ell might General Marmont tremble. From the remote sections and
narrow streets the populace were thronging to central points. The
boulevards, from the Place de la Bastile to the Madeleine, presented
a dense mass, whose angry looks, loud words, and violent gestures
indicated that they would fight with desperation should the struggle
once commence. Many of them were skilled in the use of arms. They
knew how to construct barricades. Every house was a fortress from
whose windows and roof the populace could hurl destruction upon the
heads of the troops, wedged in the narrow streets. And General
Marmont had reason to fear that of the small force under his command
six thousand would fraternize with the people upon the report of the
first musket.

The war-worn marshal skillfully arranged his forces, evidently
copying the operations of Napoleon in his famous repulse of the
attack of the sections upon the Convention. Three battalions were
placed at the Carrousel, which might be regarded as a vast fortress
in the centre of the city, walled in by the Tuileries and the Louvre.
Three battalions were stationed in the Place de la Concorde, with two
pieces of artillery. Three battalions of the line were ranged along
the boulevards from the Place of the Bastile to the Madeleine.
General Marmont did not wait for an attack to be made upon him. He
sent out detachments to scour the streets and to prevent the erection
of barricades. Reports had reached him that several were in process
of construction in the most narrow streets.

The first barricade encountered was in the Rue St. Honore, nearly in
front of the Palais Royal. The troops endeavored to disperse the
defenders by a volley in the air. As this produced no effect, they
opened upon them with a point-blank discharge, by which several were
wounded, and one man was killed. The other detachments met with no
opposition, but removed several barricades, and dispersed tumultuous
gatherings. The agitation was hourly on the increase. Random shots
were heard in different parts of the city. The dead body of the man
shot while defending the barricade was paraded in blood-stained
ghastliness through the streets, exciting frenzied passions. The
troops of the line, so called, who were known to be in sympathy with
the people, and whom General Marmont distrusted, were received with
shouts of applause wherever they appeared.

A vast concourse of the people had assembled in front of the Palais
Royal. A