m. vJwWMffff i mm wmm. 1 the Marquise, 12 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. "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 be- loved and victorious. Lamoriciere, Changarnier, Cavai- gnac, Leflo, Bedeau, Charras ; how could any one imagine the Army of Africa arresting the Generals of Africa V 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 live 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 satir- ical 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 cTttat 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. tEE EISTOBY OF A CRIME. 13 CHAPTER II. PARIS SLEEPS — THE BELL RINGS. On the 2d December, 1851, Representative Versigny, of the Haute- Saone, who resided at Paris, at No. 4, Rue Leonie, 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 Rastiat, 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 some one 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 Rourges and Theodore Rac entered, Michel de Rourges was the neighbor of Versigny ; he lived at Xo. 16, Rue de Milan. Theodore Rac 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 busi- ness beginning again?" " It is more than that," replied Michel. " Raune's wife and daughter came to me half-an-hour ago. They awoke me. Raune was arrested in his 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. 14 THE HISTORY OF A CHIME. 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, Cite 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 Repub- lican 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. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 15 t "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 perpendicu- larly to the front of the Invalides. Th;s street was trav- ersed 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 marked 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 Assem- bly 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 hunted on the Esplanade were the 6th and the 42d Regiments of the Line, the 6th commanded by Colonel Garderens dc 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, witli their ammunition wagons, were ranged in a little square courtyard situ- 16 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. ated 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 imme- diate control of the Questors.* At nightfall the gratings and the doors were secured, sentinels were posted, instruc- tions 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 pro- hibited the entrance of any armed force other than the regiment on duty. On the night of the 1st and 2d of December the Leg- islative Palace was guarded by a battalion of the 42d. The sitting of the 1st of December, which was exceed- ingly 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 Elyseens " 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 Assem- bly, 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 Leflo'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 ex- cited but little attention at the Questure, and several even laughed at it. It had become customary with them. Nevertheless General Leflo would not go to bed until the hour mentioned had passed by, and remained in the * The Questors were officers elected by the Assembly, whose special duties were to keep and audit the accounts, and Mho controlled all matters affecting the social economy of the House. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 17 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 3/oniteur, 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 Prevost corrected them. M. Hippolyte Prevost was chief of the stenographic staff, and in that capacity had apart- ments 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 Opera Comique for the first representation of a new piece, and did not return till after midnight. The fourth messenger from the Mon- iteur was waiting for him with a proof of the last slip of the sitting ; M. Prevost corrected the proof, and the mes- senger 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-Ad- jutant-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 mutter- ing 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 becom- ing strange ; nevertheless, go." The Adjutant-Major had amongst other duties that of giving out the instructions to the sentries, and con- sequently 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 com- 2 18 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. municate with the Military Commandant of the Palace, lie 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 Command- ant. 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 re- mained 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 4'2d. 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, superin- tended this taking up of arms. The cavalry were not set in motion until three-quarters of an hour after the in- fantry, 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 Elysee to the camp of the Invalides the order to take up arms, marched at the head of the 4"2d, by the side of Colonel Espinasse. A story is current in the army, for at the present day, wearied as people are with dishonorable in- cidents, these occurrences are yet told with a species of gloomy indifference — the story is current that at the mo- ment of setting out with his regiment one of the colonels who could be named hesitated, and that the emissary from the Elysee, 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 THE III STORY OF A CRIME. 19 to hand to you, are a hundred thousand francs in bank- notes 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 epau- lets." The lady showed him the door. Xavier Durrieu, who tells us this story, had the curios- ity 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 Cite who may have returned home at a late hour of the night might have ^ noticed a large number of street cabs loitering in scattered J groups at different points round about the Rue de Jeru- ■J salem. From eleven o'clock in the evening, under pretext of the arrival of refugees at Paris from Genoa and London, the Brigade of Surety and the eight hundred ser gents de mile had been retained in the Prefecture. At three o'clock y^ _ in the morning a summons had been sent to the f orty- W— 'eight Commissaries of Paris and of the suburbs, and also J*^" 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 \J 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 Elysee as possible chieftains of barricades. It was necessary, a still more daring out- rage, 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 : 20 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. man. Sieur Courtille had Charras, Sieur Desgranges had Nadaud, Sieur Hubaut the elder had M. Thiers, and Sieur Ilubaut the younger General Bedeau, General Changar- nier was allotted to Lerat, and General Cavaignac to Colin. Sieur Dourlens took Representative Valentin, Sieur Benoist Representative Miot, Sieur Allard Repre- sentative Cholat, Sieur Barlet took Roger (Du Nord), General Lamoriciere fell to Commissary Blanchet, Com- missary Gronfler had Representative Greppo, and Com- missary Boudrot Representative Lagrange. The Questors were similarly allotted, Monsieur Baze to the Sieur Pri- morin, and General Leflo 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 ser gents 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 wait- ing were called up, and all started, each with his instruc- tions. 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- Ilaudriettes, 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. lie 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 21 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. Hippoly te Prevost returned to the Legislative Palace, the manager of the National Printing Office reentered his office, also returning from the Opera 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 Elysee 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, Mon- sieur de Beville?" " 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 kind of politics. The coachman drank and then went to sleep. The door of the parlor Avas 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 ar- rivals 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 (•><> d'etat 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 22. T1IE HISTORY OF A CRIME. spoken. Sentinels were placed in the workrooms, in the corridors, at the doors, at the windows, in fact, every- where, 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 Beville, 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 Beville, who put them together and corrected the proof sheets. The machining was conducted with the same precautions, each press being between two soldiers. Not- withstanding all possible diligence the work lasted two hours. The gendarmes watched over the workmen. Beville watched over St. Georges. When the work was finished a suspicious incident oc- curred, which greatly resembled a treason within a trea- son. To a traitor a greater traitor. This species of crime is subject to such accidents. Beville and St. Georges, the two trusty confidants in whose hands lay the secret of the co'itp d'etat, 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 23 effect,'' as the ex-Colonel Beville said later on, rather naively. 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'etat 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'Uni- versite there is a door of the Palace which is the old en- trance 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 Regi- ment of the line, followed at some distance by the Oth Regiment, which had marched by the Rue de Bourgogne, emerged from the Rue de l'LTniversite. " The regiment," says an eye-witness, " marched as one steps in a sick- room." It arrived with a stealthy step before the Presi- dency 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." 24 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. The National Assembly was invaded. At the noise of the footsteps the Commandant Meunier ran up. " Commandant," Colonel Espinasse cried out to him, "I come to relieve your battalion." The Com- mandant 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 en- trances 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 still slept in the Palace. Shortly afterwards arrived two of those little chariots which are called " forty sous," and two jiacres, 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 Elysee. 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 quar- ter 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 in- genuous remarks we have already cited, said to a group of men near whom M. de Morny was passing, " How these THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 25 men of the Mountain calumniate the President ! The man who would break his oath, who would achieve a coup, d'etat must necessarily be a worthless wretch." Awak- ened rudely in the middle of the night, and relieved of Ids 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 posi- tions, one of Royal bastard, the other of Imperial bastard. Who was Morny ? We will say, " A noted wit, an in- triguer, 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 witli 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 Em- peror, 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 him- self 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 con- science, 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 be- gan 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 Leflo was lodged in the Pavilion inhabited in the time of the Due de Bourbon by Monsieur Feucheres. That night General Leflo had slaying with him his sister 26 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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-law sprang out of bed, and cried out to the Questor, whoslept 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 Ber- toglio standing beside his bed. He sprang up. " General," said the Commissary, " I have come to ful- fil a duty." " I understand," said General Leflo, " 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 Medeah, 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 em- braced him ; his son, a child of seven years, in his night- shirt, and in tears, said to the Commissary of Police, " Mercy, Monsieur Bonaparte." The General, while clasping his wife in his arms, whis- pered in her ear, " There is artillery in the courtyard, try and fire a cannon." The Commissary and his men led him away. He re- garded 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 T 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 ser gents de ville pushed him into a fiacre, and a sub-lieutenant ap- THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 27 proaching 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 lie was the Commissary of Police of the Assembly, opened the door. At this moment M. Baze, who had heard the noise, and had just awaked, 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 serpents de mile 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 ser gents de mile. "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 28 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 con- trived under the vault opposite the treasury of the As- sembly, 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, clasp- ing 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 domi- ciliary 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 Pres- idency door, passed by the Cour d' ITonneur 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 IIISTORY OF A CRIME. 29 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 to- gether. 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 cVteat 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 contami- nated." 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 (luring 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 ho entered he saw Baune and Xadaud being brought out. There was a table in the centre, at which Commis- sary 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, Avritten in the following order: Lamoriciere, Charms, Cavaignac, Changarnier, Leflo, Thiers, Bedeau, Roger (du 30 TI1E HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 pro- test, 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?" "lam 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 representa- tion committed upon my colleagues and upon myself. " Given at Mazas on the 2d December, 1851, at eight o'clock in the morning. "Bazi;." 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 ilames, 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 31 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. This 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. 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 distin- guished under the folds of their cloaks, arrived in silence before a house, occupied the street, encircled the ap- proaches, 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 Lamoriciere 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 carry- 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 pro- fessed 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 Xord), who with courageous and witty irony offered sherry to the bandits. Charms and Changarniei' were taken unawares. 32 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. They lived in the Rue St. Honore, 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 De- cember, 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 him- self 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'etat. If these pistols had remained loaded, and if General Renaud had had the task of arrresting 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 invio- lable." — "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 Lamorieiere. 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 Rep- resentatives into jail. " Look me in the face," said Charras to him. Thirion moved away. Thus, without counting other arrests which took place THE niSTORY OF A CRIME. 33 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 OP 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. lie 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 81st May is abrogated — ' Well done ! ' Universal suffrage is re-estab- lished — ■' 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 (Vet<(t 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, Mon- sieur Victor Hugo?" I took my scarf of office from a cupboard, and showed it to him. lie understood. We shook hands. As he went out, Carini entered. 3 34 THE HISTOBY OF A CRIME. Colonel Carini is an intrepid man. He had commanded the cavalry under Mieroslawsky in the Sicilian insurrec- tion. He has, in a few moving and enthusiastic pages, told the story of that nohle revolt. Carini is one of those Italians who love France as we Frenchmen love Italy. Every warm-hearted man in this century has two father- lands — the Home 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 formid- able manner. The Assembly is invested. I have come from thence. The Place de la Involution, the Quays, the Tuileries, the boulevards, are crowded with troops. The soldiers have their knapsacks. The batteries are har- nessed. 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 : — "Doit." My breakfast was ready. I ate a cutlet in two month- fuls. 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 de- serted 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 Pepublic. The people are attacked. The people must defend themselves." THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 85 "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 Cite Rodier, in the Rue Coquenard, and at Notre-Dame de Lorette. CHAPTER VI. " PLACARDS." Ox 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 tran- quillity 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 36 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. incessantly invoke it, and that the men who have ruined two monarchies wish to tie my hands in order to over- throw the Republic, my duty is to frustrate their treach- erous 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 ren- ders 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 some- thing durable may be established. " Persuaded that the instability of power, that the pre- ponderance 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 distin- guished 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 univer- sal suffrage, without scrutin de liste, which falsities the elections. " 5. A Second Assembly composed of the most illus- trious men of the country, a power of equipoise, the guardian of the fundamental compact, and of the public liberties. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 37 " This system, created by the first Consul at the begin- ning of the century, has already given repose and pros- perity 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 gov- ernment without strength, Monarchical or Republican, borrowed I know not from what past, or from what chi- merical 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 an- archy, obstacles will be removed, rivalries will have dis- appeared, for all will respect, in the decision of the People, the decree of Providence. " Given at the Palace of the Elysee, 2d December, 1851. " Louis Napoleox 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 I hold from the whole Nation. It has ceased to exist. 38 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. " 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. u 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 reflec- tion. " Be ready to repress every attack upon the free exer- cise 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 Elysee, 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. THE HISTORY OF A CHIME. 39 "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 ex- ecution of this decree. " Given at the Palace of the Elysee, 2d December, 1851. "Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. "De Morny, Minister of the Interior." CHAPTER VII. NO. 70, RUE BLANCHE. The Cite 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, how- ever. As I reached Xo. 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 Xo. 70, Rue Blanche, a few steps from here." I knew Xo. 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 Xo. 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, — 40 THE ni STORY OF A CRIME. " Hugo, what will you do ? " I answered him, — " Everything." " That also is my opinion," said he. Numerous representatives arrived, and amongst others Pierre Lefranc, Lahrousse, Theodore Bac, Noel Parfait, Arnauld (de l'Ariege), Demosthenes Ollivier, an ex-Con- stituent, and Charamaule. There was deep and unutter- able 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. Theodore Bac came from Leon Faucher, who lived in the Rue Blanche. It was he who had awakened Leon Faucher, and had announced the news to him. The first words of Leon 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 Bight. In the Assembly he was the neighbor of Montalembert and of Biancey. He sometimes had warm disputes with them, which we watched from afar off, and which amused us. Charamaule had come to the meeting at Xo. 70 dressed in a sort of blue cloth military cloak, and armed, as we found out later on. The situation was grave ; sixteen Representatives ar- rested, 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. Xo means of raising the protest, no means of beginning the combat. The coup cVctat was clad with mail, the Republic was naked ; the coup cVetat had a speaking trumpet, the Republic wore a gag. What was to be done ? The raid against the Republic, against the Assembly, THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 41 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 en- gender 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 ambus- cade 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 ca- pable 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, l)outre, 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 Republique ! 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, it 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. 42 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. Michel de Bourges seriously objected. My instinct whs to begin at once, his advice was to wait and see. According to him there was danger in hastening the catastrophe. The coup cVetat 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. AVe 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 Peo- ple rose in 1830. To-day they wait. They are dupes until they shall be victims." Michel de Bourges con- cluded, " The People must be given time to understand, to grow angry, to rise. As for us, Representatives, 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 nat- ural leaders — the Kepresentatives 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 an- nounced by the Right for noon, all those who went there would be arrested. We must remain free, we must re- main in readiness, we must remain calm, and must act waiting the advent of the People. Four days of this agi- tation without fighting would weary the army." Michel, however, advised a beginning, but simply by placarding Article 08 of the Constitution. But where should a printer be found ? Michel de Bourges spoke with an experience of revolu- tionary 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 HISTOBY OF A CRIME. 43 The army of the coup d'etat invaded her peaceably. Even the placards were not torn down. Nearly all the Repre- sentatives 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 light- ning 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 Gth. 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 Gth. We decided to drive to them at once, while Michel and the oilier Representatives should await us at Bon valet's, in the Boulevard du Temple, near the Cafe Turc. There they could consult together. We started. We traversed Paris, where people were already begin- ning 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 44 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 morn- ing, 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 righting ; 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 Forte 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 45 tremendous shout of " Vive la Republique ! " 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 Republique ! " 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 cFetat hung its head. Meanwhile Charamaule said to me, "You are recog- nized." In fact, near the Chateau 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'etat, 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 Repub- lique ; " 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 46 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 Hue de Bondy, behind the Chateau 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 mas- sacre. 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 Leopold Duras, of the National. " Go no further," he whispered, " the Restaurant Bon- valet is surrounded. Michel de Bourges has attempted to harangue the People, but the soldiers came up. He barely succeeded in making his escape. Numerous Rep- resentatives who came to the meeting have been arrested. Retrace your steps. We are returning to the old rendez- vous 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 Rgpublique ! Vive Victor Hugo ! " It appears that just at that moment a squadron of sergents de mile 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 Con- corde was still free. The large grated gate of the Palace THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 47 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 col- umns, which, during the time of the Constituent Assem- bly, 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 Represen tati ves ? " 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'hon- neur of the Presidency, liveried attendants silently opened the doors as usual. Before daylight, immediately after the arrest of the Questors MM. Baze and Leflo, M. de Panat, the only Ques- tor who remained free, having been spared or disdained as a Legitimist, awoke M. Dupin and begged him to sum- mon 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 Representa- tive Jerome Bonaparte had hastened thither. lie had sum- moned M. Dupin to place himself at the head of the .As- sembly. M. Dupin had answered, " I cannot, I am guarded." Jerome Bonaparte burst out laughing. In fact, no one had deigned to place a sentinel atM. 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. Eugene Sue, Joret, de Resseguier, 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. Desmous- seaux de Givre, who was a little deaf and exceedingly ex- asperated, almost quarrelled with a Representative of the Right like himself whom he wrongly supposed to be favor- able to the coup cVetat. 48 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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, Benoit (du Rhone), 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 Resseguier. " It is too much," said Eugene 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 dis- played 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 cVetat. 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 Elysees. At eight o'clock a formidable force invested the Legis- lative Palace. All the approaches were guarded, all the doors were shut. Some Representatives nevertheless suc- ceeded in penetrating into the interior of the Palace, not, as has been wrongly stated, by the passage of the Pres- ident's house on the side of the Esplanade of the Invalides, but by the little door of the Rue de Bourgogne, called the THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 49 Black Door. This door, by what omission or what con- nivance 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'TJniversite' 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 Conferences, 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. Eugene Sue, Richardet, Fayolle, Joret, Marc Dufraisse, Benoit ( du Rhone), Canet, Gambon, d Adelsward, Crequ, Repellin, Teillard-Laterisse, Rantion, General Leydet, Paulin Durrieu, Chanay, Brilliez, Collas (de la Gironde), Monet, Gaston, Favreau, and Albert de Resseguier. 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 Resseguier was no less energetic than Eugene 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 Elysee, and it was then seen that for a long time past Louis Bonaparte had imper- ceptibly created a profound unanimity in the Assembly — the unanimity of contempt. M. Collas (of the Gironde) gesticulated and told his story. Tie 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 50 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. wait until that hour. Time pressed. At the Palais Bour- bon, as in the Hue Blanche, it was the universal feeling that each hour which passed by helped to accomplish the coup d'etat. 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 Conferences 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 Dnpin 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, crouch- ing, 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 4'2d, who came to summon the Represent- atives to quit their own House. All, Royalists and Re- publicans alike, rushed upon him. Such was the expres- sion of an indignant eye-witness. General Leydet ad- dressed 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 indescrib- able agitation which might be called the Strangling of Right by Violence. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 51 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 Duf raisse cried out, " Let the outrage be thorough. Let the coup cVetat find us on our seats. Let us go to the Salle des Seances," he added. " Since things have come to such a pass, let us afford the genuine and living spec- tacle of an 1 8th Brumaire." They all repaired to the Hall of Assembly. The pas- sage was free. The Salle Casimir-Perier was not yet occupied by the soldiers. They numbered about sixty; Several were girded with their scarves of office. They entered the Hall medita- tively. There, M. de Resseguier, undoubtedly with a good pur- pose, and in order to form a more compact group, urged that they should all install themselves on the Right side._ "No," said Marc Duf raisse, " 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, head- ed 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 Republique ! " The Representative Monet alone remained standing, and in a loud and indignant voice, which resounded through the empty hall like a trumpet, ordered the sol- diers 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 30,37, and 08 of the Constitution. Articles 3G and 37 established the inviolability of the 52 TEE HISTORY OF A CHIME. 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'Adel- sward, 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 National 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. Scarce- ly 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 for- ward, and read the order for the expulsion of the Assem- bly, 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 sig- nal 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 Du- fraisse, 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:. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 53 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'etat, and driven from their seats. The manner in which the deed was ex- ecuted completed the treason. The physical performance was worthy of the moral performance. The three last to come out were Fayolle, Teillard- Laterisse, and Paulin Durrieu. They were allowed to pass by the great door of the Palace, and they found themselves in the Place Bour- gogne. The Place Bourgogne was occupied by the 42d Regi- ment 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 Represent- atives Teillard-Laterisse, Fayolle, and Paulin Durrieu. In the middle of this group three mejj, who had been arrested, were struggling vigorously, crying, " Long live the Constitution ! Vive la Republique ! " Fayolle, Paulin Durrieu, and Teillard-Laterisse ap- proached, and recognized in the three prisoners three mem- bers 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 upon the Colonel to release their colleagues. 54 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. " Colonel," said Fayolle, " you break the law threefold." " I will break it sixfold," answered the Colonel, and he arrested Fayolle, Durrieu, and Teillard-Laterisse. The soldiers 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 Eugene Sue, Chanay, and Benoist (du Rhone). Eugene Sue placed himself before the officer who com- manded 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 Eugene 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 command- ing officer bowed down to the ground, politely remarking, " Gentlemen, 1113^ 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 Rep- resentatives before them through all the outlets. Some, and amongst the number those of whom we have just spoken, went out by the Rue do Bourgogne, others were dragged through the Salle des Pas Perdus towards the grated door opposite the Pont de la Concorde* 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 apart- ments 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 of the Palace is situated, the soldiers set the Representatives free. *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. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 55 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 pris- oner, 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 sum- moned 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 quota- tions, 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. Nbvus 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 Represent- atives. " 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, sawM. Dupin in the clutch of the Representatives. 56 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 command- er's pocket. The colonel was pale, the commander was pale, M. Dupin was livid. Both sides were afraid. M. Duj)in was afraid of the colonel ; the colonel assuredly was not afraid of M. Dupin, but behind this laughable and miser- able 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, be- wildered and speechless. The Representative Gambon exclaimed to him, — " Now then, speak, M. Dupin, the Left does not inter- rupt 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 cow- ardice, hastened to purify their ears. It appears, how- ever, 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. 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 TEE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 57 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 gendarmus when uttering with a grimace his mockery of a protest, even engendered suspicion. Gam- bon 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'etat 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 1 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 re- port." This man refused. 58 THE HISTOBT OF A CRIME. CHAPTER X. THE BLACK DOOB. M. Dunisr 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 bewilder- ment caused by the coup d'etat, 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 Elysee, but without believing that a coup d'etat 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. Dam'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 vdle who hastened up, a species of struggle, in which a Represent- ative 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 59 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'etat 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-Presi- dent ; my house is the Palace of the Assembly." lie opened a large room, and there the Representatives of the Right installed themselves. At first the discus- sions were somewhat noisy. M. Daru, however, ob- served that the moments were precious, and silence was restored. The first measure to be taken was evidently the deposi- tion of the President of the Republic by virtue of Article OS of the Constitution. Some Representatives of the party which was called Bur graven sat round a table and pre- pared 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 60 TEE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 Rep- resentatives 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 OP 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 assist- ants 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, THK HISTORY OF A CRIME. 61 clerks, and attendants, and repeating to all in a low voice, so as not to be heard by the passers-by, the same ques- tion. To this question some answered " Yes," others re- plied " 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 morn- ing 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 rinding 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 Merciere. 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 62 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 deliberat- ing 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 Refresh- ment 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 Conccirgerie, 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 maybe seen, is. the most secluded and the best hidden of any in the Palace. It was here, — in this room, that there arrived succes- sively 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. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 63 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 Presi- dent of the Chamber of the Royal Court of Paris, an amia- ble 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-Regis- trar 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 as 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 Presi- dent 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 attri- butes, 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 Jan- senist, 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 Condu, and met together at his door. One was M. Pataille ; the other, one of the most prominent mem- 64 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. bers of the bar of the Court of Cassation, was the ex-Con- stituent 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'etat, 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 re- quested 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 Stras- bourg) ; "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 be- longs 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 ex- plain 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 65 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'etat 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 cboice 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, mat- ters would have gone too far, and the High Court would be too deeply compromised. They had appointed a Recorder, now they must or- ganize 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 cVetat 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 Presi- dent, 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 out- spoken judgment which was placarded by the efforts of 66 TUB HISTORY OF A CRIME. the Representatives of the Left and published, in which are found these words of bad taste, CWmeand High Trea- son ; this judgment, a weapon of war, has never existed otherwise than as a projectile. Wisdom in a judge some- times 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 judg- ment; 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 tub Registry of the High Court of Justice. " The High Court of Justice. " According to Article 68 of the Constitution, consider- ing that printed placards beginning with these words, ' The President of the Republic ' and ending with the signatures, ' Louis Napoleon 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 or- ganized, that it appoints* ... 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 * This line was left blank. It was filled in later on with the name of M. Renouard. Councillor of the Court of Cassation. THE IIISTOBY OF A CHIME. 67 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. Ilardouin, 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 dur- ing the debate, brought back this rumor to his colleagues. This coincided with an outburst of energy. The Presi- dent observed that it would be to the purpose to appoint a Procureur-General. Here was a difficulty. Whom should they appoint? In all preceding trials they had always chosen for a Pro- cureur-General at the High Court the Procureur-General at the Court of Appeal of Paris. Why should they in- troduce an innovation ? They determined upon this Pro- cureur-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. Ilardouin undertook to go and make the offer to him. He had only to cross the Merciere 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 cVetat 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 68 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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. Ilardouin understood this state of conscience. Persistence would have been unreasonable. He with- drew. 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 Merciere Gallery. We have just said that he w T as only accompanied at that time by a few police agents. The High Court was, in truth, in session. The Presi- dent 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 tri- colored sash upon his coat. The magistrates stare, stupefied. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 69 "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 the Commissary of the Police." "Well, then?" " Be off." " There were there thirty-five municipal guards, com- manded 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 im- plied 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 out, — " You are ordered to dissolve the High Court, and, in case of refusal, to arrest MM. Beranger, Rocher, De Boissieux, Pataille, and Hello." And, turning towards the judges, the President added,— " Signed, Maupas." Then, addressing himself to the Commissary, he re- sumed, — " There is some mistake, these are notour names. MM. Beranger, 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 renew- able ; the coup d'etat overthrew the Constitution, but did 70 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. not understand it. The warrant signed " Maupas " was applicable to the preceding High Court. The coup cVetat 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 bayo- nets 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 fill- ing in the line left blank in their decree, on the proposi- tion of M. Quesnault, appointed as Procureur-General M. Renouard, their colleague at the Court of Cassation. 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 de- THE HISTORY OF A. CRIME. 71 tails 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 Cas- sation, 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 tran- scribed 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. IT. 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'etat. Does this page of the Register of the Court of Cassa- tion 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 con- ceive 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 reso- lutely and rapidly, it would have appointed as Procureur- Oeneral 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 08, and without waiting the initiative of the Assembly, it would have drawn up a judgment stig- matizing 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 72 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. proceedings concluded, the High Court, by going out through a nailed-up door leading into the Salle des Pas Per- dus, 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 them- selves to be formally dragged to prison, so that the peo- ple could see, under their own eyes, out in the open street, the filthy hoof of the coup cVetat 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 dia- logue between Mathieu Mole and Vidocq. CHAPTER XII. THE MAIEIE OF THE TENTH AREONDISSEMENT. 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 send- ing 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 Rich- elieu 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, THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 73 close by the Assembly. The section of the Rue de Lille lying between his house and the Palais Bourbon was oc- cupied 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. Darn, bent their steps on the side of the Rue des Saints-Peres, and left the sol- diers 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 alter- native ; 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 consult- ing together. There were the Representatives Esquiros, Marc I)uf raisse, 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 Arrondisseinent." "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 Marc 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 frac- 74 THE IIIS TORT OF A CRIME. tions 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'etat. 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-Peres and the Rue du Sepulcre, 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 Repre- sentatives 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 THE HI STORY OF A CRIME. 75 who might come afterwards to enter. M. Howyn Tran- chere 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 Keratry. Was he going to preside ? The Representatives who were assembled in the Great Hall were in his favor. The Representatives remaining in the courtyard hesi- .tated. Marc Dufraisse went up to MM. Jules de Lasteyrie and Leon de Maleville, who had stayed behind with the Rep- resentatives of the Left, and said to them, "What are they thinking of upstairs ? To make Keratry President ? The name of Keratry 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 Keratry'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 consti- tute a force." " Yes ; where they are well borne," said Colfavru. "Keratry 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," * said Victor Ilennequin. These words put an end to the debate. Keratry was thrown out. MM. Leon de Maleville and Jules de * The Gerontes, or Gerontia, were the Elders of Sparta, who con- stituted the Senate. 76 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. Lasteyrie, two men respected by all parties, undertook to make the members of the Right listen to reason. It was decided that the " bureau " * should preside. Five mem- bers of the "bureau" were present; two Vice-Presidents, MM. Benoist d'Azy and Vitet, and three Secretaries, MM. Grimault, Chapot, and Moulin. Of the two other Vice-Presidents, one, General Bedeau, was at Mazas; the other, M. Daru, was under guard in his own house. Of the three other Secretaries, two, MM. Peupin and Lacaze, men of the Elysee, 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. Vitet, went upstairs to the Hall, and the sitting was opened. This sitting was the last which the Assembly held un- der 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 re- quired — as was the duty of Revolutionists ; the Left, without a "bureau," without an usher, and without secretaries, held sittings in which the accurate and pas- sionless record of shorthand was wanting, but which live in our memories and which History will gather up. Two shorthand writers of the Assembly, MM. Gros- selet 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 *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. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 77 d'etat 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 com- mas are those which the censorship of M. Bonaparte has suppressed. This suppression is a proof of their sig- nificance and importance. Shorthand reproduces everything except life. Stenog- raphy is an ear. It hears and sees not. It is therefore necessary to fill in here the inevitable blanks of the short- hand 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, as- sembled 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, and 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 secre- taries, MM. Chapot, Moulin, and Grimault wrote stand- ing. 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 table- cloth, 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. 78 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 with- out 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 practi- cable for the Right, outlawry was only possible for the Left. In fact it was the Left who outlawed Louis Bona- parte. 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 con- sequences of coups d'etat. The deposition having been voted, a man who later on turned traitor, Quentin Bau- chart, 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 an- nounced that the Mayor was refusing to allow Represent- atives 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, how- ever, did not prevent Lanriston 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 Rep- TEE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 79 resentatives 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 im- posed silence. Then the angry outcries broke forth again. " The coup cVetat will not dare to come here." " We are masters here." " We are at home." " It would be im- possible 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 Yincennes 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 tu- multuous, had assumed an ordinary aspect. The uproar had relapsed into a murmur. The voice of the usher, crying " Silence, gentlemen," had succeeded in overcom- ing 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. Yitet, 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 sepul- chre." Yitet 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, 80 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 ; Bour- bousson 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 an elegant and charming poet, Albert Glatigny. Albert Glatigny cried out to this frightened Viscount, " Ilulloa there ! Do you think that coups d'etat 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 be- coming attitude. This arose from the fact that they ran greater danger. Pascal Duprat replaced at the top of the decrees the words, " Republique Erancaise," which had been for- gotten. From time to time men who were not speaking on the subject of the moment mentioned this strange word, " Dupin," upon 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 con- tinual 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 ! " » Tt is right ! " » It is settled ! " They agreed in a low voice upon a rendezvous at No. 19, Rue de la Chaussee-d'Antin, in case they should be expelled from the Mairie. M. Bixio carried off the decree of depo- sition to get it printed. Esquiros, Marc Duf raisse, Pascal Duprat, Rigal, Llierbette, Chamiot, Latrade, Colfavru, Antony Thouret, threw in here and there energetic words TEE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 81 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'etat, 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 Rep- resentatives 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 spec- tators. In the Assembly several had penetrated into the Nail, 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 Keranflech, 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 ot the National Workshops, and that they had together visited the Workmen ;it the Pare Monceaux. The Right felt themselves falling; they became affectionate towards Republicans. The Republic is called To-morrow, 82 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. Each spoke from his place ; this member upon a bench, that member on a chair, a few on the tables. All con- tradictory 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 sur- rounded 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. What- ever may have taken place, however, and notwithstanding all these details of which it was our duty to speak, apart from the exceptions which we have 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 narra- tive Ave 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 impercept- ible 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 83 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 cVetat 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 cVetat entered into this meeting impudently, with its convict's cap on its head. It possessed an in- famous 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 threaten- ing, 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 As- sembly, 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 in- sulted 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 " un- conditionally, and according to the expression of eye- witnesses, 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 84 TEE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 inexpress- ible 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 Pean 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 resist- ance, 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 re- mained 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 Represent- TEE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 85 ative 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 Ex- ecutive Power, but as Colonel I ought to obey it." It ap- pears 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 Peri go rd ! " 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 Lauris- ton. General Lauriston went down into the courtyard, and came up a moment afterwards, saying, " They do not recognize my authority. I have just resigned," More- over, the name of Lauriston was not familiar to the sol- diers. Oudinot was better known in the army. But how? At the moment when the name of Oudinot was pro- nounced, a shudder ran through this meeting, almost ex- clusively 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'etat? It was the " Roman expedition at home." Which was undertaken against whom? Against those who had un- dertaken 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 As- sembly 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 Assem- 86 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. bly : Providence wrote the second chapter with the blood of the French Legislature, Louis Bonaparte holding the pen. In 1849, Louis Bonaparte had assassinated the sover- eignty of the People in the person of its Roman Representa- tives ; in 1851 he assassinated it in the person of its French Representatives. It was logical, and although it was in- famous, 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 Mon- talembert was at the Elysee. When Tamisier rose and pronounced this terrifying word, " The Roman Question ? " distracted M. de Dam- pierre 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 " Si- lence ! " to History. And then without even reckoning the fatal remembrance which at such a moment would have crushed a man en- dowed 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'etat 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 87 cold and searching glance of Desaix, that French Phocion ; it would have needed the huge shoulders, the command- ing stature, the thundering voice, the ahusive, insolent, cynical, gay, and sublime eloquence of Kleber, that mili- tary Mirabeau. Desaix, the countenance of a just man, or Kleber, 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 ! " lie had the best intentions in the world, but what could he do ? Alone, without prestige, without true glory, with- out personal authority, and dragging Home 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 as- sembled together." lie 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 speech- ifying at a wedding." And his neighbor, a Legitimist also, replied, " He reminds me of the Due d' Angouleme." 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 88 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 dis- posal of the Assembly. He was standing on a table. He spoke with a resonant and hearty voice. The most down- cast 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 repu- diated. The official historians of the coiq) d'etat 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 sim- plicity 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 peo- ple to the defence of the Constitution and of the Republic. Morny answered them with a smile, accompanied by these plain words, " If you appeal to arms, and if I find any THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 89 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, coining out, they said, from breakfast at the Elysee, 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, La trade, made a fresh effort. He took M. Berryer aside, and said to him, " Our official measures of resistance have 90 THE HISTORY OF A CHIME. 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 mem- bers 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, and 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 ' ! " * 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 seige 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 dis- grace 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 procession met M. Chegaray. The Rep- resentatives 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 *An allusion to the twenty-five francs a day officially payable to the members of the Assembly. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 91 pass on. He was ashamed, however, and went with them. His name is found in the list of the roll-call at the bar- racks. A little further on M. de Lesperut passed them. They cried out to him. " Lesperut ! Lesperut ! " "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 win- dow 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 loud 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 Re'publique ! " " Vive la Constitu- tion ! " 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 Democratic Paciftque a group shouted, " Down with the Traitor of the Elysee ! " 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 92 TEE HISTOBY OF A CRIME. between a double file of soldiers, the one stationary, which threatened the people, the other on the march, which threatened the Representatives. Serious reflections arise in the presence of all the de- tails of the great crime which this book is designed to relate. Every honest man who sets himself face to face with the coup d'etat of Louis Bonaparte hears nothing but a tumult of indignant thoughts in his conscience. Who- ever 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 pos- sible to forget, that — whatever were their errors, what- ever 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 assur- edly 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 re- pression, 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 absolutism, the entire Party of Order arrested in a body and taken to prison by the ser- gents de mile ! One day, or rather, one night, the moment having come to save society, the coup d'etat abruptly seizes the Dema- gogues, and finds that it holds by the collar, Whom ? the Royalists. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 93 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'etat, without any author's name, demanding the Empire, and was at- tributed to the President of the Republic. The Representatives entered and the doors were closed upon them. The shouts ceased ; the crowd, which occa- sionally 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" toAI.de Morny. M. de Morny said, " Xow the struggle has begun. Excellent ! These are the last Representatives who will be made prisoners." CHAPTER XIII. louis bonaparte's side-face. The minds of all these men, we repeat, were very dif- ferently affected. The extreme Legitimist party, which represents the White of the flag, was not, it must be said, highly exas- perated at the coup d'etat. 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 re- signed." The ingenuous spirits cast down their eyes — ■ that is becoming to purity; more daring spirits raised their heads. They felt an impartial indignation which 94 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. permitted a little admiration. How cleverly these generals have heen ensnared ! The Country assassinated, — it is a horrible crime ; hut 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, hut 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 Vati- mesnil, 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'etat. It feared noth- ing. In truth, should the Royalists fear Louis Bona- parte? 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 Jerome. Louis Bonaparte has never been other than a man who has lain wait for fortune, a spy trying to dupe God. lie 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 Bona- parte and Verhuell; he had no country, as he could hesitate between France and Holland. This Xapoleon had taken St. Helena in good part. He admired England. Resentment! To what purpose? THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 95 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 Aus- terlitz. 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 noth- ing 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 suc- ceeded in submerging the name of Napoleon by super- adding December upon Brumaire. CHAPTER XIV. THE DOESAY BARRACKS. It was half-past three. The arrested Representatives entered into the court- yard of the barracks, a huge parallelogram closed in and commanded by high walls. These walls are pierced by three tiers of windows, and possess that dismal appear- ance 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 96 . THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 insti- tuted 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 an- swered " 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 ex- claimed, " 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 fol- lows : — Le Due de Luynes, d'Andigne de la Chasse, Antony Thouret, Arene, Audren de Kerdrel (Ille-et-Vilaine), Au- dren de Kerdrel (Morbihan), de Balzac, Barchou de Pen- hoen, Barillon, (). Barrot, Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire, Quentin Bauchard, G. de Beaumont, Bechard, Behaghel, de Belevze, Benoist-d'Azy, de Bernardy, Berryer, de Berset, Basse, Betting de Lancastel, Blavoyer, Bocher, Boissic, de Botmillan, Bouvatier, le Due de Broglie, de la Broise, de Bryas, Buffet, Caillet du Tertre, Callet, Camus de la Gui- bourgere, Canet, de Castillon, de Cazalis, Admiral Cecile, Chambolle, Chamiot, Champannet, diaper, Chapot, de Charencey, Chasseigne, Chauvin, Chazant, do 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 Scze, Desmars, de la Devansaye, Didier, Dieuleveult, Druet-Des- vaux, A. Dubois, Dufaure, Dufougerais, Dufour, Dufour- THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 97 nel, Marc Dufraisse, P. Duprat, Duvergier de Hauranne, Etienne, Vicomte de Falloux, de Faultrier, Faure (Rhone), Favreau, Ferre, des Ferres, Vicomte de Flavigny, de Foblant, Frichon, Gain, Gasselin, Germoniere, de Gicquiau, de Goulard, de Gouyon, de Grandville, de Grasset, Grelier- Dufougerais, Grevy, Grillon, Grimault, Gros, Guislier de la Tousche, Ilarscouet de Saint-Georges, Marquis d'Havrin- court, Hennequin, d'Hespel, Ilouel, IIovyn-Tranchere, Huot, 3oret, Jouannet, de Keranflech, de Keratry, de Keri- dec, de Kermazec, de Kersauron Penendreff, Leo de La- borde, Laboulie, Lacave, Oscar Lafayette, Lafosse, Lagarde, Lagrenee- Laime, Laine, Comte Lanjuinais, Larabit, de Larcy, J. de Lasteyrie, Latrade, Laureau, Laurenceau, Gen- eral Marquis de Lauriston, de Laussat, Lef ebvre de Grosriez, Legiand, Legros-Desvaux, Lemaire, Emile Leroux, Les- perut, de l'Espinoy, Lherbette, de Linsaval, de Luppe, Marechal, Martin de Villers, Maze-Saunay, Meze, Arnauld de Melun, Anatole de Melun, Merentie, Michaud, Mispoulet, Monet, Due de Montebello, de Montigny, Moulin, Murat-Sis- triere, Alfred Nettement, d'Olivier, General Oudinot, Due de Keggio, Paillat, Duparc, Passy, Emile Pean, Pecoul, Casimir Perier, Pidoux, Pigeon, de Pioge, Piscatory, Proa, Prudhomme, Querhoent, Randoing, Raudot, Raulin, de Ravinel, de Remusat, Renaud, Rezal,Comte de Resseguier, Henri de Riancey, Rigal, de la Rochette, Rodat, de Roque- feuille des Rotours de Chaulieu, Rouget-Lafosse, Rouille, Roux-Carbonel, Saint-Beuve, de Saint-Germain, General Comte de Saint-Priest, Salmon (Meuse), Marquis Sauvaire- Barthelemy, de Serre, Comte de Sesmaisons, Simonot, de Staplande, de Surville, Marquis de Talhouet, Talon, Tamisier, Thuriot de la Rosiere, de Tinguy, Comte de Tocqueville, de la Tourette, Comte de Treveneuc, Mor- timer-Ternaux, de Vatimesnil, Baron de Vandoeuvre, Vernhette (Ilerault), Vernhette (Aveyron), Vezin, Vitet, Comte de Vogue. 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 iust received an order 7 98 TEE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 ex- ecute his orders.' (Yes, yes, that is right.)" The Representatives remained " penned " and " stroll- ing " 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 /" * 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 Bona- parte. They asked Admiral Cecile, "Now, really, what does this mean ? " The Admiral answered by this defi- nition : " It is a small matter." M. Vezin added, " He wishes History to call him ' Sire.' " " Poor Sire, then," said M. de Camus de la Guibourgere. 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 can- teen 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 Lagrenee. 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 Keratry, 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 Vin- cennes arrived in the courtyard with their platters, and began to eat, singing, with loud bursts of merriment. M. * Michel de Bourges had thus characterized Louis Bonaparte as the guardian of the Kepublic against the Monarchical parties. THE HISTORY OF A CHIME. 99 de Broglie looked at them and said to M. Piscatory, " It is a strange spectacle to see the porringers of the Janis- saries 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 build- ing. 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 them- selves 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, 100 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. who had come to join their colleagues and constitute themselves prisoners. Night came. They were hungry. Several had not eaten since the morning. M. Howynde Tranchere, 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 Cafe 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 Rightsaid laughingly, Thuriot de la Rosiere, son of the regicide Thuriot. M. de Remusat buried his head in his hands. Emile Pean said to him, " We shall get over it." And Gustave de Beaumont cried out, ad- dressing 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. " Equal • ity, fraternity," exclaimed the Marquis Sauvaire-Bar- thelemy, 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 Keratry, 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 M M. Eugene Sue, Benoist (du Rhone), Fayolle, Chanay, Toupet des Vignes, Radoubt-Lafosse, Arbey, and Teillard-Laterisse, who up to that time had been detained in the new Palace of Foreign Affairs. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 101 Towards eight o'clock in the evening, when dinner was over, the restrictions were a little relaxed, and the inter- mediate 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 Represent- atives. 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. 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 ' Bui-graves !'" said smil- ingly a venerable veteran of the Right. A young Repub- lican 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 Due de Luynes. The Due de Luynes, who had 80,000/. 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 bar- racks, 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 inci- dent raised the prisoners' hopes. Representative Michel Renaud of the Basses-Pyrenees, 102 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 ve- hicle 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 Eugene Sue, and they exchanged these words : "Where are you going?" "To Mount Valerien. 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 be- tween 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 TEE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 103 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 Representa- tives in the various prisons, it was apparent that this pro- miscuous 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 Rhone). " Ah ! here is M. Marc Dufraisse," said the attendant who held the pen- cil. When asked for his name, Benoist replied " Benoist." "Du Rhone," 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 de- tachments, each escorted by Lancers. The first detach- ment left towards one o'clock in the morning, and was driven to Mont Valerien; 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 104 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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, " Gen- tlemen, what do you think of ' passive obedience ' ?" An unanimous burst of laughter was the reply. Again, dur- ing one of these pauses another voice exclaimed, — " Romieu will be a senator." Emile Pean 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 busi- ness." For the coup cVetat 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 Renmsat in the opposite cell to his own. M. du Remusat had entered the van coupled with M. Duvergier de Ilauranne. " 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 Mazas 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 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, omni- buses were brought into requisition. Into these Repre- sentatives were thrust, one upon the other, rudely, with- out deference for either age or name. Colonel Feray, on horseback, superintended and directed operations. As he THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 105 mounted the steps of the last vehicle but one, the Due 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 huge- ness, 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." 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 106 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. bird's-eye point of view the shape 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 attend- ant 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 multi- tude 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'etat 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'etat acted in a very different manner towards the various Representatives. Those whom it desired to conciliate, the men of the Right, were placed in Vin- cennes ; 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 en- tered 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 107 to a narrow door which 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 pre- vented 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 uncer- tainty. 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 Jiacre, 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 Bicetre. 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, hav- ing 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 coi/p d'etat 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. 108 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. The prisoner greedily seized the bread and the porringer. The bread was black and sticky ; the porrin- ger contained a sort of thick water, warm and reddish. Nothing oan 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 dur- ing 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. Ver- signy — 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 fel- lows ! " 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 cVetat 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 ? " THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 109 " 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. Conse- quently there is no isolation, notwithstanding the cel- lular 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 " some- thing " 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 110 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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. Grevy 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 Chatelet. Theoretical phi- lanthropy has built Mazas. Nevertheless, as has been seen, Mazas leaves plenty to be desired. Let us acknowl- edge 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 cVetat. 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. TnE 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. Ill 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 Key and Leopold Duras, the liecobition by Xavier Durrieu, Vasbenter, and Watripon, the Avenement du Peuple by H. Coste, nearly all the other editors of the Avenement being in prison. About sixty members of the Left were there, and among others Edgar Quinet, Schoelcher, Madier de Montjau, Carnot, Nodi Parfait, Pierre Lefranc, Bancel, de Flotte, Bruckner, Chaix, Cassal, Esquiros, Durand-Savoyat, Yvan, Carlos Forel, Etchegoyen, Labrousse,Barthelemy (Eure-et- Loire), Iluguenin, Aubrey (du Nord), Malardier, Victor Chauf- four, Belin, Renaud, Bac, Versigny, Sain, Joigneaux, Brives, Guilgot, Pelletier, Doutre, Gindrier, Arnauld (de. l'Ariege), Raymond (de l'Isere), Brillier, Maigne, Sartin, Raynaud, Leon Vidal, Lafon, Lamargue, Bourzat, and General Rey. All were standing. They were talking without order. Leopold Duras had just described the investment of the Cafe Bonvalet. Jules Favre and Baud in, 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 112 THE HIS TOR Y OF A CRIME. Forestier. I doubt if he will succeed. Louis Bonaparte is doing all be can to suppress us, we must no longer keep in tbe 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 neces- sary, 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.' 1 They interrupted me with "Yes, that is right, a proc- lamation ! " "Dictate! dictate!" " Dictate," said Baudin to me, "I will write." I dictated : — " To the People. " Louis Napoleon 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 posses- sion of universal suffrage, and who need no THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 113 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 Republique ! 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 Joi- gneaux. " Immediately, immediately, several copies ! " cabled 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, — " Milliere." Milliere. 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. Milliere went up to him. " You do not know me," said he ; " my name is Milliere; 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 Revolution made the same offer as Milliere. A dozen Representatives took their pens and sat down, 8 114 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 Napoleon Bonaparte is a traitor." Jules Favre requested the erasure of the word Napoleon, 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, Key, Xavicr Durrieu, and Milliere 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'etat. 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." THE HISTORY OF A CRIME 115 " Where does he live ? " " No. 33, Rue de la Cerisaie, 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 Cerisaie." 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 Noel 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 Cerisaie. 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 Revolution, 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 daunt- less 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 Uth 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 that 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. Sch(elcher explained the difficulties : all the printing offices closed and guarded ; an order placarded that whoever should print an appeal to arms would be immediately shot ; the workmen terri- fied; no money. A hat was sent round, and each threw 116 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 fight- ing 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 em- brace 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'Ariege) gave me his arm. The two Ital- ian exiles, Carini and 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 sefish 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, how- ever, 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, THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 117 died out speedily. The cabstand before St. Paul was deserted. The drivers had foreseen the possibility of bar- ricades, and had fled. Three miles separated Arnauld and myself from our houses. It was impossible to walk there through the mid- dle 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 morn- ing. I said to myself that on critical days such moments come, but do not return. There are two theories of Rev- olution : 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'Ariege) sat next to me, Carini opposite, Montanelli next to Arnauld. We did not speak ; Arnauld and my- self 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 omni- bus entered into the cutting of the Porte St. Martin a regiment of heavy cavalry arrived in the opposite direc- tion. 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 nar- row 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 118 THE III 8 TO 7? Y OF A CRIME. 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 Bona- parte. 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 hand- some 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 Mon- tanelli. " 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 omni- bus 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 Xapoleon ! 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 119 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 Elysee 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 mor- row. In another moment the regiment broke into a gallop, and the omnibus resumed its journey. As the cuirassiers filed past us Arnauld (de l'Ariege), 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 R*ie 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 remem- brance came into my mind. 120 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. CHAPTER XVII. THE EEBOUND OF THE 24TII JUNE, 1348, ON THE 2d DECEM- BER, 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 over- come nearly everywhere, and was restricted to the Fau- bourg 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, Xo. 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. 1 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 vecy moment, and who was weeping. One could under- stand, 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, lie 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." I lis name was Auguste, and he was a wine-seller in the Rue de la Roquette. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 121 Since that time I had only seen him once, on the 26th August, 1849, on the clay when I held the corner of Balzac's pall. The funeral possession was going to Pore 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 me. 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 Cafe Turc a regiment was drawn up. A band of young men in blouses passed before the regiment singing the " Marseil- laise." 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'etat. He who favored it wore a blouse, he who attacked 122 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. it wore a cloth coat. A few steps further on a juggler had placed between four caudles 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 visibly 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, tins wonderful people, had resigned them- selves. Nevertheless, I made an effort. " Louis Bonaparte betrays the Republic," said I, with- out noticing that I raised my voice. He touched my arm, and pointing with his ringer 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 'Bona- parte ' 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.' " THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 123 Auguste demonstrated to me what I already saw too clearly, and what Girard had shadowed forth in the morn- ing — 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 Bona- parte 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 lie- public, 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 right, 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 Fere 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. 124 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. So, then, the Faubourgs of Paris — which are heroes even when they err — the Faubourgs of Paris, for a misunder- standing, 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 suf- frage, 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, with- out 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 noth- ing. 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, — TEE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 125 " 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 move- ment 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 movememt 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." 126 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 127 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 Rep resentatives. They had come from the Hue 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, ' cotqis tVttat are noth- ing to us, we shall leave them alone ! ' " " That does not surprise me," answered I, " a society is a shopkeeper." " Where are we going?" asked Jules Favre. Lafon lived two steps from there, at Xo. 2, Quai Jem- mapes. He offered us the use of his rooms. We ac- cepted, 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 Fau- bourgs, no one at the Society of Cabinet Makers, the doors closed nearly everywhere. T told them what I had seen and heard in the line de la Roquetle, the remarks of the wine-seller, Auguste, on the indifference of the people, the 128 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 Lemaitre of the Revolution ; one of these writers was Milliere. Milliere had a large bleeding wound above his eye- brow ; that same morning on leaving us, as he was carry- ing 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 ; Millicre 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 precau- tions as these. I gave this man all the signatures that he wanted. Madier de Montjau began to speak. It was of conse- quence 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 129 support. He proposed the immediate formation of a committee representing the entire Left in all its shades, and charged with organizing and directing the insurrec- tion. 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 Resist- ance ; for it was Louis Bonaparte who was the insur- gent. For ourselves, we were the Republic. It was desired that one workman-Representative should be ad- mitted into the committee. Faure (du Rhone) was nom- inated. But Faure, we learned later on, had been arrested that morning. The committee then was, in fact, com- posed 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. Pelagie for an offence against Louis Bonaparte, was granted leave of absence from time 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 t lie 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 Represent- 9 130 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. atives, 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 Con- ciergerie, where my two sons were shut up, and my two illustrious friends, Auguste Vacquerie 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. lie 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 Conciergerie. 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 Avere 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." THE HISTORY OF A CHIME. 131 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 covp cVetat. 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 lon- ger. 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 un- easy, went up and downstairs. Some of them went out on the Quai Jemmapes, to wait there and gain informa- tion about them. In the room there was a sound of con- fused 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 faraway; besides, it was possible that if 1 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. 132 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 deter- mined 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 where- abouts, 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 re- mained 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 work- men, 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 Fau- bourg 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 133 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 win- dows ; 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 under- stood 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 portr.ess, 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. 134 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. CHAPTER XIX. 0XE FOOT IIST THE TOMB. Cofknet 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 con- struction, 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 HISTORY OF A CRIME. 135 The first speaker was a workman. lie began by apologiz- ing 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 Re- publican 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 Drome) came in as the workman con- cluded. " 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 Drome' brought us the events of the day, the details of tin; arrests at their own houses carried out without any obstacle, of the meeting which had taken place at M. Darn'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/z'/.sro, 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 Crenelle during the passage of the arrested members of the Assembly : he was there at the moment when one of the commanders of the Chas- seurs de Vincennes had uttered these words, " Now it is 136 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. the turn of those gentlemen — the Red Representatives. Let them look out for themselves ! '* One of the editors of the Revolution, Ilennett de Kesler, who afterwards became an intrepid exile, completed the information of Mathieu (de la Drome), lie recounted the action taken by two members of the Assembly with re- gard to the so-called Minister of the Interior, ]\Iorny, and the answer of the said Morny : " If I find any of the Rep- resentatives 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 Mould be immediately shot." The placard, in truth, appeared the next morning. Baudin rose up. " The coup oVitat 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'Ariege) and Victor Chauffour delivered their opinions in succession. All three were imbued with this notion, that our appeal to arms not hav- THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 137 ing yet been placarded, the different incidents of the Bou- levard du Temple and of the Cafe Bon valet having brought about no results, none of our decrees, owing to the re- pressive measures of Bonaparte, having yet succeeded in appearing, while the events at the Mairie of the Tenth Ar- rondissement began to be spread abroad through Paris, it seemed as though the Right had commenced active re- sistance before the Left. A generous rivalry for the pub- lic 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, uncer- tainty. Some illusions were still entertained. A work- man, 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 per- petrate 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 mo- ment when Arnauld (de PAriege)and I had apostrophized the troops, had destroyed the impression which a few hours before the enthusiasm of the people on the Boule- vard 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. An- toine 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. Nev- ertheless, all the more reason, in my opinion, to astonish and awaken Paris by an extraordinary spectacle, by a dar- ing 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 138 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. a " to-morrow," I felt the necessity of fixing every eye upon the course which should he 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 dis- persed ; 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 an- nulled ; two things only remained standing, the coup d'etat 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 ad- vances 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 indi- viduals, we are the Nation. Each of us walks forth clothed with the Sovereignty of the people. lie can- not 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 under- stood ! " THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 139 " We are quite ready ! " they cried out. " What meas- ures 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 can- not 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 re- main free number a hundred and twenty Republican Rep- resentatives. Let us install ourselves in this hall. Let us install ourselves in the fulness and majesty of the Leg- islative 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 shel- ter 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 Furopean nationality, when it is a question of defending the Republic, Liberty, Civilization, the Revolu- tion, 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 neces- sary that the shops should lie open, that people should be coming and going, that the population should be mov- ing about, that there should be plenty of people in the streets, that they should see us, that they should recog- nize us, that the grandeur of our example should strike every eye and stir every heart. Let us all be there be- tween nine and ten o'clock in the morning. If we cannot obtain the Salle Roysin we will take the first church at 140 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. hand, a stable, a shed, some enclosure where we can de- liberate ; 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 Roy sin. Do not for- get that in such a crisis there must be no vacuum before the nation. That alarms it. There must be a govern- ment somewhere, and it must be known. The rebellion at the Ely see, the Government at the Faubourg St. An- toine ; the Left the Government, the Faubourg St. An- toine the citadel ; such are the ideas which from to-mor- row we must impress upon the mind of Paris. To the Salle Roysin, then ! Thence in the midst of the daunt- less 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 righting, 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 Re- public, 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 meet- ing. They cheered me. I saw that I was becoming some- what 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, mag- THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 141 azines, 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 print- ing 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 Representa- tives," he said, " the regiment is no longer there. The street is free." The regiment, which had probably come from the Pop- incourt 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 Popin- court 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. Ac- cording to details which we learned subsequently, we were followed after leaving Xo. - J, Quai Jemmapes, by an agent of police, who saw us enter the house where a 142 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 had misled the bloodhounds of the coiq) d'etat. 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 pos- sessing 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 name. It was M. delaR . He knew my brother Abel's wife and family, the Montferriers, re- lations of the Chambaceres, 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. de 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 Popin- court, Jules Favre, Madier de Montjau, de Flotte, and Carnot, to whom we had sent word to the Rue des Moulins, arrived at Cournet's, accompanied by Schcelcher, by Charamaule, by Aubry (du Nord), and by Bastide. Some Representatives were still remaining at Cournet's. Sev- eral, 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 TEE EISTOBY OF A CRIME. 143 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 Assem- bly 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 Xephew set himself this problem — how to commit a baseness equal to this magnifi- cence. 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. Xever has such a crumbling of civilization been seen. All that formed the edifice is now a 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 Govern- ment, 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 144 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 Pepublic, to-day a scaven- ger. He has sworn, he still swears : but the tone has changed. The oath has become an imprecation. Yester- day 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 brigand- age 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 Xapo- leon, he did what he ought to do, on the very day of the Crime he died. Alas ! and Austerlitz also. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 145 THE SECOND DAY. THE STRUGGLE. CHAPTER I. THEY COME TO ARREST ME. Ix 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 bed- room by a tapestry curtain two-thirds drawn. M. de la R • went into the bedroom, and a few minutes after- wards 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 10 146 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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, some- what 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, De- cember 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 dis- turbed 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 neigh- boring 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. Xo 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. T waited for dawn. It came. M. de la R had explained at my request in THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 147 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 It . 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 Caumartiu leads into the Rue St. Lazare. I went towards it. It was broad daylight. At every mo- ment I was overtaken and passed by fxicres 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 in- habited by Mdlle. Mars, I saw a new bill posted on the wall. I went up to it, I recognized the type of the Na- tional 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. II. Fortuol. " Commerce — M. Lefebre-Durufle." 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. 148 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. As I passed by the Place Breda some fiacres had already arrived there. I took one. I was near home, the tempta- tion 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 re- sembles sleeplessness, she heard men's voices. It seemed to her that Isidore was speaking to some one in the ante- chamber. 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." " He is out." " I shall have the honor of waiting for him, madame." "He will not come back." " Nevertheless I must speak to him." " Monsieur, if it is anything which will be useful for him to know, you can confide it to me in perfect security, I will faithfully tell him." " Madame, it is to himself that I must speak." THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 149 " But what is it about ? Is it regarding politics ? " The man did not answer." " As to politics," continued my wife, " what is happen- ing?" " I believe, madams, 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 Repre- sentative in his own home like a criminal ! There is in truth a criminal here who ought to be arrested — your- self!" The Sieur Hivert looked sheepish and left the room, and through the half-open door my wife could see, behind the 150 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 Ilivert, 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. lie opened a drawer and said, "Look and see if he is not in here ! " The Commis- sary 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 imprison- ment of a great journalist— Emile de Girardin : — " . . . O honte, un lansquenet Gauche, et parodiant Cesar dont il herite, Gouverne les esprits du fond de sa guerite !" 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, " Xot caught yet ! " A quarter of an hour afterwards I reached No. 10, Rue des Moulins. It was not then eight o'clock in the morn- ing, 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. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 151 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, Constitutent 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, re- nounce our attempt to rouse the extremities of the city, and agitate the centre. We were the Committee of Re- sistance, the soul of the insurrection ; if we were to go to the Faubourg St. Antoine, which was occupied by a con- siderable force, we should give ourselves up to Louis Bona- parte. 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'etat 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 de- crees., create some method of publicity ; they were waiting for important communications from Workmen's Associa- tions 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 152 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. of the room, making some excuse. My hat was in the ante- chamber, my fiacre was waiting for me, and I drove off to the Faubourg St. Antoine. The centre of Paris seemed to have retained its every- day 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. FKOM THE BASTILLE TO THE EUE 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 to- gether in a low voice, — sinister men. One of these groups, the principal, attracted my atten- tion. 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 bat- teries. " 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 HISTORY OF A CRIME. 153 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 car- riage. 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 be- yond 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 shak- ing the sash, I shouted, — " Soldiers ! Look at this sash. It is the symbol of Law, it is the National Assembly visible. Where 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 wor- thy 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 u;> like a general, it is 154 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 ins 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 over- whelming 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'etat in relating this incident, and characterizing it as "an insensate and culpa- ble provocation," states that " the moderation shown by the military leaders on this occasion did honor to Gen- eral ." 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 to- gether at their doors, and watching the proceedings. I noticed at each step the placards of the coup oVetat un- touched. Beyond the fountain which stands at the corner of the THE HISTORY OF A CHIME. 165 Rue de Charonne the shops were closed. Two lines of soldiers extended on either side of the street of the Fau- bourg on the kerb of the pavement ; the soldiers were stationed at every five paces, with the butts of their mus- kets 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. lie 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 in- scription 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 Cafe Roysin?" " Straight before us." "Drive there." lie 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 Xo. 22, 156 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. which has a side-door above which I read, "Petit La- voir." Suddenly a voice called out to the driver, " Stop ! " The driver pulled up, and the window of the fiacre be- ing down, a hand was stretched towards mine. I recog- nized 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 barri- cade 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 un- earth 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 157 Market, and another post at a short distance which occu- pied 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 Iluguenin. This deter- mined 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 immedi- ately joined by Malardier. It was dawn. The Faubourg was solitary. They walked along wrapt in thought and speaking in a low voice. Sud- denly 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 noise- lessly 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 Yincennes, 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 158 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 Repre- sentatives 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 cVetat had been made with this omnibus, which, after having aided in the crime, would thus have aided in the punishment. But at the moment when the people threw themselves on the vehicle they saw several of the Representative-pris- oners 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-gnard of the escort came up and passed by at a sharp trot, and the group which sur- THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 159 rounded Aubry (du Nord), Malardier, and Cournet dis- persed. The Cafe Roysin had just opened. It may be remem- bered that the large hall of this caje 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 Cafe 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. Who- ever thought Bourzat a peasant would be mistaken. lie rather resembled a Benedictine monk. Bourzat, with his southern imagination, his quick intelligence, keen, lettered, refined, possesses an encyclopedia in his head, and wood- en shoes on his feet. Why not ? He is Mind and People. The ex-Constituent Bastide came in with Madier de Mont- jau. 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 Assembl}', 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 nut to alarm the 160 THE HISTORY OF A-CRIME. 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 un- folded 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 Rep- resentatives present signed it, and they added my name to their signatures. Aubry (du Nord) headed it with these words, " National Assembly." The workman car- ried 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 in- cident 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 neigh- boring house with strips of red, white, and blue calico, and were brought to them. Baudin and I)e Flotte were amongst those who girded on these improvised sashes. Meanwhile it was not yet nine o'clock, when impatience already began to he manifested around them.* *" 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 numberat 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 ; THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 161 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 im- patience 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 ! " lot us join it, in raising barricades.' We shall perhaps save the coun- try, at all events we shall save the honor of our party- 'Come, let us to the barricades !' This advice was immediately and unan- imously 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.'" — Schcelchek, Histoire des Crimes du 2d Deccmbre, pp. 130—131. 11 162 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 Montreuil. 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 Representa- tives 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 In- surrection 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 THE HIS TOUT OF A CRIME. 163 Market. The post of the Lenoir Market allowed them- selves 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 com- batants. 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 were answered by " Long live our Representatives ! " But only a few young men joined them. It was evident that the breeze of in- surrection 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 Fau- bourg, 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 164 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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. Schcelcher 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 higher with- out 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 Conde, 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. " Citzens," 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 165 themselves near him on the omnibus. Malardier and Dulac were on his right. Dulac said to him, "You scarcely know me, Citizen Schcelcher, 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 com- bat, 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 gest- ures. 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. Schcelcher 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 omni- bus, leaned half over the barricade. 166 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. On seeing the Representatives approach, the soldiers and their officers were for the moment bewildered. Mean- while the captain signed to the Representatives to stop. They stopped, and Schcelcher 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 Re- public, 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,' 1 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 Schcelcher. "I only know my instructions." " There is an instruction above all other instructions," continued Schcelcher, "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 Schcelcher. At this moment an officer arrived on horseback. It was the major of the regiment. He whispered for a mo- ment to the captain. " Gentlemen ! Representatives ! " continued the cap- tain, waving his sword, " withdraw, or I shall fire." " Fire ! " shouted De Flotte. The Representatives — strange and heroic copy of Fon- tenoy — took off their hats, and faced the muskets. Schcelcher alone kept his hat on his head, and waited with his arms crossed. "Fix bayonets," said the captain. And turning to- wards the squads, " Charge ! " " Vive la Republique ! " cried out the Representatives. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 107 The bayonets were lowered, the companies moved for- ward, the soldiers came on at the double upon the motion- less 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 Representa- tives 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 some- times becomes reconciled, the soldier — never. When the bayonets were so close to the Representa- tives that they touched their breasts, they turned aside of their own accord, and the soldiers 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 awk- wardness 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 cloth- ing. 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 Bruck- ner'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 pre- vails ; instructions maybe crime, but instinct is honor. Major V 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 168 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. succor them, they fired a musket shot. This unfortunate shot killed a soldier between De Flotte and Schcelcher. The officer who commanded the second attacking squad passed close to Schoelcher as the poor soldier fell. Schcel- cher 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 be- ing 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 omni- bus. 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 intoxica- tion 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 THE IUSTOUY OF A CRIME. 169 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, hut hrave, 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 hall had entered his side. Through his gray overcoat huttoned to the collar, could he seen a hole stained with blood. His head had sunk on his shoulder, his pale countenance, encircled by the chin- strap 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'etat. Baudin was the second. Before being a Republican Baudin had been a tutor. He came from that intelligent and brave race of school- masters ever persecuted, who have fallen from the Guizot Law into the Falloux Law, and from theFalloux 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 cure. 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 constitutional! indescribable embarrassment, mingled with 170 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. decision. He was a man of middle height. His face ruddy and full, his broad chest, his wide shoulders an- nounced 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 intelli- gence, 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 pro- ceeded 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 Republique!" 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 Cabi- net Makers, hoping to find there the committee of the THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 171 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'etat 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, Pue Richelieu, Jules Favre, Carnot, Michel de Bourges, and myself, when Dulac entered, and said to us, ' I have come to place my- self at your disposal. " CHAPTER IV. THE W T ORKMEN's SOCIETIES ASK US FOR THE ORDER TO FIGHT. In presence of the fact of the barricade of the Fau- bourg St. Antoine so heroically constructed by the Rep- resentatives, 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 172 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 Charamaule, 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 Bau- din'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'etat, upon a sort of pitched battle waged by the guard- ians of the Republic against the banditti of the Elysee. 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 depart- ments 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 Grevy, who had been arrested in the Tenth Arrondissement on the pre- ceding day, who was at Mazas. His brother had offered us his house for our deliberations. The Representatives, our natural emissaries, nocked around us, and scattered themselves throughout Paris, with our instructions to or- ganize resistance at every point. They were the arms and the Committee was the soul. A certain number of ex-Constituents, intrepid men, Garnier-Pages, Marie, Mar- tin (de Strasbourg), Senart, formerly President of the THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 173 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 Repre- sentatives 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 " (Presi- dent), " 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 our- selves 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* The Constitution is confided to the keeping and to the patriotism of French citizens. Louis Napoleon is outlawed. * A typographical error — it should read " Article LX VIII." 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 Boxy. "Dab at." 174 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. " 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 Depart- ments are marching on Paris to aid you in seizing the Traitor, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. " For the Representatives of the People, " Victor Hugo, President. " Schcelciier, Secretary." This last placard, printed on little squares of paper, was distributed abroad, says an historian of the coup d'etat, by thousands of copies. For their part the criminals installed in the Govern- ment 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 pro- hibited. " Article III. The agents of the Public Police will en- force 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, THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 175 " Decrees : — " Every person taken constructing or defending a bar- ricade, 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 Ar- rondissements, 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 Pan- theon. 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-Con- stituent Leblond, at whose house the Committee had deliberated that morning. We were sitting in perma- nence, 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 dis- posal 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." 176 THE IIISTORY OF A CHIME. Two hours afterwards it was reported to us that the conflict had begun. They were fighting in the Rue Aumaire. CHAPTER V. BATJDINS'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'etat 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 never- theless 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 see : a passenger." "Where are you going?" "Over there, close by, to Bartholomews, the overseer of the sugar man- factory. — " They search him. He himself opened his pocket-book ; the police agents turned out the pockets of 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, i\ fiacre passed him. Gindrier heard his name called out. He turned round and saw two per- sons in a fiacre, relations of Baudin, and a man whom he did not know. One of the relations of Baudin, Madame THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 177 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 Commis- sary of Police of the Rue Ste. Marguerite St. Antoine. He had been charged by the Commissary of Police to go to Baudin's house, Xo. 88, Rue de Clicliy, 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 constitu- tion. "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 coitp d'etat made corpses, but did not wish that they should lie 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- 12 178 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. twenty, a medical student, came up. This young man lias since been arrested and imprisoned. His crime is his brother. Let us continue. They proceeded to the hos- pital. 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 conld 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'etat 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 Rne de Popincourt, after having passed me the other pencil, which I still pre- serve. Gindrier and young Baudin, bare-headed, ap- proached the centre bed. They raised the shroud, and Baudin's dead face became visible. lie was calm, and seemed asleep. Xo 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 de- spairing 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." THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 179 " 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 fia ere. 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 Duteche. 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 Xo. 88, Due de Clichy, the bring- ing out of the body attracted a curious crowd before the door. The neighbors flocked thither. Baudin's brother, assisted by Gindrier and Duteche, 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 lie had left off. They unrolled the shroud, and Gindrier cut 180 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 De- montry died in exile at Cologne. Gindrier started for Co- logne, 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 Duteche. 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 (Tetat. 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 181 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 d/avvn 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 mem- bers who had met together on the preceding day at the Mairie of the Tenth Arrondissement had decreed the de- position 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 Re- publican Representatives. The apartments of M. Grevy, 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 improvi- sation of means, of policy, of expedients, of resources, 182 TIIE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 opportu- nity, friends, family, liberty, fortune, life, — such is the revolutionary conflict. Towards three o'clock about sixty Representatives were meeting at No. 10, Rue des Moulin s, 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 Iletzel, who might also be called the poet Iletzel, 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. Iletzel knew that we needed a printing-office above everything ; we had not the faculty of speech, and Louis Bonaparte spoke alone. Iletzel had found a printer who had said to him, '■'•Force me, put a jristol to my throat, and I will print whatever you wish.' 1 '' 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. Iletzel 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. lie went up to this man, and recognized M. Yon, the former Commissary of Police of the Assembly " What are you doing there ? " said Iletzel 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. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 183 IJetzel had already revealed his scheme to Representa- tive Labrousse, who was to accompany him and give him the moral support of the Assembly in his perilous expe- dition. A first rendezvous which had been agreed upon between them at the Cafe Cardinal having failed, La- brousse had left with the owner of the cafe for Iletzel a note couched in these terms : — " Madame Elizabeth awaits M. Iletzel at No. 10, Rue des Moulins." In accordance with this note Iletzel had come. We accepted Iletzel'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 Iletzel should await Versigny on the pavement at the end of the Rue de Richelieu which runs alongside the Cafe Cardinal. Meanwhile Jules Favre, Michel dc 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, andEmile de Girardin appeared. We had not seen him since the previous even- ing. Emile de Girardin — after dispersing from around him that mist which envelopes every combatant in party war- fare, and which at a distance changes or obscures the ap- pearance 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. Kmile 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, lie 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. Pike all earnest minds he under- stands, he sees, he recognizes, he handles, so to speak, the great and magnificent identity embraced under these 184 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 Demo- cratic ; on the day when these three ideas, Democracy, Re- publicanism, 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 rea- son 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 Gen- darmerie Mobile, but I have five or six willing workmen, they can produce a few placards with the brush." " Well then, 1 ' said I, " print our decrees and our Proc- lamation." " I will print anything," answered he, " as long as it is not an appeal to arms." 1 Ie added, addressing himself to me, " I know your Proc- lamation. 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 con- queror, 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 azi universal THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 185 strike. Let the merchant cease to sell, let the consumer cease from buying, let the workman cease from working 1 , let the butcher cease from killing, let the baker cease from baking, let everything keep holiday, even to the Na- tional 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 di- vided. 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 thou- sand 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 unfort- unately 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 will- ingly 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, sur- vives all political movement. Whatever Emile de Girar- din might hope, there would always be a butcher who would kill, a baker who would bake, men must eat ! " To 186 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. make universal labor fold its arras 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 doubt- less 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 inexhaust- ible 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 cV etat is thrown down, the Left takes it up. The matter is as simple as this. The outrage of the Second December is an infa- mous, 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, Xapoleon Bonaparte, son of the ex-King of Westphalia, came in. lie listened. He spoke. He energetically blamed, in a tone of sincere and generous indignation, his cousin's crime, but lie 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 unani- mous and would enlighten France, but that no other form of resistance would obtain unanimity. That as for him- self, having always considered the Constitution worthless, having contended against it from the first in the Constit- uent Assembly, he would not defend it at the last, that he assuredly would not give one drop of blood for it. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 187 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 Ave 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. lie 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." lie 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. 188 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. " Be it so," continued he, " but listen to me. You run, you yourself personally, great danger. Of all the men in the Assembly you are the one whom tbe President hates the most. You have from the height of the Tribune nick- named him, ' Napoleon the Little.' You understand that will never be forgotten. Besides, it was you who dictated tbe 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 Assem- bly 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'etat, ought to preserve its entity and remain constituted after- wards 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 THE BISTORT OF A CRIME. 189 ought to do nothing of the sort ; that our decrees should he published, not with the signature of a President, who- ever he might be, but with the signature of all the mem- bers 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. Noel 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 pre- serve all the authority attached to the office of the Repre- sentatives 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 Noel 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 accom- plices.' " 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 190 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 de- cree the names of all the Republican Representatives re- maining at liberty, the absent as well as those present. We answered that the decree signed by all would as- suredly 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 re- sult 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.* 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." * 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. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 191 A second copy was made of the decree, which Emile de Girardin took away with him. The deliberation was resumed. At each moment Rep- resentatives came in and brought items of news : Amiens in insurrection — Rheims and Rouen in motion, and march- ing on Paris — General Canrobert resisting the coup cVetat — 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 de- cree, which he proposed, and which was immediately adopted : — "DECREE. "French Republic. '■'■Liberty, — Equality, — Fraternity. " The undersigned Representatives remaining at lib- erty, 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 multi- plying 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 : " Art. I. — The State of Siege is raised in all Depart- ments where it has been established, the ordinary laws resume their authority. " Art. II. — It is enjoined upon all military leaders undjr penalty of Treason immediately to lay down the extraor- dinary powers which have been conferred upon them. "Art. 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." 192 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 then own eyes the hesitation of a part of the population in the pres- ence of these words, " The Law of the 81st May is abol- ished, 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 dic- tated the following Proclamation : — " Proclamation. s ' People ! you are being deceived. " Louis Bonaparte says that he has re-established you in your rights, and that he restores to you Universal Suf- frage. " Louis Bonaparte has lied. "Read his placards. He giants 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 gen- eration 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 Drome), 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 lib- erty considering that the Representative Baudin has died TTTE niSTORT OF A CRIME. 193 Mi the barricade of the Faubourg St. Antoine for the Re- public and for the laws, and that he has deserved well of his country, decree : "That the honors of the Pantheon 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, " Xo 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 un- derstand 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'etat — 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 satisfac- tion which the Right had always obstinately refused, and that the Left, master of the situation, ought hasten to ac- cord. 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 ex- tent 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 Iletzel. 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 Xeuve des Petits Champs. As the members of the Committee and the Representa- tives 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 13 J94 THE 711 STORY OF A CHIME. 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 hook 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 hun- dred 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 hun- dred 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. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 195 " This man says he is named Bonaparte. He lies, for Bonaparte is a word which means glory. This man says that he is named Napoleon. He lies, for Napoleon 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 Napoleon. A true Napoleon 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 Elysee, thinks that the Army of France is a band of mercenaries ; that if they are paid and intoxicated they will obe)\ 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 196 THE HISTORY OF A CBIME. back to the country ! Come back to the Republic ! If you continue, do you know what History will say of you V 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 Napoleon 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 say- ing, "You will see it again to-morrow morning." He kept his word. I found it the next day placarded in the Rue Rambuteau, at the corner of the Rue de l'Homme- Arme 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 curi- ously 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 ar- rested 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 THE HISTOBT OF A CRIME. 197 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. 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 dis- trusted 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 excep- tional 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 com- bat, 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 198 THE HISTORY OF A CHIME. cannot understand a Catholic Democrat. It is a combina- tion 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'etat the democratic Catholic workman, whose noble effort we are here relating, threw himself so resol- utely 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 Pue 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 im- possible to conquer the coup d'etat 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 Ely see 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. Afire. The example is great, the oppor- tunity is still greater. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 199 "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 Elysee. 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'etat. " 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 work- man'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 insurrec- tion, 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'Ariege came to his mind. Arnauld de l'Ariege was a Representative after his own heart. Arnauld de l'Ariege 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 De- mocracy with the Church. Arnauld de l'Ariege, young, handsome, eloquent, enthusiastic, gentle, and firm, com- 200 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. bined 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 prin- ciples, but he had not two faces. On the whole the demo- cratic 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'Ariege 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'Ariege 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 with- out 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'Ariege received him, read his letter, and approved of it. Arnauld de l'Ariege 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'Ariege. On behalf of the Archbishop, Arnauld de l'Ariege 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 Abbe Maret, an intelligent priest, a friend of the people and of progress, Vicar-General of Paris, who has since been Bishop inpartibus of Surat. Some days previously Arnauld had seen the Archbishop, and had received his complaints of the encroachments of the Clerical party THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 201 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 in- troduction, 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'Ariege, 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'Ariege 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 objectiou 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'etat 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 202 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. some difficulty. Tier 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 Abbe Maret. She knew him. She addressed him. She told him the object of her expedition. The Abbe 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 Abbe Maret ushered Madame Arnauld into the study, informed the Archbishop, and a moment later the Archbishop entered. Besides the Abbe Maret, the Abbe Deguerry, the Cure 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 Abbe Deguerry was silent. The Abbe Maret tried respectfully to turn the mind of his Bishop towards the grand effort counselled by the workman. He spoke elo- quently. He laid great stress upon this argument, that the appearance of the Archbishop would bring about a manifestation of the National Guard, and that a mani- festation of the National Guard would compel the Elysee to draw back. " No," said the Archbishop, " you hope for the impos- sible. The Elysee 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 Elysee could crush the legions by the regiments. And then, what is an Archbishop in the presence of the Man of the coup d'etat? Where is the oath? Where is the THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 203 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 after- wards, in the Church of Notre Dame, some one was sing- ing 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 Quaid'Orsay fifty-three had been sent to Mount Valerien, They loaded them in four police vans. Some few remained who were packed in an omnibus. MM. Benoist d'Azy, Falloux, Piscatory, Vati- mesnil, were locked in the wheeled cells, as also Eugene 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 Valerien 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 be- fore the Representatives. 204 TEE HISTORY OF A CRIME. They led them to the barracks of the fort and shut them up promiscuously in a dormitory, to which they added fresh heds, 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'etat, the man who signed himself Eugene 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, lie exhibited a vague prudery, he did not venture to install himself in the Place Vendome. 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 ac- complished 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. Rouher 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 205 separated from the scarlet goats. A murmur which seemed to be unanimous arose. These generous mani- festations did honor to the Representatives of the Right. " No ! no ! Let us name no one, let us not allow our- selves 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 pre- pared, and that the Royalist Representatives were invited to sign it. They attributed, doubtless wrongly, this un- worthy resolution to the honorable M. de Falloux. Antony Thouret spoke somewhat warmly in the centre of the group, which were muttering together in the dor- mitory. " Gentlemen," said he, " a list of names is being pre- pared. 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. To- day you believe in the victory of the coup oVttat, 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. 206 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 Rep- resentatives 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 ; Eugene Sue, Esquiros, Antony Thouret, Pascal Duprat, Chanay, Fayolle, Paulin Durrieu, Benoit, Tamisier, Tailard Laterisse, and three members of the Right, who since the preceding day had suddenly become Red in the eyes of the coup d'etat ; Oudinot, Piscatory, and Thuriot de la Rosiere. They confined these separately, and they set at liberty one by one the forty who remained. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 207 CHAPTER IX. THE LIGHTNING BEGINS TO FLASn 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 : " Sou- louque ! " * 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 *A popular nickname for Lonis Bonaparte. Faustin Soulouque was the negro Emperor of Hayti, who, when President of the Repub- lic, had carried otit a somewhat similar coup d'etat in 184S, being subsequently elected Emperor. He treated the Republicans with great cruelty, putting most of them to death. 208 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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-op- eration 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 Avenement 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 over- throw 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 THE HISTORY OF A GRIME. 209 our signatures attached. It was a placard twice as large as one's hand, and printed on paper used for proofs. Noel Parfait Drought us the five hundred copies, still damp, between his waistcoat and his shirt. Thirty Rep- resentatives 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 cafes 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 to- wards 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 Chara- maule, 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 Soulou- que.' " 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 iVetat. At the door of the Cafe des Varietes 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 Cafe Cardinal. As there were no troops on the Boulevard St. Martin and the Boulevard du Temple, the crowd was more com- 14 210 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 he dimly seen peering out. Darkness produced silence ; this mul- titude, 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 sing- ing. 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 com- posed 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 swing- ing 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 him- self 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 bear- ing 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. THE HISTOBY OF A CRIME. 211 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 to- gether from the neighborhood of the markets, the same who on the next day raised the barricade of the Guerin- Boisseau, reached the Rue Aumaire by the Rue de Petit Lion, the Rue Neuve-Bourg-PAbbe, and tbe Carre 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 excep- tion 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 stryents 212 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. de mile 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 regi- ment 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 Elysoe they commenced to tremble. The ex-Com- mandant Fleury, one of the aides-de-camp of the Presi- dency, was summoned into the little room where M. Bonaparte had remained throughout the day. M. Bona- parte 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'etat 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. P7p 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 Minis- ters 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. Rouher, in particular, had disappeared, no one knew where — a sign of tempest. Putting Louis Bonaparte on one side, the coup d'etat 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 vie- THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 213 tory ; 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 acomplices behind them. CHAPTER X. WHAT FLEURY WENT TO DO AT MAZAS. During the same night towards four o'clock the ap- proaches of the Northern Railway Station were silently invested by two regiments; one of Chasseurs de Vin- cennes, 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 214 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. filled by four serpents de vitte placed between the prisoners so as to prevent any communication between the cells. After various consultations between the aide-de-camp of the Elysee 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, " I ley ! 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, Lamori- ciere ! " " Good-morning, Cavaignac ! " replied the first voice. General Cavaignac and General Lamoriciere 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 Lamoriciere, Cavaignac, and Changarnier. In the other vehicle, which was placed foremost on the trucks, there were Colonel Charras, Generals Bedeau and Le Flo, and Count Roger (du Nord). At midnight these eight Representative prisoners were sleeping in their cells at Mazas, when they heard a sudden THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 215 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 quar- rels 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 morn- ing 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, hear- ing 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 Ro- tunda, 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. "lam no more disposed to tell you my name than I am curious to learn yours," answered General Lamoriciere, and he passed outside. The aide-de-camp Fleury, concealing his uniform under his hooded cloak, stationed himself in the clerk's office. 11(3 was charged, to use his own words, to "embark" them, and to go and report their "embarkation" at the Elysee. The aide-de-camp Fleury had passed nearly the whole of his military career in Africa in General Lamori- ciere's division ; and it was General Lamoriciere who in 1848, then being Minister of War, had promoted him to the rank of major. While passing through the clerk's office, General Lamoriciere looked fixedly at him. When they entered the police-vans the generals were smoking cigars. They took them from them. General Lamoriciere had kept his. A voice from outside cried three separate times, "Stop his smoking!" A ser/iable, Kandon Cesar, and Canrobert Certain." 250 TUE HISTOBY OF A CRIME. CHAPTER VIII. THE SITUATION. Although the fighting tactics of the Committee were, for the reasons which I have already given, not to con- centrate all their means of resistance into one hour, or in one particular place, hut to spread them over as many points and as many days as possible, each of us knew in- stinctively, as also the criminals of the Elysee on their side, that the day would he decisive. The moment drew near when the coup d'etat 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 fau- bourgs of Paris, abandon their Representatives ? Would they abandon themselves? Or, awakened and enlight- ened, 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 Key, and addressed in our name to the National Legions, had not been printed. Iletzel'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 Gvessier to win over the Sixth Legion, the more timid attempt of Lieutenant-Colonel Ilowyne upon the Fifth, had failed. Nevertheless indignation began to manifest itself in Paris. The preceding evening had been significant. Ilingray 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 HISTORY OF A CRIME. 251 the placards of the coup (Vetat, which pronounced the pen- alty 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 pub- lications. A printer, who had formerly been a publisher of several democratic journals, M. Boule, 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 Repre- sentative Montaigu undertook to take them to him. M. Boule 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 med- ical 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 light- ing took place on the right bank, it was necessaiy to trans- port 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 Xeuf. A certain strategical plan became manifest. The ten central bridges were militarily guarded. People were arrested in the street on account of their personal appearance. A sergent-de-ville, at the corner of the Pont-au-Change, exclaimed, loud enough for the pass- ers-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. 252 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. "The wave is rising ! the wave is rising!" exclaimed Edgar Quiiiet, 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 Pan- theon." Signs of good omen grew more numerous. An old hot- bed of insurrection, the Rue Saint- Andre-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, Netre 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 deter- mined 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 morn- ing 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, alternat- ing with the rapid sound of the printing blankets. In a few hours fifteen hundred copies were pulled, and at day- break 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 disheart- ened on the preceding day ; he now had become hopeful. On the preceding day he wrote : — " Where are the Rep- resentatives ? The communications are cut. The quays and the boulevards can no longer be crossed. It has be- come impossible to reunite the popular Assembly. The people need direction. De Flotte in one district, Victor Hugo in another, Schcelcher 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." THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 253 Now, this man so intelligent and so courageous re- covered confidence, and he wrote, — " Decidedly, Louis Napoleon is afraid. The police re- ports are alarming for him. The resistance of the Re- publican Representatives is bearing fruit. Paris is arm- ing. 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 cVetat 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 cafe 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 cafe, 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 Com- mittee ; the following letter * was brought to our knowl- edge. " 3d December. " My dear Bocagt-:, " 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 * 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 Al. Bocaye. 254 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 bar- ricades. In the Rue Rambuteau the password was " Eugene Sue and Michel de Bourges ; " in the Rue Beau- bourg, " 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 be- ing 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 MontValerien. 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 cJiambre. 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 Hotel 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 strate- gical importance on the Quai des Gevres, on the Quai Lepelletier, and in the Rue de la Cite, to be silently oc- cupied, and that if it should chance that the leaders of the coiqy d'etat, owing to the combat in the centre of Paris growing more serious, should be forced to withdraw the troops from the Hotel 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 THE niSTORY OF A CRIME. 255 that evening, he began perhaps a little too soon. As he had foreseen, a moment arrived when the square of the Hotel de Ville was almost devoid of troops, General Iler- billon 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 La- rochette before the Hotel 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 s"oldier." 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 1, " 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 me." "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. 1 took a carriage in the square of the Palais Koyal. I explained to t lie d river who I was. and thai I was about to visit and encourage the barricades ; that I should cro 256 TEE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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. 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 coining. On the horizon might be seen the first glimmering of the eruption. For the Elysee, as for us, the critical moment was draw- ing nigh. From the preceding evening they were nursing their resources. The coup d'etat and the Republic were at length about to close with each other. The Committee had in vain attempted to drag the wheel ; some irresist- ible 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 move- ment 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 revolt- ing, the Bastille when the people are revolting. The eye THE niSTORY OF A CRIME. 257 of the politician should always he fixed on these two points. There, famous in contemporary history, are two spots where a small portion of the hot cinders of Revolu- tion 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, noth- ing had been able to awaken it. An entire park of artil- lery was encamped with lighted matches around the July Column, that enormous deaf-and-dumb memento of the Bastille. This lofty revolutionary pillar, this silent wit- ness of the great deeds of the past, seemed to have for- gotten 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 pla- cards of the coup d'etat; they posted up our Proclama- tions ; 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 kerb- stones read aloud the names of the 120 signatories, and, still more than on the day before, each significant or cele- brated name was hailed with applause. The crowd in- creased 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, crying, "To anus! 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. 17 258 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. CHAPTER X. MY VISIT TO THE BAEEICADES. My coachman deposited me at the corner of Saint Eu- stache, and said to me, " Here you are in the hornets' nest." He added, " I will wait for you in the Rue de la Vril- liere, 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 ; Boule's printing- office having failed him, he had applied to a lithographic press, at No. 30, Rue Bergere, 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 ran- dom ; I reproduce this page here. These living facts are useful for History ; the coup d'etat is there, as though freshly bleeding. " Morning of the 4th. It looks as if the combat was suspended. Will it burst forth again? Barricades vis- ited 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 (Pocher de Cancale). One barring the Rue du Cadran and the Rue Montorgueil. Four closing the Petit-Carreau. The beginning of one between the Pue 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 Guerin-Boisseau. One barring the Rue Gre- netat. One farther on in the Rue Grenetat, barring the Rue Bourg-Labbe (in the centre an overturned flour wag- on ; a good barricade). In the Rue Saint Denis one bar- THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 259 ring 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 im- provised by Leguevel at a chemist's opposite the Rue Guerin-Boisseau. "They are constructing the barricades amicably, with- out angering any one. They do what they can not to annoy the neighborhood. The combatants of the Bourg- Labbe 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 barri- cade 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 barri- cades. He presented his first lieutenant to me, Charpen- tier, a man of thirty-six, lettered and seientific. Charpen- 260 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. tier 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 am- munition is failing. Jeanty Sarre, having at his house in the Rue Saint Honore 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 be. 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 ap- proached, 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 barri- cades, 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, THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 261 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 Rous- seau, 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 chief 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 Yrilliere, a group on horseback passed by. It consisted of a few officers, 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 ? " 262 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 in- solent, lie 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 Vrilliere. He brought me back to No 15, Rue Richelieu. CHAPTER XI. TnE BARRICADE OP 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 ob- stacle. 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 263 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 en- counter; 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 barri- cade, and struck a woman who was passing some twenty paces in the rear, full in the breast. She fell, lipped 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 ad- vanced 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 can- non recommenced firing. 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 he distinctly heard on the other side of the block of houses which con- cealed the troops echelloned on the Square of Saint Mar- tin, and it was manifest that a second attack was being prepared. 264 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 de- fended. 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 barri- cade 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 Tissie,* who was a workman, and who also was a poet, had worked during a portion of the morning at the barri- cades, 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 Tissie was not afraid, as we shall see later on. He left the barricade. Pierre Tissie 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 win- dows 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 Tissie, and cried out, — " Who goes there ? " " Death! " answered Pierre Tissie. The soldier fired, and missed Pierre Tissie, 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 Tissie. * It must not be forgotten that this has been written in exile, and that to name a hero was to condemn him to exile. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 265 And he added, " Now for the ambulance ! " He took the soldier on his buck, 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 Tissie. " 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 clays' 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 ex- hausted. Some began to throw down their guns and go away. The only means of escape was by the Hue 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 unpro- tected. 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 Tissie, 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 Tissie. " And I also," said the boy. 266 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 Tissie. " No," said the boy. A few moments afterwards the soldiers scaled the barricade already half in ruins. Pierre Tissie and the boy were killed with bayonet thrusts. Some twenty muskets were abandoned in this barri- cade. CHAPTER XII. THE BARRICADE OF THE MAIRIE OP THE FIFTH ARROX- DISSEMENT. 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 re- ceived them with shouts of "Down with Louis Bona- parte!" 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 set to work to tear up the paving-stones. A large cart laden with sacks of flour was descending the faubourg, and passed before the gate of the Mairie. THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 207 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 car- tridge. 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. Xo more ammunition in the barricade. Xo 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 ahout in the neighboring houses; others escaped by the narrow passage of the boulevard which led into the Hue Saint Jean; most of the combatants 268 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 Evhiement and of the Avenement 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. Coste 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 predica- ment, gave them a packing-cloth. They enveloped the drum in it, and reached Batignolles by the lonely streets which skirt the walls. CHAPTER XIII. THE BARRICADE OF THE RUE THEVENOT. Georges Biscarrat w r as the man who had given the signal for the hooting 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 269 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 under- ground 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, Felix 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. lie 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 af the coup cV6tat being still fresh upon the walls, Louis Bonaparte had left the Elysee, 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 Jerome, accompanied him, together witli Flahaut, who kept in the rear. Jerome wore the full uniform of a Marshal of France, with a hat with a white feather; Louis Bonaparte's horse was a head before Jerome's horse. Louis Bonaparte was gloomy, Jerome 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 Hotel 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 270 THE HISTOBY OF A CRIME. looked at him with bewilderment, and the crowd with as- tonishment. 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." lie 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 1 have succeeded in this much, that the placards of the coup d'etat 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, Berthelon, 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 Representa- tives did not know him, 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 ? " THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 271 "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 Biscar- rat. 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 Bis- carrat. 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. "lie has come with me. lie 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 Sie'cle; at the Steele 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 the 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 Due du Ila- sard-Saint-Sauveur they requisitioned iron bars and ham- mers from a large courtyard belonging to a locksmith. Having the arms, they had the men. They speedily num- bered 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 Thevenot. The barrier was constructed hierh and 272 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. formidable. To abridge. At eleven o'clock Georges Bis- carrat 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 un- masked, 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 cafe. Then ensued an inspection of all the ordinary customers, Delahodde walking first, with the Commissary behind him. Two Municipal Guards fol- lowed 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 Den- nett de Kesler.* 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; "lam saving your life?' 1 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. Teste- lin, 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, *Died in exile in Guernsey. See the "Pendant l'Exil," under the heading Actes et Paroles, vol. ii. THE niSTOBT OF A CRIME. 273 where Baudin had just been killed. All was at an end in that direction. Testelin was accompanied by Charles Garabon, another dauntless man* The two Representa- tives 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 curi- ous. Testelin, nevertheless, having come to the Com- mittee, informed us of the following : — At the corner of a street of the Faubourg Saint Antoine Gambon and him- self 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 Gam- bon. Testelin took the pencil, went up to the placard, and wrote his name beneath mine, then he gave the pen- cil 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 co up d'etat by the weariness of the army ; such was the plan discussed and adopted. The order was acordingly given that the barricades should be but slightly defended. We repeated in every possible form to the comba- tants, — " Shed as little blood as possible! Spare the blood of the soldiers and husband your own." Nevertheless, the struggle once begun, it became impos- t Died in exile, at Teruionde. 18 274 THE niSTORY OF A CRIME. sible in many instances, during certain excited hours of fighting, to moderate their ardor. Several barricades were obstinately defended, particularly those in the line 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 dis- appeared in the smoke of the combat. Radoux, an archi- tect, Deluc, Mallarmet, Felix Bony, Luneau, an ex-Cap- tain of the Republican Guard, Camille Berru, editor of the Avenement, gay, warmhearted, and dauntless, and that young Eugene Millelot, who was destined to be con- demned 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 six- teen resolute men defended it ; two were killed. The barricade was carried with the bayonet by a bat- talion of the 16th of the line. This battalion, hurled on the barricade at the double, was received by a brisk fusil- lade ; 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. Accord- ing 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 hither- to caste-bound and inaccessible, Seipio 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 TEE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 275 the present era, denied themselves bread to afford him knowledge. In this manner he attained to the Poly- technic 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 coiq) cTetat 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, Trans- nonain, 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. 276 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. "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 Bartholemew. " 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.* 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 barri- cade will be attacked. Your comrades will fall, dead or * Pro Hugonotorurn strage. Medal struck at Eoiue in 1572. TEE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 211 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 in- cident. 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 mas- sacred, 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. Not- withstanding 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 bad pronounced against the conp cVctat, hesitated at Metz, and seemed to lean towards Bonaparte. Scipio Dumas, in presence of this indecision set an example. lie voted in a loud voice, and with an open voting-paper, " No." Then he sent in his resignation. At the same time 278 THE HISTORY OF A CJtTME. 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 danger- ous 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 with- drawal 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 Au- maire, 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- Grace ! 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 ! " THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 279 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 a very short time. He had gone back to his private room, had seated him- self before the fire, with his feet on the hobs, motionless, and no one any longer approached him except Roguet. 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 Roguet 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 Elysee 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. Ma/as became eccentric, the prison unbent itself ; the interior experienced an un de- finable reverberation from the outside. The warders, •who the preceding evening had been insolent to t lie Rep- resentatives when ooing tor their exercise in the court- yard, now saluted them to the ground. That very morn- 280 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. ing 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 Leflo'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 move- ment 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 Maubuce, another in the Rue Bertin-Poiree, another in the Rue Guerin-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 Fau- bourg 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 cross- roads. The beginning of the fire. The fire had caught. The old central market quarter, that city which is con- tained 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. THE BISTORT OF A CRIME. 281 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 uncer- tainty 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 con- test, 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 Greve before the Hotel 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 punish- ment. 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 horse- back in the Place de la Madeleine, at the head of his waver- ing 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 Xo 4, Place 282 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 regi- ments and the limbered batteries quitted the faubourg and stationed themselves noiselessly around the boule- vards. 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 Hotel 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 Xo. 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, " TJp to what point are you going?" Espinasse's answer is historical. He replied, " To the end." IRE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 288 At two o'clock five brigades, those of Cotte, Bourgon, Canrobert, Dulac, and Reybell, five batteries of artillery, 16,400 men,* infantry and cavalry, lancers, cuirassiers, grenadiers, gunners, were echelloned without any osten- sible reason between the Rue de laPaixand the Faubourg Poissonniere. Pieces of cannon were pointed at the en- trance of every street ; there were eleven in position on the Boulevard Poissoniere 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 Bona- parte ! " The troops continued to keep silence, but the swords remained outside their scabbards, and the lighted matches of the cannon smouldered 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 dur- ing 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 ? * 10,410 men, the figures takeu from the Ministry of War. 284 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 boule- vard 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 HISTORY OF A CRIME. 285 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, Ex- termination. 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 bul- lets 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 unprece- dented moment. It seemed as though a handful of light- nings 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 Govern- ment ? The Government is a cut-throat. They have an- nounced 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 Beville 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 Cambaceres 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 286 THE niSTORY OF A CRIME. 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. Every- where sudden death. A man is expecting nothing. He falls. From whence does this come ? From above, say the Bishops' Te Beam ; 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 Poissonniere, 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, Hue de Lancry, INI. 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 Xo. 97, in the same street, two women, Mes- dames Viclal 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. Debaecque, a merchant, 45, Rue du Sentier, is in his own house ; Cou- vercelle, 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, Cou- vercelle, and Debaecque. They sabre at her own home, 240, Rue Saint Martin, a poor embroideress, Mdlle. Se- guin, 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, Franyoise Noel, was shot down at 20, Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, and died in the Charite. Another, Madame Ledaust, a working housekeeper, living at 76, Passage du Caire, was short down before the Archbishop's palace, and died at THE niSTOBY OF A CRIME. 287 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 were performed. Colonel Rochefort, who was probably created General for this, charged in the Hue de 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 ; Ilerbillon had Zaatcha behind him; Saint-Arnaud had Kabylia; Renault had the affair of the Saint-Andre and Saint Ilip- polyte villages ; Espinasse, Rome and the storming of the 30th of June; Magnan, his debts. Must we continue? We hesitate. Dr. Piquet, a man of sevent}% was killed in his drawing-room by a ball in his stomach ; the painter Jollivart, by a ball in the fore- head, 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 Propbete, a father, mother, and two daughters were sabred. Lelilleul, another bookseller, was shot in his shop on the Boulevard Pois- sonniere; 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 Cafe 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 Hotel de Castille, the Maison Doree, the Petite Jeannette, the Cafe de Paris, the Cafe Anglais became for three hours the targets of the cannonade. Haquenault's house (.'rumbled beneath the shells ; the bullets demolished the Montmartre Bazaar. 288 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 Charite. 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 Gymnase ; 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 longer a fight, it was a slaughter. The massacre radiated — a word hor- ribly 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 Fspinasse exclaimed, "After the bayonet, cannon ! " Colonel 1 tochefort 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, " Willi this gun I can score magnificent shots between the eyes." Having said this, he aimed at random at some one, and succeeded. THE niSTORY OF A CRIME. 289 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 divsion 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 mnskets. 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 See, 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 chil- dren. Dr. See 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 Xeuve Saint Eustache. Before the house of Odier twenty-six corpses. Thirty before the Hotel Montmorency. Fifty- two before the Varietes, of whom eleven were women. In the Rue Grange-Bateliere 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 Poissonniere, crying, "They kill! they kill ! they kill ! they kill! they kill ! " The soldiers wagered. " Bet you I bring down that 19 290 THE Til STORY OF A CRIME. 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 he proved, need to be investigated. I went to the field of murder. In such mental agony as this, from very excess of feel- ing one no longer thinks, or if one thinks, it is distract- edly. 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 boule- vard. He said to me, " Ah, here you are. I have just met Madame D. She is looking for you." Madame D. * and Madame de la R.,f 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. *Xo. 20, Cite Eodier t Rue Caumartin. See pages 142, 145-14S. TI1E niSTORY OF A CRIME. 291 The following incident happened to her. She stopped before a heap of bodies, and had had the courage to mani- fest 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 ex- aggerates. 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 Elysee 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 (Fi'tut 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 292 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. the villainous scale of guilt. In the morning an assassin, in the evening a thief. When night came enthusiasm and joy reigned at the Ely see. 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 Bona- parte 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 Elysee 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 DTIaussez ; 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 suc- ceeded in a coup d'etat." " 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. 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 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 293 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 them- selves 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 appear- ances, it was a massacre, — a sort of Saint Bartholomew improvised by the coup d'etat ; 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. ITe urged us to leave Grevy's house without delay. It was manifest that the Insurrectionary Committee would be a " find " for the bayonets. We decided to leave, Avhereupon M. Dupont White, a man distinguished for his noble character and his talent, offered us a refuge at his house, 11, Rue Mont- habor. We went out by the back-door of Grevy's house, which led into 1, Rue Fontaine Moliere, 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 Neuve 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 Resseguier, was striding down the Rue de Saint Roch and hurrying to the Rue Saint Ilonore. The Rue Saint Ilonore presented a scene of clamorous agitation. People were coming and going, stopping, ques- tioning one another, running. The shopkeepers, at the 294 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 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 tine rain was falling. Not a carriage in the street. At the corner of the Rue Saint Roch and Rue Saint Honore 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 Conciergerie. 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 Bona- parte 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. Mole. In the Rue Monthabor, two steps from the Rue Saint Honore, 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 econ- omy 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 deles-ate told us that the committee TUE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 295 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 en- counters. 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 As- sociation 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 Com- mittee 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 con- tinue to restrain them or send them under fire without delay. They believed themselves certain of their adher- ents ; 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 w r as difficult to say that they were in the wrong. It was certain that if they could protract the situation in which the coup (Fetat had thrown Paris until the next week, Louis Bon- aparte was lost. Paris does not allow herself to be trampled upon by an army for a whole week. Neverthe- less, I was for my own part impressed with the follow- ing : — The workmen's societies offered us three or four thousand combatants, a powerful assistance ; — the work- man does not understand strategy, he lives on enthusi- asm, abatements of ardor discourage him ; his zeal is not 296 THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. extinguished, but it cools : — three thousand to-day would be five hundred to-morrow. And then some seri- ous 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 mod- ify 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 oper- ates 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. ITow 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 dis- tinguish our duty, as regards all the rest it is black dark- ness. 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 re- quested in our name to come down into the streets THE HISTORY OF A CRIME. 297 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 Represent- ative, 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 ral- lying-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 Drome 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." lie had come from the Boulevards. Later on I again saw Mathieu de la Drome. I said to him, " Worse than Bomba, — Satan." CHAPTER XVIII. THE VERIFICATION OP MORAL LAWS. The carnage of the Boulevard Montmartre constitutes the originality of the coup <7'-t