On September 2, 1870, France suffered at Sedan against Prussia, one of the most terrible defeats in its history. Napoleon III is a prisoner. In Paris, the news provoked the siderection, and the crowd demanded the abolition of the Empire. On 4 September, in a few hours, a National Defense Government was constituted and the Republic was proclaimed in a great agitation but without any drop of blood, which was unprecedented since 1789. Between the Palais -Bourbon invaded, the deserted Tuileries, the Town Hall and the Ministry of the Interior boiling, is played and written a great moment of French history, since since then the Republic, reinvented in a single day , has no longer ceased to be our institutional regime, apart from the parenthesis of Vichy. The author describes hour by hour and from place to place this day too little known, featuring the empress Eugenie exfiltered from her palace, the stupid Minister of War Palikao, General Trochu, president of the new government, old and green Orleanist Thiers , the republicans of 1848 Grevy and Crémieux, the prudent youngsters like J. Favre, J. Ferry, and E. Picard, more ardent as Gambetta, who imposed his energy and eloquence. On the basis of these events, our country still lives. cautious youngsters like J. Favre, J. Ferry, and E. Picard, more ardent as Gambetta who imposes his energy and eloquence. On the basis of these events, our country still lives. cautious youngsters like J. Favre, J. Ferry, and E. Picard, more ardent as Gambetta who imposes his energy and eloquence. On the basis of these events, our country still lives.--Translation of page 4 of cover by Éditions Perrin.