erior is charged with the execution
of this decree.

"Given at the Palace of the Elysee, 2d December, 1851.

"LOUIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.

"DE MORNY, Minister of the Interior."

CHAPTER VII.

NO. 70, RUE BLANCHE

The Cite Gaillard is somewhat difficult to find. It is a deserted alley
in that new quarter which separates the Rue des Martyrs from the Rue
Blanche. I found it, however. As I reached No. 4, Yvan came out of the
gateway and said, "I am here to warn you. The police have an eye upon
this house, Michel is waiting for you at No. 70, Rue Blanche, a few
steps from here."

I knew No. 70, Rue Blanche. Manin, the celebrated President of the
Venetian Republic, lived there. It was not in his rooms, however, that
the meeting was to take place.

The porter of No. 70 told me to go up to the first floor. The door was
opened, and a handsome, gray-haired woman of some forty summers, the
Baroness Coppens, whom I recognized as having seen in society and at my
own house, ushered me into a drawing-room.

Michel de Bourges and Alexander Rey were there, the latter an
ex-Constituent, an eloquent writer, a brave man. At that time Alexander
Rey edited the _National_.

We shook hands.

Michel said to me,--

"Hugo, what will you do?"

I answered him,--

"Everything."

"That also is my opinion," said he.

Numerous representatives arrived, and amongst others Pierre Lefranc,
Labrousse, Theodore Bac, Noel Parfait, Arnauld (de l'Ariege), Demosthenes
Ollivier, an ex-Constituent, and Charamaule. There was deep and
unutterable indignation, but no useless words were spoken.

All were imbued with that manly anger whence issue great resolutions.

They talked. They set forth the situation. Each brought forward the news
which he had learnt.

Theodore Bac came from Leon Faucher, who lived in the Rue Blanche. It
was he who had awakened Leon Faucher, and had announced the news to him.
The first words of Leon Faucher were, "It is an infamous deed."

From the first moment Charamaule displayed a courage which, during
the four days of the struggle, never flagged for a single instant.
Charamaule is a very tall man, possessed of vigorous features and
convincing eloquence; he voted with the Left, but sat with the Right.
In the Assembly he was the neighbor of Montalembert and of Riancey.
He sometimes had warm disputes with them, which we watched from afar
off, and which amused us.

Charamaule had come to the meeting at