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
"There is no one about now," said the last-maker; "but let us make
haste, for they will probably come back."
We went out: the old woman closed the door behind us, and we found
ourselves in the street. We got over the barricade and hurried away as
quickly as possible. We passed by the dead old man. He was still there,
lying on the pavement indistinctly revealed by the flickering glimmer
from the windows; he looked as though he was sleeping. As we reached the
second barricade we heard behind us the soldiers, who were returning.
We succeeded in regaining the streets in course of demolition. There we
were in safety. The sound of musketry still reached us. The last-maker
said, "They are fighting in the direction of the Rue de Cléry." Leaving
the streets in course of demolition, we went round the markets, not
without risk of falling into the hands of the patrols, by a number of
zigzags, and from one little street to another little street. We reached
the Rue Saint Honoré.
At the corner of the Rue de l'Arbre Sec the last-maker and I separated,
"For in truth," said he to me, "two run more danger than one." And I
regained No. 19, Rue Richelieu.
While crossing the rue des Bourdonnais we had noticed the bivouac of the
Place Saint Eustache. The troops who had been dispatched for the attack
had not yet come back. Only a few companies were guarding it. We could
hear shouts of laughter. The soldiers were warming themselves at large
fires lighted here and there. In the fire which was nearest to us we
could distinguish in the middle of the brazier the wheels of the
vehicles which had served for the barricades. Of some there only
remained a great hoop of red-hot iron.
[27] We may now, after twenty-six years, give the name of this loyal
and courageous man. His name was Galoy (and not Galloix, as certain
historians of the _coup d'état_ have printed it while recounting, after
their fashion, the incidents which we are about to read).
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 deserted barricade, fairly high
and well built. There had been fighting there during the morning. The
soldiers had taken it, but had not demolished it. Why? As we have said,
there were several riddles of this nature during this day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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