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In the Assembly he was the neighbor of Montalembert and of Riancey.
He sometimes had warm disputes with them, which we watched from afar
off, and which amused us.
Charamaule had come to the meeting at No. 70 dressed in a sort of blue
cloth military cloak, and armed, as we found out later on.
The situation was grave; sixteen Representatives arrested, all the
generals of the Assembly, and he who was more than a general, Charras.
All the journals suppressed, all the printing offices occupied by
soldiers. On the side of Bonaparte an army of 80,000 men which could be
doubled in a few hours; on our side nothing. The people deceived, and
moreover disarmed. The telegraph at their command. All the walls covered
with their placards, and at our disposal not a single printing case, not
one sheet of paper. No means of raising the protest, no means of
beginning the combat. The coup d'état was clad with mail, the Republic
was naked; the coup d'état had a speaking trumpet, the Republic wore a
gag.
What was to be done?
The raid against the Republic, against the Assembly, against Right,
against Law, against Progress, against Civilization, was commanded by
African generals. These heroes had just proved that they were cowards.
They had taken their precautions well. Fear alone can engender so much
skill. They had arrested all the men of war of the Assembly, and all the
men of action of the Left, Baune, Charles Lagrange, Miot, Valentin,
Nadaud, Cholat. Add to this that all the possible chiefs of the
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