THE COLTOM PAPERS. 17 



Duchess de Berry on that eventful day. She was universally beloved 

 by the Parisians ; her numerous charities, and the innocent gaiety of lier 

 disposition, had endeared her to all classes. With feelings that amounted 

 to agony, she distinctly heard the volleying musketry, the booming of 

 the artillery, which rung alike the knell of many a brave citizen, and 

 of lier maternal hope of seeing her offspring on the most brilliant throne 

 of Europe. Unable any longer to endure the torture of suspense, she 

 mounted one of the towers of St. Cloud, and clearly distinguished, by 

 the aid of a telescope, the tri-coloured flag on the public edifices of the 

 city. Struck with consternation, she descended, embraced her children, 

 bedewed them with a mother's tears, and vowed never to be separated 

 from them. On the return of the King from the chase, the last that the 

 roj'al domains of France afforded him, she threw herself at his feet, and 

 implored him, in terms the most energetic, while it was yet time, to 

 change his resolution, if not for the sake of humanity, at least, that he 

 might not, for ever, destroy the splendid destiny that awaited her son. 

 The misguided monarch received her very coldly at first ; but, when he 

 had heard her pleadings, told her that she was a fool, bid her busy her- 

 self about her ball-dresses, while he, an indignant monarch, punished an 

 ungrateful people. 



At this period, not a doubt of the ultimate success of the royal cause 

 could be entertained by the inhabitants of the Court. The verv sup- 

 position, tliat nearly twenty thousand of the finest troops in Europe 

 could be beaten by a mob of citizens, hastily collected, and without 

 arms, was scouted as ridiculous ; — and, although on the very verge of 

 fate, a calm reigned over the palace of St. Cloud : its inhabitants were 

 fully persuaded that tbe morrow would restore tranquillity to the city, 

 and then for the work of vengeance .-' The arrest of many eminent men 

 was decreed, and a council of war summoned, to speedily extirpate the 

 political heresy of many of the liberal peers, the editors of the journals, 

 who had so nobly signed their protest against the Ordinances, and those 

 fearless judges, Messrs. De Belleyme and Genneron, who, from the 

 judicial seat of their respective tribunals, had pronounced their illegality. 

 Musketry and the guillotine were to be the instruments of vengeance ; 

 and dreadful would have been the fate of the proscribed, had not the 

 valour of their fellow-citizens rendered the designs of arbitrary power 

 unavailable. Various and conflicting accounts reached the palace on 

 the morning of Thursday. Tlie mingled roar of musketry and artillery 

 was more tremendous than on the preceding day. Nature had not gar- 

 nished the visible horison with a cloud ; the sun shone with splendid radiance 

 in the blue serene, but over the city, at a low elevation, hung a sulphureous 

 canopy, which a|)pearcd like a funeral pall. To the inliabitants of the 

 surrounding heigiits, it must have liad the appearance of a volcano, sud- 

 denly throwing up its columns of smoke over the edifices it was about 

 to overwliclm. At last arrived the Duke of Ragusa, the master exccu 

 tioner, to whom tiic work of slaugliter had been confided, pale and brealh» 

 less. Reports had preceded him, and he found all in consternation. 

 Tlie Duke of Angoulcme, equally weak in adversity as heedless in pros- 

 perity, was reviewing tlie troops on his arrival ; he had more the air of 

 a suppliant for protection, than the heir apparent to a crown, in the 

 presence of his soldierv. Not a cry of loyalty to his cause was uttered, 

 M.M.— 12. ' C 



