i.,p.
85.]
"My friend," answered the young man, smiling, "remember the words of
our great poet Corneille: 'The people give the king his purple and
take it back when they please. The beggar, king only by the people's
grace, simply gives back his purple to the people.' "
"Ah!" cried the young lieutenant, smiling, "what once has been
received should be firmly held. I, at least, if I had once received
the purple by the people's grace, would not give it back. But come,
let us go on, it angers me to see this canaille, upon which you
bestow the fine name of 'the people.'" He hastily grasped the arm of
his friend, and turned to a more solitary part of the garden of the
Tuileries.
This young sub-lieutenant, who saw with such indignation this
revolutionary procession pass him, and whom destiny had appointed
one day to bring this revolution to an end--this young lieutenant's
name was Napoleon Bonaparte.
The young man who walked at his side, and whom, too, destiny had
appointed to work a revolution, although only in the theatrical
world, to recreate the drama--this young man's name was Talma.
CHAPTER XV.
MAMMA QUEEN.
"Every thing passes over, every thing has an end; one must only have
courage and think of that," said Marie Antoinette, with a gentle
smile, as on the morning after her arrival in Paris, she had risen
from her bed and drunk her chocolate in the improvised sitting-room.
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