The chamber doors opened with a creak long familiar to the Palais Bourbon.
Members of Parliament entered in slowly, their footsteps slow
Some still wore their morning coats and waistcoats, others had removed their jackets, the day already warm.
Whispers was everyone not of debate.
Everyone knew the bill would pass.
It wasn't that they lacked opinions.
But the architecture of power had shifted.
Moreau had not dismantled the Republic.
He had absorbed it.
Those who had fought him were gone or irrelevant.
Those who remained were, if not supporters, at least participants.
At precisely eleven o'clock, President Lebrun entered through the central aisle, flanked by his aides.
The deputies rose out of habit.
He nodded once, sat, and signaled the session open.
Moreau was not yet in the chamber.
Instead, it was Paul Reynaud, the Finance Minister, who stepped to the podium first.
He carried a single folder.
