er. What is to become of the sick? The
sick? as if we cared about the sick! The important thing is that
medicine should take the oath to M. Bonaparte. For it comes to this:
either the seven million five hundred thousand votes have no sense, or
it is evident that it would be better to have your leg amputated by an
ass who has taken the oath, than by a refractory Dupuytren.

Ah! one would fain jest, but all this makes the heart sad. Are you a
young and generous spirit, like Deschanel; a sane and upright
intellect, like Despois; a serious and powerful mind, like Jacques; an
eminent writer, a popular historian, like Michelet--take the oath, or
die of hunger.

They refuse! The darkness and silence, in which they stoically seek
refuge, know the rest.

IV

CURIOSITIES OF THE BUSINESS

All morality is denied by such an oath, the cup of shame drained to the
dregs, all decency outraged. There is no reason why one should not see
unheard-of things, and one sees them. In some towns, Evreux for
example, the judges who have taken the oath sit in judgment on the
judges who have refused it;[1] dishonour seated on the bench places
honour at the bar; the sold conscience "reproves" the upright
conscience; the courtesan lashes the virgin.

[1] The President of the Tribunal of Commerce at Evreux refused
to take the oath. Let us listen to the _Moniteur_:

"M. Verney, late President of the Tribunal of Commerce at
Evreux, was cited to appear, on Thursday last, before the
correctional judges of Evreux, on account of facts that took
place on the 29th of April last, within the consular
auditory.

"M. Verney is accused of inciting to hatred and treason
against the Government."

The judges of first instance discharged M. Verney, and "reproved"
him. Appeal _a minima_ by the "procureur of the Republic."
Sentence of the Court of Appeal of Rouen:--

"The Court,--

"Whereas the prosecution has no other object than the
repression of the crime of inciting to hatred and scorn of
the Government;

"Whereas that offence would result, according to the
prosecution, from the last paragraph of the letter of M.
Verney to the procureur of the Republic at Evreux, on the
26th of April last, which is thus worded:--

"'But it would be too serious a matter to