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
"Here are the military talons by which Paris has been grasped:--Bivouacs
at all the strategical points. At the Pont Neuf and the Quai aux Fleurs,
the Municipal Guards; at the Place de la Bastille twelve pieces of
cannon, three mortars, lighted matches; at the corner of the Faubourg the
six-storied houses are occupied by soldiers from top to bottom; the
Marulaz brigade at the Hôtel de Ville; the Sauboul brigade at the
Panthéon; the Courtigis brigade at the Faubourg St. Antoine; the Renaud
division at the Faubourg St. Marceau. At the Legislative Palace the
Chasseurs de Vincennes, and a battalion of the 15th Light Infantry; in
the Champs Elysées infantry and cavalry; in the Avenue Marigny artillery.
Inside the circus is an entire regiment; it has bivouacked there all
night. A squadron of the Municipal Guard is bivouacking in the Place
Dauphine. A bivouac in the Council of State. A bivouac in the courtyard
of the Tuileries. In addition, the garrisons of St. Germain and of
Courbevoie. Two colonels killed, Loubeau, of the 75th, and Quilio. On all
sides hospital attendants are passing, bearing litters. Ambulances are
everywhere; in the Bazar de l'Industry (Boulevard Poissionière); in the
Salle St. Jean at the Hôtel de Ville; in the Rue du Petit Carreau. In
this gloomy battle nine brigades are engaged. All have a battery of
artillery; a squadron of cavalry maintains the communications between the
brigades; forty thousand men are taking part in the struggle; with a
reserve of sixty thousand men; a hundred thousand soldiers upon Paris.
Such is the Army of the Crime. The Reibell brigade, the first and second
Lancers, protect the Elysée. The Ministers are all sleeping at the
Ministry of the Interior, close by Morny. Morny watches, Magnan commands.
To-morrow will be a terrible day."
This page written, I went to bed, and fell asleep.
THE THIRD DAY--THE MASSACRE.
CHAPTER I.
THOSE WHO SLEEP AND HE WHO DOES NOT SLEEP
During this night of the 3d and 4th of December, while we who were
overcome with fatigue and betrothed to calamity slept an honest slumber,
not an eye was closed at the Elysée. An infamous sleeplessness reigned
there. Towards two o'clock in the morning the Comte Roguet, after Morny
the most intimate of the confidants of the Elysée, an ex-peer of France
and a lieutenant-general, came out of Louis Bonaparte's private room;
Roguet was accompanied by Saint-Arnaud. Saint-Arnaud, it may be
remembered, was at that time Minister of War.
Two colonels were waiting in the little ante-room.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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