The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-14 00:00:00

INSURRECTION IN PARIS I

We have received most alarming intelligence
from Paris. At 12 o'clock on Sunday night, the
date of the latest express, the city was for nine
hours in a state of siege, the barricades were raised,
and the Hotel de Ville in the possession of the
revolutionists. At half-past eleven o'clock an ex-
traordinary Council was called at the Tuileries, at
which the KING presided. The Council Chamber
was crowded with Peers, Deputies, Marshals, and
great Officers of State. Two field-pieces were
stationed in the Court, which was thronged with sol-
diers under arms. A Marshal at the head of a strong
division of horse proceeded to Vincennes to place
the Castle in a posture of defence, and to convey a
park of Artillery to Paris. It was expected to
arrive about one o'clock on Tuesday morning, when
a Council of Ministers was summoned to determine
the mode of its employment against the revolu-
tionists. The details of this alarming outbreak are
so minutely, and according to the testimony of se-
veral eye-witnesses, so faithfully reported in the
Messager of Sunday night, that we adopt the ac-
count given in that journal :
About three o'clock on Sunday afternoon, a group of
more than 300 persons, dressed in smock frocks and
leather caps, presented themselves at the house, No.
22, Rue Bourg l'Abbe, where there was a magazine of
arms kept by the brothers Lepage. Some of these
persons, who were provided with hatchets, set to work
and began cutting at the door, but finding too great a
resistance they contrived to wrest the stones out from
each side of the entrance, and thus speedily forced 'their
way into the armoury, whence they took about 150
fowling-pieces. Having effected their immediate pur-
pose, these individuals quitted the house and proceeded
towards the quays on the banks of the river, having
reached which they simultaneously separated into
several divisions, each of which went a different way,
one directing its steps towards the Palace of Justice,
another to the Place du Chatelet, and three advancing
upon the three points of sentinels established at the
Hotel de Ville. These posts, being taken by surprise at
this unexpected irruption, which had been preceded by no
popular emotion,and which had not been announced by any
tumultuous cries, were easily overpowered and disarmed.
The two divisions which had seized the posts at the Pa-
lace of Justice and the Place du Chatelet, being more
numerous than the others, marched at once towards
the prefecture of police, where, however, they were
awaited, the gates being shut, and the municipal guard
being on the alert, having been warned by some per-
sons who were witnesses of the proceedings at the
Hotel de Ville and elsewhere. The assailants retired
to the Hotel de Ville, where they joined their com-
rades who were in possession of that post, and who
being masters of the place were preparing to defend it
by the erection of barricades, of which one, composed
of two omnibuses, was already placed on the Quay of
Pelletier.

These proceedings were the work of a very short
time. Orders, however, were sent from the Prefecture
of Police, and several detachments of municipal guards,
as well foot as horse, were immediately assembled. At
four o'clock some platoons of this force advanced from
two or three different points upon the square of the
Hotel de Ville, where they no sooner made their ap-
pearance than the men' who were in possession of the
place rushed forward in order to defend their position•
It was a detachment of the municipal horse guards,