The silence of the slumbering town reassured the insurgents, who ventured to make their way through the lanes of the old quarter, and thus reached the market-place and the Place de l’Hotel-de-Ville, which was connected by a short but broad street.  These open spaces, planted with slender trees, were brilliantly illumined by the moon.  Against the clear sky the recently restored town-hall appeared like a large patch of crude whiteness, the fine black lines of the wrought-iron arabesques of the first-floor balcony showing in bold relief.  Several persons could be plainly distinguished standing on this balcony, the mayor, Commander Sicardot, three or four municipal councillors, and other functionaries.  The doors below were closed.  The three thousand Republicans, who covered both open spaces, halted with upraised heads, ready to force the doors with a single push.

The arrival of the insurrectionary column at such an hour took the authorities by surprise.  Before repairing to the mayor’s, Commander Sicardot had taken time to don his uniform.  He then had to run and rouse the mayor.  When the keeper of the Porte de Rome, who had been left free by the insurgents, came to announce that the villains were already in the town, the commander had so far only managed to assemble a score of the national guards.  The gendarmes, though their barracks were close by, could not even be warned.  It was necessary to shut the town-hall doors in all haste, in order to deliberate.  Five minutes later a low continuous rumbling announced the approach of the column.

Monsieur Garconnet, out of hatred to the Republic, would have greatly liked to offer resistance.  But he was of a prudent nature, and comprehended the futility of a struggle on finding only a few pale men, who were scarcely awake, around him.  So the deliberations did not last long.  Sicardot alone was obstinate; he wanted to fight, asserting that twenty men would suffice to bring these three thousand villains to reason.  At this Monsieur Garconnet shrugged his shoulders, and declared that the only step to take was to make an honourable capitulation.  As the uproar of the mob increased, he went out on the balcony, followed by all the persons present.  Silence was gradually obtained.  Below, among the black, quivering mass of insurgents, the guns and scythes glittered in the moonlight.

“Who are you, and what do you want?” cried the mayor in a loud voice.

Thereupon a man in a greatcoat, a landowner of La Palud, stepped forward.

“Open the doors,” he said, without replying to Monsieur Garconnet’s question.  “Avoid a fratricidal conflict.”

“I call upon you to withdraw,” the mayor continued.  “I protest in the name of the law.”

These words provoked deafening shouts from the crowd.  When the tumult had somewhat abated, vehement calls ascended to the balcony.  Voices shouted:  “It is in the name of the law that we have come here!”