I usually dined at Brussels in a cafe, called the
Cafe des Mille Colonnes, which was frequented by the
exiles. On the 10th of January I had invited
Michel de Bourges to lunch, and we were sitting at
the same table. The waiter brought me the Moniteur
Francais; I glanced over it.
“Ah,” said I, “here is the list
of the proscribed.” I ran my eye over it,
and I said to Michel de Bourges, “I have a piece
of bad news to tell you.” Michel de Bourges
turned pale. I added, “You are not on the
list.” His face brightened.
Michel de Bourges, so dauntless in the face of death,
was faint-hearted in the face of exile.
DAVID D’ANGERS
Brutalities and ferocities were mingled together.
The great sculptor,
David d’Angers, was arrested in his own house,
16, Rue d’Assas; the
Commissary of Police on entering, said to him,—
“Have you any arms in your house?”
“Yes,” Said David, “for my defence.”
And he added,—
“If I had to deal with civilized people.”
“Where are these arms?” rejoined the Commissary.
“Let us see them.”
David showed him his studio full of masterpieces.
They placed him in a fiacre, and drove him
to the station-house of the
Prefecture of Police.
Although there was only space for 120 prisoners, there
were 700 there. David was the twelfth in a dungeon
intended for two. No light nor air. A narrow
ventilation hole above their heads. A dreadful
tub in a corner, common to all, covered but not closed
by a wooden lid. At noon they brought them soup,
a sort of warm and stinking water, David told me.
They stood leaning against the wall, and trampled
upon the mattresses which had been thrown on the floor,
not having room to lie down on them. At length,
however, they pressed so closely to each other, that
they succeeded in lying down at full length.
Their jailers had thrown them some blankets.
Some of them slept. At day break the bolts creaked,
the door was half-opened and the jailers cried out
to them, “Get up!” They went into the
adjoining corridor, the jailer took up the mattresses,
threw a few buckets of water on the floor, wiped it
up anyhow, replaced the mattresses on the damp stones,
and said to them, “Go back again.”
They locked them up until the next morning. From
time to time they brought in 100 new prisoners, and
they fetched away 100 old ones (those who had been
there for two or three days). What became of them?—At
night the prisoners could hear from their dungeon
the sound of explosions, and in the morning passers-by
could see, as we have stated, pools of blood in the
courtyard of the Prefecture.
The calling over of those who went out was conducted
in alphabetical order.
One day they called David d’Angers. David
took up his packet, and was getting ready to leave,
when the governor of the jail, who seemed to be keeping
watch over him, suddenly came up and said quickly,
“Stay, M. David, stay.”
