ir Vice-Presidents and, having him at
their head, proceeded to their ordinary place of meeting, but found access
effectually barred by the Chasseurs de Vincennes, a corpse recently
returned from Algeria. These men forcibly withstood the entrance of the
members, some of whom were slightly wounded. Returning with M. Daru, they
were invited by General Lauriston to the Marie of the 10th arrondissement,
where they formed a sitting, presided over by two of their
Vice-Presidents, M. Vitel and M. Benuist d'Azy (M. Daru having meanwhile
been arrested), and proceeded to frame a decree to the following effect:
"Louis Napoleon Bonaparte is deprived of his functions as President of the
Republic, and the citizens are commanded to refuse him obedience; the
executive power passes in full right to the National Assembly; the judges
of the High Court of Justice are required to meet immediately, on pain of
dismissal, to proceed to judgment against the President and his
accomplices. It is enjoined on all functionaries and depositaries of
authority that they obey the requisition made in the name of the Assembly,
under penalty of forfeiture and the punishment prescribed for high
treason." While this decree was being signed, another was unanimously
passed, naming General Oudinot commander of the forces, and M. Tamisier
chief of the staff. These decrees had scarcely been signed by all present,
when a company of soldiers entered, and required them to disperse. The
Assembly refused to do so, when, after some parley, two commissaries de
police were brought, the presidents were arrested, and the whole body of
members present, 230 in number, were marched across the city to the
barracks of the Quai d'Orsay. The next day they were distributed to the
prisons of Mount Valerien, Mazas, and Vincennes; and the generals
Cavaignac, Lamoriciere, Bedeau, and Changarnier, were sent to Ham. During
the day the population viewed the soldiers in the streets merely as a
spectacle, and no violent excitement occurred. At ten o'clock on Wednesday
morning some members of the Mountain appeared in the Rue d'Antoine, and
raised the cry _Aux armes!_ The party they collected immediately began to
erect a barricade at the corner of the Rue St. Marguerite. Troops were
quickly at the spot, when the barricade was carried, and the
representative Baudin was killed. Some other barricades were raised in the
afternoon, but as quickly destroyed. General Magnan, the
Commander-in-chief of