At the stroke of five in the morning, columns of soldiery filed out of all the Paris barracks and occupied the commanding positions where barricades had been thrown up in former times. At the same time a score of detectives in closed carriages apprehended the leading members of the Assembly. Among them were Cavaignac, Changarnier, Thiers, Bedeau, General Lamorcière, the Acting-Secretary of War, and Charras. The government printing establishment and all the newspaper offices were occupied by troops. Soldiers were placed at the side of the printers, who were then ordered to set up a series of proclamations. Before six in the morning bands of bill stickers, hired for the occasion, posted them up all over Paris. At breakfast time, when "Boxed up" sixteen deputies and seventy-eight citizens had been arrested and were held secure, the Duke of Morny reported the success of the undertaking to Louis Napoleon with the two words: "Boxed up." Louis Napoleon hereupon issued the following decree in the name of the French People:
"Article I.—The National Assembly is dissolved.
"II.—Universal suffrage is re-established. The law of May 31 is abrogated.
"III.—The French People are convoked in their electoral districts from the 14th December to the 21st December following.
"IV.—The State of Siege is decreed in the district of the first Military Division.
"V.—The Council of State is dissolved.
"VI.—The Minister of the Interior is charged with the execution of this decree.
"Given at the Palace of the Elysée, 2d December, 1851.
"Louis Napoleon Bonaparte.
"De Morny, Minister of the Interior."