nine o’clock
Because these colours were also those of the liveries of the Duke of Orleans , white was added to them -- the white of the ancient standard of France -- and thus was the tricolour born . Further , a permanent committee of electors was appointed to watch over public order . Thus empowered the people went to work with such good effect that within thirty-six hours sixty thousand pikes had been forged . At nine o'clock on Tuesday morning thirty thousand men were before the Invalides . By eleven o'clock they had ravished it of its store of arms amounting to some thirty thousand muskets , whilst others had seized the Arsenal and possessed themselves of powder . Thus they prepared to resist the attack that from seven points was to be launched that evening upon the city . But Paris did not wait for the attack .