1$ THE COLTON PAPERS. 



unfortunate men had ceased to be an object of fear, they had also ceased 

 to be an object of vengeance. The valour that had effected their defeat, 

 was a sure and certain guarantee that such courage would be accom- 

 panied with clemency. It would seem that this great and magnanimous 

 people, though left to the sole impulse of their own generous hearts, 

 had already prejudged all the circumstances of their case, and, even in 

 the tumultuous moment of victory, had unanimously decided for mercy. 

 T)ie principal body of that confused mass, which once formed an army, 

 took the direction of the road to St. Cloud, and if the slightest spark 

 of hope still remained in any of the adlierents of the Court, it must have 

 been extinguished by the silent tale of total discomfiture, so visible in 

 the forlorn appearance of this shattered band. Their march, or rather 

 their flight, was retarded at times by the feeble resistance of their rear- 

 guard, occasionally facing about, and keeping up a desultory fire, re- 

 turned with vivacity by the people, who harassed their flanks, and con- 

 tinued their pursuit as far as the barrier of the Etoile. Cuirassiers 

 mingled with the gendarmes de chasse, officers grouped with privates, 

 trumpeters and drummers thronged in by dragoons and lancers, some 

 dismounted, others on horses jaded or bleeding, portions of regiments 

 of the line mixed up with the splendid but disordered trappings of the 

 garde royale ; some fainting and breathless from exhaustion, others 

 tendering their feeble help to the. wounded ; the flashes of musketry 

 piercing, at intervals, through the heavy cloud of dust that enveloped them ; 

 the triumphant acclamations of the people ; the melancholy and dejected 

 air of the vanquished, formed altogether a moving picture, which the 

 imagination may conceive, but a true idea of which can be formed only 

 by those by whom it was witnessed. By degrees, and in proportion as 

 the knowledge began to diffuse itself, that quarter would be granted to 

 all that surrendered themselves, this multitudinous and motley mass con- 

 tinued to experience, at almost every step, a diminution of its numbers. 

 Already, in various quarters of Paris, whole bodies of troops, of all arms 

 and descriptions, had thrown themselves, with joint acclaim, into the 

 ranks of the people ; and it was evident, that the fratei'nisation of the 

 whole army, and their adoption of the popular cause, was at hand. 

 Already mutual embraces, and tears of joy and I'apture, certain omens 

 of the triumph of liberty, were exchanging and exchanged. At this 

 moment of generous enthusiasm, hands were joined in the grasp of friend- 

 ship and love, that had, but a moment before, been engaged in the work 

 of mutual carnage and destruction. 



Hurried avi'ay by the current of events, so animating from the uni- 

 form success that attended them, we have not, hitherto, noticed the 

 proceedings of that infatuated family, whose fatal obstinacy gave rise to 

 these scenes of blood. By the culpable silence of those around him, we 

 must charitably hope, that the monarch, on liis tottering throne, was not 

 aware of the dreadful slaughter which rendered Paris, on the Wednes- 

 day, a vast and reeking charnel-house. Those who best knew, in private 

 life, the deposed monarch, testify to the kindness of his natural disposi- 

 tion : but, surrounded by " the curst ungodliness of zeal," his native 

 benevolence was converted into the rigidity of despotism, and, while his 

 subjects were falling in every volley, he was calmly pursuing the plea- 

 fiures of the chase. Far liiifergnt wero the sensations of the uaiiable 



