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CHAPTER I. "SECURITY"
CHAPTER I. "SECURITY"
On December 1, 1851, Charras 1 shrugged his shoulder and unloaded his pistols. In truth, the belief in the possibility of a coup d'état had become humiliating. The supposition of such illegal violence on the part of M. Louis Bonaparte vanished upon serious consideration. The great question of the day was manifestly the Devincq election; it was clear that the Government was only thinking of that matter. As to a conspiracy against the Republic and against the People, how could any one premeditate
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CHAPTER II. PARIS SLEEPS—THE BELL RINGS
CHAPTER II. PARIS SLEEPS—THE BELL RINGS
On the 2d December, 1851, Representative Versigny, of the Haute-Saône, who resided at Paris, at No. 4, Rue Léonie, was asleep. He slept soundly; he had been working till late at night. Versigny was a young man of thirty-two, soft-featured and fair-complexioned, of a courageous spirit, and a mind tending towards social and economical studies. He had passed the first hours of the night in the perusal of a book by Bastiat, in which he was making marginal notes, and, leaving the book open on the tab
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CHAPTER III. WHAT HAD HAPPENED DURING THE NIGHT
CHAPTER III. WHAT HAD HAPPENED DURING THE NIGHT
Previous to the fatal days of June, 1848, the esplanade of the Invalides was divided into eight huge grass plots, surrounded by wooden railings and enclosed between two groves of trees, separated by a street running perpendicularly to the front of the Invalides. This street was traversed by three streets running parallel to the Seine. There were large lawns upon which children were wont to play. The centre of the eight grass plots was marred by a pedestal which under the Empire had borne the bro
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CHAPTER IV. OTHER DOINGS OF THE NIGHT
CHAPTER IV. OTHER DOINGS OF THE NIGHT
During the same night in all parts of Paris acts of brigandage took place. Unknown men leading armed troops, and themselves armed with hatchets, mallets, pincers, crow-bars, life-preservers, swords hidden under their coats, pistols, of which the butts could be distinguished under the folds of their cloaks, arrived in silence before a house, occupied the street, encircled the approaches, picked the lock of the door, tied up the porter, invaded the stairs, and burst through the doors upon a sleepi
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Versigny had just left me.
Versigny had just left me.
While I dressed hastily there came in a man in whom I had every confidence. He was a poor cabinet-maker out of work, named Girard, to whom I had given shelter in a room of my house, a carver of wood, and not illiterate. He came in from the street; he was trembling. "Well," I asked, "what do the people say?" Girard answered me,— "People are dazed. The blow has been struck in such a manner that it is not realized. Workmen read the placards, say nothing, and go to their work. Only one in a hundred
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CHAPTER VI. "PLACARDS"
CHAPTER VI. "PLACARDS"
On leaving these brave men I could read at the corner of the Rue de la Tour d'Auvergne and the Rue des Martyrs, the three infamous placards which had been posted on the walls of Paris during the night. Here they are....
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CHAPTER VII. NO. 70, RUE BLANCHE
CHAPTER VII. NO. 70, RUE BLANCHE
The Cité Gaillard is somewhat difficult to find. It is a deserted alley in that new quarter which separates the Rue des Martyrs from the Rue Blanche. I found it, however. As I reached No. 4, Yvan came out of the gateway and said, "I am here to warn you. The police have an eye upon this house, Michel is waiting for you at No. 70, Rue Blanche, a few steps from here." I knew No. 70, Rue Blanche. Manin, the celebrated President of the Venetian Republic, lived there. It was not in his rooms, however,
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CHAPTER VIII. "VIOLATION OF THE CHAMBER"
CHAPTER VIII. "VIOLATION OF THE CHAMBER"
At seven o'clock in the morning the Pont de la Concorde was still free. The large grated gate of the Palace of the Assembly was closed; through the bars might be seen the flight of steps, that flight of steps whence the Republic had been proclaimed on the 4th May, 1848, covered with soldiers; and their piled arms might be distinguished upon the platform behind those high columns, which, during the time of the Constituent Assembly, after the 15th of May and the 23d June, masked small mountain mor
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CHAPTER IX. AN END WORSE THAN DEATH
CHAPTER IX. AN END WORSE THAN DEATH
We should have been glad to have put aside, never to have spoken of him again, this man who had borne for three years this most honorable title, President of the National Assembly of France, and who had only known how to be lacquey to the majority. He contrived in his last hour to sink even lower than could have been believed possible even for him. His career in the Assembly had been that of a valet, his end was that of a scullion. The unprecedented attitude that M. Dupin assumed before the gend
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M. Dupin is a matchless disgrace.
M. Dupin is a matchless disgrace.
Later on he had his reward. It appears that he became some sort of an Attorney-General at the Court of Appeal. M. Dupin renders to Louis Bonaparte the service of being in his place the meanest of men. To continue this dismal history. The Representatives of the Right, in their first bewilderment caused by the coup d'état , hastened in large numbers to M. Daru, who was Vice-President of the Assembly, and at the same time one of the Presidents of the Pyramid Club. This Association had always suppor
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CHAPTER XI. THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
CHAPTER XI. THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
While all this was taking place on the left bank of the river, towards noon a man was noticed walking up and down the great Salles des Pas Perdus of the Palace of Justice. This man, carefully buttoned up in an overcoat, appeared to be attended at a distance by several possible supporters—for certain police enterprises employ assistants whose dubious appearance renders the passers-by uneasy, so much so that they wonder whether they are magistrates or thieves. The man in the buttoned-up overcoat l
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CHAPTER XII. THE MAIRIE OF THE TENTH ARRONDISSEMENT
CHAPTER XII. THE MAIRIE OF THE TENTH ARRONDISSEMENT
The Representatives, having come out from M. Daru, rejoined each other and assembled in the street. There they consulted briefly, from group to group. There were a large number of them. In less than an hour, by sending notices to the houses on the left bank of the Seine alone, on account of the extreme urgency, more than three hundred members could be called together. But where should they meet? At Lemardelay's? The Rue Richelieu was guarded. At the Salle Martel? It was a long way off. They reli
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The minds of all these men, we repeat, were very differently affected.
The minds of all these men, we repeat, were very differently affected.
The extreme Legitimist party, which represents the White of the flag, was not, it must be said, highly exasperated at the coup d'état . Upon many faces might be read the saying of M. de Falloux: "I am so satisfied that I have considerable difficulty in affecting to be only resigned." The ingenuous spirits cast down their eyes—that is becoming to purity; more daring spirits raised their heads. They felt an impartial indignation which permitted a little admiration. How cleverly these generals have
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It was half-past three.
It was half-past three.
The arrested Representatives entered into the courtyard of the barracks, a huge parallelogram closed in and commanded by high walls. These walls are pierced by three tiers of windows, and posses that dismal appearance which distinguishes barracks, schools, and prisons. This courtyard is entered by an arched portal which extends through all the breadth of the front of the main building. This archway, under which the guard-house has been made, is close on the side of the quay by large solid foldin
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CHAPTER XV. MAZAS
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 distanc
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CHAPTER XVI. THE EPISODE OF THE BOULEVARD ST. MARTIN
CHAPTER XVI. THE EPISODE OF THE BOULEVARD ST. MARTIN
When Charamaule and I reached No. 70, Rue Blanche, a steep lonely street, a man in a sort of naval sub-officer's uniform, was walking up and down before the door. The portress, who recognized us, called our attention to him. "Nonsense," said Charamaule, "a man walking about in that manner, and dressed after that fashion, is assuredly not a police spy." "My dear colleague," said I, "Bedeau has proved that the police are blockheads." We went upstairs. The drawing-room and a little ante-chamber whi
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CHAPTER XVII. THE REBOUND OF THE 24TH JUNE, 1848, ON THE 2D DECEMBER, 1851
CHAPTER XVII. THE REBOUND OF THE 24TH JUNE, 1848, ON THE 2D DECEMBER, 1851
On Sunday, 26th June, 1848, that four days' combat, that gigantic combat so formidable and so heroic on both sides, still continued, but the insurrection had been overcome nearly everywhere, and was restricted to the Faubourg St. Antoine. Four men who had been amongst the most dauntless defenders of the barricades of the Rue Pont-aux-Choux, of the Rue St. Claude, and of the Rue St. Louis in the Marais, escaped after the barricades had been taken, and found safe refuge in a house, No. 12, Rue St.
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CHAPTER XVIII. THE REPRESENTATIVES HUNTED DOWN
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, La
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CHAPTER XIX. ONE FOOT IN THE TOMB
CHAPTER XIX. ONE FOOT IN THE TOMB
Cournet was waiting for us. He received us on the ground floor, in a parlor where there was a fire, a table, and some chairs; but the room was so small that a quarter of us filled it to overflowing, and the others remained in the courtyard. "It is impossible to deliberate here," said Bancel. "I have a larger room on the first floor," answered Cournet, "but it is a building in course of construction, which is not yet furnished, and where there is no fire."—"What does it matter?" they answered him
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CHAPTER XX. THE BURIAL OF A GREAT ANNIVERSARY
CHAPTER XX. THE BURIAL OF A GREAT ANNIVERSARY
Such was the first day. Let us look at it steadfastly. It deserves it. It is the anniversary of Austerlitz; the Nephew commemorates the Uncle. Austerlitz is the most brilliant battle of history; the Nephew set himself this problem—how to commit a baseness equal to this magnificence. He succeeded. This first day, which will be followed by others, is already complete. Everything is there. It is the most terrible attempt at a thrust backwards that has ever been essayed. Never has such a crumbling o
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CHAPTER I. THEY COME TO ARREST ME
CHAPTER I. THEY COME TO ARREST ME
In order to reach the Rue Caumartin from the Rue Popincourt, all Paris has to be crossed. We found a great apparent calm everywhere. It was one o'clock in the morning when we reached M. de la R——'s house. The fiacre stopped near a grated door, which M. de la R—— opened with a latch-key; on the right, under the archway, a staircase ascended to the first floor of a solitary detached building which M. de la R—— inhabited, and into which he led me. We entered a little drawing-room very richly furnis
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CHAPTER II. FROM THE BASTILLE TO THE RUE DE COTTE
CHAPTER II. FROM THE BASTILLE TO THE RUE DE COTTE
The Place de la Bastille was at the same time empty and filled. Three regiments in battle array were there; not one passer-by. Four harnessed batteries were drawn up at the foot of the column. Here and there knots of officers talked together in a low voice,—sinister men. One of these groups, the principal, attracted my attention. That one was silent, there was no talking. There were several men on horseback; one in front of the others, in a general's uniform, with a hat surmounted with black fea
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This is what had happened.
This is what had happened.
During that same night, and as early as four o'clock in the morning, De Flotte was in the Faubourg St. Antoine. He was anxious, in case any movement took place before daylight, that a Representative of the People should be present, and he was one of those who, when the glorious insurrection of Right should burst forth, wished to unearth the paving-stones for the first barricade. But nothing was stirring. De Flotte, alone in the midst of this deserted and sleeping Faubourg, wandered from street t
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CHAPTER IV. THE WORKMEN'S SOCIETIES ASK US FOR THE ORDER TO FIGHT
CHAPTER IV. THE WORKMEN'S SOCIETIES ASK US FOR THE ORDER TO FIGHT
In presence of the fact of the barricade of the Faubourg St. Antoine so heroically constructed by the Representatives, so sadly neglected by the populace, the last illusions, even mine, should have been dispersed. Baudin killed, the Faubourg cold. Such things spoke aloud. It was a supreme, manifest, absolute demonstration of that fact, the inaction of the people, to which I could not resign myself—a deplorable inaction, if they understood, a self-treason, if they did not understand, a fatal neut
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CHAPTER V. BAUDINS'S CORPSE
CHAPTER V. BAUDINS'S CORPSE
With regard to the Faubourg St. Antoine, we had, as I said, lost nearly all hope, but the men of the coup d'état had not lost all uneasiness. Since the attempts at rising and the barricades of the morning a rigorous supervision had been organized. Any one who entered the Faubourg ran the risk of being examined, followed, and upon the slightest suspicion, arrested. The supervision was nevertheless sometimes at fault. About two o'clock a short man, with an earnest and attentive air, crossed the Fa
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CHAPTER VI. THE DECREES OF THE REPRESENTATIVES WHO REMAINED FREE
CHAPTER VI. THE DECREES OF THE REPRESENTATIVES WHO REMAINED FREE
The text of the judgment which was believed to have been dawn up by the High Court of Justice had been brought to us by the ex-Constituent Martin (of Strasbourg), a lawyer at the Court of Cassation. At the same time we learned what was happening in the Rue Aumaire. The battle was beginning, it was important to sustain it, and to feed it; it was important ever to place the legal resistance by the side of the armed resistance. The members who had met together on the preceding day at the Mairie of
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On this gloomy and tragical day an idea struck one of the people.
On this gloomy and tragical day an idea struck one of the people.
He was a workman belonging to the honest but almost imperceptible minority of Catholic Democrats. The double exaltation of his mind, revolutionary on one side, mystical on the other, caused him to be somewhat distrusted by the people, even by his comrades and his friends. Sufficiently devout to be called a Jesuit by the Socialists, sufficiently Republican to be called a Red by the Reactionists, he formed an exception in the workshops of the Faubourg. Now, what is needed in these supreme crises t
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CHAPTER VIII. MOUNT VALERIEN
CHAPTER VIII. MOUNT VALERIEN
Of the two hundred and thirty Representatives prisoners at the barracks of the Quai d'Orsay fifty-three had been sent to Mount Valérien. They loaded them in four police vans. Some few remained who were packed in an omnibus. MM. Benoist d'Azy, Falloux, Piscatory, Vatimesail, were locked in the wheeled cells, as also Eugène Sue and Esquiros. The worthy M. Gustave de Beaumont, a great upholder of the cellular system, rode in a cell vehicle. It is not an undesirable thing, as we have said, that the
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The evening wore a threatening aspect.
The evening wore a threatening aspect.
Groups were formed on the Boulevards. As night advanced they grew larger and became mobs, which speedily mingled together, and only formed one crowd. An enormous crowd, reinforced and agitated by tributary currents from the side-streets, jostling one against another, surging, stormy, and whence ascended an ominous hum. This hubbub resolved itself into one word, into one name which issued simultaneously from every mouth, and which expressed the whole of the situation: "Soulouque!" 12 Throughout t
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CHAPTER X. WHAT FLEURY WENT TO DO AT MAZAS
CHAPTER X. WHAT FLEURY WENT TO DO AT MAZAS
During the same night towards four o'clock the approaches of the Northern Railway Station were silently invested by two regiments; one of Chasseurs de Vincennes, the other of Gendarmerie Mobile . Numerous squads of sergents de ville installed themselves in the terminus. The station-master was ordered to prepare a special train and to have an engine ready. A certain number of stokers and engineers for night service were retained. No explanation however was vouchsafed to any one, and absolute secr
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CHAPTER XI. THE END OF THE SECOND DAY
CHAPTER XI. THE END OF THE SECOND DAY
We left Marie's house just in time. The regiment charged to track us and to arrest us was approaching. We heard the measured steps of soldiers in the gloom. The streets were dark. We dispersed. I will not speak of a refuge which was refused to us. Less than ten minutes after our departure M. Marie's house was invested. A swarm of guns and swords poured in, and overran it from cellar to attic. "Everywhere! everywhere!" cried the chiefs. The soldiers sought us with considerable energy. Without tak
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CHAPTER I. THOSE WHO SLEEP AND HE WHO DOES NOT SLEEP
CHAPTER I. THOSE WHO SLEEP AND HE WHO DOES NOT SLEEP
During this night of the 3d and 4th of December, while we who were overcome with fatigue and betrothed to calamity slept an honest slumber, not an eye was closed at the Elysée. An infamous sleeplessness reigned there. Towards two o'clock in the morning the Comte Roguet, after Morny the most intimate of the confidants of the Elysée, an ex-peer of France and a lieutenant-general, came out of Louis Bonaparte's private room; Roguet was accompanied by Saint-Arnaud. Saint-Arnaud, it may be remembered,
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CHAPTER II. THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMITTEE
CHAPTER II. THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMITTEE
As soon as it was daylight we had assembled in the house of our imprisoned colleague, M. Grévy. We had been installed in his private room. Michel de Bourges and myself were seated near the fireplace; Jules Favre and Carnot were writing, the one at a table near the window, the other at a high desk. The Left had invested us with discretionary powers. It became more and more impossible at every moment to meet together again in session. We drew up in its name and remitted to Hingray, so that he migh
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CHAPTER III. INSIDE THE ELYSEE
CHAPTER III. INSIDE THE ELYSEE
During the morning Dr. Yvan met Dr. Conneau. They were acquainted. They talked together. Yvan belonged to the Left. Conneau belonged to the Elysée. Yvan knew through Conneau the details of what had taken place during the night at the Elysée, which he transmitted to us. One of these details was the following:— An inexorable decree had been compiled, and was about to be placarded. This decree enjoined upon all submission to the coup d'état . Saint-Arnaud, who, as Minister of War, should sign the d
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M. Mérimée was vile by nature, he must not be blamed for it.
M. Mérimée was vile by nature, he must not be blamed for it.
With regard to M. de Morny it is otherwise, he was more worthy; there was something of the brigand in him. M. de Morny was courageous. Brigandage has its sentiments of honor. M. Mérimée has wrongly given himself out as one of the confederates of the coup d'état . He had, however, nothing to boast of in this. The truth is that M. Mérimée was in no way a confidant. Louis Bonaparte made no useless confidences. Let us add that it is little probable, notwithstanding some slight evidence to the contra
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CHAPTER V. A WAVERING ALLY
CHAPTER V. A WAVERING ALLY
During this terribly historical morning of the 4th of December, a day the master was closely observed by his satellites, Louis Bonaparte had shut himself up, but in doing so he betrayed himself. A man who shuts himself up meditates, and for such men to meditate is to premeditate. What could be the premeditation of Louis Bonaparte? What was working in his mind. Questions which all asked themselves, two persons excepted,—Morny, the man of thought; Saint-Arnaud, the man of action. Louis Bonaparte c
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CHAPTER VI. DENIS DUSSOUBS
CHAPTER VI. DENIS DUSSOUBS
Gaston Dussoubs was one of the bravest members of the Left. He was a Representative of the Haute-Vienne. At the time of his first appearance in the Assembly he wore, as formerly did Théophile Gautier, a red waistcoat, and the shudder which Gautier's waistcoat caused among the men of letters in 1830, Gaston Dussoubs' waistcoat caused among the Royalists of 1851. M. Parisis, Bishop of Langres, who would have had no objection to a red hat, was terrified by Gaston Dussoubs' red waistcoat. Another so
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CHAPTER VII. ITEMS AND INTERVIEWS
CHAPTER VII. ITEMS AND INTERVIEWS
Lamoricière on the same morning found means to convey to me by Madame de Courbonne 15 the following information. "—— Fortress of Ham.—The Commandant's name is Baudot. His appointment, made by Cavaignac in 1848, was countersigned by Charras. Both are to-day his prisoners. The Commissary of Police, sent by Morny to the village of Ham to watch the movements of the jailer and the prisoners, is Dufaure de Pouillac." 16 I thought when I received this communication that the Commandant Baudot, "the jail
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CHAPTER VIII. THE SITUATION
CHAPTER VIII. THE SITUATION
Although the fighting tactics of the Committee were, for the reasons which I have already given, not to concentrate all their means of resistance into one hour, or in one particular place, but to spread them over as many points and as many days as possible, each of us knew instinctively, as also the criminals of the Elysée on their side, that the day would be decisive. The moment drew near when the coup d'état would storm us from every side, and when we should have to sustain the onslaught of an
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Important deeds had been already achieved during the morning.
Important deeds had been already achieved during the morning.
"It is taking root," Bastide had said. The difficulty is not to spread the flames but to light the fire. It was evident that Paris began to grow ill-tempered. Paris does not get angry at will. She must be in the humor for it. A volcano possesses nerves. The anger was coming slowly, but it was coming. On the horizon might be seen the first glimmering of the eruption. For the Elysée, as for us, the critical moment was drawing nigh. From the preceding evening they were nursing their resources. The
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CHAPTER X. MY VISIT TO THE BARRICADE
CHAPTER X. MY VISIT TO THE BARRICADE
My coachman deposited me at the corner of Saint Eustache, and said to me, "Here you are in the hornets' nest." He added, "I will wait for you in the Rue de la Vrillière, near the Place des Victoires. Take your time." I began walking from barricade to barricade. In the first I met De Flotte, who offered to serve me as a guide. There is not a more determined man than De Flotte. I accepted his offer; he took me everywhere where my presence could be of use. On the way he gave me an account of the st
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CHAPTER XI. THE BARRICADE OF THE RUE MESLAY
CHAPTER XI. THE BARRICADE OF THE RUE MESLAY
The first barricade of the Rue Saint Martin was erected at the junction of the Rue Meslay. A large cart was overturned, placed across the street, and the roadway was unpaved; some flag-stones of the footway were also torn up. This barricade, the advanced work of defence of the whole revolted street, could only form a temporary obstacle. No portion of the piled-up stones was higher than a man. In a good third of the barricade the stones did not reach above the knee. "It will at all events be good
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CHAPTER XII. THE BARRICADE OF THE MAIRIE OF THE FIFTH ARRONDISSEMENT
CHAPTER XII. THE BARRICADE OF THE MAIRIE OF THE FIFTH ARRONDISSEMENT
National Guards in uniform filled the courtyard of the Mairie of the Fifth Arrondissement. Others came in every moment. An ex-drummer of the Garde Mobile had taken a drum from a lower room at the side of the guard-room, and had beaten the call to arms in the surrounding streets. Towards nine o'clock a group of fourteen or fifteen young men, most of whom were in white blouses, entered the Mairie, shouting, "Long live the Republic!" They were armed with guns. The National Guard received them with
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CHAPTER VIII. THE BARRICADE OF THE RUE THEVENOT
CHAPTER VIII. THE BARRICADE OF THE RUE THEVENOT
Georges Biscarrat was the man who had given the signal for the looting in the Rue de l'Echelle. I had known Georges Biscarrat ever since June, 1848. He had taken part in that disastrous insurrection. I had had an opportunity of being useful to him. He had been captured, and was kneeling before the firing-party; I interfered, and I saved his life, together with that of some others, M., D., D., B., and that brave-hearted architect Rolland, who when an exile, later on, so ably restored the Brussels
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Arrests grew more numerous.
Arrests grew more numerous.
Towards noon a Commissary of Police, named Boudrot, appeared at the divan of the Rue Lepelletier. He was accompanied by the police agent Delahodde. Delahodde was that traitorous socialist writer, who, upon being unmasked, had passed from the Secret Police to the Public Police Service. I knew him, and I record this incident. In 1832 he was a master in the school at which were my two sons, then boys, and he had addressed poetry to me. At the same time he was acting the spy upon me. The Lepelletier
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It was one o'clock in the afternoon.
It was one o'clock in the afternoon.
Bonaparte had again become gloomy. The gleams of sunshine on such countenances as these last very short time. He had gone back to his private room, had seated himself before the fire, with his feet on the hobs, motionless, and no one any longer approached him except Roquet. What was he thinking of? The twistings of the viper cannot be foreseen. What this man achieved on this infamous day I have told at length in another book. See "Napoleon the Little." From time to time Roquet entered and inform
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Suddenly a window was opened.
Suddenly a window was opened.
Upon Hell. Dante, had he leaned over the summit of the shadow, would have been able to see the eighth circle of his poem; the funereal Boulevard Montmartre. Paris, a prey to Bonaparte; a monstrous spectacle. The gloomy armed men massed together on this boulevard felt an appalling spirit enter into them; they ceased to be themselves, and became demons. There was no longer a single French soldier, but a host of indefinable phantoms, carrying out a horrible task, as though in the glimmering light o
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CHAPTER XVII. THE APPOINTMENT MADE WITH THE WORKMEN'S SOCIETIES
CHAPTER XVII. THE APPOINTMENT MADE WITH THE WORKMEN'S SOCIETIES
What had become of our Committee during these tragic events, and what was it doing? It is necessary to relate what took place. Let us go back a few hours. At the moment when this strange butchery began, the seat of the Committee was still in the Rue Richelieu. I had gone back to it after the exploration which I had thought it proper to make at several of the quarters in insurrection, and I gave an account of what I had seen to my colleagues. Madier de Montjau, who also arrived from the barricade
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CHAPTER XVIII. THE VERIFICATION OF MORAL LAWS
CHAPTER XVIII. THE VERIFICATION OF MORAL LAWS
The carnage of the Boulevard Montmartre constitutes the originality of the coup d'état . Without this butchery the 2d of December would only be an 18th Brumaire. Owing to the massacre Louis Bonaparte escapes the charge of plagiarism. Up to that time he had only been an imitator. The little hat at Boulogne, the gray overcoat, the tame eagle appeared grotesque. What did this parody mean? people asked. He made them laugh; suddenly he made them tremble. He who becomes detestable ceases to be ridicul
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CHAPTER I. WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE NIGHT—THE RUE TIQUETONNE
CHAPTER I. WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE NIGHT—THE RUE TIQUETONNE
Just as Mathieu de la Drôme had said, "You are under King Bomba," Charles Gambon entered. He sank down upon a chair and muttered, "It is horrible." Bancel followed him. "We have come from it," said Bancel. Gambon had been able to shelter himself in the recess of a doorway. In front of Barbedienne's alone he had counted thirty-seven corpses. What was the meaning of it all? To what purpose was this monstrous promiscuous murder? No one could understand it. The Massacre was a riddle. We were in the
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I came back to my lodging, 19, Rue Richelieu.
I came back to my lodging, 19, Rue Richelieu.
The massacre seemed to be at an end; the fusillades were heard no longer. As I was about to knock at the door I hesitated for a moment; a man was there who seemed to be waiting. I went straight up to this man, and I said to him,— "You seem to be waiting for somebody?" He answered,— "Yes." "For whom?" "For you." And he added, lowering his voice, "I have come to speak to you." I looked at this man. A street-lamp shone on him. He did not avoid the light. He was a young man with a fair beard, wearin
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CHAPTER III. WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE NIGHT.—THE PETIT CARREAU
CHAPTER III. WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE NIGHT.—THE PETIT CARREAU
On the same night, almost at the same moment, at a few paces distant, a villainous deed was being perpetrated. After the taking of the barricade, where Pierre Tissié was killed, seventy or eighty combatants had retired in good order by the Rue Saint Sauveur. They had reached the Rue Montorgueil, and had rejoined each other at the junction of the Rue du Petit Carreau and the Rue du Cadran. At this point the street rises. At the corner of the Rue du Petit Carreau and the Rue de Cléry there was a d
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CHAPTER IV. WHAT WAS DONE DURING THE NIGHT—THE PASSAGE DU SAUMON
CHAPTER IV. WHAT WAS DONE DURING THE NIGHT—THE PASSAGE DU SAUMON
When those on the barricade of the Petit Carreau saw Dussoubs fall, so gloriously for his friends, so shamefully for his murderers, a moment of stupor ensued. Was it possible? Did they really see this before them? Such a crime committed by our soldiers? Horror filled every soul. This moment of surprise did not last long. "Long live the Republic!" shouted the barricade with one voice, and it replied to the ambuscade by a formidable fire. The conflict began. A mad conflict on the part of the coup
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CHAPTER V. OTHER DEEDS OF DARKNESS
CHAPTER V. OTHER DEEDS OF DARKNESS
Yvan had again seen Conneau. He corroborated the information given in the letter of Alexandre Dumas to Bocage; with the fact we had the names. On the 3d of December at M. Abbatucci's house, 31, Rue Caumartin, in the presence of Dr. Conneau and of Piétri, a Corsican, born at Vezzani, named Jacques François Criscelli, 29 a man attached to the secret and personal service of Louis Bonaparte, had received from Piétri's own mouth the offer of 25,000 francs "to take or kill Victor Hugo." He had accepte
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CHAPTER VI. THE CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE
CHAPTER VI. THE CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE
Al danger being over, all scruples vanished. Prudent and wise people could now give their adherence to the coup d'état , they allowed their names to be posted up. Here is the placard: The name of Bourbousson is found on this list. It would be a pity if this name were lost. At the same time as this placard appeared the protest of M. Daru, as follows:— Some of these members of the Consultative Committee came from Mazas or from Mount Valerien. They had been detained in a cell for four-and-twenty ho
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CHAPTER VII. THE OTHER LIST
CHAPTER VII. THE OTHER LIST
Opposite to the list of adherents should be placed the list of the proscribed. In this manner the two sides of the coup d'état can be seen at a glance. There was besides a list of the "provisionally exiled," on which figured Edward Quinet, Victor Chauffour, General Laidet, Pascal Duprat, Versigny, Antony Thouret, Thiers, Girardin, and Rémusat. Four Representatives, Mathé, Greppo, Marc-Dufraisse, and Richardet, were added to the list of the "expelled." Representative Miot was reserved for the tor
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CHAPTER VIII. DAVID D'ANGERS
CHAPTER VIII. DAVID D'ANGERS
Brutalities and ferocities were mingled together. The great sculptor, David d'Angers, was arrested in his own house, 16, Rue d'Assas; the Commissary of Police on entering, said to him,— "Have you any arms in your house?" "Yes," Said David, "for my defence." And he added,— "If I had to deal with civilized people." "Where are these arms?" rejoined the Commissary. "Let us see them." David showed him his studio full of masterpieces. They placed him in a fiacre , and drove him to the station-house of
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CHAPTER IX. OUR LAST MEETING
CHAPTER IX. OUR LAST MEETING
On the 3d of December everything was coming in in our favor. On the 5th everything was receding from us. It was like a mighty sea which was going out. The tide had come in gloriously, it went out disastrously. Gloomy ebb and flow of the people. And who was the power who said to this ocean, "Thou shalt go no farther?" Alas! a pigmy. These hiding-places of the abyss are fathomless. The abyss is afraid. Of what? Of something deeper than itself. Of the Crime. The people drew back. They drew back on
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"I?"
"I?"
"You." "How so?" "Listen to me." Then he set forth with that clearness, complicated at times with paradoxes, which is one of the resources of his remarkable mind, the situation, at the same time desperate and strong, in which we were placed. This situation, which moreover I realized as well as he himself, was this:— The Right of the Assembly was composed of about 400 members, and the Left of about 180. The four hundred of the majority belonged by thirds to three parties, the Legitimist party, th
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I did not know where to go.
I did not know where to go.
On the afternoon of the 7th I determined to go back once more to 19, Rue Richelieu. Under the gateway some one seized my arm. It was Madame D. She was waiting for me. "Do not go in," she said to me. "Am I discovered?" "Yes." "And taken." "No." She added,— "Come." We crossed the courtyard, and we went out by a backdoor into the Rue Fontaine Molière; we reached the square of the Palais Royal. The fiacres were standing there as usual. We got into the first we came to. "Where are we to go?" asked th
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CHAPTER XII. THE EXILED
CHAPTER XII. THE EXILED
The Crime having succeeded, all hastened to join it. To persist was possible, to resist was not possible. The situation became more and more desperate. One would have said that an enormous wall was rising upon the horizon ready to close in. The outlet: Exile. The great souls, the glories of the people, emigrated. Thus there was seen this dismal sight—France driven out from France. But what the Present appears to lose, the Future gains, the hand which scatters is also the hand which sows. The Rep
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Justice sometime meets with strange adventures.
Justice sometime meets with strange adventures.
This old phrase assumed a new sense. The code ceased to be a safeguard. The law became something which had sworn fealty to a crime. Louis Bonaparte appointed judges by whom one felt oneself stopped as in the corner of a wood. In the same manner as the forest is an accomplice through its density, so the legislation was an accomplice by its obscurity. What it lacked at certain points in order to make it perfectly dark they added. How? By force. Purely and simply. By decree. Sic jubeo . The decree
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"I?"
"I?"
"Yes, you." "How I?" "You must have done something." "No. I have done nothing. I have not even done my duty. I ought to have taken my gun, gone down into the street, harangued the people, raised barricades; I remained at home stupidly like a sluggard" (the accused laughs); "that is the offence of which I accuse myself." "You have not been condemned for that offence. Think carefully." "I can think of nothing." "What! You have not been to the café ?" "Yes, I have breakfasted there." "Have you not
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A little religion can be mingled with this justice. Here is an example.
A little religion can be mingled with this justice. Here is an example.
Frederick Morin, like Arnauld de l'Ariège, was a Catholic Republican. He thought that the souls of the victims of the 4th of December, suddenly cast by the volleys of the coup d'état into the infinite and the unknown, might need some assistance, and he undertook the laborious task of having a mass said for the repose of these souls. But the priests wished to keep the masses for their friends. The group of Catholic Republicans which Frederick Morin headed applied successively to all the priests o
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CHAPTER XV. HOW THEY CAME OUT OF HAM
CHAPTER XV. HOW THEY CAME OUT OF HAM
On the night of the 7th and 8th of January, Charras was sleeping. The noise of his bolts being drawn awoke him. "So then!" said he, "they are going to put us in close confinement." And he went to sleep again. An hour afterwards the door was opened. The commandant of the fort entered in full uniform, accompanied by a police agent carrying a torch. It was about four o'clock in the morning. "Colonel," said the Commandant, "dress yourself at once." "What for?" "You are about to leave." "Some more ra
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CHAPTER XVI. A RETROSPECT
CHAPTER XVI. A RETROSPECT
Louis Bonaparte had tested the majority as engineers test a bridge; he had loaded it with iniquities, encroachments, enormities, slaughters on the Place du Havre, cries of "Long live the Emperor," distributions of money to the troops, sales of Bonapartist journals in the streets, prohibition of Republican and parliamentary journals, reviews at Satory, speeches at Dijon; the majority bore everything. "Good," said he, "It will carry the weight of the coup d'état ." Let us recall the facts. Before
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CHAPTER XVII. CONDUCT OF THE LEFT
CHAPTER XVII. CONDUCT OF THE LEFT
The conduct of the Republican Left in this grave crisis of the 2d of December was memorable. The flag of the Law was on the ground, in the mire of universal treason, under the feet of Louis Bonaparte; the Left raised this flag, washed away the mire with its blood, unfurled it, waved it before the eyes of the people, and from the 2d to the 5th of December held Bonaparte at bay. A few men, a mere handful, 120 Representatives of the people escaped by chance from arrest, plunged in darkness and in s
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CHAPTER XVIII. PAGE WRITTEN AT BRUSSELS
CHAPTER XVIII. PAGE WRITTEN AT BRUSSELS
Well then, yes, I will kick open the door of this Palace, and I will enter with you, History! I will seize by the collar all the perpetrators, continually caught red-handed in the commission of all these outrages! I will suddenly illuminate this cavern of night with the broad daylight of truth! Yes, I will bring in the daylight! I will tear down the curtain, I will open the window, I will show to every eye such as it really is, infamous, horrible, wealthy, triumphant, joyous, gilded, besmirched—
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The Pope approved.
The Pope approved.
When the mails brought to Rome intelligence of the event of the 2d of December, the Pope went to a review held by General Gémeau, and begged him to congratulate Prince Louis Napoléon for him. There was a precedent for this. On the 12th December, 1572, Saint-Goard, Ambassador of Charles the Ninth, King of France, to Philip the Second, King of Spain, wrote from Madrid to his master, Charles the Ninth, "The news of the events of the day of Saint Bartholomew have reached the Catholic King. Contrary
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CONCLUSION—THE FALL.
CONCLUSION—THE FALL.
I was coming back from my fourth exile—an exile in Belgium, a small matter. It was one of the last days of September, 1871. I was re-entering France by the Luxembourg frontier. I had fallen asleep in the carriage. Suddenly the jolt of the train coming to a standstill awoke me. I opened my eyes....
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The train had stopped in the middle of a charming landscape.
The train had stopped in the middle of a charming landscape.
I was in the half-consciousness of an interrupted sleep; and ideas, as yet half-dreams, hazy and diffuse, hovered between myself and reality. I experienced the undefinable and confused sensation of awakening. A river flowed by the side of the railway, clear, around a bright and verdant island. This vegetation was so thick that the moor-hens, on reaching it, plunged beneath it and disappeared. The river wound through a valley, which appeared like a huge garden. Apple-trees were there, which remin
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CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
On the 31st of August, 1870, an army was reassembled, and was, as it were, massed together under the walls of Sedan, in a place called the Givonne Valley. This army was a French army—twenty-nine brigades, fifteen divisions, four army corps—90,000 men. This army was in this place without any one being able to divine the reason; without order, without an object, scattered about—a species of heap of men thrown down there as though with the view of being seized by some huge hand. This army either di
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CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
At a quarter to two in the morning, at his headquarters at Mouzon, Albert, Crown Prince of Saxony, set the Army of the Meuse in motion; the Royal Guard were beat to arms, and two divisions marched, one upon Villers-Cernay, by Escambre and Fouru-aux-Bois, the other upon Francheval by Suchy and Fouru-Saint-Remy. The Artillery of the Guard followed. At the same moment the 12th Saxon Corps was beaten to arms, and by the high road to the south of Douzy reached Lamécourt, and marched upon La Moncelle;
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
Let us review the situation. The Germans have numbers on their side; they are three against one, perhaps four; they own to 250,000 men, and it is certain that their attacking front extended for 30 kilomètres; they have on their side the positions, they crown the heights, they fill the forests, they are covered by all these escarpments, they are masked by all this shade; they possess an incomparable artillery. The French army is in a valley, almost without artillery and without supplies, utterly
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CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
Bazeilles takes fire, Givonne takes fire, Floing takes fire; the battle begins with a furnace. The whole horizon is aflame. The French camp is in this crater, stupefied, affrighted, starting up from sleeping,—a funereal swarming. A circle of thunder surrounds the army. They are encircled by annihilation. This mighty slaughter is carried on on all sides simultaneously. The French resist, and they are terrible, having nothing left but despair. Our cannon, almost all old-fashioned and of short rang
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CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
This disaster of Sedan was easy of avoidance by any other man, but impossible of avoidance for Louis Bonaparte. He avoided it so little that he sought it. Lex fati . Our army seemed expressly arranged for the catastrophe. The soldier was uneasy, ignorant of his whereabouts, famished. On the 31st of August, in the streets of Sedan, soldiers were seeking their regiments, and going from door to door asking for bread. We have seen the Emperor's order announcing the next day, September 1st, as a day
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He wrote to William:
He wrote to William:
William answered, "Sire, my Brother, I accept your sword." And on the 2d of September, at six o'clock in the morning, this plain, streaming with blood, and covered with dead, saw pass by a gilded open carriage and four, the horses harnessed after Daumont fashion, and in this carriage a man, cigarette in mouth. It was the Emperor of the French going to surrender his sword to the King of Prussia. The King kept the Emperor waiting. It was too early. He sent M. de Bismarck to Louis Bonaparte to say
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But sacred horror held me back.
But sacred horror held me back.
The station-master of Sedan came to my carriage, and explained to me what I had before my eyes. I seemed to see, through his words, the pale lightnings of the battle. All these distant cottages, scattered about and charming in the sun, had been burnt; they were rebuilt; Nature, so quickly diverted, had repaired everything, had cleaned everything, had swept everything, had replaced everything. The ferocious convulsion of men had vanished, eternal order had resumed its sway. But, as I have said, t
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CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER IX.
Never was there a more dismal fall. No expiation can be compared with this. The unprecedented drama was in five acts, so fierce that Aeschylus himself would not have dared to dream of them. "The Ambush!" "The Struggle!" "The Massacre!" "The Victory!" "The Fall!" What a tangle and what an unwinding! A poet who would have predicted it would have seemed a traitor. God alone could permit Himself Sedan. Everything in proportion, such is His law. Far worse than Brumaire, it needed a more crushing retr
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