We went down, and, on the stairs, we met Charles Teste, who was going to Bernard (de Rennes).
"Ah! there you are, deserter," he said to Arago.
"How a deserter?" exclaimed the latter. "I have just come from fighting."
"It is just that that I mean; but there are various ways of deserting: you were the maire, and your place was not behind a barricade, but at your own offices; when one is the head, one must not make oneself a branch.
... Parbleu! I too would have liked to take up my gun, it would not have been a very wicked thing to do, but I said to myself, 'Stay, Charles! You are the head, and you must not take the part of an arm too!'"
To those who knew Charles Teste, these words summed up the man himself in the one word—duty. We reached the National; it was very difficult to get into the offices, as they were very crowded. There we learned of the dispersion of the barricade au Saumon, but, at the same time, we also learned that the one in the rue Saint-Merry still held its ground. Latouche entered at this moment in great perturbation.
"It is all over!" he said.
"What, quite over?"
"Yes, quite."