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Louis Bonaparte, however, at times judged amiss, especially respecting
Peauger. Peauger, though chosen by him, remained an honest man. Louis
Bonaparte, mistrusting the workmen of the National Printing-Office, and
not without reason, for twelve, as has been seen, were refractory, had
improvised a branch establishment in case of emergency, a sort of State
Sub-Printing-Office, as it were, situated in the Rue de Luxembourg, with
steam and hand presses, and eight workmen. He had given the management of
it to Peauger. When the hour of the Crime arrived, and with it the
necessity of printing the nefarious placards, he sounded Peauger, and
found him rebellious. He then turned to Saint Georges, a more subservient
lackey.
He was less mistaken, but still he was mistaken, in his appreciation of
X.
On the 2d of December, X., an ally thought necessary by Morny, became a
source of anxiety to Louis Bonaparte.
X. was forty-four years of age, loved women, craved promotion, and,
therefore, was not over-scrupulous. He began his career in Africa under
Colonel Combes in the forty-seventh of the line. He showed great bravery
at Constantine; at Zaatcha he extricated Herbillon, and the siege, badly
begun by Herbillon, had been brought to a successful termination by him.
X., who was a little short man, his head sunk in his shoulders, was
intrepid, and admirably understood the handling of a brigade. Bugeaud,
Lamoricière, Cavaignac, and Changarnier were his four stepping-stones to
advancement. At Paris, in 1851, he met Lamoricière, who received him
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