At that instant in rushed a man breathless, bearing a sheet of paper in his hand, and exclaiming: "Sire--Sire--your troops are delivering their arms to the people! In a moment they will stand where you now stand! Sign this paper, or your life and the lives of all your family will be sacrificed!" That man was Emile de Girardin, the editor of "La Presse," and the murderer of Armand Carrel, and that paper was an act of abdication. "Ah! this is a bitter cup," said the old King as he placed his signature to the sheet, "and doubly bitter presented by such a hand! Like Charles X.!" At one o'clock, at the Bourse and at the corners of all the principal streets, was posted this proclamation: "CITIZENS OF PARIS: The King has abdicated in favor of the Count of Paris, with the Duchess of Orleans as Regent. A General Amnesty. Dissolution of the Chamber. Appeal to the Country." But the people were now in the midst of the assault on the Palais Royal, and to check them was impossible. The Palais Royal consisted of two portions--the Chateau d'Eau, or palace, and the other part, which though the property of the Orleans family was yet rented by private persons, and was occupied for cafes, shops, dwellings and places of entertainment--adorned by colonnades and arcades, and by trees, statues and fountains in the magnificent quadrangle. The property of the citizens was respected--that of the King only was assailed. For two hours did the 14th Regiment pour forth its fire from the numerous windows of that edifice and from the court below. At length, a band of bold Republicans, headed by the chivalric Etienne Arago, musket in hand, charged from the side of the Cafe de la Regence, followed by a detachment of the National Guard, and, driving the troops into the building, surrounded it with straw which they set on fire. The vast edifice was instantly filled with smoke and flame. The defence ceased. The soldiers rushed out and were instantly slain. The commander of the detachment was pierced by a bayonet. The multitude rushed in, and the building was sacked. The richest and most costly furniture and decorations were at once torn down, dashed to pieces and thrown from the windows by the infuriated populace.