They knew nothing certain in the city, where they should soonest know everything.
The enemy attacked us in the suburbs of Issy about one o'clock in the afternoon, and we fought till midnight for our capital.
The people aided as much as possible; they carried off the wounded from under the enemy's fire; even the women took pity on us.
What we suffered from being driven to this, I cannot describe. I have seen Buche himself cry because we were in one sense dishonored. I wished I had never seen that time. Twelve days before I did not know that France was so beautiful. But on seeing Paris with its towers and its innumerable palaces extending as far as the horizon, I thought, "This is France, these are the treasures that our fathers have amassed during century after century. What a misfortune that the English and Prussians should ever come here."
At four in the morning we attacked the Prussians with new fury, and retook the positions we had lost the day before. Then it was that some generals came and announced a suspension of hostilities. This took place on the 3d of July, 1815.
We thought that this suspension was to give notice to the enemy, that if he did not quit our country, France would rise as one man, and crush them all as she did in '92. These were our opinions, and seeing that the people were on our side, I remembered the general levies which Mr. Goulden was always talking about.
But unhappily a great many were so tired of Napoleon and his soldiers, that they sacrificed the country itself, in order to be rid of him. They laid all the blame on the Emperor, and said, if it had not been for him, our enemies would never have had the force or the courage to attack us, that he had exhausted our resources, and that the Prussians themselves would give us more liberty than he had done.
The people talked like Mr. Goulden, but they had neither guns nor cartridges, their only weapons were pikes.
On the 4th, while we were thinking of these things, they announced to us the armistice, by which the Prussians and English were to occupy the barriers of Paris, and the French army was to retire beyond the Loire.
When we heard this, our indignation was so great that we were furious. Some of the soldiers broke their guns, and others tore off their uniforms, and everybody exclaimed, "We are betrayed, we are given up." The old officers were quiet, but they were pale as death, and the tears ran down their cheeks.