I had not as yet thought of this.  “In truth, no,” answered I.

He continued, “Well, then, come to my house.  There is perhaps only one house in Paris where you would be in safety.  That is mine.  They will not come to look for you there.  Come, day or night, at what hour you please, I will await you, and I will open the door to you myself.  I live at No. 5, Rue d’Alger.”

I thanked him.  It was a noble and cordial offer.  I was touched by it.  I did not make use of it, but I have not forgotten it.

They cried out anew, “Read the decree!  Sit down! sit down!”

There was a round table before the fire place; a lamp, pens, blotting-books, and paper were brought there; the members of the Committee sat down at this table, the Representatives took their places around them on sofas, on arm-chairs, and on all the chairs which could be found in the adjoining rooms.  Some looked about for Napoleon Bonaparte.  He had withdrawn.

A member requested that in the first place the meeting should declare itself to be the National Assembly, and constitute itself by immediately appointing a President and Secretaries.  I remarked that there was no need to declare ourselves the Assembly, that we were the Assembly by right as well as in fact, and the whole Assembly, our absent colleagues being detained by force; that the National Assembly, although mutilated by the coup d’etat, ought to preserve its entity and remain constituted afterwards in the same manner as before; that to appoint another President and another staff of Secretaries would be to give Louis Bonaparte an advantage over us, and to acknowledge in some manner the Dissolution; that we ought to do nothing of the sort; that our decrees should be published, not with the signature of a President, whoever he might be, but with the signature of all the members of the Left who had not been arrested, that they would thus carry with them full authority over the People, and full effect.  They relinquished the idea of appointing a President.  Noel Parfait proposed that our decrees and our resolutions should be drawn up, not with the formula:  “The National Assembly decrees,” etc.; but with the formula:  “The Representatives of the People remaining at liberty decree,” etc.  In this manner we should preserve all the authority attached to the office of the Representatives of the People without associating the arrested Representatives with the responsibility of our actions.  This formula had the additional advantage of separating us from the Right.  The people knew that the only Representatives remaining free were the members of the Left.  They adopted Noel Parfait’s advice.

I read aloud the decree of deposition.  It was couched in these words:—­

  “DECLARATION.

  “The Representatives of the people remaining at liberty, by virtue of
  Article 68 of the Constitution, which runs as follows:—­

    “’Article 68.—­Every measure by which the President of the Republic
    dissolves the Assembly, prorogues it, or obstructs the exercise of
    its authority, is a crime of High Treason.