The coup d’etat having succeeded, most Frenchmen gave in their adhesion to its author.  It remained only to dispose of the prisoners.  Without any preliminary investigation, squads of them were shot, chiefly in the court-yard of the Prefecture of Police.  All deputies of the Left were sent into exile, except some who were imprisoned in Algerine fortresses or sent to Cayenne,—­the French political penal colony at that period.

Victor Hugo remained a fortnight in hiding, believing, on the authority of Alexandre Dumas, that a price was set upon his head.  He gives some moving accounts of little children whom he saw lying in their blood on the evening of the massacre.  His chief associates nearly all escaped arrest, and got away from France in various disguises.  Their adventures are all of them very picturesque, and some are very amusing.

Several of the eight prisoners at Ham suffered much from dampness.  Lamoriciere, indeed, contracted permanent rheumatism during his imprisonment.  He begged earnestly to be allowed to write to his wife, but was permitted to send her only three words, without date:  “I am well.”

On the night of January 6, the commandant of the fortress, in full uniform, accompanied by a Government agent, entered the sleeping-room of each prisoner, and ordered him to rise and dress, as he was to be sent immediately into exile under charge of two agents of police detailed to accompany him over the frontier.  Nor was he to travel under his own name, a travelling alias having been provided for him.  At the railroad station at Creil, Colonel Charras met Changarnier. “Tiens, General!” he cried, “is that you?  I am travelling under the name of Vincent.”  “And I,” replied Changarnier, “am called Leblanc.”  Each was placed with his two police agents in a separate carriage.  The latter were armed.  Their orders were to treat their prisoners with respect, but in case of necessity to shoot them.

The journey was made without incident until they reached Valenciennes, a place very near the frontier line between France and Belgium.  There, as the coup d’etat had proved a success, official zeal was in the ascendency.  The police commissioner of Valenciennes examined the passports.  As he was taking Leblanc’s into his hand, he recognized the man before him.  He started, and cried out:  “You are General Changarnier!” “That is no affair of mine at present,” said the general.  At once the police agents interposed, and assured the commissioner that the passports were all in order.  Nothing they could say would convince him of the fact.  The prefect and town authorities, proud of their own sagacity in capturing State prisoners who were endeavoring to escape from France, held them in custody while they sent word of their exploit to Paris.  They at once received orders to put all the party on the train for Belgium.

Charras was liberated at Brussels, Changarnier at Mons, Lamoriciere was carried to Cologne, M. Baze to Aix-la-Chapelle.  They were not released at the same place nor at the same time, Louis Napoleon having said that safety required that a space should be put between the generals.