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them the brand of shame. Prefect Maupas took them by the hand.
Bands of bill-stickers, bribed for the occasion, started in every
direction, carrying with them the decrees and proclamations.
This was precisely the hour at which the Palace of the National Assembly
was invested. In the Rue de l'Université there is a door of the Palace
which is the old entrance to the Palais Bourbon, and which opened into
the avenue which leads to the house of the President of the Assembly.
This door, termed the Presidency door, was according to custom guarded by
a sentry. For some time past the Adjutant-Major, who had been twice sent
for during the night by Colonel Espinasse, had remained motionless and
silent, close by the sentinel. Five minutes after, having left the huts
of the Invalides, the 42d Regiment of the line, followed at some distance
by the 6th Regiment, which had marched by the Rue de Bourgogne, emerged
from the Rue de l'Université. "The regiment," says an eye-witness,
"marched as one steps in a sickroom." It arrived with a stealthy step
before the Presidency door. This ambuscade came to surprise the law.
The sentry, seeing these soldiers arrive, halted, but at the moment when
he was going to challenge them with a qui-vive, the Adjutant-Major
seized his arm, and, in his capacity as the officer empowered to
countermand all instructions, ordered him to give free passage to the
4
2d, and at the same time commanded the amazed porter to open the door.
The door turned upon its hinges, the soldiers spread themselves through
the avenue. Persigny entered and said, "It is done."
The National Assembly was invaded.
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