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of it, let them leave him there in peace. Let them not resuscitate him
through his bad qualities. Let them not compel France to remember too
much. This glory of Napoleon is vulnerable. It has a wound; closed, I
admit. Do not let them reopen it. Whatever apologists may say and do, it
is none the less true that by the Eighteenth of Brumaire Napoleon struck
himself a first blow."
"In truth," said I, "it is ever against ourselves that we commit a
crime."
"
Well, then," he continued, "his glory has survived a first blow, a
second will kill it. I do not wish it. I hate the first Eighteenth
Brumaire; I fear the second. I wish to prevent it."
He paused again, and continued,--
"
That is why I have come to you to-night. I wish to succor this great
wounded glory. By the advice which I am giving you, if you can carry it
out, if the Left carries it out, I save the first Napoleon; for if a
second crime is superposed upon his glory, this glory would disappear.
Yes, this name would founder, and history would no longer own it. I will
go farther and complete my idea. I also save the present Napoleon, for he
who as yet has no glory will only have come. I save his memory from an
eternal pillory. Therefore, arrest him."
He was truly and deeply moved. He resumed,--
"As to the Republic, the arrest of Louis Bonaparte is deliverance for
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