of
"La Revolution Democratique et Sociale," who could not forgive him for
having preferred Raspail to Ledru-Rollin, the candidate of the Mountain,
attacked him on the day after the election with a violence which
overstepped all bounds. At first, Proudhon had the wisdom to refrain
from answering him. At length, driven to an extremity, he became
aggressive himself, and Delescluze sent him his seconds. This time,
Proudhon positively refused to fight; he would not have fought with
Felix Pyat, had not his courage been called in question.

On the 25th of January, 1849, Proudhon, rising from a sick bed, saw
that the existence of the Constituent Assembly was endangered by the
coalition of the monarchical parties with Louis Bonaparte, who was
already planning his coup d'Etat. He did not hesitate to openly attack
the man who had just received five millions of votes. He wanted to break
the idol; he succeeded only in getting prosecuted and condemned himself.
The prosecution demanded against him was authorized by a majority of the
Constituent Assembly, in spite of the speech which he delivered on that
occasion. Declared guilty by the jury, he was sentenced, in March, 1849,
to three years' imprisonment and the payment of a fine of ten thousand
francs.

Proudhon had not abandoned for a single moment his project of a Bank of
Exchange, which was to operate without capital with a sufficient number
of merchants and manufacturers for adherents. This bank, which he then
called the Bank of the People, and around which he wished to gather the
numerous working-people's associations which had been formed since
the 24th of February, 1848, had already obtained a certain number of
subscribers and adherents, the latter to the number of thirty-seven
thousand. It was about to commence operations, when Proudhon's sentence
forced him to choose between imprisonment and exile. He did not hesitate
to abandon his project and return the money to the subscribers. He
explained the motives which led him to this decision in an article in
"Le Peuple."

Having fled to Belgium, he remained there but a few days, going thence
to Paris, under an assumed name, to conceal himself in a house in the
Rue de Chabrol. From his hiding-place he sent articles almost every
day, signed and unsigned, to "Le Peuple." In the evening, dressed in a
blouse, he went to some secluded spot to take the air. Soon, emboldened
by habit, he risked an evening promenade upon the Boulevards,