tairs to
the Hall, and the sitting was opened.

This sitting was the last which the Assembly held under regular
conditions. The Left, which, as we have seen, had on its side boldly
recaptured the Legislative power, and had added to it that which
circumstances required--as was the duty of Revolutionists; the Left,
without a "bureau," without an usher, and without secretaries, held
sittings in which the accurate and passionless record of shorthand was
wanting, but which live in our memories and which History will gather up.

Two shorthand writers of the Assembly, MM. Grosselet and Lagache, were
present at the sitting at the Mairie of the Tenth Arrondissement. They
have been able to record it. The censorship of the victorious _coup
d'etat_ has mutilated their report and has published through its
historians this mangled version as the true version. One lie more. That
does not matter. This shorthand recital belongs to the brief of the 2d
December, it is one of the leading documents in the trial which the
future will institute. In the notes of this book will be found this
document complete. The passages in inverted commas are those which the
censorship of M. Bonaparte has suppressed. This suppression is a proof of
their significance and importance.

Shorthand reproduces everything except life. Stenography is an ear. It
hears and sees not. It is therefore necessary to fill in here the
inevitable blanks of the shorthand account.

In order to obtain a complete idea of this sitting of the Tenth
Arrondissement, we must picture the great Hall of the Mairie, a sort of
parallelogram, lighted on the right by four or five windows overlooking
the courtyard; on the left, along the wall, furnished with several rows
of benches which had been hastily brought thither, on which were piled up
the three hundred Representatives, assembled together by chance. No one
was sitting down, those in front were standing, those behind were mounted
on the benches. Here and there were a few small tables. In the centre
people walked to and fro. At the bottom, at the end opposite the door,
was a long table furnished with benches, which occupied the whole width
of the wall, behind which sat the "bureau." "Sitting" is merely the
conventional term. The "bureau" did not "sit;" like the rest of the
Assembly it was on its feet. The secretaries, M.M. Chapot, Moulin, and
Grimault wrote standing. At certain moments the two Vice-Presidents
mounted on the benches so