bed until the hour mentioned had passed by, and remained in the Offices
of the Questure until nearly one o'clock in the morning.

The shorthand department of the Assembly was done out of doors by four
messengers attached to the _Moniteur_, who were employed to carry the
copy of the shorthand writers to the printing-office, and to bring back
the proof-sheets to the Palace of the Assembly, where M. Hippolyte Prévost
corrected them. M. Hippolyte Prévost was chief of the stenographic staff,
and in that capacity had apartments in the Legislative Palace. He was at
the same time editor of the musical _feuilleton_ of the _Moniteur_. On
the 1st December he had gone to the Opéra Comique for the first
representation of a new piece, and did not return till after midnight.
The fourth messenger from the _Moniteur_ was waiting for him with a proof
of the last slip of the sitting; M. Prévost corrected the proof, and the
messenger was sent off. It was then a little after one o'clock, profound
quiet reigned around, and, with the exception of the guard, all in the
Palace slept. Towards this hour of the night, a singular incident
occurred. The Captain-Adjutant-Major of the Guard of the Assembly came to
the Major and said, "The Colonel has sent for me," and he added according
to military etiquette, "Will you permit me to go?" The Commandant was
astonished. "Go," he said with some sharpness, "but the Colonel is wrong
to disturb an officer on duty." One of the soldiers on guard, without
understanding the meaning of the words, heard the Commandant pacing up
and down, and muttering several times, "What the deuce can he want?"

Half an hour afterwards the Adjutant-Major returned. "Well," asked the
Commandant, "what did the Colonel want with you?" "Nothing," answered the
Adjutant, "he wished to give me the orders for to-morrow's duties." The
night became further advanced. Towards four o'clock the Adjutant-Major
came again to the Major. "Major," he said, "the Colonel has asked for