274 | 275 | 276 | 277 | 278 |
1 | 171 | 343 | 514 | 685 |
sheets on the bed, and laid him down with his head on the pillow, and
his face uncovered. The women were weeping in the next room.
Gindrier had already rendered the same service to the ex-Constituent
James Demontry. In 1850 James Demontry died in exile at Cologne.
Gindrier started for Cologne, went to the cemetery, and had James
Demontry exhumed. He had the heart extracted, embalmed it, and enclosed
it in a silver vase, which he took to Paris. The party of the Mountain
delegated him, with Chollet and Joigneux, to convey this heart to Dijon,
Demontry's native place, and to give him a solemn funeral. This funeral
was prohibited by an order of Louis Bonaparte, then President of the
Republic. The burial of brave and faithful men was unpleasing to Louis
Bonaparte--not so their death.
When Baudin had been laid out on the bed, the women came in, and all
this family, seated round the corpse, wept. Gindrier, whom other duties
called elsewhere, went downstairs with Dutèche. A crowd had formed
before the door.
A man in a blouse, with his hat on his head, mounted on a kerbstone, was
speechifying and glorifying the coup d'état. Universal Suffrage
re-established, the Law of the 31st May abolished, the "Twenty-five
francs" suppressed; Louis Bonaparte has done well, etc.--Gindrier,
standing on the threshold of the door, raised his voice: "Citizens!
above lies Baudin, a Representative of the People, killed while
defending the People; Baudin the Representative of you all, mark that
well! You are before his house; he is there bleeding on his bed, and
here is a man who dares in this place to applaud his assassin! Citizens!
276
Page
Quick Jump
|