still there. He saw the ammunition wagons ranged in order with their

shafts raised, but the places of the six cannon and the two mortars were

vacant.

In the avenue of the Presidency the fiacre stopped for a moment. Two

lines of soldiers, standing at ease, lined the footpaths of the avenue.

At the foot of a tree were grouped three men: Colonel Espinasse, whom M.

Baze knew and recognized, a species of Lieutenant-Colonel, who wore a

black and orange ribbon round his neck, and a Major of Lancers, all three

sword in hand, consulting together. The windows of the fiacre were

closed; M. Baze wished to lower them to appeal to these men; the

sergents de ville seized his arms. The Commissary Primorin then came

up, and was about to re-enter the little chariot for two persons which

had brought him.

"Monsieur Baze," said he, with that villainous kind of courtesy which the

agents of the coup d'état willingly blended with their crime, "you must

be uncomfortable with those three men in the fiacre. You are cramped;

come in with me."

Let me alone," said the prisoner. "With these three men I am cramped;

with you I should be contaminated."

An escort of infantry was ranged on both sides of the fiacre. Colonel

Espinasse called to the coachman, "Drive slowly by the Quai d'Orsay until

you meet a cavalry escort. When the cavalry shall have assumed the

charge, the infantry can come back." They set out.

The History of a Crime