Escapes from Cayenne

6 exchange for my liberty, to give him m y word of honor that I had not participated in the battle of June. I refused, saying, " I have not to prove my innocence, but you have to prove m y culpability; I can be neither my own accuser nor my own apol­ ogist."

I was sent to La Conciergerie.

On the 21st of the same month I was removed to Fort de Noisy.

On the first of September I was taken to Fort de V Est. Two days before, a lady had begged my liberation of General Cavaignac. " In less than forty-eight hours, Chautard shall be out of the Fort de Noisy" answered the Dictator.

On the 2d of September I was removed to Havre, and thence to Brest, where I arrived on the 5th. I was put on the pontoon Uranie.

On the 19th of February, 1849, I was sent to Belle Isle, on the outworks of the citadel. On the 80th of April I escaped with Deflotte, a navy officer, and Clairet. Captured the next day, we had a dark cell for a resi­ dence, and we went, in May next, to Lorient to be tried. W e were condemned to one month imprisonment. I made appeal and was sent to Vannes to be tried again. The first judgment was confirmed. I was tried a third time for having insulted a non-commissioned officer of gendarmes.

I was condemned again to one month imprisonment, and returned to Belle Isle in the month of August. On the 11th of December 740 of m y companions were liberated; 4 6 0 of us remained.

The weather being very cold, we made a good fire in our stoves, with the beds of our companions who had gone away. Our guardians called that an incendiarism, brought armed soldiers into our camp, and ordered us to go to bed. W e refused and marshaled ourselves for passive resistance. The soldiers and guardians ran back and went to bring reinforcements. The Avhole regiment arrived. Their Colonel, quite drunk, ordered them to load their guns and to fix the bayonets. Several of us were wounded.

In the evening I wrote to Col. Pierre; I clearly proved him to be a drunkard, a coward, and a murderer.

The next day soldiers came again, shot one of us, wounded some, and arrested eleven. I had the honor to be of the last.

In January, 1850, we were Sent to Lorient, ten in number, to be tried, and removed soon after to Vannes, before the crim­ inal court.

I wrote to my friends in Paris to send us defend­ ers.

W e had the most eloquent Michel (de Bourges,) who had defended Louis Napoleon Buonaparte after his attempt at Boulogne, Cassal and Baudin ; all three were Representatives.

[The last was killed upon the barricades, in December, 1851.]

W e had, besides, a renowned barrister of Lorient, named Rat­ tier.

They were sent to us by Count D'Alton-Shee, an old peer of France, the sole one who dared to condemn to death Louis Napoleon Buonaparte, when tried before the Court of Peers.