BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. 265 the midnight seizure aucl imprisonment of his chap. XIV country's greatest commanders, he was an instru- '_ ment, and not a contriver. By the laws of the Republic, the duty of taking sitting of ... the Supreme cognisance of offences against the Constitution court. was cast upon the Supreme Court. The Court was sitting, when an armed force entered the hall, and the judges were driven from the bench* but The Judges ... r 1 forcibly not until they had made a judicial order for the driven from J J . the bench. impeachment of the President. Before the judges were thrust down they adjourned the Court to a day 'to be named hereafter,' and they had the spirit to order a notice of the impeachment to be served upon the President at the Elysee.*J* If the process-server encountered Colonel Pleury at the Elyse'e, he would soon find that Fleury was not the man who would suffer his gloomy master to be depressed by the sight of a man with an ugly summons from a Court of Law. VI. The ancient courage of the Parisians had accus- want or tomed them to the thought of encountering wrong defending , i--.ii ° ° the laws by by an armed resistance ; but there were many force, causes which rendered it unwise for them at that moment to appeal to force. The events of 1848,
- The 'Annuaire ' says triumphantly that two Commissaries
of Police ' interrupted this fresh attempt at legal resistance, p. 373.— Note to 4/A Edition, 1803. t It seems that in his mission to the Elysee the process- server was accompanied by the President of the Court. Ibid. 'Bulletin Francais,' p. '27.— Note to 4lh Edition, 1863.
