The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-22 00:00:00

brought from Paris ?—Yes, sir ; Lut neither th,

sword`.

nor the cross.

~a ?--

Was it in the parcel that you sent on

No, sir.
How did it get there then ?—Because three
before the event there was a subscription ball in • s Q
don. The Prince proposed my taking a ticket, and ac-
companying him. I consented, and as Ido not live in
London, but some miles out of town, I sent my uni-
form to the Prince's in order to dress there; but, as I
met with my accident, I did not go to the ball, And my
coat remained at the Prince's.
Is not the house you live at, some miles from London',
the property of a lady from whose residence the Prince,
with a number of servants, came away ?—No, sir, I do,
not know this lady ; I understand, however, what you

mean ; at least I suppose so.
When did you know that your uniform was on board ?
—On the night of the sth and 6th, about half an hour

before landing.
At what point of the voyage did Louis Bonaparte
inform you of his plans?—At the moment when I was
dressing. I did not see him during the remainder of
the voyage.
He has admitted, however, that 10 hours before land-
ing he had made a distribution of money and of uniforms,
and made known his plans —That is possible ; but on _
reaching the packet I became very sea-sick, and the
Prince told me to go and rest myself, and that he would
speak with me another time. I threw myself on a mattress,
and there remained for :24 hours, in great agony. There •
was some noise on board, but I did not know what was

going en.
How could you make up ycur mind to put on your
uniform and share in an enterprise you disapproved ?—I
have already answered,—to save the Prince and prevent
the spilling of blood. When the Prince did speak to
me, and said that he hoped to gain over two companies,
I replied that to succeed was impossible. I must add
that for a few moments the Prince hesitated.
You say that the sword you wore was not your own ;
whose was it ?—I do not know ; it was given me on
board. It appeared to me to be a new sword ; it had
been, no doubt, bought, for me, for my name was written
on the belt. The crosses neither were mine.
Yet in spite of the dislike you had to the expedition,
you, a General on half. pay, and having leave of absence
from the War Minister—you did not shrink from taking
an active part in the expedition es soon as it was irre-
trievably begun ?—I did nothing more than try to pre-
vent people from killing each other, and to save the
Prince. In saving him, I thought to render a service
to my country. I had not forgotten the fate of the
Duke of Engbein, whose blood neither the triumphs nor
the glory of the empire can ever wash away.
Bow did you not understand that your presence in
uniform at snch a meeting was highly culpable ?—I
thought I was doing my duty, and serving my country.
I had not the belief nor the least hope that the Prince
could succeed. I know the army too well. Besides
the Prince confessed to me that he had not even gained
the officers of the two companies who were at Boulogne.
Who offered a pension of 1,200 francs to the head of
the Customs at Vinnereux, if he consented to follow
you ?—I heard the order given to make such a proposal.
I know not who made it. Excepting two or three, I
know very few of those gentlemen.
You were in the suite of Louis Bonaparte, and very
near him when he entered the barracks ?-1 was not
near him ; I was behind him. I arrived only when the
companies shouted " j the l'Empercur."
You were near him when he fired off his pistol?—l
was in the group of officers, but not near him. I
heard no report, and many may say the same. When I
was told that the Prince had fired, I did not credit it.
You must, however, have been near the Prince
during those events, for you acknowledge in one of
your interrogatories having advised the Prince to re-
tire.—Yes, undoubtedly. I went up to him several
times ; I even took him by the arm in the barrack
yard, and I believe it was on my advice that he retired.
The yard was very small, and all this did not last ten
minutes.
When out of the barracks, had you an opportunity
of approaching him and of giving him advice ?—Yes ; I
believe I spoke to him once more when he was going up
tit., High-street to the prefecture. He then said to me,
Yes, I do follow your advice, and retire." It was
then I left him, and I remained behind walking about
in the hope that I should be followed (imitated), and
this did happen in part.
Had you any particular relations with Col. Voisin or
Commander Mesonan, whose name figures in the pro-
clamation ?—I know Col. Voisin. I was not ac-
quainted with Commander Mesonan ; I had even never
seen him.
Do you know the source of the considerable sums of
money that Louis Bonaparte brought to France ?—I
believe the sums came from his own private fortune.
He kept a large establishment in London. He cer-
Lainly could not spend less than 700,000 or 800,000
francs yearly, if I may judge from the state he kept.
I always thought him, and I still believe him, very
wealthy.

REFORM FESTIVAL IN FRANCE.

Another reformist dinner took place at Auxerre on
Tuesday, at which urwards (4400 persons were present..
In the course of ;he evening M. Larabit, a deputy of the
" extreme gauche," the president of the fete, proposed a
toast to the " Old Tricoloured Fing of France, 60
glor:ous emblem of 1789 and 1830;" which he prefaced
by a speech in which he insisted on the necessity of re-
forming the institutions of the country, and preventing
privileges from again taking root in the soil. He then
condemned in energetic terms the system pursued by
the Government during the last ten years, which he
pronounced to be hereafter impracticable. " That sys-
tem," he said, " is an object of mockery to foreigners ;
after so many concessions on our part, their de-

mands and disdain appear to have exceeded all
bounds. Let the Government do its duty, and it

will find us ready to unite and rally round the tri-

coloured flag. If the cannon of a new holy alliance tear
the treaties of 1815, France will accept the challenge,
and again plant her banners on the Rhine, and call na-
tions to liberty. We are not anxious for war ; peace
is the surest instrument of our social reforms ; but if
war becomes an imperious duty, all our domestic divi-
sions and quarrels will vanish ; we will encourage our
children to march to the defence of the country ; and
we, old soldiers of the empire, will second their endea-
vours and recompense their courage ; we shill fight by
their sides, and embrace them upon the Rhine ; let
these words, Union and the Rhine,' be our rallying
cry."
M. de Cormenin next rose and moved a toast to
France, " to that France," he said, " whom nature
has treated with the tenderness of a mother : whom the
sun gilds with its mildest rays ; whose shores are bathed
by the ocean and Mediterranean ; and who beholds,
seated cn the banks of her rivers, or her mountains and
fertile plains, such a happy and animated population,
so many industrious cities ;—to France, where we now
are all members of the 'overeign power, all servants of
the law, all equal, all brothers,and who has burst asunder
for ever the chains of feudality ;—to France, who will
no longer disturb Europe by the noise of her conquests,
and who, if' she again runs over it, will, on retiring,
like the river Nile, deposit on its bosom the fertilizing
slime of liberty ; to France, where the country has only
to strike the soil with its foot to bring forward armed
battalions, where it only requires a week for the drum
to echo through every village, for the national banner
to be unfurled in the air, for the war song to be struck
up, the tocsin to ring, the cannon to roar, and 130,000,000
of men to rise like one man ; to Prance, who in her
victorious career crossed the summit of the Alps, en-
camped at the foot of the Pyramids, drank the waters
of the Tagus and Niemen, and planted her eagles on
the steeples of Moscow, Madrid, Turin, Rome, Naples,
Lisbon, Munich, BerEn and Vienna ; to France, whom
the great Emperor saluted with the name of the great
nation,' and who will behold his heroic shadow precede our
battalions on the day than, descending from its dark
ship, it will land on our shores—to France, whom we
applaud in her triumphs, round whom we close when
she is menaced—to France, who prefers peace to war,
but prefers war to dishonour—to France, who confides
in us, from the recollection of our fathers—to France,
where we shall no more see (for before it happened wo
should have ceased to exist) the hideous, besotted, dis-
gusting Cossacks, corrupt with their breath the air
which we inhale—to France, whom the sword of the
enemy will not be able to dismember, without the
scattered parts of that great body uniting instantly
through the attraction of its indivisible unity—to France,
who, since the time of Brennus, unlike other nations
who throw their gold in the scales of war, had only to
lay her sword in them to make the destinies of the
world incline on her side—to France, whom the slaves
and oppressed of the entire universe invoke with
clasped hands in the distress of their shipwreck, like our
Lady of Bon Secours ;—to France, the hospitable re-
fuge of exiles, the nightmare of absolutism, the eldest
daughter of civilization, the mother of generous senti-
ments and noble actions, the rampart of the west, the
sentinel of free nations, the star of Iptraelswelgar
Poland, the queen of intellect, the hope of the
invites
the elect of the human race ;—to France,. whoour hands
us all to the banquet of reform,
in her own, entreats us to have all on_;.an,e,
to whom
euvneranimous
and our lives,
retiant od 15onlvde
for ourselves,
cur bodies and our souls ;
lticeer,araendreoadnye atorm
staooridfieefeenodolrierp;r2---rpatenoreteyl.,
This speech was ►ause,
y which the assembly
and deafening. applause, a
to France, for our children,
quietly broke rtahnec emfoosrt