The funeral.
The funeral took place on the 5th of June. It was one of the most imposing spectacles Paris had ever witnessed—assembling, apparently, the whole population of the metropolis, with thousands from the provinces. A magnificent car, decorated with tri-color flags, bore the remains. The procession moved from the house of the deceased through the Rue St. Honoré to the Church of the Madeleine, and thence, by way of the teeming Boulevards, to the Place of the Bastile, where several funeral orations were pronounced, and where the body was received, to be taken to its place of burial in the south of France. All the Republican and Democratic clubs turned out in full strength. The Chamber of Deputies was present. Banners, inscribed with exciting popular devices, floated in the air.
Strength of the royal forces.
The police of Paris was maintained by two thousand municipal guards. In anticipation of an outbreak, the Government had summoned into the squares of the city an additional force of twenty-two thousand troops, consisting of eighteen thousand infantry, four thousand cavalry, and eighty pieces of cannon. And, as an additional precaution, there was a reserve of thirty thousand troops stationed in the vicinity of Paris who could in an hour be brought into the streets. Apparently here was ample force to crush any uprising of the populace.
But, on the other hand, the populace could easily rally an enthusiastic mass of one hundred thousand men. Large numbers of these were accustomed, in their clubs, to act in concert. Their leaders were appointed—each one having his special duty assigned to him. Not a few of these were veteran soldiers, who had served their term in the army, and there were military men of distinction to lead them. The forces, therefore, which might be brought into collision were not very unequal.
Movement of the procession.
The immense procession commenced its movement at ten o'clock in the morning. The whole city was in excitement. All hearts were oppressed with the conviction that tumultuous scenes might be witnessed before the sun should go down. When the head of the procession reached the Place Vendôme, it was turned from its contemplated course, so as to pass up through the Place and the Rue de la Paix to the Boulevards, thus marching beneath the shadow of the magnificent column of Austerlitz, which has given the Place Vendôme world-wide renown.
Cries of Vive la République began now to be heard. A hundred and fifty pupils of the celebrated military school, the Polytechnic, joined the procession, shouting "Vive la Liberte!" These shouts were soon followed by the still more ominous cry, "A bas Louis Philippe!" "Vive Lafayette!" The storm of popular excitement was rapidly rising.
When the funeral-car had reached its point of destination, near the bridge of Austerlitz, where the remains were to be transferred to those who would carry them to their distant place of burial, several brief funeral orations were pronounced, adroitly calculated still more intensely to arouse popular feeling. A Polish refugee, General Uminski, in an impassioned harangue, said:
Speech of General Uminski.