"Your mother will explain to you."

And I left them.

The Rue de la Tour d'Auvergne was as quiet and deserted as usual. Four
workmen were, however, chatting near my door; they wished me "Good
morning."

I cried out to them, "You know what is going on?"

"Yes," said they.

"Well. It is treason! Louis Bonaparte is strangling the Republic. The
people are attacked. The people must defend themselves."

"They will defend themselves."

"You promise me that?"

"Yes," they answered.

One of them added, "We swear it."

They kept their word. Barricades were constructed in my street (Rue de la
Tour d'Auvergne), in the Rue des Martyrs, in the Cité Rodier, in the Rue
Coquenard, and at Notre-Dame de Lorette.