e flash of torches, the blaze of
bonfires, presented a spectacle sublime beyond comprehension. The
"Marseillaise Hymn" is unquestionably the most powerful composition
in the world, both in its words and its music, to rouse the populace
to a frenzy of enthusiasm. We give below a vigorous translation of
the first verse:

Ye sons of France, awake to glory!
Hark! hark! what myriads bid you rise!
Your children, wives, and grandsires hoary,
Behold their tears and hear their cries!
Shall hateful tyrants, mischief breeding,
With hireling hosts, a ruffian band,
Affright and desolate the land,
While peace and liberty lie bleeding?

(_Chorus._) To arms! to arms, ye brave!
Th' avenging sword unsheath!
March on! march on! all hearts resolved
On liberty or death!

But no translation can equal the force of the original.

The king and his courtiers at St. Cloud were struck with
consternation as they received the tidings of the general and
successful revolt. The booming of the cannon in the streets of Paris
could be distinctly heard. With his spy-glass, from the heights
behind the chateau, the king could see the tri-color, the
representative of deadly hostility to his dynasty, unfurled from the
Hotel de Ville and from the towers of Notre Dame, and then from more
than twenty other prominent points in the city. At four o'clock in
the afternoon a dispatch from General Marmont informed the king of
the desperate state of affairs. The Royal Guard, composed largely of
Swiss mercenaries, had been faithful to discipline. But the troops of
the line, all Frenchmen, had in many instances refused to fire upon
the insurgents.

The fearful and unexpected crisis roused the king to action. It is
said he displayed more of coolness and energy than any of his
ministers. Orders were sent to General Marmont to concentrate his
forces as speedily as possible at the Tuileries. Agents were
dispatched to all the divisions of the Royal Guard garrisoned in the
towns in the vicinity of Paris to break camp immediately, and move
with the utmost haste to the capital. The king's eldest son, the
Duke d'Angouleme, of whom we have previously spoken as having married
his cousin, the unhappy but heroic and very noble daughter of Louis
XVI., was with his father at St. Cloud. The duchess was absent. The
widow also of the king's second son, the Duke de Berri, was at St.
Cloud with her two childre