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The History of a Crime - The Testimony of an Eye-Witness by Victor Hugo
page 16 of 614 (02%)
me." "Again!" exclaimed the Commandant. "This is becoming strange;
nevertheless, go."

The Adjutant-Major had amongst other duties that of giving out the
instructions to the sentries, and consequently had the power of
rescinding them.

As soon as the Adjutant-Major had gone out, the Major, becoming uneasy,
thought that it was his duty to communicate with the Military Commandant
of the Palace. He went upstairs to the apartment of the Commandant--
Lieutenant Colonel Niols. Colonel Niols had gone to bed and the attendants
had retired to their rooms in the attics. The Major, new to the Palace,
groped about the corridors, and, knowing little about the various rooms,
rang at a door which seemed to him that of the Military Commandant. Nobody
answered, the door was not opened, and the Major returned downstairs,
without having been able to speak to anybody.

On his part the Adjutant-Major re-entered the Palace, but the Major did
not see him again. The Adjutant remained near the grated door of the
Place Bourgogne, shrouded in his cloak, and walking up and down the
courtyard as though expecting some one.

At the instant that five o'clock sounded from the great clock of the
dome, the soldiers who slept in the hut-camp before the Invalides were
suddenly awakened. Orders were given in a low voice in the huts to take
up arms, in silence. Shortly afterwards two regiments, knapsack on back
were marching upon the Palace of the Assembly; they were the 6th and the
42d.

At this same stroke of five, simultaneously in all the quarters of Paris,
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