I went out with the deputies and returned by way of the quays.
In the Place de la Concorde the cavalry continued to charge. An attempt to erect two barricades had been made in the Rue Saint Honoré. The paving-stones in the Marché Saint Honoré were being torn up. The overturned omni-buses, of which the barricades had been made, had been righted by the troops. In the Rue Saint Honoré the crowd let the Municipal Guards go by, and then stoned them in the back. A multitude was swarming along the quays like irritated ants. A very pretty woman in a green velvet hat and a large cashmere shawl passed by amid a group of men wearing blouses and with bared arms. She had raised her skirt very high on account of the mud, with which she was much spattered; for it was raining every minute. The Tuileries were closed. At the Carrousel gates the crowd had stopped and was gazing through the arcades at the cavalry lined up in battle array in front of the palace.
Near the Carrousel Bridge I met M. Jules Sandeau. “What do you think of all this?” he queried.
“That the riot will be suppressed, but that the revolution will triumph.”
On the Quai de la Ferraille I happened upon somebody else I knew. Coming towards me was a man covered with mud to the neck, his cravat hanging down, and his hat battered. I recognized my excellent friend Antony Thouret. Thouret is an ardent Republican. He had been walking and speech-making since early morning, going from quarter to quarter and from group to group.
“Tell me, now, what you really want?” said I. “Is it the Republic?”
“Oh! no, not this time, not yet,” he answered. “What we want is reform—no half measures, oh! dear no, that won’t do at all. We want complete reform, do you hear? And why not universal suffrage?”
“That’s the style!” I said as we shook hands.
Patrols were marching up and down the quay, while the crowd shouted “Hurrah for the line!” The shops were closed and the windows of the houses open.
In the Place du Châtelet I heard a man say to a group: