n those of
the National Guards, and insisted, courteously but firmly, on carrying
their firearms. When we got to the Rue Montmartre, they took the horses
out of the gun-carriages, and the soldiers looked tamely on,
notwithstanding the commands of their officers. When the latter
endeavoured to enforce their orders by hitting them with the flat of
their swords, they simply left the ranks and joined the rabble. I had
had enough of it, and made my way home by the back streets. I had had
enough of it, and kept indoors until this afternoon."

[Footnote 44: The author, as will be seen directly, saw nothing
of that massacre, though he must have passed within a few
hundred yards of the spot immediately before it began. It would
have been the same if he had; he could not have explained the
cause, seeing that the most painstaking historians who have
consulted the most trustworthy eye-witnesses have failed to do
so. It will always remain a mystery whence the first shot came,
whether from the military who were drawn up across the
Boulevard des Capucines, on the spot where now stands the Grand
Cafe, or from the crowd that wanted to pass, in order to
proceed to Odilon-Barrot's to serenade him, because,
notwithstanding the opposition of the king, he was to be
included in the new ministry, which Mole had been instructed to
form. It may safely be said, however, that, but for that shot
and the slaughter consequent upon it, the revolution might have
been averted then--after all, perhaps, only
temporarily.--EDITOR.]

Thus far my informant. As for myself, I saw little on the Wednesday
night of what was going on. It was my own fault: I was too optimistic. I
had scarcely gone a few steps, after my dinner, when, just in front of
the Gymnase, they began shouting, "_La Patrie, Journal du soir_; achetez
_La Patrie_. Voyez le nouveau ministere de Monsieur Mole." I remember
giving the fellow half a franc, at which he grumbled, though it was
three times the ordinary price. On opening the paper, I rashly concluded
from what I read that the revolution was virtually at an end, and I was
the more confirmed in my opinion by the almost instantaneous lighting up
of the Boulevards. It was like a fairy scene: people were
illuminating--a little bit too soon, as it turned out. Being tired of
wandering, and fe