Part 29 (1/2)
”And do you not know--you, a journalist--that for three leagues around, in every direction, every railway radiating from Paris has been torn up?
Do you not know that every public conveyance, even to the Mail Diligences, has been stopped, and that all the telegraph stations have been dismantled--all to prevent the further concentration of troops in Paris by the Government?”
”I did hear of this, indeed,” said Beauchamp.
”At dawn I was at the railway depot, having late last night, with extreme difficulty, procured a pa.s.sport. And whom think you, among crowds of others, I encountered there? You would never guess, and I haven't time for you to try. Lucien Debray, and with him--but that's impossible for you to divine--she who was Madame Danglars, wife of the rich banker years ago. Well, the banker is dead and she is immensely rich, and I suppose Lucien's spouse into the bargain.”
”And where go they?”
”Oh! to England of course--that grand reservoir of all emigrant royalists, that asylum for all who love kings! But farewell, farewell!
If I am not off soon I may have to go without my head! And if you are not ma.s.sacred by your detestable party, I hope to hear of you yet as a Cabinet Minister. Despite your abominable principles, you have my best wishes! Farewell!”
And with a hearty shake of Beauchamp's hand, the young n.o.ble was off for an atmosphere more congenial to monarchists than was that of Paris.
Nor was he alone. Thousands fled from Paris in like manner that same day, and the only cry that followed them was this:
”Let them go! Let them go!”
The streets of Paris were now choked with barricades--not the mere temporary breastworks of the first and second days, which a single charge of heavy dragoons would sweep away, but regular systematic, scientific structures, erected apparently under the direction of military engineers, and calculated upon every principle of art to insure resistance. Some of them were of immense size--that, for example, at the corner of the Rue Richelieu; some had port-holes from which protruded the mouths of ordnance in battery; all were surmounted by a flag, tri-color or red, and all were defended by desperate men. Some other thoroughfares were crossed by many barricades--the Rue St. Martin, for instance, by thirty or forty. The troops a.s.sailing these structures were mowed down, throughout the day, in a manner which even their opponents deemed most merciless. Instances of individual bravery on both sides were frequent. In the Rue Mauconseil, a young man exposed himself on the top of the barricade, time after time, firing with fatal aim, and every time a shower of b.a.l.l.s from the troops a.s.sailing whistled around him.
But he stood untouched, and, at length, the officer ordering the troops to fire at him no more, he retired at once behind the breastwork. A boy in the Rue St. Honore mounted the barricade, enveloped in a tri-color flag, and dared the troops to fire on their colors. He descended unharmed. An officer of the Line was summoned to yield his sword. He did so, but first broke it in twain across his knee. The same demand was made to a lieutenant of the Munic.i.p.al Guard, with a musket at his breast; he was bidden also to shout ”Vive la Republique!” but he only cried ”Vive le Roi!” as the weapon was wrenched from his grasp! Yet he was spared. Arms were demanded from every householder, and when given, the gift was endorsed on the door in these words: ”Here we were given arms.” One man received a sword splendidly decorated with gems upon its scabbard and hilt. ”I want only the blade!” he said, tearing it away from its ornaments and grasping the naked steel!
At ten o'clock M. Odillon Barrot, General Lamoriciere and Horace Vernet, the great marine artist, proceeded on horseback to the barricades to induce the people to disperse, but all their eloquent entreaties were received only with insults. ”No truce--no tricks--no mistake this time!”
were the decisive shouts with which they were greeted. A second time, in the Rue Richelieu, General Lamoriciere, accompanied by Moline Saint Gru bearing a palm-branch, was equally unsuccessful. ”It is too late!” was the terrible response from the heart of the barricades, followed by a shower of stones, one of which wounded General Lamoriciere on the hand.
A third time, in the Rue Rohan, General Gourgaud, who even promised the abdication of the King, met with the same utter defeat, and hastily fled from the fury of the monster now thoroughly roused.
At twelve o'clock the rumor sped with lightning rapidity through the streets of Paris that the troops, who had ostensibly been ordered to their quarters, were, in fact, concentrated around the palace. Instantly rose the shout, ”To the Tuileries! To the Tuileries!” and a hundred thousand men from all sections of the city marched toward the Palais Bourbon and the Tuileries!
The rumor of the concentration at the palace was true. The Place du Carrousel was crowded with troops of every arm, including several squadrons of cuira.s.siers, and six pieces of ordnance were in position, with their ammunition caissons and their provisions and baggage wagons, as if for a siege. The King, attended by his staff and accompanied by the Dukes of Nemours and Montpensier, now descended into the court to pa.s.s the troops in review. The Line shouted ”Vive le Roi!” as the King rode along. The National Guards, with tones and looks of menace and defiance, cried ”Reform!” The King replied, ”Yes, my friends, you shall have reform,” and sad and dispirited turned away to his apartments; as he retired the bitter murmur was heard from his aged lips, ”Like Charles X.”
A deputation of the people had been admitted within the limits of the Place du Carrousel to announce the terms they would accept, but after a brief parley had retired dissatisfied. The men of the barricades now invested the Tuileries and the Palais Royal on every side.
Such was the scene without. Within, all was confusion and dismay. The salons were thronged by deputies, peers, generals and marshals; Bugeaud, Lamoriciere, Dupin, Thiers, de Lasteyrie and many others were there, together with all of the Royal family then in the capital, whether male or female.
Meanwhile, the rattle of musketry, broken by the occasional roar of ordnance, in the direction of the Palais Royal, indicated the severe struggle then going on between the people and the troops; from time to time, the furious shout of ”To the guillotine with Louis Philippe!”
reached the ear.
”Does your Majesty hear that?” asked the Duke of Nemours coldly of his dismayed father. Alas! the old man was no longer the hero of July 3d!
”I do, my son,” was the trembling reply. ”Do you advise abdication?”
”Is there any other course left?” asked the Duke of Montpensier.
”Any other course!” cried the Queen, indignantly. ”Oh! are you my son--are you a son of Orleans, and can you talk thus of degradation? Are you a soldier and do you fear? Mount!--mount!--charge on the rebels!--cut them to the earth!--drench the pavement with their blood!--perish, but yield not ignominiously thus!”
”Madame,” said M. Thiers, solemnly, ”it is too late! There must be an abdication in favor of the Count of Paris, and the appointment of the d.u.c.h.ess of Orleans as Regent, or all is lost!”
”Then if this must be, let it be done with dignity becoming a monarch,”