A COUNCIL OF WAR.
Savrola had scarcely time to smoke a cigarette before the Revolutionary
leaders began to arrive. Moret was the first; he rang the bell
violently, stamping about on the doorstep till it was answered, ran
upstairs three steps at a time, and burst impetuously into the room,
aquiver with excitement. "Ah," he cried, "the hour has come,--not
words but deeds now! We draw the sword in a good cause; for my part I
shall fling away the scabbard; Fortune is on our side."
"Yes," said Savrola; "have some whisky and soda-water,--on the
sideboard there. It is a good drink to draw the sword on,--the best in
fact."
Moret somewhat abashed turned and walking to the table began opening a
soda-water bottle. As he poured out the spirit the clinking of glass
and bottle betrayed his agitation. Savrola laughed softly. Turning
swiftly, his impetuous follower sought to hide his agitation by a fresh
outburst. "I have told you throughout," he said, holding his glass on
high, "that force was the only solution. It has come, as I predicted.
I drink to it,--war, civil war, battle, murder, and sudden death,--by
these means liberty will be regained!"
"Wonderful soothing effect these cigarettes have. There's no opium in
them either,--soft, fresh Egyptians. I get them every week from Cairo.
A little, old man I met there three years ago makes them,--Abdullah
Rachouan."
He held out the box. Moret took one; the business of lighting it
steadied him; he sat down and began to smoke furiously. Savrola
watched him in dreamy calmness, looking often at the smoke-wreathes
that rose about him. Presently he spoke. "So you are glad there is to
be war and that people are to be killed?"
"I am glad that this tyranny is to be ended."
"Remember that we pay for every pleasure and every triumph we have in
this world."
"I will take my chance."
"I trust, I would be glad if I could say with conviction, I pray, that
the lot may not fall on you. But it is true nevertheless that we must
pay, and for all the good things in life men pay in advance. The
principles of sound finance apply."
"How do you mean?" asked Moret.
"Would you rise in the world? You must work while others amuse
themselves. Are you desirous of a reputation for courage? You must
risk your life. Would you be strong morally or physically? You must
resist temptations. All this is paying in advance; that is prospective
finance. Observe the other side of the picture; the bad things are
paid for afterwards."
"Not always."
"Yes, as surely as the headache of Sunday morning follows the debauch
of Saturday night, as an idle youth is requited by a barren age, as a
gluttonous appetite promotes an ungainly paunch."
"And you think I shall have to pay for this excitement and enthusiasm?
You think I have paid nothing so far?"
"You will have to take risks, that is paying. Fate will often throw
double or quits. But on these hazards men should not embark with
levity; the gentleman will always think of settling-day."
Moret was silent. Brave and impetuous as he was, the conversation
chilled him. His was not the courage of the Stoic; he had not schooled
himself to contemplate the shock of dissolution. He fixed his thoughts
on the struggles and hopes of the world, as one might look at the
flowers and grasses that were growing on the edge of a precipice
towards which he was being impelled.
They remained for a few moments without speaking, till Godoy and Renos
entered, having arrived simultaneously.
Each man of the four had taken the news, which meant so much to them,
according to their natures. Savrola had put on the armour of his
philosophy, and gazed on the world as from a distance. Moret had been
convulsed with excitement. The other two, neither composed nor elated
by the proximity and the approach of danger, showed that they were not
the men for stirring times.
Savrola greeted them amiably, and all sat down. Renos was crushed.
The heavy hammer of action had fallen on the delicate structures of
precedent and technicality in which he had always trusted, and smashed
them flat. Now that the crisis had arrived, the law, his shield and
buckler, was first of all to be thrown away. "Why has he done this?"
he asked. "What right had he to come without authorisation? He has
committed us all. What can we do?"
Godoy too was shocked and frightened. He was one of those men who fear
danger, who shrink from it, but yet embark deliberately on courses
which they know must lead to it. He had long foreseen the moment of
revolt, but had persisted in going on. Now it was upon him, and he
trembled; still, his dignity strengthened him.
"What is to be done, Savrola?" he asked, turning instinctively to the
greater soul and stronger mind.
"Well," said the leader, "they had no business to come without my
orders; they have, as Renos has observed, committed us, while our plans
are in some respects incomplete. Strelitz has disobeyed me flatly; I
will settle with him later. For the present, recriminations are
futile; we have to deal with the situation. The President will know of
the invasion in the morning; some of the troops here will, I take it,
be ordered to strengthen the Government forces in the field. Perhaps
the Guard will be sent. I think the others would refuse to march; they
are thoroughly in sympathy with the Cause. If so we must strike, much
as we have arranged. You, Moret, will call the people to arms. The
Proclamation must be printed, the rifles served out, the Revolution
proclaimed. All the Delegates must be notified. If the soldiers
fraternise, all will be well; if not, you will have to fight--I don't
think there will be much opposition--storm the palace and make Molara
prisoner."
"It shall be done," said Moret.
"Meanwhile," continued Savrola, "we will proclaim the Provisional
Government at the Mayoralty. Thence I shall send you orders; thither
you must send me reports. All this will happen the day after
to-morrow."
Godoy shivered, but assented. "Yes," he said; "it is the only course,
except flight and ruin."
"Very well; now we will go into details. First of all, the
Proclamation. I will write that to-night. Moret, you must get it
printed; you shall have it at six o'clock to-morrow morning. Then
prepare the arrangements we had devised for assembling and arming the
people; wait till you get a written order from me to put them into
action. You, Renos, must see the members of the Provisional
Government. Have the constitution of the Council of Public Safety
printed, and be ready to circulate it to-morrow night; yet again, wait
till I give the word. Much depends on the attitude of the troops; but
everything is really ready. I do not think we need fear the result."
The intricate details of the plot, for plot it was, were well known to
the leaders of the revolt. For several months they had looked to force
as the only means of ending the government they detested. Savrola was
not the man to commit himself to such an enterprise without taking
every precaution. Nothing had been forgotten; the machinery of
revolution only needed setting in motion. Yet in spite of the
elaborate nature of the conspiracy and its great scale, the President
and his police had been able to learn nothing definite. They feared
that a rising was imminent; they had realised the danger for some
months; but it was impossible to know where the political agitation
ended, and the open sedition began. The great social position and
almost European reputation of the principal leaders had rendered their
arrest without certain proof a matter of extreme difficulty. The
President, believing that the people would not rise unless spurred
thereto by some act of power on the part of the Executive, feared to
rouse them. But for this Savrola, Moret, and the others would have
already filled cells in the State Prison; indeed, they would have had
much to be thankful for had their lives been spared.
But Savrola understood his position, and had played his game with
consummate tact and skill. The great parade he made of the political
agitation had prevented the President from observing the conspiracy to
deliberate violence which lay beneath. At length the preparations were
approaching completion. It had become only a matter of days;
Strelitz's impetuous act had but precipitated the course of events.
One corner of the great firework had caught light too soon; it was
necessary to fire the rest lest the effect should be spoiled.
He continued to go over the details of the scheme for nearly an hour,
to make sure that there should be no mistakes. At last all was
finished, and the members of the embryo Council of Public Safety took
their departure. Savrola let them out himself, not wishing to wake the
old nurse. Poor soul, why should she feel the force of the struggles
of ambitious men?
Moret went off full of enthusiasm; the others were gloomy and
preoccupied. Their great leader shut the door, and once more that
night climbed the stairs to his chamber.
As he reached it, the first streaks of morning came in through the
parted curtains of the windows. The room, in the grey light with its
half-empty glasses and full ashtrays, looked like a woman, no longer
young, surprised by an unsympathetic dawn in the meretricious paints
and pomps of the previous night. It was too late to go to bed; yet he
was tired, weary with that dry kind of fatigue which a man feels when
all desire of sleep has passed away. He experienced a sensation of
annoyance and depression. Life seemed unsatisfactory; something was
lacking. When all deductions had been made on the scores of ambition,
duty, excitement, or fame, there remained an unabsorbed residuum of
pure emptiness. What was the good of it all? He thought of the silent
streets; in a few hours they would echo with the crackle of musketry.
Poor broken creatures would be carried bleeding to the houses, whose
doors terrified women would close in the uncharitable haste of fear.
Others, flicked out of human ken from solid concrete earth to unknown,
unformulated abstractions, would lie limp and reproachful on the
paving-stones. And for what? He could not find an answer to the
question. The apology for his own actions was merged in the much
greater apology nature would have to make for the existence of the
human species. Well, he might be killed himself; and as the thought
occurred to him he looked forward with a strange curiosity to that
sudden change, with perhaps its great revelation. The reflection made
him less dissatisfied with the shallow ends of human ambition. When
the notes of life ring false, men should correct them by referring to
the tuning-fork of death. It is when that clear menacing tone is heard
that the love of life grows keenest in the human heart.
All men, from such moods and reflections, are recalled to earth by hard
matters of fact. He remembered the proclamation he had to write, and
rising plunged into the numerous details of the business of living, and
thus forgot the barrenness of life. So he sat and wrote, while the
pale glimmer of the dawn glowed into the clear light of sunrise and the
warm tints of broad day.