I did not attempt to correct Joseph's ideas with respect to my booty;
it would only have been waste of time. I simply told him to help me to
take off the helmet, which nearly suffocated me. I laid them all down
on my bed and rushed back for more of this splendid quarry. I brought
back next the cuirass, axe and the bulk of the arms. I gave all my fine
trophies back, later, to the Artillery Museum, and I still possess the
letter of the former Director, thanking me for their restitution, and
giving me free entry on days not open to the general public. It was
a curious spectacle to see that huge removal of the Museum. Everyone
took what suited him best, but it is only fair to say that these
worthy fellows were much more careful to select arms they thought most
suitable to fight with than sumptuously wrought ones. So nearly the
whole of the collection of old muskets, flint and percussion caps,
from the time of Louis XIV. to our own day, disappeared. One man took
away a rampart gun that must have weighed at least a hundred and fifty
pounds; four others dragged a piece of iron cannon with which they
meant to attack the Louvre. I found the man who had taken the rampart
gun, a couple of hours later, lying unconscious upon the quay. He had
rammed his gun with two handfuls of powder and from twelve to fifteen
balls; then, from one side of the Seine, leaning it up against the
parapet, he had fired upon a regiment of cuirassiers which was marching
along by the Louvre. He had made some cruel gaps in the regiment, but
the recoil of the gun had flung him ten feet backwards, dislocating
his shoulder and breaking his jaw. Before I found him, I had witnessed
several scenes characteristic enough to be worth putting down here.
Intoxication from wine, brandy or rum is nothing to that caused by
the smell of powder, the noise of firing and the sight of blood. I
can understand a man flying at the first shot of gun or cannon, but I
cannot understand anyone who has once tasted fire leaving before it
ceases. At all events, this was the effect it was beginning to have
upon myself.
Delanoue, whom I met, who was hunting all over the place for a gun,
told me there was going to be a rallying of forces on the place
de l'Odéon. I had already heard of this gathering the day before.
Unfortunately, I had only my gun with me and I did not wish to part
with it; I therefore mentioned to Delanoue the Artillery Museum as a
place where he might find what he was in search of, and then I set off
at a run down the rue de Grenelle. The place de l'Odéon was blocked and
there must have been something like five or six hundred men there. Two
or three pupils from the École polytechnique were in command of some
companies. In one of these uniforms, I recognised Charras, whom I had
seen dressed the previous day as a civilian.
So he was neither killed nor wounded. This is the story of what
happened, which had made people believe he was dead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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