An anecdote: Parisian all over; but with such stuff are they amused!
Raoul Rigault, the man who arrests, was breakfasting with Gaston
Dacosta, the man who destroys. These two friends are worthy of each
other. Rigault has incarcerated the Archbishop of Paris, but Dacosta
claims the merit of having loosened the first stone in M. Thiers’
house. But however, Rigault would destroy if Dacosta were not there to
do so; and if Rigault did not arrest, Dacosta would arrest for him.
They talked as they ate. Rigault enumerated the list of people he had
sent to the Conciergerie and to Mazas, and thought with consternation
that soon there would be no one left for him to arrest. Suddenly he
stopped his fork on its way to his mouth, and his face assumed a most
doleful expression.—“What’s the matter?” cried Dacosta, alarmed.—“Ah!”
said Rigault, tears choking his utterance, “Papa is not in
Paris.”—“Well, and what does it matter if your father is not
here?”—“Alas!” exclaimed Rigault, bursting out crying, “I could have
had him arrested!”[91]