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and well employed, a means of enthusiasm and a support--he combined the
popular fire and the military coolness. He was one of those natures
created for the hurricane and for the crowd, who have begun their study
of the people by their study of the ocean, and who are at their ease in
revolutions as in tempests. As we have narrated, he took an important
part in the combat. He had been dauntless and indefatigable, he was one
of those who could yet rouse it to life. From Wednesday afternoon
several police agents were charged to seek him everywhere, to arrest him
wherever they might find him, and to take him to the Prefecture of the
Police, where orders had been given to shoot him immediately.
Cournet, however, with his habitual daring, came and went freely in
order to carry on the lawful resistance, even in the quarters occupied
by the troops, shaving off his moustaches as his sole precaution.
On the Thursday afternoon he was on the boulevards at a few paces from a
regiment of cavalry drawn up in order. He was quietly conversing with
two of his comrades of the fight, Huy and Lorrain. Suddenly, he
perceives himself and his companions surrounded by a company of
sergents de ville; a man touches his arm and says to him, "You are
Cournet; I arrest you."
"Bah!" answers Cournet; "My name is Lépine."
The man resumes,--
"
You are Cournet. Do not you recognize me? Well, then, I recognize you;
I have been, like you, a member of the Socialist Electoral Committee."
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