"Given at the Palace of the Elysée, 2d December, 1851.

"LOUIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.

"DE MORNY, Minister of the Interior."




CHAPTER VII.


NO. 70, RUE BLANCHE

The Cité Gaillard is somewhat difficult to find. It is a deserted alley
in that new quarter which separates the Rue des Martyrs from the Rue
Blanche. I found it, however. As I reached No. 4, Yvan came out of the
gateway and said, "I am here to warn you. The police have an eye upon
this house, Michel is waiting for you at No. 70, Rue Blanche, a few
steps from here."

I knew No. 70, Rue Blanche. Manin, the celebrated President of the
Venetian Republic, lived there. It was not in his rooms, however, that
the meeting was to take place.

The porter of No. 70 told me to go up to the first floor. The door was
opened, and a handsome, gray-haired woman of some forty summers, the
Baroness Coppens, whom I recognized as having seen in society and at my
own house, ushered me into a drawing-room.