They lived in the Rue St. Honoré, nearly opposite to each other,

Changarnier at No. 3, Charras at No. 14. Ever since the 9th of September

Changarnier had dismissed the fifteen men armed to the teeth by whom he

had hitherto been guarded during the night, and on the 1st December, as

we have said, Charras had unloaded his pistols. These empty pistols were

lying on the table when they came to arrest him. The Commissary of Police

threw himself upon them. "Idiot," said Charras to him, "if they had been

loaded, you would have been a dead man." These pistols, we may note, had

been given to Charras upon the taking of Mascara by General Renaud, who

at the moment of Charras' arrest was on horseback in the street helping

to carry out the coup d'état. If these pistols had remained loaded, and

if General Renaud had had the task of arresting Charras, it would have

been curious if Renaud's pistols had killed Renaud. Charras assuredly

would not have hesitated. We have already mentioned the names of these

police rascals. It is useless to repeat them. It was Courtille who

arrested Charras, Lerat who arrested Changarnier, Desgranges who arrested

Nadaud. The men thus seized in their own houses were Representatives of

the people; they were inviolable, so that to the crime of the violation

of their persons was added this high treason, the violation of the

Constitution.

There was no lack of impudence in the perpetration of these outrages. The

police agents made merry. Some of these droll fellows jested. At Mazas

the under-jailors jeered at Thiers, Nadaud reprimanded them severely. The

Sieur Hubaut (the younger) awoke General Bedeau. "General, you are a

prisoner."--"My person is inviolable."--"Unless you are caught red-handed,

in the very act."--"Well," said Bedeau, "I am caught in the act, the

heinous act of being asleep." They took him by the collar and dragged him

The History of a Crime