this is again bad news. And you, ye Friends of
Royalty, snatch your poniards of improved structure, made to order; your
sword-canes, secret arms, and tickets of entry; quick, by backstairs
passages, rally round the Son of Sixty Kings. An effervescence probably
got up by d'Orleans and Company, for the overthrow of Throne and Altar:
it is said her Majesty shall be put in prison, put out of the way; what
then will his Majesty be? Clay for the Sansculottic Potter! Or were
it impossible to fly this day; a brave Noblesse suddenly all rallying?
Peril threatens, hope invites: Dukes de Villequier, de Duras, Gentlemen
of the Chamber give tickets and admittance; a brave Noblesse is suddenly
all rallying. Now were the time to 'fall sword in hand on those gentry
there,' could it be done with effect.

The Hero of two Worlds is on his white charger; blue Nationals, horse
and foot, hurrying eastward: Santerre, with the Saint-Antoine Battalion,
is already there,--apparently indisposed to act. Heavy-laden Hero of two
Worlds, what tasks are these! The jeerings, provocative gambollings of
that Patriot Suburb, which is all out on the streets now, are hard to
endure; unwashed Patriots jeering in sulky sport; one unwashed Patriot
'seizing the General by the boot' to unhorse him. Santerre, ordered
to fire, makes answer obliquely, "These are the men that took the
Bastille;" and not a trigger stirs! Neither dare the Vincennes
Magistracy give warrant of arrestment, or the smallest countenance:
wherefore the General 'will take it on himself' to arrest. By
promptitude, by cheerful adroitness, patience and brisk valour without
limits, the riot may be again bloodlessly appeased.

Meanwhile, the rest of Paris, with more or less unconcern, may mind the
rest of its business: for what is this but an effervescence, of which
there are now so many? The National Assembly, in one of its stormiest
moods, is debating a Law against Emigration; Mirabeau declaring aloud,
"I swear beforehand that I will not obey it." Mirabeau is often at the
Tribune this day; with endless impediments from without; with the old
unabated energy from within. What can murmurs and clamours, from Left
or from Right, do to this man; like Teneriffe or Atlas unremoved? With
clear thought; with strong bass-voice, though at first low, uncertain,
he claims audience, sways the storm of men: anon the sound of him waxes,
softens; he rises into far-sounding melody of strength, triumphant,
which