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"Yes!" I cried, "When it is a question of public safety, of the universal
safety, when it is a question of the future of every European
nationality, when it is a question of defending the Republic, Liberty,
Civilization, the Revolution, we have the right--we, the Representatives
of the entire nation--to give, in the name of the French people, orders
to the people of Paris! Let us, therefore, meet to-morrow at this Salle
Roysin; but at what time? Not too early in the morning. In broad day. It
is necessary that the shops should be open, that people should be coming
and going, that the population should be moving about, that there should
be plenty of people in the streets, that they should see us, that they
should recognize us, that the grandeur of our example should strike every
eye and stir every heart. Let us all be there between nine and ten
o'clock in the morning. If we cannot obtain the Salle Roysin we will take
the first church at hand, a stable, a shed, some enclosure where we can
deliberate; at need, as Michel de Bourges has said, we will hold our
sittings in a square bounded by four barricades. But provisionally I
suggest the Salle Roysin. Do not forget that in such a crisis there must
be no vacuum before the nation. That alarms it. There must be a
government somewhere, and it must be known. The rebellion at the Elysée,
the Government at the Faubourg St. Antoine; the Left the Government, the
Faubourg St. Antoine the citadel; such are the ideas which from to-morrow
we must impress upon the mind of Paris. To the Salle Roysin, then! Thence
in the midst of the dauntless throng of workmen of that great district of
Paris, enclosed in the Faubourg as in a fortress, being both Legislators
and Generals, multiplying and inventing means of defence and of attack,
launching Proclamations and unearthing the pavements, employing the women
in writing out placards while the men are fighting, we will issue a
warrant against Louis Bonaparte, we will issue warrants against his
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