"Bah! I am in a shooting costume and not a fighting one." "But shooting hasn't begun yet." "All right, then; I will open the season." However, as will be seen, I did not venture to cross the Tuileries with my accoutrements: I went round by the place de la Révolution, I crossed it without hindrance and went down the whole length of the rue Saint-Honoré. The barricades in the rue de l'Échelle and the rue des Pyramides had been broken down. When I reached the rue de Richelieu and saw a regiment at the top of the place Louvois, from the other side of the Palais-Royal a dense line of troops was visible, and a squadron of Lancers was stationed in the place du Palais-Royal. There was no passage left me unless I went back the way I had come. I found I was nearly opposite my old offices, No. 216. So I went in and upstairs to the first floor. There I found Oudard. He looked at me, hesitating whether to recognise me. "What! is that you?" he asked. "No doubt about that." "What are you doing here to-day?" "I have come to see if I cannot meet the Duc d'Orléans." "What do you want with him?" I began to laugh. "I want to address him as _Your Majesty_," I replied. Oudard uttered a lamentable cry of distress. "Unlucky fellow!" he said, "how can you utter such words? Suppose anybody heard you!" "Yes, but nobody will hear me--the duke least of all." "Why so?" "Because I presume he is at Neuilly." "The Duc d'Orléans is in his right place!" Oudard replied magisterially. "My dear Oudard, as I am much less well versed in matters of etiquette than yourself, allow me to inquire where the right place is?" "Why, by the king's side, I suppose." "Then," I said, "I present my compliments to His Highness." At this moment drums began beating at the corner of the rue de Richelieu, turning by the rue Saint-Honoré, and advancing towards the Palais-Royal. Behind them came a general, surrounded by his staff of officers. I could see them plainly through the chinks of the outside blinds. I felt a great desire to make Oudard sick with fear. "Look here, Oudard," I said, "I am strongly of opinion that if I picked off the general who is just passing it would considerably advance the affairs of M. le Duc d'Orléans ... who is so near the king." And I covered the general with my gun. Oudard became as pale as death and flung himself upon my gun, which was not even cocked. I laughingly showed him the hammer lowered on the nipple. "Oh!" he said, "you will leave this place, will you not?" "You must wait till the soldiers have filed past.... I cannot reasonably attack, singlehanded, two or three thousand men." Oudard sat down, and I laid my gun in a corner and opened the window wide. "What are you up to next?" he asked. "I am going to amuse myself by watching the military pass by"; and I watched them from beginning to end.