Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 66 No.406, August 1849Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 66 No.406, August 1849
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
"Government had reckoned on the support of the National Guard;
but the incessant beating of the _rappel_ failed in bringing it
forth to its standards. In several quarters they were imprisoned
by the insurgents. In fine, be it tardiness, or be it fatality,
the army was far from responding in a body to the imminence and
universality of the peril. Its numerical weakness aggravated the
danger. General Lamoricière, invincible, though soon besieged by
200,000 men, occupied the whole extent from the Rue du Temple to
the Madeleine, from the Rue de Clichy to the Louvre--constantly
on horseback, ever foremost in fire, he had two horses shot under
him--his countenance black with powder, his forehead running down
with sweat, his voice hoarse with giving the word of command, but
his eye serene and calm as a soldier in his native element, he
restored spirit to his men, confidence to the National Guards.
His reports to government breathed the intrepidity of his soul,
but he made no concealment of the imminence of the danger, and
the insufficiency of the troops at his disposal. He painted the
immense multitude of the assailants and the vast network of
barricades which stretched between the Bastile and the Chateau
d'Eau, between the barriers and the Boulevard. Incessantly he
implored reinforcements, which the government as continually
summoned to its support by the telegraph, and officers specially
despatched. At length the National Guards of the neighbourhood of
Paris began to arrive, and, ranging themselves round the Assembly,
furnished an example to those of the capital. Then, and not till
then, confidence began to be felt in the midst of the chances of
the combat."--(Vol. ii., pp. 480-481.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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