I had a strong desire to be present at this midnight surprise, but another duty called for my presence.

There was a gala supper at the barracks that evening, to commemorate some incident or other in the national history, and I was to be present and to reply to the toast of "The Commerce of Aureataland." My task was, _at all hazards_, to keep this party going till the colonel's job was done, when he would appear at the soldiers' quarters, bribe in hand, and demand their allegiance.
Our knowledge of the character of the troops made us regard the result as a certainty, if once the President was a prisoner and the dollars before their eyes.

The colonel and the troops were to surround the officers' messroom, and offer them life and largesse, or death and destruction.

Here again we anticipated their choice with composure.
The army was then to be paraded in the Piazza, the town overawed or converted, and, behold, the Revolution was accomplished! The success of this design entirely depended on its existence remaining a dead secret from the one man we feared, and on that one man being found alone and unguarded at twelve o'clock on Friday night.

If he discovered the plot, we were lost.