Chapter 16

THE REVOLUTION OF 1848.

THE DAYS OF FEBRUARY.

THE TWENTY-THIRD.

As I arrived at the Chamber of Peers--it was 3 o'clock
precisely--General Rapatel came out of the cloak-room
and said: "The session is over."

I went to the Chamber of Deputies. As my cab turned
into the Rue de Lille a serried and interminable column of
men in shirt-sleeves, in blouses and wearing caps, and
marching arm-in-arm, three by three, debouched from the
Rue Bellechasse and headed for the Chamber. The other
extremity of the street, I could see, was blocked by deep
rows of infantry of the line, with their rifles on their arms.
I drove on ahead of the men in blouses, with whom many
women had mingled, and who were shouting: "Hurrah for
reform!" "Hurrah for the line!" "Down with Guizot!"
They stopped when they arrived within rifle-shot
of the infantry. The soldiers opened their ranks to let
me through. They were talking and laughing. A very
young man was shrugging his shoulders.

I did not go any further than the lobby. It was filled
with busy and uneasy groups. In one corner were M. Thiers,
M. de Rémusat, M. Vivien and M. Merruau (of the
"Constitutionnel"); in another M. Emile de Girardin,
M. d'Alton-Shée and M. de Boissy, M. Franck-Carré,
M. d'Houdetot, M. de Lagrenée. M. Armand Marrast was
talking aside with M. d'Alton. M. de Girardin stopped
me; then MM. d'Houdetot and Lagrenée. MM. Franck-Carré
and Vignier joined us. We talked. I said to them:

"The Cabinet is gravely culpable. It forgot that in
times like ours there are precipices right and left and that
it does not do to govern too near to the edge. It says to
itself : 'It is only a riot,' and it almost rejoices at
the outbreak. It believes it has been strengthened by
it; yesterday it fell, to-day it is up again! But, in the
first place, who can tell what the end of a riot will be?
Riots, it is true, strengthen the hands of Cabinets, but
revolutions overthrow dynasties. And what an imprudent
game in which the dynasty is risked to save the ministry!
The tension of the situation draws the knot tighter, and
now it is impossible to undo it. The hawser may break
and then everything will go adrift. The Left has
manoeuvred imprudently and the Cabinet wildly. Both
sides are responsible. But what madness possesses the
Cabinet to mix a police question with a question of liberty
and oppose the spirit of chicanery to the spirit of
revolution? It is like sending process-servers with stamped paper
to serve upon a lion. The quibbles of M. Hébert in presence
of a riot! What do they amount to!"

As I was saying