ABSTRACT
The sense of relief was overwhelming. It was possible to smile at the fears of the previous night; it was politic to conceal the fact that one had ever felt afraid. The news of the rising was for the first time made public in terms of contemptuous brevity and calculated unconcern. Certain grievances against the Government of July disposed him to listen with favour to the prince’s suggestions; but it was the charms of a fair enthusiast in the Napoleonic cause, a certain Madame Gordon, to whom Persigny had introduced him, that finally overcame his last hesitations. The 4th Artillery, Louis Napoleon’s old regiment, and the one now under Vaudrey’s immediate command, was stationed in the Austerlitz Barracks at the south of the town. In the Parisian press Napoleon was portrayed in a series of grotesque caricatures; he was represented as having adopted in every detail the historic costume of the emperor.
