the doors
upon a sleeping man, and when that man, awakening with a start, asked of
these bandits, "Who are you?" their leader answered, "A Commissary of
Police." So it happened to Lamoriciere who was seized by Blanchet, who
threatened him with the gag; to Greppo, who was brutally treated and
thrown down by Gronfier, assisted by six men carrying a dark lantern and
a pole-axe; to Cavaignac, who was secured by Colin, a smooth-tongued
villain, who affected to be shocked on hearing him curse and swear; to M.
Thiers, who was arrested by Hubaut (the elder); who professed that he had
seen him "tremble and weep," thus adding falsehood to crime; to Valentin,
who was assailed in his bed by Dourlens, taken by the feet and shoulders,
and thrust into a padlocked police van; to Miot, destined to the tortures
of African casemates; to Roger (du Nord), who with courageous and witty
irony offered sherry to the bandits. Charras and Changarnier were taken
unawares.

They lived in the Rue St. Honore, nearly opposite to each other,
Changarnier at No. 3, Charras at No. 14. Ever since the 9th of September
Changarnier had dismissed the fifteen men armed to the teeth by whom he
had hitherto been guarded during the night, and on the 1st December, as
we have said, Charras had unloaded his pistols. These empty pistols were
lying on the table when they came to arrest him. The Commissary of Police
threw himself upon them. "Idiot," said Charras to him, "if they had been
loaded, you would have been a dead man." These pistols, we may note, had
been given to Charras upon the taking of Mascara by General Renaud, who
at the moment of Charras' arrest was on horseback in the street helping
to carry out the _coup d'etat_. If these pistols had remained loaded, and
if General Renaud had had the task of arresting Charras, it would have
been curious if Renaud's pistols had killed Renaud. Charras assuredly
would not have hesitated. We have already mentioned the names of these
police rascals. It is useless to repeat them. It was Courtille who
arrested Charras, Lerat who arrested Changarnier, Desgranges who arrested
Nadaud. The men thus seized in their own houses were Representatives of
the people; they were inviolable, so that to the crime of the violation
of their persons was added this high treason, the violation of the
Constitution.

There was no lack of impudence in the perpetration of these outrages. The
police agents made merry. Some of these droll fellows j