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diff --git a/10381-0.txt b/10381-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..07aea5c --- /dev/null +++ b/10381-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18407 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10381 *** + +THE HISTORY OF A CRIME + +THE TESTIMONY OF AN EYE-WITNESS + + +By VICTOR HUGO + + +Translated by T.H. JOYCE and ARTHUR LOCKER. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + THE FIRST DAY--THE AMBUSH. + + I. "Security" + II. Paris sleeps--the Bell rings + III. What had happened during the Night + IV. Other Doings of the Night + V. The Darkness of the Crime + VI. "Placards" + VII. No. 70, Rue Blanche + VIII. "Violation of the Chamber" + IX. An End worse than Death + X. The Black Door + XI. The High Court of Justice + XII. The Mairie of the Tenth Arrondissement + XIII. Louis Bonaparte's Side-face + XIV. The D'Orsay Barracks + XV. Mazas + XVI. The Episode of the Boulevard St. Martin + XVII. The Rebound of the 24th June, 1848, on the 2d December 1851 +XVIII. The Representatives hunted down + XIX. One Foot in the Tomb + XX. The Burial of a Great Anniversary + + THE SECOND DAY--THE STRUGGLE. + + I. They come to Arrest me + II. From the Bastille to the Rue de Cotte + III. The St. Antoine Barricade + IV. The Workmen's Societies ask us for the Order to fight + V. Baudin's Corpse + VI. The Decrees of the Representatives who remained Free + VII. The Archbishop + VIII. Mount Valérien + IX. The Lightning begins to flash among the People + X. What Fleury went to do at Mazas + XI. The End of the Second Day + + THE THIRD DAY--THE MASSACRE. + + I. Those who sleep and He who does not sleep + II. The Proceedings of the Committee + III. Inside the Elysée + IV. Bonaparte's Familiar Spirits + V. A Wavering Ally + VI. Denis Dussoubs + VII. Items and Interviews + VIII. The Situation + IX. The Porte Saint Martin + X. My Visit to the Barricades + XI. The Barricade of the Rue Meslay + XII. The Barricade of the Mairie of the Fifth Arrondissement + XIII. The Barricade of the Rue Thévenot + XIV. Ossian and Scipio + XV. The Question presents itself + XVI. The Massacre + XVII. The Appointment made with the Workmen's Societies +XVIII. The Verification of Moral Laws + + THE FOURTH DAY--THE VICTORY. + + I. What happened during the Night--the Rue Tiquetonne + II. What happened during the Night--the Market Quarter + III. What happened during the Night--the Petit Carreau + IV. What was done during the Night--the Passage du Saumon + V. Other Deeds of Darkness + VI. The Consultative Committee + VII. The Other List + VIII. David d'Angers + IX. Our Last Meeting + X. Duty can have two Aspects + XI. The Combat finished, the Ordeal begins + XII. The Exiled + XIII. The Military Commissions and the mixed Commissions + XIV. A Religious Incident + XV. How they came out of Ham + XVI. A Retrospect + XVII. Conduct of the Left +XVIII. A Page written at Brussels + XIX. The Infallible Benediction + + CONCLUSION--THE FALL. + +CHAPTER I +CHAPTER II +CHAPTER III +CHAPTER IV +CHAPTER V +CHAPTER VI +CHAPTER VII +CHAPTER VIII +CHAPTER IX +CHAPTER X + + + + +THE FIRST DAY--THE AMBUSH. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +"SECURITY" + +On December 1, 1851, Charras[1] shrugged his shoulder and unloaded his +pistols. In truth, the belief in the possibility of a _coup d'état_ had +become humiliating. The supposition of such illegal violence on the part +of M. Louis Bonaparte vanished upon serious consideration. The great +question of the day was manifestly the Devincq election; it was clear +that the Government was only thinking of that matter. As to a conspiracy +against the Republic and against the People, how could any one +premeditate such a plot? Where was the man capable of entertaining such a +dream? For a tragedy there must be an actor, and here assuredly the actor +was wanting. To outrage Right, to suppress the Assembly, to abolish the +Constitution, to strangle the Republic, to overthrow the Nation, to sully +the Flag, to dishonor the Army, to suborn the Clergy and the Magistracy, +to succeed, to triumph, to govern, to administer, to exile, to banish, to +transport, to ruin, to assassinate, to reign, with such complicities that +the law at last resembles a foul bed of corruption. What! All these +enormities were to be committed! And by whom? By a Colossus? No, by a +dwarf. People laughed at the notion. They no longer said "What a crime!" +but "What a farce!" For after all they reflected; heinous crimes require +stature. Certain crimes are too lofty for certain hands. A man who would +achieve an 18th Brumaire must have Arcola in his past and Austerlitz in +his future. The art of becoming a great scoundrel is not accorded to the +first comer. People said to themselves, Who is this son of Hortense? He +has Strasbourg behind him instead of Arcola, and Boulogne in place of +Austerlitz. He is a Frenchman, born a Dutchman, and naturalized a Swiss; +he is a Bonaparte crossed with a Verhuell; he is only celebrated for the +ludicrousness of his imperial attitude, and he who would pluck a feather +from his eagle would risk finding a goose's quill in his hand. This +Bonaparte does not pass currency in the array, he is a counterfeit image +less of gold than of lead, and assuredly French soldiers will not give us +the change for this false Napoleon in rebellion, in atrocities, in +massacres, in outrages, in treason. If he should attempt roguery it would +miscarry. Not a regiment would stir. Besides, why should he make such an +attempt? Doubtless he has his suspicious side, but why suppose him an +absolute villain? Such extreme outrages are beyond him; he is incapable +of them physically, why judge him capable of them morally? Has he not +pledged honor? Has he not said, "No one in Europe doubts my word?" Let us +fear nothing. To this could be answered, Crimes are committed either on a +grand or on a mean scale. In the first category there is Caesar; in the +second there is Mandrin. Caesar passes the Rubicon, Mandrin bestrides the +gutter. But wise men interposed, "Are we not prejudiced by offensive +conjectures? This man has been exiled and unfortunate. Exile enlightens, +misfortune corrects." + +For his part Louis Bonaparte protested energetically. Facts abounded in +his favor. Why should he not act in good faith? He had made remarkable +promises. Towards the end of October, 1848, then a candidate for the +Presidency, he was calling at No. 37, Rue de la Tour d'Auvergne, on a +certain personage, to whom he remarked, "I wish to have an explanation +with you. They slander me. Do I give you the impression of a madman? They +think that I wish to revivify Napoleon. There are two men whom a great +ambition can take for its models, Napoleon and Washington. The one is a +man of Genius, the other is a man of Virtue. It is ridiculous to say, 'I +will be a man of Genius;' it is honest to say, 'I will be a man of +Virtue.' Which of these depends upon ourselves? Which can we accomplish +by our will? To be Genius? No. To be Probity? Yes. The attainment of +Genius is not possible; the attainment of Probity is a possibility. And +what could I revive of Napoleon? One sole thing--a crime. Truly a worthy +ambition! Why should I be considered man? The Republic being established, +I am not a great man, I shall not copy Napoleon; but I am an honest man. +I shall imitate Washington. My name, the name of Bonaparte, will be +inscribed on two pages of the history of France: on the first there will +be crime and glory, on the second probity and honor. And the second will +perhaps be worth the first. Why? Because if Napoleon is the greater, +Washington is the better man. Between the guilty hero and the good +citizen I choose the good citizen. Such is my ambition." + +From 1848 to 1851 three years elapsed. People had long suspected Louis +Bonaparte; but long-continued suspicion blunts the intellect and wears +itself out by fruitless alarms. Louis Bonaparte had had dissimulating +ministers such as Magne and Rouher; but he had also had straightforward +ministers such as Léon Faucher and Odilon Barrot; and these last had +affirmed that he was upright and sincere. He had been seen to beat his +breast before the doors of Ham; his foster sister, Madame Hortense +Cornu, wrote to Mieroslawsky, "I am a good Republican, and I can answer +for him." His friend of Ham, Peauger, a loyal man, declared, "Louis +Bonaparte is incapable of treason." Had not Louis Bonaparte written the +work entitled "Pauperism"? In the intimate circles of the Elysée Count +Potocki was a Republican and Count d'Orsay was a Liberal; Louis +Bonaparte said to Potocki, "I am a man of the Democracy," and to +D'Orsay, "I am a man of Liberty." The Marquis du Hallays opposed the +_coup d'état_, while the Marquise du Hallays was in its favor. Louis +Bonaparte said to the Marquis, "Fear nothing" (it is true that he +whispered to the Marquise, "Make your mind easy"). The Assembly, after +having shown here and there some symptoms of uneasiness, had grown calm. +There was General Neumayer, "who was to be depended upon," and who from +his position at Lyons would at need march upon Paris. Changarnier +exclaimed, "Representatives of the people, deliberate in peace." Even +Louis Bonaparte himself had pronounced these famous words, "I should see +an enemy of my country in any one who would change by force that which +has been established by law," and, moreover, the Army was "force," and +the Army possessed leaders, leaders who were beloved and victorious. +Lamoricière, Changarnier, Cavaignac, Leflô, Bedeau, Charras; how could +any one imagine the Army of Africa arresting the Generals of Africa? On +Friday, November 28, 1851, Louis Bonaparte said to Michel de Bourges, +"If I wanted to do wrong, I could not. Yesterday, Thursday, I invited to +my table five Colonels of the garrison of Paris, and the whim seized me +to question each one by himself. All five declared to me that the Army +would never lend itself to a _coup de force_, nor attack the +inviolability of the Assembly. You can tell your friends this."--"He +smiled," said Michel de Bourges, reassured, "and I also smiled." After +this, Michel de Bourges declared in the Tribune, "this is the man for +me." In that same month of November a satirical journal, charged with +calumniating the President of the Republic, was sentenced to fine and +imprisonment for a caricature depicting a shooting-gallery and Louis +Bonaparte using the Constitution as a target. Morigny, Minister of the +Interior, declared in the Council before the President "that a Guardian +of Public Power ought never to violate the law as otherwise he would +be--" "a dishonest man," interposed the President. All these words and +all these facts were notorious. The material and moral impossibility of +the _coup d'état_ was manifest to all. To outrage the National Assembly! +To arrest the Representatives! What madness! As we have seen, Charras, +who had long remained on his guard, unloaded his pistols. The feeling of +security was complete and unanimous. Nevertheless there were some of us +in the Assembly who still retained a few doubts, and who occasionally +shook our heads, but we were looked upon as fools. + + +[1] Colonel Charras was Under-Secretary of State in 1848, and Acting +Secretary of War under the Provisional Government. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +PARIS SLEEPS--THE BELL RINGS + +On the 2d December, 1851, Representative Versigny, of the Haute-Saône, +who resided at Paris, at No. 4, Rue Léonie, was asleep. He slept +soundly; he had been working till late at night. Versigny was a young +man of thirty-two, soft-featured and fair-complexioned, of a courageous +spirit, and a mind tending towards social and economical studies. He had +passed the first hours of the night in the perusal of a book by Bastiat, +in which he was making marginal notes, and, leaving the book open on the +table, he had fallen asleep. Suddenly he awoke with a start at the sound +of a sharp ring at the bell. He sprang up in surprise. It was dawn. It +was about seven o'clock in the morning. + +Never dreaming what could be the motive for so early a visit, and +thinking that someone had mistaken the door, he again lay down, and was +about to resume his slumber, when a second ring at the bell, still +louder than the first, completely aroused him. He got up in his +night-shirt and opened the door. + +Michel de Bourges and Théodore Bac entered. Michel de Bourges was the +neighbor of Versigny; he lived at No. 16, Rue de Milan. + +Théodore Bac and Michel were pale, and appeared greatly agitated. + +"Versigny," said Michel, "dress yourself at once--Baune has just been +arrested." + +"Bah!" exclaimed Versigny. "Is the Mauguin business beginning again?" + +"It is more than that," replied Michel. "Baune's wife and daughter came +to me half-an-hour ago. They awoke me. Baune was arrested in bed at six +o'clock this morning." + +"What does that mean?" asked Versigny. + +The bell rang again. + +"This will probably tell us," answered Michel de Bourges. + +Versigny opened the door. It was the Representative Pierre Lefranc. He +brought, in truth, the solution of the enigma. + +"Do you know what is happening?" said he. + +"Yes," answered Michel. "Baune is in prison." + +"It is the Republic who is a prisoner," said Pierre Lefranc. "Have you +read the placards?" + +"No." + +Pierre Lefranc explained to them that the walls at that moment were +covered with placards which the curious crowd were thronging to read, +that he had glanced over one of them at the corner of his street, and +that the blow had fallen. + +"The blow!" exclaimed Michel. "Say rather the crime." + +Pierre Lefranc added that there were three placards--one decree and two +proclamations--all three on white paper, and pasted close together. + +The decree was printed in large letters. + +The ex-Constituent Laissac, who lodged, like Michel de Bourges, in the +neighborhood (No. 4, Cité Gaillard), then came in. He brought the same +news, and announced further arrests which had been made during the +night. + +There was not a minute to lose. + +They went to impart the news to Yvan, the Secretary of the Assembly, who +had been appointed by the Left, and who lived in the Rue de Boursault. + +An immediate meeting was necessary. Those Republican Representatives who +were still at liberty must be warned and brought together without delay. + +Versigny said, "I will go and find Victor Hugo." + +It was eight o'clock in the morning. I was awake and was working in bed. +My servant entered and said, with an air of alarm,-- + +"A Representative of the people is outside who wishes to speak to you, +sir." + +"Who is it?" + +"Monsieur Versigny:" + +"Show him in." + +Versigny entered, and told me the state of affairs. I sprang out of bed. + +He told me of the "rendezvous" at the rooms of the ex-Constituent +Laissac. + +"Go at once and inform the other Representatives," said I. + +He left me. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +WHAT HAD HAPPENED DURING THE NIGHT + +Previous to the fatal days of June, 1848, the esplanade of the Invalides +was divided into eight huge grass plots, surrounded by wooden railings +and enclosed between two groves of trees, separated by a street running +perpendicularly to the front of the Invalides. This street was traversed +by three streets running parallel to the Seine. There were large lawns +upon which children were wont to play. The centre of the eight grass +plots was marred by a pedestal which under the Empire had borne the +bronze lion of St. Mark, which had been brought from Venice; under the +Restoration a white marble statue of Louis XVIII.; and under Louis +Philippe a plaster bust of Lafayette. Owing to the Palace of the +Constituent Assembly having been nearly seized by a crowd of insurgents on +the 22d of June, 1848, and there being no barracks in the neighborhood, +General Cavaignac had constructed at three hundred paces from the +Legislative Palace, on the grass plots of the Invalides, several rows of +long huts, under which the grass was hidden. These huts, where three or +four thousand men could be accommodated, lodged the troops specially +appointed to keep watch over the National Assembly. + +On the 1st December, 1851, the two regiments hutted on the Esplanade were +the 6th and the 42d Regiments of the Line, the 6th commanded by Colonel +Garderens de Boisse, who was famous before the Second of December, the +42d by Colonel Espinasse, who became famous since that date. + +The ordinary night-guard of the Palace of the Assembly was composed of a +battalion of Infantry and of thirty artillerymen, with a captain. The +Minister of War, in addition, sent several troopers for orderly service. +Two mortars and six pieces of cannon, with their ammunition wagons, were +ranged in a little square courtyard situated on the right of the Cour +d'Honneur, and which was called the Cour des Canons. The Major, the +military commandant of the Palace, was placed under the immediate control +of the Questors.[2] At nightfall the gratings and the doors were secured, +sentinels were posted, instructions were issued to the sentries, and the +Palace was closed like a fortress. The password was the same as in the +Place de Paris. + +The special instructions drawn up by the Questors prohibited the entrance +of any armed force other than the regiment on duty. + +On the night of the 1st and 2d of December the Legislative Palace was +guarded by a battalion of the 42d. + +The sitting of the 1st of December, which was exceedingly peaceable, +and had been devoted to a discussion on the municipal law, had finished +late, and was terminated by a Tribunal vote. At the moment when M. +Baze, one of the Questors, ascended the Tribune to deposit his vote, a +Representative, belonging to what was called "Les Bancs Elyséens" +approached him, and said in a low tone, "To-night you will be carried +off." Such warnings as these were received every day, and, as we have +already explained, people had ended by paying no heed to them. +Nevertheless, immediately after the sitting the Questors sent for the +Special Commissary of Police of the Assembly, President Dupin being +present. When interrogated, the Commissary declared that the reports of +his agents indicated "dead calm"--such was his expression--and that +assuredly there was no danger to be apprehended for that night. When +the Questors pressed him further, President Dupin, exclaiming "Bah!" +left the room. + +On that same day, the 1st December, about three o'clock in the afternoon, +as General Leflô's father-in-law crossed the boulevard in front of +Tortoni's, some one rapidly passed by him and whispered in his ear these +significant words, "Eleven o'clock--midnight." This incident excited but +little attention at the Questure, and several even laughed at it. It had +become customary with them. Nevertheless General Leflô would not go to +bed until the hour mentioned had passed by, and remained in the Offices +of the Questure until nearly one o'clock in the morning. + +The shorthand department of the Assembly was done out of doors by four +messengers attached to the _Moniteur_, who were employed to carry the +copy of the shorthand writers to the printing-office, and to bring back +the proof-sheets to the Palace of the Assembly, where M. Hippolyte Prévost +corrected them. M. Hippolyte Prévost was chief of the stenographic staff, +and in that capacity had apartments in the Legislative Palace. He was at +the same time editor of the musical _feuilleton_ of the _Moniteur_. On +the 1st December he had gone to the Opéra Comique for the first +representation of a new piece, and did not return till after midnight. +The fourth messenger from the _Moniteur_ was waiting for him with a proof +of the last slip of the sitting; M. Prévost corrected the proof, and the +messenger was sent off. It was then a little after one o'clock, profound +quiet reigned around, and, with the exception of the guard, all in the +Palace slept. Towards this hour of the night, a singular incident +occurred. The Captain-Adjutant-Major of the Guard of the Assembly came to +the Major and said, "The Colonel has sent for me," and he added according +to military etiquette, "Will you permit me to go?" The Commandant was +astonished. "Go," he said with some sharpness, "but the Colonel is wrong +to disturb an officer on duty." One of the soldiers on guard, without +understanding the meaning of the words, heard the Commandant pacing up +and down, and muttering several times, "What the deuce can he want?" + +Half an hour afterwards the Adjutant-Major returned. "Well," asked the +Commandant, "what did the Colonel want with you?" "Nothing," answered the +Adjutant, "he wished to give me the orders for to-morrow's duties." The +night became further advanced. Towards four o'clock the Adjutant-Major +came again to the Major. "Major," he said, "the Colonel has asked for +me." "Again!" exclaimed the Commandant. "This is becoming strange; +nevertheless, go." + +The Adjutant-Major had amongst other duties that of giving out the +instructions to the sentries, and consequently had the power of +rescinding them. + +As soon as the Adjutant-Major had gone out, the Major, becoming uneasy, +thought that it was his duty to communicate with the Military Commandant +of the Palace. He went upstairs to the apartment of the Commandant-- +Lieutenant Colonel Niols. Colonel Niols had gone to bed and the attendants +had retired to their rooms in the attics. The Major, new to the Palace, +groped about the corridors, and, knowing little about the various rooms, +rang at a door which seemed to him that of the Military Commandant. Nobody +answered, the door was not opened, and the Major returned downstairs, +without having been able to speak to anybody. + +On his part the Adjutant-Major re-entered the Palace, but the Major did +not see him again. The Adjutant remained near the grated door of the +Place Bourgogne, shrouded in his cloak, and walking up and down the +courtyard as though expecting some one. + +At the instant that five o'clock sounded from the great clock of the +dome, the soldiers who slept in the hut-camp before the Invalides were +suddenly awakened. Orders were given in a low voice in the huts to take +up arms, in silence. Shortly afterwards two regiments, knapsack on back +were marching upon the Palace of the Assembly; they were the 6th and the +42d. + +At this same stroke of five, simultaneously in all the quarters of Paris, +infantry soldiers filed out noiselessly from every barrack, with their +colonels at their head. The _aides-de-camp_ and orderly officers of Louis +Bonaparte, who had been distributed in all the barracks, superintended +this taking up of arms. The cavalry were not set in motion until +three-quarters of an hour after the infantry, for fear that the ring of +the horses' hoofs on the stones should wake slumbering Paris too soon. + +M. de Persigny, who had brought from the Elysée to the camp of the +Invalides the order to take up arms, marched at the head of the 42d, by +the side of Colonel Espinasse. A story is current in the army, for at the +present day, wearied as people are with dishonorable incidents, these +occurrences are yet told with a species of gloomy indifference--the story +is current that at the moment of setting out with his regiment one of the +colonels who could be named hesitated, and that the emissary from the +Elysée, taking a sealed packet from his pocket, said to him, "Colonel, I +admit that we are running a great risk. Here in this envelope, which I +have been charged to hand to you, are a hundred thousand francs in +banknotes _for contingencies_." The envelope was accepted, and the +regiment set out. On the evening of the 2d of December the colonel said +to a lady, "This morning I earned a hundred thousand francs and my +General's epaulets." The lady showed him the door. + +Xavier Durrieu, who tells us this story, had the curiosity later on to +see this lady. She confirmed the story. Yes, certainly! she had shut the +door in the face of this wretch; a soldier, a traitor to his flag who +dared visit her! She receive such a man? No! she could not do that, +"and," states Xavier Durrieu, she added, "And yet I have no character to +lose." + +Another mystery was in progress at the Prefecture of Police. + +Those belated inhabitants of the Cité who may have returned home at a +late hour of the night might have noticed a large number of street cabs +loitering in scattered groups at different points round about the Rue de +Jerusalem. + +From eleven o'clock in the evening, under pretext of the arrivals of +refugees at Paris from Genoa and London, the Brigade of Surety and the +eight hundred _sergents de ville_ had been retained in the Prefecture. At +three o'clock in the morning a summons had been sent to the forty-eight +Commissaries of Paris and of the suburbs, and also to the peace officers. +An hour afterwards all of them arrived. They were ushered into a separate +chamber, and isolated from each other as much as possible. At five +o'clock a bell was sounded in the Prefect's cabinet. The Prefect Maupas +called the Commissaries of Police one after another into his cabinet, +revealed the plot to them, and allotted to each his portion of the crime. +None refused; many thanked him. + +It was a question of arresting at their own homes seventy-eight Democrats +who were influential in their districts, and dreaded by the Elysée as +possible chieftains of barricades. It was necessary, a still more daring +outrage, to arrest at their houses sixteen Representatives of the People. +For this last task were chosen among the Commissaries of Police such of +those magistrates who seemed the most likely to become ruffians. Amongst +these were divided the Representatives. Each had his man. Sieur Courtille +had Charras, Sieur Desgranges had Nadaud, Sieur Hubaut the elder had M. +Thiers, and Sieur Hubaut the younger General Bedeau, General Changarnier +was allotted to Lerat, and General Cavaignac to Colin. Sieur Dourlens +took Representative Valentin, Sieur Benoist Representative Miot, Sieur +Allard Representative Cholat, Sieur Barlet took Roger (Du Nord), General +Lamoricière fell to Commissary Blanchet, Commissary Gronfier had +Representative Greppo, and Commissary Boudrot Representative Lagrange. +The Questors were similarly allotted, Monsieur Baze to the Sieur +Primorin, and General Leflô to Sieur Bertoglio. + +Warrants with the name of the Representatives had been drawn up in the +Prefect's private Cabinet. Blanks had been only left for the names of the +Commissaries. These were filled in at the moment of leaving. + +In addition to the armed force which was appointed to assist them, it had +been decided that each Commissary should be accompanied by two escorts, +one composed of _sergents de ville_, the other of police agents in plain +clothes. As Prefect Maupas had told M. Bonaparte, the Captain of the +Republican Guard, Baudinet, was associated with Commissary Lerat in the +arrest of General Changarnier. + +Towards half-past five the _fiacres_ which were in waiting were called +up, and all started, each with his instructions. + +During this time, in another corner of Paris--the old Rue du Temple--in +that ancient Soubise Mansion which had been transformed into a Royal +Printing Office, and is to-day a National Printing Office, another +section of the Crime was being organized. + +Towards one in the morning a passer-by who had reached the old Rue du +Temple by the Rue de Vieilles-Haudriettes, noticed at the junction of +these two streets several long and high windows brilliantly lighted up, +These were the windows of the work-rooms of the National Printing Office. +He turned to the right and entered the old Rue du Temple, and a moment +afterwards paused before the crescent-shaped entrance of the front of the +printing-office. The principal door was shut, two sentinels guarded the +side door. Through this little door, which was ajar, he glanced into the +courtyard of the printing-office, and saw it filled with soldiers. The +soldiers were silent, no sound could be heard, but the glistening of +their bayonets could be seen. The passer-by surprised, drew nearer. One +of the sentinels thrust him rudely back, crying out, "Be off." + +Like the _sergents de ville_ at the Prefecture of Police, the workmen had +been retained at the National Printing Office under plea of night-work. +At the same time that M. Hippolyte Prévost returned to the Legislative +Palace, the manager of the National Printing Office re-entered his +office, also returning from the Opéra Comique, where he had been to see +the new piece, which was by his brother, M. de St. Georges. Immediately +on his return the manager, to whom had come an order from the Elysée +during the day, took up a pair of pocket pistols, and went down into the +vestibule, which communicates by means of a few steps with the courtyard. +Shortly afterwards the door leading to the street opened, a _fiacre_ +entered, a man who carried a large portfolio alighted. The manager went +up to the man, and said to him, "Is that you, Monsieur de Béville?" + +"Yes," answered the man. + +The _fiacre_ was put up, the horses placed in a stable, and the coachman +shut up in a parlor, where they gave him drink, and placed a purse in his +hand. Bottles of wine and louis d'or form the groundwork of this hind of +politics. The coachman drank and then went to sleep. The door of the +parlor was bolted. + +The large door of the courtyard of the printing-office was hardly shut +than it reopened, gave passage to armed men, who entered in silence, and +then reclosed. The arrivals were a company of the Gendarmerie Mobile, the +fourth of the first battalion, commanded by a captain named La Roche +d'Oisy. As may be remarked by the result, for all delicate expeditions +the men of the _coup d'état_ took care to employ the Gendarmerie Mobile +and the Republican Guard, that it is to say the two corps almost entirely +composed of former Municipal Guards, bearing at heart a revengeful +remembrance of the events of February. + +Captain La Roche d'Oisy brought a letter from the Minister of War, which +placed himself and his soldiers at the disposition of the manager of the +National Printing Office. The muskets were loaded without a word being +spoken. Sentinels were placed in the workrooms, in the corridors, at the +doors, at the windows, in fact, everywhere, two being stationed at the +door leading into the street. The captain asked what instructions he +should give to the sentries. "Nothing more simple," said the man who had +come in the _fiacre_. "Whoever attempts to leave or to open a window, +shoot him." + +This man, who, in fact, was De Béville, orderly officer to M. Bonaparte, +withdrew with the manager into the large cabinet on the first story, a +solitary room which looked out on the garden. There he communicated to +the manager what he had brought with him, the decree of the dissolution +of the Assembly, the appeal to the Army, the appeal to the People, the +decree convoking the electors, and in addition, the proclamation of the +Prefect Maupas and his letter to the Commissaries of Police. The four +first documents were entirely in the handwriting of the President, and +here and there some erasures might be noticed. + +The compositors were in waiting. Each man was placed between two +gendarmes, and was forbidden to utter a single word, and then the +documents which had to be printed were distributed throughout the room, +being cut up in very small pieces, so that an entire sentence could not +be read by one workman. The manager announced that he would give them an +hour to compose the whole. The different fragments were finally brought +to Colonel Béville, who put them together and corrected the proof sheets. +The machining was conducted with the same precautions, each press being +between two soldiers. Notwithstanding all possible diligence the work +lasted two hours. The gendarmes watched over the workmen. Béville watched +over St. Georges. + +When the work was finished a suspicious incident occurred, which greatly +resembled a treason within a treason. To a traitor a greater traitor. +This species of crime is subject to such accidents. Béville and St. +Georges, the two trusty confidants in whose hands lay the secret of the +_coup d'état_, that is to say the head of the President;--that secret, +which ought at no price to be allowed to transpire before the appointed +hour, under risk of causing everything to miscarry, took it into their +heads to confide it at once to two hundred men, in order "to test the +effect," as the ex-Colonel Béville said later on, rather naïvely. They +read the mysterious document which had just been printed to the Gendarmes +Mobiles, who were drawn up in the courtyard. These ex-municipal guards +applauded. If they had hooted, it might be asked what the two +experimentalists in the _coup d'état_ would have done. Perhaps M. +Bonaparte would have waked up from his dream at Vincennes. + +The coachman was then liberated, the _fiacre_ was horsed, and at four +o'clock in the morning the orderly officer and the manager of the +National Printing Office, henceforward two criminals, arrived at the +Prefecture of Police with the parcels of the decrees. Then began for +them the brand of shame. Prefect Maupas took them by the hand. + +Bands of bill-stickers, bribed for the occasion, started in every +direction, carrying with them the decrees and proclamations. + +This was precisely the hour at which the Palace of the National Assembly +was invested. In the Rue de l'Université there is a door of the Palace +which is the old entrance to the Palais Bourbon, and which opened into +the avenue which leads to the house of the President of the Assembly. +This door, termed the Presidency door, was according to custom guarded by +a sentry. For some time past the Adjutant-Major, who had been twice sent +for during the night by Colonel Espinasse, had remained motionless and +silent, close by the sentinel. Five minutes after, having left the huts +of the Invalides, the 42d Regiment of the line, followed at some distance +by the 6th Regiment, which had marched by the Rue de Bourgogne, emerged +from the Rue de l'Université. "The regiment," says an eye-witness, +"marched as one steps in a sickroom." It arrived with a stealthy step +before the Presidency door. This ambuscade came to surprise the law. + +The sentry, seeing these soldiers arrive, halted, but at the moment when +he was going to challenge them with a _qui-vive_, the Adjutant-Major +seized his arm, and, in his capacity as the officer empowered to +countermand all instructions, ordered him to give free passage to the +42d, and at the same time commanded the amazed porter to open the door. +The door turned upon its hinges, the soldiers spread themselves through +the avenue. Persigny entered and said, "It is done." + +The National Assembly was invaded. + +At the noise of the footsteps the Commandant Mennier ran up. +"Commandant," Colonel Espinasse cried out to him, "I come to relieve your +battalion." The Commandant turned pale for a moment, and his eyes +remained fixed on the ground. Then suddenly he put his hands to his +shoulders, and tore off his epaulets, he drew his sword, broke it across +his knee, threw the two fragments on the pavement, and, trembling with +rage, exclaimed with a solemn voice, "Colonel, you disgrace the number of +your regiment." + +"All right, all right," said Espinasse. + +The Presidency door was left open, but all the other entrances remained +closed. All the guards were relieved, all the sentinels changed, and the +battalion of the night guard was sent back to the camp of the Invalides, +the soldiers piled their arms in the avenue, and in the Cour d'Honneur. +The 42d, in profound silence, occupied the doors outside and inside, the +courtyard, the reception-rooms, the galleries, the corridors, the +passages, while every one slept in the Palace. + +Shortly afterwards arrived two of those little chariots which are called +"forty sons," and two _fiacres_, escorted by two detachments of the +Republican Guard and of the Chasseurs de Vincennes, and by several squads +of police. The Commissaries Bertoglio and Primorin alighted from the two +chariots. + +As these carriages drove up a personage, bald, but still young, was seen +to appear at the grated door of the Place de Bourgogne. This personage +had all the air of a man about town, who had just come from the opera, +and, in fact, he had come from thence, after having passed through a den. +He came from the Elysée. It was De Morny. For an instant he watched the +soldiers piling their arms, and then went on to the Presidency door. +There he exchanged a few words with M. de Persigny. A quarter of an hour +afterwards, accompanied by 250 Chasseurs de Vincennes, he took possession +of the ministry of the Interior, startled M. de Thorigny in his bed, and +handed him brusquely a letter of thanks from Monsieur Bonaparte. Some +days previously honest M. De Thorigny, whose ingenuous remarks we have +already cited, said to a group of men near whom M. de Morny was passing, +"How these men of the Mountain calumniate the President! The man who +would break his oath, who would achieve a _coup d'état_ must necessarily +be a worthless wretch." Awakened rudely in the middle of the night, and +relieved of his post as Minister like the sentinels of the Assembly, the +worthy man, astounded, and rubbing his eyes, muttered, "Eh! then the +President _is_ a ----." + +"Yes," said Morny, with a burst of laughter. + +He who writes these lines knew Morny. Morny and Walewsky held in the +quasi-reigning family the positions, one of Royal bastard, the other of +Imperial bastard. Who was Morny? We will say, "A noted wit, an intriguer, +but in no way austere, a friend of Romieu, and a supporter of Guizot +possessing the manners of the world, and the habits of the roulette +table, self-satisfied, clever, combining a certain liberality of ideas +with a readiness to accept useful crimes, finding means to wear a +gracious smile with bad teeth, leading a life of pleasure, dissipated but +reserved, ugly, good-tempered, fierce, well-dressed, intrepid, willingly +leaving a brother prisoner under bolts and bars, and ready to risk his +head for a brother Emperor, having the same mother as Louis Bonaparte, +and like Louis Bonaparte, having some father or other, being able to call +himself Beauharnais, being able to call himself Flahaut, and yet calling +himself Morny, pursuing literature as far as light comedy, and politics, +as far as tragedy, a deadly free liver, possessing all the frivolity +consistent with assassination, capable of being sketched by Marivaux and +treated of by Tacitus, without conscience, irreproachably elegant, +infamous, and amiable, at need a perfect duke. Such was this malefactor." + +It was not yet six o'clock in the morning. Troops began to mass +themselves on the Place de la Concorde, where Leroy-Saint-Arnaud on +horseback held a review. + +The Commissaries of Police, Bertoglio and Primorin ranged two companies +in order under the vault of the great staircase of the Questure, but did +not ascend that way. They were accompanied by agents of police, who knew +the most secret recesses of the Palais Bourbon, and who conducted them +through various passages. + +General Leflô was lodged in the Pavilion inhabited in the time of the Duc +de Bourbon by Monsieur Feuchères. That night General Leflô had staying +with him his sister and her husband, who were visiting Paris, and who +slept in a room, the door of which led into one of the corridors of the +Palace. Commissary Bertoglio knocked at the door, opened it, and together +with his agents abruptly burst into the room, where a woman was in bed. +The general's brother-in-out sprang out of bed, and cried out to the +Questor, who slept in an adjoining room, "Adolphe, the doors are being +forced, the Palace is full of soldiers. Get up!" + +The General opened his eyes, he saw Commissary Bertoglio standing beside +his bed. + +He sprang up. + +"General," said the Commissary, "I have come to fulfil a duty." + +"I understand," said General Leflô, "you are a traitor." + +The Commissary stammering out the words, "Plot against the safety of the +State," displayed a warrant. The General, without pronouncing a word, +struck this infamous paper with the back of his hand. + +Then dressing himself, he put on his full uniform of Constantine and of +Médéah, thinking in his imaginative, soldier-like loyalty that there were +still generals of Africa for the soldiers whom he would find on his way. +All the generals now remaining were brigands. His wife embraced him; his +son, a child of seven years, in his nightshirt, and in tears, said to the +Commissary of Police, "Mercy, Monsieur Bonaparte." + +The General, while clasping his wife in his arms, whispered in her ear, +"There is artillery in the courtyard, try and fire a cannon." + +The Commissary and his men led him away. He regarded these policemen with +contempt, and did not speak to them, but when he recognized Colonel +Espinasse, his military and Breton heart swelled with indignation. + +"Colonel Espinasse," said he, "you are a villain, and I hope to live long +enough to tear the buttons from your uniform." + +Colonel Espinasse hung his head, and stammered, "I do not know you." + +A major waved his sword, and cried, "We have had enough of lawyer +generals." Some soldiers crossed their bayonets before the unarmed +prisoner, three _sergents de ville_ pushed him into a _fiacre_, and a +sub-lieutenant approaching the carriage, and looking in the face of the +man who, if he were a citizen, was his Representative, and if he were a +soldier was his general, flung this abominable word at him, "Canaille!" + +Meanwhile Commissary Primorin had gone by a more roundabout way in order +the more surely to surprise the other Questor, M. Baze. + +Out of M. Baze's apartment a door led to the lobby communicating with the +chamber of the Assembly. Sieur Primorin knocked at the door. "Who is +there?" asked a servant, who was dressing. "The Commissary of Police," +replied Primorin. The servant, thinking that he was the Commissary of +Police of the Assembly, opened the door. + +At this moment M. Baze, who had heard the noise, and had just awakened, +put on a dressing-gown, and cried, "Do not open the door." + +He had scarcely spoken these words when a man in plain clothes and three +_sergents de ville_ in uniform rushed into his chamber. The man, opening +his coat, displayed his scarf of office, asking M. Baze, "Do you +recognize this?" + +"You are a worthless wretch," answered the Questor. + +The police agents laid their hands on M. Baze. "You will not take me +away," he said. "You, a Commissary of Police, you, who are a magistrate, +and know what you are doing, you outrage the National Assembly, you +violate the law, you are a criminal!" A hand-to-hand struggle +ensued--four against one. Madame Baze and her two little girls giving +vent to screams, the servant being thrust back with blows by the +_sergents de ville_. "You are ruffians," cried out Monsieur Baze. They +carried him away by main force in their arms, still struggling, naked, +his dressing-gown being torn to shreds, his body being covered with +blows, his wrist torn and bleeding. + +The stairs, the landing, the courtyard, were full of soldiers with fixed +bayonets and grounded arms. The Questor spoke to them. "Your +Representatives are being arrested, you have not received your arms to +break the laws!" A sergeant was wearing a brand-new cross. "Have you been +given the cross for this?" The sergeant answered, "We only know one +master." "I note your number," continued M. Baze. "You are a dishonored +regiment." The soldiers listened with a stolid air, and seemed still +asleep. Commissary Primorin said to them, "Do not answer, this has +nothing to do with you." They led the Questor across the courtyard to the +guard-house at the Porte Noire. + +This was the name which was given to a little door contrived under the +vault opposite the treasury of the Assembly, and which opened upon the +Rue de Bourgogne, facing the Rue de Lille. + +Several sentries were placed at the door of the guard-house, and at the +top of the flight of steps which led thither, M. Baze being left there in +charge of three _sergents de ville_. Several soldiers, without their +weapons, and in their shirt-sleeves, came in and out. The Questor +appealed to them in the name of military honor. "Do not answer," said the +_sergent de ville_ to the soldiers. + +M. Baze's two little girls had followed him with terrified eyes, and when +they lost sight of him the youngest burst into tears. "Sister," said the +elder, who was seven years old, "let us say our prayers," and the two +children, clasping their hands, knelt down. + +Commissary Primorin, with his swarm of agents, burst into the Questor's +study, and laid hands on everything. The first papers which he perceived +on the middle of the table, and which he seized, were the famous decrees +which had been prepared in the event of the Assembly having voted the +proposal of the Questors. All the drawers were opened and searched. This +overhauling of M. Baze's papers, which the Commissary of Police termed a +domiciliary visit, lasted more than an hour. + +M. Baze's clothes had been taken to him, and he had dressed. When the +"domiciliary visit" was over, he was taken out of the guard-house. There +was a _fiacre_ in the courtyard, into which he entered, together with the +three _sergents de ville_. The vehicle, in order to reach the Presidency +door, passed by the Cour d'Honneur and then by the Courde Canonis. Day +was breaking. M. Baze looked into the courtyard to see if the cannon were +still there. He saw the ammunition wagons ranged in order with their +shafts raised, but the places of the six cannon and the two mortars were +vacant. + +In the avenue of the Presidency the _fiacre_ stopped for a moment. Two +lines of soldiers, standing at ease, lined the footpaths of the avenue. +At the foot of a tree were grouped three men: Colonel Espinasse, whom M. +Baze knew and recognized, a species of Lieutenant-Colonel, who wore a +black and orange ribbon round his neck, and a Major of Lancers, all three +sword in hand, consulting together. The windows of the _fiacre_ were +closed; M. Baze wished to lower them to appeal to these men; the +_sergents de ville_ seized his arms. The Commissary Primorin then came +up, and was about to re-enter the little chariot for two persons which +had brought him. + +"Monsieur Baze," said he, with that villainous kind of courtesy which the +agents of the _coup d'état_ willingly blended with their crime, "you must +be uncomfortable with those three men in the _fiacre_. You are cramped; +come in with me." + +"Let me alone," said the prisoner. "With these three men I am cramped; +with you I should be contaminated." + +An escort of infantry was ranged on both sides of the _fiacre_. Colonel +Espinasse called to the coachman, "Drive slowly by the Quai d'Orsay until +you meet a cavalry escort. When the cavalry shall have assumed the +charge, the infantry can come back." They set out. + +As the _fiacre_ turned into the Quai d'Orsay a picket of the 7th Lancers +arrived at full speed. It was the escort: the troopers surrounded the +_fiacre_, and the whole galloped off. + +No incident occurred during the journey. Here and there, at the noise of +the horses' hoofs, windows were opened and heads put forth; and the +prisoner, who had at length succeeded in lowering a window heard startled +voices saying, "What is the matter?" + +The _fiacre_ stopped. "Where are we?" asked M. Baze. + +"At Mazas," said a _sergent de ville_. + +The Questor was taken to the office of the prison. Just as he entered he +saw Baune and Nadaud being brought out. There was a table in the centre, +at which Commissary Primorin, who had followed the _fiacre_ in his +chariot, had just seated himself. While the Commissary was writing, M. +Baze noticed on the table a paper which was evidently a jail register, on +which were these names, written in the following order: Lamoricière, +Charras, Cavaignac, Changarnier, Leflô, Thiers, Bedeau, Roger (du Nord), +Chambolle. This was probably the order in which the Representatives had +arrived at the prison. + +When Sieur Primorin had finished writing, M. Baze said, "Now, you will be +good enough to receive my protest, and add it to your official report." +"It is not an official report," objected the Commissary, "it is simply an +order for committal." "I intend to write my protest at once," replied M. +Baze. "You will have plenty of time in your cell," remarked a man who +stood by the table. M. Baze turned round. "Who are you?" "I am the +governor of the prison," said the man. "In that case," replied M. Baze, +"I pity you, for you are aware of the crime you are committing." The man +turned pale, and stammered a few unintelligible words. + +The Commissary rose from his seat; M. Baze briskly took possession of his +chair, seated himself at the table, and said to Sieur Primorin, "You are +a public officer; I request you to add my protest to your official +report." "Very well," said the Commissary, "let it be so." Baze wrote the +protest as follows:-- + + "I, the undersigned, Jean-Didier Baze, Representative of the People, + and Questor of the National Assembly, carried off by violence from my + residence in the Palace of the National Assembly, and conducted to this + prison by an armed force which it was impossible for me to resist, + protest in the name of the National Assembly and in my own name against + the outrage on national representation committed upon my colleagues and + upon myself. + + "Given at Mazas on the 2d December 1851, at eight o'clock in the + morning. + + "BAZE." + +While this was taking place at Mazas, the soldiers were laughing and +drinking in the courtyard of the Assembly. They made their coffee in the +saucepans. They had lighted enormous fires in the courtyard; the flames, +fanned by the wind, at times reached the walls of the Chamber. A +superior official of the Questure, an officer of the National Guard, +Ramond de la Croisette, ventured to say to them, "You will set the +Palace on fire;" whereupon a soldier struck him a blow with his fist. + +Four of the pieces taken from the Cour de Canons were ranged in battery +order against the Assembly; two on the Place de Bourgogne were pointed +towards the grating, and two on the Pont de la Concorde were pointed +towards the grand staircase. + +As side-note to this instructive tale let us mention a curious fact. The +42d Regiment of the line was the same which had arrested Louis +Bonaparte at Boulogne. In 1840 this regiment lent its aid to the law +against the conspirator. In 1851 it lent its aid to the conspirator +against the law: such is the beauty of passive obedience. + + +[2] The Questors were officers elected by the Assembly, whose special +duties were to keep and audit the accounts, and who controlled all +matters affecting the social economy of the House. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +OTHER DOINGS OF THE NIGHT + +During the same night in all parts of Paris acts of brigandage took +place. Unknown men leading armed troops, and themselves armed with +hatchets, mallets, pincers, crow-bars, life-preservers, swords hidden +under their coats, pistols, of which the butts could be distinguished +under the folds of their cloaks, arrived in silence before a house, +occupied the street, encircled the approaches, picked the lock of the +door, tied up the porter, invaded the stairs, and burst through the doors +upon a sleeping man, and when that man, awakening with a start, asked of +these bandits, "Who are you?" their leader answered, "A Commissary of +Police." So it happened to Lamoricière who was seized by Blanchet, who +threatened him with the gag; to Greppo, who was brutally treated and +thrown down by Gronfier, assisted by six men carrying a dark lantern and +a pole-axe; to Cavaignac, who was secured by Colin, a smooth-tongued +villain, who affected to be shocked on hearing him curse and swear; to M. +Thiers, who was arrested by Hubaut (the elder); who professed that he had +seen him "tremble and weep," thus adding falsehood to crime; to Valentin, +who was assailed in his bed by Dourlens, taken by the feet and shoulders, +and thrust into a padlocked police van; to Miot, destined to the tortures +of African casemates; to Roger (du Nord), who with courageous and witty +irony offered sherry to the bandits. Charras and Changarnier were taken +unawares. + +They lived in the Rue St. Honoré, nearly opposite to each other, +Changarnier at No. 3, Charras at No. 14. Ever since the 9th of September +Changarnier had dismissed the fifteen men armed to the teeth by whom he +had hitherto been guarded during the night, and on the 1st December, as +we have said, Charras had unloaded his pistols. These empty pistols were +lying on the table when they came to arrest him. The Commissary of Police +threw himself upon them. "Idiot," said Charras to him, "if they had been +loaded, you would have been a dead man." These pistols, we may note, had +been given to Charras upon the taking of Mascara by General Renaud, who +at the moment of Charras' arrest was on horseback in the street helping +to carry out the _coup d'état_. If these pistols had remained loaded, and +if General Renaud had had the task of arresting Charras, it would have +been curious if Renaud's pistols had killed Renaud. Charras assuredly +would not have hesitated. We have already mentioned the names of these +police rascals. It is useless to repeat them. It was Courtille who +arrested Charras, Lerat who arrested Changarnier, Desgranges who arrested +Nadaud. The men thus seized in their own houses were Representatives of +the people; they were inviolable, so that to the crime of the violation +of their persons was added this high treason, the violation of the +Constitution. + +There was no lack of impudence in the perpetration of these outrages. The +police agents made merry. Some of these droll fellows jested. At Mazas +the under-jailors jeered at Thiers, Nadaud reprimanded them severely. The +Sieur Hubaut (the younger) awoke General Bedeau. "General, you are a +prisoner."--"My person is inviolable."--"Unless you are caught red-handed, +in the very act."--"Well," said Bedeau, "I am caught in the act, the +heinous act of being asleep." They took him by the collar and dragged him +to a _fiacre_. + +On meeting together at Mazas, Nadaud grasped the hand of Greppo, and +Lagrange grasped the hand of Lamoricière. This made the police gentry +laugh. A colonel, named Thirion, wearing a commander's cross round his +neck, helped to put the Generals and the Representatives into jail. "Look +me in the face," said Charras to him. Thirion moved away. + +Thus, without counting other arrests which took place later on, there +were imprisoned during the night of the 2d of December, sixteen +Representatives and seventy-eight citizens. The two agents of the crime +furnished a report of it to Louis Bonaparte. Morny wrote "Boxed up;" +Maupas wrote "Quadded." The one in drawing-room slang, the other in the +slang of the galleys. Subtle gradations of language. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +THE DARKNESS OF THE CRIME + +Versigny had just left me. + +While I dressed hastily there came in a man in whom I had every +confidence. He was a poor cabinet-maker out of work, named Girard, to +whom I had given shelter in a room of my house, a carver of wood, and +not illiterate. He came in from the street; he was trembling. + +"Well," I asked, "what do the people say?" + +Girard answered me,-- + +"People are dazed. The blow has been struck in such a manner that it +is not realized. Workmen read the placards, say nothing, and go to +their work. Only one in a hundred speaks. It is to say, 'Good!' This +is how it appears to them. The law of the 31st May is abrogated--'Well +done!' Universal suffrage is re-established--'Also well done!' The +reactionary majority has been driven away--'Admirable!' Thiers is +arrested--'Capital!' Changarnier is seized--'Bravo!' Round each placard +there are _claqueurs_. Ratapoil explains his _coup d'état_ to Jacques +Bonhomme, Jacques Bonhomme takes it all in. Briefly, it is my impression +that the people give their consent." + +"Let it be so," said I. + +"But," asked Girard of me, "what will you do, Monsieur Victor Hugo?" + +I took my scarf of office from a cupboard, and showed it to him. + +He understood. + +We shook hands. + +As he went out Carini entered. + +Colonel Carini is an intrepid man. He had commanded the cavalry under +Mieroslawsky in the Sicilian insurrection. He has, in a few moving and +enthusiastic pages, told the story of that noble revolt. Carini is one of +those Italians who love France as we Frenchmen love Italy. Every +warm-hearted man in this century has two fatherlands--the Rome of +yesterday and the Paris of to-day. + +"Thank God," said Carini to me, "you are still free," and he added, "The +blow has been struck in a formidable manner. The Assembly is invested. I +have come from thence. The Place de la Révolution, the Quays, the +Tuileries, the boulevards, are crowded with troops. The soldiers have +their knapsacks. The batteries are harnessed. If fighting takes place it +will be desperate work." + +I answered him, "There will be fighting." + +And I added, laughing, "You have proved that the colonels write like +poets; now it is the turn of the poets to fight like colonels." + +I entered my wife's room; she knew nothing, and was quietly reading her +paper in bed. + +I had taken about me five hundred francs in gold. I put on my wife's bed +a box containing nine hundred francs, all the money which remained to me, +and I told her what had happened. + +She turned pale, and said to me, "What are you going to do?" + +"My duty." + +She embraced me, and only said two words:-- + +"Do it." + +My breakfast was ready. I ate a cutlet in two mouthfuls. As I finished, +my daughter came in. She was startled by the manner in which I kissed +her, and asked me, "What is the matter?" + +"Your mother will explain to you." + +And I left them. + +The Rue de la Tour d'Auvergne was as quiet and deserted as usual. Four +workmen were, however, chatting near my door; they wished me "Good +morning." + +I cried out to them, "You know what is going on?" + +"Yes," said they. + +"Well. It is treason! Louis Bonaparte is strangling the Republic. The +people are attacked. The people must defend themselves." + +"They will defend themselves." + +"You promise me that?" + +"Yes," they answered. + +One of them added, "We swear it." + +They kept their word. Barricades were constructed in my street (Rue de la +Tour d'Auvergne), in the Rue des Martyrs, in the Cité Rodier, in the Rue +Coquenard, and at Notre-Dame de Lorette. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +"PLACARDS" + +On leaving these brave men I could read at the corner of the Rue de la +Tour d'Auvergne and the Rue des Martyrs, the three infamous placards +which had been posted on the walls of Paris during the night. + +Here they are. + + "PROCLAMATION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC. + + "_Appeal to the People_. + + "FRENCHMEN! The present situation can last no longer. Every day which + passes enhances the dangers of the country. The Assembly, which ought + to be the firmest support of order, has become a focus of conspiracies. + The patriotism of three hundred of its members has been unable to check + its fatal tendencies. Instead of making laws in the public interest it + forges arms for civil war; it attacks the power which I hold directly + from the People, it encourages all bad passions, it compromises the + tranquillity of France; I have dissolved it, and I constitute the whole + People a judge between it and me. + + "The Constitution, as you know, was constructed with the object of + weakening beforehand the power which you were about to confide to me. + Six millions of votes formed an emphatic protest against it, and yet + I have faithfully respected it. Provocations, calumnies, outrages, + have found me unmoved. Now, however, that the fundamental compact is + no longer respected by those very men who incessantly invoke it, and + that the men who have ruined two monarchies wish to tie my hands in + order to overthrow the Republic, my duty is to frustrate their + treacherous schemes, to maintain the Republic, and to save the Country + by appealing to the solemn judgment of the only Sovereign whom I + recognize in France--the People. + + "I therefore make a loyal appeal to the whole nation, and I say to + you: If you wish to continue this condition of uneasiness which + degrades us and compromises our future, choose another in my place, + for I will no longer retain a power which is impotent to do good, + which renders me responsible for actions which I cannot prevent, and + which binds me to the helm when I see the vessel driving towards the + abyss. + + "If on the other hand you still place confidence in me, give me the + means of accomplishing the great mission which I hold from you. + + "This mission consists in closing the era of revolutions, by satisfying + the legitimate needs of the People, and by protecting them from + subversive passions. It consists, above all, in creating institutions + which survive men, and which shall in fact form the foundations on + which something durable may be established. + + "Persuaded that the instability of power, that the preponderance of a + single Assembly, are the permanent causes of trouble and discord, I + submit to your suffrage the following fundamental bases of a + Constitution which will be developed by the Assemblies later on:-- + + "1. A responsible Chief appointed for ten years. + + "2. Ministers dependent upon the Executive Power alone. + + "3. A Council of State composed of the most distinguished men, who shall + prepare laws and shall support them in debate before the Legislative + Body. + + "4. A Legislative Body which shall discuss and vote the laws, and which + shall be elected by universal suffrage, without _scrutin de liste_, + which falsifies the elections. + + "5. A Second Assembly composed of the most illustrious men of the + country, a power of equipoise the guardian of the fundamental compact, + and of the public liberties. + + "This system, created by the first Consul at the beginning of the + century, has already given repose and prosperity to France; it would + still insure them to her. + + "Such is my firm conviction. If you share it, declare it by your votes. + If, on the contrary, you prefer a government without strength, + Monarchical or Republican, borrowed I know not from what past, or from + what chimerical future, answer in the negative. + + "Thus for the first time since 1804, you will vote with a full knowledge + of the circumstances, knowing exactly for whom and for what. + + "If I do not obtain the majority of your suffrages I shall call together + a New Assembly and shall place in its hands the commission which I have + received from you. + + "But if you believe that the cause of which my name is the symbol,--that + is to say, France regenerated by the Revolution of '89, and organized by + the Emperor, is to be still your own, proclaim it by sanctioning the + powers which I ask from you. + + "Then France and Europe will be preserved from anarchy, obstacles will + be removed, rivalries will have disappeared, for all will respect, in + the decision of the People, the decree of Providence. + + "Given at the Palace of the Elysée, 2d December, 1851. + + "LOUIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE." + + + + PROCLAMATION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC TO THE ARMY. + + "Soldiers! Be proud of your mission, you will save the country, for I + count upon you not to violate the laws, but to enforce respect for the + first law of the country, the national Sovereignty, of which I am the + Legitimate Representative. + + "For a long time past, like myself, you have suffered from obstacles + which have opposed themselves both to the good that I wished to do and + to the demonstrations of your sympathies in my favor. These obstacles + have been broken down. + + "The Assembly has tried to attack the authority which hold from the + whole Nation. It has ceased to exist. + + "I make a loyal appeal to the People and to the Army, and I say to them: + Either give me the means of insuring your prosperity, or choose another + in my place. + + "In 1830, as in 1848, you were treated as vanquished men. After having + branded your heroic disinterestedness, they disdained to consult your + sympathies and your wishes, and yet you are the flower of the Nation. + To-day, at this solemn moment, I am resolved that the voice of the Army + shall be heard. + + "Vote, therefore, freely as citizens; but, as soldiers do not forget + that passive obedience to the orders of the Chief of the State is the + rigorous duty of the Army, from the general to the private soldier. + + "It is for me, responsible for my actions both to the People and to + posterity, to take those measures which may seem to me indispensable for + the public welfare. + + "As for you, remain immovable within the rules of discipline and of + honor. By your imposing attitude help the country to manifest its will + with calmness and reflection. + + "Be ready to repress every attack upon the free exercise of the + sovereignty of the People. + + "Soldiers, I do not speak to you of the memories which my name recalls. + They are engraven in your hearts. We are united by indissoluble ties. + Your history is mine. There is between us, in the past, a community of + glory and of misfortune. + + "There will be in the future community of sentiment and of resolutions + for the repose and the greatness of France. + + "Given at the Palace of the Elysée, December 2d, 1851. + + "(Signed) L.N. BONAPARTE." + + + + "IN THE NAME OF THE FRENCH PEOPLE. + + "The President of the Republic decrees:-- + + "ARTICLE I. The National Assembly is dissolved. + + "ARTICLE II. Universal suffrage is re-established. The law of May 31 + is abrogated. + + "ARTICLE III. The French People are convoked in their electoral + districts from the 14th December to the 21st December following. + + "ARTICLE IV. The State of Siege is decreed in the district of the + first Military Division. + + "ARTICLE V. The Council of State is dissolved. + + "ARTICLE VI. The Minister of the Interior is charged with the execution + of this decree. + + "Given at the Palace of the Elysée, 2d December, 1851. + + "LOUIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. + + "DE MORNY, Minister of the Interior." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +NO. 70, RUE BLANCHE + +The Cité Gaillard is somewhat difficult to find. It is a deserted alley +in that new quarter which separates the Rue des Martyrs from the Rue +Blanche. I found it, however. As I reached No. 4, Yvan came out of the +gateway and said, "I am here to warn you. The police have an eye upon +this house, Michel is waiting for you at No. 70, Rue Blanche, a few +steps from here." + +I knew No. 70, Rue Blanche. Manin, the celebrated President of the +Venetian Republic, lived there. It was not in his rooms, however, that +the meeting was to take place. + +The porter of No. 70 told me to go up to the first floor. The door was +opened, and a handsome, gray-haired woman of some forty summers, the +Baroness Coppens, whom I recognized as having seen in society and at my +own house, ushered me into a drawing-room. + +Michel de Bourges and Alexander Rey were there, the latter an +ex-Constituent, an eloquent writer, a brave man. At that time Alexander +Rey edited the _National_. + +We shook hands. + +Michel said to me,-- + +"Hugo, what will you do?" + +I answered him,-- + +"Everything." + +"That also is my opinion," said he. + +Numerous representatives arrived, and amongst others Pierre Lefranc, +Labrousse, Théodore Bac, Noël Parfait, Arnauld (de l'Ariége), Demosthenes +Ollivier, an ex-Constituent, and Charamaule. There was deep and +unutterable indignation, but no useless words were spoken. + +All were imbued with that manly anger whence issue great resolutions. + +They talked. They set forth the situation. Each brought forward the news +which he had learnt. + +Théodore Bac came from Léon Faucher, who lived in the Rue Blanche. It +was he who had awakened Léon Faucher, and had announced the news to him. +The first words of Léon Faucher were, "It is an infamous deed." + +From the first moment Charamaule displayed a courage which, during +the four days of the struggle, never flagged for a single instant. +Charamaule is a very tall man, possessed of vigorous features and +convincing eloquence; he voted with the Left, but sat with the Right. +In the Assembly he was the neighbor of Montalembert and of Riancey. +He sometimes had warm disputes with them, which we watched from afar +off, and which amused us. + +Charamaule had come to the meeting at No. 70 dressed in a sort of blue +cloth military cloak, and armed, as we found out later on. + +The situation was grave; sixteen Representatives arrested, all the +generals of the Assembly, and he who was more than a general, Charras. +All the journals suppressed, all the printing offices occupied by +soldiers. On the side of Bonaparte an army of 80,000 men which could be +doubled in a few hours; on our side nothing. The people deceived, and +moreover disarmed. The telegraph at their command. All the walls covered +with their placards, and at our disposal not a single printing case, not +one sheet of paper. No means of raising the protest, no means of +beginning the combat. The _coup d'état_ was clad with mail, the Republic +was naked; the _coup d'état_ had a speaking trumpet, the Republic wore a +gag. + +What was to be done? + +The raid against the Republic, against the Assembly, against Right, +against Law, against Progress, against Civilization, was commanded by +African generals. These heroes had just proved that they were cowards. +They had taken their precautions well. Fear alone can engender so much +skill. They had arrested all the men of war of the Assembly, and all the +men of action of the Left, Baune, Charles Lagrange, Miot, Valentin, +Nadaud, Cholat. Add to this that all the possible chiefs of the +barricades were in prison. The organizers of the ambuscade had carefully +left at liberty Jules Favre, Michel de Bourges, and myself, judging us +to be less men of action than of the Tribune; wishing to leave the Left +men capable of resistance, but incapable of victory, hoping to dishonor +us if we did not fight, and to shoot us if we did fight. + +Nevertheless, no one hesitated. The deliberation began. Other +representatives arrived every minute, Edgar Quinet, Doutre, Pelletier, +Cassal, Bruckner, Baudin, Chauffour. The room was full, some were +seated, most were standing, in confusion, but without tumult. + +I was the first to speak. + +I said that the struggle ought to be begun at once. Blow for blow. + +That it was my opinion that the hundred and fifty Representatives of the +Left should put on their scarves of office, should march in procession +through the streets and the boulevards as far as the Madeleine, and +crying "Vive la République! Vive la Constitution!" should appear before +the troops, and alone, calm and unarmed, should summon Might to obey +Right. If the soldiers yielded, they should go to the Assembly and make +an end of Louis Bonaparte. If the soldiers fired upon their legislators, +they should disperse throughout Paris, cry "To Arms," and resort to +barricades. Resistance should be begun constitutionally, and if that +failed, should be continued revolutionarily. There was no time to be +lost. + +"High treason," said I, "should be seized red-handed, is a great mistake +to suffer such an outrage to be accepted by the hours as they elapse. +Each minute which passes is an accomplice, and endorses the crime. +Beware of that calamity called an 'Accomplished fact.' To arms!" + +Many warmly supported this advice, among others Edgar Quinet, Pelletier, +and Doutre. + +Michel de Bourges seriously +objected. My instinct was to begin at once, his advice was to wait and +see. According to him there was danger in hastening the catastrophe. The +_coup d'état_ was organized, and the People were not. They had been +taken unawares. We must not indulge in illusion. The masses could not +stir yet. Perfect calm reigned in the faubourgs; Surprise existed, yes; +Anger, no. The people of Paris, although so intelligent, did not +understand. + +Michel added, "We are not in 1830. Charles X., in turning out the 221, +exposed himself to this blow, the re-election of the 221. We are not in +the same situation. The 221 were popular. The present Assembly is not: a +Chamber which has been insultingly dissolved is always sure to conquer, +if the People support it. Thus the People rose in 1830. To-day they +wait. They are dupes until they shall be victims." Michel de Bourges +concluded, "The People must be given time to understand, to grow angry, +to rise. As for us, Representative, we should be rash to precipitate the +situation. If we were to march immediately straight upon the troops, we +should only be shot to no purpose, and the glorious insurrection for +Right would thus be beforehand deprived of its natural leaders--the +Representatives of the People. We should decapitate the popular army. +Temporary delay, on the contrary, would be beneficial. Too much zeal +must be guarded against, self-restraint is necessary, to give way would +be to lose the battle before having begun it. Thus, for example, we must +not attend the meeting announced by the Right for noon, all those who +went there would be arrested. We must remain free, we must remain in +readiness, we must remain calm, and must act waiting the advent of the +People. Four days of this agitation without fighting would weary the +army." Michel, however, advised a beginning, but simply by placarding +Article 68 of the Constitution. But where should a printer be found? + +Michel de Bourges spoke with an experience of revolutionary procedure +which was wanting in me. For many years past he had acquired a certain +practical knowledge of the masses. His council was wise. It must be +added that all the information which came to us seconded him, and +appeared conclusive against me. Paris was dejected. + +The army of the _coup d'état_ invaded her peaceably. Even the placards +were not torn down. Nearly all the Representatives present, even the +most daring, agreed with Michel's counsel, to wait and see what would +happen. "At night," said they, "the agitation will begin," and they +concluded, like Michel de Bourges, that the people must be given time +to understand. There would be a risk of being alone in too hasty a +beginning. We should not carry the people with us in the first moment. +Let us leave the indignation to increase little by little in their +hearts. If it were begun prematurely our manifestation would miscarry. +These were the sentiments of all. For myself, while listening to them, I +felt shaken. Perhaps they were right. It would be a mistake to give the +signal for the combat in vain. What good is the lightning which is not +followed by the thunderbolt? + +To raise a voice, to give vent to a cry, to find a printer, there was +the first question. But was there still a free Press? + +The brave old ex-chief of the 6th Legion, Colonel Forestier, came in. He +took Michel de Bourges and myself aside. + +"Listen," said he to us. "I come to you. I have been dismissed. I no +longer command my legion, but appoint me in the name of the Left, +Colonel of the 6th. Sign me an order and I will go at once and call them +to arms. In an hour the regiment will be on foot." + +"Colonel," answered I, "I will do more than sign an order, I will +accompany you." + +And I turned towards Charamaule, who had a carriage in waiting. + +"Come with us," said I. + +Forestier was sure of two majors of the 6th. We decided to drive to them +at once, while Michel and the other Representatives should await us at +Bonvalet's, in the Boulevard du Temple, near the Café Turc. There they +could consult together. + +We started. + +We traversed Paris, where people were already beginning to swarm in a +threatening manner. The boulevards were thronged with an uneasy crowd. +People walked to and fro, passers-by accosted each other without any +previous acquaintance, a noteworthy sign of public anxiety; and groups +talked in loud voices at the corners of the streets. The shops were +being shut. + +"Come, this looks better," cried Charamaule. + +He had been wandering about the town since the morning, and he had +noticed with sadness the apathy of the masses. + +We found the two majors at home upon whom Colonel Forestier counted. +They were two rich linendrapers, who received us with some +embarrassment. The shopmen had gathered together at the windows, and +watched us pass by. It was mere curiosity. + +In the meanwhile one of the two majors countermanded a journey which he +was going to undertake on that day, and promised us his co-operation. + +"But," added he, "do not deceive yourselves, one can foresee that we +shall be cut to pieces. Few men will march out." + +Colonel Forestier said to us, "Watrin, the present colonel of the 6th, +does not care for fighting; perhaps he will resign me the command +amicably. I will go and find him alone, so as to startle him the less, +and will join you at Bonvalet's." + +Near the Porte St. Martin we left our carriage, and Charamaule and +myself proceeded along the boulevard on foot, in order to observe the +groups more closely, and more easily to judge the aspect of the crowd. + +The recent levelling of the road had converted the boulevard of the +Porte St. Martin into a deep cutting, commanded by two embankments. On +the summits of these embankments were the footways, furnished with +railings. The carriages drove along the cutting, the foot passengers +walked along the footways. + +Just as we reached the boulevard, a long column of infantry filed into +this ravine with drummers at their head. The thick waves of bayonets +filled the square of St. Martin, and lost themselves in the depths of +the Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle. + +An enormous and compact crowd covered the two pavements of the Boulevard +St. Martin. Large numbers of workmen, in their blouses, were there, +leaning upon the railings. + +At the moment when the head of the column entered the defile before the +Theatre of the Porte St. Martin a tremendous shout of "Vive la +République!" came forth from every mouth as though shouted by one man. +The soldiers continued to advance in silence, but it might have been +said that their pace slackened, and many of them regarded the crowd with +an air of indecision. What did this cry of "Vive la République!" mean? +Was it a token of applause? Was it a shout of defiance? + +It seemed to me at that moment that the Republic raised its brow, and +that the _coup d'état_ hung its head. + +Meanwhile Charamaule said to me, "You are recognized." + +In fact, near the Château d'Eau the crowd surrounded me. Some young men +cried out, "Vive Victor Hugo!" One of them asked me, "Citizen Victor +Hugo, what ought we to do?" + +I answered, "Tear down the seditious placards of the _coup d'état_, and +cry 'Vive la Constitution!'" + +"And suppose they fire on us?" said a young workman. + +"You will hasten to arms." + +"Bravo!" shouted the crowd. + +I added, "Louis Bonaparte is a rebel, he has steeped himself to-day in +every crime. We, Representatives of the People, declare him an outlaw, +but there is no need for our declaration, since he is an outlaw by the +mere fact of his treason. Citizens, you have two hands; take in one your +Right, and in the other your gun and fall upon Bonaparte." + +"Bravo! Bravo!" again shouted the people. + +A tradesman who was shutting up his shop said to me, "Don't speak so +loud, if they heard you talking like that, they would shoot you." + +"Well, then," I replied, "you would parade my body, and my death would +be a boon if the justice of God could result from it." + +All shouted "Long live Victor Hugo!" + +"Shout 'Long live the Constitution,'" said I. + +A great cry of "Vive la Constitution! Vive la République;" came forth +from every breast. + +Enthusiasm, indignation, anger flashed in the faces of all. I thought +then, and I still think, that this, perhaps, was the supreme moment. I +was tempted to carry off all that crowd, and to begin the battle. + +Charamaule restrained me. He whispered to me,-- + +"You will bring about a useless fusillade. Every one is unarmed. The +infantry is only two paces from us, and see, here comes the artillery." + +I looked round; in truth several pieces of cannon emerged at a quick +trot from the Rue de Bondy, behind the Château d'Eau. + +The advice to abstain, given by Charamaule, made a deep impression on +me. Coming from such a man, and one so dauntless, it was certainly not +to be distrusted. Besides, I felt myself bound by the deliberation which +had just taken place at the meeting in the Rue Blanche. + +I shrank before the responsibility which I should have incurred. To have +taken advantage of such a moment might have been victory, it might also +have been a massacre. Was I right? Was I wrong? + +The crowd thickened around us, and it became difficult to go forward. We +were anxious, however, to reach the _rendezvous_ at Bonvalet's. + +Suddenly some one touched me on the arm. It was Léopold Duras, of the +_National_. + +"Go no further," he whispered, "the Restaurant Bonvalet is surrounded. +Michel de Bourges has attempted to harangue the People, but the soldiers +came up. He barely succeeded in making his escape. Numerous +Representatives who came to the meeting have been arrested. Retrace your +steps. We are returning to the old _rendezvous_ in the Rue Blanche. I +have been looking for you to tell you this." + +A cab was passing; Charamaule hailed the driver. We jumped in, followed +by the crowd, shouting, "Vive la République! Vive Victor Hugo!" + +It appears that just at that moment a squadron of _sergents de ville_ +arrived on the Boulevard to arrest me. The coachman drove off at full +speed. A quarter of an hour afterwards we reached the Rue Blanche. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +"VIOLATION OF THE CHAMBER" + +At seven o'clock in the morning the Pont de la Concorde was still free. +The large grated gate of the Palace of the Assembly was closed; through +the bars might be seen the flight of steps, that flight of steps whence +the Republic had been proclaimed on the 4th May, 1848, covered with +soldiers; and their piled arms might be distinguished upon the platform +behind those high columns, which, during the time of the Constituent +Assembly, after the 15th of May and the 23d June, masked small mountain +mortars, loaded and pointed. + +A porter with a red collar, wearing the livery of the Assembly, stood by +the little door of the grated gate. From time to time Representatives +arrived. The porter said, "Gentlemen, are you Representatives?" and +opened the door. Sometimes he asked their names. + +M. Dupin's quarters could be entered without hindrance. In the great +gallery, in the dining-room, in the _salon d'honneur_ of the Presidency, +liveried attendants silently opened the doors as usual. + +Before daylight, immediately after the arrest of the Questors MM. Baze +and Leflô, M. de Panat, the only Questor who remained free, having been +spared or disdained as a Legitimist, awoke M. Dupin and begged him to +summon immediately the Representatives from their own homes. M. Dupin +returned this unprecedented answer, "I do not see any urgency." + +Almost at the same time as M. Panat, the Representative Jerôme Bonaparte +had hastened thither. He had summoned M. Dupin to place himself at the +head of the Assembly. M. Dupin had answered, "I cannot, I am guarded." +Jerôme Bonaparte burst out laughing. In fact, no one had deigned to +place a sentinel at M. Dupin's door; they knew that it was guarded by +his meanness. + +It was only later on, towards noon, that they took pity on him. They +felt that the contempt was too great, and allotted him two sentinels. + +At half-past seven, fifteen or twenty Representatives, among whom were +MM. Eugène Sue, Joret, de Rességuier, and de Talhouet, met together in +M. Dupin's room. They also had vainly argued with M. Dupin. In the +recess of a window a clever member of the Majority, M. Desmousseaux de +Givré, who was a little deaf and exceedingly exasperated, almost +quarrelled with a Representative of the Right like himself whom he +wrongly supposed to be favorable to the _coup d'état_. + +M. Dupin, apart from the group of Representatives, alone dressed in +black, his hands behind his back, his head sunk on his breast, walked up +and down before the fire-place, where a large fire was burning. In his +own room, and in his very presence, they were talking loudly about +himself, yet he seemed not to hear. + +Two members of the Left came in, Benoît (du Rhône), and Crestin. Crestin +entered the room, went straight up to M. Dupin, and said to him, +"President, you know what is going on? How is it that the Assembly has +not yet been convened?" + +M. Dupin halted, and answered, with a shrug which was habitual with him,-- + +"There is nothing to be done." + +And he resumed his walk. + +"It is enough," said M. de Rességuier. + +"It is too much," said Eugène Sue. + +All the Representatives left the room. + +In the meantime the Pont de la Concorde became covered with troops. +Among them General Vast-Vimeux, lean, old, and little; his lank white +hair plastered over his temples, in full uniform, with his laced hat on +his head. He was laden with two huge epaulets, and displayed his scarf, +not that of a Representative, but of a general, which scarf, being too +long, trailed on the ground. He crossed the bridge on foot, shouting to +the soldiers inarticulate cries of enthusiasm for the Empire and the +_coup d'état_. Such figures as these were seen in 1814. Only instead of +wearing a large tri-colored, cockade, they wore a large white cockade. +In the main the same phenomenon; old men crying, "Long live the Past!" +Almost at the same moment M. de Larochejaquelein crossed the Place de la +Concorde, surrounded by a hundred men in blouses, who followed him in +silence, and with an air of curiosity. Numerous regiments of cavalry +were drawn up in the grand avenue of the Champs Elysées. + +At eight o'clock a formidable force invested the Legislative Palace. +All the approaches were guarded, all the doors were shut. Some +Representatives nevertheless succeeded in penetrating into the interior +of the Palace, not, as has been wrongly stated, by the passage of the +President's house on the side of the Esplanade of the Invalides, but by +the little door of the Rue de Bourgogne, called the Black Door. This +door, by what omission or what connivance I do not know, remained open +till noon on the 2d December. The Rue de Bourgogne was nevertheless full +of troops. Squads of soldiers scattered here and there in the Rue de +l'Université allowed passers-by, who were few and far between, to use it +as a thoroughfare. + +The Representatives who entered by the door in Rue de Bourgogne, +penetrated as far as the Salle des Conférences, where they met their +colleagues coming out from M. Dupin. + +A numerous group of men, representing every shade of opinion in the +Assembly, was speedily assembled in this hall, amongst whom were MM. +Eugène Sue, Richardet, Fayolle, Joret, Marc Dufraisse, Benoît (du +Rhône), Canet, Gambon, d'Adelsward, Créqu, Répellin, Teillard-Latérisse, +Rantion, General Leydet, Paulin Durrieu, Chanay, Brilliez, Collas (de la +Gironde), Monet, Gaston, Favreau, and Albert de Rességuier. + +Each new-comer accosted M. de Panat. + +"Where are the vice-Presidents?" + +"In prison." + +"And the two other Questors?" + +"Also in prison. And I beg you to believe, gentlemen," added M. de +Panat, "that I have had nothing to do with the insult which has been +offered me, in not arresting me." + +Indignation was at its height; every political shade was blended in the +same sentiment of contempt and anger, and M. de Rességuier was no less +energetic than Eugène Sue. For the first time the Assembly seemed only +to have one heart and one voice. Each at length said what he thought of +the man of the Elysée, and it was then seen that for a long time past +Louis Bonaparte had imperceptibly created a profound unanimity in the +Assembly--the unanimity of contempt. + +M. Collas (of the Gironde) gesticulated and told his story. He came from +the Ministry of the Interior. He had seen M. de Morny, he had spoken to +him; and he, M. Collas, was incensed beyond measure at M. Bonaparte's +crime. Since then, that Crime has made him Councillor of State. + +M. de Panat went hither and thither among the groups, announcing to the +Representatives that he had convened the Assembly for one o'clock. But it +was impossible to wait until that hour. Time pressed. At the Palais +Bourbon, as in the Rue Blanche, it was the universal feeling that each +hour which passed by helped to accomplish the _coup d'état_. Every one +felt as a reproach the weight of his silence or of his inaction; the +circle of iron was closing in, the tide of soldiers rose unceasingly, +and silently invaded the Palace; at each instant a sentinel the more was +found at a door, which a moment before had been free. Still, the group of +Representatives assembled together in the Salle des Conférences was as +yet respected. 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. He was a major of the 42d, who came to summon the Representatives +to quit their own House. All, Royalists and Republicans alike, rushed +upon him. Such was the expression of an indignant eye-witness. General +Leydet addressed him in language such as leaves an impression on the +cheek rather than on the ear. + +"I do my duty, I fulfil my instructions," stammered the officer. + +"You are an idiot, if you think you are doing your duty," cried Leydet +to him, "and you are a scoundrel if you know that you are committing a +crime. Your name? What do you call yourself? Give me your name." + +The officer refused to give his name, and replied, "So, gentlemen, you +will not withdraw?" + +"No." + +"I shall go and obtain force." + +"Do so." + +He left the room, and in actual fact went to obtain orders from the +Ministry of the Interior. + +The Representatives waited in that kind of indescribable agitation which +might be called the Strangling of Right by Violence. + +In a short time one of them who had gone out came back hastily, and warned +them that two companies of the _Gendarmerie Mobile_ were coming with +their guns in their hands. + +Marc Dufraisse cried out, "Let the outrage be thorough. Let the _coup +d'état_ find us on our seats. Let us go to the Salle des Séances," he +added. "Since things have come to such a pass, let us afford the genuine +and living spectacle of an 18th Brumaire." + +They all repaired to the Hall of Assembly. The passage was free. The +Salle Casimir-Périer was not yet occupied by the soldiers. + +They numbered about sixty. Several were girded with their scarves of +office. They entered the Hall meditatively. + +There, M. de Rességuier, undoubtedly with a good purpose, and in order +to form a more compact group, urged that they should all install +themselves on the Right side. + +"No," said Marc Dufraisse, "every one to his bench." They scattered +themselves about the Hall, each in his usual place. + +M. Monet, who sat on one of the lower benches of the Left Centre, held +in his hand a copy of the Constitution. + +Several minutes elapsed. No one spoke. It was the silence of expectation +which precedes decisive deeds and final crises, and during which every +one seems respectfully to listen to the last instructions of his +conscience. + +Suddenly the soldiers of the _Gendarmerie Mobile_, headed by a captain +with his sword drawn, appeared on the threshold. The Hall of Assembly +was violated. The Representatives rose from their seats simultaneously, +shouting "Vive la République!" + +The Representative Monet alone remained standing, and in a loud and +indignant voice, which resounded through the empty hall like a trumpet, +ordered the soldiers to halt. + +The soldiers halted, looking at the Representatives with a bewildered +air. + +The soldiers as yet only blocked up the lobby of the Left, and had not +passed beyond the Tribune. + +Then the Representative Monet read the Articles 36, 37, and 68 of the +Constitution. + +Articles 36 and 37 established the inviolability of the +Representatives. Article 68 deposed the President in the event of +treason. + +That moment was a solemn one. The soldiers listened in silence. + +The Articles having been read, Representative d'Adelsward, who sat on +the first lower bench of the Left, and who was nearest to the soldiers, +turned towards them and said,-- + +"Soldiers, you see that the President of the Republic is a traitor, and +would make traitors of you. You violate the sacred precinct of rational +Representation. In the name of the Constitution, in the name of the Law, +we order you to withdraw." + +While Adelsward was speaking, the major commanding the _Gendarmerie +Mobile_ had entered. + +"Gentlemen," said he, "I have orders to request you to retire, and, if +you do not withdraw of your own accord, to expel you." + +"Orders to expel us!" exclaimed Adelsward; and all the Representatives +added, "Whose orders; Let us see the orders. Who signed the orders?" + +The major drew forth a paper and unfolded it. Scarcely had he unfolded +it than he attempted to replace it in his pocket, but General Leydet +threw himself upon him and seized his arm. Several Representatives leant +forward, and read the order for the expulsion of the Assembly, signed +"Fortoul, Minister of the Marine." + +Marc Dufraisse turned towards the _Gendarmes Mobiles_, and cried out to +them,-- + +"Soldiers, your very presence here is an act of treason. Leave the +Hall!" + +The soldiers seemed undecided. Suddenly a second column emerged from the +door on the right, and at a signal from the commander, the captain +shouted,-- + +"Forward! Turn them all out!" + +Then began an indescribable hand-to-hand fight between the gendarmes and +the legislators. The soldiers, with their guns in their hands, invaded +the benches of the Senate. Repellin, Chanay, Rantion, were forcibly torn +from their seats. Two gendarmes rushed upon Marc Dufraisse, two upon +Gambon. A long struggle took place on the first bench of the Right, the +same place where MM. Odilon Barrot and Abbatucci were in the habit of +sitting. Paulin Durrieu resisted violence by force, it needed three men +to drag him from his bench. Monet was thrown down upon the benches of the +Commissaries. They seized Adelsward by the throat, and thrust him outside +the Hall. Richardet, a feeble man, was thrown down and brutally treated. +Some were pricked with the points of the bayonets; nearly all had their +clothes torn. + +The commander shouted to the soldiers, "Rake them out." + +It was thus that sixty Representatives of the People were taken by the +collar by the _coup d'état_, and driven from their seats. The manner in +which the deed was executed completed the treason. The physical +performance was worthy of the moral performance. + +The three last to come out were Fayolle, Teillard-Latérisse, and Paulin +Durrieu. + +They were allowed to pass by the great door of the Palace, and they +found themselves in the Place Bourgogne. + +The Place Bourgogne was occupied by the 42d Regiment of the Line, under +the orders of Colonel Garderens. + +Between the Palace and the statue of the Republic, which occupied the +centre of the square, a piece of artillery was pointed at the Assembly +opposite the great door. + +By the side of the cannon some Chasseurs de Vincennes were loading their +guns and biting their cartridges. + +Colonel Garderens was on horseback near a group of soldiers, which +attracted the attention of the Representatives Teillard-Latérisse, +Fayolle, and Paulin Durrieu. + +In the middle of this group three men, who had been arrested, were +struggling crying, "Long live the Constitution! Vive la République!" + +Fayolle, Paulin Durrieu, and Teillard-Latérisse approached, and +recognized in the three prisoners three members of the majority, +Representatives Toupet-des-Vignes Radoubt, Lafosse, and Arbey. + +Representative Arbey was warmly protesting. As he raised his voice, +Colonel Garderens cut him short with these words, which are worthy of +preservation,-- + +"Hold your tongue! One word more, and I will have you thrashed with the +butt-end of a musket." + +The three Representatives of the Left indignantly called on the Colonel +to release their colleagues. + +"Colonel," said Fayolle, "You break the law threefold." + +"I will break it sixfold," answered the Colonel, and he arrested +Fayolle, Durrieu, and Teillard-Latérisse. + +The soldiery were ordered to conduct them to the guard house of the +Palace then being built for the Minister of Foreign Affairs. + +On the way the six prisoners, marching between a double file of bayonets, +met three of their colleagues Representatives Eugène Sue, Chanay, and +Benoist (du Rhône). + +Eugène Sue placed himself before the officer who commanded the detachment, +and said to him,-- + +"We summon you to set our colleagues at liberty." + +"I cannot do so," answered the officer. + +"In that case complete your crimes," said Eugène Sue, "We summon you to +arrest us also." + +The officer arrested them. + +They were taken to the guard-house of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, +and, later on, to the barracks of the Quai d'Orsay. It was not till +night that two companies of the line came to transfer them to this +ultimate resting-place. + +While placing them between his soldiers the commanding officer bowed +down to the ground, politely remarking, "Gentlemen, my men's guns are +loaded." + +The clearance of the hall was carried out, as we have said, in a +disorderly fashion, the soldiers pushing the Representatives before them +through all the outlets. + +Some, and amongst the number those of whom we have just spoken, wens out +by the Rue de Bourgogne, others were dragged through the Salle des Pas +Perdus towards the grated door opposite the Pont de la Concorde.[3] + +The Salle des Pas Perdus has an ante-chamber, a sort of crossway room, +upon which opened the staircase of the High Tribune, and several doors, +amongst others the great glass door of the gallery which leads to the +apartments of the President of the Assembly. + +As soon as they had reached this crossway room which adjoins the little +rotunda, where the side door of exit to the Palace is situated, the +soldiers set the Representatives free. + +There, in a few moments, a group was formed, in which the +Representatives Canet and Favreau began to speak. One universal cry was +raised, "Let us search for Dupin, let us drag him here if it is +necessary." + +They opened the glass door and rushed into the gallery. This time M. +Dupin was at home. M. Dupin, having learnt that the gendarmes had +cleared out the Hall, had come out of his hiding-place. The Assembly +being thrown prostrate, Dupin stood erect. The law being made prisoner, +this man felt himself set free. + +The group of Representatives, led by MM. Canet and Favreau, found him in +his study. + +There a dialogue ensued. The Representatives summoned the President to +put himself at their head, and to re-enter the Hall, he, the man of the +Assembly, with them, the men of the Nation. + +M. Dupin refused point-blank, maintained his ground, was very firm, and +clung bravely to his nonentity. + +"What do you want me to do?" said he, mingling with his alarmed protests +many law maxims and Latin quotations, an instinct of chattering jays, +who pour forth all their vocabulary when they are frightened. "What do +you want me to do? Who am I? What can I do? I am nothing. No one is any +longer anything. _Ubi nihil, nihil_. Might is there. Where there is +Might the people lose their Rights. _Novus nascitur ordo_. Shape your +course accordingly. I am obliged to submit. _Dura lex, sed lex_. A law +of necessity we admit, but not a law of right. But what is to be done? I +ask to be let alone. I can do nothing. I do what I can. I am not wanting +in good will. If I had a corporal and four men, I would have them +killed." + +"This man only recognizes force," said the Representatives. "Very well, +let us employ force." + +They used violence towards him, they girded him with a scarf like a cord +round his neck, and, as they had said, they dragged him towards the +Hall, begging for his "liberty," moaning, kicking--I would say +wrestling, if the word were not too exalted. + +Some minutes after the clearance, this Salle des Pas Perdus, which had +just witnessed Representatives pass by in the clutch of gendarmes, saw +M. Dupin in the clutch of the Representatives. + +They did not get far. Soldiers barred the great green folding-doors. +Colonel Espinasse hurried thither, the commander of the gendarmerie came +up. The butt-ends of a pair of pistols were seen peeping out of the +commander's pocket. + +The colonel was pale, the commander was pale, M. Dupin was livid. Both +sides were afraid. M. Dupin was afraid of the colonel; the colonel +assuredly was not afraid of M. Dupin, but behind this laughable and +miserable figure he saw a terrible phantom rise up--his crime, and he +trembled. In Homer there is a scene where Nemesis appears behind +Thersites. + +M. Dupin remained for some moments stupefied, bewildered and speechless. + +The Representative Gambon exclaimed to him,-- + +"Now then, speak, M. Dupin, the Left does not interrupt you." + +Then, with the words of the Representatives at his back, and the +bayonets of the soldiers at his breast, the unhappy man spoke. What +his mouth uttered at this moment, what the President of the Sovereign +Assembly of France stammered to the gendarmes at this intensely critical +moment, no one could gather. + +Those who heard the last gasps of this moribund cowardice, hastened +to purify their ears. It appears, however, that he stuttered forth +something like this:-- + +"You are Might, you have bayonets; I invoke Right and I leave you. I +have the honor to wish you good day." + +He went away. + +They let him go. At the moment of leaving he turned round and let fall a +few more words. We will not gather them up. History has no rag-picker's +basket. + + +[3] This grated door was closed on December 2, and was not reopened +until the 12th March, when M. Louis Bonaparte came to inspect the works +of the Hall of the Corps Legislatif. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +AN END WORSE THAN DEATH + +We should have been glad to have put aside, never to have spoken of him +again, this man who had borne for three years this most honorable title, +President of the National Assembly of France, and who had only known how +to be lacquey to the majority. He contrived in his last hour to sink +even lower than could have been believed possible even for him. His +career in the Assembly had been that of a valet, his end was that of a +scullion. + +The unprecedented attitude that M. Dupin assumed before the gendarmes +when uttering with a grimace his mockery of a protest, even engendered +suspicion. Gambion exclaimed, "He resists like an accomplice. He knew +all." + +We believe these suspicions to be unjust. M. Dupin knew nothing. Who +indeed amongst the organizers of the _coup d'état_ would have taken the +trouble to make sure of his joining them? Corrupt M. Dupin? was it +possible? and, further, to what purpose? To pay him? Why? It would be +money wasted when fear alone was enough. Some connivances are secured +before they are sought for. Cowardice is the old fawner upon felony. The +blood of the law is quickly wiped up. Behind the assassin who holds the +poniard comes the trembling wretch who holds the sponge. + +Dupin took refuge in his study. They followed him. "My God!" he cried, +"can't they understand that I want to be left in peace." + +In truth they had tortured him ever since the morning, in order to +extract from him an impossible scrap of courage. + +"You ill-treat me worse than the gendarmes," said he. + +The Representatives installed themselves in his study, seated themselves +at his table, and, while he groaned and scolded in an arm-chair, they +drew up a formal report of what had just taken place, as they wished to +leave an official record of the outrage in the archives. + +When the official report was ended Representative Canet read it to the +President, and offered him a pen. + +"What do you want me to do with this?" he asked. + +"You are the President," answered Canet. "This is our last sitting. It +is your duty to sign the official report." + +This man refused. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +THE BLACK DOOR + +M. Dupin is a matchless disgrace. + +Later on he had his reward. It appears that he became some sort of an +Attorney-General at the Court of Appeal. + +M. Dupin renders to Louis Bonaparte the service of being in his place +the meanest of men. + +To continue this dismal history. + +The Representatives of the Right, in their first bewilderment caused +by the _coup d'état_, hastened in large numbers to M. Daru, who was +Vice-President of the Assembly, and at the same time one of the +Presidents of the Pyramid Club. This Association had always supported +the policy of the Elysée, but without believing that a _coup d'état_ +was premeditated. M. Daru lived at No. 75, Rue de Lille. + +Towards ten o'clock in the morning about a hundred of these +Representatives had assembled at M. Daru's home. They resolved to +attempt to penetrate into the Hall where the Assembly held its sittings. +The Rue de Lille opens out into the Rue de Bourgogne, almost opposite +the little door by which the Palace is entered, and which is called the +Black Door. + +They turned their steps towards this door, with M. Daru at their head. +They marched arm in arm and three abreast. Some of them had put on their +scarves of office. They took them off later on. + +The Black Door, half-open as usual, was only guarded by two sentries. + +Some of the most indignant, and amongst them M. de Kerdrel, rushed +towards this door and tried to pass. The door, however, was violently +shut, and there ensued between the Representatives and the _sergents de +ville_ who hastened up, a species of struggle, in which a Representative +had his wrist sprained. + +At the same time a battalion which was drawn up on the Place de +Bourgogne moved on, and came at the double towards the group of +Representatives. M. Daru, stately and firm, signed to the commander +to stop; the battalion halted, and M. Daru, in the name of the +Constitution, and in his capacity as Vice-President of the Assembly, +summoned the soldiers to lay down their arms, and to give free passage +to the Representatives of the Sovereign People. + +The commander of the battalion replied by an order to clear the street +immediately, declaring that there was no longer an Assembly; that as for +himself, he did not know what the Representatives of the People were, +and that if those persons before him did not retire of their own accord, +he would drive them back by force. + +"We will only yield to violence," said M. Daru. + +"You commit high treason," added M. de Kerdrel. + +The officer gave the order to charge. + +The soldiers advanced in close order. + +There was a moment of confusion; almost a collision. The Representatives, +forcibly driven back, ebbed into the Rue de Lille. Some of them fell +down. Several members of the Right were rolled in the mud by the +soldiers. One of them, M. Etienne, received a blow on the shoulder from +the butt-end of a musket. We may here add that a week afterwards M. +Etienne was a member of that concern which they styled the Consultative +Committee. He found the _coup d'état_ to his taste, the blow with the +butt-end of a musket included. + +They went back to M. Daru's house, and on the way the scattered group +reunited, and was even strengthened by some new-comers. + +"Gentlemen," said M. Daru, "the President has failed us, the Hall is +closed against us. I am the Vice-President; my house is the Palace of +the Assembly." + +He opened a large room, and there the Representatives of the Right +installed themselves. At first the discussions were somewhat noisy. M. +Daru, however, observed that the moments were precious, and silence was +restored. + +The first measure to be taken was evidently the deposition of the +President of the Republic by virtue of Article 68 of the Constitution. +Some Representatives of the party which was called _Burgraves_ sat round +a table and prepared the deed of deposition. + +As they were about to read it aloud a Representative who came in from +out of doors appeared at the door of the room, and announced to the +Assembly that the Rue de Lille was becoming filled with troops, and that +the house was being surrounded. + +There was not a moment to lose. + +M. Benoist-d'Azy said, "Gentlemen, let us go to the Mairie of the tenth +arrondissement; there we shall be able to deliberate under the protection +of the tenth legion, of which our colleague, General Lauriston, is the +colonel." + +M. Daru's house had a back entrance by a little door which was at the +bottom of the garden. Most of the Representatives went out that way. + +M. Daru was about to follow them. Only himself, M. Odilon Barrot, and +two or three others remained in the room, when the door opened. A +captain entered, and said to M. Daru,-- + +"Sir, you are my prisoner." + +"Where am I to follow you?" asked M. Daru. + +"I have orders to watch over you in your own house." + +The house, in truth, was militarily occupied, and it was thus that M. +Daru was prevented from taking part in the sitting at the Mairie of the +tenth arrondissement. + +The officer allowed M. Odilon Barrot to go out. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE + +While all this was taking place on the left bank of the river, towards +noon a man was noticed walking up and down the great Salles des Pas +Perdus of the Palace of Justice. This man, carefully buttoned up in an +overcoat, appeared to be attended at a distance by several possible +supporters--for certain police enterprises employ assistants whose +dubious appearance renders the passers-by uneasy, so much so that they +wonder whether they are magistrates or thieves. The man in the +buttoned-up overcoat loitered from door to door, from lobby to lobby, +exchanging signs of intelligence with the myrmidons who followed him; +then came back to the great Hall, stopping on the way the barristers, +solicitors, ushers, clerks, and attendants, and repeating to all in a low +voice, so as not to be heard by the passers-by, the same question. To +this question some answered "Yes," others replied "No." And the man set +to work again, prowling about the Palace of Justice with the appearance +of a bloodhound seeking the trail. + +He was a Commissary of the Arsenal Police. + +What was he looking for? + +The High Court of Justice. + +What was the High Court of Justice doing? + +It was hiding. + +Why? To sit in Judgment? + +Yes and no. + +The Commissary of the Arsenal Police had that morning received from the +Prefect Maupas the order to search everywhere for the place where the +High Court of Justice might be sitting, if perchance it thought it its +duty to meet. Confusing the High Court with the Council of State, the +Commissary of Police had first gone to the Quai d'Orsay. Having found +nothing, not even the Council of State, he had come away empty-handed, at +all events had turned his steps towards the Palace of Justice, thinking +that as he had to search for justice he would perhaps find it there. + +Not finding it, he went away. + +The High Court, however, had nevertheless met together. + +Where, and how? We shall see. + +At the period whose annals we are now chronicling, before the present +reconstruction of the old buildings of Paris, when the Palace of Justice +was reached by the Cour de Harlay, a staircase the reverse of majestic +led thither by turning out into a long corridor called the Gallerie +Mercière. Towards the middle of this corridor there were two doors; one +on the right, which led to the Court of Appeal, the other on the left, +which led to the Court of Cassation. The folding-doors to the left opened +upon an old gallery called St. Louis, recently restored, and which serves +at the present time for a Salle des Pas Perdus to the barristers of the +Court of Cassation. A wooden statue of St. Louis stood opposite the +entrance door. An entrance contrived in a niche to the right of this +statue led into a winding lobby ending in a sort of blind passage, which +apparently was closed by two double doors. On the door to the right might +be read "First President's Room;" on the door to the left, "Council +Chamber." Between these two doors, for the convenience of the barristers +going from the Hall to the Civil Chamber, which formerly was the Great +Chamber of Parliament, had been formed a narrow and dark passage, in +which, as one of them remarked, "every crime could be committed with +impunity." + +Leaving on one side the First President's Room and opening the door which +bore the inscription "Council Chamber," a large room was crossed, +furnished with a huge horse-shoe table, surrounded by green chairs. At +the end of this room, which in 1793 had served as a deliberating hall for +the juries of the Revolutionary Tribunal, there was a door placed in the +wainscoting, which led into a little lobby where were two doors, on the +right the door of the room appertaining to the President of the Criminal +Chamber, on the left the door of the Refreshment Room. "Sentenced to +death!--Now let us go and dine!" These two ideas, Death and Dinner, have +jostled against each other for centuries. A third door closed the +extremity of this lobby. This door was, so to speak, the last of the +Palace of Justice, the farthest off, the least known, the most hidden; it +opened into what was called the Library of the Court of Cassation, a +large square room lighted by two windows overlooking the great inner yard +of the Concièrgerie, furnished with a few leather chairs, a large table +covered with green cloth, and with law books lining the walls from the +floor to the ceiling. + +This room, as may be seen, is the most secluded and the best hidden of +any in the Palace. + +It was here,--in this room, that there arrived successively on the 2d +December, towards eleven o'clock in the morning, numerous men dressed in +black, without robes, without badges of office, affrighted, bewildered, +shaking their heads, and whispering together. These trembling men were +the High Court of Justice. + +The High Court of Justice, according to the terms of the Constitution, +was composed of seven magistrates; a President, four Judges, and two +Assistants, chosen by the Court of Cassation from among its own members +and renewed every year. + +In December, 1851, these seven judges were named Hardouin, Pataille, +Moreau, Delapalme, Cauchy, Grandet, and Quesnault, the two last-named +being Assistants. + +These men, almost unknown, had nevertheless some antecedents. M. Cauchy, +a few years previously President of the Chamber of the Royal Court of +Paris, an amiable man and easily frightened, was the brother of the +mathematician, member of the Institute, to whom we owe the computation of +waves of sound, and of the ex-Registrar Archivist of the Chamber of +Peers. M. Delapalme had been Advocate-General, and had taken a prominent +part in the Press trials under the Restoration; M. Pataille had been +Deputy of the Centre under the Monarchy of July; M. Moreau (de la Seine) +was noteworthy, inasmuch he had been nicknamed "de la Seine" to +distinguish him from M. Moreau (de la Meurthe), who on his side was +noteworthy, inasmuch as he had been nicknamed "de la Meurthe" to +distinguish him from M. Moreau (de la Seine). The first Assistant, M. +Grandet, had been President of the Chamber at Paris. I have read this +panegyric of him: "He is known to possess no individuality or opinion of +his own whatsoever." The second Assistant, M. Quesnault, a Liberal, a +Deputy, a Public Functionary, Advocate-General, a Conservative, learned, +obedient, had attained by making a stepping-stone of each of these +attributes, to the Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation, where he +was known as one of the most severe members. 1848 had shocked his notion +of Right, he had resigned after the 24th of February; he did not resign +after the 2d December. + +M. Hardouin, who presided over the High Court, was an ex-President of +Assizes, a religious man, a rigid Jansenist, noted amongst his colleagues +as a "scrupulous magistrate," living in Port Royal, a diligent reader of +Nicolle, belonging to the race of the old Parliamentarians of the Marais, +who used to go to the Palais de Justice mounted on a mule; the mule had +now gone out of fashion, and whoever visited President Hardouin would +have found no more obstinacy in his stable than in his conscience. + +On the morning of the 2d December, at nine o'clock, two men mounted the +stairs of M. Hardouin's house, No. 10, Rue de Condé, and met together at +his door. One was M. Pataille; the other, one of the most prominent +members of the bar of the Court of Cassation, was the ex-Constituent +Martin (of Strasbourg). M. Pataille had just placed himself at M. +Hardouin's disposal. + +Martin's first thought, while reading the placards of the _coup d'état_, +had been for the High Court. M. Hardouin ushered M. Pataille into a room +adjoining his study, and received Martin (of Strasbourg) as a man to +whom he did not wish to speak before witnesses. Being formally requested +by Martin (of Strasbourg) to convene the High Court, he begged that he +would leave him alone, declared that the High Court would "do its duty," +but that first he must "confer with his colleagues," concluding with +this expression, "It shall be done to-day or to-morrow." "To-day or +to-morrow!" exclaimed Martin (of Strasbourg); "Mr. President, the safety +of the Republic, the safety of the country, perhaps, depends on what the +High Court will or will not do. Your responsibility is great; bear that +in mind. The High Court of Justice does not do its duty to-day or +to-morrow; it does it at once, at the moment, without losing a minute, +without an instant's hesitation." + +Martin (of Strasbourg) was right, Justice always belongs to To-day. + +Martin (of Strasbourg) added, "If you want a man for active work, I am at +your service." M. Hardouin declined the offer; declared that he would not +lose a moment, and begged Martin (of Strasbourg) to leave him to "confer" +with his colleague, M. Pataille. + +In fact, he called together the High Court for eleven o'clock, and it was +settled that the meeting should take place in the Hall of the Library. + +The Judges were punctual. At a quarter-past eleven they were all +assembled. M. Pataille arrived the last. + +They sat at the end of the great green table. They were alone in the +Library. + +There was no ceremonial. President Hardouin thus opened the debate: +"Gentlemen, there is no need to explain the situation, we all know what +it is." + +Article 68 of the Constitution was imperative. It was necessary that the +High Court should meet _under penalty of high treason_. They gained time, +they swore themselves in, they appointed as Recorder of the High Court M. +Bernard, Recorder of the Court of Cassation, and they sent to fetch him, +and while waiting requested the librarian, M. Denevers, to hold his pen +in readiness. They settled the time and place for an evening meeting. +They talked of the conduct of the Constituent Martin (of Strasbourg), +with which they were offended, regarding it almost as a nudge of the +elbow given by Politics to Justice. They spoke a little of Socialism, of +the Mountain, and of the Red Republic, and a little also of the judgment +which they had to pronounce. They chatted, they told stories, they found +fault, they speculated, they spun out the time. + +What were they waiting for? + +We have related what the Commissary of police was doing for his part in +his department. + +And, in reference to this design, when the accomplices of the _coup +d'état_ considered that the people in order to summon the High Court to +do its duty, could invade the Palace of Justice, and that they would +never look for it where it was assembled, they felt that this room had +been excellently chosen. When, however, they considered that the police +would also doubtless come to expel the High Court, and that perhaps they +would not succeed in finding it, each one regretted to himself the choice +of the room. They wished to hide the High Court, they had succeeded too +well. It was grievous to think that perhaps when the police and the armed +force should arrive, matters would have gone too far, and the High Court +would be too deeply compromised. + +They had appointed a Recorder, now they must organize a Court. A second +step, more serious than the first. + +The judges delayed, hoping that fortune would end by deciding on one side +or the other, either for the Assembly or for the President, either +against the _coup d'état_ or for it, and that there might thus be a +vanquished party, so that the High Court could then with all safety lay +its hands upon somebody. + +They lengthily argued the question, whether they should immediately +decree the accusation of the President, or whether they should draw up a +simple order of inquiry. The latter course was adopted. + +They drew up a judgment, not the honest and outspoken judgment which +was placarded by the efforts of the Representatives of the Left and +published, in which are found these words of bad taste, _Crime_ and +_High Treason_; this judgment, a weapon of war, has never existed +otherwise than as a projectile. Wisdom in a judge sometimes consists in +drawing up a judgment which is not one, one of those judgments which has +no binding force, in which everything is conditional; in which no one is +incriminated, and nothing, is called by its right name. There are species +of intermediate courses which allow of waiting and seeing; in delicate +crises men who are in earnest must not inconsiderately mingle with +possible events that bluntness which is called Justice. The High Court +took advantage of this, it drew up a prudent judgment; this judgment is +not known; it is published here for the first time. Here it is. It is a +masterpiece of equivocal style:-- + + EXTRACT FROM THE REGISTRY OF THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE. + + "The High Court of Justice. + + "According to Article 68 of the Constitution, considering that + printed placards beginning with these words, 'The President of the + Republic' and ending with the signatures, 'Louis Napoléon Bonaparte' + and 'De Morny, Minister of the Interior,' the said placards ordaining + amongst other measures the dissolution of the National Assembly, have + been posted to-day on the walls of Paris, that this fact of the + dissolution of the National Assembly by the President of the Republic + would be of the nature to constitute the case provided for by Article + 68 of the Constitution, and renders, in the terms of the aforesaid + article, the meeting of the High Court indispensable. + + "It is declared that the High Court of Justice is organized, that it + appoints[4] ... to fulfil with it the functions of the Public + Ministry; that M. Bernard, the Recorder of the Court of Cassation, + should fulfil the duties of Recorder, and in order to proceed + further, according to the terms of the aforesaid Article 68 of the + Constitution, the Court will adjourn until to-morrow, the 3d of + December, at noon. + + "Drawn up and discussed in the Council Chamber, where were sitting + MM. Hardouin, president, Pataille, Moreau, Delapalme, and Cauchy, + judges, December 2, 1851." + +The two Assistants, MM. Grandet and Quesnault, offered to sign the +decree, but the President ruled that it would be more correct only to +accept the signatures of the titular judges, the Assistants not being +qualified when the Court was complete. + +In the meantime it was one o'clock, the news began to spread through the +palace that a decree of deposition against Louis Bonaparte had been drawn +up by a part of the Assembly; one of the judges who had gone out during +the debate, brought back this rumor to his colleagues. This coincided +with an outburst of energy. The President observed that it would be to +the purpose to appoint a Procureur-General. + +There was a difficulty. Whom should they appoint? In all preceding trials +they had always chosen for a Procureur-General at the High Court the +Procureur-General at the Court of Appeal of Paris. Why should they +introduce an innovation? They determined upon this Procureur-General of +the Court of Appeal. This Procureur-General was at the time M. de Royer, +who had been keeper of the Seals for M. Bonaparte. Thence a new +difficulty and a long debate. + +Would M. de Royer consent? M. Hardouin undertook to go and make the offer +to him. He had only to cross the Mercière Gallery. + +M. de Royer was in his study. The proposal greatly embarrassed him. He +remained speechless from the shock. To accept was serious, to refuse was +still more serious. + +There was risk of treason. On the 2d December, an hour after noon, the +_coup d'état_ was still a crime. M. de Royer, not knowing whether the +high treason would succeed, ventured to stigmatize the deed as such in +private, and cast down his eyes with a noble shame before this violation +of the laws which, three months later, numerous purple robes, including +his own, endorsed with their oaths. But his indignation did not go to +the extent of supporting the indictment. An indictment speaks aloud. M. +de Royer as yet only murmured. He was perplexed. + +M. Hardouin understood this state of conscience. Persistence would have +been unreasonable. He withdrew. + +He returned to the room where his colleagues were awaiting him. + +In the meantime the Commissary of the Arsenal Police had come back. + +He had ended by succeeding in "unearthing"--such was his expression--the +High Court. He penetrated as far as the Council Chamber of the Civil +Chamber; at that moment he had still no other escort than the few police +agents of the morning. A boy was passing by. The Commissary asked him +the whereabouts of the High Court. "The High Court?" answered the boy; +"what is that?" Nevertheless the boy told the Librarian, who came up. A +few words were exchanged between M. Denevers and the Commissary. + +"What are you asking for?" + +"The High Court." + +"Who are you?" + +"I want the high Court." + +"It is in session." + +"Where is it sitting?" + +"Here." + +And the Librarian pointed to the door. + +"Very well," said the Commissary. + +He did not add another word, and returned into the Mercière Gallery. + +We have just said that he was only accompanied at that time by a few +police agents. + +The High Court was, in truth, in session. The President was relating to +the judges his visit to the Procureur General. Suddenly a tumultuous +sound of footsteps is heard in the lobby which leads from the Council +Chamber to the room where they were deliberating. The door opens +abruptly. Bayonets appear, and in the midst of the bayonets a man in a +buttoned-up overcoat, with a tricolored sash upon his coat. + +The magistrates stare, stupefied. + +"Gentlemen," said the man, "dissolve your meeting immediately." + +President Hardouin rises. + +"What does this mean? Who are you? Are you aware to whom you are +speaking?" + +"I am aware. You are the High Court, and I am the Commissary of the +Police." + +"Well, then?" + +"Be off." + +There were there thirty-five municipal guards, commanded by a lieutenant, +and with a drum at their head. + +"But----" said the President. + +The Commissary interrupted him with these words, which are literally +given,-- + +"Mr. President, I am not going to enter upon an oratorical combat with +you. I have my orders, and I transmit them to you. Obey." + +"Whom?" + +"The Prefect of Police." + +The President asked this strange question, which implied the acceptance +of an order,-- + +"Have you a warrant?" + +The Commissary answered,-- + +"Yes." + +And he handed a paper to the President. + +The judges turned pale. + +The President unfolded the paper; M. Cauchy put his head over M. +Hardouin's shoulder. The President read but,-- + +"You are ordered to dissolve the High Court, and, in case of refusal, to +arrest MM. Béranger, Rocher, De Boissieux, Pataille, and Hello." + +And, turning towards the judges, the President added,-- + +"Signed, Maupas." + +Then, addressing himself to the Commissary, he resumed,-- + +"There is some mistake, these are not our names. MM. Béranger, Rocher, +and De Boissieux have served their time and are no longer judges of the +High Court; as for M. Hello, he is dead." + +The High Court, in reality, was temporary and renewable; the _coup +d'état_ overthrew the Constitution, but did not understand it. The +warrant signed "Maupas" was applicable to the preceding High Court. The +_coup d'état_ had been misled by an old list. Such is the heedlessness of +assassins. + +"Mr. Commissary of Police," continued the President, "you see that these +names are not ours." + +"That does not matter to me," replied the Commissary. "Whether this +warrant does or does not apply to you, disperse, or I shall arrest all of +you." + +And he added,-- + +"At once." + +The judges were silenced; one of them picked up from the table a loose +sheet of paper, which was the judgment they had drawn up, and put the +paper in his pocket. + +Then they went away. + +The Commissary pointed to the door where the bayonets were, and said,-- + +"That way." + +They went out by the lobby between two ranks of soldiers. The detachment +of Republican Guards escorted them as far as the St. Louis Gallery. + +There they set them free; their heads bowed down. + +It was about three o'clock. + +While these events were taking place in the Library, close by, in the +former great Chamber of the Parliament, the Court of Cassation was +sitting in judgment as usual, without noticing what was happening so near +at hand. It would appear, then, that the police exhaled no odor. + +Let us at once have done with this High Court. + +In the evening at half-past seven the seven judges met together at the +house of one of their number, he who had taken away the decree; they +framed an official report, drew up a protest, and recognizing the +necessity of filling in the line left blank in their decree, on the +proposition of M. Quesnault, appointed as Procureur-General M. Renouard, +their colleague at the Court of Cessation. M. Renouard, who was +immediately informed, consented. + +They met together for the last time on the next day, the 3d, at eleven +o'clock in the morning, an hour before the time mentioned in the judgment +which we have read above,--again in the Library of the Court of +Cassation. M. Renouard was present. An official minute was given to him, +recording his appointment, as well as certain details with which he asked +to be supplied. The judgment which had been drawn up was taken by M. +Quesnault to the Recorder's Office, and immediately entered upon the +Register of the Secret Deliberations of the Court of Cassation, the High +Court not having a Special Register, and having decided, from its +creation, to use the Register of the Court of Cassation. After the decree +they also transcribed the two documents described as follows on the +Register:-- + +I. An official report recording the interference of the police during the +discussion upon the preceding decree. + +II. A minute of the appointment of M. Renouard to the office of +Procureur-General. + +In addition seven copies of these different documents drawn up by the +hands of the judges themselves, and signed by them all, were put in a +place of safety, as also, it is said, a note-book, in which were written +five other secret decisions relating to the _coup d'état_. + +Does this page of the Register of the Court of Cassation exist at the +present time? Is it true, as has been stated, that the prefect Maupas +sent for the Register and tore out the leaf containing the decree? We +have not been able to clear up this point. The Register now is shown to +no one, and those employed at the Recorder's Office are dumb. + +Such are the facts, let us summarize them. If this Court so called +"High," had been of a character to conceive such an idea as that of doing +its duty--when it had once met together the mere organization of itself +was a matter of a few minutes--it would have proceeded resolutely and +rapidly, it would have appointed as Procureur-General some energetic man +belonging to the Court of Cassation, either from the body of magistrates, +such as Freslon, or from the bar, like Martin (of Strasbourg). By virtue +of Article 68, and without waiting the initiative of the Assembly, it +would have drawn up a judgment stigmatizing the crime, it would have +launched an order of arrest against the President and his accomplices and +have ordered the removal of the person of Louis Bonaparte to jail. As for +the Procureur-General he would have issued a warrant of arrest. All this +could have been done by half-past eleven, and at that time no attempt had +been made to dissolve the High Court. These preliminary proceedings +concluded, the High Court, by going out through a nailed-up door leading +into the Salle des Pas Perdus, could have descended into the street, and +there have proclaimed its judgment to the people. At this time it would +have met with no hindrance. Finally, and this in any case, it should have +sat robed on the Judges' Bench, with all magisterial state, and when the +police agent and his soldiers appeared should have ordered the soldiers, +who perhaps would have obeyed them, to arrest the agent, and if the +soldiers had disobeyed, should have allowed themselves to be formally +dragged to prison, so that the people could see, under their own eyes, +out in the open street, the filthy hoof of the _coup d'état_ trampling +upon the robe of Justice. + +Instead of this, what steps did the High Court take? We have just seen. + +"Be off with you!" + +"We are going." + +We can imagine, after a very different fashion, the dialogue between +Mathieu Molé and Vidocq. + + +[4] This line was left blank. It was filled in later on with the name of +M. Renouard, Councillor of the Court of Cassation. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +THE MAIRIE OF THE TENTH ARRONDISSEMENT + +The Representatives, having come out from M. Daru, rejoined each other +and assembled in the street. There they consulted briefly, from group to +group. There were a large number of them. In less than an hour, by +sending notices to the houses on the left bank of the Seine alone, on +account of the extreme urgency, more than three hundred members could be +called together. But where should they meet? At Lemardelay's? The Rue +Richelieu was guarded. At the Salle Martel? It was a long way off. They +relied upon the Tenth Legion, of which General Lauriston was colonel. +They showed a preference for the Mairie of the Tenth Arrondissement. +Besides, the distance was short, and there was no need to cross any +bridges. + +They formed themselves into column, and set forth. + +M. Daru, as we have said, lived in the Rue de Lille, close by the +Assembly. The section of the Rue de Lille lying between his house and +the Palais Bourbon was occupied by infantry. The last detachment +barred his door, but it only barred it on the right, not on the left. +The Representatives, on quitting M. Daru, bent their steps on the side +of the Rue des Saints-Pères, and left the soldiers behind them. At +that moment the soldiers had only been instructed to prevent their +meeting in the Palace of the Assembly; they could quietly form +themselves into a column in the street, and set forth. If they had +turned to the right instead of to the left, they would have been +opposed. But there were no orders for the other alternative; they +passed through a gap in the instructions. + +An hour afterwards this threw St. Arnaud into a fit of fury. + +On their way fresh Representatives came up and swelled the column. As the +members of the Right lived for the most part in the Faubourg St. Germain, +the column was composed almost entirely of men belonging to the majority. + +At the corner of the Quai d'Orsay they met a group of members of the +Left, who had reunited after their exit from the Palace of the Assembly, +and who were consulting together. There were the Representatives +Esquiros, Marc Dufraisse, Victor Hennequin, Colfavru, and Chamiot. + +Those who were marching at the head of the column left their places, went +up to the group, and said, "Come with us." + +"Where are you going?" asked Marc Dufraisse. + +To the Mairie of the Tenth Arrondissement." + +"What do you intend to do there?" + +"To decree the deposition of Louis Bonaparte." + +"And afterwards?" + +"Afterwards we shall go in a body to the Palace of the Assembly; we will +force our way in spite of all resistance, and from the top of the steps +we will read out the decree of deposition to the soldiers." + +"Very good, we will join you," said Mare Dufraisse. + +The five members of the Left marched at some distance from the column. +Several of their friends who were mingled with the members of the Right +rejoined them; and we may here mention a fact without giving it more +importance than it possesses, namely, that the two fractions of the +Assembly represented in this unpremeditated gathering marched towards the +Mairie without being mingled together; one on each side of the street. It +chanced that the men of the majority kept on the right side of the +street, and the men of the minority on the left. + +No one had a scarf of office. No outward token caused them to be +recognized. The passers-by stared at them with surprise, and did not +understand what was the meaning of this procession of silent men through +the solitary streets of the Faubourg St. Germain. One district of Paris +was as yet unaware of the _coup d'état_. + +Strategically speaking, from a defensive point of view, the Mairie of +the tenth Arrondissement was badly chosen. Situated in a narrow street +in that short section of the Rue de Grenelle-St.-Germain which lies +between the Rue des Saints-Pères and the Rue du Sépulcre, close by the +cross-roads of the Croix-Rouge, where the troops could arrive from so +many different points, the Mairie of the Tenth Arrondissement, confined, +commanded, and blockaded on every side, was a pitiful citadel for the +assailed National Representation. It is true that they no longer had the +choice of a citadel, any more than later on they had the choice of a +general. + +Their arrival at the Mairie might have seemed a good omen. The great +gate which leads into a square courtyard was shut; it opened. The post +of the National Guards, composed of some twenty men, took up their arms +and rendered military honors to the Assembly. The Representatives +entered, a Deputy Mayor received them with respect on the threshold of +the Mairie. "The Palace of the Assembly is closed by the troops," said +the Representatives, "we have come to deliberate here." The Deputy Mayor +led them to the first story, and admitted them to the Great Municipal +Hall. The National Guard cried, "Long live the National Assembly!" + +The Representatives having entered, the door was shut. A crowd began to +gather in the street and shouted "Long live the Assembly!" A certain +number of strangers to the Assembly entered the Mairie at the same time +as the Representatives. Overcrowding was feared, and two sentries were +placed at a little side-door, which was left open, with orders only to +allow members of the Assembly who might come afterwards to enter. M. +Howyn Tranchère stationed himself at this door, and undertook to identify +them. + +On their arrival at the Mairie, the Representatives numbered somewhat +under three hundred. They exceeded this number later on. It was about +eleven o'clock in the morning. All did not go up at once into the hall +where the meeting was to take place. Several, those of the Left in +particular, remained in the courtyard, mingling with the National Guards +and citizens. + +They talked of what they were going to do. + +This was the first difficulty. + +The Father of the meeting was M. de Kératry. + +Was he going to preside? + +The Representatives who were assembled in the Great Hall were in his +favor. + +The Representatives remaining in the courtyard hesitated. + +Marc Dufraisse went up to MM. Jules de Lasteyrie and Léon de Maleville, +who had stayed behind with the Representatives of the Left, and said to +them, "What are they thinking of upstairs? To make Kératry President? The +name of Kératry would frighten the people as thoroughly as mine would +frighten the middle classes." + +A member of the Right, M. de Keranflech, came up, and intending to +support the objection, added, "And then, think of Kératry's age. It is +madness to pit a man of eighty against this hour of danger." + +But Esquiros exclaimed,-- + +"That is a bad reason! Eighty years! They constitute a force." + +"Yes; where they are well borne," said Colfavru. "Kératry bears them +badly." + +"Nothing is greater," resumed Esquiros, "than great octogenarians." + +"It is glorious," added Chamiot, "to be presided over by Nestor." + +"No, by Gerontes,"[5] said Victor Hennequin. + +These words put an end to the debate. Kératry was thrown out. MM. Léon +de Maleville and Jules de Lasteyrie, two men respected by all parties, +undertook to make the members of the Right listen to reason. It was +decided that the "bureau"[6] should preside. Five members of the "bureau" +were present; two Vice-Presidents, MM. Benoist d'Azy and Vitet, and three +Secretaries, MM. Griumult, Chapot, and Moulin. Of the two other +Vice-Presidents, one, General Bedrau, was at Mazas; the other, M. Daru, +was under guard in his own house. Of the three other Secretaries, two, +MM. Peapin and Lacaze, men of the Elysée, were absentees; the other, M. +Yvan, a member of the Left, was at the meeting of the Left, in the Rue +Blanche, which was taking place almost at the same moment. + +In the meantime an usher appeared on the steps of the Mairie, and cried +out, as on the most peaceful days of the Assembly, "Representatives, to +the sitting!" + +This usher, who belonged to the Assembly, and who had followed it, shared +its fortunes throughout this day, the sequestration on the Quai d'Orsay +included. + +At the summons of the usher all the Representatives in the courtyard, and +amongst whom was one of the Vice-Presidents, M. Vitei, went upstairs to +the Hall, and the sitting was opened. + +This sitting was the last which the Assembly held under regular +conditions. The Left, which, as we have seen, had on its side boldly +recaptured the Legislative power, and had added to it that which +circumstances required--as was the duty of Revolutionists; the Left, +without a "bureau," without an usher, and without secretaries, held +sittings in which the accurate and passionless record of shorthand was +wanting, but which live in our memories and which History will gather up. + +Two shorthand writers of the Assembly, MM. Grosselet and Lagache, were +present at the sitting at the Mairie of the Tenth Arrondissement. They +have been able to record it. The censorship of the victorious _coup +d'état_ has mutilated their report and has published through its +historians this mangled version as the true version. One lie more. That +does not matter. This shorthand recital belongs to the brief of the 2d +December, it is one of the leading documents in the trial which the +future will institute. In the notes of this book will be found this +document complete. The passages in inverted commas are those which the +censorship of M. Bonaparte has suppressed. This suppression is a proof of +their significance and importance. + +Shorthand reproduces everything except life. Stenography is an ear. It +hears and sees not. It is therefore necessary to fill in here the +inevitable blanks of the shorthand account. + +In order to obtain a complete idea of this sitting of the Tenth +Arrondissement, we must picture the great Hall of the Mairie, a sort of +parallelogram, lighted on the right by four or five windows overlooking +the courtyard; on the left, along the wall, furnished with several rows +of benches which had been hastily brought thither, on which were piled up +the three hundred Representatives, assembled together by chance. No one +was sitting down, those in front were standing, those behind were mounted +on the benches. Here and there were a few small tables. In the centre +people walked to and fro. At the bottom, at the end opposite the door, +was a long table furnished with benches, which occupied the whole width +of the wall, behind which sat the "bureau." "Sitting" is merely the +conventional term. The "bureau" did not "sit;" like the rest of the +Assembly it was on its feet. The secretaries, M.M. Chapot, Moulin, and +Grimault wrote standing. At certain moments the two Vice-Presidents +mounted on the benches so as to be better seen from all points of the +room. The table was covered by an old green tablecloth, stained with ink, +three or four inkstands had been brought in, and a quire of paper was +scattered about. There the decrees were written as soon as they were +drawn up. They multiplied the copies, some Representatives became +secretaries on the spur of the moment, and helped the official +secretaries. + +This great hall was on a level with the landing. It was situated, as we +have said, on the first floor; it was reached by a very narrow staircase. + +We must recollect that nearly the whole of the members present were +members of the Right. + +The first moment was a serious one. Berryer came out to advantage. +Berryer, like all those extemporizers without style, will only be +remembered as a name, and a much disputed name, Berryer having been +rather a special pleader than an orator who believed what he said. On +that day Berryer was to the point, logical and earnest. They began by +this cry, "What shall we do?" "Draw up a declaration," said M. de +Falloux. "A protest," said M. de Flavigny. "A decree," said Berryer. + +In truth a declaration was empty air, a protest was noise, a decree was +action. They cried out, "What decree?" "Deposition," said Berryer. +Deposition was the extreme limit of the energy of the Right. Beyond +deposition, there was outlawry; deposition was practicable for the Right, +outlawry was only possible for the Left. In fact it was the Left who +outlawed Louis Bonaparte. They did it at their first meeting in the Rue +Blanche. We shall see this later on. At deposition, Legality came to an +end; at outlawry, the Revolution began. The recurrence of Revolutions are +the logical consequences of _coups d'état_. The deposition having been +voted, a man who later on turned traitor, Quentin Bauchart, exclaimed, +"Let us all sign it." All signed it. Odilon Barrot came in and signed it. +Antony Thouret came in and signed it. Suddenly M. Piscatory announced +that the Mayor was refusing to allow Representatives who had arrived to +enter the Hall. "Order him to do so by decree," said Berryer. And the +decree was voted. Thanks to this decree, MM. Favreau and Monet entered; +they came from the Legislative Palace; they related the cowardice of +Dupin. M. Dahirel, one of the leaders of the Right, was exasperated, and +said, "We have received bayonet thrusts." Voices were raised, "Let us +summon the Tenth Legion. Let the call to arms be beaten. Lauriston +hesitates. Let us order him to protect the Assembly." "Let us order him +by decree," said Berryer. This decree was drawn up, which, however, did +not prevent Lauriston from refusing. Another decree, again proposed by +Berryer, pronounced any one who had outraged the Parliamentary +inviolability to be a traitor, and ordered the immediate release of those +Representatives who had been wrongfully made prisoners. All this was +voted at once without debate, in a sort of great unanimous confusion, and +in the midst of a storm of fierce conversations. From time to time +Berryer imposed silence. Then the angry outcries broke forth again. "The +_coup d'état_ will not dare to come here." "We are masters here." "We are +at home." "It would be impossible to attack us here." "These wretches +will not dare to do so." If the uproar had been less violent, the +Representatives might have heard through the open windows close at hand, +the sound of soldiers loading their guns. + +A regiment of Chasseurs of Vincennes had just entered silently into the +garden of the Mairie, and, while waiting for orders, were loading their +guns. + +Little by little the sitting, at first disorderly and tumultuous, had +assumed an ordinary aspect. The uproar had relapsed into a murmur. The +voice of the usher, crying "Silence, gentlemen," had succeeded in +overcoming the hubbub. Every moment fresh Representatives came in, and +hastened to sign the decree of deposition at the "bureau." As there was +a great crowd round the "bureau" waiting to sign, a dozen loose sheets +of paper to which the Representatives affixed their signatures were +circulated in the great Hall and the two adjoining rooms. + +The first to sign the decree of deposition was M. Dufaure, the last was +M. Betting de Lancastel. Of the two Presidents, one, M. Benoist d'Azy, +was addressing the Assembly; the other, M. Vitet, pale, but calm and +resolute, distributed instructions and orders. M. Benoist d'Azy +maintained a decorous countenance, but a certain hesitation in his +speech revealed an inner agitation. Divisions, even in the Right, had not +disappeared at this critical moment. A Legitimist member was overheard +saying in a low voice, while speaking of one of the Vice-Presidents, +"This great Vitet looks like a whited sepulchre." Vitet was an Orleanist. + +Given this adventurer with whom they had to deal, this Louis Bonaparte, +capable of everything, the hour and the man being wrapt in mystery, some +Legitimist personages of a candid mind were seriously but comically +frightened. The Marquis of ----, who acted the fly on the coach-wheel +to the Right, went hither and thither, harangued, shouted, declaimed, +remonstrated, proclaimed, and trembled. Another, M. A---- N----, +perspiring, red-faced, out of breath, rushed about distractedly. "Where +is the guard? How many men are there? Who commands them? The officer! +send me the officer! Long live the Republic! National Guard, stand firm! +Long live the Republic!" All the Right shouted this cry. "You wish then +to kill it," said Esquiros. Some of them were dejected; Bourbousson +maintained the silence of a vanquished placeman. Another, the Viscount of +----, a relative of the Duke of Escars, was so alarmed that every moment +he adjourned to a corner of the courtyard. In the crowd which filled the +courtyard there was a _gamin_ of Paris, a child of Athens, who has since +become am elegant and charming poet, Albert Glatigny. Albert Glatigny +cried out to this frightened Viscount, "Hulloa there! Do you think that +_coups d'état_ are extinguished in the way Gulliver put out the fire?" + +Oh, Laughter, how gloomy you are when attended with Tragedy! + +The Orleanists were quieter, and maintained a more becoming attitude. +This arose from the fact that they ran greater danger. + +Pascal Duprat replaced at the top of the decrees the words, "République +Française," which had been forgotten. + +From time to time men who were not speaking on the subject of the moment +mentioned this strange word, "Dupin," open which there ensued shouts of +derision and bursts of laughter. "Utter the name of that coward no more," +cried Antony Thouret. + +There were motions and counter-motions; it was a continual uproar +interrupted by deep and solemn silences. Alarmist phrases circulated from +group to group. "We are in a blind alley." "We are caught here as in a +rat trap;" and then on each motion voices were raised: "That is it!" "It +is right!" "It is settled!" They agreed in a low voice upon a rendezvous +at No. 19, Rue de la Chaussée-d'Antin, in case they should be expelled +from the Mairie. M. Bixio carried off the decree of deposition to get it +printed. Esquiros, Marc Dufraisse, Pascal Duprat, Rigal, Lherbette, +Chamiot, Latrade, Colfavru, Antony Thouret, threw in here and there +energetic words of advice. M. Dufaure, resolute and indignant, protested +with authority. M. Odilon Barrot, motionless in a corner, maintained the +silence of stupefied silliness. + +MM. Passy and de Tocqueville, in the midst of the groups, described that +when they were Ministers they had always entertained an uneasy suspicion +of a _coup d'état_, and that they clearly perceived this fixed idea in +the brain of Louis Bonaparte. M. de Tocqueville added, "I said to myself +every night, 'I lie down to sleep a Minister; what if I should awake a +prisoner?'" Some of those men who were termed "men of order," muttered +while signing the degree of deposition, "Beware of the Red Republic!" and +seemed to entertain an equal fear of failure and of success. M. de +Vatimesnil pressed the hands of the men of the Left, and thanked them for +their presence. "You make us popular," said he. And Antony Thouret +answered him, "I know neither Right nor Left to-day; I only see the +Assembly." + +The younger of the two shorthand writers handed their written sheets +to the Representatives who had spoken, and, asked them to revise them at +once, saying, "We shall not have the time to read them over." Some +Representatives went down into the street, and showed the people copies +of the decree of deposition, signed by the members of the "bureau." One +of the populace took one of these copies, and cried out, "Citizens! the +ink is still quite wet! Long live the Republic!" + +The Deputy-Mayor stood at the door of the Hall; the staircase was crowded +with National Guards and spectators. In the Assembly several had +penetrated into the Hall, and amongst them the ex-Constituent Beslay, a +man of uncommon courage. It was at first wished to turn them out, but +they resisted, crying, "This is our business. You are the Assembly, but +we are the People." "They are right," said M. Berryer. + +M. de Falloux, accompanied by M. de Kéranflech, came up the Constituent +Beslay, and leaned by his side on the stove, saying to him, "Good-day, +colleague;" and reminded him that they both had formed part of the +Committee of the National Workshops, and that they had together visited +the Workmen at the Parc Monceaux. The Right felt themselves falling; they +became affectionate towards Republicans. The Republic is called +To-morrow. + +Each spoke from his place; this member upon a bench, that member on a +chair, a few on the tables. All contradictory opinions burst forth at +once. In a corner some ex-leaders of "order" were scared at the possible +triumph of the "Reds." In another the men of the Right surrounded the men +of the Left, and asked them: "Are not the faubourgs going to rise?" + +The narrator has but one duty, to tell his story; he relates everything, +the bad as well as the good. Whatever may have taken place, however, and +notwithstanding all these details of which it was our duty to speak, +apart from the exceptions which we had mentioned, the attitude of the +men of the Right who composed the large majority of this meeting was in +many respects honorable and worthy. Some of them, as we have just +mentioned, even prided themselves upon their resolution and their energy, +almost as though they had wished to rival the members of the Left. + +We may here remark--for in the course of this narrative we shall more +than once see the gaze of some members of the Right turned towards the +people, and in this no mistake should be made--that these monarchical men +who talked of popular insurrection and who invoked the faubourgs were a +minority in the majority,--an imperceptible minority. Antony Thouret +proposed to those who were leaders there to go in a body through the +working-class neighborhoods with the decree of deposition in their +hands. Brought to bay, they refused. They declared that they would only +protect themselves by organized powers, not by the people. It is a +strange thing to say, but it must be noted, that with their habits of +political shortsightedness, the popular armed resistance, even in the +name of the Law, seemed sedition to them. The utmost appearance of +revolution which they could endure was a regiment of the National Guard, +with their drums at their head; they shrank from the barricade; Right in +a blouse was no longer Right, Truth armed with a pike was no longer +Truth, Law unpaving a street gave them the impression of a Fury. In the +main, however, and taking them for what they were, and considering their +position as politicians, these members of the Right were well-advised. +What would they have done with the people? And what would the people have +done with them? How would they have proceeded to set fire to the masses? +Imagine Falloux as a tribune, fanning the Faubourg St. Antoine into a +flame! + +Alas! in the midst of this dense gloom, in these fatal complications of +circumstances by which the _coup d'état_ profited so odiously and so +perfidiously, in that mighty misunderstanding which comprised the whole +situation, for kindling the revolutionary spark in the heart of the +people, Danton himself would not have sufficed. + +The _coup d'état_ entered into this meeting impudently, with its +convict's cap on its head. It possessed an infamous assurance there, as +well as everywhere else. There were in this majority three hundred +Representatives of the People. Louis Napoleon sent a sergeant to drive +them away. The Assembly, having resisted the sergeant, he sent an +officer, the temporary commander of the sixth battalion of the Chasseurs +de Vincennes. This officer, young, fair-haired, a scoffer, half laughing, +half threatening, pointed with his finger to the stairs filled with +bayonets, and defied the Assembly. "Who is this young spark?" asked a +member of the Right. A National Guard who was there said, "Throw him out +of the window!" "Kick him downstairs!" cried one of the people. + +This Assembly, grievous as were its offences against the principles of +the Revolution--and with these wrongs Democracy alone had the right to +reproach it--this Assembly, I repeat, was the National Assembly, that is +to say, the Republic incarnate, the living Universal Suffrage, the +Majesty of the Nation, upright and visible. Louis Bonaparte assassinated +this Assembly, and moreover insulted it. A slap on the face is worse than +a poniard thrust. + +The gardens of the neighborhood occupied by the troops were full of +broken bottles. They had plied the soldiers with drink. They obeyed the +"epaulettes" unconditionally, and according to the expression of +eyewitnesses, appeared "dazed-drunk." The Representatives appealed to +them, and said to them, "It is a crime!" They answered, "We are not aware +of it." + +One soldier was heard to say to another, "What have you done with your +ten francs of this morning?" + +The sergeants hustled the officers. With the exception of the commander, +who probably earned his cross of honor, the officers were respectful, the +sergeants brutal. + +A lieutenant showing signs of flinching, a sergeant cried out to him, +"You are not the only one who commands here! Come, therefore, march!" + +M. de Vatimesnil asked a soldier, "Will you dare to arrest us--us, the +Representatives of the People?" + +"Assuredly!" said the soldier. + +Several soldiers hearing some Representatives say that they had eaten +nothing since the morning, offered them their ration bread. Some +Representatives accepted. M. de Tocqueville, who was unwell, and who was +noticed to be pale and leaning on the sill of a window, received from a +soldier a piece of this bread, which he shared with M. Chambolle. + +Two Commissaries of Police appeared in "full dress," in black coats +girded with their sash-girdles and their black corded hats. One was an +old man, the other a young man. The first was named Lemoine-Tacherat, and +not Bacherel, as has been wrongly printed: the second was named Barlet. +These names should be noted. The unprecedented assurance of this Barlet +was remarked. Nothing was wanting in him,--cynical speech, provoking +gesture, sardonic intonation. It was with an inexpressible air of +insolence that Barlet, when summoning the meeting to dissolve itself, +added, "Rightly or Wrongly." They murmured on the benches of the +Assembly, "Who is this scoundrel?" The other, compared to him, seemed +moderate and inoffensive. Emile Péan exclaimed, "The old man is simply +working in his profession, but the young man is working out his +promotion." + +Before this Tacherat and this Barlet entered, before the butts of the +muskets had been heard ringing on the stones of the staircase, this +Assembly had talked of resistance. Of what kind of resistance? We have +just stated. The majority could only listen to a regular organized +resistance, a military resistance in uniform and in epaulets. Such a +resistance was easy to decree, but it was difficult to organize. The +Generals on whom the Assembly were accustomed to rely having been +arrested, there only remained two possible Generals, Oudinot and +Lauriston. General Marquis de Lauriston, ex-peer of France, and at the +same time Colonel of the Tenth Legion and Representative of the People, +drew a distinction between his duty as Representative and his duty as +Colonel. Summoned by some of his friends of the Right to beat to arms and +call together the Tenth Legion, he answered, "As Representative of the +People I ought to indict the Executive Power, but as Colonel I ought to +obey it." It appears that he obstinately shut himself up in this singular +reasoning, and that it was impossible to draw him out of it. + +"How stupid he is!" said Piscatory. + +"How sharp he is!" said Falloux. + +The first officer of the National Guard who appeared in uniform, seemed +to be recognized by two members of the Right, who said, "It is M. de +Perigord!" They made a mistake, it was M. Guilbot, major of the third +battalion of the Tenth Legion. He declared that he was ready to march on +the first order from his Colonel, General Lauriston. General Lauriston +went down into the courtyard, and came up a moment afterwards, saying, +"They do not recognize my authority. I have just resigned," Moreover, the +name of Lauriston was not familiar to the soldiers. Oudinot was better +known in the army. But how? + +At the moment when the name of Oudinot was pronounced, a shudder ran +through this meeting, almost exclusively composed of members of the +Right. In fact at this critical time, at this fatal name of Oudinot, +reflections crowded upon each other in every mind. + +What was the _coup d'état_? + +It was the "Roman expedition at home." Which was undertaken against whom? +Against those who had undertaken the "Roman expedition abroad." The +National Assembly of France, dissolved by violence, could find only one +single General to defend it in its dying hour. And whom? Precisely he, +who in the name of the National Assembly of France had dissolved by +violence the National Assembly of Rome. What power could Oudinot, the +strangler of a Republic, possess to save a Republic? Was it not evident +that his own soldiers would answer him, "What do you want with us? That +which we have done at Rome we now do at Paris." What a story is this +story of treason! The French Legislature had written the first chapter +with the blood of the Roman Constituent Assembly: Providence wrote the +second chapter with the blood of the French Legislature, Louis Bonaparte +holding the pen. + +In 1849, Louis Bonaparte had assassinated the sovereignty of the People +in the person of its Roman Representatives; in 1851 he assassinated it in +the person of its French Representatives. It was logical, and although it +was infamous, it was just. The Legislative Assembly bore at the same time +the weight of two crimes; it was the accomplice of the first, the victim +of the second. All these men of the majority felt this, and were humbled. +Or rather it was the same crime, the crime of the Second of July, 1849, +ever erect, ever alive, which had only changed its name, which now called +itself the Second of December, and which, the offspring of this Assembly, +stabbed it to the heart. Nearly all crimes are parricidal. On a certain +day they recoil upon those who have committed them, and slay them. + +At this moment, so full of anxiety, M. de Falloux must have glanced round +for M. de Montalembert. M. de Montalembert was at the Elysée. + +When Tamisier rose and pronounced this terrifying word, "The Roman +Question?" distracted M. de Dampierre shouted to him, "Silence! You kill +us!" + +It was not Tamisier who was killing them--it was Oudinot. + +M. de Dampierre did not perceive that he cried "Silence!" to history. + +And then without even reckoning the fatal remembrance which at such a +moment would have crushed a man endowed in the highest degree with great +military qualities, General Oudinot, in other respects an excellent +officer, and a worthy son of his brave father, possessed none of those +striking qualities which in the critical hour of revolution stir the +soldier and carry with them the people. At that instant to win back an +army of a hundred thousand men, to withdraw the balls from the cannons' +mouths, to find beneath the wine poured out to the Praetorians the true +soul of the French soldier half drowned and nearly dead, to tear the flag +from the _coup d'état_ and restore it to the Law, to surround the +Assembly with thunders and lightnings, it would have needed one of those +men who exist no longer; it would have needed the firm hand, the calm +oratory, the cold and searching glance of Desaix, that French Phocion; it +would have needed the huge shoulders, the commanding stature, the +thundering voice, the abusive, insolent, cynical, gay, and sublime +eloquence of Kléber, that military Mirabeau. Desaix, the countenance of a +just man, or Kléber, the face of the lion! General Oudinot, little, +awkward, embarrassed, with an indecisive and dull gaze, red cheeks, low +forehead, with grizzled and lank hair, polite tone of voice, a humble +smile, without oratory, without gesture, without power, brave before the +enemy, timid before the first comer, having assuredly the bearing of a +soldier, but having also the bearing of a priest; he caused the mind to +hesitate between the sword and the taper; he had in his eyes a sort of +"Amen!" + +He had the best intentions in the world, but what could he do? Alone, +without prestige, without true glory, without personal authority, and +dragging Rome after him! He felt all this himself, and he was as it were +paralyzed by it. As soon as they had appointed him he got upon a chair +and thanked the Assembly, doubtless with a firm heart, but with +hesitating speech. When the little fair-haired officer dared to look him +in the face and insult him, he, holding the sword of the people, he, +General of the sovereign Assembly, he only knew how to stammer out such +wretched phrases as these, "I have just declared to you that we are +unable, 'unless compelled and constrained,' to obey the order which +prohibits us from remaining assembled together." He spoke of obeying, he +who ought to command. They had girded him with his scarf, and it seemed +to make him uncomfortable. He inclined his head alternately first to one +shoulder and then to the other; he held his hat and cane in his hand, he +had a benevolent aspect. A Legitimist member muttered in a low voice to +his neighbor, "One might imagine he was a bailiff speechifying at a +wedding." And his neighbor, a Legitimist also, replied, "He reminds me of +the Duc d'Angoulême." + +What a contrast to Tamisier! Tamisier, frank, earnest confident, although +a mere Captain of Artillery, had the bearing of a General. Had Tamisier, +with his grave and gentle countenance, high intelligence, and dauntless +heart, a species of soldier-philosopher, been better known, he could have +rendered decisive services. No one can tell what would have happened if +Providence had given the soul of Tamisier to Oudinot, or the epaulets of +Oudinot to Tamisier. + +In this bloody enterprise of December we failed to find a General's +uniform becomingly worn. A book might be written on the part which gold +lace plays in the destiny of nations. + +Tamisier, appointed Chief of the Staff some instants before the invasion +of the hall, placed himself at the disposal of the Assembly. He was +standing on a table. He spoke with a resonant and hearty voice. The most +downcast became reassured by this modest, honest, devoted attitude. +Suddenly he drew himself up, and looking all that Royalist majority in +the face, exclaimed, "Yes, I accept the charge you offer me. I accept the +charge of defending the Republic! Nothing but the Republic! Do you +perfectly understand?" + +A unanimous shout answered him. "Long live the Republic!" + +"Ah!" said Beslay, "the voice comes back to you as on the Fourth of May." + +"Long live the Republic! Nothing but the Republic!" repeated the men of +the Right, Oudinot louder than the others. All arms were stretched +towards Tamisier, every hand pressed his. Oh Danger! irresistible +converter! In his last hour the Atheist invokes God, and the Royalist the +Republic. They cling to that which they have repudiated. + +The official historians of the _coup d'état_ have stated that at the +beginning of the sitting two Representatives had been sent by the +Assembly to the Ministry of the Interior to "negotiate." What is certain +is that these two Representatives had no authority. They presented +themselves, not on behalf of the Assembly, but in their own name. They +offered themselves as intermediaries to procure a peaceable termination +of the catastrophe which had begun. With an honesty which bordered on +simplicity they summoned Morny to yield himself a prisoner, and to return +within the law, declaring that in case of refusal the Assembly would do +its duty, and call the people to the defence of the Constitution and of +the Republic. Marny answered them with a smile, accompanied by these +plain words, "If you appeal to arms, and if I find any Representatives on +the barricades, I will have them all shot to the last man." + +The meeting in the Tenth Arrondissement yielded to force. President Vitet +insisted that they should forcibly arrest him. A police agent who seized +him turned pale and trembled. In certain circumstances, to lay violent +hands upon a man is to lay them upon Right, and those who dare to do so +are made to tremble by outraged Law. The exodus from the Mairie was long +and beset with obstructions. Half-an-hour elapsed while the soldiers were +forming a line, and while the Commissaries of Police, all the time +appearing solely occupied with the care of driving back the crowd in the +street, sent for orders to the Ministry of the Interior. During that time +some of the Representatives, seated round a table in the great Hall, +wrote to their families, to their wives, to their friends. They snatched +up the last leaves of paper; the pens failed; M. de Luynes wrote to his +wife a letter in pencil. There were no wafers; they were forced to send +the letters unsealed; some soldiers offered to post them. M. Chambolle's +son, who had accompanied his father thus far, undertook to take the +letters addressed to Mesdames de Luynes, de Lasteyrie, and Duvergier de +Hauranne. General Forey--the same who had refused a battalion to the +President of the Constituent Assembly, Marrast, who had promoted him from +a colonel to a general--General Forey, in the centre of the courtyard of +the Mairie, his face inflamed, half drunk, coming out, they said, from +breakfast at the Elysée, superintended the outrage. A member, whose name +we regret we do not know, dipped his boot into the gutter and wiped it +along the gold stripe of the regimental trousers of General Forey. +Representative Lherbette came up to General Forey, and said to him, +"General, you are a coward." Then turning to his colleagues, he +exclaimed, "Do you hear? I tell this general that he is a coward." +General Forey did not stir. He kept the mud on his uniform and the +epithet on his cheek. + +The meeting did not call the people to arms. We have just explained that +it was not strong enough to do so; nevertheless, at the last moment, a +member of the Left, Latrade, made a fresh effort. He took M. Berryer +aside, and said to him, "Our official measures of resistance have come to +an end; let us not allow ourselves now to be arrested. Let us disperse +throughout the streets crying, 'To arms!'" M. Berryer consulted a few +seconds on the matter with the Vice-President, M. Benoist d'Azy, who +refused. + +The Deputy Mayor, hat in hand, reconducted the members of the Assembly as +far as the gate of the Mairie. As soon as they appeared in the courtyard +ready to go out between two lines of soldiers, the post of National +Guards presented arms, acid shouted, "Long live the Assembly! Long live +the Representatives of the People!" The National Guards were at once +disarmed, almost forcibly, by the Chasseurs de Vincennes. + +There was a wine-shop opposite the Mairie. As soon as the great folding +gates of the Mairie opened, and the Assembly appeared in the street, led +by General Forey on horseback, and having at its head the Vice-President +Vitet, grasped by the necktie by a police agent, a few men in white +blouses, gathered at the windows of this wine-shop, clapped their hands +and shouted, "Well done! down with the 'twenty-five francs!'"[7] + +They set forth. + +The Chasseurs de Vincennes, who marched in a double line on each side of +the prisoners, cast at them looks of hatred. General Oudinot said in a +whisper, "These little infantry soldiers are terrible fellows. At the +siege of Rome they flung themselves at the assault like madmen. These +lads are very devils." The officers avoided the gaze of the +Representatives. On leaving the Mairie, M. de Coislin passed by an +officer and exclaimed, "What a disgrace for the uniform!" the officer +retaliated with angry words, and incensed M. de Coislin. Shortly +afterwards, during the march, he came up to M. de Coislin and said to +him, "Sir, I have reflected; it is I who am wrong." + +They proceeded on the way slowly. At a few steps from the Mairie the +precession met M. Chegaray. The Representatives called out to him, +"Come!" He answered, while making an expressive gesture with his hands +and his shoulders, "Oh! I dare say! As they have not arrested me...." and +he feigned as though he would pass on. He was ashamed, however, and went +with them. His name is found in the list of the roll-call at the +barracks. + +A little further on M. de Lespérut passed them. They cried out to him. +"Lespérut! Lespérut!" "I am with you," answered he. The soldiers pushed +him back. He seized the butt-ends of the muskets, and forced his way into +the column. + +In one of the streets through which they went a window was opened. +Suddenly a woman appeared with a child; the child, recognizing its father +amongst the prisoners, held out its arms and called to him, the mother +wept in the background. + +It was at first intended to take the Assembly in a body straight to +Mazas, but this was counter-ordered by the Ministry of the Interior. It +was feared that this long walk, in broad daylight, through populous and +easily aroused streets, might prove dangerous; the D'Orsay barracks were +close at hand. They selected these as a temporary prison. + +One of the commanders insolently pointed out with his sword the arrested +Representatives to the passers-by, and said in a fond voice, "These are +the Whites, we have orders to spare them. Now it is the turn of the Red +Representatives, let them look out for themselves!" + +Wherever the procession passed, the populace shouted from the pavements, +at the doors, at the windows, "Long live the National Assembly!" When +they perceived a few Representatives of the Left sprinkled in the column +they cried, "Vive la République!" "Vive la Constitution!" and "Vive la +Loi!" The shops were not shut, and passers-by went to and fro. Some +people said, "Wait until the evening; this is not the end of it." + +A staff-officer on horseback, in full uniform, met the procession, +recognized M. de Vatimesnil, and came up to greet him. In the Rue de +Beaune, as they passed the house of the _Démocratic Pacifique_ a group +shouted, "Down with the Traitor of the Elysée!" + +On the Quai d'Orsay, the shouting was redoubled. There was a great crowd +there. On either side of the quay a file of soldiers of the Line, elbow +to elbow, kept back the spectators. In the middle of the space left +vacant, the members of the Assembly slowly advanced between a double file +of soldiers, the one stationary, which threatened the people, the other +on the march, which threatened tire Representatives. + +Serious reflections arise in the presence of all the details of the great +crime which this book is designed to relate. Every honest man who sets +himself face to face with the _coup d'état_ of Louis Bonaparte hears +nothing but a tumult of indignant thoughts in his conscience. Whoever +reads our work to the end will assuredly not credit us with the intention +of extenuating this monstrous deed. Nevertheless, as the deep logic of +actions ought always to be italicized by the historian, it is necessary +here to call to mind and to repeat, even to satiety, that apart from the +members of the Left, of whom a very small number were present, and whom +we have mentioned by name, the three hundred Representatives who thus +defiled before the eyes of the crowd, constituted the old Royalists and +reactionary majority of the Assembly. If it were possible to forget, +that--whatever were their errors, whatever were their faults, and, we +venture to add, whatever were their illusions--these persons thus treated +were the Representatives of the leading civilized nation, were sovereign +Legislators, senators of the people, inviolable Deputies, and sacred by +the great law of Democracy, and that in the same manner as each man bears +in himself something of the mind of God, so each of these nominees of +universal suffrage bore something of the soul of France; if it were +possible to forget this for a moment, it assuredly would be a spectacle +perhaps more laughable than sad, and certainly more philosophical than +lamentable to see, on this December morning, after so many laws of +repression, after so many exceptional measures, after so many votes of +censure and of the state of siege, after so many refusals of amnesty, +after so many affronts to equity, to justice, to the human conscience, to +the public good faith, to right, after so many favors to the police, +after so many smiles bestowed on absolution, the entire Party of Order +arrested in a body and taken to prison by the _sergents de ville_! + +One day, or rather, one night, the moment having come to save society, +the _coup d'état_ abruptly seizes the Demagogues, and finds that it holds +by the collar, Whom? the Royalists. + +They arrived at the barracks, formerly the barracks of the Royal Guard, +and on the pediment of which is a carved escutcheon, whereon are still +visible the traces of the three _fleurs de lis_ effaced in 1830. They +halted. The door was opened. "Why!" said M. de Broglie, "here we are." + +At that moment a great placard posted on the barrack wall by the side of +the door bore in big letters-- + + "REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION." + +It was the advertisement of a pamphlet, published two or three days +previous to the _coup d'état_, without any author's name, demanding the +Empire, and was attributed to the President of the Republic. + +The Representatives entered and the doors were closed upon them. The +shouts ceased; the crowd, which occasionally has its meditative moments, +remained for some time on the quay, dumb, motionless, gazing alternately +at the closed gate of the Barracks, and at the silent front of the +Palace of the Assembly, dimly visible in the misty December twilight, +two hundred paces distant. + +The two Commissaries of Police went to report their "success" to M. de +Morny. M. de Morny said, "Now the struggle has begun. Excellent! These +are the last Representatives who will be made prisoners." + + +[5] The Gerontes, or Gerontia, were the Elders of Sparta, who constituted +the Senate. + +[6] The "bureau" of the Assembly consists of the President, for the time +being of the Assembly, assisted by six secretaries, whose duties mainly +lie in deciding in what sense the Deputies have voted. The "bureau" of +the Assembly should not be confounded with the fifteen "bureaux" of the +Deputies, which answer to our Select Committees of the House of Commons, +and are presided over by self-chosen Presidents. + +[7] An allusion to the twenty-five francs a day officially payable to the +members of the Assembly. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +LOUIS BONAPARTE'S SIDE-FACE + +The minds of all these men, we repeat, were very differently affected. + +The extreme Legitimist party, which represents the White of the flag, was +not, it must be said, highly exasperated at the _coup d'état_. Upon many +faces might be read the saying of M. de Falloux: "I am so satisfied that +I have considerable difficulty in affecting to be only resigned." The +ingenuous spirits cast down their eyes--that is becoming to purity; more +daring spirits raised their heads. They felt an impartial indignation +which permitted a little admiration. How cleverly these generals have +been ensnared! The Country assassinated,--it is a horrible crime; but +they were enraptured at the jugglery blended with the parricide. One of +the leaders said, with a sigh of envy and regret, "We do not possess a +man of such talent." Another muttered, "It is Order." And he added, +"Alas!" Another exclaimed, "It is a frightful crime, but well carried +out." Some wavered, attracted on one side by the lawful power which +rested in the Assembly, and on the other by the abomination which was in +Bonaparte; honest souls poised between duty and infamy. There was a M. +Thomines Desmazures who went as far as the door of the Great Hall of the +Mairie, halted, looked inside, looked outside, and did not enter. It +would be unjust not to record that others amongst the pure Royalists, and +above all M. de Vatimesnil, had the sincere intonation and the upright +wrath of justice. + +Be it as it may, the Legitimist party, taken as a whole, entertained no +horror of the _coup d'état_. It feared nothing. In truth, should the +Royalists fear Louis Bonaparte? Why? + +Indifference does not inspire fear. Louis Bonaparte was indifferent. He +only recognized one thing, his object. To break through the road in order +to reach it, that was quite plain; the rest might be left alone. There +lay the whole of his policy, to crush the Republicans, to disdain the +Royalists. + +Louis Bonaparte had no passion. He who writes these lines, talking one +day about Louis Bonaparte with the ex-king of Westphalia, remarked, "In +him the Dutchman tones down the Corsican."--"If there be any Corsican," +answered Jérome. + +Louis Bonaparte has never been other than a man who has lain wait for +fortune, a spy trying to dupe God. He had that livid dreaminess of the +gambler who cheats. Cheating admits audacity, but excludes anger. In his +prison at Ham he only read one book, "The Prince." He belonged to no +family, as he could hesitate between Bonaparte and Verhuell; he had no +country, as he could hesitate between France and Holland. + +This Napoleon had taken St. Helena in good part. He admired England. +Resentment! To what purpose? For him on earth there only existed his +interests. He pardoned, because he speculated; he forgot everything, +because he calculated upon everything. What did his uncle matter to him? +He did not serve him; he made use of him. He rested his shabby enterprise +upon Austerlitz. He stuffed the eagle. + +Malice is an unproductive outlay. Louis Bonaparte only possessed as much +memory as is useful. Hudson Lowe did not prevent him from smiling upon +Englishmen; the Marquis of Montchenu did not prevent him from smiling +upon the Royalists. + +He was a man of earnest politics, of good company, wrapped in his own +scheming, not impulsive, doing nothing beyond that which he intended, +without abruptness, without hard words, discreet, accurate, learned, +talking smoothly of a necessary massacre, a slaughterer, because it +served his purpose. + +All this, we repeat, without passion, and without anger. Louis Bonaparte +was one of those men who had been influenced by the profound iciness of +Machiavelli. + +It was through being a man of that nature that he succeeded in submerging +the name of Napoleon by superadding December upon Brumaire. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +THE D'ORSAY BARRACKS + +It was half-past three. + +The arrested Representatives entered into the courtyard of the barracks, +a huge parallelogram closed in and commanded by high walls. These walls +are pierced by three tiers of windows, and posses that dismal appearance +which distinguishes barracks, schools, and prisons. + +This courtyard is entered by an arched portal which extends through all +the breadth of the front of the main building. This archway, under which +the guard-house has been made, is close on the side of the quay by large +solid folding doors, and on one side of the courtyard by an iron grated +gateway. They closed the door and the grated gateway upon the +Representatives. They "set them at liberty" in the bolted and guarded +courtyard. + +"Let them stroll about," said an officer. + +The air was cold, the sky was gray. Some soldiers, in their shirt-sleeves +and wearing foraging caps, busy with fatigue duty, went hither and +thither amongst the prisoners. + +First M. Grimault and then M. Antony Thouret instituted a roll-call. The +Representatives made a ring around them. Lherbette said laughingly, "This +just suits the barracks. We look like sergeant-majors who have come to +report." They called over the seven hundred and fifty names of the +Representatives. To each name they answered "Absent" or "Present," and +the secretary jotted down with a pencil those who were present. When the +name of Morny was reached, some one cried out, "At Clichy!" At the name +of Persigny, the same voice exclaimed, "At Poissy!" The inventor of these +two jokes, which by the way are very poor, has since allied himself to +the Second of December, to Morny and Persigny; he has covered his +cowardice with the embroidery of a senator. + +The roll-call verified the presence of two hundred and twenty +Representatives, whose names were as follows:-- + +Le Duc de Luynes, d'Andigné de la Chasse, Antony Thouret, Arène, Audren +de Kerdrel (Ille-et-Vilaine), Audren de Kerdrel (Morbihan), de Balzac, +Barchou de Penhoen, Barillon, O. Barrot, Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire, +Quentin Bauchard, G. deBeaumont, Béchard, Behaghel, de Belèvze, +Benoist-d'Azy, de Benardy, Berryer, de Berset, Basse, Betting de +Lancastel, Blavoyer, Bocher, Boissié, de Botmillan, Bouvatier, le Duc de +Broglie, de la Broise, de Bryas, Buffet, Caillet du Tertre, Callet, Camus +de la Guibourgère, Canet, de Castillon, de Cazalis, Admiral Cécile, +Chambolle, Chamiot, Champannet, Chaper, Chapot, de Charencey, Chasseigne, +Chauvin, Chazant, de Chazelles, Chegaray, Comte de Coislin, Colfavru, +Colas de la Motte, Coquerel, de Corcelles, Cordier, Corne, Creton, +Daguilhon, Pujol, Dahirel, Vicomte Dambray, Marquis de Dampierre, de +Brotonne, de Fontaine, de Fontenay, Vicomte de Sèze, Desmars, de la +Devansaye, Didier, Dieuleveult, Druet-Desvaux, A. Dubois, Dufaure, +Dufougerais, Dufour, Dufournel, Marc Dufraisse, P. Duprat, Duvergier de +Hauranne, Étienne, Vicomte de Falloux, de Faultrier, Faure (Rhône), +Favreau, Ferre, des Ferrès, Vicomte de Flavigny, de Foblant, Frichon, +Gain, Gasselin, Germonière, de Gicquiau, de Goulard, de Gouyon, de +Grandville, de Grasset, Grelier-Dufougerais, Grévy, Grillon, Grimault, +Gros, Guislier de la Tousche, Harscouët de Saint-Georges, Marquis +d'Havrincourt, Hennequin, d'Hespel, Houel, Hovyn-Tranchère, Huot, Joret, +Jouannet, de Kéranflech, de Kératry, de Kéridec, de Kermazec, de +Kersauron Penendreff, Lèo de Laborde, Laboulie, Lacave, Oscar Lafayette, +Lafosse, Lagarde, Lagrenée Laimé, Lainé, Comte Lanjuinais, Larabit, de +Larcy, J. de Lasteyrie, Latrade, Laureau, Laurenceau, General Marquis de +Lauriston, de Laussat, Lefebvre de Grosriez, Legrand, Legros-Desvaux, +Lemaire, Emile Leroux, Lespérut, de l'Espinoy, Lherbette, de Linsaval, de +Luppé, Maréchal, Martin de Villers, Maze-Saunay, Mèze, Arnauld de Melun, +Anatole de Melun, Merentié, Michaud, Mispoulet, Monet, Duc de Montebello, +de Montigny, Moulin, Murat-Sistrière, Alfred Nettement, d'Olivier, +General Oudinot, Duc de Reggio, Paillat, Duparc, Passy, Emile Péan, +Pécoul, Casimir Perier, Pidoux, Pigeon, de Piogé, Piscatory, Proa, +Prudhomme, Querhoent, Randoing, Raudot, Raulin, de Ravinel, de Rémusat, +Renaud, Rezal, Comte de Rességuier, Henri de Riancey, Rigal, de la +Rochette, Rodat, de Roquefeuille des Rotours de Chaulieu, Rouget-Lafosse, +Rouillé, Roux-Carbonel, Saint-Beuve, de Saint-Germain, General Comte de +Saint-Priest, Salmon (Meuse), Marquis Sauvaire-Barthélemy, de Serré, +Comte de Sesmaisons, Simonot, de Staplande, de Surville, Marquis de +Talhouet, Talon, Tamisier, Thuriot de la Rosière, de Tinguy, Comte de +Tocqueville, de la Tourette, Comte de Tréveneue, Mortimer-Ternaux, de +Vatimesnil, Baron de Vandoeuvre, Vernhette (Hérault), Vernhette +(Aveyron), Vézin, Vitet, Comte de Vogué. + +After this list of names may be read as follows in the shorthand report:-- + +"The roll-call having been completed, General Oudinot asked the +Representatives who were scattered about in the courtyard to come round +him, and made the following announcement to them,-- + +"'The Captain-Adjutant-Major, who has remained here to command the +barracks, has just received an order to have rooms prepared for us, where +we are to withdraw, as we are considered to be in custody. (Hear! hear!) +Do you wish me to bring the Adjutant-Major here! (No, no; it is useless.) +I will tell him that he had better execute his orders.' (Yes, yes, that +is right.)" + +The Representatives remained "penned" and "strolling" about in this yard +for two long hours. They walked about arm in arm. They walked quickly, so +as to warm themselves. The men of the Right said to the men of the Left, +"Ah! if you had only voted the proposals of the Questors!" They also +exclaimed: "Well, how about the _invisible sentry_!"[8] And they laughed. +Then Marc Dufraisse answered, "Deputies of the People! deliberate in +peace!" It was then the turn of the Left to laugh. Nevertheless, there +was no bitterness. The cordiality of a common misfortune reigned amongst +them. + +They questioned his ex-ministers about Louis Bonaparte. They asked +Admiral Cécile, "Now, really, what does this mean?" The Admiral answered +by this definition: "It is a small matter." M. Vézin added, "He wishes +History to call him 'Sire.'" "Poor Sire, then," said M. de Camas de la +Guibourgère. M. Odilon Barrot exclaimed, "What a fatality, that we should +have been condemned to employ this man!" + +This said, these heights attained, political philosophy was exhausted, +and they ceased talking. + +On the right, by the side of the door, there was a canteen elevated a few +steps above the courtyard. "Let us promote this canteen to the dignity of +a refreshment room," said the ex-ambassador to China, M. de Lagrenée. +They entered, some went up to the stove, others asked for a basin of +soup. MM. Favreau, Piscatory, Larabit, and Vatimesnil took refuge in a +corner. In the opposite corner drunken soldiers chatted with the maids of +the barracks. M. de Kératry, bent with his eighty years, was seated near +the stove on an old worm-eaten chair; the chair tottered; the old man +shivered. + +Towards four o'clock a regiment of Chasseurs de Vincennes arrived in the +courtyard with their platters, and began to eat, singing, with loud +bursts of merriment. M. de Broglie looked at them and said to M. +Piscatory, "It is a strange spectacle to see the porringers of the +Janissaries vanished from Constantinople reappearing at Paris!" + +Almost at the same moment a staff officer informed the Representatives on +behalf of General Forey that the apartments assigned to them were ready, +and requested them to follow him. They were taken into the eastern +building, which is the wing of the barracks farthest from the Palace of +the Council of State; they were conducted to the third floor. They +expected chambers and beds. They found long rooms, vast garrets with +filthy walls and low ceilings, furnished with wooden tables and benches. +These were the "apartments." These garrets, which adjoin each other, all +open on the same corridor, a narrow passage, which runs the length of the +main building. In one of these rooms they saw, thrown into a corner, +side-drums, a big drum, and various instruments of military music. The +Representatives scattered themselves about in these rooms. M. de +Tocqueville, who was ill, threw his overcoat on the floor in the recess +of a window, and lay down. He remained thus stretched upon the ground for +several hours. + +These rooms were warmed very badly by cast-iron stoves, shaped like +hives. A Representative wishing to poke the fire, upset one, and nearly +set fire to the wooden flooring. + +The last of these rooms looked out on the quay. Antony Thouret opened a +window and leaned out. Several Representatives joined him. The soldiers +who were bivouacking below on the pavement, caught sight of them and +began to shout, "Ah! there they are, those rascals at 'twenty-five francs +a day,' who wish to cut down our pay!" In fact, on the preceding evening, +the police had spread this calumny through the barracks that a +proposition had been placed on the Tribune to lessen the pay of the +troops. They had even gone so far as to name the author of this +proposition. Antony Thouret attempted to undeceive the soldiers. An +officer cried out to him, "It is one of your party who made the proposal. +It is Lamennais!" + +In about an hour and a half there were ushered into these rooms MM. +Vallette, Bixio, and Victor Lefranc, who had come to join their +colleagues and constitute themselves prisoners. + +Night came. They were hungry. Several had not eaten since the morning. M. +Howyn de Tranchère, a man of considerable kindness and devotion, who had +acted as porter at the Mairie, acted as forager at the barracks. He +collected five francs from each Representative, and they sent and ordered +a dinner for two hundred and twenty from the Café d'Orsay, at the corner +of the Quay, and the Rue du Bac. They dined badly, but merrily. Cookshop +mutton, bad wine, and cheese. There was no bread. They ate as they best +could, one standing, another on a chair, one at a table, another astride +on his bench, with his plate before him, "as at a ball-room supper," a +dandy of the Right said laughingly, Thuriot de la Rosière, son of the +regicide Thuriot. M. de Rémusat buried his head in his hands. Emile Péan +said to him, "We shall get over it." And Gustave de Beaumont cried out, +addressing himself to the Republicans, "And your friends of the Left! +Will they preserve their honor? Will there be an insurrection at least?" +They passed each other the dishes and plates, the Right showing marked +attention to the Left. "Here is the opportunity to bring about a fusion," +said a young Legitimist. Troopers and canteen men waited upon them. Two +or three tallow candles burnt and smoked on each table. There were few +glasses. Right and Left drank from the same. "Equality, fraternity," +exclaimed the Marquis Sauvaire-Barthélemy, of the Right. And Victor +Hannequin answered him, "But not Liberty." + +Colonel Feray, the son-in-law of Marshal Bugeaud, was in command at the +barracks; he offered the use of his drawing-room to M. de Broglie and to +M. Odilon Barrot, who accepted it. The barrack doors were opened to M. de +Kératry, on account of his great age, to M. Dufaure, as his wife had just +been confined, and to M. Etienne, on account of the wound which he had +received that morning in the Rue de Bourgogne. At the same time there +were added to the two hundred and twenty MM. Eugène Sue, Benoist (du +Rhône), Fayolle, Chanay, Toupet des Vignes, Radoubt-Lafosse, Arbey, and +Teillard-Latérisse, who up to that time had been detained in the new +Palace of Foreign Affairs. + +Towards eight o'clock in the evening, when dinner was over, the +restrictions were a little relaxed, and the intermediate space between +the door and the barred gate of the barracks began to be littered with +carpet bags and articles of toilet sent by the families of the imprisoned +Representatives. + +The Representatives were summoned by their names. Each went down in turn, +and briskly remounted with his cloak, his coverlet, or his foot-warmer. A +few ladies succeeded in making their way to their husbands. M.M. Chambolle +was able to press his son's hand through the bars. + +Suddenly a voice called out, "Oho! We are going to spend the night here." +Mattresses were brought in, which were thrown on the tables, on the +floor, anywhere. + +Fifty or sixty Representatives found resting-places on them. The greater +number remained on their benches. Marc Dufraisse settled himself to pass +the night on a footstool, leaning on a table. Happy was the man who had a +chair. + +Nevertheless, cordiality and gaiety did not cease to prevail. "Make room +for the 'Burgraves!'" said smilingly a venerable veteran of the Right. A +young Republican Representative rose, and offered him his mattress. They +pressed on each offers of overcoats, cloaks, and coverlets. + +"Reconciliation," said Chamiot, while offering the half of his mattress +to the Duc de Luynes. The Duc de Luynes, who had 80,000 francs a year, +smiled, and replied to Chamiot, "You are St. Martin, and I am the beggar." + +M. Paillet, the well-known barrister, who belonged to the "Third Estate," +used to say, "I passed the night on a Bonapartist straw mattress, wrapped +in a burnouse of the Mountain, my feet in a Democratic and Socialist +sheepskin, and my head in a Legitimist cotton nightcap." The +Representatives, although prisoners in the barracks, could stroll about +freely. They were allowed to go down into the courtyard. M. Cordier (of +Calvados) came upstairs again, saying, "I have just spoken to the +soldiers. They did not know that their generals had been arrested. They +appeared surprised and discontented." This incident raised the prisoners' +hopes. + +Representative Michel Renaud of the Basses-Pyrénees, found several of his +compatriots of the Basque country amongst the Chasseurs de Vincennes who +occupied the courtyard. Some had voted for him, and reminded him of the +fact. They added, "Ah! We would again vote for the 'Red' list." One of +them, quite a young man, took him aside, and said to him. "Do you want +any money, sir? I have a forty-sous piece in my pocket." + +Towards ten o'clock in the evening a great hubbub arose in the courtyard. +The doors and the barred gate turned noisily upon their hinges. Something +entered which rumbled like thunder. They leaned out of window, and saw at +the foot of the steps a sort of big, oblong chest, painted black, yellow, +red, and green, on four wheels, drawn by post-horses, and surrounded by +men in long overcoats, and with fierce-looking faces, holding torches. In +the gloom, and with the help of imagination, this vehicle appeared +completely black. A door could be seen, but no other opening. It +resembled a great coffin on wheels. "What is that? Is it a hearse?" "No, +it is a police-van." "And those people, are they undertakers?" "No, they +are jailers." "And for whom has this come?" + +"For you, gentlemen!" cried out a voice. + +It was the voice of an officer; and the vehicle which had just entered +was in truth a police-van. + +At the same time a word of command was heard: "First squadron to horse." +And five minutes afterwards the Lancers who were to escort the vehicle +formed in line in the courtyard. + +Then arose in the barracks the buzz of a hive of angry bees. The +Representatives ran up and down the stairs, and went to look at the +police-van close at hand. Some of them touched it, and could not believe +their eyes. M. Piscatory met M. Chambolle, and cried out to him, "I am +leaving in it!" M. Berryer met Eugène Sue, and they exchanged these +words: "Where are you going?" "To Mount Valérien. And you?" "I do not +know." + +At half-past ten the roll-call of those who were to leave began. Police +agents stationed themselves at a table between two candles in a parlor at +the foot of the stairs, and the Representatives were summoned two by two. +The Representatives agreed not to answer to their names, and to reply to +each name which should be called out, "He is not here." But those +"Burgraves" who had accepted the hospitality of Colonel Feray considered +such petty resistance unworthy of them, and answered to the calling out +of their names. This drew the others after them. Everybody answered. +Amongst the Legitimists some serio-comic scenes were enacted. They who +alone were not threatened insisted on believing that they were in danger. +They would not let one of their orators go. They embraced him, and held +him back, almost with tears, crying out, "Do not go away! Do you know +where they are taking you? Think of the trenches of Vincennes!" + +The Representatives, having been summoned two by two, as we have just +said, filed in the parlor before the police agents, and then they were +ordered to get into the "robbers' box." The stowage was apparently made +at haphazard and promiscuously; nevertheless, later, by the difference +of the treatment accorded to the Representatives in the various prisons, +it was apparent that this promiscuous loading had perhaps been somewhat +prearranged. When the first vehicle was full, a second, of a similar +construction drew up. The police agents, pencil and pocket-book in +hand, noted down the contents of each vehicle. These men knew the +Representatives. When Marc Dufraisse, called in his turn, entered the +parlor, he was accompanied by Benoist (du Rhône). "Ah! here is Marc +Dufraisse," said the attendant who held the pencil. When asked for his +name, Benoist replied "Benoist." "Du Rhône," added the police agent; and +he continued, "for there are also Benoist d'Azy and Benoist-Champy." + +The loading of each vehicle occupied nearly half an hour. The successive +arrivals had raised the number of imprisoned Representatives to two +hundred and thirty-two Their embarkation, or, to use the expression of M. +de Vatimesnil, their "barrelling up," which began a little after ten in +the evening, was not finished until nearly seven o'clock in the morning. +When there were no more police-vans available omnibuses were brought in. +These various vehicles were portioned off into three detachments, each +escorted by Lancers. The first detachment left towards one o'clock in the +morning, and was driven to Mont Valérien; the second towards five +o'clock, and was driven to Mazas; the third towards half-past six, to +Vincennes. + +As this business occupied a long time, those who had not yet been called +benefited by the mattresses and tried to sleep. Thus, from time to time, +silence reigned in the upper rooms. In the midst of one of these pauses +M. Bixio sat upright, and raising his voice, cried out, "Gentlemen, what +do you think of 'passive obedience'?" An unanimous burst of laughter was +the reply. Again, during one of these pauses another voice exclaimed,-- + +"Romieu will be a senator." + +Emile Péan asked,-- + +"What will become of the Red Spectre?" + +"He will enter the priesthood," answered Antony Thouret, "and will turn +into the Black Spectre." + +Other exclamations which the historians of the Second of December have +spread abroad were not uttered. Thus, Marc Dufraisse never made the +remark with which the men of Louis Bonaparte have wished to excuse their +crimes: "If the President does not shoot all those among us who resist, +he does not understand his business." + +For the _coup d'état_ such a remark might be convenient; but for History +it is false. + +The interior of the police-vans was lighted while the Representatives +were entering. The air-holes of each compartment were not closed. In this +manner Marc Dufraisse through the aperture could see M. du Rémusat in the +opposite cell to his own. M. du Rémusat had entered the van coupled with +M. Duvergier de Hauranne. + +"Upon my word, Monsieur Marc Dufraisse," exclaimed Duvergier de Hauranne +when they jostled each other in the gangway of the vehicle, "upon my +word, if any one had said to me, 'You will go to Marzas in a police-van,' +I should have said, 'It is improbable;' but if they had added, 'You will +go with Marc Dufraisse,' I should have said, 'It is impossible!'" + +As soon as the vehicle was full, five or six policemen entered and stood +in the gangway. The door was shut, the steps were thrown up, and they +drove off. + +When all the police-vans had been filled, there were still some +Representatives left. As we have said, omnibuses were brought into +requisition. Into these Representatives were thrust, one upon the other, +rudely, without deference for either age or name. Colonel Feray, on +horseback, superintended and directed operations. As he mounted the steps +of the last vehicle but one, the Duc de Montebello cried out to him, +"To-day is the anniversary of the battle of Austerlitz, and the +son-in-law of Marshal Bugeaud compels the son of Marshal Lannes to enter +a convict's van." + +When the last omnibus was reached, there were only seventeen places for +eighteen Representatives. The most active mounted first. Antony Thouret, +who himself alone equalled the whole of the Right, for he had as much +mind as Thiers and as much stomach as Murat; Antony Thouret, corpulent +and lethargic, was the last. When he appeared on the threshold of the +omnibus in all his hugeness, a cry of alarm arose;--Where was he going to +sit? + +Antony Thouret, noticing Berryer at the bottom of the omnibus, went +straight up to him, sat down on his knees, and quietly said to him, "You +wanted 'compression,' Monsieur Berryer. Now you have it." + + +[8] Michel de Bourges had thus characterized Louis Bonaparte as the +guardian of the Republic against the Monarchical parties. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +MAZAS + +The police-vans, escorted as far as Mazas by Lancers, found another +squadron of Lancers ready to receive them at Mazas. The Representatives +descended from the vehicle one by one. The officer commanding the Lancers +stood by the door, and watched them pass with a dull curiosity. + +Mazas, which had taken the place of the prison of La Force, now pulled +down, is a lofty reddish building, close to the terminus of the Lyons +Railway, and stands on the waste land of the Faubourg St. Antoine. From a +distance the building appears as though built of bricks, but on closer +examination it is seen to be constructed of flints set in cement. Six +large detached buildings, three stories high, all radiating from a +rotunda which serves as the common centre, and touching each other at the +starting-point, separated by courtyards which grow broader in proportion +as the buildings spread out, pierced with a thousand little dormer +windows which give light to the cells, surrounded by a high wall, and +presenting from a bird's-eye point of view the drape of a fan--such is +Mazas. From the rotunda which forms the centre, springs a sort of +minaret, which is the alarm-tower. The ground floor is a round room, +which serves as the registrar's office. On the first story is a chapel +where a single priest says mass for all; and the observatory, where a +single attendant keeps watch over all the doors of all the galleries at +the same time. Each building is termed a "division." The courtyards are +intersected by high walls into a multitude of little oblong walks. + +As each Representative descended from the vehicle he was conducted into +the rotunda where the registry office was situated. There his name was +taken down, and in exchange for his name he was assigned a number. +Whether the prisoner be a thief or a legislator, such is always the rule +in this prison; the _coup d'état_ reduced all to a footing of equality. +As soon as a Representative was registered and numbered, he was ordered +to "file off." They said to him, "Go upstairs," or "Go on;" and they +announced him at the end of the corridor to which he was allotted by +calling out, "Receive number So-and-So." The jailer in that particular +corridor answered, "Send him on." The prisoner mounted alone, went +straight on, and on his arrival found the jailer standing near an open +door. The jailer said, "Here it is, sir." The prisoner entered, the +jailer shut the door, and they passed on to another. + +The _coup d'état_ acted in a very different manner towards the various +Representatives. Those whom it desired to conciliate, the men of the +Bight, were placed in Vincennes; those whom it detested, the men of the +Left, were placed in Mazas. Those at Vincennes had the quarters of M. +Montpensier, which were expressly reopened for them; an excellent dinner, +eaten in company; wax candles, fire, and the smiles and bows of the +governor, General Courtigis. + +This is how it treated those at Mazas. + +A police-van deposited them at the prison. They were transferred from one +box to another. At Mazas a clerk registered them, weighed them, measured +them, and entered them into the jail book as convicts. Having passed +through the office, each of them was conducted along a gallery shrouded +in darkness, through a long damp vault to a narrow door which was +suddenly opened. This reached, a jailer pushed the Representative in by +the shoulders, and the door was shut. + +The Representative, thus immured, found himself in a little, long, +narrow, dark room. It is this which the prudent language of modern +legislation terms a "cell." Here the full daylight of a December noon +only produced a dusky twilight. At one end there was a door, with a +little grating; at the other, close to the ceiling, at a height of ten or +twelve feet, there was a loophole with a fluted glass window. This window +dimmed the eye, and prevented it from seeing the blue or gray of the sky, +or from distinguishing the cloud from the sun's ray, and invested the wan +daylight of winter with an indescribable uncertainty. It was even less +than a dim light, it was a turbid light. The inventors of this fluted +window succeeded in making the heavens squint. + +After a few moments the prisoner began to distinguish objects confusedly, +and this is what he found: White-washed walls here and there turned green +by various exhalations; in one corner a round hole guarded by iron bars, +and exhaling a disgusting smell; in another corner a slab turning upon a +hinge like the bracket seat of a _fiacre_, and thus capable of being used +as a table; no bed; a straw-bottomed chair; under foot a brick floor. +Gloom was the first impression; cold was the second. There, then, the +prisoner found himself, alone, chilled, in this semi-darkness, being able +to walk up and down the space of eight square feet like a caged wolf, or +to remain seated on his chair like an idiot at Bicêtre. + +In this situation an ex-Republican of the Eve, who had become a member of +the majority, and on occasions sided somewhat with the Bonapartists, M. +Emile Leroux, who had, moreover, been thrown into Mazas by mistake, +having doubtless been taken for some other Leroux, began to weep with +rage. Three, four, five hours thus passed away. In the meanwhile they had +not eaten since the morning; some of them, in the excitement caused by +the _coup d'état_ had not even breakfasted. Hunger came upon them. Were +they to be forgotten there? No; a bell rang in the prison, the grating of +the door opened, and an arm held out to the prisoner a pewter porringer +and a piece of bread. + +The prisoner greedily seized the bread and the porringer. The bread was +black and sticky; the porringer contained a sort of thick water, warm and +reddish. Nothing can be compared to the smell of this "soup." As for the +bread, it only smelt of mouldiness. + +However great their hunger, most of the prisoners during the first moment +threw down their bread on the floor, and emptied the porringer down the +hole with the iron bars. + +Nevertheless the stomach craved, the hours passed by, they picked up the +bread, and ended by eating it. One prisoner went so far as to pick up the +porringer and to attempt to wipe out the bottom with his bread, which he +afterwards devoured. Subsequently, this prisoner, a Representative set at +liberty in exile, described to me this dietary, and said to me, "A hungry +stomach has no nose." + +Meanwhile there was absolute solitude and profound silence. However, in +the course of a few hours, M. Emile Leroux--he himself has told the fact +to M. Versigny--heard on the other side of the wall on his right a sort +of curious knocking, spaced out and intermittent at irregular intervals. +He listened, and almost at the same moment on the other side of the wall +to his left a similar rapping responded. M. Emile Leroux, +enraptured--what a pleasure it was to hear a noise of some kind!--thought +of his colleagues, prisoners like himself, and cried out in a tremendous +voice, "Oh, oh! you are there also, you fellows!" He had scarcely uttered +this sentence when the door of his cell was opened with a creaking of +hinges and bolts; a man--the jailer--appeared in a great rage, and said +to him,-- + +"Hold your tongue!" + +The Representative of the People, somewhat bewildered, asked for an +explanation. + +"Hold your tongue," replied the jailer, "or I will pitch you into a +dungeon." + +This jailer spoke to the prisoner as the _coup d'état_ spoke to the +nation. + +M. Emile Leroux, with his persistent parliamentary habits, nevertheless +attempted to insist. + +"What!" said he, "can I not answer the signals which two of my colleagues +are making to me?" + +"Two of your colleagues, indeed," answered the jailer, "they are two +thieves." And he shut the door, shouting with laughter. + +They were, in fact, two thieves, between whom M. Emile Leroux was, not +crucified, but locked up. + +The Mazas prison is so ingeniously built that the least word can be +heard from one cell to another. Consequently there is no isolation, +notwithstanding the cellular system. Thence this rigorous silence imposed +by the perfect and cruel logic of the rules. What do the thieves do? They +have invented a telegraphic system of raps, and the rules gain nothing by +their stringency. M. Emile Leroux had simply interrupted a conversation +which had been begun. + +"Don't interfere with our friendly patter," cried out his thief neighbor, +who for this exclamation was thrown into the dungeon. + +Such was the life of the Representatives at Mazas. Moreover, as they were +in secret confinement, not a book, not a sheet of paper, not a pen, not +even an hour's exercise in the courtyard was allowed to them. + +The thieves also go to Mazas, as we have seen. + +But those who know a trade are permitted to work; those who know how to +read are supplied with books; those who know how to write are granted a +desk and paper; all are permitted the hour's exercise required by the +laws of health and authorized by the rules. + +The Representatives were allowed nothing whatever. Isolation, close +confinement, silence, darkness, cold, "the amount of _ennui_ which +engenders madness," as Linguet has said when speaking of the Bastille. + +To remain seated on a chair all day long, with arms and legs crossed: +such was the situation. But the bed! Could they lie down? + +No. + +There was no bed. + +At eight o'clock in the evening the jailer came into the cell, and +reached down, and removed something which was rolled up on a plank near +the ceiling. This "something" was a hammock. + +The hammock having been fixed, hooked up, and spread out, the jailer +wished his prisoner "Good-night." + +There was a blanket on the hammock, sometimes a mattress some two inches +thick. The prisoner, wrapt in this covering, tried to sleep, and only +succeeded in shivering. + +But on the morrow he could at least remain lying down all day in his +hammock? + +Not at all. + +At seven o'clock in the morning the jailer came in, wished the +Representative "Good-morning," made him get up, and rolled up the hammock +on its shelf near the ceiling. + +But in this case could not the prisoner take down the authorized hammock, +unroll it, hook it up, and lie down again? + +Yes, he could. But then there was the dungeon. + +This was the routine. The hammock for the night, the chair for the day. + +Let us be just, however. Some obtained beds, amongst others MM. Thiers +and Roger (du Nord). M. Grévy did not have one. + +Mazas is a model prison of progress; it is certain that Mazas is +preferable to the _piombi_ of Venice, and to the under-water dungeon of +the Châtelet. Theoretical philanthropy has built Mazas. Nevertheless, as +has been seen, Mazas leaves plenty to be desired. Let us acknowledge that +from a certain point of view the temporary solitary confinement of the +law-makers at Mazas does not displease us. There was perhaps something of +Providence in the _coup d'état_. Providence, in placing the Legislators +at Mazas, has performed an act of good education. Eat of your own +cooking; it is not a bad thing that those who own prisons should try them. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +THE EPISODE OF THE BOULEVARD ST. MARTIN + +When Charamaule and I reached No. 70, Rue Blanche, a steep lonely street, +a man in a sort of naval sub-officer's uniform, was walking up and down +before the door. The portress, who recognized us, called our attention to +him. "Nonsense," said Charamaule, "a man walking about in that manner, +and dressed after that fashion, is assuredly not a police spy." + +"My dear colleague," said I, "Bedeau has proved that the police are +blockheads." + +We went upstairs. The drawing-room and a little ante-chamber which led to +it were full of Representatives, with whom were mingled a good many +persons who did not belong to the Assembly. Some ex-members of the +Constituent Assembly were there, amongst others, Bastide and several +Democratic journalists. The _Nationale_ was represented by Alexander Rey +and Léopold Duras, the _Révolution_ by Xavier Durrieu, Vasbenter, and +Watripon, the _Avénement du Peuple_ by H. Coste, nearly all the other +editors of the _Avénement_ being in prison. About sixty members of the +Left were there, and among others Edgar Quinet, Schoelcher, Madier de +Montjau, Carnot, Noël Parfait, Pierre Lefranc, Bancel, de Flotte, +Bruckner, Chaix, Cassal, Esquiros, Durand-Savoyat, Yvan, Carlos Forel, +Etchegoyen, Labrousse, Barthélemy (Eure-et-Loire), Huguenin, Aubrey (du +Nord), Malardier, Victor Chauffour, Belin, Renaud, Bac, Versigny, Sain, +Joigneaux, Brives, Guilgot, Pelletier, Doutre, Gindrier, Arnauld (de +l'Ariége), Raymond (de l'Isère), Brillier, Maigne, Sartin, Raynaud, Léon +Vidal, Lafon, Lamargue, Bourzat, and General Rey. + +All were standing. They were talking without order. Léopold Duras had +just described the investment of the Café Bonvalet. Jules Favre and +Baudin, seated at a little table between the two windows, were writing. +Baudin had a copy of the Constitution open before him, and was copying +Article 68. + +When we entered there was silence, and they asked us, "Well, what news?" + +Charamaule told them what had just taken place on the Boulevard du +Temple, and the advice which he had thought right to give me. They +approved his action. + +"What is to be done?" was asked on every side. I began to speak. + +"Let us go straight to the fact and to the point," said I. "Louis +Bonaparte is gaining ground, and we are losing ground, or rather, we +should say, he has as yet everything, and we have as yet nothing. +Charamaule and I have been obliged to separate ourselves from Colonel +Forestier. I doubt if he will succeed. Louis Bonaparte is doing all he +can to suppress us, we must no longer keep in the background. We must +make our presence felt. We must fan this beginning of the flame of which +we have seen the spark on the Boulevard du Temple. A proclamation must be +made, no matter by whom it is printed, or how it is placarded, but it is +absolutely necessary, and that immediately. Something brief, rapid, and +energetic. No set phrases. Ten lines--an appeal to arms! We are the Law, +and there are occasions when the Law should utter a war-cry. The Law, +outlawing the traitor, is a great and terrible thing. Let us do it." + +They interrupted me with "Yes, that is right, a proclamation!" + +"Dictate! dictate!" + +"Dictate," said Baudin to me, "I will write." + +I dictated:- + + "TO THE PEOPLE. + + "Louis Napoléon Bonaparte is a traitor. + + "He has violated the Constitution. + + "He is forsworn. + + "He is an outlaw--" + +They cried out to me on every side,-- + +"That is right! Outlaw him." + +"Go on." + +I resumed the dictation. Baudin wrote,-- + + "The Republican Representatives refer the People and the Army to Article + 68--" + +They interrupted me: "Quote it in full." + +"No," said I, "it would be too long. Something is needed which can be +placarded on a card, stuck with a wafer, and which can be read in a +minute. I will quote Article 110. It is short and contains the appeal to +arms." + +I resumed,-- + + "The Republican Representatives refer the People and the Army to Article + 68 and to Article 110, which runs thus--'The Constituent Assembly + confides the existing Constitution and the Laws which it consecrates to + the keeping and the patriotism of all Frenchmen.' + + "The People henceforward and for ever in possession of universal + suffrages and who need no Prince for its restitution, will know how to + chastise the rebel. + + "Let the People do its duty. The Republican Representatives are marching + at its head. + + "Vive la République! To Arms!" + +They applauded. + +"Let us all sign," said Pelletier. + +"Let us try to find a printing-office without delay," said Schoelcher, +"and let the proclamation be posted up immediately." + +"Before nightfall--the days are short," added Joigneaux. + +"Immediately, immediately, several copies!" called out the +Representatives. + +Baudin, silent and rapid, had already made a second copy of the +proclamation. + +A young man, editor of the provincial Republican journal, came out of the +crowd, and declared that, if they would give him a copy at once, before +two hours should elapse the Proclamation should be posted at all the +street corners in Paris. + +I asked him,-- + +"What is your name?" + +He answered me,-- + +"Millière." + +Millière. It is in this manner that this name made its first appearance +in the gloomy days of our History. I can still see that pale young man, +that eye at the same time piercing and half closed, that gentle and +forbidding profile. Assassination and the Pantheon awaited him. He was +too obscure to enter into the Temple, he was sufficiently deserving to +die on its threshold. Baudin showed him the copy which he had just made. + +Millière went up to him. + +"You do not know me," said he; "my name is Millière; but I know you, you +are Baudin." + +Baudin held out his hand to him. + +I was present at the handshaking between these two spectres. + +Xavier Durrieu, who was editor of the _Révolution_ made the same offer as +Millière. + +A dozen Representatives took their pens and sat down, some around a +table, others with a sheet of paper on their knees, and called out to +me,-- + +"Dictate the Proclamation to us." + +I had dictated to Baudin, "Louis Napoléon Bonaparte is a traitor." Jules +Favre requested the erasure of the word Napoléon, that name of glory +fatally powerful with the People and with the Army, and that there should +be written, "Louis Bonaparte is a traitor." + +"You are right," said I to him. + +A discussion followed. Some wished to strike out the word "Prince." But +the Assembly was impatient. "Quick! quick!" they cried out. "We are in +December, the days are short," repeated Joigneaux. + +Twelve copies were made at the same time in a few minutes. Schoelcher, +Rey, Xavier Durrieu, and Millière each took one, and set out in search of +a printing office. + +As they went out a man whom I did not know, but who was greeted by +several Representatives, entered and said, "Citizens, this house is +marked. Troops are on the way to surround you. You have not a second to +lose." + +Numerous voices were raised,-- + +"Very well! Let them arrest us!" + +"What does it matter to us?" + +"Let them complete their crime." + +"Colleagues," said I, "let us not allow ourselves to be arrested. After +the struggle, as God pleases; but before the combat,--No! It is from us +that the people are awaiting the initiative. If we are taken, all is at +an end. Our duty is to bring on the battle, our right is to cross swords +with the _coup d'état_. It must not be allowed to capture us, it must +seek us and not find us. We must deceive the arm which it stretches out +against us, we must remain concealed from Bonaparte, we must harass him, +weary him, astonish him, exhaust him, disappear and reappear unceasingly, +change our hiding-place, and always fight him, be always before him, and +never beneath his hand. Let us not leave the field. We have not numbers, +let us have daring." + +They approved of this. "It is right," said they, "but where shall we go?" + +Labrousse said,-- + +"Our former colleague of the Constituent Assembly, Beslay, offers us his +house." + +"Where does he live?" + +"No. 33, Rue de la Cérisaie, in the Marais." + +"Very well," answered I, "let us separate. We will meet again in two +hours at Beslay's, No. 33, Rue de la Cérisaie." + +All left; one after another, and in different directions. I begged +Charamaule to go to my house and wait for me there, and I walked out with +Noël Parfait and Lafon. + +We reached the then still uninhabited district which skirts the ramparts. +As we came to the corner of the Rue Pigalle, we saw at a hundred paces +from us, in the deserted streets which cross it, soldiers gliding all +along the houses, bending their steps towards the Rue Blanche. + +At three o'clock the members of the Left rejoined each other in the Rue +de la Cérisaie. But the alarm had been given, and the inhabitants of +these lonely streets stationed themselves at the windows to see the +Representatives pass. The place of meeting, situated and hemmed in at the +bottom of a back yard, was badly chosen in the event of being surrounded: +all these disadvantages were at once perceived, and the meeting only +lasted a few seconds. It was presided over by Joly; Xavier Durrieu and +Jules Gouache, who were editors of the _Révolution_, also took part, as +well as several Italian exiles, amongst others Colonel Carini and +Montanelli, ex-Minister of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. I liked Montanelli, +a gentle and dauntless spirit. + +Madier de Montjau brought news from the outskirts. Colonel Forestier, +without losing and without taking away hope, told them of the obstacles +which he had encountered in his attempts to call together the 6th Legion. +He pressed me to sign his appointment as Colonel, as well as Michel de +Bourges; but Michel de Bourges was absent, and besides, neither Michel de +Bourges nor I had yet at drat time the authority from the Left. +Nevertheless, under this reservation I signed his appointment. The +perplexities were becoming more and more numerous. The Proclamation was +not yet printed, and the evening was closing in. Schoelcher explained the +difficulties: all the printing offices closed and guarded; an order +placarded that whoever should print an appeal to arms world be +immediately shot; the workmen terrified; no money. A hat was sent round, +and each threw into it what money he had about him. They collected in +this manner a few hundred francs. + +Xavier Durrieu, whose fiery courage never flagged for a single moment, +reiterated that he would undertake the printing, and promised that by +eight o'clock that evening there should be 40,000 copies of the +Proclamation. Time pressed. They separated, after fixing as a rendezvous +the premises of the Society of Cabinet-makers in the Rue de Charonne, at +eight o'clock in the evening, so as to allow time for the situation to +reveal itself. As we went out and crossed the Rue Beautreillis I saw +Pierre Leroux coming up to me. He had taken no part in our meetings. He +said to me,-- + +"I believe this struggle to be useless. Although my point of view is +different from yours, I am your friend. Beware. There is yet time to +stop. You are entering into the catacombs. The catacombs are Death." + +"They are also Life," answered I. + +All the same, I thought with joy that my two sons were in prison, and +that this gloomy duty of street fighting was imposed upon me alone. + +There yet remained five hours until the time fixed for the rendezvous. I +wished to go home, and once more embrace my wife and daughter before +precipitating myself into that abyss of the "unknown" which was there, +yawning and gloomy, and which several of us were about to enter, never to +return. + +Arnauld (de l'Ariége) gave me his arm. The two Italian exiles, Carini +aril Montanelli, accompanied me. + +Montanelli took my hands and said to me, "Right will conquer. You will +conquer. Oh! that this time France may not be selfish as in 1848, and +that she may deliver Italy." I answered him, "She will deliver Europe." + +Those were our illusions at that moment, but this, however, does not +prevent them from being our hopes to-day. Faith is thus constituted; +shadows demonstrate to it the light. + +There is a cabstand before the front gate of St. Paul. We went there. The +Rue St. Antoine was alive with that indescribable uneasy swarming which +precedes those strange battles of ideas against deeds which are called +Revolutions. I seemed to catch, in this great working-class district, a +glimpse of a gleam of light which, alas, died out speedily. The cabstand +before St. Paul was deserted. The drivers had foreseen the possibility of +barricades, and had fled. + +Three miles separated Arnauld and myself from our houses. It was +impossible to walk there through the middle of Paris, without being +recognized at each step. Two passers-by extricated us from our +difficulty. One of them said to the other, "The omnibuses are still +running on the Boulevards." + +We profited by this information, and went to look for a Bastille omnibus. +All four of us got in. + +I entertained at heart, I repeat, wrongly or rightly, a bitter reproach +for the opportunity lost during the morning. I said to myself that on +critical days such moments come, but do not return. There are two +theories of Revolution: to arouse the people, or to let them come of +themselves. The first theory was mine, but, through force of discipline, +I had obeyed the second. I reproached myself with this. I said to myself, +"The People offered themselves, and we did not accept them. It is for us +now not to offer ourselves, but to do more, to give ourselves." + +Meanwhile the omnibus had started. It was full. I had taken my place at +the bottom on the left; Arnauld (de l'Ariége) sat next to me, Carini +opposite, Montanelli next to Arnauld. We did not speak; Arnauld and +myself silently exchanged that pressure of hands which is a means of +exchanging thoughts. + +As the omnibus proceeded towards the centre of Paris the crowd became +denser on the Boulevard. As the omnibus entered into the cutting of the +Porte St. Martin a regiment of heavy cavalry arrived in the opposite +direction. In a few seconds this regiment passed by the side of us. They +were cuirassiers. They filed by at a sharp trot and with drawn swords. +The people leaned over from the height of the pavements to see them pass. +Not a single cry. On the one side the people dejected, on the other the +soldiers triumphant. All this stirred me. + +Suddenly the regiment halted. I do not know what obstruction momentarily +impeded its advance in this narrow cutting of the Boulevard in which we +were hemmed in. By its halt it stopped the omnibus. There were the +soldiers. We had them under our eyes, before us, at two paces distance, +their horses touching the horses of our vehicle, these Frenchmen who had +become Mamelukes, these citizen soldiers of the Great Republic +transformed into supporters of the degraded Empire. From the place where +I sat I almost touched them; I could no longer restrain myself. + +I lowered the window of the omnibus. I put out my head, and, looking +fixedly at the dense line of soldiers which faced me, I called out, "Down +with Louis Bonaparte. Those who serve traitors are traitors!" + +Those nearest to me turned their heads towards me and looked at me with a +tipsy air; the others did not stir, and remained at "shoulder arms," the +peaks of their helmets over their eyes, their eyes fixed upon the ears of +their horses. + +In great affairs there is the immobility of statues; in petty mean +affairs there is the immobility of puppets. + +At the shout which I raised Arnauld turned sharply round. He also had +lowered his window, and he was leaning half out of the omnibus, with his +arms extended towards the soldiers, and he shouted, "Down with the +traitors!" + +To see him thus with his dauntless gesture, his handsome head, pale and +calm, his fervent expression, his beard and his long chestnut hair, one +seemed to behold the radiant and fulminating face of an angry Christ. + +The example was contagious and electrical. + +"Down with the traitors!" shouted Carini and Montanelli. + +"Down with the Dictator! Down with the traitors!" repeated a gallant +young man with whom we were not acquainted, and who was sitting next to +Carini. + +With the exception of this young man, the whole omnibus seemed seized +with terror! + +"Hold your tongues!" exclaimed these poor frightened people; "you will +cause us all to be massacred." One, still more terrified, lowered the +window, and began to shout to the soldiers, "Long live Prince Napoléon! +Long live the Emperor!" + +There were five of us, and we overpowered this cry by our persistent +protest, "Down with Louis Bonaparte! Down with the traitors!" + +The soldiers listened in gloomy silence. A corporal turned with a +threatening air towards us, and shook his sword. The crowd looked on in +bewilderment. + +What passed within me at that moment? I cannot tell! I was in a +whirlwind. I had at the same time yielded to a calculation, finding the +opportunity good, and to a burst of rage, finding the encounter insolent. + +A woman cried out to us from the pavement, "You will get yourselves cut +to pieces." I vaguely imagined that some collision was about to ensue, +and that, either from the crowd or from the Army, the spark would fly +out. I hoped for a sword-cut from the soldiers or a shout of anger from +the people. In short I had obeyed rather an instinct than an idea. + +But nothing came of it, neither the sword-cut nor the shout of anger. The +soldiers did not bestir themselves and the people maintained silence. Was +it too late? Was it too soon? + +The mysterious man of the Elysée had not foreseen the event of an insult +to his name being thrown in the very face of the soldiers. The soldiers +had no orders. They received them that evening. This was seen on the +morrow. + +In another moment the regiment broke into a gallop, and the omnibus +resumed its journey. As the cuirassiers filed past us Arnauld (de +l'Ariége), still leaning out of the vehicle, continued to shout in their +ears, for as I have just said, their horses touched us, "Down with the +Dictator! Down with the traitors!" + +We alighted in the Rue Lafitte. Carini, Montanelli, and Arnauld left me, +and I went on alone towards the Rue de la Tour d'Auvergne. Night was +coming on. As I turned the corner of the street a man passed close by me. +By the light of a street lamp I recognized a workman at a neighboring +tannery, and he said to me in a low tone, and quickly, "Do not return +home. The police surround your house." + +I went back again towards the Boulevard, through the streets laid out, +but not then built, which make a Y under my windows behind my house. Not +being able to embrace my wife and daughter, I thought over what I could +do during the moments which remained to me. A remembrance came into my +mind. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +THE REBOUND OF THE 24TH JUNE, 1848, ON THE 2D DECEMBER, 1851 + +On Sunday, 26th June, 1848, that four days' combat, that gigantic combat +so formidable and so heroic on both sides, still continued, but the +insurrection had been overcome nearly everywhere, and was restricted to +the Faubourg St. Antoine. Four men who had been amongst the most +dauntless defenders of the barricades of the Rue Pont-aux-Choux, of the +Rue St. Claude, and of the Rue St. Louis in the Marais, escaped after the +barricades had been taken, and found safe refuge in a house, No. 12, Rue +St. Anastase. They were concealed in an attic. The National Guards and +the Mobile Guards were hunting for them, in order to shoot them. I was +told of this. I was one of the sixty Representatives sent by the +Constituent Assembly into the middle of the conflict, charged with the +task of everywhere preceding the attacking column, of carrying, even at +the peril of their lives, words of peace to the barricades, to prevent +the shedding of blood, and to stop the civil war. I went into the Rue St. +Anastase, and I saved the lives of those four men. + +Amongst those men there was a poor workman of the Rue de Charonne, whose +wife was being confined at that very moment, and who was weeping. One +could understand, when hearing his sobs and seeing his rags, how he had +cleared with a single bound these three steps--poverty, despair, +rebellion. Their chief was a young man, pale and fair, with high cheek +bones, intelligent brow, and an earnest and resolute countenance. As soon +as I set him free, and told him my name, he also wept. He said to me, +"When I think that an hour ago I knew that you were facing us, and that I +wished that the barrel of my gun had eyes to see and kill you!" He added, +"In the times in which we live we do not know what may happen. If ever +you need me, for whatever purpose, come." His name was Auguste, and he +was a wine-seller in the Rue de la Roquette. + +Since that time I had only seen him once, on the 26th August, 1819, on +the day when I held the corner of Balzac's pall. The funeral possession +was going to Père la Chaise. Auguste's shop was on the way. All the +streets through which the procession passed were crowded. Auguste was at +his door with his young wife and two or three workmen. As I passed he +greeted me. + +It was this remembrance which came back to my mind as I descended the +lonely streets behind my house; in the presence of the 2d of December I +thought of him. I thought that he might give me information about the +Faubourg St. Antoine, and help us in rousing the people. This young man +had at once given me the impression of a soldier and a leader. I +remembered the words which he had spoken to me, and I considered it might +be useful to see him. I began by going to find in the Rue St. Anastase +the courageous woman who had hidden Auguste and his three companions, to +whom she had several times since rendered assistance. I begged her to +accompany me. She consented. + +On the way I dined upon a cake of chocolate which Charamaule had given +me. + +The aspects of the boulevards, in coming down the Italiens towards the +Marais, had impressed rue. The shops were open everywhere as usual. There +was little military display. In the wealthy quarters there was much +agitation and concentration of troops; but on advancing towards the +working-class neighborhoods solitude reigned paramount. Before the Café +Turc a regiment was drawn up. A band of young men in blouses passed +before the regiment singing the "Marseillaise." I answered them by crying +out "To Arms!" The regiment did not stir. The light shone upon the +playbills on an adjacent wall; the theatres were open. I looked at the +trees as I passed. They were playing _Hernani_ at the Theatre des +Italiens, with a new tenor named Guasco. + +The Place de la Bastille was frequented, as usual, by goers and comers, +the most peaceable folk in the world. A few workmen grouped round the +July Column, and, chatting in a low voice, were scarcely noticeable. +Through the windows of a wine shop could be seen two men who were +disputing for and against the _coup d'état_. He who favored it wore a +blouse, he who attacked it wore a cloth coat. A few steps further on a +juggler had placed between four candles his X-shaped table, and was +displaying his conjuring tricks in the midst of a crowd, who were +evidently thinking only of the juggler. On looking towards the gloomy +loneliness of the Quai Mazas several harnessed artillery batteries were +dimly visible in the darkness. Some lighted torches here and there showed +up the black outline of the cannons. + +I had some trouble in finding Auguste's door in the Rue de la Roquette. +Nearly all the shops were shut, thus making the street very dark. At +length, through a glass shop-front I noticed a light which gleamed on a +pewter counter. Beyond the counter, through a partition also of glass and +ornamented with white curtains, another light, and the shadows of two or +three men at table could be vaguely distinguished. This was the place. + +I entered. The door on opening rang a bell. At the sound, the door of the +glazed partition which separated the shop from the parlor opened, and +Auguste appeared. + +He knew me at once, and came up to me. + +"Ah, Sir," said he, "it is you!" + +"Do you know what is going on?" I asked him. + +"Yes, sir." + +This "Yes, sir," uttered with calmness, and even with a certain +embarrassment, told me all. Where I expected an indignant outcry I found +this peaceable answer. It seemed to me that I was speaking to the +Faubourg St. Antoine itself. I understood that all was at an end in this +district, and that we had nothing to expect from it. The people, this +wonderful people, had resigned themselves. Nevertheless, I made an +effort. + +"Louis Bonaparte betrays the Republic," said I, without noticing that I +raised my voice. + +He touched my arm, and pointing with his finger to the shadows which were +pictured on the glazed partition of the parlor, "Take care, sir; do not +talk so loudly." + +"What!" I exclaimed, "you have come to this--you dare not speak, you dare +not utter the name of 'Bonaparte' aloud; you barely mumble a few words in +a whisper here, in this street, in the Faubourg St. Antoine, where, from +all the doors, from all the windows, from all the pavements, from all the +very stones, ought to be heard the cry, 'To arms.'" + +Auguste demonstrated to me what I already saw too clearly, and what +Girard had shadowed forth in the morning--the moral situation of the +Faubourg--that the people were "dazed"--that it seemed to all of them +that universal suffrage was restored; that the downfall of the law of the +31st of May was a good thing. + +Here I interrupted him. + +"But this law of the 31st of May, it was Louis Bonaparte who instigated +it, it was Rouher who made it, it was Baroche who proposed it, and the +Bonapartists who voted it. You are dazzled by a thief who has taken your +purse, and who restores it to you!" + +"Not I," said Auguste, "but the others." + +And he continued, "To tell the whole truth, people did not care much for +the Constitution, they liked the Republic, but the Republic was +maintained too much by force for their taste. In all this they could only +see one thing clearly, the cannons ready to slaughter them--they +remembered June, 1848--there were some poor people who had suffered +greatly--Cavaignac had done much evil--women clung to the men's blouses +to prevent them from going to the barricades--nevertheless, with all +this, when seeing men like ourselves at their head, they would perhaps +fight, but this hindered them, they did not know for what." He concluded +by saying, "The upper part of the Faubourg is doing nothing, the lower +end will do better. Round about here they will fight. The Rue de la +Roquette is good, the Rue de Charonne is good; but on the side of Père la +Chaise they ask, 'What good will that do us?' They only recognize the +forty sous of their day's work. They will not bestir themselves; do not +reckon upon the masons." He added, with a smile, "Here we do not say +'cold as a stone,' but 'cold as a mason'"--and he resumed, "As for me, if +I am alive, it is to you that I owe my life. Dispose of me. I will lay +down my life, and will do what you wish." + +While he was speaking I saw the white curtain of the glazed partition +behind him move a little. His young wife, uneasy, was peeping through at +us. + +"Ah! my God," said I to him, "what we want is not the life of one man but +the efforts of all." + +He was silent. I continued,-- + +"Listen to me, Auguste, you who are good and intelligent. So, then, the +Faubourgs of Paris--which are heroes even when they err--the Faubourgs +of Paris, for a misunderstanding, for a question of salary wrongly +construed, for a bad definition of socialism, rose in June, 1848, against +the Assembly elected by themselves, against universal suffrage, against +their own vote; and yet they will not rise in December, 1851, for Right, +for the Law, for the People, for Liberty, for the Republic. You say that +there is perplexity, and that you do not understand; but, on the +contrary, it was in June that all was obscure, and it is to-day that +everything is clear!" + +While I was saying these last words the door of the parlor was softly +opened, and some one came in. It was a young man, fair as Auguste, in an +overcoat, and wearing a workman's cap. I started. Auguste turned round +and said to me, "You can trust him." + +The young man took off his cap, came close up to me, carefully turning +his back on the glazed partition, and said to me in a low voice, "I know +you well. I was on the Boulevard du Temple to-day. We asked you what we +were to do; you said, 'We must take up arms.' Well, here they are!" + +He thrust his hands into the pockets of his overcoat and drew out two +pistols. + +Almost at the same moment the bell of the street door sounded. He +hurriedly put his pistols back into his pockets. A man in a blouse came +in, a workman of some fifty years. This man, without looking at any one, +without saying anything, threw down a piece of money on the counter. +Auguste took a small glass and filled it with brandy, the man drank it +off, put down the glass upon the counter and went away. + +When the door was shut: "You see," said Auguste to me, "they drink, they +eat, they sleep, they think of nothing. Such are they all!" + +The other interrupted him impetuously: "One man is not the People!" + +And turning towards me,-- + +"Citizen Victor Hugo, they will march forward. If all do not march, some +will march. To tell the truth, it is perhaps not here that a beginning +should be made, it is on the other side of the water." + +And suddenly checking himself,--"After all, you probably do not know my +name." + +He took a little pocket-book from his pocket, tore out a piece of paper, +wrote on it his name, and gave it to me. I regret having forgotten that +name. He was a working engineer. In order not to compromise him, I burnt +this paper with many others on the Saturday morning, when I was on the +point of being arrested. + +"It is true, sir," said Auguste, "you must not judge badly of the +Faubourg. As my friend has said, it will perhaps not be the first to +begin; but if there is a rising it will rise." + +I exclaimed, "And who would you have erect if the Faubourg St. Antoine be +prostrate! Who will be alive if the people be dead!" + +The engineer went to the street door, made certain that it was well shut, +then came back, and said,-- + +"There are many men ready and willing. It is the leaders who are wanting. +Listen, Citizen Victor Hugo, I can say this to you, and," he added, +lowering his voice, "I hope for a movement to-night." + +"Where?" + +"On the Faubourg St. Marceau." + +"At what time?" + +"At one o'clock." + +"How do you know it?" + +"Because I shall be there." + +He continued: "Now, Citizen Victor Hugo, if a movement takes place +to-night in the Faubourg St. Marceau, will you head it? Do you consent?" + +"Yes." + +"Have you your scarf of office?" + +I half drew it out of my pocket. His eyes glistened with joy. + +"Excellent," said he. "The Citizen has his pistols, the Representative +his scarf. All are armed." + +I questioned him. "Are you sure of your movement for to-night?" + +He answered me, "We have prepared it, and we reckon to be there." + +"In that case," said I, "as soon as the first barricade is constructed I +will be behind it. Come and fetch me." + +"Where?" + +"Wherever I may be." + +He assured me that if the movement should take place during the night he +would know it at half-past ten that evening at the latest, and that I +should be informed of it before eleven o'clock. We settled that in +whatever place I might be at that hour I would send word to Auguste, who +undertook to let him know. + +The young woman continued to peep out at us. The conversation was growing +prolonged, and might seem singular to the people in the parlor. "I am +going," said I to Auguste. + +I had opened the door, he took my hand, pressed it as a woman might have +done, and said to me in a deeply-moved tone, "You are going: will you +come back?" + +"I do not know." + +"It is true," said he. "No one knows what is going to happen. Well, you +are perhaps going to be hunted and sought for as I have been. It will +perhaps be your turn to be shot, and mine to save you. You know the mouse +may sometimes prove useful to the lion. Monsieur Victor Hugo, if you need +a refuge, this house is yours. Come here. You will find a bed where you +can sleep, and a man who will lay down his life for you." + +I thanked him by a hearty shake of the hand, and I left. Eight o'clock +struck. I hastened towards the Rue de Charonne. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +THE REPRESENTATIVES HUNTED DOWN + +At the corner of the Rue de Faubourg St. Antoine before the shop of the +grocer Pepin, on the same spot where the immense barricade of June, +1848, was erected as high as the second story, the decrees of the +morning had been placarded. Some men were inspecting them, although it +was pitch dark, and they could not read them, and an old woman said, +"The 'Twenty-five francs' are crushed--so much the better!" + +A few steps further I heard my name pronounced. I turned round. It was +Jules Favre, Bourzat, Lafon, Madier de Montjau, and Michel de Bourges, +who were passing by. I took leave of the brave and devoted woman who had +insisted upon accompanying me. A _fiacre_ was passing. I put her in it, +and then rejoined the five Representatives. They had come from the Rue +de Charonne. They had found the premises of the Society of Cabinet +Makers closed. "There was no one there," said Madier de Montjau. "These +worthy people are beginning to get together a little capital, they do +not wish to compromise it, they are afraid of us. They say, '_coups +d'état_ are nothing to us, we shall leave them alone!'" + +"That does not surprise me," answered I, "a society is shopkeeper." + +"Where are we going?" asked Jules Favre. + +Lafon lived two steps from there, at No. 2, Quai Jemmapes. He offered us +the use of his rooms. We accepted, and took the necessary measures to +inform the members of the Left that we had gone there. + +A few minutes afterwards we were installed in Lafon's rooms, on the +fourth floor of an old and lofty house. This house had seen the taking +of the Bastille. + +This house was entered by a side-door opening from the Quai Jemmapes +upon a narrow courtyard a few steps lower than the Quai itself. Bourzat +remained at this door to warn us in case of any accident, and to point +out the house to those Representatives who might come up. + +In a few moments a large number of us had assembled, and we again +met--all those of the morning, with a few added. Lafon gave up his +drawing-room to us, the windows of which overlooked the back yard. We +organized a sort of "bureau," and we took our places, Jules Favre, +Carnot, Michel, and myself, at a large table, lighted by two candles, +and placed before the fire. The Representatives and the other people +present sat around on chairs and sofas. A group stood before the door. + +Michel de Bourges, on entering, exclaimed, "We have come to seek out the +people of the Faubourg St. Antoine. Here we are. Here we must remain." + +These words were applauded. + +They set forth the situation--the torpor of the Faubourgs, no one at the +Society of Cabinet Makers, the doors closed nearly everywhere. I told +them what I had seen and heard in the Rue de la Roquette, the remarks of +the wine-seller, Auguste, on the indifference of the people, the hopes +of the engineer, and the possibility of a movement during the night in +the Faubourg St. Marceau. It was settled that on the first notice that +might be given I should go there. + +Nevertheless nothing was yet known of what had taken place during the +day. It was announced that M. Havin, Lieutenant-Colonel of the 5th +Legion of the National Guard, had ordered the officers of his Legion to +attend a meeting. + +Some Democratic writers came in, amongst whom were Alexander Rey and +Xavier Durrieu, with Kesler, Villiers, and Amable Lemaître of the +_Révolution_; one of these writers was Millière. + +Millière had a large bleeding wound above his eye-brow; that same +morning on leaving us, as he was carrying away one of the copies of the +Proclamation which I had dictated, a man had thrown himself upon him to +snatch it from him. The police had evidently already been informed of +the Proclamation, and lay in wait for it; Millière had a hand-to-hand +struggle with the police agent, and had overthrown him, not without +bearing away this gash. However, the Proclamation was not yet printed. +It was nearly nine o'clock in the evening and nothing had come. Xavier +Durrieu asserted that before another hour elapsed they should have the +promised forty thousand copies. It was hoped to cover the walls of Paris +with them during the night. Each of those present was to serve as a +bill-poster. + +There were amongst us--an inevitable circumstance in the stormy +confusion of the first moments--a good many men whom we did not know. +One of these men brought in ten or twelve copies of the appeal to arms. +He asked me to sign them with my own hand, in order, he said, that he +might be able to show my signature to the people--"Or to the police," +whispered Baudin to me smiling. We were not in a position to take such +precautions as these. I gave this man all the signatures that he wanted. + +Madier de Montjau began to speak. It was of consequence to organize the +action of the Left, to impress the unity of impulse upon the movement +which was being prepared; to create a centre for it, to give a pivot to +the insurrection, to the Left a direction, and to the People a +support. He proposed the immediate formation of a committee representing +the entire Left in all its shades, and charged with organizing and +directing the insurrection. + +All the Representatives cheered this eloquent and courageous man. Seven +members were proposed. They named at once Carnot, De Flotte, Jules +Favre, Madier de Montjau, Michel de Bourges, and myself; and thus was +unanimously formed this Committee of Insurrection, which at my request +was called a Committee of Resistance; for it was Louis Bonaparte who was +tire insurgent. For ourselves, the were the Republic. It was desired +that one workman-Representative should be admitted into the committee. +Faure (du Rhône) was nominated. But Faure, we learned later on, had been +arrested that morning. The committee then was, it fact, composed of six +members. + +The committee organized itself during the sitting. A Committee of +Permanency was formed from amongst it, and invested with the authority +of decreeing "urgency" in the name of all the Left, of concentrating all +news, information, directions, instructions, resources, orders. This +Committee of Permanency was composed of four members, who were Carnot, +Michel de Bourges, Jules Favre, and myself. De Flotte and Madier de +Montjau were specially delegated, De Flotte for the left bank of the +river and the district of the schools, Madier for the Boulevards and the +outskirts. + +These preliminary operations being terminated, Lafon took aside Michel +de Bourges and myself, and told us that the ex-Constituent Proudhon had +inquired for one of us two, that he had remained downstairs nearly a +quarter of an hour, and that he had gone away, saying that he would wait +for us in the Place de la Bastille. + +Proudhon, who was at that time undergoing a term of three years' +imprisonment at St. Pélagie for an offence against Louis Bonaparte, was +granted leave of absence from tine to time. Chance willed it that one of +these liberty days had fallen on the 2d of December. + +This is an incident which one cannot help noting. On the 2d of December +Proudhon was a prisoner by virtue of a lawful sentence, and at the same +moment at which they illegally imprisoned the inviolable +Representatives, Proudhon, whom they could have legitimately detained, +was allowed to go out. Proudhon had profited by his liberty to come and +find us. + +I knew Proudhon from having seen him at the Concièrgerie, where my two +sons were shut up, and my two illustrious friends, Auguste Vacquérie and +Paul Meurice, and those gallant writers, Louis Jourdan, Erdan, and +Suchet. I could not help thinking that on that day they would assuredly +not have given leave of absence to these men. + +Meanwhile Xavier Durrieu whispered to me, "I have just left Proudhon. He +wishes to see you. He is waiting for you down below, close by, at the +entrance to the Place. You will find him leaning on the parapet of the +canal." + +"I am going," said I. + +I went downstairs. + +I found in truth, at the spot mentioned, Proudhon, thoughtful, leaning +with his two elbows on the parapet. He wore that broad-brimmed hat in +which I had often seen him striding alone up and down the courtyard of +the Concièrgerie. + +I went up to him. + +"You wish to speak to me." + +"Yes," and he shook me by the hand. + +The corner where we were standing was lonely. On the left there was the +Place de la Bastille, dark and gloomy; one could see nothing there, but +one could feel a crowd; regiments were there in battle array; they did +not bivouac, they were ready to march; the muffled sound of breathing +could be heard; the square was full of that glistening shower of pale +sparks which bayonets give forth at night time. Above this abyss of +shadows rose up black and stark the Column of July. + +Proudhon resumed,-- + +"Listen. I come to give you a friendly warning. You are entertaining +illusions. The People are ensnared in this affair. They will not stir. +Bonaparte will carry them with him. This rubbish, the restitution of +universal suffrage, entraps the simpletons. Bonaparte passes for a +Socialist. He has said, 'I will be the Emperor of the Rabble.' It is a +piece of insolence. But insolence has a chance of success when it has +this at its service." + +And Proudhon pointed with his finger to the sinister gleam of the +bayonets. He continued,-- + +"Bonaparte has an object in view. The Republic has made the People. He +wishes to restore the Populace. He will succeed and you will fail. He +has on his side force, cannons, the mistake of the people, and the folly +of the Assembly. The few of the Left to which you belong will not +succeed in overthrowing the _coup d'état_. You are honest, and he has +this advantage over you--that he is a rogue. You have scruples, and he +has this advantage over you--that he has none. Believe me. Resist no +longer. The situation is without resources. We must wait; but at this +moment fighting would be madness. What do you hope for?" + +"Nothing," said I. + +"And what are you going to do?" + +"Everything." + +By the tone of my voice he understood that further persistence was +useless. + +"Good-bye," he said. + +We parted. He disappeared in the darkness. I have never seen him since. + +I went up again to Lafon's rooms. + +In the meantime the copies of the appeal to arms did not come to hand. +The Representatives, becoming uneasy, went up and downstairs. Some of +them went out on the Quai Jemmapes, to wait there and gain information +about them. In the room there was a sound of confused talking the +members of the Committee, Madier de Montjau, Jules Favre, and Carnot, +withdrew, and sent word to me by Charamaule that they were going to No. +10, Rue des Moulins, to the house of the ex-Constituent Landrin, in the +division of the 5th Legion, to deliberate more at their ease, and they +begged me to join them. But I thought I should do better to remain. I +had placed myself at the disposal of the probable movement of the +Faubourg St. Marceau. I awaited the notice of it through Auguste. It was +most important that I should not go too far away; besides, it was +possible that if I went away, the Representatives of the Left, no +longing seeing a member of the committee amongst them, would disperse +without taking any resolution, and I saw in this more than one +disadvantage. + +Time passed, no Proclamations. We learned the next day that the packages +had been seized by the police. Cournet, an ex-Republican naval officer +who was present, began to speak. We shall see presently what sort of a +man Cournet was, and of what an energetic and determined nature he was +composed. He represented to us that as we had been there nearly two +hours the police would certainly end by being informed of our +whereabouts, that the members of the Left had an imperative duty--to +keep themselves at all costs at the head of the People, that the +necessity itself of their situation imposed upon them the precaution of +frequently changing their place of retreat, and he ended by offering us, +for our deliberation, his house and his workshops, No. 82, Rue +Popincourt, at the bottom of a blind alley, and also in the neighborhood +of the Faubourg St. Antoine. + +This offer was accepted. I sent to inform Auguste of our change of +abode, and of Cournet's address. Lafon remained on the Quai Jemmapes in +order to forward on the Proclamations as soon as they arrived, and we +set out at once. + +Charamaule undertook to send to the Rue des Moulins to tell the other +members of the committee that we would wait for them at No. 82, Rue +Popincourt. + +We walked, as in the morning, in little separate groups. The Quai +Jemmapes skirts the left bank of the St. Martin Canal; we went up it. We +only met a few solitary workmen, who looked back when we had passed, and +stopped behind us with an air of astonishment. The night was dark. A few +drops of rain were falling. + +A little beyond the Rue de Chemin Vert we turned to the right and +reached the Rue Popincourt. There all was deserted, extinguished, +closed, and silent, as in the Faubourg St. Antoine. This street is of +great length. We walked for a long time; we passed by the barracks. +Cournet was no longer with us; he had remained behind to inform some of +his friends, and we were told to take defensive measures in case his +house was attacked. We looked for No. 82. The darkness was such that we +could not distinguish the numbers on the houses. At length, at the end +of the street, on the right, we saw a light; it was a grocer's shop, the +only one open throughout the street. One of us entered, and asked the +grocer, who was sitting behind his counter, to show us M. Cournet's +house. "Opposite," said the grocer, pointing to an old and low carriage +entrance which could be seen on the other side of the street, almost +facing his shop. + +We knocked at this door. It was opened. Baudin entered first, tapped at +the window of the porter's lodge, and asked "Monsieur Cournet?"--An old +woman's voice answered, "Here." + +The portress was in bed; all in the house sleeping. We went in. + +Having entered, and the gate being shut behind us, we found ourselves in +a little square courtyard which formed the centre of a sort of a +two-storied ruin; the silence of a convent prevailed, not a light was to +be seen at the windows; near a shed was seen a low entrance to a narrow, +dark, and winding staircase. "We have made some mistake," said +Charamaule; "it is impossible that it can be here." + +Meanwhile the portress, hearing all these trampling steps beneath her +doorway, had become wide awake, had lighted her lamp, and we could see +her in her lodge, her face pressed against the window, gazing with alarm +at sixty dark phantoms, motionless, and standing in her courtyard. + +Esquiros addressed her: "Is this really M. Cournet's house?" said he. + +"M. Cornet, without doubt," answered the good woman. + +All was explained. We had asked for Cournet, the grocer had understood +Cornet, the portress had understood Cornet. It chanced that M. Cornet +lived there. + +We shall see by and by what an extraordinary service chance had rendered +us. + +We went out, to the great relief of the poor portress, and we resumed +our search. Xavier Durrieu succeeded in ascertaining our whereabouts, +and extricated us from our difficulty. + +A few moments afterwards we turned to the left, and we entered into a +blind alley of considerable length and dimly lighted by an old oil +lamp--one of those with which Paris was formerly lighted--then again to +the left, and we entered through a narrow passage into a large courtyard +encumbered with sheds and building materials. This time we had reached +Cournet's. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +ONE FOOT IN THE TOMB + +Cournet was waiting for us. He received us on the ground floor, in a +parlor where there was a fire, a table, and some chairs; but the room +was so small that a quarter of us filled it to overflowing, and the +others remained in the courtyard. "It is impossible to deliberate here," +said Bancel. "I have a larger room on the first floor," answered +Cournet, "but it is a building in course of construction, which is not +yet furnished, and where there is no fire."--"What does it matter?" they +answered him. "Let us go up to the first floor." + +We went up to the first floor by a steep and narrow wooden staircase, +and we took possession of two rooms with very low ceilings, but of which +one was sufficiently large. The walls were whitewashed, and a few +straw-covered stools formed the whole of its furniture. + +They called out to me, "Preside." + +I sat down on one of the stools in the corner of the first room, with +the fire place on my right and on my left the door opening upon the +staircase. Baudin said to me, "I have a pencil and paper. I will act as +secretary to you." He sat down on a stool next to me. + +The Representatives and those present, amongst whom were several men in +blouses, remained standing, forming in front of Baudin and myself a sort +of square, backed by the two walls of the room opposite to us. This +crowd extended as far as the staircase. A lighted candle was placed on +the chimney-piece. + +A common spirit animated this meeting. The faces were pale, but in every +eye could be seen the same firm resolution. In all these shadows +glistened the same flame. Several simultaneously asked permission to +speak. I requested them to give their names to Baudin, who wrote them +down, and then passed me the list. + +The +first speaker was a workman. He began by apologizing for mingling with +the Representatives, he a stranger to the Assembly. The Representatives +interrupted him. "No, no," they said, "the People and Representatives +are all one! Speak--!" He declared that if he spoke it was in order to +clear from all suspicion the honor of his brethren, the workmen of +Paris; that he had heard some Representatives express doubt about them. +He asserted that this was unjust, that the workmen realized the whole +crime of M. Bonaparte and the whole duty of the People, that they would +not be deaf to the appeal of the Republican Representatives, and that +this would be clearly shown. He said all this, simply, with a sort of +proud shyness and of honest bluntness. He kept his word. I found him the +next day fighting on the Rambuteau barricade. + +Mathieu (de la Drôme) came in as the workman concluded. "I bring news," +he exclaimed. A profound silence ensued. + +As I have already said, we vaguely knew since the morning that the Right +were to have assembled, and that a certain number of our friends had +probably taken part in the meeting, and that was all. Mathieu (de la +Drôme) brought us the events of the day, the details of the arrests at +their own houses carried out without any obstacle, of the meeting which +had taken place at M. Daru's house and its rough treatment in the Rue +de Bourgogne, of the Representatives expelled from the Hall of the +Assembly, of the meanness of President Dupin, of the melting away of the +High Court, of the total inaction of the Council of State, of the sad +sitting held at the Mairie of the Tenth Arrondissement, of the Oudinot, +_fiasco_, of the decree of the deposition of the President, and of the +two hundred and twenty forcibly arrested and taken to the Quai d'Orsay. +He concluded in a manly style: "The duty of the Left was increasing +hourly. The morrow would probably prove decisive." He implored the +meeting to take this into consideration. + +A workman added a fact. He had happened in the morning to be in the Rue +de Grenelle during the passage of the arrested members of the Assembly; +he was there at the moment when one of the commanders of the Chasseurs +de Vincennes had uttered these words, "Now it is the turn of those +gentlemen--the Red Representatives. Let them look out for themselves!" + +One of the editors of the _Révolution_, Hennett de Kesler, who +afterwards became an intrepid exile, completed the information of +Mathieu (de la Drôme). He recounted the action taken by two members of +the Assembly with regard to the so-called Minister of the Interior, +Morny, and the answer of the said Morny: "If I find any of the +Representatives behind the barricades, I will have them shot to the last +man," and that other saying of the same witty vagabond respecting the +members taken to the Quai d'Orsay, "These are the last Representatives +who will be made prisoners." He told us that a placard was at that very +moment being printed which declared that "Any one who should be found at +a secret meeting would be immediately shot." The placard, in truth, +appeared the next morning. + +Baudin rose up. "The _coup d'état_ redoubles its rage," exclaimed he. +"Citizens, let us redouble our energy!" + +Suddenly a man in a blouse entered. He was out of breath. He had run +hard. He told us that he had just seen, and he repeated, had seen with +"his own eyes," in the Rue Popincourt, a regiment marching in silence, +and wending its way towards the blind alley of No. 82, that we were +surrounded, and that we were about to be attacked. He begged us to +disperse immediately. + +"Citizen Representatives," called out Cournet, "I have placed scouts in +the blind alley who will fall back and warn us if the regiment penetrates +thither. The door is narrow and will be barricaded in the twinkling of +an eye. We are here, with you, fifty armed and resolute men, and at the +first shot we shall be two hundred. We are provided with ammunition. You +can deliberate calmly." + +And as he concluded he raised his right arm, and from his sleeve fell +a large poniard, which he had concealed, and with the other hand he +rattled in his pocket the butts of a pair of pistols. + +"Very well," said I, "let us continue." + +Three of the youngest and most eloquent orators of the Left, Bancel, +Arnauld (de l'Ariége) and Victor Chauffour delivered their opinions in +succession. All three were imbued with this notion, that our appeal to +arms not having yet been placarded, the different incidents of the +Boulevarde du Temple and of the Café Bonvalet having brought about no +results, none of our decrees, owing to the repressive measures of +Bonaparte, having yet succeeded in appearing, while the events at the +Mairie of the Tenth Arrondissement began to be spread abroad through +Paris, it seemed as though the Right had commenced active resistance +before the Left. A generous rivalry for the public safety spurred them +on. It was delightful to them to know that a regiment ready to attack was +close by, within a few steps, and that perhaps in a few moments their +blood would flow. + +Moreover, advice abounded, and with advice, uncertainty. Some illusions +were still entertained. A workman, leaning close to me against the +fireplace, said in a low voice to one of his comrades that the People +must not be reckoned upon, and that if we fought "We should perpetrate a +madness." + +The incidents and events of the day had in some degree modified my +opinion as to the course to be followed in this grave crisis. The +silence of the crowd at the moment when Arnauld (de l'Ariége) and I had +apostrophized the troops, had destroyed the impression which a few hours +before the enthusiasm of the people on the Boulevard du Temple had left +with me. The hesitation of Auguste had impressed me, the Society of +Cabinet Makers appeared to shun us, the torpor of the Faubourg St. +Antoine was manifest, the inertness of the Faubourg St. Marceau was not +less so. I ought to have received notice from the engineer before eleven +o'clock, and eleven o'clock was past. Our hopes died away one after +another. Nevertheless, all the more reason, in my opinion, to astonish +and awaken Paris by an extraordinary spectacle, by a daring act of life +and collective power on the part of the Representatives of the Left, by +the daring of an immense devotion. + +It will be seen later on what a combination of accidental circumstances +prevented this idea from being realized as I then purposed. The +Representatives have done their whole duty. Providence perhaps has not +done all on its side. Be it as it may, supposing that we were not at +once carried off by some nocturnal and immediate combat, and that at the +hour at which I was speaking we had still a "to-morrow," I felt the +necessity of fixing every eye upon the course which should be adopted +on the day which was about to follow.--I spoke. + +I began by completely unveiling the situation. I painted the picture in +four words: the Constitution thrown into the gutter; the Assembly driven +to prison with the butt-end of a musket, the Council of State dispersed; +the High Court expelled by a galley-sergeant, a manifest beginning of +victory for Louis Bonaparte, Paris ensnared in the army as though in a +net; bewilderment everywhere, all authority overthrown; all compacts +annulled; two things only remained standing, the _coup d'état_ and +ourselves. + +"Ourselves! and who are we?" + +"We are," said I, "we are Truth and Justice! We are the supreme and +sovereign power, the People incarnate--Right!" + +I continued,-- + +"Louis Bonaparte at every minute which elapses advances a step further +in his crime. For him nothing is inviolable, nothing is sacred; this +morning he violated the Palace of the Representatives of the Nation, a +few hours later he laid violent hands on their persons; to-morrow, +perhaps in a few moments, he will shed their blood. Well then! he +marches upon us, let us march upon him. The danger grows greater, let us +grow greater with the danger." + +A movement of assent passed through the Assembly. I continued,-- + +"I repeat and insist. Let us show no mercy to this wretched Bonaparte +for any of the enormities which his outrage contains. As he has drawn +the wine--I should say the blood--he must drink it up. We are not +individuals, we are the Nation. Each of us walks forth clothed with the +Sovereignty of the people. He cannot strike our persons without rending +that. Let us compel his volleys to pierce our sashes as well as our +breasts. This man is on a road where logic grasps him and leads him to +parricide. What he is killing in this moment is the country! Well, then! +when the ball of Executive Power pierces the sash of Legislative Power, +it is visible parricide! It is this that must be understood!" + +"We are +quite ready!" they cried out. "What measures would you advise us to +adopt?" + +"No half measures," answered I; "a deed of grandeur! To-morrow--if we +leave here this night--let us all meet in the Faubourg St. Antoine." + +They interposed, "Why the Faubourg St. Antoine?" + +"Yes," resumed I, "the Faubourg St. Antoine! I cannot believe that the +heart of the People has ceased to beat there. Let us all meet to-morrow +in the Faubourg St. Antoine. Opposite the Lenoir Market there is a hall +which was used by a club in 1848." + +They cried out to me, "The Salle Roysin." + +"That is it," said I, "The Salle Roysin. We who remain free number a +hundred and twenty Republican Representatives. Let us install ourselves +in this hall. Let us install ourselves in the fulness and majesty of the +Legislative Power. Henceforward we are the Assembly, the whole of the +Assembly! Let us sit there, deliberate there, in our official sashes, +in the midst of the People. Let us summon the Faubourg St. Antoine to +its duty, let us shelter there the National Representation, let us +shelter there the popular sovereignty. Let us intrust the People to the +keeping of the People. Let us adjure them to protect themselves. If +necessary, let us order them!" + +A voice interrupted me: "You cannot give orders to the People!" + +"Yes!" I cried, "When it is a question of public safety, of the universal +safety, when it is a question of the future of every European +nationality, when it is a question of defending the Republic, Liberty, +Civilization, the Revolution, we have the right--we, the Representatives +of the entire nation--to give, in the name of the French people, orders +to the people of Paris! Let us, therefore, meet to-morrow at this Salle +Roysin; but at what time? Not too early in the morning. In broad day. It +is necessary that the shops should be open, that people should be coming +and going, that the population should be moving about, that there should +be plenty of people in the streets, that they should see us, that they +should recognize us, that the grandeur of our example should strike every +eye and stir every heart. Let us all be there between nine and ten +o'clock in the morning. If we cannot obtain the Salle Roysin we will take +the first church at hand, a stable, a shed, some enclosure where we can +deliberate; at need, as Michel de Bourges has said, we will hold our +sittings in a square bounded by four barricades. But provisionally I +suggest the Salle Roysin. Do not forget that in such a crisis there must +be no vacuum before the nation. That alarms it. There must be a +government somewhere, and it must be known. The rebellion at the Elysée, +the Government at the Faubourg St. Antoine; the Left the Government, the +Faubourg St. Antoine the citadel; such are the ideas which from to-morrow +we must impress upon the mind of Paris. To the Salle Roysin, then! Thence +in the midst of the dauntless throng of workmen of that great district of +Paris, enclosed in the Faubourg as in a fortress, being both Legislators +and Generals, multiplying and inventing means of defence and of attack, +launching Proclamations and unearthing the pavements, employing the women +in writing out placards while the men are fighting, we will issue a +warrant against Louis Bonaparte, we will issue warrants against his +accomplices, we will declare the military chiefs traitors, we will outlaw +in a body all the crime and all the criminals, we will summon the +citizens to arms, we will recall the army to duty, we will rise up before +Louis Bonaparte, terrible as the living Republic, we will fight on the +one hand with the power of the Law, and on the other with the power of +the People, we will overwhelm this miserable rebel, and will rise up +above his head both as a great Lawful Power and a great Revolutionary +Power!" + +While speaking I became intoxicated with my own ideas. My enthusiasm +communicated itself to the meeting. They cheered me. I saw that I was +becoming somewhat too hopeful, that I allowed myself to be carried away, +and that I carried them away, that I presented to them success as +possible, as even easy, at a moment when it was important that no one +should entertain an illusion. The truth was gloomy, and it was my duty +to tell it. I let silence be re-established, and I signed with my hand +that I had a last word to say. I then resumed, lowering my voice,-- + +"Listen, calculate carefully what you are doing. On one side a hundred +thousand men, seventeen harnessed batteries, six thousand cannon-mouths +in the forts, magazines, arsenals, ammunition sufficient to carry out a +Russian campaign; on the other a hundred and twenty Representatives, a +thousand or twelve hundred patriots, six hundred muskets, two cartridges +per man, not a drum to beat to arms, not a bell to sound the tocsin, not +a printing office to print a Proclamation; barely here and there a +lithographic press, and a cellar where a hand-bill can be hurriedly and +furtively printed with the brush; the penalty of death against any one +who unearths a paving stone, penalty of death against any one who would +enlist in our ranks, penalty of death against any one who is found in a +secret meeting, penalty of death against any one who shall post up an +appeal to arms; if you are taken during the combat, death; if you are +taken after the combat, transportation or exile; on the one side an army +and a Crime; on the other a handful of men and Right. Such is this +struggle. Do you accept it?" + +A unanimous shout answered me, "Yes! yes!" + +This shout did not come from the mouths, it came from the souls. Baudin, +still seated next to me, pressed my hand in silence. + +It was settled therefore at once that they should meet again on the next +day, Wednesday, between nine and ten in the morning, at the Salle Roysin, +that they should arrive singly or by little separate groups, and that +they should let those who were absent know of this rendezvous. This +done, there remained nothing more but to separate. It was about +midnight. + +One of Cournet's scouts entered. "Citizen Representatives," he said, +"the regiment is no longer there. The street is free." + +The regiment, which had probably come from the Popincourt barracks close +at hand, had occupied the street opposite the blind alley for more than +half an hour, and then had returned to the barracks. Had they judged the +attack inopportune or dangerous at night in that narrow blind alley, and +in the centre of this formidable Popincourt district, where the +insurrection had so long held its own in June, 1848? It appeared certain +that the soldiers had searched several houses in the neighborhood. +According to details which we learned subsequently, we were followed +after leaving No. 2, Quai Jemmapes, by an agent of police, who saw us +enter the house where a M. Cornet was lodging, and who at once proceeded +to the Prefecture to denounce our place of refuge to his chiefs. The +regiment sent to arrest us surrounded the house, ransacked it from attic +to cellar, found nothing, and went away. + +This quasi-synonym of Cornet and Cournet lead misled the bloodhounds of +the _coup d'état_. Chance, we see, had interposed usefully in our +affairs. + +I was talking at the door with Baudin, and we were making some last +arrangements, when a young man with a chestnut beard, dressed like a man +of fashion, and possessing all the manners of one, and whom I had +noticed while speaking, came up to me. + +"Monsieur Victor Hugo," said he, "where are you going to sleep?" + +Up to that moment I had not thought of this. + +It was far from prudent to go home. + +"In truth," I answered, "I have not the least idea." + +"Will you come to my house?" + +"I shall be very happy." + +He told me his mane. It was M. de la R----. He knew my brother Abel's +wife and family, the Montferriers, relations of the Chambacères, and he +lived in the Rue Caumartin. He had been a Prefect under the Provisional +Government. There was a carriage in waiting. We got in, and as Baudin +told me that he would pass the night at Cournet's, I gave him the +address of M. do la R----, so that he could send for me if any notice of +the movement came from the Faubourg St. Marceau or elsewhere. But I +hoped for nothing more that night, and I was right. + +About a quarter of an hour after the separation of the Representatives, +and after we had left the Rue Popincourt, Jules Favre, Madier de +Montajau, de Flotte, and Carnot, to whom we had sent word to the Rue des +Moulins, arrived at Cournet's, accompanied by Schoelcher, by Charamaule, +by Aubry (du Nord), and by Bastide. Some Representatives were still +remaining at Cournet's. Several, like Baudin, were going to pass the +night there. They told our colleagues what had been settled respecting +my proposition, and of the rendezvous at the Salle Roysin; only it +appears that there was some doubt regarding the hour agreed upon, and +that Baudin in particular did not exactly remember it, and that our +colleagues believed that the rendezvous, which had been fixed for nine +o'clock in the morning, was fixed for eight. + +This alteration in the hour, due to the treachery of memory for which no +one can be blamed, prevented the realization of the plan which I had +conceived of an Assembly holding its sittings in the Faubourg, and +giving battle to Louis Bonaparte, but gave us as a compensation the +heroic exploits of the Ste. Marguerite barricade. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +THE BURIAL OF A GREAT ANNIVERSARY + +Such was the first day. Let us look at it steadfastly. It deserves it. +It is the anniversary of Austerlitz; the Nephew commemorates the Uncle. +Austerlitz is the most brilliant battle of history; the Nephew set +himself this problem--how to commit a baseness equal to this +magnificence. He succeeded. + +This first day, which will be followed by others, is already complete. +Everything is there. It is the most terrible attempt at a thrust +backwards that has ever been essayed. Never has such a crumbling of +civilization been seen. All that formed the edifice is now in ruin; the +soil is strewn with the fragments. In one night the inviolability of the +Law, the Right of the Citizen, the Dignity of the Judge, and the Honor +of the Soldier have disappeared. Terrible substitutions have taken +place; there was the oath, there is pergury; there was the flag, there +is a rag; there was the Army, there is a band of brigands; there was +Justice, there is treason; there was a code of laws, there is the sabre; +there was a Government, there is a crew of swindlers; there was France, +there is a den of thieves. This called itself Society Saved. + +It is the rescue of the traveller by the highwayman. + +France was passing by, Bonaparte cried, "Stand and deliver!" + +The hypocrisy which has preceded the Crime, equals in deformity the +impudence which has followed it. The nation was trustful and calm. There +was a sudden and cynical shock. History has recorded nothing equal to the +Second of December. Here there was no glory, nothing but meanness. No +deceptive picture. He could have declared himself honest; He declares +himself infamous; nothing more simple. This day, almost unintelligible in +its success, has proved that Politics possess their obscene side. Louis +Bonaparte has shown himself unmasked. + +Yesterday President of the Republic, to-day a scavenger. He has sworn, +he still swears: but the tone has changed. The oath has become an +imprecation. Yesterday he called himself a maiden, to-day he becomes a +brazen woman, and laughs at his dupes. Picture to yourself Joan of Arc +confessing herself to be Messalina. Such is the Second of December. + +Women are mixed up in this treason. It is an outrage which savors both +of the boudoir and of the galleys. There wafts across the fetidness of +blood an undefined scent of patchouli. The accomplices of this act of +brigandage are most agreeable men--Romieu, Morny. Getting into debt +leads one to commit crimes. + +Europe was astounded. It was a thunder bolt from a thief. It must be +acknowledged that thunder can fall into bad hands, Palmerston, that +traitor, approved of it. Old Metternich, a dreamer in his villa at +Rennweg, shook his head. As to Soult, the man of Austerlitz after +Napoleon, he did what he ought to do, on the very day of the Crime he +died, Alas! and Austerlitz also. + + + + +THE SECOND DAY--THE STRUGGLE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +THEY COME TO ARREST ME + +In order to reach the Rue Caumartin from the Rue Popincourt, all Paris +has to be crossed. We found a great apparent calm everywhere. It was one +o'clock in the morning when we reached M. de la R----'s house. The +_fiacre_ stopped near a grated door, which M. de la R---- opened with a +latch-key; on the right, under the archway, a staircase ascended to the +first floor of a solitary detached building which M. de la R---- +inhabited, and into which he led me. + +We entered a little drawing-room very richly furnished, lighted with a +night-lamp, and separated from the bedroom by a tapestry curtain +two-thirds drown. M. de la R---- went into the bedroom, and a few minutes +afterwards came back again, accompanied by a charming woman, pale and +fair, in a dressing-gown, her hair down, handsome, fresh, bewildered, +gentle nevertheless, and looking at me with that alarm which in a young +face confers an additional grace. Madame de la R---- had just been +awakened by her husband. She remained a moment on the threshold of her +chamber, smiling, half asleep, greatly astonished, somewhat frightened, +looking by turns at her husband and at me, never having dreamed perhaps +what civil war really meant, and seeing it enter abruptly into her rooms +in the middle of the night under this disquieting form of an unknown +person who asks for a refuge. + +I made Madame de la R---- a thousand apologies, which she received with +perfect kindness, and the charming woman profited by the incident to go +and caress a pretty little girl of two years old who was sleeping at the +end of the room in her cot, and the child whom she kissed caused her to +forgive the refugee who had awakened her. + +While chatting M. de la R---- lighted a capital fire in the grate, and +his wife, with a pillow and cushions, a hooded cloak belonging to him, +and a pelisse belonging to herself, improvised opposite the fire a bed +on a sofa, somewhat short, and which we lengthened by means of an +arm-chair. + +During the deliberation in the Rue Popincourt, at which I had just +presided, Baudin had lent me his pencil to jot down some names. I still +had this pencil with me. I made use of it to write a letter to my wife, +which Madame de la R---- undertook to convey herself to Madame Victor +Hugo the next day. While emptying my pockets I found a box for the +"Italiens," which I offered to Madame de la R----. On that evening +(Tuesday, December 2d) they were to play _Hernani_. + +I looked at that cot, these two handsome, happy young people, and at +myself, my disordered hair and clothes, my boots covered with mud, +gloomy thoughts in my mind, and I felt like an owl in a nest of +nightingales. + +A few moments afterwards M. and Madame de la R---- had disappeared into +their bedroom, and the half-opened curtain was closed. I stretched +myself, fully dressed as I was, upon the sofa, and this gentle nest +disturbed by me subsided into its graceful silence. + +One can sleep on the eve of a battle between two armies, but on the eve +of a battle between citizens there can be no sleep. I counted each hour +as it sounded from a neighboring church; throughout the night there +passed down the street, which was beneath the windows of the room where I +was lying, carriages which were fleeing from Paris. They succeeded each +other rapidly and hurriedly, one might have imagined it was the exit from +a ball. Not being able to sleep, I got up. I had slightly parted the +muslin curtains of a window, and I tried to look outside; the darkness +was complete. No stars, clouds were flying by with the turbulent violence +of a winter night. A melancholy wind howled. This wind of clouds +resembled the wind of events. + +I watched the sleeping baby. I waited for dawn. It came. M. de la R---- +had explained at my request in what manner I could go out without +disturbing any one. I kissed the child's forehead, and left the room. I +went downstairs, closing the doors behind me as gently as I could, so +not to wake Madame de la R----. I opened the iron door and went out into +the street. It was deserted, the shops were still shut, and a milkwoman, +with her donkey by her side, was quietly arranging her cans on the +pavement. + +I have not seen M. de la R---- again. I learned since that he wrote to +me in my exile, and that his letter was intercepted. He has, I believe, +quitted France. May this touching page convey to him my kind +remembrances. + +The Rue Caumartin leads into the Rue St. Lazare. I went towards it. It +was broad daylight. At every moment I was overtaken and passed by +_fiacres_ laden with trunks and packages, which were hastening towards +the Havre railway station. Passers-by began to appear. Some baggage +trains were mounting the Rue St. Lazare at the same time as myself. +Opposite No. 42, formerly inhabited by Mdlle. Mars, I saw a new bill +posted on the wall. I went up to it, I recognized the type of the +National Printing Office, and I read, + + "COMPOSITION OF THE NEW MINISTRY. + + "_Interior_ --M. de Morny. + "_War_ --The General of Division St. Arnaud. + "_Foreign Affairs_ --M. de Turgot. + "_Justice_ --M. Rouher. + "_Finance_ --M. Fould. + "_Marine_ --M. Ducos. + "_Public Works_ --M. Magne. + "_Public Instruction_ --M.H. Fortuol. + "_Commerce_ --M. Lefebre-Duruflé." + +I tore down the bill, and threw it into the gutter! The soldiers of the +party who were leading the wagons watched me do it, and went their way. + +In the Rue St. Georges, near a side-door, there was another bill. It was +the "Appeal to the People." Some persons were reading it. I tore it +down, notwithstanding the resistance of the porter, who appeared to me +to be entrusted with the duty of protecting it. + +As I passed by the Place Bréda some _fiacres_ had already arrived there. +I took one. I was near home, the temptation was too great, I went there. +On seeing me cross the courtyard the porter looked at me with a +stupefied air. I rang the bell. My servant, Isidore, opened the door, +and exclaimed with a great cry, "Ah! it is you, sir! They came during +the night to arrest you." I went into my wife's room. She was in bed, +but not asleep, and she told me what had happened. + +She had gone to bed at eleven o'clock. Towards half-past twelve, during +that species of drowsiness which resembles sleeplessness, she heard +men's voices. It seemed to her that Isidore was speaking to some one in +the antechamber. At first she did not take any notice, and tried to go +to sleep again, but the noise of voices continued. She sat up, and rang +the bell. + +Isidore came in. She asked him, + +"Is any one there?" + +"Yes, madame." + +"Who is it?" + +"A man who wishes to speak to master." + +"Your master is out." + +"That is what I have told him, madame." + +"Well, is not the gentleman going?" + +"No, madame, he says that he urgently needs to speak to Monsieur Victor +Hugo, and that he will wait for him." + +Isidore had stopped on the threshold of the bedroom. While he spoke a +fat, fresh-looking man in an overcoat, under which could be seen a black +coat, appeared at the door behind him. + +Madame Victor Hugo noticed this man, who was silently listening. + +"Is it you, sir, who wish to speak to Monsieur Victor Hugo?" + +"Yes, madame." + +"But what is it about? Is it regarding politics?" + +The man did not answer. + +"As to politics," continued my wife, "what is happening?" + +"I believe, madame, that all is at an end." + +"In what sense?" + +"In the sense of the President." + +My wife looked fixedly at the man, and said to him,-- + +"You have come to arrest my husband, sir." + +"It is true, madame," answered the man, opening his overcoat, which +revealed the sash of a Commissary of Police. + +He added after a pause, "I am a Commissary of Police, and I am the +bearer of a warrant to arrest M. Victor Hugo. I must institute a search +and look through the house." + +"What is your name, sir?" asked Madame Victor Hugo. + +"My name is Hivert." + +"You know the terms of the Constitution?" + +"Yes, madam." + +"You know that the Representatives of the People are inviolable!" + +"Yes, madame." + +"Very well, sir," she said coldly, "you know that you are committing a +crime. Days like this have a to-morrow; proceed." + +The Sieur Hivert attempted a few words of explanation, or we should +rather say justification; he muttered the word "conscience," he +stammered the word "honor." Madame Victor Hugo, who had been calm until +then, could not help interrupting him with some abruptness. + +"Do your business, sir, and do not argue; you know that every official +who lays a hand on a Representative of the People commits an act of +treason. You know that in presence of the Representatives the President +is only an official like the others, the chief charged with carrying out +their orders. You dare to come to arrest a Representative in his own +home like a criminal! There is in truth a criminal here who ought to be +arrested--yourself!" + +The Sieur Hivert looked sheepish and left the room, and through the +half-open door my wife could see, behind the well-fed, well-clothed, +and bald Commissary, seven or eight poor raw-boned devils, wearing dirty +coats which reached to their feet, and shocking old hats jammed down over +their eyes--wolves led by a dog. They examined the room, opened here and +there a few cupboards, and went away--with a sorrowful air--as Isidore +said to me. + +The Commissary Hivert, above all, hung his head; he raised it, however, +for one moment. Isidore, indignant at seeing these men thus hunt for his +master in every corner, ventured to defy them. He opened a drawer and +said, "Look and see if he is not in here!" The Commissary of Police +darted a furious glance at him: "Lackey, take care!" The lackey was +himself. + +These men having gone, it was noticed that several of my papers were +missing. Fragments of manuscripts had been stolen, amongst others one +dated July, 1848, and directed against the military dictatorship of +Cavaignac, and in which there were verses written respecting the +Censorship, the councils of war, and the suppression of the newspapers, +and in particular respecting the imprisonment of a great journalist--Emile +de Girardin:-- + + "... O honte, un lansquenet + Gauche, et parodiant César dont il hérite, + Gouverne les esprits du fond de sa guérite!" + +These manuscripts are lost. + +The police might come back at any moment, in fact they did come back a +few minutes after I had left. I kissed my wife; I would not wake my +daughter, who had just fallen asleep, and I went downstairs again. Some +affrighted neighbors were waiting for me in the courtyard. I cried out +to them laughingly, "Not caught yet!" + +A quarter of an hour afterwards I reached No. 10, Rue des Moulins. It +was not then eight o'clock in the morning, and thinking that my +colleagues of the Committee of Insurrection had passed the night there, +I thought it might be useful to go and fetch them, so that we might +proceed all together to the Salle Roysin. + +I found only Madame Landrin in the Rue des Moulins. It was thought that +the house was denounced and watched, and my colleagues had changed their +quarters to No. 7, Rue Villedo, the house of the ex-Constituent Leblond, +legal adviser to the Workmen's Association. Jules Favre had passed the +night there. Madame Landrin was breakfasting. She offered me a place by +her side, but time pressed. I carried off a morsel of bread, and left. + +At No. 7, Rue Villedo, the maid-servant who opened the door to me +ushered me into a room where were Carnot, Michel de Bourges, Jules +Favre, and the master of the house, our former colleague, Constituent +Leblond. + +"I have a carriage downstairs," I said to them; "the rendezvous is at +the Salle Roysin in the Faubourg St. Antoine; let us go." + +This, however, was not their opinion. According to them the attempts +made on the previous evening in the Faubourg St. Antoine had revealed +this portion of the situation; they sufficed; it was useless to persist; +it was obvious that the working-class districts would not rise; we must +turn to the side of the tradesmen's districts, renounce our attempt to +rouse the extremities of the city, and agitate the centre. We were the +Committee of Resistance, the soul of the insurrection; if we were to go +to the Faubourg St. Antoine, which was occupied by a considerable force, +we should give ourselves up to Louis Bonaparte. They reminded me of what +I myself had said on the subject the previous evening in the Rue +Blanche. We must immediately organize the insurrection against the _coup +d'état_ and organize it in practicable districts, that is to say, in the +old labyrinths of the streets St. Denis and St. Martin; we must draw up +proclamations, prepare decrees, create some method of publicity; they +were waiting for important communications from Workmen's Associations +and Secret Societies. The great blow which I wished to strike by our +solemn meeting at the Salle Roysin would prove a failure; they thought +it their duty to remain where they were; and the Committee being few in +number, and the work to be done being enormous, they begged me not to +leave them. + +They were men of great hearts and great courage who spoke to me; they +were evidently right; but for myself I could not fail to go to the +rendezvous which I myself had fixed. All the reasons which they had +given me were good, nevertheless I could have opposed some doubts, but +the discussion would have taken too much time, and the hour drew nigh. +I did not make any objections, and I went out of the room, making some +excuse. My hat was in the antechamber, my _fiacre_ was waiting for me, +and I drove off to the Faubourg St. Antoine. + +The centre of Paris seemed to have retained its everyday appearance. +People came and went, bought and sold, chatted and laughed as usual. In +the Rue Montorgueil I heard a street organ. Only on nearing the Faubourg +St. Antoine the phenomenon which I had already noticed on the previous +evening became more and more apparent; solitude reigned, and a certain +dreary peacefulness. + +We reached the Place de la Bastille. + +My driver stopped. + +"Go on," I said to him. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +FROM THE BASTILLE TO THE RUE DE COTTE + +The Place de la Bastille was at the same time empty and filled. Three +regiments in battle array were there; not one passer-by. + +Four harnessed batteries were drawn up at the foot of the column. Here +and there knots of officers talked together in a low voice,--sinister +men. + +One of these groups, the principal, attracted my attention. That one +was silent, there was no talking. There were several men on horseback; +one in front of the others, in a general's uniform, with a hat +surmounted with black feathers, behind this man were two colonels, and +behind the colonels a party of _aides-de-camp_ and staff officers. +This lace-trimmed company remained immovable, and as though pointing +like a dog between the column and the entrance to the Faubourg. At a +short distance from this group, spread out, and occupying the whole of +the square, were the regiments drawn up and the cannon in their +batteries. + +"My driver again stopped. + +"Go on," I said; "drive into the Faubourg." + +"But they will prevent us, sir." + +"We shall see." + +The truth was that they did not prevent us. + +The driver continued on his way, but hesitatingly, and at a walking +pace. The appearance of a _fiacre_ in the square had caused some +surprise, and the inhabitants began to come out of their houses. Several +came up to my carriage. + +We passed by a group of men with huge epaulets. These men, whose tactics +we understood later on, did not even appear to see us. + +The emotion which I had felt on the previous day before a regiment of +cuirassiers again seized me. To see before me the assassins of the +country, at a few steps, standing upright, in the insolence of a +peaceful triumph, was beyond my strength: I could not contain myself. I +drew out my sash. I held it in my hand, and putting my arm and head out +of the window of the _fiacre_, and shaking the sash, I shouted,-- + +"Soldiers! Look at this sash. It is the symbol of Law, it is the +National Assembly visible. Where there this sash is there is Right. +Well, then, this is what Right commands you. You are being deceived. Go +back to your duty. It is a Representative of the People who is speaking +to you, and he who represents the People represents the army. Soldiers, +before becoming soldiers you have been peasants, you have been workmen, +you have been and you are still citizens. Citizens, listen to me when I +speak to you. The Law alone has the right to command you. Well, to-day +the law is violated. By whom? By you. Louis Bonaparte draws you into a +crime. Soldiers, you who are Honor, listen to me, for I am Duty. +Soldiers, Louis Bonaparte assassinates the Republic. Defend it. Louis +Bonaparte is a bandit; all his accomplices will follow him to the +galleys. They are there already. He who is worthy of the galleys is in +the galleys. To merit fetters is to wear them. Look at that man who is +at your head, and who dares to command you. You take him for a general, +he is a convict." + +The soldiers seemed petrified. + +Some one who was there (I thank his generous, devoted spirit) touched my +arm, and whispered in my ear, "You will get yourself shot." + +But I did not heed, and I listened to nothing. I continued, still waving +my sash,--"You, who are there, dressed up like a general, it is you to +whom I speak, sir. You know who I am, I am a Representative of the +People, and I know who you are. I have told you you are a criminal. +Now, do you wish to know my name? This is it." + +And I called out my name to him. + +And I added,-- + +"Now tell me yours." + +He did not answer. + +I continued,-- + +"Very well, I do not want to know your name as a general, I shall know +your number as a galley slave." + +The man in the general's uniform hung his head, the others were silent. +I could read all their looks, however, although they did not raise their +eyes. I saw them cast down, and I felt that they were furious. I had an +overwhelming contempt for them, and I passed on. + +What was the name of this general? I did not know then, and I do not +know now. + +One of the apologies for the _coup d'état_ in relating this incident, +and characterizing it as "an insensate and culpable provocation," states +that "the moderation shown by the military leaders on this occasion did +honor to General ----:" We leave to the author of this panegyric the +responsibility of that name and of this eulogium. + +I entered the Rue de Faubourg St. Antoine. + +My driver, who now knew my name, hesitated no longer, and whipped up his +horse. These Paris coachmen are a brave and intelligent race. + +As I passed the first shops of the main street nine o'clock sounded from +the Church St. Paul. + +"Good," I said to myself, "I am in time." + +The Faubourg presented an extraordinary aspect. The entrance was +guarded, but not closed, by two companies of infantry. Two other +companies were drawn up in echelons farther on, at short distances, +occupying the street, but leaving a free passage. The shops, which were +open at the end of the Faubourg, were half closed a hundred yards +farther up. The inhabitants, amongst whom I noticed numerous workmen in +blouses, were talking together at their doors, and watching the +proceedings. I noticed at each step the placards of the _coup d'état_ +untouched. + +Beyond the fountain which stands at the corner of the Rue de +Charonne the shops were closed. Two lines of soldiers extended on +either side of the street of the Faubourg on the kerb of the pavement; +the soldiers were stationed at every five paces, with the butts of their +muskets resting on their hips, their chests drawn in, their right hand +on the trigger, ready to bring to the present, keeping silence in the +attitude of expectation. From that point a piece of cannon was stationed +at the mouth of each of the side streets which open out of the main road +of the Faubourg. Occasionally there was a mortar. To obtain a clear idea +of this military arrangement one must imagine two rosaries, extending +along the two sides of the Faubourg St. Antoine, of which the soldiers +should form the links and the cannon the beads. + +Meanwhile my driver became uneasy. He turned round to me and said, "It +looks as though we should find barricades out there, sir; shall we turn +back?" + +"Keep on," I replied. + +He continued to drive straight on. + +Suddenly it became impossible to do so. A company of infantry ranged +three deep occupied the whole of the street from one pavement to the +other. On the right there was a small street. I said to the driver,-- + +"Take that turning." + +He turned to the right and then to the left. We turned into a labyrinth +of streets. + +Suddenly I heard a shot. + +The driver asked me,-- + +"Which way are we to go, sir?" + +"In the direction in which you hear the shots." + +We were in a narrow street; on my left I saw the inscription above a +door, "Grand Lavoir," and on my right a square with a central building, +which looked like a market. The square and the street were deserted. I +asked the driver,-- + +"What street are we in?" + +"In the Rue de Cotte." + +"Where is the Café Roysin?" + +"Straight before us." + +"Drive there." + +He drove on, but slowly. There was another explosion, this time close by +us, the end of the street became filled with smoke; at the moment we +were passing No. 22, which has a side-door above which I +read, "Petit Lavoir." + +Suddenly a voice called out to the driver, "Stop!" + +The driver pulled up, and the window of the _fiacre_ being down, a hand +was stretched towards mine. I recognized Alexander Rey. + +This daring man was pale. + +"Go no further," said he; "all is at an end." + +"What do you mean, all at an end?" + +"Yes, they must have anticipated the time appointed; the barricade is +taken: I have just come from it. It is a few steps from here straight +before us." + +And he added,-- + +"Baudin is killed." + +The smoke rolled away from the end of the street. + +"Look," said Alexander Rey to me. + +I saw, a hundred steps before us, at the junction of the Rue de Cotte +and the Rue Ste. Marguerite, a low barricade which the soldiers were +pulling down. A corpse was being borne away. + +It was Baudin. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +THE ST. ANTOINE BARRICADE + +This is what had happened. + +During that same night, and as early as four o'clock in the morning, De +Flotte was in the Faubourg St. Antoine. He was anxious, in case any +movement took place before daylight, that a Representative of the People +should be present, and he was one of those who, when the glorious +insurrection of Right should burst forth, wished to unearth the +paving-stones for the first barricade. + +But nothing was stirring. De Flotte, alone in the midst of this deserted +and sleeping Faubourg, wandered from street to street throughout the +night. + +Day breaks late in December. Before the first streaks of dawn De Flotte +was at the rendezvous opposite the Lenoir Market. + +This spot was only weakly guarded. The only troops in the neighborhood +were the post itself of the Lenoir Market, and another post at a short +distance which occupied the guard-house at the corner of the Faubourg and +the Rue de Montreuil, close to the old Tree of Liberty planted in 1793 by +Santerre. Neither of these posts were commanded by officers. + +De Flotte reconnoitred the position. He walked some time up and down the +pavement, and then seeing no one coming as yet, and fearing to excite +attention, he went away, and returned to the side-streets of the +Faubourg. + +For his part Aubry (du Nord) got up at five o'clock. Having gone home in +the middle of the night, on his return from the Rue Popincourt, he had +only taken three hours' rest. His porter told him that some suspicious +persons had inquired for him during the evening of the 2d, and that they +had been to the house opposite, No. 12 of the same street, Rue Racine, +to arrest Huguenin. This determined Aubry to leave his house before +daylight. + +He walked to the Faubourg St. Antoine. As he reached the place of +rendezvous he met Cournet and the others from the Rue Popincourt. They +were almost immediately joined by Malardier. + +It was dawn. The Faubourg was solitary. They walked along wrapt in +thought and speaking in a low voice. Suddenly an impetuous and singular +procession passed them. + +They looked round. It was a detachment of Lancers which surrounded +something which in the dim light they recognized to be a police-van. The +vehicle rolled noiselessly along the macadamized road. + +They were debating what this could mean, when a second and similar group +appeared, then a third, and then a fourth. Ten police vans passed in +this manner, following each other very closely, and almost touching. + +"Those are our colleagues!" exclaimed Aubry (du Nord). + +In truth the last batch of the Representatives, prisoners of the Quai +d'Orsay, the batch destined for Vincennes, was passing through the +Faubourg. It was about seven o'clock in the morning. Some shops were +being opened and were lighted inside, and a few passers-by came out of +the houses. + +Three carriages defiled one after the other, closed, guarded, dreary, +dumb; no voice came out, no cry, no whisper. They were carrying off in +the midst of swords, of sabres, and of lances, with the rapidity and +fury of the whirlwind, something which kept silence; and that something +which they were carrying off, and which maintained this sinister +silence, was the broken Tribune, the Sovereignty of the Assemblies, the +supreme initiative whence all civilization is derived; it was the word +which contains the future of the world, it was the speech of France! + +A last carriage arrived, which by some chance had been delayed. It was +about two or three hundred yards behind the principal convoy, and was +only escorted by three Lancers. It was not a police-van, it was an +omnibus, the only one in the convoy. Behind the conductor, who was a +police agent, there could distinctly be seen the Representatives heaped +up in the interior. It seemed easy to rescue them. + +Cournet appealed to the passers-by; "Citizens," he cried, "these are +your Representatives, who are being carried off! You have just seen +them pass in the vans of convicts! Bonaparte arrests them contrary to +every law. Let us rescue them! To arms!" + +A knot formed of men in blouses and of workmen going to work. A shout +came from the knot, "Long live the Republic!" and some men rushed +towards the vehicle. The carriage and the Lancers broke into a gallop. + +"To arms!" repeated Cournet. + +"To arms!" repeated the men of the people. + +There was a moment of impulse. Who knows what might have happened? It +would have been a singular accident if the first barricade against the +_coup d'état_ had been made with this omnibus, which, after having aided +in the crime, would this have aided in the punishment. But at the moment +when the people threw themselves on the vehicle they saw several of the +Representative-prisoners which it contained sign to them with both hands +to refrain. "Eh!" said a workman, "they do not wish it!" + +A second repeated, "They do not wish for liberty!" + +Another added, "They did not wish us to have it, they do not wish it for +themselves." + +All was said, and the omnibus was allowed to pass on. A moment +afterwards the rear-guard of the escort came up and passed by at a sharp +trots and the group which surrounded Aubry (du Nord), Malardier, and +Cournet dispersed. + +The Café Roysin had just opened. It may be remembered that the large +hall of this _café_ had served for the meeting of a famous club in 1848. +It was there, it may also be remembered, that the rendezvous had been +settled. + +The Café Roysin is entered by a passage opening out upon the street, a +lobby of some yards in length is next crossed, and then comes a large +hall, with high windows, and looking-glasses on the walls, containing in +the centre several billiard-tables, some small marble-topped tables, +chairs, and velvet-covered benches. It was this hall, badly arranged, +however, for a meeting where we could have deliberated, which had been +the hall of the Roysin Club. Cournet, Aubry, and Malardier installed +themselves there. On entering they did not disguise who they were; they +were welcomed, and shown an exit through the garden in case of +necessity. + +De Flotte had just joined them. + +Eight o'clock was striking when the Representatives began to arrive. +Bruckner, Maigne, and Brillier first, and then successively Charamaule, +Cassal, Dulac, Bourzat, Madier de Montjau, and Baudin. Bourzat, on +account of the mud, as was his custom, wore wooden shoes. Whoever +thought Bourzat a peasant would be mistaken. He rather resembled a +Benedictine monk. Bourzat, with his southern imagination, his quick +intelligence, keen, lettered, refined, possesses an encyclopedia in his +head, and wooden shoes on his feet. Why not? He is Mind and People. The +ex-Constituent Bastide came in with Madier de Montjau. Baudin shook the +hands of all with warmth, but he did not speak. He was pensive. "What is +the matter with you, Baudin?" asked Aubry (du Nord). "Are you mournful?" +"I?" said Baudin, raising his head, "I have never been more happy." + +Did he feel himself already chosen? When we are so near death, all +radiant with glory, which smiles upon us through the gloom, perhaps we +are conscious of it. + +A certain number of men, strangers to the Assembly, all as determined as +the Representatives themselves, accompanied them and surrounded them. + +Cournet was the leader. Amongst them there were workmen, but no blouses. +In order not to alarm the middle classes the workmen had been +requested, notably those employed by Derosne and Cail, to come in coats. + +Baudin had with him a copy of the Proclamation which I had dictated to +him on the previous day. Cournet unfolded it and read it. "Let us at +once post it up in the Faubourg," said he. "The People must know that +Louis Bonaparte is outlawed." A lithographic workman who was there +offered to print it without delay. All the Representatives present +signed it, and they added my name to their signatures. Aubry (du Nord) +headed it with these words, "National Assembly." The workman carried off +the Proclamation, and kept his word. Some hours afterwards Aubry (du +Nord), and later on a friend of Cournet's named Gay, met him in the +Faubourg du Temple paste-pot in hand, posting the Proclamation at every +street corner, even next to the Maupas placard, which threatened the +penalty of death to any one who should be found posting an appeal to +arms. Groups read the two bills at the same time. We may mention an +incident which ought to be noted, a sergeant of the line, in uniform, in +red trousers, accompanied him and protected him. He was doubtless a +soldier who had lately left the service. + +The time fixed on the preceding evening for the general rendezvous was +from nine to ten in the morning. This hour had been chosen so that there +should be time to give notice to all the members of the Left; it was +expedient to wait until the Representatives should arrive, so that the +group should the more resemble an Assembly, and that its manifestation +should have more authority on the Faubourg. + +Several of the Representatives who had already arrived had no sash of +office. Some were made hastily in a neighboring house with strips of +red, white, and blue calico, and were brought to them. Baudin and De +Flotte were amongst those who girded on these improvised sashes. + +Meanwhile it was not yet nine o'clock, when impatience already began to +be manifested around them.[9] + +Many shared this glorious impatience. + +Baudin wished to wait. + +"Do not anticipate the hour," said he; "let us allow our colleagues time +to arrive." + +But they murmured round Baudin, "No, begin, give the signal, go outside. +The Faubourg only waits to see your sashes to rise. You are few in +number, but they know that your friends will rejoin you. That is +sufficient. Begin." + +The result proved that this undue haste could only produce a failure. +Meanwhile they considered that the first example which the +Representatives of the People ought to set was personal courage. The +spark must not be allowed to die out. To march the first, to march at +the head, such was their duty. The semblance of any hesitation would +have been in truth more disastrous than any degree of rashness. + +Schoelcher is of an heroic nature, he has the grand impatience of +danger. + +"Let us go," he cried; "our friends will join us, let us go outside." + +They had no arms. + +"Let us disarm the post which is over there," said Schoelcher. + +They left the Salle Roysin in order, two by two, arm in arm. Fifteen or +twenty men of the people escorted them. They went before them, crying, +"Long live the Republic! To arms!" + +Some children preceded and followed them, shouting, "Long live the +Mountain!" + +The entrances of the closed shops were half opened. A few men appeared +at the doors, a few women showed themselves at the windows. Knots of +workmen going to their work watched them pass. They cried, "Long live +our Representatives! Long live the Republic!" + +Sympathy was everywhere, but insurrection nowhere. The procession +gathered few adherents on the way. + +A man who was leading a saddled horse joined them. They did not know +this man, nor whence this horse came. It seemed as if the man offered +his services to any one who wished to fly. Representative Dulac ordered +this man to be off. + +In this manner they reached the guard-house of the Rue de Montrenil. At +their approach the sentry gave the alarm, and the soldiers came out of +the guard-house in disorder. + +Schoelcher, calm, impassive, in ruffles and a white tie, clothed, as +usual, in black, buttoned to the neck in his tight frock coat, with the +intrepid and brotherly air of a Quaker, walked straight up to them. + +"Comrades," he said to them, "we are the Representatives of the People, +and come in the name of the people to demand your arms for the defence +of the Constitution and of the Laws!" + +The post allowed itself to be disarmed. The sergeant alone made any show +of resistance, but they said to him, "You are alone," and he yielded. +The Representatives distributed the guns and the cartridges to the +resolute band which surrounded them. + +Some soldiers exclaimed, "Why do you take away our muskets! We would +fight for you and with you!" + +The Representatives consulted whether they should accept this offer. +Schoelcher was inclined to do so. But one of them remarked that some +Mobile Guards had made the same overtures to the insurgents of June, and +had turned against the Insurrection the arms which the Insurrection had +left them. + +The muskets therefore were not restored. + +The disarming having been accomplished, the muskets were counted; there +were fifteen of them. + +"We are a hundred and fifty," said Cournet, "we have not enough +muskets." + +"Well, then," said Schoelcher, "where is there a post?" + +"At the Lenoir Market." + +"Let us disarm it." + +With Schoelcher at their head and escorted by fifteen armed men the +Representatives proceeded to the Lenoir Market. The post of the Lenoir +Market allowed themselves to be disarmed even more willingly than the +post in the Rue de Montreuil. The soldiers turned themselves round so +that the cartridges might be taken from their pouches. + +The muskets were immediately loaded. + +"Now," exclaimed De Flotte, "we have thirty guns, let us look for a +street corner, and raise a barricade." + +There were at that time about two hundred combatants. + +They went up the Rue de Montreuil. + +After some fifty steps Schoelcher said, "Where are we going? We are +turning our backs on the Bastille. We are turning our backs upon the +conflict." + +They returned towards the Faubourg. + +They shouted, "To arms!" They Where answered by "Long live our +Representatives!" But only a few young men joined them. It was evident +that the breeze of insurrection was not blowing. + +"Never mind," said De Flotte, "let us begin the battle. Let us achieve +the glory of being the first killed." + +As they reached the point where the Streets Ste. Marguerite and de Cotte +open out and divide the Faubourg, a peasant's cart laden with dung +entered the Rue Ste. Marguerite. + +"Here," exclaimed De Flotte. + +They stopped the dung-cart, and overturned it in the middle of the +Faubourg St. Antoine. + +A milkwoman came up. + +They overturned the milk-cart. + +A baker was passing in his bread-cart. He saw what was being done, +attempted to escape, and urged his horse to a gallop. Two or three +street Arabs--those children of Paris brave as lions and agile as +cats--sped after the baker, ran past his horse, which was still +galloping, stopped it, and brought back the cart to the barricade which +had been begun. + +They overturned the bread-cart. + +An omnibus came up on the road from the Bastille. + +"Very well!" said the conductor, "I see what is going on." + +He descended with a good grace, and told his passengers to get +down, while the coachman unharnessed his horses and went away shaking +his cloak. + +They overturned the omnibus. + +The four vehicles placed end to end barely barred the street of the +Faubourg, which in this part is very wide. While putting them in line +the men of the barricade said,-- + +"Let us not injure the carts more than we can help." + +This formed an indifferent barricade, very low, too short, and which +left the pavements free on either side. + +At this moment a staff officer passed by followed by an orderly, saw the +barricade, and fled at a gallop. + +Schoelcher calmly inspected the overturned vehicles. When he reached the +peasant's cart, which made a higher heap than the others, he said, "that +is the only good one." + +The barricade grew larger. They threw a few empty baskets upon it, which +made it thicker and larger without strengthening it. + +They were still working when a child came up to them shouting, "The +soldiers!" + +In truth two companies arrived from the Bastille, at the double, through +the Faubourg, told off in squads at short distances apart, and barring +the whole of the street. + +The doors and the windows were hastily closed. + +During this time, at a corner of the barricade, Bastide, impassive, was +gravely telling a story to Madier de Montjau. "Madier," said he, "nearly +two hundred years ago the Prince de Condé, ready to give battle in this +very Faubourg St. Antoine, where we now are, asked an officer who was +accompanying him, 'Have you ever seen a battle lost?'--'No, sire.' +'Well, then, you will see one now.'--Madier, I tell you to-day,--you +will speedily see a barricade taken." + +In the meanwhile those who were armed had assumed their places for the +conflict behind the barricade. + +The critical moment drew nigh. + +"Citizens," cried Schoelcher, "do not fire a shot. When the Army and the +Faubourgs fight, the blood of the People is shed on both sides. Let us +speak to the soldiers first." + +He mounted on one of the baskets which heightened the barricade. The +other Representatives arranged themselves near him on the omnibus. +Malardier and Dulac were on his right. Dulac said to him, "You scarcely +know me, Citizen Schoelcher, but I love you. Let me have the charge of +remaining by your side. I only belong to the second rank in the +Assembly, but I want to be in the first rank of the battle." + +At this moment some men in blouses, those whom the Second of December +had enlisted, appeared at the corner of the Rue Ste. Marguerite, close +to the barricade, and shouted, "Down with the 'Twenty-five francs!'" + +Baudin who had already selected his post for the combat, and who was +standing on the barricade, looked fixedly at these men, and said to +them,-- + +"You shall see how one can die for 'twenty-five francs!'" + +There was a noise in the street. Some few doors which had remained half +opened were closed. The two attacking columns had arrived in sight of +the barricade. Further on could be seen confusedly other lines of +bayonets. They were those which had barred my passage. + +Schoelcher, raising his arm with authority, signed to the captain, who +commanded the first squad, to halt. + +The captain made a negative sign with his sword. The whole of the Second +of December was in these two gestures. The Law said, "Halt!" The Sabre +answered, "No!" + +The two companies continued to advance, but slowly, and keeping at the +same distance from each other. + +Schoelcher came down from the barricade into the street. De Flotte, +Dulac, Malardier, Brillier, Maigne, and Bruckner followed him. + +Then was seen a grand spectacle. + +Seven Representatives of the People, armed only with their sashes, that +is to say, majestically clothed with Law and Right, advanced in the +street beyond the barricade, and marched straight to the soldiers, who +awaited them with their guns pointed at them. + +The other Representatives who had remained at the barricade made their +last preparations for resistance. The combatants maintained an intrepid +bearing. The Naval Lieutenant Cournet towered above them all with his +tall stature. Baudin, still standing on the overturned omnibus, leaned +half over the barricade. + +On seeing the Representatives approach, the soldiers and their officers +were for the moment bewildered. Meanwhile the captain signed to the +Representatives to stop. + +They stopped, and Schoelcher said in an impressive voice,-- + +"Soldiers! we are the Representatives of the Sovereign People, we are +your Representatives, we are the Elect of Universal Suffrage. In the +name of the Constitution, in the name of Universal Suffrage, in the name +of the Republic, we, who are the National Assembly, we, who are the Law, +order you to join us, we summon you to obey. We ourselves are your +leaders. The Army belongs to the People, and the Representatives of the +People are the Chiefs of the Army. Soldiers! Louis Bonaparte violates +the Constitution, we have outlawed him. Obey us." + +The officer who was in command, a captain named Petit, did not allow him +to finish. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "I have my orders. I belong to the People. I am a +Republican as you are, but I am only an instrument." + +"You know the Constitution?" said Schoelcher. + +"I only know my instructions." + +"There is an instruction above all other instructions," continued +Schoelcher, "obligatory upon the Soldier as upon the Citizen--the Law." + +He turned again towards the soldiers to harangue them, but the captain +cried out to him,-- + +"Not another word! You shall not go on! If you add one word, I shall +give the order to fire." + +"What does that matter to us?" said Schoelcher. + +At this moment an officer arrived on horseback. It was the major of the +regiment. He whispered for a moment to the captain. + +"Gentlemen! Representatives!" continued the captain, waving his sword, +"withdraw, or I shall fire." + +"Fire!" shouted De Flotte. + +The Representatives--strange and heroic copy of Fontenoy--took off their +hats, and faced the muskets. + +Schoelcher alone kept his hat on his head, and waited with his arms +crossed. + +"Fix bayonets," said the captain. And turning towards the squads, +"Charge!" + +"Vive la République!" cried out the Representatives. + +The +bayonets were lowered, the companies moved forward, the soldiers came on +at the double upon the motionless Representatives. + +It was a terrible and superb moment. + +The seven Representatives saw the bayonets at their breasts without a +word, without a gesture, without one step backwards. But the hesitation +which was not in their soul was in the heart of the soldiers. + +The soldiers felt distinctly that this was a double stain upon their +uniform--the outrage upon the Representatives of the People--which was +treason, and the slaughter of unarmed men, which was cowardice. Now +treason and cowardice are two epaulets to which a general sometimes +becomes reconciled, the soldier--never. + +When the bayonets were so close to the Representatives that they touched +their breasts, they turned aside of their own accord, and the soldier's +by an unanimous movement passed between the Representatives without +doing them any harm. Schoelcher alone had his coat pierced in two +places, and in his opinion this was awkwardness instead of intention. +One of the soldiers who faced him wished to push him away from the +captain, and touched him with his bayonet. The point encountered the +book of the addresses of the Representatives, which Schoelcher had in +his pocket, and only pierced his clothing. + +A soldier said to De Flotte, "Citizen, we do not wish to hurt you." + +Nevertheless a soldier came up to Bruckner and pointed his gun at him. + +"Well," said Bruckner, "fire." + +The soldier, touched, lowered his arm, and shook Bruckner's hand. + +It was singular that, notwithstanding the order given by the officers, +the two companies successively came up to the Representatives, charged +with the bayonet, and turned aside. Instructions may order, but instinct +prevails; instructions may be crime, but instinct is honor. Major P---- +said afterwards, "They had told us that we should have to deal with +brigands, we had to deal with heroes." + +Meanwhile those on the barricade were growing uneasy, and seeing their +colleagues surrounded, and wishing to succor them, they fired a musket +shot. This unfortunate shot killed a soldier between De Flotte and +Schoelcher. + +The officer who commanded the second attacking squad passed close to +Schoelcher as the poor soldier fell. Schoelcher pointed out the fallen +man to the officer, and said to him, "Lieutenant, look!" + +The officer answered by a gesture of despair,-- + +"What would you have us do?" + +The two companies replied to the shot by a general volley, and rushed to +the assault of the barricade, leaving behind them the seven +Representatives astounded at being still alive. + +The barricade replied by a volley, but it could not hold out. It was +carried. + +Baudin was killed. + +He had remained standing in his position on the omnibus. Three balls +reached him. One struck him in the right eye and penetrated into the +brain. He fell. He never regained consciousness. Half-an-hour afterwards +he was dead. His body was taken to the Ste. Marguerite Hospital. + +Bourzat, who was close to Baudin, with Aubry (du Nord), had his coat +pierced by a ball. + +We must again remark a curious incident,--the soldiers made no prisoner +on this barricade. Those who defended it dispersed through the streets +of the Faubourg, or took refuge in the neighboring houses. Representative +Maigne, pushed by some affrighted women behind a door, was shut in with +one of the soldiers who had just taken the barricade. A moment afterwards +the soldier and the Representative went out together. The Representatives +could freely leave this first field of battle. + +At this solemn moment of the struggle a last glimmer of Justice and of +Right still flickered, and military honesty recoiled with a sort of +dread anxiety before the outrage upon which they were entering. There is +the intoxication of good, and there is an intoxication of evil: this +intoxication later on drowned the conscience of the Army. + +The French Army is not made to commit crimes. When the struggle became +prolonged, and ferocious orders of the day had to be executed, the +soldiers must have been maddened. They obeyed not coldly, which would +have been monstrous, but with anger, and this History will invoke as +their excuse; and with many, perhaps, despair was at the root of their +anger. + +The fallen soldier had remained on the ground. It was Schoelcher who +raised him. A few women, weeping, but brave, came out of a house. Some +soldiers came up. They carried him, Schoelcher holding his head, first +to a fruiterer's shop, then to the Ste. Marguerite Hospital, where they +had already taken Baudin. + +He was a conscript. The ball had entered his side. Through his gray +overcoat buttoned to the collar, could be seen a hole stained with +blood. His head had sunk on his shoulder, his pale countenance, +encircled by the chinstrap of his shako, had no longer any expression, +the blood oozed out of his mouth. He seemed barely eighteen years old. +Already a soldier and still a boy. He was dead. + +This poor soldier was the first victim of the _coup d'état_. Baudin was +the second. + +Before being a Republican Baudin had been a tutor. He came from that +intelligent and brave race of schoolmasters ever persecuted, who have +fallen from the Guizot Law into the Falloux Law, and from the Falloux +Law into the Dupanloup Law. The crime of the schoolmaster is to hold a +book open; that suffices, the Church condemns him. There is now, in +France, in each village, a lighted torch--the schoolmaster--and a mouth +which blows upon it--the curé. The schoolmasters of France, who knew how +to die of hunger for Truth and for Science, were worthy that one of +their race should be killed for Liberty. + +The first time that I saw Baudin was at the Assembly on January 13, +1850. I wished to speak against the Law of Instruction. I had not put my +name down; Baudin's name stood second. He offered me his turn. I +accepted, and I was able to speak two days afterwards, on the 15th. + +Baudin was one of the targets of Sieur Dupin, for calls to order and +official annoyances. He shared this honor with the Representatives Miot +and Valentin. + +Baudin ascended the Tribune several times. His mode of speaking, +outwardly hesitating, was energetic in the main. He sat on the crest of +the Mountain. He had a firm spirit and timid manners. Thence there was in +his constitution an indescribable embarrassment, mingled with decision. +He was a man of middle height. His face ruddy and full, his broad chest, +his wide shoulders announced the robust man, the laborer-schoolmaster, +the peasant-thinker. In this he resembled Bourzat. Baudin leaned his head +on his shoulder, listened with intelligence, and spoke with a gentle and +grave voice. He had the melancholy air and the bitter smile of the +doomed. + +On the evening of the Second of December I had asked him, "How old are +you?" He had answered me, "Not quite thirty-three years." + +"And you?" said he. + +"Forty-nine." + +And he replied,-- + +"To-day we are of the same age." + +He thought in truth of that to-morrow which awaited us, and in which was +hidden that "perhaps" which is the great leveller. + +The first shots had been fired, a Representative had fallen, and the +people did not rise! What bandage had they on their eyes, what weight +had they on their hearts? Alas! the gloom which Louis Bonaparte had +known how to cast over his crime, far from lifting, grew denser. For the +first time in the sixty years, that the Providential era of Revolutions +had been open, Paris, the city of intelligence, seemed not to +understand! + +On leaving the barricade of the Rue Ste. Marguerite, De Flotte went to +the Faubourg St. Marceau, Madier de Montjau went to Belleville, +Charamaule and Maigne proceeded to the Boulevards. Schoelcher, Dulac, +Malardier, and Brillier again went up the Faubourg St. Antoine by the +side streets which the soldiers had not yet occupied. They shouted, +"Vive la République!" They harangued the people on the doorsteps: "Is it +the Empire that you want?" exclaimed Schoelcher. They even went as far +as to sing the "Marseillaise." People took off their hats as they passed +and shouted "Long live the Representatives!" But that was all. + +They were thirsty and weary. In the Rue de Reuilly a man came out of a +door with a bottle in his hand, and offered them drink. + +Sartin joined them on the way. In the Rue de Charonne they entered the +meeting-place of the Association of Cabinet Makers, hoping to find there +the committee of the association in session. There was no +one there. But nothing discouraged them. + +As they reached the Place de la Bastille, Dulac said to Schoelcher, "I +will ask permission to leave you for an hour or two, for this reason: I +am alone in Paris with my little daughter, who is seven years old. For +the past week she has had scarlet fever. Yesterday, when the _coup +d'état_ burst forth, she was at death's door. I have no one but this +child in the world. I left her this morning to come with you, and she +said to me, 'Papa, where are you going?' As I am not killed, I will go +and see if she is not dead." + +Two hours afterwards the child was still living, and we were holding a +permanent sitting at No. 15, Rue Richelieu, Jules Favre, Carnot, Michel +de Bourges, and myself, when Dulac entered, and said to us, "I have come +to place myself at your disposal." + + +[9] "There was also a misunderstanding respecting the appointed time. +Some made a mistake, and thought it was nine o'clock. The first arrivals +impatiently awaited their colleagues. They were, as we have said, some +twelve or fifteen in number at half-past eight. 'Time is being lost,' +exclaimed one of them who had hardly entered; 'let us gird on our sashes; +let us show the Representatives to the People, let us join it in raising +barricades.' We shall perhaps save the country, at all events we shall +save the honor of our party. 'Come, let us to the barricades!' This +advice was immediately and unanimously acclaimed: one alone, Citizen +Baudin, interposed the forcible objection, 'we are not sufficiently +numerous to adopt such a resolution.' But he spiritedly joined in the +general enthusiasm, and with a calm conscience, after having reserved +the principle, he was not the last to gird on his sash."--SCHOELCHER, +_Histoire des Crimes du 2d Decembre_, pp. 130-131. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +THE WORKMEN'S SOCIETIES ASK US FOR THE ORDER TO FIGHT + +In presence of the fact of the barricade of the Faubourg St. Antoine so +heroically constructed by the Representatives, so sadly neglected by the +populace, the last illusions, even mine, should have been dispersed. +Baudin killed, the Faubourg cold. Such things spoke aloud. It was a +supreme, manifest, absolute demonstration of that fact, the inaction of +the people, to which I could not resign myself--a deplorable inaction, +if they understood, a self-treason, if they did not understand, a fatal +neutrality in every case, a calamity of which all the responsibility, we +repeat, recoiled not upon the people but upon those who in June, 1848, +after having promised them amnesty, had refused it, and who had unhinged +the great soul of the people of Paris by breaking faith with them. What +the Constituent Assembly had sown the Legislative Assembly harvested. +We, innocent of the fault, had to submit to the consequence. + +The spark which we had seen flash for an instant through the +crowd--Michel de Bourges from the height of Bonvalet's balcony, myself +from the Boulevard du Temple--this spark seemed extinguished. Maigne +firstly, then Brillier, then Bruckner, later on Charmaule, Madier de +Montjau, Bastide, and Dulac came to report to us what had passed at the +barricade of St. Antoine, the motives which had decided the +Representatives present not to await the hour appointed for the +rendezvous, and Baudin's death. The report which I made myself of what I +had seen, and which Cassal and Alexander Rey completed by adding new +circumstances, enabled us to ascertain the situation. The Committee could +no longer hesitate: I myself renounced the hopes which I had based upon a +grand manifestation, upon a powerful reply to the _coup d'état_, upon a +sort of pitched battle waged by the guardians of the Republic against the +banditti of the Elysée. The Faubourgs failed us; we possessed the +lever--Right, but the mass to be raised, the People, we did not possess. +There was nothing more to hope for, as those two great orators, Michel de +Bourges and Jules Favre, with their keen political perception, had +declared from the first, save a slow long struggle, avoiding decisive +engagements, changing quarters, keeping Paris on the alert, saying to +each, It is not at an end; leaving time for the departments to prepare +their resistance, wearying the troops out, and in which struggle the +Parisian people, who do not long smell powder with impunity, would +perhaps ultimately take fire. Barricades raised everywhere, barely +defended, re-made immediately, disappearing and multiplying themselves at +the same time, such was the strategy indicated by the situation. The +Committee adopted it, and sent orders in every direction to this effect. +At that moment we were sitting at No. 15, Rue Richelieu, at the house of +our colleague Grévy, who had been arrested in the Tenth Arrondissement on +the preceding day, who was at Mazas. His brother had offered us his house +for our deliberations. The Representatives, our natural emissaries, +flocked around us, and scattered themselves throughout Paris, with our +instructions to organize resistance at every point. They were the arms +and the Committee was the soul. A certain number of ex-Constituents, +intrepid men, Garnier-Pagès, Marie, Martin (de Strasbourg), Senart, +formerly President of the Constituent Assembly, Bastide, Laissac, +Landrin, had joined the Representatives on the preceding day. They +established, therefore, in all the districts where it was possible +Committees of Permanence in connection with us, the Central Committee, +and composed either of Representatives or of faithful citizens. For our +watchword we chose "Baudin." + +Towards noon the centre of Paris began to grow agitated. + +Our appeal to arms was first seen placarded on the Place de la Bourse +and the Rue Montmartre. Groups pressed round to read it, and battled +with the police, who endeavored to tear down the bills. Other +lithographic placards contained in two parallel columns the decree of +deposition drawn up by the Right at the Mairie of the Tenth +Arrondissement, and the decree of outlawry voted by the Left. There were +distributed, printed on gray paper in large type, the judgment of the +High Court of Justice, declaring Louis Bonaparte attainted with the +Crime of High Treason, and signed "Hardouin" (President), "Delapalme," +"Moreau" (of the Seine), "Cauchy," "Bataille" (Judges). This last name +was thus mis-spelt by mistake, it should read "Pataille." + +At that moment people generally believed, and we ourselves believed, in +this judgment, which, as we have seen, was not the genuine judgment. + +At the same time they posted in the populous quarters, at the corner of +every street, two Proclamations. The first ran thus:-- + + "TO THE PEOPLE. + + "ARTICLE III.[10] + + "The Constitution is confided to the keeping and to the patriotism of + French citizens. Louis NAPOLEON is outlawed. + + "The State of Siege is abolished. + + "Universal suffrage is re-established. + + "LONG LIVE THE REPUBLIC. + + "To ARMS! + + "For the United Mountain. + + "The Delegate, VICTOR HUGO." + +The second ran thus:-- + + "INHABITANTS OF PARIS. + + "The National Guards and the People of the Departments are marching on + Paris to aid you in seizing the TRAITOR, Louis Napoléon BONAPARTE. + + "For the Representatives of the People, + + "VICTOR HUGO, President. + + "SCHOELCHER, Secretary." + +This last placard, printed on little squares of paper, was distributed +abroad, says an historian of the _coup d'état_, by thousands of copies. + +For their part the criminals installed in the Government offices replied +by threats: the great white placards, that is to say, the official +bills, were largely multiplied. On one could be read:-- + + "WE, PREFECT OF THE POLICE, + + "Decree as follows:-- + + "ARTICLE I. All meetings are rigorously prohibited. They will be + immediately dispersed by force. + + "ARTICLE II. All seditious shouts, all reading in public, all posting + of political documents not emanating from a regularly constituted + authority, are equally prohibited. + + "ARTICLE III. The agents of the Public Police will enforce the execution + of the present decree. + + "Given at the Prefecture of Police, December 3, 1851. + + "DE MAUPAS, Prefect of Police. + + "Seen and approved, + + "DE MORNY, Minister of the Interior." + +On another could be read,-- + + "THE MINISTER OF WAR, + + "By virtue of the Law on the State of Siege, + + "Decrees:-- + + "Every person taken constructing or defending a barricade, or carrying + arms, WILL BE SHOT. + + "General of Division, + + "Minister of war, + + "DE SAINT-ARNAUD." + +We reproduce this Proclamation exactly, even to the punctuation. The +words "Will be shot" were in capital letters in the placards signed "De +Saint-Arnaud." + +The Boulevards were thronged with an excited crowd. The agitation +increasing in the centre reached three Arrondissements, the 6th, 7th, +and the 12th. The district of the schools began to disorderly. The +Students of Law and of Medicine cheered De Flotte on the Place de +Panthéon. Madier de Montjau, ardent and eloquent, went through and +aroused Belleville. The troops, growing more numerous every moment, +took possession of all the strategical points of Paris. + +At one o'clock, a young man was brought to us by the legal adviser of +the Workmen's Societies, the ex-Constituent Leblond, at whose house the +Committee had deliberated that morning. We were sitting in permanence, +Carnot, Jules Favre, Michel de Bourges, and myself. This young man, who +had an earnest mode of speaking and an intelligent countenance, was +named King. He had been sent to us by the Committee of the Workmen's +Society, from whom he was delegated. "The Workmen's Societies," he said +to us, "place themselves at the disposal of the Committee of Legal +Insurrection appointed by the Left. They can throw into the struggle +five or six thousand resolute men. They will manufacture powder; as for +guns, they will be found." The Workmen's Society requested from us an +order to fight signed by us. Jules Favre took a pen and wrote,--"The +undersigned Representatives authorize Citizen King and his friends to +defend with them, and with arms in their hands, Universal Suffrage, the +Republic, the Laws." He dated it, and we all four signed it. "That is +enough," said the delegate to us, "you will hear of us." + +Two hours afterwards it was reported to us that the conflict had begun. +They were fighting in the Rue Aumaire. + + +[10] A typographical error--it should read "Article LXVIII." On the +subject of this placard the author of this book received the following +letter. It does honor to those who wrote it:-- + + "CITIZEN VICTOR HUGO,--We know that you have made an appeal to arms. We + have not been able to obtain it. We replace it by these bills which we + sign with your name. You will not disown us. When France is in danger + your name belongs to all; your name is a Public Power. + + "FELIX BONY. + + "DABAT." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +BAUDINS'S CORPSE + +With regard to the Faubourg St. Antoine, we had, as I said, lost nearly +all hope, but the men of the _coup d'état_ had not lost all uneasiness. +Since the attempts at rising and the barricades of the morning a rigorous +supervision had been organized. Any one who entered the Faubourg ran the +risk of being examined, followed, and upon the slightest suspicion, +arrested. The supervision was nevertheless sometimes at fault. About two +o'clock a short man, with an earnest and attentive air, crossed the +Faubourg. A _sergent de ville_ and a police agent in plain clothes barred +his passage. "Who are you?" "You seem a passenger." "Where are you going?" +"Over there, close by, to Bartholomé's, the overseer of the sugar +manufactory.--" They search him. He himself opened his pocket-book; the +police agents turned out the pockets of his waistcoat and unbuttoned +his shirt over his breast; finally the _sergent de ville_ said gruffly, +"Yet I seem to have seen you here before this morning. Be off!" It was +the Representative Gindrier. If they had not stopped at the pockets of +his waistcoat--and if they had searched his great-coat, they would have +found his sash there--Gindrier would have been shot. + +Not to allow themselves to be arrested, to keep their freedom for the +combat--such was the watchword of the members of the Left. That is why +we had our sashes upon us, but not outwardly visible. + +Gindrier had had no food that day; he thought he would go home, and +returned to the new district of the Havre Railway Station, where he +resided. In the Rue de Calais, which is a lonely street running from Rue +Blanche to the Rue de Clichy, a _fiacre_ passed him. Gindrier heard his +name called out. He turned round and saw two persons in a _fiacre_, +relations of Baudin, and a man whom he did not know. One of the +relations of Baudin, Madame L----, said to him, "Baudin is +wounded!" She added, "They have taken him to the St. Antoine Hospital. +We are going to fetch him. Come with us." Gindrier got into the +_fiacre_. The stranger, however, was an emissary of the Commissary of +Police of the Rue Ste. Marguerite St. Antoine. He had been charged by +the commissary of Police to go to Baudin's house, No, 88, Rue de Clichy, +to inform the family. Having only found the women at home he had +confined himself to telling them that Representative Baudin was wounded. +He offered to accompany them, and went with them in the _fiacre_. They +had uttered the name of Gindrier before him. This might have been +imprudent. They spoke to him; he declared that he would not betray the +Representative, and it was settled that before the Commissary of Police +Gindrier should assume to be a relation, and be called Baudin. + +The poor women still hoped. Perhaps the wound was serious, but Baudin +was young, and had a good constitution. "They will save him," said they. +Gindrier was silent. At the office of the Commissary of Police the truth +was revealed.--"How is he?" asked Madame L---- on entering. "Why?" said +the Commissary, "he is dead." "What do you mean? Dead!" "Yes; killed on +the spot." + +This was a painful moment. The despair of these two women who had been +so abruptly struck to the heart burst forth in sobs. "Ah, infamous +Bonaparte!" cried Madame L----. "He has killed Baudin. Well, then, I will +kill him. I will be the Charlotte Corday of this Marat." + +Gindrier claimed the body of Baudin. The Commissary of Police only +consented to restore it to the family on exacting a promise that they +would bury it at once, and without any ostentation, and that they would +not exhibit it to the people. "You understand," he said, "that the sight +of a Representative killed and bleeding might raise Paris." The _coup +d'état_ made corpses, but did not wish that they should be utilized. + +On these conditions the Commissary of Police gave Gindrier two men and a +safe conduct to fetch the body of Baudin from the hospital where he had +been carried. + +Meanwhile Baudin's brother, a young man of four-and-twenty, a medical +student, came up. This young man has since been arrested and imprisoned. +His crime is his brother. Let us continue. They proceeded to the +hospital. At the sight of the safe conduct the director ushered Gindrier +and young Baudin into the parlor. There were three pallets there covered +with white sheets, under which could be traced the motionless forms of +three human bodies. The one which occupied the centre bed was Baudin. On +his right lay the young soldier killed a minute before him by the side of +Schoelcher, and on the left an old woman who had been struck down by a +spent ball in the Rue de Cotte, and whom the executioners of the _coup +d'état_ had gathered up later on; in the first moment one cannot find out +all one's riches. + +The three corpses were naked under their winding sheets. + +They had left to Baudin alone his shirt and his flannel vest. They had +found on him seven francs, his gold watch and chain, his Representative's +medal, and a gold pencil-case which he had used in the Rue de Popincourt, +after having passed me the other pencil, which I still preserve. Gindrier +and young Baudin, bare-headed, approached the centre bed. They raised the +shroud, and Baudin's dead face became visible. He was calm, and seemed +asleep. No feature appeared contracted. A livid tint began to mottle his +face. + +They drew up an official report. It is customary. It is not sufficient +to kill people. An official report must also be drawn up. Young Baudin +had to sign it, upon which, on the demand of the Commissary of Police, +they "made over" to him the body of his brother. During these +signatures, Gindrier in the courtyard of the hospital, attempted if not +to console, at least to calm the two despairing women. + +Suddenly a man who had entered the courtyard, and who had attentively +watched him for some moments, came abruptly up to him,-- + +"What are you doing there?" + +"What is that to you?" said Gindrier. + +"You have come to fetch Baudin's body?" + +"Yes." + +"Is this your carriage?" + +"Yes." + +"Get in at once, and pull down the blinds." + +"What do you mean?" + +"You are the Representative Gindrier. I know you. You were this morning +on the barricade. If any other than myself should see you, you are +lost." + +Gindrier followed his advice and got into the _fiacre_. While getting in +he asked the man: + +"Do you belong to the Police?" + +The man did not answer. A moment after he came and said in a low voice, +near the door of the _fiacre_ in which Gindrier was enclosed,-- + +"Yes, I eat the bread, but I do not do the work." + +The two men sent by the Commissary of Police took Baudin on his wooden +bed and carried him to the _fiacre_. They placed him at the bottom of +the _fiacre_ with his face covered, and enveloped from head to foot in a +shroud. A workman who was there lent his cloak, which was thrown over +the corpse in order not to attract the notice of passers-by. Madame L---- +took her place by the side of the body, Gindrier opposite, young Baudin +next to Gindrier. A _fiacre_ followed, in which were the other relative +of Baudin and a medical student named Dutèche. They set off. During the +journey the head of the corpse, shaken by the carriage, rolled from +shoulder to shoulder; the blood began to flow from the wound and +appeared in large red patches through the white sheet. Gindrier with +his arms stretched out and his hand placed on its breast, prevented it +from falling forwards; Madame L---- held it up by the side. + +They had told the coachman to drive slowly; the journey lasted more than +an hour. + +When they reached No. 88, Rue de Clichy, the bringing out of the body +attracted a curious crowd before the door. The neighbors flocked +thither. Baudin's brother, assisted by Gindrier and Dutèche, carried up +the corpse to the fourth floor, where Baudin resided. It was a new +house, and he had only lived there a few months. + +They carried him into his room, which was in order, and just as he had +left it on the morning of the 2d. The bed, on which he had not slept the +preceding night, had not been disturbed. A book which he had been +reading had remained on the table, open at the page where he had left +off. They unrolled the shroud, and Gindrier cut off his shirt and his +flannel vest with a pair of scissors. They washed the body. The ball had +entered through the corner of the arch of the right eye, and had gone out +at the back of the head. The wound of the eye had not bled. A sort of +swelling had formed there; the blood had flowed copiously through the +hole at the back of the head. They put clean linen on him, and clean +sheets on the bed, and laid him down with his head on the pillow, and +his face uncovered. The women were weeping in the next room. + +Gindrier had already rendered the same service to the ex-Constituent +James Demontry. In 1850 James Demontry died in exile at Cologne. +Gindrier started for Cologne, went to the cemetery, and had James +Demontry exhumed. He had the heart extracted, embalmed it, and enclosed +it in a silver vase, which he took to Paris. The party of the Mountain +delegated him, with Chollet and Joigneux, to convey this heart to Dijon, +Demontry's native place, and to give him a solemn funeral. This funeral +was prohibited by an order of Louis Bonaparte, then President of the +Republic. The burial of brave and faithful men was unpleasing to Louis +Bonaparte--not so their death. + +When Baudin had been laid out on the bed, the women came in, and all +this family, seated round the corpse, wept. Gindrier, whom other duties +called elsewhere, went downstairs with Dutèche. A crowd had formed +before the door. + +A man in a blouse, with his hat on his head, mounted on a kerbstone, was +speechifying and glorifying the _coup d'état_. Universal Suffrage +re-established, the Law of the 31st May abolished, the "Twenty-five +francs" suppressed; Louis Bonaparte has done well, etc.--Gindrier, +standing on the threshold of the door, raised his voice: "Citizens! +above lies Baudin, a Representative of the People, killed while +defending the People; Baudin the Representative of you all, mark that +well! You are before his house; he is there bleeding on his bed, and +here is a man who dares in this place to applaud his assassin! Citizens! +shall I tell you the name of this man? He is called the Police! Shame +and infamy to traitors and to cowards! Respect to the corpse of him who +has died for you!" + +And pushing aside the crowd, Gindrier took the man who had +been speaking by the collar, and knocking his hat on to the ground with +the back of his hand, he cried, "Hats off!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +THE DECREES OF THE REPRESENTATIVES WHO REMAINED FREE + +The text of the judgment which was believed to have been dawn up by the +High Court of Justice had been brought to us by the ex-Constituent +Martin (of Strasbourg), a lawyer at the Court of Cassation. At the same +time we learned what was happening in the Rue Aumaire. The battle was +beginning, it was important to sustain it, and to feed it; it was +important ever to place the legal resistance by the side of the armed +resistance. The members who had met together on the preceding day at the +Mairie of the Tenth Arrondissement had decreed the deposition of Louis +Bonaparte; but this decree, drawn up by a meeting almost exclusively +composed of the unpopular members of the majority, might have no effect +on the masses; it was necessary that the Left should take it up, should +adopt it, should imprint upon it a more energetic and more revolutionary +accent, and also take possession of the judgment of the High Court, +which was believed to be genuine, to lend assistance to this judgment, +and put it into execution. + +In our appeal to arms we had outlawed Louis Bonaparte. The decree of +deposition taken up and counter-signed by us added weight to this +outlawry, and completed the revolutionary act by the legal act. + +The Committee of Resistance called together the Republican +Representatives. + +The apartments of M. Grévy, where we had been sitting, being too small, +we appointed for our meeting-place No. 10. Rue des Moulins, although +warned that the police had already made a raid upon this house. But we +had no choice; in time of Revolution prudence is impossible, and it is +speedily seen that it is useless. Confidence, always confidence; such is +the law of those grand actions which at times determine great events. +The perpetual improvisation of means, of policy, of expedients, of +resources, nothing step by step, everything on the impulse of the moment, +the ground never sounded, all risks taken as a whole, the good with the +bad, everything chanced on all sides at the same time, the hour, the +place, the opportunity, friends, family, liberty, fortune, life,--such +is the revolutionary conflict. + +Towards three o'clock about sixty Representatives were meeting at No. +10, Rue des Moulins, in the large drawing-room, out of which opened a +little room where the Committee of Resistance was in session. + +It was a gloomy December day, and darkness seemed already to have almost +set in. The publisher Hetzel, who might also be called the poet Hetzel, +is of a noble mind and of great courage. He has, as is known, shown +unusual political qualities as Secretary-General of the Ministry of +Foreign Affairs under Bastide; he came to offer himself to us, as the +brave and patriotic Hingray had already done in the morning. Hetzel knew +that we needed a printing-office above everything; we had not the +faculty of speech, and Louis Bonaparte spoke alone. Hetzel had found a +printer who had said to him, "_Force me, put a pistol to my throat, and +I will print whatever you wish_." It was only a question, therefore, of +getting a few friends together, of seizing this printing-office by main +force, of barricading it, and, if necessary, of sustaining a siege, +while our Proclamations and our decrees were being printed. Hetzel +offered this to us. One incident of his arrival at our meeting-place +deserves to be noted. As he drew near the doorway he saw in the twilight +of this dreary December day a man standing motionless at a short +distance, and who seemed to be lying in wait. He went up to this man, +and recognized M. Yon, the former Commissary of Police of the Assembly. + +"What are you doing there?" said Hetzel abruptly. "Are you there to +arrest us? In that case, here is what I have got for you," and he took +out two pistols from his pocket. + +M. Yon answered smiling,-- + +"I am in truth watching, not against you, but for you; I am guarding +you." + +M. Yon, aware of our meeting at Landrin's house and fearing that we +should be arrested, was, of his own accord, acting as police for us. + +Hetzel had already revealed his scheme to Representative Labrousse, who +was to accompany him and give him the moral support of the Assembly in +his perilous expedition. A first rendezvous which had been agreed upon +between them at the Café Cardinal having failed, Labrousse had left with +the owner of the _café_ for Hetzel a note couched in these terms:-- + +"Madame Elizabeth awaits M. Hetzel at No. 10, Rue des Moulins." + +In accordance with this note Hetzel had come. + +We accepted Hetzel's offer, and it was agreed that at nightfall +Representative Versigny, who performed the duties of Secretary to the +Committee, should take him our decrees, our Proclamation, such items of +news as may have reached us, and all that we should judge proper to +publish. It was settled that Hetzel should await Versigny on the +pavement at the end of the Rue de Richelieu which runs alongside the +Café Cardinal. + +Meanwhile Jules Favre, Michel de Bourges and myself had drawn up a final +decree, which was to combine the deposition voted by the Right with the +outlawry voted by us. We came back into the large room to read it to the +assembled Representatives, and for them to sign it. + +At this moment the door opened, and Emile de Girardin appeared. We had +not seen him since the previous evening. + +Emile de Girardin--after dispersing from around him that mist which +envelopes every combatant in party warfare, and which at a distance +changes or obscures the appearance of a man--Emile de Girardin is an +extraordinary thinker, an accurate writer, energetic, logical, skilful, +hearty; a journalist in whom, as in all great journalists, can be seen +the statesman. We owe to Emile de Girardin this great work of progress, +the cheap Press. Emile de Girardin has this great gift, a clearheaded +stubbornness. Emile de Girardin is a public watchman; his journal is his +sentry-box; he waits, he watches, he spies out, he enlightens, he lies +in wait, he cries "Who goes there?" at the slightest alarm, he fires +volleys with his pen. He is ready for every form of combat, a sentinel +to-day, a General to-morrow. Like all earnest minds he understands, he +sees, he recognizes, he handles, so to speak, the great and magnificent +identity embraced under these three words, "Revolution, Progress, +Liberty;" he wishes for the Revolution, but above all through Progress; +he wishes for progress, but solely through Liberty. One can, and +according to our opinion sometimes rightly, differ from him as to the +road to be taken, as to the attitude to be assumed, and the position to +be maintained, but no one can deny his courage, which he has proved in +every form, nor reject his object, which is the moral and physical +amelioration of the lot of all. Emile de Girardin is more Democratic +than Republican, more Socialist than Democratic; on the day when these +three ideas, Democracy, Republicanism, Socialism, that is to say, the +principle, the form, and the application, are balanced in his mind the +oscillations which still exist in him will cease. He has already Power, +he will have Stability. + +In the course of this sitting, as we shall see, I did not always agree +with Emile de Girardin. All the more reason that I should record here +how greatly I appreciate the mind formed of light and of courage. Emile +de Girardin, whatever his failings may be, is one of those men who do +honor to the Press of to-day; he unites in the highest degree the +dexterity of the combatant with the serenity of the thinker. + +I went up to him, and I asked him,-- + +"Have you any workmen of the _Presse_ still remaining?" + +He answered me,-- + +"Our presses are under seal, and guarded by the _Gendarmerie Mobile_, +but I have five or six willing workmen, they can produce a few placards +with the brush." + +"Well then," said I, "print our decrees and our Proclamation." "I will +print anything," answered he, "as long as it is not an appeal to arms." + +He added, addressing himself to me, "I know your Proclamation. It is a +war-cry, I cannot print that." + +They remonstrated at this. He then declared that he for his part made +Proclamations, but in a different sense from ours. That according to him +Louis Bonaparte should not be combated by force of arms, but by creating +a vacuum. By an armed conflict he would be the conqueror, by a vacuum he +would be conquered. He urged us to aid him in isolating the "deposed of +the Second December." "Let us bring about a vacuum around him!" cried +Emile de Girardin, "let us proclaim an universal strike. Let the merchant +cease to sell, let the consumer cease from buying, let the workman cease +from working, let the butcher cease from killing, let the baker cease +from baking, let everything keep holiday, even to the National Printing +Office, so that Louis Bonaparte may not find a compositor to compose the +_Moniteur_, not a pressman to machine it, not a bill-sticker to placard +it! Isolation, solitude, a void space round this man! Let the nation +withdraw from him. Every power from which the nation withdraws falls like +a tree from which the roots are divided. Louis Bonaparte abandoned by all +in his crime will vanish away. By simply folding our arms as we stand +around him he will fall. On the other hand, fire on him and you will +consolidate him. The army is intoxicated, the people are dazed and do not +interfere, the middle classes are afraid of the President, of the people, +of you, of every one! No victory is possible. You will go straight before +you, like brave men, you risk your heads, very good; you will carry with +you two or three thousand daring men, whose blood mingled with yours, +already flows. It is heroic, I grant you. It is not politic. As for me, +I will not print an appeal to arms, and I reject the combat. Let us +organize an universal strike." + +This point of view was haughty and superb, but unfortunately I felt it +to be unattainable. Two aspects of the truth seized Girardin, the +logical side and the practical side. Here, in my opinion, the practical +side was wanting. + +Michel de Bourges answered him. Michel de Bourges with his sound logic +and quick reasoning put his finger on what was for us the immediate +question; the crime of Louis Bonaparte, the necessity to rise up erect +before this crime. It was rather a conversation than a debate, but +Michel de Bourges and Jules Favre, who spoke next, raised it to the +highest eloquence. Jules Favre, worthy to understand the powerful mind +of Girardin would willingly have adopted this idea, if it had seemed +practicable, of the universal strike, of the void around the man; he +found it great, but impossible. A nation does not pull up short. Even +when struck to the heart, it still moves on. Social movement, which is +the animal life of society, survives all political movement. Whatever +Emile de Girardin might hope, there would always be a butcher who would +kill, a baker who would bake, men must eat! "To make universal labor +fold its arms is a chimera!" said Jules Favre, "a dream! The People +fight for three days, for four days, for a week; society will not wait +indefinitely." As to the situation, it was doubtless terrible, it was +doubtless tragical, and blood flowed, but who had brought about this +situation? Louis Bonaparte. For ourselves we would accept it, such as it +was, and nothing more. + +Emile de Girardin, steadfast, logical, absolute in his idea, persisted. +Some might be shaken. Arguments, which were so abundant in this vigorous +and inexhaustible mind, crowded upon him. As for me, I saw Duty before +me like a torch. + +I interrupted him. I cried out, "It is too late to deliberate what we +are to do. We have not got to do it. It is done. The gauntlet of the +_coup d'état_ is thrown down, the Left takes it up. The matter is as +simple as this. The outrage of the Second December is an infamous, +insolent, unprecedented defiance to Democracy, to Civilization, to +Liberty, to the People, to France. I repeat that we have taken up this +gauntlet, we are the Law, but the living Law which at need can arm +itself and fight. A gun in our hands is a protest. I do not know whether +we shall conquer, but it is our duty to protest. To protest first in +Parliament; when Parliament is closed, to protest in the street; when +the street is closed, to protest in exile; when exile is fulfilled, to +protest in the tomb. Such is our part, our office, our mission. The +authority of the Representatives is elastic; the People bestow it, +events extend it." + +While we were deliberating, our colleague, Napoleon Bonaparte, son +of the ex-King of Westphalia, came in. He listened. He spoke. He +energetically blamed, in a tone of sincere and generous indignation, his +cousin's crime, but he declared that in his opinion a written protest +would suffice. A protest of the Representatives, a protest of the +Council of State, a protest of the Magistracy, a protest of the Press, +that this protest would be unanimous and would enlighten France, but +that no other form of resistance would obtain unanimity. That as for +himself, having always considered the Constitution worthless, having +contended against it from the first in the Constituent Assembly, he +would not defend it at the last, that he assuredly would not give one +drop of blood for it. That the Constitution was dead, but that the +Republic was living, and that we must save, not the Constitution, a +corpse, but the Republic, the principle! + +Remonstrances burst forth. Bancel, young, glowing, eloquent, impetuous, +overflowing with self-confidence, cried out that we ought not to look at +the shortcomings of the Constitution, but at the enormity of the crime +which had been committed, the flagrant treason, the violated oath; he +declared that we might have voted against the Constitution in the +Constituent Assembly, and yet defend it to-day in the presence of an +usurper; that this was logical, and that many amongst us were in this +position. He cited me as an example. Victor Hugo, said he, is a proof of +this. He concluded thus: "You have been present at the construction of a +vessel, you have considered it badly built, you have given advice which +has not been listened to. Nevertheless, you have been obliged to embark +on board this vessel, your children and your brothers are there with +you, your mother is on board. A pirate ranges up, axe in one hand, to +scuttle the vessel, a torch in the other to fire it. The crew are +resolved to defend themselves and run to arms. Would you say to this +crew, 'For my part I consider this vessel badly built, and I will let it +be destroyed'?" + +"In such a case," added Edgar Quinet, "whoever is not on the side of the +vessel is on the side of the pirates." + +They shouted on all sides, "The decree! Read the decree!" + +I was standing leaning against the fire place. Napoleon Bonaparte came +up to me, and whispered in my ear,-- + +"You are undertaking," said he, "a battle which is lost beforehand." + +I answered him, "I do not look at success, I look at duty." + +He replied, "You are a politician, consequently you ought to look +forward to success. I repeat, before you go any further, that the battle +is lost beforehand." + +I resumed, "If we enter upon the conflict the battle is lost. You say +so, I believe it; but if we do not enter upon it, honor is lost. I would +rather lose the battle than honor." + +He remained silent for a moment, then he took my hand. + +"Be it so," continued he, "but listen to me. You run, you yourself +personally, great dancer. Of all the men in the Assembly you are the one +whom the President hates the most. You have from the height of the +Tribune nicknamed him, 'Napoleon the Little.' You understand that will +never be forgotten. Besides, it was you who dictated the appeal to arms, +and that is known. If you are taken, you are lost. You will be shot on +the spot, or at least transported. Have you a safe place where you can +sleep to-night?" + +I had not as yet thought of this. "In truth, no," answered I. + +He continued, "Well, then, come to my house. There is perhaps only one +house in Paris where you would be in safety. That is mine. They will not +come to look for you there. Come, day or night, at what hour you please, +I will await you, and I will open the door to you myself. I live at No. +5, Rue d'Alger." + +I thanked him. It was a noble and cordial offer. I was touched by it. I +did not make use of it, but I have not forgotten it. + +They cried out anew, "Read the decree! Sit down! sit down!" + +There was a round table before the fire place; a lamp, pens, +blotting-books, and paper were brought there; the members of the +Committee sat down at this table, the Representatives took their places +around them on sofas, on arm-chairs, and on all the chairs which could +be found in the adjoining rooms. Some looked about for Napoleon +Bonaparte. He had withdrawn. + +A member requested that in the first place the meeting should declare +itself to be the National Assembly, and constitute itself by immediately +appointing a President and Secretaries. I remarked that there was no +need to declare ourselves the Assembly, that we were the Assembly by +right as well as in fact, and the whole Assembly, our absent colleagues +being detained by force; that the National Assembly, although mutilated +by the _coup d'état_, ought to preserve its entity and remain constituted +afterwards in the same manner as before; that to appoint another +President and another staff of Secretaries would be to give Louis +Bonaparte an advantage over us, and to acknowledge in some manner the +Dissolution; that we ought to do nothing of the sort; that our decrees +should be published, not with the signature of a President, whoever he +might be, but with the signature of all the members of the Left who had +not been arrested, that they would thus carry with them full authority +over the People, and full effect. They relinquished the idea of appointing +a President. Noël Parfait proposed that our decrees and our resolutions +should be drawn up, not with the formula: "The National Assembly +decrees," etc.; but with the formula: "The Representatives of the People +remaining at liberty decree," etc. In this manner we should preserve all +the authority attached to the office of the Representatives of the People +without associating the arrested Representatives with the responsibility +of our actions. This formula had the additional advantage of separating +us from the Right. The people knew that the only Representatives +remaining free were the members of the Left. They adopted Noël Parfait's +advice. + +I read aloud the decree of deposition. It was couched in these words:-- + + "DECLARATION. + + "The Representatives of the people remaining at liberty, by virtue of + Article 68 of the Constitution, which runs as follows:-- + + "'Article 68.--Every measure by which the President of the Republic + dissolves the Assembly, prorogues it, or obstructs the exercise of + its authority, is a crime of High Treason. + + "'By this action alone the President is deposed from his office; the + citizens are bound to refuse him obedience; the executive power + passes by right to the National Assembly; the judges of the High + Court of Justice should meet together immediately under penalty of + treason, and convoke the juries in a place which they shall appoint + to proceed to the judgment of the President and his accomplices.' + + "Decree:-- + + "ARTICLE I.--Louis Bonaparte is deposed from his office of President + of the Republic. + + "ARTICLE II.--All citizens and public officials are bound to refuse + him obedience under penalty of complicity. + + "ARTICLE III.--The judgment drawn up on December 2d by the High Court + of Justice, and which declares Louis Bonaparte attainted with the + Crime of High Treason, shall be published and executed. Consequently + the civil and military authorities are summoned under penalty of + Treason to lend their active assistance to the execution of the said + judgment. + + "Given at Paris, in permanent session, December 3d, 1851." + +The decree having been read, and voted unanimously, we signed it, and +the Representatives crowded round the table to add their signatures to +ours. Sain remarked that this signing took time, that in addition we +numbered barely more than sixty, a large number of the members of the +Left being at work in the streets in insurrection. He asked if the +Committee, who had full powers from the whole of the Left, had any +objection to attach to the decree the names of all the Republican +Representatives remaining at liberty, the absent as well as those +present. We answered that the decree signed by all would assuredly +better answer its purpose. Besides, it was the counsel which I had +already given. Bancel had in his pocket on old number of the _Moniteur_ +containing the result of a division. + +They cut out a list of the names of the members of the Left, the names +of those who were arrested were erased, and the list was added to the +decree.[11] + +The name of Emile de Girardin upon this list caught my eye. He was still +present. + +"Do you sign this decree?" I asked him. + +"Unhesitatingly." + +"In that case will you consent to print it?" + +"Immediately." + +He continued,-- + +"Having no longer any presses, as I have told you, I can only print it +as a handbill, and with the brush. It takes a long time, but by eight +o'clock this evening you shall have five hundred copies." + +"And," continued I, "you persist in refusing to print the appeal to +arms?" + +"I do persist." + +A second copy was made of the decree, which Emile de Girardin took away +with him. The deliberation was resumed. At each moment Representatives +came in and brought items of news: Amiens in insurrection--Rheims and +Rouen in motion, and marching on Paris--General Canrobert resisting the +_coup d'état_--General Castellane hesitating--the Minister of the United +States demanding his passports. We placed little faith in these rumors, +and facts proved that we were right. + +Meanwhile Jules Favre had drawn up the following decree, which he +proposed, and which was immediately adopted:-- + + "DECREE. + + "FRENCH REPUBLIC. + + "Liberty,--Equality,--Fraternity. + + "The undersigned Representatives remaining at liberty, assembled in + Permanent Session,-- + + "Considering the arrest of the majority of our colleagues, and the + urgency of the moment: + + "Considering that for the accomplishment of his crime Louis Bonaparte + has not contented himself with multiplying the most formidable means of + destruction against the lives and property of the citizens of Paris, + that he has trampled under foot every law, that he has annihilated all + the guarantees of civilized nations: + + "Considering that these criminal madnesses only serve to augment the + violent denunciation of every conscience and to hasten the hour of + national vengeance, but that it is important to proclaim the Right: + + "Decree: + + "ARTICLE I.--The State of Siege is raised in all Departments where it + has been established, the ordinary laws resume their authority. + + "ARTICLE II.--It is enjoined upon all military leaders under penalty + of Treason immediately to lay down the extraordinary powers which + have been conferred upon them. + + "ARTICLE III.--Officials and agents of the public force are charged + under penalty of treason to put this present decree into execution. + + "Given in Permanent Session, 3d December, 1851." + +Madier de Montjau and De Flotte entered. They came from outside. They +had been in all the districts where the conflict was proceeding, they +had seen with their own eyes the hesitation of a part of the population +in the presence of these words, "The Law of the 31st May is abolished, +Universal Suffrage is re-established." The placards of Louis Bonaparte +were manifestly working mischief. It was necessary to oppose effort to +effort, and to neglect nothing which could open the eyes of the people. +I dictated the following Proclamation:- + + "PROCLAMATION. + + "People! you are being deceived. + + "Louis Bonaparte says that he has re-established you in your rights, + and that he restores to you Universal Suffrage. + + "Louis Bonaparte has lied. + + "Read his placards. He grants you--what infamous mockery!--the right + of conferring on him, on him _alone_, the Constituent power; that is + to say, the Supreme power, which belongs to you. He grants you the + right to appoint him Dictator _for ten years_. In other words, he + grants you the right of abdicating and of crowning him. A right which + even you do not possess, O People! for one generation cannot dispose + of the sovereignty of the generation which shall follow it. + + "Yes, he grants to you, Sovereign, the right of giving yourself a + master, and that master himself. + + "Hypocrisy and treason! + + "People! we unmask the hypocrite. It is for you to punish the traitor! + + "The Committee of Resistance: + + "Jules Favre, De Flotte, Carnot, Madier de Montjau, Mathieu (de la + Drôme), Michel de Bourges, Victor Hugo." + +Baudin had fallen heroically. It was necessary to let the People know of +his death, and to honor his memory. The decree below was voted on the +proposition of Michel de Bourges:-- + + "DECREE. + + "The Representatives of the People remaining at liberty considering + that the Representative Baudin has died on the barricade of the + Faubourg St. Antoine for the Republic and for the laws, and that he + has deserved well of his country, decree: + + "That the honors of the Panthéon are adjudged to Representative Baudin. + + "Given in Permanent Session, 3d December, 1851." + +After honor to the dead and the needs of the conflict it was +necessary in my opinion to enunciate immediately and dictatorially +some great popular benefit. I proposed the abolition of the _octroi_ +duties and of the duty on liquors. This objection was raised, "No +caresses to the people! After victory, we will see. In the meantime +let them fight! If they do not fight, if they do not rise, if they do +not understand that it is for them, for their rights that we the +Representatives, that we risk our heads at this moment--if they leave +us alone at the breach, in the presence of the _coup d'état_--it is +because they are not worthy of Liberty!" + +Bancel remarked that the abolition of the _octroi_ duties and the duty +on liquors were not caresses to the People, but succor to the poor, a +great economical and reparatory measure, a satisfaction to the public +demand--a satisfaction which the Right had always obstinately refused, +and that the Left, master of the situation, ought hasten to accord. They +voted, with the reservation that it should not be published until after +victory, the two decrees in one; in this form:-- + + "DECREE. + + "The Representatives remaining at liberty decree: + + "The _Octroi_ Duties are abolished throughout the extent of the + territory of the Republic. + + "Given in permanent Session, 3d December, 1851." + +Versigny, with a copy of the Proclamations and of the Decree, left in +search of Hetzel. Labrousse also left with the same object. They settled +to meet at eight o'clock in the evening at the house of the former +member of the Provisional Government Marie, Rue Neuve des Petits Champs. + +As the members of the Committee and the Representatives withdrew I was +told that some one had asked to speak to me. I went into a sort of +little room attached to the large meeting-room, and I found there a man +in a blouse, with an intelligent and sympathetic air. This man had a +roll of paper in his hand. + +"Citizen Victor Hugo," said he to me, "you have no printing office. Here +are the means which will enable you to dispense with one." + +He unfolded on the mantel-piece the roll which he had in his hand. It +was a species of blotting-book made of very thin blue paper, and which +seemed to be slightly oiled. Between each leaf of blue paper there was a +sheet of white paper. He took out of his pocket a sort of blunt bodkin, +saying, "The first thing to hand will serve your purpose, a nail or a +match," and he traced with his bodkin on the first leaf of the book the +word "Republic." Then turning over the leaves, he said, "Look at this." + +The word "Republic" was reproduced upon the fifteen or twenty white +leaves which the book contained. + +He added, "This paper is usually used to trace the designs of +manufactured fabrics. I thought that it might be useful at a moment like +this. I have at home a hundred books like this on which I can make a +hundred copies of what you want--a Proclamation, for instance--in the +same space of time that it takes to write four or five. Write something, +whatever you may think useful at the present moment, and to-morrow +morning five hundred copies shall be posted throughout Paris." + +I had none of the documents with me which we had just drawn up. Versigny +had gone away with the copies. I took a sheet of paper, and, leaning on +the corner of the chimney-piece, I wrote the following Proclamation:-- + + "TO THE ARMY. + + "Soldiers! + + "A man has just broken the Constitution. He tears up the oath which + he has sworn to the people; he suppresses the law, stifles Right, + stains Paris with blood, chokes France, betrays the Republic! + + "Soldiers, this man involves you in his crime. + + "There are two things holy; the flag which represents military honor + and the law which represents the National Right. Soldiers, the + greatest of outrages is the flag raised against the Law! Follow no + longer the wretched man who misleads you. Of such a crime French + soldiers should be the avengers, not the accomplices. + + "This man says he is named Bonaparte. He lies, for Bonaparte is a + word which means glory. This man says that he is named Napoléon. He + lies, for Napoléon is a word which means genius. As for him, he is + obscure and insignificant. Give this wretch up to the law. Soldiers, + he is a false Napoléon. A true Napoléon would once more give you a + Marengo; he will once more give you a Transnonain. + + "Look towards the true function of the French army; to protect the + country, to propagate the Revolution, to free the people, to sustain + the nationalities, to emancipate the Continent, to break chains + everywhere, to protect Right everywhere, this is your part amongst + the armies of Europe. You are worthy of great battle-fields. + + "Soldiers, the French Army is the advanced guard of humanity. + + "Become yourselves again, reflect; acknowledge your faults; rise up! + Think of your Generals arrested, taken by the collar by galley + sergeants and thrown handcuffed into robbers' cells! The malefactor, + who is at the Elysée, thinks that the Army of France is a band of + mercenaries; that if they are paid and intoxicated they will obey. + He sets you an infamous task, he causes you to strangle, in this + nineteenth century, and in Paris itself, Liberty, Progress, and + Civilization. He makes you--you, the children of France--destroy all + that France has so gloriously and laboriously built up during the + three centuries of light and in sixty years of Revolution! Soldiers! + you are the 'Grand Army!' respect the 'Grand Nation!' + + "We, citizens; we, Representatives of the People and of yourselves; + we, your friends, your brothers; we, who are Law and Right; we, who + rise up before you, holding out our arms to you, and whom you strike + blindly with your swords--do you know what drives us to despair? It + is not to see our blood which flows; it is to see your honor which + vanishes. + + "Soldiers! one step more in the outrage, one day more with Louis + Bonaparte, and you are lost before universal conscience. The men who + command you are outlaws. They are not generals--they are criminals. + The garb of the galley slave awaits them; see it already on their + shoulders. Soldiers! there is yet time--Stop! Come back to the + country! Come back to the Republic! If you continue, do you know + what History will say of you? It will say, They have trampled under + the feet of their horses and crushed beneath the wheels of their + cannon all the laws of their country; they, French soldiers, they + have dishonored the anniversary of Austerlitz, and by their fault, + by their crime, the name of Napoléon sprinkles as much shame to-day + upon France as in other times it has showered glory! + + "French soldiers! cease to render assistance to crime!" + +My colleagues of the Committee having left, I could not consult them--time +pressed--I signed: + + "For the Representatives of the People remaining at liberty, the + Representative member of the Committee of Resistance, + + "VICTOR HUGO." + +The man in the blouse took away the Proclamation saying, "You will see +it again to-morrow morning." He kept his word. I found it the nest day +placarded in the Rue Rambuteau, at the corner of the Rue de l'Homme-Armé +and the Chapelle-Saint-Denis. To those who were not in the secret of the +process it seemed to be written by hand in blue ink. + +I thought of going home. When I reached the Rue de la Tour d'Auvergne, +opposite my door, it happened curiously and by some chance to be half +open. I pushed it, and entered. I crossed the courtyard, and went +upstairs without meeting any one. + +My wife and my daughter were in the drawing-room round the fire with +Madame Paul Meurice. I entered noiselessly; they were conversing in a +low tone. They were talking of Pierre Dupont, the popular song-writer, +who had come to me to ask for arms. Isidore, who had been a soldier, had +some pistols by him, and had lent three to Pierre Dupont for the +conflict. + +Suddenly these ladies turned their heads and saw me close to them. My +daughter screamed. "Oh, go away," cried my wife, throwing her arms round +my neck, "you are lost if you remain here a moment. You will be arrested +here!" Madame Paul Meurice added, "They are looking for you. The police +were here a quarter of an hour ago." I could not succeed in reassuring +them. They gave me a packet of letters offering me places of refuge for +the night, some of them signed with names unknown to me. After some +moments, seeing them more and more frightened, I went away. My wife said +to me, "What you are doing, you are doing for justice. Go, continue!" I +embraced my wife and my daughter; five months have elapsed at the time +when I am writing these lines. When I went into exile they remained near +my son Victor in prison; I have not seen them since that day. + +I left as I had entered. In the porter's lodge there were only two or +three little children seated round a lamp, laughing and looking at +pictures in a book. + + +[11] This list, which belongs to History, having served as the base of +the proscription list, will be found complete in the sequel to this book +to be published hereafter. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +THE ARCHBISHOP + +On this gloomy and tragical day an idea struck one of the people. + +He was a workman belonging to the honest but almost imperceptible +minority of Catholic Democrats. The double exaltation of his mind, +revolutionary on one side, mystical on the other, caused him to be +somewhat distrusted by the people, even by his comrades and his friends. +Sufficiently devout to be called a Jesuit by the Socialists, +sufficiently Republican to be called a Red by the Reactionists, he +formed an exception in the workshops of the Faubourg. Now, what is +needed in these supreme crises to seize and govern the masses are men +of exceptional genius, not men of exceptional opinion. There is no +revolutionary originality. In order to be something, in the time of +regeneration and in the days of social combat, one must bathe fully in +those powerful homogeneous mediums which are called parties. Great +currents of men follow great currents of ideas, and the true +revolutionary leader is he who knows how best to drive the former in +accordance with the latter. + +Now the Gospel is in accordance with the Revolution, but Catholicism is +not. This is due to the fact that in the main the Papacy is not in +accordance with the Gospel. One can easily understand a Christian +Republican, one cannot understand a Catholic Democrat. It is a +combination of two opposites. It is a mind in which the negative bars +the way to the affirmative. It is a neuter. + +Now in time revolution, whoever is neuter of is impotent. Nevertheless, +during the first hours of resistance against the _coup d'état_ the +democratic Catholic workman, whose noble effort we are here relating, +threw himself so resolutely into the cause of Justice and of Truth, that +in a few moments he transformed distrust into confidence, and was hailed +by the people. He showed such gallantry at the rising of the barricade +of the Rue Aumaire that with an unanimous voice they appointed him their +leader. At the moment of the attack he defended it as he had built it, +with ardor. That was a sad but glorious battle-field; most of his +companions were killed, and he escaped only by a miracle. + +However, he succeeded in returning home, saying to himself bitterly, +"All is lost." + +It seemed evident to him that the great masses of the people would not +rise. Thenceforward it appeared impossible to conquer the _coup d'état_ +by a revolution; it could be only combated by legality. What had been +the risk at the beginning became the hope at the end, for he believed +the end to be fatal, and at hand. In his opinion it was necessary, as +the people were defaulters, to try now to arouse the middle classes. Let +one legion of National Guards go out in arms, and the Elysée was lost. +For this a decisive blow must be struck--the heart of the middle classes +must be reached--the "bourgeois" must be inspired by a grand spectacle +which should not be a terrifying spectacle. + +It was then that this thought came to this workman, "Write to the +Archbishop of Paris." + +The workman took a pen, and from his humble garret he wrote to the +Archbishop of Paris an enthusiastic and earnest letter in which he, a +man of the people and a believer, said this to his Bishop; we give the +substance of his letter:-- + +"This is a solemn hour, Civil War sets by the ears the Army and People, +blood is being shed. When blood flows the Bishop goes forth. M. Sibour +should follow in the path of M. Affre. The example is great, the +opportunity is still greater. + +"Let the Archbishop of Paris, followed by all his clergy, the Pontifical +cross before him, his mitre on his head, go forth in procession through +the streets. Let him summon to him the National Assembly and the High +Court, the Legislators in their sashes, the Judges in their scarlet +robes; let him summon to him the citizens, let him summon to him the +soldiers, let him go straight to the Elysée. Let him raise his hand in +the name of Justice against the man who is violating the laws, and in +the name of Jesus against the man who is shedding blood. Simply with +his raised hand he will crush the _coup d'état_. + +"And he will place his statue by the side of M. Affre, and it will be +said that twice two Archbishops of Paris have trampled Civil War beneath +their feet." + +"The Church is holy, but the Country is sacred. There are times when the +Church should succor the Country." + +The letter being finished, he signed it with his workman's signature. + +But now a difficulty arose; how should it be conveyed to its destination? + +Take it himself! + +But would he, a mere workman in a blouse, be allowed to penetrate to the +Archbishop! + +And then, in order to reach the Archiepiscopal Palace, he would have to +cross those very quarters in insurrection, and where, perhaps, the +resistance was still active. He would have to pass through streets +obstructed by troops, he would be arrested and searched; his hands smelt +of powder, he would be shot; and the letter would not reach its +destination. + +What was to be done? + +At the moment when he had almost despaired of a solution, the name of +Arnauld de l'Ariége came to his mind. + +Arnauld de l'Ariége was a Representative after his own heart. Arnauld de +l'Ariége was a noble character. He was a Catholic Democrat like the +workman. At the Assembly he raised aloft, but he bore nearly alone, that +banner so little followed which aspires to ally the Democracy with the +Church. Arnauld de l'Ariége, young, handsome, eloquent, enthusiastic, +gentle, and firm, combined the attributes of the Tribune with the faith +of the knight. His open nature, without wishing to detach itself from +Rome, worshipped Liberty. He had two principles, but he had not two +faces. On the whole the democratic spirit preponderated in him. He said +to me one day, "I give my hand to Victor Hugo. I do not give it to +Montalembert." + +The workman knew him. He had often written to him, and had sometimes +seen him. + +Arnauld de l'Ariége lived in a district which had remained almost free. + +The workman went there without delay. + +Like the rest of us, as has been seen, Arnauld de l'Ariége had taken +part in the conflict. Like most of the Representatives of the Left, he +had not returned home since the morning of the 2d. Nevertheless, on the +second day, he thought of his young wife whom he had left without +knowing if he should see her again, of his baby of six months old which +she was suckling, and which he had not kissed for so many hours, of that +beloved hearth, of which at certain moments one feels an absolute need +to obtain a fleeting glimpse, he could no longer resist; arrest, Mazas, +the cell, the hulks, the firing party, all vanished, the idea of danger +was obliterated, he went home. + +It was precisely at that moment that the workman arrived there. + +Arnauld de l'Ariége received him, read his letter, and approved of it. + +Arnauld de l'Ariége knew the Archbishop of Paris personally. + +M. Sibour, a Republican priest appointed Archbishop of Paris by General +Cavaignac, was the true chief of the Church dreamed of by the liberal +Catholicism of Arnauld de l'Ariége. On behalf of the Archbishop, Arnauld +de l'Ariége represented in the Assembly that Catholicism which M. de +Montalembert perverted. The democratic Representative and the Republic +Archbishop had at times frequent conferences, in which acted as +intermediatory the Abbé Maret, an intelligent priest, a friend of the +people and of progress, Vicar-General of Paris, who has since been Bishop +_in partibus_ of Surat. Some days previously Arnauld had seen the +Archbishop, and had received his complaints of the encroachment of the +Clerical party upon the episcopal authority, and he even proposed shortly +to interpellate the Ministry on this subject and to take the question +into the Tribune. + +Arnauld added to the workman's letter a letter of introduction, signed +by himself, and enclosed the two letters in the same envelope. + +But here the same question arose. + +How was the letter to be delivered? + +Arnauld, for still weightier reasons than those of the workman, could +not take it himself. + +And time pressed! + +His wife saw his difficulty and quietly said,-- + +"I will take charge of it." + +Madame Arnauld de l'Ariége, handsome and quite young, married scarcely +two years, was the daughter of the Republican ex-Constituent Guichard, +worthy daughter of such a father, and worthy wife of such a husband. + +They were fighting in Paris; it was necessary to face the dangers of the +streets, to pass among musket-balls, to risk her life. + +Arnauld de l'Ariége hesitated. + +"What do you want to do?" he asked. + +"I will take this letter." + +"You yourself?" + +"I myself." + +"But there is danger." + +She raised her eyes, and answered,-- + +"Did I make that objection to you when you left me the day before +yesterday?" + +He kissed her with tears in his eyes, and answered, "Go." + +But the police of the _coup d'état_ were suspicious, many women were +searched while going through the streets; this letter might be found on +Madame Arnauld. Where could this letter be hidden? + +"I will take my baby with me," said Madame Arnauld. + +She undid the linen of her little girl, hid the letter there, and +refastened the swaddling band. + +When this was finished the father kissed his child on the forehead, and +the mother exclaimed laughingly,-- + +"Oh, the little Red! She is only six months' old, and she is already a +conspirator!" + +Madame Arnauld reached the Archbishop's Palace with some difficulty. Her +carriage was obliged to take a long round. Nevertheless she arrived +there. She asked for the Archbishop. A woman with a child in her arms +could not be a very terrible visitor, and she was allowed to enter. + +But she lost herself in courtyards and staircases. She was seeking her +way somewhat discouraged, when she met the Abbé Maret. She knew him. She +addressed him. She told him the object of her expedition. The Abbé Maret +read the workman's letter, and was seized with enthusiasm: "This may +save all," said he. + +He added, "Follow me, madam, I will introduce you." + +The Archbishop of Paris was in the room which adjoins his study. The +Abbé Maret ushered Madame Arnauldé into the study, informed the +Archbishop, and a moment later the Archbishop entered. Besides the Abbé +Maret, the Abbé Deguerry, the Curé of the Madeleine, was with him. + +Madame Arnauld handed to M. Sibour the two letters of her husband and +the workman. The Archbishop read them, and remained thoughtful. + +"What answer am I to take back to my husband?" asked Madame Arnauld. + +"Madame," replied the Archbishop, "it is too late. This should have been +done before the struggle began. Now, it would be only to risk the +shedding of more blood than perhaps has yet been spilled." + +The Abbé Deguerry was silent. The Abbé Maret tried respectfully to turn +the mind of his Bishop towards the grand effort unsoiled by the workman. +He spoke eloquently. He laid great stress open this argument, that the +appearance of the Archbishop would bring about a manifestation of the +National Guard, and that a manifestation of the National Guard would +compel the Elysée to draw back. + +"No," said the Archbishop, "you hope for the impossible. The Elysée will +not draw back now. You believe that I should stop the bloodshed--not at +all; I should cause it to flow, and that in torrents. The National Guard +has no longer any influence. If the legions appeared, the Elysée could +crush the legions by the regiments. And then, what is an Archbishop in +the presence of the Man of the _coup d'état_? Where is the oath? Where +is the sworn faith? Where is the Respect for Right? A man does not turn +back when he has made three steps in such a crime. No! No! Do not hope. +This man will do all. He has struck the Law in the hand of the +Representatives. He will strike God in mine." + +And he dismissed Madame Arnauld with the look of a man overwhelmed with +sorrow. + +Let us do the duty of the Historian. Six weeks afterwards, in the Church +of Notre Dame, some one was singing the _Te Deum_ in honor of the +treason of December--thus making God a partner in a crime. + +This man was the Archbishop Sibour. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +MOUNT VALERIEN + +Of the two hundred and thirty Representatives prisoners at the barracks +of the Quai d'Orsay fifty-three had been sent to Mount Valérien. They +loaded them in four police vans. Some few remained who were packed in an +omnibus. MM. Benoist d'Azy, Falloux, Piscatory, Vatimesail, were locked +in the wheeled cells, as also Eugène Sue and Esquiros. The worthy M. +Gustave de Beaumont, a great upholder of the cellular system, rode in a +cell vehicle. It is not an undesirable thing, as we have said, that the +legislator should taste of the law. + +The Commandant of Mount Valérien appeared under the archway of the fort +to receive the Representative prisoners. + +He at first made some show of registering them in the jailer's book. +General Oudinot, under whom he had served, rebuked him severely,-- + +"Do you know me?" + +"Yes, General." + +"Well then, let that suffice. Ask no more." + +"Yes," said Tamisier. "Ask more and salute. We are more than the Army; +we are France." + +The commandant understood. From that moment he was hat in hand before +the generals, and bowed low before the Representatives. + +They led them to the barracks of the fort and shut them up promiscuously +in a dormitory, to which they added fresh beds, and which the soldiers +had just quitted. They spent their first night there. The beds touched +each other. The sheets were dirty. + +Next morning, owing to a few words which had been heard outside, the +rumor spread amongst them that the fifty-three were to be sorted, and +that the Republicans were to be placed by themselves. Shortly afterwards +the rumor was confirmed. Madame de Luynes gained admission to her +husband, and brought some items of news. It was asserted, amongst other +things, that the Keeper of the Seals of the _coup d'état_, the man who +signed himself Eugène Rouher, "Minister of Justice," had said, "Let them +set the men of the Right at liberty, and send the men of the Left to the +dungeon. If the populace stirs they will answer for everything. As a +guarantee for the submission of the Faubourgs we shall have the head of +the Reds." + +We do not believe that M. Rouher uttered these words, in which there is +so much audacity. At that moment M. Rouher did not possess any. +Appointed Minister on the 2d December, he temporized, he exhibited a +vague prudery, he did not venture to install himself in the Place +Vendôme. Was all that was being done quite correct? In certain minds the +doubt of success changes into scruples of conscience. To violate every +law, to perjure oneself, to strangle Right, to assassinate the country, +are all these proceedings wholly honest? While the deed is not +accomplished they hesitate. When the deed has succeeded they throw +themselves upon it. Where there is victory there is no longer treason; +nothing serves like success to cleanse and render acceptable that +unknown thing which is called crime. During the first moments M. Rocher +reserved himself. Later on he has been one of the most violent advisers +of Louis Bonaparte. It is all very simple. His fear beforehand explains +his subsequent zeal. + +The truth is, that these threatening words had been spoken not by +Rouher, but by Persigny. + +M. de Luynes imparted to his colleagues what was in preparation, and +warned them that they would be asked for their names in order that the +white sheep might be separated from the scarlet goats. A murmur which +seemed to be unanimous arose. These generous manifestations did honor to +the Representatives of the Right. + +"No! no! Let us name no one, let us not allow ourselves to be sorted," +exclaimed M. Gustave de Beaumont. + +M. de Vatimesnil added, "We have come in here all together, we ought to +go out all together." + +Nevertheless a few moments afterwards Antony Thouret was informed that a +list of names was being secretly prepared, and that the Royalist +Representatives were invited to sign it. They attributed, doubtless +wrongly, this unworthy resolution to the honorable M. de Falloux. + +Antony Thouret spoke somewhat warmly in the centre of the group, which +were muttering together in the dormitory. + +"Gentlemen," said he, "a list of names is being prepared. This would be +an unworthy action. Yesterday at the Mairie of the Tenth Arrondissement +you said to us, 'There is no longer Left or Right; we are the Assembly.' +You believed in the victory of the People, and you sheltered yourself +behind us Republicans. Today you believe in the victory of the _coup +d'état_, and you would again become Royalists, to deliver us up, us +Democrats! Truly excellent. Very well! Pray do so." + +A universal shout arose. + +"No! No! No more Right or Left! All are the Assembly. The same lot for +all!" + +The list which had been begun was seized and burnt. + +"By decision of the Chamber," said M. de Vatimesnil, smiling. A +Legitimist Representative added,-- + +"Of the Chamber? No, let us say of the Chambered." + +A few moments afterwards the Commissary of the fort appeared, and in +polite phrases, which, however, savored somewhat of authority, invited +each of the Representatives of the People to declare his name in order +that each might be allotted to his ultimate destination. + +A shout of indignation answered him. + +"No one! No one will give his name," said General Oudinot. + +Gustave de Beaumont added,-- + +"We all bear the same name: Representatives of the People." + +The Commissary saluted them and went away. + +After two hours he came back. He was accompanied this time by the Chief +of the Ushers of the Assembly, a man named Duponceau, a species of +arrogant fellow with a red face and white hair, who on grand days +strutted at the foot of the Tribune with a silvered collar, a chain over +his stomach, and a sword between his legs. + +The Commissary said to Duponceau,--"Do your duty." + +What the Commissary meant, and what Duponceau understood by this word +_duty_, was that the Usher should denounce the Legislators. Like the +lackey who betrays his masters. + +It was done in this manner. + +This Duponceau dared to look in the faces of the Representatives by +turn, and he named them one after the other to a policeman, who took +notes of them. + +The Sieur Duponceau was sharply castigated while holding this review. + +"M. Duponceau," said M. Vatimesnil to him, "I always thought you an +idiot, but I believed you to be an honest man." + +The severest rebuke was administered by Antony Thouret. He looked Sieur +Duponceau in the face, and said to him, "You deserve to be named Dupin." + +The Usher in truth was worthy of being the President, and the President +was worthy of being the Usher. + +The flock having been counted, the classification having been made, +there were found to be thirteen goats: ten Representatives of the Left; +Eugène Sue, Esquires, Antony Thouret, Pascal Duprat, Chanay, Fayolle, +Paulin Durrien, Benoit, Tamisier, Tailard Latérisse, and three members +of the Right, who since the preceding day had suddenly become Red in the +eyes of the _coups d'état_; Oudinot, Piscatory, and Thuriot de la +Rosière. + +They confined these separately, and they set at liberty one by one the +forty who remained. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +THE LIGHTNING BEGINS TO FLASH AMONGST THE PEOPLE + +The evening wore a threatening aspect. + +Groups were formed on the Boulevards. As night advanced they grew larger +and became mobs, which speedily mingled together, and only formed one +crowd. An enormous crowd, reinforced and agitated by tributary currents +from the side-streets, jostling one against another, surging, stormy, +and whence ascended an ominous hum. This hubbub resolved itself into one +word, into one name which issued simultaneously from every mouth, and +which expressed the whole of the situation: "Soulouque!"[12] Throughout +that long line from the Madeleine to the Bastille, the roadway nearly +everywhere, except (was this on purpose?) at the Porte St. Denis and the +Porte St. Martin, was occupied by the soldiers--infantry and cavalry, +ranged in battle-order, the artillery batteries being harnessed; on the +pavements on each side of this motionless and gloomy mass, bristling +with cannon, swords, and bayonets, flowed a torrent of angry people. On +all sides public indignation prevailed. Such was the aspect of the +Boulevards. At the Bastille there was a dead calm. + +At the Porte St. Martin the crowd, hemmed together and uneasy, spoke in +low tones. Groups of workmen talked in whispers. The Society of the 10th +December made some efforts there. Men in white blouses, a sort of +uniform which the police assumed during those days, said, "Let us leave +them alone; let the 'Twenty-five francs' settle it amongst themselves! +They deserted us in June, 1848; to-day let them get out of the +difficulty alone! It does not concern us!" Other blouses, blue blouses, +answered them, "We know what we have to do. This is only the beginning, +wait and see." + +Others told how the barricades of the Rue Aumaire were being rebuilt, +how a large number of persons had already been killed there, how they +fired without any summons, how the soldiers were drunk, how at various +points in the district there were ambulances already crowded with killed +and wounded. All this was said seriously, without loud speaking, without +gesture, in a confidential tone. From time to time the crowd were silent +and listened, and distant firing was heard. + +The groups said, "Now they are beginning to tear down the curtain." + +We were holding Permanent Session at Marie's house in the Rue Croix des +Petits Champs. Promises of co-operation poured in upon us from every +side. Several of our colleagues, who had not been able to find us on the +previous day, had joined us, amongst others Emmanuel Arago, gallant son +of an illustrious father; Farconnet and Roussel (de l'Yonne), and some +Parisian celebrities, amongst whom was the young and already well-known +defender of the _Avénement du Peuple_, M. Desmarets. + +Two eloquent men, Jules Favre and Alexander Rey, seated at a large table +near the window of the small room, were drawing up a Proclamation to the +National Guard. In the large room Sain, seated in an arm-chair, his feet +on the dog-irons, drying his wet boots before a huge fire, said, with +that calm and courageous smile which he wore in the Tribune, "Things are +looking badly for us, but well for the Republic. Martial law is +proclaimed; it will be carried out with ferocity, above all against us. +We are laid in wait for, followed, tracked, there is little probability +that we shall escape. To-day, to-morrow, perhaps in ten minutes, there +will be a 'miniature massacre' of Representatives. We shall be taken +here or elsewhere, shot down on the spot or killed with bayonet thrusts. +They will parade our corpses, and we must hope that that will at length +raise the people and overthrow Bonaparte. We are dead, but Bonaparte is +lost." + +At eight o'clock, as Emile de Girardin had promised, we received from +the printing office of the _Presse_ five hundred copies of the decree of +deposition and of outlawry endorsing the judgment of the High Court, and +with all our signatures attached. It was a placard twice as large as +one's hand, and printed on paper used for proofs. Noël Parfait brought us +the five hundred copies, still damp, between his waistcoat and his shirt. +Thirty Representatives divided the bills amongst them, and we sent them +on the Boulevards to distribute the Decree to the People. + +The effect of this Decree falling in the midst of the crowd was +marvellous. Some _cafés_ had remained open, people eagerly snatched the +bills, they pressed round the lighted shop windows, they crowded under +the street lamps. Some mounted on kerbstones or on tables, and read +aloud the Decree.--"That is it! Bravo!" cried the people. "The +signatures!" "The signatures!" they shouted. The signatures were read +out, and at each popular name the crowd applauded. Charamaule, merry and +indignant, wandered through the groups, distributing copies of the +Decree; his great stature, his loud and bold words, the packet of +handbills which he raised, and waved above his head, caused all hands to +be stretched out towards him. "Shout 'Down with Soulouque!'" said he, +"and you shall have some." All this in the presence of the soldiers. +Even a sergeant of the line, noticing Charamaule, stretched out his hand +for one of the bills which Charamaule was distributing. "Sergeant," said +Charamaule to him, "cry, 'Down with Soulouque!'" The sergeant hesitated +for a moment, and answered "No." "Well, then," replied Charamaule, +"Shout, 'Long live Soulouque.'" This time the sergeant did not hesitate, +he raised his sword, and, amid bursts of laughter and of applause, he +resolutely shouted, "Long live Soulouque!" + +The reading of the Decree added a gloomy warmth to the popular anger. +They set to work on all sides to tear down the placards of the _coup +d'état_. At the door of the Café des Variétés a young man cried out to +the officers, "You are drunk!" Some workmen on the Boulevard +Bonne-Nouvelle shook their fists at the soldiers and said, "Fire, then, +you cowards, on unarmed men! If we had guns you would throw the butts of +your muskets in the air." Charges of cavalry began to be made in front +of the Café Cardinal. + +As there were no troops on the Boulevard St. Martin and the Boulevard du +Temple, the crowd was more compact pact there than elsewhere. All the +shops were shut there; the street lamps alone gave any light. Against +the gloss of the unlighted windows heads might be dimly seen peering +out. Darkness produced silence; this multitude, as we have already said, +was hushed. There was only heard a confused whispering. Suddenly a +light, a noise, an uproar burst forth from the entrance of the Rue St. +Martin. Every eye was turned in that direction; a profound upheaving +agitated the crowd; they rushed forward, they pressed against the +railings of the high pavements which border the cutting between the +theatres of the Porte St. Martin and the Ambigu. A moving mass was seen, +and an approaching light. Voices were singing. This formidable chorus +was recognized, + + "Aux armes, Citoyens; formez vos bataillons!" + +Lighted torches were coming, it was the "Marseillaise," that other torch +of Revolution and of warfare which was blazing. + +The crowd made way for the mob which carried the torches, and which were +singing. The mob reached the St. Martin cutting, and entered it. It was +then seen what this mournful procession meant. The mob was composed of +two distinct groups. The first carried on its shoulders a plank, on which +could be seen stretched an old man with a white beard, stark, the mouth +open, the eyes fixed, and with a hole in his forehead. The swinging +movement of the bearers shook the corpse, and the dead head rose and fell +in a threatening and pathetic manner. One of the men who carried him, +pale, and wounded in the breast, placed his hand to his wound, leant +against the feet of the old man, and at times himself appeared ready to +fall. The other group bore a second litter, on which a young man was +stretched, his countenance pale and his eyes closed, his shirt stained, +open over his breast, displaying his wounds. While bearing the two +litters the groups sang. They sang the "Marseillaise," and at each chorus +they stopped and raised their torches, crying, "To arms!" Some young men +waved drawn swords. The torches shed a lurid light on the pallid +foreheads of the corpses and on the livid faces of the crowd. A shudder +ran through the people. It appeared as though they again saw the terrible +vision of February, 1848. + +This gloomy procession came from the Rue Aumaire. About eight o'clock +some thirty workmen gathered together from the neighborhood of the +markets, the same who on the next day raised the barricade of the +Guérin-Boisseau, reached the Rue Aumaire by the Rue de Petit Lion, the +Rue Neuve-Bourg-l'Abbé, and the Carré St. Martin. They came to fight, +but here the combat was at an end. The infantry had withdrawn after +having pulled down the barricades. Two corpses, an old man of seventy +and a young man of five-and-twenty, lay at the corner of the street on +the ground, with uncovered faces, their bodies in a pool of blood, their +heads on the pavement where they had fallen. Both were dressed in +overcoats, and seemed to belong to the middle class. The old man had his +hat by his side; he was a venerable figure with a white beard, white +hair, and a calm expression. A ball had pierced his skull. + +The young man's breast was pierced with buck-shot. One was the father, +the other the son. The son, seeing his father fall, had said, "I also +will die." Both were lying side by side. + +Opposite the gateway of the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers there was +a house in course of building. They fetched two planks from it, they +laid the corpses on the planks, the crowd raised them upon their +shoulders, they brought torches, and they began their march. In the Rue +St. Denis a man in a white blouse barred the way. "Where are you going?" +said he to them. "You will bring about disasters! You are helping the +'Twenty-five francs!'" "Down with the police! Down with the white +blouse!" shouted the crowd. The man slunk away. + +The mob swelled on its road; the crowd opened out and repeated the +"Marseillaise" in chorus, but with the exception of a few swords no one +was armed. On the boulevard the emotion was intense. Women clasped their +hands in pity. Workmen were heard to exclaim, "And to think that we have +no arms!" + +The procession, after having for some time followed the Boulevards, +re-entered the streets, followed by a deeply-affected and angry +multitude. In this manner it reached the Rue de Gravilliers. Then a +squad of twenty _sergents de ville_ suddenly emerging from a narrow +street rushed with drawn swords upon the men who were carrying the +litters, and overturned the corpses into the mud. A regiment of +Chasseurs came up at the double, and put an end to the conflict with +bayonet thrusts. A hundred and two citizen prisoners were conducted to +the Prefecture. The two corpses received several sword-cuts in the +confusion, and were killed a second time. The brigadier Revial, who +commanded the squad of the _sergents de ville_, received the Cross of +Honor for this deed of arms. + +At Marie's we were on the point of being surrounded. We decided to leave +the Rue Croix des Petits Champs. + +At the Elysée they commenced to tremble. The ex-Commandant Fleury, one +of the aides-de-camp of the Presidency, was summoned into the little +room where M. Bonaparte had remained throughout the day. M. Bonaparte +conferred a few moments alone with M. Fleury, then the aide-de-camp came +out of the room, mounted his horse, and galloped off in the direction of +Mazas. + +After this the men of the _coup d'état_ met together in M. Bonaparte's +room, and held council. Matters were visibly going badly; it was +probable that the battle would end by assuming formidable proportions. +Up to that time they had desired this, now they did not feel sure that +they did not fear it. They pushed forward towards it, but they +mistrusted it. There were alarming symptoms in the steadfastness of the +resistance, and others not less serious in the cowardice of adherents. +Not one of the new Ministers appointed during the morning had taken +possession of his Ministry--a significant timidity on the part of people +ordinarily so prompt to throw themselves upon such things. M. Roulier, +in particular, had disappeared, no one knew where--a sign of tempest. +Putting Louis Bonaparte on one side, the _coup d'état_ continued to rest +solely upon three names, Morny, St. Arnaud, and Maupas. St. Arnaud +answered for Magnan. Morny laughed and said in a whisper, "But does +Magnan answer for St. Arnaud?" These men adopted energetic measures, +they sent for new regiments; an order to the garrisons to march upon +Paris was despatched in the one direction as far as Cherbourg, and on +the other as far as Maubeuge. These criminals, in the main deeply +uneasy, sought to deceive each other. They assumed a cheerful +countenance; all spoke of victory; each in the background arranged for +flight; in secret, and saying nothing, in order not to give the alarm to +his compromised colleagues, so as, in case of failure, to leave the +people some men to devour. For this little school of Machiavellian apes +the hopes of a successful escape lie in the abandonment of their +friends. During their flight they throw their accomplices behind them. + + +[12] A popular nickname for Louis Bonaparte. Faustin Soulouque was the +negro Emperor of Hayti, who, when President of the Republic, had carried +out a somewhat similar _coup d'état_ in 1848, being subsequently elected +Emperor. He treated the Republicans with great cruelty, putting most of +them to death. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +WHAT FLEURY WENT TO DO AT MAZAS + +During the same night towards four o'clock the approaches of the +Northern Railway Station were silently invested by two regiments; one +of Chasseurs de Vincennes, the other of _Gendarmerie Mobile_. Numerous +squads of _sergents de ville_ installed themselves in the terminus. The +station-master was ordered to prepare a special train and to have an +engine ready. A certain number of stokers and engineers for night +service were retained. No explanation however was vouchsafed to any +one, and absolute secrecy was maintained. A little before six o'clock a +movement was apparent in the troops. Some _sergents de ville_ came +running up, and a few minutes afterwards a squadron of Lancers emerged +at a sharp trot from the Rue du Nord. In the centre of the squadron and +between the two lines of horse-soldiers could be seen two police-vans +drawn by post-horses, behind each vehicle came a little open barouche, +in which there sat one man. At the head of the Lancers galloped the +aide-de-camp Fleury. + +The procession entered the courtyard, then the railway station, and the +gates and doors were reclosed. + +The two men in the barouches made themselves known to the Special +Commissary of the station, to whom the aide-de-camp Fleury spoke +privately. This mysterious convoy excited the curiosity of the railway +officials; they questioned the policemen, but these knew nothing. All +that they could tell was that these police-vans contained eight places, +that in each van there were four prisoners, each occupying a cell, and +that the four other cells were filled by four _sergents de ville_ +placed between the prisoners so as to prevent any communication between +the cells. + +After various consultations between the aide-de-camp of the Elysée and +the men of the Prefect Maupas, the two police-vans were placed on +railway trucks, each having behind it the open barouche like a wheeled +sentry-box, where a police agent acted as sentinel. The engine was +ready, the trucks were attached to the tender, and the train started. It +was still pitch dark. + +For a long time the train sped on in the most profound silence. +Meanwhile it was freezing, in the second of the two police-vans, the +_sergents de ville_, cramped and chilled, opened their cells, and in +order to warm and stretch themselves walked up and down the narrow +gangway which runs from end to end of the police-vans. Day had broken, +the four _sergents de ville_ inhaled the outside air and gazed at the +passing country through a species of port-hole which borders each side +of the ceiling of the passage. Suddenly a loud voice issued from one of +the cells which had remained closed, and cried out, "Hey! there! it is +very cold, cannot I relight my cigar here?" + +Another voice immediately issued from a second cell, and said, "What! it +is you? Good-morning, Lamoricière!" + +"Good-morning, Cavaignac!" replied the first voice. + +General Cavaignac and General Lamoricière had just recognized each +other. + +A third voice was raised from a third cell. "Ah! you are there, +gentlemen. Good-morning and a pleasant journey." + +He who spoke then was General Changarnier. + +"Generals?" cried out a fourth voice. "I am one of you!" + +The three generals recognized M. Baze. A burst of laughter came from the +four cells simultaneously. + +This police-van in truth contained, and was carrying away from Paris, +the Questor Baze, and the Generals Lamoricière, Cavaignac, and +Changarnier. In the other vehicle, which was placed foremost on the +trucks, there were Colonel Charras, Generals Bedeau and Le Flô, and +Count Roger (du Nord). + +At midnight these eight Representative prisoners were sleeping in their +cells at Mazas, when they heard a sudden knocking at their doors, and a +voice cried out to them, "Dress, they are coming to fetch you." "Is it to +shoot us?" cried Charras from the other side of the door. They did not +answer him. It is worth remarking that this idea came simultaneously to +all. And in truth, if we can believe what has since transpired through +the quarrels of accomplices, it appears that in the event of a sudden +attack being made by us upon Mazas to deliver them, a fusillade had been +resolved upon, and that St. Arnaud had in his pocket the written order, +signed "Louis Bonaparte." + +The prisoners got up. Already on the preceding night a similar notice +had been given to them. They had passed the night on their feet, and at +six o'clock in the morning the jailer said to them, "You can go to bed." +The hours passed by; they ended by thinking it would be the same as the +preceding night, and many of them, hearing five o'clock strike from the +clock tower inside the prison, were going to get back into bed, when the +doors of their cells were opened. All the eight were taken downstairs +one by one into the clerk's office in the Rotunda, and were then ushered +into the police-van without having met or seen each other during the +passage. A man dressed in black, with an impertinent bearing, seated at +a table with pen in hand, stopped them on their way, and asked their +names. "I am no more disposed to tell you my name than I am curious to +learn yours," answered General Lamoricière, and he passed outside. + +The aide-de-camp Fleury, concealing his uniform under his hooded cloak, +stationed himself in the clerk's office. He was charged, to use his own +words, to "embark" them, and to go and report their "embarkation" at the +Elysée. The aide-de-camp Fleury had passed nearly the whole of his +military career in Africa in General Lamoricière's division; and it was +General Lamoricière who in 1848, then being Minister of War, had +promoted him to the rank of major. While passing through the clerk's +office, General Lamoricière looked fixedly at him. + +When they entered the police-vans the generals were smoking cigars. They +took them from them. General Lamoricière had kept his. A voice from +outside cried three separate times, "Stop his smoking!" A _sergent de +ville_ who was standing by the door of the cell hesitated for +some time, but however ended by saying to the general, "Throw away your +cigar." + +Thence later on ensued the exclamation which caused General Cavaignac to +recognize General Lamoricière. The vehicles having been loaded they set +off. + +They did not know either with whom they were or where they were going. +Each observed for himself in his box the turnings of the streets, and +tried to speculate. Some believed that they were being taken to the +Northern Railway Station; others thought to the Havre Railway Station. +They heard the trot of the escort on the paving-stones. + +On the railway the discomfort of the cells greatly increased. General +Lamoricière, encumbered with a parcel and a cloak, was still more jammed +in than the others. He could not move, the cold seized him, and he ended +by the exclamation which put all four of them in communication with each +other. + +On hearing the names of the prisoners their keepers, who up to that time +had been rough, became respectful. "I say there," said General +Changarnier, "open our cells, and let us walk up and down the passage +like yourselves." "General," said a _sergent de ville_, "we are forbidden +to do so. The Commissary of Police is behind the carriage in a barouche, +whence he sees everything that is taking place here." Nevertheless, a +few moments afterwards, the keepers, under pretext of cold, pulled up +the ground-glass window which closed the vehicle on the side of the +Commissary, and having thus "blocked the police," as one of them +remarked, they opened the cells of the prisoners. + +It was with great delight that the four Representatives met again and +shook hands. Each of these three generals at this demonstrative moment +maintained the character of his temperament. Lamoricière, impetuous and +witty, throwing himself with all his military energy upon "the Bonaparte;" +Cavaignac, calm and cold; Changarnier, silent and looking out through +the port-hole at the landscape. The _sergents de ville_ ventured to put +in a word here and there. One of them related to the prisoners that the +ex-Prefect Carlier had spent the night of the First and Second at the +Prefecture of Police. "As for me," said he, "I left the Prefecture at +midnight, but I saw him up to that hour, and I can affirm that at +midnight he was there still." + +They reached Creil, and then Noyon. At Noyon they gave them some +breakfast, without letting them get out, a hurried morsel and a glass of +wine. The Commissaries of Police did not open their lips to them. Then +the carriages were reclosed, and they felt they were being taken off the +trucks and being replaced on the wheels. Post horses arrived, and the +vehicles set out, but slowly; they were now escorted by a company of +infantry _Gendarmerie Mobile_. + +When they left Noyon they had been ten hours in the police-van. Meanwhile +the infantry halted. They asked permission to get out for a moment "We +consent," said one of the Commissaries of the Police, "but only for a +minute, and on condition that you will give your word of honor not to +escape." "We will give our word of honor," replied the prisoners. +"Gentlemen," continued the Commissary, "give it to me only for one +minute, the time to drink a glass of water." "No," said General +Lamoricière, "but the time to do the contrary," and he added, "To Louis +Bonaparte's health." They allowed them to get out, one by one, and they +were, able to inhale for a moment the fresh air in the open country by +the side of the road. + +Then the convoy resumed its march. + +As the day waned they saw through their port-hole a mass of high walls, +somewhat overtopped by a great round tower. A moment afterwards the +carriages entered beneath a low archway, and then stopped in the centre +of a long courtyard, steeply embanked, surrounded by high walls, and +commanded by two buildings, of which one had the appearance of a +barrack, and the other, with bars at all the windows, had the appearance +of a prison. The doors of the carriages were opened. An officer who wore +a captain's epaulets was standing by the steps. General Changarnier came +down first. "Where are we?" said he. The officer answered, "You are at +Ham." + +This officer was the Commandant of the Fort. He had been appointed to +this post by General Cavaignac. + +The journey from Noyon to Ham had lasted three hours and a half. They +had spent thirteen hours in the police van, of which ten were on the +railway. + +They led them separately into the +prison, each to the room that was allotted to him. However, General +Lamoricière having been taken by mistake into Cavaignac's room, the two +generals could again exchange a shake of the hand. General Lamoricière +wished to write to his wife; the only letter which the Commissaries of +Police consented to take charge of was a note containing this line: "I +am well." + +The principal building of the prison of Ham is composed of a story above +the ground floor. The ground floor is traversed by a dark and low +archway, which leads from the principal courtyard into a back yard, and +contains three rooms separated by a passage; the first floor contains +five rooms. One of the three rooms on the ground floor is only a little +ante-room, almost uninhabitable; there they lodged M. Baze. In the +remaining lower chambers they installed General Lamoricière and General +Changarnier. The five other prisoners were distributed in the five rooms +of the first floor. + +The room allotted to General Lamoricière had been occupied in the time +of the captivity of the Ministers of Charles X. by the ex-Minister of +Marine, M. d'Haussez. It was a low, damp room, long uninhabited, and +which had served as a chapel, adjoining the dreary archway which led +from one courtyard to the other, floored with great planks slimy and +mouldy, to which the foot adhered, papered with a gray paper which had +turned green, and which hung in rags, exuding saltpetre from the floor +to the ceiling, lighted by two barred windows looking on to the +courtyard, which had always to be left open on account of the smoky +chimney. At the bottom of the room was the bed, and between the windows +a table and two straw-bottomed chairs. The damp ran down the walls. When +General Lamoricière left this room he carried away rheumatism with him; +M. de Haussez went out crippled. + +When the eight prisoners had entered their rooms, the doors were shut +upon them; they heard the bolts shot from outside, and they were told: +"You are in close confinement." + +General Cavaignac occupied on the first floor the former room of M. Louis +Bonaparte, the best in the prison. The first thing which struck the eye +of the General was an inscription traced on the well, and stating the day +when Louis Bonaparte had entered this fortress, and the day when he had +left it, as is well known, disguised as a mason, and with a plank on his +shoulder. Moreover, the choice of this building was an attention on the +part of M. Louis Bonaparte, who having in 1848 taken the place of General +Cavaignac in power; wished that in 1851 General Cavaignac should take his +place in prison. + +"Turn and turn about!" Morny had said, smiling. + +The prisoners were guarded by the 48th of the Line, who formed the +garrison at Ham. The old Bastilles are quite impartial. They obey those +who make _coups d'état_ until the day when they clutch them. What do +these words matter to them, Equity, Truth, Conscience, which moreover in +certain circles do not move men any more than stones? They are the cold +and gloomy servants of the just and of the unjust. They take whatever is +given them. All is good to them. Are they guilty? Good! Are they +innocent? Excellent! This man is the organizer of an ambush. To prison! +This man is the victim of an ambush! Enter him in the prison register! +In the same room. To the dungeon with all the vanquished! + +These hideous Bastilles resemble that old human justice which possessed +precisely as much conscience as they have, which condemned Socrates and +Jesus, and which also takes and leaves, seizes and releases, absolves +and condemns, liberates and incarcerates, opens and shuts, at the will +of whatever hand manipulates the bolt from outside. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +THE END OF THE SECOND DAY + +We left Marie's house just in time. The regiment charged to track us and +to arrest us was approaching. We heard the measured steps of soldiers in +the gloom. The streets were dark. We dispersed. I will not speak of a +refuge which was refused to us. + +Less than ten minutes after our departure M. Marie's house was invested. +A swarm of guns and swords poured in, and overran it from cellar to +attic. "Everywhere! everywhere!" cried the chiefs. The soldiers sought +us with considerable energy. Without taking the trouble to lean down and +look, they ransacked under the beds with bayonet thrusts. Sometimes they +had difficulty in withdrawing the bayonets which they had driven into the +wall. Unfortunately for this zeal, we were not there. + +This zeal came frown higher sources. The poor soldiers obeyed. "Kill +the Representatives," such were their instructions. It was at that +moment when Morny sent this despatch to Maupas: "If you take Victor +Hugo, do what you like with him." These were their politest phrases. +Later on the _coup d'état_ in its decree of banishment, called us +"those individuals," which caused Schoelcher to say these haughty +words: "These people do not even know how to exile politely." + +Dr. Véron who publishes in his "Mémoires" the Morny-Maupas despatch, +adds: "M. du Maupas sent to look for Victor Hugo at the house of his +brother-in-law, M. Victor Foucher, Councillor to the Court of Cassation. +He did not find him." + +An old friend, a man of heart and of talent, M. Henry d'E----, had +offered me a refuge in rooms which he occupied in the Rue Richelieu; +these rooms adjoining the Théâtre Français, were on the first floor of a +house which, like M. Grévy's residence, had an exit into the Rue +Fontaine Molière. + +I went there. M. Henry d'E---- being from home, his porter was awaiting +me, and handed me the key. + +A candle lighted the room which I entered. There was a table near the +fire, a blotting-book, and some paper. It was past midnight, and I was +somewhat tired; but before going to bed, foreseeing that if I should +survive this adventure I should write its history, I resolved immediately +to note down some details of the state of affairs in Paris at the end of +this day, the second of the _coup d'état_. I wrote this page, which I +reproduce here, because it is a life-like portrayal--a sort of direct +photograph:-- + +"Louis Bonaparte has invented something which he calls a 'Consultative +Committee,' and which he commissions to draw up the postscript of his +crimes. + +"Léon Foucher refuses to be in it; Montalember hesitates; Baroche +accepts. + +"Falloux despises Dupin. + +"The first shots were fired at the Record Office. In the Markets in the +Rue Rambuteau, in the Rue Beaubourg I heard firing. + +"Fleury, the aide-de-camp, ventured to pass down the Rue Montmartre. A +musket ball pierced his képi. He galloped quickly off. At one o'clock +the regiments were summoned to vote on the _coup d'état_. All gave their +adhesion. The students of law and medicine assembled together at the +Ecole de Droit to protest. The Municipal Guards dispersed them. There +were a great many arrests. This evening, patrols are everywhere. +Sometimes an entire regiment forms a patrol. + +"Representative Hespel, who is six feet high, was not able to find a +cell long enough for him at Mazas, and he has been obliged to remain in +the porter's lodge, where he is carefully watched. + +"Mesdames Odilon Barrot and de Tocqueville do not know where their +husbands are. They go from Mazas to Mont Valérien. The jailers are dumb. +It is the 19th Light Infantry which attacked the barricade when Baudin +was killed. Fifty men of the _Gendarmerie Mobile_ have carried at the +double the barricade of the Oratoire in the Rue St. Honoré. Moreover, the +conflict reveals itself. They sound the tocsin at the Chapelle Bréa. One +barricade overturned sets twenty barricades on their feet. There is the +barricade of the Schools in the Rue St. André des Arts, the barricade of +the Rue du Temple, the barricade of the Carrefour Phélippeaux defended by +twenty young men who have all been killed; they are reconstructing it; +the barricade of the Rue de Bretagne, which at this moment Courtigis is +bombarding. There is the barricade of the Invalides, the barricade of the +Barrière des Martyres, the barricade of the Chapelle St. Denis. The +councils of war are sitting in permanence, and order all prisoners to be +shot. The 30th of the Line have shot a woman. Oil upon fire. + +"The colonel of the 49th of the Line has resigned. Louis Bonaparte has +appointed in his place Lieutenant Colonel Négrier. M. Brun, Officer of +the Police of the Assembly, was arrested at the same time as the +Questors. + +"It is said that fifty members of the majority have signed a protest at +M. Odilon Barrot's house. + +"This evening there is an increasing uneasiness at the Elysée. +Incendiarism is feared. Two battalions of engineer-sappers have +reinforced the Fire Brigade. Maupas has placed guards over the +gasometers. + +"Here are the military talons by which Paris has been grasped:--Bivouacs +at all the strategical points. At the Pont Neuf and the Quai aux Fleurs, +the Municipal Guards; at the Place de la Bastille twelve pieces of +cannon, three mortars, lighted matches; at the corner of the Faubourg the +six-storied houses are occupied by soldiers from top to bottom; the +Marulaz brigade at the Hôtel de Ville; the Sauboul brigade at the +Panthéon; the Courtigis brigade at the Faubourg St. Antoine; the Renaud +division at the Faubourg St. Marceau. At the Legislative Palace the +Chasseurs de Vincennes, and a battalion of the 15th Light Infantry; in +the Champs Elysées infantry and cavalry; in the Avenue Marigny artillery. +Inside the circus is an entire regiment; it has bivouacked there all +night. A squadron of the Municipal Guard is bivouacking in the Place +Dauphine. A bivouac in the Council of State. A bivouac in the courtyard +of the Tuileries. In addition, the garrisons of St. Germain and of +Courbevoie. Two colonels killed, Loubeau, of the 75th, and Quilio. On all +sides hospital attendants are passing, bearing litters. Ambulances are +everywhere; in the Bazar de l'Industry (Boulevard Poissionière); in the +Salle St. Jean at the Hôtel de Ville; in the Rue du Petit Carreau. In +this gloomy battle nine brigades are engaged. All have a battery of +artillery; a squadron of cavalry maintains the communications between the +brigades; forty thousand men are taking part in the struggle; with a +reserve of sixty thousand men; a hundred thousand soldiers upon Paris. +Such is the Army of the Crime. The Reibell brigade, the first and second +Lancers, protect the Elysée. The Ministers are all sleeping at the +Ministry of the Interior, close by Morny. Morny watches, Magnan commands. +To-morrow will be a terrible day." + +This page written, I went to bed, and fell asleep. + + + + +THE THIRD DAY--THE MASSACRE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +THOSE WHO SLEEP AND HE WHO DOES NOT SLEEP + +During this night of the 3d and 4th of December, while we who were +overcome with fatigue and betrothed to calamity slept an honest slumber, +not an eye was closed at the Elysée. An infamous sleeplessness reigned +there. Towards two o'clock in the morning the Comte Roguet, after Morny +the most intimate of the confidants of the Elysée, an ex-peer of France +and a lieutenant-general, came out of Louis Bonaparte's private room; +Roguet was accompanied by Saint-Arnaud. Saint-Arnaud, it may be +remembered, was at that time Minister of War. + +Two colonels were waiting in the little ante-room. + +Saint-Arnaud was a general who had been a supernumerary at the Ambigu +Theatre. He had made his first appearance as a comedian in the suburbs. +A tragedian later on. He may be described as follows:--tall, bony, thin, +angular, with gray moustaches, lank air, a mean countenance. He was a +cut-throat, and badly educated. Morny laughed at him for his pronunciation +of the "Sovereign People." "He pronounces the word no better than he +understands the thing," said he. The Elysée, which prides itself upon its +refinement, only half-accepted Saint-Arnaud. His bloody side had caused +his vulgar side to be condoned. Saint-Arnaud was brave, violent, and yet +timid; he had the audacity of a gold-laced veteran and the awkwardness of +a man who had formerly been "down upon his luck." We saw him one day in +the tribune, pale, stammering, but daring. He had a long bony face, and +a distrust-inspiring jaw. His theatrical name was Florivan. He was a +strolling player transformed into a trooper. He died Marshal of France. +An ill-omened figure. + +The two colonels who awaited Saint-Arnaud in the anteroom were two +business-like men, both leaders of those decisive regiments which at +critical times carry the other regiments with them, according to their +instructions, into glory, as at Austerlitz, or into crime, as on the +Eighteenth Brumaire. These two officers belonged to what Morny called +"the cream of indebted and free-living colonels." We will not mention +their names here; one is dead, the other is still living; he will +recognize himself. Besides, we have caught a glimpse of them in the +first pages of this book. + +One, a man of thirty-eight, was cunning, dauntless, ungrateful, three +qualifications for success. The Duc d'Aumale had saved his life in the +Aurés. He was then a young captain. A ball had pierced his body; he fell +into a thicket; the Kabyles rushed up to cut off and carry away his +head, when the Duc d'Aumale arriving with two officers, a soldier, and a +bugler, charged the Kabyles and saved this captain. Having saved him, he +loved him. One was grateful, the other was not. The one who was grateful +was the deliverer. The Duc d'Aumale was pleased with this young captain +for having given him an opportunity for a deed of gallantry. He made +him a major; in 1849 this major became lieutenant-colonel, and commanded +a storming column at the siege of Rome; he then came back to Africa, +where Fleury bought him over at the same time as Saint-Arnaud. Louis +Bonaparte made him colonel in July, 1851, and reckoned upon him. In +November this colonel of Louis Bonaparte wrote to the Duc d'Aumale, +"Nothing need be apprehended from this miserable adventurer." In +December he commanded one of the massacring regiments. Later on, in the +Dobrudscha, an ill-used horse turned upon him and bit off his cheek, so +that there was only room on his face for one slap. + +The other man was growing gray, and was about forty-eight. He also was +a man of pleasure and of murder. Despicable as a citizen; brave as a +soldier. He was one of the first who had sprung into the breach at +Constantine. Plenty of bravery and plenty of baseness. No chivalry but +that of the green cloth. Louis Bonaparte had made him colonel in 1851. +His debts had been twice paid by two Princes; the first time by the Duc +d'Orléans, the second time by the Duc de Némours. + +Such were these colonels. + +Saint-Arnaud spoke to them for some time in a low tone. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMITTEE + +As soon as it was daylight we had assembled in the house of our +imprisoned colleague, M. Grévy. We had been installed in his private +room. Michel de Bourges and myself were seated near the fireplace; Jules +Favre and Carnot were writing, the one at a table near the window, the +other at a high desk. The Left had invested us with discretionary +powers. It became more and more impossible at every moment to meet +together again in session. We drew up in its name and remitted to +Hingray, so that he might print it immediately, the following decree, +compiled on the spur of the moment by Jules Favre:-- + + "FRENCH REPUBLIC. + + "_Liberty, Equality, Fraternity_. + + "The undersigned Representatives of the People who still remain at + liberty, having met together in an Extraordinary Permanent Session, + considering the arrest of the majority of their colleagues, considering + the urgency of the moment; + + "Seeing that the crime of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte in violently + abolishing the operations of the Public Powers has reinstated the + Nation in the direct exercise of its sovereignty, and that all which + fetters that sovereignty at the present time should he annulled; + + "Seeing that all the prosecutions commenced, all the sentences + pronounced, by what right soever, on account of political crimes or + offences are quashed by the imprescriptible right of the People; + + "DECREE: + + "ARTICLE I. All prosecutions which have begun, and all sentences which + have been pronounced, for political crimes or offences are annulled as + regards all their civil or criminal effects. + + "ARTICLE II. Consequently, all directors of jails or of houses of + detention are enjoined immediately to set at liberty all persons + detained in prison for the reasons above indicated. + + "ARTICLE III. All magistrates' officers and officers of the judiciary + police are similarly enjoined, under penalty of treason, to annul all + the prosecutions which have been begun for the same causes. + + "ARTICLE IV. The police functionaries and agents are charged with the + execution of the present decree. + + "Given at Paris, in Permanent Session, on the 4th December, 1851." + +Jules Favre, as he passed me the decree for my signature, said to me, +smiling, "Let us set your sons and your friends at liberty." "Yes," said +I, "four combatants the more on the barricades." The Representative +Duputz, a few hours later, received from our hands a duplicate of the +decree, with the charge to take it himself to the Concièrgerie as soon +as the surprise which we premeditated upon the Prefecture of Police and +the Hôtel de Ville should have succeeded. Unhappily this surprise +failed. + +Landrin came in. His duties in Paris in 1848 had enabled him to know the +whole body of the political and municipal police. He warned us that he +had seen suspicious figures roving about the neighborhood. We were in the +Rue Richelieu, almost opposite the Théâtre Français, one of the points +where passers-by are most numerous, and in consequence one of the points +most carefully watched. The goings and comings of the Representatives +who were communicating with the Committee, and who came in and out +unceasingly, would be inevitably noticed, and would bring about a visit +from the Police. The porters and the neighbors already manifested an +evil-boding surprise. We ran, so Landrin declared and assured us, the +greatest danger. "You will be taken and shot," said he to us. + +He entreated us to go elsewhere. M. Grévy's brother, consulted by us, +stated that he could not answer for the people of his house. + +But what was to be done? Hunted now for two days, we had exhausted the +goodwill of nearly everybody, one refuge had been refused on the +preceding evening, and at this moment no house was offered to us. Since +the night of the 2d we had changed our refuge seventeen times, at times +going from one extremity of Paris to the other. We began to experience +some weariness. Besides, as I have already said, the house where we were +had this signal advantage--a back outlet upon the Rue Fontaine-Molière. +We decided to remain. Only we thought we ought to take precautionary +measures. + +Every species of devotion burst forth from the ranks of the Left around +us. A noteworthy member of the Assembly--a man of rare mind and of rare +courage--Durand-Savoyat--who from the preceding evening until the last +day constituted himself our doorkeeper, and even more than this, our +usher and our attendant, himself had placed a bell on our table, and had +said to us, "When you want me, ring, and I will come in." Wherever we +went, there was he. He remained in the ante-chamber, calm, impassive, +silent, with his grave and noble countenance, his buttoned frock coat, +and his broad-brimmed hat, which gave him the appearance of an Anglican +clergyman. He himself opened the entrance door, scanned the faces of +those who came, and kept away the importunate and the useless. Besides, +he was always cheerful, and ready to say unceasingly, "Things are +looking well." We were lost, yet he smiled. Optimism in Despair. + +We called him in. Landrin set forth to him his misgivings. We begged +Durand-Savoyat in future to allow no one to remain in the apartments, +not even the Representatives of the People, to take note of all news and +information, and to allow no one to penetrate to us but men who were +indispensable, in short, as far as possible, to send away every one in +order that the goings and comings might cease. Durand-Savoyat nodded his +head, and went back into the ante-chamber, saying, "It shall be done." +He confined himself of his own accord to these two formulas; for us, +"Things are looking well," for himself, "It shall be done." "It shall be +done," a noble manner in which to speak of duty. + +Landrin and Durand-Savoyat having left, Michel de Bourges began to +speak. + +"The artifice of Louis Bonaparte, imitator of his uncle in this as in +everything," said Michel de Bourges, "had been to throw out in advance +an appeal to the People, a vote to be taken, a plebiscitum, in short, to +create a Government in appearance at the very moment when he overturned +one. In great crises, where everything totters and seems ready to fall, +a People has need to lay hold of something. Failing any other support, +it will take the sovereignty of Louis Bonaparte. Well, it was necessary +that a support should be offered to the people, by us, in the form of +its own sovereignty. The Assembly," continued Michel de Bourges, "was, +as a fact, dead. The Left, the popular stump of this hated Assembly, +might suffice for the situation for a few days. No more. It was +necessary that it should be reinvigorated by the national sovereignty. +It was therefore important that we also should appeal to universal +suffrage, should oppose vote to vote, should raise erect the Sovereign +People before the usurping Prince, and should immediately convoke a new +Assembly." Michel de Bourges proposed a decree. + +Michel de Bourges was right. Behind the victory of Louis Bonaparte could +be seen something hateful, but something which was familiar--the Empire; +behind the victory of the Left there was obscurity. We must bring in +daylight behind us. That which causes the greatest uneasiness to +people's imagination is the dictatorship of the Unknown. To convoke a +new Assembly as soon as possible, to restore France at once into the +hands of France, this was to reassure people's minds during the combat, +and to rally them afterwards; this was the true policy. + +For some time, while listening to Michel de Bourges and Jules Favre, who +supported him, we fancied we heard, in the next room, a murmur which +resembled the sound of voices. Jules Favre had several times exclaimed, +"Is any one there?" + +"It is not possible," was the answer. "We have instructed Durand-Savoyat +to allow no one to remain there." And the discussion continued. +Nevertheless the sound of voices insensibly increased, and ultimately +grew so distinct that it became necessary to see what it meant. Carnot +half opened the door. The room and the ante-chamber adjoining the room +where we were deliberating were filled with Representatives, who were +peaceably conversing. + +Surprised, we called in Durand-Savoyat. + +"Did you not understand us?" asked Michel de Bourges. + +"Yes, certainly," answered Durand-Savoyat. + +"This house is perhaps marked," resumed Carnot; "we are in danger of +being taken." + +"And killed upon the spot," added Jules Favre, smiling with his calm +smile. + +"Exactly so," answered Durand-Savoyat, with a look still quieter than +Jules Favre's smile. "The door of this inner room is shrouded in the +darkness, and is little noticeable. I have detained all the +Representatives who have come in, and have placed them in the larger +room and in the ante-chamber, whichever they have wished. A species of +crowd has thus been formed. If the police and the troops arrive, I shall +say to them, 'Here we are.' They will take us. They will not perceive +the door of the inner room, and they will not reach you. We shall pay +for you. If there is any one to be killed, they will content themselves +with us." + +And without imagining that he had just uttered the words of a hero, +Durand-Savoyat went back to the antechamber. + +We resumed our deliberation on the subject of a decree. We were +unanimously agreed upon the advantage of an immediate convocation of a +New Assembly. But for what date? Louis Bonaparte had appointed the 20th +of December for his Plebiscitum; we chose the 21st. Then, what should we +call this Assembly? Michel de Bourges strongly advocated the title of +"National Convention," Jules Favre that its name should be "Constituent +Assembly," Carnot proposed the title of "Sovereign Assembly," which, +awakening no remembrances, would leave the field free to all hopes. The +name of "Sovereign Assembly" was adopted. + +The decree, the preamble of which Carnot insisted upon writing from my +dictation, was drawn up in these terms. It is one of those which has +been printed and placarded. + + "DECREE. + + "The crime of Louis Bonaparte imposes great duties upon the + Representatives of the People remaining at liberty. + + "Brute force seeks to render the fulfilment of these duties impossible. + + "Hunted, wandering from refuge to refuge, assassinated in the streets, + the Republican Representatives deliberate and act, notwithstanding the + infamous police of the _coup d'état_. + + "The outrage of Louis Napoleon, in overturning all the Public Powers, + has only left one authority standing,--the supreme authority,--the + authority of the people: Universal Suffrage. + + "It is the duty of the Sovereign People to recapture and reconstitute + all the social forces which to-day are dispersed. + + "Consequently, the Representatives of the People decree:-- + + "ARTICLE I.--The People are convoked on the 21st December, 1851, for + the election of a Sovereign Assembly. + + "ARTICLE II.--The election will take place by Universal Suffrage, + according to the formalities determined by the decree of the + Provisional Government of March 5, 1848. + + "Given at Paris, in Permanent Session, December 4, 1851." + +As I finished signing this decree, Durand-Savoyat entered and whispered +to me that a woman had asked for me, and was waiting in the ante-chamber. +I went out to her. It was Madame Charassin. Her husband had disappeared. +The Representative Charassin, a political economist, an agriculturist, a +man of science, was at the same time a man of great courage. We had seen +him on the preceding evening at the most perilous points. Had he been +arrested? Madame Charassin came to ask me if we knew where he was. I was +ignorant. She went to Mazas to make inquiries for him there. A colonel +who simultaneously commanded in the army and in the police, received her, +and said, "I can only permit you to see your husband on one condition." +"What is that?" "You will talk to him about nothing." "What do you mean +Nothing?" "No news, no politics." "Very well." "Give me your word of +honor." And she had answered him, "How is it that you wish me to give you +my word of honor, since I should decline to receive yours?" + +I have since seen Charassin in exile. + +Madame Charassin had just left me when Théodore Bac arrived. He brought +us the protest of the Council of State. + +Here it is:-- + + "PROTEST OF THE COUNCIL OF STATE. + + "The undersigned members of the Council of State, elected by the + Constituent and Legislative Assemblies, having assembled together, + notwithstanding the decree of the 2d of December, at their usual place, + and having found it surrounded by an armed force, which prohibited their + access thereto, protest against the decree which has pronounced the + dissolution of the Council of State, and declare that they only ceased + their functions when hindered by force. + + "Paris, this 3d December, 1851. + + "Signed: BETHMONT, VIVIEN, BUREAU DE PUZY, ED. CHARTON, CUVIER, DE + RENNEVILLE, HORACE SAY, BOULATIGNIER, GAUTIER DE RUMILLY, DE JOUVENCEL, + DUNOYER, CARTERET, DE FRESNE, BOUCHENAY-LEFER, RIVET, BOUDET, CORMENIN, + PONS DE L'HERAULT." + +Let us relate the adventure of the Council of State. + +Louis Bonaparte had driven away the Assembly by the Army, and the High +Court of Justice by the Police; he expelled the Council of State by the +porter. + +On the morning of the 2d of December, at the very hour at which the +Representatives of the Right had gone from M. Daru's to the Mairie of +the Tenth Arrondissement, the Councillors of State betook themselves to +the Hotel on the Quai d'Orsay. They went in one by one. + +The quay was thronged with soldiers. A regiment was bivouacking there +with their arms piled. + +The Councillors of State soon numbered about thirty. They set to work to +deliberate. A draft protest was drawn up. At the moment when it was about +to be signed the porter came in, pale and stammering. He declared that he +was executing his orders, and he enjoined them to withdraw. + +Upon this several Councillors of State declared that, indignant as they +were, they could not place their signatures beside the Republican +signatures. + +A means of obeying the porter. + +M. Bethmont, one of the Presidents of the Council of State, offered the +use of his house. He lived in the Rue Saint-Romain. The Republican +members repaired there, and without discussion signed the protocol which +has been given above. + +Some members who lived in the more distant quarters had not been able to +come to the meeting. The youngest Councillor of State, a man of firm +heart and of noble mind, M. Edouard Charton, undertook to take the +protest to his absent colleagues. + +He did this, not without serious risk, on foot, not having been able to +obtain a carriage, and he was arrested by the soldiery and threatened +with being searched, which would have been highly dangerous. Nevertheless +he succeeded in reaching some of the Councillors of State. Many signed, +Pons de l'Hérault resolutely, Cormenin with a sort of fever, Boudet after +some hesitation. M. Boudet trembled, his family were alarmed, they heard +through the open window the discharge of artillery. Charton, brave and +calm, said to him, "Your friends, Vivien, Rivet, and Stourm have signed." +Boullet signed. + +Many refused, one alleging his great age, another the _res angusta domi_, +a third "the fear of doing the work of the Reds." "Say 'fear,' in short," +replied Charton. + +On the following day, December 3d, MM. Vivien and Bethmont took the +protest to Boulay de la Meurthe, Vice-President of the Republic, and +President of the Council of State, who received them in his dressing-gown, +and exclaimed to them, "Be off! Ruin yourselves, if you like, but without +me." + +On the morning of the 4th, M. de Cormenin erased his signature, giving +this unprecedented but authentic excuse: "The word _ex_-Councillor of +State does not look well in a book; I am afraid of injuring my +publisher." + +Yet another characteristic detail. M. Béhic, on the morning of the 2d, +had arrived while they were drawing up the protest. He had half opened +the door. Near the door was standing M. Gautier de Rumilly, one of the +most justly respected members of the Council of State. M. Béhic had +asked M. Gautier de Rumilly, "What are they doing? It is a crime. What +are we doing?" M. Gautier de Rumilly had answered, "A protest." Upon, +this word M. Béhic had reclosed the door, and had disappeared. He +reappeared later on under the Empire--a Minister. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +INSIDE THE ELYSEE + +During the morning Dr. Yvan met Dr. Conneau. They were acquainted. They +talked together. Yvan belonged to the Left. Conneau belonged to the +Elysée. Yvan knew through Conneau the details of what had taken place +during the night at the Elysée, which he transmitted to us. + +One of these details was the following:-- + +An inexorable decree had been compiled, and was about to be placarded. +This decree enjoined upon all submission to the _coup d'état_. +Saint-Arnaud, who, as Minister of War, should sign the decree, had drawn +it up. He had reached the last paragraph, which ran thus: "Whoever shall +be detected constructing a barricade, posting a placard of the +ex-Representatives, or reading it, shall be...." here Saint-Arnaud had +paused; Morny had shrugged his shoulders, had snatched the pen from his +hand, and written "_shot_!" + +Other matters had been decided, but these were not recorded. + +Various pieces of information came in in addition to these. + +A National Guard, named Boillay de Dole, had formed one of the Guard at +the Elysée, on the night of the 3d and 4th. The windows of Louis +Bonaparte's private room, which was on the ground floor, were lighted up +throughout the night. In the adjoining room there was a Council of War. +From the sentry-box where he was stationed Boillay saw defined on the +windows black profiles and gesticulating shadows, which were +Magnan, Saint-Arnaud, Persigny, Fleury,--the spectres of the crime. + +Korte, the General of the Cuirassiers, had been summoned, as also +Carrelet, who commanded the division which did the hardest work on the +following day, the 4th. From midnight to three o'clock in the morning +Generals and Colonels "did nothing but come and go." Even mere captains +had come there. Towards four o'clock some carriages arrived "with +women." Treason and debauchery went hand in hand. The boudoir in the +palace answered to the brothel in the barracks. + +The courtyard was filled with lancers, who held the horses of the +generals who were deliberating. + +Two of the women who came that night belong in a certain measure to +History. There are always feminine shadows of this sort in the +background. These women influenced the unhappy generals. Both belonged +to the best circles. The one was the Marquise of ----, she who became +enamored of her husband after having deceived him. She discovered that +her lover was not worth her husband. Such a thing does happen. She was +the daughter of the most whimsical Marshal of France, and of that pretty +Countess of ---- to whom M. de Chateaubriand, after a night of love, +composed this quatrain, which may now be published--all the personages +being dead. + + The Dawn peeps in at the window, she paints the sky with red; + And over our loving embraces her rosy rays are shed: + She looks on the slumbering world, love, with eyes that seem divine. + But can she show on her lips, love, a smile as sweet as thine?[13] + +The smile of the daughter was as sweet as that of the mother, and more +fatal. The other was Madame K----, a Russian, fair, tall, blonde, +lighthearted, involved in the hidden paths of diplomacy, possessing and +displaying a casket full of love letters from Count Molé somewhat of a +spy, absolutely charming and terrifying. + +The precautions which had been taken in case of accident were visible +even from outside. Since the preceding evening there had been seen from +the windows of the neighboring houses two post-chaises in the courtyard +of the Elysée, horsed, ready to start, the postilions in their saddles. + +In the stables of the Elysée in the Rue Montaigne there were other +carriages horsed, and horses saddled and bridled. + +Louis Bonaparte had not slept. During the night he had given mysterious +orders; thence when morning came there was on this pale face a sort of +appalling serenity. + +The Crime grown calm was a disquieting symptom. + +During the morning he had almost laughed. Morny had come into his private +room. Louis Bonaparte, having been feverish, had called in Conneau, who +joined in the conversation. People are believed to be trustworthy, +nevertheless they listen. + +Morny brought the police reports. Twelve workmen of the National Printing +Office had, during the night of the Second, refused to print the decrees +and the proclamations. They had been immediately arrested. Colonel +Forestier was arrested. They had transferred him to the Fort of Bicêtre, +together with Crocé Spinelli, Genillier, Hippolyte Magen, a talented and +courageous writer, Goudounèche, a schoolmaster, and Polino. This last +name had struck Louis Bonaparte. "Who is this Polino?" Morny had +answered, "An ex-officer of the Shah of Persia's service." And he had +added, "A mixture of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza." These prisoners had +been placed in Number Six Casemate. Further questions on the part of +Louis Bonaparte, "What are these casemates?" And Morny had answered, +"Cellars without air or daylight, twenty-four mètres long, eight wide, +five high, dripping walls, damp pavements." Louis Bonaparte had asked, +"Do they give them a truss of straw?" And Morny had said, "Not yet, we +shall see by and by." He had added, "Those who are to be transported are +at Bicêtre, those who are to be shot are at Ivry." + +Louis Bonaparte had inquired, "What precautions had been taken?" Morny +gave him full particulars; that guards had been placed in all the +steeples; that all printing-presses had been placed under seal; that +all the drums of the National Guard had been locked up; that there +was therefore no fear either of a proclamation emanating from a +printing-office, or of a call to arms issuing from a Mairie, or of +the tocsin ringing from a steeple. + +Louis Bonaparte had asked whether all the batteries contained their full +complements, as each battery should be composed of four pieces and two +mortars. He had expressly ordered that only pieces of eight, and mortars +of sixteen centimètres in diameter should be employed. + +"In truth," Morny, who was in the secret, had said, "all this apparatus +will have work to do." + +Then Morny had spoken of Mazas, that there were 600 men of the +Republican Guards in the courtyard, all picked men, and who when +attacked would defend themselves to the bitter end; that the soldiers +received the arrested Representatives with shouts of laughter, and that +they had gone so far as to stare Thiers in the face; that the officers +kept the soldiers at a distance, but with discretion and with a "species +of respect;" that three prisoners were kept in solitary confinement, +Greppo, Nadaud, and a member of the Socialist Committee, Arsène Meunier. +This last named occupied No. 32 of the Sixth Division. Adjoining, in No. +30, there was a Representative of the Right, who sobbed and cried +unceasingly. This made Arsène Meunier laugh, and this made Louis +Bonaparte laugh. + +Another detail. When the _fiacre_ bringing M. Baze was entering the +courtyard of Mazas, it had struck against the gate, and the lamp of the +_fiacre_ had fallen to the ground and been broken to pieces. The +coachman, dismayed at the damage, bewailed it. "Who will pay for this?" +exclaimed he. One of the police agents, who was in the carriage with the +arrested Questor, had said to the driver, "Don't be uneasy, speak to the +Brigadier. In matters such as this, _where there is a breakage_, it is +the Government which pays." + +And Bonaparte had smiled, and muttered under his moustache, "That is +only fair." + +Another anecdote from Morny also amused him. This was Cavaignac's anger +on entering his cell at Mazas. There is an aperture at the door of each +cell, called the "spy-hole," through which the prisoners are played the +spy upon unknown to themselves. The jailers had watched Cavaignac. He had +begun by pacing up and down with folded arms, and then the space being +too confined, he had seated himself on the stool in his cell. These +stools are narrow pieces of plank upon three converging legs, which +pierce the seat in the centre, and project beyond the plank, so that one +is uncomfortably seated. Cavaignac had stood up, and with a violent kick +had sent the stool to the other end of the cell. Then, furious and +swearing, he had broken with a blow of his fist the little table of five +inches by twelve, which, with the stool, formed the sole furniture of the +dungeon. + +This kick and fisticuff amused Louis Bonaparte. + +"And Maupas is as frightened as ever," said Morny. This made Bonaparte +laugh still further. + +Morny having given in his report, went away. Louis Bonaparte entered an +adjoining room; a woman awaited him there. It appears that she came to +entreat mercy for some one. Dr. Conneau heard these expressive words: +"Madam, I wink at your loves; do you wink at my hatreds." + + +[13] The above is a free rendering of the original, which is as follows:-- + + Des rayons du matin l'horizon se colore, + Le jour vient éclairer notre tendre entretien, + Mais est-il un sourire aux lèvres de l'aurore. + Aussi doux que le tien? + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +BONAPARTE'S FAMILIAR SPIRITS + +M. Mérimée was vile by nature, he must not be blamed for it. + +With regard to M. de Morny it is otherwise, he was more worthy; there was +something of the brigand in him. + +M. de Morny was courageous. Brigandage has its sentiments of honor. + +M. Mérimée has wrongly given himself out as one of the confederates of +the _coup d'état_. He had, however, nothing to boast of in this. + +The truth is that M. Mérimée was in no way a confidant. Louis Bonaparte +made no useless confidences. + +Let us add that it is little probable, notwithstanding some slight +evidence to the contrary, that M. Mérimée, at the date of the 2d +December, had any direct relations with Louis Bonaparte. This ensued +later on. At first Mérimée only knew Morny. + +Morny and Mérimée were both intimate at the Elysée, but on a different +footing. Morny can be believed, but not Mérimée. Morny was in the great +secrets, Mérimée in the small ones. Commissions of gallantry formed his +vocation. + +The familiars of the Elysée were of two kinds, the trustworthy +confederates and the courtiers. + +The first of the trustworthy confederates was Morny; the first--or the +last--of the courtiers was Mérimée. + +This is what made the fortune of M. Mérimée. + +Crimes are only glorious during the first moment; they fade quickly. This +kind of success lacks permanency; it is necessary promptly to supplement +it with something else. + +At the Elysée a literary ornament was wanted. A little savor of the +Academy is not out of place in a brigand's cavern. M. Mérimée was +available. It was his destiny to sign himself "the Empress's Jester." +Madame de Montijo presented him to Louis Bonaparte, who accepted him, +and who completed his Court with this insipid but plausible writer. + +This Court was a heterogeneous collection; a dinner-wagon of basenesses, +a menagerie of reptiles, a herbal of poisons. + +Besides the trustworthy confederates who were for use, and the courtiers +who were for ornament, there were the auxiliaries. + +Certain circumstances called for reinforcements; sometimes these were +women, _the Flying Squadron_. + +Sometimes men: Saint-Arnaud, Espinasse, Saint-George, Maupas. + +Sometimes neither men nor women: the Marquis de C. + +The whole troop was noteworthy. + +Let us say a few words of it. + +There was Vieillard the preceptor, an atheist with a tinge of +Catholicism, a good billiard player. + +Vieillard was an anecdotist. He recounted smilingly the following:-- +Towards the close of 1807 Queen Hortense, who of her own accord lived +in Paris, wrote to the King Louis that she could not exist any longer +without seeing him, that she could not do without him, and that she was +about to come to the Hague. The King said, "She is with child." He sent +for his minister Van Maanen, showed him the Queen's letter, and added, +"She is coming. Very good. Our two chambers communicate by a door; the +Queen will find it walled up." Louis took his royal mantle in earnest, +for he exclaimed, "A King's mantle shall never serve as coverlet to a +harlot." The minister Van Maanen, terrified, sent word of this to the +Emperor. The Emperor fell into a rage, not against Hortense, but against +Louis. Nevertheless Louis held firm; the door was not walled up, but his +Majesty was; and when the Queen came he turned his back upon her. This +did not prevent Napoleon III. from being born. + +A suitable number of salvoes of cannon saluted this birth. + +Such was the story which, in the summer of 1840, in the house called La +Terrasse, before witnesses, among whom was Ferdinand B----, Marquis de la +L----, a companion during boyhood of the author of this book, was told by +M. Vieillard, an ironical Bonapartist, an arrant sceptic. + +Besides Vieillard there was Vaudrey, whom Louis Bonaparte made a General +at the same time as Espinasse. In case of need a Colonel of Conspiracies +can become a General of Ambuscades. + +There was Fialin,[14] the corporal who became a Duke. + +There was Fleury, who was destined to the glory of travelling by the side +of the Czar on his buttocks. + +There was Lacrosse, a Liberal turned Clerical, one of those Conservatives +who push order as far as the embalming, and preservation as far as the +mummy: later on a senator. + +There was Larabit, a friend of Lacrosse, as much a domestic and not less +a senator. + +There was Canon Coquereau, the "Abbé of La Belle-Poule." The answer is +known which he made to a princess who asked him, "What is the Elysée?" It +appears that one can say to a princess what one cannot say to a woman. + +There was Hippolyte Fortoul, of the climbing genus, of the worth of a +Gustave Planche or of some Philarête Chasles, an ill-tempered writer who +had become Minister of the Marine, which caused Béranger to say, "This +Fortoul knows all the spars, including the 'greased pole.'" + +There were some Auvergants there. Two. They hated each other. One had +nicknamed the other "the melancholy tinker." + +There was Sainte-Beuve, a distinguished but inferior man, having a +pardonable fondness for ugliness. A great critic like Cousin is a great +philosopher. + +There was Troplong, who had had Dupin for Procurator, and whom Dupin had +had for President. Dupin, Troplong; the two side faces of the mask placed +upon the brow of the law. + +There was Abbatucci; a conscience which let everything pass by. To-day a +street. + +There was the Abbé M----, later on Bishop of Nancy, who emphasized with a +smile the oaths of Louis Bonaparte. + +There were the frequenters of a famous box at the Opera, Montg---- and +Sept----, placing at the service of an unscrupulous prince the deep side +of frivolous men. + +There was Romieu--the outline of a drunkard behind a Red spectre. + +There was Malitourne--not a bad friend, coarse and sincere. + +There was Cuch----, whose name caused hesitation amongst the ushers at +the saloon doors. + +There was Suin--a man able to furnish excellent counsel for bail actions. + +There was Dr. Veron--who had on his cheek what the other men of the +Elysée had in their hearts. + +There was Mocquart--once a handsome member of the Dutch Court. Mocquart +possessed romantic recollections. He might by age, and perhaps otherwise, +have been the father of Louis Bonaparte. He was a lawyer. He had shown +himself quick-witted about 1829, at the same time as Romieu. Later on he +had published something, I no longer remember what, which was pompous and +in quarto size, and which he sent to me. It was he who in May, 1847, had +come with Prince de la Moskowa to bring me King Jérome's petition to the +Chamber of Peers. This petition requested the readmittance of the +banished Bonaparte family into France. I supported it; a good action, and +a fault which I would again commit. + +There was Billault, a semblance of an orator, rambling with facility, and +making mistakes with authority, a reputed statesman. What constitutes the +statesman is a certain superior mediocrity. + +There was Lavalette, completing Morny and Walewski. + +There was Bacciochi. + +And yet others. + +It was at the inspiration of these intimate associates that during his +Presidency Louis Bonaparte, a species of Dutch Machiavelli, went hither +and thither, to the Chamber and elsewhere, to Tours, to Ham, to Dijon, +snuffling, with a sleepy air, speeches full of treason. + +The Elysée, wretched as it was, holds a place in the age. The Elysée, has +engendered catastrophes and ridicule. + +One cannot pass it over in silence. + +The Elysée was the disquieting and dark corner of Paris. In this bad +spot, the denizens were little and formidable. They formed a family +circle--of dwarfs. They had their maxim: to enjoy themselves. They lived +on public death. There they inhaled shame, and they throve on that which +kills others. It was there that was reared up with art, purpose, +industry, and goodwill, the decadence of France. There worked the bought, +fed, and obliging public men;--read prostituted. Even literature was +compounded there as we have shown; Vieillard was a classic of 1830, Morny +created Choufleury, Louis Bonaparte was a candidate for the Academy. +Strange place. Rambouillet's hotel mingled itself with the house of +Bancal. The Elysée has been the laboratory, the counting-house, the +confessional, the alcove, the den of the reign. The Elysée assumed to +govern everything, even the morals--above all the morals. It spread the +paint on the bosom of women at the same time as the color on the faces of +the men. It set the fashion for toilette and for music. It invented the +crinoline and the operetta. At the Elysée a certain ugliness was +considered as elegance; that which makes the countenance noble was there +scoffed at, as was that which makes the soul great; the phrase, "human +face divine" was ridiculed at the Elysée, and it was there that for +twenty years every baseness was brought into fashion--effrontery +included. + +History, whatever may be its pride, is condemned to know that the Elysée +existed. The grotesque side does not prevent the tragic side. There is at +the Elysée a room which has seen the second abdication, the abdication +after Waterloo. It is at the Elysée that Napoleon the First ended and +that Napoleon the Third began. It is at the Elysée that Dupin appeared to +the two Napoleons; in 1815 to depose the Great, in 1851 to worship the +Little. At this last epoch this place was perfectly villainous. There no +longer remained one virtue there. At the Court of Tiberius there was +still Thraseas, but round Louis Bonaparte there was nobody. If one sought +Conscience, one found Baroche; if one sought Religion, one found +Montalembert. + + +[14] Better known afterwards as Persigny. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +A WAVERING ALLY + +During this terribly historical morning of the 4th of December, a day the +master was closely observed by his satellites, Louis Bonaparte had shut +himself up, but in doing so he betrayed himself. A man who shuts himself +up meditates, and for such men to meditate is to premeditate. What could +be the premeditation of Louis Bonaparte? What was working in his mind. +Questions which all asked themselves, two persons excepted,--Morny, the +man of thought; Saint-Arnaud, the man of action. + +Louis Bonaparte claimed, justly, a knowledge of men. He prided himself +upon it, and from a certain point of view he was right. Others have the +power of divination; he had the faculty of scent. It is brute-like, but +trustworthy. + +He had assuredly not been mistaken in Maupas. To pick the lock of the Law +he needed a skeleton key. He took Maupas. Nor could any burglar's +implement have answered better in the lock of the Constitution than +Maupas. Neither was he mistaken in Q.B. He saw at once that this serious +man had in him the necessary composite qualities of a rascal. And in +fact, Q.B., after having voted and signed the Deposition at the Mairie of +the Tenth Arrondissement, became one of the three reporters of the Joint +Commissions; and his share in the abominable total recorded by history +amounts to _sixteen hundred and thirty four victims_. + +Louis Bonaparte, however, at times judged amiss, especially respecting +Peauger. Peauger, though chosen by him, remained an honest man. Louis +Bonaparte, mistrusting the workmen of the National Printing-Office, and +not without reason, for twelve, as has been seen, were refractory, had +improvised a branch establishment in case of emergency, a sort of State +Sub-Printing-Office, as it were, situated in the Rue de Luxembourg, with +steam and hand presses, and eight workmen. He had given the management of +it to Peauger. When the hour of the Crime arrived, and with it the +necessity of printing the nefarious placards, he sounded Peauger, and +found him rebellious. He then turned to Saint Georges, a more subservient +lackey. + +He was less mistaken, but still he was mistaken, in his appreciation of +X. + +On the 2d of December, X., an ally thought necessary by Morny, became a +source of anxiety to Louis Bonaparte. + +X. was forty-four years of age, loved women, craved promotion, and, +therefore, was not over-scrupulous. He began his career in Africa under +Colonel Combes in the forty-seventh of the line. He showed great bravery +at Constantine; at Zaatcha he extricated Herbillon, and the siege, badly +begun by Herbillon, had been brought to a successful termination by him. +X., who was a little short man, his head sunk in his shoulders, was +intrepid, and admirably understood the handling of a brigade. Bugeaud, +Lamoricière, Cavaignac, and Changarnier were his four stepping-stones to +advancement. At Paris, in 1851, he met Lamoricière, who received him +coldly, and Changarnier, who treated him better. He left Satory +indignant, exclaiming, "_We must finish with this Louis Bonaparte. He is +corrupting the army. These drunken soldiers make one sick at heart. I +shall return to Africa_." In October Changarnier's influence decreased, +and X.'s enthusiasm abated. X. then frequented the Elysée, but without +giving his adherence. He promised his support to General Bedeau, who +counted upon him. At daybreak on the 2d of December some one came to +waken X. It was Edgar Ney. X. was a prop for the _coup d'état_, but would +he consent? Edgar Ney explained the affair to him, and left him only +after seeing him leave the barracks of the Rue Verte at the head of the +first regiment. X. took up his position at the Place de la Madeleine. As +he arrived there La Rochejaquelein, thrust back from the Chamber by its +invaders, crossed the Place. La Rochejaquelein, not yet a Bonapartist, +was furious. He perceived X., his old schoolfellow at the Ecole Militaire +in 1830, with whom he was on intimate terms. He went up to him, +exclaiming, "This is an infamous act. What are you doing?" "_I am +waiting_," answered X. La Rochejaquelein left him; X. dismounted, and +went to see a relation, a Councillor of State, M.R., who lived in the Rue +de Suresne. He asked his advice. M.R., an honest man, did not hesitate. +He answered, "I am going to the Council of State to do my duty. It is a +Crime." X. shook his head, and said, "_We must wait and see_." + +This _I am waiting_, and _We must see_, preoccupied Louis Bonaparte. +Morny said, "_Let us make use of the flying squadron_." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +DENIS DUSSOUBS + +Gaston Dussoubs was one of the bravest members of the Left. He was a +Representative of the Haute-Vienne. At the time of his first appearance +in the Assembly he wore, as formerly did Théophile Gautier, a red +waistcoat, and the shudder which Gautier's waistcoat caused among the men +of letters in 1830, Gaston Dussoubs' waistcoat caused among the Royalists +of 1851. M. Parisis, Bishop of Langres, who would have had no objection +to a red hat, was terrified by Gaston Dussoubs' red waistcoat. Another +source of horror to the Right was that Dussoubs had, it was said, passed +three years at Belle Isle as a political prisoner, a penalty incurred by +the "Limoges Affair." Universal Suffrage had, it would seem, taken him +thence to place him in the Assembly. To go from the prison to the Senate +is certainly not very surprising in our changeful times, although it is +sometimes followed by a return from the Senate to the prison. But the +Right was mistaken, the culprit of Limoges was, not Gaston Dussoubs, but +his brother Denis. + +In fine, Gaston Dussoubs inspired fear. He was witty, courageous, and +gentle. + +In the summer of 1851 I went to dine every day at the Concièrgerie with +my two sons and my two imprisoned friends. These great hearts and great +minds, Vacquerie, Meurice, Charles, and François Victor, attracted men of +like quality. The livid half-light that crept in through latticed and +barred windows disclosed a family circle at which there often assembled +eloquent orators, among others Crémieux, and powerful and charming +writers, including Peyrat. + +One day Michel de Bourges brought to us Gaston Dussoubs. + +Gaston Dussoubs lived in the Faubourg St. Germain, near the Assembly. + +On the 2d of December we did not see him at our meetings. He was ill, +"nailed down" as he wrote me, by rheumatism of the joints, and compelled +to keep his bed. + +He had a brother younger than himself, whom we have just mentioned, Denis +Dussoubs. On the morning of the 4th his brother went to see him. + +Gaston Dussoubs knew of the _coup d'état_, and was exasperated at being +obliged to remain in bed. He exclaimed, "I am dishonored. There will be +barricades, and my sash will not be there!" + +"Yes," said his brother. "It will be there!" + +"How?" + +"Lend it to me." + +"Take it." + +Denis took Gaston's sash, and went away. + +We shall see Denis Dussoubs later on. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +ITEMS AND INTERVIEWS + +Lamoricière on the same morning found means to convey to me by Madame de +Courbonne[15] the following information. + +"---- Fortress of Ham.--The Commandant's name is Baudot. His appointment, +made by Cavaignac in 1848, was countersigned by Charras. Both are to-day +his prisoners. The Commissary of Police, sent by Morny to the village of +Ham to watch the movements of the jailer and the prisoners, is Dufaure de +Pouillac."[16] + +I thought when I received this communication that the Commandant Baudot, +"the jailer," had connived at its rapid transmission. + +A sign of the instability of the central power. + +Lamoricière, by the same means, put me in possession of some details +concerning his arrest and that of his fellow-generals. + +These details complete those which I have already given. + +The arrests of the Generals were affected at the same time at their +respective homes under nearly similar circumstances. Everywhere houses +surrounded, doors opened by artifice or burst open by force, porters +deceived, sometimes garotted, men in disguise, men provided with ropes, +men armed with axes, surprises in bed, nocturnal violence. A plan of +action which resembled, as I have said, an invasion of brigands. + +General Lamoricière, according to his own expression, was a sound +sleeper. Notwithstanding the noise at his door, he did not awake. His +servant, a devoted old soldier, spoke in a loud voice, and called out to +arouse the General. He even offered resistance to the police. A police +agent wounded him in the knee with a sword thrust.[17] The General was +awakened, seized, and carried away. + +While passing in a carriage along the Quai Malaquais, Lamoricière noticed +troops marching by with their knapsacks on their backs. He leaned quickly +forward out of the window. The Commissary of Police thought he was about +to address the soldiers. He seized the General by the arm, and said to +him, "General, if you say a word I shall put this on you." And with the +other hand he showed him in the dim light something which proved to be a +gag. + +All the Generals arrested were taken to Mazas. There they were locked up +and forgotten. At eight in the evening General Changarnier had eaten +nothing. + +These arrests were not pleasant tasks for the Commissaries of Police. +They were made to drink down their shame in large draughts. Cavaignac, +Leflô, Changarnier, Bedeau, and Lamoricière did not spare them any more +than Charras did. As he was leaving, General Cavaignac took some money +with him. Before putting it in his pocket, he turned towards Colin, the +Commissary of Police who had arrested him, and said, "Will this money be +safe on me?" + +The Commissary exclaimed, "Oh, General, what are you thinking of?" + +"What assurance have I that you are not thieves?" answered Cavaignac. At +the same time, nearly the same moment, Charras said to Courteille, the +Commissary of Police, "Who can tell me that you are not pick-pockets?" + +A few days afterwards these pitiful wretches all received the Cross of +the Legion of Honor. + +This cross given by the last Bonaparte to policemen after the 2d of +December is the same as that affixed by the first Napoleon to the eagles +of the Grand Army after Austerlitz. + +I communicated these details to the Committee. Other reports came in. A +few concerned the Press. Since the morning of the 4th the Press was +treated with soldierlike brutality. Serrière, the courageous printer, +came to tell us what had happened at the _Presse_. Serrière published +the _Presse_ and the _Avénement du Peuple_, the latter a new name for +the _Evénement_, which had been judicially suppressed. On the 2d, at +seven o'clock in the morning, the printing-office had been occupied by +twenty-eight soldiers of the Republican Guard, commanded by a +Lieutenant named Pape (since decorated for this achievement). This man +had given Serrière an order prohibiting the printing of any article +signed "Nusse." A Commissary of Police accompanied Lieutenant Pape. +This Commissary had notified Serrière of a "decree of the President of +the Republic," suppressing the _Avénement du Peuple_, and had placed +sentinels over the presses. The workmen had resisted, and one of them +said to the soldiers, "_We shall print it in spite of you_." Then forty +additional Municipal Guards arrived, with two quarter-masters, four +corporals, and a detachment of the line, with drums at their head, +commanded by a captain. Girardin came up indignant, and protested with +so much energy that a quarter-master said to him, "_I should like a +Colonel of your stamp_." Girardin's courage communicated itself to the +workmen, and by dint of skill and daring, under the very eyes of the +gendarmes, they succeeded in printing Girardin's proclamations with the +hand-press, and ours with the brush. They carried them away wet, in +small packages, under their waistcoats. + +Luckily the soldiers were drunk. The gendarmes made them drink, and +the workmen, profiting by their revels, printed. The Municipal Guards +laughed, swore and jested, drank champagne and coffee, and said, "_We +fill the places of the Representatives, we have twenty-five francs a +day_." All the printing-houses in Paris were occupied in the same manner +by the soldiery. The _coup d'état_ reigned everywhere. The Crime even +ill-treated the Press which supported it. At the office of the _Moniteur +Parisien_, the police agents threatened to fire on any one who should +open a door. M. Delamare, director of the _Patrie_, had forty Municipal +Guards on his hands, and trembled lest they should break his presses. He +said to one of them, "_Why, I am on your side_." The gendarme replied, +"_What is that to me?_" + +At three o'clock on the morning of the 4th all the printing-offices were +evacuated by the soldiers. The Captain said to Serrière, "We have orders +to concentrate in our own quarters." And Serrière, in announcing this +fact, added, "Something is in preparation." + +I had had since the previous night several conversations with Georges +Biscarrat, an honest and brave man, of whom I shall have occasion to +speak hereafter. I had given him rendezvous at No. 19, Rue Richelieu. +Many persons came and went during this morning of the 4th from No. 15, +where we deliberated, to No. 19, where I slept. + +As I left this honest and courageous man in the street I saw M. Mérimée, +his exact opposite, coming towards me. + +"Oh!" said M. Mérimée, "I was looking for you." + +I answered him,-- + +"I hope you will not find me." + +He held out his hand to me, and I turned my back on him. + +I have not seen him since. I believe he is dead. + +In speaking one day in 1847 with Mérimée about Morny, we had the +following conversation:--Mérimée said, "M. de Morny has a great future +before him." And he asked me, "Do you know him?" + +I answered,-- + +"Ah! he has a fine future before him! Yes, I know M. de Morny. He is a +clever man. He goes a great deal into society, and conducts commercial +operations. He started the Vieille Montagne affair, the zinc-mines, and +the coal-mines of Liège. I have the honor of his acquaintance. He is a +sharper." + +There was this difference between Mérimée and myself: I despised Morny, +and he esteemed him. + +Morny reciprocated his feeling. It was natural. + +I waited until Mérimée had passed the corner of the street. As soon as +he disappeared I went into No. 15. + +There, they had received news of Canrobert. On the 2d he went to see +Madame Leflô, that noble woman, who was most indignant at what had +happened. There was to be a ball next day given by Saint-Arnaud at the +Ministry of War. General and Madame Leflô were invited, and had made an +appointment there with General Canrobert. But the ball did not form a +part of Madame Leflô's conversation with him. "General," said she, "all +your comrades are arrested; is it possible that you give your support +to such an act?" "What I intend giving," replied Canrobert, "is my +resignation and," he added, "you may tell General Leflô so." He was pale, +and walked up and down, apparently much agitated. "Your resignation, +General?" "Yes, Madame." "Is it positive?" "Yes, Madame, if there is no +riot." "General Canrobert," exclaimed Madame Leflô, "that _if_ tells me +your intentions." + +Canrobert, however, had not yet taken his decision. Indeed, indecision +was one of his chief characteristics. Pelissier, who was cross-grained +and gruff, used to say, "Judge men by their names, indeed! I am +christened _Amable_, Randon _César_, and Canrobert _Certain_." + + +[15] No. 16, Rue d'Anjou, Saint Honoré. + +[16] The author still has in his possession the note written by +Lamoricière. + +[17] Later on, the wound having got worse, he was obliged to have his +leg taken off. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +THE SITUATION + +Although the fighting tactics of the Committee were, for the reasons +which I have already given, not to concentrate all their means of +resistance into one hour, or in one particular place, but to spread +them over as many points and as many days as possible, each of us knew +instinctively, as also the criminals of the Elysée on their side, that +the day would be decisive. + +The moment drew near when the _coup d'état_ would storm us from every +side, and when we should have to sustain the onslaught of an entire +army. Would the people, that great revolutionary populace of the +faubourgs of Paris, abandon their Representatives? Would they abandon +themselves? Or, awakened and enlightened, would they at length arise? A +question more and more vital, and which we repeated to ourselves with +anxiety. + +The National Guard had shown no sign of earnestness. The eloquent +proclamation, written at Marie's by Jules Favre and Alexander Rey, and +addressed in our name to the National Legions, had not been printed. +Hetzel's scheme had failed. Versigny and Lebrousse had not been able to +rejoin him; the place appointed for their meeting, the corner of the +boulevard and the Rue de Richelieu, having been continually scoured by +charges of cavalry. The courageous effort of Colonel Grassier to win +over the Sixth Legion, the more timid attempt of Lieutenant Colonel +Howyne upon the Fifth, had failed. Nevertheless indignation began to +manifest itself in Paris. The preceding evening had been significant. + +Hingray came to us during the morning, bringing under his cloak a +bundle of copies of the Decree of Deposition, which had been reprinted. +In order to bring them to us he had twice run the risk of being +arrested and shot. We immediately caused these copies to be distributed +and placarded. This placarding was resolutely carried out; at several +points our placards were posted by the side of the placards of the +_coup d'état_, which pronounced the penalty of death against any one +who should placard the decrees emanating from the Representatives. +Hingray told us that our proclamations and our decrees had been +lithographed and distributed by hand in thousands. It Was urgently +necessary that we should continue our publications. A printer, who had +formerly been a publisher of several democratic journals, M. Boulé, had +offered me his services on the preceding evening. In June, 1848, I had +protected his printing-office, then being devastated by the National +Guards. I wrote to him: I enclosed our judgments and our decrees in the +letter, and the Representative Montaigu undertook to take them to him. +M. Boulé excused himself; his printing-presses had been seized by the +police at midnight. + +Through the precautions which we had taken, and thanks to the patriotic +assistance of several young medical and chemical students, powder had +been manufactured in several quarters. At one point alone, the Rue +Jacob, a hundred kilogrammes had been turned out during the night. As, +however, this manufacture was principally carried out on the left bank +of the river, and as the fighting took place on the right bank, it was +necessary to transport this powder across the bridges. They managed +this In the best manner they could. Towards nine o'clock we were warned +that the police, having been informed of this, had organized a system +of inspection, and that all persons crossing the river were searched, +particularly on the Pont Neuf. + +A certain strategical plan became manifest. The ten central bridges +mere militarily guarded. + +People were arrested in the street on account of their personal +appearance. A sergent-de-ville, at the corner of he Pont-au-Change, +exclaimed, loud enough for the passers-by to hear, "We shall lay hold +of all those who have not their beards properly trimmed, or who do not +appear to have slept." + +Notwithstanding all this we had a little powder; the disarming of the +National Guard at various points had produced about eight hundred +muskets, our proclamations and our decrees were being placarded, our +voice was reaching the people, a certain confidence was springing up. + +"The wave is rising! the wave is rising!" exclaimed Edgar Quinet, who +had come to shake my hand. + +We were informed that the schools were rising in insurrection during +the day, and that they offered us a refuge in the midst of them. + +Jules Favre exclaimed joyfully,-- + +"To-morrow we shall date our decrees from the Pantheon." + +Signs of good omen grew more numerous. An old hotbed of insurrection, +the Rue Saint-André-des-Arts, was becoming agitated. The association +called La Presse du Travail gave signs of life. Some brave workmen, at +the house of one of their colleagues, Nétré No. 13, Rue du Jardinet, +had organized a little printing-press in a garret, a few steps from the +barracks of the Gendarmerie Mobile. They had spent the night first in +compiling, and then in printing "A Manifesto to Working Men," which +called the people to arms. They were five skilful and determined men; +they had procured paper, they had perfectly new type; some of them +moistened the paper, while the others composed; towards two o'clock in +the morning they began to print. It was essential that they should not +be heard by the neighbors; they had succeeded in muffling the hollow +blows of the ink-rollers, alternating with the rapid sound of the +printing blankets. In a few hours fifteen hundred copies were pulled, +and at daybreak they were placarded at the corners of the streets. The +leader of these intrepid workmen, A. Desmoulins, who belonged to that +sturdy race of men who are both cultured and who can fight, had been +greatly disheartened on the preceding day; he now had become hopeful. + +On the preceding day he wrote:--"Where are the Representatives? The +communications are cut. The quays and the boulevards can no longer be +crossed. It has become impossible to reunite the popular Assembly. The +people need direction. De Flotte in one district, Victor Hugo in +another, Schoelcher in a third, are actively urging on the combat, and +expose their lives a score of times, but none feel themselves supported +by any organized body: and moreover the attempt of the Royalists in the +Tenth Arrondissement has roused apprehension. People dread lest they +should see them reappear when all is accomplished." + +Now, this man so intelligent and so courageous recovered confidence, +and he wrote,-- + +"Decidedly, Louis Napoleon is afraid. The police reports are alarming +for him. The resistance of the Republican Representatives is bearing +fruit. Paris is arming. Certain regiments appear ready to turn back. +The Gendarmerie itself is not to be depended upon, and this morning an +entire regiment refused to march. Disorder is beginning to show itself +in the services. Two batteries fired upon each other for a long time +without recognition. One would say that the _coup d'état_ is about to +fail." + +The symptoms, as may be seen, were growing more reassuring. + +Had Maupas become unequal to the task? Had they resorted to a more +skilful man? An incident seemed to point to this. On the preceding +evening a tall man had been seen, between five and seven o'clock, +walking up and down before the café of the Place Saint-Michel; he had +been joined by two of the Commissaries of the Police who had effected +the arrests of the 2d of December, and had talked to them for a long +time. This man was Carlier. Was he about to supplant Maupas? + +The Representative Labrousse, seated at a table of the café, had +witnessed this conspirators' parley. + +Each of the two Commissaries was followed by that species of police +agent which is called "the Commissary's dog." + +At the same time strange warnings reached the Committee; the following +letter[18] was brought to our knowledge. + + "3d December. + + "MY DEAR BOCAGE, + + "To-day at six o'clock, 25,000 francs has been offered to any one who + arrests or kills Hugo. + + "You know where he is. He must not go out under any pretext whatever. + + "Yours ever, + + "AL. DUMAS." + +At the back was written, "Bocage, 18, Rue Cassette." It was necessary +that the minutest details should be considered. In the different places +of combat a diversity of passwords prevailed, which might cause danger. +For the password on the day before we had given the name of "Baudin." In +imitation of this the names of other Representatives had been adopted as +passwords on barricades. In the Rue Rambuteau the password was "Eugène +Sue and Michel de Bourges;" in the Rue Beaubourg, "Victor Hugo;" at the +Saint Denis chapel, "Esquiros and De Flotte." We thought it necessary to +put a stop to this confusion, and to suppress the proper names, which +are always easy to guess. The password settled upon was, "What is Joseph +doing?" + +At every moment items of news and information came to us from all +sides, that barricades were everywhere being raised, and that firing +was beginning in the central streets. Michel de Bourges exclaimed, +"Construct a square of four barricades, and we will go and deliberate +in the centre." + +We received news from Mont Valérien. Two prisoners the more. Rigal and +Belle had just been committed. Both of the Left. Dr. Rigal was the +Representative of Gaillac, and Belle of Lavaur. Rigal was ill; they had +arrested him in bed. In prison he lay upon a pallet, and could not +dress himself. His colleague Belle acted as his _valet de chambre_. + +Towards nine o'clock an ex-Captain of the 8th Legion of the National +Guard of 1848, named Jourdan, came to place himself at our service. He +was a bold man, one of those who had carried out, on the morning of the +24th February, the rash surprise of the Hôtel de Ville. We charged him +to repeat this surprise, and to extend it to the Prefecture of Police. +He knew how to set about the work. He told us that he had only a few +men, but that during the day he would cause certain houses of strategical +importance on the Quai des Cèvres, on the Quai Lepelletier, and in the +Rue de la Cité, to be silently occupied, and that if it should chance +that the leaders of the _coup d'état_, owing to the combat in the centre +of Paris growing more serious, should be forced to withdraw the troops +from the Hôtel de Ville and the Prefecture, an attack would be immediately +commenced on these two points. Captain Jourdan, we may at once mention, +did what he had promised us; unfortunately, as we learnt that evening, +he began perhaps a little too soon. As he had foreseen, a moment arrived +when the square of the Hôtel de Ville was almost devoid of troops, General +Herbillon having been forced to leave it with his cavalry to take the +barricades of the centre in the rear. The attack of the Republicans burst +forth instantly. Musket shots were fired from the windows on the Quai +Lepelletier; but the left of the column was still on the Pont d'Arcole, +a line of riflemen had been placed by a major named Larochette before +the Hôtel de Ville, the 44th retraced its steps, and the attempt +failed. + +Bastide arrived, with Chauffour and Laissac. + +"Good news," said he to us, "all is going on well." His grave, honest, +and dispassionate countenance shone with a sort of patriotic serenity. +He came from the barricades, and was about to return thither. He had +received two balls in his cloak. I took him aside, and said to him, +"Are you going back?" "Yes." "Take me with you." "No," answered he, +"you are necessary here. To-day you are the general, I am the soldier." +I insisted in vain. He persisted in refusing, repeating continually. +"The Committee is our centre, it should not disperse itself. It is your +duty to remain here. Besides," added he, "Make your mind easy. You run +here more risk than we do. If you are taken you will be shot." "Well, +then," said I, "the moment may come when our duty will be to join in +the combat." "Without doubt." I resumed, "You who are on the barricades +will be better judges than we shall of that moment. Give me your word +of honor that you will treat me as you would wish me to treat you, and +that you will come and fetch us." "I give it you," he answered, and he +pressed my two hands in his own. + +Later on, however, a few moments after Bastide had left, great as was +my confidence in the loyal word of this courageous and generous man, I +could no longer restrain myself, and I profited by an interval of two +hours of which I could dispose, to go and see with my own eyes what was +taking place, and in what manner the resistance was behaving. + +I took a carriage in the square of the Palais Royal. I explained to the +driver who I was, and that I was about to visit and encourage the +barricades; that I should go sometimes on foot, sometimes in the +carriage, and that I trusted myself to him. I told him my name. + +The first comer is almost always an honest man. This true-hearted +coachman answered me, "I know where the barricades are. I will drive +you wherever it is necessary. I will wait for you wherever it is +necessary. I will drive you there and bring you back; and if you have +no money, do not pay me, I am proud of such an action." + +And we started. + + +[18] The original of this note is in the hands of the author of this +book. It was handed to us by M. Avenel on the part of M. Bocage. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +THE PORTE SAINT MARTIN + +Important deeds had been already achieved during the morning. + +"It is taking root," Bastide had said. + +The difficulty is not to spread the flames but to light the fire. + +It was evident that Paris began to grow ill-tempered. Paris does not +get angry at will. She must be in the humor for it. A volcano possesses +nerves. The anger was coming slowly, but it was coming. On the horizon +might be seen the first glimmering of the eruption. + +For the Elysée, as for us, the critical moment was drawing nigh. From +the preceding evening they were nursing their resources. The _coup +d'état_ and the Republic were at length about to close with each other. +The Committee had in vain attempted to drag the wheel; some +irresistible impulse carried away the last defenders of liberty and +hurried them on to action. The decisive battle was about to be fought. + +In Paris, when certain hours have sounded, when there appears an +immediate necessity for a progressive movement to be carried out, or a +right to be vindicated, the insurrections rapidly spread throughout the +whole city. But they always begin at some particular point. Paris, in +its vast historical task, comprises two revolutionary classes, the +"middle-class" and the "people." And to these two combatants correspond +two places of combat; the Porte Saint Martin when the middle-class are +revolting, the Bastille when the people are revolting. The eye of the +politician should always be fixed on these two points. There, famous in +contemporary history, are two spots where a small portion of the hot +cinders of Revolution seem ever to smoulder. + +When a wind blows from above, these burning cinders are dispersed, and +fill the city with sparks. + +This time, as we have already explained, the formidable Faubourg +Antoine slumbered, and, as has been seen, nothing had been able to +awaken it. An entire park of artillery was encamped with lighted +matches around the July Column, that enormous deaf-and-dumb memento of +the Bastille. This lofty revolutionary pillar, this silent witness of +the great deeds of the past, seemed to have forgotten all. Sad to say, +the paving stones which had seen the 14th of July did not rise under +the cannon-wheels of the 2d of December. It was therefore not the +Bastille which began, it was the Porte Saint Martin. + +From eight o'clock in the morning the Rue Saint Denis and the Rue Saint +Martin were in an uproar throughout their length; throngs of indignant +passers-by went up and down those thoroughfares. They tore down the +placards of the _coup d'état_; they posted up our Proclamations; groups +at the corners of all the adjacent streets commented upon the decree of +outlawry drawn up by the members of the Left remaining at liberty; they +snatched the copies from each other. Men mounted on the kerbstones read +aloud the names of the 120 signatories, and, still more than on the day +before, each significant or celebrated name was hailed with applause. +The crowd increased every moment--and the anger. The entire Rue Saint +Denis presented the strange aspect of a street with all the doors and +windows closed, and all the inhabitants in the open air. Look at the +houses, there is death; look at the street, it is the tempest. + +Some fifty determined men suddenly emerged from a side alley, and +began to run through the streets, saying, "To arms! Long live the +Representatives of the Left! Long live the Constitution!" The disarming +of the National Guards began. It was carried out more easily than on +the preceding evening. In less than an hour more than 150 muskets had +been obtained. + +In the meanwhile the street became covered with barricades. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +MY VISIT TO THE BARRICADE + +My coachman deposited me at the corner of Saint Eustache, and said to +me, "Here you are in the hornets' nest." + +He added, "I will wait for you in the Rue de la Vrillière, near the +Place des Victoires. Take your time." + +I began walking from barricade to barricade. + +In the first I met De Flotte, who offered to serve me as a guide. There +is not a more determined man than De Flotte. I accepted his offer; he +took me everywhere where my presence could be of use. + +On the way he gave me an account of the steps taken by him to print our +proclamations; Boulé's printing-office having failed him, he had applied +to a lithographic press, at No. 30, Rue Bergère, and at the peril of +their lives two brave men had printed 500 copies of our decrees. These +two true-hearted workmen were named, the one Rubens, the other Achille +Poincellot. + +While walking I made jottings in pencil (with Baudin's pencil, which I +had with me); I registered facts at random; I reproduce this page here. +These living facts are useful for History; the _coup d'état_ is there, +as though freshly bleeding. + +"Morning of the 4th. It looks as if the combat was suspended. Will it +burst forth again? Barricades visited by me: one at the corner of +Saint Eustache. One at the Oyster Market. One in the Rue Mauconseil. +One in the Rue Tiquetonne. One in the Rue Mandar (Rocher de Cancale). +One barring the Rue du Cadran and the Rue Montorgueil. Four closing +the Petit-Carreau. The beginning of one between the Rue des Deux +Portes and the Rue Saint Sauveur, barring the Rue Saint Denis. One, +the largest, barring the Rue Saint Denis, at the top of the Rue +Guérin-Boisseau. One barring the Rue Grenetat. One farther on in the +Rue Grenetat, barring the Rue Bourg-Labbé (in the centre an overturned +flour wagon; a good barricade). In the Rue Saint Denis one barring the +Rue de Petit-Lion-Saint-Sauveur. One barring the Rue du Grand +Hurleur, with its four corners barricaded. This barricade has already +been attacked this morning. A combatant, Massonnet, a comb-maker of +154, Rue Saint Denis, received a ball in his overcoat; Dupapet, called +'the man with the long beard,' was the last to stay on the summit of +the barricade. He was heard to cry out to the officers commanding the +attack, 'You are traitors!' He is believed to have been shot. The +troops retired--strange to say without demolishing the barricade. A +barricade is being constructed in the Rue du Renard. Some National +Guards in uniform watch its construction, but do not work on it. One +of them said to me, 'We are not against you, you are on the side of +Right.' They add that there are twelve or fifteen barricades in the +Rue Rambuteau. This morning at daybreak the cannon had fired +'steadily,' as one of them remarks, in the Rue Bourbon-Villeneuve. I +visit a powder manufactory improvised by Leguevel at a chemist's +opposite the Rue Guérin-Boisseau. + +"They are constructing the barricades amicably, without angering any +one. They do what they can not to annoy the neighborhood. The combatants +of the Bourg-Labbé barricades are ankle-deep in mud on account of the +rain. It is a perfect sewer. They hesitate to ask for a truss of straw. +They lie down in the water or on the pavement. + +"I saw there a young man who was ill, and who had just got up from his +bed with the fever still on him. He said to me, 'I am going to my death' +(he did so). + +"In the Rue Bourbon-Villeneuve they had not even asked a mattress of the +'shopkeepers,' although, the barricade being bombarded, they needed them +to deaden the effect of the balls. + +"The soldiers make bad barricades, because they make them too well. A +barricade should be tottering; when well built it is worth nothing; the +paving-stones should want equilibrium, 'so that they may roll down on +the troopers,' said a street-boy to me, 'and break their paws.' Sprains +form a part of barricade warfare. + +"Jeanty Sarre is the chief of a complete group of barricades. He +presented his first lieutenant to me, Charpentier, a man of thirty-six, +lettered and scientific. Charpentier busies himself with experiments +with the object of substituting gas for coal and wood in the firing of +china, and he asks permission to read a tragedy to me 'one of these +days.' I said to him, 'We shall make one.' + +"Jeanty Sarre is grumbling at Charpentier; the ammunition is failing. +Jeanty Sarre, having at his house in the Rue Saint Honoré a pound of +fowling-powder and twenty army cartridges, sent Charpentier to get them. +Charpentier went there, and brought back the fowling-powder and the +cartridges, but distributed them to the combatants on the barricades +whom he met on the way. 'They were as though famished,' said he. +Charpentier had never in his life touched a fire-arm. Jeanty Sarre +showed him how to load a gun. + +"They take their meals at a wine-seller's at the corner, and they warm +themselves there. It is very cold. The wine-seller says, 'Those who are +hungry, go and eat.' A combatant asked him, 'Who pays?' 'Death,' was the +answer. And in truth some hours afterwards he had received seventeen +bayonet thrusts. + +"They have not broken the gas-pipes--always for the sake of not doing +unnecessary damage. They confine themselves to requisitioning the +gasmen's keys, and the lamplighters' winches in order to open the pipes. +In this manner they control the lighting or extinguishing. + +"This group of barricades is strong, and will play an important part. I +had hoped at one moment that they would attack it while I was there. The +bugle had approached, and then had gone away again. Jeanty Sarre tells +me 'it will be for this evening.' + +"His intention is to extinguish the gas in the Rue du Petit-Carreau and +all the adjoining streets, and to leave only one jet lighted in the Rue +du Cadran. He has placed sentinels as far as the corner of the Rue Saint +Denis; at that point there is an open side, without barricades, but +little accessible to the troops, on account of the narrowness of the +streets, which they can only enter one by one. Thence little danger +exists, an advantage of narrow streets; the troops are worth nothing +unless massed together. The soldier does not like isolated action; in +war the feeling of elbow to elbow constitutes half the bravery. Jeanty +Sarre has a reactionary uncle with whom he is not on good terms, and who +lives close by at No. 1, Rue du Petit-Carreau.--'What a fright we shall +give him presently!' said Jeanty Sarre to me, laughing. This morning +Jeanty Sarre has inspected the Montorgueil barricade. There was only one +man on it, who was drunk, and who put the barrel of his gun against his +breast, saying, 'No thoroughfare.' Jeanty Sarre disarmed him. + +"I go to the Rue Pagevin. There at the corner of the Place des Victoires +there is a well-constructed barricade. In the adjoining barricade in the +Rue Jean Jacques Rousseau, the troops this morning made no prisoners. +The soldiers had killed every one. There are corpses as far as the Place +des Victoires. The Pagevin barricade held its own. There are fifty men +there, well armed. I enter. 'Is all going on well?' 'Yes.' 'Courage.' I +press all these brave hands; they make a report to me. They had seen a +Municipal Guard smash in the head of a dying man with the butt end of +his musket. A pretty young girl, wishing to go home, took refuge in the +barricade. There, terrified, she remained for an hour. When all danger +was over, the chef of the barricade caused her to be reconducted home by +the eldest of his men. + +"As I was about to leave the barricade Pagevin, they brought me a +prisoner, a police spy, they said. + +"He expected to be shot. I had him set at liberty." + +Bancel was in this barricade of the Rue Pagevin. We shook hands. + +He asked me,-- + +"Shall we conquer?" + +"Yes," I answered. + +We then could hardly entertain a doubt. + +De Flotte and Bancel wished to accompany me, fearing that I should be +arrested by the regiment guarding the Bank. + +The weather was misty and cold, almost dark. This obscurity concealed +and helped us. The fog was on our side. + +As we reached the corner of the Rue de la Vrillière, a group on +horseback passed by. + +It consisted of a few others, preceded by a man who seemed a soldier, +but who was not in uniform. He wore a cloak with a hood. + +De Flotte nudged me with his elbow, and whispered,-- + +"Do you know Fialin?" + +I answered,-- + +"No." + +"Have you seen him? + +"No." + +"Do you wish to see him?" + +"No." + +"Look at him." + +I looked at him. + +This man in truth was passing before us. It was he who preceded the +group of officers. He came out of the Bank. Had he been there to effect +a new forced loan? The people who were at the doors looked at him with +curiosity, and without anger. His entire bearing was insolent. He turned +from time to time to say a word to one of his followers. This little +cavalcade "pawed the ground" in the mist and in the mud. Fialin had the +arrogant air of a man who caracoles before a crime. He gazed at the +passers-by with a haughty look. His horse was very handsome, and, poor +beast, seemed very proud. Fialin was smiling. He had in his hand the +whip that his face deserved. + +He passed by. I never saw the man except on this occasion. + +De Flotte and Bancel did not leave me until they had seen me get into my +vehicle. My true-hearted coachman was waiting for me in the Rue de la +Vrillière. He brought me back to No 15, Rue Richelieu. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +THE BARRICADE OF THE RUE MESLAY + +The first barricade of the Rue Saint Martin was erected at the junction +of the Rue Meslay. A large cart was overturned, placed across the +street, and the roadway was unpaved; some flag-stones of the footway +were also torn up. This barricade, the advanced work of defence of the +whole revolted street, could only form a temporary obstacle. No portion +of the piled-up stones was higher than a man. In a good third of the +barricade the stones did not reach above the knee. "It will at all +events be good enough to get killed in," said a little street Arab who +was rolling numerous flag-stones to the barricade. A hundred combatants +took up their position behind it. Towards nine o'clock the movements of +the troops gave warning of the attack. The head of the column of the +Marulaz Brigade occupied the corner of the street on the side of the +boulevard. A piece of artillery, raking the whole of the street, was +placed in position before the Porte Saint Martin. For some time both +sides gazed on each other in that moody silence which precedes an +encounter; the troops regarding the barricade bristling with guns, the +barricade regarding the gaping cannon. After a while the order for a +general attack was given. The firing commenced. The first shot passed +above the barricade, and struck a woman who was passing some twenty +paces in the rear, full in the breast. She fell, ripped open. The fire +became brisk without doing much injury to the barricade. The cannon was +too near; the bullets flew too high. + +The combatants, who had not yet lost a man, received each bullet with a +cry of "Long live the Republic!" but without firing. They possessed few +cartridges, and they husbanded them. Suddenly the 49th regiment +advanced in close column order. + +The barricade fired. + +The smoke filled the street; when it cleared away, there could be seen +a dozen men on the ground, and the soldiers falling back in disorder by +the side of the houses. The leader of the barricade shouted, "They are +falling back. Cease firing! Let us not waste a ball." + +The street remained for some time deserted. The cannon recommenced +fining. A shot came in every two minutes, but always badly aimed. A man +with a fowling-piece came up to the leader of the barricade, and said +to him, "Let us dismount that cannon. Let us kill the gunners." + +"Why!" said the chief, smiling, "they are doing us no harm, let us do +none to them." + +Nevertheless the sound of the bugle could be distinctly heard on the +other side of the block of houses which concealed the troops echelloned +on the Square of Saint Martin, and it was manifest that a second attack +was being prepared. + +This attack would naturally be furious, desperate, and stubborn. + +It was also evident that, if this barricade were carried, the entire +street would be scoured. The other barricades were still weaker than +the first, and more feebly defended. The "middle class" had given their +guns, and had re-entered their houses. They lent their street, that was +all. + +It was therefore necessary to hold the advanced barricade as long as +possible. But what was to be done, and how was the resistance to be +maintained? They had scarcely two shots per man left. + +An unexpected source of supply arrived. + +A young man, I can name him, for he is dead--Pierre Tissié,[19] who was +a workman, and who also was a poet, had worked during a portion of the +morning at the barricades, and at the moment when the firing began he +went away, stating as his reason that they would not give him a gun. In +the barricade they had said, "There is one who is afraid." + +Pierre Tissié was not afraid, as we shall see later on. + +He left the barricade. + +Pierre Tissié had only his knife with him, a Catalan knife; he opened +it at all hazards, he held it in his hand, and went on straight before +him. + +As he came out of the Rue Saint Sauveur, he saw at the corner of a +little lonely street, in which all the windows were closed, a soldier +of the line standing sentry, posted there doubtlessly by the main guard +at a little distance. + +This soldier was at the halt with his gun to his shoulder ready to +fire. + +He heard the step of Pierre Tissié, and cried out,-- + +"Who goes there?" + +"Death!" answered Pierre Tissié. + +The soldier fired, and missed Pierre Tissié, who sprang on him, and +struck him down with a blow of his knife. + +The soldier fell, and blood spurted out of his mouth. + +"I did not know I should speak so truly," muttered Pierre Tissié. + +And he added, "Now for the ambulance!" + +He took the soldier on his back, picked up the gun which had fallen to +the ground, and came back to the barricade. "I bring you a wounded +man," said he. + +"A dead man," they exclaimed. + +In truth the soldier had just expired. + +"Infamous Bonaparte!" said Tissié. "Poor red breeches! All the same, I +have got a gun." + +They emptied the soldier's pouch and knapsack. They divided the +cartridges. There were 150 of them. There were also two gold pieces of +ten francs, two days' pay since the 2d of December. These were thrown +on the ground, no one would take them. + +They distributed the cartridges with shouts of "Long live the Republic!" + +Meanwhile the attacking party had placed a mortar in position by the +side of the cannon. + +The distribution of the cartridges was hardly ended when the infantry +appeared, and charged upon the barricade with the bayonet. This second +assault, as had been foreseen, was violent and desperate. It was +repulsed. Twice the soldiers returned to the charge, and twice they +fell back, leaving the street strewn with dead. In the interval between +the assaults, a shell had pierced and dismantled the barricade, and the +cannon began to fire grape-shot. + +The situation was hopeless; the cartridges were exhausted. Some began +to throw down their guns and go away. The only means of escape was by +the Rue Saint Sauveur, and to reach the corner of the Rue Saint Sauveur +it was necessary to get over the lower part of the barricade, which +left nearly the whole of the fugitives unprotected. There was a perfect +rain of musketry and grape-shot. Three or four were killed there, one, +like Baudin, by a ball in his eye. The leader of the barricade suddenly +noticed that he was alone with Pierre Tissié, and a boy of fourteen +years old, the same who had rolled so many stones for the barricade. A +third attack was pending, and the soldiers began to advance by the side +of the houses. + +"Let us go," said the leader of the barricade. + +"I shall remain," said Pierre Tissié. + +"And I also," said the boy. + +And the boy added,-- + +"I have neither father nor mother. As well this as anything else." + +The leader fired his last shot, and retired like the others over the +lower part of the barricade. A volley knocked off his hat. He stooped +down and picked it up again. The soldiers were not more than +twenty-five paces distant. + +He shouted to the two who remained,-- + +"Come along!" + +"No," said Pierre Tissié. + +"No," said the boy. + +A few moments afterwards the soldiers scaled the barricade already half +in ruins. + +Pierre Tissié and the boy were killed with bayonet thrusts. + +Some twenty muskets were abandoned in this barricade. + + +[19] It must not be forgotten that this has been written in exile, and +that to name a hero was to condemn him to exile. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +THE BARRICADE OF THE MAIRIE OF THE FIFTH ARRONDISSEMENT + +National Guards in uniform filled the courtyard of the Mairie of the +Fifth Arrondissement. Others came in every moment. An ex-drummer of the +Garde Mobile had taken a drum from a lower room at the side of the +guard-room, and had beaten the call to arms in the surrounding streets. +Towards nine o'clock a group of fourteen or fifteen young men, most of +whom were in white blouses, entered the Mairie, shouting, "Long live +the Republic!" They were armed with guns. The National Guard received +them with shouts of "Down with Louis Bonaparte!" They fraternized in +the courtyard. Suddenly there was a movement. It was caused by the +arrival of the Representatives Doutre and Pelletier. + +"What is to be done?" shouted the crowd. + +"Barricades," said Pelletier. + +They unharnessed the horses, which the carter led away, and they turned +the cart round without upsetting it across the wide roadway of the +faubourg. The barricade was completed in a moment. A truck came up. +They took it and stood it against the wheels of the cart, just as a +screen is placed before a fireplace. + +The remainder was made up of casks and paving-stones. Thanks to the +flour-cart the barricade was lofty, and reached to the first story of +the houses. It intersected the faubourg at the corner of the little Rue +Saint Jean. A narrow entrance had been contrived at the barricade at +the corner of the street. + +"One barricade is not sufficient," said Doutre, "we must place the +Mairie between two barriers, so as to be able to defend both sides at +the same time." + +They constructed a second barricade, facing the summit of the faubourg. +This one was low and weakly built, being composed only of planks and of +paving-stones. There was about a hundred paces distance between the two +barricades. + +There were three hundred men in this space. Only one hundred had guns. +The majority had only one cartridge. + +The firing began about ten o'clock. Two companies of the line appeared +and fired several volleys. The attack was only a feint. The barricade +replied, and made the mistake of foolishly exhausting its ammunition. +The troops retired. Then the attack began in earnest. Some Chasseurs de +Vincennes emerged from the corner of the boulevard. + +Following out the African mode of warfare, they glided along the side +of the walls, and then, with a run, they threw themselves upon the +barricade. + +No more ammunition in the barricade. No quarter to be expected. + +Those who had no more powder or balls threw down their guns. Some +wished to reoccupy their position in the Mairie, but it was impossible +for them to maintain any defence there, the Mairie being open and +commanded from every side; they scaled the walls and scattered +themselves about in the neighboring houses; others escaped by the +narrow passage of the boulevard which led into the Rue Saint Jean; most +of the combatants reached the opposite side of the boulevard, while +those who had a cartridge left fired a last volley upon the troops from +the height of the paving-stones. Then they awaited their death. All +were killed. + +One of those who succeeded in slipping into the Rue Saint Jean, where +moreover they ran the gauntlet of a volley from their assailants, was +M.H. Coste, Editor of the _Evénement_ and of the _Avénement du Peuple_. + +M. Coste had been a captain in the Garde Mobile. At a bend in the +street, which placed him out of reach of the balls, M. Conte noticed in +front of him the drummer of the Garde Mobile, who, like him, had +escaped by the Rue Saint Jean, and who was profiting by the loneliness +of the street to get rid of his drum. + +"Keep your drum," cried he to him. + +"For what purpose?" + +"To beat the call to arms." + +"Where?" + +"At Batignolles." + +"I will keep it," said the drummer. + +These two men came out from the jaws of death, and at once consented to +re-enter them. + +But how should they cross all Paris with this drum? The first patrol +which met them would shoot them. A porter of an adjoining house, who +noticed their predicament, gave them a packing-cloth. They enveloped +the drum in it, and reached Batignolles by the lonely streets which +skirt the walls. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +THE BARRICADE OF THE RUE THEVENOT + +Georges Biscarrat was the man who had given the signal for the looting +in the Rue de l'Echelle. + +I had known Georges Biscarrat ever since June, 1848. He had taken part +in that disastrous insurrection. I had had an opportunity of being +useful to him. He had been captured, and was kneeling before the +firing-party; I interfered, and I saved his life, together with that of +some others, M., D., D., B., and that brave-hearted architect Rolland, +who when an exile, later on, so ably restored the Brussels Palace of +Justice. + +This took place on the 24th June, 1848, in the underground floor of No. +93, Boulevard Beaumarchais, a house then in course of construction. + +Georges Biscarrat became attached to me. It appeared that he was the +nephew of one of the oldest and best friends of my childhood, Félix +Biscarrat, who died in 1828. Georges Biscarrat came to see me from time +to time, and on occasions he asked my advice or gave me information. + +Wishing to preserve him from evil influences, I had given him, and he +had accepted, this guiding maxim, "No insurrection except for Duty and +for Right." + +What was this hooting in the Rue de l'Echelle? Let us relate the +incident. + +On the 2d of December, Bonaparte had made an attempt to go out. He had +ventured to go and look at Paris. Paris does not like being looked at +by certain eyes; it considers it an insult, and it resents an insult +more than a wound. It submits to assassination, but not to the leering +gaze of the assassin. It took offence at Louis Bonaparte. + +At nine o'clock in the morning, at the moment when the Courbevoie +garrison was descending upon Paris, the placards of the _coup d'état_ +being still fresh upon the walls, Louis Bonaparte had left the Elysée, +had crossed the Place de la Concorde, the Garden of the Tuileries, and +the railed courtyard of the Carrousel, and had been seen to go out, by +the gate of the Rue de l'Echelle. A crowd assembled at once. Louis +Bonaparte was in a general's uniform; his uncle, the ex-King Jérôme, +accompanied him, together with Flahaut, who kept in the near. Jérôme +wore the full uniform of a Marshal of France, with a hat with a white +feather; Louis Bonaparte's horse was a head before Jérôme's horse. +Louis Bonaparte was gloomy, Jérôme attentive, Flahaut beaming. Flahaut +had his hat on one side. There was a strong escort of Lancers. Edgar +Ney followed. Bonaparte intended to go as far as the Hôtel de Ville. +Georges Biscarrat was there. The street was unpaved, the road was being +macadamized; he mounted on a heap of stones, and shouted, "Down with +the Dictator! Down with the Praetorians!" The soldiers looked at him +with bewilderment, and the crowd with astonishment. Georges Biscarrat +(he told me so himself) felt that this cry was too erudite, and that it +would not be understood, so he shouted, "Down with Bonaparte! Down with +the Lancers!" + +The effect of this shout was electrical. "Down with Bonaparte! Down +with the Lancers!" cried the people, and the whole street became stormy +and turbulent. "Down with Bonaparte!" The outcry resembled the +beginning of an execution; Bonaparte made a sudden movement to the +right, turned back, and re-entered the courtyard of the Louvre. + +Georges Biscarrat felt it necessary to complete his shout by a +barricade. + +He said to the bookseller, Benoist Mouilhe, who had just opened his +shop, "Shouting is good, action is better." He returned to his house in +the Rue du Vert Bois, put on a blouse and a workman's cap, and went +down into the dark streets. Before the end of the day he had made +arrangements with four associations--the gas-fitters, the last-makers, +the shawl-makers, and the hatters. + +In this manner he spent the day of the 2d of December. + +The day of the 3d was occupied in goings and comings "almost useless." +So Biscarrat told Versigny, and he added, "However I have succeeded in +this much, that the placards of the _coup d'état_ have been everywhere +torn down, so much so that in order to render the tearing down more +difficult the police have ultimately posted them in the public +conveniences--their proper place." + +On Thursday, the 4th, early in the morning, Georges Biscarrat went to +Ledouble's restaurant, where four Representatives of the People usually +took their meals, Brives, Bertlhelon, Antoine Bard, and Viguier, +nicknamed "Father Viguier." All four were there. Viguier related what +we had done on the preceding evening, and shared my opinion that the +closing catastrophe should be hurried on, that the Crime should be +precipitated into the abyss which befitted it. Biscarrat came in. The +Representatives did not know hire, and stared at him. "Who are you?" +asked one of them. Before he could answer, Dr. Petit entered, unfolded +a paper, and said,-- + +"Does any one know Victor Hugo's handwriting?" + +"I do," said Biscarrat. He looked at the paper. It was my proclamation +to the army. "This must be printed," said Petit. "I will undertake it," +said Biscarrat. Antoine Bard asked him, "Do you know Victor Hugo?" "He +saved my life," answered Biscarrat. The Representatives shook hands +with him. + +Guilgot arrived. Then Versigny. Versigny knew Biscarrat. He had seen +him at my house. Versigny said, "Take care what you do. There is a man +outside the door." "It is a shawl-maker," said Biscarrat. "He has come +with me. He is following me." "But," resumed Versigny, "he is wearing a +blouse, beneath which he has a handkerchief. He seems to be hiding +this, and he has something in the handkerchief." + +"Sugar-plums," said Biscarrat. + +They were cartridges. + +Versigny and Biscarrat went to the office of the _Siècle_; at the +_Siècle_ thirty workmen, at the risk of being shot, offered to print my +Proclamation. Biscarrat left it with them, and said to Versigny, "Now I +want my barricade." + +The shawl-maker walked behind them. Versigny and Biscarrat turned their +steps towards the top of the Saint Denis quarter. When they drew near +to she Porte Saint Denis they heard the hum of many voices. Biscarrat +laughed and said to Versigny, "Saint Denis is growing angry, matters +are improving." Biscarrat recruited forty combatants on the way, +amongst whom was Moulin, head of the association of leather-dressers. +Chapuis, sergeant-major of the National Guard, brought them four +muskets and ten swords. "Do you know where there are any more?" asked +Biscarrat. "Yes, at the Saint Sauveur Baths." They went there, and +found forty muskets. They gave them swords and cartridge-pouches. +Gentlemen well dressed, brought tin boxes containing powder and balls. +Women, brave and light-hearted, manufactured cartridges. At the first +door adjoining the Rue du Hasard-Saint-Sauveur they requisitioned iron +bars and hammers from a large courtyard belonging to a locksmith. +Having the arms, they had the men. They speedily numbered a hundred. +They began to tear up the pavements. It was half-past ten. "Quick! +quick!" cried Georges Biscarrat, "the barricade of my dreams!" It was +in the Rue Thévenot. The barrier was constructed high and formidable. +To abridge. At eleven o'clock Georges Biscarrat had completed his +barricade. At noon he was killed there. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +OSSIAN AND SCIPIO + +Arrests grew more numerous. + +Towards noon a Commissary of Police, named Boudrot, appeared at the +divan of the Rue Lepelletier. He was accompanied by the police agent +Delahodde. Delahodde was that traitorous socialist writer, who, upon +being unmasked, had passed from the Secret Police to the Public Police +Service. I knew him, and I record this incident. In 1832 he was a +master in the school at which were my two sons, then boys, and he had +addressed poetry to me. At the same time he was acting the spy upon me. +The Lepelletier divan was the place of meeting of a large number of +Republican journalists. Delahodde knew them all. A detachment of the +Republican Guard occupied the entrances to the café. Then ensued an +inspection of all the ordinary customers, Delahodde walking first, with +the Commissary behind him. Two Municipal Guards followed them. From +time to time Delahodde looked round and said, "Lay hold of this man." +In this manner some score of writers were arrested, among whom were +Hennett de Kesler.[20] On the preceding evening Kesler had been on the +Saint Antoine barricade. Kesler said to Delahodde, "You are a miserable +wretch." "And you are an ungrateful fellow," replied Delahodde; "_I am +saving your life_." Curious words; for it is difficult to believe that +Delahodde was in the secret of what was to happen on the fatal day of +the Fourth. + +At the head-quarters of the Committee encouraging information was +forwarded to us from every side. Testelin, the Representative of Lille, +is not only a learned man, but a brave man. On the morning of the 3d he +had reached, shortly after me, the Saint Antoine barricade, where +Baudin had just been killed. All was at an end in that direction. +Testelin was accompanied by Charles Gambon, another dauntless man.[21] +The two Representatives wandered through the agitated and dark streets, +little followed, in no way understood, seeking a ferment of insurgents, +and only finding a swarming of the curious. Testelin, nevertheless, +having come to the Committee, informed us of the following:--At the +corner of a street of the Faubourg Saint Antoine Gambon and himself had +noticed a crowd. They had gone up to it. This crowd was reading a bill +placarded on a wall. It was the Appeal to Arms signed "Victor Hugo." +Testelin asked Gambon, "Have you a pencil?" "Yes," answered Gambon. +Testelin took the pencil, went up to the placard, and wrote his name +beneath mine, then he gave the pencil to Gambon, who in turn wrote his +name beneath that of Testelin. Upon this the crowd shouted, "Bravo! +these are true-hearted men!" "Shout 'Long live the Republic!'" cried +Testelin. All shouted "Long live the Republic!" "And from above, from +the open windows," added Gambon, "women clapped their hands." + +"The little hands of women applauding are a good sign," said Michel de +Bourges. + +As has been seen, and we cannot lay too much stress upon the fact, what +the Committee of Resistance wished was to prevent the shedding of blood +as much as possible. To construct barricades, to let them be destroyed, +and to reconstruct them at other points, to avoid the army, and to wear +it out, to wage in Paris the war of the desert, always retreating, +never yielding, to take time for an ally, to add days to days; on the +one hand to give the people time to understand and to rise, on the +other, to conquer the _coup d'état_ by the weariness of the army; such +was the plan discussed and adopted. + +The order was accordingly given that the barricades should be but +slightly defended. + +We repeated in every possible form to the combatants,-- + +"Shed as little blood as possible! Spare the blood of the soldiers and +husband your own." + +Nevertheless, the struggle once begun, it became impossible in many +instances, during certain excited hours of fighting, to moderate their +ardor. Several barricades were obstinately defended, particularly those +in the Rue Rambuteau, in the Rue Montorgueil, and in the Rue Neuve +Saint Eustache. + +These barricades were commanded by daring leaders. + +Here, for the sake of history, we will record a few of these brave men +fighting outlines who appeared and disappeared in the smoke of the +combat. Radoux, an architect, Deluc, Mallarmet, Félix Bony, Luneau, an +ex-Captain of the Republican Guard, Camille Berru, editor of the +_Avénement_, gay, warmhearted, and dauntless, and that young Eugène +Millelot, who was destined to be condemned at Cayenne to receive 200 +lashes, and to expire at the twenty-third stroke, before the very eyes +of his father and brother, proscribed and convicts like himself. + +The barricade of the Rue Aumaire was amongst those which were not +carried without resistance. Although raised in haste, it was fairly +constructed. Fifteen or sixteen resolute men defended it; two were +killed. + +The barricade was carried with the bayonet by a battalion of the 16th +of the line. This battalion, hurled on the barricade at the double, was +received by a brisk fusillade; several soldiers were wounded. + +The first who fell in the soldiers' ranks was an officer. He was a +young man of twenty-five, lieutenant of the first company, named Ossian +Dumas; two balls broke both of his legs as though by a single blow. + +At that time there were in the army two brothers of the name of Dumas, +Ossian and Scipio. Scipio was the elder. They were near relatives of +the Representative, Madier de Montjau. + +These two brothers belonged to a poor but honored family. The elder had +been educated at the Polytechnic School, the other at the School of +Saint Cyr. + +Scipio was four years older than his brother. According to that +splendid and mysterious law of ascent, which the French Revolution has +created, and which, so to speak, has placed a ladder in the centre of a +society hitherto caste-bound and inaccessible, Scipio Dumas' family had +imposed upon themselves the most severe privations in order to develop +his intellect and secure his future. His relations, with the touching +heroism of the poor of the present era, denied themselves bread to +afford him knowledge. In this manner he attained to the Polytechnic +School, where he quickly became one of the best pupils. + +Having concluded his studies, he was appointed an officer in the +artillery, and sent to Metz. It then became his turn to help the boy +who had to mount after him. He held out his hand to his younger +brother. He economized the modest pay of an artillery lieutenant, and, +thanks to him, Ossian became an officer like Scipio. While Scipio, +detained by duties belonging to his position, remained at Metz, Ossian +was incorporated in an infantry regiment, and went to Africa. There he +saw his first service. + +Scipio and Ossian were Republicans. In October, 1851, the 16th of the +line, in which Ossian was serving, was summoned to Paris. It was one of +the regiments chosen by the ill-omened hand of Louis Bonaparte, and on +which the _coup d'état_ counted. + +The 2d of December arrived. + +Lieutenant Ossian Dumas obeyed, like nearly all his comrades, the order +to take up arms; but every one round him could notice his gloomy +attitude. + +The day of the 3d was spent in marches and counter-marches. On the 4th +the combat began. The 16th, which formed part of the Herbillon Brigade, +was told off to capture the barricades of the Rues Beaubourg, +Trausnonain, and Aumaire. This battle-field was formidable; a perfect +square of barricades had been raised there. + +It was by the Rue Aumaire, and with the regiment of which Ossian formed +part, that the military leaders resolved to begin action. + +At the moment when the regiment, with arms loaded, was about to march +upon the Rue Aumaire, Ossian Dumas went up to his captain, a brave and +veteran officer, with whom he was a favorite, and declared that he +would not march a step farther, that the deed of the 2d of December was +a crime, that Louis Bonaparte was a traitor, that it was for them, +soldiers, to maintain the oath which Bonaparte violated; and that, as +for himself, he would not lend his sword to the butchery of the +Republic. + +A halt was made. The signal of attack was awaited; the two officers, +the old captain and the young lieutenant, conversed in a low tone. + +"And what do you want to do?" asked the captain. + +"Break my sword." + +"You will be taken to Vincennes." + +"That is all the same to me." + +"Most certainly dismissed." + +"Possibly." + +"Perhaps shot." + +"I expect it." + +"But there is no longer any time; you should have resigned yesterday." + +"There is always time to avoid committing a crime." + +The captain, as may be seen, was simply one of those professional +heroes, grown old in the leather stock, who know of no country but the +flag, and no other law but military discipline. Iron arms and wooden +heads. They are neither citizens nor men. They only recognize honor in +the form of a general's epaulets. It is of no use talking to them of +political duties, of obedience to the laws, of the Constitution. What +do they know about all this? What is a Constitution; what are the most +holy laws, against three words which a corporal may murmur into the ear +of a sentinel? Take a pair of scales, put in one side the Gospels, in +the other the official instructions; now weigh them. The corporal turns +the balance; the Deity kicks the beam. + +God forms a portion of the order of the day of Saint Bartholomew. "Kill +all. He will recognized his own." + +This is what the priests accept, and at times glorify. + +Saint Bartholomew has been blessed by the Pope and decorated with the +Catholic medal.[22] + +Meanwhile Ossian Dumas appeared determined. The captain made a last +effort. + +"You will ruin yourself," said he. + +"I shall save my honor." + +"It is precisely your honor that you are sacrificing." + +"Because I am going away?" + +"To go away is to desert." + +This seemed to impress Ossian Dumas. The captain continued,-- + +"They are about to fight. In a few minutes the barricade will be +attacked. Your comrades will fall, dead or wounded. You are a young +officer--you have not yet been much under fire." + +"At all events," warmly interrupted Ossian Dumas, "I shall not have +fought against the Republic; they will not say I am a traitor." + +"No, but they will say that you are a coward." + +Ossian made no reply. + +A moment afterwards the command was given to attack. + +The regiment started at the double. The barricade fired. + +Ossian Dumas was the first who fell. + +He had not been able to bear that word "coward," and he had remained in +his place in the first rank. + +They took him to the ambulance, and from thence to the hospital. + +Let us at once state the conclusion of this touching incident. + +Both of his legs were broken. The doctors thought that it would be +necessary to amputate them both. + +General Saint-Arnaud sent him the Cross of Honor. + +As is known, Louis Bonaparte hastened to discharge his debt to his +praetorian accomplices. After having massacred, the sword voted. + +The combat was still smoking when the army was brought to the +ballot-box. + +The garrison of Paris voted "Yes." It absolved itself. + +With the rest of the army it was otherwise. Military honor was +indignant, and roused the civic virtue. Notwithstanding the pressure +which was exercised, although the regiments deposited their votes in +the shakos of their colonels, the army voted "No" in many districts of +France and Algeria. + +The Polytechnic School voted "No" in a body. Nearly everywhere the +artillery, of which the Polytechnic School is the cradle, voted to the +same effect as the school. + +Scipio Dumas, it may be remembered, was at Metz. + +By some curious chance it happened that the feeling of the artillery, +which everywhere else had pronounced against the _coup d'état_, +hesitated at Metz, and seemed to lean towards Bonaparte. + +Scipio Dumas, in presence of this indecision set an example. He voted +in a loud voice, and with an open voting paper, "No." + +Then he sent in his resignation. At the same time that the Minister at +Paris received the resignation of Scipio Dumas, Scipio Dumas at Metz, +received his dismissal, signed by the Minister. + +After Scipio Dumas' vote, the same thought had come at the same time to +both the Government and to the officer, to the Government that the +officer was a dangerous man, and that they could no longer employ him, +to the officer that the Government was an infamous one, and that he +ought no longer to serve it. + +The resignation and the dismissal crossed on the way. By this word +"dismissal" must be understood the withdrawal of employment. + +According to our existing military laws it is in this manner that they +now "break" an officer. Withdrawal of employment, that is to say, no +more service, no more pay; poverty. + +Simultaneously with his dismissal, Scipio Dumas learnt the news of the +attack on the barricade of the Rue Aumaire, and that his brother had +both his legs broken. In the fever of events he had been a week without +news of Ossian. Scipio had confined himself to writing to his brother +to inform him of his vote and of his dismissal, and to induce him to do +likewise. + +His brother wounded! His brother at the Val-de. Grâce! He left +immediately for Paris. + +He hastened to the hospital. They took him to Ossian's bedside. The +poor young fellow had had both his legs amputated on the preceding day. + +At the moment when Scipio, stunned, appeared at his bedside, Ossian +held in his hand the cross which General Saint-Arnaud had just sent +him. + +The wounded man turned towards the aide-de-camp who had brought it, and +said to him,-- + +"I will not have this cross. On my breast it would be stained with the +blood of the Republic." + +And perceiving his brother, who had just entered, he held out the cross +to him, exclaiming,-- + +"You take it. You have voted "No," and you have broken your sword! It +is you who have deserved it!" + + +[20] Died in exile in Guernsey. See the "Pendant l'Exil," under the +heading _Actes et Paroles_, vol. ii. + +[21] Died in exile at Termonde. + +[22] Pro Hugonotorum strage. Medal struck at Rome in 1572. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +THE QUESTION PRESENTS ITSELF + +It was one o'clock in the afternoon. + +Bonaparte had again become gloomy. + +The gleams of sunshine on such countenances as these last very short +time. + +He had gone back to his private room, had seated himself before the +fire, with his feet on the hobs, motionless, and no one any longer +approached him except Roquet. + +What was he thinking of? + +The twistings of the viper cannot be foreseen. + +What this man achieved on this infamous day I have told at length in +another book. See "Napoleon the Little." + +From time to time Roquet entered and informed him of what was going on. +Bonaparte listened in silence, deep in thought, marble in which a +torrent of lava boiled. + +He received at the Elysée the same news that we received in the Rue +Richelieu; bad for him, good for us. In one of the regiments which had +just voted, there were 170 "Noes:" This regiment has since been +dissolved, and scattered abroad in the African army. + +They had counted on the 14th of the line which had fired on the people +in February. The Colonel of the 14th of the line had refused to +recommence; he had just broken his sword. + +Our appeal had ended by being heard. Decidedly, as we have seen, Paris +was rising. The fall of Bonaparte seemed to be foreshadowed. Two +Representatives, Fabvier and Crestin, met in the Rue Royale, and +Crestin, pointing to the Palace of the Assembly, said to Fabvier, "We +shall be there to-morrow." + +One noteworthy incident. Mazes became eccentric, the prison unbent +itself; the interior experienced an undefinable reverberation from the +outside. The warders, who the preceding evening had been insolent to +the Representatives when going for their exercise in the courtyard, now +saluted them to the ground. That very morning of Thursday, the 4th, the +governor of the prison had paid a visit to the prisoners, and had said +to them, "It is not my fault." He brought them books and writing-paper, +a thing which up to that time he had refused. The Representative +Valentin was in solitary confinement; on the morning of the 4th his +warder suddenly became amiable, and offered to obtain for him news from +outside, through his wife, who, he said, had been a servant in General +Leflô's household. These were significant signs. When the jailer smiles +it means that the jail is half opening. + +We may add, what is not a contradiction, that at the same time the +garrison at Mazas was being increased. 1200 more men were marched in, +in detachments of 100 men each, spacing out their arrivals in "little +doses" as an eye-witness remarked to us. Later on 400 men. 100 litres +of brandy were distributed to them. One litre for every sixteen men. +The prisoners could hear the movement of artillery round the prison. + +The agitation spread to the most peaceable quarters. But the centre of +Paris was above all threatening. The centre of Paris is a labyrinth of +streets which appears to be made for the labyrinth of riots. The Ligue, +the Fronde, the Revolution--we must unceasingly recall these useful +facts--the 14th of July, the 10th of August, 1792, 1830, 1848, have +come out from thence. These brave old streets were awakened. At eleven +o'clock in the morning from Notre Dame to the Porte Saint Martin there +were seventy-seven barricades. Three of them, one in the Rue Maubuée, +another in the Rue Bertin-Poirée, another in the Rue Guérin-Boisseau, +attained the height of the second stories; the barricade of the Porte +Saint Denis was almost as bristling and as formidable as the barrier of +the Faubourg Saint Antoine in June, 1848. The handful of the +Representatives of the People had swooped down like a shower of sparks +on these famous and inflammable crossroads. The beginning of the fire. +The fire had caught. The old central market quarter, that city which is +contained in the city, shouted, "Down with Bonaparte!" They hooted the +police, they hissed the troops. Some regiments seemed stupefied. They +cried, "Throw up your butt ends in the air!" From the windows above, +women encouraged the construction of the barricades. There was powder +there, there were muskets. Now, we were no longer alone. We saw rising +up in the gloom behind us the enormous head of the people. Hope at the +present time was on our side. The oscillation of uncertainty had at +length become steady, and we were, I repeat, almost perfectly +confident. + +There had been a moment when, owing to the good news pouring in upon +us, this confidence had become so great that we who had staked our +lives on this great contest, seized with an irresistible joy in the +presence of a success becoming hourly more certain, had risen from our +seats, and had embraced each other. Michel de Bourges was particularly +angered against Bonaparte, for he had believed his word, and had even +gone so far as to say, "He is my man." Of the four of us, he was the +most indignant. A gloomy flash of victory shone in him. He struck the +table with his fist, and exclaimed, "Oh! the miserable wretch! +To-morrow--" and he struck the table a second time, "to-morrow his +head shall fall in the Place de Grève before the Hôtel de Ville." + +I looked at him. + +"No," said I, "this man's head shall not fall." + +"What do you mean?" + +"I do not wish it." + +"Why?" + +"Because," said I, "if after such a crime we allow Louis Bonaparte to +live we shall abolish the penalty of death." + +This generous Michel de Bourges remained thoughtful for a moment, then +he pressed my hand. + +Crime is an opportunity, and always gives us a choice, and it is better +to extract from it progress than punishment. Michel de Bourges realized +this. + +Moreover this incident shows to what a pitch our hopes had been raised. + +Appearances were on our side, actual facts not so. Saint-Arnaud had his +orders. We shall see them. + +Strange incidents took place. + +Towards noon a general, deep in thought, was on horseback in the Place +de la Madeleine, at the head of his wavering troops. He hesitated. + +A carriage stopped, a woman stepped out and conversed in a low tone +with the general. The crowd could see her. The Representative Raymond, +who lived at No 4, Place de la Madeleine, saw her from his window. This +woman was Madame K. The general stooping down on his horse, listened, +and finally made the dejected gesture of a vanquished man. Madame K. +got back into her carriage. This man, they said, loved that woman. She +could, according to the side of her beauty which fascinated her victim, +inspire either heroism or crime. This strange beauty was compounded of +the whiteness of an angel, combined with the look of a spectre. + +It was the look which conquered. + +This man no longer hesitated. He entered gloomily into the enterprise. + +From twelve to two o'clock there was in this enormous city given over +to the unknown an indescribable and fierce expectation. All was calm +and awe-striking. The regiments and the limbered batteries quitted the +faubourg and stationed themselves noiselessly around the boulevards. +Not a cry in the ranks of the soldiery. An eye-witness said, "The +soldiers march with quite a jaunty air." On the Quai de la Ferronnerie, +heaped up with regiments ever since the morning of the 2d of December, +there now only remained a post of Municipal Guards. Everything ebbed +back to the centre, the people as well as the army; the silence of the +army had ultimately spread to the people. They watched each other. + +Each soldier had three days' provisions and six packets of cartridges. + +It has since transpired that at this moment 10,000 francs were daily +spent in brandy for each brigade. + +Towards one o'clock, Magnan went to the Hôtel de Ville, had the reserve +limbered under his own eyes, and did not leave until all the batteries +were ready to march. + +Certain suspicious preparations grew more numerous. Towards noon the +State workmen and the hospital corps had established a species of huge +ambulance at No. 2, Faubourg Montmartre. A great heap of litters was +piled up there. "What is all this for?" asked the crowd. + +Dr. Deville, who had attended Espinasse when he had been wounded, +noticed him on the boulevard, and asked him, "Up to what point are you +going?" + +Espinasse's answer is historical. + +He replied, "To the end." + +At two o'clock five brigades, those of Cotte, Bourgon, Canrobert, Dulac, +and Reybell, five batteries of artillery, 16,400 men,[23] infantry and +cavalry, lancers, cuirassiers, grenadiers, gunners, were echelloned +without any ostensible reason between the Rue de la Paix and the Faubourg +Poissonnière. Pieces of cannon were pointed at the entrance of every +street; there were eleven in position on the Boulevard Poissonnière alone. +The foot soldiers had their guns to their shoulders, the officers their +swords drawn. What did all this mean? It was a curious sight, well worth +the trouble of seeing, and on both sides of the pavements, on all the +thresholds of the shops, from all the stories of the houses, an +astonished, ironical, and confiding crowd looked on. + +Little by little, nevertheless, this confidence diminished, and irony +gave place to astonishment; astonishment changed to stupor. Those who +have passed through that extraordinary minute will not forget it. It +was evident that there was something underlying all this. But what? +Profound obscurity. Can one imagine Paris in a cellar? People felt as +though they were beneath a low ceiling. They seemed to be walled up in +the unexpected and the unknown. They seemed to perceive some mysterious +will in the background. But after all they were strong; they were the +Republic, they were Paris; what was there to fear! Nothing. And they +cried, "Down with Bonaparte!" The troops continued to keep silence, but +the swords remained outside their scabbards, and the lighted matches of +the cannon smoldered at the corners of the streets. The cloud grew +blacker every minute, heavier and more silent. This thickening of the +darkness was tragical. One felt the coming crash of a catastrophe, and +the presence of a villain; snake-like treason writhed during this +night, and none can foresee where the downward slide of a terrible +design will stop when events are on a steep incline. + +What was coming out of this thick darkness? + + +[23] 16,410 men, the figures taken from the Ministry of War. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +THE MASSACRE + +Suddenly a window was opened. + +Upon Hell. + +Dante, had he leaned over the summit of the shadow, would have been able +to see the eighth circle of his poem; the funereal Boulevard Montmartre. + +Paris, a prey to Bonaparte; a monstrous spectacle. The gloomy armed men +massed together on this boulevard felt an appalling spirit enter into +them; they ceased to be themselves, and became demons. + +There was no longer a single French soldier, but a host of indefinable +phantoms, carrying out a horrible task, as though in the glimmering +light of a vision. + +There was no longer a flag, there was no longer law, there was no longer +humanity, there was no longer a country, there was no longer France; +they began to assassinate. + +The Schinderhannes division, the brigades of Mandrin, Cartouche, +Poulailler, Trestaillon, and Tropmann appeared in the gloom, shooting +down and massacring. + +No; we do not attribute to the French army what took place during this +mournful eclipse of honor. + +There have been massacres in history, abominable ones assuredly, but +they have possessed some show of reason; Saint Bartholomew and the +Dragonnades are explained by religion, the Sicilian Vespers and the +butcheries of September are explained by patriotism; they crush the +enemy or annihilate the foreigner; these are crimes for a good cause; +but the carnage of the Boulevard Montmartre is a crime without an +ostensible reason. + +The reason exists, however. It is hideous. + +Let us give it. + +Two things stand erect in a State, the Law and the People. + +A man murders the Law. He feels the punishment approaching, there only +remains one thing for him to do, to murder the People. He murders the +People. + +The Second of December was the Risk, the Fourth was the Certainty. + +Against the indignation which arose they opposed the Terror. + +The Fury, Justice, halted petrified before the Fury, Extermination. +Against Erinnyes they set up Medusa. + +To put Nemesis to flight, what a terrifying triumph! + +To Louis Napoleon pertains this glory, which is the summit of his shame. + +Let us narrate it. + +Let us narrate what History had never seen before. + +The assassination of a people by a man. + +Suddenly, at a given signal, a musket shot being fired, no matter where, +no matter by whom, the shower of bullets poured upon the crowd. A shower +of bullets is also a crowd; it is death scattered broadcast. It does not +know whither it goes, nor what it does; it kills and passes on. + +But at the same time it has a species of soul; it is premeditated, it +executes a will. This was an unprecedented moment. It seemed as though a +handful of lightnings was falling upon the people. Nothing simpler. It +formed a clear solution to the difficulty; the rain of lead overwhelmed +the multitude. What are you doing there? Die! It is a crime to be +passing by. Why are you in the street? Why do you cross the path of the +Government? The Government is a cut-throat. They have announced a thing, +they must certainly carry it out; what is begun must assuredly be +achieved; as Society is being saved, the People must assuredly be +exterminated. + +Are there not social necessities? Is it not essential that Béville +should have 87,000 francs a year and Fleury 95,000 francs? Is it not +essential that the High Chaplain, Menjaud, Bishop of Nancy, should have +342 francs a day, and that Bassano and Cambacérès should each have 383 +francs a day, and Vaillant 468 francs, and Saint-Arnaud 822 francs? Is +it not necessary that Louis Bonaparte should have 76,712 francs a day? +Could one be Emperor for less? + +In the twinkling of an eye there was a butchery on the boulevard a +quarter of a league long. Eleven pieces of cannon wrecked the +Sallandrouze carpet warehouse. The shot tore completely through +twenty-eight houses. The baths of Jouvence were riddled. There was a +massacre at Tortoni's. A whole quarter of Paris was filled with an +immense flying mass, and with a terrible cry. Everywhere sudden death. A +man is expecting nothing. He falls. From whence does this come? From +above, say the Bishops' _Te Deum_; from below, says Truth. + +From a lower place than the galleys, from a lower place than Hell. + +It is the conception of a Caligula, carried out by a Papavoine. + +Xavier Durrieu comes upon the boulevard. He states,-- + +"I have taken sixty steps, I have seen sixty corpses." + +And he draws back. To be in the street is a Crime, to be at home is a +Crime. The butchers enter the houses and slaughter. In slaughter-house +slang the soldiers cry, "Let us pole-axe the lot of them." + +Adde, a bookseller, of 17, Boulevard Poissonnière, is standing before his +door; they kill him. At the same moment, for the field of murder is vast, +at a considerable distance from there, at 5, Rue de Lancry, M. Thirion de +Montauban, owner of the house, is at his door; they kill him. In the Rue +Tiquetonne a child of seven years, named Boursier, is passing by; they +kill him. Mdlle. Soulac, 196, Rue du Temple, opens her window; they kill +her. At No. 97, in the same street, two women, Mesdames Vidal and +Raboisson, sempstresses, are in their room; they kill them. Belval, a +cabinet-maker, 10, Rue de la Lune, is at home; they kill him. Debaëcque, +a merchant, 45, Rue du Sentier, is in his own house; Couvercelle, +florist, 257, Rue Saint Denis, is in his own house; Labitte, a jeweller, +55, Boulevard Saint Martin, is in his own house; Monpelas, perfumer, 181, +Rue Saint Martin, is in his own house; they kill Monpelas, Labitte, +Couvercelle, and Debaëcque. They sabre at her own home, 240, Rue Saint +Martin, a poor embroideress, Mdlle. Seguin, who not having sufficient +money to pay for a doctor, died at the Beaujon hospital, on the 1st of +January, 1852, on the same day that the Sibour _Te Deum_ was chanted at +Notre Dame. Another, a waistcoat-maker, Françoise Noël, was shot down at +20, Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, and died in the Charité. Another, Madame +Ledaust, a working housekeeper, living at 76, Passage du Caire, was shot +down before the Archbishop's palace, and died at the Morgue. Passers-by, +Mdlle. Gressier, living at 209, Faubourg Saint Martin; Madame Guilard, +living at 77, Boulevard Saint Denis; Madame Gamier, living at 6, +Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle, who had fallen, the first named beneath the +volleys on the Boulevard Montmartre, the two others on the Boulevard +Saint Denis, and who were still alive, attempted to rise, and became +targets for the soldiers, bursting with laughter, and this time fell back +again dead. Deeds of gallantry ware performed. Colonel Rochefort, who was +probably created General for this, charged in the Rue do la Paix at the +head of his Lancers a flock of nurses, who were put to flight. + +Such was this indescribable enterprise. All the men who took part in it +were instigated by hidden influences; all had something which urged them +forward; Herbillon had Zaatcha behind him; Saint-Arnaud had Kabylia; +Renault had the affair of the Saint-André and Saint Hippolyte villages; +Espinasse, Rome and the storming of the 30th of June; Magnan, his debts. + +Must we continue? We hesitate. Dr. Piquet, a man of seventy, was killed +in his drawing-room by a ball in his stomach; the painter Jollivart, by +a ball in the forehead, before his easel, his brains bespattered his +painting. The English captain, William Jesse, narrowly escaped a ball +which pierced the ceiling above his head; in the library adjoining the +Magasins du Prophète, a father, mother, and two daughters were sabred. +Lefilleul, another bookseller, was shot in his shop on the Boulevard +Poissonnière; in the Rue Lepelletier, Boyer, a chemist, seated at his +counter, was "spitted" by the Lancers. A captain, killing all before +him, took by storm the house of the Grand Balcon. A servant was killed +in the shop of Brandus. Reybell through the volleys said to Sax, "And I +also am discoursing sweet music." The Café Leblond was given over to +pillage. Billecoq's establishment was bombarded to such a degree that it +had to be pulled down the next day. Before Jouvain's house lay a heap of +corpses, amongst them an old man with his umbrella, and a young man with +his eye-glass. The Hôtel de Castille, the Maison Dorée, the Petite +Jeannette, the Café de Paris, the Café Anglais became for three hours +the targets of the cannonade. Raquenault's house crumbled beneath the +shells; the bullets demolished the Montmartre Bazaar. + +None escaped. The guns and pistols were fired at close quarters. + +New Year's-day was not far off, some shops were full of New Year's +gifts. In the passage du Saumon, a child of thirteen, flying before the +platoon-firing, hid himself in one of these shops, beneath a heap of +toys. He was captured and killed. Those who killed him laughingly +widened his wounds with their swords. A woman told me, "The cries of the +poor little fellow could be heard all through the passage." Four men +were shot before the same shop. The officer said to them, "This will +teach you to loaf about." A fifth named Mailleret, who was left for dead, +was carried the next day with eleven wounds to the Charité. There he +died. + +They fired into the cellars by the air-holes. + +A workman, a currier, named Moulins, who had taken refuge in one of +these shot-riddled cellars, saw through the cellar air-hole a passer-by, +who had been wounded in the thigh by a bullet, sit down on the pavement +with the death rattle in his throat, and lean against a shop. Some +soldiers who heard this rattle ran up and finished off the wounded man +with bayonet thrusts. + +One brigade killed the passer-by from the Madeleine to the Opera, +another from the Opera to the Gymmase; another from the Boulevard Bonne +Nouvelle to the Porte Saint Denis; the 75th of the line having carried +the barricade of the Porte Saint Denis, it was no longer a fight, it was +a slaughter. The massacre radiated--a word horribly true--from the +boulevard into all the streets. It was a devil-fish stretching out its +feelers. Flight? Why? Concealment? To what purpose? Death ran after you +quicker than you could fly. In the Rue Pagevin a soldier said to a +passer-by, "What are you doing here?" "I am going home." The soldier +kills the passer-by. In the Rue des Marais they kill four young men in +their own courtyard. Colonel Espinasse exclaimed, "After the bayonet, +cannon!" Colonel Rochefort exclaimed, "Thrust, bleed, slash!" and he +added, "It is an economy of powder and noise." Before Barbedienne's +establishment an officer was showing his gun, an arm of considerable +precision, admiringly to his comrades, and he said, "With this gun I can +score magnificent shots between the eyes." having said this, he aimed at +random at some one, and succeeded. The carnage was frenzied. While the +butchering under the orders of Carrelet filled the boulevard, the +Bourgon brigade devastated the Temple, the Marulaz brigade devastated +the Rue Rambuteau; the Renault division distinguished itself on the +"other side of the water." Renault was that general, who, at Mascara, +had given his pistols to Charras. In 1848 he had said to Charras, +"Europe must be revolutionized." And Charras had said, "Not quite so +fast!" Louis Bonaparte had made him a General of Division in July, 1851. +The Rue aux Ours was especially devastated. Morny that evening said to +Louis Bonaparte, "The 15th Light Infantry have scored a success. They +have cleaned out the Rue aux Ours." + +At the corner of the Rue du Sentier an officer of Spahis, with his sword +raised, cried out, "This is not the sort of thing! You do not understand +at all. Fire on the women." A woman was flying, she was with child, she +falls, they deliver her by the means of the butt-ends of their muskets. +Another, perfectly distracted, was turning the corner of a street. She +was carrying a child. Two soldiers aimed at her. One said, "At the +woman!" And he brought down the woman. The child rolled on the pavement. +The other soldier said, "At the child!" And he killed the child. + +A man of high scientific repute, Dr. Germain Sée, declares that in one +house alone, the establishment of the Jouvence Baths, there were at six +o'clock, beneath a shed in the courtyard, about eighty wounded, nearly +all of whom (seventy, at least) were old men, women, and children. Dr. +Sée was the first to attend to them. + +In the Rue Mandar, there was, stated an eye-witness, "a rosary of +corpses," reaching as far as the Rue Neuve Saint Eustache. Before the +house of Odier twenty-six corpses. Thirty before the hotel Montmorency. +Fifty-two before the Variétés, of whom eleven were women. In the Rue +Grange-Batelière there were three naked corpses. No. 19, Faubourg +Montmartre, was full of dead and wounded. + +A woman, flying and maddened, with dishevelled hair and her arms raised +aloft, ran along the Rue Poissonnière, crying, "They kill! they kill! +they kill! they kill! they kill!" + +The soldiers wagered. "Bet you I bring down that fellow there." In this +manner Count Poninsky was killed whilst going into his own house, 52, +Rue de la Paix. + +I was anxious to know what I ought to do. Certain treasons, in order to +be proved, need to be investigated. I went to the field of murder. + +In such mental agony as this, from very excess of feeling one no longer +thinks, or if one thinks, it is distractedly. One only longs for some +end or other. The death of others instills in you so much horror that +your own death becomes an object of desire; that is to say, if by dying, +you would be in some degree useful! One calls to mind deaths which have +put an end to angers and to revolts. One only retains this ambition, to +be a useful corpse. + +I walked along terribly thoughtful. + +I went towards the boulevards; I saw there a furnace; I heard there a +thunderstorm. + +I saw Jules Simon coming up to me, who during these disastrous days +bravely risked a precious life. He stopped me. "Where are you going?" he +asked me. "You will be killed. What do you want?" "That very thing," +said I. + +We shook hands. + +I continued to go on. + +I reached the boulevard; the scene was indescribable. I witnessed this +crime, this butchery, this tragedy. I saw that reign of blind death, I +saw the distracted victims fall around me in crowds. It is for this that +I have signed myself in this book AN EYE-WITNESS. + +Destiny entertains a purpose. It watches mysteriously over the future +historian. It allows him to mingle with exterminations and carnages, but +it does not permit him to die, because it wishes him to relate them. + +In the midst of this inexpressible Pandemonium, Xavier Durrieu met me as +I was crossing the bullet-swept boulevard. He said to me, "Ah, here you +are. I have just met Madame D. She is looking for you." Madame D.[24] +and Madame de la R.,[25] two noble and brave women, had promised Madame +Victor Hugo, who was ill in bed, to ascertain where I was, and to give +her some news of me. Madame D. had heroically ventured into this carnage. +The following incident happened to her. She stopped before a heap of +bodies, and had had the courage to manifest her indignation; at the cry +of horror to which she gave vent, a cavalry soldier had run up behind +her with a pistol in his hand, and had it not been for a quickly opened +door through which she threw herself, and which saved her, she would +have been killed. + +It is well known that the total slaughter in this butchery is +unrecorded. Bonaparte has kept these figures hidden in darkness. Such is +the habit of those who commit massacres. They are scarcely likely to +allow history to certify the number of the victims. These statistics are +an obscure multitude which quickly lose themselves in the gloom. One of +the two colonels of whom we have had a glimpse in pages 223-225 of this +work, has stated that his regiment alone had killed "at least 2,500 +persons." This would be more than one person per soldier. We believe +that this zealous colonel exaggerates. Crime sometimes boasts of its +blackness. + +Lireux, a writer, arrested in order to be shot, and who escaped by a +miracle, declares that he saw "more than 800 corpses." + +Towards four o'clock the post-chaises which were in the courtyard of the +Elysée were unhorsed and put up. + +This extermination, which an English witness, Captain William Jesse, +calls "a wanton fusillade," lasted from two till five o'clock. During +these three terrible hours, Louis Bonaparte carried out what he had been +premeditating, and completed his work. Up to that time the poor little +"middle-class" conscience was almost indulgent. Well, what of it? It was +a game at Prince, a species of state swindling, a conjuring feat on a +large scale; the sceptics and the knowing men said, "It is a good joke +played upon those idiots." Suddenly Louis Bonaparte grew uneasy and +revealed all his policy. "Tell Saint-Arnaud to execute my orders." +Saint-Arnaud obeyed, the _coup d'état_ acted according to its own code +of laws, and from that appalling moment an immense torrent of blood +began to flow across this crime. + +They left the corpses lying on the pavements, wild-looking, livid, +stupefied, with their pockets turned inside out. The military murderer +is thus condemned to mount the villainous scale of guilt. In the morning +an assassin, in the evening a thief. + +When night came enthusiasm and joy reigned at the Elysée. These men +triumphed. Conneau has ingeniously related the scene. The familiar +spirits were delirious with joy. Fialin addressed Bonaparte in +hail-fellow-well-met style. "You had better break yourself of that," +whispered Vieillard. In truth this carnage made Bonaparte Emperor. He +was now "His Majesty." They drank, they smoked like the soldiers on the +boulevards; for having slaughtered throughout the day, they drank +throughout the night; wine flowed upon the blood. At the Elysée they +were amazed at the result. They were enraptured; they loudly expressed +their admiration. "What a capital idea the Prince had had! How well the +thing had been managed! This was much better than flying the country, by +Dieppe, like D'Haussez; or by Membrolle, like Guernon-Ranville; or being +captured, disguised as a footboy, and blacking the boots of Madame de +Saint Fargeau, like poor Polignac!" "Guizot was no cleverer than +Polignac," exclaimed Persigny. Fleury turned to Morny: "Your theorists +would not have succeeded in a _coup d'état_." "That is true, they were +not particularly vigorous," answered Morny. He added, "And yet they were +clever men,--Louis Philippe, Guizot, Thiers--" Louis Bonaparte, taking +his cigarette from his lips, interrupted, "If such are clever men, I +would rather be an ass--" + +"A hyena in an ass's skin," says History. + + +[24] No. 20, Cité Rodier. + +[25] Rue Caumartin. See pages 142, 145-148. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +THE APPOINTMENT MADE WITH THE WORKMEN'S SOCIETIES + +What had become of our Committee during these tragic events, and what +was it doing? It is necessary to relate what took place. + +Let us go back a few hours. + +At the moment when this strange butchery began, the seat of the +Committee was still in the Rue Richelieu. I had gone back to it after +the exploration which I had thought it proper to make at several of the +quarters in insurrection, and I gave an account of what I had seen to my +colleagues. Madier de Montjau, who also arrived from the barricades, +added to my report details of what he had seen. For some time we heard +terrible explosions, which appeared to be close by, and which mingled +themselves with our conversation. Suddenly Versigny came in. He told us +that horrible events were taking place on the Boulevards; that the +meaning of the conflict could not yet be ascertained, but that they were +cannonading, and firing volleys of musket-balls, and that the corpses +bestrewed the pavement; that, according to all appearances, it was a +massacre,--a sort of Saint Bartholomew improvised by the coup d'état; +that they were ransacking the houses at a few steps from us, and that +they were killing every one. The murderers were going from door to door, +and were drawing near. He urged us to leave Grévy's house without delay. +It was manifest that the Insurrectionary Committee would be a "find" for +the bayonets. We decided to leave, whereupon M. Dupont White, a man +distinguished for his noble character and his talent, offered us a +refuge at his house, 11, Rue Monthabor. We went out by the back-door of +Grévy's house, which led into 1, Rue Fontaine Molière, but leisurely, +and two by two, Madier de Montjau with Versigny, Michel de Bourges with +Carnot, myself arm-in-arm with Jules Favre. Jules Favre, dauntless and +smiling as ever, wrapped a comforter over his mouth, and said, "I do not +much mind being shot, but I do mind catching cold." + +Jules Favre and I reached the rear of Saint Roch, by the Rue des +Moulins. The Rue Veuve Saint Roch was thronged with a mass of affrighted +passers-by, who came from the Boulevards flying rather than walking. The +men were talking in a loud voice, the women screaming. We could hear the +cannon and the ear-piercing rattle of the musketry. All the shops were +being shut. M. de Falloux, arm-in-arm with M. Albert de Rességuier, was +striding down the Rue de Saint Roch and hurrying to the Rue Saint +Honoré. The Rue Saint Honoré presented a scene of clamorous agitation. +People were coming and going, stopping, questioning one another, +running. The shopkeepers, at the threshold of their half-opened doors, +asked the passers-by what was taking place, and were only answered by +this cry, "Oh, my God!" People came out of their houses bareheaded and +mingled with the crowd. A fine rain was falling. Not a carriage in the +street. At the corner of the Rue Saint Roch and Rue Saint Honoré we +heard voices behind us saying, "Victor Hugo is killed." + +"Not yet," said Jules Favre, continuing to smile, and pressing my arm. + +They had said the same thing on the preceding day to Esquiros and to +Madier de Montjau. And this rumor, so agreeable to the Reactionaries, +had even reached my two sons, prisoners in the Concièrgerie. + +The stream of people driven back from the Boulevards and from the Rue +Richelieu flowed towards the Rue de la Paix. We recognized there some of +the Representatives of the Right who had been arrested on the 2d, and +who were already released. M. Buffet, an ex-minister of M. Bonaparte, +accompanied by numerous other members of the Assembly, was going towards +the Palais Royal. As he passed close by us he pronounced the name of +Louis Bonaparte in a tone of execration. + +M. Buffet is a man of some importance; he is one of the three political +advisers of the Right; the two others are M. Fould and M. Molé. + +In the Rue Monthabor, two steps from the Rue Saint Honoré, there was +silence and peace. Not one passer-by, not a door open, not a head out of +window. + +In the apartment into which we were conducted, on the third story, the +calm was not less perfect. The windows looked upon an inner courtyard. +Five or six red arm-chairs were drawn up before the fire; on the table +could be seen a few books which seemed to me works on political economy +and executive law. The Representatives, who almost immediately joined us +and who arrived in disorder, threw down at random their umbrellas and +their coats streaming with water in the corner of this peaceful room. No +one knew exactly what was happening; every one brought forward his +conjectures. + +The Committee was hardly seated in an adjoining little room when our +ex-colleague, Leblond, was announced. He brought with him King the +delegate of the working-men's societies. The delegate told us that the +committee of the societies were sitting in permanent session, and had +sent him to us. According to the instructions of the Insurrectionary +Committee, they had done what they could to lengthen the struggle by +evading too decisive encounters. The greater part of the associations +had not yet given battle; nevertheless the plot was thickening. The +combat had been severe during the morning. The Association of the Rights +of Man was in the streets; the ex-constituent Beslay had assembled, in +the Passage du Caire, six or seven hundred workmen from the Marais, and +had posted them in the streets surrounding the Bank. New barricades +would probably be constructed during the evening, the forward movement +of the resistance was being precipitated, the hand-to-hand struggle +which the Committee had wished to delay seemed imminent, all was rushing +forward with a sort of irresistible impulse. Should we follow it, or +should we stop? Should we run the risk of bringing matters to an end +with one blow, which should be the last, and which would manifestly +leave one adversary on the ground--either the Empire or the Republic? +The workmen's societies asked for our instructions; they still held in +reserve their three or four thousand combatants; and they could, +according to the order which the Committee should give them, either +continue to restrain them or send them under fire without delay. They +believed themselves curtain of their adherents; they would do whatever +we should decide upon, while not hiding from us that the workmen wished +for an immediate conflict, and that it would be somewhat hazardous to +leave them time to become calm. + +The majority of the members of the Committee were still in favor of a +certain slackening of action which should tend to prolong the struggle; +and it was difficult to say that they were in the wrong. It was certain +that if they could protract the situation in which the _coup d'état_ had +thrown Paris until the next week, Louis Bonaparte was lost. Paris does +not allow herself to be trampled upon by an army for a whole week. +Nevertheless, I was for my own part impressed with the following:--The +workmen's societies offered us three or four thousand combatants, a +powerful assistance;--the workman does not understand strategy, he lives +on enthusiasm, abatements of ardor discourage him; his zeal is not +extinguished, but it cools:--three thousand to-day would be five hundred +to-morrow. And then some serious incident had just taken place on the +Boulevards. We were still ignorant of what it actually was: we could not +foresee what consequences it might bring about; but seemed to me +impossible that the still unknown, but yet violent event, which had just +taken place would not modify the situation, and consequently change our +plan of battle. I began to speak to this effect. I stated that we ought +to accept the offer of the associations, and to throw them at once into +the struggle; I added that revolutionary warfare often necessitates +sudden changes of tactics, that a general in the open country and before +the enemy operates as he wishes; it is all clear around him; he knows +the effective strength of his soldiers, the number of his regiments; so +many men, so many horses, so many cannons, he knows his strength, and +the strength of his enemy, he chooses his hour and his ground, he has a +map under his eyes, he sees what he is doing. He is sure of his +reserves, he possesses them, he keeps them back, he utilizes them when +he wishes, he always has them by him. "But for ourselves," cried I, "we +are in an undefined and inconceivable position. We are stepping at a +venture upon unknown risks. Who is against us? We hardly know. Who is +with us? We are ignorant. How many soldiers? How many guns? How many +cartridges? Nothing! but the darkness. Perhaps the entire people, +perhaps no one. Keep a reserve! But who would answer for this reserve? +It is an army to-day, it will be a handful of dust to-morrow. We only +can plainly distinguish our duty, as regards all the rest it is black +darkness. We are guessing at everything. We are ignorant of everything. +We are fighting a blind battle! Let us strike all the blows that can be +struck, let us advance straight before us at random, let us rush upon +the danger! And let us have faith, for as we are Justice and the Law, +God must be with us in this obscurity. Let us accept this glorious and +gloomy enterprise of Right disarmed yet still fighting." + +The ex-constituent Leblond and the delegate King being consulted by the +Committee, seconded my advice. The Committee decided that the societies +should be requested in our name to come down into the streets +immediately, and to call out their forces. "But we are keeping nothing +for to-morrow," objected a member of the Committee, "what ally shall we +have to-morrow?" "Victory," said Jules Favre. Carnot and Michel de +Bourges remarked that it would be advisable for those members of the +association who belonged to the National Guard to wear their uniforms. +This was accordingly settled. + +The delegate King rose,--"Citizen Representatives," said he, "these +orders will be immediately transmitted, our friends are ready, in a few +hours they will assemble. To-night barricades and the combat!" + +I asked him, "Would it be useful to you if a Representative, a member of +the Committee, were with you to-night with his sash girded?" + +"Doubtless," he answered. + +"Well, then," resumed I, "here I am! Take me." + +"We will all go," exclaimed Jules Favre. + +The delegate observed that it would suffice for one of us to be there at +the moment when the societies should make their appearance, and that he +could then notify the other members of the Committee to come and join +him. It was settled that as soon as the places of meeting and the +rallying-points should be agreed upon, he would send some one to let me +know, and to take me wherever the societies might be. "Before an hour's +time you shall hear from me," said he on leaving us. + +As the delegates were going away Mathieu de la Drôme arrived. On coming +in he halted on the threshold of the door, he was pale, he cried out to +us, "You are no longer in Paris, you are no longer under the Republic; +you are in Naples and under King Bomba." + +He had come from the boulevards. + +Later on I again saw Mathieu de la Drôme. I said to him, "Worse than +Bomba,--Satan." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +THE VERIFICATION OF MORAL LAWS + +The carnage of the Boulevard Montmartre constitutes the originality of +the _coup d'état_. Without this butchery the 2d of December would only +be an 18th Brumaire. Owing to the massacre Louis Bonaparte escapes the +charge of plagiarism. + +Up to that time he had only been an imitator. The little hat at Boulogne, +the gray overcoat, the tame eagle appeared grotesque. What did this parody +mean? people asked. He made them laugh; suddenly he made +them tremble. + +He who becomes detestable ceases to be ridiculous. + +Louis Bonaparte was more than detestable, he was execrable. + +He envied the hugeness of great crimes; he wished to equal the worst. +This striving after the horrible has given him a special place to +himself in the menagerie of tyrants. Petty rascality trying to emulate +deep villainy, a little Nero swelling himself to a huge Lacénaire; such +is this phenomenon. Art for art, assassination for assassination. + +Louis Bonaparte has created a special genus. + +It was in this manner that Louis Bonaparte made his entry into the +Unexpected. This revealed him. + +Certain brains are abysses. Manifestly for a long time past Bonaparte +had harbored the design of assassinating in order to reign. +Premeditation haunts criminals, and it is in this manner that treason +begins. The crime is a long time present in them, but shapeless and +shadowy, they are scarcely conscious of it; souls only blacken +gradually. Such abominable deeds are not invented in a moment; they do +not attain perfection at once and at a single bound; they increase and +ripen, shapeless and indecisive, and the centre of the ideas in which +they exist keeps them living, ready for the appointed day, and vaguely +terrible. This design, the massacre for a throne, we feel sure, existed +for a long time in Louis Bonaparte's mind. It was classed among the +possible events of this soul. It darted hither and thither like a +_larva_ in an aquarium, mingled with shadows, with doubts, with desires, +with expedients, with dreams of one knows not what Caesarian socialism, +like a Hydra dimly visible in a transparency of chaos. Hardly was he +aware that he was fostering this hideous idea. When he needed it, he +found it, armed and ready to serve him. His unfathomable brain had +darkly nourished it. Abysses are the nurseries of monsters. + +Up to this formidable day of the 4th December, Louis Bonaparte did not +perhaps quite know himself. Those who studied this curious Imperial +animal did not believe him capable of such pure and simple ferocity. +They saw in him an indescribable mongrel, applying the talents of a +swindler to the dreams of an Empire, who, even when crowned, would be a +thief, who would say of a parricide, What roguery! Incapable of gaining +a footing on any height, even of infamy, always remaining half-way +uphill, a little above petty rascals, a little below great malefactors. +They believed him clever at effecting all that is done in gambling-hells +and in robbers' caves, but with this transposition, that he would cheat +in the caves, and that he would assassinate in the gambling-hells. + +The massacre of the Boulevards suddenly unveiled this spirit. They saw it +such as it really was: the ridiculous nicknames "Big-beak," "Badinguet," +vanished; they saw the bandit, they saw the true _contraffatto_ hidden +under the false Bonaparte. + +There was a shudder! It was this then which this man held in reserve! + +Apologies have been attempted, they could but fail. It is easy to praise +Bonaparte, for people have praised Dupin; but it is an exceedingly +complicated operation to cleanse him. What is to be done with the 4th +of December? How will that difficulty be surmounted? It is far more +troublesome to justify than to glorify; the sponge works with greater +difficulty than the censer; the panegyrists of the _coup d'état_ have +lost their labor. Madame Sand herself, although a woman of lofty +intellect, has failed miserably in her attempt to rehabilitate +Bonaparte, for the simple reason that whatever one may do, the +death-roll reappears through this whitewashing. + +No! no! no extenuation whatever is possible. Unfortunate Bonaparte. The +blood is drawn. It must be drunk. + +The deed of the 4th of December is the most colossal dagger-thrust that +a brigand let loose upon civilization has ever effected, we will not say +upon a people, but upon the entire human race. The stroke was most +monstrous, and struck Paris to the ground. Paris on the ground is +Conscience, is Reason, is all human liberty on the ground; it is the +progress of centuries lying on the pavement; it is the torch of Justice, +of Truth, and of Life reversed and extinguished. This is what Louis +Bonaparte effected the day when he effected this. + +The success of the wretch was complete. The 2d of December was lost; +the 4th of December saved the 2d of December. It was something like +Erostratus saving Judas. Paris understood that all had not yet been told +as regards deeds of horror, and that beneath the oppressor there was the +garbage-picker. It was the case of a swindler stealing César's mantle. +This man was little, it is true, but terrifying. Paris consented to this +terror, renounced the right to have the last word, went to bed and +simulated death. Suffocation had its share in the matter. This crime +resembled, too, no previous achievements. Even after centuries have +passed, and though he should be an Aeschylus or a Tacitus, any one +raising the cover would smell the stench. Paris resigned herself, Paris +abdicated, Paris surrendered; the novelty of the treason proved its +chief strength; Paris almost ceased to be Paris; on the next day the +chattering of this terrified Titan's teeth could be heard in the +shadows. + +Let us lay a stress upon this, for we must verify the laws of morality. +Louis Bonaparte remained, even after the 4th of December, Napoleon the +Little. This enormity still left him a dwarf. The size of the crime does +not change the stature of the criminal, and the pettiness of the +assassin withstands the immensity of the assassination. + +Be that as it may, the Pigmy had the better of the Colossus. This +avowal, humiliating as it is, cannot be evaded. + +Such are the blushes to which History, that greatly dishonored one, is +condemned. + + + + +THE FOURTH DAY--THE VICTORY. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE NIGHT--THE RUE TIQUETONNE + +Just as Mathieu de la Drôme had said, "You are under King Bomba," +Charles Gambon entered. He sank down upon a chair and muttered, "It is +horrible." Bancel followed him. "We have come from it," said Bancel. +Gambon had been able to shelter himself in the recess of a doorway. In +front of Barbedienne's alone he had counted thirty-seven corpses. What +was the meaning of it all? To what purpose was this monstrous +promiscuous murder? No one could understand it. The Massacre was a +riddle. + +We were in the Sphinx's Grotto. + +Labrousse came in. It was urgently necessary that we should leave Dupont +White's house. It was on the point of being surrounded. For some moments +the Rue Monthabor, ordinarily so deserted, was becoming thronged with +suspicious figures. Men seemed to be attentively watching number Eleven. +Some of these men, who appeared to be acting in concert, belonged to the +ex-"Club of Clubs," which, owing to the manoeuvres of the Reactionists, +exhaled a vague odor of the police. It was necessary that we should +disperse. Labrousse said to us, "I have just seen Longe-pied roving +about." + +We separated. We went away one by one, and each in his own direction. We +did not know where we should meet again, or whether we should meet +again. What was going to happen and what was about to become of us all? +No one knew. We were filled with a terrible dread. + +I turned up towards the Boulevards, anxious to see what was taking +place. + +What was taking place I have just related. + +Bancel and Versigny had rejoined me. + +As I left the Boulevards, mingled with the whirl of the terrified crowd, +not knowing where I was going, returning towards the centre of Paris, a +voice suddenly whispered in my ear, "There is something over there which +you ought to see." I recognized the voice. It was the voice of E.P. + +E.P. is a dramatic author, a man of talent, for whom under Louis +Philippe I had procured exemption from military service. I had not seen +him for four or five years. I met him again in this tumult. He spoke to +me as though we had seen each other yesterday. Such are these times of +bewilderment. There is no time to greet each other "according to the +rules of society." One speaks as though all were in full flight. + +"Ah! it is you!" I exclaimed. "What do you want with me?" + +He answered me, "I live in a house over there." + +And he added,- + +"Come." + +He drew me into a dark street. We could hear explosions. At the bottom +of the street could be seen the ruins of a barricade. Versigny and +Bancel, as I have just said, were with me. E.P. turned to them. + +"These gentlemen can come," said he. + +I asked him,-- + +"What street is this?" + +"The Rue Tiquetonne." + +We followed him. + +I have elsewhere told this tragical event.[26] + +E.P. stopped before a tall and gloomy house. He pushed open a +street-door which was not shut, then another door and we entered into a +parlor perfectly quiet and lighted by a lamp. + +This room appeared to adjoin a shop. At the end could be distinguished +two beds side by side, one large and one small. Above the little bed +hung a woman's portrait, and above the portrait a branch of holy +box-tree. + +The lamp was placed over the fireplace, where a little fire was burning. + +Near the lamp upon a chair there was an old woman leaning forward, +stooping down, folded in two as though broken, over something which was +in the shadow, and which she held in her arms. I drew near. That which +she held in her arms was a dead child. + +The poor woman was silently sobbing. + +E.P., who belonged to the house, touched her on the shoulder, and +said,-- + +"Let us see it." + +The old woman raised her head, and I saw on her knees a little boy, pale, +half-undressed, pretty, with two red holes in his forehead. + +The old woman stared at me, but she evidently did not see me, she +muttered, speaking to herself,-- + +"And to think that he called me 'Granny' this morning!" + +E.P. took the child's hand, the hand fell back again. + +"Seven years old," he said to me. + +A basin was on the ground. They had washed the child's face; two tiny +streams of blood trickled from the two holes. + +At the end of the room, near a half-opened clothes-press, in which could +be seen some linen, stood a woman of some forty years, grave, poor, clean, +fairly good-looking. + +"A neighbor," E.P. said to me. + +He explained to me that a doctor lived in the house, that the doctor had +come down and had said, "There is nothing to be done." The child had +been hit by two balls in the head while crossing the street to "get out +of the way." They had brought him back to his grandmother, who "had no +one left but him." + +The portrait of the dead mother hung above the little bed. + +The child had his eyes half open, and that inexpressible gaze of the +dead, where the perception of the real is replaced by the vision of the +infinite. The grandmother spoke through her sobs by snatches: "God! is +it possible? Who would have thought it?--What brigands!" + +She cried out,-- + +"Is this then the Government?" + +"Yes," I said to her. + +We finished undressing the child. He had a top in his pocket. His head +rolled from one shoulder to the other; I held him and I kissed him on +the brow; Versigny and Bancel took off his stockings. The grandmother +suddenly started up. + +"Do not hurt him!" she cried. + +She took the two little white and frozen feet in her old hands, trying +to warm them. + +When the poor little body was naked, they began to lay it out. They took +a sheet from the clothes-press. + +Then the grandmother burst into bitter lamentation. + +She cried out,-- + +"They shall give him back to me!" + +She drew herself up and gazed at us, and began to pour forth incoherent +utterances, in which were mingled Bonaparte, and God, and her little +one, and the school to which he went, and her daughter whom she had +lost, and even reproaches to us. She was livid, haggard, as though +seeing a vision before her, and was more of a phantom than the dead +child. + +Then she again buried her face in her hands, placed her folded arms on +her child, and once more began to sob. + +The woman who was there came up to me, and without saying a word, wiped +my mouth with a handkerchief. I had blood upon my lips. + +What could be done? Alas! We went out overwhelmed. + +It was quite dark. Bancel and Versigny left me. + + +[26] "Les Châtiments." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE NIGHT--THE MARKET QUARTER + +I came back to my lodging, 19, Rue Richelieu. + +The massacre seemed to be at an end; the fusillades were heard no +longer. As I was about to knock at the door I hesitated for a moment; a +man was there who seemed to be waiting. I went straight up to this man, +and I said to him,-- + +"You seem to be waiting for somebody?" + +He answered,-- + +"Yes." + +"For whom?" + +"For you." + +And he added, lowering his voice, "I have come to speak to you." + +I looked at this man. A street-lamp shone on him. He did not avoid the +light. + +He was a young man with a fair beard, wearing a blue blouse, and who had +the gentle bearing of a thinker and the robust hands of a workman. + +"Who are you?" I asked him. + +He answered,--"I belong to the Society of the Last-makers. I know you +very well, Citizen Victor Hugo." + +"From whom do you come?" I resumed. + +He answered still in a whisper,-- + +"From Citizen King." + +"Very good," said I. + +He then told me his name. As he has survived the events of the night of +the 4th, and as he since escaped the denunciations, it can be understood +that we will not mention his name here, and that we shall confine +ourselves to terming him throughout the course of this story by his +trade, calling him the "last-maker."[27] + +"What do you want to say to me?" I asked him. + +He explained that matters were not hopeless, that he and his friends +meant to continue the resistance, that the meeting-places of the +Societies had not yet been settled, but that they would be during the +evening, that my presence was desired, and that if I would be under the +Colbert Arcade at nine o'clock, either himself or another of their men +would be there, and would serve me as guide. We decided that in order to +make himself known, the messenger, when accosting me, should give the +password, "What is Joseph doing?" + +I do not know whether he thought he noticed any doubt or mistrust on my +part. He suddenly interrupted himself, and said,-- + +"After all, you are not bound to believe me. One does not think of +everything: I ought to have asked them to give me a word in writing. At +a time like this one distrusts everybody." + +"On the contrary," I said to him, "one trusts everybody. I will be in +the Colbert Arcade at nine o'clock." + +And I left him. + +I re-entered my asylum. I was tired, I was hungry, I had recourse to +Charamaule's chocolate and to a small piece of bread which I had still +left. I sank down into an arm-chair, I ate and I slept. Some slumbers +are gloomy. I had one of those slumbers, full of spectres; I again saw +the dead child and the two red holes in his forehead, these formed two +mouths: one said "Morny," and the other "Saint-Arnaud." History is not +made, however, to recount dreams. I will abridge. Suddenly I awoke. I +started: "If only it is not past nine o'clock!" I had forgotten to wind +up my watch. It had stopped. I went out hastily. The street was lonely, +the shops were shut. In the Place Louvos I heard the hour striking +(probably from Saint Roch); I listened. I counted nine strokes. In a few +moments I was under the Colbert Arcade. I peered into the darkness. No +one was under the Arcade. + +I felt that it was impossible to remain there, and have the appearance +of waiting about; near the Colbert Arcade there is a police-station, and +the patrols were passing every moment. I plunged into the street. I +found no one there. I went as far as the Rue Vivienne. At the corner of +the Rue Vivienne a man was stopping before a placard and was trying to +deface it or to tear it down. I drew near this man, who probably took me +for a police agent, and who fled at the top of his speed. I retraced my +steps. Near the Colbert Arcade, and just as I reached the point in the +street where they post the theatrical bills, a workman passed me, and +said quickly, "What is Joseph doing?" + +I recognized the last-maker. + +"Come," he said to me. + +We set out without speaking and without appearing to know each other, he +walking some steps before me. + +We first went to two addresses, which I cannot mention here without +pointing out victims for the proscription. In these two houses we got no +news; no one had come there on the part of the societies. + +"Let us go to the third place," said the last-maker, and he explained to +me that they had settled among them three successive meeting-places, in +case of need, so as to be always sure of finding each other if, +perchance, the police discovered the first or even the second +meeting-place, a precaution which for our part we adopted as much as +possible with regard to our meetings of the Left end of the Committee. + +We had reached the market quarter. Fighting had been going on there +throughout the day. There were no longer any gas-lamps in the streets. +We stopped from time to time, and listened so as not to run headlong +into the arms of a patrol. We got over a paling of planks almost +completely destroyed, and of which barricades had probably been made, +and we crossed the extensive area of half-demolished houses which at +that epoch encumbered the lower portions of the Rue Montmartre and Rue +Montorgueil. On the peaks of the high dismantled gables could be seen a +flickering red glow, doubtless the reflection of the bivouac-fires of the +soldiers encamped in the markets and in the neighborhood of Saint +Eustache. This reflection lighted our way. The last-maker, however, +narrowly escaped falling into a deep hole, which was no less than the +cellar of a demolished house. On coming out of this region, covered with +ruins, amongst which here and there a few trees might be perceived, the +remains of gardens which had now disappeared, we entered into narrow, +winding, and completely dark streets, where it was impossible to +recognize one's whereabouts. Nevertheless the last-maker walked on as +much at his ease as in broad daylight, and like a man who is going +straight to his destination. Once he turned round to me, and said to +me,-- + +"The whole of this quarter is barricaded; and if, as I hope, our friends +come down, I will answer that they will hold it for a long time." + +Suddenly he stopped. "Here is one," said he. In truth, seven or eight +paces before us was a barricade entirely constructed of paving-stones, +not exceeding a man's height, and which in the darkness appeared like a +ruined wall. A narrow passage had been formed at one end. We passed +through it. There was no one behind the barricade. + +"There has already been fighting here a short time ago," said the +last-maker in a low voice; and he added, after a pause, "We are getting +near." + +The unpaving had left holes, of which we had to be careful. We strode, +and sometimes jumped, from paving-stone to paving-stone. Notwithstanding +the intense darkness, there yet hovered about an indefinable glimmer; on +our way we noticed before us on the ground, close to the foot-pavement, +something which looked like a stretched-out form. "The devil!" muttered +my guide, "we were just going to walk upon it." He took a little wax +match from his pocket and struck it on his sleeve; the flame flashed +out. The light fell upon a pallid face, which looked at us with fixed +eyes. It was a corpse lying there; it was an old man. The last-maker +rapidly waved the match from his head to his feet. The dead man was +almost in the attitude of a crucified man; his two arms were stretched +out; his white hair, red at the ends, was soaking in the mud; a pool of +blood was beneath him; a large blackish patch on his waistcoat marked +the place where the ball had pierced his breast; one of his braces was +undone; he had thick laced boots on his feet. The last-maker lifted up +one of his arms, and said, "His collar-bone is broken." The movement +shook the head, and the open mouth turned towards us as though about to +speak to us. I gazed at this vision; I almost listened. Suddenly it +disappeared. + +This face re-entered the gloom; the match had just gone out. + +We went away in silence. After walking about twenty paces, the +last-maker, as though talking to himself, said in a whisper, "Don't know +him." + +We still pushed forward. From the cellars to the roofs, from the +ground-floors to the garrets, there was not a light in the house. We +appeared to be groping in an immense tomb. + +A man's voice, firm and sonorous, suddenly issued out of the darkness, +and shouted to us, "Who goes there?" + +"Ah, there they are!" said the last-maker, and he uttered a peculiar +whistle. + +"Come on," resumed the voice. + +It was another barricade. This one, a little higher than the first, and +separated from it by a distance of about a hundred paces, was, as far as +could be seen, constructed of barrels filled with paving-stones. On the +top could be seen the wheels of a truck entangled between the barrels; +planks and beams were intermingled. A passage had been contrived still +narrower than the gangway of the other barricade. + +"Citizens," said the last-maker, as he went into the barricade, "how +many of you are there here?" + +The voice which had shouted, "Who goes there?" answered,-- + +"There are two of us." + +"Is that all?" + +"That is all." + +They were in truth two,--two men who alone during that night, in that +solitary street, behind that heap of paving-stones, awaited the +onslaught of a regiment. + +Both wore blouses; they were two workmen; with a few cartridges in their +pockets, and a musket upon each of their shoulders. + +"So then," resumed the last-maker, in an impatient tone, "our friends +have not yet come!" + +"Well, then," I said to him, "let us wait for them." + +The last-maker spoke for a short time in a low tone, and probably told +my name to one of the two defenders of the barricade, who came up to me +and saluted me. "Citizen Representative," said he, "it will be very warm +here shortly." + +"In the meantime," answered I laughingly, "it is cold." + +It was very cold, in truth. The street which was completely unpaved +behind the barricade, was nothing better than a sewer, ankle deep in +water. + +"I say that it will be warm," resumed the workman, "and that you would +do well to go farther off." + +The last-maker put his hand on his shoulder: "Comrade, it is necessary +that we should remain here. The meeting-place is close by, in the +ambulance." + +"All the same," resumed the other workman, who was very short, and who +stood up on a paving-stone; "the Citizen Representative would do well to +go farther off." + +"I can very well be where you are," said I to him. + +The street was quite dark, nothing could be seen of the sky. Inside the +barricade on the left, on the side where the passage was, could be seen +a high paling of badly joined planks, through which shone in places a +feeble light. Above the paling rose out, lost in the darkness, a house +of six or seven storys; the ground floor, which was being repaired, and +which was under-pinned, being closed in by these planks. A ray of light +issuing from between the planks fell on the opposite wall, and lighted +up an old torn placard, on which could be read, "Asnières. Water +tournaments. Grand ball." + +"Have you another gun?" asked the last-maker of the taller of the two +workmen. + +"If we had three guns we should be three men," answered the workman. + +The little one added, "Do you think that the good will is wanting? There +are plenty of musicians, but there are no clarionets." + +By the side of the wooden paling could be seen a little, narrow and low +door, which looked more like the door of a stall than the door of a +shop. The shop to which this door belonged was hermetically sealed. The +door seemed to be equally closed. The last-maker went up to it and +pushed it gently. It was open. + +"Let us go in," he said. + +I went in first, he followed me, and shut the door behind me. We were in +a room on the ground floor. At the end, on the left, a half-opened door +emitted the reflection of a light. The room was only lighted by this +reflection. A counter and a species of stove, painted in black and +white, could be dimly distinguished. + +A short, half-suffocated, intermittent gurgling could be heard, which +seemed to come from an adjoining room on the same side as the light. The +last-maker walked quickly to the half-opened door. I crossed the room +after him, and we found ourselves in a sort of vast shed, lighted by one +candle. We were on the other side of the plank paling. There was only +the plank paling between ourselves and the barricade. + +This species of shed was the ground floor in course of demolition. Iron +columns, painted red, and fixed into stone sockets at short distances +apart, supported the joists of the ceiling; facing the street, a huge +framework standing erect, and denoting the centre of the surrounding +paling, supported the great cross-beam of the first story, that is to +say, supported the whole house. In a corner were lying some masons' +tools, a heap of rubbish, and a large double ladder. A few straw-bottomed +chairs were scattered here and there. The damp ground served for the +flooring. By the side of a table, on which stood a candle in the midst +of medicine bottles, an old woman and a young girl of about eight years +old--the woman seated, the child squatting before a great basketful of +old linen--were making lint. The end of the room, which was lost in the +darkness, was carpeted with a litter of straw, on which three mattresses +had been thrown. The gurgling noise came from there. + +"It is the ambulance," said the last-maker. + +The old woman turned her head, and seeing us, shuddered convulsively, +and then, reassured probably by the blouse of the last-maker, she got up +and came towards us. + +The last-maker whispered a few words in her ear. She answered, "I have +seen nobody." + +Then she added, "But what makes me uneasy is that my husband has not yet +come back. They have done nothing but fire muskets the whole evening." + +Two men were lying on two of the mattresses at the end of the room. A +third mattress was unoccupied and was waiting. + +The wounded man nearest to me had received a musket ball in his stomach. +He it was who was gurgling. The old woman came towards the mattress with +a candle, and whispered to us, showing us her fist, "If you could only +see the hole that that has made! We have stuffed lint as large as this +into his stomach." + +She resumed, "He is not above twenty-five years old. He will be dead +to-morrow morning." + +The other was still younger. He was hardly eighteen. "He has a handsome +black overcoat," said the woman. "He is most likely a student." The +young man had the whole of the lower part of his face swathed in +blood-stained linen. She explained to us that he had received a ball in +the mouth, which had broken his jaw. He was in a high fever, and gazed +at us with lustrous eyes. From time to time he stretched his right arm +towards a basin full of water in which a sponge was soaking; he took the +sponge, carried it to his face, and himself moistened his bandages. + +It seemed to me that his gaze fastened upon me in a singular manner. I +went up to him, I stooped down, and I gave him my hand, which he took in +his own. "Do you know me?" I asked him. He answered "Yes," by a pressure +of the hand which went to my heart. + +The last-maker said to me, "Wait a minute for me here, I shall be back +directly; I want to see in this neighborhood, if there is any means of +getting a gun." + +He added,-- + +"Would you like one for yourself?" + +"No," answered I. "I shall remain here without a gun. I only take a half +share in the civil war; I am willing to die, I am not willing to kill." + +I asked him if he thought his friends were going to come. He declared +that he could not understand it, that the men from the societies ought +to have arrived already, that instead of two men in the barricade there +should be twenty, that instead of two barricades in the street there +should have been ten, and that something must have happened; he added,-- + +"However, I will go and see; promise to wait for me here." + +"I promise you," I answered, "I will wait all night if necessary." + +He left me. + +The old woman had reseated herself near the little girl, who did not +seem to understand much of what was passing round her, and who from time +to time raised great calm eyes towards me. Both were poorly clad, and it +seemed to me that the child had stockingless feet. "My man has not yet +come back," said the old woman, "my poor man has not yet come back. I +hope nothing has happened to him!" With many heart-rending "My God's," +and all the while quickly picking her lint, she wept. I could not help +thinking with anguish of the old man we had seen stretched on the +pavement at a few paces distant. + +A newspaper was lying on the table. I took it up, and I unfolded it. It +was the _P----_, the rest of the title had been torn off. A +blood-stained hand was plainly imprinted on it. A wounded man on +entering had probably placed his hand on the table on the spot where the +newspaper lay. My eyes fell upon these lines:-- + +"M. Victor Hugo has just published an appeal to pillage and +assassination." + +In these terms the journal of the Elysée described the proclamation +which I had dictated to Baudin, and which may be read in page 103 of +this History. + +As I threw back the paper on the table one of the two defenders of the +barricade entered. It was the short man. + +"A glass of water," said he. By the side of the medicine bottles there +was a decanter and a glass. He drank, greedily. He held in his hand a +morsel of bread and a sausage, which he was biting. + +Suddenly we heard several successive explosions, following one after +another, and which seemed but a short distance off. In the silence of +this dark night it resembled the sound of a load of wood being shot on +to the pavement. + +The calm and serious voice of the other combatant shouted from outside, +"It is beginning." + +"Have I time to finish my bread?" asked the little one. + +"Yes," said the other. + +The little one then turned to me. + +"Citizen Representative," said he to me, "those are volleys. They are +attacking the barricades over there. Really you must go away." + +I answered him, "But you yourselves are going to stay here." + +"As for us, we are armed," resumed he; "as for you, you are not. You +will only get yourself killed without benefiting any one. If you had a +gun, I should say nothing. But you have not. You must go away." + +"I cannot," I answered him. "I am waiting for some one." + +He wished to continue and to urge me. I pressed his hand. + +"Let me do as I like," said I. + +He understood that my duty was to remain, and no longer persisted. + +There was a pause. He again began to bite his bread. The gurgling of the +dying man alone was audible. At that moment a sort of deep and hollow +booming reached us. The old woman started from her chair, muttering, "It +is the cannon!" + +"No," said the little man, "it is the slamming of a street-door." Then +he resumed, "There now! I have finished my bread," and he dusted one +hand against the other, and went out. + +In the meantime the explosions continued, and seemed to come nearer. A +noise sounded in the shop. It was the last-maker who was coming back. He +appeared on the threshold of the ambulance. He was pale. + +"Here I am," said he, "I have come to fetch you. We must go home. Let us +be off at once." + +I arose from the chair where I had seated myself. "What does this mean? +Will they not come?" + +"No," he answered, "no one will come. All is at an end." + +Then he hastily explained that he had gone through the whole of the +quarter in order to find a gun, that it was labor lost, that he had +spoken to "two or three," that we must abandon all hope of the +societies, _that they would not come down_, that what had been done +during the day had appalled every one, that the best men were terrified, +that the boulevards were "full of corpses," that the soldiers had +committed "horrors," that the barricade was about to be attacked, that +on his arrival he had heard the noise of footsteps in the direction of +the crossway, that it was the soldiers who were advancing, that we could +do nothing further there, that we must be off, that this house was +"stupidly chosen," that there was no outlet in the rear, that perhaps we +should already find it difficult to get out of the street, and that we +had only just time. + +He told this all panting, briefly, jerkily, and interrupted at every +moment with this ejaculation, "And to think that they have no arms, and +to think that I have no gun!" + +As he finished we heard from the barricade a shout of "Attention!" and +almost immediately a shot was fired. + +A violent discharge replied to this shot. + +Several balls struck the paling of the ambulance, but they were too +obliquely aimed, and none pierced it. We heard the glass of several +broken windows falling noisily into the street. + +"There is no longer time," said the last-maker calmly; "the barricade is +attacked." + +He took a chair and sat down. The two workmen were evidently excellent +marksmen. Two volleys assailed the barricade, one after the other. The +barricade answered with animation. Then the fire ceased. There was a +pause. + +"Now they are coming at us with the bayonet! They are coming at the +double!" said a voice in the barricade. + +The other voice said, "Let us be off." A last musket-shot was fired. +Then a violent blow which we interpreted as a warning shook our wooden +wall. It was in reality one of the workmen who had thrown down his gun +when going away; the gun in falling had struck the paling of the +ambulance. We heard the rapid steps of the two combatants, as they ran +off. + +Almost at the same moment a tumult of voices, and of butt ends of +muskets striking the paving-stones, filled the barricade. + +"It is taken," said the last-maker, and he blew out the candle. + +To the silence which enveloped this street a moment before succeeded a +sort of ill-omened tumult. The soldiers knocked at the doors of the +houses with the butt-ends of their muskets. It was by a miracle that the +shop-door escaped them. If they had merely pushed against it, they would +have seen that it was not shut, and would have entered. + +A voice, probably the voice of an officer, cried out, "Light up the +windows!" The soldiers swore. We heard them say, "Where are those +blackguard Reds? Let us search the houses." The ambulance was plunged in +darkness. Not a word was spoken, not a breath could be heard; even the +dying man, as though he divined the danger, had ceased to gurgle. I felt +the little girl pressing herself against my legs. + +A soldier struck the barrels, and said laughingly,-- + +"Here is something to make a fire with to-night." + +Another resumed,-- + +"Which way have they gone? They were at least thirty. Let us search the +houses." + +We heard one raising objections to this,-- + +"Nonsense! What do you want to do on a night like this? Enter the houses +of the 'middle classes' indeed! There is some waste ground over yonder. +They have taken refuge there." + +"All the same," repeated the others, "let us search the houses." + +At this moment a musket-shot was fired from the end of the street. + +This shot saved us. + +In fact, it was probably one of the two workmen who had fired in order +to draw off their attention from us. + +"That comes from over there," cried the soldiers, "They are over there!" +and all starting off at once in the direction from which the shot had +been fired, they left the barricade and ran down the street at the top +of their speed. + +The last-maker and myself got up. + +"They are no longer there," whispered he. "Quick! let us be off." + +"But this poor woman," said I. "Are we going to leave her here?" + +"Oh," she said, "do not be afraid, I have nothing to fear; as for me, I +am an ambulance. I am taking care of the wounded. I shall even relight +my candle when you are gone. What troubles me is that my poor husband +has not yet come back!" + +We crossed the shop on tiptoe. The last-maker gently opened the door and +glanced out into the street. Some inhabitants had obeyed the order to +light up their windows, and four or five lighted candles here and there +flickered in the wind upon the sills of the windows. The street was no +longer completely dark. + +"There is no one about now," said the last-maker; "but let us make +haste, for they will probably come back." + +We went out: the old woman closed the door behind us, and we found +ourselves in the street. We got over the barricade and hurried away as +quickly as possible. We passed by the dead old man. He was still there, +lying on the pavement indistinctly revealed by the flickering glimmer +from the windows; he looked as though he was sleeping. As we reached the +second barricade we heard behind us the soldiers, who were returning. + +We succeeded in regaining the streets in course of demolition. There we +were in safety. The sound of musketry still reached us. The last-maker +said, "They are fighting in the direction of the Rue de Cléry." Leaving +the streets in course of demolition, we went round the markets, not +without risk of falling into the hands of the patrols, by a number of +zigzags, and from one little street to another little street. We reached +the Rue Saint Honoré. + +At the corner of the Rue de l'Arbre Sec the last-maker and I separated, +"For in truth," said he to me, "two run more danger than one." And I +regained No. 19, Rue Richelieu. + +While crossing the rue des Bourdonnais we had noticed the bivouac of the +Place Saint Eustache. The troops who had been dispatched for the attack +had not yet come back. Only a few companies were guarding it. We could +hear shouts of laughter. The soldiers were warming themselves at large +fires lighted here and there. In the fire which was nearest to us we +could distinguish in the middle of the brazier the wheels of the +vehicles which had served for the barricades. Of some there only +remained a great hoop of red-hot iron. + + +[27] We may now, after twenty-six years, give the name of this loyal +and courageous man. His name was Galoy (and not Galloix, as certain +historians of the _coup d'état_ have printed it while recounting, after +their fashion, the incidents which we are about to read). + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE NIGHT.--THE PETIT CARREAU + +On the same night, almost at the same moment, at a few paces distant, a +villainous deed was being perpetrated. + +After the taking of the barricade, where Pierre Tissié was killed, +seventy or eighty combatants had retired in good order by the Rue Saint +Sauveur. They had reached the Rue Montorgueil, and had rejoined each +other at the junction of the Rue du Petit Carreau and the Rue du Cadran. +At this point the street rises. At the corner of the Rue du Petit +Carreau and the Rue de Cléry there was a deserted barricade, fairly high +and well built. There had been fighting there during the morning. The +soldiers had taken it, but had not demolished it. Why? As we have said, +there were several riddles of this nature during this day. + +The armed band which came from the Rue Saint Denis had halted there and +had waited. These men were astonished at not being pursued. Had the +soldiers feared to follow them into the little narrow streets, where +each corner of the houses might conceal an ambuscade? Had a counter +order been given? They hazarded various conjectures. Moreover they heard +close by, evidently on the boulevard, a terrific noise of musketry, and +a cannonade which resembled continuous thunder. Having no more +ammunition, they were reduced to listen. If they had known what was +taking place there, they would have understood why they were not +pursued. The butchery of the boulevard was beginning. The generals +employed in the massacre had suspended fighting for awhile. + +The fugitives of the boulevard streamed in their direction, but when +they perceived the barricade they turned back. Some, however, joined +them indignant, and crying out for vengeance. One who lived in the +neighborhood ran home and brought back a little tin barrel full of +cartridges. + +These were sufficient for an hour's fighting. They began to construct a +barricade at the corner of the Rue du Cadran. In this manner the Rue du +Petit Carreau, closed by two barricades, one towards the Rue de Cléry, +the other at the corner of the Rue du Cadran, commanded the whole of the +Rue Montorgueil. The space between these two barricades formed a perfect +citadel. The second barricade was stronger than the first. + +These men nearly all wore coats. Some of them rolled the paving-stones +with gloves on. + +Few workmen were amongst them, but those who were there were intelligent +and energetic. These workmen were what might be termed the "pick of the +crowd." + +Jeanty Sarre had rejoined them; he at once became their leader. + +Charpentier accompanied him, too brave to abandon the enterprise, but +too much a dreamer to become a commander. + +Two barricades, enclosing in the same manner some forty yards of the Rue +Montorgueil, had just been constructed at the top of the Rue Mauconseil. + +Three other barricades, extremely feebly constructed, again intersected +the Rue Montorgueil in the space which separates the Rue Mauconseil from +Saint Eustache. + +Evening was closing in. The fusillade was ceasing upon the boulevard. A +surprise was possible. They established a sentry-post at the corner of +the Rue du Cadran, and sent a main-guard in the direction of the Rue +Montmartre. Their scouts came in to report some items of information. A +regiment seemed to be preparing to bivouac in the Place des Victoires. + +Their position, to all appearance strong, was not so in reality. There +were too few in number to defend at the same time the two barricades on +the Rue de Cléry and the Rue Montorgueil, and the soldiers arriving in +the rear hidden by the second barricade would have been upon them +without being even noticed. This determined them to establish a post in +the Rue de Cléry. They put themselves in communication with the +barricades of the Rue du Cadran and with the two Mauconseil barricades. +These two last barricades were only separated from them by a space of +about 150 paces. They were about six feet high, fairly solid, but only +guarded by six workmen who had built them. + +Towards half-past four, in the twilight--the twilight begins early in +December--Jeanty Sarre took four men with him and went out to +reconnoitre. He thought also of raising an advanced barricade in one of +the little neighboring streets. On the way they found one which had been +abandoned, and which had been built with barrels. The barrels, however, +were empty, only one contained any paving-stones, and the barricade +could not have been held for two minutes. As they left this barricade +they were assailed by a sharp discharge of musketry. A company of +infantry, hardly visible in the dusk, was close upon them. + +They fell back hastily; but one of them, who was a shoemaker of the +Faubourg du Temple, was hit, and had remained on the pavement. They went +back and brought him away. He had the thumb of the right hand smashed. +"Thank God!" said Jeanty Sarre, "they have not killed him." "No," said +the poor man, "it is my bread which they have killed." + +And he added, "I can no longer work; who will maintain my children?" + +They went back, carrying the wounded man. One of them, a medical +student, bound up his wound. + +The sentries, whom it was necessary to post in every direction, and who +were chosen from the most trustworthy men, thinned and exhausted the +little central land. There were scarcely thirty in the barricade itself. + +There, as in the Quarter of the Temple, all the streetlamps were +extinguished; the gas-pipes cut; the windows closed and unlighted; no +moon, not even stars. The night was profoundly dark. + +They could hear distant fusillades. The soldiers were firing from around +Saint Eustache, and every three minutes sent a ball in their direction, +as much as to say, "We are here." Nevertheless they did not expect an +attack before the morning. + +Dialogues like the following took place amongst them:-- + +"I wish I had a truss of straw," said Charpentier; "I have a notion that +we shall sleep here to-night." + +"Will you be able to get to sleep?" asked Jeanty Sarre. + +"I? Certainly I shall go to sleep." + +He did go to sleep, in fact, a few moments later. + +In this gloomy network of narrow streets, intersected with barricades, +and blockaded by soldiers, two wine-shops had remained open. They made +more lint there, however, than they drank wine; the orders of the chiefs +were only to drink reddened water. + +The doorway of one of these wine-shops opened exactly between the two +barricades of the Petit Cancan. In it was a clock by which they +regulated the sentries' relief. In a back room they had locked up two +suspicious-looking persons who had intermingled with the combatants. One +of these men at the moment when he was arrested said, "I have come to +fight for Henri V." They kept them under lock and key, and placed a +sentry at the door. + +An ambulance had been established in an adjoining room. There the +wounded shoemaker was lying upon a mattress thrown upon the ground. + +They had established, in case of need, another ambulance in the Rue du +Cadran. An opening had been effected at the corner of the barricade on +this side, so that the wounded could be easily carried away. + +Towards half-past nine in the evening a man came up to the barricade. + +Jeanty Sarre recognized him. + +"Good day, Denis," said he. + +"Call me, Gaston," said the man. + +"Why?" + +"Because--" + +"Are you your brother?" + +"Yes, I am my brother. For to-day." + +"Very well. Good-day, Gaston." + +They heartily shook hands. + +It was Denis Dussoubs. + +He was pale, calm, and bleeding; he had already been fighting during the +morning. At the barricade of the Faubourg Saint Martin a ball had grazed +his breast, but had been turned off by some money in his pocket, and had +only broken the skin. He had had the rare good fortune of being +scratched by a ball. It was like the first touch from the claws of +death. He wore a cap, his hat having been left behind in the barricade +where he had fought: and he had replaced his bullet-pierced overcoat, +which was made of Belleisle cloth, by a pea-jacket bought at a +slop-shop. + +How had he reached the barricade of the Petit Carreau? He could not say. +He had walked straight before him. He had glided from street to street. +Chance takes the predestined by the hand, and leads them straight to +their goal through the thick darkness. + +At the moment when he entered the barricade they cried out to him, "Who +goes there?" He answered, "The Republic!" + +They saw Jeanty Sarre shake him by the hand. They asked Jeanty Sarre,-- + +"Who is he?" + +Jeanty Sarre answered,-- + +"It is some one." + +And he added,-- + +"We were only sixty a short time since. We are a hundred now." + +All pressed round the new-comer. Jeanty Sarre offered him the command. + +"No," said he, "I do not understand the tactics of barricade fighting. I +should be a bad chief, but I am a good soldier. Give me a gun." + +They seated themselves on the paving-stones. They exchanged their +experiences of what had been done. Denis described to them the fighting +on the Faubourg Saint Martin. Jeanty Sarre told Denis of the fighting in +the Rue Saint Denis. + +During all this time the generals were preparing a final assault,--what +the Marquis of Clermont-Tonnerre, in 1822, called the "Coup de Collier," +and what, in 1789, the Prince of Lambese had called the "Coup de Bas." +Throughout all Paris there was now only this point which offered any +resistance. This knot of barricade, this labyrinth of streets, embattled +like a redoubt, was the last citadel of the People and of Right. The +generals invested it leisurely, step by step, and on all sides. They +concentrated their forces. They, the combatants of this fateful hour, +knew nothing of what was being done. Only from time to time they +interrupted their recital of events and they listened. From the right +and from the left, from the front, from the rear, from every side, at +the same time, an unmistakable murmur, growing every moment louder, and +more distinct, hoarse, piercing, fear-inspiring, reached them through +the darkness. It was the sound of the battalions marching and charging +at the trumpet-command in all the adjoining streets. They resumed their +gallant conversation, and then in another moment they stopped again and +listened to that species of ill-omened chant, chanted by Death, which +was approaching. + +Nevertheless some still thought that they would not be attacked till the +next morning. Night combats are rare in street-warfare. They are more +"risky" than all the other conflicts. Few generals venture upon them. +But amongst the old hands of the barricade, from certain never-failing +signs, they believed that an assault was imminent. + +In fact, at half-past ten at night, and not at eight o'clock as General +Magnan has said in the despicable document which he calls his report--a +special movement was heard in the direction of the markets. This was the +marching of the troops. Colonel de Lourmel had determined to make the +attack. The 51st of the Line, posted at Saint Eustache, entered the Rue +Montorgueil. The 2d battalion formed the advanced guard. The Grenadiers +and the Light Infantry, hurled forward at the double, quickly carried +the three little barricades which were on the other side of the vacant +space of the Rue Mauconseil, and the feebly defended barricades of the +adjoining streets. It was at that very moment that the barricade near +which I was happened to be carried. + +From the barricade of the Petit Carreau they heard the night-strife draw +near through the darkness, with a fitful noise, strange and appalling. +First a great tumult, then volleys, then silence, and then all began +again. The flashing of the fusillades suddenly delineated in the darkness +the outlines of the houses, which appeared as though they themselves +were affrighted. + +The decisive moment drew near. + +The outpost had fallen back upon the barricades. The advanced posts of +the Rue de Cléry and the Rue du Cadran had come back. They called over +the roll. Not one of those of the morning was missing. + +They were, as we have said, about sixty combatants, and not a hundred, +as the Magnan report has stated. + +From the upper extremity of the street where they were stationed it was +difficult to ascertain what was happening. They did not exactly know how +many barricades they were in the Rue Montorgueil between them and Saint +Eustache, whence the troops were coming. They only knew that their +nearest point of resistance was the double Mauconseil barricade, and +that, when all was at an end there, it would be their turn. + +Denis had posted himself on the inner side of the barricade in such a +manner that half his body was above the top, and from there he watched. +The glimmer which came from the doorway of the wine-shop rendered his +gestures visible. + +Suddenly he made a sign. The attack on the Mauconseil redoubt was +beginning. + +The soldiers, in fact, after having some time hesitated before this +double wall of paving-stones, lofty, well-built, and which they supposed +was well defended, had ended by rushing upon it, and attacking it with +blows of their guns. + +They were not mistaken. It was well defended. We have already said that +there were only six men in this barricade, the six workmen who had built +it. Of the six one only had three cartridges, the others had only two +shots to fire. These six men heard the regiment advancing and the roll +of the battery which was followed on it, and did not stir. Each remained +silent at his post of battle, the barrel of his gun between two +paving-stones. When the soldiers were within range they fired, and the +battalion replied. + +"That is right. Rage away, Red Breeches," said, laughingly, the man who +had three shots to fire. + +Behind them, the men of the Petit Carreau were crowded round Denis and +Jeanty Sarre, and leaning on the crest of their barricade, stretching +their necks towards the Mauconseil redoubt, they watched them like the +gladiators of the next combat. + +The six men of this Mauconseil redoubt resisted the onslaught of the +battalion for nearly a quarter of an hour. They did not fire together, +"in order," one of them said, "to make the pleasure last the longer." +The pleasure of being killed for duty; a noble sentence in this +workman's mouth. They did not fall back into the adjoining streets until +after having exhausted their ammunition. The last, he who had three +cartridges, did not leave until the soldiers were actually scaling the +summit of the barricade. + +In the barricade of the Petit Carreau not a word was spoken; they +followed all the phases of this struggle, and they pressed each other's +hands. + +Suddenly the noise ceased, the last musket-shot was fired. A moment +afterwards they saw the lighted candles being placed in all the windows +which looked on on the Mauconseil redoubt. The bayonets and the brass +ornaments on the shakos sparkled there. The barricade was taken. + +The commander of the battalion, as is always the custom in similar +circumstances, had sent orders into the adjoining houses to light up all +the windows. + +This was done at the Mauconseil redoubt. + +Seeing that their hour had come, the sixty combatants of the barricade +of the Petit Carreau mounted their heap of paving-stones, and shouted +with one voice, in the midst of the darkness, this piercing cry, "Long +live the Republic!" + +No one answered them. + +They could only hear the battalion loading their guns. + +This acted upon them as a species of signal for action. They were all +worn out with fatigue, having been on their feet since the preceding +day, carrying paving-stones or fighting, the greater part had neither +eaten nor slept. + +Charpentier said to Jeanty Sarre,-- + +"We shall all be killed." + +"Shall we really!" said Jeanty Sarre. + +Jeanty Sarre ordered the door of the wine-shop to be closed, so that +their barricade, completely shrouded in darkness, would give them some +advantage over the barricade which was occupied by the soldiers and +lighted up. + +In the meantime the 51st searched the streets, carried the wounded into +the ambulances, and took up their position in the double barricade of +the Rue Mauconseil. Half an hour thus elapsed. + +Now, in order to clearly understand what is about to follow, the reader +must picture to himself in this silent street, in this darkness of the +night, at from sixty to eighty yards apart, within speaking distance, +these two redoubts facing each other, and able as in an Iliad to address +each other. + +On one side the Army, on the other side the People, the darkness over +all. + +The species of truce which always precedes decisive encounters drew to a +close. The preparations were completed on both sides. The soldiers could +be heard forming into order of battle, and the captains giving out their +commands. It was evident that the struggle was at hand. + +"Let us begin," said Charpentier; and he raised his gun. + +Denis held his arm back. "Wait," he said. + +Then an epic incident was seen. + +Denis slowly mounted the paving-stones of the barricade, ascended to the +top, and stood there erect, unarmed and bareheaded. + +Thence he raised his voice, and, facing the soldiers, he shouted to +them, "Citizens!" + +At this word a sort of electric shudder ensued which was felt from one +barricade to the other. Every sound was hushed, every voice was silent, +on both sides reigned a deep religious and solemn silence. By the +distant glimmer of a few lighted windows the soldiers could vaguely +distinguish a man standing above a mass of shadows, like a phantom who +was speaking to them in the night. + +Denis continued,-- + +"Citizens of the Army! Listen to me!" + +The silence grew still more profound. + +He resumed,-- + +"What have you come to do here? You and ourselves, all of us who are in +this street, at this hour, with the sword or gun in hand, what are we +about to do? To kill each other! To kill each other, citizens! Why? +Because they have raised a misunderstanding between us! Because we +obey--you your discipline--we our Right! You believe that you are +carrying out your instructions; as for us, we know that we are doing our +duty. Yes! it is Universal Suffrage, it is the Right of the Republic, it +is our Right that we are defending, and our Right, soldiers, is your +Right. The Army is the People, as the People is the Army. We are the +same nation, the some country, the same men. My God! See, is there any +Russian blood in my veins, in me who am speaking to you? Is there any +Prussian blood in your veins, in you who are listening to me? No! Why +then should we fight? It is always an unfortunate thing for a man to +fire upon a man. Nevertheless, a gun-shot between a Frenchman and an +Englishman can be understood; but between a Frenchman and a Frenchman, +ah! that wounds Reason, that wounds France, that wounds our mother!" + +All anxiously listened to him. At this moment from the opposite +barricade a voice shouted to him,-- + +"Go home, then!" + +At this coarse interruption an angry murmur ran through Denis's +companions, and several guns could be heard being loaded. Denis +restrained them by a sign. + +This sign possessed a strange authority. + +"Who is this man?" the combatants behind the barricade asked each other. +Suddenly they cried out,-- + +"He is a Representative of the People!" + +Denis had, in fact, suddenly assumed his brother Gaston's sash. + +What he had premeditated was about to be accomplished; the hour of the +heroic falsehood had arrived. He cried out,-- + +"Soldiers, do you know what the man is who is speaking to you at this +moment? He is not only a citizen, he is a Legislator! He is a +Representative chosen by Universal Suffrage! My name is Dussoubs, and I +am a Representative of the People. It is in the name of the National +Assembly, it is in the name of the Sovereign Assembly, it is in the name +of the People, and in the name of the Law, that I summon you to hear me. +Soldiers, you are the armed force. Well, then, when the Law speaks, the +armed force listens." + +This time the silence was not broken. + +We reproduce these words almost literally; such as they are, and such as +they have remained graven on the memory of those who heard them; but +what we cannot reproduce, and what should be added to these words, in +order to realize the effect, is the attitude, the accent, the thrill of +emotion, the vibration of the words issuing from this noble breast, the +intense impression produced by the terrible hour and place. + +Denis Dussoubs continued: "He spoke for some twenty minutes," an +eye-witness has told me. Another has said, "He spoke with a loud voice; +the whole street heard him." He was vehement, eloquent, earnest; a judge +for Bonaparte, a friend for the soldiers. He sought to rouse them by +everything which could still vibrate in them; he recalled to them their +true wars, their true victories, the national glory, the ancient +military honor, the flag. He told them that all this was about to be +slain by the bullets from their guns. He adjured them, he ordered them +to join themselves to the People and to the Law; and then suddenly +coming back to the first words which he had pronounced, carried away by +that fraternity with which his soul overflowed, he interrupted himself +in the middle of a half-completed sentence, and cried out:-- + +"But to what purpose are all these words? It is not all this that is +wanted, it is a shake of the hand between brothers! Soldiers, you are +there opposite us, at a hundred paces from us, in a barricade, with the +sword drawn, with guns pointed; you are aiming directly at me; well +then, all of us who are here love you! There is not one of us who would +not give his life for one of you. You are the peasants of the fields of +France; we are the workmen of Paris. What, then, is in question? Simply +to see each other, to speak to each other, and not to cut each other's +throats. Shall we try this? Say! Ah! as for myself in this frightful +battle-field of civil war, I would rather die than kill. Look now, I am +going to get off this barricade and come to you. I am unarmed; I only +know that you are my brothers. I am confident, I am calm; and if one of +you presents his bayonet at me, I will offer him my hand." + +He finished speaking. + +A voice cried out from the opposite barricade, "Advance in order!" + +Then they saw him slowly descend the dimly-lighted crest of the +barricade, paving-stone by paving-stone, and plunge with head erect into +the dark street. + +From the barricade all eyes followed him with an inexpressible anxiety. +Hearts ceased beating, mouths no longer breathed. + +No one attempted to restrain Denis Dussoubs. Each felt that he was going +where he ought to go. Charpentier wished to accompany him. "Would you +like me to go with you?" he cried out to him. Dussoubs refused, with a +shake of the head. + +Dussoubs, alone and grave, advanced towards the Mauconseil Barricade. +The night was so dark that they lost sight of him immediately. They +could distinguish only for a few seconds his peaceable and intrepid +bearing. Then he disappeared. They could no longer see anything. It was +an inauspicious moment. The night was dark and dumb. There could only be +heard in this thick darkness the sound of a measured and firm step dying +away in the distance. + +After some time, how long no one could reckon, so completely did emotion +eclipse thought amongst the witnesses of this marvellous scene, a +glimmer of light appeared in the barricade of the soldiers; it was +probably a lantern which was being brought or taken away. By the flash +they again saw Dussoubs, he was close to the barricade, he had almost +reached it, he was walking towards it with his arms stretched out like +Christ. + +Suddenly the word of command, "Fire!" was heard. + +A fusillade burst forth. + +They had fired upon Dussoubs when he was at the muzzles of their guns. + +Dussoubs fell. + +Then he raised himself and cried, "Long live the Republic!" + +Another bullet struck him, he fell again. Then they saw him raise +himself once more, and heard him shout in a loud voice, "I die with the +Republic." + +These were his last words. + +In this manner died Denis Dussoubs. + +It was not vainly that he had said to his brother, "Your sash will be +there." + +He was anxious that this sash should do its duty. He determined in the +depths of his great soul that this sash should triumph either through +the law or through death. + +That is to say, in the first case it would save Right, in the second +save Honor. + +Dying, he could say, "I have succeeded." + +Of the two possible triumphs of which he had dreamed, the gloomy triumph +was not the less splendid. + +The insurgent of the Elysée thought that he had killed a Representative +of the People, and boasted of it. The sole journal published by the +_coup d'état_ under these different titles _Patrie_, _Univers_, +_Moniteur_, _Parisien_, etc., announced on the next day, Friday, the +5th, "that the ex-Representative Dussoubs (Gaston) had been killed at +the barricade of the Rue Neuve Saint Eustache, and that he bore 'a red +flag in his hand.'" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +WHAT WAS DONE DURING THE NIGHT--THE PASSAGE DU SAUMON + +When those on the barricade of the Petit Carreau saw Dussoubs fall, so +gloriously for his friends, so shamefully for his murderers, a moment of +stupor ensued. Was it possible? Did they really see this before them? +Such a crime committed by our soldiers? Horror filled every soul. + +This moment of surprise did not last long. "Long live the Republic!" +shouted the barricade with one voice, and it replied to the ambuscade by +a formidable fire. + +The conflict began. A mad conflict on the part of the _coup d'état_, a +struggle of despair on the side of the Republic. On the side of the +soldiers an appalling and cold blooded resolution, a passive and +ferocious obedience, numbers, good arms, absolute chiefs, pouches filled +with cartridges. On the side of the People no ammunition, disorder, +weariness, exhaustion, no discipline, indignation serving for a leader. + +It appears that while Dussoubs was speaking, fifteen grenadiers, +commanded by a sergeant named Pitrois, had succeeded in gliding in the +darkness along the houses, and, unperceived and unheard, had taken up +their position close to the barricade. These fifteen men suddenly formed +themselves together with lowered bayonets at twenty paces from the +barricade ready to scale it. A volley received them. They fell back, +leaving several corpses in the gutter. Major Jeannin cried out, "Finish +them off." The entire battalion which occupied the Mauconseil barricade, +then appeared with raised bayonets upon the uneven crest of this +barricade, and from there without breaking their line, with a sudden, +but regulated and inexorable movement, sprang into the street. The four +companies, in close order, and as though mingled and hardly visible, +seemed like a wave precipitating itself with a great noise from the +height of the barricade. + +At the barricade of the Petit Carreau they noted the manoeuvre, and had +paused in their fire. "Present," cried Jeanty Sarre, "but do not fire; +wait for the order." + +Each put his gun to his shoulder, then placed the barrels between the +paving-stones, ready to fire, and waited. + +As soon as it had quitted the Mauconseil redoubt, the battalion rapidly +formed itself into an attacking column, and a moment afterwards they +heard the intermittent sound of an advance at the double. It was the +battalion which was coming upon them. + +"Charpentier," said Jeanty Sarre, "you have good eyes. Are they midway?" + +"Yes," said Charpentier. + +"Fire," said Jeanty Sarre. + +The barricade fired. The whole street was filled with smoke. Several +soldiers fell. They could hear the cries of the wounded. The battalion, +riddled with balls, halted and replied by platoon firing. + +Seven or eight combatants whose bodies reached above the barricade, +which had been made hastily and was too low were hit. Three were killed +on the spot. One fell wounded by a ball in his stomach, between Jeanty +Sarre and Charpentier. He shrieked out with pain. + +"Quick, to the ambulance:" said Jeanty Sarre. + +"Where?" + +"In the Rue du Cadran." + +Jeanty Sarre and Charpentier picked up the wounded man, the one by the +feet, the other by the head, and carried him to the du Cadran +through the passage in the barricade. + +During all this time there was continued file firing. There no longer +seemed anything in the street but smoke, the balls whistling and +crossing each other, the brief and repeated commands, some plaintive +cries, and the flash of the guns lighting up the darkness. + +Suddenly a loud void died out, "Forwards!" The battalion resumed its +double-quick march and threw itself upon the barricade. + +Then ensued a horrible scene. They fought hand to hand, four hundred on +the one side, fifty on the other. They seized each other by the collar, +by the throat, by the mouth, by the hair. There was no longer a +cartridge in the barricade, but there remained despair. A workman, +pierced through and through, snatched the bayonet from his belly, and +stabbed a soldier with it. They did not see each other, but they +devoured each other. It was a desperate scuffle in the dark. + +The barricade did not hold out for two minutes. In several places, it +may be remembered, it was low. It was rather stridden over than scaled. +That was all the more heroic. One of the survivors[28] told the writer +of these lines, "The barricade defended itself very badly, but the men +died very well." + +All this took place while Jeanty Sarre and Charpentier were carrying the +wounded man to the ambulance in the Rue du Cadran. His wounds having +been attended to, they came back to the barricade. They had just reached +it when they heard themselves called by name. A feeble voice close by +said to them, "Jeanty Sarre! Charpentier!" They turned round and saw one +of their men who was dying leaning against a wall, and his knees giving +way beneath him. He was a combatant who had left the barricade. He had +only been able to take a few steps down the street. He held his hand +over his breast, where he had received a ball fired at close quarters. +He said to them in a scarcely audible voice, "The barricade is taken, +save yourselves." + +"No," said Jeanty Sarre, "I must unload my gun." Jeanty Sarre re-entered +the barricade, fired a last shot and went away. + +Nothing could be more frightful than the interior of the captured +barricade. + +The Republicans, overpowered by numbers, no longer offered any +resistance. The officers cried out, "No prisoners!" The soldiers billed +those who were standing, and despatched those who had fallen. Many +awaited their death with their heads erect. The dying raised themselves +up, and shouted, "Long live the Republic!" Some soldiers ground their +heels upon the faces of the dead, so that they should not be recognized. +There, stretched out amongst the corpses, in the middle of the +barricade, with his hair in the gutter, was seen the all-but namesake of +Charpentier, Carpentier, the delegate of the committee of the Tenth +Arrondissement, who had been killed, and had fallen backwards, with two +balls in his breast. A lighted candle which the soldiers had taken from +the wine-shop was placed on a paving stone. + +The soldiers were infuriated. One would say that they were revenging +themselves. On whom? A workman, named Paturel, received three balls and +six bayonet-thrusts, four of which were in the head. They thought that +he was dead, and they did not renew the attack. He felt them search him. +They took ten francs which he had about him. He did not die till six +days later, and he was able to relate the details which are given here. +We may note, by the way, that the name of Paturel does not figure upon +any of the lists of the corpses published by M. Bonaparte. + +Sixty Republicans were shut up in this redoubt of the Petit Carreau. +Forty-six were killed there. These men had come there that morning free, +proud to fight, and joyous to die. At midnight all was at an end. The +night wagons carried away on the next day nine corpses to the hospital +cemetery, and thirty-seven to Montmartre. + +Jeanty Sarre escaped by a miracle, as well as Charpentier, and a third +whose name we have not been able to ascertain. They glided along the +houses and reached the Passage du Saumon. The grated doors which closed +the Passage during the night only reached to the centre of the archway. +They climbed it and got over the spikes, at the risk of tearing +themselves. Jeanty Sarre was the first to climb it; having reached the +summit, one of the spikes pierced his trousers, hooked them, and Jeanty +Sarre fell headforemost upon the pavement. He got up again, he was only +stunned. The other two followed him, and gliding along the bars, all +three found themselves in the Passage. It was dimly lighted by a lamp +which shone at one end. In the meanwhile, they heard the soldiers, who +were pursuing them, coming up. In order to escape by the Rue Montmartre, +they would have to climb the grated gateway at the other end of the +Passage; their hands were grazed, their knees were bleeding; they were +dying of weariness; they were in no condition to recommence a similar +ascent. + +Jeanty Sarre knew where the keeper of the Passage lived. He knocked at +his window, and begged him to open. The keeper refused. + +At this moment the detachment which had been sent in pursuit of them +reached the grated gateway which they had just climbed. The soldiers, +hearing a noise in the Passage, passed the barrels of their guns through +the bars. Jeanty Sarre squeezed himself against the wall behind one of +those projecting columns which decorate the Passage; but the column was +very thin, and only half covered him. The soldiers fired, and smoke +filled the Passage. When it cleared away, Jeanty Sarre saw Charpentier +stretched on the stones, with his face to the ground. He had been shot +through the heart. Their other companion lay a few paces from him, +mortally wounded. + +The soldiers did not scale the grated gateway, but they posted a +sentinel before it. Jeanty Sarre heard them going away by the Rue +Montmartre. They would doubtless come back. + +No means of flight. He felt all the doors round his prison successively. +One of them at length opened. This appeared to him like a miracle. +Whoever could have forgotten to shut the door? Providence, doubtless. He +hid himself behind it, and remained there for more than an hour, +standing motionless, scarcely breathing. He no longer heard any sound; +he ventured out. The sentinel was no longer there. The detachment had +rejoined the battalion. + +One of his old friends, a man to whom he had rendered services such as +are not forgotten, lived in this very Passage du Saumon. Jeanty Sarre +looked for the number, woke the porter, told him the name of his friend, +was admitted, went up the stairs, and knocked at the door. The door was +opened, his friend appeared in his nightshirt, with a candle in his +hand. + +He recognized Jeanty Sarre, and cried out, "You here! What a state you +are in! Where hove you come from? From what riot? from what madness? And +then you come to compromise us all here? To have us murdered? To have us +shot? Now then, what do you want with me?" + +"I want you to give me a brush down," said Jeanty Sarre. + +His friend took a brush and brushed him, and Jeanty Sarre went away. +While going down the stairs, Jeanty Sarre cried out to his friend, +"Thanks!" + +Such is the kind of hospitality which we have since received in Belgium, +in Switzerland, and even in England. + +The next day, when they took up the bodies they found on Charpentier a +note-book and a pencil, and upon Denis Dussoubs a letter. A letter to a +woman. Even these stoic souls love. + +On the 1st of December, Denis Dussoubs began this letter. He did not +finish it. Here it is:-- + + "MY DEAR MARIE, + + "Have you experienced that sweet pain of feeling regret for him who + regrets you? For myself since I left you I have known no other + affliction than that of thinking of you. Even in my affliction itself + there was something sweet and tender, and although I was troubled, I + was nevertheless happy to feel in the depths of my heart how greatly + I loved you by the regret which you cost me. Why are we separated? + Why have I been forced to fly from you? For we were so happy! When I + think of our little evenings so free from constraint, of our gay + country chats with your sisters, I feel myself seized with a bitter + regret. Did we not love each other clearly, my darling? We had no + secret from each other because we had no need to have one, and our + lips uttered the thoughts of our hearts without our thinking to keep + anything back. + + "God has snatched away from us all these blessings, and nothing will + console me for having lost them; do you not lament with me the evils + of absence? + + "How seldom we see those whom we love! Circumstances take us far from + them, and our soul tormented and attracted out of ourselves lives in + a perpetual anguish. I feel this sickness of absence. I imagine + myself wherever you are. I follow your work with my eyes, or I listen + to your words, seated beside you and seeking to divine the word which + you are about to utter; your sisters sew by our side. Empty + dreams--illusions of a moment--my hand seeks yours; where are you, my + beloved one? + + "My life is an exile. Far from those whom I love and by whom I am + loved, my heart calls them and consumes away in its grief. No, I do + not love the great cities and their noise, towns peopled with + strangers where no one knows you and where you know no one, where + each one jostles and elbows the other without ever exchanging a + smile. But I love our quiet fields, the peace of home, and the voice + of friends who greet you. Up to the present I have always lived in + contradiction with my nature; my fiery blood, my nature so hostile to + injustice, the spectacle of unmerited miseries have thrown me into a + struggle of which I do not foresee the issue, a struggle in which + will remain to the end without fear and without reproach, that which + daily breaks me down and consumes my life. + + "I tell you, my much-loved darling, the secret miseries of my heart; + no, I do not blush for what my hand has just written, but my heart is + sick and suffering, and I tell it to you. I suffer... I wish to blot + out these lines, but why? Could they offend you? What do they contain + that could wound my darling? Do I not know your affection, and do I + not know that you love me? Yes, you have not deceived me, I did not + kiss a lying mouth; when seated on my knees you lulled me with the + charm of your words, I believed you. I wished to bind myself to a + burning iron bar; weariness preys upon me and devours me. I feel a + maddening desire to recover life. Is it Paris that produces this + effect upon me? I always yearn to be in places where I am not. I live + here to a complete solitude. I believe you, Marie...." + +Charpentier's note-book only contained this line, which he had written +in the darkness at the foot of the barricade while Denis Dussoubs was +speaking:-- + + Admonet et magna testatur voce per umbras. + + +[28] February 18. Louvain. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +OTHER DEEDS OF DARKNESS + +Yvan had again seen Conneau. He corroborated the information given in +the letter of Alexandre Dumas to Bocage; with the fact we had the names. +On the 3d of December at M. Abbatucci's house, 31, Rue Caumartin, in the +presence of Dr. Conneau and of Piétri, a Corsican, born at Vezzani, +named Jacques François Criscelli,[29] a man attached to the secret and +personal service of Louis Bonaparte, had received from Piétri's own +mouth the offer of 25,000 francs "to take or kill Victor Hugo." He had +accepted, and said, "That is all very well if I am alone. But suppose +there are two of us?" + +Piétri had answered,-- + +"Then there will be 50,000 francs." + +This communication, accompanied by urgent prayers, had been made to me +by Yvan in the Rue de Monthabor, while we were still at Dupont White's. + +This said, I continue my story. + +The massacre of the 4th did not produce the whole of its effect until +the next day, the 5th. The impulse given by us to the resistance still +lasted for some hours, and at nightfall, in the labyrinth of houses +ranging from the Rue du Petit Carreau to the Rue du Temple, there was +fighting. The Pagevin, Neuve Saint Eustache, Montorgueil, Rambuteau, +Beaubourg, and Transnonain barricades were gallantly defended. There, +there was an impenetrable network of streets and crossways barricaded by +the People, surrounded by the Army. + +The assault was merciless and furious. + +The barricade of the Rue Montorgueil was one of those which held out the +longest. A battalion and artillery was needed to carry it. At the last +moment it was only defended by three men, two shop-clerks and a +lemonade-seller of an adjoining street. When the assault began the night +was densely dark, and the three combatants escaped. But they were +surrounded. No outlets. Not one door was open. They climbed the grated +gateway of the Passage Verdeau as Jeanty Sarre and Charpentier had +scaled the Passage du Saumon, had jumped over, and had fled down the +Passage. But the other grated gateway was closed, and like Jeanty Sarre +and Charpentier they had no time to climb it. Besides, they heard the +soldiers corning on both sides. In a corner at the entrance of the +Passage there were a few planks which had served to close a stall, and +which the stall-keeper was in the habit of putting there. They hid +themselves beneath these planks. + +The soldiers who had taken the barricade, after having searched the +streets, bethought themselves of searching the Passage. They also +climbed over the grated gateway, looked about everywhere with lanterns, +and found nothing They were going away, when one of them perceived the +foot of one of these three unfortunate men which was projecting from +beneath the planks. + +They killed all three of them on the spot with bayonet-thrusts. They +cried out, "Kill us at once! Shoot us! Do not prolong our misery." + +The neighboring shop-keepers heard these cries, but dared not open their +doors or their windows, for fear, as one of them said the next day, +"that they should do the same to them." + +The execution at an end, the executioners left the three victims lying +in a pool of blood on the pavement of the Passage. One of those +unfortunate men did not die until eight o'clock next morning. + +No one had dared to ask for mercy; no one had dared to bring any help. +They left them to die there. + +One of the combatants of the Rue Beaubourg was more fortunate. They were +pursuing him. He rushed up a staircase, reached a roof, and from there a +passage, which proved to be the top corridor of an hotel. A key was in +the door. He opened it boldly, and found himself face to face with a man +who was going to bed. It was a tired-out traveller who had arrived at +the hotel that very evening. The fugitive said to the traveller, "I am +lost, save me!" and explained him the situation in three words. + +The traveller said to him, "Undress yourself, and get into my bed." And +then he lit a cigar, and began quietly to smoke. Just as the man of the +barricade had got into bed a knock came at the door. It was the solders +who were searching the house. To the questions which they asked him the +traveller answered, pointing to the bed, "We are only two here. We have +just arrived here. I am smoking my cigar, and my brother is asleep." The +waiter was questioned, and confirmed the traveller's statement. The +soldiers went away, and no one was shot. + +We will say this, that the victorious soldiers killed less than on the +preceding day. They did not massacre in all the captured barricades. The +order had been given on that day to make prisoners. It might also be +believed that a certain humanity existed. What was this humanity? We +shall see. + +At eleven o'clock at night all was at an end. + +They arrested all those whom they found in the streets which had been +surrounded, whether combatants or not, they had all the wine-shops and +the _cafés_ opened, they closely searched the houses, they seized all +the men whom they could find, only leaving the women and the children. +Two regiments formed in a square carried away all these prisoners +huddled together. They took them to the Tuileries, and shut them up in +the vast cellar situated beneath the terrace at the waterside. + +On entering this cellar the prisoners felt reassured. They called to +mind that in June, 1848, a great number of insurgents had been shut up +there, and later on had been transported. They said to themselves that +doubtless they also would be transported, or brought before the Councils +of War, and that they had plenty of time before them. + +They were thirsty. Many of them had been fighting since that morning, +and nothing parches tire mouth so much as biting cartridges. They asked +for drink. Three pitchers of water were brought to them. + +A sort of security suddenly fell upon them. Amongst them were several +who had been transported in June, 1848, and who had already been in that +cellar, and who said, "In June they were not so humane. They left us for +three days without food or drink." Some of them wrapped themselves up in +their overcoats or cloaks, lay down, and slept. At one o'clock in the +morning a great noise was heard outside. Soldiers, carrying torches, +appeared in the cellars, the prisoners who were sleeping woke with a +start, an officer ordered them to get up. + +They made them go out anyhow as they had come in. As they went out they +coupled them two by two at random, and a sergeant counted them in a loud +voice. They asked neither their names, nor their professions, nor their +families, nor who they were, nor whence they came; they contented +themselves with the numbers. The numbers sufficed for what they were +about to do. + +In this manner they counted 337. The counting having come to an end, +they ranged them in close columns, still two by two and arm-in-arm. They +were not tied together, but on each side of the column, on the right and +on the left, there were three files of soldiers keeping them within +their ranks, with guns loaded; a battalion was at their head, a +battalion in their rear. They began to march, pressed together and +enclosed in this moving frame of bayonets. + +At the moment when the column set forward, a young law-student, a fair +pale Alsatian, of some twenty years, who was in their ranks, asked a +captain, who was marching by him with his sword drawn,-- + +"Where are we going?" + +The officer made no reply. + +Having left the Tuileries, they turned to the right, and followed the +quay as far as the Pont de la Concorde. They crossed the Pont de la +Concorde, and again turned to the right. In this manner they passed +before the esplanade of the Invalides, and reached the lonely quay of +Gros-Caillou. + +As we have just said, they numbered 337, and as they walked two by two, +there was one, the last, who walked alone. He was one of the most daring +combatants of the Rue Pagevin, a friend of Lecomte the younger. By +chance the sergeant, who was posted in the inner file by his side, was a +native of the same province. On passing under a street-lamp they +recognized each other. They exchanged quickly a few words in a whisper. + +"Where are we going?" asked the prisoner. + +"To the military school," answered the sergeant. And he added, "Ah! my +poor lad!" + +And then he kept at a distance from the prisoner. + +As this was the end of the column, there was a certain space between the +last rank of the soldiers who formed the line, and the first rank of the +company which closed the procession. + +As they reached the lonely boulevard of Gros-Caillon, of which we have +just spoken, the sergeant drew near to the prisoner, and said to him in +a rapid and low tone,-- + +"One can hardly see here. It is a dark spot. On the left there are +trees. Be off!" + +"But," said the prisoner, "they will fire at me." + +"They will miss you." + +"But suppose they kill me?" + +"It will be no worse than what awaits you." + +The prisoner understood, shook the sergeant's hand, and taking advantage +of the space between the line of soldiers and rear-ground, rushed with a +single bound outside the column, and disappeared in the darkness beneath +the trees. + +"A man is escaping!" cried out the officer who commanded the last +company. "Halt! Fire!" + +The column halted. The rear-guard company fired at random in the +direction taken by the fugitive, and, as the sergeant had foreseen, +missed him. In a few moments the fugitive had reached the streets +adjoining the tobacco manufactory, and had plunged into them. They did +not pursue him. They had more pressing work on hand. + +Besides, confusion might have arisen in their ranks, and to recapture +one they risked letting the 336 escape. + +The column continued its march. Having reached the Pont d'Iéna, they +turned to the left, and entered into the Champ de Mars. + +There they shot them all. + +These 336 corpses were amongst those which were carried to Montmartre +Cemetery, and which were buried there with their heads exposed. + +In this manner their families were enabled to recognize them. The +Government learned who they were after killing them. + +Amongst these 336 victims were a large number of the combatants of the +Rue Pagevin and the Rue Rambuteau, of the Rue Neuve Saint Eustache and +the Porte Saint Denis. There were also 100 passers-by, whom they had +arrested because they happened to be there, and without any particular +reason. + +Besides, we will at once mention that the wholesale executions from the +3d inst. were renewed nearly every night. Sometimes at the Champ de +Mars, sometimes at the Prefecture of Police, sometimes at both places at +once. + +When the prisons were full, M. de Maupas said "Shoot!" The fusillades at +the Prefecture took place sometimes in the courtyard, sometimes in the +Rue de Jérusalem. The unfortunate people whom they shot were placed +against the wall which bears the theatrical notices. They had chosen +this spot because it is close by the sewer-grating of the gutter, so +that the blood would run down at once, and would leave fewer traces. On +Friday, the 5th, they shot near this gutter of the Rue de Jérusalem 150 +prisoners. Some one[30] said to me, "On the next day I passed by there, +they showed the spot; I dug between the paving-stones with the toe of my +boot, and I stirred up the mud. I found blood." + +This expression forms the whole history of the _coup d'état_, and will +form the whole history of Louis Bonaparte. Stir up this mud, you will +find blood. + +Let this then be known to History:-- + +The massacre of the boulevard had this infamous continuation, the secret +executions. The _coup d'état_ after having been ferocious became +mysterious. It passed from impudent murder in broad day to hidden murder +at night. + +Evidence abounds. + +Esquiros, hidden in the Gros-Caillou, heard the fusillades on the Champ +de Mars every night. + +At Mazas, Chambolle, on the second night of his incarceration, heard +from midnight till five o'clock in the morning, such volleys that he +thought the prison was attacked. + +Like Montferrier, Desmoulins bore evidence to blood between the +paving-stones of the Rue de Jérusalem. + +Lieutenant-Colonel Cailland, of the ex-Republican Guard, is crossing the +Pont Neuf; he sees some _sergents de ville_ with muskets to their +shoulders, aiming at the passers-by; he says to them, "You dishonor the +uniform." They arrest him. They search him. A _sergent de ville_ says to +him, "If we find a cartridge upon you, we shall shoot you." They find +nothing. They take him to the Prefecture of Police, they shut him up in +the station-house. The director of the station-house comes and says to +him, "Colonel, I know you well. Do not complain of being here. You are +confided to my care. Congratulate yourself on it. Look here, I am one of +the family, I go and I come, I see, I listen; I know what is going on; I +know what is said; I divine what is not said. I hear certain noises +during the night; I see contain traces in the morning. As for myself I +am not a bad fellow. I am taking care of you. I am keeping you out of +the way. At the present moment be contented to remain with me. If you +were not here you would be underground." + +An ex-magistrate, General Leflô's brother-in-law, is conversing on the +Pont de la Concorde with some officers before the steps of the Chamber; +some policemen come up to him: "You are tampering with the army." He +protests, they throw him into a vehicle, and they take him to the +Prefecture of Police. As he arrives there he sees a young man, in a +blouse and a cap, passing on the quay, who is being shoved along by +three municipal guards with the butt-ends of their muskets. At an +opening of the parapet, a guard shouts to him, "Go in there." The man +goes in. Two guards shoot him in the back. He falls. The third guard +despatches him with a shot in his ear. + +On the 13th the massacres were not yet at an end. On the morning of that +day, in the dim light of the dawn, a solitary passer-by, going along the +Rue Saint Honoré, saw, between two lines of horse-soldiers, three wagons +wending their way, heavily loaded. These wagons could be traced by the +stains of blood which dripped from them. They came from the Champ de +Mars, and were going to the Montmartre Cemetery. They were full of +corpses. + + +[29] It was this same Criscelli, who later on at Vaugirard in the Rue du +Trancy, killed by special order of the Prefect of Police a man named +Kech, "suspected of plotting the assassination of the Emperor." + +[30] The Marquis Sarrazin de Montferrier, a relative of my eldest +brother. I can now mention his name. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +THE CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE + +Al danger being over, all scruples vanished. Prudent and wise people +could now give their adherence to the _coup d'état_, they allowed their +names to be posted up. + +Here is the placard: + + "FRENCH REPUBLIC. + + "_In the name of the French People_. + + "The President of the Republic, + + "Wishing, until the reorganization of the Legislative Body and the + Council of State, to be surrounded by men who justly possess the esteem + and the confidence of the country, + + "Has created a Consultative committee, which is composed of MM.-- + + "Abbatucci, ex-Councillor of the Court of Cassation (of the Loiret). + General Achard (of the Moselle). + André, Ernest (of the Seine). + André (of the Charente). + D'Argout, Governor of the Bank, ex-Minister. + General Arrighi of Padua (of Corsica). + General de Bar (of the Seine). + General Baraguay-d'Hilliers (of Doubs). + Barbaroux, ex-Procureur-General (of the Réunion). + Baroche, ex-Minister of the Interior and of Foreign Affairs, + Vice-President of the Committee (of the Charente-Inférieure). + Barret (Ferdinand), ex-Minister (of the Seine). + Barthe, ex-Minister, first President (of the Cour de Comptes). + Bataille (of the Haute-Vienne). + Bavoux (Evariste) (of the Seine-et-Marne). + De Beaumont (of the Somme). + Bérard (of the Lot-et-Garonne). + Berger, Prefect of the Seine (of Puy-de-Dôme). + Bertrand (of the Yonne). + Bidault (of the Cher). + Bigrel (of the Côtes-du-Nord). + Billault, barrister. + Bineau, ex-Minister (of the Maine-et-Loire). + Boinvilliers, ex-President of the body of barristers (of the Seine). + Bonjean, Attorney-General of the Court of Cassation (of the Drome). + Boulatignier. + Bourbousson (of Vaucluse). + Bréhier (of the Manche). + De Cambacérès (Hubert). + De Cambacérès (of the Aisne). + Carlier, ex-Prefect of Police. + De Casabianca, ex-Minister (of Corsica). + General de Castellane, Commander-in-Chief at Lyons. + De Caulaincourt (of Calvados). + Vice-Admiral Cécile (of the Seine-Inférieure). + Chadenet (of the Meuse). + Charlemagne (of the Indre). + Chassaigne-Goyon (of Puy de Dôme). + General de Chasseloup-Laubat (of the Seine-Inférieure). + Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat (Charente-Inférieure). + Chaix d'Est-Ange, Barrister of Paris (of the Marne). + De Chazelles, Mayor of Clermont-Ferrand (of Puy-de-Dôme). + Collas (of the Gironde). + De Crouseilhes, ex-Councillor of the Court of Cassation, ex-Minister + (of the Basses-Pyrénées). + Curial (of the Orne). + De Cuverville (of the Côtes-du-Nord). + Dabeaux (of the Haute-Garonne). + Dariste (of the Basses-Pyrénées). + Daviel, ex-Minister. + Delacoste, ex-Commissary-General (of the Rhône). + Delajus (of the Charente-Inférieure). + Delavau (of the Indre). + Deltheil (of the Lot). + Denjoy (of the Gironde). + Desjobert (of the Seine-Inférieure). + Desmaroux (of the Allier). + Drouyn de Lhuys, ex-Minister (of the Seine-et-Marne). + Théodore Ducos, Minister of the Marine and of the Colonies (of the + Seine). + Dumas (of the Institut) ex-Minister (of the Nord). + Charles Dupin, of the Institut (of the Seine-Inférieure). + General Durrieu (of the Landes). + Maurice Duval, ex-Prefect. + Eschassériaux (of the Charente-Inférieure). + Marshal Excelmans, Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honor. + Ferdinand Favre (of the Loire-Inférieure) General de Flahaut, + ex-Ambassador. + Fortoul, Minister of Public Instruction (of the Basses-Alpes). + Achille Fould, Minister of Finance (of the Seine). + De Fourment (of the Somme). + Fouquier-d'Hérouël (of the Aisne). + Fremy (of the Yonne). + Furtado (of the Seine). + Gasc (of the Haute Garonne). + Gaslonde (of the Manche). + De Gasparin (ex-Minister). + Ernest de Girardin (of the Charente). + Augustin Giraud (of Maine-et-Loire). + Charles Giraud, of the Institut, member of the Court of Public + Instruction, ex-Minister. + Godelle (of the Aisne). + Goulhot de Saint-Germain (of the Manche). + General de Grammont (of the Loire). + De Grammont (of the Haute-Saône). + De Greslan (of the Réunion). + General de Grouchy (of the Gironde). + Kallez Claparède (of the Bas-Rhin). + General d'Hautpoul, ex-Minister (of the Aude). + Hébert (of the Aisne). + De Heeckeren (of the Haut-Rhin). + D'Hérembault (of the Pas-de-Calais). + Hermann. + Heurtier (of the Loire). + General Husson (of the Aube). + Janvier (of the Tarn-et-Garonne). + Lacaze (of the Hautes-Pyrénées). + Lacrosse, ex-Minister (of Finistère). + Ladoucette (of the Moselle). + Frédéric de Lagrange (of the Gers). + De Lagrange (of the Gironde). + General de La Hitte, ex-Minister. + Delangle, ex-Attorney-General. + Lanquetin, President of the Municipal Commission. + De la Riboissière (of Ille-et-Vilaine). + General Lawoestine. + Lebeuf (of the Seine-et-Marne). + Genéral Lebreton (of the Eure-et-Loir). + Le Comte (of the Yonne). + Le Conte (of the Côtes-du-Nord). + Lefebvre-Duruflé, Minister of Commerce (of the Eure). + Lélut (of the Haute-Saône). + Lemarois (of the Manche). + Lemercier (of the Charente). Lequien (of the Pas-de-Calais). + Lestiboudois (of the Nord). + Levavasseur (of the Seine-Inférieure). + Le Verrier (of the Manche). + Lezay de Marnésia (of Loir-et-Cher). + General Magnan, Commander-in-chief of the Army of Paris. + Magne, Minister of Public Works (of the Dordogne). + Edmond Maigne (of the Dordogne). + Marchant (of the Nord). + Mathieu Bodet, Barrister at the Court of Cassation. + De Maupas, Prefect of Police. + De Mérode (of the Nord). + Mesnard, President of the Chamber of the Court of Cassation. + Meynadier, ex-Prefect (of the Lozère). + De Montalembert (of the Doubs). + De Morny (of the Puy-de-Dôme). + De Mortemart (of the Seine-Inférieure). + De Mouchy (of the Oise). + De Moustiers (of the Doubs). + Lucien Murat (of the Lot). + General d'Ornano (of the Indre-et-Loire). + Pepin Lehalleur (of the Seine-et-Marne). + Joseph Périer, Governor of the Bank. + De Persigny (of the Nord). + Pichon, Mayor of Arras (of the Pas de Calais). + Portalis, First President of the Court of Cassation. + Pongerard, Mayor of Pennes (of the Ille-et-Vilaine). + General de Préval. + De Rancé (of Algeria). + General Randon, ex-Minister, Governor-General of Algeria. + General Regnauld de Saint-Jean-d'Angély, ex-Minister (of the + Charente-Inférieure). + Renouard de Bussière (of the Bas-Rhin). + Renouard (of the Lozère). + General Rogé. + Rouher, Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice (of the Puy-de-Dôme). + De Royer, ex-Minister, Attorney-General at the Court of Appeal of + Paris. + General de Saint-Arnaud, Minister of War. + De Saint-Arnaud, Barrister at the Court of Appeal of Paris. + De Salis (of the Moselle). + Sapey (of the Isère). + Schneider, ex-Minister. + De Ségur d'Aguesseau (of the Hautes-Pyréneés). + Seydoux (of the Nord). + Amédée Thayer. + Thieullen (of the Côtes-du-Nord). + De Thorigny, ex-Minister. + Toupot de Béveaux (of the Haute-Marne). + Tourangin, ex-Prefect. Troplong, First President of the Court of + Appeal. + De Turgot, Minister for Foreign Affairs. + Vaillant, Marshal of France. + Vaisse, ex-Minister (of the Nord). + De Vandeul (of the Haute-Marne). + General Vast-Vimeux (of the Charente-Inférieure). + Vauchelle, Mayor of Versailles. + Viard (of the Meurthe). + Vieillard (of the Manche). + Vuillefroy. + Vuitry, Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Finance De Wagram. + + "The President of the Republic, + + "LOUIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. + + "Minister of the Interior, DE MORNY." + +The name of Bourbousson is found on this list. + +It would be a pity if this name were lost. + +At the same time as this placard appeared the protest of M. Daru, as +follows:-- + + "I approve of the proceedings of the National Assembly at the Mairie + of the Tenth Arrondissement on the 2d of December, 1851, in which I was + hindered from participating by force. + + "DARU." + +Some of these members of the Consultative Committee came from Mazas or +from Mount Valerien. They had been detained in a cell for four-and-twenty +hours, and then released. It may be seen that these legislators bore +little malice to the man who had made them undergo this disagreeable +taste of the law. + +Many of the personages comprised in this menagerie possessed no other +renown but the outcry caused by their debts, clamoring around them. +Such a one had been twice declared bankrupt, but this extenuating +circumstance was added, "not under his own name:" Another who belonged +to a literary or scientific circle was reputed to have sold his vote. A +third, who was handsome, elegant, fashionable, dandified, polished, +gilded, embroidered, owed his prosperity to a connection which indicated +a filthiness of soul. + +Such people as these gave their adherence with little hesitation to the +deed which "saved society." + +Some others, amongst those who composed this mosaic, possessed no +political enthusiasm, and merely consented to figure in this list in +order to keep their situations and their salaries; they were under the +Empire what they had been before the Empire, neuters, and during the +nineteen years of the reign, they continued to exercise their military, +judicial, or administrative functions unobtrusively, surrounded with the +right and proper respect due to inoffensive idiots. + +Others were genuine politicians, belonging to that learned school which +begins with Guizot, and does not finish with Parieu, grave physicians of +social order, who reassure the frightened middle-classes, and who +preserve dead things. + + "Shall I lose my eye?" asked Messer Pancrace. + "Not at all, my friend, I hold it in my hand." + +In this quasi Council of State there were a goodly number of men of the +Police, a race of beings then held in esteem, Carlier, Piétri, Maupas, +etc. + +Shortly after the 2d of December under the title of Mixed Commissions, +the police substituted itself for justice, drew up judgments, pronounced +sentences, violated every law judicially without the regular magistracy +interposing the slightest obstacle to this irregular magistracy: Justice +allowed the police to do what it liked with the satisfied look of a team +of horses which had just been relieved. + +Some of the men inscribed on the list of this commission refused: Léon +Faucher Goulard, Mortemart, Frédéric Granier, Marchand, Maillard +Paravay, Beugnot. The newspapers received orders not to publish these +refusals. + +M. Beugnot inscribed on his card: "Count Beugnot, who does not belong to +the Consultative Committee." + +M. Joseph Périer went from corner to corner of the streets, pencil in +hand, scratching out his name from all the placards, saying, "I shall +take back my name wherever I find it." + +General Baraguay d'Hilliers did not refuse. A brave soldier nevertheless; +he had lost an arm in the Russian war. Later on, he has been Marshall of +France; he deserved better than to have been created a Marshal by Louis +Bonaparte. It did not appear likely that he would have come to this. +During the last days of November General Baraguay d'Hilliers, seated in a +large arm-chair before the high fireplace of the Conference Hall of the +National Assembly, was warming himself; some one, one of his colleagues, +he who is writing these lines, sat down near him on the other side of the +fireplace. They did not speak to each other, one belonging to the Right, +the other to the Left; but M. Piscatory came in, who belonged a little to +the Right and a little to the Left. He addressed himself to Baraguay +d'Hilliers: "Well, general, do you know what they are saying?" + +"What?" + +"That one of these days the President will shut the door in our faces." + +General Baraguay d'Hilliers answered, and I heard the answer,--"If M. +Bonaparte should close the door of the Assembly against us, France will +fling it wide open again." + +Louis Bonaparte at one moment thought of entitling this committee the +"Executive Commission." "No," said Morny to him, "that would be to +credit them with courage. They will willingly be supporters; they will +not be proscribers." + +General Rulhière was dismissed for having blamed the passive obedience +of the army. + +Let us here mention an incident. Some days after the 4th of December, +Emmanuel Arago met M. Dupin, who was going up the Faubourg Saint Honoré. + +"What!" said Arago, "are you going to the Elysée?" + +M. Dupin answered, "I never go to disreputable houses." + +Yet he went there. + +M. Dupin, it may be remembered, was appointed Attorney-General at the +Court of Cessation. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +THE OTHER LIST + +Opposite to the list of adherents should be placed the list of the +proscribed. In this manner the two sides of the _coup d'état_ can be +seen at a glance. + + "DECREE. + + "ARTICLE I.--The ex-Representatives of the Assembly, whose names are + found beneath, are expelled from French territory, from Algeria, and + from the Colonies, for the sake of public safety:-- + + "Edmond Valentine. Charrassin. + Paul Racouchot. Bandsept. + Agricol Perdiguier. Savoye. + Eugène Cholat. Joly. + Louis Latrade. Combier. + Michel Renaud. Boysset. + Joseph Benoist (du Rhône). Duché. + Joseph Burgard. Ennery. + Jean Colfavru. Guilgot. + Joseph Faure (du Rhone). Hochstuhl. + Pierre-Charles Gambon. Michot Boutet. + Charles Lagrange. Baune. + Martin Nadaud. Bertholon. + Barthélemy Terrier. Schoelcher. + Victor Hugo. De Flotte. + Cassal. Joigneaux. + Signard. Laboulaye. + Viguier. Bruys. + Esquiros. Gaston Dussoubs. + Madier de Montjau. Guiter. + Noël Parfait. Lafon. + Emile Péan. Lamarque. + Pelletier. Pierre Lafranc. + Raspail. Jules Leroux. + Théodore Bac. Francisque Maigne. + Bancel. Malardier. + Belin (Drôme). Mathieu (de la Drôme). + Bosse. Millotte. + Bourzat. Roselli-Mollet. + Brive. Charras. + Chavoix. Saint-Ferreol. + Clément Dulac. Sommier. + Dupout (de Bussac). Testelin (Nord). + + "ARTICLE II.--In the event, contrary to the present decree, of one of + the persons named in Article I. re-entering the prohibited limits, he + may be transported for the sake of public safety. + + "Given at the Palace of the Tuileries, at the Cabinet Council assembled, + January 9th, 1852. + + "LOUIS BONAPARTE. + + "DE MORNY, Minister of the Interior." + +There was besides a list of the "provisionally exiled," on which figured +Edward Quinet, Victor Chauffour, General Laidet, Pascal Duprat, Versigny, +Antony Thouret, Thiers, Girardin, and Rémusat. Four Representatives, +Mathé, Greppo, Marc-Dufraisse, and Richardet, were added to the list of +the "expelled." Representative Miot was reserved for the tortures of the +casemates of Africa. Thus in addition to the massacres, the victory of +the _coup d'état_ was paid for by these figures: eighty-eight +Representatives proscribed, one killed. + +I usually dined at Brussels in a café, called the Café des Mille +Colonnes, which was frequented by the exiles. On the 10th of January I +had invited Michel de Bourges to lunch, and we were sitting at the same +table. The waiter brought me the _Moniteur Français_; I glanced over it. + +"Ah," said I, "here is the list of the proscribed." I ran my eye over it, +and I said to Michel de Bourges, "I have a piece of bad news to tell +you." Michel de Bourges turned pale. I added, "You are not on the list." +His face brightened. + +Michel de Bourges, so dauntless in the face of death, was faint-hearted +in the face of exile. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +DAVID D'ANGERS + +Brutalities and ferocities were mingled together. The great sculptor, +David d'Angers, was arrested in his own house, 16, Rue d'Assas; the +Commissary of Police on entering, said to him,-- + +"Have you any arms in your house?" + +"Yes," Said David, "for my defence." + +And he added,-- + +"If I had to deal with civilized people." + +"Where are these arms?" rejoined the Commissary. "Let us see them." + +David showed him his studio full of masterpieces. + +They placed him in a _fiacre_, and drove him to the station-house of the +Prefecture of Police. + +Although there was only space for 120 prisoners, there were 700 there. +David was the twelfth in a dungeon intended for two. No light nor air. A +narrow ventilation hole above their heads. A dreadful tub in a corner, +common to all, covered but not closed by a wooden lid. At noon they +brought them soup, a sort of warm and stinking water, David told me. They +stood leaning against the wall, and trampled upon the mattresses which +had been thrown on the floor, not having room to lie down on them. At +length, however, they pressed so closely to each other, that they +succeeded in lying down at full length. Their jailers had thrown them +some blankets. Some of them slept. At day break the bolts creaked, the +door was half-opened and the jailers cried out to them, "Get up!" They +went into the adjoining corridor, the jailer took up the mattresses, +threw a few buckets of water on the floor, wiped it up anyhow, replaced +the mattresses on the damp stones, and said to them, "Go back again." +They locked them up until the next morning. From time to time they +brought in 100 new prisoners, and they fetched away 100 old ones (those +who had been there for two or three days). What became of them?--At night +the prisoners could hear from their dungeon the sound of explosions, and +in the morning passers-by could see, as we have stated, pools of blood in +the courtyard of the Prefecture. + +The calling over of those who went out was conducted in alphabetical +order. + +One day they called David d'Angers. David took up his packet, and was +getting ready to leave, when the governor of the jail, who seemed to be +keeping watch over him, suddenly came up and said quickly, "Stay, M. +David, stay." + +One morning he saw Buchez, the ex-President of the Constituent Assembly, +coming into his cell "Ah!" said David, "good! you have come to visit the +prisoners?"--"I am a prisoner," said Buchez. + +They wished to insist on David leaving for America. He refused. They +contented themselves with Belgium. On the 19th December he reached +Brussels. He came to see me, and said to me, "I am lodging at the Grand +Monarque, 89, Rue des Fripiers."[31] + +And he added laughing, "The Great Monarch--the King. The old +clothesmen--the Royalists, '89. The Revolution." Chance occasionally +furnishes some wit. + + +[31] _Anglice_, "old clothes men." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +OUR LAST MEETING + +On the 3d of December everything was coming in in our favor. On the 5th +everything was receding from us. It was like a mighty sea which was going +out. The tide had come in gloriously, it went out disastrously. Gloomy +ebb and flow of the people. + +And who was the power who said to this ocean, "Thou shalt go no farther?" +Alas! a pigmy. + +These hiding-places of the abyss are fathomless. + +The abyss is afraid. Of what? + +Of something deeper than itself. Of the Crime. + +The people drew back. They drew back on the 5th; on the 6th they +disappeared. + +On the horizon there could be seen nothing but the beginning of a species +of vast night. + +This night has been the Empire. + +We found ourselves on the 5th what we were on the 2d. Alone. + +But we persevered. Our mental condition was this--desperate, yes; +discouraged, no. + +Items of bad news came to us as good news had come to us on the evening +of the 3d, one after another. Aubry du Nord was at the Concièrgerie. Our +dear and eloquent Crémieux was at Mazas. Louis Blanc, who, although +banished, was coming to the assistance of France, and was bringing to us +the great power of his name and of his mind, had been compelled, like +Ledru Rollin, to halt before the catastrophe of the 4th. He had not been +able to get beyond Tournay. + +As for General Neumayer, he had not "marched upon Paris," but he had come +there. For what purpose? To give in his submission. + +We no longer possessed a refuge. No. 15, Rue Richelieu, was watched, No. +11, Rue Monthabor, had been denounced. We wandered about Paris, meeting +each other here and there, and exchanging a few words in a whisper, not +knowing where we should sleep, or whether we should get a meal; and +amongst those heads which did not know what pillow they should have at +night there was at least one upon which a price was set. + +They accosted each other, and this is the sort of conversation they +held:-- + +"What has became of So-and-So?" + +"He is arrested." + +"And So-and-So?" + +"Dead." + +"And So-and-So?" + +"Disappeared." + +We held, however, one other meeting. This was on the 6th, at the house of +the Representative Raymond, in the Place de la Madeleine. Nearly all of +us met there. I was enabled to shake the hands of Edgar Quinet, of +Chauffour, of Clément Dulac, of Bancel, of Versigny, of Emile Péan, and I +again met our energetic and honest host of the Rue Blanche, Coppens, and +our courageous colleague, Pons Stande, whom we had lost sight of in the +smoke of the battle. From the windows of the room where we were +deliberating we could see the Place de la Madeleine and the Boulevards +militarily occupied, and covered with a fierce and deep mass of soldiers +drawn up in battle order, and which still seemed to face a possible +combat. Charamaule came in. + +He drew two pistols from his great cloak, placed them on the table, and +said, "All is at an end. Nothing feasible and sensible remains, except a +deed of rashness. I propose it. Are you of my opinion, Victor Hugo?" + +"Yes," I answered. + +I did not know what he was going to say, but I knew that he would only +say that which was noble. + +This was his proposition. + +"We number," resumed he, "about fifty Representatives of the People, +still standing and assembled together. We are all that remains of the +National Assembly, of Universal Suffrage, of the Law, of Right. +To-morrow, where shall we be? We do not know. Scattered or dead. The hour +of to-day is ours; this hour gone and past, we have nothing left but the +shadow. The opportunity is unique. Let us profit by it." + +He stopped, looked at us fixedly with his steadfast gaze, and resumed,-- + +"Let us take the advantage of this chance of being alive and the good +fortune of being together. The group which is here is the whole of the +Republic. Well, then; let us offer in our persons all the Republic to the +army, and let us make the army fall back before the Republic, and Might +fall back before Right. In that supreme moment one of the two must +tremble, Might or Right, and if Right does not tremble Might will +tremble. If we do not tremble the soldiers will tremble. Let us march +upon the Crime. If the Law advances, the Crime will draw back. In either +case we shall have done our duty. Living, we shall be preservers, dead, +we shall be heroes. This is what I propose." + +A profound silence ensued. + +"Let us put on our sashes, and let us all go down in a procession, two by +two, into the Place de la Madeleine. You can see that Colonel before that +large flight of steps, with his regiment in battle array; we will go to +him, and there, before his soldiers, I will summon him to come over to +the side of duty, and to restore his regiment to the Republic. If he +refuses ..." + +Charamaule took his two pistols in his hands. + +"... I will blow out his brains." + +"Charamaule," said I, "I will be by your side." + +"I knew that well," Charamaule said to me. + +He added,-- + +"This explosion will awaken the people." + +"But," several cried out, "suppose it does not awaken them?" + +"We shall die." + +"I am on your side," said I to him. + +We each pressed the other's hand. But objections burst forth. + +No one trembled, but all criticised the proposal. Would it not be +madness? And useless madness? Would it not be to play the last card of +the Republic without any possible chance of success? What good fortune +for Bonaparte! To crush with one blow all that remained of those who were +resisting and of those who were combating! To finish with them once for +all! We were beaten, granted, but was it necessary to add annihilation to +defeat? No possible chance of success. The brains of an army cannot be +blown out. To do what Charamaule advised would be to open the tomb, +nothing more. It would be a magnificent suicide, but it would be a +suicide. Under certain circumstances it is selfish to be merely a hero. A +man accomplishes it at once, he becomes illustrious, he enters into +history, all that is very easy. He leaves to others behind him the +laborious work of a long protest, the immovable resistance of the exile, +the bitter, hard life of the conquered who continues to combat the +victory. Some degree of patience forms a part of politics. To know how +to await revenge is sometimes more difficult than to hurry on its +catastrophe. There are two kinds of courage--bravery and perseverance; +the first belongs to the soldier, the second belongs to the citizen. A +hap-hazard end, however dauntless, does not suffice. To extricate oneself +from the difficulty by death, it is only too easily done: what is +required, what is the reverse of easy, is to extricate one's country from +the difficulty. No, said those high-minded men, who opposed Charamaule +and myself, this to-day which you propose to us is the suppression of +to-morrow; take care, there is a certain amount of desertion in +suicide.... + +The word "desertion" grievously wounded Charamaule. "Very well," said he, +"I abandon the idea." + +This scene was exceedingly grand, and Quinet later on, when in exile, +spoke to me of it with deep emotion. + +We separated. We did not meet again. + +I wandered about the streets. Where should I sleep? That was the question. +I thought that No. 19, Rue Richelieu would probably be as much watched as +No. 15. But the night was cold, and I decided at all hazards to re-enter +this refuge, although perhaps a hazardous one. I was right to trust myself +to it. I supped on a morsel of bread, and I passed a very good night. The +next morning at daybreak on waking I thought of the duties which awaited +me. I thought that I was abut to go out, and that I should probably not +come back to the room; I took a little bread which remained, and I +crumbled it on the window-sill for the birds. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +DUTY CAN HAVE TWO ASPECTS + +Had it been in the power of the Left at any moment to prevent the _coup +d'état_? + +We do not think so. + +Nevertheless here is a fact which we believe we ought not to pass by in +silence. On the 16th November, 1851, I was in my study at home at 37, Rue +de la Tour d'Auvergne; it was about midnight. I was working. My servant +opened the door. + +"Will you see M. ----, sir?" + +And he mentioned a name. + +"Yes," I said. + +Some one came in. + +I shall only speak reservedly of this eminent and distinguished man. Let +it suffice to state that he had the right to say when mentioning the +Bonapartes "my family." + +It is known that the Bonaparte family is divided into two branches, the +Imperial family and the private family. The Imperial family had the +tradition of Napoleon, the private family had the tradition of Lucien: a +shade of difference which, however, had no reality about it. + +My midnight visitor took the other corner of the fireplace. + +He began by speaking to me of the memoirs of a very highminded and +virtuous woman, the Princess ----, his mother, the manuscript of which he +had confided to me, asking my advice as to the utility or the suitability +of their publication; this manuscript, besides being full of interest, +possessed for me a special charm, because the handwriting of the Princess +resembled my mother's handwriting. My visitor, to whom I gave it back, +turned over the leaves for a few moments, and then suddenly interrupting +himself, he turned to me and said,-- + +"The Republic is lost." + +I answered,-- + +"Almost." + +He resumed,-- + +"Unless you save it." + +"I?" + +"You." + +"How so?" + +"Listen to me." + +Then he set forth with that clearness, complicated at times with +paradoxes, which is one of the resources of his remarkable mind, the +situation, at the same time desperate and strong, in which we were +placed. + +This situation, which moreover I realized as well as he himself, was +this:-- + +The Right of the Assembly was composed of about 400 members, and the Left +of about 180. The four hundred of the majority belonged by thirds to +three parties, the Legitimist party, the Orleanist party, the Bonapartist +party, and in a body to the Clerical party. The 180 of the minority +belonged to the Republic. The Right mistrusted the Left, and had taken a +precaution against the minority. + +A Vigilance Committee, composed of sixteen members of the Right, charged +with impressing unity upon this trinity of parties, and charged with the +task of carefully watching the Left, such was this precaution. The Left +at first had confined itself to irony, and borrowing from me a word to +which people then attached, though wrongly, the idea of decrepitude, had +called the sixteen Commissioners the "Burgraves." The irony subsequently +turning into suspicion, the Left had on its side ended by creating a +committee of sixteen members to direct the Left, and observe the Right; +these the Right had hastened to name the "Red Burgraves." A harmless +rejoinder. The result was that the Right watched the Left, and that the +Left watched the Right, but that no one watched Bonaparte. They were two +flocks of sheep so distrustful of one another that they forgot the wolf. +During that time, in his den at the Elysée, Bonaparte was working. He was +busily employing the time which the Assembly, the majority and the +minority, was losing in mistrusting itself. As people feel the loosening +of the avalanche, so they felt the catastrophe tottering in the gloom. +They kept watch upon the enemy, but they did not turn their attention in +the true direction. To know where to fix one's mistrust is the secret of +a great politician. The Assembly of 1851 did not possess this shrewd +certainty of eyesight, their perspective was bad, each saw the future +after his own fashion, and a sort of political short-sightedness blinded +the Left as well as the Right; they were afraid, but not where fear was +advisable; they were in the presence of a mystery, they had an ambuscade +before them, but they sought it where it did not exist, and they did not +perceive where it really lay. Thus it was that these two flocks of sheep, +the majority, and the minority faced each other affrightedly, and while +the leaders on one side and the guides on the other, grave and attentive, +asked themselves anxiously what could be the mewing of the grumbling, of +the Left on the one side, of the bleatings of the Right on the other, +they ran the risk of suddenly feeling the four claws of the _coup d'état_ +fastened in their shoulders. + +My visitor said to me,- + +"You are one of the Sixteen!" + +"Yes," answered I, smiling; "a 'Red Burgrave.'" + +"Like me, a 'Red Prince.'" + +And his smile responded to mine. + +He resumed,-- + +"You have full powers?" + +"Yes. Like the others." + +And I added,-- + +"Not more than the others. The Left has no leaders." + +He continued,-- + +"Yon, the Commissary of Police, is a Republican?' + +"Yes." + +"He would obey an order signed by you?" + +"Possibly." + +"_I_ say, without doubt." + +He looked at me fixedly. + +"Well, then, have the President arrested this night." + +It was now my turn to look at him. + +"What do you mean?" + +"What I say." + +I ought to state that his language was frank, resolute, and +self-convinced, and that during the whole of this conversation, and now, +and always, it has given me the impression of honesty. + +"Arrest the President!" I cried. + +Then he set forth that this extraordinary enterprise was an easy matter; +that the Army was undecided; that in the Army the African Generals +counterpoised the President; that the National Guard favored the +Assembly, and in the Assembly the Left; that Colonel Forestier answered +for the 8th Legion; Colonel Gressier for the 6th, and Colonel Howyne for +the 5th; that at the order of the Sixteen of the Left there would be an +immediate taking up of arms; that my signature would suffice; that, +nevertheless, if I preferred to call together the Committee, in Secret +Session, we could wait till the next day; that on the order from the +Sixteen, a battalion would march upon the Elysée; that the Elysée +apprehended nothing, thought only of offensive, and not of defensive +measures, and accordingly would be taken by surprise; that the soldiers +would not resist the National Guard; that the thing would be done without +striking a blow; that Vincennes would open and close while Paris slept; +that the President would finish his night there, and that France, on +awakening, would learn the twofold good tidings: that Bonaparte was out +of the fight, and France out of danger. + +He added,-- + +"You can count on two Generals: Neumayer at Lyons, and Lawoëstyne at +Paris." + +He got up and leaned against the chimney-piece; I can still see him +there, standing thoughtfully; and he continued: + +"I do not feel myself strong enough to begin exile all over again, but I +feel the wish to save my family and my country." + +He probably thought he noticed a movement of surprise in me, for he +accentuated and italicized these words. + +"I will explain myself. Yes; I wish to save my family and my country. I +bear the name of Napoleon; but as you know without fanaticism. I am a +Bonaparte, but not a Bonapartist. I respect the name, but I judge it. It +already has one stain. The Eighteenth Brumaire. Is it about to have +another? The old stain disappeared beneath the glory; Austerlitz covered +Brumaire. Napoleon was absolved by his genius. The people admired him so +greatly that it forgave him. Napoleon is upon the column, there is an end +of it, let them leave him there in peace. Let them not resuscitate him +through his bad qualities. Let them not compel France to remember too +much. This glory of Napoleon is vulnerable. It has a wound; closed, I +admit. Do not let them reopen it. Whatever apologists may say and do, it +is none the less true that by the Eighteenth of Brumaire Napoleon struck +himself a first blow." + +"In truth," said I, "it is ever against ourselves that we commit a +crime." + +"Well, then," he continued, "his glory has survived a first blow, a +second will kill it. I do not wish it. I hate the first Eighteenth +Brumaire; I fear the second. I wish to prevent it." + +He paused again, and continued,-- + +"That is why I have come to you to-night. I wish to succor this great +wounded glory. By the advice which I am giving you, if you can carry it +out, if the Left carries it out, I save the first Napoleon; for if a +second crime is superposed upon his glory, this glory would disappear. +Yes, this name would founder, and history would no longer own it. I will +go farther and complete my idea. I also save the present Napoleon, for he +who as yet has no glory will only have come. I save his memory from an +eternal pillory. Therefore, arrest him." + +He was truly and deeply moved. He resumed,-- + +"As to the Republic, the arrest of Louis Bonaparte is deliverance for +her. I am right, therefore, in saying that by what I am proposing to you +I am saving my family and my country." + +"But," I said to him, "what you propose to me is a _coup d'état_." + +"Do you think so?" + +"Without doubt. We are the minority, and we should commit an act which +belongs to the majority. We are a part of the Assembly. We should be +acting as though we were the entire Assembly. We who condemn all +usurpation should ourselves become usurpers. We should put our hands upon +a functionary whom the Assembly alone has the right of arresting. We, the +defenders of the Constitution, we should break the Constitution. We, the +men of the Law, we should violate the Law. It is a _coup d'état_." + +"Yes, but a _coup d'état_ for a good purpose." + +"Evil committed for a good purpose remains evil." + +"Even when it succeeds?" + +"Above all when it succeeds." + +"Why?" + +"Because it then becomes an example." + +"You do not then approve of the Eighteenth Fructidor?" + +"No." + +"But Eighteenth Fructidors prevent Eighteenth Brumaires." + +"No. They prepare the way for them." + +"But reasons of State exist?" + +"No. What exists is the Law." + +"The Eighteenth Fructidor has been accepted by exceedingly honest minds." + +"I know that." + +"Blanqui is in its favor, with Michelet." + +"I am against it, with Barbès." + +From the moral aspect I passed to the practical aspect. + +"This said," resumed I, "let us examine your plan." + +This plan bristled with difficulties. I pointed them out to him. + +"Count on the National Guard! Why, General Lawoëstyne had not yet got +command of it. Count on the Army? Why, General Neumayer was at Lyons, +and not at Paris. Would he march to the assistance of the Assembly? +What did we know about this? As for Lawoëstyne, was he not double-faced? +Were they sure of him? Call to arms the 8th Legion? Forestier was no +longer Colonel. The 5th and 6th? But Gressier and Howyne were only +lieutenant-colonels, would these legions follow them? Order the +Commissary Yon? But would he obey the Left alone? He was the agent of +the Assembly, and consequently of the majority, but not of the minority. +These were so many questions. But these questions, supposing them +answered, and answered in the sense of success, was success itself the +question? The question is never Success, it is always Right. But here, +even if we had obtained success, we should not have Right. In order to +arrest the President an order of the Assembly was necessary; we should +replace the order of the Assembly by an act of violence of the Left. A +scaling and a burglary; an assault by scaling-ladders on the constituted +authority, a burglary on the Law. Now let us suppose resistance; we +should shed blood. The Law violated leads to the shedding of blood. What +is all this? It is a crime." + +"No, indeed," he exclaimed, "it is the _salus populi_." + +And he added,-- + +"_Suprema Lex_." + +"Not for me," I said. + +I continued,-- + +"I would not kill a child to save a people." + +"Cato did so." + +"Jesus did not do so." + +And I added,-- + +"You have on your side all ancient history, you are acting according to +the uprightness of the Greeks, and according to the uprightness of the +Romans; for me, I am acting according to the uprightness of Humanity. +The new horizon is of wider range than the old." + +There was a pause. He broke it. + +"Then he will be the one to attack!" + +"Let it be so." + +"You are about to engage in a battle which is almost lost beforehand." + +"I fear so." + +"And this unequal combat can only end for you, Victor Hugo, in death or +exile." + +"I believe it." + +"Death is the affair of a moment, but exile is long." + +"It is a habit to be learned." + +He continued,-- + +"You will not only be proscribed. You will be calumniated." + +"It is a habit already learned." + +He continued,-- + +"Do you know what they are saying already?" + +"What?" + +"They say that you are irritated against him because he has refused to +make you a Minister." + +"Why you know yourself that--" + +"I know that it is just the reverse. It is he who has asked you, and it +is you who have refused." + +"Well, then--" + +"They lie." + +"What does it matter?" + +He exclaimed,-- + +"Thus, you will have caused the Bonapartes to re-enter France, and you +will be banished from France by a Bonaparte!"[32] + +"Who knows," said I, "if I have not committed a fault? This injustice is +perhaps a justice." + +We were both silent. He resumed,-- + +"Could you bear exile?" + +"I will try." + +"Could you live without Paris?" + +"I should have the ocean." + +"You would then go to the seaside?" + +"I think so." + +"It is sad." + +"It is grand." + +There was another pause. He broke it. + +"You do not know what exile is. I do know it. It is terrible. Assuredly, +I would not begin it again. Death is a bourne whence no one comes back, +exile is a place whither no one returns." + +"If necessary," I said to him, "I will go, and I will return to it." + +"Better die. To quit life is nothing, but to quit one's country--" + +"Alas!" said I, "that is every thing." + +"Well, then, why accept exile when it is in your power to avoid it? What +do you place above your country?" + +"Conscience." + +This answer made him thoughtful. However, he resumed. + +"But on reflection your conscience will approve of what you will have +done." + +"No." + +"Why?" + +"I have told you. Because my conscience is so constituted that it puts +nothing above itself. I feel it upon me as the headland can feel the +lighthouse which is upon it. All life is an abyss, and conscience +illuminates it around me." + +"And I also," he exclaimed--and I affirm that nothing could be more +sincere or more loyal than his tone--"and I also feel and see my +conscience. It approves of what I am doing. I appear to be betraying +Louis; but I am really doing him a service. To save him from a crime is +to save him. I have tried every means. There only remains this one, to +arrest him. In coming to you, in acting as I do, I conspire at the same +time against him and for him, against his power, and for his honor. What +I am doing is right." + +"It is true," I said to him. "You have a generous and a lofty aim." + +And I resumed,-- + +"But our two duties are different. I could not hinder Louis Bonaparte +from committing a crime unless I committed one myself. I wish neither for +an Eighteenth Brumaire for him, nor for an Eighteenth Fructidor for +myself. I would rather be proscribed than be a proscriber. I have the +choice between two crimes, my crime and the crime of Louis Bonaparte. I +will not choose my crime." + +"But then you will have to endure his." + +"I would rather endure a crime than commit one." + +He remained thoughtful, and said to me,-- + +"Let it be so." + +And he added,-- + +"Perhaps we are both in the right." + +"I think so," I said. + +And I pressed his hand. + +He took his mother's manuscript and went away. It was three o'clock in +the morning. The conversation had lasted more than two hours. I did not +go to bed until I had written it out. + + +[32] 14th of June, 1847. Chamber of Peers. See the work "Avant l'Exile." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +THE COMBAT FINISHED, THE ORDEAL BEGINS + +I did not know where to go. + +On the afternoon of the 7th I determined to go back once more to 19, Rue +Richelieu. Under the gateway some one seized my arm. It was Madame D. +She was waiting for me. + +"Do not go in," she said to me. + +"Am I discovered?" + +"Yes." + +"And taken." + +"No." + +She added,-- + +"Come." + +We crossed the courtyard, and we went out by a backdoor into the Rue +Fontaine Molière; we reached the square of the Palais Royal. The +_fiacres_ were standing there as usual. We got into the first we came +to. + +"Where are we to go?" asked the driver. + +She looked at me. + +I answered,-- + +"I do not know." + +"I know," she said. + +Women always know where Providence lies. + +An hour later I was in safety. + +From the 4th, every day which passed by consolidated the _coup d'état_. +Our defeat was complete, and we felt ourselves abandoned. Paris was like +a forest in which Louis Bonaparte was making a _battue_ of the +Representatives; the wild beast was hunting down the sportsmen. We heard +the indistinct baying of Maupas behind us. We were compelled to +disperse. The pursuit was energetic. We entered into the second phase of +duty--the catastrophe accepted and submitted to. The vanquished became +the proscribed. Each one of us had his own concluding adventures. Mine +was what it should have been--exile; death having missed me. I am not +going to relate it here, this book is not my biography, and I ought not +to divert to myself any of the attention which it may excite. Besides, +what concerns me personally is told in a narrative which is one of the +testaments of exile.[33] + +Notwithstanding the relentless pursuit which was directed against us, I +did not think it my duty to leave Paris as long as a glimmer of hope +remained, and as long as an awakening of the people seemed possible. +Malarmet sent me word in my refuge that a movement would take place at +Belleville on Tuesday the 9th. I waited until the 12th. Nothing stirred. +The people were indeed dead. Happily such deaths as these, like the +deaths of the gods, are only for a time. + +I had a last interview with Jules Favre and Michel de Bourges at Madame +Didier's in the Rue de la Ville-Lévêque. It was at night. Bastide came +there. This brave man said to me,-- + +"You are about to leave Paris; for myself, I remain here. Take me as +your lieutenant. Direct me from the depths of your exile. Make use of me +as an arm which you have in France." + +"I will make use of you as of a heart," I said to him. + +On the 14th, amidst the adventures which my son Charles relates in his +book, I succeeded in reaching Brussels. + +The vanquished are like cinders, Destiny blows upon them and disperses +them. There was a gloomy vanishing of all the combatants for Right and +for Law. A tragical disappearance. + + +[33] "Les Hommes de l'Exile," by Charles Hugo. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +THE EXILED + +The Crime having succeeded, all hastened to join it. To persist was +possible, to resist was not possible. The situation became more and more +desperate. One would have said that an enormous wall was rising upon the +horizon ready to close in. The outlet: Exile. + +The great souls, the glories of the people, emigrated. Thus there was +seen this dismal sight--France driven out from France. + +But what the Present appears to lose, the Future gains, the hand which +scatters is also the hand which sows. + +The Representatives of the Left, surrounded, tracked, pursued, hunted +down, wandered for several days from refuge to refuge. Those who escaped +found great difficulty in leaving Paris and France. Madier de Montjan +had very black and thick eyebrows, he shaved off half of them, cut his +hair, and let his beard grow. Yvan, Pelletier, Gindrier, and Doutre +shaved off their moustaches and beards. Versigny reached Brussels on the +14th with a passport in the name of Morin. Schoelcher dressed himself up +as a priest. This costume became him admirably, and suited his austere +countenance and grave voice. A worthy priest helped him to disguise +himself, and lent him his cassock and his band, made him shave off his +whiskers a few days previously, so that he should not be betrayed by the +white trace of his freshly-cut beard, gave him his own passport, and +only left him at the railway station.[34] + +De Flotte disguised himself as a servant, and in this manner succeeded +in crossing the frontier at Mouscron. From there he reached Ghent, and +thence Brussels. + +On the night of December 26th, I had returned to the little room, +without a fire, which I occupied (No. 9) on the second story of the +Hôtel de la Porte-Verte; it was midnight; I had just gone to bed and was +falling asleep, when a knock sounded at my door. I awoke. I always left +the key outside. "Come in," I said. A chambermaid entered with a light, +and brought two men whom I did not know. One was a lawyer, of Ghent, +M. ----; the other was De Flotte. He took my two hands and pressed them +tenderly. "What," I said to him, "is it you?" + +At the Assembly De Flotte, with his prominent and thoughtful brow, his +deep-set eyes, his close-shorn head, and his long beard, slightly turned +back, looked like a creation of Sebastian del Piombo wandering out of +his picture of the "Raising of Lazarus;" and I had before my eyes a +short young man, thin and pallid, with spectacles. But what he had not +been able to change, and what I recognized immediately, was the great +heart, the lofty mind, the energetic character, the dauntless courage; +and if I did not recognize him by his features, I recognized him by the +grasp of his hand. + +Edgar Quinet was brought away on the 10th by a noble-hearted Wallachian +woman, Princess Cantacuzène, who undertook to conduct him to the +frontier, and who kept her word. It was a troublesome task. Quinet had +a foreign passport in the name of Grubesko, he was to personate a +Wallachian, and it was arranged that he should not know how to speak +French, he who writes it as a master. The journey was perilous. They ask +for passports along all the line, beginning at the terminus. At Amiens +they were particularly suspicious. But at Lille the danger was great. +The gendarmes went from carriage to carriage; entered them lantern in +hand, and compared the written descriptions of the travellers with their +personal appearance. Several who appeared to be suspicious characters +were arrested, and were immediately thrown into prison. Edgar Quinet, +seated by the side of Madame Cantacuzène awaited the turn of his +carriage. At length it came. Madame Cantacuzène leaned quickly forward +towards the gendarmes, and hastened to present her passport, but the +corporal waved back Madame Cantacuzène's passport saying, "It is +useless, Madame. We have nothing to do with women's passports," and he +asked Quinet abruptly, "Your papers?" Quinet held out his passport +unfolded. The gendarmes said to him, "Come out of the carriage, so that +we can compare your description." It happened, however, that the +Wallachian passport contained no description. The corporal frowned, and +said to his subordinates, "An irregular passport! Go and fetch the +Commissary." + +All seemed lost, but Madame Cantacuzène began to speak to Quinet in the +most Wallachian words in the world, with incredible assurance and +volubility, so much so that the gendarme, convinced that he had to deal +with all Wallachia in person, and seeing the train ready to start, +returned the passport to Quinet, saying to him, "There! be off with +you!"--a few hours afterwards Edgar Quinet was in Belgium. + +Arnauld de l'Ariège also had his adventures. He was a marked man, he had +to hide himself. Arnauld being a Catholic, Madame Arnauld went to the +priest; the Abbé Deguerry slipped out of the way, the Abbé Maret +consented to conceal him; the Abbé Maret was honest and good. Arnauld +d'Ariège remained hidden for a fortnight at the house of this worthy +priest. He wrote from the Abbé Maret's a letter to the Archbishop of +Paris, urging him to refuse the Pantheon, which a decree of Louis +Bonaparte took away from France and gave to Rome. This letter angered +the Archbishop. Arnauld, proscribed, reached Brussels, and there, at the +age of eighteen months, died the "little Red," who on the 3d of December +had carried the workman's letter to the Archbishop--an angel sent by God +to the priest who had not understood the angel, and who no longer knew +God. + +In this medley of incidents and adventures each one had his drama. +Cournet's drama was strange and terrible. + +Cournet, it may be remembered, had been a naval officer. He was one of +those men of a prompt, decisive character, who magnetized other men, and +who on certain extraordinary occasions send an electric shock through a +multitude. He possessed an imposing air, broad shoulders, brawny arms, +powerful fists, a tall stature, all of which give confidence to the +masses, and the intelligent expression which gives confidence to the +thinkers. You saw him pass, and you recognized strength; you heard him +speak, and you felt the will, which is more than strength. When quite a +youth he had served in the navy. He combined in himself in a certain +degree--and it is this which made this energetic man, when well directed +and well employed, a means of enthusiasm and a support--he combined the +popular fire and the military coolness. He was one of those natures +created for the hurricane and for the crowd, who have begun their study +of the people by their study of the ocean, and who are at their ease in +revolutions as in tempests. As we have narrated, he took an important +part in the combat. He had been dauntless and indefatigable, he was one +of those who could yet rouse it to life. From Wednesday afternoon +several police agents were charged to seek him everywhere, to arrest him +wherever they might find him, and to take him to the Prefecture of the +Police, where orders had been given to shoot him immediately. + +Cournet, however, with his habitual daring, came and went freely in +order to carry on the lawful resistance, even in the quarters occupied +by the troops, shaving off his moustaches as his sole precaution. + +On the Thursday afternoon he was on the boulevards at a few paces from a +regiment of cavalry drawn up in order. He was quietly conversing with +two of his comrades of the fight, Huy and Lorrain. Suddenly, he +perceives himself and his companions surrounded by a company of +_sergents de ville_; a man touches his arm and says to him, "You are +Cournet; I arrest you." + +"Bah!" answers Cournet; "My name is Lépine." + +The man resumes,-- + +"You are Cournet. Do not you recognize me? Well, then, I recognize you; +I have been, like you, a member of the Socialist Electoral Committee." + +Cournet looks him in the face, and finds this countenance in his memory. +The man was right. He had, in fact, formed part of the gathering in the +Rue Saint Spire. The police spy resumed, laughing,-- + +"I nominated Eugène Sue with you." + +It was useless to deny it, and the moment was not favorable for +resistance. There were on the spot, as we have said, twenty _sergents de +ville_ and a regiment of Dragoons. + +"I will follow you," said Cournet. + +A _fiacre_ was called up. + +"While I am about it," said the police spy, "come in all three of you." + +He made Huy and Lorrain get in with Cournet, placed them on the front +seat, and seated himself on the back seat by Cournet, and then shouted +to the driver,-- + +"To the Prefecture!" + +The _sergents de ville_ surrounded the _fiacre_. But whether by chance +or through confidence, or in the haste to obtain the payment for his +capture, the man who had arrested Cournet shouted to the coachman, "Look +sharp, look sharp!" and the _fiacre_ went off at a gallop. + +In the meantime Cournet was well aware that on arriving he would be shot +in the very courtyard of the Prefecture. He had resolved not to go +there. + +At a turning in the Rue St Antoine he glanced behind, and noticed that +the _sergents de ville_ only followed the _fiacre_ at a considerable +distance. + +Not one of the four men which the _fiacre_ was bearing away had as yet +opened their lips. + +Cournet threw a meaning look at his two companions seated in front of +him, as much as to say, "We are three; let us take advantage of this to +escape." Both answered by an imperceptible movement of the eyes, which +pointed out the street full of passers-by, and which said, "No." + +A few moments afterwards the _fiacre_ emerged from the Rue St. Antoine, +and entered the Rue de Fourcy. The Rue de Fourcy is usually deserted, no +one was passing down it at that moment. + +Cournet turned suddenly to the police spy, and asked him,-- + +"Have you a warrant for my arrest?" + +"No; but I have my card." + +And he drew his police agent's card out of his pocket, and showed it to +Cournet. Then the following dialogue ensued between these two men,-- + +"This is not regular." + +"What does that matter to me?" + +"You have no right to arrest me." + +"All the same, I arrest you." + +"Look here; is it money that you want? Do you wish for any? I have some +with me; let me escape." + +"A gold nugget as big as your head would not tempt me. You are my finest +capture, Citizen Cournet." + +"Where are you taking me to?" + +"To the Prefecture." + +"They will shoot me there?" + +"Possibly." + +"And my two comrades?" + +"I do not say 'No.'" + +"I will not go." + +"You will go, nevertheless." + +"I tell you I will not go," exclaimed Cournet. + +And with a movement, unexpected as a flash of lightning, he seized the +police spy by the throat. + +The police agent could not utter a cry, he struggled: a hand of bronze +clutched him. + +His tongue protruded from his mouth, his eyes became hideous, and +started from their sockets. Suddenly his head sank down, and reddish +froth rose from his throat to his lips. He was dead. + +Huy and Lorrain, motionless, and as though themselves thunderstruck, +gazed at this gloomy deed. + +They did not utter a word. They did not move a limb. The _fiacre_ was +still driving on. + +"Open the door!" Cournet cried to them. + +They did not stir, they seemed to have become stone. + +Cournet, whose thumb was closely pressed in the neck of the wretched +police spy, tried to open the door with his left hand, but he did not +succeed, he felt that he could only do it with his right hand, and he +was obliged to loose his hold of the man. The man fell face forwards, +and sank down on his knees. + +Cournet opened the door. + +"Off with you!" he said to them. + +Huy and Lorrain jumped into the street and fled at the top of their +speed. + +The coachman had noticed nothing. + +Cournet let them get away, and then, pulling the check string, stopped +the _fiacre_, got down leisurely, reclosed the door, quietly took forty +sous from his purse, gave them to the coachman, who had not left his +seat, and said to him, "Drive on." + +He plunged into Paris. In the Place des Victoires he met the +ex-Constituent Isidore Buvignier, his friend, who about six weeks +previously had come out of the Madelonnettes, where he had been confined +for the matter of the _Solidarité Républicaine_. Buvignier was one of +the noteworthy figures on the high benches of the Left; fair, +close-shaven, with a stern glance, he made one think of the English +Roundheads, and he had the bearing rather of a Cromwellian Puritan than +of a Dantonist Man of the Mountain. Cournet told his adventure, the +extremity had been terrible. + +Buvignier shook his head. + +"You have killed a man," he said. + +In "Marie Tudor," I have made Fabiani answer under similar +circumstances,-- + +"No, a Jew." + +Cournet, who probably had not read "Marie Tudor," answered,-- + +"No, a police spy." + +Then he resumed,-- + +"I have killed a police spy to save three men, one of whom was myself." + +Cournet was right. They were in the midst of the combat, they were +taking him to be shot; the spy who had arrested him was, properly +speaking, an assassin, and assuredly it was a case of legitimate +defence. I add that this wretch, a democrat for the people, a spy for +the police, was a twofold traitor. Moreover, the police spy was the +jackal of the _coup d'état_, while Cournet was the combatant for the +Law. + +"You must conceal yourself," said Buvignier; "come to Juvisy." + +Buvignier had a little refuge at Juvisy, which is on the road to +Corbeil. He was known and loved there; Cournet and he reached there that +evening. + +But they had hardly arrived when some peasants said to Buvignier, "The +police have already been here to arrest you, and are coming again +to-night." + +It was necessary to go back. + +Cournet, more in danger than ever, hunted, wandering, pursued, hid +himself in Paris with considerable difficulty. He remained there till +the 16th. He had no means of procuring himself a passport. At length, on +the 16th, some friends of his on the Northern Railway obtained for him a +special passport, worded as follows:-- + +"Allow M. ----, an Inspector on the service of the Company, to pass." + +He decided to leave the next day, and take the day train, thinking, +perhaps rightly, that the night train would be more closely watched. + +On the 17th, at daybreak, favored by the dim dawn, he glided from street +to street, to the Northern Railway Station. His tall stature was a +special source of danger. He, however, reached the station in safety. +The stokers placed him with them on the tender of the engine of the +train, which was about to start. He only had the clothes which he had +worn since the 2d; no clean linen, no trunk, a little money. + +In December, the day breaks late and the night closes in early, which is +favorable to proscribed persons. + +He reached the frontier at night without hindrance. At Neuvéglise he was +in Belgium; he believed himself in safety. When asked for his papers he +caused himself to be taken before the Burgomaster, and said to him, "I +am a political refugee." + +The Burgomaster, a Belgian but a Bonapartist--this breed is to be +found--had him at once reconducted to the frontier by the gendarmes, who +were ordered to hand him over to the French authorities. + +Cournet gave himself up for lost. + +The Belgian gendarmes took him to Armentières. If they had asked for the +Mayor it would have been all at an end with Cournet, but they asked for +the Inspector of Customs. + +A glimmer of hope dawned upon Cournet. + +He accosted the Inspector of Customs with his head erect, and shook +hands with him. + +The Belgian gendarmes had not yet released him. + +"Now, sir," said Cournet to the Custom House officer, "you are an +Inspector of Customs, I am an Inspector of Railways. Inspectors do not +eat inspectors. The deuce take it! Some worthy Belgians have taken +fright and sent me to you between four gendarmes. Why, I know not. I am +sent by the Northern Company to relay the ballast of a bridge somewhere +about here which is not firm. I come to ask you to allow me to continue +my road. Here is my pass." + +He presented the pass to the Custom House officer, the Custom House +officer read it, found it according to due form, and said to Cournet,-- + +"Mr. Inspector, you are free." + +Cournet, delivered from the Belgian gendarmes by French authority, +hastened to the railway station. He had friends there. + +"Quick," he said, "it is dark, but it does not matter, it is even all +the better. Find me some one who has been a smuggler, and who will help +me to pass the frontier." + +They brought him a small lad of eighteen; fair-haired, ruddy, hardy, a +Walloon[35] and who spoke French. + +"What is your name?" said Cournet. + +"Henry." + +"You look like a girl." + +"Nevertheless I am a man." + +"Is it you who undertake to guide me?" + +"Yes." + +"You have been a smuggler?" + +"I am one still." + +"Do you know the roads?" + +"No. I have nothing to do with the roads." + +"What do you know then?" + +"I know the passes." + +"There are two Custom House lines." + +"I know that well." + +"Will you pass me across them?" + +"Without doubt." + +"Then you are not afraid of the Custom House officers?" + +"I'm afraid of the dogs." + +"In that case," said Cournet, "we will take sticks." + +They accordingly armed themselves with big sticks. Cournet gave fifty +francs to Henry, and promised him fifty more when they should have +crossed the second Custom House line. + +"That is to say, at four o'clock in the morning," said Henry. + +It was midnight. + +They set out on their way. + +What Henry called the "passes" another would have called the +"hindrances." They were a succession of pitfalls and quagmires. It had +been raining, and all the holes were pools of water. + +An indescribable footpath wound through an inextricable labyrinth, +sometimes as thorny as a heath, sometimes as miry as a marsh. + +The night was very dark. + +From time to time, far away in the darkness, they could hear a dog bark. +The smuggler then made bends or zigzags, turned sharply to the right or +to the left, and sometimes retraced his steps. + +Cournet, jumping hedges, striding over ditches, stumbling at every +moment, slipping into sloughs, laying hold of briers, with his clothes +in rags, his hands bleeding, dying with hunger, battered about, wearied, +worn out, almost exhausted, followed his guide gaily. + +At every minute he made a false step; he fell into every bog, and got up +covered with mud. At length he fell into a pond. It was several feet +deep. This washed him. + +"Bravo!" he said. "I am very clean, but I am very cold." + +At four o'clock in the morning, as Henry had promised him, they reached +Messine, a Belgian village. The two Custom House lines had been cleared. +Cournet had nothing more to fear, either from the Custom House nor from +the _coup d'état_, neither from men nor from dogs. + +He gave Henry the second fifty francs, and continued his journey on +foot, trusting somewhat to chance. + +It was not until towards evening that he reached a railway station. He +got into a train, and at nightfall he arrived at the Southern Railway +Station at Brussels. + +He had left Paris on the preceding morning, had not slept an hour, had +been walking all night, and had eaten nothing. On searching in his +pocket he missed his pocket book, but found a crust of bread. He was +more delighted at the discovery of the crust than grieved at the loss of +his pocket-book. He carried his money in a waistband; the pocket-book, +which had probably disappeared in the pond, contained his letters, and +amongst others an exceedingly useful letter of introduction from his +friend M. Ernest Koechlin, to the Representatives Guilgot and Carlos +Forel, who at that moment were refugees at Brussels, and lodged at the +Hôtel de Brabant. + +On leaving the railway station he threw himself into a cab, and said to +the coachman,-- + +"Hôtel de Brabant." + +He heard a voice repeat, "Hôtel de Brabant." He put out his head and saw +a man writing something in a notebook with a pencil by the light of a +street-lamp. + +It was probably some police agent. + +Without a passport, without letters, without papers, he was afraid of +being arrested in the night, and he was longing for a good sleep. A good +bed to-night, he thought, and to-morrow the Deluge! At the Hôtel de +Brabant he paid the coachman, but did not go into the hotel. Moreover, +he would have asked in vain for the Representatives Forel and Guilgot; +both were there under false names. + +He took to wandering about the streets. It was eleven o'clock at night, +and for a long time he had begun to feel utterly worn out. + +At length he saw a lighted lamp with the inscription "Hôtel de la +Monnaie." + +He walked in. + +The landlord came up, and looked at him somewhat askance. + +He then thought of looking at himself. + +His unshaven beard, his disordered hair, his cap soiled with mud, his +blood-stained hands, his clothes in rags, he looked horrible. + +He took a double louis out of his waistband, and put it on the table of +the parlor, which he had entered and said to the landlord,-- + +"In truth, sir, I am not a thief, I am a proscript; money is now my only +passport. I have just come from Paris, I wish to eat first and sleep +afterwards." + +The landlord was touched, took the double louis, and gave him bed and +supper. + +Next day, while he was still sleeping, the landlord came into his room, +woke him gently, and said to him,-- + +"Now, sir, if I were you, I should go and see Baron Hody." + +"Who and what is Baron Hody?" asked Cournet, half asleep. + +The landlord explained to him who Baron Hody was. When I had occasion to +ask the same question as Cournet, I received from three inhabitants of +Brussels the three answers as follows:-- + +"He is a dog." + +"He is a polecat." + +"He is a hyena." + +There is probably some exaggeration in these three answers. + +A fourth Belgian whom I need not specify confined himself to saying to +me,-- + +"He is a beast." + +As to his public functions, Baron Hody was what they call at Brussels +"The Administrator of Public Safety;" that is to say, a counterfeit of +the Prefect of Police, half Carlier, half Maupas. + +Thanks to Baron Hody, who has since left the place, and who, moreover, +like M. de Montalembert, was a "mere Jesuit," the Belgian police at that +moment was a compound of the Russian and Austrian police. I have read +strange confidential letters of this Baron Hody. In action and in style +there is nothing more cynical and more repulsive than the Jesuit police, +when they unveil their secret treasures. These are the contents of the +unbuttoned cassock. + +At the time of which we are speaking (December, 1851), the Clerical +party had joined itself to all the forms of Monarchy; and this Baron +Hody confused Orleanism with Legitimate right. I simply tell the tale. +Nothing more. + +"Baron Hody. Very well, I will go to him," said Cournet. + +He got up, dressed himself, brushed his clothes as well as he could, and +asked the landlord, "Where is the Police office?" + +"At the Ministry of Justice." + +In fact this is the case in Brussels; the police administration forms +part of the Ministry of Justice, an arrangement which does not greatly +raise the police and somewhat lowers justice. + +Cournet went there, and was shown into the presence of this personage. + +Baron Hody did him the honor to ask him sharply,-- + +"Who are you?" + +"A refugee," answered Cournet; "I am one of those whom the _coup d'état_ +has driven from Paris. + +"Your profession?" + +"Ex-naval officer." + +"Ex-naval officer!" exclaimed Baron Hody in a much gentler tone, "did +you know His Royal Highness the Prince de Joinville?" + +"I have served under him." + +It was the truth. Cournet had served under M. de Joinville, and prided +himself on it. + +At this statement the administrator of Belgian safety completely unbent, +and said to Cournet, with the most gracious smile that the police can +find, "That's all right, sir; stay here as long as you please; we close +Belgium to the Men of the Mountain, but we throw it widely open to men +like you." + +When Cournet told me this answer of Hody's, I thought that my fourth +Belgian was right. + +A certain comic gloom was mingled at times with these tragedies. +Barthelémy Terrier was a Representative of the people, and a proscript. +They gave him a special passport for a compulsory route as far as +Belgium for himself and his wife. Furnished with this passport he left +with a woman. This woman was a man. Préveraud, a landed proprietor at +Donjon, one of the most prominent men in the Department of Allier, was +Terrier's brother-in-law. When the _coup d'état_ broke out at Donjon, +Préveraud had taken up arms and fulfilled his duty, had combated the +outrage and defended the law. For this he had been condemned to death. +The justice of that time, as we know. Justice executed justice. For this +crime of being an honest man they had guillotined Charlet, guillotined +Cuisinier, guillotined Cirasse. The guillotine was an instrument of the +reign. Assassination by the guillotine was one of the means of order of +that time. It was necessary to save Préveraud. He was little and slim: +they dressed him as a woman. He was not sufficiently pretty for them not +to cover his face with a thick veil. They put the brave and sturdy hands +of the combatant in a muff. Thus veiled and a little filled out with +padding, Préveraud made a charming woman. He became Madame Terrier, and +his brother-in-law took him away. They crossed Paris peaceably, and +without any other adventure than an imprudence committed by Préveraud, +who, seeing that the shaft-horse of a wagon had fallen down, threw aside +his muff, lifted his veil and his petticoat, and if Terrier, in dire +alarm, had not stopped him, he would have helped the carter to raise his +horse. Had a _sergent de ville_ been there, Préveraud would have been +captured. Terrier hastened to thrust Préveraud into a carriage, and at +nightfall they left for Brussels. They were alone in the carriage, each +in a corner and face to face. All went well as far as Amiens. At Amiens +station the door was opened, and a gendarme entered and seated himself +by the side of Préveraud. The gendarme asked for his passport, Terrier +showed it him; the little woman in her corner, veiled and silent, did +not stir, and the gendarme found all in due form. He contented himself +with saying, "We shall travel together, I am on duty as far as the +frontier." + +The train, after the ordinary delay of a few minutes, again started. The +night was dark. Terrier had fallen asleep. Suddenly Préveraud felt a +knee press against his, it was the knee of the policeman. A boot placed +itself softly on his foot, it was a horse-soldier's boot. An idyll had +just germinated in the gendarme's soul. He first tenderly pressed +Préveraud's knee, and then emboldened by the darkness of the hour and by +the slumbering husband, he ventured his hand as far as her dress, a +circumstance foreseen by Molière, but the fair veiled one was virtuous. +Préveraud, full of surprise and rage, gently pushed back the gendarme's +hand. The danger was extreme. Too much love on the part of the gendarme, +one audacious step further, would bring about the unexpected, would +abruptly change the eclogue into an official indictment, would reconvert +the amorous satyr into a stony-hearted policeman, would transform Tircis +into Vidocq; and then this strange thing would be seen, a passenger +guillotined because a gendarme had committed an outrage. The danger +increased every moment. Terrier was sleeping. Suddenly the train +stopped. A voice cried, "Quièvrain!" and the door was opened. They were +in Belgium. The gendarme, obliged to stop here, and to re-enter France, +rose to get out, and at the moment when he stepped on to the ground he +heard behind him these expressive words coming from beneath the lace +veil, "Be off, or I'll break your jaw!" + + +[34] See "Les Hommes de l'Exile." + +[35] The name given to a population belonging to the Romanic family, and +more particularly to those of French descent, who occupy the region +along the frontiers of the German-speaking territory in the South +Netherlands from Dunkirk to Malmedy in Rhenish Prussia. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +THE MILITARY COMMISSIONS AND THE MIXED COMMISSIONS + +Justice sometime meets with strange adventures. + +This old phrase assumed a new sense. + +The code ceased to be a safeguard. The law became something which had +sworn fealty to a crime. Louis Bonaparte appointed judges by whom one +felt oneself stopped as in the corner of a wood. In the same manner as +the forest is an accomplice through its density, so the legislation was +an accomplice by its obscurity. What it lacked at certain points in +order to make it perfectly dark they added. How? By force. Purely and +simply. By decree. _Sic jubeo_. The decree of the 17th of February was a +masterpiece. This decree completed the proscription of the person, by +the proscription of the name. Domitian could not have done better. Human +conscience was bewildered; Right, Equity, Reason felt that the master +had over them the authority that a thief has over a purse. No reply. +Obey. Nothing resembles those infamous times. + +Every iniquity was possible. Legislative bodies supervened and instilled +so much gloom into legislation that it was easy to achieve a baseness in +this darkness. + +A successful _coup d'état_ does not stand upon ceremony. This kind of +success permits itself everything. + +Facts abound. But we must abridge, we will only present them briefly. + +There were two species of Justice; the Military Commissions and the +Mixed Commissions. + +The Military Commissions sat in judgment with closed doors. A colonel +presided. + +In Paris alone there were three Military Commissions: each received a +thousand bills of indictment. The Judge of Instruction sent these +accusations to the Procureur of the Republic, Lascoux, who transmitted +them to the Colonel President. The Commission summoned the accused to +appear. The accused himself was his own bill of indictment. They +searched him, that is to say, they "thumbed" him. The accusing document +was short. Two or three lines. Such as this, for example,-- + +Name. Christian name. Profession. A sharp fellow. Goes to the Café. +Reads the papers. Speaks. Dangerous. + +The accusation was laconic. The judgment was still less prolix. It was a +simple sign. + +The bill of indictment having been examined, the judges having been +consulted, the colonel took a pen, and put at the end of the accusing +line one of three signs:-- + + - + o + + - signified consignment to Lambessa. + + + signified transportation to Cayenne. (The dry guillotine. Death.) + + o signified acquittal. + +While this justice was at work, the man on whose case they were working +was sometimes still at liberty, he was going and coming at his ease; +suddenly they arrested him, and without knowing what they wanted with +him, he left for Lambessa or for Cayenne. + +His family was often ignorant of what had become of him. + +People asked of a wife, of a sister, of a daughter, of a mother,-- + +"Where is your husband?" + +"Where is your brother?" + +"Where is your father?" + +"Where is your son?" + +The wife, the sister, the daughter, the mother answered,--"I do not +know." + +In the Allier eleven members of one family alone, the Préveraud family +of Donjon, were struck down, one by the penalty of death, the others by +banishment and transportation. + +A wine-seller of the Batignolles, named Brisadoux, was transported to +Cayenne for this line in his deed of accusation: _his shop is frequented +by Socialists_. + +Here is a dialogue, word for word, and taken from life, between a +colonel and his convicted prisoner:-- + +"You are condemned." + +"Indeed! Why?" + +"In truth I do not exactly know myself. Examine your conscience. Think +what you have done." + +"I?" + +"Yes, you." + +"How I?" + +"You must have done something." + +"No. I have done nothing. I have not even done my duty. I ought to have +taken my gun, gone down into the street, harangued the people, raised +barricades; I remained at home stupidly like a sluggard" (the accused +laughs); "that is the offence of which I accuse myself." + +"You have not been condemned for that offence. Think carefully." + +"I can think of nothing." + +"What! You have not been to the _café_?" + +"Yes, I have breakfasted there." + +"Have you not chatted there?" + +"Yes, perhaps." + +"Have you not laughed?" + +"Perhaps I have laughed." + +"At whom? At what?" + +"At what is going on. It is true I was wrong to laugh." + +"At the same time you talked?" + +"Yes." + +"Of whom?" + +"Of the President." + +"What did you say?" + +"Indeed, what may be said with justice, that he had broken his oath." + +"And then?" + +"That he had not the right to arrest the Representatives." + +"You said that?" + +"Yes. And I added that he had not the right to kill people on the +boulevard...." + +Here the condemned man interrupted himself and exclaimed,-- + +"And thereupon they send me to Cayenne!" + +The judge looks fixedly at the prisoner, and answers,--"Well, then?" + +Another form of justice:-- + +Three miscellaneous personages, three removable functionaries, a +Prefect, a soldier, a public prosecutor, whose only conscience is the +sound of Louis Bonaparte's bell, seated themselves at a table and +judged. Whom? You, me, us, everybody. For what crimes? They invented +crimes. In the name of what laws? They invented laws. What penalties did +they inflict? They invented penalties. Did they know the accused? No. +Did they listen to him? No. What advocates did they listen to? None. +What witnesses did they question? None. What deliberation did they enter +upon? None. What public did they call in? None. Thus, no public, no +deliberation, no counsellors, no witnesses, judges who are not +magistrates, a jury where none are sworn in, a tribunal which is not a +tribunal, imaginary offences, invented penalties, the accused absent, +the law absent; from all these things which resembled a dream there came +forth a reality: the condemnation of the innocent. + +Exile, banishment, transportation, ruin, home-sickness, death, and +despair for 40,000 families. + +That is what History calls the Mixed Commissions. + +Ordinarily the great crimes of State strike the great heads, and content +themselves with this destruction; they roll like blocks of stone, all in +one piece, and break the great resistances; illustrious victims suffice +for them. But the Second of December had its refinements of cruelty; it +required in addition petty victims. Its appetite for extermination +extended to the poor and to the obscure, its anger and animosity +penetrated as far as the lowest class; it created fissures in the social +subsoil in order to diffuse the proscription there; the local +triumvirates, nicknamed "mixed mixtures," served it for that. Not one +head escaped, however humble and puny. They found means to impoverish +the indigent, to ruin those dying of hunger, to spoil the disinherited; +the _coup d'état_ achieved this wonderful feat of adding misfortune to +misery. Bonaparte, it seems, took the trouble to hate a mere peasant; +the vine-dresser was torn from his vine, the laborer from his furrow, +the mason from his scaffold, the weaver from his loom. Men accepted this +mission of causing the immense public calamity to fall, morsel by +morsel, upon the humblest walks of life. Detestable task! To crumble a +catastrophe upon the little and on the weak. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +A RELIGIOUS INCIDENT + +A little religion can be mingled with this justice. Here is an example. + +Frederick Morin, like Arnauld de l'Ariège, was a Catholic Republican. He +thought that the souls of the victims of the 4th of December, suddenly +cast by the volleys of the _coup d'état_ into the infinite and the +unknown, might need some assistance, and he undertook the laborious task +of having a mass said for the repose of these souls. But the priests +wished to keep the masses for their friends. The group of Catholic +Republicans which Frederick Morin headed applied successively to all the +priests of Paris; but met with a refusal. They applied to the +Archbishop: again a refusal. As many masses for the assassin as they +liked, but far the assassinated not one. To pray for dead men of this +sort would be a scandal. The refusal was determined. How should it be +overcome? To do without a mass would have appeared easy to others, but +not to these staunch believers. The worthy Catholic Democrats with great +difficulty at length unearthed in a tiny suburban parish a poor old +vicar, who consented to mumble in a whisper this mass in the ear of the +Almighty, while begging Him to say nothing about it. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +HOW THEY CAME OUT OF HAM + +On the night of the 7th and 8th of January, Charras was sleeping. The +noise of his bolts being drawn awoke him. + +"So then!" said he, "they are going to put us in close confinement." And +he went to sleep again. + +An hour afterwards the door was opened. The commandant of the fort +entered in full uniform, accompanied by a police agent carrying a torch. + +It was about four o'clock in the morning. + +"Colonel," said the Commandant, "dress yourself at once." + +"What for?" + +"You are about to leave." + +"Some more rascality, I suppose!" + +The Commandant was silent. Charras dressed himself. + +As he finished dressing, a short young man, dressed in black, came in. +This young man spoke to Charras. + +"Colonel, you are about to leave the fortress, you are about to quit +France. I am instructed to have you conducted to the frontier." + +Charras exclaimed,-- + +"If I am to quit France I will not leave the fortress. This is yet +another outrage. They have no more the right to exile me than they had +the right to imprison me. I have on my side the Law, Right, my old +services, my commission. I protest. Who are you, sir?" + +"I am the Private Secretary of the Minister of the Interior." + +"Ah! it is you who are named Léopold Lehon." + +The young man cast down his eyes. + +Charras continued,-- + +"You come on the part of some one whom they call 'Minister of the +Interior,' M. de Morny, I believe. I know M. de Morny. A bald young man; +he has played the game where people lose their hair; and now he is +playing the game where people risk their heads." + +The conversation was painful. The young man was deeply interested in the +toe of his boot. + +After a pause, however, he ventured to speak,-- + +"M. Charras, I am instructed to say that if you want money--" + +Charras interrupted him impetuously. + +"Hold your tongue, sir! not another word. I have served my country +five-and-twenty years as an officer, under fire, at the peril of my +life, always for honor, never for gain. Keep your money for your own +set!" + +"But, sir--" + +"Silence! Money which passes through your hands would soil mine." + +Another pause ensued, which the private secretary again broke,-- + +"Colonel, you will be accompanied by two police agents who have special +instructions, and I should inform you that you are ordered to travel +with a false passport, and under the name of Vincent." + +"Good heavens!" said Charras; "this is really too much. Who is it +imagines that they will make me travel by order with a false passport, +and under a false name?" And looking steadily at M. Léopold Lehon, +"Know, sir, that my name is Charras and not Vincent, and that I belong +to a family whose members have always borne the name of their father." + +They set out. + +They journeyed by carriage as far as Creil, which is on the railway. + +At Creil station the first person whom Charras saw was General +Changarnier. + +"Ah! it is you, General." + +The two proscripts embraced each other. Such is exile. + +"What the deuce are they doing with you?" asked the General. + +"What they are probably doing with you. These vagabonds are making me +travel under the name of Vincent." + +"And me," said Changarnier, "under the name of Leblanc." + +"In that case they ought at least to have called me Lerouge," said +Charras, with a burst of laughter. + +In the meantime a group, kept at a distance by the police agents, had +formed round them. People had recognized them and saluted them. A little +child, whose mother could not hold him back, ran quickly to Charras and +took his hand. + +They got into the train apparently as free as other travellers. Only +they isolated them in empty compartments, and each was accompanied by +two men, who sat one at the side and the other facing him, and who never +took their eyes off him. The keepers of General Changarnier were of +ordinary strength and stature. Those of Charras were almost giants. +Charras is exceedingly tall; they topped him by an entire head. These +men who were galley sergeants, had been carabineers; these spies had +been heroes. + +Charras questioned them. They had served when quite young, from 1813. +Thus they had shared the bivouac of Napoleon; now they ate the same +bread as Vidocq. The soldier brought to such a sorry pass as this is a +sad sight. + +The pocket of one of them was bulged out with something which he was +hiding there. + +When this man crossed the station in company with Charras, a lady +traveller said,-- + +"Has he got M. Thiers in his pocket?" + +What the police agent was hiding was a pair of pistols. Under their +long, buttoned-up and doubled-breasted frock coats these men were armed. +They were ordered to treat "those gentlemen" with the most profound +respect, but in certain circumstances to blow out their brains. + +The prisoners had each been informed that in the eyes of the different +authorities whom they would meet on the road they would pass for +foreigners, Swiss or Belgians, expelled on account of their political +opinions, and that the police agents would keep their title of police +agents, and would represent themselves as charged with reconducting +these foreigners to the frontier. + +Two-thirds of the journey were accomplished without any hindrance. At +Valenciennes an incident occurred. + +The _coup d'état_ having succeeded, zeal reigned paramount. No task was +any longer considered despicable. To denounce was to please; zeal is one +of the forms of servitude towards which people lean the most willingly. +The general became a common soldier, the prefect became a commissary of +police, the commissary of police became a police spy. + +The commissary of police at Valenciennes himself superintended the +inspection of passports. For nothing in the world would he have deputed +this important office to a subordinate inspector. When they presented +him the passport of the so-called Leblanc, he looked the so-called +Leblanc full in the face, started, and exclaimed,-- + +"You are General Changarnier!" + +"That is no affair of mine," said the General. + +Upon this the two keepers of the General protested and exhibited their +papers, perfectly drawn up in due form. + +"Mr. Commissary, we are Government agents. Here are our proper +passports." + +"Improper ones," said the General. + +The Commissary shook his head. He had been employed in Paris, and had +been frequently sent to the headquarters of the staff at the Tuileries, +to General Changarnier. He knew him very well. + +"This is too much!" exclaimed the police agents. They blustered, +declared that they were police functionaries on a special service, that +they had instructions to conduct to the frontier this Leblanc, expelled +for political reasons, swore by all the gods, and gave their word of +honor that the so-called Leblanc was really named Leblanc. + +"I do not much believe in words of honor," said the Commissary. + +"Honest Commissary," muttered Changarnier, "you are right. Since the 2d +of December words of honor and oaths are no more than worthless paper +money." + +And then he began to smile. + +The Commissary became more and more perplexed. The police agents ended +by invoking the testimony of the prisoner himself. + +"Now, sir, tell him your name yourself." + +"Get out of the difficulty yourselves," answered Changarnier. + +All this appeared most irregular to the mind of a provincial alguazil. + +It seemed evident to the Commissary of Valenciennes that General +Changarnier was escaping from Ham under a false name with a false +passport, and with false agents of police, in order to mislead the +authorities, and that it was a plot to escape which was on the point of +succeeding. + +"Come down, all three of you!" exclaimed the Commissary. + +The General gets down, and on putting foot to the ground notices Charras +in the depths of his compartment between his two bullies. + +"Oho! Charras, you are there!" he cries. + +"Charras!" exclaimed the Commissary. "Charras there! Quick! the +passports of these gentlemen!" And looking Charras in the face,-- + +"Are you Colonel Charras?" + +"Egad!" said Charras. + +Yet another complication. It was now the turn of Charras's bullies to +bluster. They declared that Charras was the man called Vincent, +displayed passports and papers, swore and protested. The Commissary's +suspicions were fully confirmed. + +"Very well," said he, "I arrest everybody." + +And he handed over Changarnier, Charras, and the four police agents to +the gendarmes. The Commissary saw the Cross of Honor shining in the +distance. He was radiant. + +The police arrested the police. It happens sometimes that the wolf +thinks he has seized a victim and bites his own tail. + +The six prisoners--for now there were six prisoners--were taken into a +parlor at the railway station. The Commissary informed the town +authorities. The town authorities hastened hither, headed by the +sub-prefect. + +The sub-prefect, who was named Censier, comes in, and does not know +whether he ought to salute or to question, to grovel in the dust or to +keep his hat on his head. These poor devils of magistrates and local +officials were very much exercised in their minds. General Changarnier +had been too near the Dictatorship not to make them thoughtful. Who can +foresee the course of events? Everything is possible. Yesterday called +itself Cavaignac, to-day calls itself Bonaparte, to-morrow may call +itself Changarnier. Providence is really cruel not to let sub-prefects +have a peep at the future. + +It is sad for a respectable functionary, who would ask for nothing +better than to be servile or arrogant according to circumstances, to be +in danger of lavishing his platitudes on a person who is perhaps going +to rot forever in exile, and who is nothing more than a rascal, or to +risk being insolent to a vagabond of a postscript who is capable of +coming back a conqueror in six months' time, and of becoming the +Government in his turn. What was to be done? And then they were spied +upon. This takes place between officials. The slightest word would be +maliciously interpreted, the slightest gesture would be laid to their +discredit. How should he keep on good terms at the same time this +Cabbage, which is called To-day, and that Goat, which is called +To-morrow? To ask too many questions would offend the General, to render +to many salutations would annoy the President. How could he be at the +same time very much a sub-prefect, and in some degree a lacquey? How +could he combine the appearance of obsequiousness, which would please +Changarnier, with the appearance of authority, which would please +Bonaparte? + +The sub-prefect thought to get out of the difficulty by saying, +"General, you are my prisoner," and by adding, with a smile, "Do me the +honor of breakfasting with me?" He addressed the same words to Charras. + +The General refused curtly. + +Charras looked at him fixedly, and did not answer him. + +Doubts regarding the identity of the prisoners came to the mind of the +sub-prefect. He whispered to the Commissary "Are you quite sure?" +"Certainly," said the Commissary. + +The sub-prefect decided to address himself to Charras, and dissatisfied +with the manner in which his advances had been received, asked him +somewhat sharply, "But, in short, who are you?" + +Charras answered, "We are packages." + +And turning to his keepers who were now in their turn in keeping:-- + +"Apply to our exporters. Ask our Custom House officers. It is a mere +matter of goods traffic." + +They set the electric telegraph to work. Valenciennes, alarmed, +questioned Paris. The sub-prefect informed the Minister of the Interior +that, thanks to a strict supervision, which he had trusted to no one but +himself, he had just effected an important capture, that he had just +discovered a plot, had saved the President, had saved society, had saved +religion, etc., that in one word he had just arrested General +Changarnier and Colonel Charras, who had escaped that morning from the +fort of Ham with false passports, doubtless for the purpose of heading a +rising, etc., and that, in short, he asked the Government what was to be +done with the two prisoners. + +At the end of an hour the answer arrived:--"Let them go on their way." + +The police perceived that in a burst of zeal they had pushed profundity +to the point of stupidity. That sometimes happens. + +The next train carried away the prisoners, restored, not to liberty, but +to their keepers. + +They passed Quiévrain. + +They got down from the carriage, and got in again. + +When the train again started Charras heaved the deep, joyous sigh of a +freed man, and said, "At last!" + +He raised his eyes, and perceived his two jailers by his side. + +They had got up behind him into the carriage. + +"Ah, indeed!" he said to them; "you there!" + +Of these two men there was only one who spoke, that one answered,-- + +"Yes, Colonel." + +"What are you doing here?" + +"We are keeping watch over you." + +"But we are in Belgium." + +"Possibly." + +"Belgium is not France." + +"Ah, that may be." + +"But suppose I put my head out of the carriage? Suppose I call out? +Suppose I had you arrested? Suppose I reclaimed my liberty?" + +"You will not do all that, Colonel." + +"How will you prevent me?" + +The police agent showed the butt-end of his pistol and said "Thus." + +Charras burst out laughing, and asked them, "Where then are you going to +leave me?" + +"At Brussels." + +"That is to say, that at Brussels you will salute me with your cap; but +that at Mons you will salute me with your pistol." + +"As you say, Colonel." + +"In truth," said Charras, "it does not matter to me. It is King +Leopold's business. The Bonaparte treats countries as he has treated the +Representatives. He has violated the Assembly, he violates Belgium. But +all the same, you are a medley of strange rascals. He who is at the top +is a madman, those who are beneath are blockheads. Very well, my +friends, let me go to sleep." + +And he went to sleep. + +Almost the same incident happened nearly at the same moment to Generals +Changarnier and Lamoricière and to M. Baze. + +The police agents did not leave General Changarnier until they had +reached Mons. There they made him get down from the train, and said to +him, "General, this is your place of residence. We leave you free." + +"Ah!" said he, "this is my place of residence, and I am free? Well, +then, good-night." + +And he sprang lightly back into the carriage just as the train was +starting, leaving behind him two galley sergeants dumfounded. + +The police released Charras at Brussels, but did not release General +Lamoricière. The two police agents wished to compel him to leave +immediately for Cologne. The General, who was suffering from rheumatism +which he had caught at Ham, declared that he would sleep at Brussels. + +"Be it so," said the police agents. + +They followed him to the Hôtel de Bellevue. They spent the night there +with him. He had considerable difficulty to prevent them from sleeping +in his room. Next day they carried him off, and took him to +Cologne-violating Prussian territory after having violated Belgian +territory. + +The _coup d'état_ was still more impudent with M. Baze. + +They made M. Baze journey with his wife and his children under the name +of Lassalle. He passed for the servant of the police agent who +accompanied him. + +They took him thus to Aix-la-Chapelle. + +There, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the street, the +police agents deposited him and the whole of his family, without a +passport, without papers, without money. M. Baze, indignant, was obliged +to have recourse to threats to induce them to take him and identify him +before a magistrate. It was, perhaps, part of the petty joys of +Bonaparte to cause a Questor of the Assembly to be treated as a vagrant. + +On the night of the 7th of January, General Bedeau, although he was not +to leave till the next day, was awakened like the others by the noise of +bolts. He did not understand that they were shutting him in, but on the +contrary, believed that they were releasing M. Baze, his neighbor in the +adjoining cell. He cried through the door, "Bravo, Baze!" + +In fact, every day the Generals said to the Questor, "You have no +business here, this is a military fortress. One of these fine mornings +you will be thrust outside like Roger du Nord." + +Nevertheless General Bedeau heard an unusual noise in the fortress. He +got up and "knocked" for General Leflô, his neighbor in the cell on the +other side, with whom he exchanged frequent military dialogues, little +flattering to the _coup d'état_. General Leflô answered the knocking, +but he did not know any more than General Bedeau. + +General Bedeau's window looked out on the inner courtyard of the prison. +He went to this window and saw lanterns flashing hither and thither, +species of covered carts, horsed, and a company of the 48th under arms. +A moment afterwards he saw General Changarnier come into the courtyard, +get into a carriage, and drive off. Some moments elapsed, then he saw +Charras pass. Charras noticed him at the window, and cried out to him, +"Mons!" + +In fact he believed he was going to Mons, and this made General Bedeau, +on the next day, choose Mons as his residence, expecting to meet Charras +there. + +Charras having left, M. Léopold Lehon came in accompanied by the +Commandant of the fort. He saluted Bedeau, explained his business, and +gave his name. General Bedeau confined himself to saying, "They banish +us; it is an illegality, and one more indignity added to the others. +However, with the people who send you one is no longer surprised at +anything." + +They did not send him away till the next day. Louis Bonaparte had said, +"We must 'space out' the Generals." + +The police agent charged with escorting General Bedeau to Belgium was +one of those who, on the 2d of December, had arrested General Cavaignac. +He told General Bedeau that they had had a moment of uneasiness when +arresting General Cavaignae: the picket of fifty men, which had been +told off to assist the police having failed them. + +In the compartment of the railway carriage which was taking General +Bedeau into Belgium there was a lady, manifestly belonging to good +society, of very distinguished appearance, and who was accompanied by +three little children. A servant in livery, who appeared to be a German, +had two of the children on his knees, and lavished a thousand little +attentions on them. However, the General, hidden by the darkness, and +muffled up, like the police agents, in the collar of his mantle, paid +little attention to this group. When they reached Quièvrain, the lady +turned to him and said, "General, I congratulate you, you are now in +safety." + +The General thanked her, and asked her name. + +"Baroness Coppens," she answered. + +It may be remembered that it was at M. Coppens's house, 70, Rue Blanche, +that the first meeting of the Left had taken place on December 2d. + +"You have charming children there, madam," said the General, "and," he +added, "an exceedingly good servant." + +"It is my husband," said Madame Coppens. + +M. Coppens, in fact, had remained five weeks buried in a hiding-place +contrived in his own house. He had escaped from France that very night +under the cover of his own livery. They had carefully taught their +children their lesson. Chance had made them get into the same carriage +as General Bedeau and the two bullies who were keeping guard over him, +and throughout the night Madame Coppens had been in terror lest, in the +presence of the policeman, one of the little ones awakening, should +throw its arms around the neck of the servant and cry "Papa!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +A RETROSPECT + +Louis Bonaparte had tested the majority as engineers test a bridge; he +had loaded it with iniquities, encroachments, enormities, slaughters on +the Place du Havre, cries of "Long live the Emperor," distributions of +money to the troops, sales of Bonapartist journals in the streets, +prohibition of Republican and parliamentary journals, reviews at Satory, +speeches at Dijon; the majority bore everything. + +"Good," said he, "It will carry the weight of the _coup d'état_." + +Let us recall the facts. Before the 2d of December the _coup d'état_ was +being constructed in detail, here and there, a little everywhere, with +exceeding impudence, and yet the majority smiled. The Representative +Pascal Duprat had been violently treated by police agents. "That is very +funny," said the Right. The Representative Dain was seized. "Charming." +The Representative Sartin was arrested. "Bravo." One fine morning when +all the hinges had been well tested and oiled, and when all the wires +were well fixed, the _coup d'état_ was carried out all at once, +abruptly. The majority ceased to laugh, but the trick, was done. It had +not perceived that for a long time past, while it was laughing at the +strangling of others, the cord was round its own neck. + +Let us maintain this, not to punish the past, but to illuminate the +future. Many months before being carried out, the _coup d'état_ had been +accomplished. The day having come, the hour having struck, the mechanism +being completely wound up, it had only to be set going. It was bound not +to fail, and nothing did fail. What would have been an abyss if the +majority had done its duty, and had understood its joint responsibility +with the Left, was not even a ditch. The inviolability had been +demolished by those who were inviolable. The hand of gendarmes had +become as accustomed to the collar of the Representatives as to the +collar of thieves: the white tie of the statesman was not even rumpled +in the grasp of the galley sergeants, and one can admire the Vicomte de +Falloux--oh, candor!--for being dumfounded at being treated like Citizen +Sartin. + +The majority, going backwards, and ever applauding Bonaparte, fell into +the hole which Bonaparte had dug for it. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +CONDUCT OF THE LEFT + +The conduct of the Republican Left in this grave crisis of the 2d of +December was memorable. + +The flag of the Law was on the ground, in the mire of universal treason, +under the feet of Louis Bonaparte; the Left raised this flag, washed +away the mire with its blood, unfurled it, waved it before the eyes of +the people, and from the 2d to the 5th of December held Bonaparte at +bay. + +A few men, a mere handful, 120 Representatives of the people escaped by +chance from arrest, plunged in darkness and in silence, without even +possessing that cry of the free press which sounds the tocsin to human +intellects, and which encourages the combatants, without generals under +their orders, without soldiers, without ammunition, went down into the +streets, resolutely barred the way against the _coup d'état_, and gave +battle to this monstrous crime, which had taken all its precautions, +which was mail-clad in every part, armed to the teeth, crowding round it +forests of bayonets, and making a pack of mortars and cannons give +tongue in its favor. + +They had that presence of mind, which is the most practical kind of +courage; they had, while lacking everything else, the formidable +improvisation of duty, which never loses heart. They had no +printing-offices, they obtained them; they had no guns, they found them; +they had no balls, they cast them; they had no powder, they manufactured +it; they had nothing but paving-stones, and from thence they evolved +combatants. + +It is true that these paving-stones were the paving-stones of Paris, +stones which change themselves into men. + +Such is the power of Right, that, during four days these hundred and +twenty men, who had nothing in their favor but the goodness of their +cause, counterbalanced an army of 100,000 soldiers. At one moment the +scale turned on their side. Thanks to them, thanks to their resistance, +seconded by the indignation of honest hearts, there came an hour when +the victory of the law seemed possible, and even certain. On Thursday, +the 4th, the _coup d'état_ tottered, and was obliged to support itself +by assassination. We seen that without the butchery of the boulevards, +if he had not saved his perjury by a massacre, if he had not sheltered +his crime by another crime, Louis Bonaparte was lost. + +During the long hours of this struggle, a struggle without a truce, a +struggle against the army during the day and against the police during +the night,--an unequal struggle, where all the strength and all the rage +was on one side, and, as we have just said, nothing but Right on the +other, not one of these hundred and twenty Representatives, not a single +one failed at the call of duty, not one shunned the danger, not one drew +back, not one wearied,--all these heads placed themselves resolutely +under the axe, and for four days waited for it to fall. + +To-day captivity, transportation, expatriation, exile, the axe has +fallen on nearly all these heads. + +I am one of those who have had no other merit in this struggle than to +rally into one unique thought the courage of all; but let me here +heartily render justice to those men amongst whom I pride myself with +having for three years served the holy cause of human progress, to this +Left, insulted, calumniated, unappreciated, and dauntless, which was +always in the breach, and which did not repose for a single day, which +recoiled none the more before the military conspiracy than before the +parliamentary conspiracy, and which, entrusted by the people with the +task of defending them, defended them even when abandoned by themselves; +defended them in the tribune with speech, and in the street with the +sword. + +When the Committee of Resistance in the sitting at which the decree of +deposition and of outlawry was drawn up and voted, making use of the +discretionary power which the Left had confided to it, decided that all +the signatures of the Republican Representatives remaining at liberty +should be placed at the foot of the decree, it was a bold stroke; the +Committee did not conceal from itself that it was a list of proscription +offered to the victorious _coup d'état_ ready drawn up, and perhaps in +its inner conscience it feared that some would disavow it, and protest +against it. As a matter of fact, the next day we received two letters, +two complaints. They were from two Representatives who had been omitted +from the list, and who claimed the honor of being reinstated there. I +reinstate these two Representatives here, in their right of being +proscripts. Here are their names--Anglade and Pradié. + +From Tuesday, the 2d, to Friday, the 5th of December, the +Representatives of the Left and the Committee, dogged, worried, hunted +down, always on the point of being discovered and taken, that is to +say--massacred; repaired for the purpose of deliberating, to +twenty-seven different houses, shifted twenty-seven times their place of +meeting, from their first gathering in the Rue Blanche to their last +conference at Raymond's. They refused the shelters which were offered +them on the left bank of the river, wishing always to remain in the +centre of the combat. During these changes they more than once traversed +the right bank of Paris from one end to the other, most of the time on +foot, and making long circuits in order not to be followed. Everything +threatened them with danger; their number, their well-known faces, even +their precautions. In the populous streets there was danger, the police +were permanently posted there; in the lonely streets there was danger, +because the goings and comings were more noticed there. + +They did not sleep, they did not eat, they took what they could find, a +glass of water from time to time, a morsel of bread here and there. +Madame Landrin gave us a basin of soup, Madame Grévy the remainder of a +cold pie. We dined one evening on a little chocolate which a chemist had +distributed in a barricade. At Jeunesse's, in the Rue de Grammont, +during the night of the 3rd, Michel de Bourges took a chair, and said, +"This is my bed." Were they tired? They did not feel it. The old men, +like Ronjat, the sick, like Boysset, all went forward. The public peril, +like a fever, sustained them. + +Our venerable colleague, Lamennais, did not come, but he remained three +days without going to bed, buttoned up in his old frock coat, his thick +boots on his feet, ready to march. He wrote to the author these three +lines, which it is impossible not to quote:--"You are heroes without me. +This pains me greatly. I await your orders. Try, then, to find me +something to do, be it but to die." + +In these meetings each man preserved his usual demeanor. At times one +might have thought it an ordinary sitting in one of the bureaux of the +Assembly. There was the calm of every day, mingled with the firmness of +decisive crises. Edgar Quinet retained all his lofty judgment, Noël +Parfait all his mental vivacity, Yvan all his vigorous and intelligent +penetration, Labrousse all his animation. In a corner Pierre Lefranc, +pamphleteer and ballad-writer, but a pamphleteer like Courier, and a +ballad-writer like Béranger smiled at the grave and stern words of +Dupont de Bussac. All that brilliant group of young orators of the Left, +Baneel with his powerful ardor, Versigny and Victor Chauffour with their +youthful daring. Sain with his coolheadedness which reveals strength, +Farconnet with his gentle voice and his energetic inspiration, lavishing +his efforts in resisting the _coup d'état_, sometimes taking part in the +deliberations, at others amongst the people, proving that to be an +orator one must possess all the qualifications of a combatant. De +Flotte, indefatigable, was ever ready to traverse all Paris. Xavier +Durrieu was courageous, Dulac dauntless, Charamaule fool-hardy. Citizens +and Paladins. Courage! who would have dared to exhibit none amongst all +these men, of whom not one trembled? Untrimmed beards, torn coats, +disordered hair, pale faces, pride glistening in every eye. In the +houses where they were received they installed themselves as best they +could. If there were no sofas or chairs, some, exhausted in strength, +but not in heart, seated themselves on the floor. All became copyists of +the decrees and proclamations; one dictated, ten wrote. They wrote on +tables, on the corners of furniture, on their knees. Frequently paper +was lacking, pens were wanting. These wretched trifles created obstacles +at the most critical times. At certain moments in the history of peoples +an inkstand where the ink is dried up may prove a public calamity. +Moreover, cordiality prevailed among all, all shades of difference were +effaced. In the secret sittings of the Committee Madier de Montjau, that +firm and generous heart, De Flotte, brave and thoughtful, a fighting +philosopher of the Devolution, Carnot, accurate, cold, tranquil, +immovable, Jules Favre, eloquent, courageous, admirable through his +simplicity and his strength, inexhaustible in resources as in sarcasms, +doubled, by combining them, the diverse powers of their minds. + +Michel de Bourges, seated in a corner of the fireplace, or leaning on a +table enveloped in his great coat, his black silk cap on his head, had +an answer for every suggestion, gave back to occurrences blow for blow, +was on his guard for danger, difficulty, opportunity, necessity, for his +is one of those wealthy natures which have always something ready either +in their intellect or in their imagination. Words of advice crossed +without jostling each other. These men entertained no illusion. They +knew that they had entered into a life-and-death struggle. They had no +quarter to expect. They had to do with the Man who had said, "Crush +everything." They knew the bloody words of the self-styled Minister, +Merny. These words the placards of Saint-Arnaud interpreted by decrees, +the Praetorians let loose in the street interpreted them by murder. The +members of the Insurrectionary Committee and the Representatives +assisting at the meetings were not ignorant that wherever they might be +taken they would be killed on the spot by bayonet-thrusts. It was the +fortune of this war. Yet the prevailing expression on every face was +serenity; that profound serenity which comes from a happy conscience. At +times this serenity rose to gaiety. They laughed willingly and at +everything. At the torn trousers of one, at the hat which another had +brought back from the barricade instead of his own, at the comforter of +a third. "Hide your big body," they said to him. They were children, and +everything amused them. On the morning of the 4th Mathien de la Drôme +came in. He had organized for his part a committee which communicated +with the Central Committee, he came to tell us of it. He had shaved off +his fringe of beard so as not to be recognized in the streets. "You look +like an Archbishop," said Michel de Bourges to him, and there was a +general laugh. And all this, with this thought which every moment +brought back; the noise which is heard at the door, the key which turns +in the lock is perhaps Death coming in. + +The Representatives and the Committee were at the mercy of chance. More +than once they could have been captured, and they were not; either owing +to the scruples of certain police agents (where the deuce will scruples +next take up their abode?) or that these agents doubted the final +result, and feared to lay their hand heedlessly upon possible victors. +If Vassal, the Commissary of Police, who met us on the morning of the +4th, on the pavement of the Rue des Moulins, had wished, we might have +been taken that day. He did not betray us. But these were exceptions. +The pursuit of the police was none the less ardent and implacable. At +Marie's, it may be remembered that the _sergents de ville_ and the +gendarmes arrived ten minutes after we had left the house, and that they +even ransacked under the beds with their bayonets. + +Amongst the Representatives there were several Constituents, and at +their head Bastide. Bastide, in 1848, had been Minister for Foreign +Affairs. During the second night, meeting in the Rue Popincourt, they +reproached him with several of his actions. "Let me first get myself +killed," he answered, "and then you can reproach me with what you like." +And he added, "How can you distrust me, who am a Republican up to the +hilt?" Bastide would not consent to call our resistance the +"insurrection," he called it the "counter-insurrection." he said, +"Victor Hugo is right. The insurgent is at the Elysée." It was my +opinion, as we have seen, that we ought to bring the battle at once to +an issue, to defer nothing, to reserve nothing; I said, "We must strike +the _coup d'état_ while it is hot." Bastide supported me. In the combat +he was impassive, cold, gay beneath his coldness. At the Saint Antoine +barricade, at the moment when the guns of the _coup d'état_ were leveled +at the Representatives of the people, he said smilingly to Madier de +Montjau, "Ask Schoelcher what he thinks of the abolition of the penalty +of death." (Schoelcher, like myself, at this supreme moment, would have +answered, "that it ought to be abolished") In another barricade Bastide, +compelled to absent himself for a moment, placed his pipe on a +paving-stone. They found Bastide's pipe, and they thought him dead. He +came back, and it was hailing musket-balls; he said, "My pipe?" he +relighted it and resumed the fight. Two balls pierced his coat. + +When the barricades were constructed, the Republican Representatives +spread themselves abroad; and distributed themselves amongst them. +Nearly all the Representatives of the Left repaired to the barricades, +assisting either to build them or to defend them. Besides the great +exploit at Saint Antoine barricade, where Schoelcher was so admirable, +Esquiros went to the barricade of the Rue de Charonne, De Flotte to +those of the Pantheon and of the Chapelle Saint Denis, Madier de +Montjau to those of Belleville and the Rue Aumaire, Doutre and Pelletier +to that of the Mairie of the Fifth Arrondissement, Brives to that of Rue +Beaubourg, Arnauld de l'Ariège to that of Rue de Petit-Repîsoir, Viguier +to that of the Rue Pagevin, Versigny to that of the Rue Joigneaux; +Dupont de Bussac to that of the Carré Saint Martin; Carlos Forel and +Boysset to that of the Rue Rambuteau. Doutre received a sword-cut on his +head, which cleft his hat; Bourzat had four balls in his overcoat; +Baudin was killed; Gaston Dussoubs was ill and could not come; his +brother, Denis Dussoubs, replaced him. Where? In the tomb. + +Baudin fell on the first barricade, Denis Dussoubs on the last. + +I was less favored than Bourzat; I only had three balls in my overcoat, +and it is impossible for me to say whence they came. Probably from the +boulevard. + +After the battle was lost there was no general helter-skelter, no rout, +no flight. All remained hidden in Paris ready to reappear, Michel in the +Rue d'Alger, myself in the Rue de Navarin. The Committee held yet +another sitting on Saturday, the 6th, at eleven o'clock at night. Jules +Favre, Michel de Bourges, and myself, we came during the night to the +house of a generous and brave woman, Madame Didier. Bastide came there +and said to me, "If you are not killed here, you are going to enter upon +exile. For myself, I am going to remain in Paris. Take me for your +lieutenant." I have related this incident. + +They hoped for the 9th (Tuesday) a resumption of arms, which did not +take place. Malarmet had announced it to Dupont de Bussac, but the blow +of the 4th had prostrated Paris. The populace no longer stirred. The +Representatives did not resolve to think of their safety, and to quit +France through a thousand additional dangers until several days +afterwards, when the last spark of resistance was extinguished in the +heart of the people, and the last glimmer of hope in heaven. + +Several Republican Representatives were workmen; they have again become +workmen in exile. Nadaud has resumed his trowel, and is a mason in +London. Faure (du Rhône), a cutler, and Bansept, a shoemaker, felt that +their trade had become their duty, and practise it in England. Faure +makes knives, Bansept makes boots. Greppo is a weaver, it was he who +when a proscript made the coronation robe of Queen Victoria. Gloomy +smile of Destiny. Noël Parfait is a proof-reader at Brussels; Agricol +Perdiguier, called Avignonnais-la-Vertu, has girded on his leathern +apron, and is a cabinet-maker at Antwerp. Yesterday these men sat in the +Sovereign Assembly. Such things as these are seen in Plutarch. + +The eloquent and courageous proscript, Emile Deschanel, has created at +Brussels, with a rare talent of speech, a new form of public +instruction, the Conferences. To him is due the honor of this +foundation, so fruitful and so useful. + +Let us say in conclusion that the National Legislative Assembly lived +badly but died well. + +At this moment of the fall, irreparable for the cowards, the Right was +worthy, the Left was great. + +Never before has History seen a Parliament fall in this manner. + +February had blown upon the Deputies of the legal country, and the +Deputies had vanished. M. Sauzet had sunk down behind the tribune, and +had gone away without even taking his hat. + +Bonaparte, the other, the first, the true Bonaparte, had made the "Five +Hundred" step out of the windows of the Orangery of Saint Cloud, +somewhat embarrassed with their large mantles. + +Cromwell, the oldest of the Bonapartes, when he achieved his Eighteenth +Brumaire, encountered scarcely any other resistance than a few +imprecations from Milton and from Ludlaw, and was able to say in his +boorishly gigantic language, "I have put the King in my knapsack and the +Parliament in my pocket." + +We must go back to the Roman Senate in order to find true Curule chairs. + +The Legislative Assembly, let us repeat, to its honor, did not lose +countenance when facing the abyss. History will keep an account of it. +After having betrayed so many things, it might have been feared that +this Assembly would end by betraying itself. It did nothing of the kind. +The Legislature, one is obliged to remember, had committed faults upon +faults; the Royalist majority had, in the most odious manner, persecuted +the Republican minority, which was bravely doing its duty in denouncing +it to the people; this Assembly had had a very long cohabitation and a +most fatal complicity with the Man of Crime, who had ended by strangling +it as a robber strangles his concubine in his bed; but whatever may be +said of this fateful Assembly, it did not exhibit that wretched +vanishing away which Louis Bonaparte hoped for; it was not a coward. + +This is due to its having originated from universal suffrage. Let us +mention this, for it is an instructive lesson. The virtue of this +universal suffrage, which had begotten the Assembly and which the +Assembly had wished to slay, it felt in itself to its last hour. + +The sap of a whole people does not spread in vain throughout an +Assembly, even throughout the most decrepit. On the decisive day this +sap asserts itself. + +The Legislative Assembly, laden as it may be with formidable +responsibilities, will, perhaps, be less overwhelmed than it deserves by +the reprobation of posterity. + +Thanks to universal suffrage, which it had deceived, and which +constituted its faith and its strength at the last moment, thanks to the +Left, which it had oppressed, scoffed at, calumniated, and decimated, +and which cast on it the glorious reflection of its heroism, this +pitiful Assembly died a grand death. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +PAGE WRITTEN AT BRUSSELS + +Well then, yes, I will kick open the door of this Palace, and I will +enter with you, History! I will seize by the collar all the +perpetrators, continually caught red-handed in the commission of all +these outrages! I will suddenly illuminate this cavern of night with the +broad daylight of truth! + +Yes, I will bring in the daylight! I will tear down the curtain, I will +open the window, I will show to every eye such as it really is, +infamous, horrible, wealthy, triumphant, joyous, gilded, +besmirched--this Elysée! this Court! this group! this heap! call it what +you will! this galley-crew! where writhe and crawl, and pair and breed +every baseness, every indignity, every abomination: filibusters, +buccaneers, swearers of oaths, Signers of the Cross, spies, swindlers, +butchers, executioners, from the brigand who vends his sword, to the +Jesuit who sells his God second-hand! This sink where Baroche elbows +Teste! where each brings his own nastiness! Magnan his epaulets; +Montalembert his religion, Dupin his person! + +And above all the innermost circle, the Holy of Holies, the private +Council, the smug den where they drink--where they eat--where they +laugh--where they sleep--where they play--where they cheat--where they +call Highnesses "Thou,"--where they wallow! Oh! what ignominies! It is +them! It is there! Dishonor, baseness, shame, and opprobrium are there! +Oh History! A hot iron for all these faces. + +It is there that they amuse themselves, and that they jest, and that +they banter, and that they make sport of France! It is there that they +pocket hap-hazard, amid great shouts of laughter, the millions of louis +and the millions of votes! See them, look at them! They have treated the +Law like a girl, they are content! Right is slaughtered, Liberty is +gagged, the flag is dishonored, the people are under their feet. They +are happy! And who are they? What are these men? Europe knows not. One +fine morning it saw them come out of a crime. Nothing more. A parcel of +rascals who vainly tried to become celebrated, and who have remained +anonymous. Look! they are all there! See them, I tell you! Look at them, +I tell you! Recognize them if you can. Of what sex are they? To what +species do they belong? Who is this one? Is he a writer? No; he is a +dog. He gobbles human flesh. And that one? Is he a dog? No, he is a +courtier--he has blood on his paw. + +New men, that is what they term them. New, in truth! Unlooked-for, +strange, unprecedented, monstrous! Perjury, iniquity, robbery, +assassination, erected into ministerial departments, swindling applied +to universal suffrage, government under false pretences, duty called +crime, crime called duty, cynicism laughing in the midst of +atrocity,--it is of all this that their newness is compounded. + +Now, all is well, they have succeeded, they have a fair wind, they enjoy +themselves to the full. They have cheated France, they are dividing the +spoil. France is a bag, and they put their hand in it. Rummage, for +Heaven's sake! Take, while you are there; help yourselves, draw out, +plunder, steal! One wants money, another wants situations, another wants +a decorative collar round his neck, another a plume in his hat, another +embroidery on his sleeve, another women, another power; another news for +the Bourse, another a railway, another wine. I should think, indeed, +that they are well satisfied. Picture to yourself a poor devil who, +three years ago, borrowed ten sous of his porter, and who to-day, +leaning voluptuously on the _Moniteur_, has only to sign a decree to +take a million. To make themselves perfectly happy, to be able to devour +the finances of the State, to live at the expense of the Treasury like a +son of the family, this is what is called their policy. Their ambition +has a true name, it is gluttony. + +They ambitious? Nonsense! They are gluttons. To govern is to gamble. +This does not prevent betrayal. On the contrary, they spy upon each +other, they betray each other. The little traitors betray the great +traitors. Pietri looks askance at Maupas, and Maupas at Carlier. They +all lie in the same reeking sewer! They have achieved the _coup d'état_ +in common. That is all. Moreover they feel sure of nothing, neither of +glances, nor of smiles, nor of hidden thoughts, nor of men, nor of +women, nor of the lacquey, nor of the prince, nor of words of honor, nor +of birth certificates. Each feels himself fraudulent, and knows himself +suspected. Each has his secret aims. Each alone knows why he has done +this. Not one utters a word about his crime, and no one bears the name +of his father. Ah! may God grant me life, and may Jesus pardon me, I +will raise a gibbet a hundred yards high, I will take hammer and nails, +and I will crucify this Beauharnais called Bonaparte, between this Leroy +called Saint-Arnoud, and this Fialin called Persigny! + +And I would drag you there also, all of you accomplices! This Morny, +this Romieu, this Fould, the Jew senator, this Delangle, who bears on +his back this placard: JUSTICE! and this Troplong, this judicial +glorifier of the violation of the laws, this lawyer apologist of the +_coup d'état_, this magistrate flatterer of perjury, this judge +panegyrist of murder, who will go down to posterity with a sponge filled +with mud and with blood in his hand. + +I begin the battle therefore. With whom? With the present ruler of +Europe. It is right that this spectacle should be given to the world. +Louis Bonaparte is the success, is the intoxicated triumph, is the gay +and ferocious despotism, opening out under the victory, he is the mad +fulness of power, seeking limits and finding none, neither in things nor +in men; Louis Bonaparte holds France, _Urbem Roman habit_; and whoever +holds France holds the world; he is master of the votes, master of the +consciences, master of the people; he nominates his successor, reigns +forever over future electoral scrutinies, disposes of eternity, and +places futurity in an envelope; his Senate, his Legislative Body, his +Council of State, with heads lowered and mingled confusedly behind him, +lick his feet; he drags along in a leash the bishops and cardinals; he +tramples on the justice which curses him, and on the judges who adore +him, thirty correspondents inform the Continent that he has frowned, and +every electric telegraph vibrates if he raises his little finger; around +him is heard the rustling of sabres, and the drums beat the salute; he +sits under the shadow of the eagle in the midst of bayonets and of +citadels, the free nations tremble and hide their liberties for fear +that he should steal them, the great American Republic herself falters +in his presence, and dares not withdraw her Ambassador from him; the +kings, surrounded by their armies, look at him smilingly, with their +hearts full of fear. Where will he begin? With Belgium? With +Switzerland? With Piedmont? Europe expects to be overrun. He is capable +of all, and he dreams of all. + +Well, then! Before this master, this triumpher, this conqueror, this +dictator, this Emperor, this all-powerful, there rises a solitary man, a +wanderer, despoiled, ruined, prostrate, proscribed, and attacks him. +Louis Napoleon has ten thousand cannons, and five hundred thousand +soldiers; the writer has his pen and his ink-stand. The writer is +nothing, he is a grain of dust, he is a shadow, he is an exile without a +refuge, he is a vagrant without a passport, but he has by his side and +fighting with him two powers, Right, which is invincible, and Truth, +which is immortal. + +Assuredly, for this struggle to the death, for this formidable duel, +Providence could have chosen a more illustrious champion, a grander +athlete. But what matter men, there, where it is the idea with combats! +Such as it is, it is good, let us repeat, that this spectacle should be +given to the world. What is this in truth? It is intellect, an atom +which resists strength--a colossus. + +I have only one stone in my sling, but that stone is a good one; that +stone is justice. + +I attack Louis Bonaparte at this hour, when he is erect; at this hour, +when he is master. He is in his zenith. So much the better; it is that +which suits me. + +Yes, I attack Louis Bonaparte. I attack him before the world; I attack +him in the presence of God and men; I attack him resolutely, +desperately; for the love of the people and of France. He is about to be +Emperor, let it be so. Let there be at least one brow which resists. Let +Louis Bonaparte know that an Empire may be taken, but that a Conscience +cannot be taken. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +THE INFALLIBLE BENEDICTION + +The Pope approved. + +When the mails brought to Rome intelligence of the event of the 2d of +December, the Pope went to a review held by General Gémeau, and begged +him to congratulate Prince Louis Napoléon for him. + +There was a precedent for this. + +On the 12th December, 1572, Saint-Goard, Ambassador of Charles the +Ninth, King of France, to Philip the Second, King of Spain, wrote from +Madrid to his master, Charles the Ninth, "The news of the events of the +day of Saint Bartholomew have reached the Catholic King. Contrary to his +wont and custom, he has shown so much joy, that he has manifested it +more openly than he has ever done for all the happy events and good +fortune which have previously befallen him. So that I went to him on +Sunday morning at Saint Hieronimus, and having approached him, he burst +out laughing, and with every demonstration of extreme pleasure and +contentment, began to praise your Majesty."[36] + +The hand of Pius IX. remained extended over France, when it had become +the Empire. + +Then, under the shadow of this benediction, began an era of prosperity. + + +[36] "Archives of the house of Orange," page 125, Supplement. + + + + +CONCLUSION--THE FALL. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +I was coming back from my fourth exile--an exile in Belgium, a small +matter. It was one of the last days of September, 1871. I was +re-entering France by the Luxembourg frontier. I had fallen asleep in +the carriage. Suddenly the jolt of the train coming to a standstill +awoke me. I opened my eyes. + +The train had stopped in the middle of a charming landscape. + +I was in the half-consciousness of an interrupted sleep; and ideas, as +yet half-dreams, hazy and diffuse, hovered between myself and reality. I +experienced the undefinable and confused sensation of awakening. + +A river flowed by the side of the railway, clear, around a bright and +verdant island. This vegetation was so thick that the moor-hens, on +reaching it, plunged beneath it and disappeared. The river wound through +a valley, which appeared like a huge garden. Apple-trees were there, +which reminded one of Eve, and willows, which made one think of Galatea. +It was, as I have said, in one of those equinoctial months when may be +felt the peculiar charm of a season drawing to a close. If it be winter +which is passing away, you hear the song of approaching spring; if it be +summer which is vanishing, you see glimmering on the horizon the +undefinable smile of autumn. The wind lulled and harmonized all those +pleasant sounds which compose the murmur of the fields; the tinkling of +the sheep-bells seemed to soothe the humming of the bees; the last +butterflies met together with the first grapes; this hour of the year +mingles the joy of being still alive with the unconscious melancholy of +fast approaching death; the sweetness of the sun was indescribable. +Fertile fields streaked with furrows, honest peasants' cottages; under +the trees a turf covered with shade, the lowing of cattle as in Virgil, +and the smoke of hamlets penetrated by rays of sunshine; such was the +complete picture. The clanging of anvils rang in the distance, the +rhythm of work amidst the harmony of nature. I listened, I mused +vaguely. The valley was beautiful and quiet, the blue heavens seemed as +though resting upon a lovely circle of hills; in the distance were the +voices of birds, and close to me the voices of children, like two songs +of angels mingled together; the universal purity enshrouded me: all this +grace and all this grandeur shed a golden dawn into my soul.... + +Suddenly a fellow-traveller asked,-- + +"What place is this?" + +Another answered,-- + +"Sedan." + +I shuddered. + +This paradise was a tomb. + +I looked around. The valley was circular and hollow, like the bottom of +a crater; the winding river resembled a serpent; the high hills, ranged +one behind the other, surrounded this mysterious spot like a triple line +of inexorable walls; once there, there is no means of exit. It reminded +me of the amphitheatres. An indescribable disquieting vegetation which +seemed to be an extension of the Black Forest, overran all the heights, +and lost itself in the horizon like a huge impenetrable snare; the sun +shone, the birds sang, carters passed by whistling; sheep, lambs, and +pigeons were scattered about, leaves quivered and rustled; the grass, a +densely thick grass, was full of flowers. It was appalling. + +I seemed to see waving over this valley the flashing of the avenging +angel's sword. + +This word "Sedan" had been like a veil abruptly torn aside. The +landscape had become suddenly filled with tragedy. Those shapeless eyes +which the bark of trees delineates on the trunks were gazing--at what? +At something terrible and lost to view. + +In truth, that was the place! And at the moment when I was passing by +thirteen months all but a few days had elapsed. That was the place where +the monstrous enterprise of the 2d of December had burst asunder. A +fearful shipwreck. + +The gloomy pathways of Fate cannot be studied without profound anguish +of the heart. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +On the 31st of August, 1870, an army was reassembled, and was, as it +were, massed together under the walls of Sedan, in a place called the +Givonne Valley. This army was a French army--twenty-nine brigades, +fifteen divisions, four army corps--90,000 men. This army was in this +place without any one being able to divine the reason; without order, +without an object, scattered about--a species of heap of men thrown down +there as though with the view of being seized by some huge hand. + +This army either did not entertain, or appeared not to entertain, for +the moment any immediate uneasiness. They knew, or at least they thought +they knew, that the enemy was a long way off. On calculating the stages +at four leagues daily, it was three days' march distant. Nevertheless, +towards evening the leaders took some wise strategic precautions; they +protected the army, which rested in the rear on Sedan and the Meuse, by +two battle fronts, one composed of the 7th Corps, and extending from +Floing to Givonne, the other composed of the 12th Corps, extending from +Givonne to Bazeilles; a triangle of which the Meuse formed the +hypothenuse. The 12th Corps, formed of the three divisions of +Lacretelle, Lartigue, and Wolf, ranged on the right, with the artillery, +between the brigades formed a veritable barrier, having Bazeilles and +Givonne at each end, and Daigny in its centre; the two divisions of +Petit and Lhéritier massed in the rear upon two lines supported this +barrier. General Lebrun commanded the 12th Corps. The 7th Corps, +commanded by General Douay, only possessed two divisions--Dumont's +division and Gilbert's division--and formed the other battle front, +covering the army of Givonne to Floing on the side of Illy; this battle +front was comparatively weak, too open on the side of Givonne, and only +protected on the side of the Meuse by the two cavalry divisions of +Margueritte and Bonnemains, and by Guyomar's brigade, resting in squares +upon Floing. Within this triangle were encamped the 5th Corps, commanded +by General Wimpfen, and the 1st Corps, commanded by General Ducrot. +Michel's cavalry division covered the 1st Corps on the side of Daigny; +the 5th supported itself upon Sedan. Four divisions, each disposed upon +two lines--the divisions of Lhéritier, Grandchamp, Goze, and +Conseil-Duménil--formed a sort of horseshoe, turned towards Sedan, and +uniting the first battle front with the second. The cavalry division of +Ameil and the brigade of Fontanges served as a reserve for these four +divisions. The whole of the artillery was upon the two battle fronts. +Two portions of the army were in confusion, one to the right of Sedan +beyond Balan, the other to the left of Sedan, on this side of Iges. +Beyond Balan were the divisions of Vassoigne and the brigade of Reboul, +on this side of Iges were the two cavalry divisions of Margueritte and +Bonnemains. + +These arrangements indicated a profound feeling of security. In the +first place the Emperor Napoleon III. would not have come there if he +had not been perfectly tranquil. This Givonne Valley is what Napoleon I. +called a "washhand basin." There could not be a more complete enclosure. +An army is so much at home there that it is too much so; it runs the +risk of no longer being able to get out. This disquieted some brave and +prudent leaders such as Wimpfen, but they were not listened to. If +absolutely necessary, said the people of the Imperial circle, they could +always be sure of being able to reach Mézières, and at the worst the +Belgian frontier. Was it, however, needful to provide for such extreme +eventualities? In certain cases foresight is almost an offence. They +were all of one mind, therefore, to be at their ease. + +If they had been uneasy they would have cut the bridges of the Meuse; +but they did not even think of it. To what purpose? The enemy was a long +way off. The Emperor, who evidently was well informed, affirmed it. + +The army bivouacked somewhat in confusion, as we have said, and slept +peaceably throughout this night of August 31, having, whatever might +happen, or believing that they had, the retreat upon Mézières open +behind it. They disdained to take the most ordinary precautions, they +made no cavalry reconnaissances, they did not even place outposts. A +German military writer has stated this.[37] Fourteen leagues at least +separated them from the German army, three days' march; they did not +exactly know where it was; they believed it scattered, possessing little +unity, badly informed, led somewhat at random upon several points at +once, incapable of a movement converging upon one single point, like +Sedan; they believed that the Crown Prince of Saxony was marching on +Chalons, and that the Crown Prince of Prussia was marching on Metz; they +were ignorant of everything appertaining to this army, its leaders, its +plan, its armament, its effective force. Was it still following the +strategy of Gustavus Adolphus? Was it still following the tactics of +Frederick II.? No one knew. They felt sure of being at Berlin in a few +weeks. What nonsense! The Prussian army! They talked of this war as of a +dream, and of this army as of a phantom. + +During this very night, while the French army was sleeping, this is what +was taking place. + + +[37] M. Harwik. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +At a quarter to two in the morning, at his headquarters at Mouzon, +Albert, Crown Prince of Saxony, set the Army of the Meuse in motion; the +Royal Guard were beat to arms, and two divisions marched, one upon +Villers-Cernay, by Escambre and Fouru-aux-Bois, the other upon +Francheval by Suchy and Fouru-Saint-Remy. The Artillery of the Guard +followed. + +At the same moment the 12th Saxon Corps was beaten to arms, and by the +high road to the south of Douzy reached Lamécourt, and marched upon La +Moncelle; the 1st Bavarian Corps marched upon Bazeilles, supported at +Reuilly-sur-Meuse by an Artillery Division of the 4th Corps. The other +division of the 4th Corps crossed the Meuse at Mouzon, and massed itself +in reserve at Mairy, upon the right bank. These three columns maintained +close communication with each other. The order was given to the advanced +guards to begin no offensive movement before five o'clock, and silently +to occupy Fouru-aux-Bois, Fouru-Saint-Remy, and Douay. They had left +their knapsacks behind them. The baggage-wagons did not stir. The Crown +Prince of Saxony was on horseback on the heights of Amblimont. + +At the same time, at his headquarters at Chémery, Blumenthal was having +a bridge built over the Meuse by the Wurtemburg division. The 11th +Corps, astir before daylight, crossed the Meuse at Dom-le-Mesnil and at +Donchery, and reached Vrigne-sur-Bois. The artillery followed, and held +the road from Vrigne to Sedan. The Wurtemburg division kept the bridge +which it had built, and held the road from Sedan to Mézières. At five +o'clock, the 2d Bavarian Corps, with the artillery at its head, detached +one of its divisions, and sent it by Bulson upon Frénois; the other +division passed by Noyers, and drew up before Sedan, between Frénois and +Wadelincourt. The artillery of the Reserve was drawn up on the heights +of the left bank, opposite Donchery. + +At the same time the 6th Cavalry Division was sent from Mazeray, and +passing by Boutancourt and Bolzicourt, reached the Meuse at Flize; the +2d Cavalry Division quitted its encampment, and took up its position to +the south of Boutancourt; the 4th Cavalry Division took up its position +to the south of Frénois; the 1st Bavarian Corps installed itself at +Remilly; the 5th Cavalry Division and the 6th Corps were posted to +observe, and all in line, and order, massed upon the heights waited for +the dawn to appear. The Crown Prince of Prussia was on horseback on the +hill of Frénois. + +At the same moment, upon every point of the horizon, other and similar +movements were taking place from every side. The high hills were +suddenly overrun by an immense black army. Not one shout of command. Two +hundred and fifty thousand men came silently to encircle the Givonne +Valley. + +This is what the circle consisted of,-- + +The Bavarians, the right wing, at Bazeilles on the Meuse; next to the +Bavarians the Saxons, at La Moncelle and Daigny; opposite Givonne, the +Royal Guard; the 5th Corps at Saint Menges; the 2d at Flaigneux; the +Wurtemburgers at the bend of the Meuse, between Saint Menges and +Donchery; Count Stolberg and his cavalry at Donchery; in front, towards +Sedan, the 2d Bavarian Army. + +All this was carried out in a ghostly manner, in order, without a +whisper, without a sound, through forests, ravines, and valleys. A +tortuous and ill-omened march. A stealthy gliding onwards of reptiles. + +Scarcely could a murmur be heard beneath the thick foliage. The silent +battle swarmed in the darkness awaiting the day. + +The French army was sleeping. + +Suddenly it awoke. + +It was a prisoner. + +The sun rose, brilliant on the side of God--terrible on the side of man. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +Let us review the situation. + +The Germans have numbers on their side; they are three against one, +perhaps four; they own to 250,000 men, and it is certain that their +attacking front extended for 30 kilomètres; they have on their side the +positions, they crown the heights, they fill the forests, they are +covered by all these escarpments, they are masked by all this shade; +they possess an incomparable artillery. The French army is in a valley, +almost without artillery and without supplies, utterly naked beneath +their hail of lead. The Germans have on their side the ambuscade, and +the French have only on their side heroism. Death is glorious, but +surprise is profitable. + +A surprise, that is the true description of this brilliant exploit. + +Is it fair warfare? Yes. But if this is fair, what is unfair warfare? It +is the same thing. + +This said, the story of the Battle of Sedan has been told. + +I should have wished to stop there. But I cannot. Whatever horror the +historian may feel, History is a duty, and this duty must be fulfilled. +There is no incline more inexorable than this: to tell the truth; he who +ventures on it rolls to the very bottom. It must be so. The guardian of +Justice is doomed to justice. + +The Battle of Sedan is more than a battle which has been fought; it is a +syllogism which is completed; a formidable premeditation of destiny. +Destiny never hurries, but it always comes. At its hour, there it is. It +allows years to pass by, and at the moment when men are least thinking +of it, it appears. Of this character is the fatal, the unexpected +catastrophe named Sedan. From time to time in History, Divine logic +makes an onslaught. Sedan is one of those onslaughts. + +Thus on the 1st of September, at five o'clock in the morning the world +awoke under the sun, and the French army under the thunderbolt. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +Bazeilles takes fire, Givonne takes fire, Floing takes fire; the battle +begins with a furnace. The whole horizon is aflame. The French camp is +in this crater, stupefied, affrighted, starting up from sleeping,--a +funereal swarming. A circle of thunder surrounds the army. They are +encircled by annihilation. This mighty slaughter is carried on on all +sides simultaneously. The French resist, and they are terrible, having +nothing left but despair. Our cannon, almost all old-fashioned and of +short range, are at once dismounted by the fearful and exact aim of the +Prussians. The density of the rain of shells upon the valley is so +great, that "the earth is completely furrowed," says an eye-witness, "as +though by a rake." How many cannon? Eleven hundred at least. Twelve +German batteries upon La Moncelle alone; the 3d and 4th _Abtheilung_, an +awe-striking artillery, upon the crests of Givonne, with the 2d horse +battery in reserve; opposite Doigny ten Saxon and two Wurtemburg +batteries; the curtain of trees of the wood to the north of +Villers-Cernay masks the mounted _Abtheilung_, which is there with the +3d Heavy Artillery in reserve, and from this gloomy copse issues a +formidable fire; the twenty-four pieces of the 1st Heavy Artillery are +ranged in the glade skirting the road from La Moncelle to La Chapelle; +the battery of the Royal Guard sets fire to the Garenne Wood; the shells +and the balls riddle Suchy, Francheval, Fouru-Saint-Remy, and the valley +between Heibes and Givonne; and the third and fourth rank of cannon +extend without break of continuity as far as the Calvary of Illy, the +extreme point of the horizon. The German soldiers, seated or lying +before the batteries, watch the artillery at work. The French soldiers +fall and die. Amongst the bodies which cover the plain there is one, the +body of an officers on which they will find, after the battle, a sealed +note, containing this order, signed NAPOLEON: "To-day, September 1st, +rest for the whole army." + +The gallant 35th of the Line almost completely disappears under the +overwhelming shower of shells; the brave Marine Infantry holds at bay +for a moment the Saxons, joined by the Bavarians, but outflanked on +every side, draws back; all the admirable cavalry of the Targueritte +Division hurled against the German infantry, halts and sinks down +midway, "annihilated," says the Prussian Report, "by well-aimed and cool +firing."[38] This field of carnage has three outlets; all three barred: +the Bouillon road by the Prussian Guard, the Carignan road by the +Bavarians, the Mézières road by the Wurtemburgers. The French have not +thought of barricading the railway viaduct; three German battalions have +occupied it during the night. Two isolated houses on the Balan road +could be made the pivot of a long resistance; but the Germans are there. +The wood from Monvilliers to Bazeilles, bushy and dense, might prevent +the junction of the Saxons, masters of La Moncelle, and the Bavarians, +masters of Bazeilles; but the French have been forestalled: they find +the Bavarians cutting the underwood with their bill-hooks. The German +army moves in one piece, in one absolute unity; the Crown Prince of +Saxony is on the height of Mairy, whence he surveys the whole action; +the command oscillates in the French army; at the beginning of the +battle, at a quarter to six, MacMahon is wounded by the bursting of a +shell; at seven o'clock Ducrot replaces him; at ten o'clock Wimpfen +replaces Ducrot. Every instant the wall of fire is drawing closer in, +the roll of the thunder is continuous, a dismal pulverization of 90,000 +men! Never before has anything equal to this been seen; never before has +an army been overwhelmed beneath such a downpour of lead and iron! At +one o'clock all is lost. The regiments fly helter-skelter into Sedan. +But Sedan begins to burn; Dijonval burns, the ambulances burn, there is +nothing now possible but to cut their way out. Wimpfen, brave and +resolute, proposes this to the Emperor. The 3d Zouaves, desperate, have +set the example. Cut off from the rest of the army, they have forced a +passage, and have reached Belgium. A flight of lions! + +Suddenly, above the disaster, above the huge pile of dead and dying, +above all this unfortunate heroism, appears disgrace. The white flag is +hoisted. + +Turenne and Vauban were both present, one in his statue, the other in +his citadel. + +The statue and the citadel witnessed the awe-striking capitulation. +These two virgins, one of bronze, the other of granite, felt themselves +prostituted. O noble face of our country! Oh, eternal blushes! + + +[38] The Franco-German War of 1870-71. Report of the Prussian Staff, +page 1087. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +This disaster of Sedan was easy of avoidance by any other man, but +impossible of avoidance for Louis Bonaparte. He avoided it so little +that he sought it. _Lex fati_. + +Our army seemed expressly arranged for the catastrophe. The soldier was +uneasy, ignorant of his whereabouts, famished. On the 31st of August, in +the streets of Sedan, soldiers were seeking their regiments, and going +from door to door asking for bread. We have seen the Emperor's order +announcing the next day, September 1st, as a day of rest. In truth the +army was worn out with fatigue. And yet it had only marched by short +stages. The soldier was almost losing the habit of marching. One corps, +the 1st, for example, only accomplished two leagues per day (on the 29th +of August from Stonne to Raucourt). + +During that time the German army, inexorably commanded and driven at the +stick's end like the army of the Xerxes, achieved marches of fourteen +leagues in fifteen hours, which enabled it to arrive unexpectedly, and +to surround the French army while asleep. It was customary to allow +oneself to be surprised. General Failly allowed himself to be surprised +at Beaumont; during the day the soldiers took their guns to pieces to +clean them, at night they slept, without even cutting the bridges which +delivered them to the enemy; thus they neglected to blow up the bridges +of Mouzon and Bazeilles. On September 1st, daylight had not yet +appeared, when an advance guard of seven battalions, commanded by +General Schultz, captured La Rulle, and insured the junction of the army +of the Meuse with the Royal Guard. Almost at the same minute, with +German precision, the Wurtemburgers seized the bridge of La Platinerie, +and hidden by the Chevalier Wood, the Saxon battalions, spread out into +company columns, occupied the whole of the road from La Moncelle to +Villers-Cernay. + +Thus, as we have seen, the awakening of the French Army was horrible. At +Bazeilles a fog was added to the smoke. Our soldiers, attacked in this +gloom, knew not what death required of them; they fought from room to +room and from house to house.[39] + +It was in vain that the Reboul brigade came to support the Martin des +Pallières brigade; they were obliged to yield. At the same time Ducrot +was compelled to concentrate his forces in the Garenne Wood, before the +Calvary of Illy; Douay, shattered, fell back; Lebrun alone stood firm on +the plateau of Stenay. Our troops occupied a line of five kilomètres; +the front of the French army faced the east, the left faced the north, +the extreme left (the Guyomar brigade) faced the west; but they did not +know whether they faced the enemy, they did not see him; annihilation +struck without showing itself; they had to deal with a masked Medusa. +Our cavalry was excellent, but useless. The field of battle, obstructed +by a large wood, cut up by clumps of trees, by houses and by farms and +by enclosure walls, was excellent for artillery and infantry, but bad +for cavalry. The rivulet of Givonne, which flows at the bottom of the +valley and crosses it, for three days ran with more blood than water. +Among other places of carnage, Saint-Menges was appalling. For a moment +it appeared possible to cut a way out by Carignan towards Montmédy, and +then this outlet reclosed. This refuge only remained, Sedan; Sedan +encumbered with carts, with wagons, with carriages, with hospital huts; +a heap of combustible matter. This dying agony of heroes lasted ten +hours. They refused to surrender, they grew indignant, they wished to +complete their death, so bravely begun. They were delivered up to it. + +As we have said, three men, three dauntless soldiers, had succeeded each +other in the command, MacMahon, Ducrot, Wimpfen; MacMahon had only time +to be wounded, Ducrot had only time to commit a blunder, Wimpfen had +only time to conceive an heroic idea, and he conceived it; but MacMahon +is not responsible for his wound, Ducrot is not responsible for his +blunder, and Wimpfen is not responsible for the impossibility of his +suggestion to cut their way out. The shell which struck MacMahon +withdrew him from the catastrophe; Ducrot's blunder, the inopportune +order to retreat given to General Lebrun, is explained by the confused +horror of the situation, and is rather an error than a fault. Wimpfen, +desperate, needed 20,000 soldiers to cut his way out, and could only get +together 2000. History exculpates these three men; in this disaster of +Sedan there was but one sole and fatal general, the Emperor. That which +was knitted together on the 2d December, 1851, came apart on the 2d +September, 1870; the carnage on the Boulevard Montmartre, and the +capitulation of Sedan are, we maintain, the two parts of a syllogism; +logic and justice have the same balance; it was Louis Bonaparte's dismal +destiny to begin with the black flag of massacres and to end with the +white flag of disgrace. + + +[39] "The French were literally awakened from sleep by our attack." +--Helvic. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +There was no alternative between death and opprobrium; either soul or +sword must be surrendered. Louis Bonaparte surrendered his sword. + +He wrote to William: + + "SIRE, MY BROTHER, + + "Not having been able to die in the midst of my troops, it only + remains for me to place my sword in your Majesty's hands. + + "I am, your Majesty, + + "Your good Brother, + + "NAPOLEON. + + "Sedan, 1st September, 1870." + +William answered, "Sire, my Brother, I accept your sword." + +And on the 2d of September, at six o'clock in the morning, this plain, +streaming with blood, and covered with dead, saw pass by a gilded open +carriage and four, the horses harnessed after Daumont fashion, and in +this carriage a man, cigarette in mouth. It was the Emperor of the +French going to surrender his sword to the King of Prussia. + +The King kept the Emperor waiting. It was too early. He sent M. de +Bismarck to Louis Bonaparte to say that he "would not" receive him yet +awhile. Louis Bonaparte entered into a hovel by the side of the road. A +table and two chairs were there. Bismarck and he leant their arms on the +table and conversed. A mournful conversation. At the hour which suited +the King, towards noon, the Emperor got back into his carriage, and went +to the castle of Bellevue, half way to the castle of Vandresse. There he +waited until the King came. At one o'clock William arrived from +Vandresse, and consented to receive Bonaparte. He received him badly. +Attila has not a light hand. The King, a blunt, straightforward man, +showed the Emperor a pity involuntarily cruel. There are pities which +overwhelm. The conqueror upbraided the conquered with the victory. +Bluntness handles an open wound badly. "Whatever was your reason for +declaring this war?" The conquered excused himself, accusing France. The +distant hurrahs of the victorious German army cut short this dialogue. + +The King caused the Emperor to be reconducted by a detachment of the +Royal Guard. This excess of ignominy is called "an escort of honor." + +After the sword the Army. + +On the 3d of September, Louis Bonaparte handed over to Germany 88,000 +French soldiers. + +"In addition" (says the Prussian report):-- + +"One eagle and two flags. + +"419 field-guns and mitrailleuses. + +"139 heavy pieces. + +"1079 vehicles of all kinds. + +"60,000 muskets. + +"6000 horses, still good for service." + +These German figures are not wholly to be depended upon. According to +what seems useful at the moment, the Aulic chancellors swell or reduce +the disaster. There were about 13,000 wounded amongst the prisoners. The +numbers vary in the official documents. A Prussian report, reckoning up +the French soldiers killed and wounded in the battle of Sedan, publishes +this total: _Sixteen thousand four hundred_ men. This number causes a +shudder. For it is that very number, _Sixteen thousand four hundred_ +men, which Saint Arnaud had set to work on the Boulevard Montmartre upon +the 4th of December, 1851. + +Half a league to the north-west of Sedan, near Iges, the bend of the +Meuse almost forms an island. A canal crosses the isthmus, so that the +peninsula becomes an island. It was there that there were penned, under +the stick of the Prussian corporals, 83,000 French soldiers. A few +sentinels watched over this army. + +They placed but few, insolently. These conquered men remained there ten +days, the wounded almost without care, the able-bodied almost without +nourishment. The German army sneered around them. The heavens took part +against them. The weather was fearful. Neither huts nor tents. Not a +fire, not a truss of straw. For ten days and ten nights these 83,000 +prisoners bivouacked with their heads beneath the rain, their feet in +the mud. Many died of fever, regretting the hail of bullets. + +At length ox-wagons came and took them away. + +The King placed the Emperor in some place or other. Wilhelmshöhe. + +What a thing of rags and tatters, an Emperor "drawn" like a fowl! + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +I was there, thoughtful. I looked on these fields, these ravines, these +hills, shuddering. I would willingly have insulted this terrible place. + +But sacred horror held me back. + +The station-master of Sedan came to my carriage, and explained to me +what I had before my eyes. I seemed to see, through his words, the pale +lightnings of the battle. All these distant cottages, scattered about +and charming in the sun, had been burnt; they were rebuilt; Nature, so +quickly diverted, had repaired everything, had cleaned everything, had +swept everything, had replaced everything. The ferocious convulsion of +men had vanished, eternal order had resumed its sway. But, as I have +said, the sun was there in vain, all this valley was smoke and darkness. +In the distance, upon an eminence to my left, I saw a huge castle; it +was Vandresse. There lodged the King of Prussia. Halfway up this height, +along the road, I distinguished above the trees three pointed gables; it +was another castle, Bellevue; there Louis Bonaparte surrendered to +William; there he had given and delivered up our army; it was there +that, not being immediately admitted, and requested to exercise a little +patience, he had remained for nearly an hour silent and wan before the +door, bringing his disgrace, and waiting until it should please William +to open the door to him; it was there that before receiving it the King +of Prussia had made the sword of France dangle about in an ante-chamber. +Lower down, nearer, in the valley, at the beginning of a road leading to +Vandresse, they pointed out to me a species of hovel. There they told +me, while waiting for the King of Prussia, the Emperor Napoleon III. had +got down, livid; he had gone into a little courtyard, which they pointed +out to me, and where a dog growled on the chain; he had seated himself +on a stone close by a dunghill, and he had said, "I am thirsty." A +Prussian soldier had brought him a glass of water. + +Terrible end of the _coup d'état_! Blood when it is drunk does not +quench the thirst. An hour was to come when the unhappy one should utter +the cry of fever and of agony. Disgrace reserved for him this thirst, +and Prussia this glass of water. + +Fearful dregs of Destiny. + +Beyond the road, at a few steps from me, five trembling and pale poplars +sheltered the front of the house, the single story of which was +surmounted by a sign. On this sign was written in great letters this +name: DROUET. I became haggard. _Drouet_ I read _Varennes_. Tragical +Chance, which mingled Varennes with Sedan, seemed to wish to bring the +two catastrophes face to face, and to couple in a manner with the same +chain the Emperor a prisoner of the foreigner, to the King a prisoner of +his people. + +The mist of reverie veiled this plain from me. The Meuse appeared to me +to wear a ruddy reflection, the neighboring isle, whose verdure I had +admired, had for its subsoil a tomb: Fifteen hundred horses, and as many +men, were buried there: thence the thick grass. Here and there, as far +as could be seen, mounds, covered with ill-favored vegetation, dotted +the valley; each of these patches of vegetation marked the place of a +buried regiment. There Guyomar's Brigade had been annihilated; there, +the Lhéritier Division had been exterminated; here the 7th Corps had +perished; there, without having even reached the enemy's infantry, had +fallen "beneath the cool and well-aimed firing," as the Prussian report +states, the whole of General Margueritte's cavalry. From these two +heights, the most elevated of this circle of hills, Daigny, opposite +Givonne, which is 266 mètres high, Fleigneux, opposite Illy, 296 mètres +high, the batteries of the Prussian Royal Guard had crushed the French +Army. It was done from above, with the terrible authority of Destiny. It +seemed as though they had come there purposely, these to kill, the +others to die. A valley for a mortar, the German Army for a pestle, such +is the battle of Sedan. I gazed, powerless to avert my eyes, at this +field of disaster, at this undulating country which had proved no +protection to our regiments, at this ravine where all our cavalry were +demolished, at all this amphitheatre where the catastrophe was spread +out, at the gloomy escarpments of La Marphée, at these thickets, at +these declivities, at these precipices, at these forests filled with +ambushes, and in this terrible shadow, O Thou the Invisible! I saw Thee. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +Never was there a more dismal fall. + +No expiation can be compared with this. The unprecedented drama was in +five acts, so fierce that Aeschylus himself would not have dared to +dream of them. "The Ambush!" "The Struggle!" "The Massacre!" "The +Victory!" "The Fall!" What a tangle and what an unwinding! A poet who +would have predicted it would have seemed a traitor. God alone could +permit Himself Sedan. + +Everything in proportion, such is His law. Far worse than Brumaire, it +needed a more crushing retribution than Waterloo. + +The first Napoleon, as we have said elsewhere,[40] had faced his +destiny; he had not been dishonored by his punishment, he fell while +steadfastly regarding God. He came back to Paris, appraising the deserts +of those men who overthrew him, proudly distinguishing amongst them, +esteeming Lafayette and despising Dupin. He had at the last moment +wished to see clearly into his destiny, he had not allowed his eyes to +be bandaged; he had accepted the catastrophe while making his conditions +with it. Here there is nothing of the kind. One might almost say that +the traitor is struck treacherously. In this case there is a bad man who +feels himself in the grasp of Destiny, and who does not know what it is +doing to him. He was at the summit of his power, the blind master of an +idiot world. He had wished for a _plebiscitum_, he had had one. He had +at his feet this very William. It was at this moment that his crime +suddenly seized him. He did not struggle against it; he was the +condemned man who obeys his sentence. He submitted to everything which +terrible Fate exacted from him. Never was there a more docile patient. +He had no army, he made war; he had only Rouher, he provoked Bismarck; +he had only Leboeuf, he attacked Moltke. He confided Strasburg to +Uhrich; he gave Metz to Bazaine to guard. He had 120,000 men at Châlons; +he had it in his power to cover Paris. He felt that his crime rose up +there, threatening and erect; he fled, not daring to face Paris. He +himself led--purposely, and yet despite himself; willing and yet +unwilling, knowingly and yet unknowingly, a miserable mind, a prey to +the abyss--he led his army into a place of annihilation; he made that +terrible choice, a battle-field without an outlet; he was no longer +conscious of anything, no more of his blunder of to-day than of his +crime of former days; he must finish, but he could only finish as a +fugitive; this condemned one was not worthy to look his end in the face; +he lowered his head, he turned his back. God executed him in degrading +him. Napoleon III. as an Emperor had a right to thunder, but for this +man the thunder was ignominious--he was thunderstruck in the back. + + +[40] "L'Année Terrible." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +Let us forget this man, and let us look at Humanity. + +The invasion of France by Germany, in 1870, was a night effect. The +world was astonished that so much gloom could come forth from a people. +Five black months--such was the siege of Paris. To create night may +prove Power, but Glory consists in the creation of daylight. France +creates daylight. Thence her immense human popularity. To her +Civilization owes the dawn. The human mind in order to see clearly turns +in the direction of France. Five months of darkness, that is what, in +1870, Germany succeeded in giving to the Nations; France has given to +them four centuries of light. + +To-day the civilized world more than ever feels the need which it has of +France. France has proved this by her danger. The ungrateful apathy of +Governments only increased the anxiety of nations. At the sight of Paris +threatened, there arose among the peoples dread that their own heads +were in danger. Would they allow Germany to go on? But France saved +herself quite alone. She had only to rise. _Patuit dea_. + +To-day she is greater than ever. What would have killed another nation +has hardly wounded her. The darkening of her horizon has rendered her +light more visible. What she has lost in territory she has gained in +radiancy. Moreover, she is fraternal without an effort. Above her +misfortune there is her smile. It is not on her that the Gothic Empire +weighs. She is a nation of citizens and not a flock of subjects. +Frontiers? Will there be any frontiers in twenty years? Victories? +France counts in her past victories of war, and in her future victories +of peace. The future belongs to Voltaire, and not to Krupp; the future +belongs to the book, and not to the sword. The future belongs to life, +and not to death. There is in the policy opposed to France a certain +amount of the tomb; to seek life in the old institutions is a vain task, +and to feed upon the past is to bite the dust. France has the faculty of +giving light; no catastrophe, political or military, will deprive her of +this mysterious supremacy. The cloud passes away, the star is seen once +more. + +The star possesses no anger; the dawn bears no malice. Light is +satisfied in being light. Light is everything; the human race has no +other love. France knows herself beloved because she is good, and the +greatest of all powers is to be loved. The French revolution is for all +the world. It is a battle perpetually waged for Right, and perpetually +gained for Truth. Right is the innermost part of man; Truth is the +innermost part of God. What can be done against a revolution which has +so much right on its side? Nothing. To love it. That is what the nations +do. France offers herself, the world accepts her. The whole phenomenon +lies in these few words. An invasion of armies can be resisted; an +invasion of ideas cannot be resisted. The glory of barbarians is to be +conquered by humanity; the glory of savages is to be conquered by +civilization; the glory of darkness is to be conquered by the torch. +This is why France is desired and assented to by all. This is why, +having no hatred, she has no fear; this is why she is fraternal and +maternal; this is why it is impossible to lessen her, impossible to +humiliate her, impossible to irritate her; this is why, after so many +ordeals, after so many catastrophes, after so many disasters, after so +many calamities, after so many falls, incorruptible and invulnerable she +holds out her hand to all the peoples from above. + +When our glance rests on this old continent, stirred to-day by a new +breath, certain phenomena appear, and we seem to gain a glimpse of that +august and mysterious problem, the formation of the future. It may be +said, that in the same manner as light is compounded of seven colors, +civilization is compounded of seven peoples. Of these peoples, three, +Greece, Italy, and Spain, represent the South; three, England, Germany, +and Russia, represent the north; the seventh, or the first, France, is +at the same time North and South, Celtic and Latin, Gothic and Greek. +This country owes to its heaven this sublime good fortune, the crossing +of two rays of light; the crossing of two rays of light is as though we +were to say the joining of two hands, that is to say Peace. Such is the +privilege of this France, she is at the same time solar and starry. In +her heaven she possesses as much dawn as the East, and as many stars as +the North. Sometimes her glimmer rises in the twilight, but it is in the +black night of revolutions and of wars that her resplendence blazes +forth, and her aurorean dawn becomes the Aurora Borealis. + +One day, before long, the seven nations, which combine in themselves the +whole of humanity, will join together and amalgamate like the seven +colors of the prism, in a radiant celestial arch; the marvel of Peace +will appear eternal and visible above civilization, and the world, +dazzled, will contemplate the immense rainbow of the United Peoples of +Europe. + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of a Crime, by Victor Hugo + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10381 *** |