No outward token caused them to be recognized.

The passers-by stared at them with surprise, and did not understand what was the meaning of this procession of silent men through the solitary streets of the Faubourg St.Germain.One district of Paris was as yet unaware of the _coup d'etat_.
Strategically speaking, from a defensive point of view, the Mairie of the tenth Arrondissement was badly chosen.

Situated in a narrow street in that short section of the Rue de Grenelle-St.-Germain which lies between the Rue des Saints-Peres and the Rue du Sepulcre, close by the cross-roads of the Croix-Rouge, where the troops could arrive from so many different points, the Mairie of the Tenth Arrondissement, confined, commanded, and blockaded on every side, was a pitiful citadel for the assailed National Representation.

It is true that they no longer had the choice of a citadel, any more than later on they had the choice of a general.
Their arrival at the Mairie might have seemed a good omen.

The great gate which leads into a square courtyard was shut; it opened.