The Duc d'Orléans goes to the Hôtel de Ville--M. Laffitte in his sedan-chair--The king _sans culotte_--Tardy manifestation of the Provisional Government--Odilon Barrot sleeps on a milestone--Another Balthasar Gérard--The Duc d'Orléans is received by La Fayette--A superb voice--Fresh appearance of General Dubourg--The balcony of the Hôtel de Ville--The road to Joigny We have not yet finished the account of the events that transpired during my absence. Let me therefore be permitted to recall them: every minute, unknown detail gives us the key to an uprising and helps to explain the 5th of June, the 14th of April, or the 12th of May. Then, too, it is well to know that there were men who never did accept that government, but who resisted it for eighteen years, and succeeded in the end in overthrowing it. These men ought to be paid the justice that was their due: in spite of the calumnies, insults and trials to which they were, and are still, subjected, their contemporaries ought, indeed, to learn of their valour, courage, devotion, persistence and loyalty. True, perhaps their contemporaries will not believe me. Never mind! I shall have said it; others will believe me. Truth is one of those stars which may remain buried in the depths of the heavens for months, years, or even centuries, but which in the end, are invariably discovered some day or other. And I would rather be the madman who devotes his life to the discovery of those stars, than the wise man who hails and worships one after the other all those suns that we have seen rise, which were said to be fixed and immovable, but which proved to be nothing but transitory meteors, of some brilliancy, more or less deceptive, but always fatal in their influences! The Duc d'Orléans, as we have seen, had already advanced a good way: he had won over the Chamber of Peers--(we have not even alluded to that conquest of his: except for the presence of Chateaubriand and Fitz-James, it was not worth the trouble of registering it, and, as is known, Chateaubriand and Fitz-James resigned);--he had won over the Chamber of Deputies; at least, ninety-one signatures attested it.