That morning I learned that Monseigneur Darboy, the Archbishop of Paris, was taken at the same hour and in almost similar circumstances.
[Illustration: ABBÉ DEGUERRY, Curé of the Madeleine.]
The arrests of several other ecclesiastics are cited. The _curé_ of St. Séverin and the _curé_ of St. Eustache have been made prisoners, it is said; the first in his own house, the second at the moment when he was leaving his church. The _curé_ of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires was to have been arrested also, but warned in time, he was able to place himself in safety.
Monseigneur Darboy, being conducted to the ex-prefecture (why the _ex_-prefecture? It seems to me it works just as well as when it was purely and simply a prefecture), was cross-examined there by the citizen delegate Rigault. It must be said that Monsieur Rigault had begun to make himself talked about during these last few days. He is evidently a man who has a natural vocation for the employment he has chosen, for he arrests, and arrests, and still arrests. He is young, cold, and cynical. But his cynicism does not exclude him from a certain gaiety, as we shall see. It was the Citizen Rigault, then, who examined the Archbishop of Paris. I am not inordinately curious, but I should very much like to know what the cynical member of the Commune could ask of Monseigneur Darboy. Having committed apparently but one crime, that of being a priest, and having no inclination to disguise it, it is difficult to know what the interrogatory could turn upon. Monsieur Rigault's imagination furnished him no doubt with ample materials for the interview, and he has probably as much vocation for the part of a magistrate as for that of a police officer. But however it may be, the journals of the Commune record this fragment with ill-disguised admiration.
[Illustration: MONSEIGNEUR DARBOY, Archbishop of Paris.]
"My children"--the white-haired Archbishop of Paris is reported to have said at one moment.
"Citizen," interrupted the Citizen Rigault, who is not yet thirty, "you are not before children, but before magistrates."
That was smart! And I can conceive the enthusiasm with which Monsieur Rigault inspires the members of the Commune. But this excellent citizen did not confine himself to this haughty repartee. I am informed (and I have reason to believe with truth) that he added: "Moreover, that's too old a tale. You have been trying it on these eighteen hundred years."