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
Millière had a large bleeding wound above his eye-brow; that same
morning on leaving us, as he was carrying away one of the copies of the
Proclamation which I had dictated, a man had thrown himself upon him to
snatch it from him. The police had evidently already been informed of
the Proclamation, and lay in wait for it; Millière had a hand-to-hand
struggle with the police agent, and had overthrown him, not without
bearing away this gash. However, the Proclamation was not yet printed.
It was nearly nine o'clock in the evening and nothing had come. Xavier
Durrieu asserted that before another hour elapsed they should have the
promised forty thousand copies. It was hoped to cover the walls of Paris
with them during the night. Each of those present was to serve as a
bill-poster.
There were amongst us--an inevitable circumstance in the stormy
confusion of the first moments--a good many men whom we did not know.
One of these men brought in ten or twelve copies of the appeal to arms.
He asked me to sign them with my own hand, in order, he said, that he
might be able to show my signature to the people--"Or to the police,"
whispered Baudin to me smiling. We were not in a position to take such
precautions as these. I gave this man all the signatures that he wanted.
Madier de Montjau began to speak. It was of consequence to organize the
action of the Left, to impress the unity of impulse upon the movement
which was being prepared; to create a centre for it, to give a pivot to
the insurrection, to the Left a direction, and to the People a
support. He proposed the immediate formation of a committee representing
the entire Left in all its shades, and charged with organizing and
directing the insurrection.
All the Representatives cheered this eloquent and courageous man. Seven
members were proposed. They named at once Carnot, De Flotte, Jules
Favre, Madier de Montjau, Michel de Bourges, and myself; and thus was
unanimously formed this Committee of Insurrection, which at my request
was called a Committee of Resistance; for it was Louis Bonaparte who was
tire insurgent. For ourselves, the were the Republic. It was desired
that one workman-Representative should be admitted into the committee.
Faure (du Rhône) was nominated. But Faure, we learned later on, had been
arrested that morning. The committee then was, it fact, composed of six
members.
The committee organized itself during the sitting. A Committee of
Permanency was formed from amongst it, and invested with the authority
of decreeing "urgency" in the name of all the Left, of concentrating all
news, information, directions, instructions, resources, orders. This
Committee of Permanency was composed of four members, who were Carnot,
Michel de Bourges, Jules Favre, and myself. De Flotte and Madier de
Montjau were specially delegated, De Flotte for the left bank of the
river and the district of the schools, Madier for the Boulevards and the
outskirts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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