owds gathered in the streets
and clamored for the Constitution. A report that the guards were on the
point of going over to the people brought the king around. From the balcony
of the royal palace Ferdinand announced his readiness to take the oath to
the Constitution. The next day was spent in riotous rejoicing. The prison
of the Inquisition was sacked and all political prisoners were liberated.
On the following day the mob broke into the gates and gardens of the royal
palace. The members of the old municipal council entered the royal private
chamber and called for a fulfilment of the king's public promise. Ferdinand
accepted the inevitable under a smiling exterior, and swore an oath of
fidelity to the Constitution of 1812. A provisional Junta took charge of
affairs until the new Cortes should be convened.

[Sidenote: Duc de Berry assassinated]

The news of the Spanish revolution astounded Europe. In France a fanatic by
the name of Louvel deemed the moment come to strike at the reigning house
of France. Louvel had followed Napoleon to exile in Elba. After the Hundred
Days he dogged the footsteps of the Bourbon princes with a settled project
of murder. The heir-presumptive to the French crown was the Duc de Berry.
If he died without a son the elder Bourbon line was bound to become extinct
as a reigning house. On the night of February 13, Louvel attacked the Duc
de Berry at the entrance of the opera house and plunged a knife into his
heart. The Duchess was covered with her husband's blood. That night Duc de
Berry died beseeching forgiveness for the man who had killed him. King
Louis XVIII. himself closed the eyes of his nephew.

[Sidenote: Fall of Decazes' Ministry]

The assassination of the Duc de Berry involved the ruin of the Ministry of
Decazes. The ultra-royalists in their frenzy of grief and indignation
charged their chief opponent with complicity. Clausel de Coussergues, a
member of the Court of Cassation, moved the impeachment of Minister Decazes
in the Chambers as an accomplice in the assassination. The King himself
felt menaced by the unwarranted accusation. "The Royalists give me the
finishing stroke," said he; "they know that the policy of M. Decazes is
also mine, and they accuse him of assassinating my nephew." Yet he had to
abandon his favorite to the violent entreaties of the Comte d'Artois and
the Duchesse de Angouleme. Decazes was permitted to retire, and set out for
London with his new titles of Duke a