on the morning of the 3d and 4th of dec., the fate of paris, like a stormy sea, was rocking to and fro in the minds of this versatile and fickle people.
on the 2d of december, the morning after the ascent of the members of the national assembly, i went to the boulevards to see how the populace took this daring of the presidents. the place was crowded with groups discussing the importance of this blow to their liberties. old, white-headed men were making speeches in different places within sight. but while they were making speeches louis napoleon was at the palace decreeing laws for this particular occasion, and he was not only in the palace quelling the populace, but the very same day he rode through the boulevards at the head of soldiers, and people shouted vive l’empereur. how and why they said this, when as yet they had none, remains to be seen. that night fifty or sixty thousand soldiers slept in the streets of paris, and cavalry stood close to the side walk for miles without one single break of ranks. the soldiers had their rations carried to them. next morning, the 3d, the rebels commenced their work of destruction in spite of the soldiers. the news came into paris from all parts of france that a hundred thousand soldiers were rapidly marching to the assistance of the army and sustainance of the republic. but this did not intimidate the factions. the soldiers though now one hundred thousand strong, right in the city, they had to keep on the march, up one street and down another, to keep down the barricade builders. i saw a strong wall built across a street in a quarter of an hour. they go about peaceable in droves until they pass the soldiers and then with pickaxes and crowbars and all manner of iron implements dig up the flag-stones, door-sills and stone steps, and place them one upon another until they get them head high. they leave small apertures to poke their pistols and guns through, and therefrom they fight the soldiers who cannot, except by accident, shoot through the apertures. if the soldiers come down behind them to hem them in, they jump over the barricade and they are as well there as on the other side. but the soldiers are in a critical condition fighting barricaders, because they have their friends on the top of the houses and in each story, throwing down all manner of heavy things, such as pots, skillets, pans, chairs, beds, plates, dishes, tumblers and bottles on the heads of the soldiers until they are intimidated enough to stand from under. i saw one old orator leading the rebels up by the side of the soldiers and trying to persuade some of them to say they would not fire on the citizens if they were ordered. the captain of these troops told him if he did not leave off talking with the soldiers that he would have him shot. he would not, and was placed back against the wall and shot through.
on the 4th, precisely at two o’clock, the firing of muskets and cannon were heard from all parts of the city of paris. the cannon balls ran through whole blocks of buildings, but the destruction was not, as one might suppose, bustling but made clear, rounded holes of its own size, and passed on so rapid it left no bustling confusion. where it touched, it done its work. when the firing commenced i was in the crowd on the boulevard des italian with the crowd that was being shot at. some fell, and i, with hundreds, ran over them. i fell, and a dozen or so leaped over me. like a tangled rabbit i rose and went faster than ever. i ran down the rue lafitte, trying to get into some of those large palace doorways, but all was firmly barred. having run clear past my own house, no. 43, rue lafitte, i only discovered my mistake by observing a squad of soldiers behind l’eglise l’orette, loading and firing over some dead bodies that had already fallen beneath their fire. like a rabbit again, i took the back track, and my good old porter saw me from the third story, and descended and opened one foot of his porte firme, and said with a cheek flushed with fear, “entree vite.” i was about to kiss the old man, but he was not inclined to enjoy such a luxury, most especially as i had failed to take the advice he gave me the morning before, “pas allez dans la rue.”
about an hour after this the streets of paris were as empty as a ball room after the festal scene. it is a wonderful sight to see the streets of paris void of its moving mass of humanity. like the streets of pompeii, it reminds one of the victory of destruction. paris looked as if it was mourning for those thousands that were fleetly moving on to eternity. next day hundreds of ladies and gentlemen who were innocently killed, lay under a shed in paris, to be recognized by their friends, and buried. you could not get close to them, not closer than ten feet, and then look along through the glass that kept you and the scent in your own places. there lay some of the gayest of paris, with their fine kids on as they had fallen; their watches and diamonds denoted their bearing, while their countenances said in their expression, “in the midst of life we are in death.”
there can be no mistake but that these were people that were trying to get out of danger, but were overtaken ere they reached the barrier of safety.
the poor horses in the streets of paris looked round on the crowded and thronged streets with considerable amazement at man’s convulsions. people, horses, birds, shops, and even the weather resembled the picture of discontent. the graceful hanging trees of the champs elysees, and tuilleries, are disturbed by the bayonet, as the soldiers stand under them, for a sort of shield from the drizzling weather, while they keep the populace back from the national assembly. the night after this awful contention of the people against the army, was as still and lonesome a one as ever the gay spirit of france was awed with. this night was as interesting to frenchmen, as the 20th of january, 1793, the night before the execution of louis the sixteenth, and which history describes thus: "paris was, by the direction of the government, illuminated on the night of the 20th, and no person was permitted to go at large in the streets. strong bodies of armed troops patroled in every district of that immense metropolis, the sounds of carriages ceased, the streets appeared deserted, except by the patrols, and the whole city was buried in an awful silence. about two o’clock on the morning of the fatal 21st, voices were heard, throughout the gloom, of lamentation and distress, but whence they came, or what they were, no one has ever discovered. on monday morning, as the clock struck 8, he was summoned to his fate. he was conducted to a coach belonging to the mayor of paris, in which were two soldiers of the gendarmerie; the most profound silence prevailed while the carriage advanced slowly to the scaffold; louis mounted the platform with a firm step and unaltered countenance, and was preparing to address them, when the ruffian sauterre, who commanded the guard, cried out, no speeches, no speeches, and suddenly the drums beat and the trumpets sounded. the unfortunate monarch, then, with apparent serenity, placed his head upon the block, the axe fell, and in an instant he ceased to live in this world. so perished louis the xvi, a prince whose heart nature had formed of the best materials, and who, from the first accession to power, appeared to make his first object, his peoples’ happiness. he was an excellent husband and a good father."
though the laws on both occasions were executed with great faith and promptness, they were by no means pacific to the nation. there is still too much royal blood in france to allow the seed of republicanism to prosper spontaneously heedless of their interests. though they readily admit that louis the fifteenth was a better sultan than a king of france, and that louis phillippe dissipated the throne by being an illegitimate heir, still they cannot look upon that as sufficient reason to rid them of their vested ancestral rights.
the french are full of that ambition that came from orleans in female attire, to give back to royalty some hope of yet governing a versatile people. but if louis napoleon, the president of france, wants to rise higher, he must consult the legitimists of france, or he will never find bone and sinew for his cruel coup de etat.
