Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/310

 2G8 ORIGIN OF THE WAR OF 1853 CHAP, cades had been stripped of their arms, deprived XTV> of their leaders, and so thinned in numbers as to be unequal to any serious conflict, and their helplessness was completed by the sudden dis- appearance of the street captains and the chiefs of secret societies, who had been seized in the night between the 1st and 2d of December. The com- Still there was a remnant of the old insurrec- Resistance. tionary forces, -which was willing to try the ex- periment of throwing up a few barricades, and there was, besides, a small number of men who were impelled in the same direction by motives of a different and almost opposite kind. These last were men too brave, too proud, too faithful in their love of right and freedom, to be capable of acquiescing for even a week in the transactions of the December night. The foremost of these was the illustrious Victor Hugo. He and some of the other members of the Assembly who had escaped seizure, formed themselves into a Committee of Resistance, with a view to assert by arms the supremacy of the law. This step they took on the 2d of December. Attempted Several members of the Assembly went into FMbomg ' e the Faubourg St Antoine, and strove to raise the people. These Deputies were Schcelcher, Baudin, Aubry, Duval, Chaix, Malardier, and De Flotte, and they were vigorously supported by Cournet, whose residence became their headquarters, and by Xavier Durricu, Kesler, Ruin, Lemaitre, Wa- bripon, Le Jeune, and other men connected with the democratic press. More, it would seem, by ->t Antoine.