[1] Colonel Charras was Under-Secretary of State in 1848, and Acting
Secretary of War under the Provisional Government.




CHAPTER II.


PARIS SLEEPS--THE BELL RINGS

On the 2d December, 1851, Representative Versigny, of the Haute-Saône,
who resided at Paris, at No. 4, Rue Léonie, was asleep. He slept
soundly; he had been working till late at night. Versigny was a young
man of thirty-two, soft-featured and fair-complexioned, of a courageous
spirit, and a mind tending towards social and economical studies. He had
passed the first hours of the night in the perusal of a book by Bastiat,
in which he was making marginal notes, and, leaving the book open on the
table, he had fallen asleep. Suddenly he awoke with a start at the sound
of a sharp ring at the bell. He sprang up in surprise. It was dawn. It
was about seven o'clock in the morning.

Never dreaming what could be the motive for so early a visit, and
thinking that someone had mistaken the door, he again lay down, and was
about to resume his slumber, when a second ring at the bell, still
louder than the first, completely aroused him. He got up in his
night-shirt and opened the door.

Michel de Bourges and Théodore Bac entered. Michel de Bourges was the