About one o’clock in the afternoon, a party of the royal guards and of Swiss, to the number of nearly 800 men, appeared on the Place de Grêve. A brisk fire commenced, but the national guards not being in sufficient strength, were obliged to give ground and to suffer the royal guards to take possession of their post. The royal guards had scarcely made themselves masters of the Hotel de Ville, when they were assailed on all sides with a shower of bullets from the windows of the houses on the Place de Grêve and in the streets abutting on the quay. The royal guards resisted vigorously, but were ultimately compelled to retreat along the quay; their firing by files and by platoons succeeding each other with astonishing rapidity. They were soon joined by fresh troops of the royal guard and of Swiss, including 100 cuirassiers of the guard and four pieces of artillery, each of them escorted by a dozen of artillerymen on horseback. With this terrible reinforcement they again advanced on the Hotel de Ville, and a frightful firing began on all sides. The artillery debouching from the quay, and their pieces charged with cannister shot, swept the Place de Grêve in a terrific manner. They succeeded in driving the citizens into the Rues de Matriot and du Mouton, and entered for the second time that day into their position at the Hotel de Ville. But their possession of it did not continue long; for they were soon again attacked with a perseverance and courage which was almost irresistible. Their artillery ranged before the Prefecture of the Seine and the Hotel de Ville threatened death to thousands.
Hundreds of the constitutionalists were killed by the fire of the Swiss guard from the windows of this edifice. It was erected in 1600, and though it does not appear to possess any of the characteristics of strength in a military sense of the word, yet its gates, being of immense thickness, furnished a good defence from the musketry of the attacking parties. The Hotel de Ville was afterwards employed as the head-quarters of La Fayette and the provisional government.
The Rue St. Honoré, for two days, was a perpetual scene of slaughter. The Louvre, except the picture-gallery, was on all sides attacked and defended at the same moment, and for hours. In the court of the Louvre a field-piece was planted, which commanded the Pont des Arts, being exactly opposite the Institute. Here the fighting was so dreadful and so maintained, that the front of the building of the Institute was completely covered with muskets and grape shot. One cannon ball smashed a portion of the wall, and from its elevation did dreadful execution in sweeping the bridge. The attack on the Tuilleries was over in two or three hours. A young man marched with a tri-coloured flag at the head of the attacking bourgeois. A thousand balls, fired from the front of the chateau, whistled by him without touching him. He continued to march with perfect sangfroid, but with, at the same time, an air of importance, up to the triumphal arch, and remained until the end of the battle.
While the people and the military were combating at the Place de Grêve, the Louvre, and the Tuilleries, troops were arriving by the Champs Elysees. A great party of the people, and many national guards, with two pieces of cannon, were hastening along near the Place Louis XVI towards the Barrier St. Etoile, when a largo troop of dragoons arrived, made a desperate charge, and cut down the people without mercy who made a very bold stand. Many of the soldiers solemnly vowed that they would not continue to obey orders to massacre their brothers and sons. Their numbers were thinned, they were fatigued, disheartened, discomfited, beaten, and fled. At Chaillot, a district of Paris, verging on the route to St. Cloud, the inhabitants, though few in number, sustained the fire of five regiments of the guards, who attempted to effect their retreat by the barrier of Passy. At length, all the royal troops left the capital by the way of the Champs Elysees, and in their retreat were fired upon by the people.
At night, part of the town was illuminated, particularly the streets of St. Denis, St. Martin, St. Jacques, and the neighbourhood of the Hotel de Ville. Perfect tranquillity prevailed throughout the city. Strong patroles silently paraded the streets, passed gently from barricade to barricade, and disarmed individuals whom fatigue and the heat of the weather, more than wine, had rendered incapable of employing their weapons usefully.
A deputation from Charles X at St. Cloud, arrived at the Hotel de Ville early in the morning. It consisted of the marquis de Rastoret, chancellor of France; M. Semonville; and count d’Argout, peer of France. They announced that Charles had named the duke de Mortemart president of the council, and that he was willing to accept a ministry chosen by him.
At eleven o’clock, the deputies and peers then in Paris assembled in their respective halls, and established regular communications with each other. The duke de Mortemart was introduced to the chamber of deputies, and delivered four ordinances, signed, the previous day, by Charles X. One of them recalled the fatal ordinances of the 25th; another convoked the chambers on the 3rd; the third appointed the duke de Mortemart president of the council, and the fourth appointed count Gerard minister of war, and M. Casimir-Perier minister of finance. The reading of these ordinances was listened to with the greatest attention. At the termination profound silence continued;—no observation was made;—the deputies passed to other business.—The duke de Mortemart returned to acquaint his master that he was no longer acknowledged as king of France. The manner in which the duke and his communications were received by the deputies, was an announcement that Charles X had ceased to reign.
On the 31st, the deputies published a proclamation, declaring that they had invited the duke of Orleans to become Lieutenant-General of the kingdom. At noon of the same day, Louis Philippe d’Orleans issued a proclamation, declaring that he had hastened to Paris, wearing the “glorious colours” of France, to accept the invitation of the assembled deputies to become Lieutenant-General of the kingdom. A proclamation of the same date appointed provisional commissaries for the different departments of government. The king, with his family, escaped to St. Cloud.
On the 3rd of August the chambers met, when the abdication of Charles was announced; and on the 9th, Louis Philippe, having taken the prescribed oath, was created king, under the title of “King of the French.”