CHAPTER X

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The Revolution of '48 -- The beginning of it -- The National Guards in all their glory -- The Cafe Gregoire on the Place du Caire -- The price of a good breakfast in '48 -- The palmy days of the Cuisine Bourgeoise -- The excitement on the Boulevards on Sunday, February 20th, '48 -- The theatres -- A ball at Poirson's, the erstwhile director of the Gymnase -- A lull in the storm -- Tuesday, February 22nd -- Another visit to the Cafe Gregoire -- On my way thither -- The Comedie-Francaise closes its doors -- What it means, according to my old tutor -- We are waited upon by a sergeant and corporal -- We are no longer "messieurs," but "citoyens" -- An eye to the main chance -- The patriots do a bit of business in tricolour cockades -- The company marches away -- Casualties -- "Le patriotisme" means the difference between the louis d'or and the ecu of three francs -- The company bivouacs on the Boulevard Saint-Martin -- A tyrant's victim "_malgre lui_" -- Wednesday, February 23rd -- The Cafe Gregoire once more -- The National Guards _en neglige_ -- A novel mode of settling accounts -- The National Guards fortify the inner man -- A bivouac on the Boulevard du Temple -- A camp scene from an opera -- I leave -- My companion's account -- The National Guards protect the regulars -- The author of these notes goes to the theatre -- The Gymnase and the Varietes on the eve of the Revolution -- Bouffe and Dejazet -- Thursday, February 24th, '48 -- The Boulevards at 9.30 a.m. -- No milk -- The Revolutionaries do without it -- The Place du Carrousel -- The sovereign people fire from the roofs on the troops -- The troops do not dislodge them -- The King reviews the troops -- The apparent inactivity of Louis-Philippe's sons -- A theory about the difference in bloodshed. -- One of the three ugliest men in France comes to see the King -- Seditious cries -- The King abdicates -- Chaos -- The sacking of the Tuileries -- Receptions and feasting in the Galerie de Diane -- "Du cafe pour nous, des cigarettes pour les dames" -- The dresses of the princesses -- The bourgeois feast the gamins who guard the barricades -- The Republic proclaimed -- The riff-raff insist upon illuminations -- An actor promoted to the Governorship of the Hotel de Ville -- Some members of the "provisional Government" at work -- Mery on Lamartine -- Why the latter proclaimed the Republic 208

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