Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/319

 BETWEEN THE CZAH AND THE SULTAN. 277 the Boulevards was different. From that point chap. home to the Madeleine the -whole carriage-way IV " . was occupied by troops ; the infantry was drawn up in subdivisions at quarter distance. Along this part of the gay and glittering Boulevard the windows, the balconies, and the foot-pavements were crowded with men and women who were gazing at the military display. These gazers had no reason for supposing that they incurred any danger, for they could see no one with whom the army would have to contend. It is true that notices had been placed upon the walls, recom- mending people not to encumber the streets, and warning them that they would be liable to be dis- persed by the troops without being summoned ; but of course those who had chanced to see this announcement naturally imagined that it was a menace addressed to riotous crowds which misht be pressing upon the troops in a hostile way. Not one man could have read it as a sentence of sudden death against peaceful spectators. At three o'clock one of the field-pieces ranged in front of the column was fired at the little bar- ricade near the Gymnase. The shot went high over the mark. The troops at the head of the column sent a few musket-shots in the direction of the barricade, and there was a slight attempt at reply, but no one on either side was wounded ; and the engagement, if so it could be called, was so languid and harmless that even the gazers who stood on the foot-pavement, between the troops and the barricade, were not deterred from remain-