Monsieur Clément Thomas only replied by a shrug of his shoulders; upon
this the officer retired, leaving the General standing alone in the
front of the wall, with a line of soldiers opposite.

Who gave the signal to fire is unknown, but a report of twenty muskets
rent the air, and General Clément Thomas fell with his face to the
earth.

"It is your turn now," said one of the assassins, addressing General
Lecomte, who immediately advanced from the crowd, stepping over the body
of Clément Thomas to take his place, awaiting with his back to the wall
the fatal moment.

"Fire!" cried the officer, and all was over.

Half an hour after, in the Rue des Acacias, I came across an old woman
who wanted three francs for a bullet--a bullet she had extracted from
the plaster of a wall at the end of the Rue des Rosiers.




III.


It is ten o'clock in the evening, and if I were not so tired I would go
to the Hôtel de Ville, which, I am told, has been taken possession of by
the National Guards; the 18th of March is continuing the 31st of
October. But the events of this day have made me so weary that I can
hardly write all I have seen and heard. On the outer boulevards the wine