ening shower of pale
sparks which bayonets give forth at night time. Above this abyss of
shadows rose up black and stark the Column of July.

Proudhon resumed,--

"Listen. I come to give you a friendly warning. You are entertaining
illusions. The People are ensnared in this affair. They will not stir.
Bonaparte will carry them with him. This rubbish, the restitution of
universal suffrage, entraps the simpletons. Bonaparte passes for a
Socialist. He has said, 'I will be the Emperor of the Rabble.' It is a
piece of insolence. But insolence has a chance of success when it has
this at its service."

And Proudhon pointed with his finger to the sinister gleam of the
bayonets. He continued,--

"Bonaparte has an object in view. The Republic has made the People. He
wishes to restore the Populace. He will succeed and you will fail. He
has on his side force, cannons, the mistake of the people, and the folly
of the Assembly. The few of the Left to which you belong will not
succeed in overthrowing the _coup d'etat_. You are honest, and he has
this advantage over you--that he is a rogue. You have scruples, and he
has this advantage over you--that he has none. Believe me. Resist no
longer. The situation is without resources. We must wait; but at this
moment fighting would be madness. What do you hope for?"

"Nothing," said I.

"And what are you going to do?"

"Everything."

By the tone of my voice he understood that further persistence was
useless.

"Good-bye," he said.

We parted. He disappeared in the darkness. I have never seen him since.

I went up again to Lafon's rooms.

In the meantime the copies of the appeal to arms did not come to hand.
The Representatives, becoming uneasy, went up and downstairs. Some of
them went out on the Quai Jemmapes, to wait there and gain information
about them. In the room there was a sound of confused talking the
members of the Committee, Madier de Montjau, Jules Favre, and Carnot,
withdrew, and sent word to me by Charamaule that they were going to No.
10, Rue des Moulins, to the house of the ex-Constituent Landrin, in the
division of the 5th Legion, to deliberate more at their ease, and they
begged me to join them. But I thought I should do better to remain. I
had placed myself at the disposal of the probable movement of the
Faubourg St. Marceau. I awaited the notice of it through Auguste. It was
most important that I should not go too far away; besides, it was
possible that if I