djoining the dreary archway which led
from one courtyard to the other, floored with great planks slimy and
mouldy, to which the foot adhered, papered with a gray paper which had
turned green, and which hung in rags, exuding saltpetre from the floor
to the ceiling, lighted by two barred windows looking on to the
courtyard, which had always to be left open on account of the smoky
chimney. At the bottom of the room was the bed, and between the windows
a table and two straw-bottomed chairs. The damp ran down the walls. When
General Lamoriciere left this room he carried away rheumatism with him;
M. de Haussez went out crippled.

When the eight prisoners had entered their rooms, the doors were shut
upon them; they heard the bolts shot from outside, and they were told:
"You are in close confinement."

General Cavaignac occupied on the first floor the former room of M. Louis
Bonaparte, the best in the prison. The first thing which struck the eye
of the General was an inscription traced on the well, and stating the day
when Louis Bonaparte had entered this fortress, and the day when he had
left it, as is well known, disguised as a mason, and with a plank on his
shoulder. Moreover, the choice of this building was an attention on the
part of M. Louis Bonaparte, who having in 1848 taken the place of General
Cavaignac in power; wished that in 1851 General Cavaignac should take his
place in prison.

"Turn and turn about!" Morny had said, smiling.

The prisoners were guarded by the 48th of the Line, who formed the
garrison at Ham. The old Bastilles are quite impartial. They obey those
who make _coups d'etat_ until the day when they clutch them. What do
these words matter to them, Equity, Truth, Conscience, which moreover in
certain circles do not move men any more than stones? They are the cold
and gloomy servants of the just and of the unjust. They take whatever is
given them. All is good to them. Are they guilty? Good! Are they
innocent? Excellent! This man is the organizer of an ambush. To prison!
This man is the victim of an ambush! Enter him in the prison register!
In the same room. To the dungeon with all the vanquished!

These hideous Bastilles resemble that old human justice which possessed
precisely as much conscience as they have, which condemned Socrates and
Jesus, and which also takes and leaves, seizes and releases, absolves
and condemns, liberates and incarcerates, opens and shuts, at the will
of whatever hand manip