achment of Louis Napoleon.

Soon, however, the soldiers reappeared at the door, preceded this time
by two _commissaires de police_. These men entered the room and, amid
the unbroken silence and total immobility of the Assembly, summoned the
Representatives to disperse. The President ordered them to retire
themselves. One of the _commissaires_ was agitated and faltered; the
other broke out in invectives. The President said to him: "Sir, we are
here the lawful authority and sole representatives of law and of right.
We know that we cannot oppose to you material force, but we will leave
this chamber only under constraint. We will not disperse. Seize us and
convey us to prison."

"All, all!" exclaimed the members of the Assembly. After much hesitation
the _commissaires de police_ decided to act. They caused each of the two
Presidents to be seized by the collar. The whole body then rose, and,
arm in arm, two and two, they followed the Presidents, who were led off.
In this order they reached the street, and were marched across the city,
without knowing whither they were going.

Care had been taken to circulate a report among the crowd and the troops
that a meeting of Socialist and Red Republican Deputies had been
arrested. But when the people beheld among those who were thus dragged
through the mud of Paris on foot, like a gang of malefactors, men the
most illustrious by their talents and their virtues--ex-ministers,
ex-ambassadors, generals, admirals, great orators, great writers,
surrounded by the bayonets of the line--a shout was raised, "_Vive
l'Assemblee nationale!_" The Representatives were attended by these
shouts until they reached the barracks of the Quai d'Orsay, where they
were shut up.

Night was coming on, and it was wet and cold. Yet the Assembly was left
two hours in the open air, as if the Government did not deign to
remember its existence. The Representatives here made their last
roll-call in presence of their phonographer, who had followed them. The
number present was two hundred eighteen, to whom were added about twenty
more in the course of the evening, consisting of members who had
voluntarily caused themselves to be arrested. Almost all the men known
to France and to Europe, who formed the majority of the Legislative
Assembly, were gathered in this place. Few were wanting, except those
who, like M. Mole, had not been suffered to reach their colleagues.

There were present, among others, the Duc de Br