[73] The prefecture of Rennes placarded this despatch of the Government: "A criminal insurrection is being organised in Paris. I send forces which, joined to the honest National Guards of Paris and to the other regular troops which are still stationed there, will suppress, I hope, this odious attempt."
[74] Jules Ferry, who had remained at Paris, telegraphed on the 5th to the Government: "Never has a Sunday been calmer, notwithstanding sinister reports. The population is enjoying the sun and their promenades as if nothing had happened. I no longer believe in the danger."
[75] "The vote of the Assembly," wrote Jules Favre, "was received at Paris with extreme disfavour; not only amongst the fanatics and the agitators; all classes of the population showed themselves almost unanimous. Every one saw in it an affront and a menace. It was repeated everywhere that this was the first act of a monarchical coup-d'état; that the Assembly was ready to name a king, and that, knowing the unpopularity of its work, it sought to accomplish it far from the eyes of those who might oppose it."
[76] This is the Committee which many took for the Central Committee.
[77] Some Bourse speculators, in the belief that a campaign of six weeks would give a fresh impulse to the speculations they were living upon, said, "It is a disagreeable moment to pass through, some 50,000 men to be sacrificed, after which the horizon will clear and commerce revive."—M. Thiers, Enquête sur le 4 Septembre, vol. i. p. 9.
[78] Enquête sur le 18 Mars, M. Thiers, vol. ii. p. 11.
[79] In the evening D'Aurelles assembled forty of the most reliable, and asked them if their battalions would march. They all said their men were not to be counted upon. Enquête sur le 18 Mars, vol. ii. p. 435, 456.
[80] This is the number of pieces given by M. Thiers in the Enquête sur le 18 Mars.