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Result was that when the frustrated soldiers and settlers of Algiers broke into revolt last May, De Gaulle was, in his own words and in a sense that had never been true before, "ready to assume the powers of the Republic." He knew precisely what assets he had—his own immense prestige and the fact that the only alternative was civil war. His technique was very much like that of the bandit hero of a play he had written at 15. In De Gaulle's youthful play the bandit, as he strips a traveler of his belongings, periodically abandons flowing Alexandrine verse to declare simply: "Besides, I have two pistols."
Faced with the two-pistol technique, the panicky leaders of the Fourth Republic rapidly wilted. "Each day," complained ex-Premier Georges Bidault, "our position toward De Gaulle changes. Yesterday we were standing; today we are on our knees; tomorrow we will be on our bellies."
The Finest Day. Still haunted by the dubious legality of his World War II Free French movement, De Gaulle was determined that this time nothing should stain the legitimacy of his power. (If the rebellious generals seized Paris by force, he told a subordinate, "they will not find De Gaulle in their baggage.") But to achieve power legitimately, he needed parliamentary approval, above all, that of the Socialist Party. Accordingly, when Socialist Guy Mollet flew down to Colombey to see whether he could support De Gaulle with a clear conscience, the general smothered all his longtime contempt for party politics, turned on such charm that Mollet departed with the declaration: "Today has been the finest day of my life."
And when time came for the crucial vote in which the Assembly was to send itself on vacation and grant him untrammeled power for six months, De Gaulle personally shepherded the measure through, even won admiring guffaws from members of a system he despised by an ironic reference to "the pleasure and honor that I find in being with you tonight."
Silence & Her Sister. Once invested as Premier, De Gaulle had three immediate objectives: to bring the army back under control of the central government, to win approval of a constitution that would give France a strong executive, to come to terms with the French colonies' desire for independence without sacrificing a French relationship with them. To achieve these goals, he proceeded to employ his resources (which now included unchallenged legitimacy) according to the rules he had laid down in The Sword's Edge—"economy of force, the necessity of advancing in strength (and, hence, by stages or bounds), surprise for the enemy, security for oneself."