Vincennes, a corps of troops recently returned from Africa and long
accustomed to the violence of Algerine dominion, and, moreover,
stimulated by a donation of five francs distributed to every soldier who
was in Paris that day. The Representatives, nevertheless, presented
themselves to go in, having at their head one of their Vice-Presidents,
M. Daru. This gentleman was violently struck by the soldiers, and the
Representatives who accompanied him were driven back at the point of the
bayonet. Three of them, M. de Talhouet, Etienne, and Duparc, were
slightly wounded. Several others had their clothes pierced. Such was the
beginning.

Driven from the doors of the Assembly, the Deputies retired to the
_mairie_ of the Tenth Arrondissement. They were already assembled to the
number of about three hundred when the troops arrived, blocked up the
approaches, and prevented a greater number of Representatives from
entering the apartment, though no one at that time was prevented from
leaving it.

Who then were those Representatives assembled at the _mairie_ of the
Tenth Arrondissement, and what did they do there? Every shade of opinion
was represented in this extemporaneous Assembly. But four-fifths of its
members belonged to the different conservative parties which had
constituted the majority. This Assembly was presided over by two of its
Vice-Presidents, M. Vitet and M. Benoist d'Azy. M. Daru was arrested in
his own house; the Fourth Vice-President, the illustrious General
Bedeau, had been seized that morning in his bed, and handcuffed like a
robber. As for the President, M. Dupin, he was absent, which surprised
no one. Besides its Vice-Presidents, the Assembly was accompanied by its
secretaries, its ushers, and even its phonographer who preserved for
posterity the records of this last and memorable sitting. The Assembly,
thus constituted, began by voting a decree in the following terms:

"In pursuance of article sixty-eight of the constitution, viz., the
President of the Republic, the ministers, the agents, and depositaries
of public authority are responsible, each in what concerns himself
respectively, for all the acts of the Government and the Administration:
any measure by which the President of the Republic dissolves the
National Assembly, prorogues it, or places obstacles in the exercise of
its powers is a crime of high treason.

"By this act alone, the President is deprived of all authority; the
citizens are bound to