Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 9, 2025
A man who shuts himself up meditates, and for such men to meditate is to premeditate. What could be the premeditation of Louis Bonaparte? What was working in his mind. Questions which all asked themselves, two persons excepted, Morny, the man of thought; Saint-Arnaud, the man of action. Louis Bonaparte claimed, justly, a knowledge of men.
This post he occupied when the Franco-Prussian war broke out, so that he could be of little help to his master. Saint-Arnaud had been made a marshal and minister of war, in spite of having been twice turned out of the French army. M. Rouher had charge of the emperor's financial concerns, and Fould was a man who understood bureau-work, and how to manipulate government machinery.
The Abbey of Saint-Arnaud, in Flanders, had just been given by the King to Cardinal La Tremoille, who had been confirmed in his possession by bulls from the Pope. Since then the abbey had fallen into the power of the enemy. Upon this, Cardinal de Bouillon caused himself to be elected Abbot by a minority of the monks and in spite of the opposition of the others.
By the autumn of 1851 Louis Napoleon had fully made up his mind as to his coup d'état, and had arranged all its details. He had five intimates, who were his counsellors, De Morny, De Maupas, De Persigny, Fleury, and General Saint-Arnaud. De Morny has always been reputed to have been the half-brother of Louis Napoleon.
When the company had taken leave, Saint-Arnaud, Maupas, Morny, and a colonel on the staff went with the prince president into his smoking-room, where the duties of each were assigned to him. Everything was to be done by clock-work. Exactly at the hour appointed, all the African generals and several of their friends were to be arrested.
Fleury promised him the high office of minister of war, when he should have done something to distinguish himself in the eyes of the Parisians. Saint-Arnaud, who proved that he could keep a secret, was at once promoted, and a campaign was arranged for him in the summer of 1851, in which he won some distinction by wanton waste of life.
This decree enjoined upon all submission to the coup d'état. Saint-Arnaud, who, as Minister of War, should sign the decree, had drawn it up.
Plenty of bravery and plenty of baseness. No chivalry but that of the green cloth. Louis Bonaparte had made him colonel in 1851. His debts had been twice paid by two Princes; the first time by the Duc d'Orléans, the second time by the Duc de Némours. Such were these colonels. Saint-Arnaud spoke to them for some time in a low tone.
We reproduce this Proclamation exactly, even to the punctuation. The words "Will be shot" were in capital letters in the placards signed "De Saint-Arnaud." The Boulevards were thronged with an excited crowd. The agitation increasing in the centre reached three Arrondissements, the 6th, 7th, and the 12th. The district of the schools began to disorderly.
Suddenly Louis Bonaparte grew uneasy and revealed all his policy. "Tell Saint-Arnaud to execute my orders." Saint-Arnaud obeyed, the coup d'état acted according to its own code of laws, and from that appalling moment an immense torrent of blood began to flow across this crime. They left the corpses lying on the pavements, wild-looking, livid, stupefied, with their pockets turned inside out.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking