106 THE COLTON PAPERS. 



amongst the wisest of the sons of men, could have foreseen that this 

 beautiful fabric rested on a volcano, and that the explosion was at 

 hand ? It was, however, at hand, notwithstanding appearances ; and 

 on the memorable morning of Monday, July 26, the capital was 

 suddenly thrown into a state of the greatest alarm and confusion, by 

 the publication of those Royal Ordinances by which, at one blow, 

 the liberty of the press was suspended, the new chamber dissolved, 

 arid the franchise of the electors of the smaller colleges annihilated. 

 For these Ordinances I refer the reader to the Appendix. 

 These melancholy documents, dated from the Palace of St. Cloud, 

 July 25, are already consecrated to history. They form the founda- 

 tion of the most magnificent superstructure ever yet presented to the 

 contemplation of man. 



I shall now proceed to an impartial and unexaggerated detail 

 of those events by which they have been followed. In doing this, 

 I am well aware that I shall have to draw so strongly upon the 

 faith of my readers that, unless fully borne out by the results, I 

 should fear that even the testimony of eye- witnesses might be adduced 

 in vain ; for I may safely challenge the most highly-coloured page 

 of poetry, or romance, to produce any thing equal to the reality of 

 those scenes that have passed before me. The sternest truth seem 

 to have allied herself throughout with the strongest improbability, 

 insomuch that the pen of the soberest narrator cannot but be startled 

 even at the'description of events, which the writer knows to be facts, 

 but which the reader will hardly consider but as fictions. 



Three miraculous days were sufficient to shake to its centre, and 

 ultimately to overturn, the most powerful dynasty of Europe; to 

 throw into a state of dismay, confusion, and rout, an army of twenty 

 thousand men, composed of the flower of the chivalry of France, 

 a force rendered most effective by its discipline, and supported by a 

 numerous train of artillery, flanked by the choicest squadrons of 

 cavalry that the power and the treasure of those by whom this terrific 

 force was wielded could command. All this was effected, in the 

 short space of three days, by a simultaneous and high-souled impulse 

 of a people without arms, without leaders, deprived of all con- 

 sentaneity of system, except that single determination that beat in 

 every breast, and nerved every arm, pouring out as a torrent the 

 whole population, and impelled by one unanimous resolution to 

 conquer or to perish in defence of their liberties and their rights. 

 Under such circumstances life became a secondary consideration, a 

 thing valueless and burdensome if tarnished by) defeat. In attempt- 

 ing to embody these events in my narration, I shall be guided 

 chiefly by the order of time, in which they have occurred. It would 

 be an insult to my readers to burden with my encomium those facts 

 with which all Europe echoes, and which speak sufficiently loud for 

 themselves facts which have converted days into eras, and which 

 have passed before us with such rapidity, that to praise them must 

 be the task of some idler age. To the silent admiration of congenial 

 minds, and the future gratitude of an emancipated posterity, I 

 cheerfully commit them. . Neither can I stop to divert my atten- 

 tion from the pressing interest of the moment, to record those 



