“Yes!” I cried, “When it is a question of public safety, of the universal safety, when it is a question of the future of every European nationality, when it is a question of defending the Republic, Liberty, Civilization, the Revolution, we have the right—­we, the Representatives of the entire nation—­to give, in the name of the French people, orders to the people of Paris!  Let us, therefore, meet to-morrow at this Salle Roysin; but at what time?  Not too early in the morning.  In broad day.  It is necessary that the shops should be open, that people should be coming and going, that the population should be moving about, that there should be plenty of people in the streets, that they should see us, that they should recognize us, that the grandeur of our example should strike every eye and stir every heart.  Let us all be there between nine and ten o’clock in the morning.  If we cannot obtain the Salle Roysin we will take the first church at hand, a stable, a shed, some enclosure where we can deliberate; at need, as Michel de Bourges has said, we will hold our sittings in a square bounded by four barricades.  But provisionally I suggest the Salle Roysin.  Do not forget that in such a crisis there must be no vacuum before the nation.  That alarms it.  There must be a government somewhere, and it must be known.  The rebellion at the Elysee, the Government at the Faubourg St. Antoine; the Left the Government, the Faubourg St. Antoine the citadel; such are the ideas which from to-morrow we must impress upon the mind of Paris.  To the Salle Roysin, then!  Thence in the midst of the dauntless throng of workmen of that great district of Paris, enclosed in the Faubourg as in a fortress, being both Legislators and Generals, multiplying and inventing means of defence and of attack, launching Proclamations and unearthing the pavements, employing the women in writing out placards while the men are fighting, we will issue a warrant against Louis Bonaparte, we will issue warrants against his accomplices, we will declare the military chiefs traitors, we will outlaw in a body all the crime and all the criminals, we will summon the citizens to arms, we will recall the army to duty, we will rise up before Louis Bonaparte, terrible as the living Republic, we will fight on the one hand with the power of the Law, and on the other with the power of the People, we will overwhelm this miserable rebel, and will rise up above his head both as a great Lawful Power and a great Revolutionary Power!”

While speaking I became intoxicated with my own ideas.  My enthusiasm communicated itself to the meeting.  They cheered me.  I saw that I was becoming somewhat too hopeful, that I allowed myself to be carried away, and that I carried them away, that I presented to them success as possible, as even easy, at a moment when it was important that no one should entertain an illusion.  The truth was gloomy, and it was my duty to tell it.  I let silence be re-established, and I signed with my hand that I had a last word to say.  I then resumed, lowering my voice,—­