XXXIII. 1835. 1 Moniteur, was proposed to commence reading the Act of Accusation. CHAP. This, however, was rendered impossible by the loud clamour of the prisoners. The prisoner first addressed refused to answer to his name till the Abbé Lamennais was introduced as his defender. Cavaignac did the same. In May 6, vain the President strove to restore order: an hundred 1835; Ann. voices drowned the reading of the indictment; and at 179, 185; length, seeing no end to the tumult, the Court was ad- 97, 99; L. journed without having come to any decision, or made 397, 408. any progress in the trial.1 Hist. xviii. Cap. viii. Blanc, iv. 22. the trial. These scandalous scenes were renewed with still greater violence on the succeeding days; the accused protesting, Progress of in the most energetic terms, against the length of their imprisonment, now extending to thirteen months, and the severities with which it had latterly been attended; and the Court insisting for the preservation of order and the reading of the indictment. No progress could be made, however, from the incessant tumult kept up by the prisoners, in which the audience and the vast crowd on the outside warmly participated. The Court repeatedly ordered the most violent to be removed; but upon this they all stood up, vociferating that they were all equally innocent or guilty; and the attempt to remove any by force led to personal struggles, still more scandalous in a court of justice. The Court upon this again adjourned ; and, after two days spent in anxious secret deliberation, a resolution was adopted, to the effect that the President was authorised to order the removal of any prisoner who interrupted the proceedings, and proceed with the reading of the Act of Accusation, and other written documents, Moniteur, in the absence of such prisoners; they being brought 1835; Ann. back, together or separately, when the witnesses for or 184, 187. against them came to be examined.2 In the circumstances, nothing more equitable could be devised, and indeed it was the only possible way of extricating matters, after the deplorable mistake of bringing so great a number of prisoners to trial had been com May 9, Hist. xviii. 1835. 23. Continua CHAP. mitted. At first it seemed to have some effect in apXXXIII. peasing the tumult, and the proceedings began on the 9th with something like order and decorum. But no sooner did the reading of the indictment recommence, disorders, than the noise and vociferations began again. "You Audry de may condemn us all to death," said Lagrange, in a voice Puyraveau. of thunder, "but the blood of us all will not wipe from tion of the and letter of your forehead the stain affixed by the blood of so many brave men." Though the prisoners at the bar on this occasion were only twenty-eight, the noise they made was such that the reading of the indictment was mere dumb show; not a word was heard either by the peers or prisoners. It was evident that the accused were proceeding on a deliberate system, the object of which was to render the proceedings interminable by noise and tumult it was a repetition of the O. P. riots of London, with this difference, that the scene of them was not a theatre but a court of justice. Meanwhile a powerful diversion in their favour was effected by the Parisian committee, in the form of a letter to the accused, which appeared in the columns of the Tribune, signed, among others, by M. Audry de Puyraveau and M. Cormenin, who were members of the Chamber of Deputies, which le Reforma contained the gravest charges against the Chamber of teur, May Peers, whose conduct was pronounced illegal and oppressive in the highest degree, and encouraged the accused to persevere in their noble course of procrastination and defiance.1 This led to a fresh difficulty; for as the per May 11. 11, 1835; Ann. Hist. xviii. 189, 190. * * "Le système de violence proposé par les gens du Roi, et adopté par la Chambre des Pairs, ne s'était révélé jusqu'ici qu' avec une sorte de timidité ; aujourd'hui il s'est manifesté à tous égards par l'emploi de la force brutale, par votre expulsion des bancs de la cour à l'aide de la violence. On avait commencé par exclure les défenseurs ; maintenant c'est vous qu'on veut exclure: on voulait vous entendre en l'absence de vos conseils; maintenant on veut vous juger en votre propre absence. Laissez faire ceci n'est pas de la justice; c'est la guerre civile qui se continue au sein de la paix, et dans le sanctuaire même des lois. Persévérez citoyens! Montrez-vous comme par le passé, calmes, fiers, énergiques. Vous êtes les défenseurs du droit commun: ce que vous voulez, la France le veut; tous les partis, toutes les opinions généreuses le veulent. La France ne verra jamais des juges où il n'y a pas de XXXIII. 1835. sons who signed that letter were members of the Cham- CHAP. ber of Deputies, they could only be prosecuted on a vote of that body, at the instance of its Keeper of the Seals. It was necessary, therefore, to convoke the Chamber of Deputies; and thus the theatre of contest was transferred to the popular branch of the Legislature. 24. Chamber of It began there accordingly, and became the signal for debates as stormy, and scenes as violent, as those which Proceedhad lately taken place in the Upper Chamber. Atings in the length, in the midst of a frightful tumult, the accusation Deputies. was voted by a large majority; but so great was the agitation, that several of the journalists who had taken part in it were arrested on leaving the Chamber, though it was not thought prudent to proceed farther against them. The editor of the Reformateur was found guilty by a majority of 264 to 39, and sentenced to a month's imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 francs (£400.) Meanwhile the original trial in the Chamber of Peers continued to drag on its weary length for six weeks, without, to all appearance, the least prospect of coming to a termination, so incessant were the demands of the prisoners to be tried altogether, not separately, and to have the aid of the defenders whom they had selected. "I will not answer any question," said Gérard, “till my co-defenders and defenders are here. My counsel is M. Carrel. I have been dragged here by force, in the midst of bayonets. I insist upon being sent back to prison." "I will not do as some others have done," cried Didier, struggling violently with the Guards who défenseurs. Sans doute, au point où les choses en sont venues, la Cour de Paris continuera à marcher dans les voies fatales où le Pouvoir l'entraîne ; et après vous avoir mis dans l'Impuissance de vous défendre, elle aura le courage de vous condamner. Vous accepterez avec une noble résignation cette nouvelle iniquité ajoutée à tant d'autres iniquités. L'infamie du Juge fait la gloire de l'accusé dans tous les temps et dans tous les pays, ceux qui de près ou de loin, par haine ou par faiblesse, se sont associés à des actes d'une justice sauvage, ont encouru la haine de leurs contemporains et l'exécration de la postérité. Salut et Fraternité !-CORMENIN, AUDRY DE PUYRAVEAU."— Tribune, May 11, 1835; Ann. Hist., xviii. 190, 191. VOL. V. 2 P XXXIII. 1835. CHAP. surrounded him; "I will hear nothing. I have been dragged here by force, torn, massacred: it is infamous. I will die rather than submit to my political enemies. Kill me; here is my bosom, plunge in your sabres. I will not go on without my defender." These and similar scenes, repeated daily during six weeks, excited the utmost enthusiasm among the Parisians, more passionately fond than any people in Europe of theatrical displays. Vivid descriptions of the dramatic scenes in the Chamber of Peers were sold to agitated and admiring multitudes in the streets every morning after they occurred; litho205; Cap. graphic portraits of the leading characters in the strife were exposed for sale, and eagerly bought up; and ex414, 426. travagant sums were given by ladies for real or supposed locks of hair of the accused.1 1 Ann. Hist. xviii. 189, viii. 108, 112; L. Blanc, iv. 25. joined, and escape of twenty soners. July 11. The Chamber of Peers, in the midst of these frightful Trials dis- scenes of disorder, conducted the proceedings with a temper, moderation, and dignity above all praise, and eight pri- which extorted the admiration even of their enemies. At length, finding the delays interminable, and that no progress was making in the trials, they resolved on a step which should have been taken at the first, and that was to disjoin the trials. On July 11, they passed a decree declaring that they would separate the trials. This was a mortal stroke to the defence, as it deprived the prisoners of the means of stopping the proceedings by violence and tumult in the way which had been hitherto done. Accordingly they resolved upon availing themselves of a means of escape which had for long been in preparation for the leaders who were confined in the prison of Sainte Pélagie. In effect, the prisoners there confined had with infinite labour worked out a subterranean passage which led into the garden of a neighbouring house, the proprietor of which was in the secret. It had been ready for some time, but deeming their eventual triumph certain, they disdained to make use of it till that hope was taken away by the disjunction of XXXIII. 1835. July 13. the trials. When this was done, foreseeing a conviction, CHAP. they no longer hesitated, and at nine at night on the 12th they descended into the subterranean passage. It was forty-five feet long, two feet and a half broad, and three feet high. One by one they advanced with the utmost caution through the narrow passage on their hands and knees, and the whole got through and emerged in the garden, from whence they directly issued into the street. Tilburys, cabriolets, and saddle-horses in plenty awaited them in the neighbouring station of the Jardin des Plantes and Hospice de la Pitié, in which they all got clear off. So cleverly was the whole effected, and so immense the relief which the escape of these twentyeight prisoners, embracing the principal of those from Paris, about whom the chief interest was felt, afforded to the prosecution, that the opinion generally prevailed at the time, and has not been weakened by anything which has since come to light, that the whole was done the connivance of the police, and that Government had 119; L. adopted that means of getting out of a difficulty which 447, 451. in any other way seemed inextricable.1 with 1 Ann. Hist. 248; Cap. xviii. 247, viii. 116, Blanc, iv. 26. of the trials. The escape of these prisoners singularly facilitated the proceedings, as it removed those from danger concerning Conclusion whom the chief interest on the part of the Liberals was felt. A difficulty, however, presented itself, whether the accused could be convicted and sentenced against whom the evidence had been taken, but who had made their escape, and in consequence could not be brought up to receive sentence, and whether the trial of those who resolutely refused to be brought to the bar could proceed. After anxious deliberation, and adverting to the necessity of the case, it was determined that in these extreme cases, in this particular instance, judgment might be given in absence of the accused. After this all further opposition ceased; the accused were tried in separate sections or categories, and nearly all convicted. The advocates for the accused drew their strongest arguments from the |