of the galley sergeants, and one can admire the Vicomte de
Falloux--oh, candor!--for being dumfounded at being treated like Citizen
Sartin.

The majority, going backwards, and ever applauding Bonaparte, fell into
the hole which Bonaparte had dug for it.

CHAPTER XVII.

CONDUCT OF THE LEFT

The conduct of the Republican Left in this grave crisis of the 2d of
December was memorable.

The flag of the Law was on the ground, in the mire of universal treason,
under the feet of Louis Bonaparte; the Left raised this flag, washed
away the mire with its blood, unfurled it, waved it before the eyes of
the people, and from the 2d to the 5th of December held Bonaparte at
bay.

A few men, a mere handful, 120 Representatives of the people escaped by
chance from arrest, plunged in darkness and in silence, without even
possessing that cry of the free press which sounds the tocsin to human
intellects, and which encourages the combatants, without generals under
their orders, without soldiers, without ammunition, went down into the
streets, resolutely barred the way against the _coup d'etat_, and gave
battle to this monstrous crime, which had taken all its precautions,
which was mail-clad in every part, armed to the teeth, crowding round it
forests of bayonets, and making a pack of mortars and cannons give
tongue in its favor.

They had that presence of mind, which is the most practical kind of
courage; they had, while lacking everything else, the formidable
improvisation of duty, which never loses heart. They had no
printing-offices, they obtained them; they had no guns, they found them;
they had no balls, they cast them; they had no powder, they manufactured
it; they had nothing but paving-stones, and from thence they evolved
combatants.

It is true that these paving-stones were the paving-stones of Paris,
stones which change themselves into men.

Such is the power of Right, that, during four days these hundred and
twenty men, who had nothing in their favor but the goodness of their
cause, counterbalanced an army of 100,000 soldiers. At one moment the
scale turned on their side. Thanks to them, thanks to their resistance,
seconded by the indignation of honest hearts, there came an hour when
the victory of the law seemed possible, and even certain. On Thursday,
the 4th, the _coup d'etat_ tottered, and was obliged to support itself
by assassination. We seen that without the butchery of the boulevards,
if he had not sa