Hingray came to us during the morning, bringing under his cloak a bundle of copies of the Decree of Deposition, which had been reprinted.  In order to bring them to us he had twice run the risk of being arrested and shot.  We immediately caused these copies to be distributed and placarded.  This placarding was resolutely carried out; at several points our placards were posted by the side of the placards of the coup d’etat, which pronounced the penalty of death against any one who should placard the decrees emanating from the Representatives.  Hingray told us that our proclamations and our decrees had been lithographed and distributed by hand in thousands.  It Was urgently necessary that we should continue our publications.  A printer, who had formerly been a publisher of several democratic journals, M. Boule, had offered me his services on the preceding evening.  In June, 1848, I had protected his printing-office, then being devastated by the National Guards.  I wrote to him:  I enclosed our judgments and our decrees in the letter, and the Representative Montaigu undertook to take them to him.  M. Boule excused himself; his printing-presses had been seized by the police at midnight.

Through the precautions which we had taken, and thanks to the patriotic assistance of several young medical and chemical students, powder had been manufactured in several quarters.  At one point alone, the Rue Jacob, a hundred kilogrammes had been turned out during the night.  As, however, this manufacture was principally carried out on the left bank of the river, and as the fighting took place on the right bank, it was necessary to transport this powder across the bridges.  They managed this In the best manner they could.  Towards nine o’clock we were warned that the police, having been informed of this, had organized a system of inspection, and that all persons crossing the river were searched, particularly on the Pont Neuf.

A certain strategical plan became manifest.  The ten central bridges mere militarily guarded.

People were arrested in the street on account of their personal appearance.  A sergent-de-ville, at the corner of he Pont-au-Change, exclaimed, loud enough for the passers-by to hear, “We shall lay hold of all those who have not their beards properly trimmed, or who do not appear to have slept.”

Notwithstanding all this we had a little powder; the disarming of the National Guard at various points had produced about eight hundred muskets, our proclamations and our decrees were being placarded, our voice was reaching the people, a certain confidence was springing up.

“The wave is rising! the wave is rising!” exclaimed Edgar Quinet, who had come to shake my hand.

We were informed that the schools were rising in insurrection during the day, and that they offered us a refuge in the midst of them.

Jules Favre exclaimed joyfully,—­

“To-morrow we shall date our decrees from the Pantheon.”