and prompt seizure
of what really was brought into issue by the conflict, is every way
characteristic of Dickens. "You will know," he wrote from Lausanne on
the 11th of October, "long before you get this, all about the
revolution at Geneva. There were stories of plots against the
Government when I was there, but I didn't believe them; for all sorts of
lies are always afloat against the radicals, and wherever there is a
consul from a Catholic Power the most monstrous fictions are in
perpetual circulation against them: as in this very place, where the
Sardinian consul was gravely whispering the other day that a society
called the Homicides had been formed, whereof the president of the
council of state, the O'Connell of Switzerland and a clever fellow, was
a member; who were sworn on skulls and cross-bones to exterminate men of
property, and so forth. There was a great stir here, on the day of the
fight in Geneva. We heard the guns (they shook this house) all day; and
seven hundred men marched out of this town of Lausanne to go and help
the radical party--arriving at Geneva just after it was all over. There
is no doubt they had received secret help from here; for a powder
barrel, found by some of the Genevese populace with 'Canton de Vaud'
painted on it, was carried on a pole about the streets as a standard, to
show that they were sympathized with by friends outside. It was a poor
mean fight enough, I am told by Lord Vernon, who was present and who was
with us last night. The Government was afraid; having no confidence
whatever, I dare say, in its own soldiers; and the cannon were fired
everywhere except at the opposite party, who (I mean the revolutionists)
had barricaded a bridge with an omnibus only, and certainly in the
beginning might have been turned with ease. The precision of the common
men with the rifle was especially shown by a small party of _five_, who
waited on the ramparts near one of the gates of the town, to turn a
body of soldiery who were coming in to the Government assistance. They
picked out every officer and struck him down instantly, the moment the
party appeared; there were three or four of them; upon which the
soldiers gravely turned round and walked off. I dare say there are not
fifty men in this place who wouldn't click your card off a target a
hundred and fifty yards away, at least. I have seen them, time after
time, fire across a great ravine as wide as the ornamental ground in St.
James's-park