Bonaparte turned at once to Lucien.
"Well, Lucien, I have made up my mind to sell Louisiana to the Americans."
"Indeed!" said Lucien, in a tone of curiosity, but with so much coolness I suspected he was not hearing the announcement for the first time.
Bonaparte turned to Joseph with an air of triumph.
"Well, Joseph, you see Lucien does not utter loud cries about this thing. Yet he almost has a right to, seeing that Louisiana is, so to speak, his own conquest."
I knew what the Consul meant by that, for it was Lucien who had negotiated the San Ildefonso treaty which gave Louisiana to France. This speech of his brother's seemed to irritate Joseph still more, and he replied quite sharply:
"I assure you, if Lucien says nothing, he thinks none the less."
"Indeed!" said Bonaparte, his eyes beginning to flash and his lip to curl. "And why should he be diplomatic with me?"
It was evident that Lucien thought it time to come forward to support Joseph, but that he also wished to placate the rising wrath of the Consul. So he spoke very gently:
"I really think as my brother Joseph does on this matter, and I undertake to say that the Chambers will never assent."