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CHAPTER XI.
THE END OF THE SECOND DAY
We left Marie's house just in time. The regiment charged to track us and
to arrest us was approaching. We heard the measured steps of soldiers in
the gloom. The streets were dark. We dispersed. I will not speak of a
refuge which was refused to us.
Less than ten minutes after our departure M. Marie's house was invested.
A swarm of guns and swords poured in, and overran it from cellar to
attic. "Everywhere! everywhere!" cried the chiefs. The soldiers sought
us with considerable energy. Without taking the trouble to lean down and
look, they ransacked under the beds with bayonet thrusts. Sometimes they
had difficulty in withdrawing the bayonets which they had driven into the
wall. Unfortunately for this zeal, we were not there.
This zeal came frown higher sources. The poor soldiers obeyed. "Kill
the Representatives," such were their instructions. It was at that
moment when Morny sent this despatch to Maupas: "If you take Victor
Hugo, do what you like with him." These were their politest phrases.
Later on the coup d'état in its decree of banishment, called us
"those individuals," which caused Schoelcher to say these haughty
words: "These people do not even know how to exile politely."
Dr. Véron who publishes in his "Mémoires" the Morny-Maupas despatch,
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