e side-walk. I was too far away to judge of the extent
of the mischief done by the cannonading, but I was told that several
roofs had fallen in and many walls had been thrown down in that quarter.
All that I could see of the market-place was empty; but the sound of
musketry, and the smoke which issued from the houses on one side of it,
told me that the Federals were there in sufficient numbers. A little
further on I saw the barrels of the rifles sticking out of the windows,
with little wreaths of smoke curling out of them; small knots of armed
men every now and then marched hurriedly across the avenue, and
disappeared into the opposite houses. Partly on account of the distance,
and partly on account of the blinding sun, and partly, perhaps, on
account of the emotion I experienced, which made me desire and yet fear
to see, I could distinguish the bridge but indistinctly, with the dark
line of a barricade in front of it. What surprised me most in the battle
which I was busily observing, was the extraordinarily small number of
combatants that were visible, when suddenly--it was about two o'clock in
the afternoon--the Versailles batteries at Courbevoie, which had been
silent for some time, began firing furiously. The horrid screech of the
mitrailleuse drowned the hissing of the shells; the whole breadth of the
long avenue was covered by a kind of white mist. The bastion in front of
me replied energetically. It seemed to me as if the interior part of my
ear was being rent asunder, when suddenly I heard a dull heavy sound,
such as I had not heard before, and I felt the house tremble beneath me.
Loud cries arose from the National Guards on the ramparts. I fancied
that a rain of shot and shell had destroyed the drawbridge of the Porte
Maillot; but it was not so; in the distance I saw that the clouds of
smoke were rolling nearer and nearer, and that the roar of the musketry,
which had greatly increased, sounded close by. I felt sure that a rush
was being made from Courbevoie--that the Versaillais were advancing. The
shells were flying over our heads in the direction of the Champs
Elysees. I began to distinguish that a tumultuous mass of human beings
were marching on in the smoke, in the dust, in the sun. The guns on the
bastion now thundered forth incessantly. There was no mistaking by this
time, there were the Versaillais; I could see the red trowsers of the
men of the line. The Federals were shooting them down from the windows.