upon me. The sound of the general signal for their
march produced a rush of the crowd towards the gate, I took advantage of
the confusion, struck down one of my captors, shook off the other, and
plunged into the living torrent that was now pouring and struggling before
me.

But even when I reached the open air--and never did I feel its freshness
with a stronger sense of revival--I was still in the midst of the
multitude, and any attempt to make my way alone would have obviously been
death. Thus was I carried on along the Boulevarde, in the heart of a
column of a hundred thousand maniacs, trampled, driven, bruised by the
rabble, and deafened with shouts, yells, and cries of vengeance, until my
frame was a fever and my brain scarcely less than a frenzy.

That terrible morning gave the deathblow to the mighty monarchy of the
Bourbons. The throne was so shaken by the popular arm, that though it
preserved a semblance of its original shape, a breath was sufficient to
cast it to the ground. I have no heart for the recital. Even now I can
scarcely think of that tremendous pageant of popular fantasy, fury, and
the very passion of crime; or bring to my mind's eye that column, which
seemed then to be boundless and endless, with the glare of its torches,
the rattle of its drums, the grinding of its cannon-wheels, as we rushed
along the causeway, from time to time stopping to fire, as a summons to
the other districts, and as a note of exultation; or the perpetual, sullen,
and deep roar of the populace--without a thrilling sense of perplexity and
pain.

Long before daybreak we had swept all minor resistance before us,
plundered the arsenal of its arms, and taken possession of the Hotel de
Ville. The few troops who had kept guard at the different posts on our way,
had been captured without an effort, or joined the insurgents. But
intelligence now came that the palace was roused at last, that troops were
ordered from the country for its defence, and that the noblesse remaining
in the capital were crowding to the Tuileries. I stood beside Danton when
those tidings were brought to him. He flung up his cap in the air, with a
burst of laughter. "So much the better!" he exclaimed; "the closer the
preserve, the thicker the game." I had now a complete view of this hero of
democracy. His figure was herculean; his countenance, which possibly, in
his younger days, had been handsome, was now marked with the lines of
every passion and profligac