hic 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.