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"
We, citizens; we, Representatives of the People and of yourselves;
we, your friends, your brothers; we, who are Law and Right; we, who
rise up before you, holding out our arms to you, and whom you strike
blindly with your swords--do you know what drives us to despair? It
is not to see our blood which flows; it is to see your honor which
vanishes.
"Soldiers! one step more in the outrage, one day more with Louis
Bonaparte, and you are lost before universal conscience. The men who
command you are outlaws. They are not generals--they are criminals.
The garb of the galley slave awaits them; see it already on their
shoulders. Soldiers! there is yet time--Stop! Come back to the
country! Come back to the Republic! If you continue, do you know
what History will say of you? It will say, They have trampled under
the feet of their horses and crushed beneath the wheels of their
cannon all the laws of their country; they, French soldiers, they
have dishonored the anniversary of Austerlitz, and by their fault,
by their crime, the name of Napoléon sprinkles as much shame to-day
upon France as in other times it has showered glory!
"French soldiers! cease to render assistance to crime!"
My colleagues of the Committee having left, I could not consult them--time
pressed--I signed:
"For the Representatives of the People remaining at liberty, the
Representative member of the Committee of Resistance,
300
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