The History of a Crime - Victor Hugo
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THE HISTORY OF A CRIME
THE TESTIMONY OF AN EYE-WITNESS
By VICTOR HUGO
Translated by T.H. JOYCE and ARTHUR LOCKER.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
THE FIRST DAY--THE AMBUSH.
I. "Security"
II. Paris sleeps--the Bell rings
III. What had happened during the Night
IV. Other Doings of the Night
V. The Darkness of the Crime
VI. "Placards"
VII. No. 70, Rue Blanche
VIII. "Violation of the Chamber"
IX. An End worse than Death
X. The Black Door
XI. The High Court of Justice
XII. The Mairie of the Tenth Arrondissement
XIII. Louis Bonaparte's Side-face
XIV. The D'Orsay Barracks
XV. Mazas
XVI. The Episode of the Boulevard St. Martin
XVII. The Rebound of the 24th June, 1848, on the 2d December 1851
XVIII. The Representatives hunted down
XIX. One Foot in the Tomb
XX. The Burial of a Great Anniversary
THE SECOND DAY--THE STRUGGLE.
I. They come to Arrest me
II. From the Bastille to the Rue de Cotte
III. The St. Antoine Barricade
IV. The Workmen's Societies ask us for the Order to fight
V. Baudin's Corpse
VI. The Decrees of the Representatives who remained Free
VII. The Archbishop
VIII. Mount Valerien
IX. The Lightning begins to flash among the People
X. What Fleury went to do at Mazas
XI. The End of the Second Day
THE THIRD DAY--THE MASSACRE.
I. Those who sleep and He who does not sleep
II. The Proceedings of the Committee
III. Inside the Elysee
IV. Bonaparte's Familiar Spirits
V. A Wavering Ally
VI. Denis Dussoubs
VII. Items and Interviews
VIII. The Situation
IX. The Porte Saint Martin
X. My Visit to the Barricades
XI. The Barricade of the Rue Meslay
XII. The Barricade of the Mairie of the Fifth Arrondissement
XIII. The Barricade of the Rue Thevenot
XIV. Ossian and Scipio
XV. The Question presents itself
XVI. The Massacre
XVII. The Appointment made with the Workmen's Societies
XVIII. The Verification of Moral Laws
THE FOURTH DAY--THE VICTORY.
I. What happened during the Night--the Rue Tiquetonne
II. What happened during the Night--the Market Quarter
III. What happened during the Night--the Petit Carreau
IV. What was done during the Night--the Passage du Saumon
V. Other Deeds of Darkness
VI. The Consultative Committee
VII. The Other List
VIII. David d'Angers
IX. Our Last Meeting
X. Duty can have two Aspects
XI. The Combat finished, the Ordeal begins
XII. The Exiled
XIII. The Military Commissions and the mixed Commissions
XIV. A Religious Incident
XV. How they came out of Ham
XVI. A Retrospect
XVII. Conduct of the Left
XVIII. A Page written at Brussels
XIX. The Infallible Benediction
CONCLUSION--THE FALL.
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
THE FIRST DAY--THE AMBUSH.
CHAPTER I.
"SECURITY"
On December 1, 1851, Charras[1] shrugged his shoulder and unloaded his
pistols. In truth, the belief in the possibility of a _coup d'etat_ had
become humiliating. The supposition of such illegal violence on the part
of M. Louis Bonaparte vanished upon serious consideration. The great
question of the day was manifestly the Devincq election; it was clear
that the Government was only thinking of that matter. As to a conspiracy
against the Republic and against the People, how could any one
premeditate such a plot? Where was the man capable of entertaining such a
dream? For a tragedy there must be an actor, and here assuredly the actor
was wanting. To outrage Right, to suppress the Assembly, to abolish the
Constitution, to strangle the Republic, to overthrow the Nation, to sully
the Flag, to dishonor the Army, to suborn the Clergy and the Magistracy,
to succeed, to triumph, to govern, to administer, to exile, to banish, to
transport, to ruin, to assassinate, to reign, with such complicities that
the law at last resembles a foul bed of corruption. What! All these
enormities were to be committed! And by whom? By a Colossus? No, by a
dwarf. People laughed at the notion. They no longer said "What a crime!"
but "What a farce!" For after all they reflected; heinous crimes require
stature. Certain crimes are too lofty for certain hands. A man who would
achieve an 18th Brumaire must have Arcola in his past and Austerlitz in
his future. The art of becoming a great scoundrel is not accorded to the
first comer. People said to themselves, Who is this son of Hortense? He
has Strasbourg behind him instead of Arcola, and Boulogne in place of
Austerlitz. He is a Frenchman, born a Dutchman, and naturalized a Swiss;
he is a Bonaparte crossed with a Verhuell; he is only celebrated for the
ludicrousness of his imperial attitude, and he who would pluck a feather
from his eagle would risk finding a goose's quill in his hand. This
Bonaparte does not pass currency in the array, he is a counterfeit image
less of gold than of lead, and assuredly French soldiers will not give us
the change for this false Napoleon in rebellion, in atrocities, in
massacres, in outrages, in treason. If he should attempt roguery it would
miscarry. Not a regiment would stir. Besides, why should he make such an
attempt? Doubtless he has his suspicious side, but why suppose him an
absolute villain? Such extreme outrages are beyond him; he is incapable
of them physically, why judge him capable of them morally? Has he not
pledged honor? Has he not said, "No one in Europe doubts my word?" Let us
fear nothing. To this could be answered, Crimes are committed either on a
grand or on a mean scale. In the first category there is Caesar; in the
second there is Mandrin. Caesar passes the Rubicon, Mandrin bestrides the
gutter. But wise men interposed, "Are we not prejudiced by offensive
conjectures? This man has been exiled and unfortunate. Exile enlightens,
misfortune corrects."
For his part Louis Bonaparte protested energetically. Facts abounded in
his favor. Why should he not act in good faith? He had made remarkable
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 Leon 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
Cornu, wrote to Mieroslawsky, "I am a good Republican, and I can answer
for him." His friend of Ham, Peauger, a loyal man, declared, "Louis
Bonaparte is incapable of treason." Had not Louis Bonaparte written the
work entitled "Pauperism"? In the intimate circles of the Elysee Count
Potocki was a Republican and Count d'Orsay was a Liberal; Louis
Bonaparte said to Potocki, "I am a man of the Democracy," and to
D'Orsay, "I am a man of Liberty." The Marquis du Hallays opposed the
_coup d'etat_, while the Marquise du Hallays was in its favor. Louis
Bonaparte said to the Marquis, "Fear nothing" (it is true that he
whispered to the Marquise, "Make your mind easy"). The Assembly, after
having shown here and there some symptoms of uneasiness, had grown calm.
There was General Neumayer, "who was to be depended upon," and who from
his position at Lyons would at need march upon Paris. Changarnier
exclaimed, "Representatives of the people, deliberate in peace." Even
Louis Bonaparte himself had pronounced these famous words, "I should see
an enemy of my country in any one who would change by force that which
has been established by law," and, moreover, the Army was "force," and
the Army possessed leaders, leaders who were beloved and victorious.
Lamoriciere, Changarnier, Cavaignac, Leflo, Bedeau, Charras; how could
any one imagine the Army of Africa arresting the Generals of Africa? On
Friday, November 28, 1851, Louis Bonaparte said to Michel de Bourges,
"If I wanted to do wrong, I could not. Yesterday, Thursday, I invited to
my table five Colonels of the garrison of Paris, and the whim seized me
to question each one by himself. All five declared to me that the Army
would never lend itself to a _coup de force_, nor attack the
inviolability of the Assembly. You can tell your friends this."--"He
smiled," said Michel de Bourges, reassured, "and I also smiled." After
this, Michel de Bourges declared in the Tribune, "this is the man for
me." In that same month of November a satirical journal, charged with
calumniating the President of the Republic, was sentenced to fine and
imprisonment for a caricature depicting a shooting-gallery and Louis
Bonaparte using the Constitution as a target. Morigny, Minister of the
Interior, declared in the Council before the President "that a Guardian
of Public Power ought never to violate the law as otherwise he would
be--" "a dishonest man," interposed the President. All these words and
all these facts were notorious. The material and moral impossibility of
the _coup d'etat_ was manifest to all. To outrage the National Assembly!
To arrest the Representatives! What madness! As we have seen, Charras,
who had long remained on his guard, unloaded his pistols. The feeling of
security was complete and unanimous. Nevertheless there were some of us
in the Assembly who still retained a few doubts, and who occasionally
shook our heads, but we were looked upon as fools.
[1] Colonel Charras was Under-Secretary of State in 1848, and Acting
Secretary of War under the Provisional Government.
CHAPTER II.
PARIS SLEEPS--THE BELL RINGS
On the 2d December, 1851, Representative Versigny, of the Haute-Saone,
who resided at Paris, at No. 4, Rue Leonie, was asleep. He slept
soundly; he had been working till late at night. Versigny was a young
man of thirty-two, soft-featured and fair-complexioned, of a courageous
spirit, and a mind tending towards social and economical studies. He had
passed the first hours of the night in the perusal of a book by Bastiat,
in which he was making marginal notes, and, leaving the book open on the
table, he had fallen asleep. Suddenly he awoke with a start at the sound
of a sharp ring at the bell. He sprang up in surprise. It was dawn. It
was about seven o'clock in the morning.
Never dreaming what could be the motive for so early a visit, and
thinking that someone had mistaken the door, he again lay down, and was
about to resume his slumber, when a second ring at the bell, still
louder than the first, completely aroused him. He got up in his
night-shirt and opened the door.
Michel de Bourges and Theodore Bac entered. Michel de Bourges was the
neighbor of Versigny; he lived at No. 16, Rue de Milan.
Theodore Bac and Michel were pale, and appeared greatly agitated.
"Versigny," said Michel, "dress yourself at once--Baune has just been
arrested."
"Bah!" exclaimed Versigny. "Is the Mauguin business beginning again?"
"It is more than that," replied Michel. "Baune's wife and daughter came
to me half-an-hour ago. They awoke me. Baune was arrested in bed at six
o'clock this morning."
"What does that mean?" asked Versigny.
The bell rang again.
"This will probably tell us," answered Michel de Bourges.
Versigny opened the door. It was the Representative Pierre Lefranc. He
brought, in truth, the solution of the enigma.
"Do you know what is happening?" said he.
"Yes," answered Michel. "Baune is in prison."
"It is the Republic who is a prisoner," said Pierre Lefranc. "Have you
read the placards?"
"No."
Pierre Lefranc explained to them that the walls at that moment were
covered with placards which the curious crowd were thronging to read,
that he had glanced over one of them at the corner of his street, and
that the blow had fallen.
"The blow!" exclaimed Michel. "Say rather the crime."
Pierre Lefranc added that there were three placards--one decree and two
proclamations--all three on white paper, and pasted close together.
The decree was printed in large letters.
The ex-Constituent Laissac, who lodged, like Michel de Bourges, in the
neighborhood (No. 4, Cite Gaillard), then came in. He brought the same
news, and announced further arrests which had been made during the
night.
There was not a minute to lose.
They went to impart the news to Yvan, the Secretary of the Assembly, who
had been appointed by the Left, and who lived in the Rue de Boursault.
An immediate meeting was necessary. Those Republican Representatives who
were still at liberty must be warned and brought together without delay.
Versigny said, "I will go and find Victor Hugo."
It was eight o'clock in the morning. I was awake and was working in bed.
My servant entered and said, with an air of alarm,--
"A Representative of the people is outside who wishes to speak to you,
sir."
"Who is it?"
"Monsieur Versigny:"
"Show him in."
Versigny entered, and told me the state of affairs. I sprang out of bed.
He told me of the "rendezvous" at the rooms of the ex-Constituent
Laissac.
"Go at once and inform the other Representatives," said I.
He left me.
CHAPTER III.
WHAT HAD HAPPENED DURING THE NIGHT
Previous to the fatal days of June, 1848, the esplanade of the Invalides
was divided into eight huge grass plots, surrounded by wooden railings
and enclosed between two groves of trees, separated by a street running
perpendicularly to the front of the Invalides. This street was traversed
by three streets running parallel to the Seine. There were large lawns
upon which children were wont to play. The centre of the eight grass
plots was marred by a pedestal which under the Empire had borne the
bronze lion of St. Mark, which had been brought from Venice; under the
Restoration a white marble statue of Louis XVIII.; and under Louis
Philippe a plaster bust of Lafayette. Owing to the Palace of the
Constituent Assembly having been nearly seized by a crowd of insurgents on
the 22d of June, 1848, and there being no barracks in the neighborhood,
General Cavaignac had constructed at three hundred paces from the
Legislative Palace, on the grass plots of the Invalides, several rows of
long huts, under which the grass was hidden. These huts, where three or
four thousand men could be accommodated, lodged the troops specially
appointed to keep watch over the National Assembly.
On the 1st December, 1851, the two regiments hutted on the Esplanade were
the 6th and the 42d Regiments of the Line, the 6th commanded by Colonel
Garderens de Boisse, who was famous before the Second of December, the
42d by Colonel Espinasse, who became famous since that date.
The ordinary night-guard of the Palace of the Assembly was composed of a
battalion of Infantry and of thirty artillerymen, with a captain. The
Minister of War, in addition, sent several troopers for orderly service.
Two mortars and six pieces of cannon, with their ammunition wagons, were
ranged in a little square courtyard situated on the right of the Cour
d'Honneur, and which was called the Cour des Canons. The Major, the
military commandant of the Palace, was placed under the immediate control
of the Questors.[2] At nightfall the gratings and the doors were secured,
sentinels were posted, instructions were issued to the sentries, and the
Palace was closed like a fortress. The password was the same as in the
Place de Paris.
The special instructions drawn up by the Questors prohibited the entrance
of any armed force other than the regiment on duty.
On the night of the 1st and 2d of December the Legislative Palace was
guarded by a battalion of the 42d.
The sitting of the 1st of December, which was exceedingly peaceable,
and had been devoted to a discussion on the municipal law, had finished
late, and was terminated by a Tribunal vote. At the moment when M.
Baze, one of the Questors, ascended the Tribune to deposit his vote, a
Representative, belonging to what was called "Les Bancs Elyseens"
approached him, and said in a low tone, "To-night you will be carried
off." Such warnings as these were received every day, and, as we have
already explained, people had ended by paying no heed to them.
Nevertheless, immediately after the sitting the Questors sent for the
Special Commissary of Police of the Assembly, President Dupin being
present. When interrogated, the Commissary declared that the reports of
his agents indicated "dead calm"--such was his expression--and that
assuredly there was no danger to be apprehended for that night. When
the Questors pressed him further, President Dupin, exclaiming "Bah!"
left the room.
On that same day, the 1st December, about three o'clock in the afternoon,
as General Leflo's father-in-law crossed the boulevard in front of
Tortoni's, some one rapidly passed by him and whispered in his ear these
significant words, "Eleven o'clock--midnight." This incident excited but
little attention at the Questure, and several even laughed at it. It had
become customary with them. Nevertheless General Leflo would not go to
bed until the hour mentioned had passed by, and remained in the Offices
of the Questure until nearly one o'clock in the morning.
The shorthand department of the Assembly was done out of doors by four
messengers attached to the _Moniteur_, who were employed to carry the
copy of the shorthand writers to the printing-office, and to bring back
the proof-sheets to the Palace of the Assembly, where M. Hippolyte Prevost
corrected them. M. Hippolyte Prevost was chief of the stenographic staff,
and in that capacity had apartments in the Legislative Palace. He was at
the same time editor of the musical _feuilleton_ of the _Moniteur_. On
the 1st December he had gone to the Opera Comique for the first
representation of a new piece, and did not return till after midnight.
The fourth messenger from the _Moniteur_ was waiting for him with a proof
of the last slip of the sitting; M. Prevost corrected the proof, and the
messenger was sent off. It was then a little after one o'clock, profound
quiet reigned around, and, with the exception of the guard, all in the
Palace slept. Towards this hour of the night, a singular incident
occurred. The Captain-Adjutant-Major of the Guard of the Assembly came to
the Major and said, "The Colonel has sent for me," and he added according
to military etiquette, "Will you permit me to go?" The Commandant was
astonished. "Go," he said with some sharpness, "but the Colonel is wrong
to disturb an officer on duty." One of the soldiers on guard, without
understanding the meaning of the words, heard the Commandant pacing up
and down, and muttering several times, "What the deuce can he want?"
Half an hour afterwards the Adjutant-Major returned. "Well," asked the
Commandant, "what did the Colonel want with you?" "Nothing," answered the
Adjutant, "he wished to give me the orders for to-morrow's duties." The
night became further advanced. Towards four o'clock the Adjutant-Major
came again to the Major. "Major," he said, "the Colonel has asked for
me." "Again!" exclaimed the Commandant. "This is becoming strange;
nevertheless, go."
The Adjutant-Major had amongst other duties that of giving out the
instructions to the sentries, and consequently had the power of
rescinding them.
As soon as the Adjutant-Major had gone out, the Major, becoming uneasy,
thought that it was his duty to communicate with the Military Commandant
of the Palace. He went upstairs to the apartment of the Commandant--
Lieutenant Colonel Niols. Colonel Niols had gone to bed and the attendants
had retired to their rooms in the attics. The Major, new to the Palace,
groped about the corridors, and, knowing little about the various rooms,
rang at a door which seemed to him that of the Military Commandant. Nobody
answered, the door was not opened, and the Major returned downstairs,
without having been able to speak to anybody.
On his part the Adjutant-Major re-entered the Palace, but the Major did
not see him again. The Adjutant remained near the grated door of the
Place Bourgogne, shrouded in his cloak, and walking up and down the
courtyard as though expecting some one.
At the instant that five o'clock sounded from the great clock of the
dome, the soldiers who slept in the hut-camp before the Invalides were
suddenly awakened. Orders were given in a low voice in the huts to take
up arms, in silence. Shortly afterwards two regiments, knapsack on back
were marching upon the Palace of the Assembly; they were the 6th and the
42d.
At this same stroke of five, simultaneously in all the quarters of Paris,
infantry soldiers filed out noiselessly from every barrack, with their
colonels at their head. The _aides-de-camp_ and orderly officers of Louis
Bonaparte, who had been distributed in all the barracks, superintended
this taking up of arms. The cavalry were not set in motion until
three-quarters of an hour after the infantry, for fear that the ring of
the horses' hoofs on the stones should wake slumbering Paris too soon.
M. de Persigny, who had brought from the Elysee to the camp of the
Invalides the order to take up arms, marched at the head of the 42d, by
the side of Colonel Espinasse. A story is current in the army, for at the
present day, wearied as people are with dishonorable incidents, these
occurrences are yet told with a species of gloomy indifference--the story
is current that at the moment of setting out with his regiment one of the
colonels who could be named hesitated, and that the emissary from the
Elysee, taking a sealed packet from his pocket, said to him, "Colonel, I
admit that we are running a great risk. Here in this envelope, which I
have been charged to hand to you, are a hundred thousand francs in
banknotes _for contingencies_." The envelope was accepted, and the
regiment set out. On the evening of the 2d of December the colonel said
to a lady, "This morning I earned a hundred thousand francs and my
General's epaulets." The lady showed him the door.
Xavier Durrieu, who tells us this story, had the curiosity later on to
see this lady. She confirmed the story. Yes, certainly! she had shut the
door in the face of this wretch; a soldier, a traitor to his flag who
dared visit her! She receive such a man? No! she could not do that,
"and," states Xavier Durrieu, she added, "And yet I have no character to
lose."
Another mystery was in progress at the Prefecture of Police.
Those belated inhabitants of the Cite who may have returned home at a
late hour of the night might have noticed a large number of street cabs
loitering in scattered groups at different points round about the Rue de
Jerusalem.
From eleven o'clock in the evening, under pretext of the arrivals of
refugees at Paris from Genoa and London, the Brigade of Surety and the
eight hundred _sergents de ville_ had been retained in the Prefecture. At
three o'clock in the morning a summons had been sent to the forty-eight
Commissaries of Paris and of the suburbs, and also to the peace officers.
An hour afterwards all of them arrived. They were ushered into a separate
chamber, and isolated from each other as much as possible. At five
o'clock a bell was sounded in the Prefect's cabinet. The Prefect Maupas
called the Commissaries of Police one after another into his cabinet,
revealed the plot to them, and allotted to each his portion of the crime.
None refused; many thanked him.
It was a question of arresting at their own homes seventy-eight Democrats
who were influential in their districts, and dreaded by the Elysee as
possible chieftains of barricades. It was necessary, a still more daring
outrage, to arrest at their houses sixteen Representatives of the People.
For this last task were chosen among the Commissaries of Police such of
those magistrates who seemed the most likely to become ruffians. Amongst
these were divided the Representatives. Each had his man. Sieur Courtille
had Charras, Sieur Desgranges had Nadaud, Sieur Hubaut the elder had M.
Thiers, and Sieur Hubaut the younger General Bedeau, General Changarnier
was allotted to Lerat, and General Cavaignac to Colin. Sieur Dourlens
took Representative Valentin, Sieur Benoist Representative Miot, Sieur
Allard Representative Cholat, Sieur Barlet took Roger (Du Nord), General
Lamoriciere fell to Commissary Blanchet, Commissary Gronfier had
Representative Greppo, and Commissary Boudrot Representative Lagrange.
The Questors were similarly allotted, Monsieur Baze to the Sieur
Primorin, and General Leflo to Sieur Bertoglio.