Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/284

 242 ORIGIN OF THE WAR OF 1853 chap P roac h nirn with the words of a suborner. lie stArnaud that Prince Louis Bonaparte and his associ- andmade ates had entrusted their secret to the man of War. Fleury's selection, it was perhaps hardly possible for them to flinch ; for the exigencies of St Ar- naud, formerly Le Roy, were not likely to be on so modest a scale as to consist with the financial arrangements of a Republic governed by law : and the discontent of a person of his quality, with a secret like that in his charge, would plainly bring the rest of the brethren into danger. He was made Minister of War. This was on the 27th of October. At the same time M. Maupas, or De Maupas, was brought into the Ministry. In the previous July this person had been Prefect of the Depart- ment of the Upper Garonne. Of him, his friends say that he had property, and that he had never been used to obtain money dishonestly. His zeal had led him to desire that thirty-two persons, in- cluding three members of the Council- General, should be seized and thrown into prison, on a charge of conspiring against the Government. The legal authorities of the department refused to suffer this, because they said there was no ground for the charge. Then this Maupas, or De Maupas, proposed that the want of all ground for accusing the men should be supplied by a stratagem, and with that view he deliberately offered to ar- range that incriminating papers and arms and grenades should be secretly placed in the houses Maupas.
 * IV - readily entered into the plot. From the moment