CHAPTER IV.


OTHER DOINGS OF THE NIGHT

During the same night in all parts of Paris acts of brigandage took
place. Unknown men leading armed troops, and themselves armed with
hatchets, mallets, pincers, crow-bars, life-preservers, swords hidden
under their coats, pistols, of which the butts could be distinguished
under the folds of their cloaks, arrived in silence before a house,
occupied the street, encircled the approaches, picked the lock of the
door, tied up the porter, invaded the stairs, and burst through the doors
upon a sleeping man, and when that man, awakening with a start, asked of
these bandits, "Who are you?" their leader answered, "A Commissary of
Police." So it happened to Lamoricière who was seized by Blanchet, who
threatened him with the gag; to Greppo, who was brutally treated and
thrown down by Gronfier, assisted by six men carrying a dark lantern and
a pole-axe; to Cavaignac, who was secured by Colin, a smooth-tongued
villain, who affected to be shocked on hearing him curse and swear; to M.
Thiers, who was arrested by Hubaut (the elder); who professed that he had
seen him "tremble and weep," thus adding falsehood to crime; to Valentin,
who was assailed in his bed by Dourlens, taken by the feet and shoulders,
and thrust into a padlocked police van; to Miot, destined to the tortures
of African casemates; to Roger (du Nord), who with courageous and witty
irony offered sherry to the bandits. Charras and Changarnier were taken
unawares.

They lived in the Rue St. Honoré, nearly opposite to each other,
Changarnier at No. 3, Charras at No. 14. Ever since the 9th of September
Changarnier had dismissed the fifteen men armed to the teeth by whom he