The History of a Crime: The Testimony of an Eye-WitnessHugo, Victor
History
The History of a Crime: The Testimony of an Eye-Witness
Hugo, Victor
France -- History -- 1789-1900
I found only Madame Landrin in the Rue des Moulins. It was thought that
the house was denounced and watched, and my colleagues had changed their
quarters to No. 7, Rue Villedo, the house of the ex-Constituent Leblond,
legal adviser to the Workmen's Association. Jules Favre had passed the
night there. Madame Landrin was breakfasting. She offered me a place by
her side, but time pressed. I carried off a morsel of bread, and left.
At No. 7, Rue Villedo, the maid-servant who opened the door to me
ushered me into a room where were Carnot, Michel de Bourges, Jules
Favre, and the master of the house, our former colleague, Constituent
Leblond.
"I have a carriage downstairs," I said to them; "the rendezvous is at
the Salle Roysin in the Faubourg St. Antoine; let us go."
This, however, was not their opinion. According to them the attempts
made on the previous evening in the Faubourg St. Antoine had revealed
this portion of the situation; they sufficed; it was useless to persist;
it was obvious that the working-class districts would not rise; we must
turn to the side of the tradesmen's districts, renounce our attempt to
rouse the extremities of the city, and agitate the centre. We were the
Committee of Resistance, the soul of the insurrection; if we were to go
to the Faubourg St. Antoine, which was occupied by a considerable force,
we should give ourselves up to Louis Bonaparte. They reminded me of what
I myself had said on the subject the previous evening in the Rue
Blanche. We must immediately organize the insurrection against the _coup
d'état_ and organize it in practicable districts, that is to say, in the
old labyrinths of the streets St. Denis and St. Martin; we must draw up
proclamations, prepare decrees, create some method of publicity; they
were waiting for important communications from Workmen's Associations
and Secret Societies. The great blow which I wished to strike by our
solemn meeting at the Salle Roysin would prove a failure; they thought
it their duty to remain where they were; and the Committee being few in
number, and the work to be done being enormous, they begged me not to
leave them.
They were men of great hearts and great courage who spoke to me; they
were evidently right; but for myself I could not fail to go to the
rendezvous which I myself had fixed. All the reasons which they had
given me were good, nevertheless I could have opposed some doubts, but
the discussion would have taken too much time, and the hour drew nigh.
I did not make any objections, and I went out of the room, making some
excuse. My hat was in the antechamber, my _fiacre_ was waiting for me,
and I drove off to the Faubourg St. Antoine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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