As the country had been ravaged for a hundred miles round, the
respective Princes of course were for throwing themselves into the
forts, where there was plenty of provision; and, when once there, they
speedily began to turn out such of the garrison as were disagreeable to
them, or had an inconvenient appetite, or were of a doubtful fidelity.
These poor fellows turned into the road, had no choice but starvation;
as to getting into Paris, that was impossible: a mouse could not have
got into the place, so admirably were the forts guarded, without having
his head taken off by a cannon-ball. Thus the three conflicting parties
stood, close to each other, hating each other, "willing to wound and
yet afraid to strike"--the victuals in the forts, from the prodigious
increase of the garrisons, getting smaller every day. As for Louis
Philippe in his palace, in the centre of the twenty-four forts, knowing
that a spark from one might set them all blazing away, and that he and
his money-bags might be blown into eternity in ten minutes, you may
fancy his situation was not very comfortable.
But his safety lay in his treasure. Neither the Imperialists nor
the Bourbonites were willing to relinquish the two hundred and fifty
billions in gold; nor would the Princes of Orleans dare to fire upon
that considerable sum of money, and its possessor, their revered father.
Pages:
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566