THE COLTON PAPERS. 115 



the whole of Paris ; all was agitation, excitement, and hope. Those 

 therefore who had been members of the National Guard, deter- 

 mined to be no longer in retard of the general movement. With a 

 patriotic ebullition of sentiment now become epidemic, they vowed 

 that they would, by their own act and free will, reconstitute them- 

 selves, and, on the morrow's dawn, throw their powerful aid into 

 the scale of those youthful patriots, whose abodes were at this mo- 

 ment ringing with the din of preparation that chided their delay. 

 Now it was that the matrons of France might justly rank themselves 

 by the side of those that adorned the brightest era of Sparta or of 

 Lacedaemon. It has been said that there can be no virtue where 

 there is no sacrifice ; at what price then shall we rate the virtue of those 

 heroines who freely offered up, at the shrine of their country, in its 

 hour of need, all that made it desirable, in order to purchase all that 

 made it honourable to live ? At this trying moment they promptly 

 encouraged their husbands and their sons not to shrink from this 

 resolve, but to aid, by their number and their discipline, a struggling 

 people, combating at fearful odds, but a people worthy of their 

 assistance, and of whom they formed so essential a part. Scenes of 

 the most touching heroism, and of an enthusiasm as pure as it was 

 devoted, now took place in the bosoms of their families. The Na- 

 tional Guard had not forgotten the insolent mode of their former 

 dismissal, but there was at present a calmness in the demeanour of 

 all concerned, peculiar to those alone who have a consciousness of 

 their strength, and a confidence in their cause. Theirs was not the 

 fanaticism of 1789, inflamed by passion, or inspired by revenge; it 

 was a love of liberty, founded on reason, and confirmed by reflection. 

 If it was not without deep deliberation that these men resolved to 

 pass the Rubicon of forbearance, their subsequent conduct has proved, 

 that what is determined on with coolness is usually defended with 

 courage. In pursuance of the above resolution their efforts were 

 simultaneous and unanimous : it was immediately announced through- 

 out the whole of Paris, and as soon as it was possible for a junction 

 to take place, they were, for the most part, assembled in mass and 

 ready for action. 



The pupils of the Polytechnic School, a class of young men de- 

 scended frohi the most respectable families, and, from the nature of 

 their education, no strangers to the rudiments of warfare, but, on 

 the contrary, exercised as part of their studies, in every varied mode 

 of attack and defence, rushing in one body from the restraints of 

 their preceptors and the labours of the academy, determined to seize 

 so glorious an opportunity of converting theory into practice ; and 

 these young men, during the whole of the subsequent conflict, formed 

 one of the most valuable acquisitions that could have possibly been 

 added to the popular cause. They entered into the contest both 

 with head and with heart; and their coolness in design, and their 

 courage in execution, afford a sufficient guarantee to France, that, 

 while she possesses a nursery of such talent in the rising generation, 

 she has little to fear from her enemies. These young men, for the 

 most part, took upon themselves the office of leaders of the different 



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