The conflict had been begun on a gigantic scale at all points; and, as a result of the disarming domiciliary visits, and armorers'' shops hastily invaded, was, that the combat which had begun with the throwing of stones was continued with gun-shots.
About six o''clock in the evening, the Passage du Saumon became the field of battle.
The uprising was at one end, the troops were at the other.
They fired from one gate to the other.
An observer, a dreamer, the author of this book, who had gone to get a near view of this volcano, found himself in the passage between the two fires. All that he had to protect him from the bullets was the swell of the two half-columns which separate the shops; he remained in this delicate situation for nearly half an hour.
Meanwhile the call to arms was beaten, the National Guard armed in haste, the legions emerged from the Mayoralities, the regiments from their barracks.
Opposite the passage de l''Ancre a drummer received a blow from a dagger.
Another, in the Rue du Cygne, was assailed by thirty young men who broke his instrument, and took away his sword.
Another was killed in the Rue Grenier-Saint-Lazare. In the Rue-Michelle-Comte, three officers fell dead one after the other.
Many of the Municipal Guards, on being wounded, in the Rue des Lombards, retreated.