All through the provinces disturbances went on.  The object of the Red Republicans had at first been to oppose the election of the National Assembly.  So long as France remained under the provisional dictatorship of Lamartine and his colleagues, and the regular troops were kept out of Paris, they hoped to be able to seize supreme power, by a coup de main.

The National Assembly was, however, elected on Easter Day, and proved to be largely conservative.  The deputies met May 4,—­the anniversary of the meeting of the States-General in 1789, fifty-nine years before.  Its hall was a temporary structure, erected in the courtyard of the Palais Bourbon, the former place of meeting for the Chamber of Deputies.  There was no enthusiasm in the body for the Republic, and evidently a hostile feeling towards the Provisional Government, which it was disposed to think too much allied with Red Republicanism.

Two days after the Assembly met, the Provisional Government resigned its powers.  To Lamartine’s great chagrin, he stood, not first, but fourth, on a list of five men chosen temporarily to conduct the government.  Some of his proceedings had made the Assembly fear (very unjustly) that he shared the revolutionary enthusiasms of Ledru-Rollin.

It was soon apparent that ultra-democracy in France was not favored by the majority of Frenchmen.  The Socialists and Anarchists, finding that they could not form a tyrant majority in the Assembly, began to conspire against it.  While a debate was going on ten days after it assembled, an alarm was raised that a fierce crowd was about to pour into its place of meeting.  Lamartine harangued the mob, but this time without effect.  His day was over.  He was received with shouts of “You have played long enough upon the lyre! A bas Lamartine!” Ledru-Rollin tried to harangue in his turn, but with no better effect.  The hall was invaded, and Lamartine, throwing up his arms, cried, “All is lost!”

Barbes, the man who led an emeute in 1839, and whose life had been spared by Louis Philippe through the exertions of Lamartine, led the insurgents.  They demanded two things,—­a forced tax of a milliard (that is, a thousand million) of francs, to be laid on the rich for the benefit of the poor; and that whoever gave orders to call out the National Guard against insurgents should be declared a traitor.  “You are wrong, Barbes,” cried a voice from the crowd; “two hours’ sack of Paris is what we want.”  After this the president of the Assembly was pulled from his chair, and a new provisional government was nominated of fierce Red Republicans,—­not red enough, however, for the crowd, which demanded Socialists and Anarchists redder still.  By this time some battalions of the National Guard had been called out.  At sight of their bayonets the insurgents fled, but concentrated their forces on the Hotel-de-Ville.  This again they evacuated when cannon were pointed against it, and the cause of order was won.