Well, then!  Before this master, this triumpher, this conqueror, this dictator, this Emperor, this all-powerful, there rises a solitary man, a wanderer, despoiled, ruined, prostrate, proscribed, and attacks him.  Louis Napoleon has ten thousand cannons, and five hundred thousand soldiers; the writer has his pen and his ink-stand.  The writer is nothing, he is a grain of dust, he is a shadow, he is an exile without a refuge, he is a vagrant without a passport, but he has by his side and fighting with him two powers, Right, which is invincible, and Truth, which is immortal.

Assuredly, for this struggle to the death, for this formidable duel, Providence could have chosen a more illustrious champion, a grander athlete.  But what matter men, there, where it is the idea with combats!  Such as it is, it is good, let us repeat, that this spectacle should be given to the world.  What is this in truth?  It is intellect, an atom which resists strength—­a colossus.

I have only one stone in my sling, but that stone is a good one; that stone is justice.

I attack Louis Bonaparte at this hour, when he is erect; at this hour, when he is master.  He is in his zenith.  So much the better; it is that which suits me.

Yes, I attack Louis Bonaparte.  I attack him before the world; I attack him in the presence of God and men; I attack him resolutely, desperately; for the love of the people and of France.  He is about to be Emperor, let it be so.  Let there be at least one brow which resists.  Let Louis Bonaparte know that an Empire may be taken, but that a Conscience cannot be taken.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE INFALLIBLE BENEDICTION

The Pope approved.

When the mails brought to Rome intelligence of the event of the 2d of December, the Pope went to a review held by General Gemeau, and begged him to congratulate Prince Louis Napoleon for him.

There was a precedent for this.

On the 12th December, 1572, Saint-Goard, Ambassador of Charles the Ninth, King of France, to Philip the Second, King of Spain, wrote from Madrid to his master, Charles the Ninth, “The news of the events of the day of Saint Bartholomew have reached the Catholic King.  Contrary to his wont and custom, he has shown so much joy, that he has manifested it more openly than he has ever done for all the happy events and good fortune which have previously befallen him.  So that I went to him on Sunday morning at Saint Hieronimus, and having approached him, he burst out laughing, and with every demonstration of extreme pleasure and contentment, began to praise your Majesty."[36]

The hand of Pius IX. remained extended over France, when it had become the Empire.

Then, under the shadow of this benediction, began an era of prosperity.

[36] “Archives of the house of Orange,” page 125, Supplement.

CONCLUSION—­THE FALL.