CHAPTER XVI.

A RETROSPECT

Louis Bonaparte had tested the majority as engineers test a bridge; he

had loaded it with iniquities, encroachments, enormities, slaughters on

the Place du Havre, cries of "Long live the Emperor," distributions of

money to the troops, sales of Bonapartist journals in the streets,

prohibition of Republican and parliamentary journals, reviews at Satory,

speeches at Dijon; the majority bore everything.

"Good," said he, "It will carry the weight of the coup d'état."

Let us recall the facts. Before the 2d of December the coup d'état was

being constructed in detail, here and there, a little everywhere, with

exceeding impudence, and yet the majority smiled. The Representative

Pascal Duprat had been violently treated by police agents. "That is very

funny," said the Right. The Representative Dain was seized. "Charming."

The Representative Sartin was arrested. "Bravo." One fine morning when

all the hinges had been well tested and oiled, and when all the wires

were well fixed, the coup d'état was carried out all at once,

abruptly. The majority ceased to laugh, but the trick, was done. It had

not perceived that for a long time past, while it was laughing at the

strangling of others, the cord was round its own neck.

Let us maintain this, not to punish the past, but to illuminate the

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The History of a Crime