the saloon doors.

There was Suin--a man able to furnish excellent counsel for bail actions.

There was Dr. Veron--who had on his cheek what the other men of the

Elysée had in their hearts.

There was Mocquart--once a handsome member of the Dutch Court. Mocquart

possessed romantic recollections. He might by age, and perhaps otherwise,

have been the father of Louis Bonaparte. He was a lawyer. He had shown

himself quick-witted about 1829, at the same time as Romieu. Later on he

had published something, I no longer remember what, which was pompous and

in quarto size, and which he sent to me. It was he who in May, 1847, had

come with Prince de la Moskowa to bring me King Jérome's petition to the

Chamber of Peers. This petition requested the readmittance of the

banished Bonaparte family into France. I supported it; a good action, and

a fault which I would again commit.

There was Billault, a semblance of an orator, rambling with facility, and

making mistakes with authority, a reputed statesman. What constitutes the

statesman is a certain superior mediocrity.

There was Lavalette, completing Morny and Walewski.

There was Bacciochi.

And yet others.

370

The History of a Crime