1J6 THE COLTON PAPERS. 



bands or companies of the 'people, as the circumstances of the mo T 

 merit might render most advisable ; they were constantly to be seen 

 leading every movement, and steady in the midst of danger : at one 

 time, by their example animating those who were backward; at an- 

 other, checking those whose rash and intemperate hardihood exposed 

 them to unnecessary destruction. 



Nothing at this moment was more remarkable than the sudden 

 and complete change, both of scenes and of sounds, which this great 

 city now presented. A total stagnation of all business had taken 

 place every shop was shut up and barricaded, houses converted into 

 fortresses, and windows, like the embrasures of a castle, presented 

 nothing but armed men and the muzzles of their muskets. Without 

 having witnessed the scene, it is impossible to convey to the mind 

 of the reader an idea of the awful impression produced by the 

 solemn stillness, so unusual at noon day in a large capital a still- 

 ness produced by the absence of every kind of wheel-carriage, a 

 stillness rendered still more appalling by that which alone disturbed it 

 discharges of musketry or cannon the desultory firing of individuals 

 on the one hand, and the volleying of the fusillades from the dis- 

 ciplined platoons of the military on the other. In whatever part of 

 Paris an observer had been placed, it must now have appeared to 

 him that the war was raging on all sides around him, and that he 

 himself was the centre of the circle of conflict. 



It was about the noon of this day that divers patroles began to 

 multiply and thicken on the Boulevards St. Antoine. These pa- 

 troles, in detachments of about one hundred men, occupied and 

 cleared, for a time, the whole space of these Boulevards ; while the 

 people took refuge in the adjoining alleys and streets, cheering each 

 other with repeated cries of Vive la Liberte ! Vive la Charte ! The 

 population of this quarter were now still more inflamed by the report 

 of repeated fusillades, appearing to come from the neighbourhood 

 of the Rue St. Honore. At one o'clock, repeated discharges of 

 musketry, the roll of the drum, and the confused shouts of the multi- 

 tude, announced that a desperate struggle had commenced. Crowds 

 were seen hastening to this spot, with a speed that indicated their 

 courage, and with countenances breathing revenge; a tumultuous 

 mass, in which those who had arms were mingled with those that 

 had none. In this quarter the fusillade, proceeding both from files 

 and platoons, and returned by an obstinate but intermitting fire from 

 the people, had continued about an hour, when from the rush of 

 numbers hastening from the vicinity of the Place de la Bastille, and 

 concentrating themselves as they proceeded, it was discovered that 

 an obstinate combat was going on at the Porte St. Denis and on the 

 Boulevard St. Martin. Furthermore, it was remarked that at this 

 particular and interesting moment some of the troops of the line had 

 begun to waver, and had shown a disposition to disobey the ministe- 

 rial orders. But the corps of the Garde Royale continued their 

 work of destruction, perhaps not without remorse, but still without 

 cessation, firing not only on the masses of the people, but into every 

 window that was open. Subsequent details, however, have convinced 



