he Mairie of the
IVth Arrondissement, and the rest of the night was spent in preparation
for the combat of the morrow.

After the revolution of 1831 came the cholera, and as though the
pestilence in itself was not a sufficient evil, the ignorant populace,
surprised by its sudden outbreak and not comprehending the possibility
of such an epidemic, conceived the idea that it was a fiction concocted
to cover a system of wholesale poisonings by the police. The prefet de
police, Gisquet, in his _Memoires_, gives a detailed account of the
various methods employed by organized bands of from fifty to a hundred
men to scatter perfectly harmless substances in the wells, in the
streets, in articles of food and drink, in order to increase this panic.
"A young child was accosted on the Pont-Neuf by an individual who handed
to her a vial containing some liquid and gave her twenty sous to go and
empty it into the fountain of the Place de l'Ecole, recommending her to
use every precaution to avoid being seen doing so. The child, instead of
executing this commission, went and related the story to her mother.
Immediately the whole quarter was in an uproar. Crowds assembled in the
streets, but some good citizens succeeded in calming the excitement. The
flask was carried to the prefecture de police, and it was discovered
that its contents were nothing but melissa." In eighteen days, more than
twenty thousand persons had been attacked by the malady and more than
seven thousand had perished; every one that could, fled the city; there
were not enough coffins, not enough hearses, not enough grave-diggers
for the dead. The streets were filled with the dying and with corpses;
riots broke out, and "the authorities, on the 5th of May, massacred the
youths who had crowned with immortelles the Imperial eagles of the Place
Vendome. The police, for their part, instigated an _emeute_ and
smothered it in blood." Among the more illustrious victims of the plague
were the Minister Casimir-Perier and General Lamarque; the funeral of
the latter was made the occasion of a formidable popular manifestation
and insurrection which was only put down after hard fighting and the
declaration of a state of siege at the instigation of M. Thiers.

Even in the very first days of the new Republic of 1848 the popular
discontent broke out afresh. Clubs were formed all over the city; the
most violent harangues were made against the bourgeoisie; the words
"communism" and "soci