“Bernadotte, take care! He that is not for me is against me.”
“General, pay attention to your words! You said just now, ‘Take care.’ If that is a threat, you know very well that I do not fear them.”
Bonaparte came up to him, and took him by both hands.
“Oh, yes, I know that; that is why I must have you with me. I not only esteem you, Bernadotte, but I love you. I leave you with Joseph; he is your brother-in-law. Between brothers, devil take it, there should be no quarrelling.”
“Where are you going?”
“In your character of Spartan you are a rigid observer of the laws, are you not? Well, here is a decree issued by the Council of Five Hundred last night, which confers upon me the immediate command of the troops in Paris. So I was right,” he added, “when I told you that the soldiers you met were mine, inasmuch as they are under my orders.”
And he placed in Bernadotte’s hands the copy of the decree which had been sent to him at six o’clock that morning. Bernadotte read it through from the first line to the last.
“To this,” said he, “I have nothing to object. Secure the safety of the National Legislature, and all good citizens will be with you.”
“Then be with me now.”
“Permit me, general, to wait twenty-four hours to see how you fulfil that mandate.”