It is ten o’clock in the evening, and if I were not so tired I would go to the HÔtel de Ville, which, I am told, has been taken possession of by the National Guards; the 18th of March is continuing the 31st of October. But the events of this day have made me so weary that I can hardly write all I have seen and heard. On the outer boulevards the wine shops are crowded with tipsy people, the drunken braggarts who boast they have made a revolution. When a stroke succeeds there are plenty of rascals ready to say: I did it. Drinking, singing, and talking are the order of the day. At every step you come upon “piled arms.” At the corner of the Passage de l’ElysÉe-des-Beaux-Arts I met crowds of people, some lying on the ground; here a battalion standing at ease but ready to march; and at the entrance of the Rue Blanche and the Rue Fontaine were some stones, ominously posed one on the other, indicating symptoms of a barricade. In the Rue des Abbesses I counted three cannons and a mitrailleuse, menacing the Rue des Martyrs. In the Rue des Acacias, a man had been arrested, and was being conducted by National Guards to the guard-house: I heard he was a thief. Such arrests are characteristic features in a Parisian Émeute. Notwithstanding these little scenes the disorder is not excessive, and but for the multitude of men in uniform one might believe it the evening of a popular fÊte; the victors are amusing themselves.

Among the Federals this evening there are very few linesmen; perhaps they have gone to their barracks to enjoy their meal of soup and bread.

Upon the main boulevards noisy groups are commenting upon the events of the day. At the corner of the Rue Drouot an officer of the 117th Battalion is reading in a loud voice, or rather reciting, for he knows it all by heart, the proclamation of M. Picard, the official poster of the afternoon.

“The Government appeals to you to defend your city, your home, your children, and your property.
“Some frenzied men, commanded by unknown chiefs, direct against Paris the guns defended from, the Prussians.
“They oppose force to the National Guard and the army.
“Will you suffer it?
“Will you, under the eyes of the strangers ready to profit by our discord, abandon Paris to sedition?
“If you do not extinguish it in the germ, the Republic and France will be ruined for ever.
“Their destiny is in your hands.
“The Government desires that you should hold your arms energetically to maintain the law and preserve the Republic from anarchy. Gather round your leaders; it is the only means of escaping ruin and the domination of the foreigner.

“The Minister of the Interior,
“ERNEST PICARD.”

The crowd listened with attention, shouted two or three times “To arms!” and then dispersed—I thought for an instant, to arm themselves, though in reality it was only to reinforce another group forming on the other side of the way.

This day the Friends of Order have been very apathetic, so much so that Paris is divided between two parties: the one active and the other passive.

To speak truly, I do not know what the population of Paris could have done to resist the insurrection. “Gather round your chiefs,” says the proclamation. This is more easily said than done, when we do not know what has become of them. The division caused in the National Guard by the Coup d’Etat of the Central Committee had for its consequence the disorganisation of all command. Who was to distinguish, and where was one to find the officers that had remained faithful to the cause of order?

It is true they sounded the “rappel”^[11] and beat the “gÉnÉrale”;^[12] but who commanded it? Was it the regular Government or the revolutionary Committee?

More than one good citizen was ready to do his duty; but, after having put on his uniform and buckled his belt, he felt very puzzled, afraid of aiding the entente instead of strengthening the defenders of the law. Therefore the peaceful citizen soldiers regarded not the call of the trumpet and the drum.

It is wise to stay at home when one knows not where to go. Besides, the line has not replied, and bad examples are contagious; moreover, is it fair to demand of fathers of families, of merchants and tradesmen, in fact of soldiers of necessity, an effort before which professional soldiers withdraw? The fact is the Government had fled. Perhaps a few ministers still remained in Paris, but the main body had gone to join the Assembly at Versailles.

I do not blame their somewhat precipitate departure,^[13] perhaps it was necessary; nevertheless it seems to me that their presence would have put an end to irresolution on the part of timid people.

Meanwhile, from the Madeleine to the Gymnase, the cafÉs overflowed with swells and idlers of both sexes. On the outer boulevards they got drunk, and on the inner tipsy, the only difference being in the quality of the liquors imbibed.

What an extraordinary people are the French!

NOTES:

[11] The roll call.

[12] Muster call in time of danger, which is beaten only by a superior order emanating from the Commander-in-chief in a stronghold or garrison town.

[13] The army of Paris was drawn off to Versailles in the night of the 18th of March, and on the 19th, the employÉs of all the ministries and public offices left Paris for the same destination.
On the 19th of March, as early as eight in the morning, Monsieur Thiers addressed the following circular to the authorities of all the departments:—
“The whole of the Government is assembled at Versailles: the National Assembly will meet there also.
“The army, to the number of forty thousand men, has been assembled there in good order, under the command of General Vinoy. All the chiefs of the army, and all the civil authorities have arrived there.
“The civil and military authorities will execute no other orders but those issued by the legitimate government residing at Versailles, under penalty of dismissal.
“The members of the National Assembly are all requested to hasten their return, so as to be present at the sitting of the 20th of March.
“The present despatch will be made known to the public.

“A. THIERS.”