The proclamation of the duke was
very angrily received in the streets. Loud mutterings were heard.
Those who were distributing the proclamation were fiercely assailed,
and one of the agents narrowly escaped with his life.

At length the bold resolve was adopted for the Duke of Orleans to go
in person to the Hotel de Ville, accompanied by an escort of
Deputies. A throng of Orleanists surrounded the Palais Royal and
cheered the duke as he came out. As the procession advanced,
insulting shouts began to assail their ears. The duke was on
horseback. The Place de Greve was thronged with Republicans. Angry
outcries greeted him. "He is a Bourbon," some shouted; "away with
him! We will have nothing to do with him."

Benjamin Constant and Beranger mingled with the crowd, doing every
thing in their power to appease and calm it. It was feared, every
moment, that some pistol-shot would strike the duke from his horse.
His countenance was pale and care-worn; but there was no visible
perturbation. Having with difficulty forced his way through the angry
crowd, Louis Philippe alighted from his horse and ascended the
stairs. Lafayette, who was already in heart in sympathy with the
Orleanist movement, came forth courteously to meet him, and conducted
him to the great hall of the palace. There was here a very excited
interview, the more passionate of the Orleanists and of the
Republicans coming very near to blows. But Lafayette and the most
illustrious men of the liberal party, seeing no other possible way of
rescuing France from anarchy, now openly espoused the cause of Louis
Philippe.

Lafayette took the Duke of Orleans by the hand, and led him out upon
a balcony, where they were in view of the vast multitude swarming in
the vacant space below. The devotion of the marquis to popular rights
was universally known. He could not, in that tumultuous hour, make
his voice heard. But in the use of action, more expressive than
words, he threw his arms around the neck of the duke in an
affectionate embrace. The best part of the multitude accepted this as
the indorsement of his fitness for the trust, by one in whom they
could confide. It was on this occasion that the following incident
occurred:

"You know," said Lafayette to Louis Philippe, "that I am a
Republican, and that I regard the Constitution of the United States
as the most perfect that has ever existed."

"I think as you do," Louis Philippe replied. "It is impossible to
have passed