Flourens and Blanqui held some of the members of the Government prisoners at the Hotel de Ville all day.
At midnight some National Guards came from the Hotel de Ville to fetch me “to preside,” they said, “over the new Government.” I replied that I was most emphatically opposed to this attempt to seize the power and refused to go to the Hotel de Ville.
At 3 o’clock in the morning Flourens and Blanqui quitted the Hotel de Ville and Trochu entered it.
The Commune of Paris is to be elected.
November 1.—We have postponed for a few days the reading of Les Châtiments, which was to have been given at the Porte Saint Martin to-day, Tuesday.
Louis Blanc came this morning to consult me as to what ought to be the conduct of the Commune.
The newspapers unanimously praise the attitude I took yesterday in rejecting the advances made to me.
November 2.—The Government demands a “yes” or a “no.”
Louis Blanc and my sons came to talk to me about it.
The report that Alexandre Dumas is dead is denied.