THE COLTON PAPERS. 233 



abandoned their posts in some instances, or had retained them 

 with the greatest difficulty in others. Although much determination 

 was still visible amongst the surviving gendarmerie, the foreign mer- 

 cenaries, and the greater portion of the Garde Royale, yet much 

 hesitation had begun to manifest itself in the line. Three regiments 

 had already shown the greatest reluctance to fire upon the people, 

 and in some instances positively refused ; this circumstance tended 

 very much to increase the confidence of the one party, and the con- 

 sternation of the other. In fact, it might be affirmed that, from 

 this moment, the king possessed only the form and the body, but not 

 the soul or the spirit of an army. The telegraphic communications 

 had been cut off by the citizens, so that no summons for additional 

 troops could be transmitted by that mode. The moral of the troops 

 had been shaken by circumstances more appalling than danger itself ; 

 and the obstinacy with which the people defended their rights, com- 

 bined with the justice of their cause, begot a still stronger disinclina- 

 tion in the soldiery to persist in those murderous measures, which 

 alone could confer victory on their arms, a victory which many of 

 them had begun to contemplate even as more disgraceful than a 

 defeat, because it could only be purchased by the costly sacrifice of 

 whole hecatombs of their countrymen. 



The eventful day of Wednesday had now completely closed, and 

 with the exception of the neighbourhood of the Louvre, where the 

 firing can scarcely be said to have ceased during the night, the streets 

 of Paris were comparatively tranquil, at least they were no longer 

 the scenes of conflict and slaughter. That day however was followed 

 by a night still more glorious. On Wednesday, and even on Tuesday 

 evening, a few barricades had been hastily erected, to arrest the pro- 

 gress of the royal troops, and to afford shelter to the half-armed 

 citizens against their well-appointed antagonists. The powerful utility 

 of this species of defence was evident during the obstinate contests of 

 that day, and gave rise to those measures that have eventually saved 

 France from the excesses of an exasperated soldiery, her citizens 

 from butchery, her liberties from tyranny, and her laws from viola- 

 tion. It was on the night of the 28th that those measures were 

 adopted, which, from the unanimity of their design, the rapidity of 

 their execution, and the ingenuity of their construction, are without 

 a parallel in the annals of history. To do ample justice to the Her- 

 culean prodigies of this eventful night would require the pen of a 

 Livy, and the pencil of a Salvator. Neither the wand of Prospero, 

 nor the lyre of Orpheus, could have produced such rapid combina- 

 tions as now developed themselves throughout the whole of this vast 

 capital. Things inanimate seemed almost to partake of the general 

 enthusiasm, so instantaneous was the movement by which they were 

 rendered subservient to all the necessary purposes either of defence 

 or of aggression. Men of every trade and calling lent themselves, 

 as by one common instinct, to that peculiar department, in this gene- 

 ral division of labour, with which they had been rendered most con- 

 versant by their previous habits and pursuits. The plumber betook 

 himself to the casting of balls; the sawyer to the felling of trees ; the 

 paviour to the throwing up of stones, as materials for the barricades; 



