The crowd had hemmed in the
guard-house. A man had procured a ladder, mounted to the roof, pulled
down the flag, torn it up and thrown it to the people. A battalion had
to be sent to deliver the guard.

"Whew!" said Franc d'Houdetot to General Prevot, who had recounted this
to us. "A flag taken!"

"Taken, no! Stolen, yes!" answered the general quickly.

M. Pedre-Lacaze came up arm-in-arm with Napoleon Duchatel. Both were in
high spirits. They lighted their cigars from Franc d'Houdetot's cigar
and said:

"Do you know? Genoude is going to bring in an impeachment on his own
account. They would not allow him to sign the Left's impeachment. He
would not be beaten, and now the Ministry is between two fires. On the
left, the entire Left; on the right, M. de Genoude."

Napoleon Duchatel added: "They say that Duvergier de Hauranne has been
carried about in triumph on the shoulders of the crowd."

We had returned to the bridge. M. Vivien was crossing, and came up to
us. With his big, old, wide-brimmed hat and his coat buttoned up to his
cravat the ex-Minister Of Justice looked like a policeman.

"Where are you going?" he said to me. "What is happening is very
serious!"

Certainly at this moment one feels that the whole constitutional machine
is rocking. It no longer rests squarely on the ground. It is out of
plumb. One can hear it cracking.

The crisis is complicated by the disturbed condition of the whole of
Europe.

The King, nevertheless, is very calm, and even cheerful. But this game
must not be played too far. Every rubber won serves but to make up the
total of the rubber lost.

Vivien recounted to us that the King had thrown an electoral reform bill
into his drawer, saying as he did so: "That is for my successor!" "That
was Louis XV.'s _mot_," added Vivien, "supposing reform should prove to
be the deluge."

It appears to be true that the King interrupted M. Salandrouze when he
was laying before him the grievances of the "Progressists," and asked
him brusquely: "Are you selling many carpets?" *

* M. Salandrouze was a manufacturer of carpets.

At this same reception of the Progressists the King noticed M. Blanqui,
and graciously going up to him asked:

"Well, Monsieur Blanqui, what do people talk about? What is going on?"

"Sire," replied M. Blanqui, "I ought to tell the King that in the
departments, and especially at Bordeaux, there is a great deal of
agitation."

"Ah!" interrupted the King. "Mor