tion, which would set all things to rights. Besides, he asked, what right had a rich man to corn, when the poor were starving?

The elections for the chamber of deputies was another great source of anxiety to me; and when I found they were all liberal, I felt nearly as much satisfaction as if I had been elected myself. At length the meeting of the chambers approached; and many a warm discussion took place amongst the journeymen printers, on the questions likely to be brought under consideration. Every one said that the ministers must go out, or dissolve the chambers; and many observed, with a shrewd glance, that neither the dissolution of the chambers, nor the resignation of the ministers, would satisfy the people. "We must have a change," they said "a complete change;" and several began to talk boldly of revolution.

The continual irritation and discontent I felt, had their effect on my countenance; and Mariette grew anxious about me. She did all she could to soothe me-sat with her arms round my neck, and endeavored to persuade me that I should be happier if I did not think of politics. Kings and governments," she said, and said truly, "could only provide for the general good; and that there must always be many in every country whose fate destined them to labor and live hard. She could not but think," she added, "that the way to be happy, was for every one to try, by his own exertions, to improve his own condition; and neither to envy his neighbor nor to meddle with affairs in which he was not well practised." She sought to induce me, too, to return to Bonnières. We had never been so happy since we left it; and so sweetly, so perseveringly did she urge a request which I saw was made for my sake more than her own, that at length I consented to go, and, quitting all the vain dreams which had led me to Paris, to reassume the class and occupation of my fathers.

We had not money to go by the Diligence; but we were both good walkers; and the baby, being brought up by hand-and that upon the simplest food-would prove but little encumbrance.

This determination was taken on Sunday the 25th of July, and the next day I gave my employer notice that, at the end of the month, I should quit him. In the meantime we determined to save every sous that was possible, in order to provide for our expenses by the way; for which we had hitherto made no reserve. On the Monday following, I joined the rest of the printers, and we worked through the day in tranquillity. At night, however, as I was returning over the Pontneuf, I met one of my companions, who grasped my hand, asking, with a look of intense eagerness, "If I had heard the news?" The suddenness of the question, and his look of anxiety, alarmed me. I knew not well what I dreaded, but at all events, my fears were all personal. His tale soon relieved me of my apprehensions for Mariette and our child; but raised my indignation to the highest pitch against the government.

The king, he told me, had violated the charter, struck at the liberty of the press, altered the law of election, and reduced the people to a nation of slaves.

Distant shouts met our ears as we were crossing the Rue St Honoré; and hurrying on in the direction from which they proceeded, we came upon an immense multitude, who were breaking the lamps, and yelling execrations against the government.

I was well enough inclined to join them; but remembering Mariette, I returned home, and told her all that had occurred. As I spoke, a paleness came over her beautiful face, so universal, so ghastly, that it made me start. It seemed as if some warning voice had told her that every happy dream was at an end-that the eternal barrier had fallen between us and joy forever.

The next morning everything seemed to have passed by which had disturbed the tranquillity of the town on the previous evening-the streets were quiet, and the people engaged in their usual occupations. Mariette's mind appeared somewhat calmed; but still she looked at me anxiously, as she saw me about to depart, and made me promise more than once, that I would go straight to my work, without mingling with any mob I might sce. I kept my word; and, though I saw several groups of people gathered round the corners of the streets, where the obnoxious ordonnances were posted up, I did not even stop to read, but hurried on to the printing-house with all speed. The scene in the workrooms was different from any I had ever beheld. All the presses were standing still; and the workmen, gathered into knots, were each declaiming more violently than the other on the infamy and folly of the government; and, with furious gestures, vowing vengeance. The overseer came in soon after, and with some difficulty got us to our work; but, about twelve o'clock, the proprietor of the establishment himself appeared, and told us to leave off our labors. "My good friends," said he," the government has annihilated the liberty of the press. The type of several of the journals has been seized this morning. Our liberties are at an end without we secure them by our own force. Far be it from me to counsel tumult or bloodshed-the law is quite sufficient to do us justice. However, I have determined, as well as Monsieur Didot and all the other printers, to cease business, and discharge my workmen." We were then paid the small sum owing to each, and dismissed, with a caution to be quiet and orderly, and to trust to the law; though the very fact of turning out a number of unemployed and discontented men, upon such a city as Paris, seemed to me the very best possible way of

producing that tumult which we were warned to avoid.

My

I soon after found, that it was not alone the printers who had been discharged, but that almost all the workmen in the city had been suddenly thrown out of employment. As I returned home, there was a sort of ominous silence about the town that had something fearful in it. Not ten persons were to be seen upon the Quais, which are usually so crowded; and it seemed as if the whole population had been concentrated on particular points. To my great surprise, on entering my lodging, I found my brother sitting with Mariette, and holding our infant on his knee, while the child looked up in his face and smiled, as if it knew that those were kindred eyes which gazed upon it. brother soon told me the occasion of his coming to Paris, which was to buy seeds and plants for the hothouse at the Chateau; and about three o'clock, as everything was quiet, I went out with him. As we passed onward, we soon saw that all was not right. The shops were closed-the gates of the Palais Royal were shut-groups of gloomy faces were gathered at every corner-and the whole town wore the dull, heavy aspect of a thundercloud, before the storm bursts forth in all its fury. A few gens-d'armes were to be seen, but no extraordinary military force appeared; and gradually the same sort of yelling shouts came upon our ear, that had heard the night before.

As we approached the Rue St. Honoré, the cries became louder ; and turning down the Rue des Bons Enfans, we found ourselves suddenly in the crowd from which they proceeded. It consisted of about five hundred men and boys, all unarmed. Some had stones in their hands, and some had sticks; but no more deadly weapon could I discern amongst them. A great proportion of the mob were discharged printers, and I was instant

ly recognized by several of my fellow-workmen, drawn into the crowd with my brother, who was very willing to go, and hurried on towards the Place Vendome, whither the rioters were directing their steps, with the purpose of attacking the house of Monsieur de Peyronnet, one of the obnoxious ministers. The numbers in the Rue St. Honoré were in no degree tremendous; but, as we entered the Place Vendome, I saw an equal body coming up the Rue Castiglione, and another approaching by the Rue de la Paix. A large force of mounted gensd'armerie was drawn up in the square; and shortly after, a party of the guard, and the troops of the line, appeared. There seemed to be considerable hesitation on both parts to strike the first blow; and as long as we kept to shouts, the military remained passive. What took place towards Peyronnet's house, I could not discover for the heads of the people, but there seemed a considerable tumult in that direction; and a moment after, a lad beside me threw an immense brick at the head of the officer of gensd'armerie, crying, 66 A bas le Roi! Vive la Charte !"

The missile took effect, knocked off the officer's hat, and covered his forehead with a stream of blood. That instant the word was given to charge; and in a moment we were driven down the Rue St Honoré in confusion and terror. My brother could not run so fast as I could, and at the corner of the Palais Royal, I found that he was left several yards behind, while the horses were close upon him. I instinctively started back to assist him, and seeing no other means, I seized a wine cask that stood at one of the doors, and rolled it with all my strength between him and the soldiers. The nearest gens-d'arme's horse, stopped in full course, stumbled and fell over the barrel. A loud shout of gratulation and triumph burst from the people; and turning in their flight, they discharged a shower of bricks and

stones upon the advancing cavalry, which struck more than one horseman from his saddle, and afforded time for my brother and myself to join the rest, which we did amidst great cheering and applause, as the first who had actively resisted the military. Elated by the cheers, my brother entered with enthusiasm into the feelings of the multitude, while I felt as if I had committed a crime, in injuring men who were but doing their duty.

A temporary cessation of hostility now occurred between the people and the soldiery. The gensd'armerie established themselves in the Place du Palais Royal, some troops of the line took possession of the Rue St Honoré, and the mob occupied the end of the Rue de Richelieu, and the corners of the Rue Montpensier, where the new and incomplete buildings afforded plenty of loose stones, which were soon again used as missiles against the gens-d'armes. I would fain now have got away and returned home, but my brother would remain; and my companions, remembering the affair of the barrel, put me forward as a kind of leader; so that vanity joined with enthusiasm to make me continue, while the thought of Mariette came from time to time across my memory with a thrill of dispiriting anxiety. The next two hours passed all in tumult. The soldiers charged us several times, and we fled, but still returned to our position as they reassumed theirs. Many shots were fired, but few fell, and muskets, fowlingpieces, pistols, and swords, began to appear amongst the crowd, while in one or two places I discerned the uniform of the National Guard, and two or three youths from the Polytechnic School. Darkness soon after this came on; the multitudes opposed to the soldiery were increasing every minute, and a cry began to run through the crowd, "To the gunsmiths' shops! To the gunsmiths' shops!" Instantly this suggestion was obeyed. We dispersed in a moment. Every gun

smith's shop in the neighborhood was broken open, and almost before I was aware myself, I was armed with a double-barreled gun and a brace of pistols, and provided with powder and ball. The shop from which these instruments of slaughter were procured was one at the end of the Rue de Vivienne, and as I came out, I paused to consider which way I should now turn. "Let us go to the Corps de Garde near the Exchange," cried one of the men who had been near me all the day. "Lead on, mon brave," he continued, laying his hand on my shoulder, "you shall be our captain." I looked round for my brother, but he was no longer there, and I followed the man's suggestion. As we went, by the advice of one of the Polytechnic School, we put out all the lamps, and spread the cry every where to do the same. It was now quite dark, and our number increased at every step as we advanced. Opposite the Corps de Garde, at the Bourse, a small body of soldiers was drawn up, and two or three torches were lighted. A warning to stand off! was given, as soon as the troops heard our approach, and as we still advanced, increasing our pace, a volley instantly followed. A ball whistled close by my ear and made me start, but I still rushed on; and the soldiers, seeing the multitude by which they were attacked, attempted to retreat into the guard-house.

We

muscle was in a moment relaxed, and as I sprang up, he rolled backwards on the pavement. The fury of excitement was now upon me, and hearing some shots still ringing within the guard-house, I was rushing towards it, when I perceived the multitude pouring forth, and a thick smoke, with some flashes of flame, streaming from the windows. The guard-house was on fire, and in an instant the whole sky was in a blaze. I stood to look at it, for a moment, as the fire light flashed and flickered upon the dark and demon-like figures that surrounded the pile, and on the various dead bodies that lay in the open space the people had left, as in awe, between them and the destruction they had wrought. It was a fearful sight-sweet memories of peace and home rushed upon my brain-I shuddered at my own deeds, and turning from the whole vision of excited passion before my eyes, I ran as hard as I could to reach my home.

Oh never did I feel the thought of returning to the secure arms of her I loved, so exquisite, as at that moment! and I flew up the stairs rather than ran. I opened the door and entered. Mariette was kneeling by the cradle of our child. She did not hear me come in. I pronounced her name. At first she made no reply; but then turned round with a face that will haunt me to the grave, and pointed to the cradle. I sprang forward and looked. There were traces of blood and bloody bandages strewed about, and round the poor infant's white and delicate shoulder were the compresses and dressings of a fresh wound.

"Good God, Mariette," I exclaimed, "how is this? How?""I heard firing in the streets," she answered, with an awful degree of calmness, "I feared for my husband

ran out to see; and not daring to leave it all alone, I took my child to death. I had scarcely gone a yard, when a shot struck it in my arms."

Through the whole of that dreadful night, Mariette and I sat by the cradle of our dying child-silent as the grave, with our eyes fixed upon its pale and ashy countenance, and hardly daring to lift our looks towards each other. From time to time it gave a faint and torturing cry, but in general, seemed in a panting sort of sleep, till towards four in the morning, when the breathing stopped, and I know not what grey shadow fell over its calm sweet face. I did not think it was dead; but Mariette threw her arms round my neck, and hid her eyes upon my bosom.

It was nearly mid-day on the Wednesday, when one of my companions came to tell me that the man who, it was reported, had been seen with me the day before, had been killed by a shot on the Boulevards, and I hastened after the messenger to ascertain the truth, for my brother had not yet reappeared. He led me to the door of the Exchange, over which the tri-colored flag was now flying in triumph, but on each side of the gate was stretched a dead corpse, and the first I saw was indeed my brother. Rage and revenge took possession of my whole heart. I joined the brave men who were marching down to the Place de Greve; and from that moment, I entered into every act of the revolution, with all the enthusiasm, the zeal, the fury of the rest. It is needless to detail every scene I witnessed, and every struggle in which I shared. Suffice it, I was in most of those that occurred at the taking and re-taking of the Hotel de Ville-at the storming of the Louvre, and at the capture of the Tuileries. The enthusiasm amongst us was immense and overpowering; and the moderation and heroism with which it was conducted, reconciled me fully to the revolution. From time to time, I ran home to soothe and console my poor Mariette, and to snatch a mouthful of bread, for our purse was now so low that we did not dare to

purchase anything else. Mariette ate little while I was there, but she assured me that she had plenty, and that she generally took something while I was gone in the middle of the day. Grief and anxiety had worn her sadly; the lustre had quitted her eye, and the rose had left her cheek; and she looked at me so sadly, so painfully, as I went away, that every time I determined it should be the last. At length the royal troops were beaten out of Paris, and the palace where monarchs had reveled fell into the hands of the people. A few of the National Guard and a few of the common people were selected, as to a post of high honor, to guard the Tuileries during the night, under the command of a student of the Polytechnic School. I was one of those fixed upon; and having sent, by a comrade, a message to Mariette, which he forgot to deliver, I remained for the night in those scenes of ancient splendor. There was something awfully melancholy in the solitary palace, and a feeling of compassion for the dethroned king grew over my heart as I sat in the midst of the magnificent halls that he might never see again. As soon as we were relieved the next morning, I flew to Mariette. She had passed a night of the most dreadful anxiety, my comrade having, as I have said, never delivered my message. Her eye was hollow and her cheek was sunk, but all seemed forgotten when she beheld me safe; and. seeing me fatigued and faint, she made me eat some bread and drink a glass of water, almost weeping that she had not something better to give me.

As the last bit touched my lip, a vague thought struck me that she had had none herself, and I insisted on her telling me. She cast her arms round me, and assured me with a smile, that it did her more good to see me eat than to take anything herself; but I at length drew from her that all our money was