That had happened whilst
M. des Amis lay dead, on the day before they buried him, and was
indeed the chief reason of the delay in his burial. It was an
event that had its inspiration in that ill-considered charge of
Prince Lambesc in which the fencing-master had been killed.
The outraged people had besieged the electors in the Hotel de Ville,
demanding arms with which to defend their lives from these foreign
murderers hired by despotism. And in the end the electors had
consented to give them arms, or, rather - for arms it had none to
give - to permit them to arm themselves. Also it had given them a
cockade, of red and blue, the colours of Paris. Because these
colours were also those of the liveries of the Duke of Orleans,
white was added to them - the white of the ancient standard of
France - and thus was the tricolour born. Further, a permanent
committee of electors was appointed to watch over public order.
Thus empowered the people went to work with such good effect that
within thirty-six hours sixty thousand pikes had been forged.
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