THE COLTON PAPKRS. IS 



3d of August." The marshal admitted that, as a citizen, he might not 

 disapprove, but even participate in the opinions of the deputies ; never- 

 theless, as an officer, he had received his orders, and would execute them ; 

 he would, however, engage to lay the propositions before the King, 

 in the space of half an hour. " But, moreover, gentlemen," added the 

 marshal, "if you wi.?h to have a conference on this subject with the 

 Prince de Polignac, he is at hand, and I will go and ask him if he can 

 receive you." In a quarter of an hour the marshal returned, and inform- 

 ed the deputies that the Prince considered that the nature of the conditions 

 proposed rendered a conference useless. " There is then a civil war," 

 answered M. Latfitte. The marshal bowed, and the deputies withdrew. 



It would appear, however, that the conditions thus peremptorily re- 

 jected by the President of the Council, were not so unpalatable to his 

 master, for, on the same evening, the IMarquis de Pastoret, Chancellor of 

 France, !M. de Semonville, grand referendary, and the Count d'Agnault, 

 a peer of France, arrived at the Hotel de A'ille, to announce that his 

 majesty^had appointed the Duke de Mortemart to the post held by Polig- 

 nac, and to declare that he would accept any ministry he might select, 

 and withdraw the fatal ordinances ; — but that which would have been 

 accepted in the morning with gratitude, it was now too late to ofier, 

 and the reign of Charles the Tenth had, from that moment, virtually 

 closed. 



There are many other brilliant exploits conjoined with this brief era 

 of prodigies, but of a minor and less important character : among which 

 may be named, the storming of the archbishop's palace, and gallant 

 attacks upon several strongly-guarded public buildings; but, as these afl'airs 

 are more or less connected with anecdotes of personal prowess and 

 traits of individual magnanimity, an account of them will be reserved 

 for a subsequent part of our narrative. — At four o'clock on the evening 

 of this glorious day, the awful question of victory might be said to be 

 decided, and the battle won. At this triumphant moment, we might, 

 without a solecism, affirm that the Parisians had taken Paris ! Words 

 of brief but most portentous import, involving no less a consequence than 

 this, whether that city, the emporium of such treasures of science and 

 chefs d'uuvre of art, a city so heroically rescued from the grasp of 

 tyranny by its inhabitants, should, henceforward, be tenanted by free- 

 men or by slaves. 



We will now proceed to give a rapid sketch of the aspect, crest-fallen 

 and forlorn, which the troops exhibited at this particular moment. 

 Three days of fatigue and ]nivation, of peril and of havoc, had consum- 

 mated their work. Of all that formidable array of splendour and of 

 strength, of )iomp and of power, nothing but a wreck remained. These 

 brave, but misguided victims of an authority both insolent and imbecile, 

 were broken down and frittered into numerous small parties of fugitives, 

 presenting motley groups, composed of fragments of different regiments 

 whom chance or accident had thrown together ; many of these fugitives 

 were without arms or equipments, and many more in disguise, but all 

 of them in full, but disorderly retreat, occupied by one solitary hope, 

 and actuated but by one consideration, the preservation of theij lives. 

 Tlii.s hope was realized ! and it was a spectacle most exhilarating to the 

 best feelings of our nature, to observe, that the moment these brave but 



