a
sad sight.

The pocket of one of them was bulged out with something which he was
hiding there.

When this man crossed the station in company with Charras, a lady
traveller said,--

"Has he got M. Thiers in his pocket?"

What the police agent was hiding was a pair of pistols. Under their
long, buttoned-up and doubled-breasted frock coats these men were armed.
They were ordered to treat "those gentlemen" with the most profound
respect, but in certain circumstances to blow out their brains.

The prisoners had each been informed that in the eyes of the different
authorities whom they would meet on the road they would pass for
foreigners, Swiss or Belgians, expelled on account of their political
opinions, and that the police agents would keep their title of police
agents, and would represent themselves as charged with reconducting
these foreigners to the frontier.

Two-thirds of the journey were accomplished without any hindrance. At
Valenciennes an incident occurred.

The _coup d'etat_ having succeeded, zeal reigned paramount. No task was
any longer considered despicable. To denounce was to please; zeal is one
of the forms of servitude towards which people lean the most willingly.
The general became a common soldier, the prefect became a commissary of
police, the commissary of police became a police spy.

The commissary of police at Valenciennes himself superintended the
inspection of passports. For nothing in the world would he have deputed
this important office to a subordinate inspector. When they presented
him the passport of the so-called Leblanc, he looked the so-called
Leblanc full in the face, started, and exclaimed,--

"You are General Changarnier!"

"That is no affair of mine," said the General.

Upon this the two keepers of the General protested and exhibited their
papers, perfectly drawn up in due form.

"Mr. Commissary, we are Government agents. Here are our proper
passports."

"Improper ones," said the General.

The Commissary shook his head. He had been employed in Paris, and had
been frequently sent to the headquarters of the staff at the Tuileries,
to General Changarnier. He knew him very well.

"This is too much!" exclaimed the police agents. They blustered,
declared that they were police functionaries on a special service, that
they had instructions to conduct to the frontier this Leblanc, expelled
for political reasons, swore by all the gods, and gave their word of
honor that the