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what concerns me personally is told in a narrative which is one of the
testaments of exile.[33]
Notwithstanding the relentless pursuit which was directed against us, I
did not think it my duty to leave Paris as long as a glimmer of hope
remained, and as long as an awakening of the people seemed possible.
Malarmet sent me word in my refuge that a movement would take place at
Belleville on Tuesday the 9th. I waited until the 12th. Nothing stirred.
The people were indeed dead. Happily such deaths as these, like the
deaths of the gods, are only for a time.
I had a last interview with Jules Favre and Michel de Bourges at Madame
Didier's in the Rue de la Ville-Lévêque. It was at night. Bastide came
there. This brave man said to me,--
"You are about to leave Paris; for myself, I remain here. Take me as
your lieutenant. Direct me from the depths of your exile. Make use of me
as an arm which you have in France."
"
I will make use of you as of a heart," I said to him.
On the 14th, amidst the adventures which my son Charles relates in his
book, I succeeded in reaching Brussels.
The vanquished are like cinders, Destiny blows upon them and disperses
them. There was a gloomy vanishing of all the combatants for Right and
for Law. A tragical disappearance.
580
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