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
When all the police-vans had been filled, there were still some
Representatives left. As we have said, omnibuses were brought into
requisition. Into these Representatives were thrust, one upon the other,
rudely, without deference for either age or name. Colonel Feray, on
horseback, superintended and directed operations. As he mounted the steps
of the last vehicle but one, the Duc de Montebello cried out to him,
"To-day is the anniversary of the battle of Austerlitz, and the
son-in-law of Marshal Bugeaud compels the son of Marshal Lannes to enter
a convict's van."
When the last omnibus was reached, there were only seventeen places for
eighteen Representatives. The most active mounted first. Antony Thouret,
who himself alone equalled the whole of the Right, for he had as much
mind as Thiers and as much stomach as Murat; Antony Thouret, corpulent
and lethargic, was the last. When he appeared on the threshold of the
omnibus in all his hugeness, a cry of alarm arose;--Where was he going to
sit?
Antony Thouret, noticing Berryer at the bottom of the omnibus, went
straight up to him, sat down on his knees, and quietly said to him, "You
wanted 'compression,' Monsieur Berryer. Now you have it."
[8] Michel de Bourges had thus characterized Louis Bonaparte as the
guardian of the Republic against the Monarchical parties.
CHAPTER XV.
MAZAS
The police-vans, escorted as far as Mazas by Lancers, found another
squadron of Lancers ready to receive them at Mazas. The Representatives
descended from the vehicle one by one. The officer commanding the Lancers
stood by the door, and watched them pass with a dull curiosity.
Mazas, which had taken the place of the prison of La Force, now pulled
down, is a lofty reddish building, close to the terminus of the Lyons
Railway, and stands on the waste land of the Faubourg St. Antoine. From a
distance the building appears as though built of bricks, but on closer
examination it is seen to be constructed of flints set in cement. Six
large detached buildings, three stories high, all radiating from a
rotunda which serves as the common centre, and touching each other at the
starting-point, separated by courtyards which grow broader in proportion
as the buildings spread out, pierced with a thousand little dormer
windows which give light to the cells, surrounded by a high wall, and
presenting from a bird's-eye point of view the drape of a fan--such is
Mazas. From the rotunda which forms the centre, springs a sort of
minaret, which is the alarm-tower. The ground floor is a round room,
which serves as the registrar's office. On the first story is a chapel
where a single priest says mass for all; and the observatory, where a
single attendant keeps watch over all the doors of all the galleries at
the same time. Each building is termed a "division." The courtyards are
intersected by high walls into a multitude of little oblong walks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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