The Representatives, having come out from M. Daru, rejoined each other and assembled in the street.  There they consulted briefly, from group to group.  There were a large number of them.  In less than an hour, by sending notices to the houses on the left bank of the Seine alone, on account of the extreme urgency, more than three hundred members could be called together.  But where should they meet?  At Lemardelay’s?  The Rue Richelieu was guarded.  At the Salle Martel?  It was a long way off.  They relied upon the Tenth Legion, of which General Lauriston was colonel.  They showed a preference for the Mairie of the Tenth Arrondissement.  Besides, the distance was short, and there was no need to cross any bridges.

They formed themselves into column, and set forth.

M. Daru, as we have said, lived in the Rue de Lille, close by the Assembly.  The section of the Rue de Lille lying between his house and the Palais Bourbon was occupied by infantry.  The last detachment barred his door, but it only barred it on the right, not on the left.  The Representatives, on quitting M. Daru, bent their steps on the side of the Rue des Saints-Peres, and left the soldiers behind them.  At that moment the soldiers had only been instructed to prevent their meeting in the Palace of the Assembly; they could quietly form themselves into a column in the street, and set forth.  If they had turned to the right instead of to the left, they would have been opposed.  But there were no orders for the other alternative; they passed through a gap in the instructions.

An hour afterwards this threw St. Arnaud into a fit of fury.

On their way fresh Representatives came up and swelled the column.  As the members of the Right lived for the most part in the Faubourg St. Germain, the column was composed almost entirely of men belonging to the majority.

At the corner of the Quai d’Orsay they met a group of members of the Left, who had reunited after their exit from the Palace of the Assembly, and who were consulting together.  There were the Representatives Esquiros, Marc Dufraisse, Victor Hennequin, Colfavru, and Chamiot.

Those who were marching at the head of the column left their places, went up to the group, and said, “Come with us.”

“Where are you going?” asked Marc Dufraisse.

To the Mairie of the Tenth Arrondissement.”

“What do you intend to do there?”

“To decree the deposition of Louis Bonaparte.”

“And afterwards?”

“Afterwards we shall go in a body to the Palace of the Assembly; we will force our way in spite of all resistance, and from the top of the steps we will read out the decree of deposition to the soldiers.”

“Very good, we will join you,” said Mare Dufraisse.

The five members of the Left marched at some distance from the column.  Several of their friends who were mingled with the members of the Right rejoined them; and we may here mention a fact without giving it more importance than it possesses, namely, that the two fractions of the Assembly represented in this unpremeditated gathering marched towards the Mairie without being mingled together; one on each side of the street.  It chanced that the men of the majority kept on the right side of the street, and the men of the minority on the left.