were broken; and the mob took advantage of the darkness to plunder the shops of the gunsmiths. Towards half-past eleven, however, all was tranquil; and the Duke of Ragusa commanded the troops to retire to their quarters. In many parts of the city, however, the chiefs of the revolt established barricades during the night, without any interference on the part of the police. On the dawn of Wednesday, the 28th, a furious mob destroyed the royal emblems; and even the bust of the King was thrown down and trampled upon. Several corpses were carried about the most populous quarters of the city, to excite the people. Not a single attempt was made to support the laws. All those individuals in high place, who had so often all vaunted their readiness to die for the throne, hid themselves. The Prefect of Police fled on Wednesday morning, before the great disasters: his agents concealed themselves; all the machinery of government seemed to stop. The magistrates seemed to have lost even the thought of doing their duty, and all civil authority was gone. In this conjuncture the ministers assembled at the Tuilleries; and, instead of repairing, according to custom, on Wednesday, to St. Cloud, to hold a council, they announced their situation to the King. The King, deserted by the civil function

aries, could only have recourse to military law. He declared the capital in a state of siege, and gave the command to Marshal Marmont. This news arrived at Paris at eleven o'clock on Wednesday morning.

It is proper to state here, that the Marshal frankly communicated to the Minister the insufficiency of the troops at his disposition; and taking into consideration the attitude the conspirators had now assumed, a prompt demonstration appeared to him the only means to repress the tumults, and prevent greater evils. He, moreover, had some misgivings as to the cordial co-operation of the troops of the line, whom he knew to have been tampered with.

The paucity, I should better say the nullity, of the precautions taken on this occasion, afford a strong but most lamentable proof that Polignac anticipated no resistance, and that his master did not contemplate any violation of the charter. Marmont, though designed for the command since the 21st, was only apprised of this duty on Monday morning; and was only aware of the Ordonnances the same day through the Moniteur. His Aide-major, M. de Choiseul, on Sunday requested leave to pass the next day in the country, having just married the daughter of an Irish peer. "Oh!

stop till Tuesday," replied the Duke. M. de Champagni, chief Clerk of the War Department, and who now fulfilled the duties of that post under the Dauphin and Polignac, was also in the country, and also only learnt the Ordonnances through the Moniteur. Nay, he was not even summoned to town, but hastened to his post from his own impulse. There required only a turn of the telegraph to summon thirty thousand men to Paris; and there were only in all from five to six thousand.

Not that I believe that a greater force was necessary, had that force been properly employed

not that any rational man could have wished that more troops should have been introduced into the city, only to have produced more carnage; but had a powerful force been from the first posted round Paris, and not in it, no blood whatever would have been shed, at least, in conflict between the troops and the people. The passions of the populace, excited by the dread of famine, would probably have risen against the real authors of their sufferings, and been enlisted on the side of authority and of government. It is undeniable that Paris can never hold out three days. A Parisian is a hero, but his heroism must be supported by a due supply of café au lait.

Undeniable evidences of a premeditated and formidable conspiracy were discovered on the persons arrested on the 28th; - tickets of secret societies, which intimated an extensive organisation, and pointed out the allotted rallying points; printed orders of the day, where the different manoeuvres necessary were communicated with precision, the construction of barricades,— the mode of engaging the troops without risk, by firing from windows, and all the other arrangements of war in the street. No kind of detail was forgotten or neglected in these orders. They proved the existence of a plan long matured and meditated, and the military experience of its authors. The most unanswerable proof that the affairs of the three glorious days were not occasioned by the Ordonnances is, that since the events, the long previous services of the conspirators have been in numerous instances urged as claims for places under the government they established, and have been toasted with acclamations at clubs and commemorative festivals. Away, then, with the absurd story that passes current in England, of the spontaneous resistance to the tyrannical Ordonnances. The whole affair was a conspiracy, which primarily struck at the throne of the Bourbons, but which was directed, in the second and most im

portant instance, at the influence of our own country. Where is our Belgian barrier? It was won by France at the moment when the Parisians conquered the Louvre. But to our narrative. The day was sultry. The troops, harassed by continual attacks of the populace, continually reinforced, were fatigued to the last degree, and when they required refreshment were absolutely without rations. Still greater was the mismanagement which, while it promised a pecuniary gratification to the soldiers, permitted, nay indeed obliged, them to purchase their own provisions. Hence that fraternisation of the Line with the people; and, passing over the fact that many of the privates and non-commissioned officers thus situated were natives of Paris, we may form some idea of the influence of the citizens upon the soldiery, by remembering that the former made desertion a condition even of selling them necessary sustenance. Will it be believed that, at the same time, all the loose women who happened to be in prison were released on the easy condition of seducing the military, which the female patriots fulfilled with alacrity and success. Some of them were proposed as Chevaliers of the Cross of July, and verily they were worthy of it.

To judge from the military movements that