show that he and he alone had planned and ordered the massacre, the more completely they relieved him from the disqualification which had hitherto made it impossible for him to become the supreme ruler of France. Before the night closed in on the 4th of December, he was sheltered safe from ridicule by the ghastly heaps on the Boulevards."
According to this view Paris had to pay somewhat dear for the indulgence of its powers of ridicule, I will quote here the narrative of an eyewitness, which Mr. Kinglake had not seen—at least it was only published recently.
On the morning of the 4th of December, 1851, the streets of Paris were deserted, and bills were posted recommending the inhabitants to remain in their houses, and stating that every one who resisted Louis Napoleon Bonaparte would be "shot." Something strange and terrible seemed about to happen—the more unexpected as the city where the bills were posted was the most luxurious city, the French would say, the most civilized city in Europe, in the world. On the morning of that 4th of December, 1851, large bodies of French troops, of men in military garb, garb resembling that worn by men professedly raised, embodied and disciplined to defend their country against foreign armed enemies, suddenly appeared on the Boulevards of Paris, and fired upon unarmed men, and upon
