[48] General Bergeret, Member of the Central Committee, Delegate of
War, &c., was a bookseller’s assistant. He emerged in 1869 from a
printing-office to support the irreconcileable candidates in the
election meetings.
Events progressed, and on the 18th of March Victor Bergeret
reappeared, resplendent in gold lace and embroidery, happy to have
found at last a government, to which Jules Favre did not belong.
When Bergeret, who never had any higher grade than that of sergeant
in the National Guard, was made general, he believed himself to be
a soldier. A friend of this pasteboard officer said one day, “If
Bergeret were to live a hundred years, he would always swear he had
been a general.”
On the 8th April, Victor Bergeret was arrested by order of the
Executive Commission for having refused obedience to Cluseret, a
general too, and his superior, and he was incarcerated in the
prison of Mazas, where he remained for a short time, until the day
when Cluseret was shut up there himself. In fact, Cluseret went
into the very cell which Bergeret had just quitted, and found an
autograph note written on the wall by his predecessor, and
addressed to himself. The words ran thus:—
“CITIZEN CLUSERET,—
“You have had me shut up here, and you will be here yourself before
eight days are over.
“GÉNÉRAL BERGERET.”
On leaving the prison of Mazas, Bergeret was still kept a prisoner for
a time in a magnificent apartment of the Hôtel de Ville, decorated with
gilded panneling and cerise-coloured satin. His wife was allowed to
join him here, and he also obtained permission to keep with him a
little terrier, of which he was extremely fond. Shortly afterwards he
was reinstated, took his place again in the Communal Assembly, and was
attached to the commission of war. The beautiful palace of the
president of the Corps Législatif was now his residence, and there he
delighted in receiving the friends who had known him when he was poor.
His invariable home-dress in palace as in prison, was red from head to
foot: red jacket, red trousers, and red Phrygian cap.
One day, a short time after his release from prison, he said to an
intimate friend:—“Affairs are going well, but the Commune is in
need of money, I know it, and they are wrong not to confide in me.
I would lend them ten thousand francs willingly.” The generalship
had singularly enriched Jules Bergeret (himself).
[Illustration: General Dombrowski.]