M. Collas (of the Gironde) gesticulated and told his story.  He came from the Ministry of the Interior.  He had seen M. de Morny, he had spoken to him; and he, M. Collas, was incensed beyond measure at M. Bonaparte’s crime.  Since then, that Crime has made him Councillor of State.

M. de Panat went hither and thither among the groups, announcing to the Representatives that he had convened the Assembly for one o’clock.  But it was impossible to wait until that hour.  Time pressed.  At the Palais Bourbon, as in the Rue Blanche, it was the universal feeling that each hour which passed by helped to accomplish the coup d’etat.  Every one felt as a reproach the weight of his silence or of his inaction; the circle of iron was closing in, the tide of soldiers rose unceasingly, and silently invaded the Palace; at each instant a sentinel the more was found at a door, which a moment before had been free.  Still, the group of Representatives assembled together in the Salle des Conferences was as yet respected.  It was necessary to act, to speak, to deliberate, to struggle, and not to lose a minute.

Gambon said, “Let us try Dupin once more; he is our official man, we have need of him.”  They went to look for him.  They could not find him.  He was no longer there, he had disappeared, he was away, hidden, crouching, cowering, concealed, he had vanished, he was buried.  Where?  No one knew.  Cowardice has unknown holes.

Suddenly a man entered the hall.  A man who was a stranger to the Assembly, in uniform, wearing the epaulet of a superior officer and a sword by his side.  He was a major of the 42d, who came to summon the Representatives to quit their own House.  All, Royalists and Republicans alike, rushed upon him.  Such was the expression of an indignant eye-witness.  General Leydet addressed him in language such as leaves an impression on the cheek rather than on the ear.

“I do my duty, I fulfil my instructions,” stammered the officer.

“You are an idiot, if you think you are doing your duty,” cried Leydet to him, “and you are a scoundrel if you know that you are committing a crime.  Your name?  What do you call yourself?  Give me your name.”

The officer refused to give his name, and replied, “So, gentlemen, you will not withdraw?”

“No.”

“I shall go and obtain force.”

“Do so.”

He left the room, and in actual fact went to obtain orders from the Ministry of the Interior.

The Representatives waited in that kind of indescribable agitation which might be called the Strangling of Right by Violence.

In a short time one of them who had gone out came back hastily, and warned them that two companies of the Gendarmerie Mobile were coming with their guns in their hands.

Marc Dufraisse cried out, “Let the outrage be thorough.  Let the coup d’etat find us on our seats.  Let us go to the Salle des Seances,” he added.  “Since things have come to such a pass, let us afford the genuine and living spectacle of an 18th Brumaire.”