Meeting

of twenty

Magnan's

house.

than obey my commanding

On the 27th of November, however, this Magnan generals at assembled twenty generals whom he had under his command, and gave them to understand that they might soon be called upon to act against Paris and against the Constitution.* They promised a zealous and thoroughgoing obedience; and although every one of them, from Magnan downwards, was to have the pleasing shelter of an order from his superior officer, they all seemed to have imagined that their determination was of the sort which mankind call heroic; for their panegyrist relates with pride that when Magnan and his twenty generals were entering into this league and covenant against the people of Paris, they solemnly embraced one another.+

From time to time the common soldiery were gratified with presents of food and wine, as well as with an abundance of flattering words; and their exasperation against the civilians was so well kept alive, that men used to African warfare in its hatred were brought into the humour for calling the Parisians Bedouins.' There was massacre in the

The Army encouraged

of the people.

* Granier de Cassagnac, p. 392. There, the 26th is the day of the month which the historian mentions, but he gives Thursday (which fell on the 27th) as the day of the week when the meeting took place.-Note to 4th Edition, 1863.

All the generals embraced each other, and from that 'moment it might be said with certainty that France was going 'to come out of the abyss.'-Ibid. p. 392. The names of the twenty-one generals will be found ibid. p. 393.—Note to 4th Edition, 1863.

very sound. The army of Paris was in the tem- CHAP. per required.

It was necessary for the plotters to have the concurrence of M. St Georges, the Director of the State printing - office. M. St Georges was suborned. Then all was ready.

XIV.

IV.

the Elysée

evening.

errand.

On the Monday night between the 1st and the Assembly at 2d of December the President had his usual as- on Monday sembly at the Elysée. Ministers who were loyally ignorant of what was going on were mingled with those who were in the plot. Vieyra was present. He was spoken to by the President, and he under- Vieyra's took that the National Guard should not beat to arms that night. He went away, and it is said that he fulfilled his humble task by causing the drums to be mutilated. At the usual hour the assembly began to disperse, and by eleven o'clock there were only three guests who remained. These were Morny (who had previously taken care to Midnight. show himself at one of the theatres), Maupas, and St Arnaud, formerly Le Roy. There was, besides, an orderly officer of the President, called Colonel Beville, who was initiated in the secret. Persigny, it seems, was not present. Morny, Maupas, and St Arnaud went with the President into his cabinet; Colonel Beville followed them. Mocquard, the private secretary of the President, was

* Granier de Cassagnac, vol. ii. p. 399. 'Annuaire' for 1851, pp. 364, 365.

XIV.

CHAP. in the secret, but it does not appear that he was in the room at this time. Fleury too, it seems, was away; he was probably on an errand which tended to put an end to the hesitation of his more elderly comrades, and drive them to make the venture. They were to strike the blow that night. They deliberated, but in the absence of Fleury their council was incomplete, because at the very moment when perhaps their doubts and fears were inclining them still to hold back, Fleury, impetuous and resolute, might be taking a step which must needs push them forward. By-and-by they were apprised that an order which had been given for the movement of a battalion of gendarmerie had duly taken effect without exciting remark. It is probable that the execution of this delicate movement was the very business which Fleury had gone to witness with his own eyes, and that it was he who brought the intelligence of its complete success to the Elysée. Perhaps also he showed that, after the step which had just been taken, it would be dangerous to stop short; for the plotters now passed into action. The President entrusted a packet of manuscripts to Colonel Beville, and despatched him to the State printingoffice.

Packet entrusted to Beville.

Transaction

at the State printingoffice.

It was in the streets which surround this building that the battalion of gendarmerie had been collected. When Paris was hushed in sleep, the battalion came quietly out, and folded round the State printing-office. From that moment until their work was done the printers were all close

XIV.

captives, for no one of them was suffered to go CHAP. out. For some time they were kept waiting. At length Colonel Beville came from the Elysée with his packet of manuscripts. These papers were the proclamations required for the early morning, and M. St Georges, the Director, gave orders to put them into type. It is said that there was something like resistance; but in the end, if not at first, the printers obeyed. Each compositor stood whilst he worked between two policemen, and the manuscript being cut into many pieces, no one could make out the sense of what he was printing.* By these proclamations the President The Proasserted that the Assembly was a hotbed of plots; there declared it dissolved; pronounced for universal suffrage; proposed a new constitution; vowed anew that his duty was to maintain the Republic;† and placed Paris and the twelve surrounding departments under martial law. In one of the proclamations he appealed to the army, and strove to whet its enmity against civilians by reminding it of the defeats inflicted upon the troops in 1830 and 1848.§

The President wrote letters dismissing the mem

* Mauduit, 'Révolution Militaire,' p. 92.

6

'My duty is to baffle their perfidious projects, to maintain 'the Republic, and to save the country,' &c. Annuaire,' App. p. 60.-Note to 4th Edition, 1863.

Ibid.

§ The proclamation to the army contained this passage: ‘In 1830, as in 1848, they treated you as conquered men. After having spurned your heroic disinterestedness, they disdained to consult your sympathies and your wishes, and yet you are 'the élite of the nation. To-day, in this solemn moment, I ́ desire that the army may make its voice heard.'—Granier de

clamations

printed.

XIV.

CHAP. bers of the Government who were not in the plot; but he did not cause these letters to be delivered until the following morning. He also signed a paper appointing Morny to the Home Office.

Morny appointed Minister.

Hesitation

at the Elysée.

Fleury.

The night was advancing. Some important steps had been taken, but still, though highly dangerous, it was not absolutely impossible for the plotters to stop short. They could tear up the letters which purported to dismiss the Ministers; and although they could not hope to prevent the disclosures which the printers would make as soon as they were released from captivity, it was not too late to keep back the words, and even the general tenor, of the Proclamations. But the next steps were of such a kind as to be irrevocable.

It is said that at this part of the night the spirit of some of the brethren was cast down, and that there was one of them who shrank from farther action; but Fleury, they say, got into a room alone with the man who wanted to hang back, and then, locking the door and drawing a pistol, stood and threatened his agitated friend with instant death if he still refused to go on.*

Cassagnac, vol. ii. p. 404. A copy of the proclamation will also be found in the Annuaire' for 1851. This last publication (which must be distinguished from the Annuaire des 'Deux Mondes') gives an account of the events of December, written in a spirit favourable to the Elysée; but the Appendix contains a full collection of official documents.-Note to 4th Edition, 1863.

* I have thought it right to introduce this account under a form indicating that it is based on mere rumour, but I entertain no doubt that the incident has been declared to be true by one of the two persons who stood face to face in that room.