sburg
garrison.

[Footnote 1: Louis Blanc, Dix Ans.]

Louis Blanc, the republican and socialist historian, writing in
1843, speaks thus of Louis Napoleon:--

"Brought up in exile, unfamiliar with France, Louis Bonaparte had
assumed that the _bourgeoisie_ remembered only that the Empire
had curbed the Revolution, established social order, and given
France the Code Napoleon. He fancied that the working-classes would
follow the eagle with enthusiasm the moment it appeared, borne,
as of old, at the head of regiments, and heralded by the sound of
trumpets. A twofold error! The things the _bourgeoisie_ in 1836
remembered most distinctly about Napoleon were his despotism and his
taste for war; and the most lasting impression of him amongst the
most intelligent in the working-classes was that whilst sowing the
seeds of democratic aspiration throughout Europe, he had carefully
weeded out all democratic tendencies in his own dominions."

But though Louis Blanc is right in saying that the evil that Napoleon
did, lived after him in the memories of thinking men, it is also
true that those born since the fall of the Second Empire can have
no idea of the general enthusiasm that still lingered in France in
Louis Philippe's reign, round memories of the glories of Napoleon.
Men might not wish him back again, but they worshipped him as the
national demigod. After Sedan he was pulled down literally and
metaphorically from his pedestal; and the old feelings about him
which half a century ago even foreign nations seemed to share,
now seem obsolete and extravagant to readers of Lanfrey and the
books of Erckmann-Chatrian.

Even in 1836, when Louis Napoleon in secret entered Strasburg,
he was surprised and disappointed to find that those on whom he
had counted to assist him in making the important "first step" in
his career, were very doubtful of its prudence. He had counted on
the co-operation of General Voirol, an old soldier of the Empire who
was in command of the Department in which Strasburg was situated; but
when he wrote him a letter, in the most moving terms appealing to
his affection for the emperor, the old general not only declined to
join the plot, but warned the Prefect of Strasburg that mischief was
on foot, though he did not mention in what quarter. The Government
in Paris seems, however, to have concluded that it would be best to
let a plot so very rash come to a head. There was a public singer,
calling herself Madame Go