ers by the National
Guard." Already, in the open street,[1240] "these creatures tore off
women's shoes and earrings," and the robbers were beginning to have
full sway.--Fortunately the militia organized itself and the principal
inhabitants and gentlemen enrolled themselves; 48,000 men are formed
into battalions and companies; the bourgeoisie buy guns of the vagabonds
for three livres apiece, and sabers or pistols for twelve sous. At last,
some of the offenders are hung on the spot, and others disarmed, and
the insurrection again becomes political. But, whatever its object, it
remains always wild, because it is in the hands of the mob. Dusaulx, its
panegyrist, confesses[1241] that "he thought he was witnessing the total
dissolution of society." There is no leader, no management. The electors
who have converted themselves into the representatives of Paris seem to
command the crowd, but it is the crowd which commands them. One of them,
Legrand, to save the Hotel-de-Ville, has no other resource but to send
for six barrels of gun-powder, and to declare to the assailants that
he is about to blow everything into the air. The commandant whom they
themselves have chosen, M. de Salles, has twenty bayonets at his breast
during a quarter of an hour, and, more than once, the whole committee is
near being massacred. Let the reader imagine, on the premises where the
discussions are going on, and petitions are being made, "a concourse of
fifteen hundred men pressed by a hundred thousand others who are forcing
an entrance," the wainscoting cracking, the benches upset one over
another, the enclosure of the bureau pushed back against the president's
chair, a tumult such as to bring to mind 'the day of judgment," the
death-shrieks, songs, yells, and "people beside themselves, for the most
part not knowing where they are nor what they want."--Each district
is also a petty center, while the Palais-Royal is the main center.
Propositions, "accusations, and deputations travel to and fro from one
to the other, along with the human torrent which is obstructed or rushes
ahead with no other guide than its own inclination and the chances
of the way. One wave gathers here and another there, their strategy
consisting in pushing and in being pushed. Yet, their entrance is
effected only because they are let in. If they get into the Invalides it
is owing to the connivance of the soldiers.--At the Bastille, firearms
are discharged from ten in the morning to