Chapter 24 - Page 2

or by night. Guardians of the body cheek
by jowl with guardians of the soul. Sorry human justice!

The execution of the condemned men in the Bréa affair
was a blunder. It was the reappearance of the scaffold.
The people had kicked over the guillotine. The bourgeoisie
raised it again. A fatal mistake.

President Louis Bonaparte was inclined to be merciful.
The revision and cassation could easily have been delayed.
The Archbishop of Paris, M. Sibour, successor of a victim,
had begged for their lives. But the stereotyped phrases
prevailed. The country must be reassured. Order must
be reconstructed, legality rebuilt, confidence re-erected!
And society at that time was still reduced to employing
lopped heads as building material. The Council of State,
such as it then was, consulted under the terms of the
Constitution, rendered an opinion in favour of the execution.
M. Cresson, counsel for Daix and Lahr, waited upon the
President. He was an emotional and eloquent young man.
He pleaded for these men, for the wives who were not yet
widows, for the children who were not yet orphans, and
while speaking he wept.

Louis Bonaparte listened to him in silence, then took his
hands, but merely remarked: "I am most unhappy!"

In the evening of the same day--it was on the Thursday--the
Council of Ministers met. The discussion was
long and animated. Only one minister opposed recourse
to the scaffold. He was supported by Louis Napoleon.
The discussion lasted until 10 o'clock. But the majority
prevailed, and before the Cabinet separated Odilon Barrot,
the Minister of Justice, signed the order for the execution
of three of the condemned men, Daix, Lahr and Chopart.
The sentences of Nourry and Vappreaux, junior, were
commuted to penal servitude for life.

The execution was fixed for the next morning, Friday.

The Chancellor's office immediately transmitted the order
to the Prefect of Police, who had to act in concert with
the military authorities, the sentence having been imposed
by a court-martial.

The prefect sent for the executioner. But the executioner
could not be found. He had vacated his house in
the Rue des Marais Saint Martin in February under the
impression that, like the guillotine, he had been deposed,
and no one knew what had become of him.

Considerable time was lost in tracing him to his new
residence, and when they got there he was out. The
executioner was at the Opera. He had gone to see "The
Devil's Violin."

It was near midnight, and in the absence of the executioner
the execution had to be postponed for one day.

During the interval Representative Larabit, whom
Chopart had befriended at