THE COLTON PAPERS. 351 



other upon the termination of the bloody conflict, when, to the eternal 

 shame of the royal troops be it recorded, the attack was suddenly 

 renewed by them from the windows, upon the amazed and unprepared 

 masses beneath. This base act of treachery, more characteristic of 

 the assassin than the soldier, is only to be accounted for upon the 

 supposition that the officers, ignorant of the victories obtained by the 

 citizens during the morning, still expected the support of the troops 

 in the Louvre and Tuileries, and that they looked upon their pre- 

 tended compact, which enabled them to take their antagonists at 

 disadvantage, as a mere ruse de guerre, perfectly justifiable towards 

 the people, or, as they called them, the canaille of Paris. Dearly 

 however did they pay for their perfidy ; the combat from this mo- 

 ment assumed the character of vindictive animosity unknown at any 

 other period of the three days' contest. The unlooked-for treachery 

 of the enemy had aroused feelings of hatred and fury which blood 

 alone could allay, and accordingly, the war now carried on seemed 

 one of extermination. Both parties exposed themselves unshrink- 

 ingly to destruction ; danger and death were held at nought, while 

 vengeance might be purchased by the sacrifice of existence. The 

 carnage on both sides was frightful. The streets communicating 

 with that portion of the rue St. Honore that stretches from the 

 church of St. Roch to the corner of the rue de Valois were filled 

 with the dead and the dying ; and the rue de Richelieu might lite- 

 rally be said to flow with blood. The walls and the windows were 

 so chequered with bullets, that it must be a matter of surprise how 

 any of the combatants could have escaped. Those of the people who 

 had no muskets were seen snatching them from their disabled or 

 dying comrades, and cheering their last moments with a shout of 

 exultation whenever the fall of a soldier announced that their deadly 

 aim had taken effect. That detachment of the soldiery here en- 

 gaged had not tasted of food for thirty hours ; but even the feeling of 

 hunger was suspended by the more awful anticipation of death. The 

 desperate determination with which the Swiss fought may be in- 

 ferred from the following circumstance. In the rue St. Honore, 

 near the corner of the place du Palais Royal, they had been re- 

 duced to about sixty or seventy men, and they maintained the con- 

 flict in three lines of single files ; the whole of the street in front of 

 them, and many of the contiguous houses, being occupied by the 

 people. In this emergency, the foremost Swiss soldier would fire, 

 or attempt to fire, and would fall, pierced with balls, before he could 

 wheel to gain the rear ; the same fate awaited the next, and so on 

 until all had been sacrificed. Several of the houses occupied by the 

 troops were now broken open, and the combatants fought hand to 

 hand on each flight of stairs and in every room. The Swiss de- 

 fended themselves with appalling bravery : all those who refused 

 to yield fell after a prolonged resistance, and several were killed by 

 being thrown from the windows by the enraged populace. The 

 desperation with which the Swiss maintained the conflict arose from 

 a strong apprehension (warranted, alas! by the example of the 10th 

 of August) that, in case of defeat, all of them would be massacred. 

 But in this instance they had mistaken the magnanimity of the foe 



