The Archbishop of Paris was in the room which adjoins his study. The
Abbe Maret ushered Madame Arnaulde into the study, informed the
Archbishop, and a moment later the Archbishop entered. Besides the Abbe
Maret, the Abbe Deguerry, the Cure of the Madeleine, was with him.

Madame Arnauld handed to M. Sibour the two letters of her husband and
the workman. The Archbishop read them, and remained thoughtful.

"What answer am I to take back to my husband?" asked Madame Arnauld.

"Madame," replied the Archbishop, "it is too late. This should have been
done before the struggle began. Now, it would be only to risk the
shedding of more blood than perhaps has yet been spilled."

The Abbe Deguerry was silent. The Abbe Maret tried respectfully to turn
the mind of his Bishop towards the grand effort unsoiled by the workman.
He spoke eloquently. He laid great stress open this argument, that the
appearance of the Archbishop would bring about a manifestation of the
National Guard, and that a manifestation of the National Guard would
compel the Elysee to draw back.

"No," said the Archbishop, "you hope for the impossible. The Elysee will
not draw back now. You believe that I should stop the bloodshed--not at
all; I should cause it to flow, and that in torrents. The National Guard
has no longer any influence. If the legions appeared, the Elysee could
crush the legions by the regiments. And then, what is an Archbishop in
the presence of the Man of the _coup d'etat_? Where is the oath? Where
is the sworn faith? Where is the Respect for Right? A man does not turn
back when he has made three steps in such a crime. No! No! Do not hope.
This man will do all. He has struck the Law in the hand of the
Representatives. He will strike God in mine."

And he dismissed Madame Arnauld with the look of a man overwhelmed with
sorrow.

Let us do the duty of the Historian. Six weeks afterwards, in the Church
of Notre Dame, some one was singing the _Te Deum_ in honor of the
treason of December--thus making God a partner in a crime.

This man was the Archbishop Sibour.

CHAPTER VIII.

MOUNT VALERIEN

Of the two hundred and thirty Representatives prisoners at the barracks
of the Quai d'Orsay fifty-three had been sent to Mount Valerien. They
loaded them in four police vans. Some few remained who were packed in an
omnibus. MM. Benoist d'Azy, Falloux, Piscatory, Vatimesail, were locked
in the wheeled cells, as also Eugene Sue and Esquiros. The