On 25 July 1830, Charles X, the last and most ultra of the Bourbon monarchs, issued the famous Ordinances of St Cloud, limiting the freedom of the press, dissolving the Chamber, and altering the electoral law so as to be sure of a strong legitimist majority. Obviously he was planning a coup d'état whereby he would not only make himself absolute, but also give back to the nobility and the Church the privileges they had enjoyed before the French revolution.

In 4 Rue Neuve Luxemburg, a street leading into the Rue Rivoli, there lived at that time a widow, Mrs John Ludlow, her three daughters and one son. The girls were Eliza (1812–77) who lived and died in Paris, about whom Ludlow tells us very little; Maria (1814–59), his favourite sister; and Julia Ann (1816–33), an invalid who died young. The family had come to Paris only a few years before, and none of them as yet was very interested in French politics. On the 26th, the day after the Ordinances had been published, the noise of the clinking of glasses and hurrahing could be heard from a barracks opposite. Perhaps the corps was already drinking to a new dynasty. Suddenly there came a cry down the street, ‘á bas les Ministres’.