nd honor. And the second, perhaps, will be worth the first. Why? Because,
if Napoleon is the greater, Washington is a better man. Between the guilty
hero and the good citizen I choose the good citizen. Such is my ambition."

[Sidenote: A last denial]

[Sidenote: The Coup d'Etat]

Later, after a caricaturist had been imprisoned and fined for depicting
Louis Bonaparte in the act of shooting at the French Constitution as a
target, Morigny, Minister of the Interior, declared in the Council that "a
guardian of public power should never so violate the law, as otherwise he
would be--" "A dishonest man," interposed President Napoleon. Such was the
situation on the eve of December 2. As Victor Hugo put it, in the opening
chapter of his "History of a Crime": "People had long suspected Louis
Bonaparte; but long continued suspicion blunts the intellect and it wears
itself out by fruitless alarms." On December 1, the session of the Assembly
was devoted to a discussion on municipal law. It terminated with a peaceful
tribunal vote. Prince Louis Napoleon held an informal reception at the
Elysees. During that night, Louis Napoleon, in complicity with the bastard
princes, De Morny, Valevsky, Saint-Arnaud, Persigny, Maupas and others,
having made sure of the commanding officers of the troops on duty, caused
the arrest before daylight of all the leading Republicans. It was alleged
afterward that Colonel Espinasse, who was in charge of the soldiers
stationed at the Legislative Palace, received 100,000 francs and the
promise of a general's rank for his part in the affair.

[Sidenote: "Boxed up"]

At the stroke of five in the morning, columns of soldiery filed out of all
the Paris barracks and occupied the commanding positions where barricades
had been thrown up in former times. At the same time a score of detectives
in closed carriages apprehended the leading members of the Assembly. Among
them were Cavaignac, Changarnier, Thiers, Bedeau, General Lamorciere, the
Acting-Secretary of War, and Charras. The government printing establishment
and all the newspaper offices were occupied by troops. Soldiers were placed
at the side of the printers, who were then ordered to set up a series of
proclamations. Before six in the morning bands of bill stickers, hired for
the occasion, posted them up all over Paris. At breakfast time, when
sixteen deputies and seventy-eight citizens had been arrested and were held
secure, the Duke of Morny reported the s