attack being made by us upon Mazas to deliver them, a fusillade had been

resolved upon, and that St. Arnaud had in his pocket the written order,

signed "Louis Bonaparte."

The prisoners got up. Already on the preceding night a similar notice

had been given to them. They had passed the night on their feet, and at

six o'clock in the morning the jailer said to them, "You can go to bed."

The hours passed by; they ended by thinking it would be the same as the

preceding night, and many of them, hearing five o'clock strike from the

clock tower inside the prison, were going to get back into bed, when the

doors of their cells were opened. All the eight were taken downstairs

one by one into the clerk's office in the Rotunda, and were then ushered

into the police-van without having met or seen each other during the

passage. A man dressed in black, with an impertinent bearing, seated at

a table with pen in hand, stopped them on their way, and asked their

names. "I am no more disposed to tell you my name than I am curious to

learn yours," answered General Lamoricière, and he passed outside.

The aide-de-camp Fleury, concealing his uniform under his hooded cloak,

stationed himself in the clerk's office. He was charged, to use his own

words, to "embark" them, and to go and report their "embarkation" at the

Elysée. The aide-de-camp Fleury had passed nearly the whole of his

military career in Africa in General Lamoricière's division; and it was

General Lamoricière who in 1848, then being Minister of War, had

promoted him to the rank of major. While passing through the clerk's

office, General Lamoricière looked fixedly at him.

When they entered the police-vans the generals were smoking cigars. They

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The History of a Crime