He mounted on one of the baskets which heightened the barricade.  The other Representatives arranged themselves near him on the omnibus.  Malardier and Dulac were on his right.  Dulac said to him, “You scarcely know me, Citizen Schoelcher, but I love you.  Let me have the charge of remaining by your side.  I only belong to the second rank in the Assembly, but I want to be in the first rank of the battle.”

At this moment some men in blouses, those whom the Second of December had enlisted, appeared at the corner of the Rue Ste. Marguerite, close to the barricade, and shouted, “Down with the ‘Twenty-five francs!’”

Baudin who had already selected his post for the combat, and who was standing on the barricade, looked fixedly at these men, and said to them,—­

“You shall see how one can die for ‘twenty-five francs!’”

There was a noise in the street.  Some few doors which had remained half opened were closed.  The two attacking columns had arrived in sight of the barricade.  Further on could be seen confusedly other lines of bayonets.  They were those which had barred my passage.

Schoelcher, raising his arm with authority, signed to the captain, who commanded the first squad, to halt.

The captain made a negative sign with his sword.  The whole of the Second of December was in these two gestures.  The Law said, “Halt!” The Sabre answered, “No!”

The two companies continued to advance, but slowly, and keeping at the same distance from each other.

Schoelcher came down from the barricade into the street.  De Flotte, Dulac, Malardier, Brillier, Maigne, and Bruckner followed him.

Then was seen a grand spectacle.

Seven Representatives of the People, armed only with their sashes, that is to say, majestically clothed with Law and Right, advanced in the street beyond the barricade, and marched straight to the soldiers, who awaited them with their guns pointed at them.

The other Representatives who had remained at the barricade made their last preparations for resistance.  The combatants maintained an intrepid bearing.  The Naval Lieutenant Cournet towered above them all with his tall stature.  Baudin, still standing on the overturned omnibus, leaned half over the barricade.

On seeing the Representatives approach, the soldiers and their officers were for the moment bewildered.  Meanwhile the captain signed to the Representatives to stop.

They stopped, and Schoelcher said in an impressive voice,—­

“Soldiers! we are the Representatives of the Sovereign People, we are your Representatives, we are the Elect of Universal Suffrage.  In the name of the Constitution, in the name of Universal Suffrage, in the name of the Republic, we, who are the National Assembly, we, who are the Law, order you to join us, we summon you to obey.  We ourselves are your leaders.  The Army belongs to the People, and the Representatives of the People are the Chiefs of the Army.  Soldiers!  Louis Bonaparte violates the Constitution, we have outlawed him.  Obey us.”