"The narrator must here again crave permission to suspend his narrative.
"In the presence of these nameless deeds, I who write these lines declare that I am the recording officer. I record the crime, I appeal the cause. My functions extend no further. I cite Louis Bonaparte, I cite Saint-Arnaud, Maupas, Moray, Magnan, Carrelet, Canrobert, and Reybell, his accomplices; I cite the executioners, the murderers, the witnesses, the victims, the red-hot cannon, the smoking sabres, the drunken soldiers, the mourning families, the dying, the dead, the horror, the blood, and the tears,—I cite them all to appear at the bar of the civilized world.
"The mere narrator, whoever he might be, would never be believed. Let the living facts, the bleeding facts, therefore, speak for themselves. Let us hear the witnesses.
V
"We shall not print the names of the witnesses, we have said why, but the reader will easily recognize the sincere and poignant accent of reality.
"One witness says:—
"'I had not taken three steps on the sidewalk, when the troops, who were marching past, suddenly halted, faced about towards the south, levelled their muskets, and, by an instantaneous movement, fired upon the affrighted crowd.
"'The firing continued uninterruptedly for twenty minutes, drowned from time to time by a cannon-shot.
"'At the first volley, I threw myself on the ground and crept along on the pavement like a snake to the first door I found open.