e; for it would have
been going farther than the students were prepared to proceed, had they
attempted to seize and disarm the soldiers. This appeared to be
understood, and, instead of wasting the moments and exasperating his
enemies by a parley, the officer, as has just been said, went directly
through them until he reached the railing. Once there, he began to
encircle it, followed in the same order by his men. The first turn
loosened the crowd, necessarily, and then I observed that the muskets,
which hitherto had been kept at a "carry," were inclined a little
outwards. Two turns enabled the men to throw their pieces to a charge,
and, by this time, they had opened their order so far as to occupy the
four sides of the area. Facing outwards, they advanced very slowly, but
giving time for the crowd to recede. This manoeuvre rendered the throng
less and less dense, when, watching their time, the mounted gendarmes
rode into it in a body, and, making a circuit, on a trot, without the
line of infantry, they got the mass so loosened and scattered, that,
unarmed as the students were, had they been disposed to resist, they
would now have been completely at the mercy of the troops. Every step
that was gained of course weakened the crowd, and, in ten minutes, the
square was empty; some being driven out of it in one direction, and some
in another, without a blow being struck, or even an angry word used. The
force of the old saying, "that the king's name is a tower of strength,"
or, the law being on the side of the troops, probably was of some avail;
but a mob of fiery young Frenchmen is not too apt to look at the law
with reverence.

I stood near the hotels, but still in the square, when a gendarme,
sweeping his sabre as one would use a stick in driving sheep, came near
me. He told me to go away. I smiled, and said I was a stranger, who was
looking at the scene purely from curiosity. "I see you are, sir," he
answered, "but you had better fall back into the Rue de la Paix." We
exchanged friendly nods, and I did as he told me, without further
hesitation. In truth, there remained no more to be seen.

Certainly, nothing could have been done in better temper, more
effectually, nor more steadily, than this dispersion of the students.
There is no want of spirit in these young men, you must know, but the
reverse is rather the case. The troops were under fifty in number, and
the mob was between six hundred and a thousand, resolute, active,