Others, at the gate of Saint-Antoine, arrest people who are returning from the races, demanding of them if they are for the nobles or for the Third-Estate, and force women to descend from their vehicles and to cry "Vive le Tiers-Etat "[1216].

Meanwhile the crowd has increased before Reveillon's dwelling; the thirty men on guard are unable to resist; the house is invaded and sacked from top to bottom; the furniture, provisions, clothing, registers, wagons, even the poultry in the back-yard, all is cast into blazing bonfires lighted in three different places; five hundred louis d'or, the ready money, and the silver plate are stolen.
Several roam through the cellars, drink liquor or varnish at haphazard until they fall down dead drunk or expire in convulsions.

Against this howling horde, a corps of the watch, mounted and on foot, is seen approaching;[1217] also a hundred cavalry of the "Royal Croats," the French Guards, and later on the Swiss Guards.

"Tiles and chimneys are rained down on the soldiers," who fire back four files at a time.

The rioters, drunk with brandy and rage, defend themselves desperately for several hours; more than two hundred are killed, and nearly three hundred are wounded; they are only put down by cannon, while the mob keeps active until far into the night .-- Towards eight in the evening, in the rue Vieille-du-Temple, the Paris Guard continue to make charges in order to protect the doors which the miscreants try to force.