The Memphis union appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1862-1862, 1862-08-03
The Dethronement of Charles \,
By JOHN s. C. ABBOTT.

On Monday morning of July, 1880, an ar
tiele appeared il the MonitesT, the organ
of the Government of France by or
der of Charles x, declaring that the freedom
of the press was no longer to be permitted in
the kingdom There had been for some time
bitter murmurings against the despotism of
the king. Upon the appearance of this ordi-
nance, excitement famed ike conflagration
through every lane and alley of the city. All
the thoroughfares leading to the Tuileries
and the Palsis Royal were thronged with the
reused masses. Readers, mounted on door
steps and barrels, read the ordinance to the
| excited multitude. During the whole day the
commotion increased in its menance of vio-
| lence. As night came, the tumult multiplied
in the darkened streets.
The royal dragons swept the thoroughfares
to disperse the crowd. At one point the peo-
| pie, to protect themselves from the rush of
| the troop, overturned an omnibus, and throw
ing around it such material as was at hand,
formed q barricade which the cavalry could
not force. The hint was instantly ado, ted,
and in all the leading streets barricades were
| formed, pavements torn up, and the people be-
hind them defending themselves with pistols,
guns and stones. Thus passed the night
| When the morning dawned, these formid-
| able barricades were everywhere seen, and in
stead of the unarmed mobs who, on the pre-
ceeding day, had fled before the dragons,
large masses of we'll armed citizens presented
themselves in military array, many of them
1 led by veteran generals of the revolutionary
armies. La Fayette had come from his re-
treat to aid the people in their new struggle
| against despotism. From the towers of Notre
Dame the trieotor foated aefantly. Tri-col-
| ored cockades were on every hat. The ex-
citing tones of the tocsin and the drum rallied
the multitude for war. Paris was a military
camp. The king had at his immediate com
mand eighteen thousand highly disciplined
troops. To encounter them in serious war
was no child's play: They were all assembled
in the garden of the Tuileries.
With the rising sun, in solid phalanx, ar
tillery, infantry and cavalry, they marched
| forth to sweep the streets of the insurgent
| city. A terrible conflict Immediately ensued
Ball and grape shot moved down the reckless
masses. Shells demolished houses where the
people sought covert. 1t is not easy to con-
ceiye the horrors of such a conflict, in the
crowded streets of city. One lady in terror,
buried herself beneath the clothes of her bed
A cannon ball pierced the house, passed
through her bed, and scattering her mangled
limbs over the room, continued its path of
carnage.
Eight gentlemen were taking their lunch at
a table. A large ball swept over it, brushing
it clean of its contents, and buried itself in the
side of the house, injuring no one. That ball
was afterwards gilded and suspended in front
of the dwelling, with this inscription, "An
orange from Charles x; the last token of his
paternal love-"
AS the kings toops struggled through the
streets, impeded by barricades, they were as
sailed from the windows, roofs, and every
available point with a storm of bullets, and all
the missiles of destruction which fury could
grasp. For three days this conflict continued
| ulabated. The streets were red with blood.
| More than one thousand of the royal troops
were killed on the first of the three days.
New troops were, however, continually brought
in from a distance, while at the same time,
through every avenue, multitudes of enraged
countrymen were continually gathering to
swell the powers of resistance During the
three days eight thousand persons were killed
and wounded.
The king now became thoroughly alarmed.
i His troops, defeated, were all driven in upon
their headquarters at the Tuileries and the
Palais Royal and from the assailants became
the assailed. Charles X, astonished at the
fury he had excited, recalled the ordinance,
and dismissed the ministry. But it was too
late for compromise. The King with his fam
city to st. Cloud. There, with his spy-glass
he watched the national flag, the emblem oi
Bourbon power, floating from the turrets of
the Tuileries. Suddenly he saw it fall, and 9
moment after the tri-cotor rose upon the same
flagstaff. The king turned pale as DEATH and
exclaiming, nAll is lostl" ste ggered to a chair
The triumphant people had, like an inunda-
ton, swept into the Louvre and the Tuileries
and the exhausted royal troops were driven
before them like rubbish on the food.
st. Cloud is but six miles from Paris. The
royal family, in the utmost terror, anticipating
I an attack from the insurgent populace, fed tc
: one of the royal hunting seats at Rambouillet
thirty miles from Paris. Scarcely had the
king arrived at his hunting seat ere the alarm
J couriers, from their foaming steeds, rushed
J into the presence of the royal family to tel
them that the whole populace of Paris seemed
. to be on the move to attack them. Men
women and children, on horseback, in hack
} and omnibusses, in carts and on foot, motly
| throng of uncounted thousands were on tx
{ way to pay their fallen monarch a very un
welcome visit.
Charles Z had not forgotten the scenes whicl
the French monarch had so frequently wit
. messed. His own brother, Louis XVI, but
few years before, had been torn from his thron
and his palace, and dragged in a cart to tn
guiliotine. Thus admonished, the King sough
}. safety in fight and exile. 1t was the thir'
q time that he had been compelled to escap
q from France. The peril was so great that tn
: royal family could not wait foz the dawn Q
: the morning. 1t was indeed . night of terro
d and of tears wher Charles snd his family, i
. midnight gloom, entered their carriages, &C
: companied by few adherents, and fed fror
4 their foes. The shouts of the approachin
: multitude, and the crackle of musketry, file
. the night-air, as the Bourbons commenced thei
g melancholy journey, from regal magnifcenc
b to ignominy and exile.
,r When the morning sun rose over the hill
q of France, this funeral procession of departe
q power was seen winding its way through tt
v distant provinces of the empire, TO find, in fo
a eign lands, a refuge and grave. The alarm
bells of the nation tolled the knell of departe
royalty; while now and then was heard Il
2 distant thunders of the insurrection gun. I'll
tri-colored flag, floating from every castle an
turret, proclaimed that the Bourbons had gor
j. down into grave, from whence there was I