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The convention was a large body, chosen from all parts of France, and was unquestionably the most noisy, unruly and unreasonable set of beings that I ever saw in a legislative assembly. The frequent efforts of Thiers, Jules Favre, and other leading men to restrain the more impetuous were of little avail.
He is not a Demagogue, he has written no despatches, nor made any speeches, nor decreed any Utopian reforms after the manner of his colleagues. But, unlike them, he is a practical man of business, and this the working men have had discernment enough to discover. They are hardly to be blamed if they have accepted literally the rhetorical figures of Jules Favre.
Upon this the Chancellor went away to meet Jules Favre with the parting words to Regnier, "Be so good as to present my respectful homage to his Imperial Majesty when you reach Wilhelmshoehe." At a subsequent meeting the same evening Regnier repeated his anxiety to go at once to Metz and Strasburg and make an agreement that these places should be surrendered only in the Emperor's name.
The organizers of the ambuscade had carefully left at liberty Jules Favre, Michel de Bourges, and myself, judging us to be less men of action than of the Tribune; wishing to leave the Left men capable of resistance, but incapable of victory, hoping to dishonor us if we did not fight, and to shoot us if we did fight. Nevertheless, no one hesitated. The deliberation began.
"ARTICLE IV. The police functionaries and agents are charged with the execution of the present decree. "Given at Paris, in Permanent Session, on the 4th December, 1851." Jules Favre, as he passed me the decree for my signature, said to me, smiling, "Let us set your sons and your friends at liberty." "Yes," said I, "four combatants the more on the barricades."
"Oh, nothing," said Montresor, tranquilly. "Lady Henry thinks she has caught me out in a blunder about Favre, and the negotiations at Versailles. I dare say she has. I am the most ignorant person alive." "Then are the rest of us spooks?" said Sir Wilfrid, smiling, as he seated himself beside his hostess.
"Not yet," said Jules Favre, continuing to smile, and pressing my arm. They had said the same thing on the preceding day to Esquiros and to Madier de Montjau. And this rumor, so agreeable to the Reactionaries, had even reached my two sons, prisoners in the Concièrgerie. The stream of people driven back from the Boulevards and from the Rue Richelieu flowed towards the Rue de la Paix.
The general rode up and down the lines, returning the salute, amidst prolonged acclamations, and presently his colleagues, Jules Favre and the others excepting, of course, Gambetta, who had already left Paris also came out of the Hotel-de-Ville and received an enthusiastic greeting from their supporters.
He is given to joining in melees and does not know how to get out of them again. The tempest tempts him, and kills him." A moment later Jules Favre ascended the tribune. "I do not know how they can see a serpent in this man," said Lamartine. "He is a provincial academician."
M. Rouher perceived that the majority which the Imperial government had commanded for sixteen years, was on the point of slipping from him; so, turning to Jules Favre, he declared “that he was not agreed with him on any point—that he absolutely rejected his policy.” Then, addressing the Conservatives, he affirmed that they would defend Rome so long as the desired reconciliation did not take place—that France would never, never abandon Rome.
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