holding by the hand her two sons, the Count de Paris and the Duke
de Chartres. M. Odilon. Barrot was not with her. The Duke de Nemours
accompanied her.

She was acclaimed by the deputies. But, the Chamber having been
dissolved, were there any deputies?

M. Cremieux ascended the tribune and flatly proposed a provisional
government. M. Odilon Barrot, who had been fetched from the Ministry of
the Interior, made his appearance at last and pleaded for the Regency,
but without eclat and without energy. Suddenly a mob of people and
National Guards with arms and flags invaded the chamber. The Duchess
d'Orleans, persuaded by her friends, withdrew with her children.

The Chamber of Deputies then vanished, submerged by a sort of
revolutionary assembly. Ledru-Rollin harangued this crowd. Next came
Lamartine, who was awaited and acclaimed. He opposed the Regency, as he
had promised.

That settled it. The names for a provisional government were proposed
to the people. And by shouts of "yes" or "no" the people elected
successively: Lamartine, Dupont de l'Eure, Arago, and Ledru-Rollin
unanimously, Cremieux, Gamier-Pages, and Marie by a majority.

The new ministers at once set out for the Hotel de Ville.

At the Chamber of Deputies not once was the word "Republic" uttered in
any of the speeches of the orators, not even in that of Ledru-Rollin.
But now, outside, in the street, the elect of the people heard this
words this shout, everywhere. It flew from mouth to mouth and filled the
air of Paris.

The seven men who, in these supreme and extreme days, held the destiny
of France in their hands were themselves at once tools and playthings in
the hands of the mob, which is not the people, and of chance, which is
not providence. Under the pressure of the multitude; in the bewilderment
and terror of their triumph, which overwhelmed them, they decreed the
Republic without having time to think that they were doing such a great
thing.

When, having been separated and dispersed by the violent pushing of the
crowd, they were able to find each other again and reassemble, or rather
hide, in one of the rooms of the Hotel de Ville, they took half a sheet
of paper, at the head of which were printed the words: "Prefecture of
the Seine. Office of the Prefect." M. de Rambuteau may that very morning
have used the other half of the sheet to write a love-letter to one of
his "little bourgeoises," as he called them.

Under the dictation of terrible