Sinópse: Excerpt from Little Hand and Muckle Gold, Vol. 1 of 3: A Study of to-Day Morny, the arch-conspirator, on being asked by a lady into whose box at the Opera Comique he had sauntered, if it were true that the prince-president intended to sweep out the Chamber, replied, with characteristic fiippancy and cynicism, I can’t say, Countess; but if he does, you may rely upon it I shall endeavour to be on the side of the broom handle, – many men, we say, went to bed prosperous and happy on that eventful night, to awake in the morning to find themselves utterly ruined, deprived of all that makes life worth the living, and even in very many cases prisoners, and destined to pass the remainder of their unhappy days in exile. Indeed, the coup d’état of the 2d December, being far more sudden and unex pected than that of the 18th Brumaire, had a more immediate and terrible effect throughout the length and breadth of France. The nephew, being a far weaker man than the uncle, had to snatch where the other grasped. The blow given by Napoleon I., although not to be avoided, could be seen coming: the spring with which Napoleon III. Leaped into despotic power took nearly all save his fellow-conspira tors by surprise. Multitudes were ruined; and men of every class and rank in life, from the ambitious poli tician, high-spirited general, or powerful finan cier, who found their career and speculations abruptly and finally brought to a close, down to the humble artisan and mechanic who learnt too late, whentheir food and that of their children was thus peremptorily snatched from them, the bitter lesson that it is a dangerous thing in France for a man who has his daily bread to earn to indulge in the luxury of having political opinions. And it is, indeed, no wonder that the French nation was taken by surprise, for the whole thing, as we know now, was done in a great hurry and the only wonder is, that a plot so amazingly simple, and so hastily put together, should have been so thoroughly suc cessful. There was, however, no time to be lost – not a moment; for as every one was in debt, and as nobody had anything to pay with, as a last chance France herself had to be seized upon to prevent the Palace of the Elysee from being exchanged for the debtor’s prison of Clichy. Prince Louis Napoleon, who could not shake off. The habits of extravagance con tracted at Crockford’s, was besieged by creditors. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.