The Disturbances in Paris: M. Flourens proclaiming the republic, 1870. M. Gustave Flourens was the chairman of the meeting. He announced the arrest of his friend [Henri Rochefort], and, brandishing a revolver and a sword - drawn from a sword-stick - he exhorted the people to disarm the sergents-de-ville and do their duty. At the same time he proclaimed the Republic en permanence, and placed under arrest the commissaire de police appointed to watch the meeting. He compelled this official to accompany him in his progress through the Rue de Flandres and the Rue de la Villette. All the way the rioters threatened to murder the commissaire de police. Not till the procession had reached the end of the Faubourg du Temple did M. Flourens let the commissaire go. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.