A member of the Right, M. de Keranflech, came up, and intending to support the objection, added, “And then, think of Keratry’s age.  It is madness to pit a man of eighty against this hour of danger.”

But Esquiros exclaimed,—­

“That is a bad reason!  Eighty years!  They constitute a force.”

“Yes; where they are well borne,” said Colfavru.  “Keratry bears them badly.”

“Nothing is greater,” resumed Esquiros, “than great octogenarians.”

“It is glorious,” added Chamiot, “to be presided over by Nestor.”

“No, by Gerontes,"[5] said Victor Hennequin.

These words put an end to the debate.  Keratry was thrown out.  MM.  Leon de Maleville and Jules de Lasteyrie, two men respected by all parties, undertook to make the members of the Right listen to reason.  It was decided that the “bureau"[6] should preside.  Five members of the “bureau” were present; two Vice-Presidents, MM.  Benoist d’Azy and Vitet, and three Secretaries, MM.  Griumult, Chapot, and Moulin.  Of the two other Vice-Presidents, one, General Bedrau, was at Mazas; the other, M. Daru, was under guard in his own house.  Of the three other Secretaries, two, MM.  Peapin and Lacaze, men of the Elysee, were absentees; the other, M. Yvan, a member of the Left, was at the meeting of the Left, in the Rue Blanche, which was taking place almost at the same moment.

In the meantime an usher appeared on the steps of the Mairie, and cried out, as on the most peaceful days of the Assembly, “Representatives, to the sitting!”

This usher, who belonged to the Assembly, and who had followed it, shared its fortunes throughout this day, the sequestration on the Quai d’Orsay included.

At the summons of the usher all the Representatives in the courtyard, and amongst whom was one of the Vice-Presidents, M. Vitei, went upstairs to the Hall, and the sitting was opened.

This sitting was the last which the Assembly held under regular conditions.  The Left, which, as we have seen, had on its side boldly recaptured the Legislative power, and had added to it that which circumstances required—­as was the duty of Revolutionists; the Left, without a “bureau,” without an usher, and without secretaries, held sittings in which the accurate and passionless record of shorthand was wanting, but which live in our memories and which History will gather up.

Two shorthand writers of the Assembly, MM.  Grosselet and Lagache, were present at the sitting at the Mairie of the Tenth Arrondissement.  They have been able to record it.  The censorship of the victorious coup d’etat has mutilated their report and has published through its historians this mangled version as the true version.  One lie more.  That does not matter.  This shorthand recital belongs to the brief of the 2d December, it is one of the leading documents in the trial which the future will institute.  In the notes of this book will be found this document complete.  The passages in inverted commas are those which the censorship of M. Bonaparte has suppressed.  This suppression is a proof of their significance and importance.