It was necessary to act, to speak, to deliberate, to struggle, and not to lose a minute.
Gambon said, "Let us try Dupin once more; he is our official man, we have need of him." They went to look for him.

They could not find him.
He was no longer there, he had disappeared, he was away, hidden, crouching, cowering, concealed, he had vanished, he was buried.

Where?
No one knew.

Cowardice has unknown holes.
Suddenly a man entered the hall.

A man who was a stranger to the Assembly, in uniform, wearing the epaulet of a superior officer and a sword by his side.