Part Seven
THE EXILE
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R O U D H O N left Paris on the 17th July, and encountered no
obstacles on his journey into exile; he noted particularly that
he did not see a single policeman, and the ease of his departure
suggests that the Imperial authorities may have been pleased to
see him go. Pie was accompanied by a Belgian business man
named Bouquie, who saw him across the border to Tournai and
then returned to Paris to report the safe crossing o f the frontier.
In Brussels Proudhon spent his first night at the home o f a
sin-obsessed engineer, Bouquie’s brother, who made engravings
to illustrate the evils of alcohol and on this occasion entertained
his guest with ‘an incredible quantity o f facts regarding corrup
tion, blackmail, swindling, embezzlement, speculation, etc.,’
which convinced the easily shocked Proudhon that Belgium was
morally as bad as Paris. But, despite this congenial company,
Proudhon decided to go in search o f a room o f his own and
next day he found a lodging in the house o f a garrulously Anglo-
phobe lady in the suburb of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, where he
assumed the name o f Durfort and posed as a professor o f mathe
matics. ‘This does not mean that I count on escaping by means of
this pseudonym from the searches of the police,’ he assured