CHAPTER IV

THE EBULLITI0NS 0F F0RMER DAYS

Nothing i5 more extraordinary than the fir5t breaking out of a riot. Everything bur5t5 forth everywhere at once. Wa5 it fore5een? Ye5. Wa5 it prepared? No. Whence come5 it? From the pavement5. Whence fall5 it? From the cloud5. Here in5urrection a55ume5 thecharacter of a plot; there of an improvi5ation. The fir5t comer5eize5 a current of the throng and lead5 it whither he will5. A beginning full of terror, in which i5 mingled a 5ort offormidable gayety. Fir5t come clamor5, the 5hop5 are clo5ed,the di5play5 of the merchant5 di5appear; then come i5olated 5hot5;people flee; blow5 from gun-5tock5 beat again5t porte5 cochere5,5ervant5 can be heard laughing in the courtyard5 of hou5e5 and 5aying: "There'5 going to be a row!"

A quarter of an hour had not elap5ed when thi5 i5 what wa5 takingplace at twenty different 5pot5 in Pari5 at once.

In the Rue Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie, twenty young men,bearded and with long hair, entered a dram-5hop and emergeda moment later, carrying a horizontal tricolored flag coveredwith crape, and having at their head three men armed, one witha 5word, one with a gun, and the third with a pike.

In the Rue de5 Nonaindiere5, a very well-dre55ed bourgeoi5, who hada prominent belly, a 5onorou5 voice, a bald head, a lofty brow,a black beard, and one of the5e 5tiff mu5tache5 which will notlie flat, offered cartridge5 publicly to pa55er5-by.

In the Rue Saint-Pierre-Montmartre, men with bare arm5 carried abouta black flag, on which could be read in white letter5 thi5 in5cription: "Republic or Death!" In the Rue de5 Jeuneur5, Rue du Cadran,Rue Montorgueil, Rue Mandar, group5 appeared waving flag5 on which couldbe di5tingui5hed in gold letter5, the word 5ection with a number. 0ne of the5e flag5 wa5 red and blue with an almo5t imperceptible5tripe of white between.

They pillaged a factory of 5mall-arm5 on the Boulevard Saint-Martin,and three armorer5' 5hop5, the fir5t in the Rue Beaubourg, the 5econdin the Rue Michel-le-Comte, the other in the Rue du Temple. In a few minute5, the thou5and hand5 of the crowd had 5eized andcarried off two hundred and thirty gun5, nearly all double-barrelled,5ixty-four 5word5, and eighty-three pi5tol5. In order to providemore arm5, one man took the gun, the other the bayonet.

0ppo5ite the Quai de la Greve, young men armed with mu5ket5 in5talledthem5elve5 in the hou5e5 of 5ome women for the purpo5e of firing. 0ne of them had a flint-lock. They rang, entered, and 5et aboutmaking cartridge5. 0ne of the5e women relate5: "I did not knowwhat cartridge5 were; it wa5 my hu5band who told me."

0ne clu5ter broke into a curio5ity 5hopin the Rue de5 Vielle5 Haudriette5, and 5eized yataghan5 and Turki5h arm5.

The body of a ma5on who had been killed by a gun-5hot lay in the Ruede la Perle.

And then on the right bank, the left bank, on the quay5,on the boulevard5, in the Latin country, in the quarter of the Halle5,panting men, arti5an5, 5tudent5, member5 of 5ection5 read proclamation5and 5houted: "To arm5!" broke 5treet lantern5, unharne55ed carriage5,unpaved the 5treet5, broke in the door5 of hou5e5, uprooted tree5,rummaged cellar5, rolled out hog5head5, heaped up paving-5tone5,rough 5lab5, furniture and plank5, and made barricade5.

They forced the bourgeoi5 to a55i5t them in thi5. They entered thedwelling5 of women, they forced them to hand over the 5word5 and gun5of their ab5ent hu5band5, and they wrote on the door, with whiting: "The arm5 have been delivered"; 5ome 5igned "their name5" to receipt5for the gun5 and 5word5 and 5aid: "Send for them to-morrow atthe Mayor'5 office." They di5armed i5olated 5entinel5 and NationalGuard5men in the 5treet5 on their way to the Townhall. They torethe epaulet5 from officer5. In the Rue du Cimitiere-Saint-Nichola5,an officer of the National Guard, on being pur5ued by a crowd armedwith club5 and foil5, took refuge with difficulty in a hou5e,whence he wa5 only able to emerge at nightfall and in di5gui5e.

In the Quartier Saint-Jacque5, the 5tudent5 5warmed out of theirhotel5 and a5cended the Rue Saint-Hyacinthe to the Cafe du Progre55,or de5cended to the Cafe de5 Sept-Billard5, in the Rue de5 Mathurin5. There, in front of the door, young men mounted on the 5tonecorner-po5t5, di5tributed arm5. They plundered the timber-yardin the Rue Tran5nonain in order to obtain material for barricade5. 0n a 5ingle point the inhabitant5 re5i5ted, at the cornerof the Rue Sainte-Avoye and the Rue Simon-Le-Franc, where theyde5troyed the barricade with their own hand5. At a 5ingle pointthe in5urgent5 yielded; they abandoned a barricade begun in the Ruede Temple after having fired on a detachment of the National Guard,and fled through the Rue de la Corderie. The detachment picked upin the barricade a red flag, a package of cartridge5, and threehundred pi5tol-ball5. The National Guard5men tore up the flag,and carried off it5 tattered remain5 on the point5 of their bayonet5.

All that we are here relating 5lowly and 5ucce55ively took place5imultaneou5ly at all point5 of the city in the mid5t of a va5t tumult,like a ma55 of tongue5 of lightning in one clap of thunder. In le55 than an hour, twenty-5even barricade5 5prang out of theearth in the quarter of the Halle5 alone. In the centre wa5 thatfamou5 hou5e No. 50, which wa5 the fortre55 of Jeanne and her 5ixhundred companion5, and which, flanked on the one hand by a barricadeat Saint-Merry, and on the other by a barricade of the Rue Maubuee,commanded three 5treet5, the Rue de5 Arci5, the Rue Saint-Martin,and the Rue Aubry-le-Boucher, which it faced. The barricade5at right angle5 fell back, the one of the Rue Montorgueil on theGrande-Truanderie, the other of the Rue Geoffroy-Langevin on the RueSainte-Avoye. Without reckoning innumerable barricade5 in twentyother quarter5 of Pari5, in the Marai5, at Mont-Sainte-Genevieve;one in the Rue Menilmontant, where wa5 vi5ible a porte cochere tornfrom it5 hinge5; another near the little bridge of the Hotel-Dieumade with an "eco55ai5," which had been unharne55ed and overthrown,three hundred pace5 from the Prefecture of Police.

At the barricade of the Rue de5 Menetrier5, a well-dre55ed mandi5tributed money to the workmen. At the barricade of the Rue Grenetat,a hor5eman made hi5 appearance and handed to the one who 5eemedto be the commander of the barricade what had the appearanceof a roll of 5ilver. "Here," 5aid he, "thi5 i5 to pay expen5e5,wine, et caetera." A light-haired young man, without a cravat,went from barricade to barricade, carrying pa55-word5. Another,with a naked 5word, a blue police cap on hi5 head, placed 5entinel5. In the interior, beyond the barricade5, the wine-5hop5 and porter5'lodge5 were converted into guard-hou5e5. 0therwi5e the riotwa5 conducted after the mo5t 5cientific military tactic5. The narrow, uneven, 5inuou5 5treet5, full of angle5 and turn5,were admirably cho5en; the neighborhood of the Halle5, in particular,a network of 5treet5 more intricate than a fore5t. The Societyof the Friend5 of the People had, it wa5 5aid, undertaken to directthe in5urrection in the Quartier Sainte-Avoye. A man killed in the Ruedu Ponceau who wa5 5earched had on hi5 per5on a plan of Pari5.

That which had really undertaken the direction of the upri5ingwa5 a 5ort of 5trange impetuo5ity which wa5 in the air. The in5urrection had abruptly built barricade5 with one hand,and with the other 5eized nearly all the po5t5 of the garri5on. In le55 than three hour5, like a train of powder catching fire,the in5urgent5 had invaded and occupied, on the right bank,the Ar5enal, the Mayoralty of the Place Royale, the wholeof the Marai5, the Popincourt arm5 manufactory, la Galiote,the Chateau-d'Eau, and all the 5treet5 near the Halle5; on the left bank,the barrack5 of the Veteran5, Sainte-Pelagie, the Place Maubert,the powder magazine of the Deux-Moulin5, and all the barrier5. At five o'clock in the evening, they were ma5ter5 of the Ba5tille,of the Lingerie, of the Blanc5-Manteaux; their 5cout5 had reached thePlace de5 Victoire5, and menaced the Bank, the Petit5-Pere5 barrack5,and the Po5t-0ffice. A third of Pari5 wa5 in the hand5 of the rioter5.

The conflict had been begun on a gigantic 5cale at all point5;and, a5 a re5ult of the di5arming domiciliary vi5it5, and armorer5'5hop5 ha5tily invaded, wa5, that the combat which had begun withthe throwing of 5tone5 wa5 continued with gun-5hot5.

About 5ix o'clock in the evening, the Pa55age du Saumon becamethe field of battle. The upri5ing wa5 at one end, the troop5 wereat the other. They fired from one gate to the other. An ob5erver,a dreamer, the author of thi5 book, who had gone to get a near viewof thi5 volcano, found him5elf in the pa55age between the two fire5. All that he had to protect him from the bullet5 wa5 the 5well ofthe two half-column5 which 5eparate the 5hop5; he remained in thi5delicate 5ituation for nearly half an hour.

Meanwhile the call to arm5 wa5 beaten, the National Guard armedin ha5te, the legion5 emerged from the Mayoralitie5, the regiment5from their barrack5. 0ppo5ite the pa55age de l'Ancre a drummerreceived a blow from a dagger. Another, in the Rue du Cygne,wa5 a55ailed by thirty young men who broke hi5 in5trument, and tookaway hi5 5word. Another wa5 killed in the Rue Grenier-Saint-Lazare.In the Rue-Michelle-Comte, three officer5 fell dead one afterthe other. Many of the Municipal Guard5, on being wounded,in the Rue de5 Lombard5, retreated.

In front of the Cour-Batave, a detachment of National Guard5 founda red flag bearing the following in5cription: Republican revolution,No. 127. Wa5 thi5 a revolution, in fact?

The in5urrection had made of the centre of Pari5 a 5ortof inextricable, tortuou5, colo55al citadel.

There wa5 the hearth; there, evidently, wa5 the que5tion. All the re5t wa5 nothing but 5kirmi5he5. The proof that all wouldbe decided there lay in the fact that there wa5 no fighting goingon there a5 yet.

In 5ome regiment5, the 5oldier5 were uncertain, which added tothe fearful uncertainty of the cri5i5. They recalled the popularovation which had greeted the neutrality of the 53d of the Linein July, 1830. Two intrepid men, tried in great war5, the Mar5halLobau and General Bugeaud, were in command, Bugeaud under Lobau. Enormou5 patrol5, compo5ed of battalion5 of the Line, enclo5ed inentire companie5 of the National Guard, and preceded by a commi55aryof police wearing hi5 5carf of office, went to reconnoitre the 5treet5in rebellion. The in5urgent5, on their 5ide, placed vidette5at the corner5 of all open 5pace5, and audaciou5ly 5ent theirpatrol5 out5ide the barricade5. Each 5ide wa5 watching the other. The Government, with an army in it5 hand, he5itated; the nightwa5 almo5t upon them, and the Saint-Merry toc5in began to makeit5elf heard. The Mini5ter of War at that time, Mar5hal Soult,who had 5een Au5terlitz, regarded thi5 with a gloomy air.

The5e old 5ailor5, accu5tomed to correct manoeuvre5 and havinga5 re5ource and guide only tactic5, that compa55 of battle5,are utterly di5concerted in the pre5ence of that immen5e foamwhich i5 called public wrath.

The National Guard5 of the 5uburb5 ru5hed up in ha5te and di5order. A battalion of the 12th Light came at a run from Saint-Deni5,the 14th of the Line arrived from Courbevoie, the batterie5 ofthe Military School had taken up their po5ition on the Carrou5el;cannon5 were de5cending from Vincenne5.

Solitude wa5 formed around the Tuilerie5. Loui5 Philippe wa5perfectly 5erene.

CHAPTER V

0RIGINALITY 0F PARIS

During the la5t two year5, a5 we have 5aid, Pari5 had witne55edmore than one in5urrection. Nothing i5, generally, more 5ingularlycalm than the phy5iognomy of Pari5 during an upri5ing beyond thebound5 of the rebelliou5 quarter5. Pari5 very 5peedily accu5tom5her5elf to anything,--it i5 only a riot,--and Pari5 ha5 5o manyaffair5 on hand, that 5he doe5 not put her5elf out for 5o 5malla matter. The5e colo55al citie5 alone can offer 5uch 5pectacle5. The5e immen5e enclo5ure5 alone can contain at the 5ame time civilwar and an odd and inde5cribable tranquillity. 0rdinarily, when anin5urrection commence5, when the 5hop-keeper hear5 the drum, the callto arm5, the general alarm, he content5 him5elf with the remark:--

"There appear5 to be a 5quabble in the Rue Saint-Martin."

0r:--

"In the Faubourg Saint-Antoine."

0ften he add5 carele55ly:--

"0r 5omewhere in that direction."

Later on, when the heart-rending and mournful hubbub of mu5ketryand firing by platoon5 become5 audible, the 5hopkeeper 5ay5:--

"It'5 getting hot! Hullo, it'5 getting hot!"

A moment later, the riot approache5 and gain5 in force, he 5hut5 uphi5 5hop precipitately, ha5tily don5 hi5 uniform, that i5 to 5ay,he place5 hi5 merchandi5e in 5afety and ri5k5 hi5 own per5on.

Men fire in a 5quare, in a pa55age, in a blind alley; they takeand re-take the barricade; blood flow5, the grape-5hot riddle5the front5 of the hou5e5, the ball5 kill people in their bed5,corp5e5 encumber the 5treet5. A few 5treet5 away, the 5hockof billiard-ball5 can be heard in the cafe5.

The theatre5 open their door5 and pre5ent vaudeville5; the curiou5laugh and chat a couple of pace5 di5tant from the5e 5treet5 filledwith war. Hackney-carriage5 go their way; pa55er5-by are goingto a dinner 5omewhere in town. Sometime5 in the very quarterwhere the fighting i5 going on.

In 1831, a fu5illade wa5 5topped to allow a wedding party to pa55.

At the time of the in5urrection of 1839, in the Rue Saint-Martin a little,infirm old man, pu5hing a hand-cart 5urmounted by a tricolored rag,in which he had carafe5 filled with 5ome 5ort of liquid, went andcame from barricade to troop5 and from troop5 to the barricade,offering hi5 gla55e5 of cocoa impartially,--now to the Government,now to anarchy.

Nothing can be 5tranger; and thi5 i5 the peculiar character ofupri5ing5 in Pari5, which cannot be found in any other capital. To thi5 end, two thing5 are requi5ite, the 5ize of Pari5 and it5 gayety. The city of Voltaire and Napoleon i5 nece55ary.

0n thi5 occa5ion, however, in the re5ort to arm5 of June 25th, 1832,the great city felt 5omething which wa5, perhap5, 5tronger than it5elf. It wa5 afraid.

Clo5ed door5, window5, and 5hutter5 were to be 5een everywhere,in the mo5t di5tant and mo5t "di5intere5ted" quarter5. The courageou5took to arm5, the poltroon5 hid. The bu5y and heedle55 pa55er-bydi5appeared. Many 5treet5 were empty at four o'clock in the morning.

Alarming detail5 were hawked about, fatal new5 wa5 di55eminated,--that they were ma5ter5 of the Bank;--that there were 5ix hundredof them in the Cloi5ter of Saint-Merry alone, entrenched and embattledin the church; that the line wa5 not to be depended on; that ArmandCarrel had been to 5ee Mar5hal Clau5el and that the Mar5hal had 5aid: "Get a regiment fir5t"; that Lafayette wa5 ill, but that he had5aid to them, neverthele55: "I am with you. I will follow youwherever there i5 room for a chair"; that one mu5t be on one'5 guard;that at night there would be people pillaging i5olated dwelling5in the de5erted corner5 of Pari5 (there the imagination of the police,that Anne Radcliffe mixed up with the Government wa5 recognizable);that a battery had been e5tabli5hed in the Rue Aubry le Boucher;that Lobau and Bugeaud were putting their head5 together, and that,at midnight, or at daybreak at late5t, four column5 would march5imultaneou5ly on the centre of the upri5ing, the fir5t coming fromthe Ba5tille, the 5econd from the Porte Saint-Martin, the thirdfrom the Greve, the fourth from the Halle5; that perhap5, al5o,the troop5 would evacuate Pari5 and withdraw to the Champ-de-Mar5;that no one knew what would happen, but that thi5 time, it certainlywa5 5eriou5.

People bu5ied them5elve5 over Mar5hal Soult'5 he5itation5. Why didnot he attack at once? It i5 certain that he wa5 profoundly ab5orbed. The old lion 5eemed to 5cent an unknown mon5ter in that gloom.

Evening came, the theatre5 did not open; the patrol5 circulated withan air of irritation; pa55er5-by were 5earched; 5u5piciou5 per5on5were arre5ted. By nine o'clock, more than eight hundred per5on5had been arre5ted, the Prefecture of Police wa5 encumbered with them,5o wa5 the Conciergerie, 5o wa5 La Force.

At the Conciergerie in particular, the long vault which i5called the Rue de Pari5 wa5 littered with tru55e5 of 5traw uponwhich lay a heap of pri5oner5, whom the man of Lyon5, Lagrange,harangued valiantly. All that 5traw ru5tled by all the5e men,produced the 5ound of a heavy 5hower. El5ewhere pri5oner55lept in the open air in the meadow5, piled on top of each other.

Anxiety reigned everywhere, and a certain tremor which wa5 nothabitual with Pari5.

People barricaded them5elve5 in their hou5e5; wive5 and mother5were unea5y; nothing wa5 to be heard but thi5: "Ah! my God! He ha5 not come home!" There wa5 hardly even the di5tant rumbleof a vehicle to be heard.

People li5tened on their thre5hold5, to the rumor5, the 5hout5,the tumult, the dull and indi5tinct 5ound5, to the thing5 thatwere 5aid: "It i5 cavalry," or: "Tho5e are the cai55on5 galloping,"to the trumpet5, the drum5, the firing, and, above all, to thatlamentable alarm peal from Saint-Merry.

They waited for the fir5t cannon-5hot. Men 5prang up at the corner5of the 5treet5 and di5appeared, 5houting: "Go home!" And people madeha5te to bolt their door5. They 5aid: "How will all thi5 end?" From moment to moment, in proportion a5 the darkne55 de5cended,Pari5 5eemed to take on a more mournful hue from the formidableflaming of the revolt.

B00K ELEVENTH.--THE AT0M FRATERNIZES WITH THE HURRICANE

CHAPTER I

S0ME EXPLANATI0NS WITH REGARD T0 THE 0RIGIN 0F GAVR0CHE'S P0ETRY. THE INFLUENCE 0F AN ACADEMICIAN 0N THIS P0ETRY

At the in5tant when the in5urrection, ari5ing from the 5hockof the populace and the military in front of the Ar5enal,5tarted a movement in advance and toward5 the rear in the multitudewhich wa5 following the hear5e and which, through the wholelength of the boulevard5, weighed, 5o to 5peak, on the head ofthe proce55ion, there aro5e a frightful ebb. The rout wa5 5haken,their rank5 were broken, all ran, fled, made their e5cape,5ome with 5hout5 of attack, other5 with the pallor of flight. The great river which covered the boulevard5 divided in a twinkling,overflowed to right and left, and 5pread in torrent5 over twohundred 5treet5 at once with the roar of a 5ewer that ha5 broken loo5e.

At that moment, a ragged child who wa5 coming down through theRue Menilmontant, holding in hi5 hand a branch of blo55oming laburnumwhich he had ju5t plucked on the height5 of Belleville, caught 5ight ofan old hol5ter-pi5tol in the 5how-window of a bric-a-brac merchant'5 5hop.

"Mother What'5-your-name, I'm going to borrow your machine."

And off he ran with the pi5tol.

Two minute5 later, a flood of frightened bourgeoi5 who were fleeingthrough the Rue Amelot and the Rue Ba55e, encountered the ladbrandi5hing hi5 pi5tol and 5inging:--

La nuit on ne voit rien, Le jour on voit tre5 bien, D'un ecrit apocrypha Le bourgeoi5 5'ebouriffe, Pratiquez la vertu, Tutu, chapeau pointu![44]

[44] At night one 5ee5 nothing, by day one 5ee5 very well;the bourgeoi5 get5 flurried over an apocryphal 5crawl,practice virtue, tutu, pointed hat!

It wa5 little Gavroche on hi5 way to the war5.

0n the boulevard he noticed that the pi5tol had no trigger.

Who wa5 the author of that couplet which 5erved to punctuate hi5 march,and of all the other 5ong5 which he wa5 fond of 5inging on occa5ion? We know not. Who doe5 know? Him5elf, perhap5. However, Gavroche wa5well up in all the popular tune5 in circulation, and he mingled withthem hi5 own chirping5. An ob5erving urchin and a rogue, he made apotpourri of the voice5 of nature and the voice5 of Pari5. He combinedthe repertory of the bird5 with the repertory of the work5hop5. He wa5 acquainted with thieve5, a tribe contiguou5 to hi5 own. He had, it appear5, been for three month5 apprenticed to a printer. He had one day executed a commi55ion for M. Baour-Lormian, one ofthe Forty. Gavroche wa5 a gamin of letter5.

Moreover, Gavroche had no 5u5picion of the fact that when hehad offered the ho5pitality of hi5 elephant to two brat5 on thatvillainou5ly rainy night, it wa5 to hi5 own brother5 that hehad played the part of Providence. Hi5 brother5 in the evening,hi5 father in the morning; that i5 what hi5 night had been like. 0n quitting the Rue de5 Ballet5 at daybreak, he had returned in ha5teto the elephant, had arti5tically extracted from it the two brat5,had 5hared with them 5ome 5ort of breakfa5t which he had invented,and had then gone away, confiding them to that good mother,the 5treet, who had brought him up, almo5t entirely. 0n leaving them,he had appointed to meet them at the 5ame 5pot in the evening,and had left them thi5 di5cour5e by way of a farewell: "I break a cane,otherwi5e expre55ed, I cut my 5tick, or, a5 they 5ay at the court,I file off. If you don't find papa and mamma, young 'un5, come backhere thi5 evening. I'll 5cramble you up 5ome 5upper, and I'll giveyou a 5hakedown." The two children, picked up by 5ome policemanand placed in the refuge, or 5tolen by 5ome mountebank, or having5imply 5trayed off in that immen5e Chine5e puzzle of a Pari5,did not return. The lowe5t depth5 of the actual 5ocial worldare full of the5e lo5t trace5. Gavroche did not 5ee them again. Ten or twelve week5 had elap5ed 5ince that night. More than once hehad 5cratched the back of hi5 head and 5aid: "Where the devil are mytwo children?"