2o6 HISTORY OF FRANCE. [chap. fired by an unknown hand near a detachment of soldiers, who thought themselves attacked, and fired in return, unhappily killing and wounding as many as fifty. The sight roused the whole of the city to madness, they looked on the army as murderers, there was but one roar for vengeance, and barricades were set up at the end of every street. The king sent for M. Thiers, the leader of the opposition, and bade him form a jninistry; but it was too late, the mob were all up in arms, they would not trust the king, the soldiers would not fight with them, and cries of Reform were everywhere heard. Nothing short of abdica- tion would content them. " Mount your horse," said the queen, "and, if ne::essary, know how to die." The king went into the court to review a few regiments which were there drawn up, but there were two battalions of National Guards who shouted for Reform and " Down with Guizot." The king, disheartened, returned : he first named M.Odilon Barrot as minister, and then signed an abdication in favour of his little grandson, the Count of Far is ^ and on the •24th of February, 1848, set off for England. It was the third time a fruitless abdication had been made in favour of a child, and the Duchess of Orleans bravely took her two young sons to present them to the Chamber of Deputies. The moderate would have gladly hailed her as regent, but the crowd burst in, and her friends hurried her away. All the members of the Orleans family made their way to England. The king only lived till 1850 when he ended his strange, chequered career at Claremont House. 7. The Second Republic, 1848. — So ended the experi- ment of a constitutional monarchy on the English model. On February 24th a provisional government was formed, among whom Alphonsede Lainartinea.s the most famous. The next day he declared that the ensign of France should still be the tricolor, and not the red flag of the extreme republicans. On the 26th the republic was solemnly proclaimed, and on the 5th of March the chamber was dissolved, and a new assembh/ of one chamber was chosen to meet on the 20th of April to form a constitution. Meanwhile it was a disappointment to the mob of Paris to feel no great change in their own condi- tion. It was in fact equality of wealth, not equality of rights, that they wanted, and they had felt their strength, and that of the barricades which they so easily could set up. All sorts of public works were devised to keep them quiet on high pay. On the 4th May the assembly met
