XLVII. 1Lamartine, CHAP. ward from all quarters, and surged violently against the motionless barrier of steel which still environed the royal 1848. dwelling. From a window in the Tuileries, M. Guizot, i. 108, 110; in vain impotence, beheld the fall of the monarchy; he i. 227, 229; saw it in bitterness, but not regret. "Strong minds," says iii. 410, 411. M. de Lamartine, "may be broken, but they never Cassagnac, Regnault, 64. ment of the Palais It was a small consolation to find, amidst this universal Abandon crash, that the authors of it in no degree profited by the ruin they had occasioned. The proclamation announcing the withdrawal of the troops from the combat was placarded at eight in the morning; and the excitement consequent upon it, and the retreat of the military, was such, that by ten M. Thiers felt he could no longer direct the Government; and he was obliged to entreat the King to substitute M. Odillon Barrot in his room, which was accordingly done. But it was of very little importance who was made Prime Minister; the march of events, in consequence of the concession which had been made, was so rapid that all administrations, and soon the monarchy itself, were swept before it. The troops, paralysed by the order not to fire, and already foreseeing the change of government which was approaching, knew not what to do, and could oppose no resistance to the armed multitude which surrounded them. After a slight struggle they abandoned the Palais, and retired across the inner court to the military post of the Château d'Eau, already filled with wounded Municipal Guards, who had with mournful resolution resisted in it to the last. The mob, seeing the Palais Royal deserted, broke in, and speedily spread themselves over every part of the august edifice. In the twinkling of an eye it was all filled by a hideous i. 111, 112; multitude, and sacked and plundered from top to bottom.2 xxxi. 172; Its beautiful pictures, splendid statues, and gorgeous furniture, were pierced with bayonets, thrown down, or i. 227, 229. cast into the flames; in less than half an hour the magnificent apartments presented nothing but a mass of 2 Lamartine, Ann. Hist. Regnault, iii. 411; Cassagnac, 1 XLVII. Europe, c. broken and destroyed splendour. Markworthy circum- CHAP. stance! The Palais Royal, the cradle of the Revolution, where Camille Desmoulins had sixty years before cut 1848. down the green boughs in the interior garden, and dis- 1 Hist. of tributed them to the insurgents,-where, eighteen years vi. § 96. before, a fresh revolt was organised, and a new dynasty placed on the throne-was the first victim of the passions it had called forth, and the treason it had organised. The judgments of God were coming upon the earth. of the mo The King took breakfast-his last meal in the palace 65. of his ancestors-on that morning, surrounded by his Last hours family and yet remaining officers, in the gallery of Diana narchy. in the Tuileries. After breakfast they retired into the royal cabinet-the room of deliberation successively of Louis XVI., Napoleon, Louis XVIII., and Charles X. The Queen, the Duchesses of Orléans and Montpensier, Marshals Soult and Gérard, M. Thiers, M. de Remusat, M. Cousin, M. Duvergier de Hauranne, were around him. General Lamoricière was in the court of the Carrousel, haranguing the mob; they heard him respectfully, but continued advancing, while the loud shouts upon the capture of the Palais Royal, and the appearance of articles of plunder in the hands of the victorious insurgents issuing from its walls, both stimulated the passions of the aggressors, and told the trembling inmates of the palace what fate awaited them. The royal circle and cabinet were in that state of anxious uncertainty which is of all others the least calculated to resist revolutionary aggression, when MM. Remusat and Duvergier de Hauranne, who had just gone out, re-entered, and asked to speak to the princes in private. The princes rose from table, where they were at breakfast, and went with them to one of the windows. The anxiety of the King and Queen led them to join the group. "Sire," said M. de Remusat, “it is necessary that the King should know the truth; to conceal it at this moment would be to render ourselves implicated in all that may follow. Your feeling of security VOL. VII. 3 A XLVII. 1848. CHAP. proves that you are deceived. Three hundred feet from this, the dragoons are exchanging their sabres and the soldiers their muskets with the people."-" It is impossible!" cried the King, stepping back with astonishment. "Sire," said M. de l'Aubospère, an officer in attendance, "I have seen it." Upon this all the company rose from table, and the King went up-stairs, and soon came down with the Duke de Nemours and the Duke de Montpensier, dressed in uniform. "Go," said the Queen, who had the feelings of Maria-Theresa and Marie-Antoinette in her heart, "show yourself to the discouraged troops, to the wavering National Guard: I will come out on the balcony with my grandchildren and the princesses, and I will see Lamartine, you die in a way worthy of yourself, your throne, and i. 118, 121; your misfortunes." The King descended the stairs, still Regnault, Cassagnac, i. 229. iii. 410,411; hoping to arrest the movement, while the Queen and princesses went to the balcony. It was of sinister augury; Marie-Antoinette had stood there on 10th August 1792.1 66. forced to abdicate. The reception of the King by the troops and the NaThe King is tional Guard, on the Place of the Carrousel, as seen from a distance, was sufficiently encouraging. The Queen and princesses saw the waving of sabres in the air in the distance as the King passed along the lines, and heard the distant sound of cries, without being able to distinguish the words used. They thought that the reception had been enthusiastic, that the approach of the crisis had restored the loyalty of the troops, and they re-entered into the palace with joy in their hearts. But it was of short duration. The King returned from the inspection with despair engraven on his mind. He had seen the National Guard, heard the cry of "Vive la Réforme !-à bas les Ministres!" issue from their ranks, and witnessed the impassible motionless attitude of the troops of the line, utterly alienated by the inactivity to which they had been doomed, and the inactivity forced upon them. He re-entered the royal apartments with a pale visage, on which consternation and despair were as clearly painted XLVII. 1848. 1 Hist. of as they had been on that of Louis XVI. when he came CHAP. into the same room, after a similar review, on the morning of the 10th August 1792.1 The whole persons in the apartment were now thrown into the utmost alarm; Europe, c. vii. § 96. the agitation of the princesses was so great that they wept aloud; and such was the mournful character of the scene, that the eyes of the soldiers and National Guard on duty in the apartment were filled with tears, and they entreated the officers that they might be removed from the spectacle of the last agony of kings. At this terrible moment, while dropping shots on the Place Carrousel told that the final struggle was approaching, M. Emile de Girardin, formerly a deputy, now editor of the Presse newspaper, a decided Republican, and of an ardent character, entered the apartment, and having approached the King, told him, in a few short and decided sentences, that ministerial changes were now inadequate to tranquillise the public mind, and that "nothing short of ABDICATION would suffice." The King, who was at that moment writing out a list of new ministers, still more Radical than Odillon Barrot and Duvergier de Hauranne, let the pen fall from his hand when he heard the fatal word, and earnestly inquired of Emile de Girardin whether there was no other alternative. "Sire!" replied he, "the abdication of the King, or the abdication of the monarchy-that is all that remains; there is not a minute to choose an intermediate path." The monarch still hesitated before taking the decisive step, when the Duke de Montpensier interposed, and urged instant abdication with a rudeness both of words and gesture which, even at a moment of such extreme distress, struck the bystanders as unfeeling and indecorous in the highest degree. Thus pressed on all * "Le Roi hésitait. Le Duc de Montpensier son fils, entrainé sans doute par l'expression énergique de la physionomie, du geste et des paroles de M. de Girardin, pressait son père avec plus de précipitation peut-être que la royauté, l'âge, et l'infortune ne le permettaient au respect d'un fils. La plume fût présentée, le règne arraché par une impatience qui n'attendait pas la pleine et libre conviction du Roi."-LAMARTINE, Histoire de la Révolution de 1848, i. 126. XLVII. 1848. CHAP. sides, and incapable, from the tumult, of coming to a rational decision, the King took up the pen to sign his abdication. "Sign not," said M. Piscatory; "abdication is the republic in an hour." Marshal Bugeaud hastened in at the report of an abdication. "Never abdicate," said the old soldier; "such an act will disarm the troops; the insurrection approaches; nothing remains but to combat it." The King again hesitated; but the din in the Place Carrousel was every minute increasing, the shots were more nearly approaching the windows of the palace, and breathless messengers came in every minute announcing that all was lost, and that abdication alone could martine, i. save the lives of any of the royal family. The Duke de 124, 127; Montpensier upon this renewed his instances with frantic i. 230, 231; energy; and the aged monarch, overcome by emotion, iii. 412,413. and hardly a free agent, signed the fatal instrument which terminated his reign.1* 1 Moniteur, Feb. 25, 1848; La Cassagnac, Regnault, 67. While these momentous scenes, in which was terminated Proceedings the rule of the Bourbons in France, were passing in the rals at this palace of the Tuileries, the generals in the Place de Carflight of the rousel were vainly endeavouring to restrain the onward of the gene time, and King. pressure of the insurgents, or to prevent a conflict beginning between them and the soldiers, who, in the deepest dejection, still barred the approach to the last refuge of the monarchy. Marshal Bugeaud, on hearing the first musket-shots, mounted on horseback, and went between the combatants. An hundred voices called on him to retire, and not expose himself; but the intrepid veteran # 66 “J'abdique cette couronne que je tenais de la voix de la nation, et que je n'avais acceptée que pour amener la paix et la concorde parmi les Français. "Me trouvant dans l'impossibilité d'accomplir cette tâche, je la lègue à mon petit-fils le Comte de Paris. Puisse-t-il être plus heureux que moi.-LOUIS PHILIPPE." The following proclamation was immediately placarded over Paris : "ABDICATION DU ROI. DISSOLUTION DE LA CHAMBRE. AMNISTIE GÉNÉRALE." By a strange omission, this placard, though genuine and emanating from authority, was unsigned.-Moniteur, 25th February 1847; Ann. Hist., 1848, p. 267. |