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CHAPTER VIII.
THE SITUATION
Although the fighting tactics of the Committee were, for the reasons
which I have already given, not to concentrate all their means of
resistance into one hour, or in one particular place, but to spread
them over as many points and as many days as possible, each of us knew
instinctively, as also the criminals of the Elysée on their side, that
the day would be decisive.
The moment drew near when the coup d'état would storm us from every
side, and when we should have to sustain the onslaught of an entire
army. Would the people, that great revolutionary populace of the
faubourgs of Paris, abandon their Representatives? Would they abandon
themselves? Or, awakened and enlightened, would they at length arise? A
question more and more vital, and which we repeated to ourselves with
anxiety.
The National Guard had shown no sign of earnestness. The eloquent
proclamation, written at Marie's by Jules Favre and Alexander Rey, and
addressed in our name to the National Legions, had not been printed.
Hetzel's scheme had failed. Versigny and Lebrousse had not been able to
rejoin him; the place appointed for their meeting, the corner of the
boulevard and the Rue de Richelieu, having been continually scoured by
charges of cavalry. The courageous effort of Colonel Grassier to win
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