CHAP. those who thus placed the troops were, not at this XIV. moment to overawe the whole of Paris, but rather to The arrests of prominent States men. support the operations of Maupas, and to provide for the safety of the brethren at the Elysée by keeping them close under the shield of the army as long as they remained in Paris, and, if such a step should become necessary, by securing and covering their flight. Almost at the same time Maupas's orders were carefully obeyed; for at the appointed minute, and whilst it was still dark, the designated houses were entered. The most famous generals of France were the princi- seized. General Changarnier, General Bedeau, Genepal Generals and of ral Lamoricière, General Cavaignac, and General Leflô were taken from their beds, and carried away through the sleeping city and thrown into prison.* In the same minute the like was done with some of the chief members and officers of the Assembly, and, amongst others, with Thiers, Miot, Baze, Colonel Charras, Roger du Nord, and several of the democratic leaders. Some men, believed to be the chiefs of secret societies, were also seized. The general object of these night-arrests was that, when morning broke, the army should be without generals inclined to observe the law, that the Assembly should be without the machinery for convoking it, and that all the political parties in the State should be paralysed by the disappearance of their chiefs. The number of men thus seized in the dark was seventy-eight. Eighteen of these were members of the Assembly.‡ Whilst it was still dark, Morny, escorted by a body * Granier de Cassaignac, vol. ii. + Ibid. Ibid. XIV. takes pos of infantry, took possession of the Home Office, and CHAP. prepared to touch the springs of that wondrous machinery by which a clerk can dictate to a nation. Morny Already he began to tell forty thousand communes of the enthusiasm with which the sleeping city had received the announcement of measures not hitherto disclosed. session of the Home Office, and begins to use its power. When the light of the morning dawned, people saw the Proclamations on the walls, and slowly came to hear that numbers of the foremost men of France had been seized in the night-time, and that every General to whom the friends of law and order could look for help was lying in one or other of the prisons. The newspapers, to which a man might run in order Newsto know, and know truly, what others thought and seized and intended, were all seized and stopped. papers stopped. the Assem bly. The gates of the Assembly were closed and guarded, Meeting of but the Deputies, who began to flock thither, found means to enter by passing through one of the official residences which formed part of the building. They had assembled in the Chamber in large numbers, and some of them having caught Dupin, their reluctant President, were forcing him to come and take the chair, when a body of infantry burst in and drove It is disthem out, striking some of them with the butt-ends persed by of their muskets. Almost at the same time a number of Deputies who had gathered about the side-entrance of the Assembly were roughly handled and dispersed by a body of light infantry. Twelve Deputies were seized by the soldiers, and carried off prisoners.* * La Vérité, 'Recueil d'Actes Officiels.' СНАР. In the course of the morning the President, accompanied by his uncle, Jerome Bonaparte, and Count The Pre- Flahault,* and attended by many general officers and sident's ride. a numerous staff, rode through some of the streets of Paris. It would seem that his theatric bent had led Prince Louis to expect from this ride a kind of triumph, upon which his fortunes would hinge; and certainly the unpopularity of the Assembly, and the suddenness and perfection of the blow which he had struck in the night, gave him fair grounds for his hope; but he was hardly aware of the light in which his personal pretensions were regarded by the keen laughing people of Paris. The moment when they would cease to use laughter against him was very near, but it had not yet come. Moreover, he did not bring himself to incur the risk which was necessary for obtaining an acclaim of the people, for he clung to the streets and the quays which were close under the dominion of the troops. Upon the whole, the reception he met with seems to have been neither friendly nor violently hostile, but chilling, and in a .quiet way scornful. It seems that after meeting this check his spirit suffered collapse. Once again, though not so hopelessly as at Strasburg and Boulogne, he had encountered the shock of the real world. And again, as before, the shock felled him. Nor was it strange that he should be abashed and desponding: obeying his old propensity, he had prepared and appointed for the * I imagine that, before the night of the 1st of December, Count Flahault had some knowledge of what was going to be done. XIV. Austerlitz day a great scenic greeting between him- CHAP. self on the one hand, and on the other a mighty nation. When, leaving the room where all this had been contrived and rehearsed, he came out into the free air, and rode through street after street, it became every minute more certain that Paris was too busy, too grave, too scornful to think of hailing him Emperor; nay, strange to say, the people, being fastidious or careless, or imperfectly aware of what had been done, refused to give him even that wondering attention which seemed to be insured to him by the transactions of the foregoing night; and yet, there they were-the proffered Cæsar and his longprepared group of Captains-sitting published on the backs of real horses, with appropriate swords and dresses. Perhaps what a man in this plight might the most hate would be the sun-the cold December sun. Prince Louis rode home, and went in out of sight. Louis. Thenceforth, for the most part, he remained close Seclusion and gloom shut up in the Elysée. There, in an inner room, still of Prince decked in red trousers, but with his back to the daylight, they say he sat bent over a fireplace for hours and hours together, resting his elbows on his knees, and burying his face in his hands. for shel tering him from alarming What is better known is, that in general, during Measures this period of danger, tidings were not suffered to go to him straight. It seems that, either in obedience to his own dismal instinct, or else because his associates had determined to prevent him from ruining them by his gloom, he was kept sheltered from imme messen gers. CHAP. diate contact with alarming messengers. XIV. Meeting of the in another Its de crees. It was thought more wholesome for him to hear what Persigny or the resolute Fleury might think it safe to tell him, than to see with his own eyes an aide-decamp fresh come from St Arnaud or Magnan, or a commissary full fraught with the sensations which were shaking the health of Maupas. Driven from their Chamber, the Deputies assembled Assembly at the Mayoralty of the 10th arrondissement. There, building. upon the motion of the illustrious Berryer, they resolved that the act of Louis Bonaparte was a forfeiture of the Presidency, and they directed the judges of the Supreme Court to meet and proceed to the judgment of the President and his accomplices. These resolutions had just been voted, when a battalion of the Chasseurs de Vincennes entered the courtyard of the Mayoralty, and began to ascend the stairs. One of the Vice-Presidents of the Assembly went out and summoned the soldiers to stop, and leave the Chamber free. The officer appealed to felt the hatefulness or the danger of the duty intrusted to him, and, declaring that he was only an instrument, he said he would refer for guidance to his chief.* Troops as cend the stairs, but hesitate to use force. Presently afterwards several battalions of the line under the command of General Forey came up and surrounded the Mayoralty. The Chasseurs de Vincennes were ordered to load. By-and-by two Commissaries of Police came to the door, and, announcing that they had orders to clear the hall, entreated the Assembly to yield. The Assembly refused. A third *La Vérité, 'Recueil d'Actes Officiels.' |