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CHAPTER X.
WHAT FLEURY WENT TO DO AT MAZAS
During the same night towards four o'clock the approaches of the
Northern Railway Station were silently invested by two regiments; one
of Chasseurs de Vincennes, the other of Gendarmerie Mobile. Numerous
squads of sergents de ville installed themselves in the terminus. The
station-master was ordered to prepare a special train and to have an
engine ready. A certain number of stokers and engineers for night
service were retained. No explanation however was vouchsafed to any
one, and absolute secrecy was maintained. A little before six o'clock a
movement was apparent in the troops. Some sergents de ville came
running up, and a few minutes afterwards a squadron of Lancers emerged
at a sharp trot from the Rue du Nord. In the centre of the squadron and
between the two lines of horse-soldiers could be seen two police-vans
drawn by post-horses, behind each vehicle came a little open barouche,
in which there sat one man. At the head of the Lancers galloped the
aide-de-camp Fleury.
The procession entered the courtyard, then the railway station, and the
gates and doors were reclosed.
The two men in the barouches made themselves known to the Special
Commissary of the station, to whom the aide-de-camp Fleury spoke
privately. This mysterious convoy excited the curiosity of the railway
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