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 decree, had drawn it up. He had reached the last paragraph, which ran thus: "Whoever shall be detected constructing a barricade, posting a placard of the ex-Representatives, or reading it, shall be...." here Saint-Arnaud had paused; Morny had shrugged his shoulders, had snatched the pen from his hand, and written "_shot_!" Other matters had been decided, but these were not recorded. Various pieces of information came in in addition to these. A National Guard, named Boillay de Dole, had formed one of the Guard at the Elysée, on the night of the 3d and 4th. The windows of Louis Bonaparte's private room, which was on the ground floor, were lighted up throughout the night. In the adjoining room there was a Council of War. From the sentry-box where he was stationed Boillay saw defined on the windows black profiles and gesticulating shadows, which were Magnan, Saint-Arnaud, Persigny, Fleury,--the spectres of the crime. Korte, the General of the Cuirassiers, had been summoned, as also Carrelet, who commanded the division which did the hardest work on the following day, the 4th. From midnight to three o'clock in the morning Generals and Colonels "did nothing but come and go." Even mere captains had come there. Towards four o'clock some carriages arrived "with women." Treason and debauchery went hand in hand. The boudoir in the palace answered to the brothel in the barracks. The courtyard was filled with lancers, who held the horses of the generals who were deliberating. Two of the women who came that night belong in a certain measure to History. There are always feminine shadows of this sort in the background. These women influenced the unhappy generals. Both belonged to the best circles. The one was the Marquise of ----, she who became enamored of her husband after having deceived him. She discovered that her lover was not worth her husband. Such a thing does happen. She was the daughter of the most whimsical Marshal of France, and of that pretty Countess of ---- to whom M. de Chateaubriand, after a night of love, composed this quatrain, which may now be published--all the personages being dead. The Dawn peeps in at the window, she paints the sky with red; And over our loving embraces her rosy rays are shed: She looks on the slumbering world, love, with eyes that seem divine. But can she show on her lips, love, a smile as sweet as thine?[13]