PROTOT.
Citizen Protot, appointed Delegate of Justice by a decree of the twentieth of April, 1871, was born in 1839.
As an advocate, he defended Mégy, the famous Communist general of the fort of Issy, when he was accused of the assassination of a police agent on the eleventh of April, 1870. This trial, and the ability he displayed, drew public attention for a moment upon him. Compromised as a member of secret societies, he managed to escape the police, but was condemned in his absence to fines and imprisonment. Having been himself a victim of the law, his attention was first given to the drawing up of a decree, thus worded:—
“The notaries and public officers in general shall draw up legal documents which fall within their duty without charge.”
In the discussion on the subject of the confiscation of the property of M. Thiers, he proposed that all the plate and other objects in his possession bearing the image of the Orleans family should be sent to the mint.
VII. (Page 229.)
“And now he thinks: ‘The Empire is tottering,
There’s little chance of victory.’
Then, creeping furtively backwards, he tries to slink away.
Remain, renegade, in the building!
“‘The ceiling falls,’ you say! ‘if they see me
They will seize and stop me as I go,’
Daring neither to rest nor fly, you miserably watch the roof
And then the door,
“And shiveringly you put your hand upon the bolt.
Back into the dismal ranks!
Back! Justice, whom they have thrust into a pit,
Is there in the darkness.
“Back! She is there, her sides bleeding from their knives,
Prostrate; and on her grave
They have placed a slab. The skirt of your cloak
Is caught beneath the stone.
“Thou shalt not go! What! Quit their house!
And fly from their fate!
What! Would you betray even treachery itself,
And make even it indignant?
“What! Did you not hold the ladder to these tricksters
In open daylight?
Say, was the sack for these robbers’ booty
Not made by you beforehand?
“Falsehood, Hate, with its cold and venomous fang,
Crouch in this den.
And thou wouldst leave it! Thou! more cunning than Falsehood,
More viperous than Hate.”