In our appeal to arms we had outlawed Louis Bonaparte.  The decree of deposition taken up and counter-signed by us added weight to this outlawry, and completed the revolutionary act by the legal act.

The Committee of Resistance called together the Republican Representatives.

The apartments of M. Grevy, where we had been sitting, being too small, we appointed for our meeting-place No. 10.  Rue des Moulins, although warned that the police had already made a raid upon this house.  But we had no choice; in time of Revolution prudence is impossible, and it is speedily seen that it is useless.  Confidence, always confidence; such is the law of those grand actions which at times determine great events.  The perpetual improvisation of means, of policy, of expedients, of resources, nothing step by step, everything on the impulse of the moment, the ground never sounded, all risks taken as a whole, the good with the bad, everything chanced on all sides at the same time, the hour, the place, the opportunity, friends, family, liberty, fortune, life,—­such is the revolutionary conflict.

Towards three o’clock about sixty Representatives were meeting at No. 10, Rue des Moulins, in the large drawing-room, out of which opened a little room where the Committee of Resistance was in session.

It was a gloomy December day, and darkness seemed already to have almost set in.  The publisher Hetzel, who might also be called the poet Hetzel, is of a noble mind and of great courage.  He has, as is known, shown unusual political qualities as Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Bastide; he came to offer himself to us, as the brave and patriotic Hingray had already done in the morning.  Hetzel knew that we needed a printing-office above everything; we had not the faculty of speech, and Louis Bonaparte spoke alone.  Hetzel had found a printer who had said to him, “Force me, put a pistol to my throat, and I will print whatever you wish.”  It was only a question, therefore, of getting a few friends together, of seizing this printing-office by main force, of barricading it, and, if necessary, of sustaining a siege, while our Proclamations and our decrees were being printed.  Hetzel offered this to us.  One incident of his arrival at our meeting-place deserves to be noted.  As he drew near the doorway he saw in the twilight of this dreary December day a man standing motionless at a short distance, and who seemed to be lying in wait.  He went up to this man, and recognized M. Yon, the former Commissary of Police of the Assembly.

“What are you doing there?” said Hetzel abruptly.  “Are you there to arrest us?  In that case, here is what I have got for you,” and he took out two pistols from his pocket.

M. Yon answered smiling,—­

“I am in truth watching, not against you, but for you; I am guarding you.”

M. Yon, aware of our meeting at Landrin’s house and fearing that we should be arrested, was, of his own accord, acting as police for us.