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
Baudin ascended the Tribune several times. His mode of speaking,
outwardly hesitating, was energetic in the main. He sat on the crest of
the Mountain. He had a firm spirit and timid manners. Thence there was in
his constitution an indescribable embarrassment, mingled with decision.
He was a man of middle height. His face ruddy and full, his broad chest,
his wide shoulders announced the robust man, the laborer-schoolmaster,
the peasant-thinker. In this he resembled Bourzat. Baudin leaned his head
on his shoulder, listened with intelligence, and spoke with a gentle and
grave voice. He had the melancholy air and the bitter smile of the
doomed.
On the evening of the Second of December I had asked him, "How old are
you?" He had answered me, "Not quite thirty-three years."
"And you?" said he.
"Forty-nine."
And he replied,--
"To-day we are of the same age."
He thought in truth of that to-morrow which awaited us, and in which was
hidden that "perhaps" which is the great leveller.
The first shots had been fired, a Representative had fallen, and the
people did not rise! What bandage had they on their eyes, what weight
had they on their hearts? Alas! the gloom which Louis Bonaparte had
known how to cast over his crime, far from lifting, grew denser. For the
first time in the sixty years, that the Providential era of Revolutions
had been open, Paris, the city of intelligence, seemed not to
understand!
On leaving the barricade of the Rue Ste. Marguerite, De Flotte went to
the Faubourg St. Marceau, Madier de Montjau went to Belleville,
Charamaule and Maigne proceeded to the Boulevards. Schoelcher, Dulac,
Malardier, and Brillier again went up the Faubourg St. Antoine by the
side streets which the soldiers had not yet occupied. They shouted,
"Vive la République!" They harangued the people on the doorsteps: "Is it
the Empire that you want?" exclaimed Schoelcher. They even went as far
as to sing the "Marseillaise." People took off their hats as they passed
and shouted "Long live the Representatives!" But that was all.
They were thirsty and weary. In the Rue de Reuilly a man came out of a
door with a bottle in his hand, and offered them drink.
Sartin joined them on the way. In the Rue de Charonne they entered the
meeting-place of the Association of Cabinet Makers, hoping to find there
the committee of the association in session. There was no
one there. But nothing discouraged them.
As they reached the Place de la Bastille, Dulac said to Schoelcher, "I
will ask permission to leave you for an hour or two, for this reason: I
am alone in Paris with my little daughter, who is seven years old. For
the past week she has had scarlet fever. Yesterday, when the _coup
d'état_ burst forth, she was at death's door. I have no one but this
child in the world. I left her this morning to come with you, and she
said to me, 'Papa, where are you going?' As I am not killed, I will go
and see if she is not dead."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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