CHAPTER XVII.
THE REVOLUTION BEGINS.
Tuesday, the 22nd of February, the birthday of the immortal Washingtonand the first of the Three Days of the French Revolution of 1848, brokedarkly and gloomily on Paris. The night had been tempestuous, and thewind still drove the sleet through the leafless trees of theChamps-Elysees and howled drearily along the cheerless boulevards.
The streets were dismal, desolate and deserted. Here and there, however,through the gray light of the winter dawn, could be caught the semblanceof a figure closely muffled, whether for concealment, disguise, orprotection from the biting blast was doubtful, stealing along; thesefigures often met and exchanged ominous signs of recognition.
"Is the procession still to take place?" asked one of another of thesepersons, pausing for an instant as they hurried along.
"Yes!" was the emphatic answer. "Dupont, Lamartine and the sixteenothers who are faithful are resolute."
"And the rendezvous?"
"Is the Place de La Concorde."
"And the hour?"
"Twelve."
Whereupon the conspirators parted.
Gradually the number of persons in the streets increased as the morningadvanced. Chiefly, these were artisans, lads, blouses and workmen.
"Whither so early this disagreeable morning?" cried a peaceable-lookingshopman of the Rue de Rivoli, who was taking down his shutters for theday, to a friend who was hurrying by.
"I don't exactly know where I am going," was the reply. "We were allroused at daybreak in the Quartier St. Honore by the rappel, and so Ihappen to be awake."
"And are the National Guard turning out in good numbers?"
"No. They don't turn out at all. The drummers are followed by a crowd ofgamins in blouses, who shout Vive la Reforme and sing the Marseillaise."
"The National Guard don't turn out!" cried the alarmed shopman; "thenI'll not take down my shutters!"
And as his friend moved on to the Madeleine, he took the precautionarymeasure he had spoken of.
At nine o'clock troops were in motion all over Paris, and the roll ofthe drum was heard in every street.
At ten o'clock ten thousand men were assembled at the Madeleine.
"Is there to be a banquet?" asked one of another, as they met on the RueRoyale.
"No. It is a procession. The people are to march to the Chamber ofDeputies and sing the Marseillaise."
All the avenues to the Palais Bourbon and part of the Place around theMadeleine were now occupied by the 21st Regiment of the Line and mountedMunicipal Guards. Before the Chamber of Deputies was marshaled asquadron of dragoons, and a battalion of the 69th Regiment ofCuirassiers stood ready to charge on the throng.
At eleven o'clock two thousand students in blouses from the Parthenonwere joined by an immense column of workmen from the faubourgs, and,having fraternized in the Place de la Concorde, advanced in perfectorder in procession, led by National Guards, shouting the Marseillaiseand the Hymn of the Girondins. Slowly and solemnly moved the vast massup the Rue Royale to the Pont de la Concorde, leading to the Place ofthe Chamber of Deputies.
At twelve o'clock the vast arena between the Chamber of Deputies and theMadeleine contained thirty thousand people. Along the railing of thechurch was drawn up a regiment of horse. A man in a tri-colored sashthree times read the summons and ordered the crowd disperse.
The order is disregarded! The charge is sounded! The dragoons rush withsheathed sabres on the mass! Again and again they charge, but they cutdown none!
All at once a heavy cart with a powerful horse is discovered--the peopleseize it--the horse is lashed into fury--he rushes on the double line ofdragoons and chasseurs--a breach is made--the crowd dash through--somerush up the steps of the Chamber of Deputies--they force the gates--theyeven enter the hall--then, suddenly panic-stricken at their ownaudacity, they rush back! At this moment, along the Quai d'Orsay,gallops up a strong detachment of the mounted Municipal Guard, led byGeneral Peyronet Tiburce Sebastiani, brother of the Marshal and uncle ofthe unhappy Duchess of Praslin. A charge was ordered, the crowd wasdriven over the bridge, and the Municipal Guard, a company of dragoonsand a squadron of hussars took up a position at the foot of the Obeliskof Luxor. "Long live the dragoons!" shouted the people. "Down with theMunicipal Guard!" accompanied by hootings, groans, shouts and showers ofstones. The troops, with sheathed sabres, charged. One of the immensefountains afforded the gamins a place of shelter. Suddenly the flood ofwater was let on and they fled.
Thus began the revolution.
One o'clock tolled from the tower of the Madeleine. The area was clear.Cavalry patrolled the boulevards. Infantry, bearing, besides theirusual arms, implements for demolishing barricades--axes, adzes andhatchets--each soldier one upon his knapsack, followed.
At two o'clock, at the Hotel des Affaires Etrangeres, at the corner ofthe Rue des Capucines and the Boulevard, an immense mass of men ebbedand flowed like tides of the sea, and a tempest of shouts, groans andchoruses to national songs arose.
A commissary of police in colored clothes, and with the tri-coloredsash, led a body of Municipal Guards into the court. Deliberately theycharge their muskets with ball. "In the name of the Law!" shouted thecommissary. "Vive la Ligne!" responded the people, as they slowlyretired.
"Away," cried a trooper to a blouse, in the Place de la Concorde, at thecorner, near the Turkish Embassy; "Away, or I'll cut you down!"
"Will you, coward!" replied the artisan, calmly, with folded arms. Atthat moment a body of the people rushed on the Municipal Guards anddrove them for safety into their barracks; then they fled themselves toavoid the fusillade of the enraged troops.
On the Pont de la Concorde the people stopped the carriage of aMinisterial Deputy and saluted him with groans. The next moment ArmandMarrast, of "Le National," approached and was most rapturously cheered.
The money-changers, those seers of Napoleon, scented not yet therevolution. On Friday, the three per cents. were 75f. 85c. On Tuesdaythey opened at 73f. 90c. and closed at 74f.
The day advanced. The Republican and Communist power augments in itssystematized order. Paris swarms with insurgents. Bakers' and gunsmiths'shops are plundered. Barricades are thrown up. A column rushes down theChamps-Elysees, and, having been repulsed at an escalade of the railingsof the Chamber of Deputies, retires, shouting the Marseillaise and achorus from the new opera of the Girondins, "Mourir pour la Patrie." Atdusk a deputation of students, at the office of "Le National," presentsa petition for the impeachment of the Ministry.
That impeachment had already taken place!
"What news?" shouted a student to a workman, as he hurried along.
"There has been fighting in the Faubourg St. Marceau; half a dozenMunicipal Guards have been carried wounded to the hospital ofVal-de-Grace and a captain was killed."
"And is it true that the Guard has been disarmed on the Rues Geoffroiand Langevin, and a gunmaker's shop near the Porte St. Martin brokeninto and rifled?"
"I hadn't heard of that," was the hurried reply. "But I hear this, thatthe guard-houses in the Champs-Elysees have been taken, and the troopsdriven off, and that lamps and windows have been torn down."
At that moment another workman rushed along.
"The news!" shouted the student and the first workman.
"The railing of the Church of the Assumption has been torn away by thepeople to supply arms; two women of the people have been crushed by acharge of the Municipal Guard; the shop of Lepage, the armorer, in theRue Richelieu, has been entered by means of the pole of an omnibus usedas a battering ram; and barricades rise on the Rue St. Honore."
At three o'clock a column of the people dashed down the boulevards,smashing lamps and breaking shop windows. In the Rue St. Honore and theRue de Rivoli an omnibus and two carriages were seized to aid inerecting a barricade. A guard-house in the Champs-Elysees was burned.The troops at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were increased. No one wassuffered to pass. A Municipal Guard was dismounted and nearly killed
bythe people. The crowd in the Rue Royale had become so dense that it wasimpossible to pass to the Place de la Concorde. The troops charged. Thepeople gave way. Some were wounded badly; but still rose the shouts,"Vive la Ligne! Down with the Municipal Guard!"
In the Place Vendome stood a regiment of the Line. There was the hotelof M. Hebert, the Minister of Justice, and M. Hebert was hated by thepeople. "Down with Hebert, the inventor of moral complicity!" yelled thepopulace, but they made no attack.
It was ten o'clock at night. Many of the shops were closed, but thecafes and restaurants were thronged. From time to time the shouts,"Down with Guizot!" and "Vive la Reforme!" were heard and, also, theroll of drums as a body of troops passed along; knots of individualsgathered around the doors of bakers' shops, and, while they eagerly atetheir bread and sausage, as eagerly denounced Guizot and the Ministry.
But all was comparative order in Paris.