In 1852, taken refuge in Brussels, Victor Hugo makes publish a pamphlet against Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, more known as Napoleon III, culprit for him to have fomented the coup d'état of December 2nd, 1851. This all-out attack against the Head of State sentences him to a new banishment in the Channel Islands, Jersey and Guernsey, in the course of which it will express its condemnation again in Punishments ", published in 1853. As Victor Hugo was a fervent admirer of the 1st emperor Napoleon, as he despises coldly his nephew, of whom he paints a pitiless portrait: "Louis Bonaparte is a cold, pale, slow, medium-sized(of medium height) man, who seems not to be woken completely" he writes between others.