The _pas de charge_ beaten by 400 drums, and the rolling of the cannon over the stones, announced the arrival of the national army.

These sounds drowned for an instant the hollow murmurs and the shrill cries of 50,000 men, women, and children, who filled the centre of the Champ-de-Mars, or crowded on the glacis.

At the moment when Bailly debouched between the glacis, the populace, who from the top of the bank looked down on the mayor, the bayonets, and the artillery, burst into threatening shouts and furious outcries against the national guard.

"_Down with the red flag! Shame to Bailly! Death to La Fayette!_" The people in the Champ-de-Mars responded to these cries with unanimous imprecations.

Lumps of wet mud, the only arms at hand, were cast at the national guard, and struck La Fayette's horse, the red flag, and Bailly himself; and it is even said that several pistol shots were fired from a distance; this however was by no means proved,--the people had no intention of resisting, they wished only to intimidate.
Bailly summoned them to disperse legally, to which they replied by shouts of derision; and he then, with the grave dignity of his office, and the mute sorrow that formed part of his character, ordered them to be dispersed by force.