Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/421

 absorbed in politics and the police. In writing for different papers, he always had in view this double work. In 1870, at the time of the process of Blois, when he had to reply in regard to facts touching the conspiracy, he had for an advocate M. Lachaud, to whom he confided the vivacity of his instincts.

During the Commune this advocate had need of a permit of circulation, of which the delegate to the police was so avaricious. He asked and obtained it, remarking at the same time to his former client that he must have reached the height of his desires, since he was at the same time member of the government and chief of the police. "Without doubt," replied Rigault, "only it must last."

After the revolution of the 4th of September, he had found means of introducing himself to M. Kératry, and had placed his hands on all that was most mysterious or most intricate in the Rue de Jerusalem. When M. Kératry ceded his functions to M. Edmond Adam, the young conspirator was obliged to retire also. In leaving the Prefecture of Police, he carried with him a large quantity of documents relative to the secret police; and afterwards published a list of the ex-democrats who had been paid during the Empire to denounce the proceedings of the party to which they had belonged. Fifteen or twenty persons had thus their proceedings laid bare, but they were for the most part illiterate men, drunkards, or laborers without work, whom M. Ernest Picard calls with reason the "low demagogy."

By constantly frequenting the clubs from the beginning of the siege, Raoul Rigault gained a certain popularity which caused him to be named chief of one of the battalions of the 5th Arrondissement.

This title, and the embroideries it enabled him to wear, helped him to become initiated in the Republican Confederation, presided over by the ex-Count du Bisson,