234 THE COLTON PAPERS. 



the water carriers and hackney coachmen might be seen busily em- 

 ployed in drawing up and overturning vehicles of the largest size, 

 and in obstructing every communication of street with street, by 

 means of these ponderous and massy impediments. The carpenter 

 went to work in his vocation, and every species of timber, or of 

 scaffolding, was put into immediate requisition, to strengthen and fill 

 up the intervals left in the stockades, and which were alternately 

 completed by the ponderous materials torn up from the streets. Thus 

 it was that the population of Paris, fertile in expedients, and exhaust- 

 less in resource, had, in the course of twelve hours, placed the whole 

 city in so imposing an attitude of preparation, and almost of defiance, 

 that even the practised eye of the most war-worn veteran could 

 hardly have pointed out a blunder, or suggested an amendment. A 

 considerable part of the following day was occupied in completing 

 and strengthening those barricades, on the keeping possession of 

 which the success of the popular cause must chiefly depend. The 

 gigantic efforts of the population of Paris on this night, after such a 

 day, seemed totally to set at defiance the common wants of our na- 

 ture. Their labour was carried on throughout the night no less than 

 the day, impeded at times by repulse, at others invigorated and 

 triumph. Under a cloudless sun, with a thermometer ranging from 

 80 to 90 degrees, exposed to the murderous fire of an artillery dis- 

 charging showers of grape and langridge, neither the enthusiasm of 

 the attack, nor the Herculean efforts necessary for defence, were re- 

 mitted for an instant. All classes, high and low, not excepting ever 

 women and children, assiduously and cheerfully lent themselves tf 

 this most necessary task ; hands, hitherto unused to any species of 

 toil or drudgery, might be seen wielding, for the first time, the shovel 

 and the pickaxe, and zeal was found sufficient to supply the place of 

 strength and of skill. 



From the nature of the barricades, it was evident that one arm of 

 war was rendered from this moment inefficient. The cavalry could 

 no longer act. With respect to another species of force still more 

 formidable, the artillery, every minute was throwing fresh impedi- 

 ments to render its operation less destructive to the populace, and 

 more dangerous to those by whom it was directed. Every voiture 

 and vehicle had been put into requisition, the pavement had been 

 torn up, wine-shops supplying thousands of empty hogsheads, which 

 were filled with the largest stones from the streets, and the majestic 

 trees on the boulevards now fell, to protect that city they had so long 

 adorned. It was evident, from the ingenuity and soldier-like con- 

 struction of these formidable defences, that many survivors of the 

 siege of Saragossa, though debilitated by age, and in the unassuming 

 costume of common labourers, had not been inactive spectators o 

 the scene. 



But, before I entirely withdraw myself from a review of the 

 night of Wednesday, it may be interesting to the reader to be 

 put in possession of the then forlorn and melancholy situation of the 

 royal troops. The setting sun of this day had left the patriots in 

 possession of the far greater part of the city. At eight o'clock 



