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.
[Illustration: Sentinels, Rue du Val de Grâce and Boulevard St. Michel]
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!