'When at 7 o'clock to-day I went out, I met a large band going
round the streets, calling on the inhabitants to illuminate their
houses, and bearing torches. This was all very good fun, and
everybody was delighted; but as they stopped rather long and were
rather turbulent in the Place de la Madeleine, near where we live'
[in the Rue Caumartin] 'a squadron of dragoons came up, formed, and
charged at a hand-gallop. This was a very pretty sight; the crowd
was not too thick, so they easily got away; and the dragoons only
gave blows with the back of the sword, which hurt but did not
wound. I was as close to them as I am now to the other side of the
table; it was rather impressive, however. At the second charge
they rode on the pavement and knocked the torches out of the
fellows' hands; rather a shame, too - wouldn't be stood in England.
. . .

[At] 'ten minutes to ten . . . I went a long way along the
Boulevards, passing by the office of Foreign Affairs, where Guizot
lives, and where to-night there were about a thousand troops
protecting him from the fury of the populace. After this was
passed, the number of the people thickened, till about half a mile
further on, I met a troop of vagabonds, the wildest vagabonds in
the world - Paris vagabonds, well armed, having probably broken
into gunsmiths' shops and taken the guns and swords. They were
about a hundred. These were followed by about a thousand (I am
rather diminishing than exaggerating numbers all through),
indifferently armed with rusty sabres, sticks, etc. An uncountable
troop of gentlemen, workmen, shopkeepers' wives (Paris women dare
anything), ladies' maids, common women - in fact, a crowd of all
classes, though by far the greater number were of the better
dressed class - followed. Indeed, it was a splendid sight: the