The public adopted the galleries as fashionable promenades, which became, for the time, "_un bazar européen et un rendez-vous d'affaires et de galanterie_." It was in 1783 that the Duc d'Orleans constructed "_une salle de spectacle_," which to-day is the Théâtre du Palais Royal, and in the middle of the garden a _cirque_ which ultimately came to be transformed into a restaurant. The purely theatrical event of the history of the Palais Royal came on the 13th of July, 1789, when at midday--as the _coup_ of a _petit canon_ rang out--a young unknown _avocat_, Camille Desmoulins, mounted a chair and addressed the throng of promenaders in a thrilling and vibrant voice: "_Citoyens, j'arrive de Versailles!_--Necker is fled and the Baron Breteuil is in his place. Breteuil is one of those who have demanded the head of Mirabeau ... there remains but one resource, and that 'to arms' and to wear the cockade that we may be known. _Quelle couleur voulez-vous?_" With almost a common accord the tricolour was adopted--and the next day the Bastille fell. [Illustration: The Orleans Bureau, Palais Royal] Dumas' account of the incident, taken from "The Taking of the Bastille," is as follows: "During this time the procession kept on advancing; it had moved obliquely to the left, and had gone down the Rue Montmartre to the Place des Victoires. When it reached the Palais Royal some great impediment prevented its passing on. A troop of men with green leaves in their hats were shouting 'To arms!' "It was necessary to reconnoitre. Were these men who blocked up the Rue Vivienne friends or enemies? Green was the colour of the Count d'Artois. Why then these green cockades? "After a minute's conference all was explained. "On learning the dismissal of Necker, a young man had issued from the Café Foy, had jumped upon a table in the garden of the Palais Royal, and, taking a pistol from his breast, had cried 'To arms!' "On hearing this cry, all the persons who were walking there had assembled around him, and had shouted 'To arms!' "We have already said that all the foreign regiments had been collected around Paris. One might have imagined that it was an invasion by the Austrians. The names of these regiments alarmed the ears of all Frenchmen; they were Reynac, Salis Samade, Diesbach, Esterhazy, Roemer; the very naming of them was sufficient to make the crowd understand that they were the names of enemies. The young man named them; he announced that the Swiss were encamped in the Champs Elysées, with four pieces of artillery, and that they were to enter Paris the same night, preceded by the dragoons, commanded by Prince Lambesq. He proposed a new cockade which was not theirs, snatched a leaf from a chestnut-tree and placed it in the band of his hat. Upon the instant every one present followed his example. Three thousand persons had in ten minutes unleaved the trees of the Palais Royal.