that they could no longer employ him, to the officer that the Government was an infamous one, and that he ought no longer to serve it.

The resignation and the dismissal crossed on the way.  By this word “dismissal” must be understood the withdrawal of employment.

According to our existing military laws it is in this manner that they now “break” an officer.  Withdrawal of employment, that is to say, no more service, no more pay; poverty.

Simultaneously with his dismissal, Scipio Dumas learnt the news of the attack on the barricade of the Rue Aumaire, and that his brother had both his legs broken.  In the fever of events he had been a week without news of Ossian.  Scipio had confined himself to writing to his brother to inform him of his vote and of his dismissal, and to induce him to do likewise.

His brother wounded!  His brother at the Val-de.  Grace!  He left immediately for Paris.

He hastened to the hospital.  They took him to Ossian’s bedside.  The poor young fellow had had both his legs amputated on the preceding day.

At the moment when Scipio, stunned, appeared at his bedside, Ossian held in his hand the cross which General Saint-Arnaud had just sent him.

The wounded man turned towards the aide-de-camp who had brought it, and said to him,—­

“I will not have this cross.  On my breast it would be stained with the blood of the Republic.”

And perceiving his brother, who had just entered, he held out the cross to him, exclaiming,—­

“You take it.  You have voted “No,” and you have broken your sword!  It is you who have deserved it!”

[20] Died in exile in Guernsey.  See the “Pendant l’Exil,” under the heading Actes et Paroles, vol. ii.

[21] Died in exile at Termonde.

[22] Pro Hugonotorum strage.  Medal struck at Rome in 1572.

CHAPTER XV.

THE QUESTION PRESENTS ITSELF

It was one o’clock in the afternoon.

Bonaparte had again become gloomy.

The gleams of sunshine on such countenances as these last very short time.

He had gone back to his private room, had seated himself before the fire, with his feet on the hobs, motionless, and no one any longer approached him except Roquet.

What was he thinking of?

The twistings of the viper cannot be foreseen.

What this man achieved on this infamous day I have told at length in another book.  See “Napoleon the Little.”

From time to time Roquet entered and informed him of what was going on.  Bonaparte listened in silence, deep in thought, marble in which a torrent of lava boiled.

He received at the Elysee the same news that we received in the Rue Richelieu; bad for him, good for us.  In one of the regiments which had just voted, there were 170 “Noes:”  This regiment has since been dissolved, and scattered abroad in the African army.