"Bonnelier is busy, general; I will do it myself, and you can sign it immediately.... You are quite right, I must go home, for I am quite done up!"
I went to a table and drew up the following passport:—
"30 July 1830, 1 o'clock
"Allow M. Alexandre Dumas access to General Gérard."
I presented the paper in one hand and a pen in the other to General La Fayette, and he signed it.
I had got my order.
"Thanks, general," I said.
And, as the passport was in my writing, I added after the two words "General Gérard" the phrase, "To whom we recommend the proposition he has just communicated to us."
Furnished with this pass, I at once went to Laffitte's hotel and gained access to the general. He had seen me at M. Collard's when I was a child, and recognised me when I gave him my name.
"Ah! so it is you, Monsieur Dumas!" he said. "Well, what is this proposition?"
"This is it, general.... M. de La Fayette said in my hearing a few minutes ago, at the Hôtel de Ville, that he was short of powder, and that, in the event of Charles X. returning to Paris, there would probably not be four thousand rounds of shot left."