. He exacts it from the
vanquished, and at need puts them to the torture, to obtain it. Louis
Bonaparte knows that there exists, in the conscience of every prisoner,
of every exile, of every man proscribed, a tribunal, and that that
tribunal is beginning his prosecution; he trembles, the executioner
feels a secret dread of his victim; and, under pretext of a pardon
accorded by him to that victim, he forces his judges to sign his
acquittal.

Thus he hopes to deceive France, which, too, is a living conscience and
a watchful tribunal; and that when the hour for passing sentence shall
strike, seeing that he has been absolved by his victims, she will
pardon him. He deceives himself. Let him cut a hole in the wall on
another side, he will not escape through that one.

V

THE 5TH OF APRIL, 1852

On the 5th of April, 1852, this is what was witnessed at the Tuileries.
About eight in the evening, the ante-chamber was filled with men in
scarlet robes, grave and majestic, speaking with subdued voices,
holding in their hands black velvet caps, bedecked with gold lace; most
of them were white-haired. These were the presidents and councillors of
the Court of Cassation, the first presidents of the Courts of Appeal,
and the procureurs-general: all the superior magistracy of France.
These persons were kept waiting in the ante-chamber. An aide-de-camp
ushered them in and left them there. A quarter of an hour passed, half
an hour, an hour; they wandered up and down the room, conversing,
looking at their watches, awaiting the ringing of the bell. After more
than an hour of tedious waiting they perceived that they had not even
chairs to sit upon. One of them, M. Troplong, went to another room
where the footmen were, and complained. A chair was brought him. At
last a folding-door was thrown open; they rushed pell-mell into a
salon. There a man in a black coat was standing with his back against
the chimney-piece. What errand summoned these men in red robes to this
man in a black coat? They came to tender him their oaths. The man was
M. Bonaparte. He nodded, and, in return, they bowed to the ground, as
is meet. In front of M. Bonaparte, at a short distance, stood his
chancellor, M. Abbattucci, late a liberal deputy, now Minister of
Justice to the _coup d'etat_. The ceremony began. M. Abbattucci
delivered a discourse, and M. Bonaparte made a speech. The Prince
drawled a few contemptuous words, looking at the carpet; he spoke of
his