"It is a proposition," said Morgan, "and a serious one at that."
"It seems to me that you are too much of a soldier, citizen," said Cartaux, "not to understand the difference between this position and the other. The other can be attacked on four sides, while this can be reached on two only. Now, as you perceive, citizen, here are two guns ready to receive all those who approach by way of the quays, and two more for those who come through the Rue Saint-Honoré."
"But why do you not open fire, general?" asked the president, carelessly. "There is a fine range for cannon between the garden of the Infanta and the Pont-Neuf—scarcely a hundred feet."
"The general, wishing to place all responsibility of bloodshed upon the Sectionists, has forbidden us to open fire."
"What general? Barras?"
"No. General Bonaparte."
"Why, is that your little officer of Toulon? So he has made his way up until now he is a general like you."
"More of a general than I am," replied Cartaux, "since I am under his orders."
"How disagreeable that must be for you, citizen, and what a piece of injustice! You who are six feet tall to have to obey a young man of twenty-four, who, they say, is only five feet one."
"Do you know him?" asked Cartaux.