The things we do!

-- Fortunately the militia organized itself and
the principal inhabitants and gentlemen enrolled themselves; 48,000
men are formed into battalions and companies; the bourgeoisie buy
guns of the vagabonds for three livres apiece, and sabers or pistols
for twelve sous. At last, some of the offenders are hung on the
spot, and others disarmed, and the insurrection again becomes
political. But, whatever its object, it remains always wild,
because it is in the hands of the mob. Dusaulx, its panegyrist,
confesses[41] that "he thought he was witnessing the total
dissolution of society." There is no leader, no management. The
electors who have converted themselves into the representatives of
Paris seem to command the crowd, but it is the crowd which commands
them. One of them, Legrand, to save the H?tel-de-Ville, has no
other resource but to send for six barrels of gun-powder, and to
declare to the assailants that he is about to blow everything into
the air. The commandant whom they themselves have chosen, M.


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