Dressed in a riding habit of the colour of blood, a plume of feathers in her hat, a sabre at her side, and two pistols in her belt, she hastened to join every insurrection.

She was the first of those who burst open the gates of the Invalides and took the cannon from thence.

She was also one of the first to attack the Bastille; and a sabre d'homme was voted her on the breach by the victors.

On the days of October, she had led the women of Paris to Versailles, on horseback, by the side of the ferocious Jourdan, called "_the man with the long beard_." She had brought back the king to Paris: she had followed, without emotion, the heads of the gardes du corps, stuck on pikes as trophies.

Her language, although marked by a foreign accent, had yet the eloquence of tumult.