promises. Towards the end of October, 1848, then a candidate for the

Presidency, he was calling at No. 37, Rue de la Tour d'Auvergne, on a

certain personage, to whom he remarked, "I wish to have an explanation

with you. They slander me. Do I give you the impression of a madman? They

think that I wish to revivify Napoleon. There are two men whom a great

ambition can take for its models, Napoleon and Washington. The one is a

man of Genius, the other is a man of Virtue. It is ridiculous to say, 'I

will be a man of Genius;' it is honest to say, 'I will be a man of

Virtue.' Which of these depends upon ourselves? Which can we accomplish

by our will? To be Genius? No. To be Probity? Yes. The attainment of

Genius is not possible; the attainment of Probity is a possibility. And

what could I revive of Napoleon? One sole thing--a crime. Truly a worthy

ambition! Why should I be considered man? The Republic being established,

I am not a great man, I shall not copy Napoleon; but I am an honest man.

I shall imitate Washington. My name, the name of Bonaparte, will be

inscribed on two pages of the history of France: on the first there will

be crime and glory, on the second probity and honor. And the second will

perhaps be worth the first. Why? Because if Napoleon is the greater,

Washington is the better man. Between the guilty hero and the good

citizen I choose the good citizen. Such is my ambition."

From 1848 to 1851 three years elapsed. People had long suspected Louis

Bonaparte; but long-continued suspicion blunts the intellect and wears

itself out by fruitless alarms. Louis Bonaparte had had dissimulating

ministers such as Magne and Rouher; but he had also had straightforward

ministers such as Léon Faucher and Odilon Barrot; and these last had

affirmed that he was upright and sincere. He had been seen to beat his

breast before the doors of Ham; his foster sister, Madame Hortense

The History of a Crime