THE THREE DAYS AT PARIS.
BY AN EYE WITNESS.
THE following letter has been addressed to us by an English 0.en- man, of high talent and character, now sojourning in Paris. 'We hesitate not to affirm, that it conveys a more interesting and graphic picture of the wonderful scenes that have been exhibiting there, than any communication on the subject that has hitherto reached England. The writer speaks under the influence of a fine manly feeling: he has observed keenly, and he describes truly. i The letter s not got up by a gentleman of the press, who sits down desperately resolved to fill his sheet. The writer is our friend, not." our correspondent." Neither is he influenced by a desire to appear striking; he does not hunt after effect ; he is con- tent with telling what he knows, leaving truth to produce what effect it may. Paris, August I. Of the singular events of the last three or four days, I shall relate what has been seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears ; it may therefore be acceptable to you at a moment when rumour is busy and on dits fly in swarms. The decision with which his Majesty Tres Chre- tien broke, with one stroke of his pen, the elections, the Charter, and his oath, is doubtless well known on your side of the Channel. The subsequent events are not perhaps so clearly understood as to render superfluous the few particles of information which an individual is able to contribute.
The Ordonnance—the last that will ever be issued in France in mat- ters of national importance—created, as was to be expected, an universal and indignant sensation at Paris, where the result of the late elections had testified that the people were unanimous for the maintenance of the Charter, and where are assembled in one place the largest number of that class of citizens which the Ordonnance was intended virtually to disfranchise. It was towards the evening of Tuesday, July 27th, that a crowd of people of all descriptions, men, women, and children, filled that part of the Rue St. Honore which is nearest the Palais Royal, and testified their feelings by cries of " Vire la Charte !" in the presence of the Guardes Royales. The King's mercenaries replied to these consti- tutional ebullitions, by firing on the people. Reports of the killed and .wounded were many and contradictory. It seemed agreed that the women were among the sufferers ; and the bodies of the slain, trans. ported on the shoulders of the survivors to what had been their homes, was a silent but irresistible exhortation to resistance. I was not pre. sent. The quarter in which I reside is distant from the scene of these murderous ordonnances. . The rumour of what had recently occurred had not yet reached me, when, going into the street, I found the shops universally closed ; shopkeepers, artisans, their wives and daughters, as sembled in groups at the doors, with arms folded and anxious faces.-- unlike the hilarity that usually prevails in these out-of-doors reunions— discussing with great gesticulation some event of serious meaning. The words " tirer sur le people, comme ca," and the mention of the " Gerdes Royales," coupled with the epithet " ladies," gave me to un- derstand the nature of what had passed. The same species of sourd agitation prevailed in every quarter ; everywhere " they shook their heads, And whispered one another in the ear, And he that spoke did gripe the hearer's wrist, Whilst he that heard made fearful action,
With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling eyes."
The next morning presented, with a busier air, the same intense feel- ing windows all fast shut and barred, as in mourning for the slain, or in apprehension of what was to come. Various corps de Garde were re. ported to have been disarmed ; I remarked two or three wonted stations of the military vacant, and individuals peeping into the deserted guard. room. Parties of the Fifteenth Regiment were going quick march through the streets, and were everywhere greeted with acclamations of " Vire la Ligne !"—by which the report that the troops of the line had refused to act offensively against the people, was in some manner con- firmed. A detachment, howerer, of this same Fifteenth, is said to have fired on the people, aud to have suffered in return consider. able loss. .As far as my observation extended, the duties of the Line, on the memorable 28th of July, were purely passive. I saw detachments posted in different places ; but though a soldier was occasionally led off, struck by a chance shot, I nowhere noticed an instance of their return- ing the fire. They stood quietly where they were drawn up, gently keeping back the people, whose curiosity was pushing them too far for their safety, and complaining to the bourgeois who stood near, of the hardship of remaining drawn up, under as hot a sun as I ever felt, with- out meat or drink, the live-long day. Their officers looked pensive, and at every louder report of fire-arms, would shrug their shoulders and cast their eyes up in the way peculiar to Frenchmen.
At ten in the morning, shots were beginning to be frequent ; a symp- tom of open war on the part of the people showed itself in a bonfire at the end of the Rue St. Denis, made of the window-shutters, &c. of M. CHRIS, printer (I believe) of the Quotidienne. I observed soldiers in an old uniform of blue with red facings, belts once white, but now tawny, and rusty firelocks, whom the people cheered heartily with the cry " Vire la Garde Nationale." One or two, by their awkward man- ner of carrying their muskets, or by losing their caps, too big for the heads they surmounted, excited also the mirth of the people. They were repairing towards the Hotel de Ville, which was understood to have been occupied during the night by a strong body of the armed citizens, Parties of the cavalry and lancers galloped up and down ; and occasionally a man was seen to fall backwards in his seat. Parties of the Garde Royale and of the Swiss posted themselves at the corner of the street, where they were out of the reach of the citizens' fire, and advancing by turns fired down the street at any living object perceptible. The people, in like manner, took their opportunities from windows, doorways, and projections ; so that it was a tight on both sides similar to that of Buenos Ayres when entered by the English, and led one to hope a similar re- sult; though, for my part, seeing more of the attack than the defence, I was long apprehensive that the mercenaries would prevail. The ob- stinacy of the defence was not confined to the men ; women and boys are said to have taken their part in the conflict. A patriotic virago, armed with a brace of pistols, enacted prodigies ; and a young man, who distinguished himself in a remarkable manner, has since proved to be of the gentle sex. An officer of lancers is reported to have been killed by a boy of ten, who, with folded arms and a pistol, quietly waited the moment, and shot him dead on the spot. Another, on the approach of the gens d'armes, dived under the horse's belly of the foremost, and, as he rose on the other side, took aim and brought the Goliah to the ground. But these are on dits. I have been told that one of our pre- cious countrymen was found haranguing the people in the Marche aux Innocens, and exhorting them to resistance ; but they, not understand. ing a word of his French, thought he was advising them to submission, and were preparing to handle him accordingly, when a gentleman inter- fered and rescued the orator. Everything available served for weapons of offence—stones, brickbats, lec. ;—there are now in the hospitals some cuirassiers dreadfully burnt by aquafortis thrown on them from the windows.
The day and the firing grew intensely hot together. About two o'clock, I was in the Marche aux Fleurs. A cannon charged with grape- shot, stationed on the neighbouring bridge, was raking the quay and the street adjacent. The troops suffered in turn ; several of the guards were led off killed or wounded. Unlucky bourgeois, who ventured into places exposed to the fire, suffered for their temerity. I saw a student-looking person, who was quietly walking the quay with folded arms, struck dead by a shot from the other side of the river. At the corner of the street where I had posted myself, lay an old man, with his back to the wall, apparently asleep. I wondered to see him rest thus composedly in the midst of the loudest discharges of musketry I ever heard. I looked—a fatal wound was gaping in his breast, and the blood bubbled up—he was dead. About this time I saw perpetrated an act of deliberate murder. On the Petit Pont, near NOtre Dame, is a sort of guard-house, where were assembled a party of disarmed soldiers, conversing quietly together. I had stopped a moment to gather what were their feelings on the occa- sion. One of them was saying, that be for one would never fire where he might have the unhappiness to hit his own father or his own brother. I had not moved far, when something behind drawing my attention, I saw three armed and ill-looking figures on the bridge, one of whom was in the act of adjusting his piece at the party I had left : he fired, and made off. The people ran together to the spot ; and as I got up, they were carrying off, dead, the poor fellow whom I had heard the moment before express himself so humanely. The villain who thus in cold blood murdered a meritorious soldier-citizen, was one of the few armed people At six, finding the Rue St. Denis unobstructed, I traversed that quer- a column, I could with safety observe what was going on. The firing ter of the town, in my way to the Boulevards. The people were carry- at length grew so slack on the part of the besieged, that the assailants ing off in brancards killed or wounded bourgeois ; whilst here and there were emboldened to plant a rude sort of ladder against the building, by. you turned aside to avoid a puddle of blood, or the stark corpse of some which one of the windows was scaled. A moment after, one large body, unhappy veteran that lay covered only by the grey military cloak. It is with sword and bayonet glittering in the sun, forced its way by one gate said that in the pockets of the slain soldiers was found a quantity of of the Louvre, whilst another hastened round and entered by that which money much greater than the private can in ordinary times command ; fronts the river. The enemy fired in his retreat, for a boom ! boom ! which countenances the report that the Garde Royale and the Swiss had resounded from the interior of the court ; and the entering multitude been presented with a gratuity of ten francs a man on the morning of bore precipitately back, and communicated tile panic to such of the spec- the strife—a paternal way of disposing of the taxes paid by the people. tators as had advanced on the Pont des Arts, on the strength of the I noticed a deserted corpse that lay in a corner with a label attached to tri-coloured flag seen waving from a window. I noted the progress of the breast. It was evidently one of the. humblest citizens, and the ad. this flag, accompanied with the waving of hats and swords from window dress was " Rue St. Antoine." Honour to whom it is due ! The to window. The same signal at last announced the occupation of the liampdens who. saved Paris and probably all France from the pater- Tuileries. The people on my side of the water were emboldened to ad- nal ordonnances of his Most Christian Majesty, were the canaille of St. vance along with the flag, till it reached the Pont Royal, across which Antoine, St. Denis, and St. Martin—men whom the chivalrous Sir the spectators ventured, after having been sent back precipitately by WALTER SCOTT would term the " brutal populace of a great town." one or two false alarms. As I traversed the bridge, a flight of papers His " high-born and. high-bred" warriors never achieved a victory more from the windows of the Tuileries that look on the bridge, showed beneficial to mankind. The freedom not only of France, but of all the that the sanctuary of Majesty was in the act of being invaded. Continent, was weighed in the balance against despotism, and prevailed The gate of the gardens was open—I ventured in with the rest. by the efforts of soiled and swarthy artisans. In every street the people The smashing of glass and window-panes gave me to fear that were employed in digging up the large stones with which Paris is paved, the work of destruction was beginning. At last, I found myself and constructing rude barricades, at successive distances of about fifty in the hall of the Tuileries. Men armed and unarmed were rapidly as- paces. In the rough way in which they were then thrown. up, they cending the staircase. I stood hesitating ; the troops had just retired would probably afford little protection ; but nothing can be conceived hastily to the Champs Elysees, and some were still firing on the more effective for the defence of a large open town like Paris, traversed besiegers at one corner of the Carousel. It was like venturing into the in every direction by long narrow streets, overlooked by houses of six, lion's den, with a possibility of his return. A young Frenchman passed seven and eight stories, than such barriers scientifically constructed. me, saying aloud, that it was an occasion not to be let slip. I thought The Boulevards, usually so gay, presented a curious scene of desolation. so too, and mounted with the rest. I beheld vast and magnificent Numbers of fine trees were thrown across the road, and formed green rooms, to which the grandest apartments of new-furnished Windsor barricades, at short intervals. Fiacres and diligences have contributed are not comparable, trod by men armed and unarmed, artisans, to fill up the gaps. The Menageries Royales and Lafitte, Gaillard, and simple blue-frocked peasants, who had never, except as workmen per. Co.; were never before so honourably employed. Not a single lamp gave lisps, set foot on floors parguetee and cires before. The most private its light in support of the fading day ; (a lamp, indeed, was nowhere recesses of royalty were laid open to the vulgar gaze. I observed A party extant in Paris—all were demolished the preceding night) ; and the cafés, curiously examining the toilette-table of a splendid bed-chamber, under. in happy times brilliant with reflected lustres, were closely bolted and stood to be that of S. A. R. Madame la Duches.se de Berry. Her per- barred. On my return, I was at a loss to regain the bridge. I had lost. fumed soaps were submitted in turn to sundry noses, and the other par. my way in the dark, somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Rue St. ticalars of a lady's toilette were scrutinized, with various reflexions. The Honore ; and " on ne passe pas ici," or " on tire par ici," called out state-bed, with its rich silken draperies, were gazed on by profane eyes, from windows above, did not contribute to remove my perplexity, more and touched by profane hands. In my progress through the apartments, particularly as these friendly warnings were occasionally enforced by a I remarked the originals of several well-known prints. There was shot fired at the other end of the street. I observed several groups of LOUTS Seize distributing alms on a winter's day, on one side of the room, four or five sans-culottish figures, lurking with fusils at the corners of and on the other gazing on a map of the world. There too was Louis streets to get a shot at some neighbouring post of the military. At length, Dixhuit, a crafty old gentleman, reposing in his arm-chair, and perfectly bewildered in a part of the town with which I am not well ac- looking at once, as as a soldier termed him to an English party M 1814, gummed, I had recourse to some of the musket-men for information, "both the pere and the mere of his people." These were portraits that and before I succeeded in extricating myself, was obliged to inquire my awakened no animosity. But in the Salle des Marechaux, one portrait way some five or six times. These figures of ill omen gave me the —only one—was no sooner seen than it was torn out of the frame and best possible directions, though vulgar gossip had infected me with an rent in tatters. It was " Raguse"—the "double traitor illarmont." idea that the English were in extremely bad odour. A rough fellow The vast magnificent apartment with the throne, the state bed-chamber with a musket, who had cried " Qui va la!" and rudely pushed me of majesty, the royal cabinet, were successively explored. On the floor back without waiting an answer, replied, on my asking if he would not of the latter, they scattered sundry fragments of books and half-torn allow his friends to pass, that I might go on if I pleased, and be shot for papers. I picked up two at hazard : one was in print, the other menu. my pains. A bystander undertook to put me on my way, and observed, script : both relatekto priests ; it was a sors Virgiliana, that told the as we crept along the bottom of the Rue St. Honore, that the English character of the imbecile Monarch, his folly, and his fate. I was more were perfectly safe at Faris, though he had heard they themselves curious to observe the conduct of the multitude on the occasion, than in considered it an insecure residence. There is one thing that might quisitive after the details of sumptuous and costly royalty. The thought render it unpleasant at least—if the British Ambassador, consulting the that first led me into the Tuileries was this: I will go in with the rest, etiquette that prescribes a residence aupres du Rol more than the interests that there may be at least one impartial evidence of the conduct of a of his fifteen thousand countrymen, should leave Paris to rejoin CHARLES French mob under circumstances of strong temptation and peculiar Dix at Compeigne or St. Cloud, or wherever else this second JAMES the aggravation. I cannot say that I observed a single act of downright Second is at present in hiding. I have not heard what the Ambassadors plunder. One or two men, whom I remarked looking up and down a intend to do. The Prussian and Austrian will not improbably act as solitary apartment, wore that sinister air which betokens an intend. ed becomes the envoys of despotism ; but a British Ambassador, under the unlawful appropriation. But this was only surmise ; they took nothing liberal WILLIAM, whose Parliamentary speech has conciliated even the whilst I remained. An elderly artisan, who had picked up some trifling French, in spite of " Vilainton," ought to know that his place is with matter, and had apparently been charged therewith by some of his corn- the upholders of constitutional government, and not with the violators rades, was exclaiming loudly against their injustice, and drawing a
of oaths oaths and charters. tinction between the appropriation of something byway of memmeal, Reports of fire-arms continued to. be heard from time to time till mid- and the baseness of plundering. Neither was the spirit of destruction
-1 saw moving about in the quarters unattacked. The inhabitants for night ; which, with. the deep knell of the tocsin that sounded at inter- the most part stood with folded arms and pale faces, listening to the re. vats, were threatening intimations that the mischief only slumbered till related bursts of fire-arms and explosions of artillery, that seemed to day-light. lxi fact,, at four o'clock the business was as brisk as eves; threaten the subversion of the city. Occasionally an honest man, with and the firing became again, and continued for hours, loud and ince*, -11 musket on his shoulder, was heard indignantly exclaiming—" Three sant ; but with what success on either side, was not clear, till, on issuing days age, and all was peace ; we bad trade, commerce, security;—the from the Hotel, a scene that was passing in the adjacent Place, plainly elections over—the Chambers on the point of meeting--everywhere obe- told that the cause of the oppressed was triumphant. Two or three bo- dience to Government : and now" .... the loud roar of a cannon filled dies of citizens were drawn up in something like order, armed with gun
up the pause, and answered more emphatically than words. and bayonet, pike, sabre, or bludgeon, haying each a tri-coloured flag
What was passing in the precincts of the Hetel de Vile could only at its head. Among these I observed some muskets, not rusty like the be conjectured. That it was vigorously assailed and as stoutly main. rest, but bright and in good condition. This was a favourable omen. Mined, was clear from the rapidity of the discharges. The fire of the But a transaction going on in a corner of the Place was convincing. defenders from the upper parts of the building was loud on the air, A detachment of the Garde Royale were busily handing out from their whilst the deeper boom ! boom ! of the cannon thundered from below. caserne, muskets to the populace below. Twenty hands grasped at each It appears that the Hdtel de .Ville, which was the headquarters of the in succession. It affected me somewhat to see stout veterans taking the Eght on the 28th,, was won and lost more than once during the day. I bayonet from their sides, to deliver it to striplings that had clambered. have since examined the scene of conflict. The façade of the Hotel de up to the window, then, with hands pressed on their breasts, protest- Vile, and the front of the opposite houses, particularly one at the ex- ing in dumb-show to the still unsatisfied multitude; that more were not tremity of the Rue Is Vannerie' attests, by many a star, the smartness forthcoming. An officer from a window above, with a face worn with of the engagement. The Ports St. Martin and St. Denis, the Rue St. fatigue, looked down on the transaction. When I considered that the Honore, ere. bear the like honourable testimony to the valour of the armed men below were in number sufficient to exterminate the whole. Parisian populace. The firing waxed hotter and more hot, till five ; detachment, it was no slight indication of a moderate spirit, that no after which it began to slacken. The Swiss, I believe, had got posses- violence was offered to disarmed soldiers, who the day before had been sion of the Betel de Ville ; whence, however, they were driven on the firing on the friends and brothers of the multitude.
following morning. I had retreated to my hotel in compliance with the The tri-coloured detachments moved off, headed by young men of the. friendly remonstrance of an officer of the Line, who, finding me perched Ecole Polytechnique, and preceded by a cart conveying sundry barrels on an eminence and gazing with all my eyes, demanded what my friends of powder. The Louvre was understood to be their destination. In, would say if I got myself killed " par curiosit6." This warning was fact, the troops having been dislodged from the Hotel de Ville, had reinforced by the sitgetnen6 of some passing bullets. The music of found it necessary to evacuate the quarters they had occupied the CHARLES the Twelfth may sound pleasant enough in the ears of men day before in St. Denis, St. Martin, St. Antoine, and retire to the with muskets in their hands, but is worse than the screaking of a Louvre, which, in its turn, was fiercely attacked by the people, who saw in unprofessional ears. Whilst at dinner, at a considerable distance fired from the Pont Neuf, and the quays and streets fronting either side from the scene of action, we were alarmed by the whizzing of three or of the building. The facade of the Institute testifies that the besieged four successive balls, which flew over the house, and had probably been of to-day and the besiegers of yesterday were not idle. I found a station fired from cannon pointed at the Hotel de Ville. nearly fronting the Louvre, in a sort of piazza, where, ensconced behind abroad. It is true, the silk curtains,. whose couleur rouge stimulated the beholders, were not respected, The armed men were busy hewing them with their swords into portions convenient to wear as scarfs, and several had already arrayed themselves in this one of the three popular co- lours. Chandeliers were also a little damaged : but this was dere in.
advertently, by men carrying musket and bayonet with too little defer- ence to those superb ornaments. The simplicity of a blue-frocked pea- , sant had nearly caused the destruction of the plate glass which fills one of the large compartments at the end of the throne-room He waswalk- . ing hastily along, as through an empty door-way, and seemed not a little astounded at being violently repelled by what had appeared to him empty
space. " The only instance of plundering I witnessed, was one of the least reprehensible, though in its consequences likely to have proved the most pernicious. His Majesty's private stock of wines had been dis- covered : the day was hot—every throat was parched. I myself had a little before envied a draught of the Seine water, which a man was lading round in a wooden bowl to the droughty conquerors of the Louvre. The bottles were no sooner detected, than, without the trouble of draw- ing corks, they were decapitated, and the rich contents poured down the throats of grimy citizens, in such continuous streams as threatened the subversion of what intellect the bottle-drainer possessed. I cannot, how- ever, be severe on a fault in which I participated. The temptation prof. fered me by a polite tri-coloured warrior, who presented me with a bottle he had just broached, was not to be resisted on a day when every thing exhorted to drink. It was some of the finest Madeira I ever tasted. In another room, I remarked other partisans busily satisfying the cravings of an insatiable thirst ; but not always with equal good for- tune. An individual who had impatiently knocked off the head of a bottle, and poured into his mouth as much as his wide capacity could contain, spit it out again with a wry face and many and vehement exclamations of disgust. I examined the label on the bottle—it was ve- ritable eau de Seidlits ! I consoled the unfintunate craftsman, like Lu- dovico in the Mysteries of Udolpho, by telling him the good wine was serving out in the next room. I left the Tuileries with much admi- ration of the little mischief I had seen done, but with great appre- hension of what might ensue from the inordinate gratification of an unappeasable thirst. This feeling was so strong in me, that I could not help expressing it to the most respectable and authoritative-looking per- son I saw in the Carousel, and observing on the desirableness of a guard to prevent the consequences to be apprehended from the gentlemen who were drinking to the King's departure in his Majesty's apartments. He shrugged his shoulders ; the National Guards were busy firing in the direction of the Palais Royal ; and the multitude, in the mean time, must remain guard at the Tuileries, and drink ad libitum. In fact, his Majesty's good wines did their duty on his Majesty's good subjects, and much disorder was the consequence ; but no irreparable mischief has been perpetrated. The like good fortune had not Archeveche. Though nothing was carried off, everything was destroyed. But then the priests were the capital enemies of the people ; the higher orders have been instigating the King, and the lower preaching down the interests of the people. Moreover, their conduct on the '28th had savoured too much of the church militant, though luckily it did not turn out the church triumphant. The people had been fired on from the Archereche. and a stand of arms discovered in the state apartment. The people, however, carried the point of honour so high as to shoot on the spot two or three mauvais skids who had taken to plundering. An unlucky lad, also, who had picked up the Archbishop's chair, as it floated down the Seine, in which all his meubles were emptied, and was parading it up and down in triumph—" Voici la chaise de Monseigneur l'Archeveque i" is said to have had his pains rewarded by a shot from some ultra righte- ous patriot. A friend of mine saw the dirty sentinel, who was doing duty at one of the doors of the Tuileries, stop a greasy fellow who was escaping through with a porcelain vase under his coat. "Rolla, stop there," cried the man of the rusty pike; " what is that you have got there, friend ?"--" Nothing but what's my own," was the reply. "What !" returned the sentinel, "would you have me believe that a fellow with a coat like yours ever possessed un meuble comae fa ?"—" Va- t-en," added be, taking the vase and consigning it to safer hands. In short, whatever may have been the character of the Parisian popu.. lace after long habits of insurrection, and after a series of revolutions that had thrown the dregs of society uppermost, it is certain that a com- bat was never waged with more virulence on the part of the Government, and with less ill-blood onthe part of the populace, than the memorable contests of the 28th and 20th of July. I have seen wounded soldiers of the Guard led off with as much care as wounded bourgeois, and in no instance has vengeance been carried into massacre, however great the provocation. The residue of the troops, refuged at Bois de Boulogne, have been daily approached by portions of the citizens, inviting them to return, and assuring them of oblivion. There can be little doubt that the few troops, three or four thousand, which still keep aloof, will either yield to the invitations of the Gouvernement Provisoire and the people, or melt away and disperse ; more particularly as the ex-King, after shed- ding some natural tears, has, it is said, betaken himself towards Lisle. It has been reported, that a priest, the wealthy cure of I forget what parish, has been assassinated. This may be false; MARMONT was re- ported and even placarded shot by a soldier of the Line, and I myself have heard a soldier declare be knew the man who killed him ; yet Mae arosrr lives to do what mischief he can. But if the priest's murder be true, there is one more murderer in Paris. I can testify to the ex- istence of the other. They even say that an attempt was made by some villains to fire the Foundling Hospital. These are incendiaries. All these are to be found in much greater numbers in London even in times the most peaceful. The priests have dressed themselves en bourgeois, and they have done wisely—it is needless daring the bull with a red rag ; yet, on the tremendous day of the 28th, I saw a priest quietly promenading the crowded street in full costume, and he was neither shot nor stoned ; and on this day (Sunday) the priests are very generally offi- ciating as usual in the churches, and I have not yet heard of their being Massacred at the altar. But to return. I hastened from the Tuileries to LAFITTE'S, where I understood the Deputies were in deliberation. Crossing the Rue St. Honore, I saw the fire given and returned in quick succession from the Palais Royal, which was still held out by a party of the troops. Bands of armed Citizens, with the tri-coloured flag, paraded the streets with a stately step and a pmud. air. . They were enjoying the triumph ; and if they were of the ntim'ler of those that fought. on the 28th and 29th, they well deserved that harmless gratification. The crowd assembled at LAFITTE'S seemed to await patiently the opening of the gates. Drums were at last heard heating in the interior ; the gates were thrown open ; and a regiment, headed by its officers, began to issue forth. It was the Fifty- third of the Line, upwards of a thousand strong, as fine a regiment as I ever saw. It had been to receive its orders from the Gouvernement Provisoire. Every face was radiant with joy. The soldiers eagerly ex. tended their hands to the people, who on their side grasped them with like cordiality. The officers were cheered, and returned the cheers with expressions of good-will. I was glad to see this. Small parties of the- Fifteenth were going about with the air of men conscious of a fault, and with the subdued look characteristic of the disarmed soldier. It seemed to me better that the troops of the line should act with the people, than merely surrender their arms ; which, if well employed, were better in disciplined hands than in those of volunteers however zealous. Paris is at this moment entirely under the protection of the National Guard, parties of whom promenade it incessantly. . The first rank muster generally some five or six completely equipped soldiers ; the rest have donned a belt over their every-day clothes. Sometimes a bat, sometimes a casquet, sometimes the furred cap of a fallen guardsman, surmounts the head of a figure, half soldier, half artisan, or, as a man was heard to designate them, " soldat-laboureur." They do their duty vigilantly, however, though a martinet might be offended with their mode of marching. It is astonishing how soon a Frenchmen is converted into a soldier. When on the night of the 27th I saw the battalions of powerful guardsmen, the squadrons of lancers and cavalry, rendevouzed on the Carousel, with all the imposing apparatus of war, I had misgivings. I thought brutal force was about to accomplish what the worse brutality or cabinet-men had begun. Yet these battalions, these squadrons, this im- posing military force, has been baffled, beaten back, ultimately put to flight, by artisans armed with whatever weapon they could lay hands on, and aided only by their position in narrow streets and lofty houses. This consoling fact is now on record—that regular troops may be resisted suc- cessfully by citizen-soldiers, that have the good sense to avail themselves of whatever defences their streets and habitations may afford, instead of rushing, after the manner of John Bull, tite baissee in the jaws of danger. Since these agitating events, 1 have never known Paris more tranquil and sociable. A recommendation from the Gouvernement Provisoire, to the bons citoyens to supply the absence of the lamps with lights in their windows, has led to general illuminations on the nights of the 30th and 31st. The cafes are full, the shops re-opened, the street reunions out of doors are again renewed, and the .72,re de famille enacts Sir Oracle to his surrounding femelks. The tri-coloured favour is universally worn, by our countrymen as generally as by the rest, and the tri-coloured flag floats everywhere. The Duke d'OnLEasrs is proclaimed Lieutenant- General of the kingdom, and everybody waits in peace the opening of the Chambers.
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