the armed
resistance. The members who had met together on the preceding day at the
Mairie of the Tenth Arrondissement had decreed the deposition of Louis
Bonaparte; but this decree, drawn up by a meeting almost exclusively
composed of the unpopular members of the majority, might have no effect
on the masses; it was necessary that the Left should take it up, should
adopt it, should imprint upon it a more energetic and more revolutionary
accent, and also take possession of the judgment of the High Court,
which was believed to be genuine, to lend assistance to this judgment,
and put it into execution.

In our appeal to arms we had outlawed Louis Bonaparte. The decree of
deposition taken up and counter-signed by us added weight to this
outlawry, and completed the revolutionary act by the legal act.

The Committee of Resistance called together the Republican
Representatives.

The apartments of M. Grevy, where we had been sitting, being too small,
we appointed for our meeting-place No. 10. Rue des Moulins, although
warned that the police had already made a raid upon this house. But we
had no choice; in time of Revolution prudence is impossible, and it is
speedily seen that it is useless. Confidence, always confidence; such is
the law of those grand actions which at times determine great events.
The perpetual improvisation of means, of policy, of expedients, of
resources, nothing step by step, everything on the impulse of the moment,
the ground never sounded, all risks taken as a whole, the good with the
bad, everything chanced on all sides at the same time, the hour, the
place, the opportunity, friends, family, liberty, fortune, life,--such
is the revolutionary conflict.

Towards three o'clock about sixty Representatives were meeting at No.
10, Rue des Moulins, in the large drawing-room, out of which opened a
little room where the Committee of Resistance was in session.

It was a gloomy December day, and darkness seemed already to have almost
set in. The publisher Hetzel, who might also be called the poet Hetzel,
is of a noble mind and of great courage. He has, as is known, shown
unusual political qualities as Secretary-General of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs under Bastide; he came to offer himself to us, as the
brave and patriotic Hingray had already done in the morning. Hetzel knew
that we needed a printing-office above everything; we had not the
faculty of speech, and Louis Bonaparte spoke alone. Hetzel had found a