He had a brother younger than himself, whom we have just mentioned, Denis
Dussoubs.  On the morning of the 4th his brother went to see him.

Gaston Dussoubs knew of the coup d’etat, and was exasperated at being obliged to remain in bed.  He exclaimed, “I am dishonored.  There will be barricades, and my sash will not be there!”

“Yes,” said his brother.  “It will be there!”

“How?”

“Lend it to me.”

“Take it.”

Denis took Gaston’s sash, and went away.

We shall see Denis Dussoubs later on.

CHAPTER VII.

ITEMS AND INTERVIEWS

Lamoriciere on the same morning found means to convey to me by Madame de Courbonne[15] the following information.

“——­ Fortress of Ham.—­The Commandant’s name is Baudot.  His appointment, made by Cavaignac in 1848, was countersigned by Charras.  Both are to-day his prisoners.  The Commissary of Police, sent by Morny to the village of Ham to watch the movements of the jailer and the prisoners, is Dufaure de Pouillac."[16]

I thought when I received this communication that the Commandant Baudot, “the jailer,” had connived at its rapid transmission.

A sign of the instability of the central power.

Lamoriciere, by the same means, put me in possession of some details concerning his arrest and that of his fellow-generals.

These details complete those which I have already given.

The arrests of the Generals were affected at the same time at their respective homes under nearly similar circumstances.  Everywhere houses surrounded, doors opened by artifice or burst open by force, porters deceived, sometimes garotted, men in disguise, men provided with ropes, men armed with axes, surprises in bed, nocturnal violence.  A plan of action which resembled, as I have said, an invasion of brigands.

General Lamoriciere, according to his own expression, was a sound sleeper.  Notwithstanding the noise at his door, he did not awake.  His servant, a devoted old soldier, spoke in a loud voice, and called out to arouse the General.  He even offered resistance to the police.  A police agent wounded him in the knee with a sword thrust.[17] The General was awakened, seized, and carried away.

While passing in a carriage along the Quai Malaquais, Lamoriciere noticed troops marching by with their knapsacks on their backs.  He leaned quickly forward out of the window.  The Commissary of Police thought he was about to address the soldiers.  He seized the General by the arm, and said to him, “General, if you say a word I shall put this on you.”  And with the other hand he showed him in the dim light something which proved to be a gag.

All the Generals arrested were taken to Mazas.  There they were locked up and forgotten.  At eight in the evening General Changarnier had eaten nothing.