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From the break of day the soldiery patrolled the streets, and fired upon the citizens, while on the quays and Boulevards the artillery discharged grape-shot among the people. In different parts of Paris there were severe struggles. At the gates of St. Denis and St. Martin much blood was spilt. The people made fortresses of those fine monuments, whence they hurled huge stones upon their assailants. The troops of the line began to fire in the air, and soon to desert and to mingle with the citizens. The Royal Guard showed considerable backwardness, while the Swiss fought with a devotion worthy of a better cause. The Gendarmerie, scarcely less the objects of hatred than the mercenary Helvetians, had for the most part deserted the evening before-disarmed and disguised.

A royal ordonnance was announced. Every person believed that it would be the harbinger of concession, and that the events which had occurred must have given sight to the blindest. What was the astonishment when the walls were covered with an announcement from the king, that Paris was in a state of

siege!

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It would seem, that as on the part of the people so much prudence, courage, and virtue were displayed, so the infatuated monarch was determined to set these qualities off to their highest advantage by exhibiting, on his part, all that folly and baseness the most extreme could compass. "Paris, then, is handed over to the blood-thirsty and perfidious duke of Ragusa!" was the general exclamation" and our fate is to be settled by the hired Swiss, and the ultra guard!"

But "Vive la liberté!" was the sound which welcomed this new mark of the king's consideration for his good city of Paris. The arming of the people had gone on rapidly; and after this "note of war" there was no time to be lost. An inconceivable num ber set themselves in motion to attack the Hotel de Ville. The fight was bloody, but the post was taken; the Swiss troops were all destroyed and their arms and ammunition distributed among the citizens.

It was soon learnt that the royal guard were about to make an attempt to dislodge the citizens from this important station. The citizens had been joined by the students of the different schools, who turned out to a man in favour of the popular cause. They, the youthful representatives of France, most nobly did their duty in her hour of peril. They came unarmed to the people, and asked for weapons; they had hardly been supplied ere they had to exercise them in bloody encounter. Marmont, at the head of 6000 Royal Guards, and preceded by eight pieces of artillery, advanced along the Quays, by the Pont Neuf.

He directed his troops to march upon the Hotel de Ville-and a murderous fire of musketry and cannon took place. Here it was that the severest struggle was witnessed, and here the noblest examples of civic bravery were exhibited. Whenever a soldier of the guards fell, his arms and ammunition were seized by the people, and used against those who remained. Children were seen fighting among the enemy with the greatest coolness and bravery. There was no labour, no exertion which was not cheerfully undertaken; and there seemed no thought of hunger or thirst, or even a desire for refreshment. Many women mingled with the crowd, encouraging their friends, carrying away the wounded, and bearing assistance to those who fell from exhaustion. In the foremost ranks, were the youths of the Polytechnic school-They encouraged by their harangues, and led by their example-they were omnipresent and their heroism decided the victory. It was a realization of the boast which said, "Our lads of fourteen are giants all."

In the midst of this mass of heroic citizens, appeared for the first time in uniform, some of the old National Guard. Their presence awakened a general enthusiasm, and as soon as they presented themselves, there was a rush forward, and the Hotel de Ville, which had been forced by the troops, was taken and retaken by the people. Thrice did thatedifice change its masters, but at length the good cause triumphed. The enemy, after severe losses, began his retreat, sorely pressed by the citizens, who obtained possession of one of the pieces of artillery. At the commencement of the action, there was neither order nor discipline; but in its progress the most admirable subordination was established. The old military were soon allowed to direct the motions of the rest, and the contest was carried on with as much ability as valor. During a short time the fire of the artillery compelled a retreat, but there was an immediate return to the attack, and the piece of cannon which was taken was served by an old artillery man, and caused great loss to the Swiss and the guards.

The scenes of the Hotel de Ville were repeated at the Palais Royal, the Rue St Honoré, the Gate St. Denis, the Fossés of the Bastille, in the Montmartre, and the Dauphine Streets. The columns of cavalry and infantry were compelled to retreat to the centre of the town, after very heavy losses. In the streets, many of them very narrow, they were assailed by showers of stones and other missiles from the hands of men, women, and children. The same ardour possessed all; and the war which was begun was likely to be a war of extermination.

By four o'clock, all the troops had withdrawn to the centre of

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Paris, their efforts were confined to the defence of the Louvre and the Tuileries, and their lines extended from the Pont Neuf and the Boulevards, to the Madeleine and the Rue Richelieu.

At this time Marmont had despatched a messenger to the king, telling him that he could no longer answer for the result of the contest, and requiring rations for the troops. An answer was sent, that his wishes would be complied with, and he was desired to distribute as much wine as he might think fit, and to spend any quantity of money, for which the king would himself be responsible. But all this had been done already. Money and wine had been offered in abundance, and in the king's name, on the morning of the day of battle. Wine to inebriate the intellect-money to stifle humanity and conscience-a million of balls, of which many were of rough copper, to extirpate the inhabitants of his good town of Paris, such was the parting greeting of Charles the Tenth to his people.

But attacks from the troops now ceased, they acted henceforward on the defensive. The firing lasted through the night, and always to the advantage of the citizens, whose numbers, whose energy, whose arms constantly increased, while the soldiers, exhausted by privations, want of food, and of communication with their barracks, grew weaker and weaker, and that without any prospect of relief.

The lamps of Paris had been all broken, the streets unpaved, and protected by barricades. Carts, coaches, omnibuses and diligences had been overturned in order to stop communications; the beautiful trees of the Boulevards had been felled and flung across the roads, and all the main streets presented their bastions of defense. It would seem as if military genius of the highest order had presided over these wonderful works, A colonel of engineers, of seventeen years standing, told us he had never seen more perfectly constructed ramparts. Behind these, and from the corners of the streets, able marksmen brought down the greatest part of the royalist officers.

The same evening the shops were broken open of the gunmakers who had previously refused to deliver over their arms to the people. They obtained possession of the powder-magazine of the Garden of Plants, and distributed ammunition to all who had need of it. They occupied all the posts, except on the ground where the royal troops remained; they placed guards at all the barricades, and waited the arrival of the morning which was certain to decide the victory of freedom.

In truth, on the 29th of July, there was little to be done; that day was the day of great results. Two important positions remained to be taken the Louvre, and the Tuileries: they were

the last hold of despotism, and these conquered, Paris was free.

The victories of the evening had spread universal gladness and joy. In every direction the badges of royalty had been torn down -there seemed scarcely a vestige left of a race whose history was so closely associated with crimes and bloodshed. The National Guards were incredibly multiplied, the glorious tri-coloured flag was flying on the towers of Notre Dame; -it had been hailed with a passionate welcome, for which enthusiasm is a feeble name, and the attack which was about to take place was rather the anticipation of a victory, than the uncertainty of a struggle.

At eight o'clock the troops withdrew from the Pont Neuf and concentrated themselves on the Louvre. The citizens followed them, and a brisk firing was opened. The popular artillery was brought to bear, and the troops, now withdrawn to the apartments of the palace, caused unrequited loss by their discharges from the windows. But the people still advanced, with perfect self-possession, and such as had escaped the fire of the soldiery broke in upon the Tuileries. The Carousel was covered with blood. The Rue de Chartre became the theatre of a murderous conflict, and the people were driven back, with great slaughter, to the Palais Royal. But new re-inforcements came onwards from the Rue St. Honoré. The royal troops were again forced to fly, the people rushed after them to the gates of the Tuileries, and the square of the Carousel was obtained possession of by the citizens. Another resistance took place at the Triumphal Arch; but the citizens advanced and forced the barrier. At this moment the Swiss and the Royal Guards took to hasty flight. The Tuileries were in possession of the people. The final victory was won, and the troops were all in full retreat through the Champ Elysées on their way to the dethroned king, who was at St. Cloud.

In another part of Paris an event not less remarkable occurred; at ten o'clock the Fauxbourg St. Marceau had arranged itself under the orders of the youths of the Polytechnic School, and marched upon the esplanade of the Invalids. They were joined by the Fauxbourg St. Germain, and they determined to attack the Swiss barracks in the Rue Babylone.

The onset was terribly fierce, and scarcely less so the defence. The Swiss maintained a heavy fire from their windows, behind which, having protected themselves by their mattrasses, they were sheltered from danger. The citizens marched round to the other side of the building, but found no means of entrance. Exasperated at this, they gathered together large heaps of straw, to which they set fire, and enveloped by the smoke, they were able to scale the walls, and to force the doors of the barracks. In the first moments of their fury, not a Swiss escaped, but soon humanity obtained the mastery, and those who surrendered were spared.*

Time would fail us, had we months before us, space would fail us, could we devote volumes to the subject, to record those individual traits of heroism, of moderation, and of generosity which have come to our knowledge. How can one select where hundreds of thousands exhibited the highest examples of courage and virtue? When the present king of the French sent rewards to the schools of Paris, and bade the students choose from among their number those who were the most deserving-they could not distinguish, where all merited distinction, and they respectfully declined the honors which implied that any one had displayed merits inferior to the rest. The whole history is one of untarnished glory, such as never before honored the records of man. Never was freedom so delightfully associated with wisdom and humanity; never was a high and enobling sense of duty and of dignity so widely diffused. "We shall all go down to posterity" said one of the meanest of the combatants to him who writes these lines. "We have given a lesson" said another "which would make a dead man start to life." Romance might find materials for wondrous stories in the truths of these glorious days. There was a young person in man's apparel, among the first and foremost in one of the bloodiest frays-when piled among the dead, and stripped for interment, that person was found to be a young woman.

The Deputies assembled. A municipal commission was chosen, and a provisional government established. The great name of Lafayette was heard the name of two worlds-and was transferred with acclamations to the head of the National Guard; and general Dubourg, the first officer of rank who had shown himself on the side of the people, and who had commanded at the Hotel de Ville, was placed under the orders of Lafayette. General Gérard was appointed to the command of the troops that had submitted.

We cannot speak of the simultaneous movement of the different

*

An English young lady of eighteen, writing from Paris to her father in England, says, "We (herself and mother) went out on the 29th of July the day of victory. I never saw any thing so ugly as the aspect of some of the grand peuple. They were as hideous as the sans culottes of the stage; but truly their moderation and civility were extraordinary." Those who have marked the travestied figures which make their appearance among masses of people acting under any strong excitation, as exemplified at a fire or a wreck, will perfectly understand what a girl of eighteen means by ugliness.

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