As soon as Paris was occupied by foreign troops, the Provisional Government dissolved itself, on the plea that the country had been deceived by the conquerors! The message of dissolution communicated to the Chambers, written by Fouché himself, asserted that up to the 6th it had been believed that “the Allied Sovereigns were not unanimous upon the choice of a prince who was to reign in France;” that it was only then declared that “all the Sovereigns had engaged to place Louis XVIII. upon the throne.” The message went on to say that, as foreign troops had just occupied the Tuileries, where the Government was sitting, “we can only breathe wishes for our country; and, our deliberations being no longer free, we think it our duty to separate.” Upon receiving this news, the Chamber of Peers immediately followed the example given, and also dissolved. The Deputies, however, determined to show a bolder front; and proclaiming that they were at their posts by the will of the people, and that bayonets only could disperse them, they continued their deliberations upon the proposed Constitution, which they determined to offer to the King for his acceptance, as if there was still a government in the country, and as if nothing had happened to disturb their equanimity. But the following day (July 8th), the farce came to an end, and they were excluded from their place of meeting by the bayonet; the gates were locked, a body of the Garde Nationale warned them off and made them retire, and thus they too were obliged to dissolve.[37] ----- Footnote 37: Baines, _Wars of the French Revolution_ , ii. 490. ----- Paris was now ready to receive Louis, and his public entry took place on the 8th. The tricolor flag was everywhere replaced by the white standard of the Bourbons, and the people, who had vociferously welcomed Napoleon on his return from Elba, not four months before, now came in immense crowds to greet the King, and acclaimed his restoration with enthusiastic joy. The scene was gay, and the sight that presented itself to the inhabitants such as they loved to behold; but, beneath the surface of these outward appearances, the minds of those who had any power of reflection were filled with depression and sadness. “Even the Royalists were downcast: their patriotic feelings were deeply wounded by the defeat of France; they augured ill of the restoration of the King in the rear of the English bayonets.”[38] ----- Footnote 38: