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
M. Daru, as we have said, lived in the Rue de Lille, close by the
Assembly. The section of the Rue de Lille lying between his house and
the Palais Bourbon was occupied by infantry. The last detachment
barred his door, but it only barred it on the right, not on the left.
The Representatives, on quitting M. Daru, bent their steps on the side
of the Rue des Saints-Pères, and left the soldiers behind them. At
that moment the soldiers had only been instructed to prevent their
meeting in the Palace of the Assembly; they could quietly form
themselves into a column in the street, and set forth. If they had
turned to the right instead of to the left, they would have been
opposed. But there were no orders for the other alternative; they
passed through a gap in the instructions.
An hour afterwards this threw St. Arnaud into a fit of fury.
On their way fresh Representatives came up and swelled the column. As the
members of the Right lived for the most part in the Faubourg St. Germain,
the column was composed almost entirely of men belonging to the majority.
At the corner of the Quai d'Orsay they met a group of members of the
Left, who had reunited after their exit from the Palace of the Assembly,
and who were consulting together. There were the Representatives
Esquiros, Marc Dufraisse, Victor Hennequin, Colfavru, and Chamiot.
Those who were marching at the head of the column left their places, went
up to the group, and said, "Come with us."
"Where are you going?" asked Marc Dufraisse.
To the Mairie of the Tenth Arrondissement."
"What do you intend to do there?"
"To decree the deposition of Louis Bonaparte."
"And afterwards?"
"Afterwards we shall go in a body to the Palace of the Assembly; we will
force our way in spite of all resistance, and from the top of the steps
we will read out the decree of deposition to the soldiers."
"Very good, we will join you," said Mare Dufraisse.
The five members of the Left marched at some distance from the column.
Several of their friends who were mingled with the members of the Right
rejoined them; and we may here mention a fact without giving it more
importance than it possesses, namely, that the two fractions of the
Assembly represented in this unpremeditated gathering marched towards the
Mairie without being mingled together; one on each side of the street. It
chanced that the men of the majority kept on the right side of the
street, and the men of the minority on the left.
No one had a scarf of office. No outward token caused them to be
recognized. The passers-by stared at them with surprise, and did not
understand what was the meaning of this procession of silent men through
the solitary streets of the Faubourg St. Germain. One district of Paris
was as yet unaware of the _coup d'état_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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