"What did you say to them?"
"I replied, 'The more riddled with holes the flag is, the more glorious it is! Find a spot for me where a chair can be put and I will sit in it and get myself killed there.'"
The deputies gathered at Laffitte's looked at one another.
"Now, messieurs," said Laffitte to them, with that sweet smile which never left him, even in times of greatest danger, "what do you say to that?"
"What did Maréchal Clausel say?" asked a voice.
"I can tell you," replied Savary, who had just entered, and had heard the question; "I have just come from him."
"Ah!"
"I urged him to join us, and he replied, 'I will join you if you are sure of a regiment.' 'Eh, monsieur!' I said to him, 'if we had a regiment we should have no need of you!' Whereupon I left him."
"Messieurs," said Laffitte, "if we are going to throw ourselves into the insurrection, there is no time to lose; we must instantly proclaim the deposition of the king, and appoint a provisional government, so that Paris may wake up to-morrow to find a proclamation on all the walls."
"Will you sign it, general?" continued Laffitte, addressing himself to La Fayette.