Alarmed and exasperated by the danger and insult with which I was menaced, I endeavoured to break through the press, by threateningly brandishing my sabre, but though the circle around me widened, still I was encompassed at every step, and made the mark at which a pitiless shower of mud, stones, and abuse poured without a moment's cessation.
While some cried "à la lanterne!" others shouted for the gensd'armes and accused me of murder. I could perceive, to my no small concern, that the knave I had cut down lay motionless upon the pavement; and most unpleasant ideas floated before me, that even if I escaped immolation at the hands of these enraged Parisians, I might have to encounter the greater humiliation and graver terrors of Monsieur le Duc de Quiche—the Cour Royale de Paris—the Chamber of Appeals—the Correctional Police, and heaven only knew what more.
At this perplexing crisis, a young French officer, in the scarlet uniform of the Garde du Corps of Louis XVIII., broke through the crowd, exclaiming.—
"Halt! hold—in the name of the king—down with you, insolent citizens! Is it thus you treat our allies? Nom d'un Pape! but I will sabre the first that lays a finger upon him. Permit me—this way, Monsieur Officier;" and he put his arm through mine.
We were now in a low quarter of the city; the crowd of squalid wretches was increasing around us every moment; lights flashed at the opened windows of the neighbouring houses, and I could perceive the glittering bayonets, and the great cocked hats of a sergeant and six gensd'armes hurrying along the lighted quay, either to my rescue or capture, but which was dubious, for the vagabond women and rag-pickers continued to yell incessantly,—
"Arrest! arrest!—seize the English murderer! away with him to the concierge!"
My heart beat quick; but my new friend of the Garde du Corps seemed to be quite 'au fait' in the management of such affairs, by the admirable tact and decision he displayed. Calling lustily for the gensd'armes, he suddenly grasped half-a-dozen of the foremost men in succession, and rapidly—for he was a powerful fellow, threw them in a heap over the wounded man, thus increasing the tumult, the rage, and the confusion.
Then seizing me by the hand, he said hurriedly, "Monsieur will pardon me—but come this way, or you will be torn to pieces!" and half leading, half dragging me, he conveyed me down a dark and narrow street. "Nom d'un Pape! I could not see a brother of the epaulette maltreated by these rascally citizens," he continued, laughing heartily at the rage and confusion of the bourgeois. "Ha! ha! follow me! I know how to escape. There are deuced few outlets, holes or corners, byeways or sallyports in Paris, that I don't know. Ah corboeuf! didn't they all tumble delightfully over like so many ninepins? Ha! ha! but hark! they follow us. Hasten with me, Monsieur Officier, and remember that a brawl in this neighbourhood may prove infinitely more dangerous to you than to me."
I was too well aware of that to resist his guidance and advice; and having no ambition to suffer, like St. Stephen, at the hands of a mob, or (escaping that) to figure next morning before the correctional police, and in the evening endure a reprimand from Wellington, I fairly turned, and, accompanying my guide, ran at full speed along the dark alley, laughing heartily at the affair. Gathering like a snowball, as it rolled along, the multitude came on, puffing and shouting, and swearing and yelling behind us.
"This way," cried my guide, who laughed uproariously, and seemed one of the merriest fellows imaginable; "this way—Vive la joie! we are all right now!"