In some regiments the troops were uncertain, which added to the
startling obscurity of the crisis; and they remembered the popular
ovation which, in July, 1830, greeted the neutrality of the 53d line.
Two intrepid men, tried by the great wars, Marshal de Lobau and General
Bugeaud, commanded,--Bugeaud under Lobau. Enormous patrols, composed
of battalions of the line enclosed in entire companies of the National
Guard, and preceded by the Police Commissary in his scarf, went to
reconnoitre the insurgent streets. On their side, the insurgents
posted-vedettes at the corner of the streets, and audaciously sent
patrols beyond the barricades. Both sides were observing each other;
the Government, with an army in its hand, hesitated, night was setting
in, and the tocsin of St. Mary was beginning to be heard. Marshal
Soult, the Minister of War at that day, who had seen Austerlitz,
looked at all this with a gloomy air. These old sailors, habituated
to correct manœuvres, and having no other resource and guide but
tactics, the compass of battles, are completely thrown out when in the
presence of that immense foam which is called the public anger. The
wind of revolutions is not favorable for sailing. The National Guards
of the suburbs ran up hastily and disorderly; a battalion of the 12th
Light Infantry came at the double from St. Denis; the 14th line arrived
from Courbevoie, the batteries of the military school had taken up
position at the Carrousel, and guns were brought in from Vincennes.
Solitude set in at the Tuileries. Louis Philippe was full of serenity.
CHAPTER V.
ORIGINALITY OF PARIS.
During the two past years Paris, as we said, had seen more than one
insurrection. With the exception of the insurgent districts, as a rule,
nothing is more strangely calm than the physiognomy of Paris during
a riot. Paris very soon grows accustomed to everything--it is only a
riot; and Paris has so much to do that it does not put itself out of
the way for such a trifle. These colossal cities alone can offer such
spectacles. These immense enclosures alone can contain simultaneously
civil war and a strange tranquillity. Usually, when the insurrection
begins, when the drum, the tattoo, and the assembly are heard, the
shopkeeper confines himself to saying:
"Ah, there seems to be a row in the Rue St. Martin."
Or,--
"The Faubourg St. Antoine."
And he often adds, negligently,--
"Somewhere over that way."
At a later date, when the heart-rending and mournful sound of musketry
and platoon fire can be distinguished, the shopkeeper says,--
"Bless me, it is growing hot!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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