ging to the presidency, and was reached
through two rooms that were smaller still. In these ante-chambers was a
buzzing crowd of distracted officers and National Guards. They made no
attempt to prevent any one from entering.

I opened the door of the Executive Committee's office. Ledru-Rollin,
very red, was half seated on the table. M. Gamier-Pages, very pale, and
half reclining in an armchair, formed an antithesis to him. The contrast
was complete: Garnier-Pages thin and bushy-haired, Ledru-Rollin stout
and close-cropped. Two or three colonels, among them Representative
Charras, were conversing in a corner. I only recall Arago vaguely. I do
not remember whether M. Marie was there. The sun was shining brightly.

Lamartine, standing in a window recess on the left, was talking to a
general in full uniform, whom I saw for the first and last time, and
who was Negrier. Negrier was killed that same evening in front of a
barricade.

I hurried to Lamartine, who advanced to meet me. He was wan and
agitated, his beard was long, his clothes were dusty.

He held out his hand: "Ah! good morning, Hugo!"

Here is the dialogue that we engaged in, every word of which is still
fresh in my memory:

"What is the situation, Lamartine?"

"We are done for!"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that in a quarter of an hour from now the Assembly will be
invaded."

(Even at that moment a column of insurgents was coming down the Rue de
Lille. A timely charge of cavalry dispersed it.)

"Nonsense! What about the troops?"

"There are no troops!"

"But you said on Wednesday, and yesterday repeated, that you had sixty
thousand men at your disposal."

"So I thought."

"Well, but you musn't give up like this. It is not only you who are at
stake, but the Assembly, and not only the Assembly, but France, and not
only France, but the whole of civilization. Why did you not issue orders
yesterday to have the garrisons of the towns for forty leagues round
brought to Paris? That would have given you thirty thousand men at
once."

"We gave the orders--"

"Well?"

"The troops have not come!"

Lamartine took my hand and said;

"I am not Minister of War!"

At this moment a few representatives entered noisily. The Assembly had
just voted a state of siege. They told Ledru-Rollin and Garnier-Pages so
in a few words.

Lamartine half turned towards them and said in an undertone:

"A state of siege! A state of siege! Well, declare it if