Page:Scribner's Magazine Volume 1.djvu/29

Rh After some unimportant proceedings the floor was assigned to M. Palikao, the Minister of War, who, in behalf of the Council of Ministers, submitted the following:

". 1. A council of Government and of National Defence is instituted. The council is composed of five members. Each member of this council is named by the absolute majority of the Corps Législatif.

"2. The ministers are named under the countersign of the members of this council.

"3. The General Count Palikao is named lieutenant-general of this council.

"Done in a council of ministers the 4th of September, 1870.

"For the Emperor, and in virtue of the powers which he has confided to us.

After that project had been read, M. Thiers arose and submitted another proposition, which was as follows:

"Considering the circumstances, the Chamber names a commission of Government and National Defence. A Constituent Assembly will be convoked as soon as the circumstances will allow."

The proposition of Favre being already before the Chamber, "urgency" was voted on these three propositions, and they were sent to a committee for examination, under the rules of the Chamber. This voting of urgency, according to the rules of the Chamber, brings the matter before it for immediate consideration. At one o'clock and forty minutes in the afternoon the sitting was suspended, to await the report of the committee to which these three propositions had been submitted, and then all the members left the hall, going into a large lobby-room, called La salle des pas perdus.

As it was supposed that the sitting would not be resumed for an hour or more, I left the diplomatic gallery and descended into the court of the building, facing upon the street which runs parallel with the Seine. There I found a great many people who had been admitted by virtue of tickets. The street in front of the building had been kept quite clear by the military, though there was an enormous multitude of the National Guard and the people on the Place de la Concorde, on the opposite side of the river. The Pont de la Concorde seemed to be sufficiently guarded by the military to prevent their crossing over. All at once I saw quite a number of people on the steps of the Palais Bourbon, and soon they commenced to raise loud cries of "''Vive la Bepublique!" "Déchéance! Vive la France!''"

At this moment I was called away by the messenger of the legation, who brought me an urgent message from Madame MacMahon, who wanted a safe-conduct from me to enable her to pass the Prussian lines to visit her wounded husband at Sedan. I had asked my friend, the Honorable George Eustis, Jr., of Louisiana, who was a perfect master of the French language, to accompany me to the Corps Législatif, and he was with me at the time my messenger came in to get this laissez-passer for Madame MacMahon. Leaving the diplomatic tribune, we went into an antechamber, where I could find writing materials, to prepare the document which was sought for. I had no sooner sat myself down to the table than the cry was raised that the people had invaded the building. It seemed but a moment before the flood was rushing in, even into the antechamber where Mr. Eustis and myself were. The crowd and confusion were so great that I found it impossible to prepare the requisite paper, so we made our way into the court-yard.

There was presented a most extraordinary spectacle. A part of a regiment of the line had been brought hurriedly into the yard, and had formed across it and were loading their muskets. Behind them, and in the street, and rushing through the gates and up the front steps of the building, was a vast mass of excited people and the National Guard, who had fraternized–the guard having their muskets butt end upward as a token of friendship. It was evident that there had been collusion between the people who were on the steps of the Palais Bourbon and the people and the National Guard in the Place de la Concorde, on the other side of the