THE COUP D'ÉTAT.
"In voting for Louis Napoleon," says Alison, "the French rural
population understood that it was voting for an emperor and for
the repression of the clubs in Paris. It seemed to Frenchmen in
the country that they had only a choice between Jacobin rule by
the clubs, or Napoleonic rule by an emperor." So, though Louis
Napoleon, when he presented himself as a presidential candidate,
assured the electors, "I am not so ambitious as to dream of empire,
of war, nor of subversive theories; educated in free countries
and in the school of misfortune, I shall always remain faithful
to the duties that your suffrages impose on me," public sentiment
abroad and at home, whether hostile or favorable, expected that
he would before long make himself virtually, if not in name, the
Emperor Napoleon. Indeed, the army was encouraged by its officers
to shout, "Vive l'empereur!" and "Vive Napoleon!" And General
Changarnier, for disapproving of these demonstrations, had been
dismissed from his post as military commander at the capital. He
was forthwith, as we have seen, appointed to a military command
in the confidence of the Assembly.
By the autumn of 1851 Louis Napoleon had fully made up his mind
as to his _coup d'état_, and had arranged all its details. He had
five intimates, who were his counsellors,--De Morny, De Maupas,
De Persigny, Fleury, and General Saint-Arnaud.
[Illustration: _DUC DE MORNY._]
De Morny has always been reputed to have been the half-brother of
Louis Napoleon. In 1847 he lived luxuriously in a small _hôtel_
in the Champs Elysées, surrounded by rare and costly works of art.
He had then never been considered anything but a man of fashion;
but he proved well fitted to keep secrets, to conduct plots, and
to do the cruellest things in a jocund, off-hand way.
Saint-Arnaud's name had been originally Jacques Le Roy. At one
time, under the name of Florival, he had been an actor in Paris
at one of the suburban theatres. He had served three times in the
French army, and been twice dismissed for conduct unbecoming an
officer. His third term of service for his country was in a foreign
legion, composed of dare-devils of all nations, who enrolled themselves
in the army of Algeria. There his brilliant bravery had a large
share in securing the capture of Constantine. He rose rapidly to
be a general, was an excellent administrator, a cultivated and
agreeable companion, perfectly unscrupulous, and ready to assist
in any scheme of what he considered _necessary_ cruelty. Fleury,
who had been sent to Africa to select a military chief fitted to
carry out the _coup d'état_, found Saint-Arnaud the very man to
suit the purpose of his master. Saint-Arnaud was tall, thin, and
bony, with close-cropped hair. De Morny used to laugh behind his
back at the way he said _le peuple souvérain_, and said he knew
as little about the sovereign people as about the pronunciation.
He spoke English well, for he had lived for some years an exile
in Leicester Square,--the disreputable French quarter of London;
this accomplishment was of great service to him during the Crimean
War.
De Maupas had been a country prefect, and was eager for promotion.
Louis Napoleon converted him into his Minister of Police.
Fleury was the simple-hearted and attached friend of his master.
De Persigny, like Saint-Arnaud, had changed his name, having begun
life as Fialin.
These five plotted the _coup d'état_[1]; arranged all its details,
and kept their own counsel.
[Footnote 1: De Maupas, Le Coup d'Etat.]
The generals and colonels in garrison in Paris had been sounded,
as we have seen, in reference to their allegiance to the Great
Emperor's nephew, and by the close of 1851 all things had been made
ready for the proposed _coup d'état_.
A _coup d'état_ is much the same thing as a _coup de main_,--with
this difference, that in the political _coup de main_ it is the
mob that takes the initiative, in the _coup d'état_ the Government;
and the Government generally has the army on its side.
Louis Napoleon and his five associates were about to do the most
audacious thing in modern history; but no man can deny them the praise
awarded to the unjust steward. If the thing was to be done, or, in
the language of Victor Hugo, if the _crime_ was to be committed,
it could not have been more admirably planned or more skilfully
executed.
The world, to all appearance, went on in its usual way. The Assembly,
on December 1, 1851, was busy discussing the project of a railroad
to Lyons. That evening M. de Morny was at the Opéra Comique in
company with General Changarnier, and the prince president was
doing the honors as usual in his reception-room at the Élysée. His
visage was as calm, his manners were as conciliatory and affable,
as usual. No symptoms of anything extraordinary were to be seen,
and an approaching municipal election in Paris accounted for the
arrival of several _estafettes_ and couriers, which from time to
time called the prince president from the room. When the company
had taken leave, Saint-Arnaud, Maupas, Morny, and a colonel on
the staff went with the prince president into his smoking-room,
where the duties of each were assigned to him. Everything was to be
done by clock-work. Exactly at the hour appointed, all the African
generals and several of their friends were to be arrested. Exactly
at the moment indicated, troops were to move into position. At so
many minutes past six A. M. all the printing-offices were to be
surrounded. Every man who had in any way been prominent in politics
since the days of Louis Philippe was to be put under arrest.
By seven o'clock in the morning all this had been accomplished.
The Parisians awoke to find their walls placarded by proclamations
signed by Prince Louis Napoleon as President, De Morny as Minister
of the Interior, De Maupas as Prefect of Police, and Saint-Arnaud
as Minister of War.
These proclamations announced,--
I. The dissolution of the Assembly.
II. The restoration of universal suffrage.
III. A general election on December 14.
IV. The dissolution of the Council of State.
V. That Paris was in a state of siege.
This last meant that any man might be arrested, without warrant,
at the pleasure of the police.
Another placard forbade any printer, on pain of death, to print
any placard not authorized by Government; and death likewise was
announced for anyone who tore down a Government placard.
Louis Napoleon followed this up by an appeal to the people. He said
he wished the people to judge between the Assembly and himself.
If France would not support him, she must choose another president.
In place of the constitution of 1848 he proposed one that should
make the presidential term of office ten years; he also proposed
that the president's cabinet should be of his own selection.
Louis Napoleon had entire confidence that all elections by universal
suffrage would be in his favor. He had just made extensive tours in
the provinces, and had been received everywhere with enthusiasm.
Thus far I have given the historical outline of the story; but if
we look into Victor Hugo's "Histoire d'un Crime," and disentangle
its facts from its hysterics, we may receive from his personal
narrative a vivid idea of what passed in Paris from the night of
Dec. 1, 1851, to the evening of December 4, when all was over.
Roused early in the morning by members of the Assembly, who came
to announce the events of the night, Victor Hugo, to whom genuine
republicans who were not Socialists looked as a leader, was, like
all the rest of Paris, taken completely by surprise. One of his
visitors was a working-man, a wood-carver; of him Hugo eagerly
asked: "What do the working-men--the people--say as they read the
placards?" He answered: "Some say one thing, some another. The
thing has been so done that they cannot understand it. Men going
to their work are reading the placards. Not one in a hundred says
anything, and those who do, say generally, 'Good! Universal suffrage
is reestablished. The conservative majority in the Assembly is
got rid of,--that's splendid! Thiers is arrested,--better still!
Changarnier is in prison,--bravo!' Beneath every placard there
are men placed to lead the approval. My opinion is that the people
will approve!"
At exactly six that morning, Cavaignac, Changarnier, Lamoricière,
Thiers, and all those who had lain down to sleep as cabinet ministers
of the prince president, were roused from their beds by officers of
cavalry, with orders to dress quickly, for they were under arrest.
Before each door a hackney-coach was waiting, and an escort of two
hundred Lancers was in a street near by. Resistance seemed useless
in the face of such precautions, but Victor Hugo and his friends were
resolved upon a fight. They put their official scarves as deputies
into their pockets, and started forth to see if they could raise
the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. But their friend the wood-carver had
told them truly,--there was neither sympathy nor enthusiasm in
the streets for the constitution that had fallen, the deputies
who had been placed under arrest, nor for violated political
institutions.
In vain they appealed to the people in the name of the law. The
mob seemed to consider that provided it had universal suffrage,
and that the man of its choice were at the head of affairs, it
had better trust the safety of the nation to one man than risk the
uncertainties that might attend the tyranny of many.
The frantic efforts made that day by Victor Hugo and a few other
deputies of the Left to rouse the populace are almost ludicrous.
Victor Hugo, no doubt, was a brave man, though a very melodramatic
one, and he seems to have thought that if he could get the soldiers
to shoot him,--_him_, the greatest literary star of France since
the death of Voltaire,--the notoriety of his death might rouse
the population.
Here is one scene in his narrative. He and three of his friends,
finding that the Faubourg Saint-Antoine gave no ear to their appeals,
and for once was disinclined to fight, decided to return home,
and took seats in an omnibus which passed them on the Place de la
Bastille.
"We were all glad to get in," says Victor Hugo. "I took it much
to heart that I had not that morning, when I saw a crowd assembled
round the Porte Saint-Martin, shouted 'To arms!'... The omnibus
started. I was sitting at the end on the left, my friend young
Armand was beside me. As the omnibus moved on, the crowd became
more closely packed upon the Boulevard. When we reached the narrow
ascent near the Porte Saint-Martin, a regiment of heavy cavalry
met us. The men were Cuirassiers. Their horses were in a trot,
and their swords were drawn. All of a sudden the regiment came
to a halt. Something was in their way. Their halt detained the
omnibus. My heart was stirred. Close before me, a yard from me,
were Frenchmen turned into Mamelukes, citizen-supporters of the
Republic transformed into the mercenaries of a Second Empire! From
my seat I could almost put my hand upon them. I could no longer
bear the sight. I let down the glass, I put my head out of the
window, and looked steadily at the close line of armed men. Then
I shouted: 'Down with Louis Bonaparte! Those who serve traitors
are traitors!' The nearest soldiers turned their faces towards
me, and looked dazed with astonishment. The rest did not stir.
When I shouted, Armand let down his glass and thrust half his body
out of his window, shaking his fist at the soldiers. He too cried
out: 'Down with all traitors!' Our example was contagious. 'Down
with traitors!' cried my other two friends in the omnibus. 'Down
with the dictator!' cried a generous young man who sat beside me.
All the passengers in the omnibus, except this young man, seemed
to be filled with terror. 'Hold your tongues!' they cried; 'you
will have us all massacred.' The most frightened of them let down
his glass and shouted to the soldiers: 'Vive le Prince Napoléon!
Vive l'empereur!' The soldiers looked at us in solemn silence.
A mounted policeman menaced us with his drawn sword. The crowd
seemed stupefied.... The soldiers had no orders to act, so nothing
came of it. The regiment started at a gallop, so did the omnibus.
As long as the Cuirassiers were passing, Armand and I, hanging
half out of our windows, continued to shout at them, 'Down with
the dictator!'"
This foolhardy and melodramatic performance was one of many such
scenes, calculated to turn tragedy into farce.
Meantime, from early morning the hall of the representatives had
been surrounded by soldiers with mortars and cannon. As the deputies
arrived they were allowed to pass the gates, but were not permitted
to enter their chamber. Their president, or Speaker, M. Dupin, was
appealed to. He said he could do nothing; it was hopeless to resist
such a display of force. At last the representatives, becoming,
as the soldiers put it, "noisy and troublesome," were collared
and turned out into the street. One by one the most excited were
arrested. The remainder decided to go to the High Court of Justice
and demand a warrant to depose and arrest the prince president.
But they could not find the judges; they had hidden themselves
away. When at last they succeeded in discovering the place where
they were sitting, the police followed closely on their track,
and the judges were forced to shut up their court and march off,
under a guard of soldiers.
The representatives then decided to go to the Mairie of the Tenth
Arrondissement, and there reorganize into a legislative body. They
were nearly all members belonging to the Right, but they were as
indignant as the Left at the outrage.
They formed into a column, marching two and two abreast; but the
Left would not march with the Right, so they proceeded in two parallel
columns, one on each side of the way. Arrived at the Mairie, they made
Jules de Lasteyrie, Lafayette's grandson, president _pro tempore_, and
proceeded to pass a decree deposing Louis Bonaparte. Scarcely was this
done when a battalion of cavalry arrived, and the legislators soon
perceived that they were prisoners. After a great deal of altercation
with the soldiers, they were marched off to a barrack-yard on the
Quai d'Orsay.
When all this was reported to De Morny, he remarked: "It is well;
but they are the last deputies who will be made _prisoners_,"--meaning
that any others would be shot.
It was half-past three when the deputies were locked into the
barrack-yard. The December day was cold and frosty, the sky overcast.
The first thing they did was to call the roll. There were two hundred
and twenty of them, out of a total membership of seven hundred
and fifty. Among them were many of the best and most conservative
men of France. There was Jules Grévy, the future president (M.
Thiers was already in prison); Jules de Lasteyrie; Sainte-Beuve,
the great critic; Berryer, the great lawyer; the Duc de Luynes,
the richest man in France; and Odillon Barrot, the popular idol
at the commencement of the late revolution. De Tocqueville was
there, the great writer on America; General Oudinot, and several
other generals; the Duc de Broglie, great-grandson of Madame de
Staël; Eugène Sue, the novelist; Coquerel, the French Protestant
preacher; and M. de Rémusat, the son of that lady who has given
us her experiences of the court of the First Napoleon.
For two hours the deputies remained in the open air; then they were
transferred at dark to the third story of a wing of the barracks.
They found themselves in two long halls, with low ceilings and dirty
walls, used as the soldiers' dormitories. They had no furniture but
some wooden benches. M. de Tocqueville was quite ill. The rooms
were bitterly cold. An hour or so later, three representatives, who
had demanded to share the fate of their colleagues, were brought
in. One of these was the Marquis de La Vallette, who had married
Mrs. Welles, a very beautiful and fascinating American lady.
Night came. Most of the prisoners had eaten nothing since morning.
A collection of five francs apiece was taken up amongst them, and
a cold collation was provided by a neighboring restaurant. They
ate standing, with their plates in their hands. "Just like a supper
at a ball," remarked one of the younger ones. They had very few
drinking-glasses. Right and Left, having been reconciled by this time,
drank together. "Equality and Fraternity!" remarked a conservative
nobleman as he drank with one of the Red Republicans. "Ah," was
the answer, "but not Liberty." Eight more prisoners before long
were added to their number, and three were released,--one because
he was eighty, one because of his wife's illness, and one because
he had been accidentally wounded. At last, sixty mattresses were
brought in, for two hundred and twenty-five men. They had no blankets,
and had to trust to their great-coats to keep them from the cold.
A few of them went to sleep, but were roused at midnight by an
order that their quarters must be changed. They were taken down
by parties to all the _voitures cellulaires_ (or Black Marias)
in Paris. Each deputy was put into a separate cell, where he sat
cramped and freezing for hours. It was nearly seven A. M., December
3, before these prison-vans were ready to start.
Some went to the great prison of Mazas, some to Vincennes, some
to Fort Valérien. At Mazas they were treated in all respects like
criminals, except that they were not allowed a daily walk,--a privilege
the knaves and malefactors obtained. Two deputies only were favored
with beds,--M. Thiers and another elderly man. M. Grévy had none,
nor the African generals, the ex-dictator Cavaignac among them.
Such of the members of the Left as were not in prison spent December
2, 3, and 4 in endeavoring to assemble and reorganize the remains
of the Assembly; but the police followed them up too closely.
A few barricades were raised, and the first man killed on one of
them was named Baudin. He threw away his life recklessly and to no
purpose; but it is the fashion among advanced republicans to this
day to decorate his grave and to honor his memory with communistic
speeches. He was rather a fine young fellow, and might have lived
to do the State some service.
By the night of December 3 there was a good deal of commotion in
the city. Two days of disorganization, idleness, and excitement
had made workmen more inflammable than when they remained passive
under the appeals of Victor Hugo. The remainder of the story, so far
as it concerns the uprising and massacre in the streets of Paris,
I will borrow from the experience of an American eye-witness; but
first I will tell what happened to the African generals imprisoned
at Mazas.
On the night of December 3 the station of the great railroad to
the north was filled with soldiers. About six o'clock the next
morning two _voitures cellulaires_ drove up, each attended by a
light carriage containing an especial agent sent by the police.
These vehicles, just as they were, were rolled on to trucks, and
the train moved out of the station. There were eight cells in each
_voiture cellulaire_; four were occupied by prisoners, four by
policemen. It was bitterly cold, and in the second of the prison-vans
the police, half frozen, opened the doors of their cells and came
out to walk up and down and warm themselves. Then a voice was heard
from one of the prisoners. "_Ah, ça_, it is bitterly cold here.
Could n't one be allowed to re-light one's cigar?" At this another
voice called out: "_Tiens!_ is that you, Lamoricière? Good morning!"
"Good morning, Cavaignac," replied the other. Then a third voice
came from the third cell. It was that of Changarnier. "_Messieurs
les Généraux_," cried a fourth, "do not forget that I am one of
you." The speaker was a _quoestor_ of the Chamber of Deputies, a
man charged with the safety of the National Assembly. The generals
who had spoken, and Bedeau, who was in the next van, were, with the
exception of Bugeaud, the four leading commanders in the French
army. The other four prisoners were Colonel Charras, General Le
Flô, Baze the _quoestor_, and a deputy, Count Roger (_du Nord_).
At midnight they had been roused from sleep and ordered to dress
immediately. "Are we going to be shot?" asked Charras, but no answer
was vouchsafed him. They were put into the _voitures cellulaires_,
each knowing nothing of the presence of the others; even the police
who were in charge of them, had no idea what prisoners they had in
custody. After this recognition between the generals, they were
permitted to come out of their cells and walk up and down the van
to warm themselves, taking care, however, that they were not seen
at liberty by the special agents in the carriages attending on
each van.
On reaching Ham, the former prison of Louis Napoleon, Cavaignac,
whom he had succeeded as ruler of France, was put into his former
chamber. "Chassez croissez," said De Morny, when the report was
made to him.
December 4, the last day of the struggle, was by far the most terrible.
Louis Napoleon, in spite of many benefits which France and the world
owe him, will never be cleansed from the stain that the outrages of
that day have left upon his memory. It may be said, however, that
the details of the _coup d'état_ were left to his subordinates,
and that probably both success and infamy are due in large part
to the flippant Morny.
It was a cold, drizzling day. Such barricades as had been built
were very slimly defended, and with no enthusiasm. The insurgents
were short of ammunition, nor did the troops attack them with much
vigor. In fact, the soldiers were but few, for all were being
concentrated on that part of the Boulevard where strangers do their
shopping and eat ices at Tortoni's. The programme for that day
was not fighting, but a massacre.
The American gentleman whose narrative I am about to quote, says,--
"On December 3 there was more excitement in the streets than there
had been on December 2. The secret societies had got to work. The
Reds were recovering from their astonishment. Ex-members of the
National Assembly had harangued the multitude and circulated addresses
calculated to rouse the people to resistance. On the 4th there was
not much stirring. The shops were closed. I went into the heart
of the city on business, where I soon found myself in the midst
of a panic-stricken crowd. The residents were closing their doors
and barricading their windows. Some said the Faubourgs were rising;
some that the troops were approaching, with cannon.
"Hearing there were barricades at the Porte Saint-Denis, I pushed
directly for the spot. The work was going on bravely. Stagings had
been torn from unfinished houses, iron railings from the magnificent
gateway; trees were cut down, street sheds demolished; carts, carriages,
and omnibuses were being triumphantly dragged from hiding-places
to the monstrous pile. There were not very many men at work, but
those who were engaged, labored like beavers. Blouses and broadcloth
were about equally mixed. A few men armed with cutlasses, muskets,
and pistols appeared to act as leaders; soon a search was made
in neighboring houses for arms. I was surprised to see how many
boys were in the ranks of the insurgents. They went to work as if
insurrection were a frolic. I shuddered as I thought how many of
them would be shot or bayoneted before night fell. The sentiments
of the spectators seemed different. Some said, 'Let them go ahead.
They want to plunder and kill: they will soon be taught a good
lesson.' Others encouraged the barricade-makers. One man, hearing
that I was an American, said with a sigh, 'Ah, you live in a true
republic!'
"After remaining two hours at this barricade, and seeing no fighting,
I turned on to the Boulevard. There, troops were advancing slowly,
with loaded cannon. From time to time they charged the people, who
slipped out of the way by side streets, as I did myself. Coming
back on the Boulevard des Italiens, I found the entire length of
the Boulevards, from the Porte Saint-Denis to the Madeleine, filled
with troops in order of battle. In the novelty and beauty of the
scene I quite lost sight of danger. At one time they chased away
the crowd; but soon sentinels were removed from the corners of the
streets, and as many spectators as thought proper pressed on to
the sidewalks of the Boulevard.... Opposite to me was the Seventh
Lancers,--a fine corps, recently arrived in Paris. Suddenly, at
the upper end of the line, the discharge of a cannon was heard,
followed by a blaze of musketry and a general charge. The spectators
on the Boulevard took to flight. They pitched into open doors,
or loudly demanded entrance at the closed ones. I was fortunate
enough to get into a neighboring carriage-way, through the grated
_porte-cochère_ of which I could see what was going on. The firing
was tremendous. Volley after volley followed so fast that it seemed
like one continued peal of thunder. Suddenly there was a louder
and a nearer crash. The cavalry in front of me wavered; and then,
as if struck by a panic, turned and rushed in disorder down the
street, making the ground tremble under their tread. What could
have occurred? In a few minutes they came charging back, firing
their pistols on all sides. Then came a quick succession of orders:
'Shut all windows! Keep out of sight! Open the blinds!' etc. It
seemed that unexpected shots had been fired from some of the windows
on the soldiers, from which they had suffered so much as to cause a
recoil. The roll of firearms was now terrific. Mortars and cannon
were fired at short-range point-blank at the suspicious houses, which
were then carried by assault. The rattle of small shot against windows
and walls was incessant. This, too, was in the finest part of the
Boulevard. Costly houses were completely riddled, their fronts were
knocked in, their floors pierced with balls. The windows throughout
the neighborhood were destroyed by the concussion of the cannon. Of
the hairbreadth escape of some of the inmates, and of the general
destruction of property, I need not speak. The Government afterwards
footed all the bills for the last. The firing continued for more
than an hour, and then receded to more distant parts of the city;
for the field of combat embraced an area of several miles, and there
were forty thousand troops engaged in it. As soon as I could do
so with safety, I left my covert, and endeavored to see what had
happened elsewhere. But troops guarded every possible avenue, and
fired on all those who attempted to approach any interdicted spot.
I noticed some pools of blood, but the corpses had been removed; in
a cross-street I saw a well-dressed man gasping his life away on
a rude stretcher. Those around him told me he had six balls in
him. In the Rue Richelieu there was the corpse of a young girl.
Somebody had placed lighted candles at its head and feet. When I
reached the parts of the town removed from the surveillance of
the soldiers, I noticed a bitter feeling among the better classes
for the day's work. The slaughter had been amongst those of their
own class, which was unusual. The number slain was at first, of
course, exaggerated, but it was with no gratifying emotions that
we could reduce it a few hundreds. It was civil war,--fratricide.
I reached home indignant and mournful."
Victor Hugo says of the massacre: "There were no combatants on
the side of the people. There could not be said to have been any
mob, though the Boulevard was crowded with spectators. Then, as
the wounded and terrified rushed into houses, the soldiers rushed
in after them."
Tortoni's was gutted; the fashionable Baths of Jouvence were torn
to pieces; one hotel was demolished; twenty-eight houses were so
injured that they had next day to be pulled down. Peaceful shopkeepers,
dressmakers, and English strangers were among the slain,--an old man
with an umbrella, a young man with an opera-glass. In the house
where Jouvin sold gloves there was a pile of dead bodies.
The firing was over by four P. M. It has never been known how many
were massacred. Some said twenty-five hundred, some made it five
hundred, and almost every person killed was, not a Red combatant,
but an innocent victim.
Thus Louis Napoleon made himself master of Paris. The army was
all for him, the masses were apathetic, the rural population was
on his side. A few weeks later a _plébiscite_ made him emperor.
The _coup d'état_ having succeeded, most Frenchmen gave in their
adhesion to its author. It remained only to dispose of the prisoners.
Without any preliminary investigation, squads of them were shot,
chiefly in the court-yard of the Prefecture of Police. All deputies
of the Left were sent into exile, except some who were imprisoned
in Algerine fortresses or sent to Cayenne,--the French political
penal colony at that period.
Victor Hugo remained a fortnight in hiding, believing, on the authority
of Alexandre Dumas, that a price was set upon his head. He gives
some moving accounts of little children whom he saw lying in their
blood on the evening of the massacre. His chief associates nearly
all escaped arrest, and got away from France in various disguises.
Their adventures are all of them very picturesque, and some are
very amusing.
Several of the eight prisoners at Ham suffered much from dampness.
Lamoricière, indeed, contracted permanent rheumatism during his
imprisonment. He begged earnestly to be allowed to write to his
wife, but was permitted to send her only three words, without date:
"I am well."
On the night of January 6, the commandant of the fortress, in full
uniform, accompanied by a Government agent, entered the sleeping-room
of each prisoner, and ordered him to rise and dress, as he was
to be sent immediately into exile under charge of two agents of
police detailed to accompany him over the frontier. Nor was he
to travel under his own name, a travelling _alias_ having been
provided for him. At the railroad station at Creil, Colonel Charras
met Changarnier. "_Tiens, Général!_" he cried, "is that you? I am
travelling under the name of Vincent." "And I," replied Changarnier,
"am called Leblanc." Each was placed with his two police agents
in a separate carriage. The latter were armed. Their orders were
to treat their prisoners with respect, but in case of necessity
to shoot them.
The journey was made without incident until they reached Valenciennes,
a place very near the frontier line between France and Belgium.
There, as the _coup d'état_ had proved a success, official zeal
was in the ascendency. The police commissioner of Valenciennes
examined the passports. As he was taking Leblanc's into his hand,
he recognized the man before him. He started, and cried out: "You
are General Changarnier!" "That is no affair of mine at present,"
said the general. At once the police agents interposed, and assured
the commissioner that the passports were all in order. Nothing
they could say would convince him of the fact. The prefect and
town authorities, proud of their own sagacity in capturing State
prisoners who were endeavoring to escape from France, held them
in custody while they sent word of their exploit to Paris. They at
once received orders to put all the party on the train for Belgium.
Charras was liberated at Brussels, Changarnier at Mons, Lamoricière
was carried to Cologne, M. Baze to Aix-la-Chapelle. They were not
released at the same place nor at the same time, Louis Napoleon
having said that safety required that a space should be put between
the generals.
[Illustration: _EUGÉNIE._]