Finding the Carrousel closed to me, I passed into the Rue St. Honore, which was also pretty well garnished with troops.  A few truculent youths were shouting a short distance ahead of me, but, on the appearance of a patrol, they ran off.  At length I got as far as the Rue du Coq St. Honore, and seeing no one in the street, I turned short round its corner, thinking to get into the court of the Louvre, and to the other side of the river by the Pont des Arts.  Instead of effecting this clever movement, I ran plump on a body of troops, who were drawn up directly across the street, in a triple line.  This was a good position, for the men were quite protected from a fire, up or down the great thoroughfare, while by wheeling on either flank they were ready to act, in a moment, in either direction.

My reception was not flattering, but the officer in command was too cool, to mistake a solitary individual for a band of rebels, and I was suffered to continue up the Rue St. Honore.  I got into the rear of this guard by turning through the next opening.  The court of the Louvre was unguarded and empty, and passing through it, I got a glimpse of a picturesque bivouac of troops in the Carrousel.  Seeing no obstruction, I went in that direction, and penetrated to the very rear of a squadron of cuirassiers, who were dismounted, forming the outer line of the whole body.  There may have been three or four thousand men of all arms assembled in this spot, chiefly, if not all, regular troops.  I stayed among them unobserved, or at least, unmolested, near half an hour, watching the effect of the different groups, by the light of the camp fires.  Strong patrols, principally cavalry, went and came constantly, and scarcely five minutes passed without the arrival and departure of mounted expresses, the head-quarters of the National Guards being in the palace.

It was drawing towards midnight, and I bethought me of the uneasiness of those I had left in the Rue St. Dominique.  I was retiring by the upper guichet, the only one unguarded, and had nearly reached it, when a loud shout was heard on the quay.  This sounded like service, and it was so considered by the troops, for the order “aux armes” was given in a moment.  The cuirassiers mounted, wheeled into platoons, and trotted briskly towards the enemy with singular expedition.  Unluckily, they directed their advance to the very guichet which I was also approaching.  The idea of being caught between two fires, and that in a quarrel which did not concern me, was not agreeable.  The state of things called for decision, and knowing the condition of affairs in the Carrousel, I preferred siding with the juste milieu, for once in my life.

The cuirassiers were too much in a hurry to get through the guichet, which was a defile, and too steady to cut me down in passing; and, first giving them a few minutes to take the edge off the affair, if there was to be any fighting, I followed them to the quay.