“Only what you know as well as any one else. It is that before three days have elapsed you will be reinstated in your ministerial capacity; and then you may govern France as despotically as you please.”
“Do you think so?” said Necker, smiling.
“And you think so, too, since you are not at Brussels.”
“Well then,” exclaimed Necker, “what will be the result? For it is the result I wish to come to.”
“Here it is. You are beloved by the French; you will soon be adored by them. The queen was already tired of seeing you beloved. The king will grow tired of seeing you adored. They will acquire popularity at your expense, and you will not suffer it. Then you will become unpopular in your turn. The people, my dear Monsieur de Necker is like a starving lion, which licks only the hand that supplies it with food, be it whose hand it may.”
“After that?”
“After that you will again be lost in oblivion.”
“I—lost in oblivion?”
“Alas! yes.”
“And what will cause me to be forgotten?”
“The events of the times.”
“My word of honor for it, you speak like a prophet.”
“It is my misfortune to be one to a certain extent.”
“Let us hear now what will happen?”
“Oh, it is not difficult to predict what will happen, for that which is to happen is already in embryo in the Assembly. A party will arise that is slumbering at this moment. I am mistaken; it is not slumbering, but it hides itself. This party has for its chief a principle, and its weapon is an idea.”
“I understand you; you mean the Orleanist party?”
“No. I should have said of that one that its chief was a man, and its weapon popularity. I speak to you of a party whose name has not even yet been pronounced. Of the republican party.”
“Of the republican party? Ah! that is too ridiculous.”
“Do you not believe in its existence?”
“A chimera.”
“Yes, a chimera, with a mouth of fire that will devour you all.”
“Well, then, I shall become a republican. I am one already.”
“A republican from Geneva, certainly.”
“But it seems to me that a republican is a republican.”
“There is your mistake, my good baron. Our republicans do not resemble the republicans of other countries. Our republicans will first have to devour all privileges, then the nobility, and after that the monarchy. You may start with our republicans, but they will reach the goal without you, for you will not desire to follow them so far. No, Monsieur de Necker, you are mistaken; you are not a republican.”
“Oh, if you understand it in that sense, no; I love the king.”
“And I too,” said Gilbert; “and everybody at this moment loves him as we do. If I were to say this to a mind of less calibre than yours, I should be hooted and laughed at; but believe what I tell you, Monsieur de Necker.”
“I would readily do so, indeed, if there were any probability of such an event; but—”
“Do you know any of the secret societies?”
“I have heard them much spoken of.”
“Do you believe in their existence?”
“I believe in their existence, but I do not believe they are very extensively disseminated.”
“Are you affiliated to any one of them?”
“No.”
“Do you belong even to a Masonic lodge?”
“No.”
“Well, then, Monsieur de Necker, I do.”
“Are you affiliated to any of these societies?”
“Yes, to all of them. Beware, Monsieur de Necker; they form an immense net that surrounds every throne. It is an invisible dagger that threatens every monarchy. We form a brotherhood of about three millions of men, scattered abroad in every land, disseminated throughout all classes of society. We have friends among the people, among the citizens, among the nobility, among princes, among sovereigns themselves. Take care, Monsieur de Necker; the prince with whom you might be irritated is perhaps an affiliated member. The valet who humbles himself in your presence may be an affiliated member. Your life is not yours; your fortune is not your own; your honor even is not yours. All this is directed by an invisible power, which you cannot combat, for you do not know it, and which may crush you because it knows you. Well, these three millions of men, do you see, who have already made the American republic, these three millions of men will try to form a French republic; then they will try to make a European republic.”