ison of the Abbaye was forced open and some
grenadiers of the French Guards, who had been confined for refusing to
fire upon the people, were set at liberty and led out in triumph.

Paris was in this state of excitement and apprehension when the Court,
having first stationed a number of troops at Versailles, at Sevres, at
the Champ-de-Mars, and at St. Denis, commenced offensive measures by the
complete change of all the ministers and by the banishment of Necker.
The latter, on Saturday, July 11th, while he was at dinner, received a
note from the King, enjoining him to quit the kingdom without a moment's
delay. He calmly finished his dinner, without saying a word of the order
he had received, and immediately after got into his carriage with his
wife and took the road to Brussels. The next morning the news of his
disgrace reached Paris. The whole city was in a tumult: above ten
thousand persons were, in a short time, collected in the garden of the
Palais-Royal. A young man of the name of Camille Desmoulins, one of the
habitual and most enthusiastic haranguers of the crowd, mounted on a
table and cried out that "there was not a moment to lose; that the
dismission of Necker was the signal for the St. Bartholomew of liberty;
that the Swiss and German regiments would presently issue from the
Champ-de-Mars to massacre the citizens; and that they had but one
resource left, which was to resort to arms." And the crowd, tearing each
a green leaf, the color of hope, from the chestnut-trees in the garden,
which were nearly laid bare, and wearing it as a badge, traversed the
streets of Paris, with the busts of Necker and of the Duke of Orleans,
who was also said to be arrested, covered with crape and borne in solemn
pomp.

They had proceeded in this manner as far as the Place Vendome, when they
were met by a party of the Royal Allemand, whom they put to flight by
pelting them with stones; but at the Place Louis XV they were assailed
by the dragoons of the Prince of Lambesc; the bearer of one of the busts
and a private of the French Guards were killed; the mob fled into the
Garden of the Tuileries, whither the Prince followed them at the head of
his dragoons, and attacked a number of persons who knew nothing of what
was passing, and were walking quietly in the gardens. In the scuffle, an
old man was wounded; the confusion as well as the resentment of the
people became general; and there was but one cry, "To arms!" to be heard
through