young children, and that jealousy on the part of the Duchess had caused her dismissal. But of this there existed no evidence worth consideration. The quarrel was due to the mother's obstructive policy, that threatened the interests of his children, to whom the Duke was warmly attached. As to the fact of the murder, of that no doubt whatever existed, nor as to the fact that it had been committed by the Duke; but that which roused the excitement and wrath of the people of Paris was, that the Duc de Praslin was so insufficiently guarded that he was enabled to obtain arsenic and to poison himself, and so deprive the populace of the sight of one of the first peers of the realm expiating his crime on the scaffold.
Not six weeks had elapsed before the peers, along with their Chamber, and all their claims and titles were swept away, past recovery.
A banquet of the Opposition deputies was announced to be held in the 12th arrondissement, the lowest portion of Paris, where seethed all the elements of discontent. The Ministry forbade the dinner. Attempts were made to hold it in spite of the prohibition. Some squadrons of cavalry trotted up the street, a gun went off among the rabble, the military fired, and fifty civilians were shot. At the sight of the corpses carried away, cries were raised of "They are assassinating our brothers, let us revenge them"; and the people flew to arms. The King could count on the army commanded by General Bugeau. This energetic officer had taken all his dispositions to repress the rising, when he received orders from the Ministry to withdraw to the Tuileries. Rather than obey this foolish command, he resigned, and resistance was paralysed. The mob created barricades and yelled for a Republic. Louis Philippe quailed and abdicated, slipped out of the palace garden and took to his heels. His sons, equally cowardly, changed clothes with some workmen and slunk away. The Duchess of Orleans, generally respected, but a foreigner, alone showed courage. Taking her son with her, she presented herself, calm and undaunted, before the Chambers, and pleaded the cause of the orphan prince, although hundreds of muskets in the hands of a furious rabble were pointed at her head. A voice from the Tribune exclaimed, "It is too late!" And the Republic was proclaimed, with a provisional
