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
This offer was accepted. I sent to inform Auguste of our change of
abode, and of Cournet's address. Lafon remained on the Quai Jemmapes in
order to forward on the Proclamations as soon as they arrived, and we
set out at once.
Charamaule undertook to send to the Rue des Moulins to tell the other
members of the committee that we would wait for them at No. 82, Rue
Popincourt.
We walked, as in the morning, in little separate groups. The Quai
Jemmapes skirts the left bank of the St. Martin Canal; we went up it. We
only met a few solitary workmen, who looked back when we had passed, and
stopped behind us with an air of astonishment. The night was dark. A few
drops of rain were falling.
A little beyond the Rue de Chemin Vert we turned to the right and
reached the Rue Popincourt. There all was deserted, extinguished,
closed, and silent, as in the Faubourg St. Antoine. This street is of
great length. We walked for a long time; we passed by the barracks.
Cournet was no longer with us; he had remained behind to inform some of
his friends, and we were told to take defensive measures in case his
house was attacked. We looked for No. 82. The darkness was such that we
could not distinguish the numbers on the houses. At length, at the end
of the street, on the right, we saw a light; it was a grocer's shop, the
only one open throughout the street. One of us entered, and asked the
grocer, who was sitting behind his counter, to show us M. Cournet's
house. "Opposite," said the grocer, pointing to an old and low carriage
entrance which could be seen on the other side of the street, almost
facing his shop.
We knocked at this door. It was opened. Baudin entered first, tapped at
the window of the porter's lodge, and asked "Monsieur Cournet?"--An old
woman's voice answered, "Here."
The portress was in bed; all in the house sleeping. We went in.
Having entered, and the gate being shut behind us, we found ourselves in
a little square courtyard which formed the centre of a sort of a
two-storied ruin; the silence of a convent prevailed, not a light was to
be seen at the windows; near a shed was seen a low entrance to a narrow,
dark, and winding staircase. "We have made some mistake," said
Charamaule; "it is impossible that it can be here."
Meanwhile the portress, hearing all these trampling steps beneath her
doorway, had become wide awake, had lighted her lamp, and we could see
her in her lodge, her face pressed against the window, gazing with alarm
at sixty dark phantoms, motionless, and standing in her courtyard.
Esquiros addressed her: "Is this really M. Cournet's house?" said he.
"M. Cornet, without doubt," answered the good woman.
All was explained. We had asked for Cournet, the grocer had understood
Cornet, the portress had understood Cornet. It chanced that M. Cornet
lived there.
We shall see by and by what an extraordinary service chance had rendered
us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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