the clergy leading the way, followed by the president
and his attendants. The orchestra played a lively march, and the great
bell in the tower boomed forth a glorious peal.

* * * * *

The president's carriage drew up before the gates of the Tuileries and
he entered the great apartment where a reception was given to various
public and military bodies. Between seven and eight thousand naval and
military officers paid their respects, and about half a battalion of the
army saluted, among them two Mamelukes. While this ceremony was going
on, the Place du Carrousel was occupied by several squadrons of cavalry
and the inner courtyards were practically infantry camps. The government
was taking no chances at the beginning of its career. The reception
lasted until well on towards evening, when a banquet of four hundred
covers was laid and partaken of by the invited guests.

The last days of the Tuileries may be said to have commenced with that
eventful September 3, 1870, at five o'clock in the afternoon, when the
Empress Eugenie received a telegraphic despatch from Napoleon III
announcing his captivity and the defeat of Sedan. It was the overthrow.

The evening and the night were calm; the masses, as yet, were unaware of
the fatal news the journals would publish on the morrow. The following
day was Sunday; the weather superb; the disaster was finally announced
and the masses thronged from all parts to the Place de la Concorde,
where a squadron of Cuirassiers barred the bridge leading to the Palais
Bourbon where the deputies were in session.

On the arrival of the news the empress had called in General Trochu, the
Military Governor of Paris, and asked him if he could guarantee order.
He replied in the affirmative. Some hours later a group of deputies came
to the empress and counselled her to sign, not an abdication, but a
momentary renunciation of her powers as regent. Eugenie refused
point-blank.

The throng, passing by the left bank, had arrived at the Chamber of
Deputies, and the formal sitting became a revolutionary one. At three
o'clock the imperial dynasty was proclaimed as at an end, and a
provisionary government installed. Henri Rochefort, the present editor
of the "_Intransingeant_," was delivered from the prison of Sainte
Pelagie and made a member of the government.

By this time the mob which had invaded the Place de la Concorde became
menacing. The cry, "Aux Tuileries," first lau