t resigned," Moreover, the
name of Lauriston was not familiar to the soldiers. Oudinot was better
known in the army. But how?

At the moment when the name of Oudinot was pronounced, a shudder ran
through this meeting, almost exclusively composed of members of the
Right. In fact at this critical time, at this fatal name of Oudinot,
reflections crowded upon each other in every mind.

What was the _coup d'etat_?

It was the "Roman expedition at home." Which was undertaken against whom?
Against those who had undertaken the "Roman expedition abroad." The
National Assembly of France, dissolved by violence, could find only one
single General to defend it in its dying hour. And whom? Precisely he,
who in the name of the National Assembly of France had dissolved by
violence the National Assembly of Rome. What power could Oudinot, the
strangler of a Republic, possess to save a Republic? Was it not evident
that his own soldiers would answer him, "What do you want with us? That
which we have done at Rome we now do at Paris." What a story is this
story of treason! The French Legislature had written the first chapter
with the blood of the Roman Constituent Assembly: Providence wrote the
second chapter with the blood of the French Legislature, Louis Bonaparte
holding the pen.

In 1849, Louis Bonaparte had assassinated the sovereignty of the People
in the person of its Roman Representatives; in 1851 he assassinated it in
the person of its French Representatives. It was logical, and although it
was infamous, it was just. The Legislative Assembly bore at the same time
the weight of two crimes; it was the accomplice of the first, the victim
of the second. All these men of the majority felt this, and were humbled.
Or rather it was the same crime, the crime of the Second of July, 1849,
ever erect, ever alive, which had only changed its name, which now called
itself the Second of December, and which, the offspring of this Assembly,
stabbed it to the heart. Nearly all crimes are parricidal. On a certain
day they recoil upon those who have committed them, and slay them.

At this moment, so full of anxiety, M. de Falloux must have glanced round
for M. de Montalembert. M. de Montalembert was at the Elysee.

When Tamisier rose and pronounced this terrifying word, "The Roman
Question?" distracted M. de Dampierre shouted to him, "Silence! You kill
us!"

It was not Tamisier who was killing them--it was Oudinot.

M. de Dampierre did not perc