“So I thought.”
“Well, but you musn’t give up like this. It is not only you who are at stake, but the Assembly, and not only the Assembly, but France, and not only France, but the whole of civilization. Why did you not issue orders yesterday to have the garrisons of the towns for forty leagues round brought to Paris? That would have given you thirty thousand men at once.”
“We gave the orders—”
“Well?”
“The troops have not come!”
Lamartine took my hand and said;
“I am not Minister of War!”
At this moment a few representatives entered noisily. The Assembly had just voted a state of siege. They told Ledru-Rollin and Garnier-Pages so in a few words.
Lamartine half turned towards them and said in an undertone:
“A state of siege! A state of siege! Well, declare it if you think it is necessary. I have nothing to say!”