The doctor made a hasty examination, and was preparing the bandages when Louis arrived with the priest. I left them and went into the house to make some tea, which I thought might be needed; but my father-in-law came in and said that the man had gone to sleep.
Later, about two o'clock, Louis told us that all was over; the poor fellow had received the last sacraments, had turned over on his side, and had breathed his last. We sent for the ambulance; but it was five o'clock before they took him away.
It made us very sad all day to think that death had entered our gates.
15th May.—Thiers's house in the Rue St. Georges was pillaged to-day by the mob, who howled like madmen and hurled all sorts of curses and maledictions on luckless Thiers, who has done nothing wrong, and certainly tried to do good.
Auber, who lives in the same street, must have seen and heard all that was going on. How he must have suffered!
[Illustration: PLACE VENDÔME AFTER THE FALL OF THE COLUMN]
16th May.—The Column Vendôme fell to-day; they have been working some days to undermine it at the base of the socle. Every one thought it would make a tremendous crash, but it did not; it fell just where they intended it to fall, toward the Rue de la Paix, on some fagots placed to receive it. They were a long time pulling at it; three or four pulleys, and as many ropes, and twenty men tugging with all their might—et voilà. The figure that replaced the Little Corporal (which is safe somewhere in Neuilly) came to earth in a cloud of dust, and the famous column lay broken in three huge pieces.
I inclose a ticket which Mr. Lemaire obtained somehow, and which, as you see, permitted him to circulate librement in the Place Vendôme:
[Illustration]
I think it is strange that Auber does not let us hear from him. I fear his heart is broken, like the column.