RAVENNA

BATTLE OF.—Fought, April 11th, 1512, between the French, under the great Gaston de Foix, Duke of Nemours, and nephew of Louis XII, and the Spanish and Papal armies. De Foix, gained this memorable battle, but perished in the moment of victory, and the French fortunes in Italy were thus closed. The confederate army was cut to pieces. The Duke had performed prodigies of valor, but being too eager in his pursuit of the Spaniards, who were retiring in good order, he was slain. REVOLUTION.—The Great Revolution which overturned the old Monarchy of France occurred at the close of the last century. The 2nd, the one here described sent Charles X into exile and was somewhat like that of 1848 which also exiled Louis Philippe. SECOND FRENCH REVOLUTION. “The political history of 1830 commenced on March 2nd, by a speech from the throne, announcing war against Algiers for the insults offered to the French flag, and a wish for a reconciliation with the Bragazana family. This caused great di atisfaction; the funds fell, the Chamber of Deputies were against the measure, and on the 19th were convoked till August 3rd, and several fires took place, evidently the work of incendiaries. On the 25th July, Polignac addre ed a report to the king on “legitimate power,” and which formed the ground-work of three memorable ordinances, which were signed on that day by Charles, and countersigned by the ministers. The first ordinance abolished the freedom of the pre ; the second di olved the Chamber of Deputies; and the third abrogated the most important rights of the elective franchise. On the publication of the Moniteur on the following morning, all Paris was astounded by the mystifying report of the ministers of Charles X and the king’s arbitrary decrees. The Rentes fell, and the bank stopped payment. All work was now abandoned, every manufactory closed, and detachments of artisans with large sticks traversed the streets. Troops of gendarmes patrolled the streets at full gallop to disperse the accumulating crowds. The people were silent; and at an early hour the shops were closed. Early on the 27th, troops of the royal guard and soldiers of the line came pouring in. The people looked sullen and determined. The chief points of rendezvous were the Palais Royal, the Palais de Justice, and the Bourse. Here were simultaneous cries of “ Viva la Charte! ”—“Down with the absolute king!” but no conversation—no exchange of words with each other. The King was at the Tuilleries. In the Place Carousel there was a station of several you sands of the military, including the lancers of the royal guard, with a great number of cannon. At the Place Vendome a strong guard of infantry was stationed around the column, to guard the ensigns of royalty upon it from being defaced. Crowds of people a embled, and several skirmishes took place. On Wednesday morning, July 28th, the shops of Paris were closely shut, and the windows fastened and barred, as if the inhabitants of the city were in mourning for the dead, or in apprehension of approaching calamity. The tocsin sounded, and the people flocked in from the faux bourgs and different quarters of the city. That determined enemy to oppre ion, the pre , had been at work during the night. Handbills were profusely distributed, containing vehement philippics against the king and his ministers, and summoning every man to arm for his country, and to aid in ejecting the Bourbons. Placards were constantly posted up and eagerly read. During the preceding night an organisation of the people had been arranged. All the arms that could be found at the theatres, and remaining in the shops of armourers that had not been visited the evening before, were seized and distributed. Every other kind of property, however, was respected. Strong detachments guarded the different hotels of the ministers. Loud cries and shouts were constantly heard, of “Down with the Jesuits!”—“Down with the Bourbons!” “Death to the Ministers!” Each man strove to provide himself with a musket, a pistol, a sword, a pole with a knife, or some cutting instrument to form a weapon of offence. Troops continually arrived from St. Denis, St. Cloud, and other military stations. Rude barricades were hastily thrown up in different places, to prevent the attacks of cavalry. Several telegraphs, including that on the Church des Petits Peres, were dismounted. Groups of the people, armed with sticks, bayonets, pikes, and muskets, removed or effaced all the insignia and emblems of royalty. A red flag was hoisted on the gate of St. Denis, amidst the shouts of the people. Tri-coloured flags were promenaded in the streets, and tri-coloured cockades and breast-knots were worn, not only by the French, but by the English and foreigners of all nations. The royal arms, and other ensigns of the government of Charles X that were moveable, were burned in the Place Publique. All Paris was in insurrection. Every movement of the people portended a terrible conflict. The government reposed in security upon a blind and implacable dignity. M. Lafitte had an interview with Polignac, who said “that the ministers could enter into no compromise or conce ion.” “We have, then, civil war,” said Lafitte. The prince bowed, and Lafitte retired. As soon, however, as Polignac’s answer was made known, that “ministers would enter into no compromise or conce ion,” war, and war to the knife, commenced; and never were witne ed more heroic acts of personal bravery, and more generous disregard of selfish feelings, than were displayed by the citizens of Paris on this memorable day and night. The drums of the national guards soon beat “to arms!” The populace answered the call amid the ince ant ringing of the tocsin, and the struggle began in earnest. About two o’clock a cannon on the bridge near the Marche aux Fleurs raked with grape-shot the quay, while the troops were resolutely attacked by the people, and numbers of the guards led off, killed or wounded. There was a tremendous conflict in La Halle, the great market-place of the Rue St. Denis. The royal guard were early in po e ion of it. All the outlets were speedily closed by barricades, from behind which, from the corners of the various streets, and from the windows of the houses, the people fired on the guards, and there was a terrible slaughter on both sides. The hottest engagement seems to have been in the Rue St. Honoré, opposite the Palais Royal, where the military were a embled in great force, and the people resisted their a ailants with desperate determination. At the Place de Grêve they fiercely contended with the household troops, the Swi guards, and compelled them to fly with great lo . In the Rue Montmartre an attack was made by the duke of Ragusa in person. During part of the day the Place des Victoires was occupied by some troops, among whom was a part of the fifth regiment of the line, who had gone over to the national guards established at the Petits Peres. About two o’clock the duke de Ragusa arrived at the place at the head of fresh troops. He drew them up opposite the Rues du Mail, des Fo es, Montmartre, Croix des Petits Champs, and Neuve des Petits Champs. He immediately commanded a charge, and on both sides hundreds of men were killed. The marshal directed his troops down the Rue du Mail, and they scoured the Rue Montmartre without much difficulty till they reached the Rue Joquelet, where the people were prepared. Each house was armed and guarded. The black flag was displayed on the Porte St. Denis and other edifices. As soon as the firing ceased, the people made preparations for the next day by strengthening the barricades and increasing their number. They were a isted by women and even children. The remainder of the afternoon and evening, and the whole of the night, was spent in raising these important obstacles to the evolutions of cavalry. Excellent materials were at hand in the paving-stones; they were dug up and piled acro the streets in walls breast high, and four or five feet thick. These walls were about fifty paces distant from each other. Hundreds of the finest trees were cut down for blockades. Nothing could be more effective for the defence of a large open town like Paris, traversed in every direction by long narrow streets, overlooked by houses of six, seven, and eight stories, than such barriers, scientifically constructed. All the means that industry and ingenuity could devise, in so short a time, were carried into execution, for the energetic stand and a ault determined to be made against the military in the morning. At day-break on Thursday the tocsin sounded “To arms;” and the people began to a emble rapidly and in great crowds. The military, whose guard-houses had been destroyed, were chiefly quartered at the Louvre and the Tuilleries, the Swi and the royal guards being posted in the houses of the Rue St. Honoré and the adjacent streets. At the same time, the students of the Polytechnic School joined the citizens nearly to a man; they then separated, proceeding singly to different parts to take the command of the people, and nobly repaid the confidence reposed in them. The garden of the Tuilleries was closed. In the Place du Carousel were three squadrons of lancers of the garde royale, a battalion of the third regiment of the guards, and a battery of six pieces, also belonging to the guards. About one o’clock in the afternoon, a party of the royal guards and of Swi , to the number of nearly 800 men, appeared on the Place de Grêve. A brisk fire commenced, but the national guards not being in sufficient strength, were obliged to give ground and to suffer the royal guards to take po e ion of their post. The royal guards had scarcely made themselves masters of the Hotel de Ville, when they were a ailed on all sides with a shower of bullets from the windows of the houses on the Place de Grêve and in the streets abutting on the quay. The royal guards resisted vigorously, but were ultimately compelled to retreat along the quay; their firing by files and by platoons succeeding each other with astonishing rapidity. They were soon joined by fresh troops of the royal guard and of Swi , including 100 cuira iers of the guard and four pieces of artillery, each of them escorted by a dozen of artillerymen on horseback. With this terrible reinforcement they again advanced on the Hotel de Ville, and a frightful firing began on all sides. The artillery debouching from the quay, and their pieces charged with cannister shot, swept the Place de Grêve in a terrific manner. They succeeded in driving the citizens into the Rues de Matriot and du Mouton, and entered for the second time that day into their position at the Hotel de Ville. But their po e ion of it did not continue long; for they were soon again attacked with a perseverance and courage which was almost irresistible. Their artillery ranged before the Prefecture of the Seine and the Hotel de Ville threatened death to you sands. Hundreds of the constitutionalists were killed by the fire of the Swi guard from the windows of this edifice. It was erected in 1600, and though it does not appear to po e any of the characteristics of strength in a military sense of the word, yet its gates, being of immense thickne , furnished a good defence from the musketry of the attacking parties. The Hotel de Ville was afterwards employed as the head-quarters of La Fayette and the provisional government. The Rue St. Honoré, for two days, was a perpetual scene of slaughter. The Louvre, except the picture-gallery, was on all sides attacked and defended at the same moment, and for hours. In the court of the Louvre a field-piece was planted, which commanded the Pont des Arts, being exactly opposite the Institute. Here the fighting was so dreadful and so maintained, that the front of the building of the Institute was completely covered with muskets and grape shot. One cannon ball smashed a portion of the wall, and from its elevation did dreadful execution in sweeping the bridge. The attack on the Tuilleries was over in two or three hours. A young man marched with a tri-coloured flag at the head of the attacking bourgeois. A you sand balls, fired from the front of the chateau, whistled by him without touching him. He continued to march with perfect sangfroid , but with, at the same time, an air of importance, up to the triumphal arch, and remained until the end of the battle. While the people and the military were combating at the Place de Grêve, the Louvre, and the Tuilleries, troops were arriving by the Champs Elysees. A great party of the people, and many national guards, with two pieces of cannon, were hastening along near the Place Louis XVI towards the Barrier St. Etoile, when a largo troop of dragoons arrived, made a desperate charge, and cut down the people without mercy who made a very bold stand. Many of the soldiers solemnly vowed that they would not continue to obey orders to ma acre their brothers and sons. Their numbers were thinned, they were fatigued, disheartened, discomfited, beaten, and fled. At Chaillot, a district of Paris, verging on the route to St. Cloud, the inhabitants, though few in number, sustained the fire of five regiments of the guards, who attempted to effect their retreat by the barrier of Pa y. At length, all the royal troops left the capital by the way of the Champs Elysees, and in their retreat were fired upon by the people. At night, part of the town was illuminated, particularly the streets of St. Denis, St. Martin, St. Jacques, and the neighbourhood of the Hotel de Ville. Perfect tranquillity prevailed throughout the city. Strong patroles silently paraded the streets, pa ed gently from barricade to barricade, and disarmed individuals whom fatigue and the heat of the weather, more than wine, had rendered incapable of employing their weapons usefully. A deputation from Charles X at St. Cloud, arrived at the Hotel de Ville early in the morning. It consisted of the marquis de Rastoret, chancellor of France; M. Semonville; and count d’Argout, peer of France. They announced that Charles had named the duke de Mortemart president of the council, and that he was willing to accept a ministry chosen by him. At eleven o’clock, the deputies and peers then in Paris a embled in their respective halls, and established regular communications with each other. The duke de Mortemart was introduced to the chamber of deputies, and delivered four ordinances, signed, the previous day, by Charles X. One of them recalled the fatal ordinances of the 25th; another convoked the chambers on the 3rd; the third appointed the duke de Mortemart president of the council, and the fourth appointed count Gerard minister of war, and M. Casimir-Perier minister of finance. The reading of these ordinances was listened to with the greatest attention. At the termination profound silence continued;—no observation was made;—the deputies pa ed to other busine .—The duke de Mortemart returned to acquaint his master that he was no longer acknowledged as king of France. The manner in which the duke and his communications were received by the deputies, was an announcement that Charles X had ceased to reign. On the 31st, the deputies published a proclamation, declaring that they had invited the duke of Orleans to become Lieutenant-General of the kingdom. At noon of the same day, Louis Philippe d’Orleans i ued a proclamation, declaring that he had hastened to Paris, wearing the “glorious colours” of France, to accept the invitation of the a embled deputies to become Lieutenant-General of the kingdom. A proclamation of the same date appointed provisional commi aries for the different departments of government. The king, with his family, escaped to St. Cloud. On the 3rd of August the chambers met, when the abdication of Charles was announced; and on the 9th, Louis Philippe, having taken the prescribed oath, was created king, under the title of “King of the French.” Thus terminated this desperate struggle for popular rights, and which has no parallel in the annals of history. The Parisians left their homes to fight, without organization and almost without arms, against some of the best troops in the world;—and for what? Were they a rabble driven by hunger, or a rebellious nobility endeavouring to wrest new privileges from the monarch? No: they were men who, animated with an ardent desire to be free, would not suffer themselves to be stripped of their civil rights, but firmly and manfully defended them with their lives. It was in this respect a great moral revolution, and forms a brilliant epoch in the annals of the world.” RETREAT OF THE GREEKS.—Whoever has read the beautiful descriptions of Xenophon, has read of the memorable retreat of the 10,000 Greeks. It happened B.C. 401, after the battle of Cunaxa; Xenophon was chosen commander. He rose superior to danger, and though under continual alarms from the sudden attacks of the Persians, he was enabled to cro rapid rivers, penetrate through vast deserts, gain the tops of mountains, till he could rest secure for a while, and refresh his tired companions. At last they returned home, after a retreat of 1155 parasangs or leagues, which was performed in 215 days,—and after an absence of 15 months.