114 THE COLTON PAPERS. 



up. In this work of obliteration they were zealously assisted by 

 many individuals of respectability. With respect to the mass of the 

 citizens, defiance beamed from every eye, and the confident bearing 

 and cheerfulness of their movements afforded an ominous contrast 

 to- the gloomy and dejected countenances of the soldiers, who, with 

 a feeling that did them honour, evinced any thing but alacrity in 

 commencing that disgusting species of warfare in which they were 

 about to be engaged. Even the troops of the line were taken by 

 surprise on this occasion ; they had not given the people credit for 

 a tithe of the spirit and enterprise they were now exhibiting, and 

 they felt in these exertions a foretaste of that skill and obstinacy 

 with which they were about to be attacked. It was soon suggested 

 to the people, by written placards, that the opera-houses and other 

 theatres contained stores of arms, that might be rendered available 

 for the national service. This hint was no sooner given than 

 adopted and acted upon. The theatres opposed little if any resist- 

 ance, and an immense quantity of muskets and other arms were 

 obtained. Bands of citizens immediately surrounded the shops and 

 houses of the armourers, cutlers, and sword-smiths, where they 

 without ceremony helped themselves to every species of offensive 

 weapon which these private depots of arms could supply. The 

 Museum of Artillery, which is situated near the church of St. Thomas 

 d'Aquin, and contains specimens of every implement which the in- 

 genuity of man has invented for the destruction of the species, 

 many suits of antique armour, two-handed swords, bucklers, lances, 

 pikes, spontoons, halberds, faulchions, battle-axes, maces, as well as 

 matchlocks, petronels, and every other species of fire-arms, all 

 these were pressed into the common service; and weapons which, 

 since the battle of Pavia, had remained in inglorious disuse, again 

 mingled in the bloody affray, to assert that liberty which too often, 

 it is to be feared, they had assisted in suppressing. Boys of fifteen 

 might be seen tearing off the buttons of their fencing-foils, and 

 whetting the points upon the pavement ; and the execution done by 

 these young noviciates, and the address and courage universally 

 displayed by them, were worthy of the glorious cause in which they 

 were embarked. 



An important circumstance now occurred that gave additional 

 strength and confidence to the people, and still more augmented the 

 signs of hesitation and unwillingness, that at this period an acute 

 observer might detect in the troops. A short address, evidently 

 written in the hurry of the moment, but conceived in very animating 

 terms, appeared upon the walls ; it was an appeal to the Parisians 

 from the National Guard, which, it announced, would be imme- 

 diately organized, and that the inhabitants of Rouen were marching 

 upon Paris to join the glorious cause. The National Guard, that 

 numerous and formidable phalanx of brave and respectable citizens, 

 whom the administration of Villele had dismissed and disgraced; 

 these men, with arms in their hands, and in full military equipment, 

 could not any longer be passive or inactive spectators of the spirit- 

 stirring scene before them. They came to this important decision 

 in the silence of the night. One common feeling had electrified 



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