, a talented and
courageous writer, Goudouneche, a schoolmaster, and Polino. This last
name had struck Louis Bonaparte. "Who is this Polino?" Morny had
answered, "An ex-officer of the Shah of Persia's service." And he had
added, "A mixture of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza." These prisoners had
been placed in Number Six Casemate. Further questions on the part of
Louis Bonaparte, "What are these casemates?" And Morny had answered,
"Cellars without air or daylight, twenty-four metres long, eight wide,
five high, dripping walls, damp pavements." Louis Bonaparte had asked,
"Do they give them a truss of straw?" And Morny had said, "Not yet, we
shall see by and by." He had added, "Those who are to be transported are
at Bicetre, those who are to be shot are at Ivry."

Louis Bonaparte had inquired, "What precautions had been taken?" Morny
gave him full particulars; that guards had been placed in all the
steeples; that all printing-presses had been placed under seal; that
all the drums of the National Guard had been locked up; that there
was therefore no fear either of a proclamation emanating from a
printing-office, or of a call to arms issuing from a Mairie, or of
the tocsin ringing from a steeple.

Louis Bonaparte had asked whether all the batteries contained their full
complements, as each battery should be composed of four pieces and two
mortars. He had expressly ordered that only pieces of eight, and mortars
of sixteen centimetres in diameter should be employed.

"In truth," Morny, who was in the secret, had said, "all this apparatus
will have work to do."

Then Morny had spoken of Mazas, that there were 600 men of the
Republican Guards in the courtyard, all picked men, and who when
attacked would defend themselves to the bitter end; that the soldiers
received the arrested Representatives with shouts of laughter, and that
they had gone so far as to stare Thiers in the face; that the officers
kept the soldiers at a distance, but with discretion and with a "species
of respect;" that three prisoners were kept in solitary confinement,
Greppo, Nadaud, and a member of the Socialist Committee, Arsene Meunier.
This last named occupied No. 32 of the Sixth Division. Adjoining, in No.
30, there was a Representative of the Right, who sobbed and cried
unceasingly. This made Arsene Meunier laugh, and this made Louis
Bonaparte laugh.

Another detail. When the _fiacre_ bringing M. Baze was entering the
courtyard of Mazas, it had struc