g the _Gendarmerie
Mobile_ had entered.

"Gentlemen," said he, "I have orders to request you to retire, and, if
you do not withdraw of your own accord, to expel you."

"Orders to expel us!" exclaimed Adelsward; and all the Representatives
added, "Whose orders; Let us see the orders. Who signed the orders?"

The major drew forth a paper and unfolded it. Scarcely had he unfolded
it than he attempted to replace it in his pocket, but General Leydet
threw himself upon him and seized his arm. Several Representatives leant
forward, and read the order for the expulsion of the Assembly, signed
"Fortoul, Minister of the Marine."

Marc Dufraisse turned towards the _Gendarmes Mobiles_, and cried out to
them,--

"Soldiers, your very presence here is an act of treason. Leave the
Hall!"

The soldiers seemed undecided. Suddenly a second column emerged from the
door on the right, and at a signal from the commander, the captain
shouted,--

"Forward! Turn them all out!"

Then began an indescribable hand-to-hand fight between the gendarmes and
the legislators. The soldiers, with their guns in their hands, invaded
the benches of the Senate. Repellin, Chanay, Rantion, were forcibly torn
from their seats. Two gendarmes rushed upon Marc Dufraisse, two upon
Gambon. A long struggle took place on the first bench of the Right, the
same place where MM. Odilon Barrot and Abbatucci were in the habit of
sitting. Paulin Durrieu resisted violence by force, it needed three men
to drag him from his bench. Monet was thrown down upon the benches of the
Commissaries. They seized Adelsward by the throat, and thrust him outside
the Hall. Richardet, a feeble man, was thrown down and brutally treated.
Some were pricked with the points of the bayonets; nearly all had their
clothes torn.

The commander shouted to the soldiers, "Rake them out."

It was thus that sixty Representatives of the People were taken by the
collar by the _coup d'etat_, and driven from their seats. The manner in
which the deed was executed completed the treason. The physical
performance was worthy of the moral performance.

The three last to come out were Fayolle, Teillard-Laterisse, and Paulin
Durrieu.

They were allowed to pass by the great door of the Palace, and they
found themselves in the Place Bourgogne.

The Place Bourgogne was occupied by the 42d Regiment of the Line, under
the orders of Colonel Garderens.

Between the Palace and the statue of the Republic, which