uard had been
reorganized; but there were no regular soldiers in Paris,--they had
been sent away to satisfy the people. The commander of the National
Guard, however, refused to let his men be called out on the occasion;
and Lamartine, on hearing this, went to the Hotel-de-Ville alone. But
help came to him from an unexpected quarter. General Changarnier,
who had been appointed ambassador to Berlin, called at Lamartine's
house to return thanks for his appointment. Madame de Lamartine
told him of the danger that menaced her husband, and he repaired
at once to the Hotel-de-Ville. There he found only about twelve
hundred boys of the Garde Mobile to oppose the expected two hundred
thousand insurgents. He drew his Garde Mobile into the building,
and prepared to stand a siege. There from early morning till the
next day Lamartine remained with Marrast, the Mayor of Paris. He
says that he harangued the mob from thirty to forty times. The other
members of the Government remained in one of the public offices. With
much difficulty the National Guard, whose organization was not yet
complete, was brought upon the scene. The procession of the insurgents
was cut in two, the commander of the National Guard employing the
same tactics as those which the Duke of Wellington had used a week
earlier, when dealing in London with the Chartist procession. The
result was the complete discomfiture of the insurgents.

A few days afterwards the members of the Provisional Government
sat twelve hours, on thrones erected for them under the Arch of
Triumph, to see Gardes Mobiles, National Guards, troops of the
line, and armed workmen, file past them, all shouting for Lamartine
and Order! It was probably the proudest moment of Lamartine's life;
in that flood-tide of his popularity he easily could have seized
supreme power.

All through the provinces disturbances went on. The object of the
Red Republicans had at first been to oppose the election of the
National Assembly. So long as France remained under the provisional
dictatorship of Lamartine and his colleagues, and the regular troops
were kept out of Paris, they hoped to be able to seize supreme
power, by a _coup de main_.

The National Assembly was, however, elected on Easter Day, and
proved to be largely conservative. The deputies met May 4,--the
anniversary of the meeting of the States-General in 1789, fifty-nine
years before. Its hall was a temporary structure, erected in the
courtyard of the P