Don't be serious The History of Crime

Part 2 ,Don't be serious The History of crime

He slept soundly; he had been working till late at night. Verisign was a young man of thirty-two, soft-featured and fair-complexioned, of a courageous spirit, and a mind tending towards social and economic studies. He had passed the first hours of the night in the perusal of a book by Bastia, 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 rang at the bell, still louder than the first, thoroughly 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 neighbor of Versigny; he lived at No. 16, Rue de Milan. Théodore Bac and Michel were pale and appeared greatly agitated. "Version," said Michel, "dress at once—Baune has just been arrested." "Bah!" exclaimed Versigny. "Is the Mauguin business beginning again?" "It is more than that," replied Michel. "Baune's wife and daughter came to me half an hour ago. They woke me up. Baune was arrested in bed at six o'clock this morning." "What does that mean?" asked Versigny. The bell rangAgain. "This will probably tell us," answered Michel de Bourges. Versigny opened the door. It was the Representative Pierre Lefranc. He brought, in truth, the solution to the enigma. "Do you know what is happening?" said he. "Yes," answered Michel. "Baune is in prison." "It is the Republic who is a prisoner," said Pierre Lefranc. "Have you read the placards?" "No." Pierre Lefranc explained to them that the walls at that moment were covered with placards which the curious crowd was thronging to read, that he had glanced over one of them at the corner of his street, and that the blow had fallen.

"The blow!" exclaimed Michel. "Say rather the crime." Pierre Lefranc added that there were three placards—one decree and two proclamations—on white paper and pasted close together. The decree was printed in large letters. The exConstituent Laissac, who lodged, like Michel de Bourges, in the neighborhood (No. 4, Cité Gaillard), came in. He brought the same news and announced further arrests which had been made during the night. There was not a minute to lose. They went to impart the information to Yvan, the Secretary of the Assembly, who had been appointed by the Left and lived in the Rue de Boursault. An immediate meeting was necessary. Those Republican Representatives still at liberty must be warned and brought together without delay. Verisign Verisign will go and find Victor Hugo." It was eight o'clock in the morning. I was awake and working in bed. My servant entered and said, with an air of alarm, — "A Representative of the people is outside who wishes to speak to you, sir." "Who is it?" "Monsieur Versigny:" "Show him in." Versigny entered and told me the situation. I sprang out of bed. He said to me of the "rendezvous" at the rooms of the ex-Constituent Larissa. "Go at once and inform the other Representatives," said I. He left me.CHAPTER III. WHAT HAD HAPPENED DURING THE NIGHTBefore the fatal days of June 1848, the esplanade of the Invalides was divided into eight huge grass plots,surrounded by wooden railings and enclosed between two groves of trees, separated by a street running perpendicularly to the front of the Invalides. This street was traversed by three roads running parallel to the Seine. There were large lawns upon which children wanted to play. The center of the eight grass plots was marred by a pedestal which under the Empire had borne the bronze lion of St. Mark, which had been brought from Venice; under the Restoration, a white marble statue of Louis XVIII.; and under Louis Philippe, a plaster bust of Lafayette. Owing to the Palace of the Constituent Assembly has been nearly seized by a crowd of insurgents on the 22nd of June 1848.