They had muskets, but no cartridges, or, at most, very few.

Behind them, the large barricade, which covered Porte Saint-Denis, was held by about a hundred combatants, in the midst of whom were observed two women and an old man with white hair, supporting himself on a cane with his left hand, and, in his right, holding a musket.

One of the two women wore a sabre suspended over her shoulder; while helping to tear up the railing of the sidewalk, she had cut three fingers of her right hand with the sharp edge of an iron bar.

She showed the wound to the crowd, crying: '_Vive la Republique!_' The other woman had ascended to the top of the barricade, where, leaning on the flag-staff, and escorted by two men in blouses, who were armed with muskets and presented arms, she read aloud the call to arms issued by the Representatives of the Left.
The crowd clapped their hands.
"All this occurred between noon and one o'clock.

On this side of the barricades an immense number of people covered the pavement on both sides of the boulevard; in some places, silent; in others, crying: 'Down with Soulouque! Down with the traitor!' "From time to time, mournful processions traversed the multitude; they consisted of files of closed litters borne by hospital attendants and soldiers.