asked the Duke of Nemours coldly of his
dismayed father. Alas! the old man was no longer the hero of July 3d!

"I do, my son," was the trembling reply. "Do you advise abdication?"

"Is there any other course left?" asked the Duke of Montpensier.

"Any other course!" cried the Queen, indignantly. "Oh! are you my
son--are you a son of Orleans, and can you talk thus of degradation? Are
you a soldier and do you fear? Mount!--mount!--charge on the
rebels!--cut them to the earth!--drench the pavement with their
blood!--perish, but yield not ignominiously thus!"

"Madame," said M. Thiers, solemnly, "it is too late! There must be an
abdication in favor of the Count of Paris, and the appointment of the
Duchess of Orleans as Regent, or all is lost!"

"Then if this must be, let it be done with dignity becoming a monarch,"
said the noble Queen. "Let us all retire to St. Cloud. There may be
dictated terms of honorable capitulation. There--"

At that instant in rushed a man breathless, bearing a sheet of paper in
his hand, and exclaiming:

"Sire--Sire--your troops are delivering their arms to the people! In a
moment they will stand where you now stand! Sign this paper, or your
life and the lives of all your family will be sacrificed!"

That man was Emile de Girardin, the editor of "La Presse," and the
murderer of Armand Carrel, and that paper was an act of abdication.

"Ah! this is a bitter cup," said the old King as he placed his signature
to the sheet, "and doubly bitter presented by such a hand! Like Charles
X.!"

At one o'clock, at the Bourse and at the corners of all the principal
streets, was posted this proclamation:

"CITIZENS OF PARIS: The King has abdicated in favor of the Count of
Paris, with the Duchess of Orleans as Regent.

A General Amnesty.

Dissolution of the Chamber.

Appeal to the Country."

But the people were now in the midst of the assault on the Palais Royal,
and to check them was impossible.

The Palais Royal consisted of two portions--the Chateau d'Eau, or
palace, and the other part, which though the property of the Orleans
family was yet rented by private persons, and was occupied for cafes,
shops, dwellings and places of entertainment--adorned by colonnades and
arcades, and by trees, statues and fountains in the magnificent
quadrangle. The property of the citizens was respected--that of the King
only was assailed. For two hours did the 14th Regiment pour forth