The History of a Crime


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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!  
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274 275 276 277 278

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