All eyes were turned upon a man whom Julien recognised.
It was M. de Nerval, the prime minister, whom he had seen at M. the duc de Retz's ball.
The disorder was at its height, as the papers say when they talk of the Chamber.
At the end of a long quarter of an hour a little quiet was established.
Then M. de Nerval got up and said in an apostolic tone and a singular voice:
"I will not go so far as to say that I do not set great store on being a minister.
"It has been demonstrated to me, gentlemen, that my name will double the forces of the Jacobins by making many moderates divide against us.
I should therefore be willing to retire; but the ways of the Lord are only visible to a small number; but," he added, looking fixedly at the cardinal, "I have a mission.
Heaven has said:
'You will either loose your head on the scaffold or you will re-establish the monarchy of France and reduce the Chambers to the condition of the parliament of Louis XV.,' and that, gentlemen, I shall do."
He finished his speech, sat down, and there was a long silence.
"What a good actor," thought Julien.
He made his usual mistake of ascribing too much intelligence to the people.
Excited by the debates of so lively an evening, and above all by the sincerity of the discussion, M. de Nerval did at this moment believe in his mission.
This man had great courage, but at the same time no sense.
During the silence that followed the impressive words,
"I shall do it," midnight struck.
Julien thought that the striking of the clock had in it a certain element of funereal majesty.
He felt moved.
The discussion was soon resumed with increasing energy, and above all with an incredible naivety.
"These people will have me poisoned," thought Julien at times.
"How can they say such things before a plebian."
They were still talking when two o'clock struck.
The master of the house had been sleeping for some time. M. de la Mole was obliged to ring for new candles.
M. de Nerval, the minister, had left at the quarter to two, but not without having repeatedly studied Julien's face in a mirror which was at the minister's side.
His departure had seemed to put everybody at their ease.
While they were bringing new candles, the man in the waistcoats, whispered to his neighbour:
"God knows what that man will say to the king.
He may throw ridicule upon us and spoil our future."
"One must own that he must possess an unusual self-assurance, not to say impudence, to put in an appearance here There were signs of it before he became a minister; but a portfolio changes everything and swamps all a man's interests; he must have felt its effect."
The minister had scarcely left before the general of Buonaparte closed his eyes.
He now talked of his health and his wounds, consulted his watch, and went away.
"I will wager," said the man in the waistcoats, "that the general is running after the minister; he will apologise for having been here and pretend that he is our leader."
"Let us now deliberate, gentlemen," said the president, after the sleepy servants had finished bringing and lighting new candles.
"Let us leave off trying to persuade each other.
Let us think of the contents of the note which will be read by our friends outside in forty-eight hours from now.
We have heard ministers spoken of.
Now that M. de Nerval has left us, we are at liberty to say 'what we do care for ministers.'"
The cardinal gave a subtle smile of approval.
"Nothing is easier it seems to me than summing up our position," said the young bishop of Agde, with the restrained concentrated fire of the most exalted fanaticism.
He had kept silent up to this time; his eye, which Julien had noticed as being soft and calm at the beginning, had become fiery during the first hour of the discussion.
His soul was now bubbling over like lava from Vesuvius.
"England only made one mistake from 1806 to 1814," he said, "and that was in not taking direct and personal measures against Napoleon.
As soon as that man had made dukes and chamberlains, as soon as he had re-established the throne, the mission that God had entrusted to him was finished. The only thing to do with him was to sacrifice him.
The scriptures teach us in more than one place how to make an end of tyrants" (at this point there were several Latin quotations).
"To-day, gentlemen, it is not a man who has to be sacrificed, it is Paris.
What is the use of arming your five hundred men in each department, a hazardous and interminable enterprise?
What is the good of involving France in a matter which is personal to Paris?
Paris alone has done the evil, with its journals and it salons. Let the new Babylon perish.
"We must bring to an end the conflict between the church and Paris.