EARLY RECOLLECTIONS. 5 



There was nothing for it but to endeavour to reach 

 it and get shelter as soon as possible. Our hired 

 carriage was seized by the insurgents, and we were 

 politely but firmly ordered away the carriage 

 being wanted to add to a barricade. There was 

 a good deal of firing going on between the troops 

 and the mob all round. I remember noticing the 

 blue marks made by the bullets which struck the 

 pavement, and the appearance of wounded men 

 slowly trickling out of the fight. Being foreigners, 

 we were not molested, but rather assisted on our 

 way by the mob, and at last reached the corner 

 of the Rue de la Paix, but found it impossible to 

 get to our quarters in the Place Vendome, where 

 a furious battle between the Royal Guards and 

 the mob was just beginning. 



In spite of the surrounding terrors, any number 

 of heedless gamins were mixed up with the com- 

 batants, and seemed to enjoy the hubbub im- 

 mensely although every now and then one of 

 them would fall from a shot, and die murmuring a 

 farewell to his mother, who is much more sacred 

 to the average Frenchman than " le bon Dieu " 

 himself. Our party came in for lots of chaff from 

 these gamins, and Kemble, who, like Saul, towered 



