Page:Napoleon (O'Connor 1896).djvu/149

Rh "As it was necessary to make out a warrant for my arrest and order of committal, I was, while this was being done, taken into a room, where I was placed in custody of the same guard. Fortune willed that a young and rather good-looking woman should come into it just the same time. She was in a gay mood, and seeing me look rather disheartened, she could not resist the temptation of asking me the reason for being so downcast. I had no difficulty in enlightening her. As soon as I had told her my story, she exclaimed: 'What's that? There was no personal charge against you, and they are going to send you to prison because you are your father's son! What nonsense! Wait a bit, I will go and talk to them.' No sooner said than she knocked at the door of the Committee-room, imperiously demanded admittance, and walked in as if in her own house. Now this woman was no less a person than the Citoyenne Mottei, the wife of the President of the Committee, and she exercised a powerful influence over her husband, who, on his side, held absolute sway over his colleagues. I soon heard an animated discussion, wherein the voice of Madame Mottei rose above all others. She came out at last, told me that she had done her best, and that there was a chance of my case taking a favourable turn."

But even yet Pasquier's case was not decided, his danger not yet over. Final rescue came, partly