S AND EVASIONS.
III. LOUIS PHILIPPE IN EXILE.
IV. KING JEROME.
V. THE DAYS OF JUNE.
VI. CHATEAUBRIAND.
VII. DEBATES ON THE DAYS OF JUNE.

I. THE DAYS OF FEBRUARY.

THE TWENTY-THIRD.

As I arrived at the Chamber of Peers--it was 3 o'clock
precisely--General Rapatel came out of the cloak-room and said: "The
session is over."

I went to the Chamber of Deputies. As my cab turned into the Rue de
Lille a serried and interminable column of men in shirt-sleeves, in
blouses and wearing caps, and marching arm-in-arm, three by three,
debouched from the Rue Bellechasse and headed for the Chamber. The
other extremity of the street, I could see, was blocked by deep rows of
infantry of the line, with their rifles on their arms. I drove on ahead
of the men in blouses, with whom many women had mingled, and who
were shouting: "Hurrah for reform!" "Hurrah for the line!" "Down
with Guizot!" They stopped when they arrived within rifle-shot of the
infantry. The soldiers opened their ranks to let me through. They were
talking and laughing. A very young man was shrugging his shoulders.

I did not go any further than the lobby. It was filled with busy and
uneasy groups. In one corner were M. Thiers, M. de Remusat, M. Vivien
and M. Merruau (of the "Constitutionnel"); in another M. Emile de
Girardin, M. d'Alton-Shee and M. de Boissy, M. Franck-Carre, M.
d'Houdetot, M. de Lagrenee. M. Armand Marrast was talking aside with M.
d'Alton. M. de Girardin stopped me; then MM. d'Houdetot and Lagrenee.
MM. Franck-Carre and Vignier joined us. We talked. I said to them:

"The Cabinet is gravely culpable. It forgot that in times like ours
there are precipices right and left and that it does not do to govern
too near to the edge. It says to itself: 'It is only a riot,' and it
almost rejoices at the outbreak. It believes it has been strengthened by
it; yesterday it fell, to-day it is up again! But, in the first
place, who can tell what the end of a riot will be? Riots, it is true,
strengthen the hands of Cabinets, but revolutions overthrow dynasties.
And what an imprudent game in which the dynasty is risked to save the
ministry! The tension of the situation draws the knot tighter, and now
it is impossible to undo it. The hawser may break and then everything
will go adrift. The Left has manoeuvred imprudently and the Cabinet
wildly. Both sides are responsible. But what madness possesses the
Cabinet