he line.

The conflict which ensued was one of the most terrible ever recorded
in the history of insurrections. Thirty thousand compact royal
troops, cavalry, infantry, and artillery, slowly marched along the
Boulevards, battering down the barricades, and sweeping the streets
with musketry and grape-shot. Another band of thirty thousand
traversed, in an equally sanguinary march, the streets which bordered
the banks of the Seine. They were to meet at the bridge of
Austerlitz.

The houses of Paris are of stone, five or six stories high. Each
house became a citadel filled with insurgents, which kept up a deadly
fire upon the advancing columns. The slaughter on both sides was
dreadful; on either side was equal courage and desperation. A very
bloody struggle took place at the Cloister of St. Meri, which strong
position the insurgents held with the utmost determination.

"The tocsin," writes Sir Archibald Alison, "incessantly sounded from
the Church of St. Meri to call the Republicans to the decisive
point; and they were not wanting to the appeal. Young men, children
of twelve years of age, old men tottering on the verge of the grave,
flocked to the scene of danger and stood side by side with the manly
combatants. Never had there been, in the long annals of revolutionary
conflicts, such universal enthusiasm and determined resolution on the
part of the Republicans."

Before the terrific fire from the windows and from behind the
barricade the whole column of royal troops at first recoiled and fled
back in confusion. But heavy artillery was brought forward; a breach
was battered through the barricade; shells were thrown beyond to
scatter the defenders, while an incessant storm of bullets penetrated
every window at which an assailant appeared. The royal troops rushed
through the breach. Quarter was neither given nor asked. On both
sides the ferocity of demons was exhibited. This closed the conflict.
The insurrection was crushed. The royal troops admitted a loss in
killed and wounded of 417. The loss of the insurgents can never be
known, as both the dead and the wounded were generally conveyed away
and secreted by their friends.

On the morning of the 6th, the leaders of the Liberal party were
sanguine of success. But the unexpected display of governmental force
rendered the revolt hopeless. The leaders, who had been acting in
entire secrecy, dispersed, and Alison says that they quietly slipped
over to the other side, and s