This death was a mourning, and like everything which
is bitter, mourning may turn into revolt. This really happened. On the
previous evening, and on the morning of June 5th, the day fixed for the
interment of Lamarque, the Faubourg St. Antoine, close to which the
procession would pass, assumed a formidable aspect. This tumultuous
network of streets was filled with rumors, and people armed themselves
as they could. Carpenters carried off the bolts of their shop "to break
in doors with;" one of them made a dagger of a stocking-weaver's hook,
by breaking off the hook and sharpening the stump. Another in his fever
"to attack" slept for three nights in his clothes. A carpenter of the
name of Lombier met a mate, who asked him, "Where are you going?" "Why,
I have no weapon, and so I am going to my shop to fetch my compasses."
"What to do?" "I don't know," Lombier said. A porter of the name of
Jacqueline arrested any workman who happened to pass, and said, "Come
with me." He paid for a pint of wine, and asked, "Have you work?" "No."
"Go to Filspierre's, between the Montreuil and Charonne barrières,
and you will find work." At Filspierre's cartridges and arms were
distributed. Some well-known chiefs went the rounds, that is to say,
ran from one to the other to collect their followers. At Barthélemy's,
near the Barrière du Trône, and at Capel's, the Petit Chapeau, the
drinkers accosted each other with a serious air, and could be heard
saying, "Where is your pistol?" "Under my blouse; and yours?" "Under
my shirt." In the Rue Traversière, in front of Roland's workshop, and
in the yard of the Maison Bruise, before the workshop of Bernier the
tool-maker, groups stood whispering. The most ardent among them was
a certain Mavot, who never stopped longer than a week at a shop, for
his masters sent him away, "as they were obliged to quarrel with him
every day." Mavot was killed the next day on the barricade of the Rue
Ménilmontant. Pretot, who was also destined to die in the struggle,
seconded Mavot, and replied to the question "What is your object?"
"Insurrection." Workmen assembled at the corner of the Rue de Bercy,
awaiting a man of the name of Lemarin, revolutionary agent for the
Faubourg St. Marceau, and passwords were exchanged almost publicly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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