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
Malice is an unproductive outlay. Louis Bonaparte only possessed as much
memory as is useful. Hudson Lowe did not prevent him from smiling upon
Englishmen; the Marquis of Montchenu did not prevent him from smiling
upon the Royalists.
He was a man of earnest politics, of good company, wrapped in his own
scheming, not impulsive, doing nothing beyond that which he intended,
without abruptness, without hard words, discreet, accurate, learned,
talking smoothly of a necessary massacre, a slaughterer, because it
served his purpose.
All this, we repeat, without passion, and without anger. Louis Bonaparte
was one of those men who had been influenced by the profound iciness of
Machiavelli.
It was through being a man of that nature that he succeeded in submerging
the name of Napoleon by superadding December upon Brumaire.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE D'ORSAY BARRACKS
It was half-past three.
The arrested Representatives entered into the courtyard of the barracks,
a huge parallelogram closed in and commanded by high walls. These walls
are pierced by three tiers of windows, and posses that dismal appearance
which distinguishes barracks, schools, and prisons.
This courtyard is entered by an arched portal which extends through all
the breadth of the front of the main building. This archway, under which
the guard-house has been made, is close on the side of the quay by large
solid folding doors, and on one side of the courtyard by an iron grated
gateway. They closed the door and the grated gateway upon the
Representatives. They "set them at liberty" in the bolted and guarded
courtyard.
"Let them stroll about," said an officer.
The air was cold, the sky was gray. Some soldiers, in their shirt-sleeves
and wearing foraging caps, busy with fatigue duty, went hither and
thither amongst the prisoners.
First M. Grimault and then M. Antony Thouret instituted a roll-call. The
Representatives made a ring around them. Lherbette said laughingly, "This
just suits the barracks. We look like sergeant-majors who have come to
report." They called over the seven hundred and fifty names of the
Representatives. To each name they answered "Absent" or "Present," and
the secretary jotted down with a pencil those who were present. When the
name of Morny was reached, some one cried out, "At Clichy!" At the name
of Persigny, the same voice exclaimed, "At Poissy!" The inventor of these
two jokes, which by the way are very poor, has since allied himself to
the Second of December, to Morny and Persigny; he has covered his
cowardice with the embroidery of a senator.
The roll-call verified the presence of two hundred and twenty
Representatives, whose names were as follows:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account