“Ah, indeed!” he said to them; “you
there!”
Of these two men there was only one who spoke, that
one answered,—
“Yes, Colonel.”
“What are you doing here?”
“We are keeping watch over you.”
“But we are in Belgium.”
“Possibly.”
“Belgium is not France.”
“Ah, that may be.”
“But suppose I put my head out of the carriage?
Suppose I call out? Suppose I had you arrested?
Suppose I reclaimed my liberty?”
“You will not do all that, Colonel.”
“How will you prevent me?”
The police agent showed the butt-end of his pistol
and said “Thus.”
Charras burst out laughing, and asked them, “Where
then are you going to leave me?”
“At Brussels.”
“That is to say, that at Brussels you will salute
me with your cap; but that at Mons you will salute
me with your pistol.”
“As you say, Colonel.”
“In truth,” said Charras, “it does
not matter to me. It is King Leopold’s
business. The Bonaparte treats countries as he
has treated the Representatives. He has violated
the Assembly, he violates Belgium. But all the
same, you are a medley of strange rascals. He
who is at the top is a madman, those who are beneath
are blockheads. Very well, my friends, let me
go to sleep.”
And he went to sleep.
Almost the same incident happened nearly at the same
moment to Generals
Changarnier and Lamoriciere and to M. Baze.
The police agents did not leave General Changarnier
until they had reached Mons. There they made
him get down from the train, and said to him, “General,
this is your place of residence. We leave you
free.”
“Ah!” said he, “this is my place
of residence, and I am free? Well, then, good-night.”
And he sprang lightly back into the carriage just
as the train was starting, leaving behind him two
galley sergeants dumfounded.
The police released Charras at Brussels, but did not
release General Lamoriciere. The two police agents
wished to compel him to leave immediately for Cologne.
The General, who was suffering from rheumatism which
he had caught at Ham, declared that he would sleep
at Brussels.
“Be it so,” said the police agents.
They followed him to the Hotel de Bellevue. They
spent the night there with him. He had considerable
difficulty to prevent them from sleeping in his room.
Next day they carried him off, and took him to Cologne-violating
Prussian territory after having violated Belgian territory.
The coup d’etat was still more impudent
with M. Baze.
They made M. Baze journey with his wife and his children
under the name of Lassalle. He passed for the
servant of the police agent who accompanied him.
They took him thus to Aix-la-Chapelle.
There, in the middle of the night, in the middle of
the street, the police agents deposited him and the
whole of his family, without a passport, without papers,
without money. M. Baze, indignant, was obliged
to have recourse to threats to induce them to take
him and identify him before a magistrate. It
was, perhaps, part of the petty joys of Bonaparte
to cause a Questor of the Assembly to be treated as
a vagrant.
