The History of a Crime by Victor Hugo (android pdf ebook reader txt) 📖
- Author: Victor Hugo
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"Your mother will explain to you."
And I left them.
The Rue de la Tour d'Auvergne was as quiet and deserted as usual. Four workmen were, however, chatting near my door; they wished me "Good morning."
I cried out to them, "You know what is going on?"
"Yes," said they.
"Well. It is treason! Louis Bonaparte is strangling the Republic. The people are attacked. The people must defend themselves."
"They will defend themselves."
"You promise me that?"
"Yes," they answered.
One of them added, "We swear it."
They kept their word. Barricades were constructed in my street (Rue de la Tour d'Auvergne), in the Rue des Martyrs, in the Cité Rodier, in the Rue Coquenard, and at Notre-Dame de Lorette.
CHAPTER VI. "PLACARDS"
On leaving these brave men I could read at the corner of the Rue de la Tour d'Auvergne and the Rue des Martyrs, the three infamous placards which had been posted on the walls of Paris during the night.
Here they are.
"Appeal to the People.
"FRENCHMEN! The present situation can last no longer. Every day which
passes enhances the dangers of the country. The Assembly, which ought
to be the firmest support of order, has become a focus of conspiracies.
The patriotism of three hundred of its members has been unable to check
its fatal tendencies. Instead of making laws in the public interest it
forges arms for civil war; it attacks the power which I hold directly
from the People, it encourages all bad passions, it compromises the
tranquillity of France; I have dissolved it, and I constitute the whole
People a judge between it and me.
"The Constitution, as you know, was constructed with the object of
weakening beforehand the power which you were about to confide to me.
Six millions of votes formed an emphatic protest against it, and yet
I have faithfully respected it. Provocations, calumnies, outrages,
have found me unmoved. Now, however, that the fundamental compact is
no longer respected by those very men who incessantly invoke it, and
that the men who have ruined two monarchies wish to tie my hands in
order to overthrow the Republic, my duty is to frustrate their
treacherous schemes, to maintain the Republic, and to save the Country
by appealing to the solemn judgment of the only Sovereign whom I
recognize in France—the People.
"I therefore make a loyal appeal to the whole nation, and I say to
you: If you wish to continue this condition of uneasiness which
degrades us and compromises our future, choose another in my place,
for I will no longer retain a power which is impotent to do good,
which renders me responsible for actions which I cannot prevent, and
which binds me to the helm when I see the vessel driving towards the
abyss.
"If on the other hand you still place confidence in me, give me the
means of accomplishing the great mission which I hold from you.
"This mission consists in closing the era of revolutions, by satisfying
the legitimate needs of the People, and by protecting them from
subversive passions. It consists, above all, in creating institutions
which survive men, and which shall in fact form the foundations on
which something durable may be established.
"Persuaded that the instability of power, that the preponderance of a
single Assembly, are the permanent causes of trouble and discord, I
submit to your suffrage the following fundamental bases of a
Constitution which will be developed by the Assemblies later on:—
"1. A responsible Chief appointed for ten years.
"2. Ministers dependent upon the Executive Power alone.
"3. A Council of State composed of the most distinguished men, who shall
prepare laws and shall support them in debate before the Legislative
Body.
"4. A Legislative Body which shall discuss and vote the laws, and which
shall be elected by universal suffrage, without scrutin de liste,
which falsifies the elections.
"5. A Second Assembly composed of the most illustrious men of the
country, a power of equipoise the guardian of the fundamental compact,
and of the public liberties.
"This system, created by the first Consul at the beginning of the
century, has already given repose and prosperity to France; it would
still insure them to her.
"Such is my firm conviction. If you share it, declare it by your votes.
If, on the contrary, you prefer a government without strength,
Monarchical or Republican, borrowed I know not from what past, or from
what chimerical future, answer in the negative.
"Thus for the first time since 1804, you will vote with a full knowledge
of the circumstances, knowing exactly for whom and for what.
"If I do not obtain the majority of your suffrages I shall call together
a New Assembly and shall place in its hands the commission which I have
received from you.
"But if you believe that the cause of which my name is the symbol,—that
is to say, France regenerated by the Revolution of '89, and organized by
the Emperor, is to be still your own, proclaim it by sanctioning the
powers which I ask from you.
"Then France and Europe will be preserved from anarchy, obstacles will
be removed, rivalries will have disappeared, for all will respect, in
the decision of the People, the decree of Providence.
"Given at the Palace of the Elysée, 2d December, 1851.
"LOUIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE."
"Soldiers! Be proud of your mission, you will save the country, for I
count upon you not to violate the laws, but to enforce respect for the
first law of the country, the national Sovereignty, of which I am the
Legitimate Representative.
"For a long time past, like myself, you have suffered from obstacles
which have opposed themselves both to the good that I wished to do and
to the demonstrations of your sympathies in my favor. These obstacles
have been broken down.
"The Assembly has tried to attack the authority which hold from the
whole Nation. It has ceased to exist.
"I make a loyal appeal to the People and to the Army, and I say to them:
Either give me the means of insuring your prosperity, or choose another
in my place.
"In 1830, as in 1848, you were treated as vanquished men. After having
branded your heroic disinterestedness, they disdained to consult your
sympathies and your wishes, and yet you are the flower of the Nation.
To-day, at this solemn moment, I am resolved that the voice of the Army
shall be heard.
"Vote, therefore, freely as citizens; but, as soldiers do not forget
that passive obedience to the orders of the Chief of the State is the
rigorous duty of the Army, from the general to the private soldier.
"It is for me, responsible for my actions both to the People and to
posterity, to take those measures which may seem to me indispensable for
the public welfare.
"As for you, remain immovable within the rules of discipline and of
honor. By your imposing attitude help the country to manifest its will
with calmness and reflection.
"Be ready to repress every attack upon the free exercise of the
sovereignty of the People.
"Soldiers, I do not speak to you of the memories which my name recalls.
They are engraven in your hearts. We are united by indissoluble ties.
Your history is mine. There is between us, in the past, a community of
glory and of misfortune.
"There will be in the future community of sentiment and of resolutions
for the repose and the greatness of France.
"Given at the Palace of the Elysée, December 2d, 1851.
"(Signed) L.N. BONAPARTE."
"The President of the Republic decrees:—
"ARTICLE I. The National Assembly is dissolved.
"ARTICLE II. Universal suffrage is re-established. The law of May 31
is abrogated.
"ARTICLE III. The French People are convoked in their electoral
districts from the 14th December to the 21st December following.
"ARTICLE IV. The State of Siege is decreed in the district of the
first Military Division.
"ARTICLE V. The Council of State is dissolved.
"ARTICLE VI. The Minister of the Interior is charged with the execution
of this decree.
"Given at the Palace of the Elysée, 2d December, 1851.
"LOUIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
"DE MORNY, Minister of the Interior."
CHAPTER VII. NO. 70, RUE BLANCHE
The Cité Gaillard is somewhat difficult to find. It is a deserted alley in that new quarter which separates the Rue des Martyrs from the Rue Blanche. I found it, however. As I reached No. 4, Yvan came out of the gateway and said, "I am here to warn you. The police have an eye upon this house, Michel is waiting for you at No. 70, Rue Blanche, a few steps from here."
I knew No. 70, Rue Blanche. Manin, the celebrated President of the Venetian Republic, lived there. It was not in his rooms, however, that the meeting was to take place.
The porter of No. 70 told me to go up to the first floor. The door was opened, and a handsome, gray-haired woman of some forty summers, the Baroness Coppens, whom I recognized as having seen in society and at my own house, ushered me into a drawing-room.
Michel de Bourges and Alexander Rey were there, the latter an ex-Constituent, an eloquent writer, a brave man. At that time Alexander Rey edited the National.
We shook hands.
Michel said to me,—
"Hugo, what will you do?"
I answered him,—
"Everything."
"That also is my opinion," said he.
Numerous representatives arrived, and amongst others Pierre Lefranc, Labrousse, Théodore Bac, Noël Parfait, Arnauld (de l'Ariége), Demosthenes Ollivier, an ex-Constituent, and Charamaule. There was deep and unutterable indignation, but no useless words were spoken.
All were imbued with that manly anger whence issue great resolutions.
They talked. They set forth the situation. Each brought forward the news which he had learnt.
Théodore Bac came from Léon Faucher, who lived in the Rue Blanche. It was he who had awakened Léon Faucher, and had announced the news to him. The first words of Léon Faucher were, "It is an infamous deed."
From the first moment Charamaule displayed a courage which, during the four days of the struggle, never flagged for a single instant. Charamaule is a very tall man, possessed of vigorous features and convincing eloquence; he voted with the Left, but sat with the Right. In the Assembly he was the neighbor of Montalembert and of Riancey. He sometimes had warm disputes with them, which we watched from afar off, and which amused us.
Charamaule had come to the meeting at No. 70 dressed in a sort of blue cloth military cloak, and armed, as we found out later on.
The situation was grave; sixteen Representatives arrested, all the generals of the Assembly, and he who was more than a general, Charras. All the journals suppressed, all the printing offices occupied by soldiers. On the side of Bonaparte an army of 80,000 men which could be doubled in a few hours; on our side nothing. The people deceived, and moreover disarmed. The telegraph at their command. All the walls covered with their placards, and at our disposal not a single printing case, not one sheet of paper. No means of raising the protest, no means of beginning the combat. The coup d'état was clad with mail, the Republic was naked; the coup d'état had a speaking trumpet, the Republic wore a gag.
What was to be done?
The raid against the Republic, against the Assembly, against Right, against Law, against Progress, against Civilization, was commanded by African generals. These heroes had just proved that they were cowards. They had taken their precautions well. Fear alone can engender so much skill. They had arrested all the men of war of the Assembly, and all the men of action of the Left, Baune, Charles Lagrange, Miot, Valentin, Nadaud, Cholat. Add to this that all the possible chiefs of the barricades were in prison. The
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