They shouted: “Long live Victor Hugo!”
The journey from the Northern Railway station to the Rue Laval took two hours.
We arrived at Meurice’s, where I am to stay, at mid-night. I dined with my travelling companions and Victor. I went to bed at 2 o’clock.
At daybreak I was awakened by a terrible storm. Thunder and lightning.
I shall take breakfast with Paul Meurice, and we shall dine together at the Hotel Navarin, in the Rue Navarin, where my family is staying.
PARIS, September 6.—Innumerable visits, innumerable letters.
Rey came to ask me whether I would consent to join a triumvirate composed as follows: Victor Hugo, Ledru-Rollin, and Schoelcher. I refused. I said: “It is almost impossible to amalgamate me.”
I recalled several things to his mind. He said: “Do you remember that it was I who received you when you arrived at the Baudin barricade?” * I replied: “I remember the fact so well that—. And I recited the lines at the beginning of the piece (unpublished) upon the Baudin barricade:
La barricade était livide dans l’aurore,
Et comme j’arrivais elle fumait encore.
Rey me serra la main et dit: Baudin est mort...
* Representative Baudin was killed on the barricade in the
Faubourg Saint Antoine on December 2, 1852, during Louis
Bonaparte’s coup d’Etat.
He burst into tears.