xxxviii MEMOIR 



the streets in the thick of this rough business, and the boy 

 packed off alone to school in a distant quarter on the very 

 morrow of the massacre. 



They had all the gift of enjoying life's texture as it comes : 

 they were all born optimists. The name of liberty was honoured 

 in that family, its spirit also, but within stringent limits ; and 

 some of the foreign friends of Mrs. Jenkin were, as I have said, 

 men distinguished on the Liberal side. Like Wordsworth, they 

 beheld 



France standing on the top of golden hours 

 And human nature seeming born again. 



At once, by temper and belief, they were formed to find their 

 element in such a decent and whiggish convulsion, spectacular 

 in its course, moderate in its purpose. For them, 



Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, 

 But to be young was very heaven. 



And I cannot but smile when I think that (again like Words- 

 worth) they should have so specially disliked the consequence. 

 The Insur- It came upon them by surprise. Liberal friends of the precise 

 right shade of colour had assured them, in Mrs. Turner's drawing- 

 room, that all was for the best ; and they rose on February 

 28 without fear. About the middle of the day they heard 

 the sound of musketry, and the next morning they were 

 wakened by the cannonade. The French who had behaved so 

 1 splendidly,' pausing, at the voice of Lamartine, just where 

 judicious Liberals could have desired the French, who had ' no 

 cupidity in their nature,' were now about to play a variation on 

 the theme rebellion. The Jenkins took refuge in the house of 

 Mrs. Turner, the house of the false prophets, ' Anna going with 

 Mrs. Turner, that she might be prevented speaking English, 

 Fleeming, Miss H. and I ' (it is the mother who writes) c walking 

 together. As we reached the Kue de Clichy, the report of the 

 cannon sounded close to our ears and made our hearts sick, I 

 assure you. The fighting was at the barrier Rochechouart, a 

 few streets off. All Saturday and Sunday we were a prey to 



