oduce measures of conciliation, while the latter, uncertain
as yet to what extent it could rely on the federated National Guard,
continued modestly to lay claim to no higher title than that of
defender of the municipal liberties. The shots fired against the pacific
demonstration in the Place Vendome, the few corpses whose blood reddened
the pavements, first sent a thrill of terror circulating through the
city. And while these things were going on, while the insurgents
were taking definite possession of the ministries and all the public
buildings, the agitation, rage and alarm prevailing at Versailles were
extreme, the government there hastening to get together sufficient
troops to repel the attack which they felt sure they should not have to
wait for long. The steadiest and most reliable divisions of the armies
of the North and of the Loire were hurried forward. Ten days sufficed to
collect a force of nearly eighty thousand men, and the tide of returning
confidence set in so strongly that on the 2d of April two divisions
opened hostilities by taking from the federates Puteaux and Courbevoie.

It was not until the day following the events just mentioned that
Maurice, starting out with his battalion to effect the conquest of
Versailles, beheld, amid the throng of misty, feverish memories that
rose to his poor wearied brain, Jean's melancholy face as he had seen it
last, and seemed to hear the tones of his last mournful _au revoir_.
The military operations of the Versaillese had filled the National Guard
with alarm and indignation; three columns, embracing a total strength of
fifty thousand men, had gone storming that morning through Bougival and
Meudon on their way to seize the monarchical Assembly and Thiers, the
murderer. It was the torrential sortie that had been demanded with such
insistence during the siege, and Maurice asked himself where he should
ever see Jean again unless among the dead lying on the field of
battle down yonder. But it was not long before he knew the result; his
battalion had barely reached the Plateau des Bergeres, on the road to
Reuil, when the shells from Mont-Valerien came tumbling among the ranks.
Universal consternation reigned; some had supposed that the fort was
held by their comrades of the Guard, while others averred that the
commander had promised solemnly to withhold his fire. A wild panic
seized upon the men; the battalions broke and rushed back to Paris fast
as their legs would let th