THE REVOLUTION OF 1848 xxxiii 



home before me and tell the story ; in that case I knew my 

 mamma would go half mad with fright, so on I went as quick as 

 possible. I heard no more discharges. When I got half way 

 home, I found my way blocked up by troops. That way or 

 the Boulevards I must pass. In the Boulevards they were 

 fighting, and I was afraid all other passages might be blocked 

 up ... and I should have to sleep in a hotel in that case, and 

 then my mamma however, after a long detour, I found a passage 

 and ran home, and in our street joined papa. 



1 . . . I'll tell you to-morrow the other facts gathered from 

 newspapers and papa. . . . To-night I have given you what I 

 have seen with my own eyes an hour ago, and began trembling 

 with excitement and fear. If I have been too long on this one 

 subject, it is because it is yet before my eyes. 



' Monday, 24. 



' It was that fire raised the people. There was fighting all 

 through the night in the Rue Notre Dame de Lorette, on the 

 Boulevards where they had been shot at, and at the Porte St. 

 Denis. At ten o'clock, they resigned the house of the Minister 

 of Foreign Affairs (where the disastrous volley was fired) to 

 the people, who immediately took possession of it. I went 

 to school but [was] hardly there when the row in that quarter 

 commenced. Barricades began to be fixed. Everyone was 

 very grave now ; the externes went away, but no one came to 

 fetch me, so I had to stay. No lessons could go on. A troop 

 of armed men took possession of the barricades, so it was sup- 

 posed I should have to sleep there. The revolters came and 

 asked for arms, but Deluc (head-master) is a National Guard, and 

 he said he had only his own and he wanted them ; but he said 

 he would not fire on them. Then they asked for wine, which 

 he gave them. They took good care not to get drunk, know- 

 ing they would not be able to fight. They were very polite 

 and behaved extremely well. 



c About 12 o'clock a servant came for a boy who lived near 

 me, [and] Deluc thought it best to send me with him. We 

 heard a good deal of firing near, but did not come across any of 



