what could I revive of Napoleon? One sole thing--a crime. Truly a worthy
ambition! Why should I be considered man? The Republic being established,
I am not a great man, I shall not copy Napoleon; but I am an honest man.
I shall imitate Washington. My name, the name of Bonaparte, will be
inscribed on two pages of the history of France: on the first there will
be crime and glory, on the second probity and honor. And the second will
perhaps be worth the first. Why? Because if Napoleon is the greater,
Washington is the better man. Between the guilty hero and the good
citizen I choose the good citizen. Such is my ambition."

From 1848 to 1851 three years elapsed. People had long suspected Louis
Bonaparte; but long-continued suspicion blunts the intellect and wears
itself out by fruitless alarms. Louis Bonaparte had had dissimulating
ministers such as Magne and Rouher; but he had also had straightforward
ministers such as Léon Faucher and Odilon Barrot; and these last had
affirmed that he was upright and sincere. He had been seen to beat his
breast before the doors of Ham; his foster sister, Madame Hortense
Cornu, wrote to Mieroslawsky, "I am a good Republican, and I can answer
for him." His friend of Ham, Peauger, a loyal man, declared, "Louis
Bonaparte is incapable of treason." Had not Louis Bonaparte written the
work entitled "Pauperism"? In the intimate circles of the Elysée Count
Potocki was a Republican and Count d'Orsay was a Liberal; Louis
Bonaparte said to Potocki, "I am a man of the Democracy," and to
D'Orsay, "I am a man of Liberty." The Marquis du Hallays opposed the
_coup d'état_, while the Marquise du Hallays was in its favor. Louis
Bonaparte said to the Marquis, "Fear nothing" (it is true that he
whispered to the Marquise, "Make your mind easy"). The Assembly, after
having shown here and there some symptoms of uneasiness, had grown calm.
There was General Neumayer, "who was to be depended upon," and who from
his position at Lyons would at need march upon Paris. Changarnier