exclaimed, "Representatives of the people, deliberate in peace." Even
Louis Bonaparte himself had pronounced these famous words, "I should see
an enemy of my country in any one who would change by force that which
has been established by law," and, moreover, the Army was "force," and
the Army possessed leaders, leaders who were beloved and victorious.
Lamoricière, Changarnier, Cavaignac, Leflô, Bedeau, Charras; how could
any one imagine the Army of Africa arresting the Generals of Africa? On
Friday, November 28, 1851, Louis Bonaparte said to Michel de Bourges,
"If I wanted to do wrong, I could not. Yesterday, Thursday, I invited to
my table five Colonels of the garrison of Paris, and the whim seized me
to question each one by himself. All five declared to me that the Army
would never lend itself to a _coup de force_, nor attack the
inviolability of the Assembly. You can tell your friends this."--"He
smiled," said Michel de Bourges, reassured, "and I also smiled." After
this, Michel de Bourges declared in the Tribune, "this is the man for
me." In that same month of November a satirical journal, charged with
calumniating the President of the Republic, was sentenced to fine and
imprisonment for a caricature depicting a shooting-gallery and Louis
Bonaparte using the Constitution as a target. Morigny, Minister of the
Interior, declared in the Council before the President "that a Guardian
of Public Power ought never to violate the law as otherwise he would
be--" "a dishonest man," interposed the President. All these words and
all these facts were notorious. The material and moral impossibility of
the _coup d'état_ was manifest to all. To outrage the National Assembly!
To arrest the Representatives! What madness! As we have seen, Charras,
who had long remained on his guard, unloaded his pistols. The feeling of
security was complete and unanimous. Nevertheless there were some of us
in the Assembly who still retained a few doubts, and who occasionally
shook our heads, but we were looked upon as fools.