n, at
the house of one of their colleagues, Netre No. 13, Rue du Jardinet,
had organized a little printing-press in a garret, a few steps from the
barracks of the Gendarmerie Mobile. They had spent the night first in
compiling, and then in printing "A Manifesto to Working Men," which
called the people to arms. They were five skilful and determined men;
they had procured paper, they had perfectly new type; some of them
moistened the paper, while the others composed; towards two o'clock in
the morning they began to print. It was essential that they should not
be heard by the neighbors; they had succeeded in muffling the hollow
blows of the ink-rollers, alternating with the rapid sound of the
printing blankets. In a few hours fifteen hundred copies were pulled,
and at daybreak they were placarded at the corners of the streets. The
leader of these intrepid workmen, A. Desmoulins, who belonged to that
sturdy race of men who are both cultured and who can fight, had been
greatly disheartened on the preceding day; he now had become hopeful.

On the preceding day he wrote:--"Where are the Representatives? The
communications are cut. The quays and the boulevards can no longer be
crossed. It has become impossible to reunite the popular Assembly. The
people need direction. De Flotte in one district, Victor Hugo in
another, Schoelcher in a third, are actively urging on the combat, and
expose their lives a score of times, but none feel themselves supported
by any organized body: and moreover the attempt of the Royalists in the
Tenth Arrondissement has roused apprehension. People dread lest they
should see them reappear when all is accomplished."

Now, this man so intelligent and so courageous recovered confidence,
and he wrote,--

"Decidedly, Louis Napoleon is afraid. The police reports are alarming
for him. The resistance of the Republican Representatives is bearing
fruit. Paris is arming. Certain regiments appear ready to turn back.
The Gendarmerie itself is not to be depended upon, and this morning an
entire regiment refused to march. Disorder is beginning to show itself
in the services. Two batteries fired upon each other for a long time
without recognition. One would say that the _coup d'etat_ is about to
fail."

The symptoms, as may be seen, were growing more reassuring.

Had Maupas become unequal to the task? Had they resorted to a more
skilful man? An incident seemed to point to this. On the preceding
evening a tall man