“Why?” said Franc d’Houdetot.
“Well, I am invited out to dinner,” said the officer.
At this moment a group of women in mourning and children dressed in black passed rapidly along the other pavement of the bridge. A man held the eldest child by the hand. I looked at him and recognized the Duke de Montebello.
“Hello!” exclaimed d’Houdetot, “the Minister of Marine!” and he ran over and conversed for a moment with M. de Montebello. The Duchess had become frightened, and the whole family was taking refuge on the left bank of the river.
Vivien and I returned to the Palace of the Chamber. D’Houdetot quitted us. In an instant we were surrounded. Said Boissy to me:
“You were not at the Luxembourg? I tried to speak upon the situation in Paris. I was hooted. At the mot, ‘the capital in danger,’ I was interrupted, and the Chancellor, who had come to preside expressly for that purpose, called me to order. And do you know what General Gourgaud said to me? ‘Monsieur de Boissy, I have sixty guns with their caissons filled with grape-shot. I filled them myself.’ I replied: ‘General, I am delighted to know what is really thought at the Château about the situation.’”
At this moment Durvergier de Hauranne, hatless, his hair dishevelled, and looking pale but pleased, passed by and stopped to shake hands with me.
I left Duvergier and entered the Chamber. A bill relative to the privileges of the Bank of Bordeaux was being debated. A man who was talking through his nose occupied the tribune, and M. Sauzet was reading the articles of the bill with a sleepy air. M. de Belleyme, who was coming out, shook hands with me and exclaimed: “Alas!”
Several deputies came up to me, among them M. Marie, M. Roger (of Loiret), M. de Rémusat, and M. Chambolle. I related to them the incident of the tearing down of the flag, which was serious in view of the audacity of the attack.
“What is even more serious,” said one of them, “is that there is something very bad behind all this. During the night the doors of more than fifteen mansions were marked with a cross, among the marked houses being those of the Princess de Liéven, in the Rue Saint Florentin, and of Mme. de Talhouët.”