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arrested in a body and taken to prison by the sergents de ville!
One day, or rather, one night, the moment having come to save society,
the coup d'état abruptly seizes the Demagogues, and finds that it holds
by the collar, Whom? the Royalists.
They arrived at the barracks, formerly the barracks of the Royal Guard,
and on the pediment of which is a carved escutcheon, whereon are still
visible the traces of the three fleurs de lis effaced in 1830. They
halted. The door was opened. "Why!" said M. de Broglie, "here we are."
At that moment a great placard posted on the barrack wall by the side of
the door bore in big letters--
"REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION."
It was the advertisement of a pamphlet, published two or three days
previous to the coup d'état, without any author's name, demanding the
Empire, and was attributed to the President of the Republic.
The Representatives entered and the doors were closed upon them. The
shouts ceased; the crowd, which occasionally has its meditative moments,
remained for some time on the quay, dumb, motionless, gazing alternately
at the closed gate of the Barracks, and at the silent front of the
Palace of the Assembly, dimly visible in the misty December twilight,
two hundred paces distant.
The two Commissaries of Police went to report their "success" to M. de
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