The imminence of
a great danger engrossed their minds, together with the consciousness of
a great defeat. The anxiety of the Chambers was reechoed in the
Tuileries; and for the last time the ministers assembled there, anxious
at that last moment of their power to maintain order, now everywhere
threatened. Count Mole was laboriously occupied in the formation of a
cabinet. "To think that this resolution was formed in a quarter of an
hour!" exclaimed the King when engaged with Jayr in some administrative
details.
The excitement was great in the palace, but still greater in the
streets, being skilfully kept up by several insurrectionist leaders, and
spontaneously arising among the reckless portion of the populace, who
are easily influenced by revolutionary clamors. Increased by those
assembling from curiosity or idleness, the crowds in the squares and
boulevards assumed alarming proportions. All at once, opposite the
Foreign Office, there was heard, about nine o'clock in the evening, one
of those fatal explosions, whether accidental or premeditated, which
history often records as the origin of great popular risings.
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