gin with cannon. But do not be uneasy.
To-morrow evening the authority of the king and of the law shall be
re-established."

CHAPTER XII.

THE THRONE DEMOLISHED.

1848

Attempts at conciliation.--False confidence of the king.--Resignation
of Thiers.--Scene in the palace.--Heroism of the queen.--The
insurrection triumphant.--The abdication.--Imminent danger of the
royal family.--Peril and sufferings of the Duchess of Orleans.--Flight
of the king.--Escape.--She retires from the Tuileries.--The duchess in
the Chamber of Deputies.--Speech of Lamartine.--Scene in the
Chamber.--Entrance of the duchess.--The rush of the mob.--Escape of
the duchess and her children.--The Provisional Government.--The
moderate and the radical Republicans.--A compromise.--A surging
crowd.--Awful scenes in Paris.--Death of Louis Philippe.

In the mean time the king formed a new and liberal ministry,
consisting of MM. Thiers, Odillon Barrot, and Duvergier de Hauranne,
hoping thus to conciliate the populace. The fact was placarded, at
six o'clock in the morning, all over Paris. But the act of appointing
Marshal Bugeaud to command the troops was a declaration of war--the
formation of this ministry was a supplication for peace. The one act
was defiance, the other capitulation. Thus, while General Bugeaud was
loading his cannon to the muzzle, and marshalling his troops for
battle, he received an order, to his inexpressible chagrin, from the
new ministry directing him to cease the combat and to withdraw the
troops, while at the same time an announcement was made, by a
proclamation to the people, that the new ministry had ordered the
troops everywhere to cease firing, and to withdraw from the menacing
positions which they occupied. The indignant marshal for a time
refused to obey the order until it should be ratified by the
sign-manual of the king. He soon, however, received a dispatch from
the Duke de Nemours which rendered it necessary to submit. Thus the
new ministry rejected the policy of resistance, and inaugurated that
of conciliation.

The king, worn out by excitement and fatigue, at four o'clock in the
morning retired to his chamber for a few hours of sleep. He was so
far deceived as to flatter himself that, through the measures which
had been adopted, all serious trouble was at an end. He slept
soundly, and did not rise until eleven o'clock, when he came down to
the breakfast-room in morning-gown and slippers, and with a smiling