order was signed in silence.

Such occurrences gave new impulse to the inclinations of Lafayette
and the more moderate of the Republican party towards the Orleanists,
who were deliberating in the salons of M. Lafitte. Charles X., who
had fled from St. Cloud with his family and with some of the most
devoted of his followers, while these scenes were transpiring, was
still in France, at but a few leagues from Paris, at the head of
twelve thousand veteran troops. Should the Duke of Orleans escape and
join him, and rally the rural portion of the people in defense of
Legitimacy, and in support of the Duke of Bordeaux, results might
ensue appalling to the boldest imagination. As hour after hour passed
away, and the duke did not appear in Paris, the anxiety in the
crowded salons of M. Lafitte was terrible. Orleanists and Republicans
were alike imperilled. The re-establishment of the old regime would
inevitably consign the leaders of both these parties, as traitors, to
the scaffold. Democratic cries were resounding, more and more loudly,
through the streets. Power was fast passing into the hands of the
mob. Should the Duke of Orleans fail his party, there was no one else
around whom they could rally, and their disastrous defeat was
inevitable.

The hours were fast darkening into despair. Messengers were anxiously
sent to the Palais Royal, the sumptuous city residence of the duke,
to ascertain if he had arrived. No tidings could be heard from him.
The domestics seemed to be packing up the valuables in preparation
for removal. The utter failure of Beranger and his associates to gain
the co-operation of the Democrats was reported. The decisive
resolution adopted at the Hotel de Ville was known. All seemed lost.
There was nothing before the eye but a frightful vision of anarchy
and bloodshed. A general panic seized all those assembled in the
apartments of Lafitte, and there was a sudden dispersion. It was near
midnight; but three persons were left--Lafitte, Adolphe Thibodeaux,
and Benjamin Constant. A few moments of anxious conversation ensued.

"What will become of us to-morrow?" sadly inquired Lafitte.

"We shall all be hanged," replied Benjamin Constant, in the calm
aspect of despair.

In this crisis of affairs, matters threatened to become still more
involved by two energetic young men, M. Ladvocat and M. Dumoulin, who
proposed to bring forward the claims of the Empire. The name of
Napoleon then pronounced in the streets,