In fact at this critical time, at this fatal name of Oudinot, reflections crowded upon each other in every mind.
What was the _coup d'etat_?
It was the "Roman expedition at home." Which was undertaken against whom?
Against those who had undertaken the "Roman expedition abroad." The National Assembly of France, dissolved by violence, could find only one single General to defend it in its dying hour.

And whom?
Precisely he, who in the name of the National Assembly of France had dissolved by violence the National Assembly of Rome.

What power could Oudinot, the strangler of a Republic, possess to save a Republic?
Was it not evident that his own soldiers would answer him, "What do you want with us?
That which we have done at Rome we now do at Paris." What a story is this story of treason! The French Legislature had written the first chapter with the blood of the Roman Constituent Assembly: Providence wrote the second chapter with the blood of the French Legislature, Louis Bonaparte holding the pen.
In 1849, Louis Bonaparte had assassinated the sovereignty of the People in the person of its Roman Representatives; in 1851 he assassinated it in the person of its French Representatives.

It was logical, and although it was infamous, it was just.

The Legislative Assembly bore at the same time the weight of two crimes; it was the accomplice of the first, the victim of the second.