ious
libations of cheap wine. The place was positively reeking with the smell
of both, not to mention the fumes of tobacco. Every one was smoking his
hardest. The entrance of the individual in uniform caused somewhat of a
sensation; a _member_--whom I had never seen before and whom I have
never beheld since--stepped forward to ask his business. The new-comer
did not appear to know himself; at any rate, he stammered and stuttered,
but his escort left him no time to betray his confusion more plainly.
"C'est le citoyen gouverneur de l'Hotel de Ville," they shouted as with
one voice; and there and then the new governor was installed, though I
am perfectly sure that not a soul of all those present knew as much as
his name.

Subsequent inquiries elicited the fact that the man was a fourth or
fifth-rate singer, named Chateaurenaud, and engaged at the Opera
National (formerly the Cirque Olympique) on the Boulevard du Temple. On
that day they were having a dress rehearsal of a new piece in which
Chateaurenaud was playing a military part. He had just donned his
costume when, hearing a noise on the Boulevards, he put his head out of
the window. The mob caught sight of him. "A general, a general!" cried
several urchins; and in less time than it takes to tell, the theatre was
invaded, and notwithstanding his struggles, Chateaurenaud was carried
off, placed on horseback, and conducted to the Hotel de Ville, where,
for the next fortnight, he throned as governor. For, curious to relate,
M. de Lamartine ratified his appointment(?) on the morning of the 25th
of February. Chateaurenaud became an official of the secret police
during the Second Empire. I often saw him on horseback in the Bois de
Boulogne, when the Emperor drove in that direction.

I did not stay long in the Hotel de Ville, but made my way back to the
Boulevards as best I could; for by that time darkness had set in, and
the mob was shouting for illuminations, and obstructing the
thoroughfares everywhere. Every now and then one came upon a body which
had been lying there since the morning, but they took no notice of it.
Their principal concern seemed the suitable acknowledgment of the advent
of the Second Republic by the bourgeoisie by means of coloured devices,
or, in default of such, by coloured lamps or even candles. Woe to the
houses, the inhabitants of which remained deaf to their summons to that
effect. In a very few minutes every window was smashed to atoms, until
at