He recognised Arago, who had played a very important rôle in the drama being enacted. The frowning face of the famous political writer softened when he saw who it was.
"Oh! it is you!" he said.
"Yes.... I have hunted you out to give you a subject for an article."
"What is it?"
Arago related the whole adventure of Montrouge and how M. le Duc de Chartres had managed to escape in time.
Thiers listened with the deepest attention.
"Dear, dear," he said when Arago had finished. "Who knows but that you have probably saved the life of a son of France...."
Arago stood with his mouth gaping and his eyes inordinately wide open.
And that was the way the wind was blowing on 30 July 1830, at 3.15 in the afternoon! The wind changed Thiers' plans, and, instead of writing his article, he got up and ran off to Laffitte's.
We shall see, on my return from Soissons, what he did there.