Commissary of Police who had arrested him, and said, "Will this money be

safe on me?"

The Commissary exclaimed, "Oh, General, what are you thinking of?"

What assurance have I that you are not thieves?" answered Cavaignac. At

the same time, nearly the same moment, Charras said to Courteille, the

Commissary of Police, "Who can tell me that you are not pick-pockets?"

A few days afterwards these pitiful wretches all received the Cross of

the Legion of Honor.

This cross given by the last Bonaparte to policemen after the 2d of

December is the same as that affixed by the first Napoleon to the eagles

of the Grand Army after Austerlitz.

I communicated these details to the Committee. Other reports came in. A

few concerned the Press. Since the morning of the 4th the Press was

treated with soldierlike brutality. Serrière, the courageous printer,

came to tell us what had happened at the Presse. Serrière published

the Presse and the Avénement du Peuple, the latter a new name for

the Evénement, which had been judicially suppressed. On the 2d, at

seven o'clock in the morning, the printing-office had been occupied by

twenty-eight soldiers of the Republican Guard, commanded by a

Lieutenant named Pape (since decorated for this achievement). This man

had given Serrière an order prohibiting the printing of any article

signed "Nusse." A Commissary of Police accompanied Lieutenant Pape.

This Commissary had notified Serrière of a "decree of the President of

381

The History of a Crime