tude, we shall become strong once more and drive out the
foreign legions.

"To the attainment of this noble end, we must devote our hearts, our
wills, our lives, and, a still greater sacrifice perhaps, put aside
our preferences.

"We must close our ranks about the Republic, show presence of mind
and strength of purpose; and without passion or weakness, swear,
like free men, to defend France and the Republic against all and
everyone.

"To arms!"

The Government, by obtaining from M. de Bismarck a condition that the
National Guards should retain their arms, hoped to win public favour
again, as one offers a rattle to a fractious child to keep him quiet;
and it published the news on the 3rd of February:

"After the most strenuous efforts on our part, we have obtained, for
the National Guard, the condition ratified by the convention of the
28th January."

Three days after, on the 6th of February, Gambetta wrote:

"His conscience would not permit him to remain a member of a
government with which he no longer agreed in principle."

The candidates, elected in Paris on the 8th of February, were Louis
Blanc, Victor Hugo, Garibaldi, Gambetta, Rochefort, Delescluze, Pyat,
Lockroy, Floquet, Milliere, Tolain, Malon. The provinces, on the other
hand, chose their deputies from among the party of reaction, the members
of which have been so well-known since under the name of _rurals._

Loud murmurs arose in the ranks of the National Guard, when the decrees
of the 18th and 19th of February, concerning their pay, were published;
and later, when an order from headquarters required the marching
companies to send in to the state depot all their campaigning
paraphernalia.

On the 18th of February, M. Thiers was named chief of the executive
power by a vote of the Assembly.

On Sunday, the 26th of February, the Place de la Bastille, in which
manifestations had been held for the last two days in celebration of the
revolution of February '48, became as a shrine, to which whole
battalions of the National Guard marched to the sound of music, their
flags adorned with caps of liberty and cockades. The Column of July was
hung with banners and decorated with wreaths of immortelles. Violent
harangues, the theme of which was the upholding of the Republic "to the
death," were uttered at its foot. One man, of the name of Budaille,
pretended that he held proofs of the treachery of the Gove