1830.] The French Revolution of July, 1830. 255 



The first announcement of the decrees produced universal consterna- 

 tion. No man in Paris had conceived that all the folly of the Bourbons, 

 or all the insolence of a mad ministry, could have been worked up to 

 such a pitch of mingled imbecility and insanity. The public life of the 

 capital was instantly at a stop. Business of all kinds was paralyzed. 

 Men ran in terror, at the impending loss of their property, to sell out of 

 the funds : they found the doors of the offices closed. Merchants and 

 manufacturers sent for their money to the banks. There was not a 

 bank open in all Paris every shop was shut. The streets were soon 

 crowded by the multitude of discharged workmen; printers, whose 

 presses were stopped ; the servants and attendants of the shops, and all 

 in the most extraordinary agitation. The city wore a funereal look, and 

 the multitude strayed through the streets from the morning till the 

 evening, with a look of the deepest depression. The storm was evi- 

 dently at hand. It was soon known that large bodies of troops, the Swiss, 

 the gardes du corps, and artillery, with some regiments of the line, had 

 been ordered under arms, and that 15,000 men were ready to put down 

 the people. 



On Tuesday the catastrophe ripened rapidly. The chief journals 

 refused to publish : three or four of the minor ones published without 

 waiting for the king's licence ; their houses were entered, and their 

 presses destroyed. In one or two instances, resistance was made to the 

 gend'armes, who fired in return, and blood was shed. 



The infatuation and heartlessness of the royal family were conspicuous 

 during this eventful period. There seems to have been no attempt to 

 retract, when it was obvious they could not proceed without massacre. 

 The old king is said to have spent Monday sparrow-shooting, and 

 Tuesday card-playing, even while the roar of the artillery, mowing 

 down his subjects, was in his ears ! 



On Tuesday, it was ascertained that Marmont, the most obnoxious of 

 all the marshals to the people, was appointed commandant of the troops 

 in Paris, and from this it was augured that the most desperate extremities 

 were resolved on. The popular feeling was only the more exasperated. 

 About the middle of the day troops were marched down the Boulevards 

 as far as the gate of St. Denis, and small detachments were posted in 

 the Rue St. Honore, the Place Louis XV., Place Vendome, and other 

 important points. 



On the part of the people the irritation only became more decided ; oc- 

 casional shots were exchanged between them and the troops, and several 

 fell on both sides. The Tuilleries was the head-quarters of Marmont, 

 and he now prepared to clear itsneighbourhood for the night. Crowds 

 had gathered in the Palais- Royal during the day, and troops were sent 

 to clear it early in the evening, as it lies within a few hundred yards of 

 the palace. The first detachment which attempted to drive out the 

 people was considerably opposed, though rather by threats and murmur- 

 ings than any actual resistance. It is said that the officer, a captain, in 

 command of the first patrol, who exhibited some humane unwillingness 

 to fire, was shot by his own subaltern ; and the company falling into the 

 command of this assassin, was instantly ordered to fire, which it did 

 into the crowd. After some tumult, in which pistols were fired by the 

 people at the soldiery, the Palais-Royal was cleared before dusk, the 

 gate closed, and the whole area made a quarter for the troops during 

 the night. 



