Loud murmurs arose in the ranks of the National Guard, when the decrees
of the 18th and 19th of February, concerning their pay, were published;
and later, when an order from headquarters required the marching
companies to send in to the state depôt all their campaigning
paraphernalia.

On the 18th of February, M. Thiers was named chief of the executive
power by a vote of the Assembly.

On Sunday, the 26th of February, the Place de la Bastille, in which
manifestations had been held for the last two days in celebration of the
revolution of February '48, became as a shrine, to which whole
battalions of the National Guard marched to the sound of music, their
flags adorned with caps of liberty and cockades. The Column of July was
hung with banners and decorated with wreaths of immortelles. Violent
harangues, the theme of which was the upholding of the Republic "to the
death," were uttered at its foot. One man, of the name of Budaille,
pretended that he held proofs of the treachery of the Government for the
National Defence, and promised that he would produce them at the proper
time and place.

Up to this moment, the demonstrations seemed to have but one
result--that of impeding circulation; but they soon gave rise to scenes
of tumult and disorder. Towards one o'clock, when perhaps twenty or
thirty thousand persons were on the above Place, an individual, accused
of being a spy, was dragged by an infuriated mob to the river, and
flung, bound hand and foot, into the look by the Ile Saint Louis, amidst
the wild cries and imprecations of the madmen whose prey he had become.

The night of the 26th was very agitated; drums beat to arms, and on the