CHAPTER XX.

THE BURIAL OF A GREAT ANNIVERSARY

Such was the first day. Let us look at it steadfastly. It deserves it.

It is the anniversary of Austerlitz; the Nephew commemorates the Uncle.

Austerlitz is the most brilliant battle of history; the Nephew set

himself this problem--how to commit a baseness equal to this

magnificence. He succeeded.

This first day, which will be followed by others, is already complete.

Everything is there. It is the most terrible attempt at a thrust

backwards that has ever been essayed. Never has such a crumbling of

civilization been seen. All that formed the edifice is now in ruin; the

soil is strewn with the fragments. In one night the inviolability of the

Law, the Right of the Citizen, the Dignity of the Judge, and the Honor

of the Soldier have disappeared. Terrible substitutions have taken

place; there was the oath, there is pergury; there was the flag, there

is a rag; there was the Army, there is a band of brigands; there was

Justice, there is treason; there was a code of laws, there is the sabre;

there was a Government, there is a crew of swindlers; there was France,

there is a den of thieves. This called itself Society Saved.

It is the rescue of the traveller by the highwayman.

France was passing by, Bonaparte cried, "Stand and deliver!"

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The History of a Crime