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CHAP. Girardin then rushed up the staircase into the royal apartments, declaring that abdication could alone save the lives of the King and of his family. M. Merruau, editor of the Constitutionnel, came at the same time, and bore witness to the ferocity which animated the people whose ranks he had traversed. Girardin demanded "Abdication, with the regency to the Duchess of Orleans, the dissolution of the Chamber, and an amnesty." The Duc de Montpensier pressed rather rudely his father to submit to these conditions. The old King consented, and Girardin hastened to communicate it to the multitude. The Queen and Marshal Bugeaud both protested against the abdication; but, overborne by events, the King at last signed the document, and sent it by Marshal Gérard to be shown to the people. The marshal, in the open space of the Carrousel, read it to the foremost squad of the multitude, and as it was impossible for him to penetrate the mass before him, then handed it to Lagrange, who seemed obeyed as chief by the Republicans, begging him to communicate it to his followers. Lagrange took the paper, and coolly put it in his pocket. Thus evaporated all hopes of compromise or armistice from even the written act of abdication.

The King had no sooner given the important document than he withdrew for a moment, and re-entered in plain clothes, and, giving his arm to the Queen, prepared to quit the Tuileries. The Queen, much excited, told all around that they would soon regret so good a King. The Duchess of Orleans exclaimed at being left behind. Louis-Philippe bade her stay for her son's sake, yet he refused to name her regent, insisting that the law had appointed the Duc de Nemours. The King, Queen, and a few followers, then made their way from the Tuileries, by a secret passage under the garden terrace, to the Place Louis-Quinze. The royal carriages had been ordered, but no one knew what had become of

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them; the postilion had been shot. The royal family CHAP. therefore got hastily into a couple of hackney coaches, and, escorted by a few dragoons, were driven along the quays in the direction of St. Cloud.

An emis

The first thought of the Duchess of Orleans, left alone with her children, was to repair to the Hôtel de Ville, and claim her son's crown from the people. sary from Barrot indeed proposed it to her. It was a bold idea, which some heroic woman might have converted into a triumph. This, in the present case, was, however, more than doubtful. But in the interim M. Dupin arrived, and proposed to the Princess to repair to the Chamber of Deputies, where parties might acknowledge her as regent.

There were few deputies on the benches of the Chamber, when the Duchess of Orleans and her children, accompanied by the Duc de Nemours and Dupin, entered it. She was received by the President Sauzet, and took her seat beneath the tribune. A member called on Dupin to speak. He at first declined, but afterwards announced that the King had abdicated in favour of the Count of Paris; his mother, the Duchess, being regent. It was received with applause, but ere it could be followed up, a band of insurgents and National Guards broke into the assembly. They apostrophised the Duc de Nemours. It was evident that, if the first act of the Chamber was the recognition of the Duchess, its second must be to repel the attacks of the insurgents. Where was the force that would enable them to do this? A measure indispensable to the success of the Duchess was to have prevented the Chamber from being invaded by the mob. The Duc de Nemours ought to have given orders to General Bedeau to that effect. But he had merely told him to protect the Duchess of Orlean's retreat to St. Cloud.*

* Bedeau's letter, Véron.

Neither Bedeau nor Gourgaud, the latter commanding the troops around the Legislative Palace, took it upon themselves to keep out the multitude.

The Chamber was evidently powerless. M. Thiers and M. Barrot have been both much blamed for not attending the opening of the sitting. But M. Thiers was not minister; Barrot, after failing to make any impression on the men of the barricades, went to the home ministry to issue some orders and tranquillise the provinces by telegraph. There he heard of the King's abdication, and soon after of the coming of the Duchess to the Chamber. He hastened thither, but was intercepted on the threshold by some of the chief writers of the National. They brought him aside, told him that they had resolved on having a republic, showed him a list of the provisional government, with his own name set down as one. To all this Odilon Barrot demurred. He preferred the regency of the Duchess of Orleans, as more legal, and more calculated to meet the wishes of the country.*

Individuals of the same group and party also caught hold of Lamoricière as he entered the Chamber. But let us first say, who these personages were, and what was their mission. Whilst the King was escaping on the westward road, the Duchess of Orleans about to proceed to the Chamber, and the mob engaged in plundering the Tuileries, a meeting was held at the National office to consider what was next to be done. In the morning these persons would have accepted the regency. Now they determined to set aside the Bourbons altogether, and have a Provisional Government appointed. A list of names was made out. It consisted of Lamartine, Dupont de l'Eure, Arago, Crémieux, Garnier Pagès, Ledru-Rollin. The journalists had not the audacity to promulgate such a government of themselves.

* Memoirs of Dupin, History of Garnier Pagès, Lamartine, Regnault,

Louis Blanc, and Véron, Mémoires d'un Bourgeois de Paris.

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but E. Arago and Bastide, with Marrast, hastened with CHAP. the project and list of the Provisional Government to the Chamber, to persuade or frighten the members, as it might be, to adopt them. On arriving at the Chamber, Marrast and Bastide met Lamartine, whilst others encountered Barrot; the latter, as we have stated, would not listen to them. And had Lamartine proved equally staunch to the House of Orleans, or to the monarchy, and at the same time the generals received orders to protect the Chamber, the standard of the monarchy might have been raised in the parliament, with what definitive success may, however, be doubtful. Lamartine thought that the Duchess could never hold her ground, as regent, against the people. And this is the reason he gave for abandoning her. Probably he was right. Those who had accomplished the revolution could not resign their necks and fortunes to the party of the dynasty they had overthrown.

Lamartine was won over to the scheme of a Provisional Government; it was also communicated by Marie to Sauzet, who presided the Chamber. E. Arago, Marrast, and others entered the House soon after the Duchess, and thus both parties were in presence. After Dupin had vainly spoken the few words above mentioned, Marie, informed of the views of the Republicans, first rose to object to the regency of the Duchess. It had already, he said, been conferred on the Duc de Nemours, and would require a new law. He thought it more advisable to appoint a Provisional Government. Crémieux, who had been all royalist with the King, and was all republican with the Chamber, spoke in the same sense. Lamartine then proposed that the Duchess of Orleans should withdraw. Dupin is very angry with President Sauzet for at once supporting this idea, and turning the Duchess out. Sauzet was indeed a miserable president. The Duchess rose, and, quitting the centre of the hall, withdrew to the higher benches of the Centre, which was rendered necessary, for many of the armed multi

CHAP.
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tude had penetrated amongst the members, and already
threatened her. Barrot soon after entered, and, full of
his interview with the Republicans, declared that the
supreme authority, as well as the fate of the country,
rested upon a woman and a child. He declined,
however, in the crisis, proposing the promulgation
of a regency.
He would not take upon himself the
responsibility of civil war. The Duchess rose to speak,
and many thought, had she persisted, she might have
rallied the house to her cause. But Odilon Barrot went
on, and she sat down irresolute. Larochejaquelin then
obtained possession of the tribune, scouted the idea of
an Orleanist regency, and as to the Chamber itself, he
told the members, "They were no longer anything!"
Genoude seconded him. Ledru-Rollin followed on be-
half of a revolutionary government, but hesitated to
propose it, whilst Berryer was crying out to him, "Con-
clude; move it." He did not. But some of the worst
specimens of the combatants burst in at the time, and
rendered any vote in favour of the Duchess impossible.
A fellow with a long sword took his post under the tri-
bune, and a butcher with a kind of cutlass kept menacing
the group of members round the Duchess. She thought
it prudent at length to withdraw, with difficulty es-
caping, and separated from her two sons, who each ran
considerable danger, to the president's house, and from
thence to the Hôtel des Invalides.

Lamartine then took possession of the tribune amidst the tumult, mingled applause, and threats of the armed people. At their aspect, President Sauzet ran away, after declaring the sitting at an end. The greater number of the deputies followed. A few of the extreme Liberals alone remained. Lamartine still occupied the tribune, and proposed that Dupont de l'Eure should take the president's chair. Lamartine had in his hand the list of the Provisional Government, chosen at the office of the National. He modified it somewhat, and handed it