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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Paris under the Commune, by John Leighton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
+the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+Title: Paris under the Commune
+       The Seventy-Three Days of the Second Siege; With Numerous Illustrations,
+       Sketches Taken on the Spot, and Portraits (from the Original Photographs)
+       
+Author: John Leighton
+
+Release Date: January 29, 2004 [EBook #10861]
+[Most recently updated: June 7, 2020]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARIS UNDER THE COMMUNE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Produced by Robert Connal, Wilelmina Malliere
+and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+[Illustration: the Column of July]
+
+
+
+
+PARIS
+UNDER THE COMMUNE:
+
+OR,
+
+THE SEVENTY-THREE DAYS OF THE
+SECOND SIEGE
+
+WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS, SKETCHES TAKEN ON THE SPOT, AND
+PORTRAITS (FROM THE ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS).
+
+BY JOHN LEIGHTON, F.S.A.,
+
+&C.
+
+[Illustration:]
+
+LONDON:
+
+1871.
+
+
+
+
+Socialism, or the Red Republic, is all one; for it would tear down the
+tricolour and set up the red flag. It would make penny pieces out of
+the Column Vendôme. It would knock down the statue of Napoleon and
+raise up that of Marat in its stead. It would suppress the Académie,
+the École Polytechnique, and the Legion of Honour. To the grand device
+Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, it would add “Ou la mort.” It would
+bring about a general bankruptcy. It would ruin the rich without
+enriching the poor. It would destroy labour, which gives to each one
+his bread. It would abolish property and family. It would march about
+with the heads of the proscribed on pikes, fill the prisons with the
+suspected, and empty them by massacres. It would convert France into
+the country of gloom. It would strangle liberty, stifle the arts,
+silence thought, and deny God. It would bring into action these two
+fatal machines, one of which never works without the other—the assignat
+press and the guillotine. In a word, it would do in cold blood what the
+men of 1793 did in fever, and after the grand horrors which our fathers
+saw, we should have the horrible in all that was low and small.
+
+(VICTOR HUGO, 1848.)
+
+[Illustration:]
+
+
+
+
+ PREFACE.
+
+
+Early in June of the present year I was making notes and sketches,
+without the least idea of what I should do with them. I was at the
+Mont-Parnasse Station of the Western Railway, awaiting a train from
+Paris to St. Cloud. Our fellow passengers, as we discovered afterwards,
+were principally prisoners for Versailles; the guards, soldiers; and
+the line, for two miles at least, appeared desolation and ruin.
+
+The façade of the station, a very large one, was pockmarked all over by
+Federal bullets, whilst cannon balls had cut holes through the stone
+wall as if it had been cheese, and gone down the line, towards
+Cherbourg or Brest! The restaurant below was nearly annihilated, the
+counters, tables, and chairs being reduced to a confused heap. But
+there was a book-stall and on that book-stall reposed a little work,
+entitled the “Bataille des Sept Jours,” a brochure which a friend
+bought and gave to me, saying, “_Voilà la texte de vos croquis_,” From
+seven days my ideas naturally wandered to seventy-three—the duration of
+the reign of the Commune—and then again to two hundred and twenty
+days—that included the Commune of 1871 and its antecedents. Hence this
+volume, which I liken to a French château, to which I have added a
+second storey and wings.
+
+And now that the house is finished, I must render my obligations to M.
+Mendès and numerous French friends, for their kind assistance and
+valuable aid, including my confrères of “_The Graphic_,” who have
+allowed me to enliven the walls with pictures from their stores; and
+last, and not least, my best thanks are due to an English Peer, who
+placed at my disposal his unique collection of prints and journals of
+the period bearing upon the subject—a subject I am pretty familiar
+with. Powder has done its work, the smell of petroleum has passed away,
+the house that called me master has vanished from the face of the
+earth, and my concierge and his wife are reported _fusillés_ by the
+Versaillais; and to add to the disaster, my rent was paid in advance,
+having been deposited with a _notaire_ prior to the First Siege.... But
+my neighbours, where are they? In my immediate neighbourhood six houses
+were entirely destroyed, and as many more half ruined. I can only speak
+of one friend, an amiable and able architect, who, alas! remonstrated
+in person, and received a ball from a revolver through the back of his
+neck. His head is bowed for life. He has lost his pleasure and his
+treasure, a valuable museum of art,—happily they could not burn his
+reputation, or the monument of his life—a range of goodly folio volumes
+that exist “_pour tous_.”
+
+L.
+
+LONDON, 1871.
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+PREFACE
+LIST OF PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
+INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER     The 30th October, 1870—The Hôtel de Ville
+     invaded—Governor Trochu resigns—A Revolt attempted—Meetings, Place
+     de la Bastille—The Prussians enter Paris—Hostility of the National
+     Guard
+
+I.     The Memorable 18th of March—Line and Nationals
+       Fraternise—Discipline at a Discount
+II.     Assassination of Generals Lecomte and Clément Thomas
+III.     Proclamation of M. Picard—The Government retires to Versailles
+IV.     The New Regime Proclaimed—Obscurity of New Masters
+V.     Paris Hesitates—Small Sympathy with Versailles
+VI.     The Buttes Montmartre
+VII.     An Issue Possible—An Approved Proclamation
+VIII.     Demonstration of the Friends of Order
+IX.     The Drama of the Rue de la Paix—Victims to Order
+X.     A Wedding
+XI.     The Bourse and Belleville
+XII.     Watching and Waiting
+XIII.     A Timid but Prudent Person
+XIV.     Some Federal Opinions
+XV.     Proclamation of Admiral Saisset—Paris Satisfied.
+XVI.     A Widow
+XVII.     The Central Committee Triumphs
+XVIII.     Paris Elections
+XIX.     The Commune a Fact—A Motley Assembly
+XX.     Proclamation of the Elections
+XXI.     A Batch of Official Decrees—Landlord, and Tenant
+XXII.     Requisitions and Feasts
+XXIII.     Removals and Retirements
+XXIV.     A General Flight
+XXV.     An Envoy to Garibaldi
+XXVI.     Commencement of Civil War—Beyond the Arc de Triomphe
+XXVII.     Mont Valérien opens on the Federals—Contradictory News
+XXVIII.     Death of General Duval—Able Administration
+XXIX.     Antipathy to the Church—The Archbishop Interrogated
+XXX.     The Accomplices of Versailles
+XXXI.     Death of Colonel Flourens
+XXXII.     The Cross and the Red Flag
+XXXIII.     Colonel Assy of Creuzot—Disgrace of Lullier
+XXXIV.     Fighting goes on
+XXXV.     Federal Funerals
+XXXVI.     Prudent Counsel
+XXXVII.     Suppression of Newspapers
+XXXVIII.     The Second Bombardment—Avenue de la Grande Armée—Reckless Aim of the Versaillais
+XXXIX.     The Plan of Bergeret
+XL.     Another General—Police and Pressgang—A Citizen of the World
+XLI.     Women and Children
+XLII.     Why is Conciliation Impossible?
+XLIII.     The Portable Guillotine
+XLIV.     The Common Grave
+XLV.     Idle Paris
+XLVI.     The Press
+XLVII.     Day follows Day
+XLVIII.     The Condemned Column—Model Decrees
+XLIX.     Thiers and Conciliation—Paris and France
+L.     Communist Caricatures—Political Satire
+LI.     Gustave Courbet—Federation of Art—Courbet, President
+LII.     Camp, Place Vendôme
+LIII.     Elections of the 16th of April
+LIV.     The “Change” under the Commune
+LV.     Elections sans Electors—Farce of Universal Suffrage
+LVI.     À la Mode de Londres
+LVII.     The Little Sisters of the Poor
+LVIII.     Bécon and Asnières taken—Declaration to the French People—Federation of Communes—The Commune or the Deluge
+LIX.     A Court-Martial
+LX.     A Heroic Gamin
+LXI.     Killing the Dead
+LXII.     The Truce at Neuilly—Porte-Maillot destroyed—Neuilly in Ruins
+LXIII.     Masonic Mediation—The Envoy of Peace—Citizens and Brothers—A White Flag on Porte-Maillot
+LXIV.     Prudent Monsieur Pyat
+LXV.     Resources of the Commune—The Royal Road to Riches
+LXVI.     The Prophecy of Proudhon
+LXVII.     Revolutionary Balloons
+LXVIII.     A Confession of Conscience
+LXIX.     Communist Journalism—Sensation Articles
+LXX.     Fort Issy falls
+LXXI.     Cluseret arrested
+LXXII.     The Executive Commission—Committee of Public Safety
+LXXIII.     A Competent Tribunal
+LXXIV.     The Password betrayed
+LXXV.     The Condemned Chapel
+LXXVI.     Restitution is Robbery
+LXXVII.     The Nuns of Picpus
+LXXVIII.     Rossel resigns—The Semblance of a Government
+LXXIX.     Want of Funds—The Sinews of War
+LXXX.     Passwords—The Chariot of Apollo—Refractories
+LXXXI.     Sacrilege—Clubs in the Churches
+LXXXII.     Refractories in Danger
+LXXXIII.     The Home of M. Thiers, Demolition and Removal
+LXXXIV.     Filial Love
+LXXXV.     Communal Secessionists—Save himself who can
+LXXXVI.     The Failing Cause—The Column Vendôme falls
+LXXXVII.     A Concert at the Tuileries
+LXXXVIII.     Cartridge Magazine Explosion
+LXXXIX.     The Advent of Action—Paris ceases to smile
+XC.     The Troops enter—Street Fortifications—Insurgents at home
+XCI.     Arrests and Murders
+XCII.     Fire and Sword
+XCIII.     Barricade at the Place de Clichy
+XCIV.     Rack and Ruin
+XCV.     Bloodshed and Brigandage
+XCVI.     Hôtel de Ville on Fire—A Furnace
+XCVII.     Pétroleurs and Pétroleuses
+XCVIII.     Streets of Paris
+XCIX.     The Expiring Demons—The Hostages—Reprisals—Cemeteries
+C.     Sewers and Catacombs
+CI.     Mourning and Sadness
+
+APPENDIX
+
+ Chronology of the Commune
+ Memoir of Rochefort.
+ The 18th of March
+ The Prussians and the Commune
+ Memoir of Gambon
+ Memoir of Lullier
+ Memoir of Protot
+ Translation from Victor Hugo
+ Note of Jourde
+ Last Proclamations of the Commune
+ Note of Férré
+ The Hostages—Gendarmes, &c.
+ President Bonjean
+ Note of Urbain.
+ Devastations of Paris
+ Official Report of General Ladmirault
+ Ammunition expended on Second Siege of Paris
+ List of Monuments and Buildings destroyed
+ Index to Plan—Damage by Fire, &c.
+
+[Illustration:]
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS:
+
+FRONTISPIECE:—THE COLUMN OF JULY (HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF)
+
+PORTRAIT OF M. THIERS, PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
+
+THE STATE OF PARTY—PICTURED By THEMSELVES. ALLEGORICAL PAGE—ROCHEFORT,
+CLÉMENT THOMAS, &c. (_facsimile_)
+
+COLUMN OF JULY—PLACE DE LA BASTILLE
+
+THE BUTTES MONTMARTRE—FEDERAL ARTILLERY PARKED THERE
+
+MONTMARTRE—FIRST LINE OF SENTINELS
+
+THE RED FLAG OF THE COLUMN OF JULY
+
+PURIFICATION OF THE CHAMPS ÉLYSÉES AFTER THE DEPARTURE OF THE
+PRUSSIANS—CONSTRUCTION OF THE FIRST BARRICADE, 18TH MARCH
+
+DEFENCE OF THE HOTEL DE VILLE
+
+SENTINELS, BOULEVARD SAINT-MICHEL
+
+BEHIND A BARRICADE—THE DÉJEUNER
+
+PORTRAIT OF GAMBON, MEMBER OF THE COMMUNE
+
+BEHIND A BARRICADE—THE EVENING MEAL
+
+PLACE DE LA CONCORDE—FEDERALS GOING OUT
+
+PORTRAIT OF GENERAL BERGERET
+
+PORTRAIT OF ABBÉ DEGUERRY, CURÉ OF THE MADELEINE
+
+PORTRAIT OF RAOUL RIGAULT, PROCUREUR OF THE COMMUNE
+
+PORTRAIT OF MONSEIGNEUR DARBOY, ARCHBISHOP OF PARIS
+
+PORTRAIT OF COLONEL FLOURENS
+
+PORTRAIT OF COLONEL ASSY, GOVERNOR OF THE HOTEL DE VILLE
+
+THE RED FLAG ON THE PANTHEON
+
+PORTRAIT OF GENERAL CLUSERET
+
+THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE DE L’ÉTOILE
+
+HORSE CHASSEUR ACTING AS COMMUNIST ARTILLERYMAN
+
+MARINE GUNNER AND STREET BOY
+
+THE CORPS LÉGISLATIF—HEAD QUARTERS OF GENERAL BERGERET
+
+PORTRAIT OF GENERAL DOMBROWSKI
+
+BURNING THE GUILLOTINE IN THE PLACE VOLTAIRE
+
+COLONNE VENDÔME
+
+CARICATURE DURING THE COMMUNE—LITTLE PARIS AND HIS PLAYTHINGS
+(_facsimile_)
+
+THE MODERN “EROSTRATE”—COURBET AND THE DEBRIS OF THE VENDÔME COLUMN
+
+FEDERAL VISIT TO THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR
+
+PORTRAIT OF VERMOREL, DELEGATE OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMISSION
+
+FEMALE CURIOSITY AT PORTE MAILLOT
+
+PORTE MAILLOT AND CHAPEL OF ST. FERDINAND
+
+ARMISTICE—INHABITANTS OF NEUILLY ENTERING PARIS
+
+WATCHING FOR THE FIRST SHOT FROM FORT VALERIEN
+
+FEMALE IMPERTURBABILITY AFTER THE ARMISTICE
+
+PORTRAIT OF PROTOT, DELEGATE OF JUSTICE
+
+PORTRAIT OF FÉLIX PYAT, MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY
+
+FREEMASONS AT THE RAMPARTS
+
+PORTRAIT OF VERMESCH, EDITOR OF THE “PÈRE DUCHESNE”
+
+PORTRAIT OF PASCHAL CROUSSET, DELEGATE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
+
+PORTRAIT OF DUPONT, COMMISSIONER OF TRADE AND COMMERCE
+
+CHAPELLE EXPIATOIRE (CONDEMNED BY THE COMMUNE)
+
+CARICATURE DURING THE COMMUNE—PARIS EATS A GENERAL A-DAY (_facsimile_)
+
+PORTRAIT OF DELESCLUZE, DELEGATE OF WAR
+
+PORTRAIT OF FONTAINE, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC DOMAINS AND REGISTRATION
+
+RÉFRACTAIRES ESCAPING FROM THE CITY BY NIGHT
+
+PORTRAIT OF GENERAL LA CÉCILIA
+
+CHURCH OF ST. EUSTACHE (EXTERIOR)
+
+INTERIOR OF ST. EUSTACHE, USED AS A RED CLUB
+
+HOUSE OF M. THIERS IN THE PLACE ST. GEORGES
+
+HOUSE DURING DEMOLITION—AFTER ITS SACK
+
+PORTRAIT OF COURNET, PREFECT OF POLICE
+
+PORTRAIT OF ARTHUR ARNOULD, COMMISSIONER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
+
+THE SEINE: FOUNDERED GUN-BOATS—PORTE MAILLOT, DESOLATION AND
+DESTRUCTION
+
+BARRICADE OF THE RUE CASTIGLIONE FROM THE PLACE VENDÔME
+
+PALACE OF THE TUILERIES
+
+PORTRAIT OF RAZOUA, GOVERNOR OF THE MILITARY SCHOOL
+
+CAFÉ LIFE UNDER THE COMMUNE—A SLIGHT INTERRUPTION—PLAY-BILLS AND
+BURNT-OFFERINGS—“SPECTACLES DE PARIS”
+
+PLACE DE LA CONCORDE—STATUES OF LILLE AND STRASBOURG
+
+FIRE AND WATER—THE EFFECT OF FIRE ON THE FOUNTAINS OF THE PLACE DE LA
+CONCORDE AND THE CHÂTEAU D’EAU—HIRONDELLES DE PARIS
+
+PORTRAIT OF JULES VALLÈS, DELEGATE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND OF PUBLIC
+INSTRUCTION
+
+BARRICADE CLOSING THE RUE DE RIVOLI FROM THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE
+
+BULLET MARKS “EN FACE” AND “EN PROFIL”—THE TREES AND LAMPS
+
+RUE ROYALE, LOOKING FROM THE MADELEINE TO THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE
+
+A WARM CORNER OF THE TUILERIES
+
+PORTRAIT OF MILLIÈRE, EX-DEPUTY, MEMBER OF THE COMMUNE
+
+PALAIS DE JUSTICE
+
+POLICE OF PARIS—MINISTRY OF FINANCE, RUE DE RIVOLI
+
+PORTRAIT OF FERRÉ, PREFECT OF POLICE
+
+PALACE OF THE LUXEMBOURG (AMBULANCE HOSPITAL OF THE COMMUNE)
+
+PÉTROLEURS AND PÉTROLEUSES
+
+THE THEATRE OF THE PORTE ST-MARTIN—ALL THAT REMAINS OF THE HOME OF
+SENSATION DRAMA
+
+CELL OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF PARIS IN THE PRISON OF LA ROQUETTE
+
+YARD OF LA ROQUETTE WHERE THE ARCHBISHOP AND HOSTAGES WERE SHOT
+
+MY NEIGHBOUR OPPOSITE, BUSINESS CARRIED ON AS USUAL—MY NEIGHBOUR NEXT
+DOOR, HE THINKS HIMSELF FORTUNATE
+
+PARIS UNDERGROUND (SEWERS AND CATACOMBS)
+
+THE ENEMIES OF PROGRESS (LES ARISTOCRATES ENCORE)—CORPS DE GARDE DE
+L’ARMÉE DE VERSAILLES
+
+THE PUBLIC PROMENADES—A CAMP IN THE LUXEMBOURG—THE NEW
+MASTERS—PROCLAMATION OVER PROCLAMATION
+
+THE LUXEMBOURG (PRESENT TOWN HALL OF PARIS, 1871)
+
+PORTRAIT OF MARSHAL MACMAHON, DUKE OF MAGENTA
+
+LIGHT AND AIR ONCE MORE—THE FOSSE COMMUNE (THE END)
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+MUSÉE OF THE LOUVRE, FROM THE PLACE DU CARROUSEL
+
+PALAIS ROYAL
+
+HOTEL DE VILLE
+
+FOREIGN OFFICE
+
+PALACE OF THE LEGION OF HONOUR
+
+MAP OF PARIS, WITH INDICATIONS OF ALL THE PARTS DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.
+
+[Illustration: M. Thiers, Voted Chief of the Executive Power Feb.
+18.1871, and President of the Republic, Sept. 1871.]
+
+
+
+
+PARIS
+UNDER THE COMMUNE.
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+
+Liberté Égalité Fraternité Late in the day of the 30th October, 1870,
+the agitation was great in Paris; the news had spread that the village
+of Le Bourget had been retaken by the Prussians. The military report
+had done what it could to render the pill less bitter by saying that
+“_this village did not form a part of the system of defence_,” but the
+people though kept in ignorance perceived instinctively that there must
+be weakness on the part of the chiefs. After so much French blood had
+been shed in taking the place, men of brave will would not have been
+wanting to occupy it. We admit that Le Bourget may not have been
+important from a military point of view, but as regarding its moral
+effect its loss was much to be regretted.
+
+The irritation felt by the population of Paris was changed into
+exasperation, when on the following day the news of the reduction of
+Metz appeared in the _Official Journal_:
+
+“The Government has just been acquainted with the sad intelligence of
+the capitulation of Metz. Marshal Bazaine and his army were compelled
+to surrender, after heroic efforts, which the want of food and
+ammunition alone rendered it impossible to maintain. They have been
+made prisoners of war.”
+
+And after this the Government talks of an armistice! What! Strasburg,
+Toul, Metz, and so many other towns have resisted to the last dire
+extremity, and Paris, who expects succour from the provinces, is to
+capitulate, while a single effort is left untried? Has she no more
+bread? No more powder? Have her citizens no more blood in their veins?
+No, no! No armistice!
+
+In the morning, a deputation, formed of officers of the National
+Guards, went to the Hôtel de Ville to learn from the Government what
+were its intentions. They were received by M. Etienne Arago, who
+promised them that the decision should be made known to them about two
+o’clock.
+
+The rappel was beaten at the time mentioned; battalions of the National
+Guards poured into the Place, some armed, many without arms.
+
+Over the sea of heads the eye was attracted by banners, and enormous
+placards bearing the inscriptions—
+
+“Vive la République!
+
+“No Armistice!”
+
+or else
+
+“Vive la Commune!
+
+“Death to Cowards!”
+
+Rochefort,[1] with several other members of the Government, shows
+himself at the principal gate, which is guarded by a company of
+Mobiles. General Trochu appears in undress; he is received with cries
+of “_Vive la République! La levée en masse!_ No Armistice! The National
+Guards, who demand the _levée en masse_, would but cause a slaughter.
+We must have cannon first; we will have them.” Alas! it had been far
+better to have had none whatever, as what follows will prove. While
+some cry, “Vive Trochu!” others shout, “Down with Trochu!” Before long
+the Hôtel de Ville is invaded; the courts, the saloons, the galleries,
+all are filled. Each one offers his advice, but certain groups insist
+positively on the resignation of the Government. Lists of names are
+passed from hand to hand; among the names are those of Dorian
+(president), Schoelcher, Delescluze, Ledru Rollin, Félix Pyat.
+
+THE STATE OF PARTY PICTURED By THEMSELVES
+
+Cries are raised that if the Government refuse to resign, its members
+will be arrested.
+
+“Yes! yes! seize them!” And an officer springs forward to make them
+prisoners as they sit in council.
+
+“Excuse me, Monsieur, but what warrant have you for so doing?” asks one
+of the members.
+
+“I have nothing to do with warrants. I act in the name of the people!”
+
+“Have you consulted the people? Those assembled here do not constitute
+the people.”
+
+The officer was disconcerted. Not long afterwards, however, the crowd
+is informed that the members of the Government are arrested.
+
+The principal scene took place in the cabinet of the ex-prefect.
+Citizen Blanqui approaches the table; addressing the people, he
+requests them to evacuate the room so as to allow the commission to
+deliberate. The commission! What commission? Where does it spring from?
+No one knew anything of it, so the members must evidently have named
+themselves. Monsieur Blanqui had seen to that, no doubt. During this
+time the adjoining room is the theatre of the most extraordinary
+excitement; the men of the 106th Battalion, who were on guard in the
+interior of the Hôtel de Ville, are compelled to use their arms to
+prevent any one else entering. After some tumult and struggling, but
+without any spilling of blood, some National Guards of this battalion
+manage to fight their way through to the room in which the members of
+the Government are prisoners, and succeed in delivering them.
+
+At about two o’clock in the morning, the 106th Battalion had completely
+cleared the Hôtel de Ville of the crowds. No violence had been done,
+and General Trochu was reviewing a body of men ranged in battle order,
+which extended from the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville to the Place de la
+Concorde. An hour later, quiet was completely restored.
+
+The members of the Government, who had been incarcerated during several
+hours, now wished to show their authority; they felt that their power
+had been shaken, and saw the necessity of strengthening it. What can a
+Government do in such a case? Call for a plébiscite. But this time
+Paris alone was consulted, and for a good reason. Thus, on the 1st
+November, the people, of Paris were enjoined to express their wishes by
+answering yes or no to this simple question:—
+
+“Do the people of Paris recognise the authority of the Government for
+the National Defence?”
+
+This was clear, positive, and free from all ambiguity.
+
+The partizans of the Commune declared vehemently that those who voted
+in the affirmative were reactionists. “Give us the Commune of ’93!“
+shouted those who thought they knew a little more about the matter than
+the rest. They were generally rather badly received. It is no use
+speaking of ’93! Replace your Blanquis, your Félix Pyats, your Flourens
+by men like those of the grand revolution, and then we shall be glad to
+hear what you have to say on the subject.
+
+The inhabitants of Montmartre, La-Chapelle, Belleville, behaved like
+good citizens, keeping a brave heart in the hour of misfortune.
+
+However it came about, the Government was maintained by a majority of
+557,995 votes against 62,638.
+
+Well, Messieurs of the Commune, try again, or, still better, remain
+quiet.
+
+During the night of the 21st of January the members of the National
+Defence and the chief officers of the army were assembled around the
+table in the council-room. They were still under the mournful
+impression left by the fatal day of the nineteenth, on which hundreds
+of citizens had fallen at Montretout, at Garches, and at Buzenval.
+Thanks to the want of foresight of the Government, the people of Paris
+were rationed to 300 grammes of detestable black bread a day for each
+person. All representations made to them had been in vain. Ration our
+bread by degrees, had been said, we should thus accustom ourselves to
+privation, and be prepared insensibly, for greater sufferings, while
+the duration of our provisions would be lengthened. But the answer
+always was: “Bread? We shall have enough, and to spare.” When the great
+crisis was seen approaching, the public feeling showed itself by
+violent agitation. It was not surprising, therefore, that all the faces
+of these gentlemen at the council-table bore marks of great depression.
+The Governor of Paris offered his resignation, as he was in the habit
+of doing after every rather stormy sitting; but his colleagues refused
+to accept it, as they had before. What was to be done? Had not the
+Governor of Paris sworn never to capitulate? After a night spent in
+discussing the question, the members of Government decided on the
+following plan of action. You will see that it was as simple as it was
+innocent! The following announcement was placarded on all the walls:—
+
+“The Government for the National Defence has decided that the chief
+commandment of the army of Paris shall in future be separate from the
+presidency of the Government.
+    “General Vinoy is named Commandant-in-Chief of the army of Paris.
+    “The title and functions of the Governor of Paris are suppressed.”
+
+A trick was played: if they capitulate now, it will no longer be the
+act of the Governor of Paris. How ingenious this would have been, if it
+had not been pitiful!
+
+“General Trochu retains the presidency of the Government.”
+
+By the side of this placard was the proclamation of General Thomas.
+
+“TO THE NATIONAL GUARD.
+
+“Last night, a handful of insurgents forced open the prison of Mazas,
+and delivered several of the prisoners, amongst whom was M. Flourens.
+The same men attempted to occupy the _mairie_ of the 20th
+arrondissement (Belleville), and to install the chiefs of the
+insurrection there; your commander-in-chief relies on your patriotism
+to repress this shameful sedition.
+    “The safety of Paris is at stake.
+    “While the enemy is bombarding our forts, the factions within our
+    walls use all their efforts to paralyse the defence.
+    “In the name of the public good, in the name of law, and of the
+    high and sacred duty that commands you all to unite in the defence
+    of Paris, hold yourselves ready to frustrate this most criminal
+    attempt; at the first call, let the National Guard rise to a man,
+    and the perturbators will be struck powerless.
+    “The Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard,
+
+“CLEMENT THOMAS.
+
+“A true copy.
+
+    “Minister of the Interior ad interim,
+    “JULES FAVRE.
+
+    “Paris, 22nd January, 1871.”
+
+In the morning, large groups of people assembled from mere curiosity,
+appeared on the Place of the Hôtel de Ville, which however wore a
+peaceful aspect.
+
+At about half-past two in the afternoon, a detachment of a hundred and
+fifty armed National Guards issued from the Rue du Temple, and
+stationed themselves before the Hôtel de Ville, crying, “Down with
+Trochu!” “Long live the Commune!” A short colloquy was then held
+between several of the National Guards and some officers of the
+Mobiles, who spoke with perfect calmness. Suddenly, a shot is fired,
+and at the same moment, as in the grand scene of a melodrama, the
+windows and the great door are flung open, and two lines of Mobile
+Guards are seen, the front rank kneeling, the second standing, and all
+levelling their muskets and prepared to fire. Then came a volley which
+spread terror amidst the crowds of people in the Place, who
+precipitated themselves in all directions, uttering cries and shrieks.
+In another moment the Place is cleared. Ah! those famous chassepots can
+work miracles.
+
+The insurgents, during this mad flight of men, women, and children, had
+answered the attack, some aiming from the shelter of angles and posts,
+others discharging their rifles from the windows of neighbouring
+houses.
+
+Then the order to cease firing is heard, and a train of litterbearers,
+waving their handkerchiefs as flags, approach from the Avenue Victoria.
+At the Hôtel de Ville one officer only is wounded, but on the Place lie
+a dozen victims, two of whom are women.
+
+At four o’clock the 117th Battalion of the National Guard takes up its
+position before the municipal palace. They are reinforced by a
+detachment of _gendarmes_, mounted and on foot, and by companies of
+Mobiles, under the command of General Carréard.
+
+General Clément Thomas hastens to address a few words to the 117th;
+later, he paid with his life for thus appearing on the side of order.
+Finally, General Vinoy arrives, followed by his staff, to take measures
+against any renewed acts of aggression. Mitrailleuses and cannon are
+stationed before the Hôtel de Ville; the drums beat the _rappel_
+throughout the town, and a great number of battalions of National
+Guards assemble in the Rue de Rivoli, at the Louvre, and on the Place
+de la Concorde; others bivouac before the Palais de l’Industrie, while
+on the other side of the Champs Elysées regiments of cavalry, infantry,
+and mobiles, are drawn out. The agitators have disappeared, calm is
+restored, within the city be it understood, for all this did not
+interrupt the animated interchange of shells between the French and
+Prussian batteries, and a great number of Parisians, who had twice
+helped to disperse the insurgents of October and January, thought
+involuntarily of the Commune of the 10th of August, 1793, which headed
+the revolution, and said to themselves that there were perhaps some
+amongst the present insurgents who, like the former, would rise up to
+deliver them from the Prussians. For these agitators have some
+appearance of truth on their side: “You are weak and timorous,” they
+cry to those in power; “you seem awaiting a defeat rather than
+expecting a victory. Give place to the energetic, obscure though they
+may be; for the men of the great Commune, of our first glorious
+revolution, they also were for the greater part unknown. We have
+confidence in the army of Paris, and we will break the iron circle of
+invasion.”
+
+Though the Communists have since then shown bravery, and sometimes
+heroism, in their struggle against the Versailles troops, we are very
+doubtful, now that we have seen their chiefs in action, whether the
+efforts they talked of would have been crowned with success. Their
+object was power, and, having nothing to risk and all to gain, they
+would have forthwith disposed of public property in order to procure
+themselves enjoyment and honours. The few right-minded men who at first
+committed themselves, proved this by the fact of their giving in their
+resignation a few days after the Commune had established itself.
+
+Tranquillity had returned. In the morning of the 25th, guards patrolled
+the Place de la Bastille, the Place du Château d’Eau, the Boulevard
+Magenta, and the outer boulevards. Paris started as if she had been
+aroused from some fearful dream, and the waking thought of the enemy at
+her gates stirred up all her energies once more.
+
+The Communists had been defeated for the second time; but they were
+soon to take a terrible revenge.
+
+The vow made by the Governor of Paris had been repeated by the majority
+of the Parisians, and all parties seemed to have rallied round him
+under the same device: vanquish or die. After the forts, the
+barricades, and as a last resource, the burning of the city. Who knows?
+Perhaps the fanatics of resistance had already made out the plan of
+destruction which served later for the Commune. It has been proved that
+nothing in this work of ruin was impromptu.
+
+The news of the convention of the 28th of January, the preliminary of
+the capitulation of Paris, was thus very badly received, and M.
+Gambetta, by exhorting the people, in his celebrated circular of the
+31st of January, to resist to the death, sowed the seeds of civil war:—
+
+    “CITIZENS,—
+    “The enemy has just inflicted upon France the most cruel insult
+    that she has yet had to endure in this accursed war, the too-heavy
+    punishment of the errors and weaknesses of a great people.
+    “Paris, the impregnable, vanquished by famine, is no longer able to
+    hold in respect the German hordes. On the 28th of January, the
+    capital succumbed, her forts surrendered to the enemy. The city
+    still remains intact, wresting, as it were, by her own power and
+    moral grandeur, a last homage from barbarity.
+    “But in falling, Paris leaves us the glorious legacy of her heroic
+    sacrifices. During five months of privation and suffering, she has
+    given to France the time to collect herself, to call her children
+    together, to find arms, to compose armies, young as yet, but
+    valiant and determined, and to whom is wanting only that solidity
+    which can be obtained but by experience. Thanks to Paris, we hold
+    in our hands, if we are but resolute and patriotic, all that is
+    needed to revenge, and set ourselves free once more.
+    “But, as though evil fortune had resolved to overwhelm us,
+    something even more terrible and more fraught with anguish than the
+    fall of Paris, was awaiting us.
+    “Without our knowledge, without either warning, us or consulting
+    us, an armistice, the culpable weakness of which was known to us
+    too late, has been signed, which delivers into the hands of the
+    Prussians the departments occupied by our soldiers, and which
+    obliges us to wait for three weeks, in the midst of the disastrous
+    circumstances in which the country is plunged, before a national
+    assembly can be assembled.
+    “We sent to Paris for some explanation, and then awaited in silence
+    the promised arrival of a member of the government, to whom we were
+    determined to resign our office. As delegates of government, we
+    desired to obey, and thereby prove to all, friends and dissidents,
+    by setting an example of moderation and respect of duty, that
+    democracy is not only the greatest of all political principles, but
+    also the most scrupulous of governments.
+    “However, no one has arrived from Paris, and it is necessary to
+    act, come what may; the perfidious machinations of the enemies of
+    France must be frustrated.
+    “Prussia relies upon the armistice to enervate and dissolve our
+    armies; she hopes that the Assembly, meeting after so long a
+    succession of disasters, and under the impression of the terrible
+    fall of Paris, wilt be timid and weak, and ready to submit to a
+    shameful peace.
+    “It is for us to upset these calculations, and to turn the very
+    instruments which are prepared to crush the spirit of resistance,
+    into spurs that shall arouse and excite it.
+    “Let us make this same armistice into a code of instruction for our
+    young troops; let us employ the three coming weeks in pushing on
+    the organization of the defence and of the war more ardently than
+    ever.
+    “Instead of the meeting of cowardly reactionists that our enemies
+    expect, let us form an assembly that shall be veritably national
+    and republican, desirous of peace, if peace can ensure the honour,
+    the rank, and the integrity of our country, but capable of voting
+    for war rather than aiding in the assassination of France.
+    “FRENCHMEN,
+    “Remember that our fathers left us France, whole and indivisible;
+    let us not be traitors to our history; let us not deliver up our
+    traditional domains into the hands of barbarians. Who then will
+    sign the armistice? Not you, legitimists, who fought so valiantly
+    under the flag of the Republic, in the defence of the ancient
+    kingdom of France; nor you, sons of the bourgeois of 1789, whose
+    work was to unite the old provinces in a pact of indissoluble
+    union; nor you, workmen of the towns, whose intelligence and
+    generous patriotism represent France in all her strength and
+    grandeur, the leader of modern nations; nor you, tillers of the
+    soil, who never have spared your blood in the defence of the
+    Revolution, which gave you the ownership of your land and your
+    title of citizen.
+    “No! Not one Frenchman will be found to sign this infamous act; the
+    enemy’s attempt to mutilate France will be frustrated, for,
+    animated with the same love of the mother country and bearing our
+    reverses with fortitude, we shall become strong once more and drive
+    out the foreign legions.
+    “To the attainment of this noble end, we must devote our hearts,
+    our wills, our lives, and, a still greater sacrifice perhaps, put
+    aside our preferences.
+    “We must close our ranks about the Republic, show presence of mind
+    and strength of purpose; and without passion or weakness, swear,
+    like free men, to defend France and the Republic against all and
+    everyone.
+    “To arms!”
+
+The Government, by obtaining from M. de Bismarck a condition that the
+National Guards should retain their arms, hoped to win public favour
+again, as one offers a rattle to a fractious child to keep him quiet;
+and it published the news on the 3rd of February:
+
+    “After the most strenuous efforts on our part, we have obtained,
+    for the National Guard, the condition ratified by the convention of
+    the 28th January.”
+
+Three days after, on the 6th of February, Gambetta wrote:
+
+    “His conscience would not permit him to remain a member of a
+    government with which he no longer agreed in principle.”
+
+The candidates, elected in Paris on the 8th of February, were Louis
+Blanc, Victor Hugo, Garibaldi, Gambetta, Rochefort, Delescluze, Pyat,
+Lockroy, Floquet, Millière, Tolain, Malon. The provinces, on the other
+hand, chose their deputies from among the party of reaction, the
+members of which have been so well-known since under the name of
+_rurals._
+
+Loud murmurs arose in the ranks of the National Guard, when the decrees
+of the 18th and 19th of February, concerning their pay, were published;
+and later, when an order from headquarters required the marching
+companies to send in to the state depôt all their campaigning
+paraphernalia.
+
+On the 18th of February, M. Thiers was named chief of the executive
+power by a vote of the Assembly.
+
+On Sunday, the 26th of February, the Place de la Bastille, in which
+manifestations had been held for the last two days in celebration of
+the revolution of February ’48, became as a shrine, to which whole
+battalions of the National Guard marched to the sound of music, their
+flags adorned with caps of liberty and cockades. The Column of July was
+hung with banners and decorated with wreaths of immortelles. Violent
+harangues, the theme of which was the upholding of the Republic “to the
+death,” were uttered at its foot. One man, of the name of Budaille,
+pretended that he held proofs of the treachery of the Government for
+the National Defence, and promised that he would produce them at the
+proper time and place.
+
+Up to this moment, the demonstrations seemed to have but one
+result—that of impeding circulation; but they soon gave rise to scenes
+of tumult and disorder. Towards one o’clock, when perhaps twenty or
+thirty thousand persons were on the above Place, an individual, accused
+of being a spy, was dragged by an infuriated mob to the river, and
+flung, bound hand and foot, into the look by the Ile Saint Louis,
+amidst the wild cries and imprecations of the madmen whose prey he had
+become.
+
+The night of the 26th was very agitated; drums beat to arms, and on the
+morning of the 27th the Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard issued
+a proclamation, in which he appealed to the good citizens of Paris, and
+confided the care of the city to the National Guard. This had no
+effect, however, on the aspect of the Place de la Bastille; the crowd
+continued to applaud, frantically, the incendiary speeches of the
+socialist party, who had sworn to raise Paris at any cost.
+
+[Illustration: Column of July, Place de La Bastille.]
+
+On the same day, the 27th of February, the Government informed the
+people of Paris of the result of the negociations with Prussia, in the
+following proclamation:
+
+    “The Government appeals to your patriotism and your wisdom; you
+    hold in your hands the future of Paris and of France herself. It is
+    for you to save or to ruin both!
+    “After a heroic resistance, famine forced you to open your gates to
+    the victorious enemy; the armies that should have come to your aid
+    were driven over the Loire. These incontestable facts have
+    compelled the Government for the National Defence to open
+    negotiations of peace.
+    “For six days your negotiators have disputed the ground foot by
+    foot; they did all that was humanly possible, to obtain less
+    rigorous conditions. They have signed the preliminaries of peace,
+    which are about to be submitted to the National Assembly.
+    “During the time necessary for the examination and discussion of
+    these preliminaries, hostilities would have recommenced, and blood
+    would, have flowed afresh and uselessly, without a prolongation of
+    the armistice.
+    “This prolongation could only be obtained on the condition of a
+    partial and very temporary occupation of a portion of Paris:
+    absolutely to be limited to the quarter of the Champs Elysées. Not
+    more than thirty thousand men are to enter the city, and they are
+    to retire as soon as the preliminaries of peace have been ratified,
+    which act can only occupy a few days.
+    “If this convention were not to be respected the armistice would be
+    at an end: the enemy, already master of the forts, would occupy the
+    whole of Paris by force. Your property, your works of art, your
+    monuments, now guaranteed by the convention, would cease to exist.
+    “The misfortune would reach the whole of France. The frightful
+    ravages of the war, which have not heretofore passed the Loire,
+    would extend to the Pyrenees.
+    “It is then absolutely true to say that the salvation of France is
+    at stake. Do not imitate the error of those who would not listen to
+    us when, eight months ago, we abjured them not to undertake a war
+    which must be fatal.
+    “The French army which defended Paris with so much courage will
+    occupy the left of the Seine, to ensure the loyal execution of the
+    new armistice. It is for the National Guard to lend its aid, by
+    keeping order in the rest of the city.
+    “Let all good citizens who earned honour as its chiefs, and showed
+    themselves so brave before the enemy, reassume their authority, and
+    the cruel situation of the moment will be terminated by peace and
+    the return of public prosperity.”
+
+This clause of the occupation of Paris by the Prussians was regarded by
+some people as a mere satisfaction of national vanity; but the greater
+number considered it as an apple of discord thrown by M. de Bismarck,
+who had every reason to desire that civil war should break out, thus
+making himself an accomplice of the Socialists and the members of the
+International. Confining ourselves simply to the analysis of facts, and
+to those considerations which may enlighten public opinion respecting
+the causes of events, we shall not allow ourselves to be carried over
+the vast field of hypothesis, but preserve the modest character of
+narrators. On the night of the 27th of February, the admiral commanding
+the third section of the fortifications, having noticed the hostile
+attitude of the National Guard, caused the troops which had been
+disarmed in accordance with the conditions of the armistice to withdraw
+into the interior of the city. The men of Belleville profited by the
+circumstance to pillage the powder magazines which had been entrusted
+to their charge, and on the following day they went, preceded by drums
+and trumpets, to the barracks of the Rue de la Pépinière to invite the
+sailors lodged there to join them in a patriotic manifestation on that
+night. Believing that the object was to prevent the Prussians entering
+Paris, a certain number of these brave fellows, who had behaved so
+admirably during the siege, set out towards the Place de la Bastille
+but having been met on their way by some of their officers, they soon
+separated themselves from the rioters. Thirty of them had been invited
+to an open-air banquet in the Place de la Bastille; but seeing the
+probability of some disorder they nearly all retired, and on the
+following morning only eight of them were missing at the roll-call. Not
+one of the six thousand marines lodged in the barracks of the Ecole
+Militaire absented himself. On the same day, the 28th, a secret
+society, which we learned later to know and to fear, issued its first
+circular under the name of the Central Committee of the National Guard;
+the part since played by this body has been too important for us to
+omit to insert this proclamation here: its decisions became official
+acts which overthrew all constituted authority.
+
+    “CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL GUARD.
+    “Citizens,—
+    “The general feeling of the population appears to be to offer no
+    opposition to the entry of the Prussians into Paris. The Central
+    Committee, which had emitted contrary advice, declares its
+    intention of adhering to the following resolutions:—
+    “‘All around the quarters occupied by the enemy, barricades shall
+    be raised so as to isolate completely that part of the town. The
+    inhabitants of the circumscribed portion should be required to quit
+    it immediately.
+    “‘The National Guard, in conjunction with the army, shall form an
+    unbroken line along the whole circuit, and take care that the
+    enemy, thus isolated upon ground which is no longer of our city,
+    shall communicate in no manner with any of the other parts of
+    Paris.
+    “‘The Central Committee engages the National Guard to lend, its aid
+    for the execution of the necessary measures to bring about this
+    result, and to avoid any aggressive acts which would have the
+    immediate effect of overthrowing the Republic.’”
+
+But here is a little treacherous placard, manuscript and anonymous,
+which takes a much fairer tone:—
+
+    “A convention has permitted the Prussians to occupy the Champs
+    Elysées, from the Seine to the Faubourg St. Honoré, and as far as
+    the Place de la Concorde.
+    “Be it so! The greater the injury, the more terrible the revenge.
+    “But, if some panderer dare to pass the circle of our shame, let
+    him be instantly declared traitor, let him become a target for our
+    balls, an object for our petroleum, a mark for our Orsini bombs,[2]
+    an aim for our daggers!
+    “Let this be told to all.
+
+    “By decision of the Horatii,
+    “(Signed) POPULUS.”
+
+The effervescence in the minds of the people was so great, that the
+entry of the Prussians was delayed for forty-eight hours, but on the
+first of March, at ten in the morning, they had come into the city, and
+the smoke of their bivouac fires was seen in the Champs Elysées. On the
+evening of the same day, a telegram from Bordeaux announced that the
+National Assembly had ratified the preliminaries of peace by a majority
+of 546 voices against 107. On the following day the ex-Minister of
+Foreign Affairs left for Versailles, and by nine o’clock in the
+evening, everything was prepared for the evacuation of the troops,
+which was effected by eleven, on the third of March. During the short
+period of their stay, the city was in veritable mourning; the public
+edifices (even the Bourse) were closed, as were the shops, the
+warehouses, and the greater part of the cafés. At the windows hung
+black flags, or the tricolour covered with black crape, and veils of
+the same material concealed the faces of the statues[3] on the Place de
+la Concorde.
+
+All these demonstrations had, however, a pacific character, and the
+presence of the enemy in Paris gave rise to no serious incident.
+
+Nevertheless, the agitation of the public mind was not allayed; some
+attributed this to a plot the Socialists had formed, and which had
+arrived at maturity. Others believed that the Prussians had left
+emissaries, creators of disorder, behind them, in revenge for their
+reception on the Place de la Concorde. In truth, their entry was
+anything but triumphal; their national airs were received with hisses;
+their officers were hooted as they promenaded in the Tuileries, and
+those who attempted to visit the Louvre were compelled to retreat
+without having satisfied their curiosity. On the evening of the 3rd of
+March, a note emanating from the Ministry of the Interior, pointed out
+in the following terms the danger to be feared from the Central
+Committee:—
+
+    “Incidents of the most regrettable nature have occurred during the
+    last few days, and menace seriously the peace of the capital.
+    Certain National Guards in arms, following the orders, not of their
+    legitimate chiefs, but of an anonymous Central Committee, which
+    could not give them any instructions without committing a crime
+    severely punishable by the law, took possession of a considerable
+    quantity of arms and ammunition of war, under the pretext of saving
+    them from the enemy, whose invasion they pretended to fear. Such
+    acts should at any rate have ceased after the departure of the
+    Prussian army. But such is not the case, for this evening the
+    guard-house at the Gobelins was invaded, and a number of cartridges
+    stolen.
+    “Those who provoke these disorders draw upon themselves a most
+    terrible responsibility; it is at the very moment that the city of
+    Paris, relieved from contact with the foreigner, desires to
+    reassume its habits of serenity and industry, that these men are
+    sowing trouble and preparing civil war. The Government appeals to
+    all good citizens to aid in stifling in the germ these culpable
+    manifestations.
+    “Let all who have at heart the honour and the peace of the city
+    arise; let the National Guard, repulsing all perfidious
+    instigations, rally round its officers, and prevent evils of which
+    the consequences will be incalculable. The Government and the
+    Commander-in-Chief (General d’Aurelle de Paladines, nominated on
+    the same day by M. Thiers to the chief command of the National
+    Guard) are determined to do their duty energetically; they will
+    cause the laws to be executed; they count on the patriotism and the
+    devotion of all the inhabitants of Paris.”
+
+[Illustration: The Hill of Montmartre—with the Guns Of The National
+Guard Parked There. View Taken from the Place St. Pierre.]
+
+It was indeed time to put a stop to the existing state of affairs, for
+already twenty-six guns were in the possession of the insurgents, who
+had formed a regular park of artillery in the Place d’Italie, and this
+is the aspect of the Buttes Montmartre on the sixth of March, as
+described by an eye-witness:—
+
+    “The heights have become a veritable camp. Three or four hundred
+    National Guards, belonging partly to the 61st and 168th Battalions,
+    mount guard there day and night, and relieve each other regularly,
+    like old campaigners. They have two drummers and four trumpeters,
+    who beat the rappel or ring out the charge whenever the freak takes
+    them, without any one knowing why or wherefore. The officers, with
+    broad red belts, high boots, and their long swords dragging after
+    them, parade the Place with pipes or cigars in their months. They
+    glance disdainfully at the passers-by, and seem almost overpowered
+    with the importance of the high mission they imagine themselves
+    called upon to fulfil.
+    “This is of what their mission consists: at the moment of the entry
+    of the Prussians into Paris, the National Guard of Montmartre,
+    fearing that the artillery would be taken from them to be delivered
+    to the enemy, assembled and dragged their pieces, about twenty in
+    number, up to the plateau which forms the summit of Montmartre, and
+    then placed them in charge of a special guard. Now that the
+    Prussians have left, they still keep their stronghold, thinking to
+    use it in the defence of the Republic against the attacks of the
+    reactionists. The guns are pointed towards Paris, and guard is kept
+    without a moment’s relaxation. There are four principal posts, the
+    most important being at the foot of the hill, on the Place Saint
+    Pierre. The guards bivouac in the open air, their muskets piled,
+    ready at hand. Sentinels are placed at the corner of each street,
+    most of them lads of sixteen or seventeen; but they are thoroughly
+    in earnest, and treat the passers-by roughly enough.
+    “All the streets which debouche on the Place Saint-Pierre are
+    closed
+    by barricades of paving-stones. The most important was formed of an
+    overturned cart, filled with huge stones, and with a red flag
+    reared
+    upon the summit. A death-like silence reigned around. There were
+    but
+    few passers-by, none but National Guards with their guns on their
+    shoulders.”
+
+[Illustration: Sentinels at Montmartre]
+
+The appearance of the Boulevard de Clichy and Boulevard Rochechouart is
+completely different. The cafés are overflowing with people, the
+concert-rooms open. Men and women pass tranquilly to and fro, without
+disturbing themselves about the cannon that are pointed towards them.
+
+The Government, before coming to active measures, appealed to the good
+sense of the people in a proclamation, dated the 8th of March, saying
+that this substitution of legal authority by a secret power would
+retard the evacuation of the enemy, and perhaps expose us to disasters
+still more complete and terrible.
+
+    “Let us look our position calmly in the face. We have been
+    conquered; nearly half of our territory has been in the power of a
+    million of Germans, who have imposed upon us a fine of five
+    milliards. Our only means of discharging this weighty debt is by
+    the strictest economy, the most exemplary conduct and care. We must
+    not lose a moment before putting our hands to work, which is our
+    one and solitary hope. And at this awful moment shall our miserable
+    folly lead us into a civil strife?...
+    “If, while they are meeting to treat with the enemy, our
+    negotiators have sedition to fear, they will break down as they did
+    on the 31st of October, when the events of the Hôtel de Ville
+    authorised the enemy to refuse us an armistice which might have
+    saved us.”
+
+This form of reasoning was not illogical, but those who were working in
+secret for the furtherance of their own ambition, oared little to be
+convinced, and their myrmidons obeyed them blindly, and gloated over
+the wild, bombastic language of the demagogic press, which, though they
+did not understand it, impressed them no less with its inflated
+phrases.
+
+The Government, perceiving that it would be perhaps necessary to use
+rigorous measures, gave orders to hasten the arrival of the rest of the
+Army of the North.
+
+Some few days after the 18th of March, they resolved to deal a decided
+blow to the Democratic party in suppressing at once the _Vengeur_, the
+_Mot d’Ordre_, the _Cri du Peuple_, the _Caricature_, the _Père
+Duchesne_, and the _Bouche de Fer_.
+
+The National Guards had a perfect mania for collecting cannon; after
+having placed in battery the mitrailleuses and pieces of seven, the
+produce of patriotic subscriptions, they also seized upon others
+belonging to the State, and carried them off to the Buttes Montmartre,
+where they had about a hundred pieces. The retaking of this artillery
+was the matter in question. While they at Versailles were occupied with
+the solution of the problem, the National Guards continued their
+manifestations at the Place de la Bastille, dragging these pieces of
+artillery in triumph from the Champ de Mars to the Luxembourg, from the
+park of Montrouge to Notre Dame, from the Place des Vosges to the Place
+d’Italie, and from the Buttes Montmartre to the Buttes Chaumont.
+
+Before making use of force, the Government desired to make a last
+effort at conciliation, and on the 17th of March the following
+proclamation was posted on the walls:—
+
+    “INHABITANTS of PARIS,
+    “Once more we address ourselves to you, to your reason, and your
+    patriotism, and we hope that you will listen to us.
+    “Your grand city, which cannot live except with order, is
+    profoundly troubled in some of its quarters, and this trouble,
+    without spreading to other parts, is sufficient nevertheless to
+    prevent the return of industry and comfort.
+    “For some time a number of ill-advised men, under the pretext of
+    resisting the Prussians, who are no longer within our walls, have
+    constituted themselves masters of a part of the city, thrown up
+    entrenchments, mounting guard there and forcing you to do the same,
+    all by order of a secret committee, which takes upon itself to
+    command a portion of the National Guard, thus setting aside the
+    authority of General d’Aurelle de Paladines so worthy to be at your
+    head, and would form a government in opposition to that which
+    exists legally, the offspring of universal suffrage.
+    “These men, who have already caused you so much harm, whom you
+    yourselves dispersed on the 31st of October, are placarding their
+    intention to protect you against the Prussians, who have only made
+    an appearance within our walls, and whose definite departure is
+    retarded by these disorders, and pointing guns, which if fired
+    would only ruin your houses and destroy your wives and yourselves;
+    in fact, compromising the very Republic they pretend to defend; for
+    if it is firmly established in the opinion of France that the
+    Republic is the necessary companion of disorder, the Republic will
+    be lost. Do not place any trust in them, but listen to the truth
+    which we tell you in all sincerity.
+    “The Government instituted by the whole nation could have retaken
+    before this these stolen guns, which at present only menace your
+    safety, seized these ridiculous entrenchments which hinder nothing
+    but business, and have placed in the hands of justice the criminals
+    who do not hesitate to create civil war immediately after that with
+    the foreigner, but it desired to give those who were misled the
+    time to separate themselves from those who deceived them.
+    “However, the time allowed for honourable men to separate
+    themselves from the others, and which is deducted from your
+    tranquillity, your welfare, and the welfare of France, cannot be
+    indefinitely prolonged.
+    “While such a state of things lasts, commerce is arrested, your
+    shops are deserted, orders which would come from all parts are
+    suspended; your arms are idle, credit cannot be recreated, the
+    capital which the Government requires to rid the territory of the
+    presence of the enemy, comes to hand but slowly. In your own
+    interest, in that of your city, as well as in that of France, the
+    Government is resolved to act. The culprits who pretend to
+    institute a Government of their own must be delivered up to
+    justice. The guns stolen from the State must be replaced in the
+    arsenals; and, in order to carry out this act of justice and
+    reason, the Government counts upon your assistance.
+    “Let all good citizens separate themselves from the bad; let them
+    aid, instead of opposing, the public forces; they will thus hasten
+    the return of comfort to the city, and render service to the
+    Republic itself, which disorder is ruining in the opinion of
+    France.
+    “Parisians! We use this language to you because we esteem your good
+    sense, your wisdom, your patriotism; but, this warning being given,
+    you will approve of our having resort to force at all costs, and
+    without a day’s delay, that order, the only condition of your
+    welfare, be re-established entirely, immediately, and unalterably.”
+
+As soon as the party of disorder saw the intentions of the Government
+of Versailles thus set forth, a chorus of recriminations burst
+forth:—“They want to put an end to the Republic!”—“They are about to
+fire on our brothers!”—“They wish to set up a king,” &c. The same
+strain for ever! In order to prevent as far as possible the mischievous
+effects of this insurrectionary propaganda, the Government issued the
+following proclamation, which bore date the 18th of March:—
+
+    “NATIONAL GUARDS of PARIS!—
+    “Absurd rumours are spread abroad that the Government contemplates
+    a _coup d’état._
+    “The Government of the Republic has not, and cannot have, any other
+    object but the welfare of the Republic.
+    “The measures which have been taken were indispensable to the
+    maintenance of order; it was, and is still, determined to put an
+    end to an insurrectionary committee, the members of which, nearly
+    all unknown to the population of Paris, preach nothing but
+    Communist doctrines, will deliver up Paris to pillage, and bring
+    France into her grave, unless the National Guard and the army do
+    not rise with one accord in the defence of the country and of the
+    Republic.”
+
+The Government had many parleys with the insurrectionary National
+Guards at Montmartre; at one moment there was a rumour that the guns
+had been given up. It appeared that the guardians of this artillery had
+manifested some intention of restoring it, horses had even been sent
+without any military force to create mistrust, but the men declared
+that they would not deliver the guns, except to the battalions to which
+they properly belonged. Was there bad faith here? or had those who made
+the promise undertaken to deliver up the skin before they had killed
+the bear.
+
+Public opinion shaped itself generally in somewhat the following
+form:—“If they are tricking each other, that is not very dangerous!”
+
+Many an honest citizen went to bed on the seventeenth of March full of
+hope. He saw Paris marching with quick steps towards the
+re-establishment of its business, and the resumption of its usual
+aspect; the emigrants and foreigners would arrive in crowds, their
+pockets overflowing with gold to make purchases and put the industry of
+Paris under contributions the French and foreign bankers will rival
+each other to pay the indemnity of five milliards.
+
+The dream of good M. Prudhomme[4] was, however, somewhat clouded by the
+figure of the Buttes Montmartre bristling with cannon; but the number
+of guards had become so diminished, and they seemed so tired of the
+business, that it appeared as if they were about to quit for good. The
+following chapter will inform you what were the waking thoughts of the
+Parisians on the morning of the eighteenth of March.
+
+[Illustration: THE GENIUS OF THE RED FLAG.]
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [1] Memoir, see Appendix I.
+
+ [2] The police had seized, some time before, in Paris, ten thousand
+ Orsini bombs, and hundreds of others of a new construction, charged
+ with fulminating mercury.
+
+ [3] The eight gigantic female figures, representing the principal
+ towns of France: Strasbourg, Lille, Metz, &c., &c.
+
+ [4] “Joseph Prudhomme” is the typical representative of the Parisian
+ middle-class (_Bourgeois_); the honest simple father of family,
+ peaceful but patriotic, proud of his country and ready to die for it.
+
+
+[Illustration: Purification of the Champs Élysées—After The Departure
+of the Prussians Mar 1871. Building A Barricade. March 18. 1871.]
+
+
+
+
+ I.
+
+
+Listen! What does that mean? Is it a transient squall or the first gust
+of a tempest? Is it due to nature or to man’s agency; is it an émeute
+or the advent of a revolution that is to overturn everything?
+
+Such were my reflections when awakened, on the 18th of March, 1871, at
+about four in the morning, by a noise due to the tramp of many feet.
+From my window, in the gloomy white fog, I could see detachments of
+soldiers walking under the walls, proceeding slowly, wrapped in their
+grey capotes; a soft drizzling rain falling at the time. Half awake, I
+descended to the street in time to interrogate two soldiers passing in
+the rear.
+
+“Where are you going?” asked I.—“We do not know,” says one; “Report
+says we are going to Montmartre,” adds the other.[5] They were really
+going to Montmartre. At five o’clock in the morning the 88th Regiment
+of the line occupied the top of the hill and the little streets leading
+to it, a place doubtless familiar to some of them, who on Sundays and
+fête days had clambered up the hill-sides in company with apple-faced
+rustics from the outskirts, and middle-class people of the quarter;
+taking part in the crowd on the Place Saint-Pierre, with its games and
+amusements, and “assisting,” as they would say, at shooting in a
+barrel, admiring the ability of some, whilst reviling the stupidity of
+others; when they had a few sous in their pockets they would try their
+own skill at throwing big balls into the mouths of fantastic monsters,
+painted upon a square board, while their country friends nibbled at
+spice-nuts, and thought them delicious. But on this 18th of March
+morning there are no women, nor spice-nuts, nor sport on the Place
+Saint-Pierre: all is slush and dirt, and the poor lines-men are obliged
+to stand at ease, resting upon their arms, not in the best of humour
+with the weather or the prospect before them.
+
+Ah! and the guns of the National Guard that frown from their embrasures
+on the top of the hill, have they been made use of against the
+Prussians? No! they have made no report during the siege, and were only
+heard on the days on which they were christened and paid for; elegant
+things, hardly to be blackened with powder, that it was always hoped
+would be pacific and never dangerous to the capital. Cruel irony! those
+guns for which Paris paid, and those American mitrailleuses, made out
+of the savings of both rich and poor, the farthings of the frugal
+housewife, and the napoleons of the millionaires; the contributions of
+the artists who designed, and the poets who pen’d, are ruining Paris
+instead of protecting it. The brass mouths that ate the bread of
+humanity are turned upon the nation itself to devour it also.
+
+But, to return to the 88th Regiment of Line, did they take the guns?
+Yes, but they gave them up again, and to whom? why, to a crowd of women
+and children; and as to the chiefs, no one seemed to know what had
+become of them. It is related, however, that General Lecomte had been
+made a prisoner and led to the Château-Rouge, and that at nine o’clock
+some Chasseurs d’Afrique charged pretty vigorously in the Place Pigalle
+a detachment of National Guards, who replied by a volley of bullets. An
+officer of Chasseurs was shot, and his men ran away, the greater part,
+it is said, into the wine-shops, where they fraternised with the
+patriots, who offered them drink. I was told on the spot that General
+Vinoy, who was on horseback, became encircled in a mob of women, had a
+stone and a cap[6] thrown at him, and thought it prudent to escape,
+leaving the National Guards and linesmen to promenade in good
+fellowship three abreast, dispersing themselves about the outer
+boulevards and about Paris. Indeed, I have just seen a drunken couple
+full of wine and friendship, strongly reminding one of a duel ending in
+a jolly breakfast. And who is to blame for this? Nobody knows. All
+agree that it is a bungle,—the fault of maladministration and want of
+tact. Certainly the National Guards at Montmartre had no right to hold
+the cannons belonging to the National Guards, as a body, or to menace
+the reviving trade and tranquillity of Paris, by means of guns turned
+against its peaceful citizens and Government officials; but was it
+necessary to use violence to obtain possession of the cannons? Should
+not all the means of conciliation be exhausted first, and might we not
+hope that the citizens at Montmartre would themselves end by abandoning
+the pieces of artillery[7] which they hardly protected. In fact, they
+were encumbered by their own barricades, and they might take upon
+themselves to repave their streets and return to order.
+
+Monsieur Thiers and his ministers were not of that opinion. They
+preferred acting, and with vigour. Very well! but when resolutions are
+formed, one should be sure of fulfilling them, for in circumstances of
+such importance failure itself makes the attempt an error.[8]
+
+Well! said the Government, who could imagine that the line would throw
+up the butt ends of their muskets,[9] or that the Chasseurs, after the
+loss of a single officer, would turn their backs upon the Nationals,
+and that their only deeds should be the imbibing of plentiful potations
+at the cost of the insurgents? But how could it be otherwise? Not many
+days since the soldiers were wandering idly through the streets with
+the National Guards; were billeted upon the people, eating their soup
+and chatting with their wires and daughters, unaccustomed to discipline
+and the rigour of military organisation; enervated by defeat, having
+been maintained by their officers in the illusion of their
+invincibility; annoyed by their uniform, of which they ceased to be
+proud, the humiliated soldiers sought to escape into the citizen. Were
+the commanding officers ignorant of the prevailing spirit of the
+troops? Must we admit that they were grossly deceived, or that they
+deceived the Government, when the latter might and ought to have been
+in a position to foresee the result. Possibly the Assembly had the
+right to coerce, but they had no right to be ignorant of their power.
+They must have known that 100,000 arms (chassepots, tabatières,[10] and
+muskets) were in the hands of disaffected men, clanking on the floors
+of the dealers in adulterated wines and spirits, and low cabarets. The
+fact is, the Government took a leap in the dark, and wondered when they
+found the position difficult.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [5] Appendix, note 2.
+
+ [6] A mark of insult.
+
+ [7] This useless artillery was much ridiculed; jokers said that the
+ notary of General Trochu was working out faithfully the “plan” of his
+ illustrious client in these tardy fortifications.
+
+ [8] How was the Government to act in the presence of these facts; to
+ await events, or to strike a great blow?
+    Some think that the resistance of the insurgents was strengthened
+    by the measures taken by Government, which ought to have been more
+    diplomatic and skilful. The agitation of these men of Montmartre,
+    at the entry of the Prussians, had calmed down in a few hours; it
+    was now the duty of Government to allay the irritation which had
+    caused the insurgents to form their Montmartre stronghold, and not
+    to follow the advice of infuriated reactionaries, who make no
+    allowance for events and circumstances, neither analysing the
+    elements of that which they are combating, nor weighing the
+    measures they do not even know how to apply with tact.
+    The guns had not been re-taken, but Paris was very calm.
+    Dissensions had broken out in the Montmartre Committee, some of
+    whose members wished the cannon to be returned (the Committee sat
+    at No, 8 of the Rue des Rosiers, with a court-martial on one hand,
+    and military head-quarters on the other). Danger seemed now to be
+    averted, and the authorities had but one thing to do, to allow all
+    agitation to die out, without listening to blind or treacherous
+    counsellors, who advocated a system of immediate repression. It was
+    said, however, that the greater number of the members of Government
+    were inclined to temporise, but the provisional appointment of
+    General Valentin to the direction of the Prefecture of Police,
+    seemed to contradict this assertion.
+    During this time, the leaders who held Montmartre, spurred on by
+    the ambitious around them, and by those desirous of kindling civil
+    war for the sake of the illicit gains to be obtained from it, were
+    getting up a manifestation, which was to claim for the National
+    Guard the right of electing its commander-in-chief; and the post
+    was to be offered to Menotti Garibaldi. But though the men of
+    Montmartre declared that all who did not sign the manifestos were
+    traitors, yet the addresses remained almost entirely blank. The
+    insurrection had evidently few supporters. According to others, the
+    insurrection of 1871 was the result of a vast conspiracy, planned
+    and nurtured under the influence of a six months’ siege. No simple
+    Paris _émeute_, but a grand social movement, organised by the great
+    and universal revolutionary power; the Société Internationale,
+    Garibaldiism, Mazziniism, and Fenianism, have given each other
+    rendezvous in Paris. Cluseret, the American; Frankel, the Prussian;
+    Dombrowski, the Russian; Brunswick, the Lithuanian; Romanelli, the
+    Italian; Okolowitz, the Pole; Spillthorn, the Belgian; and La
+    Cécilia, Wroblewski, Wenzel, Hertzfel, Bozyski, Syneck, Prolowitz,
+    and a hundred others, equally illustrious, brought together from
+    every quarter of the globe; such were these ardent conspirators,
+    all imbued, like their colleagues the Flourens, the Eudes, the
+    Henrys, the Duvals, and _tutti quanti_, with the principles of the
+    French school of democracy and socialism.
+    This strong and terrible band, we are told, is under the command of
+    a chief who remains hidden and mute, while ostensibly it obeys the
+    Pyats, Delescluzes, and Rocheforts, politicians, who not being
+    generals, never condescend to fight.
+    In the first days of March all was prepared for a coming explosion,
+    and in spite of the departure of the Prussians, the Socialist party
+    determined that it should take place. (_Guerre des Communeux_, p.
+    61.)
+
+ [9] A sign that they refused to fight.
+
+ [10] A smooth-bore musket arranged as breech-loader, and called a
+ snuff-box, from the manner of opening the breech to adjust the charge.
+
+
+
+
+ II.
+
+
+At three o’clock in the afternoon there was a dense group of linesmen
+and Nationals in one of the streets bordering on the Elysée-Montmartre.
+The person who told us this did not recollect the name of the street,
+but men were eagerly haranguing the crowd, talking of General Lecomte,
+and his having twice ordered the troops to fire upon the citizen
+militia.
+
+“And what he did was right,” said an old gentleman who was listening.
+
+Words that were no sooner uttered than they provoked a torrent of
+curses and imprecations from the by-standers. But he continued
+observing that General Lecomte had only acted under the orders of his
+superiors; being commanded to take the guns and to disperse the crowd,
+his only duty was to obey.
+
+These remarks being received in no friendly spirit, hostility to the
+stranger increased, when a vivandière approached, and looking the
+gentleman who had exposed himself to the fury of the mob full in the
+face, exclaimed, “It is Clément Thomas!” And in truth it was General
+Clément Thomas; he was not in uniform. A torrent of abuse was poured
+forth by a hundred voices at once, and the anger of the crowd seemed
+about to extend itself to violence, when a ruffian cried out: “You
+defend the rascal Lecomte! Well, we’ll put you both together, and a
+pretty pair you’ll be!” and this project being approved of, the General
+was hurried, not without having to submit to fresh insults, to where
+General Lecomte had been imprisoned since the morning.
+
+From this moment the narrative I have collected differs but little from
+that circulated through Paris.
+
+At about four o’clock in the afternoon the two generals were conducted
+from their prison by a hundred National Guards, the hands of General
+Lecomte being bound together, whilst those of Clément Thomas were free.
+In this manner they were escorted to the top of the hill of Montmartre,
+where they stopped before No. 6 of the Rue des Rosiers: it is a little
+house I had often seen, a peaceful and comfortable habitation, with a
+garden in front. What passed within it perhaps will never be known. Was
+it there that the Central Committee of the National Guard held their
+sittings in full conclave? or were they represented by a few of its
+members? Many persons think that the house was not occupied, and that
+the National Guards conducted their prisoners within its walls to make
+the crowd believe they were proceeding to a trial, or at least to give
+the appearance of legality to the execution of premeditated acts. Of
+one thing there remains little doubt, namely, that soldiers of the line
+stood round about at the time, and that the trial, if any took place,
+was not long, the condemned being conducted to a walled enclosure at
+the end of the street.
+
+[Illustration: Hotel de Ville, As Fortified by the National Guard,
+March, 1871.]
+
+The Hôtel de Ville of Paris, Which Witnessed So Many National
+Ceremonies and Republican Triumphs, Was Commenced in 1533, And It Was
+Finished in 1628. Here the First Bourbon, Henry Iv., Celebrated His
+Entry Into Paris After the Siege of 1589, and Bailly The maire, On The
+17th July, 1789, Presented Louis Xvi. To the People, Wearing A Tricolor
+Cockade. Henry Iv. Became a Catholic in Order to Enter “his Good City
+of Paris” Whilst Louis Xvi. Wore the Democratic Insignia In Order to
+Keep It. A Few Days Later the 172 Commissioners of Sections,
+Representing the Municipality of Paris, Established The Commune. The
+Hôtel de Ville Was the Seat of The First Committee Of Public Safety,
+And From the Green Chamber, Robespierre Governed The Convention and
+France Till his Fall on the 9th Thermidor. From 1800 to 1830 Fêtes Held
+The Place of Political Manifestations. In 1810 Bonaparte Received
+Marie-Louise Here; in 1821, the Baptism of The Duke Of Bordeaux Was
+Celebrated Here; in 1825 Fêtes Were Given to the Duc D’angouleme on His
+Return from Spain, and to Charles X., Arriving From Rheims. Five Years
+Later, from the Same Balcony Where Bailly Presented Louis Xvi. To The
+People, Lafayette, Standing by the Side of Louis Philippe, Said, “this
+Is the Best of Republics!” It Was Here, in 1848, That de Lamartine
+Courageously Declared to an Infuriated Mob That, As Long As he Lived,
+The Red Flag Should Not Be the Flag of France. During The Fatal Days Of
+June, 1848, the Hôtel de Ville Was Only Saved from Destruction by The
+Intrepidity of a Few Brave Men. The Queen Of England Was Received Here
+In 1865, and the Sovereigns Who Visited Paris Since Have Been Fêted
+Therein. On the 4th of September The Bloodless Revolution Was
+Proclaimed; and on the 31st of October, 1870, And The 22nd Of January,
+1871, Flourens and Blanqui Made a Fruitless Attempt to Substitute The
+Red Flag for the Tricolor; But Their Partisans Succeeded on The 18th Of
+March, when It Was Fortified, and Became the Head-quarters of The
+Commune of 1871.
+
+As soon as they had halted, an officer of the National Guard seized
+General Clément Thomas by the collar of his coat and shook him
+violently several times, exclaiming, whilst he held the muzzle of a
+revolver close to his throat,—“Confess that you have betrayed the
+Republic.” To this Monsieur Clément Thomas only replied by a shrug of
+his shoulders; upon this the officer retired, leaving the General
+standing alone in the front of the wall, with a line of soldiers
+opposite.
+
+Who gave the signal to fire is unknown, but a report of twenty muskets
+rent the air, and General Clément Thomas fell with his face to the
+earth.
+
+“It is your turn now,” said one of the assassins, addressing General
+Lecomte, who immediately advanced from the crowd, stepping over the
+body of Clément Thomas to take his place, awaiting with his back to the
+wall the fatal moment.
+
+“Fire!” cried the officer, and all was over.
+
+Half an hour after, in the Rue des Acacias, I came across an old woman
+who wanted three francs for a bullet—a bullet she had extracted from
+the plaster of a wall at the end of the Rue des Rosiers.
+
+
+
+
+ III.
+
+
+It is ten o’clock in the evening, and if I were not so tired I would go
+to the Hôtel de Ville, which, I am told, has been taken possession of
+by the National Guards; the 18th of March is continuing the 31st of
+October. But the events of this day have made me so weary that I can
+hardly write all I have seen and heard. On the outer boulevards the
+wine shops are crowded with tipsy people, the drunken braggarts who
+boast they have made a revolution. When a stroke succeeds there are
+plenty of rascals ready to say: I did it. Drinking, singing, and
+talking are the order of the day. At every step you come upon “piled
+arms.” At the corner of the Passage de l’Elysée-des-Beaux-Arts I met
+crowds of people, some lying on the ground; here a battalion standing
+at ease but ready to march; and at the entrance of the Rue Blanche and
+the Rue Fontaine were some stones, ominously posed one on the other,
+indicating symptoms of a barricade. In the Rue des Abbesses I counted
+three cannons and a mitrailleuse, menacing the Rue des Martyrs. In the
+Rue des Acacias, a man had been arrested, and was being conducted by
+National Guards to the guard-house: I heard he was a thief. Such
+arrests are characteristic features in a Parisian émeute.
+Notwithstanding these little scenes the disorder is not excessive, and
+but for the multitude of men in uniform one might believe it the
+evening of a popular fête; the victors are amusing themselves.
+
+[Illustration: Sentinels, Rue du Val de Grâce and Boulevard St. Michel]
+
+Among the Federals this evening there are very few linesmen; perhaps
+they have gone to their barracks to enjoy their meal of soup and bread.
+
+Upon the main boulevards noisy groups are commenting upon the events of
+the day. At the corner of the Rue Drouot an officer of the 117th
+Battalion is reading in a loud voice, or rather reciting, for he knows
+it all by heart, the proclamation of M. Picard, the official poster of
+the afternoon.
+
+    “The Government appeals to you to defend your city, your home, your
+    children, and your property.
+    “Some frenzied men, commanded by unknown chiefs, direct against
+    Paris the guns defended from, the Prussians.
+    “They oppose force to the National Guard and the army.
+    “Will you suffer it?
+    “Will you, under the eyes of the strangers ready to profit by our
+    discord, abandon Paris to sedition?
+    “If you do not extinguish it in the germ, the Republic and France
+    will be ruined for ever.
+    “Their destiny is in your hands.
+    “The Government desires that you should hold your arms
+    energetically to maintain the law and preserve the Republic from
+    anarchy. Gather round your leaders; it is the only means of
+    escaping ruin and the domination of the foreigner.
+
+    “The Minister of the Interior,
+    “ERNEST PICARD.”
+
+The crowd listened with attention, shouted two or three times “To
+arms!” and then dispersed—I thought for an instant, to arm themselves,
+though in reality it was only to reinforce another group forming on the
+other side of the way.
+
+This day the Friends of Order have been very apathetic, so much so that
+Paris is divided between two parties: the one active and the other
+passive.
+
+To speak truly, I do not know what the population of Paris could have
+done to resist the insurrection. “Gather round your chiefs,” says the
+proclamation. This is more easily said than done, when we do not know
+what has become of them. The division caused in the National Guard by
+the Coup d’Etat of the Central Committee had for its consequence the
+disorganisation of all command. Who was to distinguish, and where was
+one to find the officers that had remained faithful to the cause of
+order?
+
+It is true they sounded the “rappel”[11] and beat the “générale”;[12]
+but who commanded it? Was it the regular Government or the
+revolutionary Committee?
+
+More than one good citizen was ready to do his duty; but, after having
+put on his uniform and buckled his belt, he felt very puzzled, afraid
+of aiding the entente instead of strengthening the defenders of the
+law. Therefore the peaceful citizen soldiers regarded not the call of
+the trumpet and the drum.
+
+It is wise to stay at home when one knows not where to go. Besides, the
+line has not replied, and bad examples are contagious; moreover, is it
+fair to demand of fathers of families, of merchants and tradesmen, in
+fact of soldiers of necessity, an effort before which professional
+soldiers withdraw? The fact is the Government had fled. Perhaps a few
+ministers still remained in Paris, but the main body had gone to join
+the Assembly at Versailles.
+
+I do not blame their somewhat precipitate departure,[13] perhaps it was
+necessary; nevertheless it seems to me that their presence would have
+put an end to irresolution on the part of timid people.
+
+Meanwhile, from the Madeleine to the Gymnase, the cafés overflowed with
+swells and idlers of both sexes. On the outer boulevards they got
+drunk, and on the inner tipsy, the only difference being in the quality
+of the liquors imbibed.
+
+What an extraordinary people are the French!
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [11] The roll call.
+
+ [12] Muster call in time of danger, which is beaten only by a superior
+ order emanating from the Commander-in-chief in a stronghold or
+ garrison town.
+
+ [13] The army of Paris was drawn off to Versailles in the night of the
+ 18th of March, and on the 19th, the employés of all the ministries and
+ public offices left Paris for the same destination.
+    On the 19th of March, as early as eight in the morning, Monsieur
+    Thiers addressed the following circular to the authorities of all
+    the departments:—
+    “The whole of the Government is assembled at Versailles: the
+    National Assembly will meet there also.
+    “The army, to the number of forty thousand men, has been assembled
+    there in good order, under the command of General Vinoy. All the
+    chiefs of the army, and all the civil authorities have arrived
+    there.
+    “The civil and military authorities will execute no other orders
+    but those issued by the legitimate government residing at
+    Versailles, under penalty of dismissal.
+    “The members of the National Assembly are all requested to hasten
+    their return, so as to be present at the sitting of the 20th of
+    March.
+    “The present despatch will be made known to the public.
+
+“A. THIERS.”
+
+
+
+
+ IV.
+
+
+Next morning, the 19th of March, I was in haste to know the events of
+last night, what attitude Paris had assumed after her first surprise.
+The night, doubtless, had brought counsel, and perhaps settled the
+discord existing between the Government and the Central Committee.
+
+Early in the morning things appeared much as usual; the streets were
+peaceful, servants shopping, and the ordinary passengers going to and
+fro. In passing I met a casual acquaintance to whom I had spoken now
+and then, a man with whom I had served during the siege when we mounted
+guard on the ramparts. “Well,” said I, “good morning, have you any
+news?”—“News,” replied he, “no, not that I know of. Ah I yes, there is
+a rumour that something took place yesterday at Montmartre.” This was
+told me in the centre of the city, in the Rue de la Grange-Batelière.
+Truly there are in Paris persons marvellously apathetic and ignorant. I
+would wager not a little that by searching in the retired quarters,
+some might be found who believe they are still governed by Napoleon
+III., and have never heard of the war with Prussia, except as a not
+improbable eventuality.
+
+On the boulevards there was but little excitement. The newspaper
+vendors were in plenty. I do not like to depend upon these public
+sheets for information, for however impartial or sincere a reporter may
+be, he cannot represent facts otherwise than according to the
+impression they make upon him, and to value facts by the impression
+they make upon others is next to impossible.
+
+I directed my steps to the Rue Drouot in search of placards, and
+plentiful I found them, and white too, showing that Paris was not
+without a government; for white is the official colour even under a red
+Republic.[14]
+
+Taking out a pencil I copied hastily the proclamation of the new
+masters, and I think that I did well, for we forget very quickly both
+proclamations and persons. Where are they now, the official bills of
+last year?
+
+    “RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE.
+    “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité.”
+    _To the People_.
+
+    “Citizens,—The people of Paris have shaken off the yoke endeavoured
+    to be imposed upon them.”
+
+What yoke, gentlemen—I beg pardon, citizens of the Committee? I assure
+you, as part of the people, that I have never felt that any one has
+tried to impose one upon me. I recollect, if my memory serves me, that
+a few guns were spoken of, but nothing about yokes. Then the expression
+“People of Paris,” is a gross exaggeration. The inhabitants of
+Montmartre and their neighbours of that industrious suburb are
+certainly a part of the people, and not the less respectable or worthy
+of our consideration because they live out of the centre (indeed, I
+have always preferred a coal man of the Chaussée Clignancourt to a
+coxcomb of the Rue Taitbout); but for all that, they are not the whole
+population. Thus, your sentence does not imply anything, and moreover,
+with all its superannuated metaphor, the rhetoric is out of date. I
+think it would have been better to say simply—
+
+    “Citizens,—The inhabitants of Montmartre and of Belleville have
+    taken their guns and intend to keep them.”
+
+But then it would not have the air of a proclamation. Extraordinary
+fact! you may overturn an entire country, but you must not touch the
+official style; it is immutable. One may triumph over empires, but must
+respect red tape. Let us read on:
+
+    “Tranquil, calm in our force, we have awaited without fear as
+    without provocation, the shameless madmen who menaced the
+    Republic.”
+
+The Republic? Again an improper expression, it was the cannons they
+wanted to take.
+
+“This time, our brothers of the army....”
+
+Ah! your brothers of the army! They are your brothers because they
+fraternised and threw up the butt-ends of their muskets. In your family
+you acknowledge no brotherhood except those who hold the same opinion.
+
+    “This time, our brothers of the army would not raise their hands
+    against the holy ark of our liberty.”
+
+Oh! So the guns are a holy ark now. A very holy metaphor, for people
+not greatly enamoured of churchmen.
+
+“Thanks for all; and let Paris and France unite to build a Republic,
+and accept with acclamations the only government that will close for
+ever the flood gates of invasion and civil war.
+    “The state of siege is raised.
+    “The people of Paris are convoked in their sections to elect a
+    Commune. The safety of all citizens is assured by the body of the
+    National Guard.
+    “Hôtel de Ville of Paris, the 19th of March, 1871.
+    “The Central Committee of the National Guard:
+    “Assy, Billioray, Ferrat, Babick, Ed. Moreau, Oh. Dupont, Varlin,
+    Boursier, Mortier, Gouhier, Lavallette, Fr. Jourde, Rousseau, Ch.
+    Lullier, Blanchet, G. Gaillard, Barroud, H. Geresme, Fabre,
+    Pougeret.”[15]
+
+There is one reproach that the new Parisian Revolution could not be
+charged with; it is that of having placed at the head men of proved
+incapacity. Those who dared to assert that each of the persons named
+above had not more genius than would be required to regenerate two or
+three nations would greatly astonish me. In a drama of Victor Hugo it
+is said a parentless child ought to be deemed a gentleman; thus an
+obscure individual ought, on the same terms, to be considered a man of
+genius.
+
+But on the walls of the Rue Drouot many more proclamations were to be
+seen.
+
+    “RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE.
+    “LIBERTÉ, EGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ,
+    “To the National Guards of Paris.
+
+    “CITIZENS,—You had entrusted us with the charge of organising the
+    defence of Paris and of your rights.”
+
+Oh! as to that, no; a thousand times, no! I admit—since you appear to
+cling to it—that Cannon are an ark of strength, but under no pretext
+whatever will I allow that I entrusted you with the charge of
+organising anything whatsoever. I know nothing of you; I have never
+heard you spoken of. There is no one in the world of whom I am more
+ignorant than Ferrat, Babick, unless it be Gaillard and Pougeret
+(though I was national guard myself, and caught cold on the ramparts
+for the King of Prussia[16] as much as anyone else). I neither know
+what you wish nor where you are leading those who follow you; and I can
+prove to you, if you like, that there are at least a hundred thousand
+men who caught cold too, and who, at the present moment, are in exactly
+the same state of mind concerning you “We are aware of having fulfilled
+our mission.”
+
+You are very good to have taken so much trouble, but I have no
+recollection of having given you a mission to fulfil of any kind
+whatever!
+
+    “Assisted by your courage and presence of mind!...”
+
+Ah, gentlemen, this is flattery!
+
+    “We have driven out the government that was betraying you.
+    “Our mandate has now expired...”
+
+Always this same mandate which we gave you, eh?
+
+    “We now return it to you, for we do not pretend to take the place
+    of those which the popular breath has overthrown.
+    “Prepare yourselves, let the Communal election commence forthwith,
+    and give to us the only reward we have ever hoped for—that of
+    seeing the establishment of a true republic. In the meanwhile we
+    retain the Hôtel de Ville in the name of the people.
+    “Hôtel de Ville, Paris, 19th March, 1871.
+    “The Central Committee of the National Guards:
+    “Assy, Billioray, and others.”
+
+Placarded up also is another proclamation[17] signed by the citizens
+Assy, Billioray, and others, announcing that the Communal elections
+will take place on Wednesday next, 22nd of March, that is to say in
+three days.
+
+This then is the result of yesterday’s doings, and the revolution of
+the 18th March can be told in a few words.
+
+There were cannon at Montmartre; the Government wished to take them but
+was not able, thanks to the fraternal feeling and cowardice of the
+soldiers of the Line. A secret society, composed of several delegates
+of several battalions, took advantage of the occasion to assert loudly
+that they represented the entire population, and commanded the people
+to elect the Commune of Paris—whether they wished or not.
+
+What will Paris do now between these dictators, sprung from heaven
+knows where, and the Government fled to Versailles?
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [14] No one may use white placards—they are reserved by the
+ government.
+    The following is an extract from the _Official Journal_ of
+    Versailles, bearing the date of the 20th of March, which explains
+    the official form of the announcements made by the Central
+    Committee:—
+    “Yesterday, 19th March, the offices of the _Official Journal_, in
+    Paris, were broken into, the employés having escaped to Versailles
+    with the documents, to join the Government and the National
+    Assembly. The invaders took possession of the printing machines,
+    the materials, and even the official and non-official articles
+    which had been set up in type, and remained in the composing-rooms.
+    It is thus that they were enabled to give an appearance of
+    regularity to the publication of their decrees, and to deceive the
+    Parisian public by a false _Official Journal_.”
+
+ [15] Here is an extract from the _Official Journal_ upon the subject
+ (numbers of the 29th March and 1st June):—
+    “In the insurrection, the momentary triumph of which has crushed
+    Paris beneath so odious and humiliating a yoke, carried the
+    distresses of France to their height, and put civilisation in
+    peril, the International Society has borne a part which has
+    suddenly revealed to all the fatal power of this dangerous
+    association.
+    “On the 19th of March, the day after the outbreak of the terrible
+    sedition, of which the last horrors will form one of the most
+    frightful pages in history, there appeared upon the walls a placard
+    which made known to Paris the names of its new masters.
+    “With the exception of one, alone, (Assy), who had acquired a
+    deplorable notoriety, these names were unknown to almost all who
+    read them; they had suddenly emerged from utter obscurity, and
+    people asked themselves with astonishment, with stupor, what unseen
+    power could have given them an influence and a meaning which they
+    did not possess in themselves. This power was the International;
+    these names were those of some of its members.”
+
+ [16] _Travailler pour le Roi de Prusse_, “to work for the King of
+ Prussia,” is an old French saying, which means to work for nothing, to
+ no purpose.
+
+ [17] “THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL GUARD.
+    “Inasmuch:—
+    “That it is most urgent that the Communal administration of the
+    City of Paris shall be formed immediately,
+    “Decrees:—
+    “1st. The elections for the Communal Council of the City of Paris
+    will take place on Wednesday next, the 22nd of March.
+    “2nd. The electors will vote with lists, and in their own
+    arrondissements.
+    Each arrondissement will elect a councillor for each twenty
+    thousand of inhabitants, and an extra one for a surplus of more
+    than ten thousand.
+    3rd. The poll will be open from eight in the morning to six in the
+    evening. The result will be made known at once.
+    4th. The municipalities of the twenty arrondissements are entrusted
+    with the proper execution of the present decree.
+    A placard indicating the number of councillors for each
+    arrondissement will shortly be posted up.
+    “Hôtel de Ville, Paris, 29th March, 1871.”
+
+
+
+
+ V.
+
+
+Paris remains inactive, and watches events as one watches running
+water. What does this indifference spring from? Surprise and the
+disappearance of the chiefs might yesterday have excused the inaction
+of Paris, but twenty-four hours have passed over, every man has
+interrogated his conscience, and been able to listen to its answer.
+There has been time to reconnoitre, to concert together; there would
+have been time to act!
+
+Why is nothing done? Why has nothing been done yet? Generals Clément
+Thomas and Lecomte have been assassinated; this is as incontestable as
+it is odious. Does all Paris wish to partake with the criminals in the
+responsibility of this crime? The regular Government has been expelled.
+Does Paris consent to this expulsion? Men invested with no rights, or,
+at least, with insufficient rights, have usurped the power. Does Paris
+so far forget itself as to submit to this usurpation without
+resistance?
+
+No, most assuredly no. Paris abominates crime, does not approve of the
+expulsion of the Government, and does not acknowledge the right of the
+members of the Central Committee to impose its wishes upon us. Why then
+does Paris remain passive and patient? Does it not fear that it will be
+said that silence implies consent? How is it that I myself, for
+example, instead of writing my passing impressions on these pages, do
+not take my musket to punish the criminals and resist this despotism?
+It is that we all feel the present situation to be a, singularly
+complicated one. The Government which has withdrawn to Versailles
+committed so many faults that it would be difficult to side with it
+without reserve. The weakness and inability the greater part of those
+who composed it showed during the siege, their obstinacy in remaining
+deaf to the legitimate wishes of the capital, have ill disposed us for
+depending on a state of things which it would have been impossible to
+approve of entirely. In fine, these unknown revolutionists, guilty most
+certainly, but perhaps sincere, claim for Paris rights that almost the
+whole of Paris is inclined to demand. It is impossible not to
+acknowledge that the municipal franchise is wished for and becomes
+henceforth necessary.
+
+It is for this reason that although aghast at the excesses in
+perspective and those already committed by the dictators of the 18th
+March, though revolted at the thought of all the blood spilled and yet
+to be spilled—this is the reason that we side with no party. The past
+misdeeds of the legitimate Government of Versailles damp our enthusiasm
+for it, while some few laudable ideas put forth by the illegitimate
+government of the Hôtel de Ville diminish our horror of its crimes, and
+our apprehensions at its misdoings.
+
+Then—why not dare say it?—Paris, which is so impressionable, so
+excitable, so romantic, in admiration before all that is bold, has but
+a moderate sympathy for that which is prudent. We may smile, as I did
+just now, at the emphatic proclamation of the Central Committee, but
+that does not prevent us from recognizing that its power is real, and
+the ferocious elements that it has so suddenly revealed are not without
+a certain grandeur. It might have been spitefully remarked that more
+than one patriot in his yesterday evening walk on the outer boulevards
+and in the environs of the Hôtel de Ville, had taken more _petit vin_
+than was reasonable in honour of the Republic and of the Commune, but
+that has not prevented our feeling a surprise akin to admiration at the
+view of those battalions hastening from all quarters at some invisible
+signal, and ready at any moment to give up their lives to defend ...
+what? Their guns, and these guns were in their eyes the palpable
+symbols of their rights and liberties. During this time the heroic
+Assembly was pettifogging at Versailles, and the Government was going
+to join them. Paris does not follow those who fly.
+
+
+
+
+ VI.
+
+
+The Butte-Montmartre is _en fête_. The weather is charming, and every
+one goes to see the cannon and inspect the barricades, Men, women, and
+children mount the hilly streets, and they all appear joyous ... for
+what, they cannot say themselves, but who can resist the charm of
+sunshine? If it rained, the city would be in mourning. Now the citizens
+have closed their shops and put on their best clothes, and are going to
+dine at the restaurant. These are the very enemies of disorder, the
+small shopkeepers and the humble citizens. Strange contradiction! But
+what would you have? the sun is so bright, the weather is so lovely.
+Yesterday no work was done because of the insurrection; it was like a
+Sunday. To-day therefore is the holiday-Monday of the insurrection.
+
+[Illustration: Behind a Barricade: The Morning Meal—thirty Sous A Day
+and nothing to eat]
+
+
+
+
+ VII.
+
+
+In the midst of all these troubles, in which every one is borne along,
+without any knowledge of where he is drifting—with the Central
+Committee making proclamations on one side, and the Versailles
+Government training troops on the other, a few men have arisen who have
+spoken some words of reason. These men may be certain from this moment
+that they are approved of by Paris, and will be obeyed By Paris—by the
+honest and intelligent Paris—by the Paris which is ready to favour that
+side which can prove that it has the most justice in it.
+
+The deputies and maires of Paris have placarded the following
+proclamation:—
+
+    “RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE.
+    “LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ.
+
+    “Citizens,—Impressed with the absolute necessity of saving Paris
+    and the Republic by the removal of every cause of collision, and
+    convinced that the best means of attaining this grand object is to
+    give satisfaction to the legitimate wishes of the people, we have
+    resolved this very day to demand of the National Assembly the
+    adoption of two measures which we have every hope will contribute
+    to bring back tranquillity to the public mind.
+    “These two measures are: The election of all the officers of the
+    National Guard, without exception, and the establishment of a
+    municipal council, elected by the whole of the citizens.
+    “What we desire, and what the public welfare requires under all
+    circumstances; and which the present situation renders more
+    indispensable than ever, is, order in liberty and by liberty.
+    “_Vive la France!_ Vive la République!
+
+    “_The representatives of the Seine_:
+
+    “Louis Blanc, V. Schoelcher, Edmond Adam, Floquet, Martin Bernard,
+    Langlois, Edouard Lockroy, Farcy, Brisson, Greppo, Millière.
+
+    “_The maires and adjoints of Paris_:
+
+    “1st Arrondissement: Ad. Adam, Meline, adjoints.—2nd
+    Arrondissement: Tirard, maire, representative of the Seine; Ad.
+    Brelay, Chéron, Loiseau-Pinson, adjoints.—3rd Arrondissement;
+    Bonvalet, maire; Ch. Murat, adjoint.—4th Arrondissement: Vautrain,
+    maire; Loiseau, Callon, adjoints.—5th Arrondissement: Jourdan,
+    adjoint.—6th Arrondissement: Hérisson, maire; A. Leroy,
+    adjoint.—7th Arrondissement: Arnaud (de l’Ariége), maire,
+    representative of the Seine.—8th Arrondissement: Carnot, maire,
+    representative of the Seine.—9th Arrondissement: Desmaret,
+    maire.—10th Arrondissement: Dubail, maire; A. Murat,
+    Degoyves-Denunques, adjoints.—11th Arrondissement: Motu, maire,
+    representative of the Seine; Blanchon, Poirier, Tolain,
+    representative of the Seine.—12th Arrondissement: Denizot, Dumas,
+    Turillon, adjoints.—18th Arrondissement: Léo Meillet, Combes,
+    adjoints.—14th Arrondissement: Héligon, adjoint.—15th
+    Arrondissement: Jobbe-Duval, adjoint.—16th Arrondissement: Henri
+    Martin, maire and representative of the Seine,—17th.
+    Arrondissement: FRANÇOIS FAVRE, maire; MALOU, VILLENEUVE, CACHEUX,
+    adjoints.—18th. Arrondissement: CLÉMENCEAU, maire and
+    representative of the people; J.B. LAFONT, DEREURE, JACLARD,
+    adjoints.”
+
+This proclamation has now been posted two hours, and I have not yet met
+a single person who does not approve of it entirely. The deputies of
+the Seine and the _maires_ of Paris have, by the flight of the
+Government to Versailles, become the legitimate chiefs. We have elected
+them, it is for them to lead us. To them belongs the duty of
+reconciling the Assembly with the city; and it appears to us that they
+have taken the last means of bringing about that conciliation, by
+disengaging all that is legitimate and practical in its claims from the
+exaggeration of the _émeute_. Let them therefore have all praise for
+this truly patriotic attempt. Let them hasten to obtain from the
+Assembly a recognition of our rights. In acceding to the demands of the
+deputies and the _maires_, the Government will not be treating with
+insurrection; on the contrary, it will effect a radical triumph over
+it, for it will take away from it every pretext of existence, and will
+separate from it, in a definite way, all those men who have been
+blinded to the illegal and violent manner in which this programme is
+drawn up, by the justice of certain parts of it.
+
+If the Assembly consent to this, all that will remain of the 18th of
+March will be the recollection—painful enough, without doubt—of one
+sanguinary day, while out of a great evil will come a great benefit.
+
+Whatever may happen, we are resolute; we—that is to say, all those who,
+without having followed the Government of Versailles, and without
+having taken an active part in the insurrection, equally desire the
+re-establishment of legitimate power and the development of municipal
+liberties—we are resolved to follow where our deputies and the _maires_
+may lead us. They represent at this, moment the only legal authority
+which seems to us to have fairly understood the difficulties of the
+situation, and if, in the case of all hope of conciliation being lost,
+they should tell us to take up arms, we will do so.
+
+
+
+
+ VIII.
+
+
+Paris has this evening, the 21st of March, an air of extraordinary
+contentment; it has belief in the deputies and the _maires_, it has
+trust even, in the National Assembly. People talk of the manifestation
+of the Friends of Order and approve of it. A foreigner, a Russian,
+Monsieur A—— J——, who has inhabited Paris for ten years, and is
+consequently Parisian, has given me the following information, of which
+I took hasty note:—
+
+“At half-past one o’clock to-day a group, of which I made one, was
+formed in the place of the New Opera-house. We numbered scarcely twenty
+persons, and we had a flag on which was inscribed, ‘Meeting of the
+Friends of Order.’ This flag was carried by a soldier of the line, an
+employé, it is said, of the house of Siraudin, the great confectioners.
+We marched along the boulevards as far as the Rue de Richelieu; windows
+were opened as we passed, and the people cried, ‘_Vive l’Ordre! Vive
+l’Assemblée Nationale! A bas la Commune!_’ Few as we were at starting
+our numbers soon grew to three hundred, to five hundred, to a thousand.
+Our troop followed the Rue de Richelieu, increasing as it went. At the
+Place de la Bourse a captain at the head of his National Guards tried
+to stop us. We continued our course, the company saluted our flag as,
+we passed, and the drums beat to arms. After having traversed, still
+increasing in numbers, the streets which surround the Bourse, we
+returned to the boulevards, where the most lively enthusiasm burst out
+around us. We halted opposite the Rue Drouot. The _mairie_ of the Ninth
+Arrondissement was occupied by a battalion attached to the Central
+Committee—the 229th, I believe. Although there was some danger of a
+collision, we made our way into the street, resolved to do our duty,
+which was to protest against the interference with order and the
+disregard for established laws; but no resistance was opposed to us.
+The National Guards came out in front of the door of the _mairie_ and
+presented arms to us, and we were about to continue our way, when some
+one remarked that our flag, on which, as I have already said, were the
+woods ‘Meeting of the Friends of Order,’ might expose us to the danger
+of being taken for ‘_réactionnaires_,’ and that we ought to add the
+words ‘_Vive la République!_’ Those who headed the manifestation came
+to a halt, and a few of them went into a café, and there wrote the
+words on the flag with chalk. We then resumed our march, following the
+widest and most frequented paths, and were received with acclamations
+everywhere. A quarter of an hour later we arrived at the Rue de la Paix
+and were marching towards the Place Vendôme, where the battalions of
+the Committee were collected in masses, and where, as is well known,
+the staff of the National Guard had its head-quarters. There, as in the
+Rue Drouot, the drums were beaten and arms presented to us; more than
+that, an officer came and informed the leaders of the manifestation
+that a delegate of the Central Committee begged them to proceed to the
+staff quarters. At this moment I was carrying the flag. We advanced in
+silence. When we arrived beneath the balcony, surrounded by National
+Guards, whose attitude was generally peaceful; there appeared on the
+balcony a rather young man, without uniform, but wearing a red scarf,
+and surrounded by several superior officers; he came forward and
+said—‘Citizens, in the name of the Central Committee....’ when he was
+interrupted by a storm of hisses and by cries of ‘_Vive l’Ordre! Vive
+l’Assemblée Nationale! Vive la République!_’ In spite of these daring
+interruptions we were not subjected to any violence, nor even to any
+threats, and without troubling ourselves any more about the delegate,
+we marched round the column, and having regained the boulevards
+proceeded towards the Place de la Concorde. There, some one proposed
+that we should visit Admiral Saisset, who lived in the Rue Pauquet, in
+the quarter of the Champs Elysées, when a grave looking man with grey
+hair said that Admiral Saisset was at Versailles. ‘But,’ he added,
+‘there are several admirals amongst you.’ He gave his own name, it was
+Admiral de Chaillé. From that moment he headed the manifestation, which
+passed over the Pont de la Concorde to the Faubourg St. Germain.
+Constantly received with acclamations, and increasing in numbers, we
+paraded successively all the streets of the quarter, and each time that
+we passed before a guard-house the men presented arms. On the Place St.
+Sulpice a battalion drew up to allow us to pass. We afterwards went
+along the Boulevard St. Michel and the Boulevard de Strasbourg. During
+this part of our course we were joined by a large group, preceded by a
+tricolor flag with the inscription, ‘_Vive l’Assemblée Nationale!_’
+From this time the two flags floated side by side at the head of the
+augmented procession. As we were about to turn into the Boulevard
+Bonne-Nouvelle, a man dressed in a paletot and wearing a grey felt hat,
+threw himself upon me as I was carrying the standard of the Friends of
+Order, but a negro, dressed in the uniform of the National Guard, who
+marched beside me, kept the man off, who thereupon turned against the
+person that carried the other flag, wrested it from him, and with
+extraordinary strength broke the staff, which was a strong one, over
+his knee. This incident caused some confusion; the man was seized and
+carried off, and I fear he was rather maltreated. We then made our way
+back to the boulevards. At our appearance the enthusiasm of the
+passers-by was immense; and certainly, without exaggeration, we
+numbered between three and four thousand persons by the time we got
+back to the front of the New Opera-house, where we were to separate. A
+Zouave climbed up a tree in front of the Grand Hôtel, and fixed our
+flag on the highest branch. It was arranged that we should meet on the
+following day, in uniform but without arms, at the same place.”
+
+This account differs a little from those given in the newspapers, but I
+have the best reason to believe it absolutely true.
+
+What will be the effect of this manifestation? Will those who desire
+“Order through Liberty and in Liberty” succeed in meeting in
+sufficiently large numbers to bring to reason, without having recourse
+to force, the numerous partizans of the Commune? Whatever may happen,
+this manifestation proves that Paris has no intention of being disposed
+of without her own consent. In connection with the action of the
+deputies in the National Assembly, it cannot have been ineffective in
+aiding the coming pacification.
+
+Many hopeful promises of concord and quiet circulate this evening
+amongst the less violent groups.
+
+
+
+
+ IX.
+
+
+What is this fusillade? Against whom is it directed? Against the
+Prussians? No! Against Frenchmen, against passers-by, against those who
+cry “_Vive la République et vive l’Ordre_.” Men are falling dead or
+wounded, women flying, shops closing, amid the whistling of the
+bullets,—all Paris terrified. This is what I have just seen or heard.
+We are done for then at last. We shall see the barricades thrown up in
+our streets; we shall meet the horrid litters, from which hang hands
+black with powder; every woman will weep in the evening when her
+husband is late in returning home, and all mothers will be seized with
+terror. France, alas! France, herself a weeping mother, will fall by
+the hands of her own children.
+
+I had started, in company with a friend, from the Passage Choiseul on
+my way to the Tuileries, which has been occupied since yesterday by a
+battalion devoted to the Central Committee. On arming at the corner of
+the Rue St. Roch and the Rue Neuve des Petits Champs we perceived a
+considerable crowd in the direction of the Rue de la Paix. “What is
+going on now?” said I to my friend. “I think,” said he, “that it is an
+unarmed manifestation going to the Place Vendôme; it passed along the
+boulevards a short time since, crying “_Vive l’Ordre_.”
+
+As we talked we were approaching the Rue de la Paix. All at once a
+horrible noise was heard. It was the report of musketry. A white smoke
+rose along the walls, cries issued from all parts, the crowd fled
+terrified, and a hundred yards before us I saw a woman fall. Is she
+wounded or dead? What is this massacre? What fearful deeds are passing
+in open day, in this glorious sunshine? We had scarcely time to escape
+into one of the cross-streets, followed by the frightened crowd, when
+the shops were closed, hurriedly, and the horrible news spread to all
+parts of terrified Paris.
+
+Reports, varying extremely in form, spread with extraordinary rapidity;
+some were grossly exaggerated, others the reverse. “Two hundred victims
+have fallen,” said one. “There were no balls in the guns,” said
+another. The opinions regarding the cause of the conflict were
+strangely various. Perhaps we shall never know, with absolute
+certainty, what passed in the Place, Vendôme and the Rue de la Paix.
+For myself, I was at once; too far and too near the scene of action;
+too near, for I had narrowly missed being killed; too far, for I saw
+nothing but the smoke and the flight, of the terrified crowd.
+
+One thing certain is that the Friends of Order who, yesterday,
+succeeded in assembling a large number of citizens, had to-day tried to
+renew its attempt at pacification by unarmed numbers. Three or four
+thousand persons entered the Rue de la Paix towards two o’clock in the
+afternoon, crying, “_L’Ordre! L’Ordre! Vive l’Ordre!_” The Central
+Committee had doubtless issued severe orders, for the foremost
+sentinels of the Place, far from presenting arms to the “Friends of
+Order,” as they had done the day before, formally refused to let them
+continue their way. And then what happened? Two crowds were face to
+face; one unarmed, the other armed, both under strong excitement, one
+trying to press forward, the other determined to oppose its passage. A
+pistol-shot was heard. This was a signal. Down went the muskets, the
+armed crowd fired, and the unarmed dispersed in mad flight, leaving
+dead and wounded on their path.
+
+But who fired that first pistol-shot? “One of the citizens of the
+demonstration; and moreover, the sentinels had their muskets torn from
+them;” affirm the partisans of the Central Committee, and they bring
+forward, among other proofs; the evidence of an eye-witness, a foreign
+general, who saw it all from a window of the Rue de la Paix. But these
+assertions are but little to be relied upon. Can it be seriously
+believed that a crowd, to all appearance peaceful, would commit such an
+act of aggression? Who would have been insane enough to expose a mass
+of unarmed people to such dire revenge, by a challenge as criminal as
+it was useless? The account according to which the pistol was fired by
+an officer of the Federal guard from the foot of the Place Vendôme,
+thus giving the signal to those under his orders to fire upon the
+citizens, improbable as appears such an excess of cold-blooded
+barbarity, is much the more credible. And now how many women mourn
+their husbands and son’s wounded, and perhaps dead? How many victims
+have fallen? The number is not yet known. Monsieur Barle, a lieutenant
+of the National Guard, was shot in the stomach. Monsieur Gaston
+Jollivet, who some time ago committed the offence, grave in our eyes,
+of publishing a comic ode in which he allows himself to ridicule our
+illustrious and beloved master, Victor Hugo, but was certainly guilty
+of none in desiring a return to order, had his arm fractured, it is
+said. Monsieur Otto Hottinger, one of the directors of the French Bank,
+fell, struck by two balls, while raising a wounded man from the ground.
+
+One of my friends assures me that half-an-hour after the fusillade he
+was fired at, as he was coming out from a _porte-cochère_,[18] by
+National Guards in ambuscade.
+
+At four o’clock, at the corner of the Rue de la Paix and the Rue Neuve
+des Petits Champs, an old man, dressed in a blouse, still lay where he
+had fallen across the body of a _cantinière_, and beside him a soldier
+of the line, the staff of a tricolour flag grasped in his dead hand. Is
+this soldier the same of whom my friend Monsieur A—— J—— speaks in his
+account of the first demonstration, and who was said to be an employé
+at Siraudin’s?
+
+There were many other victims—Monsieur de Péne, the editor of
+_Paris-Journal_, dangerously wounded by a ball that penetrated the
+thigh; Monsieur Portel, lieutenant in the Eclaireurs Franchetti,
+wounded in the neck and right foot; Monsieur Bernard, a merchant,
+killed; Monsieur Giraud, a stockbroker, also killed. Fresh names are
+added to the funereal list every moment.
+
+Where will this revolution lead us, which was begun by the murder of
+two Generals and is being carried on by the assassination of
+passers-by?
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [18] Porte-cochère (carriage gateway).
+
+
+
+
+ X.
+
+
+In the midst of all this horror and terror I saw one little incident
+which made me smile, though it was sad too; an idyl which might be an
+elegy. Three hired carriages descended the Rue Notre-Dame-de-Lorette.
+It was a wedding. In the first carriage was the bride, young and
+pretty, in tears; in the second, the bridegroom, looking anything but
+pleased. As the horses were proceeding slowly on account of the hill, I
+approached and inquired the cause of the discontent. A disagreeable
+circumstance had happened, the _garçon d’honneur_ told me. They had
+been to the _mairie_ to be married, but the _mairie_ had been turned
+into a guard-house, and instead of the _mairie_ and his clerks, they
+found soldiers of the Commune. The sergeant had offered to replace the
+municipal functionary, but the grands-parents had not consented to such
+an arrangement, and they were forced to return with the connubial knot
+still to be tied. An unhappy state of things. “Pooh!” said an old woman
+who was passing by, “they can marry to-morrow.—There is always time
+enough to commit suicide.”
+
+It is true, they can marry to-morrow; but these young people wished to
+be married to-day. What are revolutions to them? What would it have
+mattered to the Commune had these lovers been united to-day? Is one
+ever sure of recovering happiness that has once escaped? Ah! this
+insurrection, I hate it for the men it has killed, and the widows it
+has made; and also for the sake of those pretty eyes that glistened
+with tears under the bridal wreath.
+
+
+
+
+ XI.
+
+
+The _mairie_ of the Second Arrondissement seems destined to be the
+centre of resistance to the Central Committee. The Federals have not
+been able, or have not dared, to occupy it. In the quarter of the Place
+de la Bourse and the Place des Victoires, National Guards have
+assembled and declared themselves Friends of Order. But they are few in
+number. Yesterday morning, the 23rd of March, they were reinforced by
+battalions that joined them, one by one, from all parts of Paris. They
+obey the orders, they say, of Admiral Saisset, raised to the superior
+command of the National Guard. It is believed that there are
+mitrailleuses within the Bourse and in the court of the Messageries.
+The massacre of the Rue de la Paix decided the most timorous. There is
+a determination to have done, by some means or other, with tyrants who
+represent in fact but a small part of the population of Paris, and who
+wish to dominate over the whole city. The preparations for resistance
+are being made between the Hôtel de Ville on the one hand, where the
+members of the Committee are sitting, formidably defended, and the
+Place Vendôme, crammed with insurgents, on the other. Is it civil
+war—civil war, with all its horrors, that is about to commence? A
+company of Gardes Mobiles has joined the battalions of Order. Pupils of
+the Ecole Polytechnique come and go between the _mairie_ of the Second
+Arrondissement and the Grand Hôtel, where Admiral Saisset and his staff
+are said to be installed.[19] A triple line of National Guards closes
+the entrance of the Rue Vivienne against carriages and everybody who
+does not belong to the quarter. Nevertheless, a large number of people,
+eager for information, manage to pass the sentries in spite of the
+rule. On the Place de la Bourse a great crowd discusses, and
+gesticulates around the piled bayonets which glitter in the sun. I
+notice that the pockets of the National Guards are crammed full; a
+large number of cartridges has been distributed.
+
+The orders are strict: no one is to quit his post. There are men,
+however, who have been standing there, without sleep, for twenty-four
+hours. No one must leave the camp of the Friends of Order even to go
+and dine. Those who have no money either have rations given them or are
+provided at the expense of the _mairie_, from a restaurant of the Rue
+des Filles Saint-Thomas, with a dinner consisting of soup and bouilli,
+a plate of meat, vegetables, and a bottle of wine. I hear one of them
+exclaim,
+
+“If the Federals knew that we not only get our pay, but are also fed
+like princes, they would come over to us, every man of them. As for us,
+we are determined to obey the _maires_ and deputies of Paris.” Much
+astonishment is manifested at the absence of Vice-Admiral Saisset; as
+he has accepted the command he ought to show himself. Certain croakers
+even insinuate that the vice-admiral hesitates to organise the
+resistance, but we will not listen to them, and are on the whole full
+of confidence and resolution. “We are numerous, determined; we have
+right on our side, and will triumph.”
+
+At about four o’clock an alarm is sounded. We hear cries of “To arms!
+To arms!” The drums beat, the trumpets sound, the ranks are formed. The
+ominous click, click, as the men cock their rifles, is heard on all
+sides. The moment of action has arrived. There are more than ten
+thousand men, well armed and determined. A company of Mobiles and the
+National Guards defend the entrance of the Rue Vivienne. All this
+tumult is caused by one of the battalions from Belleville, passing
+along the boulevards with three pieces of cannon.
+
+What is about to happen? When the insurgents reach the top of the Rue
+Vivienne they seem to hesitate. In a few seconds the boulevards, which
+were just now crowded, are suddenly deserted; and even the cafés are
+closed.
+
+At such a moment as this, a single accidental shot (several such have
+happened this morning; a woman standing at a window at the corner of
+the Rue Saint Marc was nearly killed by the carelessness, of one of the
+Guards),—a single shot, a cry even, or a menacing gesture would suffice
+to kindle the blaze. Nobody. moves or speaks. I feel myself tremble
+before the possibility of an irreparable disaster; it is a solemn and
+terrible moment.
+
+The battalion from Belleville presents arms; we reply, and they pass
+on. The danger is over; we breathe again. In a few seconds the crowd
+has returned to the boulevards.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [19] Lieutenant-Colonel de Beaugrand had improvised staff-quarters at
+ the Grand Hôtel, and the nomination of Admiral Saisset, together with
+ M. Schoelcher and Langlois, had strengthened the enmity of the two
+ parties. The Central Committee, seeing the danger which threatened,
+ announced that the Communal elections were adjourned to Sunday the
+ 26th March.
+
+
+
+
+ XII.
+
+
+It is two in the morning. Tired of doing nothing I take out my
+note-book, seat myself on a doorstep opposite the Restaurant Catelain,
+and jet down my memoranda by the light of a street lamp.
+
+As soon as night came on, every measure of precaution was taken. We
+have no idea by whom we are commanded, but it would appear that a
+serious defence is contemplated, and is being executed with prudence.
+Is it Admiral Saisset who is at our head? We hope so. Although we have
+been so often disappointed in our chiefs, we have not yet lost the
+desire to place confidence in some one. To-night we believe in the
+admiral. Ever and anon our superior officers retire to the _mairies_,
+and receive strict orders concerning their duty. We are quite an army
+in ourselves; our centre is in the Place de la Bourse, our wings extend
+into the adjoining streets. Lines of Nationals guard all the openings;
+sentinels are posted sixty feet in front to give the alarm. Within the
+enclosed space there is no one to be seen, but the houses are inhabited
+as usual. The doors have been left open by order, and also all the
+windows on the first floors. Each company, divided under the command of
+sergeants, has taken possession of three or four houses. At the first
+signal of alarm the street-doors are to be closed, the men to rush to
+the windows, and from there to fire on the assailants. “Hold yourselves
+in readiness; it is very possible you may be attacked. On the approach
+of the enemy the guards in the streets are to fall back under fire
+towards the houses, and take shelter there. Those posted at the windows
+are to keep up an unceasing fire on the insurgents. In the meantime the
+bulk of our forces will come to our aid, and clear the streets with
+their mitrailleuses.”
+
+So we waited, resolved on obedience, calm, with a silent but fervent
+prayer that we might not be obliged to turn our arms against our
+fellow-townsmen.
+
+The night is beautiful. Some of our men are talking in groups on the
+thresholds of the doors, others, rolled in their blankets, are lying on
+the ground asleep. In the upper storeys of some of the houses lights
+are still twinkling through the muslin curtains; lower down all is
+darkness. Scarcely a sound is to be heard, only now and then the rumble
+of a heavy cart, or perhaps a cannon in the distance; and nearer to us
+the sudden noise of a musket that slips from its resting-place on to
+the pavement. Every hour the dull sound of many feet is heard; it is
+the patrol of Mobiles making its round. We question them as they
+pass.—“Anything fresh?”—“Nothing,” is the invariable reply.—“How far
+have you been?”—“As far as the Rue de la Paix,” they answer, and pass
+on. Interrupted conversations are resumed, and the sleepers, who had
+been awakened by the noise, close their eyes again. We are watching and
+waiting,—may we watch and wait in vain!
+
+
+
+
+ XIII.
+
+
+Never have I seen the dawn break with greater pleasure. Almost everyone
+has some time in his life passed such sleepless nights, when it seems
+to him that the darkness will never disappear, and the desire for light
+and day becomes a fearful longing. Never was dawn more grateful than
+after that wretched night. And yet the fear of a disastrous collision
+did not disappear with the night. It was even likely that the Federals
+might have waited for the morning to begin their attack, just when
+fatigue is greatest, sleep most difficult to fight against, and
+therefore discipline necessarily slackened. Anyhow, the light seemed to
+reassure us; we could scarcely believe that the crime of civil war
+could be perpetrated in the day-time. The night had been full of fears,
+the morning found us bright and happy. Not all of us, however. I smile
+as I remember an incident which occurred a little before daylight. One
+of our comrades, who had been lying near me, got up, went out into the
+street, and paced up and down some time, as if to shake off cramp or
+cold. My eyes followed him mechanically; he was walking in front of the
+houses, the backs of which look out upon the Passage des Panoramas, and
+as he did so he cast furtive glances through the open doorways. He went
+into one, and came out with a disappointed expression on his face.
+Having repeated this strange manoeuvre several times, he reached a
+_porte-cochère_ that was down by the side of the Restaurant Catelain.
+He remained a few minutes, then reappeared with a beaming countenance,
+and made straight for where I was standing, rubbing his hands
+gleefully.
+
+“Monsieur,” said he, in a low voice, so as not to be overheard, “do you
+approve of this plan of action, which consists, in case of attack, of
+shooting from the windows on the assailants?”—“A necessity of street
+fighting,” said I. “Let us hope we shall not have to try it.”—“Oh! of
+course; but I should have preferred it if they had taken other
+measures.”—“Why?” I asked.—“Why, you see, when we are in the houses the
+insurgents will try to force their way in.”—I could not see what he was
+driving at, so I said, “Most probably.”—“But if they do get in?” he
+insisted:—“I will trust to our being reinforced from the Place de la
+Bourse before they can effect an entrance.”—“Doubtless! doubtless!” he
+answered; but I saw he was anything but convinced.—“But you know
+reinforcements often arrive too late, and if the Federals should get
+in, we shall be shot down like dogs in those rooms overhead!”—I
+acknowledged that this would be, to say the least, disagreeable, but
+argued that in time of war one must take one’s chance.—“Do you think,
+then, monsieur,” he continued, “that, if in the event of the insurgents
+entering we were to look out for a back door to escape by, we should be
+acting the part of cowards?”—“Of cowards? no; but of excessively
+prudent individuals? yes.”:—“Well, monsieur, I am prudent, and there is
+an end of it!” exclaimed my comrade, with an air of triumph, “and I
+think I have found——” —“The back door in question?”—“Just go; look down
+that passage in front of us; at the end there is a door which
+leads—where do you think?”—“Into the Passage des Panoramas, does it
+not?”—“Yes, monsieur, and now you see what I mean.”—I told him I did
+not think I did.—“Why, you see,” he explained, “when the enemy comes we
+must rush into that passage, shut the lower door, and make for our post
+at the windows, where we will do our duty bravely to our last
+cartridge. But suppose, in the meantime, that those devils, succeed in
+breaking open the lower door with the butt end of their muskets—and it
+is not very strong—what shall we do then?”—“Why, of course,” I said,
+“we must plant ourselves at the top of the staircase and receive them
+at the point of our bayonets.”—“By no means;” he expostulated.—“But we
+must; it is our duty.”—“Oh! I fancied we might have gained the door
+that leads into the passage,” he went on, looking rather
+shame-faced.—“What, run away!”—“No, not exactly; only find some place
+of safety!”—“Well, if it comes to that,” I replied, “you may do just as
+you like; only I warn you that the passage is occupied by a hundred of
+our men, and that all the outlets are barricaded.”—“No, not all,” he
+said with conviction, “and that is why I appeal to you. You are a
+journalist, are you not?”—“Sometimes.”—“Yes, but you are; and you know
+actors and all those sort of people, and you go behind the scenes, I
+dare say, and know where the actors dress themselves, and all that.”—I
+looked at my brave comrade in some surprise, but he continued without
+noticing me, “And, you know all the ins and outs of the theatre, the
+corridors, the trapdoors.”—“Suppose I do, what good can that do
+you?”—“All the good in the world, monsieur; it will be the saving of
+me. Why we shall only have to find the actors’ entrance of the
+_Variétés_, which is in the passage, then ring, at the bell; the porter
+knows you, and will admit us. You can guide us both up the staircase
+and behind the scenes, and we can easily hunt out some hole or corner
+in which to hide until the fight is over.”—“Then,” said I, feeling
+rather disgusted with my companion, “we can bravely walk out of the
+front door on the boulevards, and go and eat a comfortable breakfast,
+while the others are busy carrying away our dead comrades from the
+staircase we ought to have helped to defend!”
+
+The poor man looked at me aghast, and then went off. I saw that I had
+hurt his feelings, and I thought perhaps I had been wrong in making him
+feel the cowardice of his proposition. I had known him for some months;
+he lived in the same street as I did, and I remembered that he had a
+wife and children. Perhaps he was right in wishing to protect his life
+at any price. I thought it over for a minute or two, and then it went
+out of my mind altogether.
+
+At four in the morning we had another alarm; in an instant every one
+was on foot and rushing to the windows. The house to which I was
+ordered was the very one that had inspired my ingenious friend with his
+novel plan of evasion. I found him already installed in the room from
+whence we were to fire into the street.—“You do not know what I have
+done,” said he, coming up to me.—“No.”—“Well, you know the door which
+opens on to the passage; you remember it?”—“Of course I do.”—“I found
+there was a key; so what do you think I did? I double-locked the door,
+and went and slipped the key down the nearest drain! Ha! ha! The fellow
+who tries to escape that way will be finely caught!”
+
+I seized him cordially by the hand and shook it many times. He was
+beaming, and I was pleased also. I could not help feeling that however
+low France may have fallen, one must never despair of a country in
+which cowards even can be brave.
+
+
+
+
+ XIV.
+
+
+On Friday, the 24th of March, at nine in the morning, we are still in
+the quarter of the Bourse. Some of the men have not slept for
+forty-eight hours. We are tired but still resolved. Our numbers are
+increasing every hour. I have just seen three battalions, with
+trumpeters and all complete, come up and join us. They will now be able
+to let the men who have been so long on duty get a little rest. As to
+what is going on, we are but very incompletely informed. The Federals
+are fortifying themselves more strongly than ever at the Place de
+l’Hôtel de Ville and the Place Vendôme. They are very numerous, and
+have lots of artillery. Why do they not act on the offensive? Or do
+they want, as we do, to avoid a conflict? Certainly our hand shall not
+be the first to spill French blood. These hours of hesitation on both
+sides calm men’s minds. The deputies and mayors of Paris are trying to
+obtain from the National Assembly the recognition of the municipal
+franchise. If the Government has the good sense to make these
+concessions, which are both legitimate and urgent, rather than remain
+doggedly on the defensive, with the conviction that it has right on its
+ride; if, in a word, it remembers the well-known maxim, “_Summum jus,
+summa injuria_,” the horrors of civil war may be averted. We are told,
+and I fancy correctly, that the Federal Guards are not without fear
+concerning the issue of the events into which they have hurried. The
+chiefs must also be uneasy. Even those who have declared themselves
+irreconcileable in the hour of triumph would not perhaps be sorry now
+if a little condescension on the part of the Assembly furnished them
+with a pretext of not continuing the rebellion. Just now, several
+Guards of the 117th Battalion, a part of which has declared for the
+Central Committee, who happened to be passing, stopped to chat with our
+outposts. Civil war to the knife did not at all appear to be their most
+ardent desire. One of them said: “We were called to arms, what could we
+do but obey? They give us our pay, and so here we are.” Were they
+sincere in this? Did they come with the hope of joining us, or to spy
+into what we were doing? Others, however, either more frank or less
+clever at deception, declared that they wanted the Commune, and would
+have, it at any price. This, however, was by far the smaller number;
+the majority of the insurgents are of the opinion of these men who
+joined in conversation with us. It is quite possible to believe that
+some understanding might be brought about. A fact has just been related
+to me which confirms me in my opinion.
+
+The Comptoir d’Escompte was occupied by a post of Federals. A company
+of Government Guards from the 9th Arrondissement marched up to take
+possession. “You have been here for two whole days; go home and rest,”
+said the officer in command of the latter. But the Federals obstinately
+refused to be sent away. The officer insisted.—“We are in our own
+quarter, you are from Belleville; it is our place to guard the Comptoir
+d’Escompte.”—It was all of no avail until the officer said: “Go away
+directly, and we will give you a hundred francs.”—They did not wait for
+the offer to be repeated, but accepted the money and marched off. Now
+men who are willing to sell their consciences at two francs a head—for
+there were fifty of them—cannot have any very formidable political
+opinions. I forgot to say that this post of Federals was commanded by
+the Italian Tibaldi, the same who had been arrested in one of the
+passages of the Hôtel de Ville during the riots of the 31st October.
+
+
+
+
+ XV.
+
+
+The news is excellent, in a few hours perhaps it will be better. We
+rejoice beforehand at the almost certain prospect of pacification. The
+sun shines, the boulevards are crowded with people, the faces of the
+women especially are beaming. What is the cause of all this joy? A
+placard has just been posted up on all the walls in the city. I copy it
+with pleasure.
+
+“DEAR FELLOW CITIZENS,—I hasten to announce to you that together with
+the Deputies of the Seine and the Mayors of Paris, we have obtained
+from the Government of the National Assembly: 1st. The complete
+recognition of your municipal franchises; 2nd. The right of electing
+all the officers of the National Guard, as well as the
+general-in-chief; 3rd. Modifications of the law on bills; 4th. A
+project for a law on rents, favourable to tenants paying 1,200 francs a
+year, or less than that sum. Until you have confirmed my nomination, or
+until you name some one else in my stead, I shall continue to remain at
+my post to watch over the execution of these conciliatory measures that
+we have succeeded in obtaining, and to contribute to the well-being of
+the Republic!
+
+    “The Vice-Admiral and
+    Provisional Commander,
+    SAISSET
+    Paris, 23rd March.”
+
+Well! this is opportune and to the purpose. The National Assembly has
+understood that, in a town like Paris, a revolution in which a third of
+the population is engaged, cannot be alone actuated by motives of
+robbery and murder;[20] and that if some of the demands of the people
+are illegitimate or premature, there are at least others, which it is
+but right should obtain justice. Paris is never entirely in the wrong.
+Certainly among the authors and leaders of the 18th March, there are
+many who are very guilty. The murderers of General Lecomte and General
+Clément Thomas should be sought out and punished. All honest men must
+demand and expect that a minute inquiry be instituted concerning the
+massacres in the Place Vendôme. It must be acknowledged that all the
+Federals, officers and soldiers, are not devils or drunkards. A few
+hundred men getting drunk in the cabarets—(I have perhaps been wrong to
+lay so much stress here upon the prevalence of this vice among the
+insurrectionists)—a few tipsy brutes, ought not to be sufficient to
+authorise us to condemn a hundred thousand men, among whom are
+certainly to be found some right-minded persons who are convinced of
+the justice of their cause. These unknown and suddenly elevated chiefs,
+whom the revolution has singled out, are they all unworthy of our
+esteem, and devoid of capacity? They possess, perhaps, a new and vital
+force that it would be right and perhaps necessary to utilise somehow.
+The ideas which they represent ought to be studied, and if they prove
+useful, put into practice. This is what the Assembly has understood and
+what it has done. By concessions which enlarge rather than diminish its
+influence, it puts all right-minded men, soldiers and officers, under
+the obligation of returning to their allegiance. Those who, having read
+the proclamation of Admiral Saisset, still refuse to recognise the
+Government, are no longer men acting for the sake of Paris and the
+Republic, but rioters guilty of pursuing the most criminal paths, for
+the gratification of their own bad passions. Thus the tares will be
+separated from the wheat, and torn up without mercy. Yesterday and the
+day before, at the Place de la Bourse, at the Place des Victoires and
+the Bank, we were resolved on resistance—resistance, nothing more, for
+none of us, I am sure, would have fired a shot without sufficient
+provocation—and even this resolution cost us much pain and some
+hesitation. We felt that in the event of our being attacked, our shots
+might strike many an innocent breast—and perhaps at the last moment our
+hearts would have failed us. Now, no thoughts of that kind can hinder
+us. In recognising our demand, the Assembly has got right entirely on
+its side, we shall now consider all rebellion against the authority of
+which it makes so able a use, as an act entailing immediate punishment.
+Until now, fearing to be abandoned or misunderstood by the Government,
+we had determined to obey the mayors and deputies elected by the
+people, but the Assembly, by its judicious conduct, has shown itself
+worthy confidence. Let them command, we are ready to obey.
+
+Truly this change in the attitude of the Government is at once strange
+and delightful. No later than yesterday their language was quite
+different. The manner in which the majority received the mayors did not
+lead us to expect a termination so favourable to the wishes of all
+concerned. But this is all past, let us not recriminate. Let us rather
+rejoice in our present good fortune, and try and forget the dangers
+which seemed but now so imminent. I hear from all sides that the
+Deputies of the Seine and the mayors, fully empowered, are busy
+concluding the last arrangements. Municipal elections are talked of,
+for the 2nd April; thus every cause for discontent is about to
+disappear. Capital! Paris is satisfied. Shops re-open. The promenades
+are crowded with people; the Place Vendôme alone does not brighten with
+the rest, but it soon will. The weather is lovely, people accost each
+other in the streets with a smile; one almost wonders they do not
+embrace. Is to-day Friday? No, it is Sunday. Bravo! Assembly.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [20] At the same time that the proclamation of Admiral Saisset
+ encouraged the partizans of the Assembly, proofs were not wanting of
+ the poverty of the Commune in money, as well as men: a new loan
+ obtained from the Bank of France, which had already advanced half a
+ million of francs, and the military nominations which raised Brunel,
+ Eudes, and Duval from absolute obscurity to the rank of general. These
+ were indications decidedly favourable to the party of order.
+
+
+
+
+ XVI.
+
+
+On the ground-floor of the house of my neighbour there is an
+upholsterer’s workshop. The day before yesterday the master went out to
+fetch some work, and this morning he had not yet returned. In an agony
+of apprehension his wife went everywhere in search of him. His body has
+just been found at the Morgue with a bullet through its head. Some say
+he was walking across the Rue de la Paix on his way home, and was shot
+by accident; but the _Journal Officiel_ announces that this poor man,
+Wahlin, was a national guard, assassinated by the revolvers of the
+manifestation. Whom are we to believe? Anyhow, the man is to be buried
+tomorrow, and his poor wife is a widow.
+
+
+
+
+ XVII.
+
+
+What is the meaning of all this! Are we deceiving ourselves, or being
+deceived? We await in vain the consummation of Admiral Saisset’s
+promises. In officially announcing that the Assembly had acceded to the
+just demands of the mayors and deputies, did he take upon himself to
+pass delusive hopes as accomplished facts? It seems pretty certain now
+that the Government will make no concessions, that the proclamation is
+only waste paper, and that the Provisional Commander of the National
+Guard has been leading us into error—with a laudable intention
+doubtless—or else has himself been deceived likewise. The united
+efforts of the Deputies of the Seine and the Mayors of Paris have been
+unequal to rouse the apathy of the Assembly.[21] In vain did Louis
+Blanc entreat the representatives of France to approve the conciliatory
+conduct of the representatives of Paris. “May the responsibility of
+what may happen be on your own heads!” cried M. Clémenceau. He was
+right; a little condescension might have saved all; such obstinacy is
+fatal. Deprived of the countenance of the Assembly, and left to
+themselves, the Deputies and Mayors of Paris, desirous above all of
+avoiding civil war, have been obliged to accede to the wishes of the
+Central Committee, and insist upon the municipal elections being
+proceeded with immediately. They could not have acted otherwise, and
+yet it is humiliating for them to have to bow before superior force,
+and their authority is compromised by so doing. What the Assembly,
+representing the whole of France, could have done with no loss of
+dignity, and even with honour to itself, the former accomplish only at
+the risk of losing their influence; what to the Assembly would have
+been an honourable concession is to them dangerous although necessary
+submission. The Committee would have been annulled if the Government
+had consented to the municipal elections, but thanks to a tardy
+consent, rung from the Deputies and Mayors of Paris, it triumphs. The
+result of the humiliation to which the representatives of Paris have
+been forced to submit to prevent the effusion of blood, will be the
+entire abdication of their authority, which will remain vested in the
+Central Committee until the members of the Commune are elected.
+Abandoned by the Government since the departure of the chief of the
+executive power and the ministers, we rallied round the
+representatives, who, unsustained by the Government, are obliged to
+submit to the revolutionists. We must now choose between the Commune
+and anarchy.
+
+Therefore, to-day, Sunday, the 26th March, the male population of Paris
+is hurrying to the poll. It is in vain that the journals have begged
+the people not to vote; the elections were only announced yesterday,
+and the electors have had no time to reconsider the choice they have to
+make, and yet they insist on voting. Those who decline to obey the
+suggestions of the Central Committee, will re-elect the late mayors or
+choose among the deputies, but vote they will. The present attitude of
+the regular Government has done much towards furthering the revolution.
+The mistakes of the Assembly have diminished in the eyes of the public
+the crime of revolt. Everywhere the murder of Generals Clément Thomas
+and Lecomte is openly regretted; but those who repeat that the Central
+Committee declares having had nothing to do with it, are listened to
+with patience. The rumour that they were shot by soldiers gains ground,
+and seems less incredulously received. As to the massacres of the Rue
+de la Paix, we are told that this event is enveloped in mystery, that
+the evidence is most contradictory, etc., etc.[22] There is evidently a
+decided reactionary movement in favour of the partizans of the Commune.
+Without approving their acts their activity is incontestable. They have
+done much in a short time. People exclaim, “There are men for you!”
+This state of things is very alarming to all those who have remained
+faithful to the Assembly, which in spite of its errors has not ceased
+to be the legal representative of the country. It is a cruel position
+for the Parisians who are obliged to choose between a regular
+Government which they would desire to obey, but which by its faults
+renders such obedience impossible, and an illegitimate power, that,
+although guilty in its acts, and stained with crime, still represents
+the opinions of the republican majority. By to-night, therefore, the
+Commune will have been called into existence; an illegal existence it
+may be argued, doubtless, by the partizans of constitutional legality,
+who would consider as null and void elections carried on without the
+consent of the nation, as represented by the Assembly. Legal or not,
+however, the elections have taken place, and the fact alone is of some
+importance. In a few hours the Executive Power of the Republic will
+have to treat, whether it will or no, with a force which has
+constituted itself with as much legality as it had in its power to
+assume under the circumstances.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [21] The news of the check which the Maires of Paris had suffered in
+ the Assembly suddenly loosened the bond which for two days had united
+ the friends of order, and profound discouragement seized upon the
+ public mind. It was at this moment that the deputies from the
+ Committee presented themselves at the Mairie of the first
+ arrondissement, preceded by three pieces of artillery, a very warlike
+ accompaniment to a deputation. It was arranged that the Communal
+ election should be managed by the existing Maires, and that the
+ battalions of each quarter of the city, whether federal or not, should
+ occupy the voting places of their sections; but this did not prevent
+ the Committee on the following morning occupying the Mairie of
+ Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois, in spite of the arrangement, by their most
+ devoted battalions.
+
+ [22] The following are the terms in which the Commune spoke of the
+ events of the 18th March, and excused the murder of the two generals:
+    “CITIZENS,—The day of the 18th of March, which for interested
+    reasons has been travestied in the most odious manner, will be
+    called in history, The Day of the People’s Justice!
+    The Government, now subverted—always maladroit—rushed into a
+    conflict without considering either its own unpopularity, or the
+    fraternal feeling that animates the armies; the entire army, when
+    ordered to commit fratricide, replied with cries of “Vive la
+    République!” “Vive la Garde Nationale!”
+    Two men alone, who had rendered themselves unpopular by acts which
+    we now pronounce as iniquitous, were struck down in a moment of
+    popular indignation.
+    The Committee of the Federation of the National Guard, in order to
+    render homage to truth, declare it was a stranger to these two
+    executions.
+    At the present moment the ministries are constituted, the prefect
+    of police has assumed his duties, the public offices are again
+    active, and we invite all citizens to maintain the utmost calmness
+    and order.”
+
+
+
+
+ XVIII.
+
+
+Crowds in the streets and promenades. This evening all the theatres
+will be re-opened. In the meantime the voting is going on. The weather
+is delightful, so I take a stroll along the promenades. Under the
+colonnade of the Châtelet there is a long line of electors awaiting
+their turn. I fancy that in this quarter the candidates of the Central
+Committee will be surely elected. Women, in bright-coloured dresses and
+fresh spring bonnets, are walking to and fro. I hear some one say that
+there are a great many cannon at the Hôtel de Ville. Two friends meet
+together in the square of the Arts et Métiers.—“Are you alone, madame?”
+says one lady to another.—“Yes, madame; I am waiting for my husband,
+who is gone to vote.”
+
+A child, who is skipping, cries out, “Mama, mama, what is the Commune?”
+
+The fiacre drivers make the revolution an excuse for asking extravagant
+fares; this does not prevent their having very decided political
+opinions. One who, drove one would scarcely have been approved of by
+the Central Committee.—“_Cocher_, what is the fare?” I ask.—“Five
+francs, monsieur.”—“All right; take me to the mairie Place
+Saint-Sulpice.”—“Beg pardon, monsieur, but if you are going to vote, it
+will be ten francs!”
+
+On the Boulevard de Strasbourg there are streams of people dressed in
+holiday attire; itinerant dealers in tops, pamphlets, souvenirs of the
+siege—bits of black bread, made on purpose, and framed and glazed, also
+bits of shells—and scented soap, and coloured pictures; crowds of
+beggars everywhere. In this part of the town the revolution looks very
+much like a fair.
+
+At the mairie of the 6th Arrondissement there are very few people. I
+enter into conversation with one of the officials there. He tells me he
+has never seen voting carried on with greater spirit.
+
+I meet a friend who has just returned from Belleville, and ask him the
+news, of course.—“The voting is progressing in capital order,” he tells
+me; “the men go up to the poll as they would mount the breach. They
+have no choice but to obey blindly.”—“The Central Committee?” I
+inquire.—“Yes, but the Committee itself only obeys
+orders.”—“Whose?”—“Why those of the International, of course.”
+
+At a corner near the boulevards, a compact little knot of people is
+stationed in front of a poster. I fancy they are studying the
+proclamation of one of the candidates, but it turns out only to be a
+play-bill. The crowd continues to thicken; the cafés are crammed; gold
+chignons are plentiful enough at every table; here and there a red
+Garibaldi shirt is visible, like poppies amongst the corn. Every now
+and then a horseman gallops wildly past with dispatches from one
+section to another. The results of some of the elections are creeping
+out. At Montrouge, Bercy, Batignolles, and the Marais, they tell us the
+members of the Central Committee are elected by a very large majority.
+Here the hoarse voice of a boy strikes in,—“Buy the account of the
+grand conspiracy of Citoyen Thiers against the Republic!” Then another
+chimes in with wares of a less political and more vulgar nature. The
+movement to and fro and the excitement is extraordinary. While the
+populace basks in the sun the destiny of the city is being decided.—“M.
+Desmarest is elected for the 9th Arrondissement,” says some one close
+to me.—“Lesueur is capital in the ‘Partie de Piquet,’” says another.
+Oh! people of Paris!
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+
+It is over. We have a “Municipal Council,” according to some; a
+“Commune,” according to others. Not quite legally elected, but
+sufficiently so. Eighty councillors, sixty of whom are quite unknown
+men. Who can have recommended them, or, rather, imposed them on the
+electors? Can there really be some occult power at work under cover of
+the ex-Central Committee? Is the Commune only a pretext, and are we at
+the début of a social and political revolution? I overheard a partizan
+of the new doctrines say,—“The Proletariat is vindicating its rights,
+which have been unjustly trampled on by the aristocratic bourgeoisie.
+This is the workman’s 1789!”
+
+Another person expresses the same thing in rather a different form.
+“This is the revolt of the _canaille_ against all kind of supremacy,
+the supremacy of fortune, and the supremacy of intellect. The equality
+of man before the law has been acknowledged, now they want to proclaim
+the equality of intellect. Soon universal suffrage will give place to
+the drawing of lots. There was a time in Athens when the names of the
+archontes were taken haphazard out of a bag, like the numbers at loto.”
+
+However, the revolution has not yet clearly defined its tendencies, and
+in the meantime what are we to think of the unknown beings who
+represent it? A man in whom I have the greatest confidence, and who has
+passed his life in studying questions of social science, and who
+therefore has mixed in nearly all the revolutionary circles, and is
+personally acquainted with the chiefs, said to me just now, in speaking
+of the new Municipal Council,[23] “It will be an assemblage of a very
+motley character. There will be much good and much bad in it. We may
+safely divide it into three distinct parts: firstly, ten or twelve men
+belonging to the International, who have both thought and studied and
+may be able to act, mixed with these several foreigners; secondly, a
+number of young men, ardent but inexperienced, some of whom are imbued
+with Jacobin principles; thirdly, and by far the largest portion,
+unsuccessful plotters in former revolutions, journalists, orators, and
+conspirators,—noisy, active, and effervescent, having no particular tie
+amongst themselves except the absence of any common bond of unity with
+the two former divisions, and being confounded now with one, now with
+the other. The members of the International alone have any real
+political value; they are Socialists. The Jacobin element is decidedly
+dangerous.”—If in reality the Communal Assembly is thus composed, how
+will it act? Let us wait and see; in the meantime the city is calm.
+Never did so critical a moment wear so calm an exterior. By the bye,
+where are the Prussians?[24]
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [23] The _Figaro_ gives the following those who held service under the
+ Commune:—
+
+Anys-el-Bittar, Librarian MSS. Department, Bibliothèque Nationale.
+(Egyptian)
+Biondetti, Surgeon 233rd Battalion. (Italian.)
+Babiok, a Member of the Commune. (Pole.)
+Beoka, Adjutant to the 207th Battalion. (Pole.)
+Cluseret, General, Delegate of War. (American.)
+Cernatesco, Surgeon of Francs Tireurs. (Pole.)
+Crapulinski, Colonel of Staff. (Pole.)
+Carneiro de Cunha, Surgeon 38th Battalion. (Portuguese.)
+Charalambo, Surgeon of the Federal Scouts. (Pole.)
+Dombrowski, General. (Russian.)
+Dombrowski (his brother), Colonel of Staff. (Russian.)
+Durnoff, Commandant of Legion. (Pole.)
+Echenlaub, Colonel. (German.)
+Ferrera Gola, General Manager of Field Hospitals. (Portuguese.)
+Frankel, a Member of the Commune. (Prussian.)
+Giorok, Commandant of the Fort d’Issy. (Valachian.)
+Grejorok, Commandant of the Artillery at Montmartre.(Valachian.)
+Kertzfeld, Chief Manager of Field Hospitals. (German.)
+Iziquerdo, Surgeon of the 88th Battalion. (Pole.)
+Jalowski, Surgeon of the Zouaves de la République. (Pole.)
+Kobosko, Despatch Bearer.
+La Cecilia, General. (Italian.)
+Landowski, Aide-de-Camp of General Dombrowski. (Pole.)
+Mizara, Commandant of the 104th Battalion. (Italian.)
+Maratuch, Surgeon’s mate of the 72nd Battalion. (Hungarian.)
+Moro, Commandant of the 22nd Battalion. (Italian.)
+Okolowicz and his brothers, General and Staff Officers. (Poles.)
+Ostyn, a Member of the Commune. (Belgian.)
+Olinski, Chief of the 17th Legion. (Pole.)
+Pisani, Aide-de-Camp of Flourens. (Italian.)
+Potampenki, Aide-de-Camp of General Dombrowski. (Pole.)
+Ploubinski, Staff Officer. (Pole.)
+Pazdzierswski, Commandant of the Fort de Vanves. (Pole.)
+Piazza, Chief of Legion. (Italian.)
+Pugno, Music-manager at the Opera-house. (Italian.)
+Romanelli, Manager of the War Offices. (Italian.)
+Rozyski, Surgeon of the 144th Battalion. (Pole.)
+Rubinowicz, Surgeon of the Marines. (Pole.)
+Syneck, Surgeon of the 151st Battalion. (German.)
+Skalski, Surgeon of the 240th Battalion. (Pole.)
+Soteriade, Surgeon. (Spaniard.)
+Thaller, Under Governor of the Fort de Bicêtre. (German.)
+Van Ostal, Commandant of the 115th Battalion. (Dutch.)
+Vetzel, Commandant of the Southern Forts. (German.)
+Wroblewski, General Commandant of the Southern Army. (Pole.)
+Witton, Surgeon of the 72nd Battalion. (American.)
+Zengerler, Surgeon of the 74th Battalion, (German.)]
+
+ [24] The Prussians and the Commune, see Appendix 3.
+
+
+
+
+ XX.
+
+
+Who can help being carried away by the enthusiasm of a crowd? I am not
+a political man, I am only an observer who sees, hears, and feels.
+
+I was on the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville at the moment when the names of
+the successful candidates were proclaimed, and the emotion is still
+fresh upon me.[25] There were perhaps a hundred thousand men there,
+assembled from all quarters of the city. The neighbouring streets were
+also full, and the bayonets glittering in the sun filled the Place with
+brilliant flashes like miniature lightning. In the centre of the façade
+of the building a platform was erected, over which presided a statue of
+the Republic, wearing a Phrygian cap. The bronze basso-relievo of Henry
+IV. had been carefully hidden with clusters of flags. Each window was
+alive with faces. I saw several women on the roof, and the _gamins_
+were everywhere, hanging on to the sculptured ornaments, or riding
+fearlessly on the shoulders of the marble busts. One by one the
+battalions had taken up their position on the Place with their bands.
+When they were all assembled they struck up the Marseillaise, which was
+re-echoed by a thousand voices. It was grand in the extreme, and the
+magnificent hymn, which late defeats had shorn of its glory, swelled
+forth again with all its old splendour revived. Suddenly the cannon is
+heard, the voices rise louder and louder; a sea of standards, bayonets,
+and human heads waves backwards and forwards in front of the platform.
+The cannon roars, but we only hear it between the intervals of the
+hymn. Then all the sounds are confounded in one universal shout, that
+shout of the vast multitude which seems to have but one heart and one
+voice. The members of the Committee, each with a tricolor scarf across
+his breast, have taken their places on the platform. One of them reads
+out the names of the elected councillors. Then the cannon roars once
+more, but is almost drowned by the deafening huzzas of the crowd. Oh!
+people of Paris, who on the day of the “_Crosse en l’air_”[26] got
+tipsy in the wine-shops of Montmartre, whose ranks furnished the
+murderers of Thomas and Lecomte, who in the Rue de la Paix shot down
+unconscious passengers, who are capable of the wildest extravagance and
+most execrable deeds, you are also in your days of glory, grand and
+magnificent, when a volcano of generous passions rages within, and the
+hearts even of those who condemn you most, are scorched in the flames.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [25] The result of the voting was made known at four o’clock on the
+ 28th March. The papers devoted to the Commune asserted, on the
+ following day, that _two hundred and fifteen_ battalions were
+ assembled on that day, and that the average strength of each corps was
+ one thousand men. Who could have believed that the Place de l’Hôtel de
+ Ville was capable of accommodating so many! This farcical assertion of
+ the two hundred and fifteen battalions has passed into a proverb.
+
+ [26] When they turned the butt-ends (_crosses_) of their guns in the
+ air, as a sign they would not fight.
+
+
+
+
+ XXI.
+
+
+“Citizens,” says the _Official Journal_ this morning, “your Commune is
+constituted.” Then follows decree upon decree. White posters are being
+stuck up everywhere. Why are they at the Hôtel de Ville, if not to
+publish decrees? The conscription is abolished. We shall see no more
+poor young fellows marching through the town with their numbers in
+their caps, and fired with that noble patriotism which is imbibed in
+the cabarets at so much a glass. We shall have no more soldiers, but to
+make up for that we shall all be National Guards. There’s a glorious
+decree, as Edgar Poë says. As to the landlords, their vexation is
+extreme; even the tenants do not seem so satisfied as they ought to be.
+Not to have to pay any rent is very delightful, certainly, but they
+scarcely dare believe in such good fortune. Thus when Orpheus, trying
+to rescue Eurydice from “the infernal regions,” interrupts with “his
+harmonious strains” the tortures of eternal punishment, Prometheus did
+not doubtless show as much delight as he ought to have done, on
+discovering that the beak of the vulture was no longer gnawing at his
+vitals, “scarcely daring to believe in such good fortune.” Orpheus is
+the Commune; Eurydice, Liberty; “the infernal regions,” the Government
+of the 4th September; “the harmonious strains,” the decrees of the
+Commune; Prometheus, the tenant; and the vulture, the landlord!
+
+In plain terms, however—forgive me for joking on such a subject—the
+decree which annuls the payment of the rents for the quarters ending
+October 1870, January 1871, and April 1871, does not appear to me at
+all extravagant, and really I do not see what there is to object to in
+the following lines which accompany it:—
+
+“In consideration of the expenses of the war having been chiefly
+sustained by the industrial, commercial, and working portion of the
+population, it is but just that the proprietors of houses and land
+should also bear their part of the burthen....”
+
+Let us talk it over together, Mr. Landlord. You have a house and I live
+in it. It is true that the chimneys smoke, and that you most
+energetically refuse to have them repaired. However, the house is
+yours, and you possess most decidedly the right of making a profit by
+it. Understand, once for all, that I never contest your right. As for
+me, I depend upon my wit, I do not possess much, but I have a tool—it
+may be either a pen, or a pencil, or a hammer—which enables me, in the
+ordinary course of things, to live and to pay with more or less
+regularity my quarter’s rent. If I had not possessed this tool, you
+would have taken good care not to let me inhabit your house or any part
+or portion thereof, because you would have considered me in no position
+to pay you your rent. Now, during the war my tool has unquestionably
+rendered me but poor service. It has remained ignobly idle in the
+inkstand, in the folio, or on the bench. Not only have I been unable to
+use it, but I have also in some sort lost the knack of handling it; I
+must have some time to get myself into working order again. While I was
+working but little, and eating less, what were you doing? Oh! I do not
+mean to say that you were as flourishing as in the triumphant days of
+the Empire, but still I have not heard of any considerable number of
+landlords being found begging at the corners of the streets, and I do
+not fancy you made yourselves conspicuous by your assiduous attendance
+at the Municipal Cantines. I have even heard that you or many of your
+brother-landlords took pretty good care not to be in Paris during the
+Prussian siege, and that you contented yourselves with forming the most
+ardent wishes, for the final triumph of French arms, from beneath the
+wide-spreading oaks of your châteaux in Touraine and Beauce, or from
+the safe haven of a Normandy fishing village; while we, accompanied it
+is true by your most fervent prayers, took our turn at mounting guard,
+on the fortifications during the bitter cold nights, or knee-deep in
+the mud of the trenches. However, I do not blame those who sought
+safety in flight; each person is free to do as he pleases; what I
+object to is your coming back and saying, “During seven or eight months
+you have done no work, you have been obliged to pawn your furniture to
+buy bread for your wife and children; I pity you from the bottom of my
+heart—be so kind as to hand me over my three quarters’ rent.” No, a
+thousand times no; such a demand is absurd, wicked, ridiculous; and I
+declare that if there is no possible compromise between the strict
+execution of the law and his decree of the Commune, I prefer, without
+the least hesitation, to abide by the latter; I prefer to see a little
+poverty replace for a time the long course of prosperity that has been
+enjoyed by this very small class of individuals, than to see the last
+articles of furniture of five hundred thousand suffering wretches, put
+up to auction and knocked down for one-twentieth part of their value.
+There must, however, be some way of conciliating the interests of both
+landlords and tenants. Would it be sufficient to accord delays to the
+latter, and force the former to wait a certain time for their money? I
+think not; if I were allowed three years to pay off my three quarters’
+rent, I should still be embarrassed. The tool of the artisan is not
+like the peasant’s plot of ground, which is more productive after
+having lain fallow. During the last few sad months, when I had no work
+to do, I was obliged to draw upon the future, a future heavily
+mortgaged; when I shall perhaps scarcely be able to meet the expenses
+of each day, will there be any possibility of acquitting the debts of
+the past? You may sell my furniture if the law gives you the right to
+do so, but I shall not pay!
+
+The only possible solution, believe me, is that in favour of the
+tenants, only it ought not to be applied in so wholesale a fashion.
+Inquiries should be instituted, and to those tenants from whom the war
+has taken away all possibility of payment an unconditional receipt
+should be delivered: to those who have suffered less, a proportionate
+reduction should be allowed; but those whom the invasion has not ruined
+or seriously impoverished—and the number is large, among provision
+merchants, café keepers, and private residents—let those pay directly.
+In this way the landlords will lose lees than one may imagine, because
+it will be the lowest rents that will be forfeited. The decree of the
+Commune is based on a right principle, but too generally applied.
+
+The new Government—for it is a Government—does not confine itself to
+decrees. It has to install itself in its new quarters and make
+arrangements.[27]
+
+In a few hours it has organized more than ten committees—the executive,
+the financial, the public-service, the educational, the military, the
+legal, and the committee of public safety. No end of committees and
+committeemen: it is to be hoped that the business will be promptly
+despatched!
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [27] Organisation of the Commissions on the 31st of March:
+
+_Executive Commission_.—Citizens Eudes, Tridou, Vaillant, Lefrançais,
+Duval, Félix Pyat, Bergeret.
+_Commission of Finance_.—Victor Clément, Varlin, Jourde, Beslay,
+Régère.
+_Military Commission_.—General E. Duval, General Bergeret, General
+Eudes, Colonel Chardon, Colonel Flourens, Colonel Pindly, Commandant
+Ranvier.
+_Commission of Public Justice_.—Ranc, Protot, Léo Meillet, Vermorel,
+Ledroit, Babick.
+_Commission of Public Safety_.—Raoul Rigault, Ferré, Assy, Cournet,
+Oudet, Chalain, Gérardin.
+_Victualling Commission_.—Dereure, Champy, Ostyn, Clément, Parizel,
+Emile Clément, Fortuné Henry.
+_Commission of Industry and Trade_.—Malon, Frankel, Theiz, Dupont,
+Avrial, Loiseau-Pinson, Eugène Gérardin, Puget.
+_Commission of Foreign Affairs_.—Delescluze, Ranc, Paschal Grousset,
+Ulysse Parent, Arthur Arnould, Antoine Arnauld, Charles Gérardin.
+_Commission of Public Service_.—Ostyn, Billioray, Clément (J.B.)
+Martelet, Mortier, Rastoul.
+_Commission of Education_.—Jules Vallès, Doctor Goupil, Lefèvre,
+Urbain,[28] Albert Leroy, Verdure, Demay, Doctor Robinet.]
+
+ [28] Memoir, see Appendix XIII.
+
+
+
+
+ XXII.
+
+
+Come, let us understand each other. Who are you, members of the
+Commune? Those among you who are in some sort known to the public do
+not possess, however, enough of its confidence to make up for the want
+of knowledge it has of the others. Have a care how you excite our
+mistrust. You have published decrees that certainly are open to
+criticism, but that are not entirely obnoxious, for their object is to
+uphold the interests of that portion of the population, which you most
+particularly represent, and from whom you hold your commission. We will
+forgive the decrees if you do nothing worse. Yesterday, the 30th March,
+during the night (why in the night?) some men wearing a red scarf and
+followed by several others with arms, presented themselves at the Union
+Insurance Company. On the porter refusing to deliver up the keys of the
+offices he was arrested. They then proceeded to break open the doors
+with the butt-end of their muskets, and put seals on the strong box.
+What can this portend? Have you been elected to break open private
+offices and put seals on cash-boxes? That same night, a friend of mine
+who happened to be passing across one of the bridges on his way home,
+noticed that the windows of the Hôtel de Ville were brilliantly
+lighted. Could they be having a ball already? he wondered. He made
+inquiries and discovered that it was not a ball, but a banquet; three
+or four hundred National Guards from Belleville had invaded the
+apartments and had ordered a dinner to be served to them. They were
+accompanied by a corresponding number of female companions, and were
+drinking, talking, and singing to their hearts’ content. What do you
+mean by that, members of the Commune? Have you been elected to keep
+open-house, and do you propose to inscribe over the entrance of the
+municipal palace: “Ample accommodation for feasts and banquets,” as a
+companion to your motto of “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity?”
+
+
+
+
+ XXIII.
+
+
+“I tell you, you shall not go!”—“But I will.”—“Well, you may, but not
+your furniture.”—“And who shall prevent my carrying off my furniture if
+I choose?”—“I will.”—“I defy you!”—“Thief!”—“Robber!”
+
+This animated discussion was being carried on at the door of a house,
+in front of which a cart filled with furniture was standing; a crowd of
+street boys was fast assembling, and the heads of curious neighbours
+appeared grinning in all the windows.
+
+A partizan of the Commune had determined to profit by the decree.
+Matters at first had seemed to go on quietly. The concierge, taken
+aback by the sudden apparition of the van, had not summoned up courage
+to prevent the furniture from being stowed away in it. The landlord,
+however, had got scent of the affair, and had hastened to this spot.
+Now, the tenant was a determined character, and as the van-men refused
+to mix themselves up in the fray, he himself shouldered his last
+article of furniture and carried it to the van. He was about to place
+it within cover of the awning, when the landlord, like a miser deprived
+of his treasure, seized it and deposited it on the pavement. The tenant
+re-grasped his spoil and thrust it again into the cart, from whence it
+was instantly drawn forth again by the enraged landlord. This game was
+carried on for some time, each as determined as the other, grasping;
+snatching, and pulling this unfortunate piece of furniture until one
+wrench, stronger than the former, entirely dislocated its component
+parts, and laid it in a ruined heap upon the ground. This was the
+moment for the tenant to show himself a man of spirit. Taking advantage
+of the surprise of the landlord, he swept the broken remains of his
+property deftly into the van, bounded on to the driver’s seat, shook
+the reins, cracked his whip, and started off at a thundering gallop,
+pursued by the huzzas of the crowd, the cries of the van-men, and the
+oaths of the disappointed landlord. The van and its team of lean cattle
+were soon lost to view, and the landlord was left alone on his
+doorstep, shaking his fist and muttering “Brigand!”
+
+
+
+
+ XXIV.
+
+
+What a quantity of luggage! Even those who had the good fortune of
+witnessing the emigration before the siege would never have supposed
+that there could be so much luggage in Paris. Well-to-do looking trunks
+with brass ornaments, black wooden boxes, hairy trunks, leathern
+hat-boxes, and cardboard bonnet-boxes, portmanteaux and carpet bags are
+piled up on vehicles of every description, of which more than ten
+thousand block up the roads leading to the railway stations. Everybody
+is wild to get away; it is whispered about that the Commune, the horrid
+Commune, is about to issue a decree forbidding the Parisians to quit
+Paris. So all prudent individuals are making off, with their bank-notes
+and shares in their pocket-books. I see a man I know, walking very
+fast, wearing a troubled expression on his face. I ask him where he is
+going.—“you do not know what has happened to me?” he cries. I confess I
+do not.—“The most extraordinary thing: I am condemned to death!”—“You!”
+I exclaim.—“Yes! by the Commune!”—“And wherefore?” I ask.—“Because I
+write on the _Figaro_.”—“Why, I never knew that!”—“Oh! not very often;
+but last year I addressed a letter to the Editor, to explain to him
+that my new farce called ‘My Aunt’s Garters’ had nothing at all to do
+with ‘My Uncle’s Braces,’ which is by somebody else. You understand
+that I did not want to change the title, which is rather good of its
+kind, so I wrote to the _Figaro_, and as my letter was inserted, and as
+the Commune condemns all the contributors.... You see ...!”—“Perfectly!
+Why, my dear fellow, you ought to have been off before. Of course you
+go to Versailles?”—“Why, yes.”—“By the railway?” I cannot help having a
+joke at his expense.—“Yes, of course.”—“Well, if I were you, I would
+not, really; the engine might blow up, or you might run into a luggage
+train. Such things do happen in the best of times, and I think the
+Commune capable of anything to get rid of so dangerous an
+adversary.”—“You don’t mean to say,” says the poor little, man in a
+tremor, “that they would go to such lengths! Well, at any rate I will
+travel by the road.”[29]
+
+A little farther up the Boulevard des Italiens I see another
+acquaintance. “What, still in Paris?” I say, shaking hands with him.—“I
+am off this evening,” he answers.—“Are you condemned to death?”—“No,
+but I shall be tried to-night.”—“The devil! Do you write on the
+_Figaro_!”—“No, no, it is quite a long story. Three years ago, I made
+the acquaintance of a charming blonde, who reciprocated my advances,
+and made herself highly agreeable. In a word, I was smitten.
+Unfortunately there was a husband in the case!”—“The devil there
+was!”—“He made inquiries, and found out who I was, and ...”—“And
+invited you to mortal combat?”—“Oh! no, he is a hosier. But from that
+day forth he became my most bitter enemy.”—“Very disagreeable of him, I
+am sure, but I do not see how the enmity of this retail dealer obliges
+you to quit Paris?”—“Why, you see he has a cousin who is elected a
+member of the Commune.”—“I understand your uneasiness; you fear the
+latent revenge of this unreasonable hosier.”—“I am to be tried
+to-night, but it is not the fear of death which makes me fly. It is
+worse than that. Those Hôtel de Ville people are capable of anything,
+and I hear they are going to make a law on divorce. I know the
+malignity of the lady’s husband—and I believe he is capable of getting
+a divorce, and forcing me to marry her!”
+
+So, under one pretext and another, almost everyone is going away. As
+for me, I am like a hardened Parisian—my boots have a rooted dislike to
+any other pavement than that of the boulevards. Who is right, I, or
+those who are rushing off? Is there really danger here for those who
+are not ardently attached to the principles of the Commune? I try to
+believe not. True there have been arrests—domiciliary visits and other
+illegal and tyrannical acts—but I do not think it can last.[30] May we
+not hope that the dangerous element in the Commune will soon be
+neutralised by the more intelligent portion of the Municipal Council,
+if, indeed, that portion exists? I cannot believe that a revolution,
+accomplished by one-third of the population of Paris, and tolerated by
+another (the remaining fraction having taken flight), can be entirely
+devoid of the spirit of generosity and usefulness, capable only of
+appropriating the funds of others, and unjustly imprisoning innocent
+citizens. Besides, even if the Commune, instead of trying to make us
+forget the bloody deeds with which it preceded its establishment, or
+seeking to repair the faults of which it has been guilty, on the
+contrary continues to commit such excesses, thus harrying to its ruin a
+city which has already suffered so much, even then I will not leave it.
+I will cling to it to the last, as a sailor who has grown to love the
+ship that has borne him gallantly in so many voyages, clings to the
+wreck of his favourite, and refuses to be saved without it.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [29] The following is a document which completely justifies these
+ apprehensions:—
+    “30th March—The Commune of Paris—Orders from the Central Committee
+    to the officer in command, of the battalion on guard at the station
+    of Ouest-Ceinture.
+    “To stop all trains proceeding in the direction of Paris at the
+    Ouest-Ceinture station.
+    “To place an energetic man night and day at this post. This man is
+    to mount guard with a beam, which he is to throw across the rails
+    at the arrival of each train, so as to cause it to run off the
+    rails, if the engine-driver refuses to stop.
+
+“HENRI, Chief of a Legion.”
+
+ [30] Vexatious measures accumulated:
+
+The pacific M. Glais-Bizoin was arrested in a tobacconist’s shop, where
+he was, doubtless, lighting a reactionary cigar. He fancied at first
+that there had been a mistake, but he was taken before the Committee,
+which caused him, however, to be liberated.
+
+M. Maris Proth, a writer in _Charivari_, which is certainly not a
+royalist journal, was arrested on the following day, and detained for a
+longer time.
+
+On the same day a search was made at the house of the publisher
+Lacroix.]
+
+
+[Illustration: Gambon.]
+
+
+
+
+ XXV.
+
+
+Garibaldi is expected. Gambon has gone to Corsica to meet him. He is to
+be placed at the head of the National Guard. It is devoutly to be hoped
+that he will not come.[31]
+
+Firstly, because his presence at this moment would create new dangers;
+and secondly, because this admirable and honoured man would compromise
+his glory uselessly in our sorry discords. If I, an obscure citizen,
+had the honour of being one of those to whom the liberator of Naples
+lends an ear, I would go to him without hesitation, and, after having
+bent before him as I would before some ancient hero arisen from his
+glorious sepulchre, say to him,—“General, you have delivered your
+country. At the head of a few hundred men you have won battles and
+taken towns. Your name recalls the name of William Tell. Wherever there
+were chains to rend and yokes to break, you were seen to hasten. Like
+the warriors Hugo exalts in his _Légende des Siècles_, you have been
+the champion of justice, the knight-errant of liberty. You appear to us
+victorious in a distant vision, as in the realm of legend. For the
+glory of our age in which heroes are wanting, it befits you to remain
+that which you are. Continue afar off, so that you may continue great.
+It is not that your glory is such that it can only be seen at a
+distance, and loses when regarded, too nearly. Not so! But you would be
+hampered amongst us. There is not space enough here for you to draw
+your sword freely. We are adroit, strange, and complicated. You are
+simple, and in that lies your greatness. We belong to our time, you
+have the honour to be an anachronism. You would be useless to your
+friends, destructive to yourself. What would you, a giant fighting with
+the sword, do against dwarfs who have cannon? You are courageous, but
+they are cunning, and would conquer you. For the sake of the nineteenth
+century you must not be vanquished. Do not come; in your simplicity you
+would be caught in the spider’s web of clever mediocrity, and your
+grand efforts to tear yourself free would only be laughed at. Great
+man, you would be treated like a pigmy.”
+
+It is probable, however, that if I held such a discourse to General
+Garibaldi, General Garibaldi would politely show me the door. Other and
+more powerful counsellors have inspired him with different ideas.
+Friendship dangerous indeed! How deeply painful is it that no man,
+however intelligent or great, can clearly distinguish the line, where
+the mission for which Heaven has endowed him ceases, and, disdaining
+all celebrity foreign to his true glory, consent to remain such as
+future ages will admire.[32]
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [31] The Citizen Gambon, representative of the Department of the
+ Seine, left Paris charged with a mission to seek Garibaldi, but was
+ arrested at Bonifacio, in the island of Corsica, just as he was
+ embarking for Caprera.
+    For Memoir, see Appendix 4.
+
+ [32] Garibaldi was chosen by the Central Committee for
+ Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard, but he refused in the
+ following terms, pretending not to be aware of the condition of
+ Paris:—
+
+“Caprera, 28th March, 1871.
+
+“CITIZENS,—
+“Thanks for the honour you have conferred upon me by my nomination as
+Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard of Paris, which I love, and
+whose dangers and glory I should be proud to share.
+    “I owe you, however, the following explanations:—
+    “A commandant of the National Guard of Paris, a commander of the
+    Army of Paris, and a directing committee, whatever they may be, are
+    three powers which are not reconcilable with the present situation
+    of France.
+    “Despotism has the advantage over us, the advantage of the
+    concentration of power, and it is this same centralisation which
+    you should oppose to your enemies.
+    “Choose an honest citizen, and such are not wanting: Victor Hugo,
+    Louis Blanc, Félix Pyat, Edgar Quinet, or another of the elders of
+    radical democracy, would serve the purpose. The generals Oremer and
+    Billot, who, I see, have your confidence, may be counted in the
+    number.
+    “Be assured that one honest man should be charged with the supreme
+    command and full powers; such a man would choose other honest men
+    to assist him in the difficult task of saving the country.
+    “If you should have the good fortune to find a Washington, France
+    will recover from shipwreck, and in a short time will be grander
+    than ever.
+    “These conditions are not an excuse for escaping the duty of
+    serving republican France. No! I do not despair of fighting by the
+    side of these _braves_, and I am,
+
+“Yours devotedly,
+(Signed), “G. GARIBALDI.”
+
+
+
+
+ XXVI.
+
+
+Monday, the 3rd of April.[33] A fearful day! I have been hurrying this
+way and that, looking, questioning, reading. It is now ten o’clock in
+the evening. And what do I know? Nothing certain; nothing except this,
+which is awful,—they are fighting.
+
+Yes, at the gates of Paris, Frenchmen against Frenchmen, beneath the
+eyes of the Prussians, who are watching the battle-field like ravens:
+they are fighting. I have seen ambulance waggons pass full of National
+Guards. By whom have they been wounded? By Zouaves. Is this thing
+credible, is it possible? Ah! those guns, cannon, and mitrailleuses,
+why were they not all claimed by the enemy—all, every one, from
+soldiers and Parisians alike? But little hindrance would that have
+proved. It had been resolved—by what monstrous will?—that we should be
+hurled to the very bottom of the precipice. These Frenchmen, who would
+kill Frenchmen, would not be checked by lack of arms. If they could not
+shoot each other, they would strangle each other.
+
+[Illustration: The Barricade: Evening Meal—soup and cigars, and a
+“petit verre”]
+
+This, indeed, was unlooked for. An insurrection was feared; men thought
+of the June days; that evening when the battalions devoted to the
+National Assembly camped in the neighbourhood of the Bank, we imagined,
+as a horrible possibility, muskets pointed from between the stones of
+barricades, blood flowing in the streets, men killed, women in tears.
+But who could have foretold that a new species of civil war was
+preparing? That Paris, separated from France, would be blockaded by
+Frenchmen? That it would once more be deprived of communication with
+the provinces; once more starved perhaps? That there would be, not a
+few men struggling to the death in one of the quarters of the town, but
+two armies in presence, each with chiefs, fortifications and cannon?
+That Paris, in a word, would be besieged anew? How abominable a
+surprise of fate!
+
+The cannonading has been heard since morning. Ah! that sound, which,
+during the siege, made our hearts beat with hope,—yes, with hope, for
+it made us believe in a possible deliverance—how horrible it was this
+morning. I went towards the Champs Elysées. Paris was deserted. Had it
+understood at last that its honour, its existence even, were at stake
+in this revolution, or was it only not up yet? Battalions were marching
+along the boulevards, with music playing. They were going towards the
+Place Vendôme, and were singing. The _cantinières_ were carrying guns.
+Some one told me that men had been at work all night in the
+neighbourhood of the Hôtel de Ville, and that the streets adjoining it
+were blocked with barricades. But in fact no one knows anything, except
+that there is fighting in Neuilly, that the “Royalists” have attacked,
+and that “our brothers are being slaughtered.” A few groups are
+assembled in the Place de la Concorde. I approach, and find them
+discussing the question of the rents,—yes, of the rents! Ah! it is
+certain those who are being killed at this moment will not have to pay
+their landlord. On reaching the Rond Point I can distinctly perceive a
+compact crowd round the Triumphal Arch, and I meet some tired National
+Guards who are returning from the battle. They are ragged, dusty, and
+dreary. “What has happened?”—“We are betrayed!” says one.—“Death to the
+traitors!” cries another.
+
+No certain news from the field of battle. A runaway, seated outside a
+café amidst a group of eager questioners, recounts that the barricade
+at the Neuilly bridge has been attacked by _sergents de ville_ dressed
+as soldiers, and Pontifical Zouaves carrying a white flag.—“A
+parliamentary flag?” asks some one.—“No! a royalist flag,” answered the
+runaway.—“And the barricade has been taken?”—“We had no cartridges; we
+had not eaten for twenty-four hours; of course we had to decamp.”
+
+Farther on a soldier of the line affirms that the barricade has been
+taken again. The cannon roars still. Mont Valérien is firing, it is
+said, on the Courbevoie barracks, where a battalion of Federal guards
+was stationed yesterday.—“But they were off before daybreak,” adds the
+soldier.
+
+As I continue my road the groups become more numerous. I lift my head
+and see a shell burst over the Avenue of the Grande Armée, leaving a
+puff of white smoke hanging for a few seconds like a cloud-flake
+detached by the wind.
+
+On I go still. The height on which the Arc de Triomphe stands is
+covered with people; a great many women and children among them. They
+are mounted on posts, clinging to the projections of the Arch, hanging
+to the sculpture of the bas-reliefs. One man has put a plank upon the
+tops of three chairs, and by paying a few _sous_ the gapers can hoist
+themselves upon it. From this position one can perceive a motionless,
+attentive crowd reaching down the whole length of the Avenue of the
+Grande Armée, as far as the Porte Maillot, from which a great cloud of
+white smoke springs up every moment followed by a violent explosion,—it
+is the cannon of the ramparts firing on the Rond Point of Courbevoie;
+and beyond this the Avenue de Neuilly stretching far out in the
+sunshine, deserted and dusty, a human form crossing it rapidly from
+time to time; and farthest of all, beyond the Seine, beyond the Avenue
+de l’Empereur, deserted too, the hill of Courbevoie, where a battery of
+the Versailles troops is established. But stretch my eyes as I may I
+cannot distinguish the guns; but a few men, sentinels doubtless, can be
+made out. They are _sergents de ville_, says my right-hand neighbour;
+but he on my left says they are Pontifical Zouaves. They must have good
+eyes to recognise the uniforms at this distance. The most contradictory
+rumours circulate as to the barricade on the bridge; it is impossible
+for one to ascertain whether it has remained in the possession of the
+soldiers or the Federals. There has been but little fighting, moreover,
+since I came. A little later, at twelve o’clock, the fusillade ceases
+entirely. But the battery on the ramparts continues to fire upon
+Courbevoie, and Mont Valérien still shells Neuilly at intervals.
+Suddenly a flood of dust, coming from Porte Maillot, thrusts back the
+thick of the crowd, and as it flies, widening, and whirling more madly
+as it comes, everyone is seized with terror, and rushes away screaming
+and gesticulating. A shell has just fallen, it is said, in the Avenue
+of the Grande Armée. Not a soul remains about the Triumphal Arch. The
+adjoining streets are filled with people who have run to take shelter
+there. By little and little, however, the people begin to recover
+themselves, the flight is stopped in the middle, and, laughing at their
+momentary panic, they turn back again. A quarter of an hour afterwards
+the crowd is everywhere as compact as before.
+
+[Illustration: Place de La Concorde and Champs Elysees, from the
+Gardens of the Tuileries—Federalists going out to fight the
+Versaillais:]
+
+This panorama gives an idea of the theatre of operations of the Second
+Siege of Paris. The Prussians closed the eastern enceinte, whilst the
+Federals held the southern forts to the last, with the exception of
+Issy and Vanves that were abandoned. Point-du-Jour and Porte Maillot
+were the parts particularly attacked; the former being defended by the
+Federal gunboats on the Seine. Mont Valérien, it will be seen, commands
+the whole of the distant plateau. About one mile and a half beyond the
+Triumphal Arch the river Seine intersects the space from south to
+north, enclosing the Bois de Boulogne and the villages of Neuilly,
+Villiers, and Courcelles, being a sort of outer fortification. The
+walls of Paris follow the same line, falling about half a mile on the
+other side of the Arch, and parallel runs a line of railway within the
+fortified wall. This view exhibits the portion the Prussians were
+permitted to occupy for two days: all the outlets, except the west,
+being barricaded and defended.
+
+This spectacle, however, of combatants and gapers distresses me, and in
+despair of learning anything I return into the city.
+
+At some distance from the scene of events one gets better information,
+or, at any rate, a great deal more of it. Imagination has better play
+when it is farther from the fact. A hundred absurd stories reach me.
+What appears tolerably certain is, that the Federals have received a
+check, not very important in itself, the Versailles troops having made
+but little advance, but at any rate a check which might have some
+influence on the resolution of the National Guards. They have been told
+that the army would not fight, that the soldiers of the line would turn
+the butt-ends of their guns into the air at Neuilly as they had done at
+Montmartre. But now they begin to believe that the army will fight, and
+those who cry the loudest that it was the _sergents de ville_ and
+Charette’s Zouaves who led the attack alone, seem as if they said it to
+give themselves courage and keep up their illusions.
+
+But from which side did the first shot come? On this point everyone has
+something to say, and no one knows what to believe. Official reports
+are looked for with the utmost impatience. The walls, generally so
+communicative, are mute up to this hour. The least improbable of the
+versions circulated is the following: At break of day some shots are
+said to have been exchanged between the Federal advanced guard and the
+patrols of the Versailles troops. None dead or wounded; only powder
+wasted, happily. A little later, and a few minutes after the arrival of
+General Vinoy at Mont Valérien, a messenger with a flag of truce,
+preceded by a trumpeter and accompanied by two _sergents de ville_
+(inevitably), is said to have presented himself at the bridge of
+Courbevoie. The name of the messenger has been given,—Monsieur
+Pasquier, surgeon-in-chief to the regiment of mounted _gendarmes_. Two
+of the National Guards go to meet him; after some words exchanged, one
+of the Federals blows out Monsieur Pasquier’s brains with his revolver,
+and ten minutes later Mont Valérien opens a formidable fire, which
+continues as fiercely four hours afterwards.
+
+Meanwhile the drams beat to arms, on all sides. A considerable number
+of battalions defile along the Boulevard Montmartre; more than twenty
+thousand men, some say, who pretend to know. On they march, singing and
+shouting “_Vive la Commune! Vive la République!_” They are answered by
+a few shouts. These are not the Montmartre and Belleville guards alone;
+peaceful faces of citizens and merchants may be seen under the military
+_képis_, and many hands are white as no workman’s are. They march in
+good order,—they are calm and resolved; one feels that these men are
+ready to die for a cause that they believe to be just. I raise my hat
+as they pass; one must do honour to those who, even if they be guilty,
+push their devotion so far as to expose themselves to death for their
+convictions.
+
+But what are these convictions? What is the Commune? The men who sit at
+the Hôtel de Ville have published no programme, yet they kill and are
+killed for the sake of the Commune. Oh, words! words! What power they
+have over you, heroic and most simple people!
+
+In the evening out came a proclamation. There was so great a crowd
+wherever it was posted up that I had not the chance of copying it; but
+it ran somewhat in these terms:—
+
+    “CITIZENS,—This morning the Royalists have ATTACKED.
+    “Impatient, before our moderation they have ATTACKED.
+    “Unable to bring French bayonets against us, they have opposed us
+    with the Imperial Guard and Pontifical Zouaves.
+    “They have bombarded the inoffensive village of Neuilly.
+    “Charette’s _chouans_, Cathelineau’s _Vendéens_, Trochu’s
+    _Bretons_, Valentin’s _gendarmes_, have rushed upon us.
+    “There are dead and wounded.
+    “Against this attack, renewed from the Prussians, Paris should rise
+    to a man.
+    “Thanks to the support of the National Guard, the victory will be
+    ours!”
+
+Victory! What victory? Oh, the bitter pain! Paris shedding the blood of
+France, France shedding the blood of Paris! From whatever side the
+triumph comes, will it not be accursed?
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [33] On the 1st of April several shots were fired under the walls of
+ Fort Issy, but it was not until the next day, the 2nd of April, at
+ nine o’clock in the morning, that the action commenced in earnest at
+ Courbevoie, by an attack of the Versailles army. The federals, who
+ thought themselves masters of the place, were stopped by the steady
+ firing of a regiment of gendarmerie and heavy cannonading from Mont
+ Valérien. At first the National Guards retreated, then disputed every
+ foot of ground with much courage. In the neighbourhood the desolation
+ and misery was extreme.
+    The revolution had now entered a new phase; the military
+    proceedings had begun, and it was about to be proved that, the
+    Communist generals had even less genius than those of the Défense
+    Nationale, although it must be admitted that the latter did not
+    know the extent of the resources they had at their disposal. When
+    we remember the small advantage those generals managed to derive
+    from the heroism of the Parisian population, who, during the second
+    siege showed that they knew how to fight and how to die, it is
+    marvellous that many people have gone so far as to regret that the
+    émeute of the 31st of October was not successful, believing that if
+    the Commune had triumphed at that time, Paris would have been
+    saved. All this seems very doubtful now, and opinions have veered
+    round considerably, for it is not such men as Duval, Cluseret, La
+    Cécilia, Eudes, or Bergeret, who could have protected Paris against
+    the science of the Prussian generals.
+
+
+[Illustration: General Bergeret.]
+
+
+
+
+ XXVII.
+
+
+To whom shall we listen? Whom believe? It would take a hundred pages,
+and more, to relate all the different rumours which have circulated
+to-day, the 4th of April, the second day of the horrible straggle. Let
+us hastily note down the most persistent of these assertions; later I
+will put some order into this pell-mell of news.
+
+All through the night the drums beat to arms in every quarter of the
+town. Companies assembled rapidly, and directed their way towards the
+Place Vendôme or the Porte Maillot, shouting, “_A Versailles!_” Since
+five this morning, General Bergeret has occupied the Rond-Point of
+Courbevoie. This position has been evacuated by the troops of the
+Assembly. How was this? Were the Federals not beaten yesterday?
+
+(One thing goes against General Bergeret in the opinion of his troops:
+he drives to battle in a carriage.)
+
+He has formed his troops into columns. No less than sixty thousand men
+are under his orders; two batteries of seven guns support the infantry;
+omnibuses follow, filled with provisions. They march towards the Mont
+Valérien; after having taken the fort, they will march on Versailles by
+Rueil and Nanterre.[34] After they have taken the Mont Valérien! there
+is not a moment’s doubt about the success of the enterprise. “We were
+assured,” said a Federal general to me, “that the fort would open its
+doors at the first sight of us.” But they counted without General
+Cholleton, who commands the fortress. The advance-guard of the Federals
+is received by a formidable discharge of shot and shells. Panic! Cries
+of rage! A regular rout to the words, “We are betrayed!”[35] The army
+of the Commune is divided into two fragments: one—scarcely three
+battalions strong—flies in the direction of Versailles, the other
+regains Paris with praiseworthy precipitation. Must the Parisian
+combatants be accused of cowardice for this flight? No! They were
+surprised; had never expected such a reception from Mont Valérien; had
+they been warned, they would have held out better. After all, there was
+more fright than harm done in the affair; the huge fortress could have
+annihilated the Communists, and it was satisfied with dispersing them.
+But what has become of the three battalions that passed Mont Valérien?
+Bravely they went forward.
+
+In the meantime another movement was being made upon Versailles by
+Meudon and Clamart. A small number of battalions had marched out during
+the night, and are massed under cover of the forts of Issy and Vanves.
+They have managed to establish a battery of a few guns on a wooded
+eminence, at the foot of the glacis of Fort. Issy, and their pieces are
+firing upon the batteries of the Versailles troops at Meudon, which are
+answering them furiously. It is a duel of artillery, as in the time—the
+good time, alas!—of the Prussians.
+
+Up to this moment the information is tolerably clear; probable even,
+and one is able to come to some idea of the respective positions of the
+belligerents. But towards two o’clock in the afternoon all the reports
+get confused and contradictory.
+
+An estafette, who has come from the Porte Maillot, cried to a group
+formed on the place of the New Opera-house, “We are victorious!
+Flourens has entered Versailles at the head of forty thousand men. A
+hundred deputies have been taken. Thiers is a prisoner.”
+
+Elsewhere it is said that in the rout of that morning, at the foot of
+Mont Valérien, Flourens had disappeared. And where could he have found
+the forty thousand men to lead them to Versailles?
+
+At the same time a rumour spreads that General Bergeret has been
+grievously wounded by a shell. “Pure exaggeration!” some one answers.
+“The General has only had two horses killed under him.”
+
+Before him, rather, since he drives to battle. What appears most
+certain of all is that there is furious fighting going on between
+Sèvres and Meudon. I hear it said that the 118th of the line have
+turned the butts of their guns into the air, and that the Parisians
+have taken twelve mitrailleuses from the Versailles troops.
+
+There is fighting, too, at Châtillon. The Federals have won great
+advantages. Nevertheless an individual who went out that side to
+investigate, announces that he saw three battalions return with very
+little air of triumph, and that other battalions, forming the reserve,
+had refused to march.
+
+A shower of contradictions, in which the news for the most part has no
+other source than the opinion and desire of the person who brings it.
+It is by the result alone that we can appreciate what is passed. At one
+moment I give up trying to get information as a bad job, but I begin
+questioning again in spite of myself; the desire to know is even
+stronger than the very strong certainty that I shall be able to learn
+nothing.
+
+I turn to the Champs Elysées. The cannon is roaring; ambulance waggons
+descend the Avenue, and stop before the Palais de l’Industrie; over the
+way Punch is making his audience roar with laughter as usual. Oh! the
+miserable times! The horrible fratricidal struggle! May those who were
+its cause be accursed for ever!
+
+While some are killing and others dying, the members of the Commune are
+rendering decrees, and the walls are white with official proclamations.
+
+“Messieurs Thiers, Favre, Picard, Dufaure, Simon and Pothuan are
+impeached; their property will be seized and sequestrated until they
+deliver themselves up to public justice.”
+
+This impeachment and sequestration, will it bring back husbands to the
+widows and fathers to the orphans?
+
+“The Commune of Paris adopts the families of citizens who have fallen
+or may fall in opposing the criminal aggression of the Royalists,
+directed against Paris and against the French republic.”
+
+Infinitely better than adopting the orphans would be to save the
+fathers from death. Oh, these absurd decrees! You separate the Church
+from the State; you suppress the budget of public worship; you
+confiscate the property of the clergy. A pretty time to think about
+such acts! What is necessary, what is indispensable, is to restore
+quiet, to avoid massacres, and to stifle hatred. That you will not
+decree. No! no! That which is now happening you have desired, and you
+still desire it; you have profited by the provocations you have
+received to bring about the most frightful conflict which the history
+of unfortunate France records; and you will persevere, and in order to
+revive the fainting courage of those whom you have devoted to
+inevitable defeat and death, you bring into action all the hypocrisy
+with which you have charged your enemies!
+
+“Bergeret and Flourens have joined their forces; they are marching on
+Versailles. Success is certain!”
+
+You cause this announcement to be placarded in the street—false news,
+is it not? But men can only be led to their ruin by being deceived. You
+add:
+
+“The fire of the army of Versailles has not occasioned us any
+appreciable loss.”
+
+Ah! As to this let us ask the women who await at the gates of the city
+the return of your soldiers, and crowd sobbing round the bloody
+litters!
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [34] The combined plan of the three generals of the Commune consisted,
+ like the famous plan of General Boum, in proceeding by three different
+ roads: the first column, under the orders of Bergeret, seconded by
+ Flourens, went by Rueil; the second, commanded by Duval, marched upon
+ Versailles by lower Meudon, Chaville, and Viroflay; covered by the
+ fire of Fort Issy, and the redoubt of Moulineaux; and lastly, the
+ third, with General Eudes at its head, took the Clamart road,
+ protected by the fort of Vanves.
+
+ [35] Though no fort covered Bergeret’s eight battalions with its fire,
+ yet Bergeret was so sure that the artillerymen of Mont Valérien would
+ do as the line did on the 18th of March, i.e., refuse to fire, that he
+ advanced boldly as far as the bridge of Neuilly, and had made a halt
+ at the Rond-Point des Bergères, when a heavy cannonading from Mont
+ Valérien separated a part of the column from its main body.
+
+
+
+
+ XXVIII.
+
+
+Every hour that flies by, becomes more sinister than the last. They
+fight at Clamart as they fight at Neuilly, at Meudon and at Courbevoie.
+Everywhere rage the mitrailleuses, the cannon, and the rifle; the
+victories of the Communalists are lyingly proclaimed. The truth of
+their pretended triumphs will soon be known; and unhappily victory will
+be as detestable as defeat.
+
+General Duval has been made prisoner and put to death. “If you had
+taken me,” asked General Vinoy, “would you not have shot me?”—“Without
+hesitation,” replied Duval. And Vinoy gave the word of command, “Fire!”
+
+But this anecdote, though widely spread, is probably false. It is
+scarcely likely that a Commander-in-Chief of the Versailles troops
+would have consented to hold such a dialogue with an “_insurgent_.”
+
+Flourens also is killed. Where and how is not yet known with any
+certainty. Several versions are given. Some speak of a ball in the
+head, or the neck, or the chest; others spread the report that his
+skull was cut open by a sword.
+
+Flourens is thought about and talked of by men of the most opposite
+opinions. This singular man inspires no antipathy even amongst those
+who might hold him in the greatest detestation. I shall one day try to
+account for the partiality of opinion in favour of this young and
+romantic insurgent.
+
+Duval shot, Flourens killed, Bergeret lying in the pangs of death; the
+enthusiasm of the Federals might well be cooled down. Not in the least!
+The battalions that march along the boulevards have the same resolute
+air, as they sing and shout “_Vive la Commune!_” Are they the dupes of
+their chiefs to that extent as to believe the pompous proclamations
+with their hourly announcements of attacks repelled, of redoubts taken,
+of soldiers of the line made prisoners? It is not probable. And
+besides, the guards of the respective quarters must see the return of
+those who have been to the fight, and whose anxious wives are waiting
+on the steps of the doors; must learn from them that the forward
+marches have in reality been routs, and that many dead and wounded have
+been left on the field, when the Commune reports only declare “losses
+of little importance.” Whence comes this ardour that the first rush and
+defeat cannot check? Is it nourished by the reports, true or false, of
+the cruelties of the Versaillais which are spread by the hundred? The
+“murder” of Duval, the “assassination” of Flourens, prisoners shot,
+_vivandières_ violated, all these culpable inventions—can they be
+inventions, or does civil war make such barbarians of us?—are indeed of
+a nature to excite the enthusiasm of hate, and the men march to a
+probable defeat with the same air as they would march to certain
+victory. Ah! whether led astray or not, whether guilty, even, or
+whatever the motive that impels them, they are brave! And when they
+pass thus they are grand. Yes! in spite of the rags that serve the
+greater number of them for uniforms, in spite of the drunken gait of
+some, as a whole they are superb! And the reason of the coldest
+partisan of order at any price, struggles in vain against the
+admiration which these men inspire as they march to their death.
+
+It must be admitted, too, that there is much less disorder in the
+command than might be expected. The battalions all know whom they are
+to obey. Some go to the Hôtel de Ville, others to the Place Vendôme,
+many to the forts, a few to the advanced posts; marches and
+counter-marches are managed without confusion, and the combatants are
+in general well provided with ammunition, and supplied with provisions.
+Far as one is from esteeming the chiefs of the Federals, one is obliged
+to admit that there is something remarkable in this rapid organisation
+of a whole army in the midst of one of the most complete political
+convulsions. Who, then, directs? Who commands? The members of the
+Commune, divided as they are in opinion, do not appear capable, on
+account of their number and lamentable inexperience, of taking the sole
+lead in military affairs. Is there not some one either amongst them or
+in the background, who knows how to think, direct, and act? Is it
+Bergeret? Is it Cluseret? The future perhaps will unravel the mystery.
+In the meantime, and in spite of the reverses to which the Federals
+have had to submit during these last days, the whole of Paris unites in
+unanimous surprise at the extreme regularity with which the
+administrative system of the war seems to work, the surprise being the
+greater that, during the siege, the “legitimate” chiefs with much more
+powerful means, and having disciplined troops at their command, did not
+succeed in obtaining the same striking results.
+
+But would it not have been better far that that order had never
+existed? Better a thousand times that the command had been less precise
+than that those commanded should have been led to a death without
+glory? For the last few days Neuilly, so joyous in times gone by with
+its busy shops, its frequented _restaurants_ and princely parks;
+Neuilly, with the Versailles batteries on one side and the Paris guns
+on the other, under an incessant rain of shells and _mitraille_ from
+Mont Valérien; Neuilly, with her bridge taken and re-taken, her
+barricades abandoned and re-conquered, has been for the last few days
+like a vast abyss, into which the Federal battalions, seized with
+mortal giddiness, are precipitated one after another. Each house is a
+fortress. Yesterday, the _gendarmes_ had advanced as far as the market
+of Sablonville; this morning they were driven back beyond the church.
+Upon this church, a child; the son of Monsieur Leullier, planted a red
+flag amidst a shower of projectiles. “That child will make a true man,”
+said Cluseret, the war delegate. Ah, yes! provided he is not a corpse
+ere then. Shots are fired from window to window. A house is assaulted;
+there are encounters, on the stairs; it is a horrible struggle in which
+no quarter is given, night and day, through all hours. The rage and
+fury on both sides are terrific. Men that were friends a week ago have
+but one desire—to assassinate each other. An inhabitant of Neuilly, who
+succeeded in escaping, related this to me: Two enemies, a soldier of
+the line and a Federal, had an encounter in the bathing establishment
+of the Avenue de Neuilly, a little above the Rue des Huissiers. Now
+pursuing, now flying from each other in their bayonet-fight, they
+reached the roof of the house, and there, flinging down their arms,
+they closed in a mad struggle. On the sloping roof, the tiles of which
+crush beneath them, at a hundred feet from the ground, they struggled
+without mercy, without respite, until at last the soldier felt his
+strength give way, and endeavoured to escape from the gripe of his
+adversary. Then, the Federal—the person from whom I learnt this was at
+an opposite window and lost not a single one of their movements—the
+Federal drew a knife from his pocket and prepared himself to strike his
+half-prostrate antagonist, who, feeling that all hope was lost, threw
+himself flat on the roof, seized his enemy by the leg, and dragging him
+with him by a sudden movement, they rolled over and fell on to the
+pavement below. Neither was killed, but the soldier had his face
+crimsoned with blood and dust, and the Federal, who had fallen across
+his adversary, despatched him by plunging his knife in his chest.
+
+Such is this infamous struggle! Such is this savage strife! Will it not
+cease until there is no more blood to shed? In the meantime, Paris of
+the boulevards, the elegant and fast-living Paris, lounges, strolls,
+and smiles. In spite of the numerous departures there are still enough
+blasé dandies and beauties of light locks and lighter reputation to
+bring the blush to an honest man’s cheek. The theatres are open; “_La
+Pièce du Pape_” is being played. Do you know “The Pope’s Money?” It is
+a suitable piece for diverting the thoughts from the horrors of civil
+war. A year ago the Pope was supported by French bayonets, but his
+light coinage would not pass in Paris. Now Papal zouaves are killing
+the citizens of Paris, and we take light silver and lighter paper. The
+piece is flimsy enough. It is not its political significance that makes
+it diverting, but the _double-entendre_ therein. One must laugh a
+little, you understand. Men are dying out yonder, we might as well
+laugh a little here. Low whispers in the _baignoires_, munching of
+sugared violets in the stage boxes—everything’s for the best.
+Mademoiselle Nénuphar (named so by antithesis) is said to have the most
+beautiful eyes in the world. I will wager that that handsome man behind
+her has already compared them to mitraille shot, seeing the ravages
+they commit. It would be impossible to be more complimentary,—more
+witty and to the point. Ah! look you, those who are fighting at this
+moment, who to-day by their cannon and chassepots are exposing Paris to
+a terrible revenge, guilty as these men are, I hold them higher than
+those who roar with laughter when the whole city is in despair, who
+have not even the modesty to hide their joys from our distresses, and
+who amuse themselves openly with shameless women, while mothers are
+weeping for their children!
+
+On the boulevards it is worse still; there, vice exhibits itself and
+triumphs. Is it then true what a young fellow, a poor student and
+bitter philosopher, said to me just now: “When all Paris is destroyed,
+when its houses, its palaces, and its monuments thrown down and
+crushed, strew its accursed soil and form but one vast ruin beneath the
+sky, then, from out of this shapeless mass will rise as from a huge
+sepulchre, the phantom of a woman, a skeleton dressed in a brilliant
+dress, with shoulders bared, and a toquet on its head; and this
+phantom, running from ruin to ruin, turning its head every now and then
+to see if some libertine is following her through the waste—this
+phantom is the leprous soul of Paris!”
+
+When midnight approaches, the _cafés_ are shut. The delegates of the
+Central Committee at the ex-prefecture have the habit of sending
+patrols of National Guards to hasten and overlook the closing of all
+public places. But this precaution, like so many others, is useless.
+There are secret doors which escape the closest investigations. When
+the shutters are put up, light filters through the interstices of the
+boards. Go close up to them, apply your eye to one of those lighted
+crevices, listen to the cannon roaring, the mitrailleuses horribly
+spitting, the musketry cracking, and then look into the interior of the
+closed rooms. People are talking, eating, and smoking; waiters go to
+and fro. There are women too. The men are gay and silly. Champagne
+bottles are being uncorked. “Ah! ah! it’s the fusillade!” Lovers and
+mistresses are in common here. This orgie has the most telling effect,
+I tell you, in the midst of the city loaded with maledictions, a few
+steps from the battle-field where the bayonets are dealing their death
+thrusts, and the shells are scattering blood. And later, after the
+laughter and the songs and the drink, they take an open carriage, if
+the night is fine, and go to the Champs Elysées, and there mount upon
+the box by the coachman to try and see the fight—if “those people” knew
+how to die as well as they know how to laugh it would be better for
+them.
+
+Other _bons viveurs_, more discreet, hide themselves on the first
+floors of some houses and in some of the clubs. But they are betrayed
+by the sparkle of the chandeliers which pierces the heavy curtains. If
+you walk along by the walls you will hear the conversation of the
+gamesters and the joyous clink of the gold pieces.
+
+Ah! the cowardice of the merry ones! Oh, thrice pardonable anger of
+those who starve!
+
+
+
+
+ XXIX.
+
+
+At one o’clock this morning, the 5th of April, on my return from one of
+these nightly excursions through Paris, I was following the Rue du Mont
+Thabor so as to gain the boulevards, when on crossing the Rue
+Saint-Honoré I perceived a small number of National Guards ranged along
+the pavement. The incident was a common one, and I took no notice of
+it. In the Rue du Mont Thabor not a person was to be seen; all was in
+silence and solitude. Suddenly a door opened a few steps in front of
+me; a man came out and hurried away in the direction opposite to that
+of the church. This departure looked like a flight. I stopped and lent
+my attention. Soon two National Guards rushed out by the same door,
+ran, shouting as they went, after the fugitive, who had had but a short
+start of them, and overtaking him, without difficulty brought him back
+between them, while the National Guards that I had seen in the Rue
+Saint-Honoré ran up at the noise. The exclamations and insults of all
+kinds that were vociferated led me to ascertain that the man they had
+arrested was the Abbé Deguerry, _curé_ of the Madeleine. He was dragged
+into the house, the door was shut, and all sank into silence again.
+
+That morning I learned that Monseigneur Darboy, the Archbishop of
+Paris, was taken at the same hour and in almost similar circumstances.
+
+[Illustration: ABBÉ DEGUERRY, Curé of the Madeleine.]
+
+The arrests of several other ecclesiastics are cited. The _curé_ of St.
+Séverin and the _curé_ of St. Eustache have been made prisoners, it is
+said; the first in his own house, the second at the moment when he was
+leaving his church. The _curé_ of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires was to have
+been arrested also, but warned in time, he was able to place himself in
+safety.
+
+Monseigneur Darboy, being conducted to the ex-prefecture (why the
+_ex_-prefecture? It seems to me it works just as well as when it was
+purely and simply a prefecture), was cross-examined there by the
+citizen delegate Rigault. It must be said that Monsieur Rigault had
+begun to make himself talked about during these last few days. He is
+evidently a man who has a natural vocation for the employment he has
+chosen, for he arrests, and arrests, and still arrests. He is young,
+cold, and cynical. But his cynicism does not exclude him from a certain
+gaiety, as we shall see. It was the Citizen Rigault, then, who examined
+the Archbishop of Paris. I am not inordinately curious, but I should
+very much like to know what the cynical member of the Commune could ask
+of Monseigneur Darboy. Having committed apparently but one crime, that
+of being a priest, and having no inclination to disguise it, it is
+difficult to know what the interrogatory could turn upon. Monsieur
+Rigault’s imagination furnished him no doubt with ample materials for
+the interview, and he has probably as much vocation for the part of a
+magistrate as for that of a police officer. But however it may be, the
+journals of the Commune record this fragment with ill-disguised
+admiration.
+
+[Illustration: Raoul Rigault[36]]
+
+[Illustration: Monseigneur Darboy, Archbishop of Paris.]
+
+“My children”—the white-haired Archbishop of Paris is reported to have
+said at one moment.
+
+“Citizen,” interrupted the Citizen Rigault, who is not yet thirty, “you
+are not before children, but before magistrates.”
+
+That was smart! And I can conceive the enthusiasm with which Monsieur
+Rigault inspires the members of the Commune. But this excellent citizen
+did not confine himself to this haughty repartee. I am informed (and I
+have reason to believe with truth) that he added: “Moreover, that’s too
+old a tale. You have been trying it on these eighteen hundred years.”
+
+Now everyone must admit that this is as remarkable for its wit as for
+its elegance, and it is just what might be expected of the amiable
+delegate, who, the other day, in a moment of exaggerated clemency,
+permitted an abbé to visit a prisoner in the Conciergerie, and
+furnished him with a _laisser-passer_ that ran thus: “Admit the bearer,
+who styles himself the servant of one of the name of God.” Oh! what
+graceful, charming wit!
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [36] Rigault became connected with Rochefort in the year 1869, and
+ with him was engaged on the journal called the _Marseillaise_, and
+ produced articles which subjected him more than once to fine and
+ imprisonment. In the month of September, 1870, he was appointed by the
+ Government of the National Defence, Commissaire of Police, but having
+ taken part in the insurrection of the 31st of October, he was, on the
+ following day, dismissed from office. Shortly after this he made his
+ appearance as a writer in Blanqui’s paper the _Patrie en Danger_; but,
+ presently, he took a military turn, and got himself elected to the
+ command of a battalion of the National Guard. He seems to have been
+ born an informer or police spy, for we are told when at school, he
+ used to amuse himself by filling up lists of proscriptions, with the
+ names of his fellow-pupils. With such charming natural instincts, it
+ is not at all surprising that he was on the 18th of March, appointed
+ by the Commune Government, Prefect of Police.
+
+
+
+
+ XXX.
+
+
+I am beginning to feel decidedly uncomfortable. This new decree of the
+Commune seriously endangers the liberty of all those who are so
+unfortunate as to have incurred the ill-will of their concierge, or
+whose dealings with his next-door neighbour have not been of a strictly
+amicable nature. Let us copy the 1st article of this ferocious decree.
+
+“All persons accused of complicity with the Government of Versailles
+shall be immediately taken and incarcerated.”[37]
+
+Pest! they do not mince matters! Why, the first good-for-nothing
+rascal—to whom, perhaps, I refused to lend five francs seven years
+ago—may go round to Citizen Rigault and tell him that I am in regular
+communication with Versailles, whereupon I am immediately incarcerated.
+For, I beg it may be observed, it is not necessary that the complicity
+with “the traitors” should be proved. The denunciation is quite
+sufficient for one to be sent to contemplate the blue sky through the
+bars of the Conciergerie.[38] Besides, what do the words “complicity
+with the Government of Versailles” mean? All depends upon the way one
+looks at those things. I am not sure that I am innocent. I remember
+distinctly having several times bowed to a pleasant fellow—I say
+pleasant fellow, hoping that these lines will not fall under the
+observation of any one at the Prefecture of Police—who at this very
+moment is quite capable, the rogue, of eating a comfortable dinner at
+the Hôtel des Réservoirs at Versailles in company with one or more of
+the members of the National Assembly. You can understand now why I am
+beginning to feel rather uncomfortable. To know a man who knows a
+deputy, constitutes, I am fully persuaded—otherwise I am unworthy to
+live under the paternal government of the Commune—a most decided
+complicity with the men of Versailles. I really think it would be only
+commonly prudent to steal out of Paris in a coal sack, as a friend of
+mine did the other day, or in some other agreeable fashion.[39] See
+what may come of a bow!
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [37] DECREE CONCERNING THE SUSPECTED.
+
+“Commune of Paris:
+
+“Considering that the Government of Versailles has wantonly trampled on
+the rights of humanity, and set at defiance the rights of war; that it
+has perpetrated horrors such as even the invaders of our soil have
+shrunk from committing;
+    “Considering that the representatives of the Commune of Paris have
+    an imperative duty devolving upon them,—that of defending the lives
+    and honour of two millions of inhabitants, who have committed their
+    destinies to their charge; and that it behoves them at once to take
+    measures equal to the gravity of the situation;
+    “Considering that the politicians and magistrates of the city ought
+    to reconcile the general weal with respect for public liberty,
+    “Decrees:
+    “Art. 1. All persons charged with complicity with the Government of
+    Versailles will be immediately brought to justice and incarcerated.
+    “Art. 2. A ‘jury, of accusation’ will be summoned within the
+    twenty-four hours to examine the charges brought before it.
+    “Art. 3. The jury must pass sentence within the forty-eight hours.
+    “Art. 4. All the accused, convicted by the jury, will be retained
+    as hostages by the People of Paris.
+    “Art. 6. Every execution of a prisoner of war, or of a member of
+    the regular Government of the Commune of Paris, will be at once
+    followed by the execution of a triple number of hostages, retained
+    by virtue of article 4, who will be chosen by lot.
+    “Art. 6. All prisoners of war will be summoned before the ‘jury of
+    accusation,’ who will decide whether they be immediately set at
+    liberty or retained as hostages.”
+
+ [38] Prison of Detention.
+
+ [39] The following is still more naïve:—A man takes a return-ticket
+ for the environs, and sometimes finds a guard silly enough to allow
+ him to pass on the supposition that such a ticket was sufficient proof
+ of his intention of returning to Paris.
+    Others get into the waiting-room without tickets, under the pretext
+    of speaking to some one there.
+    M. Bergerat, a poet, passed the barrier in a cart-load of charcoal.
+
+[Illustration: Colonel Flourens.[40]]
+
+
+
+
+ XXXI.
+
+
+Flourens is dead: we heard that last night for certain. A National
+Guard had previously brought back the colonel’s horse from Bougival,
+but it was only a few hours ago that we heard any details. An attempt
+was made to take him prisoner at Rueil. A gendarme called out to him to
+surrender, he replied by a pistol shot; another gendarme advanced, and
+wounded him in the side, a third cleft his skull with a sabre out. Some
+people do not believe in the pistol shot, and talk of assassination.
+How many such events are there, the truth of which will never be
+clearly proved! One thing certain is, that Flourens is dead. His body
+was recognised at Versailles by some one in the service of Garnier
+frères. His mother started this morning to fetch the corpse of her son.
+It is strange that one is so painfully affected by the violent death of
+this man. He has been mixed up in all the revolutionary attempts of the
+last few years, and ought to be particularly obnoxious to all peaceful
+and order-loving citizens; but the truth is, his was a sincerely ardent
+and enthusiastic spirit. He was a thorough believer in the principles
+he maintained. Whatever may be the religion he professes, the apostle
+inspires esteem, and the martyr compassion. This apostle, this martyr,
+was born to affluence; son of an illustrious savant, he may be almost
+said to have been born to hereditary distinction. He was still quite
+young when he threw himself heart and soul into politics. There was
+fighting in Crete, and so off he went. There he revolted against the
+revolt itself, got imprisoned, escaped, outwitted the gendarmes, got
+retaken: his adventures sound like a legend or romance. It is because
+he was so romantic, that he is so interesting. He returned to France
+full of generous impulses. He was as prodigal of his money as he had
+been of his blood. In the bitter cold winters he fed and clothed the
+poor of Belleville, going from attic to attic with money and
+consolation. You remember what Victor Hugo says of the sublime Pauline
+Roland. The spirit of Flourens much resembled hers. The patriot could
+act the part of a sister of charity. At other times, an enthusiast in
+search of a social Eldorado, he would put himself at the service of the
+most forlorn cause; never was anyone so imprudent. He was of a most
+active and critical disposition: it was impossible for him to remain
+quiet. When he was not seemingly employed, he was agitating something
+in the shade. His friendship for Rochefort was great. These two
+turbulent spirits, one with his pen, the other with his physical
+activity, remind us each of the other. Both ran to extremes, Rochefort
+in his literary invectives, Flourens in his hairbreadth adventures.
+Although they were often allied, these two, they were sometimes
+opposed. Have you never, seen two young artists in a studio performing
+the old trick, one making a speech, while the other, with his head and
+body hidden in the folds of a cloak, stretches forth his arms and
+executes the most extravagant gestures? Rochefort and Flourens
+performed this farce in politics, the former talking, the latter
+gesticulating; but on the day of the burial of Victor Noir they went
+different ways. On that day Rochefort, to do him justice, saved a large
+multitude of men from terrible danger. Flourens, always the same,
+wished the body to be carried to Père Lachaise; on the road there must
+have been a collision; that was what he desired, but he was defeated.
+The tongue prevailed, a hundred thousand cries of vengeance filled the
+air, but they were only cries, and no mischief was done, except to a
+few graves in the Neuilly cemetery. Flourens awaited a better occasion,
+but by no means passively. He was a man of barricades; he did not seem
+to think that paving-stones were made to walk on, he only cared to see
+them heaped up across a street for the protection of armed patriots.
+Although he always wore the dress of a gentleman, he was not one of
+those black-coated individuals who incite the men to rebellion and keep
+out of the way while the fight is going on; he helped to defend the
+barricades he had ordered to be thrown up. Wherever there was a chance
+of being killed, he was sure to be; and in the midst of all this he
+never lost his placid expression, nor the politeness of a gentleman,
+nor the look of extreme youth which beamed from his eyes, and must have
+been on his face even when he fell under the cruel blows of the
+gendarmes. Now he is dead. He is judged harshly, he is condemned, but
+he cannot be hated. He was a madman, but he was a hero. The conduct of
+Flourens at the Hôtel de Ville in the night of the 31st October is
+hardly in keeping with so favourable a view. The French forgive and
+forget with facility—let that pass.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [40] Flourens was born in 1838, and was the son of the well-known
+ _savant_ and physiologist of this name. He completed his studies with
+ brilliancy, and succeeded his father as professor of the Collège de
+ France. His opening lecture on the History of Man made a profound
+ impression on the scientific world. However, he retired from this post
+ in 1864, and turned his undivided attention to the political questions
+ of the day. Deeply compromised by certain pamphlets written by him, he
+ left France for Candia, where he espoused the popular cause against
+ the Turks. On his return to France he was imprisoned for three months
+ for political offences. Rochefort’s candidature was hotly supported by
+ him. In 1870 he rose against the Government, with a large force of the
+ Belleville _faubouriens_. He was prosecuted, and took refuge in
+ London. After the fourth of September he was placed at the head of
+ five battalions of National Guards. He was again imprisoned for having
+ instigated the rising of October, and it was not till the
+ twenty-second of March that he was set at liberty. On the second of
+ April he set out for Versailles at the head of an insurgent troop. He
+ was met midway by a mounted patrol, and in the _mêlée_ that ensued he
+ was killed.
+
+
+
+
+ XXXII.
+
+
+In the midst of so many horrible events, which interest the whole mass
+of the people, ought I to mention an incident which broke but one
+heart? Yes, I think the sad episode is not without importance, even in
+so vast a picture. It was a child’s funeral. The little wooden coffin,
+scantily covered with a black pall, was not larger, as Théophile
+Gautier says, “than a violin case.” There were few mourners. A woman,
+the mother doubtless, in a black stuff dress and white crimped cap,
+holding by the hand a boy, who had not yet reached the age of sorrowing
+tears, and behind them a little knot of neighbours and friends. The
+small procession crept along the wide street in the bright sunlight.
+
+When it reached the church they found the door closed, and yet the
+money for the mass had been paid the night before, and the hour for the
+ceremony fixed. One of the women went forward towards the door of the
+vestry, where she was met by a National Guard, who told her with a
+superfluity of oaths that she must not go in, that the —— curé, the
+sacristan, and all the d—— fellows of the church were locked up, and
+that they would no longer have anything to do with patriots. Then the
+mother approached and said, “But who will bury my poor child if the
+curé is in prison?” and then she began to weep bitterly at the thought
+that there would be no prayers put up for the good of the little
+spirit, and that no holy water would be sprinkled on its coffin. Yes,
+members of the Commune, she wept, and she wept longer and more bitterly
+later at the cemetery, when she saw them lower the body of her child
+into the grave, without a prayer or a recommendation to God’s mercy.
+You must not scoff at her, you see she was a poor weak woman, with
+ideas of the narrowest sort; but there are other mothers like her,
+quite unworthy of course to bear the children of patriots, who do not
+want their dear ones to be buried like dogs; who cannot understand that
+to pray is a crime, and to kneel down before God an offence to
+humanity, and who still are weak enough to wish to see a cross planted
+on the tombs of those they have loved and lost! Not the cross of the
+nineteenth century—a red flag! such as now graces the dome of the
+church of the Pantheon.[41]
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [41] Early in April the Commune forbade divine service in the
+ Pantheon. They cut off the arms of the cross, and replaced it by the
+ red flag during a salute of artillery.
+
+[Illustration: Colonel Assy.]
+
+
+
+
+ XXXIII.
+
+
+Communal fraternity is decidedly in the ascendant; it is putting into
+practice this admirable precept, “Arrest each other.” They say M.
+Delescluze has been sent to the Conciergerie. Yesterday Lullier was
+arrested, to-day Assy. It was not sufficient to change Executive
+Committees—if I may be allowed to say so—with no more ceremony than one
+would change one’s boots; the Commune conducts itself, in respect to
+those members that become obnoxious to it, absolutely as if they were
+no more than ordinary archbishops.
+
+[Illustration: Placing the Red Flag on the Pantheon. (The hole in the
+dome was occasioned by a Prussian shell.)]
+
+What! Assy—Assy[42] of Creuzot—who signed before all his comrades the
+proclamations of the Central Committee, in virtue, not only of his
+ability, but in obedience to the alphabetical order of the thing—Assy
+no longer reigns at the Hôtel de Ville!—publishes no more decrees,
+discusses no longer with F. Cournet, nor with G. Tridon. Wherefore this
+fall after so much glory? It is whispered about that Assy has thought
+it prudent to put aside a few rolls of bank notes found in the drawers
+of the late Government. What, is that all? How long have politicians
+been so scrupulous? Members of the Commune, how very punctilious you
+have grown. Now if the Citizen Assy were accused of having in 1843 been
+intimately acquainted with a lady whose son is now valet to M. Thiers’
+first cousin, or if he had been seen in a church, and it were clearly
+proved that he was there with any other intention than that of
+delicately picking the pockets of the faithful, then I could understand
+your indignation. But the idea of arresting a man because he has
+appropriated the booty of the traitors, is too absurd; if you go on
+acting in that way people will think you are growing conscientious!
+
+As to Citizen Lullier,[43] who was one of the first victims of
+“fraternity,” he is imprisoned because he did not succeed in capturing
+Mont Valérien. I think with horror that if I had been in the place of
+Citizen Lullier I should most certainly have had to undergo the same
+punishment, for how in the devil’s name I could have managed to
+transport that impregnable fortress on to the council-table at the
+Hôtel de Ville I have not the least conception. It is as bad as if you
+were in Switzerland, and asked the first child you met to go and fetch
+Mont Blanc; of course the child would go and have a game of marbles
+with his companions, and come back without the smallest trace of Mont
+Blanc in his arms, thereupon you would whip the youngster within an ace
+of his life. However, it appears that M. Lullier objected to being
+whipped, or rather imprisoned, and being as full of cunning as of
+valour he managed to slip out of his place of confinement, without drum
+or trumpet. “Dear Rochefort,” he writes to the editor of _Le Mot
+d’Ordre_, “you know of what infamous machinations I have been the
+victim.” I suppose M. Rochefort does, but I am obliged to confess that
+I have not the least idea, unless indeed M. Lullier means by
+“machinations” the order that was given him to bring Mont Valérien in
+his waistcoat pocket. “Imprisoned without motive,” he continues, “by
+order of the Central Committee, I was thrown ...” (Oh! you should not
+have _thrown_ M. Lullier) “into the Prefecture of Police,” (the
+ex-Prefecture, if you please), “and put in solitary confinement at the
+very moment when Paris was in want of men of action and military
+experience.” Oh, fie! men of the Commune, you had at your disposal a
+man of action—who does not know the noble actions of Citizen Lullier? A
+man of military experience—who does not know what profound experience
+M. Lullier has acquired in his numerous campaigns—and yet you put him,
+or rather throw him, into the Prefecture! This is bad, very bad. “The
+Prefecture is transformed into a state prison, and the most rigorous
+discipline is maintained.” It appears then that the Communal prison is
+anything but a fool’s paradise. “However, in spite of everything, I and
+my secretary managed to make our escape calmly ...”—the calm of the
+high-minded—“from a cell where I was strictly guarded, to pass two
+court-yards and a dozen or two of soldiers, to have three doors opened
+for me while the sentinels presented arms as I passed ...” What a
+wonderful escape: the adventures of Baron Munchausen are nothing to it.
+What a fine chapter poor old Dumas might have made of it. The door of
+the cell is passed under the very nose of the jailer, who has doubtless
+been drugged with some narcotic, of which M. Lullier has learnt the
+secret during his travels in the East Indies; the twelve guards in the
+court-yards are seized one after another by the throat, thrown on the
+ground, bound with cords, and prevented from giving the alarm by twelve
+gags thrust into their twelve mouths; the three doors are opened by
+three enormous false keys, the work of a member of the Commune,
+locksmith by trade, who has remained faithful to the cause of M.
+Lullier; and last, but not least, the sentinels, plunged in ecstasy at
+the sight of the glorious fugitive, present arms. What a scene for a
+melodrama! The most interesting figure, however, in my opinion, is the
+secretary. I have the greatest respect for that secretary, who never
+dreamt one instant of abandoning his master, and I can see him, while
+Lullier is accomplishing his miracles, calmly writing in the midst of
+the danger, with a firm hand, the faithful account of these immortal
+adventures. “I have now,” continues the ex-prisoner of the
+ex-Prefecture, “two hundred determined men, who serve me as a guard,
+and three excellent revolvers, loaded, in my pocket. I had foolishly
+remained too long without arms and without friends; now I am resolved
+to blow the brains out of the first man who tries to arrest me!” I
+heard a bourgeois who had read this exclaim, that he wished to Heaven
+each member of the Commune would come to arrest him in turn. Oh!
+blood-thirsty bourgeois! Then Lullier finishes up by declaring that he
+scorns to hide, but continues to show himself freely and openly on the
+boulevards. What a proud, what a noble nature! Oh, ye marionettes, ye
+fantoccini! Yet let me not be unjust; I will try and believe in you
+once more, in spite of armed requisitions, in spite of arrests, of
+robberies—for there have been robberies in spite of your decrees—I will
+try and believe that you have not only taken possession of the Hôtel de
+Ville for the purpose of setting up a Punch and Judy show and playing
+your sinister farces; I want to believe that you had and still have
+honourable and avowable intentions; that it is only your natural
+inexperience joined to the difficulties of the moment which is the
+cause of your faults and your follies; I want to believe that there are
+among you, even after the successive dismissal of so many of your
+members, some honourable men who deplore the evil that has been done,
+who wish to repair it, and who will try to make us forget the crimes
+and forfeits of the civil war by the benefits which revolution
+sometimes brings in its train. Yes, I am naturally full of hope, and
+will try and believe this; but, honestly, what hope can you have of
+inspiring confidence in those who are not prejudiced as I am in favour
+of innovators, when they see you arrest each other in this fashion, and
+know that you have among you such generals as Bergeret, such honest
+citizens as Assy, and such escaped lunatics as Lullier?
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [42] Assy, who first became publicly known as the leader of the strike
+ at Messrs. Schneider’s works at Creuzot, was an engineer. He was born
+ in 1840. He became a member of the International Society, and was
+ selected in 1870 to organise the Creuzot strike. Being threatened with
+ arrest, he went to Paris, but did not remain there long, and on the
+ 21st of March in that year, a few days after his return to Creuzot,
+ the strike of the miners commenced. Assy was, finally, arrested and
+ tried before the Correctional Tribune of Paris as chief and founder of
+ a secret society, but he was acquitted of that charge.
+    At the siege of Paris, Assy was appointed as an officer in a free
+    guerilla corps of the Isle of France. Subsequently he was a
+    lieutenant in the 192nd battalion of the National Guard. Getting on
+    the Central Committee, he took an active share in the events that
+    occurred. Appointed commander of the 67th battalion on the 17th
+    March, we find him on the morning of the 18th as Governor of the
+    Hôtel de Ville, and colonel of the National Guard, organising with
+    the members of the committee the means of a serious
+    resistance—giving orders for the construction of
+    barricades—stopping the transport of munitions and provisions from
+    Paris. Becoming a member of the Commune, he took an active part in
+    carrying into effect the decrees which led, among other things, to
+    the demolition of the Vendôme Column and of the house of M. Thiers.
+    He was arrested in April, and was succeeded as Governor of the
+    Hôtel de Ville by one Pindy, who retained the office till the army
+    entered Paris. Assy was held prisoner, _sur parole_, at the Hôtel
+    de Ville, till the 19th April, when he was liberated. After this
+    Assy was engaged in superintending the manufacture of munitions of
+    war. He was the sole superintendent of the supply, especially as
+    regards quality. Among the warlike stores manufactured were
+    incendiary shells filled with petroleum, intended to be thrown into
+    Paris during the insurrection. It is certain that these engines of
+    destruction could only have been made at the factory superintended
+    by Assi. He was arrested on the 21st May. Assy was one of the
+    chiefs of the insurrection; he denied signing the decrees for the
+    execution of the hostages, or order for the enrolment of the
+    military in the National Guard. Assy was condemned by the tribunal
+    of Versailles, Sept. 2, to confinement for life in a French
+    fortress—a light penalty for the deeds of this important insurgent.
+
+ [43] Memoir, see Appendix 5.
+
+[Illustration: General Cluseret.]
+
+
+
+
+XXXIV.
+
+
+The fighting still continues, the cannonading is almost incessant.
+However, the damage done is but small. To-day, the 7th April, things
+seem to be in pretty much the same position as they were after Bergeret
+had been beaten back and Flourens killed. The forts of Vanves and Issy
+bombard the Versailles batteries, which in their turn vomit shot and
+shell on Vanves and Issy. Idle spectators, watching from the Trocadéro,
+see long lines of white smoke arise in the distance. Every morning,
+Citizen Cluseret,[44] the war delegate, announces that an assault of
+gendarmes has been victoriously repulsed by the garrisons in the forts.
+It is quite certain that if the Versaillais do attack they are
+repulsed, as they make no progress whatever; but do they attack, that
+is the question? I am rather inclined to think that these attacks and
+repulses are mere inventions. It seems evident to me that the generals
+of the National Assembly, who are now busy establishing batteries and
+concentrating their forces, will not make a serious attempt until they
+are certain of victory. In the meantime they are satisfied to complete
+the ruin of the forts which were already so much damaged by the
+Prussians.
+
+Between Courbevoie and the Porte Maillot the fighting is continual.
+Ground is lost and gained, such and such a house that was just now
+occupied by the Versaillais is now in the hands of the Federals, and
+_vice versâ_. Neither side is wholly victorious, but the fighting goes
+on. What! is there no one to cry out “Enough! Enough blood, enough
+tears! Enough Frenchmen killed by Frenchmen, Republicans killed by
+Republicans.” Men fall on each side with the same war cry on their
+lips. Oh! when will all this dreadful misunderstanding cease?
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [44] The biography of this general of the Commune is very imperfect,
+ down to the time when he was elected for the 1st Arrondissement of
+ Paris, and was thereupon appointed Minister of War, or in Communal
+ phraseology, Delegate at the War Department. He seems to have been one
+ of those beings, without country or family, but who are blessed, by
+ way of compensation, with a plurality of names; we do not know whether
+ Cluseret was really his own, or how many aliases he had made use of.
+    It is said that he was formerly captain in a battalion of Chasseurs
+    d’Afrique, but was dismissed the army upon being convicted of
+    defalcations, in connection with the purchase of horses, and, that
+    soon after his dismissal from the French army, he went to the
+    United States, where he served in the revolutionary war, and
+    attained to the rank of General. Then we have another story, to the
+    effect that having been entrusted with the care of a flock of
+    lambs, the number of the animals decreased so rapidly, that nothing
+    but the existence of a large pack of wolves near at hand, could
+    possibly have accounted for it in an honest way; this affair is
+    said to have occurred at Churchill, Such vague charges as these
+    however deserve but little credit.
+    After closing his career as a shepherd, he became a defender of the
+    Pope’s flock, enlisting in the brigade against which Garibaldi took
+    the field. The next we hear of him is that he joined the Fenians,
+    and made an attempt to get possession of Chester Castle, but that
+    he fell under suspicion of being a traitor, and was glad to escape
+    to France, where, report says, he found refuge with a religious
+    community.
+
+        “When the devil was sick,
+        The devil a monk would be;
+        But when the devil was well,
+        The devil a monk was he!
+
+
+
+
+ XXXV.
+
+
+Thirty men carrying muffled drums, thirty more with trumpets draped in
+crape, head a long procession; every now and then the drums roll
+dismally, and the trumpets give a long sad wail.
+
+Numerous detachments of all the battalions come next, marching slowly,
+their arms reversed. A small bunch of red immortelles is on every
+breast. Has the choice of the colour a political signification, or is
+it a symbol of a bloody death?
+
+Next appears an immense funeral car draped with black, and drawn by
+four black horses; the gigantic pall is of velvet, with silver stars.
+At the corners float four great trophies of red flags.
+
+Then another car of the same sort appears, another, and again another;
+in each of them there are thirty-two corpses. Behind the cars march the
+members of the Commune bare-headed, and wearing red scarfs. Alas!
+always that sanguinary colour! Last of all, between a double row of
+National Guards, follows a vast multitude of men, women, and children,
+all sorrowful and dejected, many in tears.
+
+The procession proceeds along the boulevards; it started from the
+Beaujon hospital, and is going to the Père Lachaise: as it passes all
+heads are bared. One man alone up at a window remains covered; the
+crowd hiss him. Shame on him who will not bow before those who died for
+a cause, whether it may be a worthy one or not! On looking on those
+corpses, do not remember the evil they caused when they were alive.
+They are dead now, and have become sacred. But remember, oh! remember,
+that it is to the crimes of a few that are due the deaths of so many,
+and let us help to hasten the hour when the criminals, whoever they be,
+and to whatever party they belong; will feel the weight of the
+inexorable Nemesis of human destiny.
+
+
+
+
+ XXXVI.
+
+
+We are to have no more letters! As in the time of the siege, if you
+desire to obtain news of your mother or your wife, you have no other
+alternative than to consult a somnambulist or a fortune-teller. This is
+not at all a complicated operation; of course you possess a ribbon or a
+look of hair, something appertaining to the absent person. This
+suffices to keep you informed, hour by hour, of what she says, does,
+and thinks. Perhaps you would prefer the ordinary course of things, and
+that you would rather receive a letter than consult a charlatan. But if
+so, I would advise you not to say so. They would accuse you of being,
+what you are doubtless, a reactionist, and you might get into trouble.
+
+Yesterday a young man was walking in the Champs Elysées, a Guard
+National stalked up to him and asked him for a light for his cigar.—“I
+am really very sorry,” said he, “but my cigar has gone out.”—“Oh! your
+cigar is out, is it? Oh! so you blush to render a service to a patriot!
+Reactionist that you are!” Thereupon a torrent of invectives was poured
+on the poor young man, who was quickly surrounded by a crowd of eager
+faces: One charming young person exclaimed, “Why, he is a disguised
+sergent-de-ville!”—“Yes, yes; he is a gendarme!” is echoed on all
+sides.—“I think he looks like Ernest Picard,” says one.—“Throw him into
+the Seine,” says another.—“To the Seine, to the Seine, the spy!” and
+the unfortunate victim is pushed, jostled, and hurried off. A dense
+crowd of National Guards, women, and children had by this time
+collected, all crying out at the top of their voices, and without any
+idea of what was the matter, “Shoot him! throw him the water! hang
+him!” Superstitious individuals leaned towards hanging for the sake of
+the cords. As to the original cause of the commotion, no one seemed to
+remember anything about it. I overheard one man say,—“It appears that
+they arrested him just as he was setting fire to the ambulance at the
+Palais de l’Industrie!” As to what became of the young man I do not
+know; I trust he was neither hanged, shot, nor drowned. At any rate,
+let it be a lesson to others not to get embroiled in dangerous
+adventures of that kind; and whatever your anxiety may be concerning
+your family or affairs, you would do well to hide it carefully under a
+smiling exterior. Suppose you meet one of your friends, who says to
+you, “My dear fellow, how anxious you must be?” You must answer,
+“Anxious! oh, not at all. On the contrary, I never felt more free of
+care in my life.”—“Oh! I thought your aunt was ill, and as you do not
+receive any letters ...”—“Not receive any letters!” you continue in the
+same strain, “who told you that? Not receive any letters! why, I have
+more than I want! what an idea!”—“Then you must be strangely favoured,”
+says your mystified companion; “for since Citizen Theiz[45] has taken
+possession of the Post-office, the communications are stopped.”—“Don’t
+believe it. It is a rumour set on float by the reactionists. Why, those
+terrible reactionists go so far as to pretend that the Commune has
+imprisoned the priests, arrested journalists, and stopped the
+newspapers!”—“Well, you may say what you please, but a proclamation of
+Citizen Theiz announces that communication with the departments will
+not be re-established for some days.”—“Nothing but modesty on his part;
+he has only to show himself at the Post-office, and the service, which
+has been put out of order by those wretched reactionists, will be
+immediately reorganised.”—“So I am to understand that you have news
+every day of your aunt.”—“Of course.”—“Well, I am delighted to hear it;
+for one of my friends, who arrived from Marseilles this morning, told
+me that your aunt was dead.”—“Dead, good heavens! what do you mean? Now
+I think of it, I did not get a letter this morning.”—“There you see!”
+
+You must not, however, allow your sorrow to carry you away, at the risk
+of your personal safety, but answer readily. “I see it all, for a
+wonder I did not get a letter this morning; Citizen Theiz is a
+kind-hearted man, and did not want to make me unhappy.”
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [45] A working chaser, and one of the most active and influential
+ members of the International Society. He was among the accused who
+ were tried in July, 1870, and was condemned to two years’
+ imprisonment. On the formation of the Central Committee, he was
+ appointed Vice-President. It was Theiz who saved the General Post
+ Office, Rue J.J. Rousseau, from the total destruction decreed by other
+ members of the Commune. His fate is not well known. Director of the
+ General Post-office in the Rue J.J. Rousseau, he is said to have saved
+ that important establishment, doomed to destruction by the Commune.
+ Theiz escaped from Paris to London on the 29th of July; he took an
+ active part in the struggle to the last, and was close to Vermorel
+ when wounded at the barricade of the Château d’Eau.
+
+
+
+
+ XXXVII.
+
+
+The queen of the age is the Press. Lately dethroned and somewhat shorn
+of her majesty, but still a queen. It is in vain that the press has
+sometimes degraded itself in the eyes of honest men by stooping to
+applaud and approve of crimes and excesses, that journalists have done
+what they can to lower it; still the august offspring of the human
+mind, the press, has really lost neither its power nor its fascination.
+Misunderstood, misapplied, it may have done some harm, but no one can
+question the signal service which it has been able to render, or the
+nobility of its mission. If it has sometimes been the organ of false
+prophets, its voice has also been often raised to instruct and
+encourage.
+
+When last night you went secretly, in a manner worthy of the act, to
+seize on the printing presses of the _Journal des Débats_, the _Paris
+Journal_, and the _Constitutionnel_, were you aware of what you were
+doing? You imagined, perhaps, this act would have no other result than
+that of suppressing violently a private concern—which is one kind of
+robbery—and of reducing to a state of beggary—which is a crime—the
+numerous individuals, journalists, printers, compositors, and others
+who are employed on the journal, and who live by its means. You have
+done worse than this. You have stopped, as far as it was in your power,
+the current of human progress. You have suppressed man’s noblest.
+right—the right of expressing his opinions to the world; you are no
+better than the pickpocket who appropriates your handkerchief. You have
+taken our freedom of thought by the throat, and said, “It is in my way,
+I will strangle it.” Wherefore have you acted thus? To shut the mouths
+of those who contradict you, is to admit that you are not so very sure
+of being in the right. To suppress the journals is to confess your fear
+of them; to avoid the light is to excite our suspicion concerning the
+deeds you are perpetrating in the darkness. We shut our windows when we
+do not desire to be seen. Little confidence is inspired by closed
+doors. Your councils at the Hôtel de Ville are secret as the
+proceedings of certain legal cases, the details of which might be
+hurtful to public morality. Again I say, wherefore this mystery? What
+strange projects have you on foot? Do you discuss among you,
+propositions of a nature which your modesty declines to make known to
+the world? This fear of publicity, of opposition, you have proved
+afresh, by the nocturnal visits of your National Guards to the printing
+offices, wherein they forced an entrance like housebreakers. Shall we
+be reduced to judge of your acts, and of the bloody incidents of the
+civil war, only by your own asseverations and those of your
+accomplices? You must be very determined to act guiltily and to be
+obliged to tell lies, as you take so much trouble to get rid of those,
+who might pass sentence on you, and who might convict you of falsehood.
+Therefore you have not only committed a crime in so doing, but made a
+great mistake as well. No one can meddle with the liberty of the press
+with impunity. The persecution of the press always brings with it its
+own punishment. Look back to the many years of the Imperial Government,
+to the few months of the Government of the 4th of September; of all the
+crimes perpetrated by the former, of all the errors committed by the
+latter, those crimes and errors which most particularly hastened the
+end were those that were levelled against the freedom of the press. The
+most valable excuse in favour of the revolt of the 18th of March was
+certainly the suppression of several journals by General Vinoy, with
+the consent of M. Thiers. How can you be so rash as to make the very
+same mistakes which have been the destruction of former governments,
+and also so unmindful of your own honour as to commit the very crime
+which reduces you to the same level as your enemies?
+
+Ah I truly those who were ready to judge you with patience and
+impartiality, those who at first were perhaps, on the whole, favourable
+to you, because it seemed to them that you represented some of the
+legitimate aspirations of Paris, even those, seeing you act like
+thoughtless tyrants, will feel it quite impossible to blind themselves
+any longer to your faults; those who having wished to esteem you for
+the sake of liberty, will for the sake of liberty, be obliged to
+despise you!
+
+
+
+
+ XXXVIII.
+
+
+It cannot be true. I will not believe it. It cannot be possible that
+Paris is to be again bombarded: and by whom? By Frenchmen! In spite of
+the danger I was told there was to be apprehended near Neuilly, I
+wished to see with my own eyes what was going on. So this morning, the
+8th April, I went to the Champs Elysées.
+
+Until I reached the Rond Point there was nothing unusual, only perhaps
+fewer people to be seen about. The omnibus does not go any farther than
+the corner of the Avenue Marigny. An Englishwoman, whom the conductor
+had just helped down, came up to me and asked me the way; she wanted to
+go to the Rue Galilée, but did not like to walk up the wide avenue. I
+pointed out to her a side-street, and continued my way. A little higher
+up a line of National Guards, standing about ten feet distant from each
+other, had orders to stop passengers from going any farther. “You can’t
+pass.”—“But ...,” and I stopped to think of some plausible motive to
+justify my curiosity. However, I was saved the trouble. Although I had
+only uttered a hesitating “but,” the sentinel seemed to consider that
+sufficient, and replied, “Oh, very well, you can pass.”
+
+The avenue seemed more and more deserted as I advanced. The shutters of
+all the houses were closed. Here and there a passenger slipped along
+close to the walls of the houses, ready to take refuge within the
+street-doors, which had been left open by order, directly they heard
+the whizzing of a shell. In front of the shop of a carriage-builder,
+securely closed, were piled heaps of rifles; most of the National
+Guards were stretched on the pavement fast asleep, while some few were
+walking up and down smoking their pipes, and others playing at the
+plebeian game of “bouchon.”[46] I was told that a shell had burst a
+quarter of an hour before at the corner of the Rue de Morny. A captain
+was seated there on the ground beside his wife, who had just brought
+him his breakfast; the poor fellow was literally cut in two, and the
+woman had been carried away to a neighbouring chemist’s shop
+dangerously wounded. I was told she was still there, so I turned my
+steps in that direction. A small group of people were assembled before
+the door. I managed to get near, but saw nothing, as the poor thing had
+been carried into the surgery. They told me that she had been wounded
+in the neck by a bit of the shell, and that she was now under the care
+of one of the surgeons of the Press Ambulance. I then continued my walk
+up the avenue. The cannonading, which had seemed to cease for some
+little time, now began again with greater intensity than ever. Clouds
+of white smoke arose in the direction of the Porte Maillot, while bombs
+from Mont Valérien burst over the Arc de Triomphe. On the right and
+left of me were companies of Federals. A little further on a battalion,
+fully equipped, with blankets and saucepans strapped to their
+knapsacks, and loaves of bread stuck aloft on their bayonets, moved in
+the direction of Porte Maillot. By the side of the captain in command
+of the first company marched a woman in a strange costume, the skirt of
+a vivandière and the jacket of a National Guard, a Phrygian cap on her
+head, a chassepot in her hand, and a revolver stuck in her belt. From
+the distance at which I was standing she looked both young and pretty.
+I asked some Federals who she was; one told me she was the wife of
+Citizen Eudes,[47] a member of the Commune, and another that she was a
+newspaper seller in the Avenue des Ternes, whose child had been killed
+in the Rue des Acacias the night before by a fragment of a shell, and
+that she had sworn to revenge him. It appeared the battalion was on its
+way to support the combatants at Neuilly, who were in want of help.
+From what I hear the gendarmes and sergents de ville had fought their
+way as far as the Rue des Huissiers. Now I had no doubt the Versailles
+generals had made use of the gendarmes and sergents de ville, who were
+most of them old and tried soldiers, but if in very truth they were
+wherever the imagination of the Federals persisted in placing them,
+they must either have been as numerous as the grains of sand on the
+sea-shore, or else their leaders must have found out a way of making
+them serve in several places at once. Having followed the battalion, I
+found myself a few yards in front of the Arc de Triomphe. Suddenly a
+hissing, whizzing sound is heard in the distance, and rapidly
+approaches us; it sounds very much like the noise of a sky-rocket. “A
+shell!” cried the sergeant, and the whole battalion to a man, threw
+itself on the ground with a load jingling of saucepans and bayonets.
+Indeed there was some danger. The terrible projectile lowered as it
+approached, and then fell with a terrific noise a little way from us,
+in front of the last house on the left-hand side of the avenue. I had
+never seen a shell burst so near me before; a good idea of what it is
+like may be had from those sinister looking paintings, that one sees
+sometimes suspended round the necks of certain blind beggars, supposed
+to represent an explosion in a mine. I think no one was hurt, and the
+mischief done seemed to consist in a Wide hole in the asphalte and a
+door reduced to splinters. The National Guards got up from the ground,
+and several of them proceeded to pick up fragments of the shell. They
+had, however, not gone many yards when another cry of alarm was given,
+and again we heard the ominous Whizzing sound; in an instant we were
+all on our faces. The second shell burst, but we did not see it; we
+only saw at the top of the house that had already been struck, a window
+open suddenly and broken panes fall to the ground. The shell had most
+likely gone through the roof and burst in the attic. Was there anyone
+in those upper stories? However, we were on our legs again and had
+doubled the Arc de Triomphe. I had succeeded in ingratiating myself
+with the men of the rear-guard, and I hoped to be able to go as far
+with them as I pleased. Strange enough, and I confess it with _naif_
+delight, I did not feel at all afraid. Although half an inch difference
+in the inclination of the cannon might have cost me my life, still I
+felt inclined to proceed on my way. I begin to think that it is not
+difficult to be brave when one is not naturally a coward! Beneath the
+great arch were assembled a hundred or so of persons who seemed to
+consider themselves in safety, and who from time to time ventured a few
+steps forward, for the purpose of examining the damage done to Etex’s
+sculptured group by three successive shells. But in the Avenue de la
+Grande Armée only three Federals were to be seen, and I think I was the
+only man in plain clothes they had allowed to go so far. I could
+distinctly perceive a small barricade erected in front of the Porte
+Maillot on this side of the ramparts. The bastion to the right was hard
+at work cannonading the heights of Courbevoie; great columns of smoke,
+succeeded by terrific explosions, testified to the zeal of the
+Communist artillerymen. Beyond the ramparts the Avenue de Neuilly
+extended, dusty and deserted. Unfortunately the sun blinded me, and I
+could not distinguish well what was going on in the distance. By this
+time the sound of musketry was heard distinctly. I was told they were
+fighting principally at Saint James and in the park of Neuilly. I tried
+to pass out of the gates with the battalion, but an officer caught
+sight of me, and in no measured tones ordered me back. I ought not to
+complain, however, he rendered me good service; for although the fire
+of the Versaillais had somewhat diminished, I do not think the place
+could have been much longer tenable, to judge from the quantities of
+bits of shell that strewed the road; from the numerous litters that
+were being borne away with their bloody burthens; from the
+railway-station in ruins, and the condition of the neighbouring houses,
+which had nearly all of them great black holes in their fronts. The
+Federals did not seem at all impressed by their critical position;
+sounds of laughter reached me from the interior of a casemate, from the
+chimney of which smoke was arising, and guards running hither and
+thither were whistling merrily the _Chant du Départ_, with a look of
+complete satisfaction.
+
+[Illustration: The Arc de Triomphe, East Side (the Finest), Uninjured.]
+
+Damaged on the other side. During the Prussian siege it was defended
+from injury, though no shells reached it. Uncovered before the civil
+war.
+
+I managed to reach the Rue du Débarcadère, which is situated close to
+the ramparts. An acquaintance of mine lives there. I knew he was away,
+but I thought the porter would recognise and allow me to take up a
+position at one of the windows. Next door, the corner house, I found a
+shell had gone into a wine-merchant’s shop there, who could very well
+have dispensed with such a visitor, and had behaved in the most unruly
+fashion, breaking the glass, smashing the tables and counter, but
+neither killing nor wounding anybody. The porter knew me quite well,
+and invited me to walk upstairs to the apartments of my friend,
+situated on the third floor. From the windows I could not see the
+bastion, which was hidden by the station; but to the left, in the
+distance, beyond the Bois de Boulogne, wherein I fancied I perceived
+troops moving between the branches, but whether Versaillais or
+Parisians I could not tell, arose the tremendous Mont Valérien bathed
+in sunlight. The flashes from the cannon, which in daylight have a pale
+silver tint, succeeded each other rapidly; the explosions were
+formidable, and the fort was crowned with a wreath of smoke. They
+appeared to be firing in the direction of Levallois, rather than on the
+Porte Maillot. The Federals did not seem to attempt to reply. Turning
+myself towards the right I could scan nearly the whole length of the
+Avenue de Neuilly. The bare piece of ground which constitutes the
+military zone was completely deserted; several shells fell there that
+had been aimed doubtless at the Porte Maillot or the bastion. The
+position I had taken up at the window was rather a perilous one. I was
+just behind the bastion. Beyond the military zone most of the houses
+seemed uninhabited, but I saw distinctly the National Guards in front
+of the Restaurant Gilet, making their soup on the side-walk. I was too
+far away to judge of the extent of the mischief done by the
+cannonading, but I was told that several roofs had fallen in and many
+walls had been thrown down in that quarter. All that I could see of the
+market-place was empty; but the sound of musketry, and the smoke which
+issued from the houses on one side of it, told me that the Federals
+were there in sufficient numbers. A little further on I saw the barrels
+of the rifles sticking out of the windows, with little wreaths of smoke
+curling out of them; small knots of armed men every now and then
+marched hurriedly across the avenue, and disappeared into the opposite
+houses. Partly on account of the distance, and partly on account of the
+blinding sun, and partly, perhaps, on account of the emotion I
+experienced, which made me desire and yet fear to see, I could
+distinguish the bridge but indistinctly, with the dark line of a
+barricade in front of it. What surprised me most in the battle which I
+was busily observing, was the extraordinarily small number of
+combatants that were visible, when suddenly—it was about two o’clock in
+the afternoon—the Versailles batteries at Courbevoie, which had been
+silent for some time, began firing furiously. The horrid screech of the
+mitrailleuse drowned the hissing of the shells; the whole breadth of
+the long avenue was covered by a kind of white mist. The bastion in
+front of me replied energetically. It seemed to me as if the interior
+part of my ear was being rent asunder, when suddenly I heard a dull
+heavy sound, such as I had not heard before, and I felt the house
+tremble beneath me. Loud cries arose from the National Guards on the
+ramparts. I fancied that a rain of shot and shell had destroyed the
+drawbridge of the Porte Maillot; but it was not so; in the distance I
+saw that the clouds of smoke were rolling nearer and nearer, and that
+the roar of the musketry, which had greatly increased, sounded close
+by. I felt sure that a rush was being made from Courbevoie—that the
+Versaillais were advancing. The shells were flying over our heads in
+the direction of the Champs Elysées. I began to distinguish that a
+tumultuous mass of human beings were marching on in the smoke, in the
+dust, in the sun. The guns on the bastion now thundered forth
+incessantly. There was no mistaking by this time, there were the
+Versaillais; I could see the red trowsers of the men of the line. The
+Federals were shooting them down from the windows. Then I saw the
+advanced guard stop, hesitate beneath the balls which seemed to rain on
+them from the Place du Marché, and presently retire. Whereupon a large
+number of Federals poured forth from the houses, and, walking close to
+the walls, to be as much as possible out of the way of the projectiles,
+hurried after the retreating enemy. But suddenly, when they had arrived
+a little too far for me to distinguish anything very clearly, they in
+their turn came to a standstill, and then retraced their steps, and
+returned to their positions within the houses. The fire from the
+Versaillais then sensibly diminished, but that of the bastions
+continued its furious attack. It was thus that I witnessed one of those
+_chassé-croisés_ under fire, which have become so frequent since this
+dreadful civil war was concentrated at Neuilly.
+
+[Illustration: Horse Chasseur acting as a communist artillery man,
+attended by a gamin sponger.]
+
+As it would have been most imprudent to follow the railway cutting, or
+to have gone back by the Avenue de la Grande Armée, where the
+Versailles shells were still falling, I walked up the Rue du
+Débarcadère, and then turned into the Rue Saint-Ferdinand, and soon
+found myself in the Place des Ternes, in front of the church. There was
+a most dismal aspect about the whole of this quarter. Situated close to
+the ramparts, it is very much exposed, and had suffered greatly. Nearly
+all the shops were shut; some of the doors, however, of those where
+wine or provisions, are sold, were standing open, while on the shutters
+of others were inscribed in chalk, “The entrance is beneath the
+gateway.” I was astonished to see that the church was open, a rare
+sight in these days. Why, is it possible that the Commune has committed
+the unqualifiable imprudence of not arresting the curé of
+Saint-Ferdinand, and that she is weak enough—may she not have to regret
+it!—to permit the inhabitants of Ternes to be baptised, married, and
+buried according to the deplorable rites and ceremonies of Catholicism,
+which has happily fallen into disuse in the other quarters of Paris? I
+can now understand why the shells fall so persistently in this poor
+arrondissement: the anger of the goddess of Reason (shall we not soon
+have a goddess of Reason?) lies heavily on this quarter, the shame of
+the capital, where the inhabitants still try to look as if they
+believed in heaven! In spite of everything, however, I entered the
+church; there were a great many women on their knees, and several men
+too. The prayers of the dead were being said over the coffin of a woman
+who, I was told, was killed yesterday by a ball in the chest, whilst
+crossing the Avenue des Ternes, just a little above the railway bridge.
+A ball, how strange! yet I was assured such was the case. It is pretty
+evident, then, that the Versaillais were considerably nearer to Paris,
+on this side at least, than the official despatches lead us to suppose.
+
+On returning to the street I directed my steps in the direction of the
+Place d’Eylau. Two National Guards passed me, bearing a litter between
+them.—“Oh, you can look if you like,” said one. So I drew back the
+checked curtain. On the mattress was stretched a woman, decently
+dressed, with a child of two or three years lying on her breast. They
+both looked very pale; one of the woman’s arms was hanging down; her
+sleeve was stained with blood; the hand had been carried away.—“Where
+were they wounded?” I asked.—“Wounded! they are dead. It is the wife
+and child of the velocipede-maker in the Avenue de Wagram; if you will
+go and break the news to him you will do us a good service.”
+
+It was therefore quite true, certain, incontestable. The balls and
+shells of the Versaillais were not content with killing the combatants
+and knocking down the forts and ramparts. They were also killing women
+and children, ordinary passers-by; not only those who were attracted by
+an imprudent curiosity to go where they had no business, but
+unfortunates who were necessarily obliged to venture into the
+neighbouring streets, for the purpose of buying bread. Not only do the
+shells of the National Assembly reach the buildings situated close to
+the city walls, but they often fall considerably farther in, crushing
+inoffensive houses, and breaking the sculpture on the public monuments.
+No one can deny this. I have seen it with my own eyes. Anyhow, the
+projectiles fall nearer and nearer the centre. Yesterday they fell in
+the Avenue de la Grande Armée; to-day they fly over the Arc de
+Triomphe, and fall in the Place d’Eylau and the Avenue d’Uhrich. Who
+knows but what to-morrow they will have reached the Place de la
+Concorde, and the next day perhaps I may be killed by one on the
+Boulevard Montmartre? Paris bombarded! Take care, gentlemen of the
+National Assembly! What the Prussians did, and what gave rise to such a
+clamour of indignation on the part of the Government of the 4th
+September, it will be both infamous and imprudent for you to attempt.
+You kill Frenchmen who are in arms against their countrymen,—alas! that
+is a horrible necessity in civil war,—but spare the lives and the
+dwellings of those who are not arrayed against you, and who are perhaps
+your allies. It is all very well to argue that guns are not endowed
+with the gifts of intelligence and mercy, and that one cannot make them
+do exactly what one likes; but what have you done with those marvellous
+marksmen who, during the siege, continually threw down the enemy’s
+batteries and interrupted his works with such extraordinary precision,
+and who pretended that at a distance of seven thousand metres they
+could hit the gilded spike of a Prussian helmet? Wherefore have they
+become so clumsy since they changed places with their adversaries?
+Joking apart, in a word, you are doing yourself the greatest injury in
+being so uselessly cruel; every shell overleaping the fortifications is
+not only a crime, but a great mistake. Remember, that in this horrible
+duel which is going on, victory will not really remain with that party
+which shall have triumphed over the other, by the force of arms (yours
+undoubtedly), but to the one who, by his conduct, shall have succeeded
+in proving to the neutral population, which observes and judges, that
+right was on his side. I do not say but what your cause is the best;
+for although we may have to reproach you with an imprudent resistance,
+unnecessary attacks, and a wilful obstinacy not to see what was
+legitimate and honourable in the wishes of the Parisians, still we must
+consider that you represent, legally, the whole of France. I do not
+say, therefore, but what your cause is the best; frankly though, can
+you hope to bring over to your side that large body of citizens, whose
+confidence you had shaken, by massacring innocent people in the
+streets, and destroying their dwellings? If this bombardment continues,
+if it increases in violence as it seems likely to do, you will become
+odious, and then, were you a hundred times in the right, you will still
+be in the wrong. Therefore, it is most urgent that you give orders to
+the artillerymen of Courbevoie and Mont Valérien, to moderate their
+zeal, if you do not desire that Paris—neutral Paris—should make
+dangerous comparisons between the Assembly which flings us its shells,
+and the Commune which launches its decrees, and come to the conclusion
+that decrees are less dangerous missiles than cannon-balls. As to the
+legality of the thing, we do not much care about that; we have seen so
+many governments, more or less legal, that we are somewhat _blasés_ on
+that point; and a few millions of votes have scarcely power enough to
+put us in good humour with shot and shell. Certainly the Commune, such
+as the men at the Hôtel de Ville have constituted it, is not a
+brilliant prospect. It arrests priests, stops newspapers, wishes to
+incorporate us, in spite of ourselves, in the National Guard; robs
+us—so we are told; lies inveterately—that is incontestable, and
+altogether makes itself a great bore; but what does that matter?—human
+nature is full of weaknesses, and prefers to be bored than bombarded.
+
+[Illustration: Marine Gunner and Street-boy.]
+
+During the Prussian siege the sailors of the French navy played an
+important part, their bravery, activity, and ingenuity being much
+esteemed by the Parisians. Some, of them took the red side, and manned
+the gun-boats on the Seine. Knowing the prestige attached to the brave
+marines, the Communist generals made use of the naval clothes found in
+the marine stores, and dressed therein some of the valliant heroes of
+Belleville and Montmartre.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [46] The game of pitch-halfpenny, in, which, in France, a cork
+ (_bouchon_), with halfpence on the top of it, is placed on the ground.
+
+ [47] General Eudes was the Alcibiades, or rather the Saint Just, of
+ the Commune. He had the face and manners of a fashionable _tenorino_,
+ the luxurious taste of the Athenian, the cruel inflexibility of
+ Robespierre’s protégé. He was born at Bonay, in the arrondissement of
+ Coutances. His father was a tradesman of the Boulevard des Italians.
+ In his examination before the Council of War in August, 1870, Eudes
+ called himself a shorthand writer and law student, though his real
+ position was said to be that of a linendraper’s clerk. His first
+ notable exploit was the assassination of a fireman at La Villette. For
+ this crime he was brought before the First Council of War at Paris.
+ Here he informed the President, in somewhat unparliamentary terms,
+ that “the betrayers of the country were not the Republicans, and that
+ to destroy the Imperial Government was to annihilate the Prussians.”
+ In spite of the eloquent appeal of his counsel, he was condemned to
+ death. The events of the fourth of September prevented the execution
+ of this sentence, and he lived to take an active part in the agitation
+ of the thirty-first of October. He was again tried for this conduct
+ and acquitted, together with Vermorel, Ribaldi, Lefrançais and others.
+ Eudes’ name figures in the first decrees of the Commune, and on the
+ last of those of the Committee of Public Safety. On the second of
+ April he was appointed Delegate for War, and, conjointly with
+ Cluseret, organised ten corps of the Enfants Perdus of Belleville. He
+ promised to each of his volunteers an annuity of 300 francs and a
+ decoration. Eudes was an atheist of the most violent type, and sayings
+ are attributed to him which make one shudder.
+
+
+
+
+ XXXIX.
+
+
+Where is Bergeret? What have they done with Bergeret? We miss Bergeret.
+They have no right to suppress Bergeret, who, according to the official
+document, was “himself” at Neuilly; Bergeret, who drove to battle in an
+open carriage; who enlivened our ennui with a little fun. They were
+perfectly at liberty to take away his command and give it to whomsoever
+they chose; I am quite agreeable to that, but they had no right to take
+him away and prevent him amusing us. Alas! we do not have the chance so
+often![48]
+
+Rumours are afloat that he has been taken to the Conciergerie. Poor
+Bergeret! and why is he so treated? Because he got the Federals beaten
+in trying to lead them to Versailles?
+
+[Illustration: CORPS LEGISLATIF.—THE HEAD-QUARTERS OF GENERAL BERGERET]
+
+Citizens, if you will allow me to express my humble opinion on the
+subject, I shall take the opportunity of insinuating that the plan of
+Citizen Bergeret—which has, I acknowledge, been completely
+unsuccessful—was the only possible one capable of transforming into a
+triumphant revolution, the émeute of Montmartre, now the Commune of
+Paris.
+
+Let us look at it from a logical point of view, if you please. Does it
+seem possible to you, that Paris can hold its own against the whole of
+the rest of France? No, most certainly not. Today, especially, after
+the disasters that have occurred to the communal insurrectionists of
+Marseilles, Lyons, and Toulouse—disasters which your lying official
+reports have in vain tried to transform into successes; today, I say,
+you cannot possibly nourish any delusive hopes of help from the
+provinces. In a few days, you will have the whole country in array in
+front of your ramparts and your ruined fortresses, and then you are
+lost; yes, lost, in spite of all the blinded heroism of those whom you
+have beguiled to the slaughter. The only hope you could reasonably have
+conceived was that of profiting by the first moment of surprise and
+disorder, which the victorious revolt had occasioned among the small
+number of hesitating soldiery which then constituted the whole of the
+French army; to surprise Versailles, inadequately defended, and seize,
+if it were possible, on the Assembly and the Government. Your sudden
+revolution wanted to be followed up by a brusque attack, there would
+then have been some hope—a faint one, I confess, but still a hope, and
+this plan of Bergeret, by the very reason of its audacity, should not
+have been condemned by you, who have only succeeded through violence
+and audacity, and can only go on prospering by the same means. Now what
+do you mean to do? To resist the whole of France? To resist your
+enemies inside the walls, besides those enemies outside, who increase
+in numbers and confidence every day? Your defeat is certain, and from
+this day forth is only a question of time. You were decidedly wrong to
+put Bergeret “in the shade” as they say at the Hôtel de Ville,—firstly,
+because he amused us; and secondly, because he tried the only thing
+that could possibly have succeeded—an enterprise worthy of a brilliant
+madman.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [48] General Bergeret, Member of the Central Committee, Delegate of
+ War, &c., was a bookseller’s assistant. He emerged in 1869 from a
+ printing-office to support the irreconcileable candidates in the
+ election meetings.
+    Events progressed, and on the 18th of March Victor Bergeret
+    reappeared, resplendent in gold lace and embroidery, happy to have
+    found at last a government, to which Jules Favre did not belong.
+    When Bergeret, who never had any higher grade than that of sergeant
+    in the National Guard, was made general, he believed himself to be
+    a soldier. A friend of this pasteboard officer said one day, “If
+    Bergeret were to live a hundred years, he would always swear he had
+    been a general.”
+    On the 8th April, Victor Bergeret was arrested by order of the
+    Executive Commission for having refused obedience to Cluseret, a
+    general too, and his superior, and he was incarcerated in the
+    prison of Mazas, where he remained for a short time, until the day
+    when Cluseret was shut up there himself. In fact, Cluseret went
+    into the very cell which Bergeret had just quitted, and found an
+    autograph note written on the wall by his predecessor, and
+    addressed to himself. The words ran thus:—
+
+    “CITIZEN CLUSERET,—
+    “You have had me shut up here, and you will be here yourself before
+    eight days are over.
+
+“GÉNÉRAL BERGERET.”
+
+On leaving the prison of Mazas, Bergeret was still kept a prisoner for
+a time in a magnificent apartment of the Hôtel de Ville, decorated with
+gilded panneling and cerise-coloured satin. His wife was allowed to
+join him here, and he also obtained permission to keep with him a
+little terrier, of which he was extremely fond. Shortly afterwards he
+was reinstated, took his place again in the Communal Assembly, and was
+attached to the commission of war. The beautiful palace of the
+president of the Corps Législatif was now his residence, and there he
+delighted in receiving the friends who had known him when he was poor.
+His invariable home-dress in palace as in prison, was red from head to
+foot: red jacket, red trousers, and red Phrygian cap.
+    One day, a short time after his release from prison, he said to an
+    intimate friend:—“Affairs are going well, but the Commune is in
+    need of money, I know it, and they are wrong not to confide in me.
+    I would lend them ten thousand francs willingly.” The generalship
+    had singularly enriched Jules Bergeret (himself).
+
+[Illustration: General Dombrowski.]
+
+
+
+
+XL.
+
+
+Who takes Bergeret’s place? Dombrowski.[49] Who had the idea of doing
+this? Cluseret. First of all we had the Central Committee, then we had
+the Commune, and now we have Cluseret. It looks as if Cluseret had
+swallowed the Commune, which had previously swallowed and only half
+digested the Central Committee. We are told that Cluseret is a great
+man, that Cluseret is strong, that Cluseret will save Paris. Cluseret
+issues decrees, and sees that they are executed. The Commune says, “_we
+wish_;” but Cluseret says, “_I wish_.” It is he who has conceived and
+promulgated the following edict:
+
+“In consideration of the patriotic demands of a large number of
+National Guards, who, although they are married men, wish to have the
+honour of defending their municipal rights, even at the expense of
+their lives ...”
+
+I should like to know some of those National Guards who attach so
+little importance to their lives! Show me two, and I will myself
+consent to be the third. But I am interrupting Dictator Cluseret.
+
+“The decree of the fifth of April is therefore modified:”
+
+The decree of the fifth of April was made by the Commune, but Cluseret
+does not care a straw for that.
+
+    “From seventeen to nineteen, service in the marching-companies is
+    voluntary, but from nineteen to forty it is obligatory for the
+    National Guards, married or unmarried.
+    “I recommend all good patriots to be their own police, and to see
+    that this edict is carried out in their respective quartern, and to
+    force the refractory to serve.”
+
+As to the last paragraph of Cluseret’s decree it is impossible to joke
+about it, it is by far too odious. This exhortation in favour of a
+press-gang,—this wish that each man should become a spy upon his
+neighbour (he says it in so many words), fills me with anger and
+disgust. What! I may be passing in the streets, going about my own
+business, and the first Federal who pleases, anybody with dirty hands,
+a wretch you may be sure, for none but a wretch would follow the
+recommendations of Cluseret,—an escaped convict, may take me by the
+collar and say, “Come along and be killed for the sake of my municipal
+independence.” Or else I may be in bed at night, quietly asleep, as it
+is clearly my right to be, and four or five fellows, fired with
+patriotic ardour, may break in my door, if I do not hasten to open it
+on the first summons like a willing slave, and, whether I like it or
+not, drag me in night-cap and slippers, in my shirt perhaps, if it so
+pleases the brave _sans-culottes_, to the nearest outpost. Now I swear
+to you, Cluseret, I would not bear this, if I had not, during the last
+few hungry days of the siege, sold to a curiosity dealer—your colleague
+now in the Commune—my revolver, which I had hoped naïvely might defend
+me against the Prussians! Think, a revolver with six balls, if you
+please, and which, alas! I forgot to discharge!
+
+We can only hope that even at this moment, when the revolution has
+brought out of the darkness into the light, so many rascals and
+cowards, just as the sediment rises to the top when the wine is shaken,
+we must hope, that there will be found in Paris, nobody to undertake
+the mean office of spy and detective; and that the decree of M.
+Cluseret will remain a dead-letter, like so many other decrees of the
+Commune. I will not believe all I am told; I will not believe that last
+night several men, without any precise orders, without any legal
+character whatever, merely National Guards, introduced themselves into
+peaceful families; waking the wife and children, and carrying off the
+husband as one carries off a housebreaker or an escaped convict. I am
+told that this is a fact, that it has happened more than fifty times at
+Montmartre, Batignolles, and Belleville; yet I will not believe it.[50]
+I prefer to believe that these tales are “inventions of Versailles”
+than to admit the possibility of such infamy.
+
+Come now, Cluseret, War Delegate, whatever he likes to call himself.
+Where does he come from, what has he done, and what services has he
+rendered, to give him a right thus to impose his sovereign wishes upon
+us?
+
+He is not a Frenchman; nor is he an American; for the honour of France
+I prefer his being an American. His history is as short as it is
+inglorious. He once served in the French army, and left, one does not
+know why; then went to fight in America during the war. His enemies
+affirm that he fought for the Slave States, his friends the contrary.
+It does not seem very clear which side he was on—both, perhaps. Oh,
+America! you had taken him from us, why did you not keep him? Cluseret
+came back to us with the glory of having forsworn his country.
+Immediately the revolutionists received him with open arms. Only think,
+an American! Do you like America? People want to make an America
+everywhere. Modern Republics have had formidable enemies to contend
+with—America and the revolution of ’98. We are sad parodists. We cannot
+be free in our own fashion, but are always obliged to imitate what has
+been or what is. But that which is adapted to one climate or country,
+is it always that which is the fittest thing for another? I will
+return, however, to this subject another time. America, who is so
+vaunted, and whom I should admire as much as could reasonably be
+wished, if men did not try to remodel France after her image, one must
+be blind not to see what she has of weakness and of narrowness, amid
+much that is truly grand. It was said to me once by some one, “The
+American mind may be compared to a compound liqueur, composed of the
+yeast of Anglo-Saxon beer, the foam of Spanish wines, and the dregs of
+the _petit-bleu_ of Suresnes, heated to boiling point by the applause
+and admiration given by the genuine pale ale, the true sherry, and
+authentic Château-Margaux to these their deposits. From time to time
+the caldron seethes with a little too much violence, and the bubbling
+drink pours over upon the old world, bringing back to the pure source,
+to the true vintage, their deteriorated products. Oh! The poor wines of
+France! How many adulterations have they been submitted to!” Calumny
+and exaggeration no doubt; but I am angry with America for sending
+Cluseret back, as I am angry with the Commune for having imposed him on
+Paris. The Commune, however, has an admirable excuse: it has not,
+perhaps, found among true Frenchmen one with an ambition criminal
+enough to direct, according to her wishes, the destruction of Paris by
+Paris, and France by France.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [49] There are two versions of Dombrowski’s earlier history. By his
+ admirers he was said to have headed the last Polish insurrection: the
+ party of order stigmatise him as a Russian adventurer, who had fought
+ in Poland, but against the Poles, and in the Caucasus, in Italy, and
+ in France—wherever; in fine, blows were to be given and money earned.
+ He entered France, like many other adventurous knights, in Garibaldi’s
+ suite, came to Paris after the siege, and immediately after the
+ outbreak of the eighteenth of March was created general by the
+ Commune, and gathered round him in guise of staff the most
+ illustrious, or least ignoble, of those foreign parasites and
+ vagabonds, who have made of Paris a grand occidental Bohemian Babel.
+ These soldiers of fortune, most of whom had been “unfortunate” at
+ home, formed the marrow of the Commune’s military strength.
+    Dombrowski had gained a name for intrepidity even among these men
+    of reckless courage and adventurous lives. He maintained strict
+    discipline, albeit to a not very moral purpose. Whoever dared
+    connect his name with the word defeat was shot. Like many other
+    Communist generals he took the most stringent measures for
+    concealing the truth from his soldiers, and thus staved off total
+    demoralisation until the Versailles troops were in the heart of
+    Paris. His relations with the Federal authorities were not of an
+    uniformly amiable character.
+
+ [50] A poor Italian smith told me he had three men seized. They had
+ taken a stove near the fortifications of Ternes, when they were
+ arrested. “But we are Italians!” they cried. It was no excuse, for the
+ Federals replied, “Italians! so much the better; you shall serve as
+ Garibaldians!”
+
+
+
+
+ XLI.
+
+
+It was not enough that men should be riddled with balls and torn to
+pieces by shells. The women are also seized with a strange enthusiasm
+in their turn, and they too fall on the battle-field, victims of a
+terrible heroism. What extraordinary beings are these who exchange the
+needle for the needle-gun, the broom for the bayonet, who quit their
+children that they may die by the sides of their husbands or lovers?
+Amazons of the rabble, magnificent and abject, something between
+Penthesilea and Théroigne de Méricourt. There they are seen to pass as
+cantinières, among those who go forth to fight. The men are furious,
+the women are ferocious,—nothing can appal, nothing discourage them. At
+Neuilly, a vivandière is wounded in the head; she turns back a moment
+to staunch the blood, then returns to her post of danger. Another, in
+the 61st Battalion, boasts of having killed three _gardiens de la
+paix_[51] and several _gendarmes_. On the plain of Châtillon a woman
+joins a group of National Guards, takes her stand amongst them, loads
+her gun, fires, re-loads and fires again, without the slightest
+interruption. She is the last to retire, and even then turns back again
+and again to fire. A _cantinière_ of the 68th Battalion was killed by a
+fragment of shell which broke the little spirit-barrel she carried, and
+sent the splinters into her stomach. After the engagement of the 3rd of
+April, nine bodies were brought to the _mairie_ of Vaugirard. The poor
+women of the quarter crowd there, chattering and groaning, to look for
+husbands, brothers and son’s. They tear a dingy lantern from each
+other, and put it close to the pale faces of the dead, amongst whom
+they find the body of a young woman literally riddled with shot. What
+means the wild rage that seizes upon these furies? Are they conscious
+of the crimes they commit; do they understand the cause for which they
+die? Yesterday, in a shop of the Rue de Montreuil, a woman entered with
+her gun on her shoulder and her bayonet covered with blood. “Wouldn’t
+you do better to stay at home and wash your brats?” said an indignant
+neighbour. Whereupon arose a furious altercation, the virago working
+herself into such a fury that she sprang upon her adversary, and bit
+her violently in the throat, then withdrew a few steps, seized her gun,
+and was going to fire, when she suddenly turned pale, her weapon fell
+from her hands, and she sank back dead. In her wild passion she had
+broken a blood vessel. Such are the women of the people in this
+terrible year of 1871. It has its _cantinières_ as ’93 had its
+_tricoteuses_,[52] but the cantinières are preferable, for the horrible
+in them partakes of a savage grandeur. Fighting as they are against
+brothers and kinsfolk, they are revolting, but against a foreign enemy,
+they would have been sublime.
+
+Children, even, do not remain passive in this fearful conflict. The
+children! you cry,—but do not smile; one of my friends has just seen a
+poor boy whose eye has been knocked in with the point of a nail. It
+happened thus. It was on Friday evening in the principal street of
+Neuilly. Two hundred boys—the eldest scarcely twelve years old—had
+assembled there; they carried sticks on their shoulders, with knives
+and nails stuck at the end of them. They had their army roll, and their
+numbers were called over in form, and their chiefs—for they had
+chiefs—gave the order to form into half sections, then to march in the
+direction of Charenton; a mite of a child trudged before, blowing in a
+penny trumpet bought at a toy-shop, and they had a cantinière, a little
+girl of six. Soon, they met another troop of children of about the same
+numbers. Had the encounter been previously arranged? Had it been
+decided that they should give battle? I cannot tell you this, but at
+all events the battle took place, one party being for the Versailles
+troops, the other for the Federals. Such a battle, that the inhabitants
+of the quarter had the greatest difficulty in separating the
+combatants, and there were killed and wounded, as the official
+despatches of the Commune would give it; Alexis Mercier, a lad of
+twelve, whom his comrades had raised to the dignity of captain, was
+killed by the blow of a knife in the stomach.
+
+Ah! believe it, these women drunk with hate, these children playing at
+murder, are symptoms of the terrible malady of the times. A few days
+hence, and this fury for slaughter will have seized all Paris.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [51] The Gardiens de la Paix replaced the Sergents de Ville. They
+ carried no sword, and wore a cap with a tricoloured band and cockade;
+ in fact were the policemen of Paris. The Gendarmerie are the country
+ police.
+
+ [52] Tricoteuses (knitters), women who attended political
+ clubs—working whilst they listened—1871 refined upon the idea of 1793.
+ The first revolution had its Tricoteuses, that of 1871 its
+ Petroleuses!!!
+
+
+
+
+ XLII.
+
+
+May conciliation be hoped for yet? Alas! I can scarcely think so. The
+bloody fight will have a bloody end. It is not alone between the
+Commune of Paris and the Assembly of Versailles that there lies an
+abyss which only corpses can fill. Paris itself, at this moment—I mean
+the Paris sincerely desirous of peace—is no longer understood by
+France; a few days of separation have caused strange divisions in men’s
+minds; the capital seems to speak the country’s language no longer.
+Timbuctoo is not as far from Pekin, as Versailles is distant from
+Paris. How can one hope under such circumstances, that the
+misunderstanding, the sole cause of our misfortunes, can be cleared
+away? How can one believe that the Government of Monsieur Thiers will
+lend an ear to the propositions carried there by the members of the
+Republican Union of the rights of Paris,[53] by the delegates of
+Parisian trade and by the emissaries of the Freemasons;[54] when the
+principal object of all these propositions is the definitive
+establishment of the Republic, and the fall and entire recognition of
+our municipal liberties. The National Assembly is at the same point as
+it was on the eve of the 18th of March; it disregards now, as it did
+then, the legitimate wishes of the population, and, moreover, it will
+not perceive the fact that the triumphant insurrection—in spite of the
+excesses that everyone condemns—has naturally added to the validity of
+our just revendications. The “Communists” are wrong, but the Commune,
+the true Commune, is right; this is what Paris believes, and,
+unhappily, this is what Versailles will not understand; it wants to
+remain, as to the form of its government, weakly stationary; it makes a
+municipal law that will be judged insufficient; and, as it obstinately
+persists in errors which were worn out a month ago and are rotten now,
+they will soon consider the “conciliators” whose ideas have progressed
+from day to day, as the veritable agents of the insurrection, and send
+them, purely and simply, about their business.
+
+Nevertheless, the desire of seeing this fratricidal war at an end, is
+so great, so ardent, so general, that convinced as we are of the
+uselessness of their efforts, we admire and encourage those who
+undertake the almost hopeless task of pacification with persistent
+courage. True Paris has now but one flag, which is neither the crimson
+rag nor the tricolour standard, but the white flag of truce.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [53] The citizens, united under the denomination of the League of
+ Republican Union of the Rights of Paris, had adopted the following
+ programme, which seemed to them to express the wishes of the
+ population:—
+    “Recognition of the Republic.
+    “Recognition of the rights of Paris to govern itself, to regulate
+    its police, its finances, its public charities, its public
+    instruction, and the exercise of its religious liberty by a council
+    freely elected and all-powerful within the scope of its action.
+    “The protection of Paris exclusively confided to the National
+    Guard, formed of all citizens fit to serve.
+    “It is to the defence of this programme that the members of the
+    League wish to devote their efforts, and they appeal to all
+    citizens to aid them in the work, by making known their adhesion,
+    so that the members of the League, thereby strengthened and
+    supported, may exercise a powerful mediatory influence, tending to
+    bring about the return of peace, and to secure the maintenance of
+    the Republic.
+    “Paris, 6th April, 1871.”
+    Here follow the signatures of former representatives, _maires_,
+    doctors, lawyers, literary men, merchants, and others.
+
+ [54] MANIFESTO OF THE FREEMASONS.
+
+“In the presence of the fearful events which make all France shudder
+and mourn, in the sight of the precious blood that flows in streams,
+the Freemasons, who represent the sentiments of humanity and have
+spread them through the world, come once more to declare before you,
+government and members of the Assembly, and before you, members of the
+Commune, these great principles which are their law and which ought to
+be the law of every one who has the heart of a man.
+    “The flag of the Freemasons bears inscribed upon it, the noble
+    device—Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Union. The Freemasons uphold
+    peace among men, and, in the name of humanity, proclaim the
+    inviolability of human life. The Freemasons detest all wars, and
+    cannot sufficiently express grief and horror at civil warfare.
+    Their duty and their right are to come between you and to say:
+    “‘In the name of humanity, in the name of fraternity, in the name
+    of the distracted country, put a stop to this effusion of blood; we
+    ask of you, we implore of you, to listen to our appeal.’”
+
+
+
+
+ XLIII.
+
+
+Do you know what the Abbaye de Cinq-Pierres is, or rather what it was?
+Mind, not Saint-Pierre, but Cinq-Pierres (Five Stones). Gavroche,[55]
+who loves puns and is very fond of slang, gave this nickname to a set
+of huge stones which stood before the prison of La Roquette, and on
+which the guillotine used to be erected on the mornings when a capital
+punishment was to take place. The executioner was the Abbé de
+Cinq-Pierres, for Gavroche is as logical as he is ingenious. Well! the
+abbey exists no longer, swept clean away from the front of the Roquette
+prison. This is splendid! and as for the guillotine itself, you know
+what has been done with that. Oh! we had a narrow escape! Would you
+believe that that infamous, that abominable Government of Versailles,
+conceived the idea, at the time it sat in Paris, of having a new and
+exquisitely improved guillotine, constructed by anonymous carpenters?
+It is exactly as I have the honour of telling you. You can easily
+verify the fact by reading the proclamation of the “_sous-comité en
+exercice._” What is the “active under-committee?” I admit that I am in
+total ignorance on the subject; but, what does it matter! In these
+times when committees spring up like mushrooms, it would be absurd to
+allow oneself to be astonished at a committee—and especially a
+sub-committee—more or less. Here is the proclamation:—
+
+“CITIZENS,—Being informed that a guillotine is at this moment in course
+of construction,...” Dear me, yes, while you were fast asleep and
+dreaming, with no other apprehension than that of being sent to prison
+by the members of the Commune, a guillotine was being made. Happily,
+the sub-committee was not asleep. No, not they! “... a guillotine
+ordered and paid for ...”. Are you quite sure it was paid for, good
+sub-committee? For that Government, you know, had such a habit of
+cheating poor people out of their rights. “... by the late odious
+government; a portable and rapid guillotine.” Ha! What do you say to
+that? Does not that make your blood run cold? Rapid, you understand;
+that is to say, that the guillotining of twelve or fifteen hundred
+patriots in a morning would have been play to the Abbé of Cinq-Pierres.
+And portable, too! A sort of pocket guillotine. When the members of the
+Government had a circuit to make in the provinces, they would have
+carried their guillotine with their seals of office, and if, at Lyons,
+Marseilles, or any other great town, they had met a certain number of
+scoundrels—Snip, snap! In the twinkling of an eye, no more scoundrels
+left. Oh! how cunning! But let us go on reading. “The sub-committee of
+the eleventh arrondissement ...” Oh! so there is a sub-committee for
+each arrondisement, is there? “... has had these infamous instruments
+of monarchical domination ...” One for you, Monsieur Thiers! “...
+seized, and has voted their destruction for ever.” Very good
+intentions, sub-committee, but you can’t write grammar. “In
+consequence, they will be burnt in front of the _mairie_, for the
+purification of the arrondissement and the preservation of the new
+liberties.” And accordingly, a guillotine was burnt on the 7th of
+April, at ten o’clock in the morning, before the statue of Voltaire.
+
+The ceremony was not without a certain weirdness. In the midst of a
+compact crowd of men, women, and children, who shook their fists at the
+odious instrument, some National Guards of the 187th Battalion fed the
+huge flames with broken pieces of the guillotine, which crackled,
+blistered, and blazed, while the statue of the old philosopher, wrapped
+in the smoke, must have sniffed the incense with delight. When nothing
+remained but a heap of glowing ashes, the crowd shouted with joy; and
+for my own part, I fully approved of what had just been done as well as
+of the approbation of the spectators. But, between you and me, do you
+not think that many of the persons there had often stationed themselves
+around the guillotine with rather different intentions than that of
+seeing it burnt? And then, if in reducing this instrument of death to
+ashes, they wished to prove that the time is past when men put men to
+death, it seems to me that they ought not to stop at this. While we are
+at it, let us burn the muskets too,—what say you?
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [55] Gavroche is a street boy of Paris, a _gamin_ immortalized by
+ Victor Hugo in “Les Misérables,” a master of Parisian _argot_ (slang).
+
+
+
+
+ XLIV.
+
+
+I have just witnessed a horrible scene. Alas! what harrowing spectacles
+meet our eyes on every side, and will still before all this comes to an
+end. I accompanied a poor old woman to a cemetery in the east of Paris.
+Her son, who had engaged himself in a battalion of Federal guards, had
+not been home for five days. He was most likely dead, the neighbours
+said, and one bade her “go and look at the Cimetière de l’Est, they
+have brought in a load of bodies there.” Imagine a deep trench and
+about thirty coffins placed side by side. Numbers of people came there
+to claim their own among the dead. To avoid crowding, the National
+Guards made the people walk in order, two or three abreast, and thus
+they were marshalled among the tombs and crosses. The poor woman and I
+followed the others. From time to time I heard a burst of sobs; some
+one amongst the dead had been recognised. On we go slowly, step by
+step, as if we were at the doors of a theatre. At last we arrive before
+the first coffin. The poor mother I have come with is very weak and
+very sad; it is I who lift up the thin lid of the coffin. A grey-haired
+corpse is lying within it, from the shoulders downwards nothing but a
+heap of torn flesh, and clothes, and congealed blood. We continue on.
+The second coffin also contains the body of an old man; no wounds are
+to be seen; he was probably killed by a ball. Still we advance. I
+observe that the old men are in far greater number than the young. The
+wounds are often fearful. Sometimes the face is entirely mutilated.
+When I had closed the lid of the last coffin the poor mother uttered a
+cry of relief; her son was not there! For myself, I was stupefied with
+horror, and only recovered my senses on being pushed on by the men
+behind me, who wanted to see in their turn. “Well! when will he have
+done?” said one. “I suppose he thinks that it is all for him.”
+
+[Illustration: Burning the Guillotine. April]
+
+
+
+
+ XLV.
+
+
+What is absolutely stupefying in the midst of all this, is the smiling
+aspect of the streets and the promenades. The constantly increasing
+emigration is only felt by the diminution in the number of depraved
+women and dissipated men; enough, however, remain to fill the cafés and
+give life to the boulevards. It might almost be said that Paris is in
+its normal state.
+
+Every morning, from the Champs Elysées, Les Ternes, and Vaugirard,
+families are seen removing into the town, out of the way of the
+bombardment, as at the time when Jules Favre anathematised the
+barbarity of the Prussians. Some pass in cabs, others on foot, walking
+sadly, with their bedding and household furniture piled on a cart. If
+you question these poor people, they will all tell you of the shells
+from the Versailles batteries, destroying houses and killing women and
+children. What matters it? Paris goes her usual round of business and
+pleasure. The Commune suppresses journals and imprisons journalists.
+Monsieur Richardet, of the _National_, was marched off to prison
+yesterday, for the sole crime of having requested a passport of the
+savage Monsieur Rigault; the Commune thrusts the priests into cells,
+and turns out the young girls from the convents, imprisons Monsieur
+O’yan, one of the directors of the Seminary of St. Sulpice; hurls a
+warrant of arrest at Monsieur Tresca, who escapes; tries to capture
+Monsieur Henri Vrignault, who however, succeeds in reaching a place of
+safety; the Commune causes perquisitions to be made by armed men in the
+banking houses, seizes upon title deeds and money; has strong-boxes
+burst open by willing locksmiths; when the locksmiths are tired, the
+soldiers of the Commune help them with the butt-ends of their muskets.
+They do worse still, these Communists—they do all that the
+consciousness of supreme power can suggest to despots without
+experience; each day they send honest fathers of families to their
+death, who think they are suffering for the good cause, when they are
+only dying for the good pleasure of Monsieur Avrial and Monsieur
+Billioray. Well! and what is Paris doing all this time? Paris reads the
+papers, lounges, runs after the last news and ejaculates: “Ah! ah! they
+have put Amouroux into prison! The Archbishop of Paris has been
+transferred from the Conciergerie to Mazas! Several thousand francs
+have been stolen from Monsieur Denouille! Diable! Diable!” And then
+Paris begins the same round of newspaper reading, lounging, and
+gossiping again. Nothing seems changed. Nothing seems interrupted. Even
+the proclamation of the famous Cluseret, who threatens us all with
+active service in the marching regiments, has not succeeded in
+troubling the tranquillity and indifference of the greater number of
+Parisians. They look on at what is taking place, as at a performance,
+and only bestow just enough interest upon it to afford them amusement.
+This evening the cannonading has increased; on listening attentively,
+we can distinguish the sounds of platoon-firing; but Paris takes its
+glass of beer tranquilly at the Café de Madrid and its Mazagran at the
+Café Riche. Sometimes, towards midnight, when the sky is clear, Paris
+goes to the Champs Elysées, to see things a little nearer, strolls
+under the trees, and smoking a cigar exclaims: “Ah! there go the
+shells.” Then leisurely compares the roar of the battle of to-day to
+that of yesterday. In strolling about thus in the neighbourhood of the
+shells, Paris exposes itself voluntarily to danger; Paris is
+indifferent, and use is second nature. Then bed-time comes, Paris looks
+over the evening papers, and asks, with a yawn, where the devil all
+this will end? By a conciliation? Or the Prussians perhaps? And then
+Paris falls asleep, and gets up the next morning, just as fresh and
+lusty as if Napoleon the Third were still Emperor by the grace of God
+and the will of the French nation.
+
+
+
+
+ XLVI.
+
+
+An insertion in the _Journal Officiel_ of Versailles has justly
+irritated the greater part of the French press. This is the paragraph.
+“False news of the most infamous kind has been spread in Paris where no
+independent journal is allowed to appear.” From these few lines it may
+be concluded, that in the eyes of the Government of Versailles the
+whole of the Paris newspapers, whose editors have not deserted their
+posts, have entirely submitted to the Commune, and only think and say
+what the Commune permits them to think and say. This is an egregious
+calumny. No, thank heaven! The Parisian press has not renounced its
+independence, and if no account is taken (as is perfectly justifiable)
+of a heap of miserable little sheets which no sooner appear than they
+die, and of some few others edited by members of the Commune, one would
+be obliged to acknowledge, on the contrary, that since the 18th of
+March the great majority of journals have exhibited proofs of a proud
+and courageous independence. Each day, without allowing themselves to
+be intimidated, either by menaces of forcible suppression or threats of
+arrest, they have fearlessly told the members of the Commune their
+opinion without concealment or circumlocution. The French press has
+undoubtedly committed many offences during the last few years, and is
+not altogether irresponsible for the troubles which have overwhelmed
+the unhappy country; but reparation is being made for these offences in
+this present hour of danger, and the fearless attitude which it has
+maintained before these men of the Hôtel de Ville, atones nobly for the
+past. It has constituted itself judge; condemns what is condemnable,
+resists violence, endeavours to enlighten the masses. Sometimes too—and
+this is perhaps its greatest crime in the eyes of the Versailles
+Government—it permits itself to disapprove entirely of the acts of the
+National Assembly; some journals going as far as to insinuate that the
+Government is not altogether innocent of the present calamities. But
+what does this prove? That the press is no more the servant of the
+Assembly than it is the slave of the Commune; in a word, that it is
+free.
+
+And what false news is this of which the _Journal Officiel_ of
+Versailles complains, and against which it seems to warn us? Does it
+think it likely that we should be silly enough to give credence to the
+shouts of victory that are recorded each morning, on the handbills of
+the Commune? Does it suppose that we look upon the deputies as nothing
+but a race of anthropophagi who dine every day off Communists and
+Federals at the _tables d’hôte_ of the Hôtel des Réservoirs? Not at
+all. We easily unravel the truth, from the entanglement of
+exaggerations forged by the men of the Hôtel de Ville; and it is
+precisely this just appreciation of things that we owe to those papers
+which the _Journal Officiel_ condemns so inconsiderately.
+
+But it is not of fake news alone, probably, that the Versailles
+Assembly is afraid. It would not perhaps be sorry that we should ignore
+the real state of things, and I wager that if it had the power it would
+willingly suppress ill-informed journals—although they are not
+Communist the least in the world—who allow themselves to state that for
+six days the shells of Versailles have fallen upon Les Ternes, the
+Champs Elysées and the Avenue Wagram, and have already cost as many
+tears and as much bloodshed, as the Prussian shells of fearful memory.
+
+
+
+
+ XLVII.
+
+
+Wednesday, 12th April.—Another day passed as yesterday was, as
+to-morrow will be. The Versaillais attack the forts of Vanves and Issy
+and are repulsed. There is fighting at Neuilly, at Bagneux, at
+Asnières. In the town requisitions and arrests are being made. A
+detachment of National Guards arrives before the Northern
+railway-station. They inquire for the director, but director there is
+none. Embarrassing situation this. The National Guards cannot come all
+this way for nothing. Determined on arresting some one, they carry off
+M. Félix Mathias, head of the works, and M. Coutin, chief inspector. An
+hour later other National Guards imprison M. Lucien Dubois, general
+inspector of markets, in the depôt of the ex-Prefecture of Police. Here
+and there a few journalists are arrested without cause, to serve as
+examples; some priests are despatched to Mazas, among others M.
+Lartigues, _curé_ of _Saint Leu_. Yesterday the following was placarded
+on the shut doors of the church at Montmartre:
+
+“Since priests are bandits and churches retreats where they have
+morally assassinated the masses, causing _France to cower beneath the
+clutches of the infamous Bonapartes, Favres, and Trochus_, the
+delegates of the stone masons at the ex-Prefecture of Police give
+orders that the church of Saint-Pierre (not Cinq-Pierres this time)
+shall be closed, and decrees the imprisonment of its priests and its
+_Frères Ignorantins_. Signed by Le Mousau.”
+
+To-day it is the turn of the church of Notre Dame de Lorette. A
+considerable number of worshippers had assembled in the holy place. The
+National Guards arrive, headed by men in plain clothes. Under the
+Empire such men were called spies. The women found praying are turned
+out, those who do not obey promptly enough, with blows. This done, the
+guards retire. What they had come there for is not known. But what we
+are certain of is, that they will begin again to-morrow in this same
+church, or in another. The days resemble each other as the children of
+an accursed family. What frightful catastrophe will break this shameful
+monotony?
+
+
+
+
+ XLVIII.
+
+
+Eh! What? It is impossible! Are your brains scattered? I speak
+figuratively, awaiting the time when they will be scattered in earnest.
+It must be some miserable jester who has worded, printed, and placarded
+this unconscionable decree. But no, it is in the usual form, the usual
+type. This is rather too much, Gentlemen of the Commune; it outsteps
+the bounds of the ridiculous; you count a little too much this time on
+the complicity of some of the population, and on the patience of
+others. Here is the decree:
+
+[Illustration: The Column in the Place Vendôme.]
+
+Erected by the first Napoleon to commemorate his German campaign of
+1805. An imitation of the Column of Trajan, at Rome, slightly taller.
+It cost 1,500,000 francs!
+
+    “THE COMMUNE OF PARIS,
+
+    “Considering that the Imperial column of the Place Vendôme is a
+    monument of barbarian, a symbol of brute force, of false glory, an
+    encouragement of military spirit, a denial of international rights,
+    a permanent insult offered by the conquerors to the conquered, a
+    perpetual conspiracy against one of the great principles of the
+    French Republic, namely: Fraternity,
+    “Decrees:
+    “_Sole article_.—The Colonne Vendôme is to be demolished.”
+
+Now I must tell you plainly, you are absurd, contemptible, and odious!
+This sorry farce outstrips all one could have imagined, and all that
+the Versailles papers said of you must have been true; for what you are
+doing now is worse than anything they could ever have dared to imagine.
+It was not enough to violate the churches, to suppress the
+liberties,—the liberty of writing, the liberty of speaking, the liberty
+of free circulation, the liberty of risking one’s life or not. It was
+not enough that blood should be recklessly spilled, that women should
+be made widows and children orphans, trade stopped and commerce ruined;
+it was not enough that the dignity of defeat—the only glory
+remaining—should be swallowed up in the shameful disaster of civil war;
+in a word, it was not sufficient to have destroyed the present,
+compromised the future; you wish now to obliterate the past! Funereal
+mischief! Why, the Colonne Vendôme is France, and a trophy of its past
+greatness,—alas, at present in the shade—is not the monument, but the
+record of a victorious race who strode through the world conquering as
+they went, planting the tricolour everywhere. In destroying the Colonne
+Vendôme, do not imagine that you are simply overthrowing a bronze
+column surmounted by the statue of an emperor; you disinter the remains
+of your forefathers to shake their fleshless bones, and say to them,
+“You were wrong in being brave and proud and great; you were wrong to
+conquer towns, to win battles; you were wrong to astound the universe
+by raising the vision of France glorified. It is scattering to the wind
+the ashes of heroes! It is telling those aged soldiers, seen formerly
+in the streets (where are they now? Why do we meet them no longer? Have
+you killed them, or does their glory refuse to come in contact with
+your infamy?) It is telling the maimed soldiers of the Invalides, “You
+are but blockheads and brigands. So you have lost a leg, and you an
+arm! So much the worse for you idle scamps. Look on these rascals
+crippled for their country’s honour!” It is like snatching from them
+the crosses they have won, and delivering them into the hands of the
+shameless street urchins, who will cry, “A hero! a hero!” as they cry
+“Thief! thief!” There is certainly purer and less costly grandeur than
+that which results from war and conquests. You are free to dream for
+your country a glory different to the ancient glory; but the heroic
+past, do not overthrow it, do not suppress it, now especially, when you
+have nothing with which to replace it, but the disgraces of the
+present. Yet, no! Complete your work, continue in the same path. The
+destruction of the Colonne Vendôme is but a beginning, be logical and
+continue; I propose a few decrees:
+
+    “The Commune of Paris, considering that the Church of Notre Dame de
+    Paris is a monument of superstition, a symbol of divine tyranny, an
+    affirmation of fanaticism, a denial of human rights, a permanent
+    insult offered by believers to atheists, a perpetual conspiracy
+    against one of the great principles of the Commune, namely, the
+    convenience of its members,
+    “Decrees:
+    “The Church of Notre Dame shall be demolished.”
+
+What say you to my proposition? Does it not agree with your dearest
+desire? But you can do better and better: believe me you ought to have
+the courage of your opinions.
+
+    “The Commune of Paris, considering that the Museum of the Louvre
+    contains a great number of pictures, of statues, and other objects
+    of art, which, by the subjects they represent, bring eternally to
+    the mind of the people the actions of gods, and kings, and priests;
+    that these actions indicated by flattering brush or chisel are
+    often delineated in such a way as to diminish the hatred that
+    priests, kings, and gods should inspire to all good citizens;
+    moreover, the admiration excited by the works of human genius is a
+    perpetual assault on one of the great principles of the Commune,
+    namely, its imbecility,
+    “Decrees:
+    “_Sole article_.—The Museum of the Louvre shall be burned to the
+    ground.”
+
+Do not attempt to reply that in spite of the recollections of religion
+and despotism attached to these monuments you would leave Notre Dame
+and the Museum of the Louvre untouched for the sake of their artistic
+importance. Beware of insinuating that you would have respected the
+Colonne Vendôme had it possessed some merit as a work of art. You!
+respect the masterpieces of human art! Wherefore? Since when, and by
+what right? No, little as you may have been known before you were
+masters, you were yet known enough for us to assert that one of
+you—whom I will name: M. Lefrançais—wished in 1848 to set fire to the
+_Salon Carré_; there is another of you—whom I will also name: M. Jules
+Vallès—asserts that Homer was an old fool. It is true that M. Jules
+Vallès is Minister of Public Instruction. If you have spared Notre Dame
+and the Museum of the Louvre up to this moment, it is that you dared
+not touch them, which is a proof, not of respect but of cowardice.
+
+Ah! our eyes are open at last! We are no longer dazzled by the
+chimerical hopes we nourished for a moment, of obtaining, through you
+communal liberties. You did but adopt those opinions for the sake of
+misleading us, as a thief assumes the livery of a house to enter his
+master’s room and lay hands on his money. We see you now as you are. We
+had hoped that you were revolutionists, too ardent, too venturous
+perhaps, but on the whole impelled by a noble intention: you are
+nothing but insurgents, insurgents whose aim is to sack and pillage,
+favoured by disturbances and darkness. If a few well-intentioned men
+were among you, they have fled in horror. Count your numbers, you are
+but a handful. If there still remain any among you, who have not lost
+all power of discriminating between justice and injustice, they look
+towards the door, and would fly if they dared. Yet this handful of
+furious fools governs Paris still. Some among us have been ordered to
+their death, and they have gone! How long will this last? Did we not
+surrender our arms? Can we not assemble, as we did a month ago near the
+Bank, and deal justice ourselves without awaiting an army from
+Versailles? Ah I we must acknowledge that the deputies of the Seine and
+the Maires of Paris, misled like ourselves, erred in siding with the
+insurrectionists. They wished to avert street fighting. Is the strife
+we are witnessing not far more horrible than that we have escaped? One
+day’s struggle, and it would have ended. Yes, we were wrong to lay down
+our arms; but who could have believed—the excesses of the first few
+days seemed more like the sad consequences of popular effervescence
+than like premeditated crimes—who could have believed that the chiefs
+of the insurrection lied with such impudence as is now only too
+evident, and that before long the Commune would be the first to deprive
+us of the liberties it was its duty to protect and develope? The
+“Rurals” were right then,—they who had been so completely in the wrong
+in refusing to lend an attentive ear to the just prayers of a people
+eager for liberty, they were right when they warned us against the
+ignorance and wickedness of these men. Ah! were the National Assembly
+but to will it, there would yet be time to save Paris. If it really
+wished to establish a definite Republic, and concede to the capital of
+France the right, free and entire, of electing an independent
+municipality, with what ardour should we not rally round the legitimate
+Government! How soon would the Hôtel de Ville be delivered from the
+contemptible men who have planted themselves there. If the National
+Assembly could only comprehend us! If it would only consent to give
+Paris its liberty, and France its tranquillity, by means of honourable
+concessions!
+
+
+
+
+ XLIX.
+
+
+The delegates of the League of the Republican Union of the Rights of
+Paris returned from Versailles to-day, the 14th April, and published
+the following reports:—
+
+    “CITIZENS,—The undersigned, chosen by you to present your programme
+    to the Government of Versailles, and to proffer the good offices of
+    the League to aid in the conclusion of an armistice, have the
+    honour of submitting you an account of their mission.
+    “The delegates, having made known to Monsieur Thiers the programme
+    of the League, he replied that as chief of the sole legal
+    government existing in France he had not to discuss the basis of a
+    treaty, but notwithstanding he was quite ready to treat with such
+    persons whom he considered as representing Republican principles,
+    and to acquaint them with the intentions of the chief of the
+    executive power.
+    “It is in accordance with these observations, which denote, in
+    fact, the true character of our mission, that Monsieur Thiers has
+    made the following declarations on different points of our
+    programme.
+    “Respecting the recognition of the Republic, Monsieur Thiers
+    answers for its existence as long as he remains in power. A
+    Republican state was put into his hands, and he stakes his honour
+    on its conservation.”
+
+Ay! it is precisely that which will not satisfy Paris—Paris sighing for
+peace and liberty. We have all the most implicit faith in Thiers’
+honour. We are assured that the words, “French Republic” will head the
+white Government placards as long as he remains in power. But when
+Thiers is withdrawn from power—National Assemblies can be capricious
+sometimes—what assures us that we shall not fall victims to a
+monarchical or even an imperial restoration? Ghosts can appear in
+French history as well as in Anne Radcliffe’s novels. To attempt to
+consider the elected members who sit at Versailles as sincere
+Republicans is an effort beyond the powers of our credulity. You see
+that Thiers himself dares not speak his thoughts on what might happen
+were he to withdraw from power. Thus we find ourselves, as before, in a
+state of transition, and this state of transition is just what appals
+us. We address ourselves to the Assembly, and ask of it, “We are
+Republican; are you Republican?” And the Assembly pretends to be deaf,
+and the deputies content themselves with humming under their breaths,
+some the royal tune of “The White Cockade,” and others the imperial air
+of “Partant pour la Syrie.” This does not quite satisfy us. It is true
+that Thiers says he will maintain the form of government established in
+Paris as long as he possibly can; but he only promises for himself, and
+it results clearly from all this that we shall not keep the Republic
+long, since its definite establishment depends in fact on the majority
+in the Assembly, while the Assembly is royalist, with a slight sprinkle
+of imperialism here and there. But let us continue the reading of the
+reports.
+
+“Respecting the municipal franchise of Paris, Monsieur Thiers declares
+that Paris will enjoy its franchise on the same conditions as those of
+the other towns, according to a common law, such as will be set forth
+by the Assembly of the representatives of all France. Paris will have
+the common right, nothing less and nothing more.”
+
+This again is little satisfactory. What will this common right be? What
+will the law set forth by the representatives of all France be worth?
+Once more we have the most entire confidence in Thiers. But have we the
+right to expect a law conformable to our wishes from an assembly of men
+who hold opinions radically opposed to ours on the point which is in
+fact the most important in the question—on the form of government?
+
+“Concerning the protection of Paris, now exclusively confided to the
+National Guards, Monsieur Thiers declares that he will proceed at once
+to the organization of the National Guard, but that cannot be to the
+absolute exclusion of the army.”
+
+In my personal opinion, the President is perfectly right here; but from
+the point of view which it was the mission of the delegates of the
+Republican Union to take, is not this third declaration as evasive as
+the preceding?
+
+“Respecting the actual situation and the means of putting an end to the
+effusion of blood, Monsieur Thiers declares that not recognising as
+belligerents the persons engaged in the struggle against the National
+Assembly, he neither can nor will treat the question of an armistice;
+but he declares that if the National Guards of Paris make no hostile
+attack, the troops of Versailles will make none either, until the
+moment, yet undetermined, when the executive power shall resolve upon
+action and commence the war.”
+
+Oh, words! words! We are perfectly aware that Thiers has the right to
+speak thus, and that all combatants are not belligerents. But what! Is
+it as just as it is legal to argue the point so closely, when the lives
+of so many men are at stake; and is a small grammatical concession so
+serious a thing, that sooner than make it one should expose oneself to
+all the horrible feelings of remorse that the most rightful conqueror
+experiences at the sight of the battle-field?
+
+“Monsieur Thiers adds: ‘Those who abandon the contest, that is to say,
+who return to their homes and renounce their hostile attitude, will be
+safe from all pursuit.’”
+
+Is Thiers quite certain that he will not find himself abandoned by the
+Assembly at the moment when he enters upon this path of mercy and
+forgiveness?
+
+“Monsieur Thiers alone excepts the assassins of General Lecomte and
+General Clément Thomas, who if taken will be tried for the crime.”
+
+And here he is undoubtedly right. We must have been blind indeed the
+day that this double crime failed to open our eyes to the true
+characters of the men who, if they did not commit it or cause it to be
+committed, made at least no attempt to discover the criminals!
+
+“Monsieur Thiers, recognising the impossibility for a great part of the
+population, now deprived of work, to live without the allotted pay,
+will continue to distribute that pay for several weeks longer. “Such,
+citizens, is, etc., etc.”
+
+This report is signed by A. Dessonnaz, A. Adam, and Donvallet. Alas! we
+had foreseen what the result of the honourable attempt made by the
+delegates of the Republican Union would be. And this result proves that
+not only is the National Guard at war with the regular troops, but that
+a persistent opposition is also made by the National Assembly of
+Versailles to the most reasonable portion of the people of Paris. And
+yet the Assembly represents France, and speaks and acts only as she is
+commissioned to speak and act. The truth then is this,—Paris is
+republican and France is not republican; there is division between the
+capital and the country. The present convulsion, brought about by a
+group of madmen, has its source in this divergence of feeling. And what
+will happen? Will Paris, once more vanquished by universal suffrage,
+bend her neck and accept the yoke of the provincials and rustics? The
+right of these is incontestable; but will it, by reason of superiority
+of numbers, take precedence of our right, as incontestable as theirs?
+These are dark questions, which hold the minds of men in suspense, and
+which, in spite of our desire to bring the National Assembly over to
+our side, the greater part of whose members could not join us without
+betraying their trust, cause us to bear the intolerable tyranny of the
+men of the Hôtel de Ville, even while their sinister lucubrations
+inspire us with disgust.
+
+
+
+
+L.
+
+
+During this time the walls resound with fun. Paris of the street and
+gutter—Paris, Gavroche and blackguard, rolls with laughter before the
+caricatures which ingenious salesmen stick with pins on shutters and
+house doors. Who designed these wild pictures, glaringly coloured and
+common, seldom amusing and often outrageously coarse? They are signed
+with unknown names—pseudonyms doubtless; their authors, amongst whom it
+is sad to think that artists of talent must be counted, are like women,
+high born and depraved, mixing with their faces masked in hideous
+orgies.
+
+These vile pictures with their infamous calumnies keep up and even
+kindle contempt and hatred in ignorant minds. Laughter is often far
+from innocent. But the passers-by think little of this, and are amused
+enough when they see Jules Favre’s head represented by a radish, or the
+_embonpoint_ of Monsieur Picard by a pumpkin. Where will all this
+unwholesome stuff be scattered in a few days? Flown away and dispersed.
+Eccentric amateurs will tear their hair at the impossibility of
+obtaining for their collections these frivolous witnesses of troubled
+times. I will make a few notes so as to diminish their despair as far
+as I am able.
+
+A green soil and a red sky—In a black coffin is a half-naked woman,
+with a Phrygian cap on her head, endeavouring to push up the lid with
+all her might. Jules Favre, lean, small, head enormous, under lip thick
+and protruding, hair wildly flying like a willow in a storm, wearing a
+dress coat, and holding a nail in one hand and a hammer in the other,
+with his knee pressed upon the coffin-lid, is trying to nail it down,
+in spite of the very natural protestations of the half-naked woman. In
+the distance, and running towards them, is Monsieur Thiers, with a
+great broad face and spectacles, also armed with a hammer. Below is
+written: “If one were to listen to these accursed Republics, they would
+never die.” Signed, Faustin. Same author—Same woman. But this time she
+lies in a bed hung with red flags for curtains. Her shoulders a little
+too bare, perhaps, for a Republic, but she must be made attractive to
+her good friends the Federals. At the head of the bed a portrait of
+Rochefort; Rochefort is the favoured one of this lady, it seems. Were I
+he, I should persuade her to dress a little more decently. Three black
+men, in brigands’ hats, their limbs dragging, and their faces
+distorted, approach the bed, singing like the robbers in Fra Diavolo:
+“Ad.... vance ... ad ... vance ... with ... pru ... dence ...!” The
+first, Monsieur Thiers, carries a heavy club and a dark lantern; Jules
+Favre, the second, brandishes a knife, and the third, carries nothing,
+but wears a peacock’s feather in his hat, and.... I have never seen
+Monsieur Picard, but they tell me that it is he.
+
+The young Republic again, with shoulders bare and the style of face of
+a _petite dame_ of the Rue Bossuet. She comes to beg Monsieur Thiers,
+cobbler and cookshop-keeper, who “finds places for pretenders out of
+employ, and changes their old boots for new at the most reasonable
+prices,” to have her shoes mended. “Wait a bit! wait a bit!” says the
+cobbler to himself, “I’ll manage ’em so as to put an end to her
+walking.”
+
+Here is a green monkey perched on the extreme height of a microscopic
+tribune. At the end of his tail he wears a crown; on his head is a
+Phrygian cap. It is Monsieur Thiers of course. “Gentlemen,” says he, “I
+assure you that I am republican, and that I adore the vile multitude.”
+But underneath is written: “We’ll pluck the Gallic cock!” The author of
+this is also Monsieur Faustin. I have here a special reproach to add to
+what I have already said of these objectionable stupidities. I do not
+like the manner in which the author takes off Monsieur Thiers; he quite
+forgets the old and well-known resemblance of the chief of the
+executive power to Monsieur Prud’homme, or what is the same thing, to
+Prud’homme’s inventor, Henri Monnier. One day Gil Perez the actor, met
+Henri Monnier on the Boulevard Montmartre. “Well, old fellow!” cried
+he, “are you back? When are you and I going to get at our practical
+jokes again?” Henri Monnier looked profoundly astonished; it was
+Monsieur Thiers!
+
+The next one is signed Pilotel. Pilotel, the savage commissioner! He
+who arrested Monsieur Chaudey, and who pocketed eight hundred and
+fifteen francs found in Monsieur Chaudey’s drawers. Ah! Pilotel, if by
+some unlucky adventure you were to succumb behind a barricade, you
+would cry like Nero: “Qualis artifex pereo!” But let us leave the
+author to criticise the work. A Gavroche, not the Gavroche of the
+_Misérables_, but the boy of Belleville, chewing tobacco like a
+Jack-tar, drunk as a Federal, in a purple blouse, green trousers, his
+hands in his pockets, his cap on the nape of his neck; squat, violent,
+and brutish. With an impudent jerk of the head he grumbles out: “I
+don’t want any of your kings!” This coarse sketch is graphic and not
+without merit.
+
+Horror of horrors! “Council of Revision of the Amazons of Paris,” this
+next is called. Oh! if the brave Amazons are like these formidable
+monstrosities, it would be quite sufficient to place them in the first
+rank, and I am sure that not a soldier of the line, not a guardian of
+the peace, not a _gendarme_ would hesitate a moment at the sight, but
+all would fly without exception, in hot haste and in agonised terror,
+forgetting in their panic even to turn the butt ends of their muskets
+in the air. One of these Amazons—but how has my sympathy for the
+amateurs of collections led me into the description of these creatures
+of ugliness and immodesty?—one of them.... but no, I prefer leaving to
+your imagination those Himalayan masses of flesh, and pyramids of
+bone—these Penthesileas of the Commune of Paris that are before me.
+
+Ah! Here is choleric old “Father Duchesne” in a towering passion, with
+short legs, bare arms, and rubicund face, topped with an immense red
+cap. In one hand he holds a diminutive Monsieur Thiers and stifles him
+as if he were a sparrow. Here, the drawing is not only vile, but stupid
+too.
+
+This time we have the nude, and it is not the Republic, but France that
+is represented. If the Republic can afford to bare her shoulders,
+France may dispense with drapery entirely. She has a dove which she
+presses to her bosom. On one side is a portrait of Monsieur Rochefort.
+Again! Why this unlovely-looking journalist is a regular Lovelace.
+Finally, two cats (M. Jules Favre and M. Thiers) are to be seen outside
+the garret window with their claws ready for pouncing. “Poor dove!” is
+the tame inscription below the sketch.[56]
+
+Next we find a Holy Family, by Murillo. Jules Favre, as Joseph, leads
+the ass by the reins, and a wet-nurse, who holds the Comte de Paris in
+her arms instead of the infant Jesus, is seated between the two
+panniers, trying to look at once like Monsieur Thiers and the Holy
+Virgin. The sketch is called “The Flight.... to Versailles.” Oh! fie!
+fie! Messieurs the Caricaturists, can you not be funny without
+trenching on sacred ground?
+
+We might refer to dozens more. Some date from the day when Paris shook
+off the Empire, and are so infamous that, by a natural reaction of
+feeling, they inspire a sort of esteem for those they try to make you
+despise; others, those which were seen by everyone during the siege,
+are less vile, because, of the patriotic rage which originated them,
+and excused them; but they are as odious as they can be nevertheless.
+But the amateurs of collections who neglected to buy fly-sheets one by
+one as they appeared, must be satisfied with the above.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [56] As a power for the encouragement of virtue and the suppression of
+ vice, caricature cannot be too highly estimated, though often abused.
+ It is doubtful which exercises the greater influence, poem or picture.
+ In England, perhaps, picture wields the greater power; in France,
+ song. Yet, “let me write the ballads and you may govern the people,”
+ is an English axiom which was well known before pictures became so
+ plentiful or so popular, or the refined cartoons of Mr. Punch were
+ ever dreamt of. In Paris, where art-education is highly developed,
+ fugitive designs seems to have, with but few exceptions, descended
+ into vile abuse and indecent metaphor, the wildest invective being
+ exhausted upon trivial matters—hence the failure.
+    The art advocates of the Commune, with but few exceptions, seem to
+    have been of the most humble sort, inspired with the melodramatic
+    taste of our Seven Dials or the New Out, venting itself in
+    ill-drawn heroic females, symbols of the Republic, clad in white,
+    wearing either mural crowns or Phrygian caps, and waving red flags.
+    They are the work of aspiring juvenile artists or uneducated men. I
+    allude to art favourable to the Commune, and not that coëval with
+    it, or the vast mass of pictorial unpleasantly born of gallic rage
+    during the Franco-Prussian war, including such designs as the
+    horrible allegory of Bayard, “Sedan, 1870,” a large work depicting
+    Napoleon III. drawn in a calèche and four, over legions of his
+    dying soldiers, in the presence of a victorious enemy and the
+    shades of his forefathers’, and the well-known subject, so popular
+    in photography, of “The Pillory,” Napoleon between King William and
+    Bismarck, also set in the midst of a mass of dead and dying
+    humanity. Paper pillories are always very popular in Paris, and
+    under the Commune the heads of Tropmann and Thiers were exhibited
+    in a wooden vice, inscribed Pantin and Neuilly underneath. And,
+    again, in another print, entitled “The Infamous,” we have Thiers,
+    Favre, and MacMahon, seen in a heavenly upper storey, fixed to
+    stakes, contemplating a dead mother and her child, slain in their
+    happy home, the wounds very sanguine and visible, the only
+    remaining relict being a child of very tender years in an
+    overturned cradle; beneath is the inscription “Their Works.”
+    Communal art seems also to have been very severe upon landlords,
+    who are depicted with long faces and threadbare garments, seeking
+    alms in the street, or flying with empty bags and lean stomachs
+    from a very yellow sun, bearing the words “The Commune, 1871.”
+    Whilst as a contrast, a fat labourer, with a patch on his blouse,
+    luxuriates in the same golden sunshine.
+    As a sample of the better kind of French art, we give two
+    fac-similes, by Bertal, from _The Grelot_, a courageous journal
+    started during the Commune; it existed unmolested, and still
+    continues. We here insert a fac-simile of a sketch called “Paris
+    and his Playthings.”
+    “What destruction the unhappy, spoiled, and ill-bred child whose
+    name is Paris has done, especially of late!
+    “France, his strapping nurse, put herself in a passion in vain, the
+    child would not listen to reason. He broke Trochu’s arms, ripped up
+    Gambetta, to see what there was inside. He blew out the lantern of
+    Rochefort; as to Bergeret himself, he trampled him under foot.
+    “He has dislocated all his puppets, strewed the ground with the
+    _débris_ of his fancies, and he is not yet content,—‘What do you
+    want, you wretched baby?’—‘I want the moon!’ The old woman called
+    the Assembly was right in refusing this demand,—‘The moon, you
+    little wretch, and what would you do with it if you had it?’—‘I
+    would pull it to bits, as I did the rest.’”
+    Further on will be found “Paris eating a General a day” (Chapter
+    LXXVIII). Early in June, 1871 there appeared in the same journal
+    “The International Centipede,” “John Bull and the Blanche Albion.”
+    The Queen of England, clad in white, holding in her hands a model
+    of the Palace of Westminster, and sundry docks, resists the
+    approach of an interminable centipede, on which she stamps, vainly
+    endeavouring to impede the progress of the coil of fire and blood
+    approaching to soil and fire her fair robe; beside her stands John
+    Bull, in a queer mixed costume, half sailor, with the smalls and
+    gaiters of a coalheaver. He bears the Habeas Corpus Act under his
+    arm, but stands aghast and paralysed, it never seeming to have
+    occurred to the artist that this “Monsieur John Boule, Esquire,”
+    was well adapted by his beetle-crushers to stamp out the vermin.
+    Perhaps, it is needless to add, that the snake-like form issues
+    from a hole in distant Prussia, meandering through many nations,
+    causing great consternation, and that M. Thiers is finishing off
+    the French section in admirable style.
+
+[Illustration: Little Paris and his Playthings. Nurse. Mais! Sacré
+mille noms d’un moutard! what will you want next?—PETIT PARIS: I’ll
+have the moon!]
+
+
+
+
+ LI.
+
+
+What has Monsieur Courbet to do among these people? He is a painter,
+not a politician. A few beery speeches uttered at the Hautefeuille Café
+cannot turn his past into a revolutionary one, and an order refused for
+the simple reason that it is more piquant for a man to have his
+button-hole without ornament than with a slip of red ribbon in it, when
+it is well known that he disdains whatever every one else admires, is
+but a poor title to fame. To your last, Napoleon Gaillard![57] To your
+paint-brushes, Gustave Courbet! And if we say this, it is not only from
+fear that the meagre lights of Monsieur Courbet are insufficient, and
+may draw the Commune into new acts of folly,—(though we scarcely know,
+alas! if there be any folly the Commune has left undone,)—but it is,
+above all, because we fear the odium and ridicule that the false
+politician may throw upon the painter. Yes! whatever may be our horror
+for the nude women and unsightly productions with which Monsieur
+Courbet[58] has honoured the exhibitions of paintings, we remember with
+delight several, admirably true to nature, with sunshine and summer
+breezes playing among the leaves, and streams murmuring refreshingly
+over the pebbles, and rocks whereon climbing plants cling closely; and,
+besides these landscapes, a good picture here and there, executed, if
+not by the hand of an artist—for the word artist possesses a higher
+meaning in our eyes—at least by the hand of a man of some power, and we
+hate that this painter should be at the Hôtel de Ville at the moment
+when the spring is awakening in forest and field, and when he would do
+so much better to go into the woods of Meudon or Fontainebleau to study
+the waving of the branches and the eccentric twists and turns of the
+oak-tree’s huge trunk, than in making answers to Monsieur
+Lefrançais—iconoclast in theory only as yet—and to Monsieur Jules
+Vallès, who has read Homer in Madame Dacier’s translation, or has never
+read it at all. That one should try a little of everything, even of
+polities, when one is capable of nothing else, is, if not excusable, at
+any rate comprehensible; but when a man can make excellent boots like
+Napoleon Gaillard, or good paintings like Gustave Courbet, that he
+should deliberately lay himself open to ridicule, and perhaps to
+everlasting execration, is what we cannot admit. To this Monsieur
+Courbet would reply: “It is the artists that I represent; it is the
+rights and claims of modern art that I uphold. There must be a great
+revolution in painting as in politics; we must federate too, I tell
+you; we’ll decapitate those aristocrats, the Titians and Paul
+Veroneses; we’ll establish, instead of a jury, a revolutionary
+tribunal, which shall condemn to instant death any man who troubles
+himself about the ideal—that king whom we have knocked off his throne;
+and at this tribunal I will be at once complainant, lawyer, and judge.
+Yes! my brother painters, rally around me, and we will die for the
+Commune of Art. As to those who are not of my opinion, I don’t care the
+snap of a finger about them.” By this last expression the friends of
+Monsieur Gustave Courbet will perceive that we are not without some
+experience of his style of conversation. Courbet, my master, you don’t
+know what you are talking about, and all true artists will send you to
+old Harry, you and your federation. Do you know what an artistic
+association, such as you understand it, would result in? In serving the
+puerile ambition of one man—its chief, for there will be a chief, will
+there not, Monsieur Courbet?—and the puerile rancours of a parcel of
+daubers, without name and without talent. Artist in our way we assert,
+that no matter, what painter, even had he composed works superior in
+their way to Courbet’s “_Combat de Cerfs_” and “_Femme au Perroquet_,”
+who came and said, “Let us federate,” we would answer him plainly:
+“Leave us in peace, messieurs of the federation, we are dreamers and
+workers; when we exhibit or publish and are happy enough to meet with a
+man who will buy or print a few thousand copies of our work without
+reducing himself to beggary, we are happy. When that is done, we do not
+trouble ourselves much about our work; the indulgence of a few friends,
+and the indignation of a few fools, is all we ask or hope for. We
+federate? Why? With whom? If our work is bad, will the association with
+any society in the world make it good? Will the works of others gain
+anything by their association with ours? Let us go home, _messieurs les
+artistes_, let us shut our doors, let us say to our servants—if we have
+any—that we are at home to no one, and, after having cut our best
+pencil, or seized our best pen, let us labour in solitude, without
+relaxation, with no other thought than that of doing the best we can,
+with no higher judge than that of our own artistic conscience; and when
+the work is completed, let us cordially shake hands with those of our
+comrades who love us; let us help them, and let them bring help to us,
+but freely, without obligation, without subscriptions, without
+societies, and without statutes. We have nothing to do with these
+free-masonries, absurd when brought into the domain of intelligence,
+and in which two or three hundred people get together to do that, which
+some new-comer, however unknown his budding fame, would accomplish at a
+blow, in the face of all the associations in the world.” This is what I
+should naïvely reply to Monsieur Courbet if he took it into his head to
+offer me any advice or compact whatsoever to sign.
+
+[Illustration: The Modern “Erostrate” Courbet. In progress of removal.
+June 1871.]
+
+The artists have done still better than we should; they have not
+answered at all, for one cannot call the “General Assembly of all the
+Artists in Design,” presided over by Monsieur Gustave Courbet, and held
+on the 13th of April, 1871, in the great amphitheatre of the Ecole de
+Médecine, a real meeting of French artists. We know several celebrated
+painters, and we saw none of them there. The citizens Potier and
+Boulaix had been named secretaries. We congratulate them; for this high
+distinction may, perhaps, aid in founding their reputation, which was
+in great want of a basis of some kind. But there were some sculptors
+there, perhaps? We saw some long beards, beards that were quite unknown
+to us, and their owners may have been sculptors, perhaps. For Paris is
+a city of sculptors. But if artists were wanting, there were talkers
+enough. Have you ever remarked that there are no orators so
+indefatigable as those who have nothing to say? And the interruptions,
+the clamour, the apostrophising, more highly coloured than courteous!
+Such an overwhelming tumult was never heard:—
+
+“No more jury!”
+“Yes! yes! a jury! a jury!”
+“Out with the reactionist!”
+“Down with Cabanel!”
+“And the women? Are the women to be on the jury?”
+“Neither the women, nor the infirm.”
+
+And all the time there is Monsieur Gustave Courbet, the chairman,
+desperately ringing his bell for order, and launching some expressive
+exclamation from time to time. And the result of all this? Absolutely
+nothing at all! No! stop! There were a few statutes proposed—and every
+one amused himself immensely. “Well! so much the better,” said one.
+“Every one laughed, and no harm was done to anybody.”
+
+We beg your pardon! There was a great deal of harm done—to Monsieur
+Courbet.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [57] Gaillard Senior (a sort of Odger), cobbler of Belleville and
+ democratic stump orator. Appointed, April 8, to the Presidency of the
+ Commission of Barricades.
+
+ [58] As a painter Courbet has been very diversely judged. He was the
+ chief of the ultra-realistic school, and therefore a natural subject
+ for the contempt and abuse of the admirers of “legitimate art.” But
+ his later use of the political power entrusted to him has drawn down
+ upon him the wrath of an immense majority of the French public, which
+ his artistic misdemeanours had scarcely touched. On the sixteenth of
+ April he was elected a member of the Commune by the 6th arrondissement
+ of Paris, and forthwith appointed Director of the Beaux Arts. Until
+ this time his life had been purely professional, and consequently of
+ mediocre interest for the general public. He was born at Ornans,
+ department of the Doubs, in 1819, and received his primary
+ instructions from the Abbé Gousset, afterwards Archbishop of Rheims.
+ He first applied himself to the study of mathematics, painting the
+ while, and apparently aiming at a fusion of both pursuits. He
+ subsequently read for the bar for a short time, and, finally, adopting
+ art as his sole profession, threw himself heart and soul into a
+ Rénaissance movement as the apostle of a new style. The peculiarities
+ of his manner soon brought him into notoriety, and a school of
+ imitators grouped itself around him. His pride became a proverb. In
+ 1870 he was offered the cross of the Legion of Honour, and refused it,
+ arrogantly declaring that he would have none of a distinction given to
+ tradesmen and ministers. The part he took in the destruction of the
+ Colonne Vendôme is familiar to all readers of the English press. Three
+ weeks after the fall of the Commune he was denounced by a Federal
+ officer, and discovered at the house of a friend hiding in a wardrobe,
+ and in September was condemned by the tribunal at Versailles to six
+ months’ imprisonment and a fine of 600 francs—a slight penalty that
+ astonished everyone.
+
+
+
+
+ LII.
+
+
+It is forbidden to cross the Place Vendôme, and naturally, walking
+there is prohibited too. I had been prowling about every afternoon for
+the last few days, trying to pass the sentinels of the Rue de la Paix,
+hoping that some lucky chance might enable me to evade the military
+order; all I got for my pains was a sharply articulated “_Passes au
+large!_” and I remained shut out.
+
+To-day, as I was watching for a favourable opportunity, a _petite dame_
+who held up her skirts to show her stockings, which were as red as the
+flag of the Hôtel de Ville—out upon you for a female
+Communist!—approached the sentinel and addressed him with her most
+gracious, smile. And oh, these Federals! The man in office forgot his
+duty, and at once began with the lady a conversation of such an
+intimate description, that for discretion’s sake I felt myself obliged
+to take a slight turn to the left, and a minute later I had slipped
+into the forbidden Place.
+
+A Place?—no, a camp it might more properly be called. Here and there,
+are seen a crowd of little tents, which would be white if they were
+washed, and littered about with straw. Under the tents lie National
+Guards; they are not seen, but plainly heard, for they are snoring. You
+remember the absurd old bit of chop-logic often repeated in the classes
+of philosophy? One might apply it thus: he sleeps well who has a good
+conscience; the Federals sleep well; ergo, the Federals have a good
+conscience. Guards walk to and fro with their pipes in their mouths. If
+I were to say that these honourable Communists show by their easy
+manner, gentlemanly bearing, and superior conversation, that they
+belong to the cream of Parisian society, you would perhaps be
+impertinent enough not to believe one word of what I said. I think it,
+therefore, preferable in every way to assert the direct contrary. There
+is a group of them flinging away their pay at the usual game of
+_bouchon_. “The Soldier’s Pay and the Game of Cork” is the title that
+might be given by those who would write the history of the National
+Guard from the beginning of the siege to the present time. And if to
+the cork they added the bottle, they might pride themselves upon having
+found a perfect one. This is how it comes to pass. The wife is hungry,
+and the children are hungry, but the father is thirsty, and he receives
+the pay. What does he do? He is thirsty, and he must drink; one must
+think of oneself in this world. When he has satisfied his thirst, what
+remains? A few sous, the empty bottle, and the cork. Very good. He
+plays his last sou on the famous game, and in the evening, when he
+returns home, he carries to his family—what?—the empty bottle!
+
+On the Place two barricades have been made, one across the Rue de la
+Paix, and the other before the Rue Castiglione. “Two formidable
+barricades,” say the newspapers, which may be read thus: “A heap of
+paving stones to the right, and a heap of paving stones to the left.” I
+whisper to myself that two small field-pieces, one on the place of the
+New Opera-house, and the other at the Rue de Rivoli, would not be long
+before they got the better of these two barricades, in spite of the
+guns that here and there display their long, bright cylinders.
+
+The Federals have decidedly a taste for gallantry. About twenty women—I
+say young women, but not pretty women—are selling coffee to the
+National Guards, and add to their change a few ogling smiles meant to
+be engaging.
+
+As to the Column, it has not the least appearance of being frightened
+by the decree of the Commune which threatens it with a speedy fall.
+There it stands like a huge bronze I, and the emperor is the dot upon
+it. The four eagles are still there, at the four corners of the
+pedestal, with their wreaths of immortelles, and the two red flags
+which wave from the top seem but little out of place. The column is
+like the ancient honour of France, that neither decrees nor bayonets
+can intimidate, and which in the midst of threats and tumult, holds
+itself aloft in serene and noble dignity.
+
+
+
+
+ LIII.
+
+
+Who would think it? They are voting. When I say “they are voting,” I
+mean to say “they might vote;” for as for going to the poll, Paris
+seems to trouble itself but little about it. The Commune, too, seems
+somewhat embarrassed. You remember Victor Hugo’s song of the
+Adventurers of the Sea:
+
+“En partant du golfe d’Otrente
+    Nous étions trente,
+Mais en arrivant à Cadix
+    Nous n’étions que dix.”[59]
+
+The gentlemen of the Hôtel de Ville might sing this song with a few
+slight variations. The Gulf of Otranto was not their starting point,
+but the Buttes Montmartre; though to make up for it they were eighty in
+number. On arriving at C——, no, I mean, the decree of the Colonne
+Vendôme, they were a few more than ten, but not many. What charming
+stanzas in imitation of Victor Hugo might Théodore de Banville and
+Albert Glatigny write on the successive desertions of the members of
+the Commune. The first to withdraw were the _maires_ of Paris,
+frightened to death at having been sent by the votes of their
+fellow-citizens into an assembly which was not at all, it appears,
+their ideal of a municipal council. And upon this subject Monsieur
+Desmarest, Monsieur Tirard, and their _adjoints_ will perhaps permit me
+an unimportant question. What right had they to persuade their electors
+and the Friends of Order, to vote for the Commune of Paris if they were
+resolved to decline all responsibility when the votes had been given
+them? Their presence at the Hôtel de Ville, would it not have
+infused—as we hoped—a powerful spirit of moderation even in the midst
+of excesses that could even then be foretold? When they have done all
+they can to persuade people to vote, have they the right to consider
+themselves ineligible? In a word, why did they propose to us to elect
+the Commune of Paris if the Commune were a bad thing? and if it were a
+good thing, why did they refuse to take their part in it? Whatever the
+cause, no sooner were they elected than they sent in their
+resignations. Then the hesitating and the timid disappeared one after
+another, not having the courage to continue the absurdity to the end.
+Add to all this the arrests made in its very bosom by the Assembly of
+the Hôtel de Ville itself, and you will then have an idea of the extent
+of the dilemma. A few days more and the Commune will come to an end for
+want of Communists, and then we shall cry, “Haste to the poll, citizens
+of Paris!” And the white official handbills will announce supplementary
+elections for Sunday, 16th of April.
+
+But here comes the difficulty; there may be elections, but not the
+shadow of an elector. Of candidates there are enough, more than enough,
+even to spare; Toting lists where the electors’ names are inscribed;
+ballot-urns-no, ballot-boxes this time-to receive the lists; these are
+all to be found, but voters to put the lists into the ballot-boxes, to
+elect the candidates, we seek them in vain. The voting localities may
+be compared to the desert of Sahara viewed at the moment when not a
+caravan is to be seen on the whole extent of the horizon, so complete
+is the solitude wherever the eager crowd of voters was expected to
+hasten to the poll. Are we then so far from the day when the Commune of
+Paris, in spite of the numerous absentees, was formed—thanks to the
+strenuous efforts of the few electors left to us? Alas! At that time we
+had still some illusions left to us, whilst now.... Have you ever been
+at the second representation of a piece when the first was a failure?
+The first day there was a cram, the second day only the claque
+remained. People had found oat the worth of the piece, you see.
+Nevertheless, though the place is peopled only with silence and
+solitude, the claque continues to do its duty, for it receives its pay.
+For the same reason one sees a few battalions marching to the poll, all
+together, in step, just as they would march to the fighting at the
+Porte Maillot; and as they return they cry, “Oh! citizens, how the
+people are voting! Never was such enthusiasm seen!” But behind the
+scenes,—I mean in the Hôtel de Ville,—authors and actors whisper to
+each other: “There is no doubt about it, it is a failure!”
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [59]
+On leaving the gulf of Otranto
+    There were thirty of us there,
+But on arriving at Cadiz
+    There were no more than ten.
+
+
+
+
+ LIV.
+
+
+And what has become of the Bourse? What are the brokers and jobbers
+saying and doing now? I ask myself this question for the first time, as
+in ordinary circumstances, the Bourse is of all sublunary things that
+which occupies me the least. I am one of those excessively stupid
+people, who have never yet been able to understand how all those
+black-coated individuals can occupy three mortal hours of every day, in
+coming and going beneath the colonnade of the “temple of Plutus.” I
+know perfectly well that stockbrokers and jobbers exist; but if I were
+asked what these stockbrokers and jobbers do, I should be incapable of
+answering a single word. We have all our special ignorances. I have
+heard, it is true, of the _Corbeille_,[60] but I ingeniously imagined,
+in my simple ignorance, that this famous basket was made in wicker
+work, and crammed with sweet-scented leaves and flowers, which the
+gentlemen of the Bourse, with the true gallantry of their nation, made
+up into emblematical bouquets to offer to their lady friends. I was
+shown, however, how much I was deceived by a friend who enlightened me,
+more or less, as to what is really done in the Bourse in usual times,
+and what they are doing there now.
+
+I must begin by acknowledging that in using the worn metaphor of the
+“temple of Plutus” just now, I knew little of what I was talking about.
+
+The Bourse is not a temple; if it were it would necessarily be a church
+or something like one, and consequently would have been closed long ago
+by our most gracious sovereign, the Commune of Paris.
+
+The Bourse, then, is open; but what is the good of that? you will say,
+for all those who haunt it now, could get in just as well through
+closed doors and opposing railings; spectres and other supernatural
+beings never find any difficulty in insinuating themselves through
+keyholes and slipping between bars. ‘Poor phantoms! Thanks to the
+weakness of our Government, which has neglected to put seals on the
+portals of the Bourse, they are under the obligation of going in and
+coming out like the most ordinary individuals; and a Parisian, who has
+not learned, by a long intimacy with Hoffmann and Edgar Poë, to
+distinguish the living from the dead, might take these ghosts of the
+money-market for simple _boursiers_. Thank heaven! I am not a man to
+allow myself to be deceived by specious appearances on such a subject,
+and I saw at once with whom I had to do.
+
+On the grand staircase there were four or five of them, spectres lean
+as vampires who have not sucked blood for three months; they were
+walking in silence, with the creeping, furtive step peculiar to
+apparitions who glide among the yew-trees in church-yards. From time to
+time one of them pulled a ghost of a notebook from his ghost of a
+waistcoat-pocket, and wrote appearances of notes with the shadow of a
+pencil. Others gathered together in groups, and one could distinctly
+hear the rattling of bones beneath their shadowy overcoats. They spoke
+in that peculiar voice which is only understood by the _confrères_ of
+the magi Eliphas Levy, and they recall to each other’s mind the
+quotations of former days, Austrian funds triumphant, Government stock
+at 70 (_quantum mutata ab illâ_), bonds of the city of Paris 1860-1869,
+and the fugitive apotheosis of the Suez shares. They said with sighs:
+“You remember the premiums? In former times there were reports made, in
+former times there were settling days at the end of the month, and huge
+pocket-book’s were so well filled, that they nearly burst; but now, we
+wander amidst the ruins of our defunct splendour, as the shade of
+Diomedes wandered amid the ruins of his house at Pompeii. We are of
+those who were; the imaginary quotations of shares that have
+disappeared, are like vain epitaphs on tombs, and we, despairing
+ghosts, we should die a second time of grief, if we were not allowed to
+appear to each other in this deserted palace, here to brood over our
+past financial glories!” Thus spoke the phantoms of the money market,
+and then added: “Oh! Commune, Commune, give us back our settling days?”
+From time to time a phantom, which still retains its haughty air, and
+in which we recognise a defunct of distinction, passes near them. In
+the days of Napoleon the Third and the Prussians this was a
+stockbroker; it passed along with a mass of documents under its arm,—as
+the father of Hamlet, rising from the grave, still wore his helmet and
+his sword. It enters the building, goes towards the _Corbeille_, shouts
+out once or twice, is answered only by an echo in the solitude, and
+then returns, saluted on his passage by his fellow-ghost. And to think
+that a little bombardment, followed by a successful attack, seven or
+eight houses set on fire by the Versailles shells, seven or eight
+hundred Federals shot, a few women blown to pieces, and a few children
+killed, would suffice to restore these desolate spectres to life and
+joy. But, alas! hope for them is deferred; the last circular of
+Monsieur Thiers announces that the great military operations will not
+commence for several days. They must wait still longer yet. The people
+who cross the Place de la Bourse draw aside with a sort of religious
+terror from the necropolis where sleep the three per cents and the
+shares of the _Crédit Foncier_; and if the churches were not closed,
+more than one charitable soul would perhaps burn a candle to lay the
+unquiet spirits of these despairing jobbers.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [60] A circular space in the great hall of the Bourse, enclosed with a
+ railing, and in which the stockbrokers stand to take bids. It is
+ nicknamed the basket (_corbeille_).
+
+
+
+
+ LV.
+
+
+The game is played, the Commune is _au complet_. In the first
+arrondissement 21260 electors, are inscribed, and there were 9 voters!
+Monsieur Vésinier had 2 votes, and Monsieur Vésinier was elected.
+Monsieur Lacord—more clever still—has no votes at all, and, triumphing
+by the unanimity of his electors, Monsieur Lacord will preside over the
+Commune of Paris in future. A very logical arrangement. It must be
+evident to all serious minds that the legislators of the Hôtel de Ville
+have promulgated _in petto_ a law which they did not think it necessary
+to make known, but which exists nevertheless, and most be couched
+somewhat in the following terms:—“Clause 1st. The elections will not be
+considered valid, if the number of voters exceed a thousandth part of
+the electors entered.—Clause 2nd. Every candidate who has less than
+fifteen votes will be elected; if he has sixteen his election will be a
+matter of discussion.” The poll is just like the game called, “He who
+loses gains, and he who gains loses!” and the probable advantages of
+such an arrangement are seen at once. Now let us do a bit of Communal
+reasoning. By whom was France led within an inch of destruction? By
+Napoleon the Third. How many votes did Napoleon the Third obtain? Seven
+millions and more. By whom was Paris delivered into the hands of the
+Prussians? By the dictators of the 4th September. How many votes did
+the dictators of the 4th September get for themselves in the city of
+Paris? More than three hundred thousand. _Ergo_, the candidates who
+obtain the greatest number of votes are swindlers and fools. The
+Commune of Paris cannot allow such abuses to exist; the Commune
+maintains universal suffrage—the grand basis of republican
+institutions—but turns it topsy-turvy. Michon has only had half a
+vote,—then Michon is our master!
+
+Ah! you do not only make us tremble and weep, you make us laugh too.
+What is this miserable parody of universal suffrage? What is this farce
+of the will of the people being represented by a half a dozen electors?
+The unknown individual, who owes his triumph to the kindness of his
+concierge and his water-carrier, becomes a member of the Commune. I
+shall be governed by Vésinier, with Briosne and Viard as supporters. Do
+you not see that the few men, with any sense left, who still support
+you, have refused to present themselves as candidates, and that even
+amongst those who were mad enough to declare themselves eligible, there
+are some who dispute the validity of the elections? No; you see nothing
+of all this, or rather it suits you to be blind. What are right and
+justice to you? Let us reign, let us govern, let us decree, let us
+triumph. All is contained in that. Rogeard pleases us, so we’ll have
+Rogeard. If the people won’t have Rogeard, so much the worse for the
+people. Beautiful! admirable! But why don’t you speak out your opinion
+frankly? There were some honest brigands (_par pari refertur_) in the
+Roman States who were perhaps no better than you are, but at least they
+made no pretension of being otherwise than lawless, and followed their
+calling of brigands without hypocrisy. When, by the course of various
+adventures, the band got diminished in numbers, they stuck no handbills
+on the walls to invite people to elect new brigands to fill up the
+vacant places; they simply chose among the vagabonds and such like
+individuals those, who seemed to them, the most capable of dealing a
+blow with a stiletto or stripping a traveller of his valuables, and the
+band, thus properly reinforced, went about its usual occupations. The
+devil! _Messieurs_, one must say what is what, and call things by their
+names. Let us call a cat a cat, and Pilotel a thief. The time of
+illusions is past; you need not be so careful to keep your masks on; we
+have seen your faces. We have had the carnival of the Commune, and now
+Ash-Wednesday is come. You disguised yourselves cunningly, _Messieurs_;
+you routed out from the old cupboards and corners of history the
+cast-off revolutionary rags of the men of ’98; and, sticking some
+ornaments of the present fashion upon them,—waistcoats à la Commune and
+hats à la Federation,—you dressed yourselves up in them and then struck
+attitudes. People perceived, it is true, that the clothes that were
+made for giants, were too wide for you pigmies; they hung round your
+figures like collapsed balloons; but you, cunning that you were, you
+said, “We have been wasted by persecution.” And when, at the very
+beginning, some stains of blood were seen upon your old disguises; “Pay
+no attention,” said you, “it is only the red flag we have in our
+pockets that is sticking out.” And it happened that some few believed
+you. We ourselves, in the very face of all our suspicions, let
+ourselves be caught by the waving of your big Scaramouche sleeves, that
+were a great deal too long for your arms. Then you talked of such
+beautiful things: liberty, emancipation of workmen, association of the
+working-classes, that we listened and thought we would see you at your
+task before we condemned you utterly. And now we have seen you at your
+task, and knowing how you work, we won’t give you any more work to do.
+Down with your mask, I tell you! Come, false Danton, be Rigault again,
+and let Sérailler’s[61] face come out from behind that Saint Just mask
+he has on. You, Napoléon Gaillard, though you are a shoemaker, you are
+not even a Simon. Drop the Robespierre, Rogeard! Off with the trappings
+borrowed from the dark, grand days! Be mean, small, and ridiculous,—be
+yourselves; we shall all be a great deal more at our ease when you are
+despicable and we are despising you again.
+
+Paris said to you yesterday just what I am telling you now. This almost
+general abstention of electors, compared with the eagerness of former
+times, is but the avowal of the error to which your masquerade has
+given rise. And what does it prove but the resolution to mix in your
+carnival no more? We see clearly through it now, I tell you, that the
+saturnalia is wearing to its end. In vain does the orchestra of cannon
+and mitrailleuses, under the direction of the conductor, Cluseret, play
+madly on and invite us to the fête. We will dance no more, and there is
+an end of it!
+
+But it will be fatal to Paris if, after saying this, she sit satisfied.
+Contempt is not enough, there must be abhorrence too, and actual
+measures taken against those we abhor. It is not sufficient to neglect
+the poll, one abstains when one is in doubt, but now that we doubt no
+longer it is time to act. While wrongful work is being done, those that
+stand aside with folded arms become accomplices. Think that for more
+than a fortnight the firing has not ceased; that Neuilly and Asnières
+have been turned into cemeteries; that husbands are falling, wives
+weeping, children suffering. Think that yesterday, the 18th of April,
+the chapel of Longchamps became a dependance—an extra dead-house—of the
+ambulances of the Press, so numerous were that day’s dead. Think of the
+savage decrees passed upon the hostages and the refractory, those who
+shunned the Federates; of the requisitions and robberies; of the
+crowded prisons and the empty workshops, of the possible massacres and
+the certain pillage. Think of our own compromised honour, and let us be
+up and doing, so that those who have remained in Paris during these
+mournful hours, shall not have stood by her only to see her fall and
+die.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [61] Sérailler, a member of the International, intrusted with a
+ commission to London on behalf of the Central Committee to borrow cash
+ for the daily pay of thirty sous to the National Guard.
+
+
+
+
+ LVI.
+
+
+Paris! for once I defy you to remain indifferent. You have had much to
+bear, during these latter days; it has been said to you, that you
+should kneel in your churches no more, and you have not knelt there;
+that the newspapers that pleased you, should be read no more, and you
+have not read them. You have continued to smile—with but the tips of
+your lips, it is true—and to promenade on the boulevards. But now comes
+stalking on that which will make you shudder indeed! Do you know what I
+have just read in the _Indépendance Belge_? Ah! poor Paris, the days of
+your glory are past, your ancient fame is destroyed, the old nursery
+rhyme will mock you, “_Vous n’irez plus au Bois, vos lauriers sont
+coupés._”[62] This is what has happened; you are supplanted on the
+throne of fashion. The world, uneasy about the form of bonnet to be
+worn this sorrowful year, and seeing you occupied with your internal
+discords, anxiously turned to London for help, and London henceforth
+dictates to all the modistes of the universe. City of desolation, I
+pity you! No more will you impose your sovereign laws, concerning
+_Suivez-moi-jeune-homme_[63] and dog-skin gloves. No more will your
+boots and shirt-collars reach, by the force of their reputation, the
+sparely-dressed inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands. And, deepest of
+humiliations, it is your old rival, it is your tall and angular sister,
+it is the black city of London, who takes your glittering sword and
+transforms it into a policeman’s baton of wood! You are destined to see
+within your walls—if any walls remain to you—your own wives and
+daughters clog their dainty tread with encumbrances of English leather,
+flatten their heads beneath mushroom-shaped hats, surround themselves
+with crinoline and flounces, and wear magenta, that abominable mixture
+of red and blue which always filled your soul with horror. Then, to
+increase the resemblance of your Parisian women with the Londoners or
+Cockneys (for it is time you learnt the fashionable language of
+England), your dentists will sell them new sets of teeth, called
+insular sets, which can be fitted over their natural front teeth, and
+will protrude about a third of an inch beyond the upper lip. And they
+will have corsets offered them whose aim is to prolong the waist to the
+farthest possible limits and compress the fairest forms—a fact, for
+report says they lace in London, whilst here we have nearly abandoned
+the corset. Well, my Paris, do you tremble and shiver? Oh! when those
+days of horror come to pass! when you see that not only have you
+forfeited your pride, but your vanity too; when you are convinced that
+the Commune has not only rendered you odious, but ridiculous as well;
+ah! then, when you wear bonnets that you have not invented, how deeply
+will you regret that you did not rebel on that day, when some of the
+best of your citizens were put _au secret_ in the cells of Mazas
+prison![64]
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [62] The refrain of a nursery song,—
+
+“Go no more to the wood, for all the laurels are cut.”
+
+ [63] The long floating ends of the neck ribbons.
+
+ [64] The Parisian play-writer’s English exhibits all the typical
+ peculiarities noted above. We have our ideal, if not typical,
+ Frenchman, little less truthful perhaps—taken from refugees and
+ excursionists, from the close-cropped, dingy denizen of Leicester
+ Square; our tourist suits, heavy pedestrian toots, “wide-awakes,” and
+ faded fashions, used up in travel—all these things are put down to
+ insular peculiarities.
+
+
+
+
+ LVII.
+
+
+I have just heard or read, a touching story; and here it is as I
+remember it. In the Faubourg Saint Antoine lives a community of women
+with whom the aged of the poor find shelter; those who have become
+infirm, or have dropped into helpless childishness, whether men or
+women, are received there without question or payment. There they are
+lodged, fed and clothed, and humbly prayed for.
+
+Last evening, sleep was just beginning to reign in the little
+community. The old people had been put to rest, each Little Sister had
+done her duty and was asleep, when the report of a gun resounded at the
+house-door. You can imagine the startings and the terror. The Little
+Sisters of the poor are not accustomed to have such noises in their
+ears, and there was a tumult and hubbub such as the house had never
+known, while they hurriedly rose, and the old people stared at each
+other from their white beds in the long dormitories. When the
+house-door was got open, a party of men, with a menacing look about
+them, strode in with their guns and swords, making a horrible racket.
+One of them was the chief, and he had a great beard and a terrible
+voice. All the Little Sisters gathered in a trembling crowd about the
+superior.
+
+“Shut the doors,” cried the captain, “and if one of these women attempt
+to escape—one, two, three, fire!” Then the Good Mother—that is the
+Little Sisters’ name for their superior—made a step forward and said,
+“What do you wish, messieurs?”
+
+“Citizens, _sacrebleu!_”
+
+The Good Mother crossed herself and, repeated, “What do you wish, my
+brothers?”
+
+[Illustration: Federal Visit to the Little Sisters of The Poor.]
+
+“That I will,” bravely answered the captain; “give me your hand. And
+now, if any one wants to harm you, he will have me to deal with first.”
+
+A few minutes later, the National Guards were gone, the Little Sisters
+and the old nurslings were at rest again, and the house was just as
+silent and peaceful as if it were no abominable resort of plotters and
+conspirators.
+
+But if I had been the Commune of Paris, would I not have shot that
+captain!
+
+
+
+
+ LVIII.
+
+
+The people of the Hôtel de Ville said to themselves, “All our fine
+doings and talking come to nothing, the delegate Cluseret and the
+commandant Dombrowski send us the most encouraging despatches in vain,
+we shall never succeed in persuading the Parisian population, that our
+struggle against the army of Versailles is a long string of decisive
+victories; whatever we may do, they will finish by finding out that the
+federate battalions gave way strangely in face of the iron-plated
+mitrailleuses the day before yesterday at Asnières, and it would be
+difficult to make them believe that this village, so celebrated for
+fried fish and Paris Cockneys, is still in our possession, unless we
+can manage to persuade them that although we have evacuated Asnières,
+we still energetically maintain our position there. The fact is,
+affairs are taking a tolerably bad turn for us. How are we to get over
+the inconvenience of being vanquished? What are we to do to destroy the
+bad impression produced by our doubtful triumphs?” And thereupon the
+members of the Commune fell to musing. “Parbleu!” cried they, after a
+few moments’ reflection—the elect of Paris are capable of more in a
+single second than all the deputies of the National Assembly in three
+years—“Let decrees, proclamations, and placards be prepared. By what
+means, did we succeed in imposing on the donkeys of Paris? Why, by
+decrees, by proclamations, by placards. Courage, then, let us
+persevere. Ha! the traitors have taken the château of Bécon, and have
+seized upon Asnières. What matters! quick, eighty pens and eighty
+inkstands. To work, men of letters; painters and shoemakers, to work!
+Franckel, who is Hungarian; Napoléon Gaillard, who is a cobbler;
+Dombrowski, who is a Pole; and Billioray, who writes _omelette_ with an
+h, will make perhaps rather a mess of it. But, thank heaven! We have
+amongst us Félix Pyat, the great dramatist; Pierre Denis, who has made
+such bad verses that he must write good prose; and lastly, Vermorel,
+the author of ‘_Ces Dames_,’ a little book illustrated with photographs
+for the use of schools, and ‘_Desperanza_,’ a novel which caused
+Gustave Flaubert many a nightmare. To work, comrades, to work! We have
+been asked for a long time what we understand by the words—La Commune.
+Tell them, if you know. Write it, proclaim it, and we will placard it.
+Even if you don’t know, tell them all the same; the great art of a good
+cook consists in making jugged hare without hare of any kind.” And this
+is why there appeared this morning on the walls an immense placard,
+with the following words in enormous letters: “Declaration to the
+French people.”
+
+Twenty days ago a long proclamation, which pretended to express and
+define the tendencies of the revolution of the eighteenth of March,
+would perhaps have had some effect. To-day we have awaked from many
+illusions, and the finest phrases in the world will not overcome our
+obstinate indifference. Let us, however, read and note.
+
+[Illustration: Vermorel,[65] Delegate of Public Safety.]
+
+“In the painful and terrible conflict which once more imposes upon
+Paris the horrors of the siege and the bombardment, which makes French
+blood flow, which causes our brothers, our wives, our children, to
+perish, crushed by shot and shell, it is urgent that public opinion
+should not be divided, that the national conscience should not be
+troubled.”
+
+That’s right! I entirely agree with you; it is undoubtedly very urgent
+that public opinion should not be divided. But let us see what means
+you are going to take to obtain so desirable a result.
+
+“Paris and the whole nation must know what is the nature, the reason,
+the object of the revolution which is now being accomplished.”
+
+Doubtless; but if that be indispensable to-day, would it have been less
+useful on the very first day of the revolution; we do not see why you
+have made us wait quite so long for it.
+
+“The responsibility of the mourning, the suffering, and the misfortunes
+of which we are the victims should fall upon those who, after having
+betrayed France and delivered Paris to the foreigner, pursue with blind
+obstinacy the destruction of the capital, in order to bury under the
+ruins of the Republic and of Liberty the double evidence of their
+treason and their crime.”
+
+Heigho! what a phrase! These clear and precise expressions, that throw
+so much light on the gloom of the situation, are these yours, Félix
+Pyat? Did the Commune say “_Pyat Lux!_” Or were they yours, Pierre
+Denis? Or yours, Vermorel? I particularly admire the double evidence
+buried under the ruins of the Republic. Happy metaphor!
+
+“The duty of the Commune is to affirm and determine the aspirations and
+the views of the population of Paris; to fix precisely the character of
+the movement of the 18th of March, misunderstood, misinterpreted, and
+vilified by the men who sit at Versailles.”
+
+Ah, yes, that is the duty of the Commune, but for heaven’s sake don’t
+keep us waiting, you see we are dying with impatience.
+
+“Once more, Paris labours and suffers for the whole of France, and by
+her combats and her sacrifices prepares the way for intellectual,
+moral, administrative and economic regeneration, glory and prosperity.”
+
+That is so true that since the Commune existed in Paris, the workshops
+are closed, the factories are idle, and France, for whom the capital
+sacrifices herself, loses something like fifty millions a day. These
+are facts, it seems to me; and I don’t see what the traitors of
+Versailles can say in reply.
+
+“What does Paris demand?”
+
+Ah! yes, what does she ask? Truly we should not be sorry to know. Or
+rather, what do you ask; for in the same way as Louis le Grand had the
+right to say, “The State, I am the State,” you may say “Paris, we are
+Paris.”
+
+“Paris demands the recognition and the consolidation of the Republic,
+the only form of government compatible with the rights of the people,
+and the regular and free development of society.”
+
+This once you are right. Paris demands the Republic, and must yearn for
+it eagerly indeed, since neither your excesses nor your follies have
+succeeded in changing its mind.
+
+“It demands the absolute entirety of the Commune extended to all the
+localities of France, ensuring to everyone the integrity of its rights,
+and to every Frenchman the free exercise of his faculties and abilities
+as man, citizen, and workman. The rights of the Commune should have no
+other limit, but the equal rights of all other Communes adhering to the
+contract, an association which would assure the unity of France.”
+
+This is a little obscure. What I understand is something like this. You
+would make France a federation of Communes, but what is the meaning of
+words “adherence to the contract?” You admit then that certain Communes
+might refuse their adhesion. In that case what would be the situation
+of these rebels? Would you leave them free? Or would you force them to
+obey the conventions of the majority? Do you think it would be
+sufficient, in the case of such a town as Pezenas, for example,
+refusing to adhere, that the association would be incomplete? That is
+to say, that French unity would not exist? Are you very sure about
+Pezenas? Who tells you that Pezenas may not have its own idea of
+independence, and that, we may not hear presently that it has elected a
+duke who raises an army and coins money. Duke of Pezenas! that sounds
+well. Remember, also, that many other localities might follow the
+example of Pezenas, and perhaps in order to insure the entirety of the
+Commune, it might have been wise to have asked them if they wanted it.
+Now, what do you understand by “localities?” Marseilles is a locality;
+an isolated farm in the middle of a field is also a locality. So France
+would be divided into an infinite number of Communes. Would they agree
+amongst themselves, these innumerable little states? Supposing they are
+agreed to the contract, it is not impossible that petty rivalries
+should lead to quarrels, or even to blows; an action about a party-wall
+might lead to a civil war. How would you reduce the recalcitrant
+localities to reason? for even supposing that the Communes have the
+right to subjugate a Commune, the disaffected one could always escape
+you by declaring that it no longer adheres to the social compact. So
+that if this secession were produced not only by the vanity of one or
+more little hamlets, but by the pride of one or more great towns,
+France would find herself all at once deprived of her most important
+cities. Ah! messieurs, this part of your programme certainly leaves
+something to be desired, and I recommend you to improve it, unless
+indeed you prefer to suppress it altogether.
+
+“The inherent rights of the Commune are ‘the vote of the Commmunal
+budget, the levying and the division of taxes, the direction of the
+local services, the organisation of the magistrature, of the police,
+and of education, and of the administration of the property belonging
+to the Commune.’”
+
+This paragraph is cunning. It does not seem so at first sight, but look
+at it closely, and you will see that the most Machiavellic spirit has
+presided over its production. The ability consists in placing side by
+side with the rights which incontestably belong to the Commune, other
+rights which do not belong to it the least in the world, and in not
+appearing to attach more importance to one than to the other, so that
+the reader, carried away by the evident legitimacy of many of your
+claims, may say to himself, “Really all that is very just.” Let us
+unravel if you please this skein of red worsted so ingeniously tangled.
+The vote of the Communal budget, receipts and expenses, the levying and
+division of taxes, the administration of the Communal property, are
+rights which certainly belong to the Commune; if it had not got them it
+would not exist. And why do they belong to it? Because it alone could
+know what is good for it in these matters, and could come to such
+decision upon them, as it thought fit, without injuring the whole
+country. But it is not the same as regards measures concerning the
+magistracy, the police, and education. Well, suppose one fine day a
+Commune should say, “Magistrates? I don’t want any magistrates; these
+black-robed gentry are no use to me; let others nourish these idlers,
+who send brave thieves and honest assassins to the galleys; I love
+assassins and I honour thieves, and more, I choose that the culprits
+should judge the magistrates of the Republic.” Now, if a Commune were
+to say that, or something like that, what could you answer in reply?
+Absolutely nothing; for, according to your system, each locality in
+France has the right to organise its magistracy as it pleases. As
+regards the police and education, it would be easy to make out similar
+hypotheses, and thus to exhibit the absurdity of your Communal
+pretensions. Should a Commune say, “No person shall be arrested in
+future, and it is prohibited under pain of death to learn by heart the
+fable of the wolf and the fox.” What could you say to that? Nothing,
+unless you admitted that you were mistaken just now in supposing, that
+the integrity of the Commune ought to have no other limit but the right
+of equal independence of all the other Communes. There exists another
+limit, and that is the general interests of the country, which cannot
+permit one part of it to injure the rest, by bad example or in any
+other way; the central power alone can judge those questions where a
+single absurd measure—of which more than one “locality” may probably be
+guilty—might compromise the honour or the interests of France; the
+magistracy, the police, and education, are evidently questions of that
+nature.
+
+The other rights of the Commune are, always be it understood, according
+to the declaration made to the French people:
+
+    “The choice by election or competition; with the responsibility and
+    the permanent right of control over magistrates and communal
+    functionaries of every class;
+    “The absolute guarantee of individual liberty, of liberty of
+    conscience, and of liberty of labour;
+    “The permanent participation of the citizens in Communal affairs by
+    the free manifestations of their opinions, and the free defence of
+    their interests: guarantees to this effect to be given by the
+    Commune, the only power charged with the surveillance and the
+    protection of the full and just exercise of the rights of meeting
+    and publicity;
+    “The organisation of the city defences and of the National Guard,
+    which elects its own officers, and alone ensures the maintenance of
+    order in the city.”
+
+With regard to the affirmation of these rights we may repeat that which
+we have said above, that some of them really belong to the Commune, but
+that the greater part of them do not.
+
+    “Paris desires nothing more in the way of local guarantees, on
+    condition, let it be understood, of finding in the great central
+    administration ...”
+    “... In the great central administration appointed by the federated
+    Commune the realisation and the practice of the same principles.”
+
+That is to say, in other words, that Paris will consent willingly to be
+of the same opinion as others, if all the world is of the same opinion
+as itself.
+
+“But, thanks to its independence, and profiting by its liberty of
+action, Paris reserves to itself the right of effecting, as it pleases,
+the administrative and economic reforms demanded by the population; to
+create proper institutions for the development and propagation of
+instruction, production, commerce, and credit; to universalize power
+and property,...”
+
+Whew! Universalize property! Pray what does that mean, may I ask?
+Communalism here presents a singular likeness to Communism!
+
+    “... According to the necessities of the moment, the desire of
+    those interested, and the lessons famished by experience:
+    “Our enemies deceive themselves or the country when they accuse
+    Paris of wishing to impose its will or its supremacy on the rest of
+    the nation, and to pretend to a dictatorship which would be a
+    positive offence against the independence and the sovereignty of
+    the other Communes:
+    “They deceive themselves, or they deceive the country, when they
+    accuse Paris of desiring the destruction of French unity,
+    constituted by the Revolution amid the acclamations of our fathers
+    hurrying to the Festival of the Federation from all points of
+    ancient France:
+    “Political unity as imposed upon us up to the present time by the
+    empire, the monarchy, and parliamentarism, is nothing more than
+    despotic centralization, whether intelligent, arbitrary, or
+    onerous.
+    “Political unity, such as Paris demands, is the voluntary
+    association of all local initiatives, the spontaneous and free
+    cooperation of individual energies with one single common
+    object—the well-being and the security of all.
+    “The Communal revolution, inaugurated by the popular action of the
+    18th of March, ushers in a new era of experimental, positive, and
+    scientific politics.”
+
+Do you not think that during the last paragraphs the tone of the
+declaration is somewhat modified? It would seem as though Felix Pyat
+had become tired, and handed the pen to Pierre Denis or to
+Delescluze,—after Communalism comes socialism.
+
+“Communal revolution is the end of the old governmental and clerical
+world, of militarism, of officialism (this new editor seems fond of
+words ending in ism), of exploitation, of commission, of monopolies,
+and of privileges to which the proletariat owes his thralldom, and the
+country her misfortunes and disasters.”
+
+Of course there is nothing in the world that would please me better;
+but if I were very certain that Citizen Rigault did not possess an
+improved glass enabling him to observe me from a distance of several
+miles, without leaving his study or his armchair, if I were very
+certain that Citizen Rigault could not read over my shoulder what I am
+writing at this moment, I might perhaps venture to insinuate, that the
+revolution of the 18th of March appears to me to be, at the present
+moment, the apotheosis of most of the crimes which it pretends to have
+suppressed.
+
+“Let then our grand and beloved country, deceived by falsehood and
+calumnies, be reassured!”
+
+Well, in order that she may be reassured there is only one thing to be
+done,—be off with you!
+
+    “The struggle going on between Paris and Versailles is one of those
+    which can never be terminated by deceitful compromises. There can
+    be no doubt as to the issue. (Oh, no! there is no doubt about it.)
+    Victory, pursued with indomitable energy by the National Guard,
+    will remain with principle and justice.
+    We ask it of France.”
+
+Where is the necessity, since you have the indomitable energy of the
+National Guard?”.
+
+“Convinced that Paris under arms possesses as much calmness as bravery
+...”
+
+You will find that a very difficult thing to persuade France to
+believe.
+
+“... That it maintains order with equal energy and enthusiasm ...”
+
+Order? No doubt, that which reigned at Warsaw; the order that reigned
+on the day after the 2nd of December.
+
+“... That it sacrifices itself with as much judgment as heroism ...”
+
+Yes; the judgment of a man who throws himself out of a fourth-floor
+window to prove that his head is harder than the paving-stones.
+
+“... That it is only armed through devotion for the glory and liberty
+of all—let France cause this bloody conflict to cease!”
+
+She’ll cause it to cease, never fear, but not in the way you understand
+it.
+
+“It is for France to disarm Versailles ...”
+
+Up to the present time she has certainly done precisely the contrary.
+
+“... by the manifestations of her irresistible will. As she will be
+partaker in our conquests, let her take part in our efforts, let her be
+our ally in this conflict, which can only finish by the triumph of the
+Communal idea, or the ruin of Paris.”
+
+The ruin of Paris! That is only, I suppose, a figurative expression.
+
+    “For ourselves, citizens of Paris, it is our mission to accomplish
+    the modern revolution, the grandest and most fruitful of all those
+    that have illuminated history.
+    “Our duty is to struggle and to conquer!
+    “THE COMMUNE OF PARIS.”
+
+Such is this long, emphatic, but often obscure declaration. It is not
+wanting, however, in a certain eloquence; and, although frequently
+disfigured by glaring exaggerations, it contains here and there some
+just ideas, or at least, such as conform to the views of the great
+majority. Will it destroy the bad effect produced by the successive
+defeats of the Federals at Neuilly and at Asnières? Will it produce any
+good feeling towards the Commune in the minds of those who are daily
+drawing farther and farther from the men of the Commune? No; it is too
+late. Had this proclamation been placarded fifteen or twenty days
+sooner, some parts of it might have been approved and the rest
+discussed. Today we pass it by with a smile. Ah! many things have
+happened during the last three days. The acts of the Commune of Paris
+no longer allow us to take its declarations seriously, and we look upon
+its members as too mad—if not worse—to believe that by any accident
+they can be reasonable. These men have finished by rendering detestable
+whatever good there originally was in their idea.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [65] He was born in 1841, in the department of the Rhône. His
+ education was completed very early. At the age of twenty he was
+ engaged on two journals of the opposition, _La Jeune France_, and _La
+ Jeunesse_. Those papers were soon suppressed, and their young
+ contributor was imprisoned for three months. In 1864 he became one of
+ the staff of the _Presse_, whence he passed to the _Liberté_ in 1866.
+ Two years later he founded the _Courrier Français_; but from the
+ multiplicity of fines imposed upon it, and from the imprisonment of
+ its founder, the new journal expired very shortly. After a year’s
+ incarceration at Sainte-Pélagie, Vermorel was engaged on the
+ _Réforme_, which continued to appear until the fall of the Empire.
+ During the siege he served as a private in the National Guard. He
+ became a member of the Committee of Justice under the Commune, and was
+ one of those who, at its fall, neither deserted nor disgraced it. He
+ is reported to have mounted a barricade armed only with a cane, crying
+ “I come here to die and not to fight.” His mother obtained permission
+ to transport his remains to Venice.
+
+
+
+
+ LIX.
+
+
+We have a court-martial; it is presided over by the citizen Rossel,
+chief of the grand staff of the army. It has just condemned to death
+the Commandant Girod, who refused to march against the “enemy.” The
+Executive Committee, however, has pardoned Commandant Girod. Let us
+look at this matter a little. If the Executive Committee occupies its
+time in undoing what the court-martial has done, I can’t quite
+understand why the executive has instituted a court-martial at all. If
+I were a member of the latter I should get angry. “What! I should say,
+they instal me in the hall where the courts-martial are held, they
+appoint guards to attend upon me, and my president has the right to
+say, ‘Guards, remove the prisoner.’ In a word, they convert me into
+something which resembles a judge as much as a parody can resemble the
+work burlesqued, and when I, a member of the court-martial, desire to
+take advantage of the rights that have been conferred upon me, and
+order the Commandant Girod to be shot, they stand in the way of
+justice, and save the life of him I have condemned. This is absurd! I
+had a liking for this commandant, and I wished him to die by my hands.”
+
+Never mind, court-martial, take it coolly; you will have your revenge
+before long. At this moment there are at least sixty-three
+ecclesiastics in the prisons of Mazas, the Conciergerie, and La Santé.
+Although they are not precisely soldiers, they will be sent before you
+to be judged, and you may do just what you like with them, without any
+fear of the executive commission interposing its veto. The refractory
+also will give you work to do, and against them you can exercise your
+pleasure. As to the Commandant Girod, his is a different case, you
+understand. He is the friend of citizen Delescluze. The members of the
+Commune have not so many friends that they can afford to have any of
+them suppressed. But don’t be downcast; a dozen priests are well worth
+a major of the National Guard.
+
+
+
+
+ LX.
+
+
+It is precisely because the men that the Commune sends to the front,
+fight and die so gloriously, that we feel exasperated against its
+members. A curse upon them, for thus wasting the moral riches of Paris!
+Confusion to them, for enlisting into so bad a service, the first-rate
+forces which a successful revolt leaves at their disposal. I will tell
+you what happened yesterday, the 22nd of April, on the Boulevard
+Bineau; and then I think you will agree with me that France, who has
+lost so much, still retains some of the bright, dauntless courage which
+was her. pride of old.
+
+A trumpeter, a mere lad of seventeen, was marching at the head of his
+detachment, which had been ordered to take possession of a barricade
+that the Versailles troops were supposed to have abandoned. When I say,
+“he marched,” I am making a most incorrect statement, for he turned
+somersets and executed flying leaps on the road, far in advance of his
+comrades, until his progress was arrested by the barricade; this he
+greeted with a mocking gesture, and then, with a bound or two, was on
+the other side. There had been some mistake, the barricade had not been
+abandoned. Our young trumpeter was immediately surrounded by a pretty
+large number of troops of the line, who had lain hidden among the sacks
+of earth and piles of stones, in the hope of surprising the company
+which was advancing towards them. Several rifles were pointed at the
+poor boy, and a sergeant said: “If you move a foot, if you utter a
+sound, you die!” The lad’s reply was to leap to the highest part of the
+barricade and cry out, with all the strength of his young voice, “Don’t
+come on! They are here!” Then he fell backwards, pierced by four balls,
+but his comrades were saved!
+
+
+
+
+ LXI.
+
+
+Another, and a sadder scene happened in the Avenue des Ternes. A
+funeral procession was passing along. The coffin, borne by two men, was
+very small, the coffin of a young child. The father, a workman in a
+blouse, walked behind with a little knot of other mourners. A sad
+sight, but the catastrophe was horrible. Suddenly a shell from Mont
+Valérien fell on the tiny coffin, and, bursting, scattered the remains
+of the dead child upon the living father. The corpse was entirely
+destroyed, with the trappings that had surrounded it. Massacring the
+dead! Truly those cannons are a wonderful, a refined invention!
+
+
+
+
+ LXII.
+
+
+At last the unhappy inhabitants of Neuilly are able to leave their
+cellars. For three weeks, they have been hourly expecting the roofs of
+their houses to fall in and crush them; and with much difficulty have
+managed during the quieter moments of the day to procure enough to keep
+them from dying of starvation. For three weeks they have endured all
+the terrors, all the dangers of battle and bombardment. Many are
+dead—they all thought themselves sure to die. Horrible details are
+told. A little past Gilet’s restaurant, where the omnibus office used
+to be, lived an old couple, man and wife. At the beginning of the civil
+war, two shells burst, one after another, in their poor lodging,
+destroying every article of furniture. Utterly destitute, they took
+refuge in the cellar, where after a few hours of horrible suspense, the
+old man died. He was seventy, and the fright killed him; his wife was
+younger and stronger, and survived. In the rare intervals between the
+firing she went out and spoke to her neighbours through the cellar
+gratings—“My husband is dead. He must be buried; what am I to
+do?”—Carrying him to the cemetery was of course out of the question; no
+one could have been found to render this mournful duty. Besides, the
+bearers would probably have met a shell or a bullet on the way, and
+then others must have been found to carry them. One day, the old woman
+ventured as far as the Porte Maillot, and cried out as loud as she
+could, “My husband is dead in a cellar; come and fetch him, and let us
+both through the gates!”—The sentinel facetiously (let us hope it was
+nothing worse) took aim at her with his rifle, and she fled back to her
+cellar. At night, she slept by the side of the corpse, and when the
+light of morning filtered into her dreary place of refuge, and lighted
+up the body lying there, she sobbed with grief and terror. Her husband
+had been dead four days, when putrefaction set in, and she, able to
+bear it no longer, rushed out screaming to her neighbours: “You must
+bury him, or I will go into the middle of the avenue and await death
+there!”—They took pity on her, and came down into her cellar, dug a
+hole there and put the corpse in it. During three weeks she continued
+there, resting herself on the newly-turned earth. To-day, when they
+went to fetch her she fainted with horror; the grave had been dug too
+shallow, and one of the legs of the corpse was exposed to gaze.
+
+[Illustration: Female Curiosity at Porte Maillot.
+“Prenez Garde, Mam’zelle”]
+
+This morning, the 25th of April, at nine o’clock, a dense crowd moved
+up the Champs Elysées: pedestrians of all ages and classes, and
+vehicles of every description. The truce obtained by the members of the
+_Republican Union of the rights of Paris_ was about to begin, and
+relief was to be carried to the sufferers at Neuilly. However, some
+precautions were necessary, for neither the shooting nor the cannonade
+had ceased yet, and every moment one expected to see some projectile or
+other fall among the advancing multitude. In the Avenue de la Grande
+Armée a shell had struck a house, and set fire to it. Gradually the
+sound of the artillery diminished, and then died away entirely; the
+crowd hastened to the ramparts.
+
+[Illustration: Porte Maillot and Chapel of St. Ferdinand.]
+
+The chapel was erected by Louis Philippe in memory of the Duke of
+Orleans, killed on the spot, July 18th, 1842.
+
+The Porte Maillot has been entirely destroyed for some time, in spite
+of what the Commune has told us to the contrary; the drawbridge is torn
+from its place, the ruined walls and bastions have fallen into the
+moat. The railway-station is a shapeless mass of blackened bricks,
+broken stones, glass, and iron-work; the cutting where the trains used
+to pass is half filled up with the ruins. It is impossible to get along
+that way. Fancy the hopeless confusion here, arising among this myriad
+of anxious beings, these hundreds of carts and waggons, all crowding to
+the same spot. Each one presses onwards, pushing his neighbour,
+screaming and vociferating; the National Guards try in vain to keep
+order. To add to the difficulties there is some form to be gone through
+about passes. I manage to hang on to a cart which is just going over
+the bridge; after a thousand stoppages and a great deal of pushing and
+squeezing, I succeeded in getting out, my clothes in rags. A desolate
+scene meets my eyes. In front of us, is the open space called the
+military zone, a dusty desert, with but one building remaining, the
+chapel of Longchamps; it has been converted into an ambulance, and the
+white flag with the red cross is waving above it. Truly the wounded
+there must be in no little danger from the shells, as it lies directly
+in their path. To the left is the Bois de Boulogne, or rather what used
+to be the wood, for from where I stand but few trees are visible, the
+rest is a barren waste. I hasten on, besides I am hard pressed from
+behind. Here we are in Neuilly, at last. The desolation is fearful, the
+reality surpassing all I could have imagined. Nearly all the roofs of
+the houses are battered in, rafters stick out of the broken windows;
+some of the walls, too, have fallen, and those that remain standing are
+riddled with blackened holes. It is there that the dreadful shells have
+entered, breaking, grinding furniture, pictures, glasses, and even
+human beings. We crunch broken glass beneath our feet at every step;
+there is not a whole pane in all the windows. Here and there are houses
+which the bullets seemed to have delighted to pound to atoms, and from
+which dense clouds of red and white dust are wafted towards us. Well,
+Parisians, what do you say to that? Do you not think that Citizen
+Cluseret, although an American, is an excellent patriot, and “In
+consideration of Neuilly being in ruins, and of this happy result being
+chiefly due to the glorious resistance organized by the delegate
+Citizen Cluseret, decrees: That the destroyer of Neuilly, Citizen
+Cluseret, has merited the gratitude of France and the Republic.”
+
+[Illustration: The Inhabitants of Neuilly Entering Paris During The
+Armisctice of the 18th of April.]
+
+The firing ceased from nine in the morning until five in the afternoon,
+when Paris cabs, furniture-vans, ambulance-waggons, band-barrows, and
+all sorts of vehicles were requisitioned to bring in the sad remains
+and dilapidated household goods of the suburban bombardés. They entered
+by the gate of Ternes—for that of Porte Maillot was in ruins and
+impassable. Many went to the Palais de l’Industrie, in the Champs
+Elysées, where a commission sat to allot vacant apartments in Paris. On
+this occasion some robberies were committed, and refractories escaped:
+it is even said that hard-hearted landlords wished to prevent their
+lodgers from departing—an object in which the proprietors were not very
+successful. The poor woman perched on the top of her relics, saved from
+the cellar in which she had lived in terror for fourteen days, deplores
+the loss of her husband and the shapeless mass of ruin and rubbish she
+once called her happy home; whilst her boys bring in green stuff from
+the surburban gardens, and a middle-aged neighbour stalks along with
+his pet parrot, the bird all the while amusing himself with elaborate
+imitations of the growl of the mitrailleuse and the hissing of shells
+ending with terrific and oft-repeated explosions.
+
+Out of all the houses, or rather from what was once the houses, emerge
+the inhabitants carrying different articles of furniture, tables,
+mattresses, boxes. They come out as it were from their graves.
+Relations meet and embrace, after having suffered almost the bitterness
+of death. Thousands run backwards and forwards; the carts are heaped up
+to overflowing, everything that is not destroyed must be carried away.
+A large van filled with orphan children moves on towards the barrier; a
+sister of charity is seated beside the driver. The most impatient of
+the refugees are already through the Porte Maillot; who will give them
+hospitality there? No one seems to think of that. The excitement caused
+by all this movement is almost joyous under the brilliant rays of the
+sun. But time presses, in a few minutes the short truce will have
+expired. Stragglers hurry along with heavy loads. At the gates, the
+crowding and confusion are greater than in the morning. Carts heavily
+laden, move slowly and with difficulty; the contents of several are
+spilled on the highway. More shouting, crowding, and pushing, until the
+gates are passed at last, and the emigrant crowd disperses along the
+different streets and avenues into the heart of Paris. A happy release
+from bondage, but what a dismal promised land!
+
+Then the cannonading and musketry on either side recommences. Destroy,
+kill, this horrible quarrel can only end with the annihilation of one
+of the two parties engaged. Go on killing each other if you will have
+it so, combatants, fellow-countrymen. Some wretched women and children
+will at least sleep in safety to-night, in spite of you!
+
+[Illustration: _Federal Officer_. Pardon, Monsieur, but we cannot allow
+civilians to remain here.
+_Monsieur_. I wait for Valérien to open upon us.]
+
+Yes, my good friends and idlers, the sad scene would not have been
+complete without your presence to relieve its sadness. If respect for
+your persons kept you away from danger, it at least gives zest to the
+place, a locality that in a few short minutes will be dangerous again.
+At five the armistice was over, but for all that, the National Guard
+had great difficulty in clearing the ground, until real danger, the
+excitement sought for, arrived, and sent the spectators much further up
+the Avenue de la Grande Armée.
+
+[Illustration: Mdlle, et Ses Cousines.]
+
+5.30. Great Guns of Valérien, Why do you not begin? Know you that tubes
+charged with bright eyes are directed against you?
+
+
+
+
+ LXIII.
+
+
+I had almost made up my mind not to continue these notes. Tired and
+weary, I remained two days at home, wishing to see nothing, hear
+nothing, trying to absorb myself in my books, and to take up the lost
+thread of my interrupted studies, but all to no purpose.
+
+It is ten in the morning, and I am out again in search of news. How
+many things may have happened in two days! Not far from the Hôtel de
+Ville excited groups are assembled at the corners of the streets that
+lead out of the Rue de Rivoli. They seem waiting for something—what are
+they waiting for? Vague rumours, principally of a peaceful and
+conciliatory nature, circulate from group to group, where women
+decidedly predominate.
+
+“If _they_ help us we are saved!” says a workwoman, who is holding a
+little boy in the dress of a national guard by the hand.—“Who?” I
+ask.—“Ah! Monsieur, it is the Freemasons who are taking the side of the
+Commune; they are going to cross Paris before our eyes. The Commune
+must be in the right if the Freemasons think so.”—“Here they come!”
+says the little boy, pulling his mother along with all his strength.
+
+[Illustration: Protot[66], Delegate of Justice.]
+
+The vehicles draw up on one side to make room, the crowd presses to the
+edge of the pavement. The drums beat, a military band strikes up the
+“Marseillaise.” First come five staff-officers, and then six members of
+the Commune, wearing their red scarfs, fringed with gold. I fancy I
+recognize Citizens Delescluze and Protot among them. “They are going to
+the Hôtel de Ville!” cries an enthusiastic butcher-boy, holding a large
+basket of meat on his head, which he steadies with one hand, while with
+the other he makes wild signs to two companions on the other side of
+the way. “I saw them this morning in the Place du Carrousel,” he
+continues in the same strain. “That was fine, I tell you! And then this
+battalion came to fetch them, with the music and all. Now they are
+going to salute the Republic; come along, I say. Double quick time!” So
+the butcher-boy, and the woman with the child, and myself, and all the
+rest of the bystanders, turn and follow the eight or ten thousand
+members of Parisian freemasonry who are crowding along the Rue de
+Rivoli. In the front and rear of the procession I notice a large number
+of unarmed men, dressed in loose Zouave trousers of dark-blue cloth,
+with white gaiters, white bands, and blue jackets. Their heads are
+mostly bare. I am told these are the Communist sharpshooters. Ever so
+far on in front of us a large white banner is floating, bearing an
+inscription which I cannot manage to read on account of the distance.
+However, the butcher-boy has made it out, and informs us that “Love one
+another” is written there. Happy, delusive Freemasons! “Tolerate one
+another” is scarcely practicable! In the meantime we continue to follow
+at the heels of the procession. There is much shouting and noise, here
+and there a feeble “_Vive la Commune!_” But the principal cries are,
+“Down with the murderers! Death to assassins! Down with Versailles!” A
+Freemason doffs his hat and shouts, “_Vive la Paix!_ It is peace we are
+going to seek!”
+
+I am still sadly confused, and cannot make up my mind what all this is
+about. Patience, however, I shall know all at the Hôtel de Ville. Here
+we are. The National Guard keeps the ground, and the whole procession
+files into the Cour d’Honneur. Carried on by the crowd, I find myself
+near the entrance and can see what is going on inside. The whole of the
+Commune is out on the balcony, at the top of the grand staircase, in
+front of the statue of the Republic, which like the Communists wears a
+red scarf. Great trophies of red flags are waving everywhere. Men
+bearing the banners of the society are stationed on every step; on each
+is inscribed, in golden letters, mottos of peace and fraternity. A
+patriarchal Freemason, wearing his collar and badges, has arrived in a
+carriage; they help him to alight with marks of the greatest respect.
+The court is by this time full to overflowing, an enthusiastic cry of
+“Vive la Franc Maçonnerie! Vive la République Universelle!” is
+re-echoed from mouth to mouth. Citizen Félix Pyat, member of the
+Commune, who is on the balcony, comes forward to speak. I congratulate
+myself on being at last about to hear what all this means. But I am
+disappointed. The pushing and squeezing is unbearable. I have
+vigorously to defend my hat, stick, purse, and cigar-case, and am half
+stifled besides. I almost despair of catching a single word, but at
+last succeed in hearing a few detached sentences:—“Universal
+nationality.... liberty, equality, and fraternity.... manifestos of the
+heart....” (what is that?) “the standard of humanity.... ramparts....”
+If I could only get a little nearer—the words “homicidal balls....
+fratricidal bullets.... universal peace....” alone reach me. Is it to
+hear such stuff as this, that the Freemasons have come to the Hôtel de
+Ville? I suppose so, for after a little more of the same kind the whole
+is drowned in a stupendous roar of “Vive la Commune!” and “Vive la
+République!” I have given up all hope of ever understanding.
+
+[Illustration: Félix Pyat.[67]]
+
+“They have come to draw lots to see who is to go and kill M. Thiers,”
+cries a red-haired gamin.—“Idiot,” retorts his comrade, “they have no
+arms!”—“Listen, and you will hear,” says the first, which is capital
+advice, if I could but follow it. The pushing becomes intolerable, when
+suddenly the bald head of an unfortunate citizen executes a fatal
+plunge—I can breathe at last—and the following words reach me pretty
+clearly:—“The Commune has decided that we shall choose five members who
+are to have the honour of escorting you, and we are to draw
+lots....”—“There! was I not right?” cries he of the carrotty hair; “I
+knew they were going to draw lots!” A cleverly administered blow,
+however, soon silences his elation, and we hear that the lots have been
+drawn, and that five members are chosen to aid “this glorious, this
+victorious act.” There seems more rhyme than reason in this. “An act
+that will be read of in the future history of France and of humanity.”
+Here the irrepressible breaks out again:—“Now I am sure they are going
+to kill M. Thiers!” Whereupon his irritated adversary seizes him by the
+collar, gives his head some well-applied blows against the curb-stone,
+and then, pushing through the crowd, carries him off bodily. As for me,
+my curiosity unsatisfied, I grow resigned—may the will of the Commune
+be done—and I give it up. More hopeless mystification from the Citizen
+Beslay, who regrets not having been chosen to aid in this “heroic act.”
+He also alludes to the drawing of lots, and I begin after all to fancy
+poor M. Thiers must be at the bottom of it all, but he
+continues:—“Citizens, what can I say after the eloquent discourse of
+Félix Pyat? You are about to interest yourselves in an act of
+fraternity....” (then something horrible is surely contemplated) “in
+hoisting your banner on the walls of our city, and mixing in our ranks
+against our enemies of Versailles.” A sudden light breaks upon me. In
+the meantime Citizen Beslay is embracing the nearest Freemason, while
+another begs the honour of being the first to plant his banner, the
+Persévérance, which was unfurled in 1790, on the ramparts. Here a band
+plays the “Marseillaise,” horribly out of tune; a red flag is given to
+the Freemasons, with an appropriate harangue; then the Citizen Térifocq
+takes back the flag, with another harangue, and ends by waving it aloft
+and roaring, “Now, citizens, no more words; to action!”
+
+This is clear, the Freemasons are to hoist their banner on to the walls
+of Paris side by side with the standard of the Commune; and who is
+blind enough to imagine, that the shells and bullets, indiscriminately
+homicidal, fratricidal, and infanticidal as they prove, are imbued with
+tact sufficient to steer clear of the Freemasons’ banners, and injure
+in their flight only those of the Commune? As the Versailles
+projectiles have only one end in view, that of piercing both the
+Parisians and their standards, as a national consequence if both
+Parisians and standards are pierced, it is likewise most probable that
+the Masonic banners will not remain unscathed in so dangerous a
+neighbourhood. And if so, what will be the result? According to Citizen
+Térifocq “the Freemasons of Paris will call to their aid the direst
+vengeance; the Masons of all the provinces of France will follow their
+example; everywhere the brothers will fraternise with the troops which
+are marching on to help Paris. On the other hand, if the Versailles
+gunners do not aim at the Masons, but only at the National Guards
+(_sic!_), then the Masons will join the battalions in the field, and
+encourage by their example the gallant soldiers, defenders of the
+city.” This is all rather complicated—what can come of it? Escorted by
+an ever-increasing crowd, we reach the Place de la Bastille. Several
+discourses are spouted forth at the foot of the column, but the
+combined effects of noise, dust, and fatigue have blunted my senses,
+and I hear nothing; it seems, however to be about the same thing over
+again, for the same acclamations of the crowd greet the same gestures
+on the part of the orators.
+
+We are off again down the Boulevards; the long procession, with its
+waving banners and glittering signs, is hailed by the populace with
+delight. Having reached the Place de la Concorde, I loiter behind.
+Groups are stationed here and there. I go from one to another, trying
+to gather what these open-air politicians think of all this Masonic
+parade. Shortly fugitives are seen hurrying back from the Champs
+Elysées, shouting, and gesticulating. “Horror! Abomination! They
+respect nothing! Vengeance!” I hear a brother-mason has been killed by
+a shell opposite the Rue du Colysée; that the white flag is riddled
+with shot; that the Versailles rifles have singled out, killed and
+wounded several masons.
+
+In a very short time the terrible news, increased and exaggerated as it
+spread, filled every quarter of Paris with consternation. I returned
+home in a most perplexed state of mind, from which I could not arouse
+myself until the arrival, towards evening, of a friend, a freemason,
+and consequently well informed. This, it appears, is what took place.
+
+“At the moment when the procession arrived in the Champs Elysées it
+formed itself into several groups, each choosing a separate avenue or
+street. One followed the Faubourg St. Honoré and the Avenue Friedland
+as far as the Triumphal Arch, till it reached the Porte Maillot; a
+second proceeded to the Porte des Ternes by the Avenue des Ternes; a
+third to the Porte Dauphine by the Avenue Ührich. Not a single
+freemason was wounded on the way, though shells fell on their passage
+from time to time. The VV.·. of each lodge marched at the head,
+displaying their masonic banners.
+
+[Illustration: The Freemasons at the Ramparts. Gamins collecting
+shells.]
+
+“As soon as the white flag was seen flying from the bastion on the
+right of the Porte Maillot, the Versailles batteries ceased firing. The
+freemasons were then able to pass the ramparts and proceed towards
+Neuilly. There they were received rather coldly by the colonel in
+command of the detachment. The officers, including those in high
+command, were violently indignant against Paris. But the soldiers
+themselves seemed utterly weary of war.
+
+“After some parleying the members of the manifestation obtained leave
+to send a certain number of delegates to Versailles, in order to make a
+second attempt at conciliation with the Government.”
+
+Will this new effort be more successful than the preceding one? Will
+the company of freemasons obtain what the Republican Union failed in
+procuring? I would fain believe it, but cannot. The obstinacy of the
+Versailles Assembly has become absolute deafness, though we must admit
+that the freemasons’ way of trying to bring about reconciliation was
+rather singular, somewhat like holding a knife at Monsieur Thiers’
+throat and crying out, “Peace or your life!”
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [66] Memoir, see Appendix 6.
+
+ [67] Félix Pyat was born in 1810 at Vierzon. He came to Paris for the
+ purpose of studying law, but soon abandoned his intention for the more
+ genial profession of journalist. He contributed to the _Figaro_, the
+ _Charivari_, the _Revue de Paris_, and the _National_. In 1848 he was
+ named Commissary-General, and subsequently deputy of the department of
+ the Cher. Having signed Ledru-Rollin’s call to arms, he was obliged
+ after the events of June to take refuge in England. Profiting by the
+ amnesty of the fifteenth of August, 1869, he returned to France, but
+ made himself so obnoxious to the Government by his virulent abuse of
+ the Empire, that he was again expelled. The revolution of the fourth
+ of September allowed him to re-enter France. He commenced an immediate
+ and violent attack on the new government, which he continued until his
+ journal, _Le Combat_, was suppressed. Needless to say that he was one
+ of the chief actors in the insurrections of the thirty-first of
+ October and the twenty-second of January. He was elected deputy, but
+ soon resigned, for the purpose of connecting himself with the cause of
+ the Commune. He edited the _Vengeur_ and the _Commune_ newspapers, and
+ obtained a decree suppressing nearly all rival or antagonistic
+ publications. At the fall of the Commune he fled no one knows where.
+
+
+
+
+ LXIV.
+
+
+No! no! Monsieur Félix Pyat, you must remain, if you please. You have
+been of it, you are of it, and you shall be of it. It is well that you
+should go through all the tenses of the verb, I am not astonished that
+a man as clever as you, finding that things were taking a bad turn,
+should have thought fit to give in your resignation. When the house is
+burning, one jumps out of window. But your cleverness has been so much
+pure loss, for your amiable confederates are waiting in the street to
+thrust you back into the midst of the flames again. It is in vain that
+you have written the following letter, a chef-d’oeuvre in its way, to
+the president of
+
+    “CITIZEN PRESIDENT,—If I had not been detained at the Ministry of
+    War on the day when the election took place, I should have voted
+    with the minority of the Commune. I think that the majority, for
+    this once, is in the wrong.”
+    “For this once” is polite.
+    “I doubt if she will ever retrieve her error.”
+    If the Commune were to retrace its steps at each error it made, it
+    would advance slowly.
+    “I think that the elected have not the right of replacing the
+    electors. I think that the representatives have not the right of
+    taking the place of the sovereign power. I think that the Commune
+    cannot create a single one of its own members, neither make them
+    nor unmake them; and, therefore, that it cannot of itself furnish
+    that which is wanted to legalise their nominations’.”
+
+Oh! Monsieur Félix Pyat, legality is strangely out of fashion, and it
+is well for Versailles that it is so.
+
+“I think also, seeing that the war has changed the population....”
+
+Yes; the war has changed the population, if not in the way you
+understand it, at least in this sense, that a great many reasonable
+people have gone mad, and that many—ah! how many?—are now dead.
+
+“I think that it was more just to change the law than to violate it.
+The ballot gave birth to the Commune, and in completing itself without
+it, the Commune commits suicide. I will not be an accomplice in the
+fault.”
+
+We understand that; it is quite enough to be an accomplice in the
+crime.
+
+    “I am so convinced of this truth, that if the Commune persist in
+    what I call an usurpation of the elective power, I could not
+    reconcile the respect due to the rote of the majority with the
+    respect due to my own conscience; I shall therefore be obliged,
+    much to my regret, to give in my resignation to the Commune before
+    the victory.
+
+    “_Salut et Fraternité_.
+    “FÉLIX PYAT.”
+
+“Before the victory” is exquisitely comic! But, carried away by the
+desire of exhibiting the wit of which he is master, Monsieur Félix Pyat
+fails to perceive that his irony is a little too transparent, that
+“before the victory” evidently meant “before the defeat,” and that
+consequently, without taking into account the excellent reasons given
+in his letter to the president of the Commune, we shall only recollect
+that rats run away when the vessel is about to sink. But this time the
+rats must remain at the bottom of the hold. Tour colleagues, Monsieur
+Pyat, will not permit you to be the only one to withdraw from the
+honours, since you have been with them in the strife. Not daring to fly
+themselves, they will make you stay. Vermorel will seize you by the
+collar at the moment you are about to open the door and make your
+escape; and Monsieur Pierre Denis,[68] who used to be a poet as well as
+a cobbler, will murmur in your ear these verses of Victor Hugo[69],
+which, with a few slight modifications, will suit your case exactly:—
+
+“Maintenant il se dit: ‘L’empire est chancelant;
+    La victoire est peu sûre.’
+Il cherche à s’en aller, furtif et reculant.
+    Reste dans la masure!”
+
+“Tu dis: ‘Le plafond croule; ils vont, si l’on me voit,
+    Empêcher que je sorte.’
+N’osant rester ni fuir, tu regardes le toit,
+    Tu regardes la porte.
+
+“Tu mets timidement la main sur le verrou;
+    Reste en leurs rangs funèbres!
+Reste! La loi qu’ils ont enfouie en un trou
+    Est là dans les ténèbres.
+
+“Reste! Elle est là, le flanc percé de leurs couteaux,
+    Gisante, et sur sa bière
+Ils ont mis une dalle. Un pan de ton manteau
+    Est pris sous cette pierre.
+
+“Tu ne t’en iras pas! Quoi! quitter leur maison!
+    Et fuir leur destinée!
+Quoi! tu voudrais trahir jusqu’à la trahison
+    Elle-même indignée!
+
+“Quoi! n’as-tu pas tenu l’échelle à ces fripons
+    En pleine connivence?
+Le sac de ces voleurs ne fut-il pas, réponds,
+    Cousu par toi d’avance?
+
+“Les mensonges, la haine au dard froid et visqueux,
+    Habitent ce repaire;
+Tu t’en vas! De quel droit, étant plus renard qu’eux
+    Et plus qu’elle vipère?”
+
+And Monsieur Félix Pyat will remain, in spite of the thousand and one
+good reasons he would find to make a short tour in Belgium. His
+colleagues will try persuasion, if necessary—“You are good, you are
+great, you are pure; what would become of us without you?” and they
+will hold on to him to the end, like cowards who in the midst of danger
+cling to their companions, shrieking out, “We will die together!” and
+embrace them convulsively to prevent their escape.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [68] A writer in the _Vengeur_.
+
+ [69] For translation, see Appendix 7.
+
+
+
+
+ LXV.
+
+
+An anonymous writer, who is no other, it is said, than the citizen
+Delescluze, has just published the following:—
+
+“The Commune has assured to itself the receipt of a sum of 600,000
+francs a day—eighteen millions a month.”
+
+There was once upon a time a French forger, named Collé, celebrated for
+the extent and importance of his swindling, and who possessed, it was
+said, a very large fortune. When questioned upon the subject, he used
+to answer: “I have assured to myself a receipt of a hundred francs a
+day—three thousand francs a month.”
+
+Between Collé and the Commune there exists a difference, however: in
+the first place, Collé affected a particular liking for the clergy,
+whose various garbs he used frequently to assume, and the Commune
+cannot endure _curés_ and secondly, while Collé, in assuring himself a
+receipt of three thousand francs a month, had done all that was
+possible for him to do, the Commune puts up with a miserable eighteen
+millions, when it might have ensured to itself a great deal more. It is
+astounding, and, I may add, little in accordance with its dignity, that
+it should be satisfied with so moderate an allowance. You show too much
+modesty; it is not worth while being victorious for so little. Eighteen
+millions—a mere nothing! Your delicacy might be better understood were
+you more scrupulous as to the choice of your means. Thank Heaven! you
+do not err on that score. Come! a little more energy, if you please.
+“But!” sighs the Commune, “I have done my best, it seems to me. Thanks
+to Jourde,[70] who throws Law into the shade, and to Dereure,[71] the
+shoemaker—Financier and Cobbler of La Fontaine’s Fable—I pocket daily
+the gross value of the sale of tobacco, which is a pretty speculation
+enough, since I have had to pay neither the cost of the raw materials
+nor of the manufacture. I have besides this, thanks to what I call the
+‘regular income from the public departments,’ a good number of little
+revenues which do not cost me much and bring me in a good deal. Now
+there’s the Post, for instance. I take good care to despatch none of
+the letters that are confided to me, but I manage to secure the price
+of the postage by an arrangement with my employés. This shows
+cleverness and tact, I think. Finally, in addition to this, I get the
+railway companies to be kind enough to drop into my pockets the sum of
+two millions of francs: the Northern Railway Company will supply me
+with three hundred and ninety-three thousand francs; the Western, with
+two hundred and seventy-five thousand; the Eastern, three hundred and
+fifty-four thousand francs; the Lyons Railway Company, with six hundred
+and ninety-two thousand francs; the Orleans Railway, three hundred and
+seventy-six thousand francs. It is the financial delegate, Monsieur
+Jourde, who has the most brains of the whole band, who planned this
+ingenious arrangement. And, in truth, I consider that I have done all
+that is in my power, and you are wrong in trying to humiliate me by
+drawing comparisons between myself and Collé, who had some good, in
+him, but who was in no way equal to me.” My dear, good Commune, I do
+not deny that, you have the most excellent intentions; I approve the
+tobacco speculation and the funds drawn from the public service money,
+in which you include, I suppose, the profits made in your nocturnal
+visits to the public and other coffers, and your fruitful rounds in the
+churches. As to the tax levied on railways, it inspires me with an
+admiration approaching enthusiasm. But, for mercy’s sake, do not allow
+yourself to stop there. Nothing is achieved so long as anything remains
+to be done. You waste your time in counting up the present sources of
+your revenues, while so many opportunities remain of increasing them.
+Are there no bankers, no stock-brokers, no notaries, in Paris? Send a
+few of these honest patriots of yours to the houses of the
+reactionaries. A hundred thousand francs from one, two hundred thousand
+francs from another; it is always worth the taking. From small streams
+come great rivers. In your place I would not neglect the shopkeepers’
+tills either, or the money-chests of the rich. They are of the
+_bourgeoisie_, those people, and the _bourgeois_ are your enemies. Tax
+them, _morbleu!_ Tax them by all means. Have you not all your friends
+and your friends’ friends to look after? Is it false keys that fail
+you? But they are easily made, and amongst your number you will
+certainly find one or two locksmiths quite ready to help you. Take
+Pilotel, for instance: a sane man, that! There were only eight hundred
+francs in the escritoire of Monsieur Chaudey, and he appropriated the
+eight hundred francs. Thus, you see, how great houses and good
+governments are founded. And when there is no longer any money, you
+must seize hold of the goods and furniture of your fellow-citizens. You
+will find receivers of stolen goods among you, no doubt. They told me
+yesterday that you had sent the Titiens and Paul Veroneses of the
+Louvre to London, in order to be able to make money out of them. A most
+excellent measure, that I can well explain to myself, because I can
+understand that Monsieur Courbet must have a great desire to get rid of
+these two painters, for whom he feels so legitimate and profound a
+hatred. But, alas! it was but a false report. You confined yourselves
+to putting up for sale the materials composing the Column of the Place
+Vendôme; dividing them into four lots, two lots of stone and cement,
+and two lots of metal. Two lots only? Why! you know nothing about
+making the best of your merchandise. There is something better than
+stone and metal in this column. There is that in it which a number of
+silly people used to call in other times the glory of France. What a
+pretty spectacle—when the sale by auction is over—to see the buyers
+carrying away under their arms—one, a bit of Wagram; another, a bit of
+Jena; and some, who had thought to be buying a pound or two of bronze,
+having made the acquisition of the First Consul at Arcole or the
+Emperor at Austerlitz. It is a sad pity that you did not puff up the
+value and importance of your sale to the bidders. Your speculation
+would then have turned out better. You have managed badly, my dear
+Commune; you have not known how to take advantage of your position.
+Repair your faults, impose your taxes, appropriate, confiscate! All may
+be yours, disdain nothing, and have no fear of resistance; everyone is
+afraid of you. Here! I have five francs in my own pocket, will you have
+them?
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [70] Jourde occupied the position of financial Minister under the
+ Commune Government. He is well-educated, and is said to be one of the
+ most intellectually distinguished of the Federal functionaries. He is
+ a medical student, and said to be twenty-seven years of age. See
+ Appendix 8.
+
+ [71] A working cobbler, and member of the International Society, which
+ he represented at the Congress of Bâle. He occupied a post on the
+ _Marseillaise_ newspaper, became a Commissary of Police after the
+ fourth of September, and took part on the popular side in the outbreak
+ of the thirty-first of October. He was deprived of his office by
+ General Trochu’s government, and appointed one of the delegates for
+ justice, by the authorities of the Commune.
+
+
+
+
+ LXVI.
+
+
+    “The social revolution could end but in one great catastrophe, of
+    which the immediate effects would be—
+    “To make the land a barren waste:
+    “To put a strait jacket upon society:
+    “And, if it were possible that such a state of things could be
+    prolonged for several weeks—
+    “To cause three or four millions of human beings to perish by
+    horrible famine.
+    “When the Government shall be without resources, when the country
+    shall be without produce and without commerce:
+    “When starving Paris, blockaded by the departments, will no longer
+    discharge its debts and make payments, no longer export nor import:
+    “When workmen, demoralised by the politics taught at the clubs and
+    the closing of the workshops, will have found a means of living, no
+    matter how:
+    “When the State appropriates to itself the silver and ornaments of
+    the citizens for the purpose of sending them to the Mint:
+    “When perquisitions made in the private houses are the only means
+    of collecting taxes:
+    “When hungry bands spread over the country, committing robbery and
+    devastation:
+    “When the peasant, armed with loaded gun, has to neglect the
+    cultivation of his crops in order to protect them:
+    “When the first sheaf shall have been stolen, the first house
+    forced, the first church profaned, the first torch fired, the first
+    woman violated:
+    “When the first blood shall have been spilt:
+    “When the first head shall have fallen:
+    “When abomination and desolation shall have spread over all France—
+    “Oh! then you will know what we mean by a social revolution:
+    “A multitude let loose, arms in hand, mad with revenge and fury:
+    “Soldiers, pikes, empty homes, knives and crowbars:
+   “The city, silent and oppressed; the police in our very homes,
+   opinions suspected, words noted down, tears observed, sighs counted,
+   silence watched; spying and denunciations:
+    “Inexorable requisitions, forced and progressive loans, paper money
+    made worthless:
+    “Civil war, and the enemy on the frontiers:
+    “Pitiless proconsuls, a supreme committee, with hearts of stone—
+    “This would be the fruits of what they call democratic and social
+    revolution.”
+
+Who wrote this admirable page?—Proudhon.
+
+O all-merciful Providence! Take pity on France, for she has come to
+this.
+
+
+
+
+ LXVII.
+
+
+A balloon! A balloon! Quick! A balloon! There is not a moment to be
+lost. The inhabitants of Brive-la-Gaillarde and the mountaineers of
+Savoy are thirsting for news; let us shower manna on them. Write away!
+Pierre Denis! Pump in your gas, emulators of Godard! And may the four
+winds of heaven carry our “Declarations” to the four quarters of
+France! Ah! ah! The Versaillais—band of traitors that they are!—did not
+calculate on this. They raise soldiers, the simpletons; they bombard
+our forts and our houses, the idiots! But we make decrees, and
+distribute our proclamations throughout the country by means of an
+unlimited number of revolutionary aeronauts. May they be guided by the
+wind which blows across the mountains! How the honest labourers, the
+good farmers, the eager workers of the departments will rejoice when
+they receive, dropping, from the sky, the pages on which are inscribed
+the rights and duties of the man of the present day! They will not
+hesitate one single instant. They will leave their fields, their homes,
+their workshops, and cry, “A musket! a musket!” with no thought that
+they leave behind them women without husbands, and children without
+fathers! They will fly to us, happy to conquer or die for the glory of
+Citizen Delescluze and Citizen Vermorel! What ardour! What patriotism!
+Already they are on their way; they are coming, they are come! Those
+who had no fire-arms have seized their pickaxes or pieces of their
+broken ploughs! Hurrah! Forward! March! To arms, citizens, to arms!
+Hail to France, who comes to the rescue of Paris!
+
+All to no purpose. I tell you the people of Brive-la-Gaillarde and the
+mountaineers of Savoy have not once thought of taking up arms. They
+have never been more tranquil or more resolute on remaining in peace
+and quiet than now. When they see one of your balloons—always supposing
+that it has any other end in view than of depositing repentant
+communists in safe, snug corners, pass the lines of the Versailles
+troops—when they see one of your balloons, they simply exclaim,
+“Hulloa! Here’s a balloon! Where in the world can it come from?” If
+some printed papers fall from the sky, the peasant picks them up,
+saying, “I shall give them to my son to read, when he returns from
+school.” The evening comes, the son spells them out, while the father
+listens. The son cannot understand; the father falls asleep. “Ah! those
+Parisians!” cries the mother. Can you wonder? These people are born to
+live and die without knowing all that is admirable in the men of the
+Hôtel de Ville. They are fools enough to cling to their own lives and
+the lives of those near them. They do not go to war amongst themselves;
+they are poor ignorant creatures, and you will never make them believe
+that when once they have paid their taxes, worked, fed their wives and
+children, there still remains to them one duty to fulfil, more holy,
+more imperative than all others,—that of coming to the Porte-Maillot to
+receive a ball or a fragment of shell in their skulls.
+
+But these balloons might be made of some use, nevertheless. Pick out
+one, the best made, the largest in size, the best rigged; put in
+Citizen Félix Pyat—who, you may be sure, will not be the last to sit
+down—and Citizen Delescluze too, nor must we omit Citizen Cluseret, nor
+any of the citizens who at the present moment constitute the happiness
+of Paris and the tranquillity of France! Now inflate this admirable
+balloon, which is to bear off all your hopes, with the lightest gases.
+Then blow, ye winds, terrifically, furiously, and bear it from us!
+Balloons can be capricious at times. Have you read, the story of Hans
+Pfaal? Good Heavens! if the wind could only carry them away, up to the
+moon, or even a great deal further still.
+
+
+
+
+ LXVIII.
+
+
+I’m surprised myself, as I re-read the preceding pages, at the strange
+contradictions I meet with. During the first few days I was almost
+favourable to the Commune; I waited, I hoped. To-day all is very
+different. When I write down in the evening what I have seen and
+thought in the day, I allow myself to blame with severity men that
+inspired me formerly with some kind of sympathy. What has taken place?
+Have my opinions changed? I do not think so. Besides, I have in reality
+but one opinion. I receive impressions, describing these impressions
+without reserve, without prejudice. If these stray leaves should ever
+be collected in a volume, they will at least possess the rare merit of
+being thoroughly sincere. Is it then, that my nature is modified? By no
+means. If I were indulgent a month ago, it was that I did not know
+those of whom I spoke, and that I am of a naturally hopeful and
+benevolent disposition: if I now show myself severe, it is that—like
+the rest of Paris—I have learned to know them better.
+
+
+
+
+ LXIX.
+
+
+The Commune has naturally brought an infinite number of journals into
+existence. Try, if you will, to count the leaves of the forest, the
+grains of sand on the seashore, the stars in the heavens, but do not,
+in your wildest dreams, attempt to enumerate the newspapers that have
+seen the light since the famous day of the 18th of March. Félix Pyat
+has a journal, _Le Vengeur_; Vermorel has a journal, _Le Cri du
+People_; Delescluze has a journal, _Le Reveil_; there is not a member
+of the Commune but indulges in the luxury of a sheet in which he tells
+his colleagues daily all the evil he thinks of them. It must be
+acknowledged that these gentlemen have an extremely bad opinion one of
+the other. I defy even the _Gaulois_ of Versailles—yes, the _Gaulois_
+itself—to treat Félix Pyat as Vermorel treats him, and if it be
+remembered on the other hand what Félix Pyat says of Vermorel, the
+_Gaulois_ will be found singularly good-natured. Napoleon cautioned us
+long ago “to wash our dirty linen at home,” but good patriots cannot be
+expected to profit by the counsels of a tyrant. So the columns of the
+Commune papers are devoted to the daily and mutual pulling to pieces of
+the Commune’s members. But where will these ephemeral sheets be in six
+months, in one month, or in a week’s time perhaps? The wind which wafts
+away the leaves of the rose and the laurel, will be no less cruel for
+the political leaves. Let us then, for the sake of posterity, offer a
+specimen of what is—or as we shall soon say, what was—the Communalist
+press of to-day. Be they edited by Marotteau, or Duchesne, or Paschal
+Grousset, or by any other emulator of Paul-Louis Courier, these worthy
+journals are all much alike, and one example will suffice for the
+whole.
+
+[Illustration: Vermesch (père Duchesne).[72]]
+
+First of all, and generally in enormous type, stand the LATEST NEWS,
+the news from the Porte Maillot where the friends of the Commune are
+fighting, and the news from Versailles where the enemies of the country
+are sitting. They usually run somewhat in this style:—
+
+    “It is more and more confirmed that the Assembly of Versailles is
+    surrounded and made prisoner by the troops returned from Germany.
+    The generals of the Empire have newly proclaimed Napoleon: the
+    Third, Emperor. After a violent quarrel about two National Guards
+    whom Marshal MacMahon had had shot, but had omitted to have cooked
+    for his soldiers, Monsieur Thiers sent a challenge to the Marshal,
+    by his two seconds. These seconds were no other than the Comte de
+    Chambord and the Comte de Paris. Marshal MacMahon chose the
+    ex-Emperor and Paul de Cassagnac. The duel took place in the Rue
+    des Reservoirs, in the midst of an immense crowd. The Marshal was
+    killed, and was therefore obliged to renounce the command of the
+    troops. But the Assembly would not accept his resignation.
+    “We are in the position to assert that a company of the 132nd
+    Battalion has this morning surrounded fifteen thousand gendarmes
+    and sergents-de-ville, in the park of Neuilly. Seeing that all
+    resistance was useless, the supporters of Monsieur Thiers
+    surrendered without reserve. Among them were seventeen members of
+    the National Assembly, who, not content with ordering the
+    assassination of our brothers, had wished also to be present at the
+    massacre.
+    “A person worthy of credit has related to us the following fact:—A
+    _cantinière_ of the 44th Battalion (from the Batignolles quarter),
+    was in the act of pouring out a glass of brandy for an artilleryman
+    of the Fort of Vanves, when suddenly the artilleryman was out in
+    two by a Versailles shell; the brave _cantinière_ drank off the
+    contents of the glass just poured out for the dead man who lay in
+    bits at her feet, and took his place at the guns. She performed her
+    new part of artilleryman so bravely, that ten minutes later there
+    was not a single gun uninjured in the Meudon battery. As to those
+    who were serving the pieces there, they were all hurled to a
+    distance of several miles, and amongst them were said to have been
+    recognised—we give this news however with great reserve—Monsieur
+    Ollivier, the ex-minister of the ex-Emperor, and Count von
+    Bismarck, who wished to verify for himself the actual range of the
+    guns that he had lent to his good friends of Versailles.”
+
+[Illustration: PASCHAL GROUSSET, DELEGATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS.[73]]
+
+After the LATEST NEWS come the reports of the day, the _bulletin du
+jour_ as it is called now, and it is in this that the editor, a member
+of the Commune, reveals his talent. We trust that the following example
+is not quite unworthy of the pen of Monsieur Félix Pyat, or the
+signature of Monsieur Vermorel:—
+
+“Paris, 29th April, 1871.
+
+    “They are lying in wait for us, these tigers athirst for blood.
+    “They are there, these Vandals, who have sworn that in all Paris
+    not a single man shall be spared, nor a single stone, left
+    standing.
+    “But we are not in their power yet. No, nor shall we ever be.
+    “The National Guard is on the watch; victorious and sublime, their
+    soldierly breasts are not of flesh and blood, but of bronze, from
+    which the balls rebound as they stand, dauntless, before the enemy.
+    “Ah! so these lachrymose Jules Favres, these fat Picards, these
+    hungry Jules Ferrys, said amongst themselves, ‘We will take Paris,
+    we will tear it up, and its soil shall be divided after the victory
+    between the wives of the _sergents de ville!_’ “They are beginning
+    to understand all the insanity of their plan. Why, it is Paris that
+    will take Versailles, that will take all those blear-eyed old men
+    who, because they cannot look steadily at Monsieur Thiers’ face,
+    fancy that it is the sun.
+    “It is in vain that they gorge with blood and wine their deceived
+    soldiers; the moment is approaching when these men will no longer
+    consent to march against the city which is fighting for them.
+    Already, yesterday, the mêlée of a battle could be distinguished
+    from the fort of Vanves; the line had come to blows with the
+    _gendarmes_ of Valentin and Charette’s Zouaves. Courage, Parisians!
+    A few more days and you will have triumphed over all the infamy
+    that dares to stop the march of the victorious Commune!
+    “But it is not enough to vanquish the enemies without, we must get
+    rid also of the enemies that are within.
+    “No more pity! no more vacillation! The justice of the people is
+    wearied of formalities, and cries out for vengeance. Death to
+    spies! Death to the _réactionaires_! Death to the priests! Why does
+    the Commune feed this collection of malefactors in your prisons,
+    while the money they cost us daily would be so useful to the women
+    and children of those who are fighting for the cause of Paris? We
+    are assured that one of the prisoners ate half a chicken for his
+    dinner yesterday; how many good patriots might have been saved from
+    suffering with the sum which was taken from the chests of the
+    Republic for this orgie! There is no longer time to hesitate; the
+    Versaillais are shooting and mutilating the prisoners; we must
+    revenge ourselves! We must show them such an example, that in
+    perceiving from afar the heads of their infamous accomplices, the
+    traitors of Versailles, stuck upon our ramparts, confounded by the
+    magnanimity of the Commune, they will lay down their arms at last,
+    and deliver themselves up as prisoners.
+    “As to the refractory of Paris, we cannot find words to express the
+    astonishment we experience at the weakness that has been shown with
+    regard to them.
+    “What! we permit that there should still be cowards in Paris? I
+    thought they were all at Versailles. We allow still to remain
+    amongst us men who are not of our opinion? This state of things has
+    lasted too long. Let them take their muskets or die. Shoot them
+    down, those who refuse to go forward. They have wives and children,
+    they are fathers of families, they say; a fine reason indeed! The
+    Commune before everything! And, besides, there must be no pity for
+    the wives of _réactionaires_ and the children of spies!”
+
+The _bulletins du jour_ are sometimes set forth in gentler terms; but
+we have chosen a fair average specimen between the lukewarm and the
+most violent.
+
+Then comes the solid, serious article, generally written by a pen
+invested with all due authority, by the man who has the most head in
+the place. The subject varies according to circumstances; but the main
+point of the article is generally to show that Paris has never been so
+rich, so free, nor so happy, as under the government of the Commune;
+and this is a truth that is certainly not difficult to prove. Is not
+the fact of being able to live without working the best possible proof
+that people are well off? Well! look at the National Guards; they have
+not touched a tool for a whole month, and they have such a supply of
+money that they are obliged to make over some of it to the
+wineshop-keepers in exchange for an unlimited number of litres and
+sealed bottles. Then, who could say that we are not free? The journals
+that allowed themselves to assert the contrary have been prudently
+suppressed. Besides, is it not being free to have shaken off the
+shameful yoke of the men who sold France; to be no longer subjected to
+the oppression of snobs, _réactionaires_, and traitors? And as to the
+most perfect happiness, it stands to reason, since we are both free and
+rich, that we must be in the incontestable enjoyment of it. Finally,
+after the official dispatches edited in the style you are acquainted
+with, and after the accounts of the last battles, come the
+miscellaneous news, the _faits divers_; and here it is that the
+ingenuity of the writers displays itself to the greatest advantage.
+
+    “Yesterday evening, towards ten o’clock, the attention of the
+    passers-by in the Rue St. Denis was attracted by cries which seemed
+    to proceed from a four-storied house situated at the corner of the
+    Rue Sainte-Apolline. The cries were evidently cries of despair.
+    Some people went to the nearest guardhouse to make the fact known,
+    and four National Guards, preceded by their corporal, entered the
+    house. Guided by the sound of the cries they arrived at the fourth
+    storey, and broke open the door. A horrible spectacle was then
+    exposed to the view of the Guards and of the persons who had
+    followed them in their quest. Three young children lay stretched on
+    the floor of the room, the disorder of which denoted a recent
+    struggle. The poor little things were without any covering
+    whatever, and there were traces of blows upon their bodies; one of
+    them had a cut across the forehead. The National Guards questioned
+    the children with an almost maternal kindness. They had not eaten
+    for four days, and, in consequence of this prolonged fast, they
+    were in such a state of moral and physical abasement that no
+    precise information could be obtained from them. The corporal then
+    addressed himself to the neighbours, and soon became acquainted
+    with a part of the terrible truth.
+    “In this room lived a poor work-girl, young and pretty. One day, as
+    she was carrying back her work to the shop, she observed that she
+    was followed by a well-dressed man, whose physiognomy indicated the
+    lowest passions. He spoke to her, and was at first repulsed; but,
+    like the tempter Faust offering jewels to Marguerite, he tempted
+    her with bright promises, and the poor girl, to whom work did not
+    always come, listened to the base seducer. Blame her not too
+    harshly, pity her rather, and reserve all your indignation for the
+    wretch who betrayed her.
+    “After three years, which were but anguish and remorse to the
+    miserable woman, and during which she had no other consolation but
+    the smiles of the children whose very existence was a crime, she
+    was becoming reconciled at last to her life, when the father of her
+    children deserted her.
+    “This desertion coincided with the glorious revolution of the 18th
+    of March; and the poor work-girl, who had still room in her heart
+    for patriotism, found some consolation in reflecting that the day,
+    so miserable for her, had at least brought happiness to France.
+    “A fortnight passed, the poor abandoned mother had given up all
+    hope of ever seeing the father of her three children again, when
+    one evening—it was last Friday—a man, wrapped in a black cloak,
+    introduced himself into the house, and made inquiries of the
+    _concierge_—a great patriot, and commander of the 114th
+    Battalion—whether Mademoiselle O... were at home? Upon an answer in
+    the affirmative from the heroic defender of Right and Liberties of
+    Paris, the man mounted the stairs to the poor workwoman’s rooms. It
+    was he—the seducer; the _concierge_ had recognised him. What passed
+    between the murderer and his victims? That will be known,
+    perhaps—never! But certain it is, that an hour afterwards he went
+    out, still enveloped in his black mantle.
+    “The next day, and the days following, the _concierge_ was much
+    astonished not to see his lodger of the fourth floor, who was
+    accustomed to stop and talk with him on her way to fetch her _café
+    au lait_. But his deep sense of duty as commander of the 114th
+    Battalion occupied his mind so thoroughly, that he paid but little
+    attention to the incident. Neither did he regard the sighs and sobs
+    which were heard from the upper stories. He can scarcely be blamed
+    for this negligence; he was studying his _vade-mecum_.
+    “On the fourth day, however, the cries were so violent that they
+    began to inspire the passers-by with alarm, and we have related how
+    four men, headed by their _caporal_, were sought for to inquire
+    into the cause.
+    “We have already told what was seen and heard, but the explanations
+    of the neighbours were not sufficient to clear up the darkest side
+    of the mystery, and perhaps the truth would never have been known
+    if the _caporal_—exhibiting, by a rare proof of intelligence, how
+    far he was worthy of the grade with which his comrades had honoured
+    him—had not been inspired with the idea of lifting up the curtain
+    of the bed.
+    “Horror! Upon the bed lay stretched the corpse of the unhappy
+    mother, a dagger plunged into her heart, and in her clutched hand
+    was found a paper upon which the victim, before rendering her last
+    breath, had traced the following lines:—
+    “‘I die, murdered by him who has betrayed me; he would have
+    murdered also my three children, if a noise in the next room had
+    not caused him to take flight. He had come from Versailles for the
+    express purpose of accomplishing this quadruple crime, and, by this
+    means, obliterate every trace of his past villany. His name is
+    Jules Ferry. You who read this, revenge me!’”
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [72] Vermesch, who was born at Lille, in 1846, though not an official
+ member of the Commune, was one of its most powerful champions. He was
+ founder and principal editor of the _Père Duchesne_, a poor imitation
+ of the journal, published under the same title, by Hébert, in the time
+ of the first Revolution. This paper, one of the most characteristic of
+ the Commune, was filled with trivialities, in the vilest taste and
+ slang, which cannot be rendered in English. The first number of
+ Vermesch’s journal was published on the 6th of March, but was
+ suppressed by General Vinoy; it re-appeared, however, on the
+ eighteenth of the same month, and met with such prodigious success,
+ that even its editor himself was astonished. Intoxicated with the
+ result, the writers became more and more virulent, and not content
+ with penning the vilest personal abuse, Vermesch assumed the _rôle_ of
+ public informer. For instance, he denounced M. Gustave Chaudey, a
+ writer in the _Siècle_, in the _Père Duchesne_ of the 12th of April,
+ and that journalist was arrested in consequence on the following day.
+ The journal became, not only the medium of all kinds of personal abuse
+ and vengeance, but did the duty of inquisitor for the Communal
+ Government, for whom it produced a terrible crop of victims. The
+ _Official Journal_ contained a number of decrees, the drafts of which
+ at first appeared in _Père Duchesne_.
+    Amongst other acts, Vermesch organised what he called the battalion
+    of the Enfants of the _Père Duchesne_, and considering the origin
+    of this corps, the character of the rabble which filled its ranks
+    may easily be imagined. The children of such a father could only be
+    found amidst the lowest dregs of the Parisian population; fit
+    instruments for the infamous work which was afterwards to be done.
+
+ [73] Paschal Grousset prepared himself for politics by the study of
+ medicine; from the anatomy of heads he passed to the dissection of
+ ideas. Having turned journalist, he wrote scientific articles in
+ _Figaro_, contributed to the _Standard_, and was one of the editors of
+ the _Marseillaise_ when the challenge, which gave rise to the death of
+ Victor Noir and the famous trial at Tours, was sent to Prince Pierre
+ Bonaparte. Immediately after the revolution of the eighteenth of March
+ he started the _Nouvelle République_, an ephemeral publication which
+ only lived a week. On the second of April he commenced the
+ _Affranchi_, or journal of free men, as he called it, Vesinier joining
+ him in the management of it. The popularity of Grousset caused him to
+ be elected a member of the Commune in April, and the Government soon
+ appointed him Minister of Foreign Affairs. He communicated circulars
+ to the representatives of different nations at Paris, in order to
+ obtain a recognition of the Commune; he also sent proclamations to the
+ large towns of France, appealing to arms. But his means of
+ communication with other governments, and indeed with his own envoys,
+ was very restricted.
+    He was one of those who took refuge at the _Mairie_ of the Eleventh
+    Arrondissement, and who, knowing well that the struggle was really
+    over, said to the silly heroes who protected them, “All is well.
+    The Versailles mob is turned, and you will soon join your brethren
+    in the Champs Elysées.” Many of them that night entered the valley
+    of the shadow of death! On the third of June the ex-Minister of
+    Foreign Affairs was arrested in the Rue Condorcet, dressed as a
+    woman, and marched off to Versailles.
+
+
+
+
+ LXX.
+
+
+“Issy is taken! Issy is not taken! Mégy[74] has delivered it up! Eudes
+holds it still.”
+
+I have heard nothing but contradictory news since this morning. Is Fort
+Issy in the hands of the Versailles troops—yes or no? Hoping to get
+better information by approaching the scene of conflict, I went to the
+Porte d’Issy, but returned without having succeeded in learning
+anything.
+
+There were but few people in that direction; some National Guards,
+sheltered by a casemate, and a few women, watching for the return of
+their sons and husbands, were all I saw. The cannonading was terrific;
+in less than a quarter of an hour I heard five shells whistle over my
+head.
+
+Towards twelve o’clock the drawbridge was lowered, and I saw a party of
+about sixty soldiers, dusty, tired, and dejected, advancing towards me.
+These were some of the “revengers of the Republic.”
+
+“Where do you come from?” I asked them.
+
+“From the trenches. There were four hundred of us, and we are all that
+remain.”
+
+But when I asked them whether the Fort of Issy were taken, they made no
+answer.
+
+Following the soldiers came four men, bearing a litter, on which a dead
+body lay stretched; and it was with this sad procession that I
+re-entered Paris. From time to time the men deposited their load on the
+ground, and went into a wine-shop to drink. I took advantage of one of
+these moments when the corpse lay abandoned, to lift the cloak that had
+been spread over it. It was the body of a young man, almost a lad; his
+wound was hidden, but the collar of his shirt was dyed crimson with
+blood. When the men returned for the third time, their gait was so
+unsteady that it was with difficulty they raised the poor boy’s bier,
+and then went off staggering. At the turning of a street the corpse
+fell, and I ran up as it was being picked from the ground; one of the
+drunken men was shedding tears, and maudling out, “My poor brother!”
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [74] Mégy, the famous governor of the Fort of Issy, was implicated in
+ the last, supposed, plot against the life of Napoleon III. Having shot
+ one of the police agents charged with his arrest, he was tried and
+ condemned to death. He was, however, delivered from prison on the
+ fourth of September, and appointed to the command of a battalion of
+ National Guards, with which he marched against the Hôtel de Ville on
+ the thirty-first of October and the twentieth of January. He was named
+ a member of the Commune on the eighteenth of March, and set fire to
+ the Cour des Comptes and the Palace of the Légion d’Honneur on the
+ twenty-third of May, 1871.
+
+
+
+
+ LXXI.
+
+
+We shall see no more of Cluseret! Cluseret is done for, Cluseret is in
+prison![75] What has he done? Is he in disgrace on account of Fort
+Issy? This would scarcely be just, considering that if the fort were
+evacuated yesterday it was reoccupied this morning; by the bye, I
+cannot explain satisfactorily to myself why the Versaillais should have
+abandoned this position, which they seem to have considered of some
+importance. If it is not on account of Fort Issy that Cluseret was
+politely asked to go and keep Monseigneur Darboy company, why was it? I
+remember hearing yesterday and the day before something about a letter
+of General Fabrice, in which that amiable Prussian, it is reported,
+begged General Cluseret to intercede with the Commune in behalf of the
+imprisoned priests. Is it possible that the Communal delegate, at the
+risk of passing for a Jesuit, could have made the required demand? Why,
+M. Cluseret, that was quite enough for you to be put in prison, and
+shot too into the bargain. However, you did not intercede for anybody,
+for the very excellent reason that General Fabrice no more thought of
+writing to you, than of giving back Alsace and Lorraine. So we must
+search somewhere else for the motive of this sudden eclipse. Some say
+there was a quarrel with Dombrowski, that the latter thought fit to
+sign a truce without the authority of Cluseret—a truce, what an idea!
+Has Dombrowski any scruples about slaughter?—that Cluseret flew into a
+great rage; but that his rival got the best of it in the end. You see
+if one is an American and the other a Pole, the Commune must have a
+hard time of it between the two!
+
+No, neither the evacuation of Fort Issy—in spite of what the _Journal
+Officiel_ says—Monseigneur Darboy, nor the quarrel with Dombrowski are
+the real causes of the fall of Cluseret. Cluseret’s destiny was to
+fall; Cluseret has fallen because he did not like gold lace and
+embroidery—“that is the question,” all the rest are pretexts.
+
+So the noble delegate imagined he could quietly issue a proclamation
+one morning commanding all the officers under his orders to rip off the
+gold and silver bands which luxuriantly ornament their sleeves and
+caps![76] He thought his staff would forego epaulets and other military
+gewgaws. Why, the man must have been mad! What would Cora or Armentine
+have said if they had seen their military heroes stalk into the Café de
+Suède or the Café de Madrid, shorn of all their brilliant appendages,
+which made them look so wonderfully like the monkey-general at the
+Neuilly fair, in the good old times, when there were such things as
+fairs, and before Neuilly was a ruin. Ask any soldier, Federal or
+otherwise, if he will give up his pay, or his jingling sword, or even
+his rank; he may perhaps consent, but ask him to rip off his
+embroidery, and he will answer, never! How can you imagine a man of
+sense consenting not to look like a mountebank?
+
+Another of these absurd prescriptions has done much to lower Cluseret
+in public estimation. One day he took it into his head to prevent his
+officers from galloping in the streets and boulevards, under the
+miserable pretext that the rapid evolutions of these horsemen had
+occasioned several accidents. Well, and if they had, do you think a
+gallant captain of horse is going to deprive himself of the pleasure of
+curvetting within sight of his lady love, for the pitiful reason, that
+he may perchance upset an old woman or two or three children? Citizen
+Cluseret does not know what he is talking about! It is certain that if
+this valiant general has such a very great horror of accidents, he
+should begin by stopping the firing at Courbevoie, which is a great
+deal more dangerous than the galloping of a horse on the Boulevard
+Montmartre. As you may imagine, the officers went on galloping and
+wearing their finery under the very nose of the general, while he
+walked about stoically in plain clothes. However, although they did not
+obey him, they owed him a grudge for the orders he had given.
+Opposition was being hatched, and was ready to burst forth on the first
+opportunity, which happened to be the evacuation of Fort Issy. Cluseret
+has fallen a victim to his taste for simplicity, but he carries with
+him the regrets of all the illused cab-horses which, in the absence of
+thoroughbreds, have to suffice the gallant staff, and who, poor
+creatures, were only too delighted not to gallop.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [75] General Cluseret was a great personage for a time with the
+ Communists, and his military talents were lauded to the skies, but
+ suddenly he was committed to prison, and was succeeded in the command
+ of the army by Rossel. The cause of his imprisonment is not clear.
+ Some say that he was discovered to be in correspondence with the
+ Thiers government, others that he was suspected of aiming at the
+ Dictatorship. During the confusion that occurred on the first entry of
+ the Versailles troops into Paris, when the Archbishop of Paris and the
+ other so-called “hostages” had been barbarously assassinated, when the
+ Louvre, the Palais Royal, and the Hôtel de Ville were in flames,
+ Cluseret escaped from prison, and was not heard of again until it was
+ reported that his body had been found buried beneath the rubbish of
+ the last barricade. Was report correct?
+
+ [76] “THE MINISTER OF WAR TO THE NATIONAL GUARD.
+    “CITOYENS,—I notice with pain that, forgetful of our modest origin,
+    the ridiculous mania for trimmings, embroidery, and shoulder-knots
+    has begun to take hold upon you.
+    “To work! You have for the first time accomplished a revolution by,
+    and for, labour.
+    “Let us not forget our origin, and, above all, do not let us be
+    ashamed of it, Workmen we were! workmen let us remain!
+    “In the name of virtue against vice, of duty against abuse, of
+    austerity against corruption, we have triumphed; let us not forget
+    the fact.
+    “Let us be, above all, men of honour and duty; we shall then found
+    an austere Republic, the only one that has or can have reason for
+    its existence.
+    “I appeal to the good sense of my fellow-citizens: let us have no
+    more tags and lace, no more glitter, no more frippery which costs
+    so little at the shops yet is so dear to our responsibility.
+    “In future, anyone who cannot deduce proof of his right to wear the
+    insignia of his nominal rank, or, who shall add to the regular
+    uniform of the National Guard, tags, lace, or other vain
+    distinctions, will be liable to be punished.
+    “I profit by this occasion to remind each of you of the necessity
+    of absolute obedience to the authorities, for in obeying those whom
+    you have elected you are only obeying yourselves.
+
+“The Delegate of War,
+    “Paris, April 7th, 1871,
+    (Signed) “E. CLUSERET.”
+
+
+
+
+ LXXII.
+
+
+Suppose that a man in disguise goes into the opera ball intoxicated,
+rushes hither and thither, gesticulating, insulting the women, mocking
+the men, turns off the gas, then sets light to some curtains, until
+such a hue and cry is raised that he is turned out of the place.
+Whereupon our mask runs off to the nearest costumier’s, changes his
+clown’s dress for that of a pantaloon, and returns to the opera to
+recommence his old tricks, saying, “I have changed my dress, no one
+will recognise me.” But he is wrong, there is no mistaking his way of
+doing business.
+
+The crowd surrounds him and cries, “We recognise you, _beau masque!_”
+and if he has had the imprudence to secure the doors, they throw him
+out of window.
+
+We recognise you, Executive Commission;[77] it is in vain that you
+disguise yourself in the bloody rags of the Committee of Public Safety,
+your are still yourself, you are still Félix Pyat, you are still
+Ranvier, you have never ceased to be Gérardin; you hope to make
+yourself obeyed more readily under this lugubrious costume, but you
+mistake. Command us to go and fight, and we will not budge; pursue us,
+and we will hardly run away; put us in prison, and we will only laugh.
+You are no more a Terror, than Gil-Pérez the actor is Talma; the knocks
+you receive have pushed aside your false nose; it is in vain that you
+decree, that you rob, that you incarcerate; you are too grotesque to be
+terrible. Even if you carried the parody out to the end, and thought
+fit to erect a guillotine and sharpen the knife, we should even then
+decline to look seriously upon you, and were we to see one by one five
+hundred heads fell into the basket, we should still persist in thinking
+that your axe was of wood, and your guillotine of cardboard!
+
+[Illustration: Dupont, Delegate of Trade and Commerce.]
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [77] The affair of the 30th of April signally disappointed the chiefs
+ of the insurrection, who decreed the formation of a Committee of
+ Public Safety, and caused Cluseret to disappear. “The incapacity and
+ negligence of the Delegate of War having,” they said, “almost lost
+ them the possession of Fort Issy, the Executive Commission considered
+ it their duty to propose the arrest of Citizen Cluseret, which was
+ forthwith decreed by the Commune.”
+
+
+
+
+ LXXIII.
+
+
+The Parisian _Official Journal_ says: “The members of the Commune are
+not amenable to any other tribunal than their own” (that of the
+Commune). Ah! truly, men of the Hôtel de Ville, you imagine that, do
+you? Have you forgotten that there are such tribunals as court-martials
+and assizes?
+
+
+
+
+ LXXIV.
+
+
+M. Rossel is really very unfortunate! What is M. Rossel?[78] Why, the
+provisional successor of Citizen Cluseret. It was not a bad idea to put
+in the word _provisional_. The Commune had confided to him the care of
+military matters, which he had accepted, but with an air of
+condescension. This “Communeux” looks to me like an aristocrat. At any
+rate he has not been fortunate. Scarcely had he taken upon himself the
+safety of Paris, when the redoubt of Moulin-Saquet was surprised by the
+Versaillais. This accident was not calculated to enhance the courage of
+the Federals. The whole affair has been kept as dark as possible, but
+the porter of the house where I live, who was there, has told me
+strange things.
+
+“Will you believe, Monsieur, that I had just finished a game of cards
+with the captain, and was preparing to have a bit of sleep, for it was
+near upon eleven o’clock, when I thought I heard something like the
+noise of troops marching. I looked round to see if any one heard it
+besides myself, but the men were already asleep, and a circular line of
+boots was sticking out all round the tents. The captain said: ‘I
+daresay it is the patrol from the Rue de Villejuif.’—‘Oh, yes,’ said I,
+‘from the barricade,’ and I fell to sleep without a thought of danger.
+In fact, there seemed nothing to fear, as the Moulin-Saquet overlooks
+the whole of the plain which stretches from Vitry to Choisy-le-Roi, and
+from Villejuif to the Seine. It was impossible for a man to approach
+the redoubt without being seen by the sentinel. I had, therefore, been
+asleep a few minutes when I was awoke by the following dialogue:—‘Stop!
+who goes there?’—‘The patrol.’—‘Corporal, forward!’—Oh! said I to
+myself, it is our comrades come to see us; there will be some healths
+drunk before morning, and I got up to go and give them a welcome. The
+captain was also astir. ‘The password!’ he cried. The chief of the
+patrol came forward and answered—‘Vengeance!’ I remember wondering at
+the moment why he spoke so loud in giving the pass-word, when suddenly
+I saw three men rush forward, seize our captain, and throw him down. At
+the same time two or three hundred men, dressed as National Guards,
+threw themselves into the camp, rushed upon the sleeping artillery-men
+with their bayonets, and then fired several volleys into the tents
+where our poor comrades were asleep. What I had taken at first for
+National Guards were only those devils of sergents-de-ville dressed up!
+So, you see, as it was each man for himself, and the high road for
+everybody, I just threw myself down on my face, and let myself drop
+into the trenches. There was no fear of the noise of my fall being
+heard in the riot. I managed to hide myself pretty well in a hole I
+found there, and which had doubtless been made by a shell. I could not
+see anything, but I heard all that was going on. Clic! clac! clic! went
+the rifles, almost like the cracking of a whip, answered by the most
+dismal cries from the wounded. I could hear also the grinding of
+wheels, and made sure they were taking away our guns, the robbers! When
+all was silent except the groans of the dying men, I crept out of my
+hiding place. Would you believe it, Monsieur, I was the only one able
+to stand up; the Versaillais had taken all those who had not run away
+or were not wounded; I saw them, the pilfering thieves, making off
+towards Vitry, as fast as their legs could carry them!”
+
+“You have no idea, lieutenant,” I said to the porter, “how the
+Versaillais got to know the pass-word?”—“No, only the captain, who is
+an honest fellow enough, but rather too fond of the bottle, went in the
+evening to the route d’Orléans where there are lots of wine-shops
+...”—“And you think he got tipsy, and let the pass-word out to some spy
+or other?”—“I would not swear he did not; but what I am more sure of,
+is that we are betrayed!”
+
+Alas! yes, unfortunates, you are betrayed, but not in the way you
+think. You are being cheated by these madmen and criminals who are busy
+publishing decrees at the Hôtel de Ville, while you are dying by scores
+at Issy, Vanves, Montrouge, Neuilly, and the Moulin-Saquet; they betray
+you when they talk of Royalists and Imperialists; they deceive you when
+they tell you, that victory is certain, and that even defeat would be
+glorious. I tell you, that victory is impossible, and that your defeat
+will be without honour; for when you fell, crying, “Vive la Commune!”
+“Vive la République!” the Commune is Félix Pyat, and the Republic,
+Vermorel.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [78] Colonel Rossel was one of the most capable members of the Commune
+ Government. He was born in 1844, and was the son of Commandant Louis
+ Rossel, an officer who acquired a high reputation in the Chinese war.
+ The young Louis Rossel received a sound military education at the
+ Prytanée of La Flèche, and subsequently at the École Polytechnique, at
+ which latter institution he gained high honours. He served as captain
+ of engineers in the army of Metz, and was one of the officers who
+ signed the protestation against the surrender of Bazaine. He succeeded
+ in eluding the vigilance of the Prussians, and appeared at Tours to
+ offer his services to the Government of National Defence. Gambetta,
+ then Minister of War, appointed Rossel to the rank of colonel in the
+ so-called auxiliary army. After the signature of the peace
+ preliminaries, the new government refused to ratify the promotion
+ granted by Gambetta, but offered Rossel the rank of major. This
+ seriously offended the ex-Dictator’s ex-colonel, who shortly after the
+ tenth of March, put his sword at the disposition of the Commune. He
+ was at first appointed chief of the staff of General Cluseret, whom he
+ subsequently replaced as delegate for war. On April 16 he became
+ president of the Communist court-martial; he acted with great vigour
+ in all military affairs until the 10th of May, when the Commune
+ ordered his arrest.
+
+[Illustration: Chapelle Expiatoire.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXV.
+
+
+Malediction on the man who imagined this decree; malediction on the
+assembly that approved it; and cursed be the hand which shall first
+touch a stone of that tomb! Oh I believe me, I am not among those who
+regret the times of royal prerogatives, and who believe that everything
+would have gone well, in the most peaceful country in the world, if
+Louis XVII had only succeeded to the throne after his father, Louis
+XVI. The author of the revolution of 1798 knew what he was about in
+multiplying such terrible catastrophes. The name of that author was
+Infallible Necessity. Indeed I am quite ready to confess that the
+indolent husband of Marie Antoinette had none of those qualities which
+make a great king, and I will even add, if you wish it absolutely, that
+the solitary fact of being a king is a crime worthy a thousand deaths.
+As to Marie Antoinette herself—“the Austrian,” _Père Duchesne_ would
+call her—I allow that in history she is not quite so amiable as she
+appears in the novels of Alexandra Dumas, and that her near
+relationship to the queen Caroline-Marie, whose little suppers at
+Naples, in company with Lady Hamilton, one is well acquainted with,
+gives some excuse for the calumnies of which she has been the object.
+Have I said enough to prevent myself being the recipient, in the event
+of a Bourbon restoration, of the most modest pension that ever came out
+of a royal treasury? Well, in spite of what I have said, and in spite
+of what I think, I repeat, “Do not touch that tomb!” Like the Column
+Vendôme, which is the symbol of an heroic and terrible epoch in
+history, the Chapelle Expiatoire[79] is a souvenir of the old
+monarchical reign, an age which was neither devoid of sorrow, nor of
+honour for France. Can you not be republican without suppressing
+history, which was royalist? The last remains of monarchy repose in
+peace beneath that gloomy monument; may it be respected, as we respect
+the ashes of those who respected it; and you, breakers of images,
+profaners of past glory, do you not fear, in executing your decree, to
+produce an effect diametrically opposed to that which you desire? By
+persecuting kings even in their last resting-place, are you not afraid
+to excite the pity, the regret perhaps, of those whose consciences
+still hesitate? In the interest of the Republic, I say, take care! The
+memory of the dead stalks forth from open sepulchres!
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [79] This chapel was erected by Louis XVIII. upon the spot where,
+ during the Revolution of 1793, the remains of Louis XVI, and his Queen
+ had been obscurely interred.
+
+
+
+
+ LXXVI.
+
+
+Rejoice, poor housewives, who, on days of poverty, were obliged to
+carry to the Mont-de-Piété[80] the discoloured remains of your wedding
+dress, or your husband’s Sunday coat; rejoice, artisans, who, after a
+day of toil, thought your bed so hard since your last mattress was
+taken to the Rue des Blancs-Manteaux, to rejoin your last pair of
+sheets. The Commune has decreed that “all objects in pawn at the
+Mont-de-Piété, for a sum not exceeding twenty francs, shall be given
+back gratuitously to all persons who shall prove their legitimate right
+to the said objects.” Thanks to this benevolent decree, you may now
+hope that things you have pawned will be restored to you before three
+or four hundred days!
+
+Count on your fingers; the number of articles to which the decree
+applies is at least 1,200,000. As there are only three offices for the
+claimants to apply to, and considering the forms which have to be
+observed, I do not think more than three thousand objects can be given
+back daily; the Commune says four thousand, but the Commune does not
+know what it is talking about. However, even if we calculate four
+thousand a-day, the whole would take up ten or twelve months.
+
+During this time men and women, whom poverty had long ere this taught
+the road to the Mont-de-Piété, would have to get up early, neglect the
+daily work by which they live, and go and stand awaiting their turn at
+the office, frozen in winter, baked in summer, thankful to obtain a
+moment’s rest upon one of the wooden benches in the great bare hall;
+and when they have been there a long, weary time, to see their number,
+drawn by lot, put off to the next day or the day after, or the week or
+the month following perhaps.
+
+Still we must not blame the Commune for the sad disappointment of this
+long delay, it would be impossible to shorten it. One thing, which is
+less impossible, is to indemnify the administration of the
+Mont-de-Piété for this gratuitous restitution. Citizen Jourde, delegate
+of the finances, says, “I will give 100,000 francs a-week.” Without
+stopping to consider where this able political economist means to get
+his weekly 100,000 francs, I will be content with remarking that this
+sum would in no wise cover the loss to the Mont-de-Piété, and that the
+Commune will only be giving alms out of other people’s purses. If,
+however, thanks to this decree, some few poor creatures are enabled to
+get back those goods and chattels which they were obliged to dispose of
+in the hour of need, there will not be much cause to complain. The
+Mont-de-Piété usually does a very good business, and there will always
+be enough misery in Paris for it to grow rich upon. Besides, the
+Commune owes the poor wounded, mutilated, dying fellows who have been
+brought from Neuilly and Issy, at least a mattress to die in some
+little comfort upon.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [80] The governmental pawnbroking establishments. All the pawnbroking
+ is carried on by the Government.
+
+
+
+
+ LXXVII.
+
+
+They have put them into the prison of Saint-Lazare. Whom? The nuns of
+the convent of Picpus. They have put them there because they have been
+arrested. But why were they arrested? That is what Monsieur Rigault
+himself could not clearly explain. Some of the nuns are old. They have
+been living long in seclusion, and have only changed cells; having been
+the captives of Heaven, they have become the prisoners of Citizen
+Mouton. In such an abject place too, poor harmless souls! Victor Hugo
+has said, speaking of that wretched prison, “Saint-Lazare! we must
+crush that edifice.” Yes, later, when we have the time; we must now
+pull down the Column Vendôme and the Chapelle Expiatoire. In the
+meantime these poor ladies are very sad. One of my friends went to see
+them; they have neither their prayer-books nor their crucifix; they
+have had even the amulets they wore round their necks taken from them.
+This seems nothing to you, citizens of the Commune. You are men of
+advanced opinions. You care as much about a crucifix as a fish for an
+apple; and perhaps you are right. You have studied the question, and
+you say in the evening, looking up at the stars, “There is no God.” But
+you must understand that with these poor nuns it is quite a different
+matter. They have not read philosophical treatises; they still believe
+that the Almighty created the world in six days, and that the Son died
+on the cross for the sake of the world. When they were free, or rather
+when they were in a prison of their own choosing, they prayed in the
+morning, they prayed at noon, they prayed at night, and only
+interrupted this most pernicious occupation for the purpose of teaching
+poor little girls that it is good to be virtuous, honest, and grateful,
+and that Heaven rewards those who do rightly. That was their
+occupation, poor simple souls, and you have sent them to Saint Lazare
+for that. You should have chosen another prison, for their presence
+must be disagreeable to the usual female denizens of the place. But
+there, or elsewhere, they do not complain; they only ask for a
+prayer-book and a wooden crucifix. Come, Citizen Delegate of the
+ex-Prefecture, one little concession, and unless the future of the
+Republic is likely to be compromised by so doing, give them a cross. A
+cross is only two pieces of wood placed one on the other. I promise you
+there will be wood enough in the forest the day honest men make up
+their minds to exercise their muscles on your backs, you bullying
+slave-drivers!
+
+
+
+
+ LXXVIII.
+
+
+After Bergeret came Cluseret; after Cluseret, Rossel. But Rossel has
+just sent in his resignation. My idea is, that we take back Cluseret,
+that we may have Bergeret, and so on, unless we prefer to throw
+ourselves into the open arms of General Lullier. The choice of another
+general for the defence of Paris is however no business of mine; and
+the Commune, a sultan without a favourite, may throw his handkerchief
+if he pleases, to the tender Delescluze, as some say he has the
+intention—I have not the least objection. Why should not Delescluze[81]
+be an excellent general? He is a journalist, and what journalist does
+not know more about military matters than Napoleon I., or Von Moltke
+himself? In the meantime we are in mourning for our third War Delegate,
+and we shall no longer see Rossel on his dark bay, galloping between
+the Place Vendôme and the Fort Montrouge. He has just written the
+following letter to the members of the Commune:—
+
+[Illustration: Quelle Gourmande! Paris at Table.]
+
+Waiter, two or three more stewed generals. —We are out of them. —Very
+well, then a dozen colonels in caper sauce. —A dozen? —Yes: directly!!
+
+    “CITIZENS, MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNE,—Having been charged by you with
+    the War Department, I feel myself no longer capable of bearing the
+    responsibility of a command wherein every one deliberates, and no
+    one obeys.
+    “When it was necessary to organise the artillery, the Central
+    Committee of Artillery deliberated, but nothing was done. After a
+    month’s revolution, that service is only carried on, thanks to the
+    energy of a very small number of volunteers.
+    “On my nomination to the Ministry, I wanted to further the search
+    for arms, the requisition of horses, and the pursuit of refractory
+    citizens; I asked help of the Commune.
+    “The Commune deliberated, but passed no resolutions.
+    “Later, the Central Committee came and offered its services to the
+    War Department; I accepted them in the most decisive manner, and
+    delivered up to its members all the documents I had concerning its
+    organisation. Since then the Central Committee has been
+    deliberating, and has done nothing. During this time the enemy
+    multiplied its venturesome attacks on Fort Issy; had I had the
+    smallest military force at my command, I would have punished them
+    for it.
+    “The garrison, badly commanded, took flight; the officers
+    deliberated, and sent away from the fort Captain Dumont, an
+    energetic man, who had been ordered to command them. Still
+    deliberating, they evacuated the fort, after having stupidly talked
+    of blowing it up,—as difficult a thing for them to do as to defend
+    it.
+    “Even that was not enough. Yesterday, when every one ought to have
+    been at work or fighting, the chiefs were deliberating upon another
+    system of organisation from that which I had adopted, so as to make
+    up for their want of forethought and authority. The results of
+    their council were a project, when we want men, and a declaration
+    of principles, when we wanted acts.
+    “My indignation brought them back to other thoughts, and they
+    promised me for to-day the largest force they could possibly
+    muster,—an organised one of not more than 12,000 men. With these I
+    undertook to march on the enemy. These men were to muster at eleven
+    o’clock: it is now one, and they are not ready, and the promised
+    12,000 has dwindled to about 7,000, which is not at all the same
+    thing.
+    “Thus, the utter uselessness of the artillery committee prevented
+    the organization of the artillery; the hesitation of the Central
+    Committee stopped all arrangements; the petty discussions of the
+    officers, paralyses the concentration of the troops.
+    “I am not a man to mind having recourse to violence. Yesterday,
+    while the chiefs discussed, a company of men with loaded rifles
+    awaited in the court. But I did not want to take upon myself the
+    initiative of so energetic a measure, or draw upon myself the odium
+    of such executions as would have been necessary to extricate
+    obedience and victory from such a chaos. Even if I had been
+    protected by the publicity of my acts, I need not have given up my
+    position.
+    “But the Commune has not had the courage to confront publicity.
+    Twice I wished to give some necessary explanations, and twice, in
+    spite of me, it insisted on a secret council.
+    “My predecessor was wrong to remain in so absurd a position.
+    “Enlightened by his example, and knowing that the strength of a
+    revolutionary, only consists in the clearness of his position, I
+    have only two alternatives, either to break the chains which impede
+    my actions, or to retire.
+    “I will not break the chains, because those chains are you, and
+    your weakness,—I will not touch the sovereignty of the people.
+    “I retire; and have the honour to beg for a cell at Mazas.
+
+“ROSSEL.”[82]
+
+[Illustration: Delescluze, Delegate of War.[83]]
+
+Most certainly I do not like the Paris Commune, such as the men of the
+Hôtel de Ville understand it. Deceived at first by my own delusive
+hopes, I now am sure that we have nothing to expect from it but follies
+upon follies, crimes upon crimes. I hate it on account of the
+suppressed newspapers, of the imprisoned journalists, of the priests
+shut up at Mazas like assassins, of the nuns shut up at Saint-Lazare
+like courtesans; I hate it because it incites to the crime of civil war
+those who would have been ready to fight against the Prussians, but who
+do not wish to fight against Frenchmen; I hate it on account of the
+fathers of families sent to battle and to death; on account of our
+ruined ramparts, our dismantled forts, each stone of which as it falls
+wounds or destroys; on account of the widowed women and the orphaned
+children, all of whom they can never pension in spite of their decrees;
+I cannot pardon them the robbing of the banks, nor the money extorted
+from the railway companies, nor the loan-shares sold to a money-changer
+at Liège; I hate it on account of Clémence the spy, and Allix the
+madman. I am sorry to think that two or three intelligent men should be
+mixed up with it, and have to share in its fall. I hate it particularly
+on account of the just principles it at one time represented, and of
+the admirable and fruitful ideas of municipal independence, which it,
+was not able to carry out honestly, and which, because of the excesses
+that have been committed in their name, will have lost for ever,
+perhaps, all chance of triumphing. Still, great as is my horror of this
+parody of a government to which we have had to submit for nearly two
+months, I could not forbear a feeling of repulsion on reading the
+letter of Citizen Rossel. It is a capitally written letter, firm,
+concise, conclusive, differing entirely from the bombastic,
+unintelligible documents to which the Commune has accustomed us; and
+besides, it brings to light several details at which I rejoice, because
+it permits me to hope that the reign of our tyrants is nearly at an
+end. I am glad to hear that the Commune, if it possesses artillery, is
+short of artillerymen. It delights me to learn that they can only
+dispose of seven thousand combatants. I had feared that it would be
+enabled to kill a great many more; and as to what Citizen Rossel says
+of the committees and officers who deliberate but do not act, it is
+most pleasant news, for it convinces me, that the Commune has not the
+power to continue much longer a war, which can but result in the death
+of Paris; and yet I highly disapprove of the letter of Citizen Rossel,
+because it is on his part an act of treachery, and it is not for the
+friends and servants of the Commune to reveal its faults and to show up
+its weaknesses. Who obliged Rossel, commander of the staff, to take the
+place of his general, disgraced and imprisoned? Did he not accept
+willingly a position, the difficulties of which he had already
+recognised? He says himself that his predecessor was wrong to have
+stayed in so absurd a position, and why did he voluntarily put himself
+there, where he blamed another for remaining? If the new delegate hoped
+by his own cleverness to modify the position, he ought not, the
+position remaining the same, accuse anything but his own incapacity. In
+a word, the conclusion at which we arrive is, that he only accepted
+power to be able to throw it off with effect, like Cato, who only went
+to the public theatres for the purpose of fussily leaving the place, at
+the moment when the audience called the actors before the curtain. Not
+being able or perhaps willing to save the Commune, M. Rossel desired to
+save himself at its expense. There is something ungentlemanly in this.
+Do not, however, imagine for a moment that I believe in M. Rossel
+having been bought by M. Thiers. All those ridiculous stories of sums
+of money having been offered to the members of the Commune, are merely
+absurd inventions.[84] What do you think they say of Cluseret? That he
+was in the habit of taking his breakfast at the Café d’Orsay, and
+afterwards playing a game of dominoes. One day his adversary is
+reported to have said to him, “If you will deliver the fort of
+Montrouge to the Versaillais, I will give you two millions.” What fools
+people must be to believe such absurdities! Rossel has not sold
+himself, for the very good reason that nobody ever thought of buying
+him. It was his own idea to do what he did. For the pleasure of being
+insolent and showing his boldness, he has pulled down from its pedestal
+what he adored, consequently the most criminal among the members of the
+Commune, once a swindler, now a pilferer, is free to say to M. Rossel,
+who is, I am told, a man of intelligence and honesty, “You are worse
+than I am, for you have betrayed us!”
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [81] PARIS AT DINNER.—An ogress, gentleman! A famished creature,
+ faring sumptuously; her face flushed with wine, her eyes bright, her
+ hands trembling. Madame Lutetia is a strapping woman still, with a
+ queenly air about her, in spite of the red patches on her tunic;
+ somewhat shorn of her ornaments, it is true, as she has had to pawn
+ the greater part of her jewelry, but the orgie once over she will be
+ again what she was before.
+    For the time being she is wholly absorbed in her gastronomic
+    exertions. She has already devoured a Bergeret with peas, a Lullier
+    with anchovy sauce, an Assy and potatoes, a Cluseret with tomatos,
+    a Rossel with capers, besides a large quantity of small fry, and
+    she is not yet appeased. The _maître-d’hôtel_ Delescluze waits upon
+    her somewhat in trepidation, with a sickly smile on his face. What
+    if, after such a meal of generals and colonels, the ogress were to
+    devour the waiter!—_Fac simile of design from the “Grelot,” 17th
+    May, 1871_.
+
+ [82] He was convinced of the hopelessness of any further struggle
+ after the capture of Fort Issy; gave in his resignation, and hid
+ himself to escape the vengeance of his former colleagues. He was
+ supposed to be in England or Switzerland, whereas, in fact, he had
+ fled no farther than the Boulevard Saint Germain. He was arrested by
+ the police on the ninth of June, disguised as an employé of the
+ Northern Railway. He was first interrogated at the Petit Luxembourg,
+ and afterwards conducted handcuffed to Versailles, where three mouths
+ after he was tried by court-martial and sentenced to military
+ degradation and death.
+
+ [83] Delescluze’s wild life began at Dreux, in 1809. Driven from home
+ on account of his bad conduct, he came to Paris, and obtained
+ employment in an attorney’s office, from which he was very soon
+ afterwards, it is said, discharged for robbery. In 1834, he underwent
+ the first of his long list of imprisonments, for the part he took in
+ the April revolution, and in the following year, being compromised in
+ a conspiracy against the safety of the state, he took refuge in
+ Belgium, Where he obtained the editorship of the _Courrier de
+ Charleroi_. In 1840 he returned to Paris, where he founded a journal
+ called the _Révolution Démocratique et Sociale_, which brought him
+ fifteen months’ imprisonment and twenty thousand francs fine. After a
+ long period of liberty of nearly eight years, he was condemned to
+ transportation by the High Court of Justice, but the condemnation was
+ given in his absence, for he had slipped over to England, where he
+ remained until 1853. On his returning in that year to France he was
+ immediately imprisoned at Mazas, transferred afterwards to Belle-Isle,
+ and then successively to the hulks of Corte, Ajaccio, Toulon, Brest,
+ and finally to Cayenne. These sojourns lasted until 1868, when the
+ amnesty permitted him to return to France, where he made haste to
+ bring out another new journal, _Le Réveil_, which of course earned him
+ fines and imprisonments with great rapidity, three of each within the
+ twelvemonth.
+    In the month of February, 1871, he was elected deputy by a large
+    number of votes; and later, when the Assembly went to Bordeaux, sat
+    there for some time, and then gave in his resignation, in order to
+    take part with the Commune.
+    By the Commune he was made delegate at the Ministry of War, after
+    the pretended flight of Rossel, and in a sitting of the 20th of
+    April, in which the project of burning Paris was discussed,
+    Delescluze ended his speech with the words—“If we must die, we will
+    give to Liberty a pile worthy of her.”
+
+ [84] “A plot had just been discovered between Bourget of the
+ Internationale, Billioray, member of the Commune, and Cérisier,
+ captain of the 101st Battalion of the insurgent National Guard. For a
+ certain sum of money they were to deliver Port Issy into the hands of
+ General Valentin, of the Versailles army. The succession of Rossel to
+ the Ministry of War frustrated the whole project.
+    “In the night of the 17th of May another attempt of the same kind
+    met with failure. The Communists Bourget, Billioray, Mortier,
+    Cérisier, and Pilotel, the artist, traitors to their own
+    treacherous cause, were to open the gates to the soldiers of
+    Versailles, an hour after midnight, at the Point du Jour; the
+    soldiers to be disguised as National Guards. But, at the appointed
+    hour, Cérisier took fright, and contented himself with the money he
+    had received on account (twenty-five thousand francs) in payment
+    for his treachery, and did no more. When the Versailles troops
+    presented themselves at the gates, they had to beat a retreat under
+    a heavy fire of mitrailleuses.” _Guerre des Communeux_.]
+
+
+
+
+ LXXIX.
+
+
+I was told the following by an eye-witness of the scene. In a small
+room at the Hôtel de Ville five personages were seated round a table at
+dinner. The repast was of the most modest kind, and consisted of soup,
+one dish of meat, one kind of vegetable, cheese, and a bottle of vin
+ordinaire each. One would have thought, oneself in a restaurant at two
+francs a head, if it had not been that the condiments had got musty
+during the siege; besides, there was something solemn and official in
+the very smell of the viands which took away one’s appetite. However,
+our five personages swallowed their food as fast as they could. At the
+head of the table sat Citizen Jourde. Jourde looks about eight and
+twenty; he has a delicate looking, mathematical head, with brown curly
+hair and sallow complexion, a kind of Henri Heine of the Finance. Tall
+and thin, with his red scarf tied round his waist, he reminds us of one
+of the old Convention of ’89. They sat for some time in silence, as if
+they were observing each other. At the end of the first course, Jourde
+took up a spoon and examined it, saying, “Silver! true there is silver
+at the Hôtel de Ville, I will send for it to-morrow!” One of the other
+guests said, “Pardon me, I have to answer for it, and shall not give it
+up.”—“Oh, yes you will,” answered Jourde, “I will have an order sent to
+you from the Domaine,”[85] and then, as if he were thinking aloud, goes
+on to express his satisfaction at having found an unexpected sum of
+three hundred thousand francs, as it were on the dinner-table. A whole
+day’s pay! He will be able to put by four millions at the end of the
+week; he tries to be economical, but the war runs away with everything.
+“You must at least give me three days’ notice for the payment of sums
+amounting to more than a hundred thousand francs,” says he, with a
+shrug of the shoulders, particularly addressed to Beslay. Then he
+speaks of his hopes of reducing the Prussian debt before the year is
+out, if the Commune lives so long; touches on subjects connected with
+the taxes, patents and duties, “or else bank-notes worth fire hundred
+francs in the morning, will only be worth twenty sous in the evening;
+money is scarce, it is leaving the city. I do not see much copper
+about, but if you leave me alone, I promise to succeed.” All this was
+said in a tone of the most sincere conviction. When the dinner was
+over, he hastily bowed and rushed off, without having taken any notice
+of what was said to him. Every now and then cries arose in the streets,
+and made the members of the Commune start as they sat there behind
+their sombre curtains. “Do you think they can come in?” asked some one
+of Johannard, to which he replies, “What a wild idea! Delescluze knows
+it is impossible, and Dombrowski, a cold unexcitable fellow, only
+laughs when people mention it; does he not, Rigault?” Thereupon the
+personage addressed, who has not yet spoken, bows his head in sign of
+acquiescence. He looks young in spite of his thick, black beard; his
+eyes are weak, his expression is sly and disagreeable, and looks as if
+he might sometimes have his hours of coarse joviality. Then a portière
+was lowered, or a door shut, and the person who had overheard the
+preceding heard and saw no more.
+
+[Illustration: Fontaine, Director of Public Domains And
+Registration[86]]
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [85] The Commune occupied the Mint, and directed Citizen Camelinat,
+ bronze-fitter, to manufacture gold and silver coin to the amount of
+ 1,500,000 francs. Of that sum, 76,000 francs only was saved by the
+ Versailles troops on their entry. The different articles of gold and
+ silver found at the Hôtel des Monnaies represented a total weight of
+ 1,186 lbs., and consisted of objects taken from the churches,
+ religious houses, and government offices, Imperial plate, and presents
+ to the city of Paris. All these objects have been sent to the
+ repository of the Domaine, where they maybe claimed on identification
+ by their owners.
+
+ [86] Fontaine was nominated on the 18th of March director of the
+ public domains and of registration. His name figures in the history of
+ the revolutions, émeutes, and insurrections of Paris from 1848. He was
+ a professional insurgent.
+
+
+
+
+ LXXX.
+
+
+I am beginning to regret Cluseret. He was impatient, especially in
+speech. He used to say “Every man a National Guard!” But with Cluseret,
+as with one’s conscience, there were possible conciliations. You had
+only to answer the decrees of the war-delegate by an enthusiastic “Why
+I am delighted, indeed I was just going to beg you to send me to the
+Porte-Maillot;” which having done, one was free to go about one’s
+business without fear of molestation. As to leaving Paris, in spite of
+the law which condemned every man under forty to remain in the city;
+nothing was easier. You had but to go to the Northern Railway Station,
+and prefer your request to a citizen, seated at a table behind a
+partition in the passport office.[87] When he asked you your age you
+had only to answer “Seventy-eight,” passing your hand through your
+sable locks as you spoke—“Only that? I thought you looked older,” the
+accommodating individual would answer, at the same time putting into
+your hand a paper on which was written some cabalistic sign. One day I
+had taken it into my head to go and spend two hours at Bougival, and my
+pass bore the strange word “Carnivolus” written on it. Provided with
+this mysterious document, I was enabled to procure a first-class ticket
+and jump into the next train that started. I was free, and nothing
+could have prevented my going, if such had been my wish, to proclaim
+the Commune at Mont Blanc or Monaco.
+
+How the times are changed! The Committee of Public Safety and the
+Central Committee now join together in making the lives of the poor
+_réfractaires_[88] a burthen to them. I do not speak of the
+disarmaments, which have nothing particularly disagreeable about them,
+for an unarmed man may clearly nourish the hope that he is not to be
+sent to battle. But there are other things, and I really should not
+object to be a little over eighty for a few days. Domiciliary visits
+have become very frequent. Four National Guards walk into the house of
+the first citizen they please, and politely or otherwise, explain to
+him that it is his strict duty to go into the trenches at Vanves and
+kill as many Frenchmen as he can. If the citizen resists he is carried
+off, and told that on account of his resistance he will have the honour
+of being put at the head of his battalion at the first engagement.
+These visits often end in violence. I am told that in the Rue Oudinot a
+young man received a savage bayonet thrust because he resisted the
+corporal’s order; and as these occurrences are not uncommon, the
+_réfractaires_ cannot be said to live in peace and comfort. They are
+subject to continual terror, the sour visage of their _concierge_ fills
+them with misgivings, he may be one of the Commune. As to going to bed,
+it must not be thought of; it is during the hours of night that the
+Communal agents are particularly active. This necessity of changing
+domicile has lead to certain Amélias and Rosalines and other ladies of
+that description having the words “Hospitality to _Réfractaires_”
+written in pencil on their cards. Men who decline to take advantage of
+such opportunities have to go about from hôtel to hôtel, giving
+imaginary names, suspicious of the waiters, and awaking at the least
+sound, thinking it is the noise of feet ascending the stairs, or the
+rattle of muskets on the landing. The day before yesterday a number of
+_réfractaires_, having the courage of despair, walked to the Porte
+Saint-Ouen—“Will you let us out?” asked they of the commanding officer,
+who answered in a decided negative; whereupon the party, which was
+three hundred strong, fell upon the captain and his men, whom they
+disarmed, and five minutes afterwards they were running free across the
+fields.
+
+Others employ softer means of corruption; resort to the wine-shops of
+Belleville, where they make themselves agreeable in every way, and soon
+succeed in entering into friendly conversation with some of the least
+ferocious among the Federals of the place.
+
+[Illustration: Réfractaires Escaping from Paris]
+
+“You are on duty, Tuesday, at the Porte de la Chapelle?”—“Why,
+yes.”—“So that you might very easily let a comrade out who wants to go
+and pay a visit at Saint-Denis?”—“Quite out of the question; the others
+would prevent me, or denounce me to the captain.”—“You think there is
+nothing to be done with the captain?”—“Oh! no; he is a staunch patriot,
+he is!”—“How very tiresome; and I wanted most particularly to go to
+Saint-Denis on Tuesday evening. I would gladly give twenty francs out
+of my own pocket for the sake of a little walk outside the
+fortifications.”—“There is only one way.”—“And how is that?”—“You don’t
+care much about going out by the door, do you?”—“Well, no; what I want
+is to get outside.“—“Oh! then listen to me; come to La-Chapelle early
+on Tuesday evening, and walk up and down the rampart. I will try and be
+on duty at eight o’clock, and look out for you. When I see you I will
+take care not to say _qui vive_.”—“That’s easy enough; and what
+then?”—“Why, then I will secure around you a thick rope which of course
+you will have with you!”—“The devil!”—“And I will throw you into the
+trench.”—“By Jove! That will be a leap.”—“Oh! I will do it very
+carefully, without hurting you. I will let you slip softly down the
+wall.”—“Humph!”—“When you reach the ground below, in an instant you can
+be up and off into the darkness. Do you accept? Yes or no?”—“I should
+certainly prefer to drive out of the city in a coach and six, but
+nevertheless I accept.”
+
+Generally, this plan answers admirably. They say that the Federals of
+Belleville and Montmartre make a nice little income with this kind of
+business. Sometimes, however, the plan only half succeeds, and either
+the rope breaks, or the Federal considers, he may manage capitally to
+reconcile his interest with his duty, by sending a ball after the
+escaped _réfractaire_.
+
+Disguises are also the order of the day. A poet, whose verses were
+received at the Comédie Française with enthusiasm during the siege,
+managed to get away, thanks to an official on the Northern Railway, who
+lent him his coat and cap. Another poet—they are an ingenious
+race—conceived a plan of greater boldness. One day on the Boulevard he
+called a fiacre, having first taken care to choose a coachman of
+respectable age, “_Cocher_, drive to the Rue Montorgueil, to the best
+restaurant you can find.” On the way the poet reasoned thus to himself:
+“This coachman has in his pocket, as they all have, a Communal
+passport, which allows him to go out and come into Paris as he pleases;
+let me remember the fourth act of my last melodrama, and I am saved.”
+
+The cab stopped in front of a restaurant of decent exterior not far
+from Philippe’s. The young man went in, asked for a private room, and
+told the waiter to send up the coachman, as he had something to say to
+him, and to procure a boy to hold the horse. The coachman walked into
+the room, where the breakfast was ready served.
+
+“Now, coachman, I am going to keep you all day, so do not refuse to
+drink a glass with me to keep up your strength.”
+
+An hour after the poet and the coachman had breakfasted like old
+friends; six empty bottles testified that neither one nor the other
+were likely to die of thirst. The poet grumbled internally to himself
+as he thought of the three bottles of Clos-Vougeot, one of Léoville,
+two of Moulin-au-Vent, that had been consumed, and the fellow not drunk
+yet. Then he determined to try surer means, and called to the waiter to
+bring champagne. “It is no use, young fellow,” laughed the coachman,
+who was familiar at least, if he was not drunk; “champagne won’t make
+any difference; if you counted on that to get my passport, you reckoned
+without your host!”—“The devil I did,” cried the poor young man,
+horrified to see his scheme fall through, and to think of the
+prodigious length of the bill he should have to pay for
+nothing.—“Others, have tried it on, but I am too wide awake by half,”
+said the coachman, adding as he emptied the last bottle into his glass,
+“give me two ten-franc pieces and I will get you through.”—“How can I
+be grateful enough?” cried the poet, although in reality he felt rather
+humiliated to find that the grand scene in his fourth act had not
+succeeded.—“Call the waiter, and pay the bill.” The waiter was called,
+and the bill paid with a sigh. “Now give me your jacket.”—“My
+jacket?”—“Yes, this thing in velvet you have on your back.” The poet
+did as he was bid. “Now your waistcoat and trousers.”—“My trousers! Oh,
+insatiable coachman!”—“Make haste will you, or else I shall take you to
+the nearest guard-room for a confounded _réfractaire_, as you are.” The
+clothes were immediately given up. “Very well; now take mine, dress
+yourself in them, and let’s be off.” While the young man was putting on
+with decided distaste the garments of the _cocher_, the latter managed
+to introduce his ponderous bulk into those of the poet. This done, out
+they went. “Get up on the box.”—“On the box?”—“Yes, idiot,” said the
+coachman, growing more and more familiar; “I am going to get into the
+cab, now drive me wherever you please.” The plan was a complete
+success. At the Porte de Châtillon the disguised poet exhibited his
+passport, and the National Guard who looked in at the window of the
+carriage cried out, “Oh, he may pass; he might be my grandfather.” The
+cab rolled over the draw-bridge, and it was in this way that M ...,—ah!
+I was just going to let the cat out of the bag—it was in this way that
+our young poet broke the law of the Commune, and managed to dine that
+same evening at the Hôtel des Réservoirs at Versailles, with a deputy
+of the right on his left hand, and a deputy of the left on his right
+hand.
+
+Shall I go away? Why not? Do I particularly wish to be shut up one
+morning in some barrack-room, or sent in spite of myself to the
+out-posts? My position of _réfractaire_ is sensibly aggravated by the
+fact of my being in rather a dangerous neighbourhood. For the last few
+days, I have felt rather astonished at the searching glances that a
+neighbour always casts upon me, when we met in the street. I told my
+servant to try and find out who this man was. Great heavens! this
+scowling neighbour of mine is Gérardin—Gérardin of the Commune! Add to
+this the perilous fact, that our _concierge_ is lieutenant in a Federal
+battalion, and you will have good reason to consider me the most
+unfortunate of _réfractaires_. However, what does it matter? I decide
+on remaining; I will stay and see the end, even should the terrible
+Pyat and the sweet Vermorel both of them be living under the same roof
+with me, even if my _concierge_ be M. Delescluze himself!
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [87] The decree which rendered obligatory the service in the marching
+ companies of the National Guard, and the establishment of
+ courts-martial, spread terror among the population, and thousands of
+ people thronged daily to the Prefecture of Police. Sometimes, the
+ queue extended from the Place Dauphine to beyond the Pont Neuf. But
+ soon afterwards, stratagems of every kind were put into requisition to
+ escape from the researches of the Commune, which became more eager and
+ determined, from day to day, after the publication of the following
+ decree, the chef-d’oeuvre of the too famous Raoul Rigault:—
+
+“EX-PREFECTURE OF POLICE.
+“Delivery of Passports.
+
+“Considering that the civil authority cannot favour the non-execution
+of the decrees of the Commune, without failing in its duty, and that it
+is highly necessary that all communications with those who carry on
+this savage war against us should be prevented,
+    “The member of the Committee of Public Safety, Delegate at the
+    Prefecture of Police,
+    “Decrees:—
+    “Art. 1. Passports can only be delivered on the production of
+    satisfactory documents.
+    “Art. 2. No passport will be delivered to individuals between the
+    ages of seventeen and thirty-five years, as such fall within the
+    military law.
+    “Art. 3. No passport will be issued to any member of the old
+    police, or who are in relation with Versailles.
+    “Art. 4. Any persons who come within the conditions of Articles 2
+    or 3, and apply for passports, will be immediately sent to the
+    dépôt of the ex-Prefecture of Police.
+
+(Signed) “RAOUL RIGAULT,
+“Member of the Committee of Public Safety.”]
+
+ [88] Those who decline to join the Commune.
+
+
+
+
+ LXXXI.
+
+
+Glorious news! I have seen Lullier again. We had lost Cluseret, lost
+Rossel; Delescluze does not suffice, and except for Dombrowski and La
+Cécilia with his prima-donna-like name, the company of the Commune
+would be sadly wanting in stars. Happily! Lullier has been restored to
+us. What had become of him? he only wrote seven or eight letters a day
+to Rochefort and Maroteau, that I can find out. How did he manage to
+employ that indomitable activity of his, and that of his two hundred
+friends, who with their red Garibaldis and blue sailor trousers made
+him the most picturesque escort you can imagine? Was he meditating some
+gigantic enterprises the dictatorship that Cluseret had dreamed of and
+Rossel disdained, was he about to assume it for the good of the
+Republic? I have no idea; but whatever he has been doing, I have seen
+him again at the club held in the church of Saint Jacques.
+
+[Illustration: General La Cécilia.[89]]
+
+Ha! ha! Worthless hypocrites and inquisitors, who for the last eighteen
+hundred years have crushed, degraded, and tortured the poor; you
+thought our turn was never to come, you monks, priests, and
+archbishops! Thanks to the Commune you now preach in the prisons of the
+Republic; you may confess, if you like, the spiders of your dungeons,
+and give the holy viaticum to the rats which play around your legs! You
+can no longer do any harm to patriots. No more churches, no more
+convents! Those who have not houses in the Champs Elysées shall lodge
+in your convents; in your churches shall be held honest assemblies,
+which will give the people their rights; as to their duties, that is an
+invention of reactionists. No more of your sermons or speeches: after
+Bossuet, Napoléon Gaillard!
+
+[Illustration: The Church of Saint Eustache. Used As a Red Club. Partly
+destroyed by fire.]
+
+On entering the church of Saint Eustache yesterday, I was agreeably
+surprised to find the font full of tobacco instead of holy-water, and
+to see the altar in the distance covered with bottles and glasses. Some
+one informed me that was the counter. In one of the lateral chapels, a
+statue of the Virgin had been dressed out in the uniform of a
+vivandière, with a pipe in her mouth. I was, however, particularly
+charmed with the amiable faces of the people I saw collected there. The
+sex to which we owe the _tricoteuses_ was decidedly in the majority. It
+was quite delightful not to see any of those elegant dresses and
+frivolous manners, which have for so long disgraced the better half of
+the human race. Thank heaven! my eyes fell with rapture on the heroic
+rags of those ladies who do us the honour of sweeping our streets for
+us. Many of these female patriots were proud to bear in the centre of
+their faces a rubicund nose, that rivalled in colour the Communal flag
+on the Hôtel de Ville. Oh, glorious red nose, the distinguished sign of
+Republicanism! As to the men, they seemed to have been chosen among the
+first ranks of the new aristocracy. It was charming to note the
+military elegance with which their caps were slightly inclined over one
+ear; their faces, naturally hideous, were illuminated with the joy of
+freedom, and certainly the thick smoke which emanated from their pipes,
+must have been more agreeable as an offering, than the faint vapours of
+incense that used to arise from the gilded censers. “Marriage,
+citoyennes, is the greatest error of ancient humanity. To be married is
+to be a slave. Will you be slaves?”—“No, no!” cried all the female part
+of the audience, and the orator, a tall gaunt woman with a nose like
+the beak of a hawk, and a jaundice-coloured complexion, flattered by
+such universal applause, continued, “Marriage, therefore, cannot be
+tolerated any longer in a free city. It ought to be considered a crime,
+and suppressed by the most severe measures. Nobody has the right to
+sell his liberty, and thereby to set a bad example to his fellow
+citizens. The matrimonial state is a perpetual crime against morality.
+Don’t tell me that marriage may be tolerated, if you institute divorce.
+Divorce is only an expedient, and if I may be allowed to use the word,
+an Orleanist expedient!” (Thunders of applause.) “Therefore, I propose
+to this assembly, that it should get the Commune of Paris to modify the
+decree, which assures pensions to the legitimate or illegitimate
+companions of the National Guards, killed in the defence of our
+municipal rights. No half measures. We, the illegitimate companions,
+will no longer suffer the legitimate wives to usurp rights they no
+longer possess, and which they ought never to have had at all. Let the
+decree be modified. All for the free women, none for the slaves!”
+
+[Illustration: Interior of the Church Of St. Eustache—communist Club.]
+
+The orator descends from the pulpit amidst the most lively
+congratulations. I am told by some one standing near me, that the
+orator is a monthly nurse, who used to be a somnambulist in her youth.
+But the crowd opens now to give place to a male orator, who mounts the
+spiral staircase, passes his hand through his hair, and darts a
+piercing glance on the multitude beneath. It is Citizen Lullier.
+
+This young man has really a very agreeable physiognomy; his forehead is
+intelligent, his eyes pleasant. Looking on M. Lullier’s sympathetic
+face, one is sorry to remember his eccentricities. But what is all this
+noise about? What has he said? what has he done? I only heard the words
+“Dombrowski,” and “La Cécilia.” Every one starts to his feet,
+exasperated, shouting. Several chairs are about to be flung at the
+orator. He is surrounded, hooted. “Down with Lullier! Long live
+Dombrowski!” The tumult increases. Citizen Lullier seems perfectly calm
+in the midst of it all, but refuses to leave the pulpit; he tries in
+vain to speak and explain. Two women, two amiable hags, throw
+themselves upon him; several men rush up also; he is taken up bodily
+and carried away, resisting to the utmost and shouting to the last. The
+people jump up on the chairs, Lullier has disappeared, and I hear him
+no more; what have they done with him!
+
+What do you think of all this, gentlemen and Catholics! Do you still
+regret the priests and choristers who used awhile ago to preach and
+chant in the Parisian churches? Where is the man, who at the very sight
+of this new congregation, so tolerant, so intelligent, listening with
+such gratitude to these noble lessons of politics and morality; where
+is the man, who could any longer blind himself to the admirable
+influence of the present revolution? Innumerable are the benefits that
+the Paris Commune showers upon us! As I leave the church, a little
+vagabond walks up to the font, and taking a pinch of tobacco,—“In the
+name of the...!” says he, then fills his pipe; “In the name of the
+...!” proceeding to strike a lucifer, adds, “In the name of the
+...!”—“Confound the blasphemous rascal!” say I, giving him a good box
+on the ears. After having written these lines I felt inclined to erase
+them; on second thoughts I let them remain—they belong to history!
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [89] A political refugee, who left his country in 1869 for Prussia,
+ where he taught mathematics in the University of Ulm, and afterwards
+ accepted service under Garibaldi.
+
+
+
+
+ LXXXII.
+
+
+This morning I took a walk in the most innocent manner, having
+committed no crime that I knew of. It was lovely weather, and the
+streets looked gay, as they generally do when it is very bright, even
+when the hearts of the people are most sad. I passed through the Rue
+Saint-Honoré, the Palais Royal, and finally the Rue Richelieu. I beg
+pardon for these details, but I am particularly careful in indicating
+the road I took, as I wish the inhabitants of the places in question,
+to bear witness that I did not steal in passing a single quartern loaf,
+or appropriate the smallest article of jewellery. As I was about to
+turn on to the boulevards, one of the four National Guards who were on
+duty, I do not know what for, at the corner of the street, cried out,
+“You can’t pass!” All right, thought I to myself; there is nothing
+fresh I suppose, only the Commune does not want people to pass; of
+course, it has right on its side. Thereupon I began to retrace my
+steps. “You can’t pass,” calls out another sentinel, by the time I have
+reached the other side of the street.
+
+This is strange, the Commune cannot mean to limit my walk to a
+melancholy pacing up and down between two opposite pavements. A
+sergeant came up to me; I recognised him as a Spaniard, who during the
+siege belonged to my company. “Why are you not in uniform?” he asked
+me, with a roughness that I fancied was somewhat mitigated by the
+remembrance of the many cigars I had given him, the nights we were on
+guard during the siege. I understood in an instant what they wanted
+with me, and replied unhesitatingly, “Because it is not my turn to be
+on guard,”—“No, of course it’s not, it never is. You have been taking
+your ease this long time, while others have been getting killed.” It
+was evident this Spaniard had not taken the cigars I had given him, in
+good part, and was now revenging himself.—“What do you want with me?” I
+said; “let’s have done with this.” Instead of answering, he signed to
+two Federals standing near, who immediately placed themselves one on
+each side of me, and cried, “March!” I was perfectly agreeable,
+although this walk was not exactly in the direction I had intended. On
+the way I heard a woman say, “Poor young man I They have taken him in
+the act.” I was conducted to the church of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, and
+marched into the vestry, where about fifty _réfractaires_ were already
+assembled.
+
+Behind a deal table, on which were placed a small register, an inkstand
+stuck in a great bung, and two quill pens, sat three young men, almost
+boys, in uniform. You might have imagined them to be Minos, Aeacus, and
+Rhadamanthus, at the age when they played at leap-frog. “Your name?”
+said Rhadamanthus, addressing me. I did not think twice about it, but
+gave them a name which has never been mine. Suddenly some one behind me
+burst out laughing; I turned round and recognised an old friend, whom I
+had not noticed among the other prisoners. “Your profession?” inquired
+Minos.—“Prizefighter,” I answered, putting my arms akimbo and looking
+as ferocious as possible, by way of keeping up the character I had
+momentarily assumed. To the rest of the questions that were addressed
+to me, I replied in the same satisfactory manner. When it was over,
+Minos said to me, “That is enough; now go and sit down, and wait until
+you are called.”—“Pardon me, my young friend, but I shall not go and
+sit down, nor shall I wait a moment more.”—“Are you making fun of us?
+We are transacting most serious business, our lives are at stake. Go
+and sit down.”—“I have already had the honour to remark, my dear
+Rhadamanthus, that I did not mean to sit down. Be kind enough to allow
+me to depart instantly.”—“You ask _me_ to do this?”—“Yes! you!” I
+shouted in a tremendous voice. The three judges looked at me in great
+perplexity, and began whispering amongst themselves. A prize fighter,
+by jingo! I thought the moment had come to strike a decisive blow, so I
+pulled out of my pocket a little green card, which I desired them to
+examine. Immediately Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanthus got up, bowed to
+me most respectfully, and called out to two National Guards who were at
+the door, “Allow the citizen to pass.”—“By-the-bye,” said I, pointing,
+to my friend, “this gentleman is with me.”—“Allow both the citizens to
+pass,” shouted the lads in chorus.—“This is capital,” cried my friend
+as soon as we were well outside the door.—“How did you manage?”—“I have
+a pass from the Central Committee.”—“In your own name?”—“No, I bought
+it of the widow of a Federal; who was on very good terms with Citizen
+Félix Pyat.”—“Why, it is just like a romance.”—“Yes, but a romance that
+allows me to live pretty safely in the midst of this strange reality.
+Anyhow, I think we had better look out for other lodgings.”
+
+[Illustration: House of M. Thiers, Palace Saint-Georges.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXXIII.
+
+
+At ten o’clock in the evening I was walking up the Rue
+Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. In these times the streets are quite deserted at
+that hour. Looking on in front I saw that the Place Saint-Georges was
+lighted up by long tongues of flame, that the wind blew hither and
+thither. I hastened on, and was soon standing in front of M. Thiers’
+house.[90] At the open gate stood a sentinel; a large fire had been
+lighted in the court by the National Guards; not that the night was
+cold, they seemed to have lighted it merely for the pleasure of burning
+furniture and pictures, that had been left behind by the Communal
+waggoners. They had already begun to pull down the right side of the
+house; a pickaxe was leaning against a loosened stone; the roof had
+fallen in, and a rafter was sticking out of one of the windows. The
+fire rose higher and higher; would it not be better that the flames
+should reach the house and consume it in an hour or two, than to see it
+being gradually pulled down, stone by stone, for many days to come? In
+the court I perceived several trucks full of books and linen. A
+National Guard picked up a small picture that was lying near the gate;
+I bent forward and saw that it was a painting of a satyr playing on a
+flute. How sad and cruel all this seemed! The men lounging about looked
+demoniacal in the red light of the fire. I turned away, thinking not of
+the political man, but of the house where he had worked, where he had
+thought, of the books that no longer stood on the shelves, of the
+favourite chair that had been burnt on the very hearth by which he had
+sat so long; I thought of all the dumb witnesses of a long life
+destroyed, dispersed, lost, of the relatives, and friends whose traces
+had disappeared from the rooms empty to-day, in ruins to-morrow; I
+thought of all this, and of all the links that would be broken by a
+dispersion, and I trembled at the idea that some day—in these times
+anything seems possible—men may break open the doors of my modest
+habitation, knock about the furniture of which I have grown fond,
+destroy my books which have so long been the companions of my studies,
+tear the pictures from my walls, and burn the verses that I love for
+the sake of the trouble they have given me to make,—kill, in a word,
+all that renders life agreeable to me, more cruelly than if four
+Federals were to take me off and shoot me at the corner of a street.
+But I am not a political man. I belong to no party—who would think of
+doing me any injury? I am perfectly harmless, with my lovesick
+metaphor. Ah I how egotistical one is! It was of my own home that I
+thought while I stood in front of the ruin in the Place Saint-Georges.
+I confess that I was particularly touched by the misfortunes of that
+house, because it awakened in me the fear of my own, misfortune, most
+improbable, and most diminutive, it is true, in comparison with that.
+
+[Illustration: House of M. Thiers During Demolition and Removal.]
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [90] It should be remarked that the destruction of M. Thiers’ house
+ coincided with the first success of the Versailles army; it was the
+ spirit of hatred and mad destructiveness which dictated the following
+ decree, issued by the Committee of Public Safety on the 10th of May:—
+    “Art. 1. The goods and property of Thiers (they even denied him the
+    appellation of citizen) are seized by order of the administration
+    of public domains.
+    “Art. 2. The house of Thiers, situated at the Place Saint-Georges,
+    to be demolished.”
+    “On the following day the National Assembly, in presence of the
+    activity exhibited by M. Thiers, declared that the proscribed,
+    whose house was demolished, had exhibited proofs of an amount of
+    patriotism and political ability which inspired every confidence in
+    the future. On the 12th of the same month works were commenced at
+    Versailles for the formation of a railway-station sufficient for
+    all the wants of an important army, the initiation of which was due
+    to M. Thiers; a conference was opened on the 19th April with the
+    Western Railway Company, the plans were approved on the 22nd of the
+    same month, and the preliminary works were commenced on the 12th of
+    May. When these are terminated, they will consist of thirty-five
+    parallel lines of rails, more than a mile in length. But the
+    principal point in the plan is, that by means of branches to
+    Pontoise and Chevreuse, this immense station may be placed in
+    direct communication with all the lines of railway in France. It is
+    easy enough to draw the following conclusion, namely, that if the
+    necessity should ever again arise, Paris would cease to be the
+    central depot for all commercial movements, and thus the paralysis
+    of the affairs of the whole country would be avoided, in case the
+    Parisian populace should again be bitten by the barricade mania. At
+    one time it was feared that the collections of M. Thiers were
+    destroyed in the conflagration at the Tuileries; but M. Courbet
+    reports that on the 12th of May he asked what he ought to do about
+    the different things taken at the house of M. Thiers, and if they
+    were to be sent to the Louvre or to be publicly sold, and he was
+    then appointed a member of the commission to examine the case.
+    Regarding his conduct at the time of the demolishing of the house
+    of M. Thiers, he arrived too late, he says, to make an inventory;
+    the furniture and effects had been already packed by the _employés_
+    of the Garde Meuble; “I made some observations about it, and on
+    going through the empty apartments, I noticed two small figures
+    that I packed in paper, thinking they might be private _souvenirs_,
+    and that I would return them some day to their owner. All the other
+    things were already destroyed or gone.”
+
+
+
+
+ LXXXIV.
+
+
+An anecdote: Parisian all over; but with such stuff are they amused!
+
+Raoul Rigault, the man who arrests, was breakfasting with Gaston
+Dacosta, the man who destroys. These two friends are worthy of each
+other. Rigault has incarcerated the Archbishop of Paris, but Dacosta
+claims the merit of having loosened the first stone in M. Thiers’
+house. But however, Rigault would destroy if Dacosta were not there to
+do so; and if Rigault did not arrest, Dacosta would arrest for him.
+
+They talked as they ate. Rigault enumerated the list of people he had
+sent to the Conciergerie and to Mazas, and thought with consternation
+that soon there would be no one left for him to arrest. Suddenly he
+stopped his fork on its way to his mouth, and his face assumed a most
+doleful expression.—“What’s the matter?” cried Dacosta, alarmed.—“Ah!”
+said Rigault, tears choking his utterance, “Papa is not in
+Paris.”—“Well, and what does it matter if your father is not
+here?”—“Alas!” exclaimed Rigault, bursting out crying, “I could have
+had him arrested!”[91]
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [91] The illegality of his conduct, however, was complaint made by
+ Arthur Arnould, to the committee, concerning the arbitrary arrest of a
+ number of persons. Cournet was appointed to the Prefecture in
+ Rigault’s stead, but the amateur policeman and informer did not
+ renounce work; he found the greatest pleasure, as he himself expressed
+ it, in acting the spy over the official spies. This man was a
+ well-known frequenter of the low cafés of the Quartier Latin, and his
+ face bore such evidences of his debauched life, that though only
+ twenty-eight years of age, he looked nearer forty.
+
+[Illustration: Cournet, Member of Committee Of General Safety.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXXV.
+
+
+The horrible cracking sound that is heard at sea when a vessel splits
+upon a rock, is not a surer sign of peril to the terrified crew, than
+are the vain efforts, contradictions and agitation at the Hôtel de
+Ville, the forerunners of disaster to the men of the Commune. Listen!
+the vessel is about to heave asunder. Everybody gives orders, no one
+obeys them. One man looks defiantly at another; this man denounces
+that, and Rigault thinks seriously of arresting them both. There is a
+majority which is not united, and a minority that cannot agree amongst
+themselves. Twenty-one members retire, they do well.[92] I am glad to
+find on the list the names of the few that Paris’ still believes in,
+and whom, thanks to this tardy resignation, it will not learn to
+despise. For instance, Arthur Arnould. But why should they take the
+trouble to seek out a pretext? Why did they not say simply: “We have
+left them because we find them full of wickedness; we were blinded as
+you were at first, but now we in our turn see clearly; a good cause has
+been lost by madmen or worse, and we have abandoned it because, if we
+were to stay a moment longer, now that we are no longer blinded, we
+should be committing a criminal act” Such words as these would have
+opened the eyes of so many wretched beings, who are going to their
+deaths and think they do well to die! As to those who remain, they must
+feel that their power is slipping from them. They did not arrest or
+detain Rossel; it would seem as if they dared not touch him because he
+was right in thinking what he said, although he was very wrong to say
+it as he did. While the Commune hesitates, the military plans of the
+Versaillais are being carried out. Vanves taken, Montrouge in ruins,
+breaches opened at the Point-du-Jour, at the Porte-Maillot, at
+Saint-Ouen; the Communists have only to choose now, between flight and
+the horrors of a terrible death struggle! May they fly, far, far away,
+beyond the reach of vengeance, despised, forgotten if that be possible!
+I am told that the Central Committee is trying now to substitute itself
+for the Commune, which was elected by its desire.[93] One born of the
+other, they will die together.
+
+[Illustration: Arthur Arnould, Commissioner of Foreign Affairs.[94]]
+
+[Illustration: Foundered Craft on the Seine.
+Porte Maillot et Avenue de la Grande Armée]
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [92] An important document has just made the round of the Communal
+ press—the manifesto of the minority of the Commune, in which
+ twenty-one members declare their refusal to take any farther part in
+ the deliberations of the body, which they accuse of having delivered
+ its powers into the hands of the Committee of Public Safety, and thus
+ rendering itself null. This declaration is signed by:—Arthur Arnould,
+ Avrial, Andrieux, Arnold, Clémence, Victor Clément, Courbet, Franckel,
+ Eugène Gérardin, Jourde, Lefrançais, Longuet, Malon, Ostyn, Pindy,
+ Sérailler, Tridon, Theisz, Varlin, Vermorel, Jules Vallès.
+    Adding to these twenty-one secessionists, twenty-one members who
+    have resigned:—Adam, Barré, Brelay, Beslay, De Bouteiller, Chéron,
+    Desmarest, Ferry, Fruneau, Goupil, Loiseau-Pinson, Leroy, Lefèvre,
+    Méline, Murat, Marmottan, Nast, Ulysse Parent, Robineat, Rane,
+    Tirard;
+    Three who have not sat: Briosne, Menotti Garibaldi, Rogeard;
+    Two dead: Duval, Flourens;
+    One captured: Blanqui;
+    One escaped: Charles Gérardin;
+    Five incarcerated: Allix, Panille dit Blanchet, Brunel, Emile
+    Clément, Cluseret;—
+    Out of 101 members elected to the Commune on the 26th of March and
+    the 16th of April, only forty-seven now remain:—Amouroux, Ant.
+    Arnaud, Assy, Babick, Billioray, Clément, Champy, Chardon, Chalain,
+    Demay, Dupont, Decamp, Dereure, Durant, Delescluze, Eudes, Henry
+    Fortuné, Ferré, Gambon, Geresme, Paschal Grousset, Johannard,
+    Ledroit, Langevin, Lonclas, Mortier, Léo Meiller, Martelet, J.
+    Miot, Oudet, Protot, Paget, Pilotel, Félix Pyat, Philippe, Parisel,
+    Pottier, Régère, Raoul Rigault, Sicard, Triquet, Urbain, Vaillant,
+    Verdure, Vésmier, Viart.
+
+ [93] “REPUBLICAN FEDERATION OF THE NATIONAL GUARD.
+
+“Central Committee.
+“To the People of Paris! To the National Guard!
+
+“Rumours of dissensions between the majority of the Commune and the
+Central Committee have been spread by our common enemies with a
+persistency which, once for all, must be crushed by public compact.
+    “The Central Committee, appointed to the administration of military
+    affairs by the Committee of Public Safety, will enter upon office
+    from this day.
+    “This Committee, which has upheld the standard of the Communal
+    revolution, has undergone no change and no deterioration. It is
+    today what it was yesterday, the legitimate defender of the
+    Commune, the basis of its power, at the same time as it is the
+    determined enemy of civil war; the sentinel placed by the people to
+    protect the rights that they have conquered,
+    “In the name, then, of the Commune, and of the Central Committee,
+    who sign this pact of good faith, let these gross suspicions and
+    calumnies be swept away. Let hearts beat, let hands be ready to
+    strike in the good cause, and may we triumph in the name of union
+    and fraternity.
+    “Long live the Republic!
+    “Long live the Commune!
+    “Long live the Communal Federation!
+
+“The Commission of the Commune, BERGERET, CHAMPY, GERESME, LEDROIT,
+LONGLAS, URBAIN.
+    “The Central Committee.
+    “Paris, 18th May, 1871.”
+
+ [94] Arnould is a man of about forty-seven years of age, small in
+ stature, lively and intelligent. He has written in many of the
+ Democratic journals of Paris and the provinces; and his literary
+ talents are of a good kind. Being connected with Rochefort’s journal,
+ the _Marseillaise_, he was sent by the latter to challenge Pierre
+ Bonaparte, and was a witness at the trial which followed the murder of
+ Victor Noir.
+    Although naturally drawn by his connections into the movement of
+    the eighteenth of March, he always protested loudly against the
+    arbitrary acts of the Commune, and it is surprising that he did not
+    fall under accusation, by his colleagues. He opposed particularly
+    the proposals for the suppression of newspapers. “It is prodigious
+    to me,” he said, in full meeting of the committee, “that people
+    will still talk of arresting others for expressing their opinions.”
+    He voted against the organisation of the Committee of Public Safety
+    on the ground:—
+    “That such an institution would be directly opposed to the
+    political opinions of the electoral body, of which the Commune is
+    the representative.”
+    He protested most energetically against secret imprisonment—
+    “Secret incarceration has something immoral in it; it is moral
+    torture substituted for physical.
+    “I cannot understand men who have passed their life in combating
+    the errors of despotism, falling into the same faults when they
+    arrive at power. Of two things one: either secret imprisonment is
+    an indispensable and good thing; or, it is odious. If it was good
+    it was wrong to oppose it, and if it be odious and immoral, we
+    ought not to continue it.”
+    What on earth had he then to do in the Commune?
+    “Que diable allait-il faire dans cette galère?”
+
+
+
+
+ LXXXVI.
+
+
+It was five o’clock in the afternoon. The day had been splendid and the
+sun shone brilliantly on Caesar still standing on the glorious pedestal
+of his victories. Outside the barricades of the Rue de la Paix and the
+Rue Castiglione, the crowd was standing in a compact mass, as far as
+the Tuileries on one side and the New Opera House on the other. There
+must have been from twenty to twenty-fire thousand people there.
+Strangers accosted each other by the title of Citizen, I heard some
+talking about an eccentric Englishman who had paid three thousand
+francs for the pleasure of being the last to climb to the summit of the
+column. Nearly every one blamed him for not having given the money to
+the people. Others said that Citizen Jourde would not manage to cover
+his expenses; Abadie[95] the engineer had asked thirty-two thousand
+francs to pull down the great trophy, and that the stone and plaster
+was after all, not covered with more than an inch or two of bronze,
+that it was not so many metres high, and would not make a great many
+two-sous pieces after all. These sous seemed to occupy the public mind
+exceedingly, but the principal subjects of conversation, were the fears
+concerning the probable effects of the fall.
+
+[Illustration: Barricade of the Rue Castiglione, from The Place
+Vendôme.]
+
+The event was slow in accomplishment. The wide Place was thinly
+sprinkled with spectators, not more than three hundred in all,
+privileged beings with tickets, or wearing masonic badges; or officers
+of the staff. Bergeret at one of the windows was coolly smoking a
+cigarette; military bands were assembled at the four angles of the
+Place; the sound of female laughter reached us from the open windows of
+the Ministère de la Justice. The horses of the mounted sentinels
+curvetted with impatience; bayonets glittered in the sun; children
+gaped wearily, seated on the curbstone. The hour of the ceremony was
+past; a rope had broken. Around the piled faggots on which the column
+was to fall, great fascines of flags of the favourite colour were
+flying.
+
+The crowd did not seem to enjoy being kept in suspense, and proclaimed
+their impatience by stamping with measured tread, and crying “Music!”
+
+At half-past five there was a sudden movement and bustle around the
+barricade of the Rue Castiglione. The members of the Commune appeared
+with their inevitable red scarfs.[96] Then there was a great hush. At
+the same instant the windlass creaked; the ropes which hung from the
+summit of the column tightened; the gaping hole in the masonry below,
+gradually closed; the statue bent forward in the rays of the setting
+sun, and then suddenly describing in the air a gigantic sweep, fell
+among the flags with a dull, heavy thud, scattering a whirlwind of
+blinding dust in the air.
+
+Then the bands struck up the “Marseillaise,” and cries of “Vive la
+Commune” were re-echoed on all sides by the terror or the indifference
+of the multitude. In a marvellously short time, however, all was quiet
+again, so quiet, indeed, that I distinctly heard a dog bark as it ran
+frightened across the Place.
+
+I daresay the members of the Commune, who presided over the
+accomplishment of this disgraceful deed, exclaimed in the pride of
+their miserable hearts, “Caesar, those whom you salute shall live!”
+
+Everybody of course wished to get a bit of the ruin, as visitors to
+Paris eagerly bought bits of siege bread framed and glazed, and there
+was a general rush towards the place; but the National Guards crossed,
+their bayonets in front of the barricade, and no one was allowed to
+pass. So that the crowd quickly dispersed to its respective dinners.
+“It is fallen!” said some to those who had not been fortunate enough to
+see the sight. “The head of the statue came off—no one was killed.” The
+boys cried out, “Oh, it was a jolly sight all the same!” But the
+greater part of the people were silent as they trudged away.
+
+Then night came on, and next day a land-mark and a finger-post seemed
+missing in our every-day journey. Until we lose a familiar object we
+hardly appreciate its existence.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [95] Abadie arranged to demolish the Colonne Vendôme for 32,000 or
+ 38,000 francs, forfeiting 600 francs for every day’s delay after the
+ fourth of May. This reduced the sum to be paid to him by 6000 francs.
+
+ [96] Regarding Courbet and the destruction of the Column, he rejects
+ the accusation on the ground that this decree had been voted
+ previously to his admission in the Commune, and on the request he had
+ made under the Government of the 4th of May of removing the column to
+ the esplanade of the Invalides. He affirms that the official paper has
+ altered his own words at the Commune, and he pretends having proposed
+ to the Government to rebuild the column at his own expense, if it can
+ be proved that he has been the cause of its destruction.
+
+
+
+
+ LXXXVII.
+
+
+On the sixteenth, I received a prospectus through my concierge. There
+was to be a concert, mixed with speeches—a sort of popular fête at the
+Tuileries. The places varied in price from ten sous to five francs.
+Five francs the Salle des Maréchaux; ten sous the garden, which was to
+be illuminated with Venetian lamps among the orange-trees; the whole to
+be enlivened by fireworks from the Courbevoie batteries.
+
+I had tact enough not to put on white gloves, and set out for the
+palace.
+
+It was not a fairy-like sight; indeed, it was a most depressing
+spectacle. A crowd of thieves and vagabonds, of dustmen and
+rag-pickers, with four or five gold bands on their sleeves and caps,
+(the insignia of officers of the National Guard), were hurrying along
+down the grand staircase, chewing “imperiales,” spitting, and repeating
+the old jokes of ’93. As to the women—they were sadly out of place.
+They simpered, and gave themselves airs, and some of them even beat
+time with their fans, as Mademoiselle Caillot was singing, to look as
+if they knew something about music.
+
+[Illustration: The Palace of the Tuileries, from The Garden.]
+
+The Last concert held in the Tuileries by the Commune took place on
+Sunday, the 21st March, when Auteuil and Passy had been in the power of
+the army for several hours. Two days later the old palace was in
+flames. Citizen Félix Pyat had advocated the preservation of the
+Tuileries in the “Vengeur”, proposing to convert it into an “asylum”
+for the victims of work and the martyrs of the Republic. “This
+residence”, he wrote, “ought to be devoted to people, who had already
+taken possession of it.”
+
+The concert took place in the Salle des Maréchaux: a platform had been
+erected for the performers. The velvet curtains with their golden bees
+still draped the windows. From the gallery above I could see all that
+was going on. The Imperial balcony opens out of it; I went there, and
+leaned on the balustrade with a certain feeling of emotion. Below were
+the illuminated gardens, and far away at the end of the Champs Elysées,
+almost lost in the purple of the sky, rose the Arc de Triomphe de
+l’Etoile.
+
+The roaring of the cannon at Vanves and Montrouge reached me where I
+stood. When the duet of the “_Maître de Chapelle_” was over, I returned
+into the hall; the distant crashing of the mitrailleuse at Neuilly,
+borne towards us on the fresh spring breeze, in through the open
+windows, joined its voice to the applause of the audience.
+
+Oh! what an audience! The faces in general looked fit subjects for the
+gibbet; others were simply disgusting: surprise, pleasure, and fear of
+Equality were reflected on every physiognomy. The carpenter, Pindy,
+military governor of the Hôtel de Ville, was in close conversation with
+a girl from Philippe’s. The ex-spy Clémence muttered soft speeches into
+the ear of a retired _chiffonnière_, who smiled awkwardly in reply. The
+cobbler Dereure was intently contemplating his boots; while Brilier,
+late coachman, hissed the singers by way of encouragement, as he would
+have done to his horses. They were going to recite some verses: I only
+waited to hear—
+
+“PUIS, QUEL AVEUGLEMENT! QUEL NON-SENS POLITIQUE!”
+
+an Alexandrine, doubtless, launched at the National Assembly, and made
+my way to the garden as quickly as I could.
+
+There, in spite of the Venetian lamps, all was very dull and dark. The
+walks were almost deserted, although it was scarcely half-past nine. I
+took a turn beneath the trees: the evening was cold; and I soon left
+the gardens by the Rue de Rivoli gate. A good many people were standing
+there “to see the grand people come from the fête”—a fête given by
+lackeys in a deserted mansion!
+
+
+
+
+ LXXXVIII.
+
+
+I was busy writing, when suddenly I heard a fearful detonation,
+followed by report on report. The windows rattled: I thought the house
+was shaking under me. The noise continued: it seemed as if cannon were
+roaring on all sides. I rushed down into the street; frightened people
+were running hither and thither, and asking questions. Some thought
+that the Versaillais were bombarding Paris on all sides. On the
+Boulevards I was told it was the fort of Vanves that had been blown up.
+At last I arrived on the Place de la Concorde: there the consternation
+was great, but nothing was known for certain. Looking up, I saw high up
+in the sky what looked like a dark cloud, but which was not a cloud. I
+tried again and again to obtain information. It appeared pretty certain
+that an explosion had taken place near the Ecole Militaire-doubtless at
+the Grenelle powder-magazine, I then turned into the Champs Elysées. A
+distant cracking was audible, like the noise of a formidable battery of
+mitrailleuses. Puffs of white smoke arose in the air and mingled with
+the dark cloud there. I no longer walked, I ran: I hoped to be able to
+see something from the Rond Point de l’Etoile. Once there, a grand and
+fearful sight met my eyes. Vast columns of smoke rolled over one
+another towards the sky. Every now and then the wind swept them a
+little on one side, and for an instant a portion of the city was
+visible beneath the rolling vapours. Then in an instant a flame burst
+out—only one, but that gigantic, erect, brilliant, as one that might
+dart forth from a Tolcano suddenly opened, up through the smoke which
+was reddened, illumined by the eruption of the fire. At the same moment
+there were explosions as of a hundred waggons of powder blown up one
+after another. All this scene, in its hideous splendour, blinded and
+deafened me. I wanted to get nearer, to feel the heat of the burning,
+to rush on. I had the fire-frenzy!
+
+[Illustration: Razoua, Governor of the Ecole militaire[97]]
+
+Going down to the Quai de Passy, I found a dense crowd there. Some one
+screamed out: “Go back! go back! the fire will soon reach the
+cartridge-magazine.” The words had scarcely been uttered, when a storm
+of balls fell like hail amongst us. Each person thought himself
+wounded, and many took to their heels. It did not enter into my head to
+run away. From where I was then, the sight was still more terribly
+beautiful, and the crowd that had withdrawn from the spot soon
+re-assembled again. Dreadful details were passed from mouth to mouth.
+Four five-storied houses had fallen; no one dared to think even of the
+number of the victims. Bodies had been seen to fall from the windows,
+horribly mutilated; arms and legs had been picked up in different
+places. Near the powder-magazine is a hospital, which was shaken from
+foundation to roof: for an instant it had trembled violently as if it
+were going to fall. The nurses, dressers, and even the sick had rushed
+from the wards, shrieking in an agony of fear; the frightened horses,
+too, with blood streaming down their sides, pranced madly among the
+fugitives, or galloped away as fast as they could from the awful scene.
+
+As to the cause of the explosion, opinions varied much. Some said it
+was owing to the negligence of the overseers or the imprudence of the
+workwomen; others, that the fire was caused by a shell. A woman rushed
+up to us, screaming out that she had just seen a man arrested in a shed
+in the Champ de Mars, who acknowledged having blown up the
+powder-magazine, by order of the Versailles government. Of course this
+was inevitable. The Commune would not let such a good opportunity pass
+for accusing its enemies. A few innocent people will be arrested, tried
+with more or less form, and shot; when they are so many corpses, the
+Commune will exclaim, “You see they must have been guilty: they have
+been shot!”
+
+As evening came on I turned home, thinking that the cup was now filled
+to overflowing, and that the devoted city had had to suffer defeat,
+civil war, infamy, and death; but that this last disaster seemed almost
+more than divine justice. Ever and anon I turned my head to gaze again.
+In the gathering gloom, the flames looked blood-red, as if the Commune
+had unfurled its sinister banner over that irreparable disaster.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [97] Razoua served in a regiment of Spahis in Africa. Becoming
+ acquainted with the journalists who used to frequent the Café de
+ Madrid, he was a constant attendant there. He took up literature, and
+ in 1867 published some violent articles in the _Pilori_ of Victor
+ Noir. He afterwards went with Delescluze to the _Réveil_, where his
+ revolutionary principles were manifested. In the month of February,
+ 1871, he was elected a member of the National Assembly by the people
+ of Paris. After having sat for some time at Bordeaux, he gave his
+ resignation, and became one of the Communal council.
+    Appointed governor of the École Militaire, he distinguished himself
+    in no way in his position, except by the sumptuous dinners and
+    déjeûners with which he regaled his friends.
+
+
+
+
+ LXXXIX.
+
+
+I have gazed so long on what was passing around me that my eyes are
+weary. I have watched the slow decline of joy, of comfort and luxury,
+almost without knowing how everything has been dying around me, as a
+man in a ball-room where the candles are put out, one by one, may not
+perceive at first the gathering gloom. To see Paris, as it is at the
+present moment, as the Commune has made it, requires an effort. Let me
+shut my eyes, and evoke the vision of Paris as it was, living, joyous,
+happy even in the midst of sadness. I have done so—I have brought it
+all back to me; now I will open my eyes and look around me.
+
+In the street that I inhabit not a vehicle of any kind is visible. Men
+in the uniform of National Guards pass and repass on the pavement; a
+lady is talking with her _concierge_ on the threshold of one of the
+houses. They talk low. Many of the shops are closed; some have only the
+shutters up; a few are quite open. I see a woman at the bar of the
+wine-shop opposite, drinking.
+
+Some quarters still resist the encroachments of silence and apathy.
+Some arteries continue to beat. Some ribbons here and there brighten up
+the shop-windows: bare-headed shopgirls pass by with a smile on their
+lips; men look after them as they trip along. At the corner of the
+Boulevards a sort of tumult is occasioned by a number of small boys and
+girls, venders of Communal journals, who screech out the name and title
+of their wares at the top of their voices. But even there where the
+crowd is thickest, one feels as if there were a void. The two contrary
+ideas of multitude and solitude seem to present themselves at once in
+one’s mind. A weird impression! Imagine a vast desert with a crowd in
+it.
+
+The Boulevards look interminable. There used to be a hundred obstacles
+between you and the distance; now there is nothing to prevent your
+looking as far as you like. Here and there a cab, an omnibus or two,
+and that is all. The passers-by are no longer promenaders. They have
+come out because they were obliged: without that they would have
+remained at home. The distances seem enormous now, and people who used
+to saunter about from morning till night will tell you now that “the
+Madeleine is a long way off.” Very few men in black coats or blouses
+are to be seen; only very old men dare show themselves out of uniform.
+In front of the café’s are seated officers of the Federal army,
+sometimes seven or eight around a table. When you get near enough, you
+generally find they are talking of the dismissal of their last
+commander. Here and there a lady walks rapidly by, closely veiled,
+mostly dressed in black, with an unpretending bonnet. The gallop of a
+horse is distinctly audible—in other times one would never have noticed
+such a thing; it is an express with despatches, a Garibaldian, or one
+of the _Vengeurs de Flourens_, who is hoisted on a heavy cart-horse
+that ploughs the earth with its ponderous forefeet. Several companies
+of Federals file up towards the Madeleine, their rations of bread stuck
+on the top of their bayonets. Look down the side-streets, to the right
+or the left, and you will see the sidewalks deserted, and not a vehicle
+from one end to the other of the road. Even on the Boulevards there are
+times when there is no one to be seen at all. However, beneath it all
+there is a longing to awaken, which is crushed and kept down by the
+general apathy.
+
+In the evening one’s impulses burst forth; one must move about; one
+must live. Passengers walk backwards and forwards, talking in a loud
+voice. But the crowd condenses itself between the Rue Richelieu and the
+Rue du Faubourg Montmartre. Solitude has something terrible about it
+just now. People congregate together for the pleasure of elbowing each
+other, of trying to believe they are in great force. Quite a crowd
+collects round a little barefooted girl, who is singing at the corner
+of a street. A man seated before a low table is burning _pastilles_;
+another offers barley-sugar for sale; another has portraits of
+celebrities. Everybody tries hard to be gay; but the shops are closed,
+and the gas is sparingly lighted, so that broad shadows lie between the
+groups.
+
+Some few persons go to the theatres; the playbills, however, are not
+seductive. If you go in, you will find the house nearly empty; the
+actors gabble their parts with as little action as possible. You see
+they are bored, and they bore us. Sometimes when some actor, naturally
+comic, says or does something funny, the audience laughs, and then
+suddenly leaves off and looks more serious than before. Laughter seems
+out of place. One does not know how to bear it; so one walks up and
+down the corridors, then instead of returning to the play, wanders out
+again on to the Boulevard. It is ten o’clock—dreadfully late. Many of
+the cafés are already closed for the night. At Tortoni’s and the Café
+Anglais, not a glimmer is visible. The crowd has nearly disappeared.
+Only a few officers remain, who have been drinking all the evening in
+an _estaminet_. They call to each other to hurry on; perhaps one of
+them is drunk, but even he is not amusing. Let us go home. Scarcely
+anyone is left in the street. A bell is rung here and there, as the
+last of us reach our respective homes.
+
+That, Commune de Paris, is what you have made of Paris! The Prussians
+came, Paris awaited them quietly with a smile; the shells fell on its
+houses, it ate black bread, it waited hours in the cold to obtain an
+ounce of horse-flesh or thirty pounds of green wood; it fought, but was
+vanquished; it was told to surrender, and “it was given up,” as they
+say at the Hôtel de Ville; and yet through all, Paris had not ceased to
+smile. And this, they say, constitutes its greatness; it was the last
+protestation against unmerited misfortunes; it was the remembrance of
+having once been proud and happy, and the hope of becoming so again; it
+was, in a word, Paris declaring it was Paris still. Well, what neither
+defeats, nor famine, nor capitulation could do, thou hast done! And
+accursed be thou, O Commune; for, as Macbeth murdered sleep, thou hast
+murdered our smiles!
+
+
+
+
+ XC.
+
+
+The roaring of cannon close at hand, the whizzing of shells, volleys of
+musketry! I hear this in my sleep, and awake with a start. I dress and
+go out. I am told the troops have come in. “How? where? when?” I ask of
+the National Guards who come rushing down the street, crying out, “We
+are betrayed!” They, however, know but very little. They have come from
+the Trocadero, and have seen the red trousers of the soldiers in the
+distance. Fighting is going on near the viaduct of Auteuil, at the
+Champ de Mars. Did the assault take place last night or this morning?
+It is quite impossible to obtain any reliable information. Some talk of
+a civil engineer having made signals to the Versaillais; others say a
+captain in the navy was the first to enter Paris.[98] Suddenly about
+thirty men rush into the streets crying, “We must make a barricade.” I
+turn back, fearing to be pressed into the service. The cannonading
+appears dreadfully near. A shell whistles over my head. I hear some one
+say, “The batteries of Montmartre are bombarding the Arc de Triomphe;”
+and strange enough, in this moment of horror and uncertainty, the
+thought crosses my mind that now the side of the arch on which is the
+bas-relief of Rude will be exposed to the shells. On the Boulevard
+there is only here and there a passenger hurrying along. The shops are
+closed; even the café’s are shut up. The harsh screech of the
+mitrailleuse grows louder and nearer. The battle seems to be close at
+hand, all round me. A thousand contradictory suppositions rush through
+my brain and hurry me along, and here on the Boulevard there is no one
+that can tell me anything. I walk in the direction of the Madeleine,
+drawn there by a violent desire to know what is going on, which
+silences the voice of prudence. As I approach the Chaussée d’Antin I
+perceive a multitude of men, women, and children running backwards and
+forwards, carrying paving-stones. A barricade is being thrown up; it is
+already more than three feet high. Suddenly I hear the rolling of heavy
+wheels; I turn, and a strange sight is before me—a mass of women in
+rags, livid, horrible, and yet grand, with the Phrygian cap on their
+heads, and the skirts of their robes tied round their waists, were
+harnessed to a mitrailleuse, which they dragged along at full speed;
+other women pushing vigorously behind. The whole procession, in its
+sombre colours, with dashes of red here and there, thunders past me; I
+follow it as fast as I can. The mitrailleuse draws up a little in front
+of the barricade, and is hailed with wild clamours by the insurgents.
+The Amazons are being unharnessed as I come up. “Now,” said a young
+_gamin_, such as one used to see in the gallery of the Théâtre Porte
+St. Martin, “don’t you be acting the spy here, or I will break your
+head open as if you were a Versaillais.”—“Don’t waste ammunition,”
+cried an old man with a long white beard—a patriarch of civil
+war—“don’t waste ammunition; and as for the spy, let him help to carry
+paving-stones. Monsieur,” said he, turning to me with much politeness,
+“will you be so kind as to go and fetch those stones from the corner
+there?”
+
+[Illustration: Café Life Under the Commune.
+Spectacles of Paris.]
+
+I did as I was bid, although I thought, with anything but pleasure,
+that if at that moment the barricade were attacked and taken, I might
+be shot before I had the time to say, “Allow me to explain.” But the
+scene which surrounds me interests me in spite of myself. Those grim
+hags, with their red headdresses, passing the stones I give them
+rapidly from hand to hand, the men who are building them up only
+leaving off for a moment now and then to swallow a cup of coffee, which
+a young girl prepares over a small tin stove; the rifles symmetrically
+piled; the barricade, which rises higher and higher; the solitude in
+which we are working—only here and there a head appears at a window,
+and is quickly withdrawn; the ever-increasing noise of the battle; and,
+over all, the brightness of a dazzling morning sun—all this has
+something sinister and yet horribly captivating about it. While we are
+at work, they talk; I listen. The Versaillais have been coming in all
+night.[99] The Porte de la Muette and the Porte Dauphine have been
+surrendered by the 13th and the 113th battalions of the first
+arrondissement. “Those two numbers 13 will bring them ill-luck,” says a
+woman. Vinoy is established at the Trocadéro, and Douai at the Point du
+Jour: they continue to advance. The Champ de Mars has been taken from
+the Federals after two hours’ fighting. A battery is erected at the Arc
+de Triomphe, which sweeps the Champs Elysées and bombards the
+Tuileries. A shell has fallen in the Rue du Marché Saint Honoré. In the
+Cours-la-Reine the 188th battalion stood bravely. The Tuileries is
+armed with guns, and shells the Arc de Triomphe. In the Avenue de
+Marigny the gendarmes have shot twelve Federals who had surrendered;
+their bodies are still lying on the pavement in front of the
+tobacconist’s. Rue de Sèvres, the _Vengeurs de Flourens_ have put to
+flight a whole regiment of the line: the _Vengeurs_ have sworn to
+resist to a man. They are fighting in the Champs Élysées, around the
+Ministère de la Guerre, and on the Boulevard Haussman. Dombrowski has
+been killed at the Château de la Muette. The Versaillais have attacked
+the Western Saint Lazare station, and are marching towards the
+Pépinière barracks. “We have been sold, betrayed, and surprised; but
+what does it matter, we will triumph. We want no more chiefs or
+generals; behind the barricades every man is a marshal!”
+
+[Illustration: Poor Pradier’s statues.
+Place de La Concorde: LILLE suffers from her friends in fight, whilst
+STRASBOURG, in crape, mourns the foe of France.]
+
+[Illustration: Fire And Water—The effect of fire on the fountains of the
+Place de la Concorde and the Château d’Eau—Hirondelles de Paris]
+
+Eight or ten men come flying down the Chaussée d’Antin; they join,
+crying out, “The Versaillais have taken the barracks; they are
+establishing a battery. Delescluze has been captured at the Ministère
+de la Guerre.”—“It is false!” exclaims a vivandière; “we have just seen
+him at the Hôtel de Ville.”—“Yes, yes,” cry out other women, “he is at
+the Hôtel de Ville. He gave us a mitrailleuse. Jules Vallès embraced
+us, one after another; he is a fine man, he is! He told us all was
+going well, that the Versaillais should never have Paris, that we shall
+surround them, and that it will all be over in two days.”—“Vive la
+Commune!” is the reply. The barricade is by this time finished. They
+expect to be attacked every second. “You,” said a sergeant, “you had
+better be off, if you care for your life.” I do not wait for the man to
+repeat his warning. I retrace my steps up the Boulevard, which is less
+solitary than it was. Several groups are standing at the doors. It
+appears quite certain that the troops of the Assembly have been pretty
+successful since they came in. The Federals, surprised by the
+suddenness and number of the attacks, at first lost much ground. But
+the resistance is being organised. They hold their own at the Place de
+la Concorde; at the Place Vendôme they are very numerous, and have at
+their disposal a formidable amount of artillery. Montmartre is shelling
+furiously. I turn up the Rue Vivienne, where I meet several people in
+search of news. They tell me that “two battalions of the Faubourg Saint
+Germain have just gone over to the troops, with their muskets reversed.
+A captain of the National Guard has been the first in that quarter to
+unfurl the tricolour. A shell had set fire to the Ministère des
+Finances, but the firemen in the midst of the shot and shell had
+managed to put it out.” At the Place de la Bourse I find three of four
+hundred Federals constructing a barricade; having gained some
+experience, I hurry on to escape the trouble of being pressed into the
+service. The surrounding streets are almost deserted; Paris is in
+hiding. The cannonading is becoming more furious every minute. I cross
+the garden of the Palais Royal. There I see a few loiterers, a knot of
+children are skipping. The Rue de Rivoli is all alive with people. A
+battalion marches hurriedly from the Hôtel de Ville; at the head rides
+a young man mounted on a superb black horse. It is Dombrowski. I had
+been told he was dead. He is very pale. “A fragment of shell hit him in
+the chest at La Muette, but did not enter the flesh,” says some one.
+The men sing the _Chant du Départ_ as they march along. I see a few
+women carrying arms among the insurgents; one who walks just behind
+Dombrowski has a child in her arms. Looking in the direction of the
+Place de la Concorde, I see smoke arising from the terrace of the
+Tuileries. In front of the Ministère des Finances, this side of the
+barricade is a black mass of something; I think I can distinguish
+wheels; it is either cannon or engines. All around is confusion. I can
+hear the musketry distinctly, but the noise seems to come from the
+Champs Élysées; they are not firing at the barricade. I turn and walk
+towards the Hôtel de Ville: mounted expresses ride constantly past;
+companies of Federals are here and there lying on the ground around
+their piled muskets. By the Rue du Louvre there is another barricade; a
+little further there is another and then another.[100] Close to Saint
+Germain l’Auxerrois women are busy pulling down the wooden seats;
+children are rolling empty wine-barrels and carrying sacks of earth. As
+one nears the Hôtel de Ville the barricades are higher, better armed,
+and better manned. All the Nationals here look ardent, resolved, and
+fierce. They say little, and do not shout at all. Two guards, seated on
+the pavement, are playing at picquet. I push on, and am allowed to
+pass. The barricades are terminated here, and I have nothing to fear
+from paving-stones. Looking up, I see that all the windows are closed,
+with the exception of one, where two old women are busy putting a
+mattress between the window and the shutter. A sentinel, mounting guard
+in front of the Café de la Compagnie du Gaz, cries out to me, “You
+can’t pass here!” I therefore seat myself at a table in front of the
+café, which has doubtless been left open by order, and where several
+officers are talking in a most animated manner. One of them rises and
+advances towards me. He asks me rudely what I am doing there. I will
+not allow myself to be abashed by his tone, but draw out my pass from
+my pocket and show it him, without saying a word. “All right,” says he,
+and then seats himself by my side, and tells me, “I know it already,
+that a part of the left bank of the river is occupied by the troops of
+the Assembly, that fighting is going on everywhere, and that the army
+on this side is gradually retreating.—Street fighting is our affair,
+you see,” he continues. In such battles as that, the merest gamin from
+Belleville knows more about it than MacMahon.... It will be terrible.
+The enemy shoots the prisoners.” (For the last two months the Commune
+had been saying the same thing.) “We shall give no quarter.”—I ask him,
+“Is it Delescluze who is determined to resist?”—“Yes,” he answers.[101]
+“Lean forward a little. Look at those three windows to the left of the
+trophy. That is the Salle de l’État-Major. Delescluze is there giving
+orders, signing commissions. He has not slept for three days. Just now
+I scarcely knew him, he was so worn out with fatigue. The Committee of
+Public Safety sits permanently in a room adjoining, making out
+proclamations and decrees.”—“Ha, ha!” said I, “decrees!”—“Yes, citizen,
+he has just decreed heroism!”[102] The officer gives me several other
+bits of information. Tells me that “Lullier this very morning has had
+thirty _réfractaires_ shot, and that Rigault has gone to Mazas to look
+after the hostages.” While he is talking, I try to see what is going on
+in the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville. Two or three thousand Federals are
+there, some seated, some lying on the ground. A lively discussion is
+going on. Several little barrels are standing about on chairs; the men
+are continually getting up and crowding round the barrels, some have no
+glasses, but drink in the palms of their hands. Women walk up and down
+in bands, gesticulating wildly. The men shout, the women shriek.
+Mounted expresses gallop out of the Hôtel, some in the direction of the
+Bastille, some towards the Place de la Concorde. The latter fly past us
+crying out, “All’s well!” A man comes out on the balcony of the Hôtel
+de Ville and addresses the crowd. All the Federals start to their feet
+enthusiastically.—“That’s Vallès,” says my neighbour to me. I had
+already recognised him. I frequently saw him in the students’ quarter
+in a little _crémerie_ in the Rue Serpente. He was given to making
+verses, rather bad ones by-the-bye; I remember one in particular, a
+panegyric on a green coat. They used to say he had a situation in the
+_pompes funèbres_.[103] His face even then wore a bitter and violent
+expression. He left poetry for journalism, and then journalism for
+politics.
+
+[Illustration: Jules Vallès, Commissioner Of Public instruction[104]]
+
+To-day he is spouting forth at a window of the Hôtel de Ville. I cannot
+catch a word of what he says; but as he retires he is wildly applauded.
+Such applause pains me sadly. I feel that these men and these women are
+mad for blood, and will know how to die. Alas! how many dead and dying
+already! neither the cannonading nor the musketry has ceased an
+instant. I now see a number of women walk out of the Hôtel, the crowd
+makes room for them to pass. They come our way. They are dressed in
+black, and have black crape tied round their arms and a red cockade in
+their bonnets. My friend the officer tells me that they are the
+governesses who have taken the places of the nuns. Then he walks up to
+them and says, “Have you succeeded?”—“Yes,” answers one of them, “here
+is our commission. The school children are to be employed in making
+sacks and filling them with earth, the eldest ones to load the rifles
+behind the barricades. They will receive rations like National Guards,
+and a pension will be given to the mothers of those who die for the
+Republic. They are mad to fight, I assure you. We have made them work
+hard during the last month, this will be their holiday!” The woman who
+says this is young and pretty, and speaks with a sweet smile on her
+lips. I shudder. Suddenly two staff officers appear and ride furiously
+up to the Hôtel de Ville; they have come from the Place Vendôme. An
+instant later and the trumpets sound. The companies form in the Place,
+and great agitation reigns in the Hôtel. Men rush in and out. The
+officers who are in the café where I am get up instantly, and go to
+take their places at the head of their men. A rumour spreads that the
+Versaillais have taken the barricades on the Place de la Concorde.—“By
+Jove! I think you had better go home,” says my neighbour to me, as he
+clasps his sword belt; “we shall have hot work here, and that shortly.”
+I think it prudent to follow this advice. One glance at the Place
+before I go. The companies of Federals have just started off by the Rue
+de Rivoli and the quays at a quick march, crying “Vive la Commune!” a
+ferocious joy beaming in their faces. A young man, almost a lad, lags a
+little behind, a woman rushes up to him, and lays hold of his collar,
+screaming, “Well, and you, are you not going to get yourself killed
+with the others?”
+
+[Illustration: Barricade Dividing the Rue de Rivoli and The Place De La
+Concorde]
+
+I reach the Rue Vieille-du-Temple, where another barricade is being
+built up. I place a paving-stone upon it and pass on. Soon I see open
+shops and passengers in the streets. This tradesmen’s quarter seems to
+have outlived the riot of Paris. Here one might almost forget the
+frightful civil war which wages so near, if the conversation of those
+around did not betray the anguish of the speakers, and if you did not
+hear the cannon roaring out unceasingly, “People of Paris, listen to
+me! I am ruining your houses. Listen to me! I am killing your
+children.”
+
+On the boulevards more barricades; some nearly finished, others
+scarcely commenced. One constructed near the Porte Saint Martin looks
+formidable. That spot seems destined to be the theatre of bloody
+scenes, of riot and revolution. In 1852, corpses laid piled up behind
+the railing, and all the pavement tinged with blood. I return home
+profoundly sad; I can scarcely think.—I feel in a dream, and am tired
+to death; my eyelids droop of themselves; I am like one of those houses
+there with closed shutters.
+
+Near the Gymnase I meet a friend whom I thought was at Versailles. We
+shake hands sadly. “When did you come back?” I ask.—“To-day; I followed
+the troops.”—Then turning back with me he tells me what he has seen. He
+had a pass, and walked into Paris behind the artillery and the line, as
+far as the Trocadéro, where the soldiers halted to take up their line
+of battle. Not a single man was visible along the whole length of the
+quays. At the Champ de Mars he did not see any insurgents. The musketry
+seemed very violent near Vaugirard on the Pont Royal and around the
+Palais de l’Industrie. Shells from Montmartre repeatedly fell on the
+quays. He could not see much,—however only the smoke in the distance.
+Not a soul did he meet. Such frightful noise in such solitude was
+fearful. He continued his way under shelter of the parapet. In one
+place he saw some gamins cutting huge pieces of flesh off the dead body
+of a horse that was lying in the path. There must have been fighting
+there. Down by the water a man fishing while two shells fell in the
+river, a little higher up, a yard or two from the shore. Then he
+thought it prudent to get nearer to the Palais de l’Industrie. The
+fighting was nearly over then, but not quite. The Champs Elysées was
+melancholy in the extreme; not a soul was there. This was only too
+literally true; for several corpses lay on the ground. He saw a soldier
+of the line lying beneath a tree, his forehead covered with blood. The
+man opened his month as if to speak as he heard the sound of footsteps,
+the eyelids quivered and then there was a shiver, and all was over. My
+friend walked slowly away. He saw trees thrown down and bronze
+lamp-posts broken; glass crackled under his feet as he passed near the
+ruined kiosques. Every now and then turning his head he saw shells from
+Montmartre fall on the Arc de Triomphe and break off large fragments of
+stone. Near the Tuileries was a confused mass of soldiery against a
+background of smoke. Suddenly he heard the whizzing of a ball and saw
+the branch of a tree fall. From one end of the avenue to the other, no
+one; the road glistened white in the sun. Many dead were to be seen
+lying about as he crossed the Champs Elysées. All the streets to the
+left were full of soldiery; there had been fighting there, but it was
+over now. The insurgents had retreated in the direction of the
+Madeleine. In many places tricolor flags were hanging from the windows,
+and women were smiling, and waving their handkerchiefs to the troops.
+The presence of the soldiery seemed to reassure everybody. The
+concierges were seated before their doors with pipes in their mouths,
+recounting to attentive listeners the perils from which they had
+escaped; how balls pierced the mattresses put up at the windows, and
+how the Federals had got into the houses to hide. One said, “I found
+three of them in my court; I told a lieutenant they were there, and he
+had them shot. But I wish they would take them away; I cannot keep dead
+bodies in the house.” Another was talking with some soldiers, and
+pointing out a house to them. Four men and a corporal went into the
+place indicated, and an instant afterwards my friend heard the cracking
+of rifles. The concierge rubbed his hands and winked at the bystanders,
+while another was saying, “They respect nothing those Federals; during
+the battle they came in to steal. They wanted to take away my clothes,
+my linen, everything I have, but I told them to leave that, that it was
+not good enough for them, that they ought to go up to the first floor,
+where they would find clocks and plate, and I gave them the key. Well,
+Messieurs, you would never believe what they have done, the rascals!
+They took the key and went and pillaged everything on the first floor!”
+My friend had heard enough, and passed on. The agitation everywhere was
+very great. The soldiers went hither and thither, rang the bells, went
+into the houses; and brought out with them pale-faced prisoners. The
+inhabitants continued to smile politely, but grimly. Here and there
+dead bodies were lying in the road. A man who was pushing a truck
+allowed one of the wheels to pass over a corpse that was lying with its
+head on the curbstone. “Bah!” said he, “it won’t do him any harm.” The
+dead and wounded were, however, being carried away as quickly as
+possible.
+
+[Illustration: Shell Hole—a Convenient Seat. Shot marks: en profil—In
+the rues—On the boulevards: Plus de lumière!! Plus d’ombre!!—Bullet
+hole: en face.]
+
+The cannon had now ceased roaring, and the fight was still going on
+close at hand—at the Tuileries doubtless. The townspeople were tranquil
+and the soldiery disdainful. A strange contrast; all these good
+citizens smiling and chatting, and the soldiers, who had come to save
+them at the peril of their lives, looking down upon them with the most
+careless indifference. My friend reached the Boulevard Haussmann; there
+the corpses were in large numbers. He counted thirty in less than a
+hundred yards. Some were lying under the doorways; a dead woman was
+seated on the bottom stair of one of the houses. Near the church of “La
+Trinité” were two guns, the reports from which were deafening; several
+of the shells fell on a bathing establishment in the Rue Taitbout
+opposite the Boulevard. On the Boulevard itself, not a person was to be
+seen. Here and there dark masses, corpses doubtless. However, the
+moment the noise of the report of a gun had died away, and while the
+gunners were reloading, heads were thrust out from doors to see what
+damage had been done—to count the number of trees broken, benches torn
+up, and kiosques overturned. From some of the windows rifles were
+fired. My friend then reached the street he lived in and went home. He
+was told that during the morning they had violently bombarded the
+Collège Chaptal, where the Zouaves of the Commune had fortified
+themselves; but the engagement was not a long one, they made several
+prisoners and shot the rest.
+
+My friend shut himself up at home, determined not to go out. But his
+impatience to see and hear what was going on forced him into the
+streets again. The Pépinière barracks were occupied by troops of the
+line; he was able to get to the New Opera without trouble, leaving the
+Madeleine, where dreadful fighting was going on, to the right. On the
+way were to be seen piled muskets, soldiers sitting and lying about,
+and corpses everywhere. He then managed, without incurring too much
+danger, to reach the Boulevards, where the insurgents, who were then
+very numerous, had not yet been attacked. He worked for some little
+time at the barricade, and then was allowed to pass on. It was thus
+that we had met. Just as we were about to turn up the Faubourg
+Montmartre a man rushed up saying that three hundred Federals had taken
+refuge in the church of the Madeleine, followed by gendarmes, and had
+gone on fighting for more than an hour. “Now,” he finished up by
+saying, “if the _curé_ were to return he would find plenty of people to
+bury!”
+
+I am now at home. Evening has come at last; I am jotting down these
+notes just as they come into my head. I am too much fatigued both in
+mind and body to attempt to put my thoughts into order. The cannonading
+is incessant, and the fusillade also. I pity those that die, and those
+that kill! Oh! poor Paris, when will experience make you wiser?
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [98] It was known by this time at Versailles in what a desperate
+ condition was the Commune, by the information of persons devoted to
+ order, but who remained amongst the insurgents to keep watch over and
+ restrain them as much as possible.
+    The Versailles authorities know that, thanks to the well-directed
+    fire of Montretout, the bastions of the Point du Jour were no
+    longer tenable, and that their defenders had abandoned them and had
+    organized new works of defence; nevertheless, the operations were
+    earned on just as systematically as if the fire of the besieged had
+    not ceased for several days, when, on Sunday, the 21st May, about
+    midday, an officer on duty in the trenches, in course of formation
+    in the Bois de Boulogne, perceived a man making signs with a white
+    handkerchief near the military post of Saint Cloud; the officer
+    immediately approached near enough to hear the bearer of the flag
+    of truce, say:—
+    “My name is Ducatel, and I belong to the service of the Engineers
+    of Roads and Bridges, and I have been a soldier. I declare that
+    your entrance into Paris is easy, and as a guarantee of the truth
+    of what I say, I am about to give myself up;” so saying, he passed
+    over the fosse by means of one of the supports of the drawbridge,
+    in spite of several shots fired at him by Federals hidden in the
+    houses at Auteuil, but none of which reached him.
+    A few resolute men now passed over the fosse, and arrived without
+    accident on the other side. A few insurgents, who were still there,
+    made off without loss of time, leaving the invaders to establish
+    themselves, and wait for reinforcements.
+    A short time after a white flag was exhibited in the neighbouring
+    bastion, which bore the number 62, and the fire from Montretout and
+    Mont Valérien was stopped, the infantry of the Marine took
+    possession of the gate, out the telegraphic wires which were
+    supposed to be in communication with torpedoes, while information
+    was immediately despatched to Versailles of these important events.
+    The division of General Vergé, placed for the time under the orders
+    of General Douay, entered the gate at half-past three in the
+    afternoon, and took possession of Point du Jour, after having taken
+    several barricades; at one of these, Ducatel was sent with a flag
+    of trace towards the insurgents, who offered to surrender, but he
+    received a bayonet wound, was carried off to the École Militaire,
+    tried by court-martial and condemned to death, from which he was
+    fortunately snatched by the arrival of the Versailles troops at the
+    Trocadéro at two o’clock in the morning.
+    At the same time, the first corps d’armée (that of General
+    L’Admirault), made its way into the city by the Portes d’Auteuil
+    and Passy, and took up a strong position in the streets of Passy.
+
+ [99] At ten o’clock at night, the army had taken possession of the
+ region comprised between the _ceinture_, or circular railway, and the
+ fortifications, the streets of Auteuil to the viaduct, and the bridge
+ of Grenelle.
+    At midnight, the movement which had been suspended for a time to
+    rest the troops, was recommenced all along the line.
+    At two o’clock in the morning, General Douay occupied the
+    Trocadéro; and at about four o’clock his soldiers, after a short
+    struggle, captured the chateau of La Muette, making about six
+    hundred prisoners, and then, advancing in the direction of Porte
+    Maillot, they joined the troops of General Clinchant, who had got
+    within the ramparts on that side.
+    At the break of day, the tricolour floated over the Arc de
+    Triomphe, without the Versailles forces having sustained sensible
+    loss. All this passed on the right bank of the Seine.
+
+ [100] The insurrectionists followed a decided and pre-conceived plan.
+ The barricades, which intersected the streets of Paris in every
+ direction, were arranged on a general system which showed considerable
+ skill. Was this ensemble a conception of Cluseret? or a plan of
+ Gaillard, or Eudes, or Rossel? No one now could say which, but at any
+ rate we are able to deduce the plan from the facts and set it out as
+ follows:—
+    Within the line of the fortifications the insurgents had formed a
+    second line of defence, which runs on the right bank of the river,
+    by the Trocadero, the Triumphal Arch, the Boulevard de Courcelles,
+    the Boulevard de Batignolles, and the Boulevard de Rochechouart;
+    and on the left across the bridge of Iéna, the Avenue de la
+    Bourdonnaye, the École Militaire, the Boulevard des Invalides, the
+    Boulevard Montparnasse, and the Western Railway Station. Along the
+    whole extent of this circuit the entrances of the streets were
+    barricades, and the “Places” turned into redoubts.
+    From this double _enceinte_ of fortifications the lines of defence
+    converged along the great boulevards, the Rue Royale, by the
+    Ministry of Marine, the terrace of the Tuileries Gardens, the Place
+    de la Concorde, the Palace of the Corps Législatif, the Rue de
+    Bourgogne, and the Rue de Varenne. This third _enceinte_ of defence
+    was the pride of the insurgents; they were never tired of admiring
+    their celebrated barricade of the Rue St. Florentin, and that which
+    intercepted the quay at the corner of the Tuileries Gardens on the
+    Place de la Concorde.
+    This is not all. Supposing that the third line were forced, the
+    insurgents would not even then be without resource. On the left
+    bank of the Seine they fell back successively on the Rue de
+    Grenelle, Rue Saint Dominique, and Rue de Lille, all three closed
+    by barricades; on the right bank they could carry on the struggle
+    by the Rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs, the Rue de la Paix, and the
+    Place Vendôme, and even when beaten back from these last retreats,
+    they could still defend the Rue St. Honoré and operate a retreat by
+    the Palace of the Tuileries, the Louvre, and the Hôtel de Ville.
+
+ [101] In the following proclamation, published on the 21st May,
+ Delescluze stimulated the Communist party, which felt its power
+ melting away on all sides:
+
+“TO THE PEOPLE OF PARIS, TO THE NATIONAL GUARD.
+
+“CITIZENS,—We have had enough of militaryism; let us have no more
+stuffs embroidered and gilt at every seam!
+    “Make room for the people, the real combatants, the bare arms! The
+    hour of the revolutionary war has struck!
+    “The people know nothing of scientific manoeuvres, but with a rifle
+    in hand and the pavement beneath their feet, they fear not all the
+    strategists of the monarchical school.
+    “To arms, citizens! To arms! You must conquer, or, as you well
+    know, fall again into the pitiless hands of the _réactionaires_ and
+    clericals of Versailles; those wretches who with intention
+    delivered France up to Prussia, and now make us pay the ransom of
+    their treason!
+    “If you desire the generous blood which you have shed like water
+    during the last six weeks not to have been shed in vain, if you
+    would see liberty and equality established in France, if you would
+    spare your children sufferings and misery such as you have endured,
+    you will rise as one man, and before your formidable bands the
+    enemy who indulges the idea of bringing you again under his yoke,
+    will reap nothing but the harvest of the useless crimes with which
+    he has disgraced himself during the past two months.
+    “Citizens! your representatives will fight and die with you, if
+    fall we must; but, in the name of our glorious France, mother of
+    all the popular revolutions, the permanent source of ideas of
+    justice and unity, which should be and which will be the laws of
+    the world, march to the encounter of the enemy, and let your
+    revolutionary energy prove to him that Paris may he sold, but can
+    never be delivered up or conquered.
+    “The Commune confides in you, and you may trust the Commune!
+    “The civil delegate at the Ministry of War,
+
+“(Signed)
+“CH. DELESCLUZE.
+
+“Countersigned by the Committee of Public Safety:—Antoine Arnauld,
+Billioray, E. Eudes, F. Gambon, G. Ranvier.”
+
+Such was the despairing cry of the insurrection at bay.
+
+ [102] See Appendix, No. 9.
+
+ [103] There are no private undertakers and funeral furnishers in
+ Paris. It is all done by a company, under the supervision of
+ Government, a very large concern, called the _Pompes Funèbres_.
+
+ [104] Jules Vallès was one of the most conspicuous among the men of
+ the 18th of March. He had been journalist, working printer, a clerk at
+ the Hôtel de Ville, editor of a newspaper, pamphleteer, and café
+ orator in turn, but always noisy and boastful. André Gill, the
+ caricaturist, once drew him as an undertaker’s dog, dragging a
+ saucepan behind him, and the caricature told Vallès’ story well
+ enough. In face he was ugly, but energetic in expression, almost to
+ ferociousness.
+    He was born at Puy, in 1833, and on leaving the college of Nantes,
+    came to study law in Paris, but politics occupied him chiefly, and
+    he soon got himself shut up in Mazas as a political prisoner. After
+    some time spent in confinement, he obtained his liberty, and
+    published at Nantes, a pamphlet under the title of “Money: by a
+    literary man become a journalist;” and the pamphlet, having gained
+    him some slight popularity, he was engaged, later, on the _Figaro_,
+    to write the reports of the Bourse, and in the meantime he eked out
+    his slender salary by working as a clerk at the Hôtel de Ville.
+    When Ernest Feydeau brought out the _Epoque_, in 1864, Jules Vallès
+    published a few articles in its columns, and a little later became
+    a writer on the _Evénement_, with the magnificent salary of
+    eighteen thousand francs a year. A month afterwards, he was without
+    occupation again, but he soon re-appeared with a new journal of his
+    own, _La Rue, La Sue_, in its turn, however, only lived during a
+    few numbers, and Jules Vallès now took up café politics, and
+    practised table oratory at the _Estaminet de Madrid_, where he
+    fostered and expounded the projects which he has since brought to
+    so fearful a result.
+    In 1869, he became one of the most inveterate speakers at election
+    meetings, and presented himself as a candidate for the Corps
+    Législatif. He was not elected, but the profession of opinions that
+    he then made was certain to obtain him a seat in the Communal
+    Assembly. One of the last articles in the _Cri du People_ of Jules
+    Vallès announced the fatal resolution of defending Paris by all
+    possible means. An article finishing with this prophetic sentence,
+    “M. Thiers, if he is chemist enough will understand us.”
+
+
+
+
+ XCI.
+
+
+It is imprudent to go out; the night was almost peaceable, the morning
+is hideous. The roar of musketry is intense and without interruption. I
+suppose there must be fighting going on in the Rue du Faubourg
+Montmartre. I start back, the noise is so fearful. In the Cour Trévise
+not a person to be seen, the houses are closely shut and barred. On a
+second floor I hear a great moving of furniture, and hear quite
+distinctly the sound of sobbing, of female sobbing. I hear that the
+second floor of the house is inhabited by a member of the Commune and
+his family. I am about to go up and see if I can be of any help to the
+women in case of danger, when I see a man precipitately enter the
+Court. He wears a uniform of lieutenant; I recognise him, it is the
+porter. He stops, looks around him, and seeing that he is alone, takes
+his rifle in both hands and throws it with all his strength over the
+high wall which is on the left hand of the Court. That done, he rushes
+into the house. There I distinctly hear him say to his wife, “The
+barricade is taken, give me a _blouse_, they are at Montmartre. We are
+done for!” I think, the porter must have made a mistake, and that the
+battery is not taken yet, for I hear the whistling of a shell that,
+seems to come from Montmartre. The deafening clamour on all sides
+redoubles, all the separate noises seem to confound themselves in one
+ceaseless roar, like the working of a million of hammers on a million
+of anvils. I can scarcely bear it; my hands clutch the door-posts
+convulsively. I lean out as far as I can, but see nothing but a company
+of soldiers preceded by two gendarmes, who are entering the Court. They
+stop before the door of the house. Several of them go in, and then I
+hear the sound of a door suddenly opened and shut, and heavy steps on
+the wooden floor. I feel myself trembling; this man they have come to
+arrest—are they going to shoot him here, in his own apartment, before
+his wife? Thank God, no! The two gendarmes reappear in the street
+holding the prisoner between them; his hands are bound; the soldiers
+surround them, and they are going to march away, when the man, lifting
+up his arms, cries fiercely, “I have but one regret, that I did not
+blow up the whole of the quarter.” At this instant the window above is
+opened, and a woman with grey hair leans out, crying, “Die in peace, I
+will avenge you!” At these words the soldiers arrest their steps, and
+the two gendarmes re-enter the house. They are going to take the wife
+prisoner after having taken the husband. I fall back into a chair
+horrified; I shut my eyes not to see, and I press my hands on my ears,
+not to hear the dreadful sound of the musketry, but the horrible shrill
+noise is triumphant, and I hear it all the same.
+
+
+
+
+ XCII.
+
+
+Oh! those that hear it not, how happy they must be; they will never
+understand how fearful this continuous, this dreadful noise is, and to
+feel that each ball is aimed at some breast, and each shell brings ruin
+in its train. Fear and horror wrings one’s heart and maddens one’s
+brain. Visions pass before one’s eyes of corpses, of houses crushing
+sleeping inmates, of men falling and crying out for mercy! and one
+feels quite strange to go on living among the crowds that die!
+
+I have been out a little while, a ball whistled over my shoulder, and
+flattened itself against an iron bar on a shop front. I heard a mass of
+glass shiver into fragments on the pavement. I determined to return
+home.
+
+On my way back, I had to pass in front of a liqueur shop, the door of
+which was open, and several men were talking there. I stopped to learn
+the news. Montmartre is taken; the Federals had not opposed much
+resistance; but a great deal of firing had gone on in the side streets
+and lanes. Seven insurgents were surrounded. “Give yourselves up, and
+your lives will be saved,” cried out the soldiers. They replied, “We
+are prisoners;” but one of them drew his revolver and shot an officer
+in the leg. Then the soldiers took the seven men, threw them into a
+large hole, and shot them from above like so many rabbits. Another man
+told me that he had seen a child lying dead at the corner of the Rue de
+Rome. “A pretty little fellow,” he said, “his brains were strewed on
+the pavement beside him.” A third, that when all the fighting was over
+at the Place Saint-Pierre a rifle shot was heard, and a captain of
+Chasseurs fell dead. The major who was there, looked up and saw a man
+trying to hide himself behind a chimney pot; the soldiers got into the
+house, seized him on the roof, and brought him down into the Place.
+What did the insurgent do, but walked up to the major, smiling, and hit
+him a blow on the cheek. The major set him up against a wall, and blew
+his brains out with a revolver. Another insurgent who was arrested,
+made an insulting grimace at the soldiers; they shot him. On the
+southern sides of Paris, the operations of the army have not been so
+fortunate as on this. In the Faubourg St. Germain it advances very
+slowly, if it advance at all. The Federals fight with heroic courage at
+the Mont-Parnasse Station, the Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, and the
+Croix-Rouge; from the corners of the streets, from the windows, from
+the balconies proceed shots rarely ineffective. This sort of warfare
+fatigues the soldiers, particularly as the discipline prevents them
+from using the same measures. At Saint-Quen, likewise, the march of the
+troops is stayed; the barricade of the Rue de Clichy holds out, and
+will hold out some time. In other quarters the advantages gained by the
+Versaillais are evident. Here and there some small show of resistance
+is offered, but the insurgents are flying. I cannot tell whether all
+these floating rumours are true. As I return home, I look round; in the
+Rue Geoffrey-Marie, near the Faubourg Montmartre, I see a National
+Guard alone in the middle of the street, nothing to screen him
+whatsoever; he loads his rifle and fires, loads and fires again; again
+and again! Thirty-three times! Then the rifle slips to the ground, and
+the man staggers and falls.
+
+
+
+
+ XCIII.
+
+
+This morning, the 23rd, after a combat of three hours, the barricade of
+the Place de Clichy has not yet yielded. Yet two battalions of National
+Guards had, at the beginning of the fight, reversed their arms, and
+were fraternising with the soldiers on the Place de la Maine, a hundred
+and fifty yards from the scene of the fray. The cracking of the rifles,
+the explosion of shells, and the sound of mitrailleuses filled the air.
+The smell of powder was stifling. Dreadful cries arose from the poor
+wounded wretches; and the whizzing projectiles from Montmartre rent the
+air above in their fiery course. “Beneath us,” said an inhabitant of
+Batignolles who gave me these particulars, “beneath us the city lay
+like a seething caldron.”
+
+The beating of drums and the sharp trumpet-calls mixed in this
+monstrous din, and were every now and then lost in the tremendous noise
+of the firing.
+
+About half-past one the sounds grew quieter; the barricade was taken.
+The insurgents were retreating to La Chapelle and Belleville in
+disorder; the soldiers of the line rushed like a torrent into the
+Avenue de Clichy, leaving a tricolour flag hoisted upon the dismantled
+barricade.
+
+Here and there, in the streets, the struggle had not ceased. In the Rue
+Blanche a rifle-shot proceeded from a ground-floor; the man was taken
+and executed outside his own door. The artillery was moving up the Rue
+Chaptal towards Montmartre and La Chapelle. The day was very hot; pails
+of water were thrown over the guns to quench their burning thirst. All
+the young men who were found in the streets were provisionally put
+under arrest, for they feared everyone, even children, and horrible
+vengeance and thirst for blood had seized upon all. Suddenly an
+isolated shot would be heard, followed a minute or two after by five or
+six others. One knew reprisal had been done.
+
+At about four o’clock in the afternoon, when the quarters of Belleville
+and Clichy were pretty well cleared of troops, two insurgents were
+walking, one behind the other, in the Rue Léonie. The one who walked
+last lifted his rifle and fired carelessly in the direction of the
+windows; the report sounded very loudly in the silent street, and a
+pane of glass fell in fragments to the ground. The insurgent who was in
+front did not even turn his head; these men seem to have become quite
+reckless and deaf to everything.
+
+What the troops feared the most were the sharp-shooters hidden in the
+houses, aiming through little holes and cracks; suddenly a snap would
+be heard, and the officers would lift their glassed to their eyes; more
+often nothing was to be seen at all, but if the slightest shadow were
+visible behind a window curtain, the order was, “Search that house!”
+The executions did not take place in the apartments. Now and then an
+inhabitant or two were brought down into the street, and those never
+returned!
+
+
+
+
+ XCIV.
+
+
+It is the middle of the night; and I awake with a terrible start. A
+bright red light streams through the panes. I throw open the window;
+the sky to the left is one mass of dark smoke and lurid streaks of
+light—it is a fire, Paris on fire![105] I dress and go out. At the
+corner of the Rue de Trévise a sentinel stops me, “You can’t pass.” I
+am so bewildered that I do not think of noticing whether he is a
+Federal or a soldier. What am I to do, where am I to go? Although an
+hour ago balls were whistling around, there are now people at every
+window. “The Ministère des Finances is on fire! the Rue Royale! the
+Louvre!” The Louvre! I can scarcely avoid a cry of horror. In a minute
+the enormity of the disaster has broken upon me. Oh! _chefs-d’oeuvre_
+without number! I see you devoured, consumed, reduced to ashes! I see
+the walls tottering, the canvases fall from the frames and shrivel up;
+the “Marriage of Canaan” is in flames! Raphael is struggling in the
+burning furnace! Leonardo da Vinci is no more! This was, indeed, an
+unexpected calamity! Fortune had reserved this terrible surprise for
+us! But I will not believe it, these rumours are false, doubtless! How
+should these people who inhabit this quarter know what I am ignorant
+of? Yet over our heads the sky is tinged with black and red!
+
+[Illustration: Ruins of the Rue Royale, Looking Towards The Place de La
+Concorde and across the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.]
+
+A strange smell fills the air, like that of a monstrous petroleum lamp
+just lighted. That dreaded word, petroleum, makes me shudder. Once
+distinctly I hear the sound of a vast body falling heavily. Not to be
+able to obtain information is terrible; not to know what is going on,
+while all around seems on fire; the day is beginning to break, the
+musketry and the cannonading commences afresh, it is a hell, with death
+for its girdle! In front of me I see the corner of a building lighted
+up by the fire, on which little spirals of smoke are reflected from the
+distant conflagration. I rush home, I want to hide myself, to sleep, to
+forget. When I am in my room, I see through the white curtains of the
+window a bright light. I tremble and rush to the window! It is the gilt
+letters of a signboard, on the opposite side of the way, that are
+darting forth brilliant flashes, borrowed from the distant flames.
+
+[Illustration: A Bay of the Tuileries—from The Place Du Carrousel. A
+warm corner approching the Louvre]
+
+[Illustration: Millière[106]]
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [105] The 24th May the COMMITTEE FOR PUBLIC SAFETY issued these
+ cold-blooded decrees:—
+
+“Citizen Millière, at the head of one hundred and fifty fuse-bearers,
+is to set fire to all houses of suspicious aspect, as well as to the
+public monuments of the left bank of the Seine.
+    “Citizen Dereure, with one hundred and fifty fuse-bearers, is
+    charged with the 1st and 2nd Arrondissement.
+    “Citizen Billioray, with one hundred men, is charged with the 9th,
+    10th, and 20th Arrondissements.
+    “Citizen Vésinier, with fifty men, has the Boulevards of the
+    Madeleine and of the Bastille especially entrusted to him.
+    “These Citizens are to come to an understanding with the officers
+    commanding the barricades, for the execution of these orders.
+
+“DELESCLUZE, RÉGÈRE, RANVINE, JOHANNARD, VÉSINIER, BRUNEL, DOMBROWSKI.
+    “Paris, 3 Prairial, year 79.”
+
+ [106] This Millière, formerly an advocate and writer on the
+ _Marseillaise_, was a native of St-Etienne, and fifty-four years of
+ age, a cool speaker, and advocate of advanced ideas, that got him
+ several imprisonments. In March 1870 he was taken from the prison of
+ Sainte-Pélagie to give evidence at Tours against Pierre Bonaparte for
+ the murder of Victor Noir, where his lucid depositions told greatly
+ against the prisoner. When regaining his liberty he became more
+ revolutionary than ever, writing during the siege in the _Patrie en
+ Danger_. At the peace he became one of the members for Paris, and sat
+ at Bordeaux and Versailles, agitating social subjects and the law of
+ lodgers. About the 10th of April he took part with the Commune, and at
+ the entrance of the troops was taken at the Luxembourg after having
+ fired six rounds from a revolver, was shot on the steps of the
+ Pantheon, and died as he opened his shirt front, shouting, “_Vive la
+ République! Vive la Liberté! Vive l’Humanité!_”
+
+
+
+
+ XCV.
+
+
+Certainly I nursed no vain illusions. What you had done, gentlemen of
+the Commune, had enlightened me as to your value, and as to the purity
+of your intentions. Seeing you lie, steal, and kill, I had said to you,
+“You are liars, robbers, and murderers;” but truly, in spite of Citizen
+Félix Pyat, who is a coward, and Citizen Miot, who is a fool; in spite
+of Millière, who shot _réfractaires_, and Philippe, whose trade shall
+be nameless; in spite of Dacosta, who amused himself with telling the
+Jesuits at the Conciergerie, “Mind, you are to be shot in an hour,” and
+then an hour afterwards returning to say, “I have thought about it, and
+it is for tomorrow;” in spite of Johannard, who executed a child of
+fifteen guilty of selling a suppressed newspaper; in spite of Rigault,
+who, chucking the son of Chaudey under the chin, laughingly said to
+him, “Tomorrow, little one, we shall shoot papa;” in spite of all the
+madmen and fools that constituted the Commune de Paris, who after being
+guilty of more extravagances than are necessary to get a man sent to
+the Madhouse of Charenton, and more crimes than are sufficient to shut
+him up in prison at Sainte-Pélagie, had managed, by means of every
+form, of wickedness and excess, to make our beloved Paris a frightened
+slave, crouching to earth under their abominable tyranny; in spite of
+everything, I could not have dreamed that even their demoniac fury
+could have gone so far as to try to burn Paris, after having ruined it!
+Nero of the gutter! Sardanapalus drunk with vitriol! So your vanity
+wanted such a volcano to engulf you, and you wished to die by the light
+of such an _auto-da-fé_. Instead of torches around your funeral car,
+you wished the Tuileries, the library of the Louvre, and the Palace of
+the Legion of Honour burnt to ashes, the Rue Royale one vast
+conflagration, where the walls as they fell buried alive women and
+children, and the Rue de Lille vomiting fire and smoke like the crater
+of Vesuvius.
+
+[Illustration: Palais de Justice, Partly Destroyed. Sainte Chapelle,
+Saved.]
+
+It has pleased you that thousands of families should be ruined, their
+savings scattered in the ashes of the vanished papers of the burnt
+Ministère des Finances and the _Caisse des dépôts_. In seeing that the
+art-galleries of the Louvre had remained intact, only its library
+burnt, you must have been seized with mad rage. How! Notre Dame not yet
+in flames? Sainte-Chapelle not on fire? Have you no more petroleum, no
+more flaming torches? The cry “To Arms!” is not enough, you must shout
+“To Fire!” Would you consume the entire city, and make of its ruins a
+horrible monument to your memory?
+
+Do not say, “We have not done this; it is the people who are working
+out their own revenge, and we stand for nothing, we are as gentle as
+lambs. Ranvier would not hurt a fly.” Away with all this pretence; were
+you not on the balcony of the Hôtel de Ville with your blood-red
+scarfs, uttering your commands? The populace, deceived and blinded,
+have but obeyed you. Do not all the circumstances leading to this
+stupendous catastrophe, reveal an elaborate and digested plan,
+determined long beforehand? Did we not read this notice, daily, in your
+official journal: “All those who have petroleum are requested
+immediately to declare the quantities in their possession?” Was there
+not a quick-match extinguished in the quarter of the Invalides that was
+to have communicated the flames to barrels of powder placed, long ago,
+in the great sewers? Yes, what has taken place you had decreed. If the
+disasters have not been more terrible, is it not, that, surprised at
+the sudden arrival of the troops, you had not the time to finish your
+preparations? Yes, you are the criminals! It was Eudes who gave out the
+petroleum to the _Pétroleuses_; it was Felix Pyat who laid the train of
+gunpowder. It is Tridon who said: “Take care that the phials be not
+uncorked.” The public incendiary committee has well performed its duty!
+Wicked criminals! Execrable madmen! May Heaven bear me witness that my
+heart abhors revenge, is always inclined to pardon—but for these! What
+chastisement can be great enough to appease the wrath of justice! What
+vow of repentance could be offered up fervent enough to be received in
+Heaven, even at the moment when, struck down by balls, they offer their
+lives as expiation? Misguided humanity!
+
+[Illustration: Ministère Des Finances, Rue de Rivoli:
+POLICE OF PARIS.
+Au citoyen Lucas,
+Faites de suite flamber Finances et venez nous retrouver.
+4 prairial, an 79. Th: Ferré.]
+
+[Illustration: Ferré[107]]
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [107] Ferré, the friend of Raoul Bigault, and his colleague in the
+ Commission of General Safety, like the latter, had inhabited the
+ prisons for a considerable time for his political writings, seditious
+ proposals, plots against the state, etc. He is a small man about five
+ feet high, and very active. He signed with avidity the suppression of
+ nearly all the journals of Paris, and the sentence of death of a great
+ number of unfortunate prisoners, with the approbation of Raoul
+ Bigault. He willingly undertook to announce to the Archbishop of Paris
+ that his last hour had arrived. The following order, drawn up by him,
+ was found on the body of an insurgent:—“Set fire to the Ministry of
+ Finance immediately, and return here.
+    4 Prairial, An 79.
+    (Signed) TH. FERRÉ.”
+    See Appendix, No.10.]
+
+
+
+
+XCVI.
+
+
+With three friends I stood upon the roof of a house near the new opera,
+watching what was passing around. The spectacle was such, that horror
+paralyses every other sentiment, even that of self-preservation.
+Consternation sits encircled by a blazing atmosphere of terror! The
+Hôtel de Ville is in flames; the smoke, at times a deep red, envelops
+all, so that it is impossible to distinguish more than the outlines of
+immense walls; the wind brings, in heavy gusts, a deadly odour—of burnt
+flesh, perhaps—which turns the heart sick and the brain giddy. On the
+other side the Tuileries, the Légion d’Honneur, the Ministère de la
+Guerre, and the Ministère des Finances are flaming still, like five
+great craters of a gigantic volcano! It is the eruption of Paris!
+Alone, a great black mass detaches itself from the universal
+conflagration, it is the Tour Saint-Jacques, standing out like a
+malediction.
+
+One of the three friends, who are with me on the roof of the house, was
+able, about an hour ago, to get near the Hôtel de Ville. He related to
+me what follows:—
+
+“At the moment of my arrival, the flames burst forth from all the
+windows of the Hôtel de Ville, and the most intense terror seized upon
+all the inhabitants blocked up in the surrounding quarters, for a
+terrible rumour is spread; it is said that more than fifty thousand
+pounds of powder is contained in the subterranean vaults. The
+incendiaries must have poured the demoniacal liquid in rivers through
+the great halls, down the great staircases, from the very garrets, to
+envelop even the Salle du Trône. The great fire throws a blood-red
+glare over the city, and on the quays of the Institute. Night is so
+like day that a letter may be read in the street. Is this the end of
+the famous capital of France? Have the infamous fiends of the committee
+for public safety ordered, in their cowardly death-agony, that this
+should be the end? Yes, it is the ruin of all that was grand, generous,
+radiant, and consolatory for our country that they have decided to
+consummate, with a chorus of hellish laughter, in which terror and
+ferocity struggle with brutal degradation.
+    “In the midst of this horror, confused rumours are circulated. It
+    is said that the heat will penetrate to the cellars and cause an
+    explosion of whole quarters. Then what will become of the
+    inhabitants, and the riches that they have accumulated? The heat is
+    overwhelming between the Tuileries and the Hôtel de Ville—that is,
+    over the space of about a mile. The two barricades of the Rue de
+    Rivoli and of the Rue de la Coutellerie, near which are the offices
+    of the municipal services—the lighting of the city, the octroi,
+    waters, sewers, etc.,—will not be taken until too late, in spite of
+    the energy with which the army attacks them. It is feared that the
+    flame will reach the neighbourhood of the great warehouses, so
+    thickly do the burning flakes fall and scatter destruction. The
+    barricades of the quays are still intact, it will be another hour
+    yet before they are taken. The firemen are there furiously at work,
+    but their efforts are insufficient! It would take tons of ammonia
+    to slake the fury of the petroleum which flows like hot lava upon
+    the place from the Hôtel de Ville, and the horrible reflection
+    reddens the waters of the Seine, so that the current of the river
+    seems to flow with blood, which stains the stones as it dashes
+    against the arches of the bridge!”
+
+These scenes are being pictured to me as I gaze upon the terrible
+conflagration, and all that is told me I seem to see. An irresistible
+longing to be near seizes me. I am under the power of an invincible
+attraction. I lean forward, my arms outstretched; I run a great risk of
+falling, but what matters? The sight of these almost sublime horrors
+has burnt itself into my very brain!
+
+
+
+
+ XCVII.
+
+
+She walks with a rapid step, near the shadow of the wall; she is poorly
+dressed; her age is between forty and fifty; her forehead is bound with
+a red checkered handkerchief, from which hang meshes of uncombed hair.
+The face is red and the eyes blurred, and she moves with her look bent
+down on the ground. Her right hand is in her pocket, or in the bosom of
+her half-unbuttoned dress; in the other hand she holds one of the high,
+narrow tin cans in which milk is carried in Paris, but which now, in
+the hands of this woman, contains the dreadful petroleum liquid. As she
+passes a _poste_ of regulars, she smiles and nods; when they speak to
+her she answers, “My good Monsieur!” If the street is deserted she
+stops, consults a bit of dirty paper that she holds in her hand, pauses
+a moment before the grated opening to a cellar, then continues her way,
+steadily, without haste. An hour afterwards, a house is on fire in the
+street she has passed. Who is this woman? Paris calls her a
+_Pétroleuse_.[108] One of these _pétroleuses_, who was caught in the
+act in the Rue Truffault, discharged the six barrels of a revolver and
+killed two men before being passed over to execution. Another was seen
+falling in a doorway of a house in the Rue de Boulogne, pierced with
+balls—but this one was a young girl; a bottle filled with petroleum
+fell from her hand as she dropped. Sometimes one of these wretched
+women, might be seen leading by the hand a little boy or girl; and the
+child probably carrying a bottle of the incendiary liquid in his pocket
+with his top and marbles.
+
+[Illustration: Palace of the Luxembourg (garden Front). Used as a
+Federal Ambulance Hospital.[109]]
+
+[Illustration: Les Pétroleurs Les Pétroleuses]
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [108] The incendiaries formed a veritable army, composed of returned
+ convicts, the very dregs of the prisons, pale, thin lads, who looked
+ like ghosts, and old women, that looked like horrible witches; their
+ number amounted to eight thousand! This army had its chiefs, and each
+ detachment was charged with the firing of a quarter. The order for the
+ conflagration of public edifices bore the stamp of the Commune, and of
+ the Central Committee, and the seal of the delegate at the Ministry of
+ War. For the private houses more expeditive means were used. Small
+ tickets, of the size of postage stamps, were found pasted upon walls
+ of houses in different parts of Paris, with the letters B.P.B. (_bon
+ pour brûler_), literally, good for burning. Some of the tickets were
+ square, others oval, with a bacchante’s head in the centre. They were
+ affixed on spots designated by the chiefs. Every _pétroleuse_ was to
+ receive ten francs for each house she fired. Sept. 5,1871. Amongst the
+ insurgents tried at Versailles, three pétroleuses were condemned to
+ death, and one to imprisonment for life, a host of others being
+ transported or otherwise punished.
+
+ [109] On the Wednesday succeeding the explosion of the powder-magazine
+ in the garden of the Luxembourg, which unroofed a portion of the
+ palace, and destroyed the windows, and did fearful damage to the
+ surrounding houses, all the Communeux disappeared from the
+ neighbourhood. The following night four men returned, bringing a
+ quantity of petroleum with them. They gave orders that the six hundred
+ wounded men who were then lying in the Palace should be taken away
+ immediately. They had commenced their sinister project, and were
+ pouring the petroleum about in the cellars, when the soldiers of the
+ Brigade Paturel were informed of it, and arrived in time to prevent
+ its execution. The criminals were taken and shot on the spot.
+
+
+
+
+ XCVIII.
+
+
+It is seven in the evening, the circulation has become almost
+impossible. The streets are lined with patrols, and the regiments of
+the Line camp upon the outer boulevards. They dine, smoke, and bivouac,
+and drink with the citizens on the doorsteps of their houses. In the
+distance is heard the storm of sounds which tells of the despairing
+resistance of Belleville, and along the foot of the houses are seen
+square white patches, showing the walled-up cellars, every hole and
+crevice being plastered up to prevent insertion of the diabolical
+liquid—walled up against _pétroleurs_ and pétroleuses, strings of
+prisoners, among whom are furious women and poor children, their hands
+tied behind their backs, pass along the boulevards towards Neuilly.
+Night comes on, not a lamp is lighted, and the streets become deserted
+as by degrees the sky becomes darker. At nine o’clock the solitude is
+almost absolute. The sound of a musket striking the pavement is heard
+from time to time; a sentinel passes here and there, and the lights in
+the houses grow more and more rare.
+
+
+
+
+ XCIX.
+
+
+The hours and the days pass and resemble each other horribly. To write
+the history of the calamities is not yet possible. Each one sees but a
+corner of the picture, and the narratives that are collected are vague
+and contradictory; it appears certain now that the insurrection is
+approaching the end. It is said that the fort of Montrouge is taken;
+but it still hurls its shells upon Paris. Several have just fallen in
+the quarter of the Banque. There is fighting still at the Halles, at
+the Luxembourg, and at the Porte Saint-Martin. Neither the cannonading
+nor the fusillade has ceased, and our ears have become accustomed to
+the continued roar. But, in spite of the barbarous heroism of the
+Federals, the force of their resistance is being exhausted. What has
+become of the chiefs?
+
+We continue to note down the incidents as they reach us.
+
+It is said that Assy has been taken, close to the New Opera House. He
+was going the nightly rounds, almost alone—“Who’s there!” cried a
+sentinel. Assy, thinking the man was a Federal, replied, “You should
+have challenged me sooner.” In an instant he was surrounded, disarmed,
+and carried off. However, it is a very unlikely tale; it is most
+improbable that Assy should not know that the New Opera was in the
+hands of the Versaillais.
+
+They say that Delescluze has fled, that Dombrowski has died[110] in an
+ambulance, and that Millière is a prisoner at Saint-Denis. But these
+are merely rumours, and I am utterly ignorant as to their worth. The
+only thing certain is that the search is being carried on with vigour.
+Close by the smoking ruins of what was once the Hôtel de Ville they
+caught Citizen Ferraigu, inspector of the barricades; he confessed to
+having received from the Committee of Public Safety particular orders
+to burn down the shop of the Bon-Diable. Had one of these committeemen
+been an assistant there, and did he owe his former master a grudge?
+Ferraigu had a bottle of petroleum in his pocket; he was shot. I am
+told that at the Théâtre du Châtelet a court-martial has been
+established on the stage. The Federals are brought up twenty at a time,
+judged, and condemned, they are then marched out on to the Place, with
+their hands tied behind their backs. A mitrailleuse, standing a hundred
+yards off, mows them down like grass. It is an expeditious contrivance.
+In a yard, in the Rue Saint-Denis, is a stable filled with corpses; I
+have myself seen them there. The Porte Saint-Martin Theatre is quite
+destroyed, a guard is stationed near. This morning three _pétroleuses_
+were shot there, the bodies are still lying on the boulevards. I have
+just seen two insurgents walking between four soldiers; one an old man,
+the other almost a lad. I heard the elder one say to the younger, “All
+our misery comes of our having arms. In ’48 we had none, so we took
+those of the soldiers, and then they were without. Now there is more
+killing and less business done.” A few minutes after the little
+procession passed up the Rue d’Hauteville, and I heard the reports of
+two rifles. Oh! what horrible days! I feel a prey to the deepest
+dejection—if it were but over! The town looks wretched; even where the
+fighting is not going on, the houses are closed and the streets
+deserted, except here and there: a lonely passenger hurrying along, or
+a wretched prisoner marching between four soldiers. It is all very
+dreadful! In the streets where the battle is still raging the shutters
+are not closed; as soon as the soldiers get into a new quarter of the
+town they cry out, “Shut the windows, open the shutters.” The reason
+for this is, that the open barred outer shutters, or _persiennes_, form
+a capital screen through which aim maybe taken with a gun. As for me,
+in the midst of this horror and sadness, I feel like a madman in the
+night. The rumour that the hostages have been shot at Mazas gains
+ground.[111] I am told that the Archbishop, the Abbé Degueiry, and
+Chaudey have all been assassinated. It was Bigault who ordered these
+executions. He has since been taken, and fell, crying “Down with
+murderers!” This reminds one of Dumollard, the assassin, calling the
+jurymen “Canaille!” Millière is said to have been shot in the Place du
+Panthéon. When they told him to kneel down he drew himself up to his
+full height, his eyes flashing defiance. Strange caprice of nature, to
+make these scoundrels brave.
+
+[Illustration: Theatre Porte St Martin. Sensation Drama out
+sensationed]
+
+[Illustration: Cell of the Archbisop in The Prison Of La Roquette.]
+
+[Illustration: Court-yard of Prison Of La Roquette, Where the Hostages]
+were shot.
+
+In the meantime, the Commune is in its death throes. Like the dragon of
+fairy lore, it dies, vomiting flames. La Villette is on fire, houses
+are burning at Belleville and on the Buttes-Chaumont. The resistance is
+concentrated on one side at Père la Chaise, and on the other at the
+Mont-Parnasse cemetery. The insurrection was mistress of the whole of
+Paris, and then the army came stretching its long arms from the Arc de
+Triomphe to Belleville, from the Champ-de-Mars to the Panthéon. Trying
+hard to burst these bonds, tightly surrounded, now resisting, now
+flying, the _émeute_ has at last retreated. It is over there now, in
+two cemeteries; it watches from behind tombstones; it rests the barrels
+of its rifles on marble crosses, and erects a battery on a sepulchre.
+The shells of the Versaillais fall in the sacred enclosure, plough up
+the earth, and unbury the dead. Something round rolled along a pathway,
+the combatants thought it was a shell; it was a skull! What must these
+men feel who are killing and being killed in the cemetery! To die among
+the dead seems horrible. But they never give it a thought; the bloody
+thirst for destruction which possesses them allows them only to think
+of one thing, of killing! Some of them are gay, they are brave, these
+men. That makes it only the more dreadful; these wretches are heroic!
+Behind the barricades there have been instances of the most splendid
+valour. A man at the Porte Saint-Martin, holding a red flag in his
+hand, was standing, heedless of danger, on a pile of stones. The balls
+showered around him, while he leant carelessly against an empty barrel
+which stood behind.—“Lazy fellow,” cried a comrade—“No,” said he, “I am
+only leaning that I may not fall when I die.” Such are these men; they
+are robbers, incendiaries, assassins, but they are fearless of death.
+They have only that one good quality. They smile and they die. The
+vivandières allow themselves to be kissed behind the tombstones; the
+wounded men drink with their comrades, and throw wine on their wounds,
+saying, “Let us drink to the last.” And yet, in an hour perhaps, the
+soldiers will fight their way into the cemeteries, which their balls
+reach already, they too mad with rage; then the horrible bayonet
+fighting will commence, man against man among the tombs, flying over
+the mounds, desecrating the monuments, everything that imagination can
+conjure up of most profane and terrible—a battle in a cemetery!
+
+[Illustration: My Neighbour ‘en face’; business carries on as usual—My
+neighbour next door: who thinks himself fortunate]
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [110] The most reliable account of his death is given by a medical
+ student who attended him in his last moments. “Dombrowski was passing
+ with several members of the Commune in the Rue Myrrha, near the Rue
+ des Poissonniers, when he was struck by a bullet, which traversed the
+ lower part of his body. He was carried to a neighbouring chemist’s,
+ where I bandaged the wound. Before his transportation to the
+ Lariboisière Hospital, he ordered the fire to cease, but the troops
+ defending the barricade disobeyed the injunction. His sword was handed
+ by me to a captain of the 45th of the Line. His last words were nearly
+ identical with those which he uttered as he fell: ‘I am no traitor!’”
+ His worst enemies have said of him that he was a good soldier in a bad
+ cause.
+
+ [111] At the prison of Sainte-Pélagie, on Tuesday, the 23rd of May,
+ the unfortunate gendarmes, who had been made prisoners on the 18th,
+ were shot, together with M. Chaudey, a writer, on the _Siècle_,
+ arrested at the office of the journal, and conducted, first to Mazas
+ and afterwards to Sainte-Pélagie. (Appendix 11).
+    According to the _Siècle_, the “Procureur” of the Commune, Raoul
+    Rigault, presented himself, at the office at about eleven at night,
+    and having sent for M. Chaudey, said to him, without any preamble:
+    “I am here to tell you that you have not an hour to live.”
+    “You mean to say that I am to be assassinated,” replied Chaudey.
+    “You are to be shot, and that directly,” was the other’s rejoinder.
+    But, on reaching the prison, the National Guards who had been
+    summoned refused to do the odious work, and the Procureur went
+    himself to find others more docile. Chaudey was led before them,
+    Raoul Rigault drew his sword to give the signal, the muskets were
+    levelled and fired, and Chaudey fell, but wounded only. A sergeant
+    gave him the death blow by discharging his pistol at his head. The
+    next day, a hundred and fifty hostages of the Commune, confined at
+    the Prefecture of Police, amongst whom were Prince Galitzin and
+    Andreoli, a journalist, were about to be shot by an order of Ferré,
+    when the incendiary fires broke out and prevented the execution of
+    the order. At eleven o’clock, Raoul Rigault commanded the prisoners
+    to be released, and enjoined them to fight for the Commune; upon
+    their refusal, a shower of balls was discharged at them. The
+    prisoners rushed for refuge into the Rue du Harlay, which was in
+    flames, and were afterwards rescued by a detachment of the line.
+    That same day was fatal to Raoul Rigault. He was perceived by a
+    party of infantry at the moment when he was ringing at the door of
+    a house in the Rue Gay Lussac. His colonel’s uniform instantly made
+    him a mark for the soldiers; he had time to enter the house,
+    however, but was soon discovered, gave his name, and allowed
+    himself to be taken off towards the Luxembourg, but before reaching
+    it, he began to shout, “Vive la Commune!” “Down with the
+    assassins!” and made an effort to escape. The soldiers thrust him
+    against a wall and shot him down.
+    The next day, the 24th, marked the fate of the hostages, who, in
+    expectation of an attack of the Versaillais, had been transferred
+    from Mazas to La Roquette. “Monseigneur Darboy,” writes an
+    eye-witness (Monsieur Dubutte, miraculously saved by an error of
+    name), “occupied cell No. 21 of the 4th division, and I was at a
+    short distance from him, in No. 26. The cell in which the venerable
+    prelate was confined had been the office of one of the gaolers; it
+    was somewhat larger than the rest, and Monseigneur’s companions in
+    captivity had succeeded in obtaining for him a chair and a table.
+    On Wednesday, the 24th, at half-past seven in the evening, the
+    director of the prison—a certain Lefrançais, who had been a
+    prisoner in the hulks for the space of six years—went up, at the
+    head of fifty Federals, into the gallery, near which the most
+    important prisoners were incarcerated. Here they ranged themselves
+    along the walls, and a few moments later one of the head-gaolers
+    opened the door of the archbishop’s cell, and called him out. The
+    prelate answered, “I am here!” Then the gaoler passed on to M. le
+    President Bonjean’s cell (Appendix 12), then to that of Abbé
+    Allard, member of the International Society in Aid of the Wounded;
+    of Père du Coudray, Superior of the School of Ste-Geneviève; and
+    Père Clère, of the Brotherhood of Jesus; the last called being the
+    Abbé Deguerry, curé of the Madeleine. As the names were called,
+    each prisoner was led out into the gallery and down the staircase
+    to the courtyard; each side, as far as I could judge, was lined
+    with Federal guards, who insulted the prisoners in language that I
+    cannot repeat. Amid the hues and cries of these wretches my
+    unfortunate companions were conducted across the courtyard to the
+    infirmary, before which a file of soldiers were drawn up for the
+    execution. Monseigneur Darboy advanced and addressed his
+    murderers—addressed them words of pardon: then two of the men
+    approached the prelate, and falling on their knees implored his
+    pardon. The rest of the Federals threw themselves upon them, and
+    thrust them aside with oaths, then, turning to the prisoners, they
+    heaped fresh insults upon them. The chief officer of the
+    detachment, however, imposed silence on the men, and uttering an
+    oath, said, ‘You are here to shoot these men, not to insult them.’
+    The Federals were silenced, and upon the command of their
+    lieutenant, they loaded their muskets.
+    “Père Allard was placed against the wall, and was the first who was
+    struck; then Monseigneur Darboy fell, and the six prisoners were
+    thus shot in turn, showing, at this supreme moment, a saintly
+    dignity and a noble courage.”
+
+
+
+
+ C.
+
+
+Where are these men going with hurried steps, and with lanterns in
+their hands? Their uniform is that of the National Guard, and
+consequently of Federals, but the tricolour band which they wear on the
+arm would seem to indicate that they belong to the Party of Order. They
+are making their way by one of the entries of the sewers, and preceded
+by an officer are disappearing beneath the sombre vaults. Calling to
+mind the sinister expression of a Communal artillery commander—“The
+reactionary quarters will all be blown up; not one shall be spared,” it
+is impossible to avoid feeling a shudder of terror. What if the
+incendiaries all wearing the badge of the Party of Order, be about to
+set fire to mines prepared beforehand, or to barrels of petroleum ready
+to be staved in! The wild demons of the Commune are capable of
+everything; an invention of incendiary firemen is quoted as an example
+of the diabolical genius which presided over the work of destruction;
+individuals wearing the fireman’s uniform were seen to throw
+combustible liquids by means of pumps and pails on the burning houses,
+instead of aiding to extinguish the flames.
+
+[Illustration: Paris Underground]
+
+[Illustration: The Enemies of Progress.
+Corps de garde de l’armée de Versailles]
+
+Fortunately, the fear is unfounded, the object of these men, on the
+contrary, is to cut the wires which connect all parts with inflammable
+materials, torpedoes, and other atrocious machines. They have already
+passed several nights in destroying this underground telegraphic
+system. The duty is not without danger; for not only are they exposed
+to the terrible consequences of a sudden explosion, but also to the
+risk of being taken and shot without trial, as traitors to the Commune.
+That is, should they chance to fall in with hostile bands, or appear in
+unfriendly quarters. It appears that these determined and devoted
+citizens have already lost two of their companions in the execution of
+this perilous duty. The intention of the Commune was to charge the
+whole of the main sewers and subways with combustibles; but luckily
+they had not time to mature their schemes, the advance of the
+Versailles troops being too quick for them. The Catacombs were included
+in the arrangement; for did not the able Assy direct his agent Fossé to
+keep them open, as a means of escape? Alas! these subterranean passages
+that underlie so large a portion of ancient Paris, what stories could
+they not tell of starved fugitives and maimed culprits dragging their
+weary limbs into the darkness of these gloomy caverns, only that they
+might die there in peace! Men and women, whose forms will in a few
+short weeks be unrecognisable, whose whitened bones will be crushed and
+kicked aside by the future explorer, who may perchance penetrate the
+labyrinths, and whose dust will finally be mixed up and
+undistinguishable from that of the bones and skulls taken from ancient
+cemeteries and graveyards with which this terrible Golgotha is
+decorated in Mosaic.
+
+
+
+
+ CI.
+
+
+The fire is out, let us contemplate the ruins.[112] The Commune is
+vanquished. Look at Paris, sad, motionless, laid waste. This is what we
+have come to! Consternation is in every breast, solitude is in every
+street. We feel no longer either anger or pity; we are resigned, broken
+by emotion; we see processions of prisoners pass on their way to
+Versailles, and we scarcely look at them; no one thinks of saying
+either, “Wretches!” or “Poor fellows!” The soldiers themselves are very
+silent. Although they, are the victors they are sad; they do not drink,
+they do not sing. Paris might be a town that had been assaulted and
+taken by dumb enemies; the irritation has worn itself off, and the
+tears have not yet come. The tricolour flags which float from all the
+windows surprise us; there does not seem any reason for rejoicing. Yet,
+of late especially, the triumph of the Versaillais has been ardently
+wished for by the greater portion of the population; but all are so
+tired that they have not the energy to rejoice. Let us look back for a
+moment. First the siege, with famine, separation and poverty; then the
+insurrection of Montmartre, surprises, hesitations, cannonading night
+and day, ceaseless musketry, mothers in tears, sons pursued, every
+calamity has fallen on this miserable city. It has been like Rome under
+Tiberius, then like Rome after the barbarians had overrun it. The
+cannon balls have fallen upon Sybaris. So much emotion, so many horrors
+have worn out the city; and then all this blood, this dreadful blood.
+Corpses in the streets, corpses within the houses, corpses everywhere!
+Of course they were terribly guilty, these men that were taken, that
+were killed; they were horrible criminals, those women who poured
+brandy into the glasses and petroleum on the houses! But, in the first
+moment of victory, were there no mistakes? Were those that were shot
+all guilty? Then the sight of these executions, however merited, was
+cruelly painful. The innocent shuddered at the doom of justice. True,
+Paris is quiet now, but it is the quiet of the battle-field on the
+morrow of a victory; quiet as night, and as the tomb! An unsupportable
+uneasiness oppresses us; shall we ever be able to shake off this
+apathy, to pierce through this gloom? Paris, rent and bleeding, turns
+with sadness from the past, and dares not yet raise her eyes to the
+future!
+
+[Illustration: The New Masters PROCLAMATION OVER PROCLAMATION PUBLIC
+PROMENADES. CAMPS IN THE GARDENS OF THE LUXEMBOURG AND THE
+TUILERIES—THE SOLDIERS LOCKED IN, AND THE PUBLIC LOCKED OUT. The damage
+done to the pier was by a Prussian shell in Jan. 1871.]
+
+[Illustration: Palace of the Luxembourg (streat Front). Now The Seat of
+the Prefecture of Paris]
+
+POOR PARIS!
+
+[Illustration:]
+
+On August 15th, the _Times_ reporter gave the number awaiting trial
+at Versailles at 30,000. On the 7th September they had reached
+39,000, daily arrests adding to the number; out of these,
+35,000 only had their charges made out, of which
+13,900 had been examined, 2,800 writs of
+release having been issued, though only a
+few hundreds have been set at liberty.
+There are only 94 reporting officers:
+20 attached to the Council of War,
+6 to the Orangerie, 4 to Satory,
+3 to the Prison des Femmes,
+and 16 to the Western Ports:
+17 more are to be
+added shortly.
+
+[Illustration: Marchal Macmahon, Duc de Magenta.
+Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Versailles.]
+
+[Illustration: Light & Air Once More
+the Fosse commune
+THE END]
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [112] See Appendix 14, 15, 16, and 17.
+
+[Illustration:]
+
+
+
+
+ APPENDIX.
+
+
+CHRONOLOGY OF THE PARISIAN INSURRECTION,
+ FROM THE 18th OF MARCH TO THE 29th MAY, 1871.
+
+The dash (—) in each day after the commencement of military operations
+divides the civil from the military.
+
+_Saturday, 18th March_: Early in the morning troops take possession of
+the Buttes Montmartre and Belleville. The soldiers charged with the
+recovery of the pieces of artillery fraternise with the people and the
+National Guard. Arrest of Generals Lecomte and Clement Thomas: they are
+shot at Montmartre without trial. National Guards take possession of
+the Hôtel de Ville, the Prefecture of Police is invaded by Raoul
+Rigault, Duval, and others.
+
+_Sunday, 19th March_: The Central Committee of the National Guard take
+possession of the offices of the _Journal Officiel_. Arrest of General
+Chanzy. Gustave Flourens, imprisoned at Mazas, is set at liberty by the
+new masters of Paris. M. Thiers addresses a circular to the country
+enjoining obedience to the only authority, that of the Assembly.
+
+_Tuesday, 21st March_: Manifestation of the “Friends of Order.”
+Procession for public demonstration. Sitting of the Assembly at
+Versailles. M. Jules Favre advises prompt measures. Appeal to the
+people and army.
+
+_Wednesday, 22nd March_: Friends of Order shot in the Rue de la Paix.
+Lullier arrested by order of the Central Committee.
+
+_Thursday, 23rd March_: Vice-Admiral Saisset is appointed by the
+Assembly Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard.
+
+_Friday, 24th March_: The delegates Brunel, Eudes, Duval, are promoted
+to the rank of generals by the Central Committee. Vice-Admiral
+Saisset’s proclamation.
+
+_Saturday, 29th March_: Occupation of the Mairie of the 1st
+Arrondissement by the Federals. First placard of the Committee of
+Conciliation. Rumour of the arrest of Lullier reproached for
+moderation. Vice-Admiral Saisset retires to Versailles. _Sunday, 26th
+March_: Municipal elections to constitute the Commune of Paris.
+
+_Tuesday, 28th March_: 4 p. m., names of the elect proclaimed at the
+Hôtel de Ville. Arrival of General Chanzy at Versailles.
+
+_Wednesday, 29th March_: Conscription abolished—all citizens to be
+National Guards. Pawnbroking decree. Organisation of commissions:
+executive, financial, military, etc. Ministers to be called delegates.
+
+_Saturday, 1st April_: The Executive Committee issues a decree to
+suppress the rank and functions of General-in-Chief. General Eudes
+appointed Delegate of War; Bergeret to the staff of the National Guard,
+in place of Brunel; Duval to the military command of the ex-Prefecture
+of Police, where Raoul Rigault was civil delegate.
+
+_Sunday, 2nd April_: Military operations commence 9 a.m. Action at
+Courbevoie. Flourens marches his troops to Versailles, _viâ_ Rueil.
+
+_Monday, 3rd April_: The corps d’armée of General Bergeret at the Rond
+Point near Neuilly, is stopped by the artillery of Mont Valérien.
+Exchange of shot between Fort Issy and Fort Vanves, occupied by
+insurgents, and Meudon.—The separation of Church and State decreed.
+
+_Tuesday, 4th April_: General Duval made prisoner in the engagement at
+Châtillon and shot. Death of Flourens at Rueil.—Delescluze, Cournet,
+and Vermorel succeed Generals Bergeret, Eudes, and Duval on the
+Executive Commission. Cluseret Delegate of War, and Bergeret commandant
+of Paris forces.
+
+_Wednesday, 6th April_: General Cluseret commences active operations.
+Military service compulsory for all citizens under forty. Abbé
+Deguerry, and Archbishop of Paris arrested.
+
+_Thursday, 6th April_: Extension of action to Neuilly and Courbevoie.
+Versailles army decreed by executive authority. Obsequies of Flourens
+at Versailles.—Decree concerning the complicity with Versailles, and
+arrest of hostages. The rank of general suppressed by the Commune.
+Dombrowski succeeds Bergeret as Commandant of Paris.
+
+_Friday, 7th April_: Decree for disarming the Réfractaires. The
+guillotine is burnt on the Place Voltaire.
+
+_Saturday, 8th April_: Federals abandon Neuilly.—Commission of
+barricades created and presided over by Gaillard Senior. Military
+occupation of the railway termini by the insurgents.
+
+_Sunday, 9th April_: Insurgents attempt to retake Châtillon, but are
+repulsed. Forts Vanves and Montrouge disabled. Mont Valérien shells the
+Avenue des Ternes.—Assy and Bergeret arrested by order of the Commune.
+
+_Tuesday, 11th April_: Marshal MacMahon, Commander-in-Chief,
+distributes his forces. Commences the investment of fort Issy.
+
+_Wednesday, 12th April_: Versailles batteries established on Châtillon.
+The Orleans railway and telegraph out. Communications of the insurgents
+with the south intercepted.—Decree ordering the fall of the Column
+Vendôme. Decree concerning the complementary elections.
+
+_Thursday, 13th April:_ Courbet presides at a meeting of artists at the
+École de Médecine. Publication of the reports of the sittings of the
+Commune.
+
+_Friday, 14th April_: The redoubt of Gennevilliers taken. The troops of
+Versailles make advances to the Château de Bécon, a post of
+importance.—Lullier takes the command of the flotilla on the Seine.
+
+_Sunday, 16th April_: Complementary elections. Organisation of a
+court-martial under the presidence of Rossel, chief officer of the
+staff.
+
+_Monday, 11th April_: Capture and fortification of the Château de
+Bécon.
+
+_Tuesday, 18th April_: Station and houses at Asnières taken by the army
+of Versailles.
+
+_Thursday, 20th April_: The village of Bagneux is occupied by the
+Versaillais.—Reorganisation of commissions. Eudes appointed
+inspector-general of the southern forts. Transfers his quarters from
+Montrouge to the Palace of the Legion of Honour.
+
+_Saturday, 22nd April_: Deputation from the Freemasons to Versailles.
+
+_Monday, 24th April_: Raoul Rigault takes the office of public
+prosecutor, resigning the Prefecture of Police to Cournet.
+
+_Tuesday, 25th April_: The Versailles batteries at Breteuil,
+Brimborion, Meudon, and Moulin de Pierre trouble the Federal Fort Issy,
+and battery between Bagneux and Châtillon shells Fort Vanves. Truce at
+Neuilly from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The inhabitants of Neuilly enter Paris by
+the Porte des Ternes.
+
+_Wednesday, 26th April_: Capture of Les Moulineaux, outpost of the
+insurgents, by the troops, who strongly fortify themselves on the 27th
+and 28th.
+
+_Saturday, 29th April_: Cemetery and park of Issy taken by the
+Versaillais in the night.—Freemasons make a new attempt at
+conciliation. The Commune levies a sum of two millions of francs from
+the railway companies.
+
+_Sunday, 30th April_: A flag of truce sent to Fort Issy by the
+Versaillais, calling upon the Federals to surrender. General Eudes puts
+fresh troops in the fort, and takes the command himself.—Cluseret
+imprisoned at Mazas by order of the Commune. Rossel appointed
+provisional Delegate of War.
+
+_Monday, 1st May_: The Versaillais take the station of Clamart and the
+Château of Issy.—Creation of the Committee of Public Safety. Members:
+Antoine Arnauld, Léo Meillet, Ranvier, Félix Pyat, Charles Gérardin.
+
+_Wednesday, 3rd May_: The troops of General Lacretelle carry the
+redoubt of Moulin Saquet.
+
+_Friday, 5th May_: Colonel Rossel appointed to the direction of
+military affairs. He defines the military quarters: General Dombrowski,
+Place Vendôme; General La Cécilia, at the Ecole Militaire; General
+Wroblewski, at the Elysée; General Bergeret, at the Corps Législatif;
+General Eudes at the Palace of the Legion of Honour. The Central
+Committee of the National Guard charged with Administration of War
+under the supervision of the military commission. The Chapelle
+Expiatoire condemned to destruction—the materials to be sold by
+auction.
+
+_Saturday, 6th May_: Concert at the Tuileries in aid of the ambulances.
+Suppression of newspapers.
+
+_Monday, 8th May_: Battery of Montretout (70 marine guns) opens fire.
+
+_Tuesday, 9th May_: Morning, insurgents evacuate the Fort Issy.—The
+Committee of Public Safety renewed. Members: Ranvier, Antoine Arnauld,
+Gambon, Eudes, Delescluze. Rossel resigns; his letter to the Commune.
+
+_Wednesday, 10th May_: Cannon from the Fort Issy taken to
+Versailles.—Decree for the demolition of M. Thiers’ house. Delescluze
+appointed Delegate of War.
+
+_Friday, 12th May_: Troops take possession of the Couvent des Oiseaux
+at Issy, and the Lyceum at Vanves.
+
+_Saturday, 13th May_: Triumphal entry of the troops into Versailles
+with flags and cannon taken from the Convent. The evacuation of the
+village of Issy completed. Fort Vanves taken by the troops.
+
+_Sunday, 14th May_: Vigorous cannonade from the batteries of
+Courbevoie, Bécon, Asnières on Levallois and Clichy: both villages
+evacuated. Commencement of the demolition of house of M. Thiers.
+
+_Monday, 15th May_: Report of the rearmament of Montmartre.
+
+_Tuesday, 16th May_: The Column Vendôme falls.
+
+_Wednesday, 11th May_: Powder magazine and cartridge factory near the
+Champ de Mars blown up.
+
+_Sunday, 21st May_: 2 p.m. the troops enter Paris.—Rochefort arrives at
+Versailles. Raoul Rigault and Régère charged with the hostage decree.
+
+_Monday, 22nd May_: Noon, explosion of the powder magazine of the
+Manège d’Etat-Major (staff riding-school). The hostages transferred
+from Mazas to La Roquette. Assy arrested in Paris by the Versaillais.
+The Assembly votes the re-erection of the Column Vendôme.
+
+_Tuesday, 23rd May_: Montmartre taken. Death of Dombrowski. Morning,
+Assy arrives at Versailles. Execution of gendarmes and Gustave Chaudey
+at the prison of Sainte-Pélagie. Night, the Tuileries are set on fire.
+Delescluze and the Committee of Public Safety hold permanent sittings
+at the Hôtel de Ville.
+
+_Wednesday, 24th May_: One p.m., the powder magazine at the Palais du
+Luxembourg blown up. The Committee of Public Safety organise
+detachments of fusee-bearers. Raoul Rigault shot in the afternoon by
+the soldiers. In the evening, execution in the Prison of La Roquette of
+the Archbishop, Abbé Deguerry, etc.
+
+_Thursday, 26th May_: The forts Montrouge, Hautes-Bruyères, Bicêtre
+evacuated by the insurgents. The death of Delescluze is reported to
+have taken place this day. Executions in the Avenue d’Italie of the
+Pères Dominicains of Arcueil.
+
+_Friday, 26th May_: Sixteen priests shot in the Cemetery of Père
+Lachaise by the insurgents.
+
+_Saturday, 27th May_: The Buttes Chaumont, the heights of Belleville,
+and the Cemetery of Père Lachaise carried by the troops. Taking of the
+prison La Roquette by the Marines. Deliverance of 169 hostages.
+
+_Sunday, 28th May_: The investment of Belleville complete.
+
+_Monday, 29th May_: Six. p.m., the federal garrison of the fortress of
+Vincennes surrendered at discretion.
+
+
+
+
+ I. (Page 2.)
+
+ HENRI ROCHEFORT.
+
+
+Henri Rochefort, personal enemy of the Empire, republican humourist of
+the _Marseillaise_, and the lukewarm socialist of the _Mot d’Ordre_,
+who could answer to the judge who demanded his name, “I am Henri
+Rochefort, Comte de Lucey,” has been reproached by some with his titles
+of nobility, and with the childish pleasure that he takes in affecting
+the plebeian. It is said of him that he aspires but to descend, but who
+would condemn him for spurning the petrifactions of the Faubourg
+Saint-Germain? A man must march with the times.
+
+Rochefort has distinguished himself among the young men by the
+marvellous tact that he has shown in discovering the way to popular
+favour. If I were allowed to compare a marquis to one of the canine
+species, I should say that he has a keen scent for popularity; but one
+must respect rank in a period like ours, when we may go to sleep to the
+shouts of the _canaille_, and awake to the melodious sounds of “_Vive
+Henri V!_” “Long live the King!”
+
+Born in January, 1830, Henri Rochefort was the son of a marquis,
+although his father, lately dead, was a _vaudevilliste_ and his mother
+a _pâtissère_. From such a fusion might have emanated odd tastes, such
+as preferring truffles to potatoes, but putting the knife into
+requisition whilst eating green peas. But in his case Mother Nature had
+intermingled elements so cleverly that Rochefort could be republican
+and royalist, catholic and atheist, without being accused for all that
+of being a political weathercock.
+
+As a writer of drollery and scandal in the _Charivari_, would it have
+been well if he had used his title as a badge? Later, when contributing
+to the _Nain Jaune_, the _Soleil_, the _Evénement_, and the _Figaro_,
+when everyone would have been enchanted to call him _mon cher Comte_,
+he never displayed his rank, except when on the ground, face to face
+with the sword or pistol of Prince Achille Murat or Paul de Cassagnac.
+
+A frequenter of _cafés_, living fast, bitter with journalists,
+hail-fellow with comedians, he lavished his wit for the benefit of
+minor theatres, and expended the exuberance of his patrician blood in
+comic odes. Dispensing thus some of his strength in such pieces as the
+_Vieillesse de Brididi_, the _Foire aux Grotesques_, and _Un Monsieur
+Bien-Mis_, in 1868 he founded the _Lanterne_, and thenceforth became
+the most ardent champion of the revolutionary party; and in the
+brilliant articles we all know, he cast its light on the follies of
+others under the pretext that they were his own. This satirical
+production reached the eleventh number, when its author, overstepping
+all bounds, took Napoleon by the horns and the gendarmes by the nose,
+and committed other extravagances, until the Government fined him to
+the amount of ten thousand francs penalties, and ordered him a short
+repose in the prison of Sainte-Pélagie. The notoriety attaching to his
+name dates from that period, and the events which accompanied the
+violent death of Victor Noir tended to augment his popularity and to
+convert him into the leader of a party, or the bearer of a flag, around
+which rallied all the elements of the struggle against established
+authority. He escaped to Belgium, and studied socialism, which he
+expounded later to an admiring audience of seventeen to eighteen
+thousand electors at Belleville. Elected deputy by the 20th
+Arrondissement, M. de Rochefort became, in 1869, a favourite
+representative of that class of the Parisian population whose bad
+instincts he had flattered and whose tendencies to revolt against
+authority he had encouraged, and in virtue of these claims he was
+chosen to form part of the Government of the National Defence. As
+President of the Commission of Barricades, after the 4th of September,
+during the siege of Paris, in the midst of the difficulties of all
+sorts caused to the Government of the National Defence by the
+investment of the capital, M. De Rochefort, making more and more common
+cause with the revolutionary party, separated himself from his
+colleagues in the Government who refused to permit the establishment of
+a second Government, the Commune, within a besieged city. By this act
+he openly declared himself a partisan of the Commune, and immediately
+after the acceptance of the preliminaries of peace he resigned his
+position as a deputy, alleging that his commission was at an end, and
+retired to Arcachon.
+
+His wildly sanguinary articles in the _Marseillaise_, and the compacts
+sealed with blood, with Flourens and his associates, now had so
+exhausted our poor Rochefort that at the moment of flourishing his
+handkerchief as the standard of the _canaille_, he dropped pale and
+fainting to the ground, attacked by a severe illness. He was hardly
+convalescent when the events of the 18th of March occurred. But early
+in April, he exerted himself to assume the direction of the _Mot
+d’Ordre_, which, after having been suppressed by order of General
+Vinoy, the military commandant of Paris, had reappeared immediately
+upon the establishment of the Commune. He arrived on the scene of
+contest about the 8th or 10th of April. The daily report of military
+operations states the movements of the enemy, and points out what
+should be done to meet and resist him most advantageously (12th, 13th,
+and 14th of April; 10th; 16th, and 20th of May). Imaginary successes,
+the inaccuracy of which must in most instances have been known to the
+chief editor of the _Mot d’Ordre_, encouraged the hopes of the
+insurgents, while the announcement of unsuccessful combats was delayed
+with evident intention; the most ridiculous stories, the falsity of
+which was evident to the plainest common sense, and which could not
+escape the intelligence of M. Rochefort, were published in his journal,
+and kept up the popular excitement (12th, 15th, 19th, 26th, 27th, and
+28th of April; 6th and 7th of May). It was in this manner that the
+pretended Pontifical Zouaves were brought upon the scene, with
+emblazoned banners, which were seized by the soldiers of the Commune
+(18th and 19th of April, 8th and 10th of May); that the Government of
+Versailles was furnished with war material given by, or purchased from
+the Prussians (27th and 28th of April, 6th and 17th of May); that it
+was again accused of making use of explosive bullets (18th and 19th of
+May), and of petroleum bombs (20th of April, and 2nd, 5th, 17th, and
+19th of May); and that the best-known and most respected generals had
+been guilty of the grossest acts of cruelty and barbarity. Incitement
+to civil war (2nd and 26th of April and 14th and 24th of May) followed,
+as did also the oft-repeated accusation against the Government of
+wishing to reduce Paris by famine; indescribable calumnies directed
+against the Chief of the Executive Power (2nd, 16th, 20th, and 30th of
+April, and 8th of May), against the minister, the Chambers (16th of
+April and 14th of May), and the generals (12th, 16th, and 26th of
+April). The director of the _Mot d’Ordre_ then finding that men’s minds
+were prepared for all kinds of excesses, started the idea of the
+demolition of M. Thiers’s house by way of reprisal (6th of April); he
+mentioned the artistic wealth which it contained. He also referred to
+the dwellings of other ministers. He returned persistently to this
+idea, and on the 17th of May he invited the people, in the name of
+justice, to burn off-hand that other humiliating monument which is
+styled the History of the Consulate and of the Empire—in short, he
+insists on the execution of these acts of Vandalism. He did not call
+for the destruction of the Column Vendôme, but approved of the decree.
+He demands the destruction of the Expiatory Chapel of Louis XVI. (20th
+of April), and suggests the seizure of the crown jewels, which were in
+the possession of the bank (14th of April). In short, M. Rochefort,
+having entered upon a road which must naturally lead to extremes,
+finally arrives at a proposition for assassination. In the same way as
+he pointed out to the demolishers the house of M. Thiers, and to the
+bandits released by the Commune the treasures of the Church, so he
+points out to the assassins the unfortunate hostages.
+
+A few days before the end of the reign of the Commune he judged it
+prudent, “seeing the gravity of events,” to suspend the publication of
+his journal and to quit Paris.
+
+He was arrested at Meaux. It was the “_Meaux de la fin_,”[113] said a
+friend and fellow-writer.
+
+He arrived at Versailles on the twenty-first of May, at two o’clock,
+the same day on which the troops entered Paris. On Sept. 20 Rochefort
+was tried with the Communists before the military tribunal of
+Versailles. Physically he seemed to have suffered much during his three
+months of incarceration. He is reported to have made anything but a
+brilliant defence, and to have restricted himself to pleading past
+actions and good services. He said that he suppressed _The
+Marseillaise_ at a loss of 20,000 francs per month, when he had no
+other private means of support, because he thought the effect of its
+articles would weaken the plan of Trochu for the defence of Paris, and
+that when he (M. Rochefort) held the _forces populaires_, and had an
+_occasion unique_, he chose to play a subordinate part. He stated
+himself a journalist _under_ the reign of the Commune, and not an
+active power _in_ the Commune from which in the end he had to fly.
+Rochefort owned that his articles in the _Mot d’Ordre_ had been more or
+less violent, but he pleaded the cause his “_façon plus ou moins
+nerveuse à écrire_” and that from illness he did not sometimes see his
+own journal. When pandering to a vulgar audience, Rochefort seemed to
+have lost his rich vein of satire, and to have lost himself in vile
+abuse. On the 21st he was sentenced to transportation for life within
+the enceinte of a French fortress.
+
+NOTES:
+
+ [113] “_Le mot de la fin_,” the final word—the finale.
+
+
+
+
+ II. (Page 27.)
+
+THE EIGHTEENTH OF MARCH.
+
+
+It was on the day of the 18th of March, exactly six months after the
+appearance of Prussians beneath the walls of Paris, that the Government
+had chosen for the repression of the rebellion. At four o’clock in the
+morning, the troops of the army of Paris received orders to occupy the
+positions that had been assigned to them. All were to take part in the
+action, but it is just to add here that the most arduous and fatiguing
+part fell to the share of the Lustielle division, composed of the
+Paturel brigade (17th battalion of Chasseurs), and of the Lecomte
+brigade (18th battalion of Chasseurs). Three regiments of infantry were
+entrusted with the guard of the Hôtel de Ville; another, the 89th,
+mounted guard at the Tuileries. The Place de la Bastille was occupied
+by a battalion of the 64th, and two companies of the 24th. Three other
+battalions remained confined to barracks on the Boulevard du Prince
+Eugene. The Rue de Flandre, the Rue de Puebla, and the Rue de Crimée
+were filled with strong detachments of Infantry; a battalion of the
+Republican Guard and the 35th Regiment of Infantry were drawn up in the
+neighbourhood of the Buttes Chaumont. The whole quarter around the
+Place Clichy was occupied by the Republican Guard, foot Chasseurs,
+mounted gendarmes, Chasseurs d’Afrique, and a half battery of
+artillery. Other troops, starting from this base-line of operation,
+were led up the heights of Montmartre, together with companies of
+Gardiens de la Paix (the former Sergents-de-Ville converted into
+soldiers). At six o’clock in the morning the first orders were
+executed; the Gardiens de la Paix surrounded a hundred and fifty or two
+hundred insurgents appointed to guard the park of artillery, and the
+troops made themselves masters of all the most important points. The
+success was complete. Nothing remained to be done but to carry off the
+guns. Unhappily, the horses which had been ordered for this purpose did
+not arrive at the right moment. The cause of this fatal delay remains
+still unknown, but it is certain that they were still on the Place de
+la Concorde at the time when they ought to have been harnessed to the
+guns at Montmartre. Before they arrived, agitation had broken out and
+spread all over the quarter. The turbulent population, complaining in
+indignant tones of circulation being stopped, insulted the sentinels
+placed at the entrances of the streets, and threatened the artillerymen
+who were watching them. At the same time, the Central Committee caused
+the rappel to be beaten, and towards seven o’clock in the morning ten
+or twelve thousand National Guards from the arrondissements of
+Batignolles, Montmartre, La Villette, and Belleville poured into the
+streets. Crowds of lookers-on surrounded the soldiers who were mounting
+guard by the recaptured pieces, the women and children asking them
+pleadingly if they would have the heart to fire upon their brothers.
+
+Meanwhile, about a dozen tumbrils, with their horses, had arrived on
+the heights of the Buttes, the guns were dragged off, and were quietly
+proceeding down hill, when, at the corner of the Rue Lepic and the Rue
+des Abbesses, they were stopped by a concourse of several hundred
+people of the quarter, principally women and children. The foot
+soldiers, who were escorting the guns, forgetting their duty, allowed
+themselves to be dispersed by the crowd, and giving way to perfidious
+persuasion, ended by throwing up the butt ends of their guns. These
+soldiers belonged to the 88th Battalion of the Lecomte brigade. The
+immediate effect of their disaffection was to abandon the artillerymen
+to the power of the crowd that was increasing every moment, rendering
+it utterly impossible for them either to retreat or to advance. And the
+result was, that at nine o’clock in the morning the pieces fell once
+more into the hands of the National Guards.
+
+Judging that the enterprise had no chance of succeeding by a return to
+the offensive, Général Vinoy ordered a retreat, and retired to the
+quarter of Les Ternes. This movement had been, moreover, determined by
+the bad news arriving from other parts of Paris. The operations at
+Belleville had succeeded no better than those at Montmartre. A
+detachment of the 35th had, it is true, attacked and taken the Buttes
+Chaumont, defended only by about twenty National Guards; but as soon as
+the news of the capture had spread in the quarter, the drums beat to
+arms, and in a short time the troops were found fraternising with the
+National Guards of Belleville, who got possession again of the Buttes
+Chaumont, and not only retook their own guns, but also those which the
+artillery had brought up to support the manoeuvre of the infantry of
+the line. At the same time, the 120th shamefully allowed themselves to
+be disarmed by the people, and the insurgents became masters of the
+barracks of the Prince Eugène.
+
+At about four o’clock in the afternoon, two columns of National Guards,
+each composed of three battalions, made their way towards the Hôtel de
+Ville, where they were joined by a dozen other battalions from the left
+bank of the river; at the same hour, the insurgent guards of Belleville
+took and occupied the Imprimerie Nationale, the Napoleon Barracks, the
+staff-quarters of the Place Vendôme, and the railway stations; the
+arrest of Général Chanzy completed the work of the day, which had been
+put to profitable account by the insurgents.—“_Guerre de Comunneux de
+Paris._”
+
+
+
+
+ III. (Page 77.)
+
+THE PRUSSIANS AND THE COMMUNE.
+
+
+The enemies of yesterday, the Prussians, did not disdain to enter into
+communication with the Central Committee on the 22nd of March. This was
+an additional reason for the new masters of Paris to regard their
+position as established, and the _Official Journal_ took care to make
+known to the public the following despatch received from Prussian
+head-quarters:—
+
+“To the actual Commandant of Paris, the Commander-in-Chief of the third
+corps d’armée.
+    “Head-quarters, Compiègne,
+    “21st March, 1871.
+
+“The undersigned Commander-in-Chief takes the liberty of informing you
+that the German troops that occupy the forts on the north and east of
+Paris, as well as the neighbourhood of the right bank of the Seine,
+have received orders to maintain a pacific and friendly attitude, so
+long as the events of which the interior of Paris is the theatre, do
+not assume towards the German forces a hostile character, or such as to
+endanger them, but keep within the terms settled by the treaty of
+peace.
+    “But should these events assume a hostile character, the city of
+    Paris will be treated as an enemy.
+
+“For the Commandant of the third corps of the Imperial armies,
+“(Signed) Chief of the Staff, VON SCHLOSHEIM,
+“Major-General.”
+
+Paschal Grousset, the delegate of the Central Committee for Foreign
+Affairs, who had succeeded Monsieur Jules Favre, but who instead of
+minister was called delegate, which was much more democratic, replied
+as follows:—
+
+“Paris, 22nd March, 1871.
+“To the Commandant-in-Chief of the Imperial Prussian Armies.
+
+“The undersigned, delegate of the Central Committee for Foreign
+Affairs, in reply to your despatch dated from Compiègne the 21st
+instant, informs you that the revolution, accomplished in Paris by the
+Central Committee, having an essentially municipal character, has no
+aggressive views whatever against the German armies.
+    “We have no authority to discuss the preliminaries of peace voted
+    by the Assembly at Bordeaux.
+
+“The member of the Central Committee, Delegate for Foreign Affairs.
+“(Signed) PASCHAL GROUSSET.”
+
+It was very logical of you, Monsieur Grousset, to avow that you had no
+authority to discuss the preliminaries of peace voted by the Assembly.
+What right had you then to substitute yourselves for it? He did not,
+however, thus remain midway in his diplomatic career, for after the
+election of the Commune he thought it his duty to address the following
+letter to the German authorities:—
+
+“COMMUNE OF PARIS.
+“To the Commander-in-chief of the 3rd Corps.
+
+“GENERAL,
+
+“The delegate of the Commune of Paris for Foreign Affairs has the
+honour to address to you the following observations:—
+    “The city of Paris, like the rest of France, is interested in the
+    observance of the conditions of peace concluded with Prussia; she
+    has therefore a right to know how the treaty will be executed. I
+    beg you, in consequence, to have the goodness to inform me if the
+    Government of Versailles has made the first payment of five hundred
+    millions, and if in consequence of such payment, the chiefs of the
+    German army have fixed the date for the evacuation of the part of
+    the territory of the department of the Seine, and also of the forts
+    which form an integral portion of the territory of the Commune of
+    Paris.
+    “I shall be much obliged, General, if you will be good enough to
+    enlighten me in this respect.
+
+“The Delegate for Foreign Affairs,
+“(Signed) PASCHAL GROUSSET.”
+
+The German general did not think fit, as far as we know, to send any
+answer to the above.
+
+
+
+
+ IV. (Page 88.)
+
+GAMBON.
+
+
+There are certain legendary names which when spoken or remembered evoke
+a second image and raise a double personality, Castor implies Pollux;
+Ninos, Euryalus; Damon, Pythias. An inferior species of union connects
+Saint Anthony with his pig, Roland with his mare, and the infinitely
+more modern Gambon with his historic cow. He was “the village Hampden”
+of the Empire. By withstanding the tyranny of Caesar’s tax-gatherer and
+refusing to pay the imperial rates, he obtained a popularity upon which
+he existed until the Commune gave him power. His history is brief.
+About a year before the fall of the Second Empire, he declared that he
+would pay no more taxes imposed by the Government. Thereupon, all his
+realizable property, consisting of one cow, was seized by the
+authorities and sold for the benefit of the State. This procured him
+the commiseration of the entire party of _irréconciliables_. A
+subscription was opened in the columns of the _Marseillaise_ to replace
+the sequestrated animal, and “La vache à Gambon”—“Gambon’s cow”—became
+a derisive party cry. Gambon had been a deputy in 1848, and when the
+Commune came into power took a constant though not remarkable part in
+its deliberations. He was appointed member of the Delegation of Justice
+on the twentieth of April.
+
+
+
+
+ V. (Page 120.).
+
+LULLIER.
+
+
+Charles Ernest Lullier was born in 1838, admitted into the Naval School
+in 1854, and appointed cadet of the second class in 1856. He was
+expelled the Naval School for want of obedience and for his irascible
+character. When on board the Austerlitz he was noted for his
+quarrelsome disposition and his violent behaviour to his superiors as
+well as his equals, which led to his removal from the ship and to his
+detention for a month on board the Admiral’s ship at Brest. He was
+first brought into notoriety by his quarrel with Paul de Cassagnac, the
+editor of the _Pays_, whom he challenged, and who refused his cartel.
+Lullier is celebrated for several acts of the most violent audacity. He
+struck one of the Government counsel in the Palais de Justice, and
+openly threatened the Minister of Marine. He was condemned several
+times for political offences and breaches of discipline. On the fourth
+of September he left Sainte-Pélagie at the same time as Rochefort. He
+attacked the new government in every possible way; and when the events
+of the 18th March occurred, M. Lullier—the man of action, the man
+recommended by Flourens—seized the opportunity to justify the hopes
+formed of him by his political associates, who had not lost sight of
+him, and who elected him military chief of the insurrection. As General
+of the National Guard, he has given us the history of his deeds during
+the 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, and 22nd March. He has since complacently
+described the energy with which he executed his command, has explained
+the means he used, and the points occupied by the insurgents; and has
+described in the same style the occupation of the Paris forts by the
+National Guard.
+
+When, on the 18th of March, the Central Committee offered him the
+command in chief of the National Guard, he would only accept it on the
+following conditions:—
+
+1. The raising of the state of siege.
+
+2. The election by the National Guard of all its officers, including
+the general.
+
+3. Municipal franchises for Paris—that is to say, the right of the
+citizens to meet—to appoint magistrates for the city, and to tax
+themselves by their representatives.
+
+On being appointed he made it a condition that the initiative should
+rest with him, and then he began to execute his duties with a zeal
+which never relaxed till his arrest on the 22nd March. By his orders,
+barricades were erected in the Rue de Rivoli, where he massed the
+insurgent forces. He ordered the occupation of the Hôtel de Ville and
+the Napoleon Barracks by Brunel, the commander of the insurgents. At
+midnight he took possession of the Prefecture of Police, at one o’clock
+of the Tuileries, at two o’clock of the Place du Palais Royal, and at
+four o’clock he was informed that the Ministry were to meet at the
+Foreign Office.—“I would have surrounded them,” he said, “but Jules
+Favre’s presence withheld me. I contented myself therefore with
+occupying the Place Vendôme, the Hôtel de Ville, and ordering
+strategical points on the right bank of the river and four on the
+left.”
+
+He was subsequently accused of having sold Mont Valérien to the
+Versailles authorities, arrested, and thrown into the Conciergerie. He
+reappeared, however, on the 14th April as commander of the flotilla of
+the Commune. Furious with the Central Committee and the Commune he
+opposed them and was arrested, but contrived to escape from Mazas. From
+that moment the general of the Commune put himself in communication
+with Versailles through the mediation of M. Camus and Baron Dathiel de
+la Tuque, who agreed with him to organise a counter revolution. Lullier
+was now busily employed in endeavouring to make people forget the part
+he had taken in the insurrection of the 18th March. He had made it a
+condition that neither he nor his accomplices, Gomez d’Absin and
+Bisson, should be prosecuted. The expenses were calculated at 30,000
+francs; of which M. Camus gave 2000 francs to Lullier, but the scheme
+did not succeed. Lullier undertook to have all the members of the
+Commune arrested, and to send the hostages to Versailles. Lullier is a
+man of courage, foolhardy even, who never hesitated to fight, and if at
+the end of the Commune he tried to serve the legitimate government, it
+was from a spirit of revenge against the men who had refused his
+dictation, and in his own interest.
+
+
+
+
+ VI. (Page 220.)
+
+PROTOT.
+
+
+Citizen Protot, appointed Delegate of Justice by a decree of the
+twentieth of April, 1871, was born in 1839.
+
+As an advocate, he defended Mégy, the famous Communist general of the
+fort of Issy, when he was accused of the assassination of a police
+agent on the eleventh of April, 1870. This trial, and the ability he
+displayed, drew public attention for a moment upon him. Compromised as
+a member of secret societies, he managed to escape the police, but was
+condemned in his absence to fines and imprisonment. Having been himself
+a victim of the law, his attention was first given to the drawing up of
+a decree, thus worded:—
+
+“The notaries and public officers in general shall draw up legal
+documents which fall within their duty without charge.”
+
+In the discussion on the subject of the confiscation of the property of
+M. Thiers, he proposed that all the plate and other objects in his
+possession bearing the image of the Orleans family should be sent to
+the mint.
+
+
+
+
+ VII. (Page 229.)
+
+
+“And now he thinks: ‘The Empire is tottering,
+    There’s little chance of victory.’
+Then, creeping furtively backwards, he tries to slink away.
+    Remain, renegade, in the building!
+
+“‘The ceiling falls,’ you say! ‘if they see me
+    They will seize and stop me as I go,’
+Daring neither to rest nor fly, you miserably watch the roof
+    And then the door,
+
+“And shiveringly you put your hand upon the bolt.
+    Back into the dismal ranks!
+Back! Justice, whom they have thrust into a pit,
+    Is there in the darkness.
+
+“Back! She is there, her sides bleeding from their knives,
+    Prostrate; and on her grave
+They have placed a slab. The skirt of your cloak
+    Is caught beneath the stone.
+
+“Thou shalt not go! What! Quit their house!
+    And fly from their fate!
+What! Would you betray even treachery itself,
+    And make even it indignant?
+
+“What! Did you not hold the ladder to these tricksters
+    In open daylight?
+Say, was the sack for these robbers’ booty
+    Not made by you beforehand?
+
+“Falsehood, Hate, with its cold and venomous fang,
+    Crouch in this den.
+And thou wouldst leave it! Thou! more cunning than Falsehood,
+    More viperous than Hate.”
+
+
+
+
+ VIII. (Page 231.)
+
+JOURDE.
+
+
+Jourde certainly occupied one of the most difficult offices of the
+Commune, for he had to find the means to maintain the situation, but as
+the Ministry of Finances is burnt, no documents can be found to show
+the employment he made of the funds which passed through his hands. On
+the 30th of May, when he was arrested, disguised as an artizan, with
+his friend Dubois, he had about him a sum of 8070 francs in bank notes,
+and Dubois 3100 francs; making a total sum of 11,170 francs between the
+two. A part of Jourde’s cash was hidden in the lining of his waistcoat;
+he declared that it was the only sum taken by him out of the moneys
+belonging to the state, thus clearly proving that he had been guilty of
+embezzlement.
+
+The amounts declared to have been received by Jourde form a total of
+43,891,000 francs, but as the expenses amount to 47,000,000 francs, it
+is clear there is a deficiency of 3,309,000. Notwithstanding this fact,
+all the payments were made up to the 29th of May. It is, then, certain
+that other moneys were received by Jourde, and as he says that cash has
+been refused from some unknown persons who offered to lend 50,000,000
+francs on the guarantee of the picture gallery of the Louvre, the
+suggestion comes naturally to the mind that the 3,309,000 francs may
+have been produced by the sale of valuables in the Tuileries. Jourde
+was sentenced by the tribunal of Versailles to transportation beyond
+the seas.
+
+
+
+
+ IX. (Page 316.)
+
+
+These are the last proclamations from the Hôtel de Ville. They refer
+immediately to the burning of the capital.
+
+In the evening of the thirty-first of May, when Delescluze denied with
+vehemence that the regular army had made its entry, he wrote to
+Dombrowski:—
+
+    “CITIZEN—I learn that the orders given for the construction of
+    barricades are contradictory.
+    “See that this be not repeated.
+    “Blow up or burn the houses which interfere with your plans for the
+    defence. The barricades ought to be unattackable from the houses.
+    “The defenders of the Commune must be removed above want: give to
+    the necessitous that which is contained in the houses about to be
+    destroyed.
+    “Moreover, make all necessary requisitions,
+
+    “DELESCLUZE, A. BILLICRAY.”
+    “Paris, 2nd Prairial, an 79.”
+
+On the 22nd appeared the following proclamation:—
+
+    “CITIZENS,—The gate of Saint-Cloud, attacked from four directions
+    at once, was forcibly taken by the Versaillais, who have become
+    masters of a considerable portion of Paris.
+    “This reverse, far from discouraging us, should prove a stimulus to
+    our exertions. A people who have dethroned kings, destroyed
+    Bastilles, and established a Republic, can not lose in a day the
+    fruits of the emancipation of the 18th of March.
+    “Parisians, the struggle we have commenced cannot be abandoned, for
+    it is a struggle between the past and the future, between liberty
+    and despotism, equality and monopoly, fraternity and servitude, the
+    unity of nations and the egotism of oppressors.
+
+    “AUX ARMES!
+
+    “Yes,—to arms! Let Paris bristle with barricades, and from behind
+    these improvised ramparts let her shout to her enemies the cry of
+    war, its cry of fierce pride of defiance, and of victory; for Paris
+    with her barricades is invincible.
+    “Let the pavement of the streets be torn up; firstly, because the
+    projectiles coming from the enemy are less dangerous falling on
+    soft ground; secondly, because these paving-stones, serving as a
+    new means of defence, can be carried to the higher floors where
+    there are balconies.
+    “Let revolutionary Paris, the Paris of great deeds, do her duty;
+    the Commune and the Committee for Public Safety will do theirs.
+
+    “Hôtel de Ville, 2nd Prairial, an 79,
+    “The Committee for Public Safety,
+    “ANTOINE ARNAULT, E. EUDES, F. GAMBON, G. RANVIER.”
+
+These are the commentaries made by Citizen Delescluze:—
+
+    “Citoyen Jacquet is authorised to find men and materials for the
+    construction of barricades in the Rue du Château d’Eau and in the
+    Rue d’Albany.
+    “The citoyens and citoyennes who refuse their aid will be shot on
+    the spot.
+    “The citoyens, chiefs of barricades, are entrusted with the care of
+    assuring tranquillity each in his own quarter.
+    “They are to inspect all houses bearing a suspicious appearance
+    &c., &c.
+    “The houses suspected are to be set light to at the first signal
+    given.
+
+    “DELESCLUZE.”
+
+
+
+
+ X. (Page 335.)
+
+FERRÉ.
+
+
+At half-past nine on the morning of the 18th of March Ferré was at No.
+6, Rue des Rosiers, opposing the departure of the prisoners of the
+Republican Guard, by obtaining from the Commander Bardelle the
+revocation of the order for their dismissal, which was known to have
+been issued. He went to the council of the Château Rouge, whither
+General Lecomte was about to be taken, and made himself conspicuous by
+the persistency with which he called for the death of that general. On
+the morning of Monday, the 24th May, a witness residing at the
+Prefecture of Police saw Ferré and five others going up the stairs of
+the Prefecture of Police. Ferré said to him, “Be off as quick as you
+can. We are going to set fire to the place. In a quarter of an hour it
+will be in flames.” Half an hear afterwards the witness saw the flames
+burst forth from two windows of the office of the Procureur-Général.
+When Raoul Rigault was installed during the insurrection, a woman saw
+some persons washing the walls of the Prefecture of Police with
+petroleum. Seeing them going out by the court of the St. Chapelle, she
+noticed among them one smaller than the rest, wearing a grey paletot
+with a black velvet collar, and black striped trousers. On the same day
+a police agent went to La Roquette to order the shooting of Mgr. Darboy
+and the other prisoners—the President Bonjean, the Abbé Allard, the
+Père Ducoudray, and the Abbé Deguerry. On Saturday, the 27th, Ferré
+installed himself in the clerk’s office of the prison, and ordered the
+release of certain of the criminals and gave them arms and ammunition.
+Upon this they proceeded to massacre a great number of the prisoners,
+among whom were 66 gendarmes. Several witnesses saw Ferré that day at
+the prison.
+
+
+
+
+ XI. (Page 342.)
+
+
+At the trial of Ferré, August 10, Dr. Puymoyen, physician to the prison
+for juvenile offenders, opposite La Roquette, gave the following
+graphic evidence:—
+
+“Immediately after the insurgents, driven back by the troops, had
+occupied La Roquette, they installed a court-martial at the children’s
+prison opposite, where I live. It was from thence I saw the poor
+wretches whom they feigned to release, ushered in to the square, where
+they encountered an ignoble mob, that ill-treated them in the most
+brutal manner. I was told that Ferré presided over this court-martial.
+Its proceedings were singular. I saw an unfortunate gendarme taken to
+the prison; he had been arrested near the Grenier d’Abondance, on a
+denunciation. He wore a blouse, blue trousers, and an apron, and was
+charged with having stolen them. The mob wanted to enter the prison
+along with him, but the keepers, who behaved very well, prevented the
+invasion of the courtyard. The escort was commanded by a young woman
+carrying a Chassepot, and wearing a chignon. I entered the registrar’s
+office with this unfortunate gendarme. One Briand, who was charged to
+question the prisoners summarily, asked him where his clothes came
+from. The man was very cool and courageous, and his perfect
+self-possession disconcerted this _juge d’instruction._ He was asked if
+he were married, and had a family. He replied, ‘Yes, I have a wife and
+eight children.’ He was then shown into the back office, where the
+‘judges’ were. These judges were mere boys, who seemed quite proud of
+the part they were playing, and gave themselves no end of airs, I asked
+the governor of the gaol soon afterwards what had been done with the
+gendarme. He told me that they were going to shoot him. I replied,
+‘Surely it can’t be true. I must see the president—we can’t allow a
+married man with eight children to be murdered in this way.’ I tried to
+get into the room where the court-martial was sitting, but was
+prevented. One of the National Guards on duty at the door told me
+‘Don’t go in there, or you’re done for (_N’y entrez pas, ou vous êtes
+f—_).’ I made immediately further inquiries about M. Grudnemel, and was
+told he was in ‘a provisional cell.’ I trembled for him, for I knew
+that meant he would be given up to the mob, which would tear him to
+pieces. When they said, ‘This man is to be taken to a cell,’ that meant
+that he was to be shot. When they said, ‘Put him in a provisional
+cell,’ it meant that he should be delivered over to the mob for
+butchery, I continued to plead the gendarme’s cause with the National
+Guard, dwelling on the fact of his having eight children. Thereon, the
+Woman above referred to, who appeared to be in command of the
+detachment, exclaimed, ‘Why does this fellow go in for the gendarme?’
+One of her acolytes replied, ‘Smash his jaw.’ This woman seemed to
+understand her business. She minutely inspected the men’s pouches to
+ascertain that they had plenty of ammunition. She would not hear of the
+gendarme being reprieved, and she had her way. I understood that I had
+better follow the governor’s advice and keep quiet. A mere boy was
+placed as sentry at the door of the court-martial. He told me, ‘You
+know I sha’n’t let you in.’ When I saw the poor gendarme leave the room
+he looked at me imploringly; he had probably detected in my eyes a look
+of sympathy. And when he was told that he might go out—hearing the
+yells of the mob—he turned towards me and said, ‘But I shall be stoned
+to death;’ and, in fact, it was perfectly fearful to hear the shouts of
+the crowd outside. I could not withstand the impulse, and I took my
+place by his side, and tried to address the crowd. ‘Think on what you
+are going to do—surely you won’t murder the father of eight children.’
+The words were hardly out of my mouth when a kind of signal was given.
+I was shoved back against the wall, and one National Guard, clapping
+his hand on his musket, ejaculated, ‘You know, you old rascal, there is
+something for you here,’ and he drove his bayonet through my whiskers.
+The unfortunate gendarme was taken across the place, close to the shop
+where they sell funeral wreaths, but there was no firing party in
+attendance. He then took to his heels, but was pursued, captured, and
+put to death. I began to feel rather bewildered, and some one urged me
+to return to the prison, which I did. A young linesman was then brought
+in. He was quite a young fellow, barely twenty; his hands were tied
+behind his back. They decided to kill him within the prison. They set
+upon him, beat him, tore his clothes, so that he had hardly a shred of
+covering left; they made him kneel, then made him stand up, blindfolded
+him then uncovered his eyes; finally they put an end to his long agony
+by shooting him, and flung the body into a costermonger’s cart close to
+the gate. Several priests had got out of the prison of La Roquette. The
+Abbé Surat, on passing over a barricade, was so imprudent as to state
+who he was, and showed some articles of value he had about him. He had
+got as far as about the middle of the Boulevard du Prince Eugène, when
+he was arrested and taken back to the prison, where they prepared to
+shoot him. But the young woman whom I have before mentioned, with a
+revolver in one hand and a dagger in the other, rushed at him
+exclaiming, ‘I must have the honour of giving him the first blow.’ The
+abbé instinctively put his hands out to protect himself, crying,
+‘_Grâce! grâce!_’ Whereon this fury shouted, ‘_Grâce! grâce! en voilà
+un maigre_,’ and she discharged her revolver at him. His body was not
+searched, but his shoes were removed. Afterwards his pastoral cross and
+300 francs were found about him. The boys detained in the prison were
+set at liberty. The smaller ones were made to carry pails of petroleum,
+the others had muskets given them, and were sent to fight. Six of them
+were killed; the remainder came back that night, and on the following
+day. About a hundred boys were taken to Belleville by a member of the
+Commune, quite a young man; they were wanted to make sand-bags, to be
+filled with earth to form barricades.”
+
+
+
+
+ XII. (Page 345.)
+
+
+Regarding the death of President Bonjean, the Abbé de Marsay said—“That
+gentleman carried his scruples so far that he would not avail himself
+of forty-eight hours’ leave on _parole_, fearing he could not get back
+in time; thus did not see his family.”
+
+The Abbé Perni, a venerable man with a white beard, who had been a
+missionary said:
+
+“On Wednesday, the 24th of May, we were ordered back to our cells at La
+Roquette at an earlier hour than usual, and at about four o’clock in
+the afternoon a battalion of federates noisily occupied the passage
+into which our cells opened. They spoke at the topmost pitch of their
+voices. One of them said, ‘We must get rid of these Versailles
+banditti.’ Another replied, ‘Yes; let us bowl them over, put them to
+bed.’ I understood what this meant, and prepared for death. Soon after
+the door next mine was opened, and I heard a man asking if M. Darboy
+was there. The prisoner replied in the negative. The man passed before
+my door without stopping, and I soon heard the mild voice of the
+archbishop answering to his name. The hostages were then dragged put of
+the lobby; ten minutes later I saw the mournful _cortège_ pass in front
+of my windows; the federates were walking along in a confused way,
+making a noise to cover the voice of their victims, but I could hear
+Father Allard exhorting his companions to prepare for death. A little
+after I heard the report of the muskets, and understood that all was
+over. On Thursday (the 25th) the day passed off quietly, but on Friday
+shells began to fall on the prison, and at about half-past four in the
+afternoon a corporal, named Romain. came up, and with a joyful face
+told us we would soon be free. He said answer to your names; I must
+have 15. He had a list in his hand, and I must confess a feeling of
+terror came over us all. Ten hostages answered to their names. One of
+them, a father of the order of Picpus, asked if he could take his hat.
+Romain replied, ‘Oh, it’s no use; you are only going to the
+registrar’s.’ None of these unfortunate men ever returned. On Saturday
+(the 27th) we learnt that several of the prisoners had been armed with
+hammers, files, &c. They threw us some of these in at the windows. We
+were then informed that several members of the Commune had arrived at
+La Roquette. I cannot say whether Ferré was among them. We were taken
+back to our cellars, where we expected to be put to death every minute.
+At about four o’clock the cells of the common prisoners were opened,
+and they escaped, shouting ‘Vive la Commune!’ Our keeper himself had
+disappeared, and a turnkey presently opened our cells, and recommended
+us to run away. We were afraid this was a trap, but as it might afford
+a chance we determined to avail ourselves of it. Those amongst us who
+had plain clothes hurried them on, and I must say the gaolers behaved
+admirably in this emergency; they lent clothes to such of us as had
+none, and we were thus all enabled to escape. As for myself, after
+wandering for about an hour in the streets about the prison, and being
+unable to find shelter anywhere, and afraid of being murdered in the
+streets, I determined to return to La Roquette. As I reached it I met
+the archbishop’s secretary, two priests, and two gendarmes, who, like
+myself, had been driven to return to the prison. One of the keepers
+told us that the safest for us was the sick ward. We dressed up in the
+hospital uniform and hid in bed. At eight in the evening the federates,
+who were not aware that we had escaped, came back and called on the
+gaolers to produce us. They were told we had gone; fortunately they
+believed it. On Sunday the troops came in, and I left La Roquette for
+good this time. In reply to a further question the witness said that as
+the hostages marched past his windows, on their way to execution, he
+saw President Bonjean raising his hands, and heard him say, ‘_Mon Dieu,
+mon Dieu!_’
+
+
+
+
+ XIII. (Page 82.)
+
+URBAIN.
+
+
+Urbain, formerly head master of an academy, was elected to the Commune,
+and became, in virtue of his former office of teacher, a member of the
+Committee of Instruction, retaining at the same time his office of
+mayor. He finally installed himself in his mayoralty about the middle
+of April, with his sister and young son, and gave protection there to
+his mistress, Leroy, who had great influence over him, and who used to
+frequent the committees and clubs. At the mayoralty of the 7th
+Arrondissement this woman, in the absence of the mayor, took the
+direction and management of affairs. During the administration of
+Urbain searches were made in private and in religious houses, this
+woman, Leroy, sometimes taking part in the proceedings; on these
+occasions seizures were made of letters and articles of value, which
+were sent to the mayoralty and from thence to the police-office. Urbain
+and the woman Leroy are accused of having appropriated to themselves
+money and jewellery. At the mayoralty of the 7th Arrondissement there
+were deposits for public instruction to the amount of 8000 francs,
+which had dwindled down to 2900 francs. Urbain confesses having
+employed this money in helping persons compromised like himself. It is
+certain that during the residence of the woman Leroy at the mayoralty
+the expenses exceeded the sum allowed to Urbain. According to the
+evidence of a domestic everybody tad recourse to this unfortunate
+deposit, and it is stated in the instructions that the accused had left
+by will to his son a sum of 4000 francs in bank notes and gold,
+deposited in the hands of his aunt, Madame Danelair, while there is
+clear proof that before the days of the Commune he did not possess a
+sou. Madame Leroy herself, who came to the mayoralty without a penny,
+was found in possession of 1000 francs, which she said were the results
+of her savings. It appears from the statement of M. Laudon, inspector
+of police, that the search made at his house resulted in the
+subtraction of a sum of 6000 francs, and that he has seen a ring which
+belonged to his wife on the finger of the woman Leroy. Though not
+taking a conspicuous share in the military operations, Urbain played an
+important part. His duty was to visit the military stations and to take
+possession of the Fort d’Issy, which had been abandoned. He admits that
+he thus visited the barracks and the ramparts. He ordered the
+construction of barricades, and says that, on the occasion of the
+repulse of the 22nd May, he resisted the entreaties of the woman Leroy,
+who wished him to give up the struggle and to betake himself to the
+Hôtel de Ville, with the view of remaining at his post. As a
+politician, Urbain, in the discussions of the Commune, was very zealous
+and spoke frequently. By his vote he gave his sanction to all the
+violent decrees relating to the hostages, the demolition of the Column,
+the destruction of M. Thiers’ house, and the Committee of Public
+Safety, of which he was one of the most ardent supporters. To him is to
+be attributed in particular the demand for the carrying into execution
+the decree relating to the hostages. On this point here is Urbain’s
+proposal, copied from the _Official Journal_ of the 18th May:—“I demand
+that either the Commune or the Committee of Public Safety should decree
+that the ten hostages in our custody should be shot within twenty-four
+hours, in retaliation for the murders of our cantinière and of the
+bearer of our flag of truce, who were shot in defiance of the law of
+nations. I demand that five of the hostages should be executed solemnly
+in the centre of Paris, in presence of deputations from all the
+battalions, and that the rest should be shot at the advanced posts in
+presence of the soldiers who witnessed the murders. I trust my proposal
+will be agreed to.” By this proposal Urbain has linked his name to the
+horrible crime committed on the hostages. Latterly he was a member of
+the military committee, and his ability served well the cause of the
+insurgents. He was condemned by the court-martial of Versailles to hard
+labour for life, September 2, 1871.
+
+
+
+
+ XIV.
+
+THE DEVASTATIONS OF PARIS.
+
+
+The following is the way in which the fires were prepared:—In some
+instances a number of men, acting as _avant-courriers_, went first,
+telling the inhabitants that the Quarter was about to be delivered to
+the flames, and urging them to fly for their lives; in other oases, the
+unfortunate people were told that the whole city would be burnt, and
+that they might as well meet death where they were as run to seek it
+elsewhere. In some places—in the Rue de Vaugirard, for instance—it is
+asserted that sentinels were placed in the streets and ordered to fire
+upon everyone who attempted to escape. One incendiary, who was arrested
+in the Rue de Poitiers, declared that he received ten francs for each
+house which he set on fire. Another system consisted in throwing
+through the cellar doors or traps tin cans or bottles filled with
+petroleum, phosphorus, nitro-glycerine, or other combustibles, with a
+long sulphur match attached to the neck of the vessel, the match being
+lighted at the moment of throwing the explosives into the cellar.
+Finally, the batteries at Belleville and the cemetery of Père la Chaise
+sent destruction into many quarters by means of petroleum shells.
+
+Eudes, a general of the Commune, sent the following order to one of his
+officers:—
+
+“Fire on the Bourse, the Bank, the Post Office, the Place des
+Victoires, the Place Vendôme, the Garden of the Tuileries, the Babylone
+Barracks; leave the Hôtel de Ville to Commandant Pindy and the Delegate
+of War, and the Committee of Public Safety and of the Commune will
+assemble at the _mairie_ of the eleventh Arrondissement, where you are
+established; there we will organize the defence of the popular quarters
+of the city. We will send you cannon and ammunitions from the Parc
+Basfroi. We will hold out to the last, happen what may.
+
+“(Signed) E. EUDES.”
+
+The insurgents had collected a considerable quantity of powder in the
+Pantheon, and when the Versailles troops obtained possession of the
+building the officer in command at once searched for the slow match,
+and cut it off when it had not more than a yard to burn!
+
+Instructions were given to the firemen not to extinguish the fires, but
+to retire to the Champ de Mars with the pumps and other apparatus.
+Whenever a man attempted to do anything to arrest the conflagration he
+was fired at. The firemen, who had arrived from all parts, even from
+Belgium, and honest citizens who joined them, worked to extinguish the
+fires amid showers of bullets. At the Treasury the labours of these men
+were four times interrupted by the violent cannonading of the
+insurgents.
+
+The fire broke out at the TUILERIES on Tuesday evening. When the
+battalions at the Arc de Triomphe and at the Corps Législatif had
+silenced the guns ranged before the Palace, the insurgents set fire to
+it, and threw out men _en tirailleur_ to prevent anyone from
+approaching to subdue the flames.
+
+At the same moment an attempt was made to set fire to the MINISTRY OF
+MARINE, in obedience to an order given to Commandant Brunel, which was
+thus worded:—“In a quarter of an hour the Tuileries will be in flames;
+as soon as our wounded are removed, you will cause the explosion of the
+Ministry.” It was Admiral Pothuau, the minister himself, who, at the
+head of a handful of sailors, set the incendiaries to flight, Brunel
+along with them. They also arrived in time to prevent any damage being
+done to the BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE.
+
+The struggle was terrific during the night; the insurgents, who had
+sought refuge in the Ministry of Finance, after the taking of the
+barricade in the Rue Saint-Florentin, increased the fury of the flames
+by firing from the windows, and discharging jets of petroleum at the
+soldiers.
+
+On Wednesday morning the battle had become fearful. Towards ten o’clock
+columns of smoke rose above Paris, forming a thick cloud, which the
+sun’s rays could not penetrate. Then, simultaneously, all the fires
+burst forth: at the CONSEIL D’ETAT, at the LEGION OF HONOUR, at the
+CAISSE DES DÉPÔTS ET CONSIGNATIONS. at the HÔTEL DE VILLE, at the
+PALAIS ROYAL, at the MINISTRY OF FINANCE, at the PREFECTURE DE POLICE,
+at the PALAIS DE JUSTICE, at the THÉÂTRE LYRIQUE, in the Rue du Bac,
+the Rue de Lille, the Rue de la Croix-Rouge, Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs,
+in a great number of houses in the Faubourgs Saint-Germain and
+Saint-Honoré, in the Rue Royale, and in the Rue Boissy d’Anglas. Not
+many hours later, flames were seen to arise from the Avenue Victoria,
+Boulevard Sébastopol, Rue Saint-Martin, at the Château d’Eau, in the
+Rue Saint-Antoine, and the Rue de Rivoli.
+
+During the night of Friday, the docks of LA VILLETTE, and the
+warehouses of the DOUANE, the GRENIER D’ABONDANCE and the GOBELINS were
+all burning! So great was the glare that small print could be read as
+far off as Versailles, even on that side of the town towards Meudon and
+Ville d’Avray.
+
+THE DOME OF THE INVALIDES.—This was placed in imminent danger. Mines
+were laid on all sides, but their positions were discovered, and the
+electric wires out which were to have communicated the spark.
+
+THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE.—When the noise of the fusillade and
+cannonading ceased, the Place de la Concorde was a scene of absolute
+desolation. On all sides lay broken pieces of candelabra, balustrades,
+paving-stones, asphalte, and heaps of earth. The water-nymphs and
+Tritons of the fountains were much mutilated, and the statue of the
+town of Lille—one of the eight gigantic, seated figures of the
+principal towns of France, which form a prominent ornament to the
+Place, the work of Pradier, and a likeness of one of the Orleans
+princesses-lay shivered on the ground.
+
+THE ARC DE L’ETOILE.—The triumphal arch bears many scars, but none of
+them of much importance. On the façade looking towards Courbevoie, the
+great bas-relief by Etex, representing “War,” was struck by three
+shells; the group of “Peace” received only the fragment of one. Here
+and there, in the bas-relief representing the “Passage of the Bridge of
+Areole,” and the “Taking of Alexandra,” some traces of balls are
+visible. On the whole, no irremediable hum is done here. Rude’s
+masterpiece, “The Marseillaise,” is untouched.
+
+THE PALACE OF INDUSTRY.—Rumour says Courbet had, among other projects,
+formed an idea of demolishing the Palace of Industry. The painted
+windows of the great nave have received no serious injury. The
+bas-relief of the main façade, picturing Industry and the Arts offering
+their products to the universal exhibitions, has several of its figures
+mutilated. The same has happened to the colossal group by
+Diebolt—France offering laurel crowns to Art and Industry.
+
+THE TUILERIES.—Felix Pyat, in the _Vengeur_, proposed converting the
+Palace of the Tuileries into a school for the children of soldiers. He
+says:—“They have taken possession by the work and activity that reign
+there; a whole floor is filled with tools and activity, and converted
+into workshops for the construction of messenger balloons. King Labour
+is enthroned there. I recognised there among the workmen an exile of
+the revolutionary Commune of London. The workmen and the proscribed at
+the Tuileries! From the prison of London to the palace of the
+Tuileries. It is well!” But in the heart of the Commune the soul of the
+_Vengeur_ underwent a change, and insisted on the complete destruction
+of the “infamous pile.”
+
+The portion of the building overlooking the river was alone preserved.
+The roofing is destroyed, but the façade is but little injured, the
+only work of art damaged here being a pediment by M. Carrier-Belleuse,
+representing “Agriculture.” Fortunately the Government of the Fourth of
+September had sent all the most precious things to the Garde-Meuble
+(Stores); but how can the magnificent Gobelins tapestry, the fine
+ceilings, the works of Charles Lebrun, of Pierre Mignard, of Coypel, of
+Francisque Meillet, of Coysevox, of Girardon, and of many others, and
+the exquisite Salon des Roses be replaced?
+
+The Tuileries burnt for three days, and ten days afterwards the ruins
+blazed forth anew near the Pavillon de Flore. Not only did the
+devouring fire threaten to destroy inestimable treasures, but on Monday
+a number of men carrying slow matches, and led by a man named
+Napias-Piquet, made all their preparations to set fire to several
+points of the museum of the Louvre, and two of the guardians were shot.
+This Napias-Piquet threatened to make of the whole quarter of the
+Louvre one great conflagration. He was taken and shot, and in his
+pocket was found a note of his breakfast of the preceding day,
+amounting to 57 francs 80 centimes.
+
+THE LOUVRE.—The preservation of the museum was due to the strong
+masonry, and the thick walls of the new portion of the building, on
+which the raging flames could make no impression. But it ran other
+risks: when the troops entered the building, they planted the tricolour
+on the clock pavilion, which served as an object for the insurgents’
+aim. It was immediately removed, however, when this was perceived. It
+was generally believed that the galleries of the Louvre contained all
+their art treasures. This was not the case; prior to the first siege
+the most precious of the contents had been carefully packed and
+conveyed to the arsenal of Brest, where they safely reposed, but many
+very admirable works remained.
+
+MINISTRY OF FINANCE (Treasury).—On the 22nd of May, the official
+journal of the Commune published a note declaring that the certificates
+of stock and the stock books (_grand livre_) would be burnt within
+forty-eight hours. The Commune was annoyed at the publicity given to
+this note, and a violent debate took place in its council in
+consequence. On this occasion Paschal Grousset uttered the following:—
+
+“I blame those who inserted the note in question, but I demand that
+measures may be taken for the destruction of all such documents
+belonging to those at Versailles, the day that they shall enter Paris.”
+
+[Illustration: Court of the Louvre, from Place Du Carrousel]
+
+The Library is completely destroyed. More than 90,000 volumes are
+burnt. Rare editions, Elzevirs, precious MSS., coins, and unique
+collections, priceless treasures, are irrevocably lost.
+
+The building forms one of the most striking ruins in Paris. Citizen
+Lucas, appointed by Ferré to set the Ministry on fire, did his task
+well. The conflagration, which lasted several days, began in the night
+of the 23rd of May. Not only was every part soaked with petroleum, but
+shells had also been placed about the building, and burst successively
+as the fire extended. Scarcely anything remains of the huge pile but
+the offices of the Administration of Forest Lands, which are almost
+intact. A considerable number of valuable documents were saved, but the
+quantity was very small in comparison with the immense collection
+accumulated since the beginning of the century. Four times was the work
+of salvage interrupted by the insurgents. Not a single book in the
+library has escaped; and this library contained almost the whole of the
+enormous correspondence of Colbert, the minister, forming no less than
+two thousand volumes.
+
+[Illustration: Palais Royal.]
+
+The PALAIS ROYAL.—The palace itself alone is destroyed; the galleries
+of the THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS are preserved. The _Constitutionnel_ published
+the following account of the conflagration;—
+
+“It was at three o’clock that this fearful fire burst forth. A
+shopkeeper of the PALAIS ROYAL, M. Emile Le Saché, came forward in all
+haste to offer his services. A Communist captain, or lieutenant,
+threatened to fire on him if he did not retire on the instant; he added
+that the whole quarter was going to be blown up and burned. In the
+teeth of this threat, however, two fire-engines were brought to the
+Place, and were worked by the people of the neighbourhood. It was four
+o’clock. No water in the Cour des Fontaines. But some was procured by a
+line of people being placed along the passage leading from the Cour
+d’Honneur, who passed full buckets of water from hand to hand.
+    “A ladder was placed against the wall for the purpose of reaching
+    the terrace of the Rue de Valois. The insurgents proved so true to
+    their word that the people were forced to renounce the attempt at
+    saving the entire pavilion. Fire and smoke burst forth from three
+    windows just above the terrace. In the midst of the balls showered
+    from the barricade at the corner of the Rue de Rivoli, they
+    succeeded in extinguishing the fire on that side. At five o’clock
+    M. O. Sauve, captain in the commercial service, with a handful of
+    brave workmen, got a fire engine into the Cour d’Honneur, and thus
+    saved a great quantity of pictures, precious marbles, furniture,
+    hangings, etc. Here another line of people was formed for the
+    carrying of buckets, but unfortunately water ran short: the pipes
+    had been cut, the wretches had planned that the destruction should
+    be complete. At seven o’clock M. Bessignet, jun., hastened there
+    with four Paris firemen, but already the Pavilion, where the flames
+    were first apparent, was entirely consumed.
+    “On the arrival of the firemen they used every effort to prevent
+    the fire communicating itself to the apartments of the Princess
+    Clothilde; it had already reached the façade on the side of the
+    Place. Here, too, all the fittings and ornaments of the chapel were
+    saved.
+    At last, at seven o’clock, the soldiers of the line arrive. ‘Long
+    live the line!’ is shouted on all sides. ‘Long live France!’
+    Signals are made with the ambulance flags. Help is come at last!
+    “Those present now regard their position with more coolness, and
+    use every effort to combat the fire, pumping from the roofs and
+    upper storeys of the neighbouring houses. The fire continues,
+    however, increasing and spreading on the theatre side. Here is the
+    greatest danger. If the theatre catch light, all the quarter will
+    most probably be destroyed. They then determine to avail themselves
+    of the water appliances of the theatre to stay the progress of the
+    flames. This is. rendered more difficult and dangerous by the
+    continuous firing from the Communists installed in the upper story
+    of the Hôtel du Louvre. M. Le Sache mounts on the roofs, with the
+    principal engineer, to conduct this movement. They are compelled to
+    hide out of the way of the shower of balls coming from the
+    Communists.
+    “At ten o’clock the companies from the quarter of the Banque, the
+    12th battalion of National Guards, arrive. The Federals are put to
+    flight. Thereupon thirty _sapeurs-pompiers_ of Paris came at full
+    speed and succeed in mastering the remaining fire. An hour sooner
+    and all could have been saved.”
+
+[Illustration: Hôtel de Ville.]
+
+THE HOTEL DE VILLE.—The Hôtel de Ville was set on fire by order of the
+Committee of Public Safety at the moment when the entry of the troops
+caused them to fly to the Ecole des Chartes, which was thus saved, and
+whence they fled to the Mairie of Belleville. Five battalions of
+National Guards—the 57th, 156th, 178th, 184th, and the 187th—remained
+to prevent any attempt being made to extinguish the fire. Petroleum had
+been poured about the _Salle du Trône_, and the _Salle du Zodiaque_,
+which were decorated by Jean Goujon and Cogniet; in the _Galerie de
+Pierre_, in which were paintings by Lecomte, Baudin, Desgoffes,
+Hédouin, and Bellel; in the _Salon des Arcades_, in the _Salon
+Napoléon_, in the _Galerie des Fêtes_, and in the _Salon de la Paix_,
+which contained works of Schopin, Picot, Vanchelet, Jadin, Girard,
+Ingres, Delacroix, Landelle, Riesener, Lehmann, Gosse, Benouville and
+Cabanel. It is not only as a fine specimen of architecture that the
+Hôtel de Ville is to be regretted, but as the cradle of the municipal
+and revolutionary history of Paris, as well as for the vast collection
+of archives of the city, duplicates of which were at the same moment a
+prey to the flames at the Palais de Justice.
+
+[Illustration: Foreign Office.]
+
+THE PREFECTURE OF POLICE was set fire to by the Communal delegate Ferré
+and a band of drunken National Guards.
+
+THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE, thanks to the prompt arrival of the soldiers,
+has been partially spared. The damage done, however, is very great. In
+the SALLE DES PAS-PERDUS several of the grand arches that support the
+roof have fallen in, and many of the columns are lying in ruins on the
+pavement. The Cour de Cassation and the Cour d’Assises are entirely
+destroyed. The conflagration was stopped, when it reached the Cour
+d’Appel and the Tribunal de Première Instance.
+
+PALACE OF THE QUAI D’ORSAY.—This vast building, in which the Conseil
+d’État and the Cour des Comptes held their sittings, has suffered
+seriously, though the walls are not destroyed; but what is irreparable
+is the loss of the many precious documents belonging to the financial
+and legislative history of France. The most famous artists of our time
+have contributed to the decoration of the interior. Jeanron painted the
+twelve allegorical subjects for the vaulted ceiling of the _Salle des
+Pas-Perdus_; Isabey, the Port of Marseilles in the Committee-room. The
+Death of President de Renty, in the _Salle du Contentieux_, was by Paul
+Delaroche; the fine portrait of Napoleon I., as legislator, in the
+great Council Chamber, by Flandrin; and in another apartment the
+portrait of Justinien by Delacroix. These, and many other treasures,
+are lost; for the work of destruction was complete.
+
+MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.—The façade has been seriously injured. It
+was fired upon from the terrace of the Tuileries, and from a gunboat
+lying under cover of the Pont-Royal. The Doric and Ionic columns are
+partly broken, as well as the fifteen medallions in white marble, which
+bore the arms of the principal powers. The apartments in front have
+been greatly damaged, and especially the _salon_ of the ambassadors,
+where the Congress of Paris was held in 1856.
+
+THE PALACE OF THE LEGION OF HONOUR.—This is a specimen of French
+architecture, unique of its kind. Happily, drawings and plans have been
+preserved, and the members of the Legion of Honour have offered a
+subscription for its re-instatement.
+
+THE GOBELINS.—The public gallery, the school of tapestry, and the
+painters’ studios have been destroyed. The incendiaries would have
+burned all, works, frames and materials, if the people of the quarter,
+with the Gobelins weavers, had not defended them at the peril of their
+lives. An irreparable loss is that of a valuable collection of tapestry
+dating from the time of Louis XIV.
+
+The military hospital of the VAL DE GRÂCE, the ASYLUM FOR THE DEAF AND
+DUMB, the MINT, the façade of the annex of the ÉCOLE-DES-BEAUX-ARTS,
+have been riddled with balls. At the LUXEMBOURG the magnificent
+camellia-house and conservatories exist no longer, and the graceful
+Medici fountain has been injured.
+
+THE BANK had most fortunately been placed in charge of the delegate
+Beslay, who, during the whole time he was there, made every effort to
+prevent the pillage of the valuables. He was ably seconded by all the
+officials and _employés_, who had before been armed and incorporated
+into a battalion.
+
+[Illustration: Palace of the Legion D’honneur.]
+
+POST OFFICE.—The Communal delegate, Theiz, prevented the incendiaries
+from setting fire to this important establishment.
+
+THE TRIUMPHAL ARCH OF THE PORTE-ST-DENIS.—The bas-relief containing an
+emblematical figure of the Rhine resting on a rudder has been
+mutilated, a shell having carried the arm and its support entirely
+away. The other bas-relief of Holland vanquished and in tears, has been
+struck by balls, as have also the figures of Fame in the tympans of the
+arcades.
+
+THE TRIUMPHAL ARCH OF THE PORTE-ST-MARTIN.—The sculptures, which
+represent the taking of Limbourg and the defeat of the Germans, have
+suffered considerably. They are the works of Le Hongre and the elder
+Legros.
+
+A tragic incident marked the burning of the THEATRE OF THE PORTE ST.
+MARTIN (see sketch). After laving massacred the proprietor and people
+of the _restaurant_ Ronceray, the Federals set fire to the house and
+the theatre which is adjoining. At eight o’clock in the evening, on
+beholding the first flames arise, the inhabitants of the quarter united
+in endeavouring to extinguish the fire, notwithstanding that the
+projectiles fell thickly in the Boulevard Saint-Martin and in the Rue
+de Bondy. The Federals from behind their barricades at the corner of
+the Rue Bouchardon, fired upon everyone who attempted to enter the
+theatre.
+
+The ARCHIVES (Record Office), the IMPRIMERIE NATIONALE, and the
+BIBLIOTHÈQUE MAZARINE were all preserved through the strenuous
+endeavours of MM. Alfred Maury, Haureau, and Charles Asselineau, who
+had all managed to keep their places in spite of the Commune.
+
+At the DOCKS OF LA VILLETTE, and at the warehouses of the DOUANE, the
+destruction of property has been enormous. Many millions’ worth of
+goods were consumed there.
+
+In the great buildings belonging to the MAGASINS RÉUNIS (Cooperative
+Stores) an ambulance had been established, and this was in the utmost
+danger during two days. It was only owing to the wonderful energy of M.
+Jahyer that the fire was mastered while the poor wounded men were
+transported to a place of safety.
+
+THE CHURCHES.
+
+NOTRE-DAME.—In the interior of Notre-Dame the insurgents set fire to
+three huge piles of chairs and wood-work. Fortunately the fact was
+discovered before much mischief had happened.
+
+THE SAINTE-CHAPELLE.—This incomparable gem of Gothic art, by some
+marvellous good fortune was neither touched by fire nor shells. It will
+still be an object for the pilgrimages of the erudite and the curious.
+
+THE MADELEINE.—The balls have somewhat damaged the double colonnade of
+the peristyle, but the sculptured pediment by Lemaire is all but
+untouched.
+
+THE TRINITÉ.—The façade has been seriously injured. The Federals, from
+their barricades at the entrance of the Chaussée-d’Antin, bombarded it
+for several hours. The painted windows by Ondinot had been removed
+before the siege—like those of the ancient Cathedral of St. Denis, and
+the Chapel of St. Ferdinand, by Ingres, they repose in safety.
+
+Of all the churches of Paris ST. EUSTACHE has suffered the most. At one
+time the fire had reached the roof, but it was fortunately discovered
+in time.
+
+The paintings at NOTRE-DAME-DE-LORETTE, at SAINT-GERMAIN-L’AUXERROIS,
+and at SAINT-GERMAIN-DES-PRÉS have been spared.
+
+It is curious that the churches suffered so little, whilst several
+theatres were burned, including the Porte St. Martin, Théâtre du
+Châtelet, Lyrique, Délassements Comiques, etc.
+
+The windows of the church of SAINT-JACQUES-DU-HAUT-PAS are destroyed.
+
+It has been estimated that the value of the houses and other property
+destroyed in Paris amounts to twenty millions sterling. In addition to
+this, it is said that twelve millions’ worth of works of art,
+furniture, &c., have disappeared, and that more than two and a half
+millions’ worth of merchandise was burnt, making a total of nearly
+thirty-five millions. It has been said that the value of the
+window-glass alone destroyed during the reign of the Commune approaches
+a million sterling. The demand for glass was at one time so great that
+the supply was quite insufficient, and at the present moment the price
+is 20 per cent. higher than usual.
+
+
+
+
+ XV.
+
+
+The following order of the day of General de Ladmirault, commanding the
+first army corps of Versailles, sums up the principal episodes of this
+eight days battle:—
+
+“Officers and soldiers of the First Corps d’Armée,—
+    The defences of the lines of Neuilly, Courbevoie, Bécon and
+    Asnières served you by way of apprenticeship. Your energy and
+    courage were formed amid the greatest works and perils. Every one
+    in his grade has given an example of the most complete abnegation
+    and devotion. Artillery, engineers, troops of the line, cavalry,
+    volunteers of the Seine-et-Oise, you rivalled each other in zeal
+    and ardour. Thus prepared, on the 22nd of the month you attacked
+    the insurgents, whose guilty designs and criminal undertakings you
+    knew and despised. You devoted yourselves nobly to save from
+    destruction the monuments of our old national glory, as well as the
+    property of the citizens menaced by savage rage.
+    On the 23rd of the month, the formidable position of the Buttes
+    Montmartre could no longer resist your efforts, in spite of all the
+    forces with which they were covered.
+    This task was confided to the first and second division and the
+    volunteers of the Seine and Seine-et-Oise, and the heads of the
+    various columns arrived simultaneously at the summit of the
+    position.
+    On the 24th, the third division, which alone had been charged with
+    the task of driving the insurgents out of Neuilly,
+    Levallois-Perret, and Saint-Ouen, joined the other divisions, and
+    took possession of the terminus of the Eastern Railway, while the
+    first division seized that of the Northern line by force of arms.
+    On the 26th, the third division occupied the _rotonde_—circular
+    place—of La Villette.
+    On the 27th, the first and second division, with the volunteers of
+    the Seine-et-Oise, by means of a combined movement, took the Buttes
+    Chaumont and the heights of Belleville by assault, the artillery
+    having by its able firing prepared the way for the occupation.
+    Finally, on the 28th, the defences of Belleville yielded, and the
+    first corps achieved brilliantly the task which had been confided
+    to them.
+    During the days of the struggle and fighting you rendered the
+    greatest service to civilization, and have acquired a claim to the
+    gratitude of the country. Accept then all the praise which is due
+    to you.
+
+Paris, 29th May, 1871.
+The General commanding the First Corps d’Armee,
+(Signed) “LADMIRAULT.””
+
+During the day of the 28th of Kay Marshal MacMahon caused the following
+proclamation to be posted in the streets of Paris:—
+
+“Inhabitants of Paris,—
+    The army of France is come to save you. Paris is relieved. The last
+    positions of the insurgents were taken by our soldiers at four
+    o’clock. Today the struggle is at an end; order, labour, and
+    security are springing up again.
+
+Paris, Quartier General, the 28th May, 1871.
+(Signed) “MACMAHON, Due de Magenta, Marshal of France,
+Commander-in-Chief.”
+
+On the 28th of May the war of the Communists was at an end, but the
+fort of Vincennes was still occupied by three hundred National Guards,
+with eighteen of their superior officers and fifteen of the high
+functionaries of the Commune; They made an appeal to the commander of
+the Prussian forces in front of the fort, in the hope of obtaining
+passports for Switzerland. General Vinoy, hearing of this, took at once
+the most energetic measures, and at six o’clock on the 29th of May the
+last defenders of Vincennes surrendered at discretion.
+
+
+
+
+ XVI.
+
+
+The amount of the extraordinary expenses of the Versailles was, at the
+rate of three millions of francs a day, 216 millions from the 18th
+March to the 28th May. The list of artillery implements removed from
+the arsenals of Douai, Lyon, Besançon, Toulon, and Cherbourg, and
+forwarded to Versailles from the 18th March to the 21st May, comprise—
+
+     80 cannons of 0.16m (6 in. 299/1000 diameter) from the War Arsenal
+     60    ”        ”                ”             from the Marine Arsenal
+     10    ”    of 0.22m (8 in. 661/1000 diameter) Marine.
+    110 Rifled long  24-pounders.
+     30 Rifled short 24-pounders.
+     80 Rifled siege 12-pounders.
+      3 Mortars of 0.32m (12 in. 598/1000 diameter).
+     15 Mortars of 0.27m (10 in. 629/1000 diameter).
+     15 Mortars of 0.22m (8  in. 661/1000 diameter).
+     40 Mortars of 0.15m (5  in. 905/1000 diameter).
+     ——
+Total 393 artillery siege pieces.
+
+Ammunition received at Versailles—
+
+Shells of    0.16m (marine). . . .  73,000
+  ”          0.22m    ”  . . . . .  10,000
+  ”          0.24m (rifled). . . . 140,000
+  ”        for 12-pounder (rifled)  80,000
+Bombs of     0.32m . . . . . . . .   1,000
+  ”          0.27m . . . . . . . .   7,000
+  ”          0.22m . . . . . . . .   7,000
+  ”          0.15m . . . . . . . .  30,000
+                                   ———
+                          Total    348,000
+
+The stock of gunpowder amounted to 400 tons.
+
+Up to the 21st of May, the artillery received 20 tons a day, and on
+that day 50 tons were forwarded to the besieging army.
+
+Up to the 21st of May, the field ordnance consisted of—
+
+      36 batteries of 4-pounders.
+      18   ”         12-pounders.
+       4   ”          7-pounders (breech-loaders).
+      12   ”       of mitrailleuses.
+      —
+
+Total 70 batteries, 63 of which were provided with horses (7 being in
+store).
+
+The ammunition service consisted of—
+
+  80 tumbrels (calibre 12), each containing  54 charges.
+  30   ”      (calibre 7),       ”           90   ”
+ 120   ”      (calibre 4)        ”          120   ”
+  55   ”      of mitrailleuses   ”          243   ”
+5000 cases of ammunition  (for calibre 12), containing 49,000 charges.
+ 600         ”            (for calibre 4),    ”        12,000   ”
+2000         ”            (for calibre 7),    ”        20,000   ”
+1000         ”            for mitrailleuses   ”        30,000   ”
+  16 millions of Chassepot cartridges, and
+   2 millions of Remington cartridges.
+
+On the evening of the 23rd of May the army of Versailles expended—
+
+        26,000 discharges (calibre 0.16m), marine guns.
+          2000     ”          ”    0.22m),     ”
+        60,000     ”          ”    0.24m), rifled guns.
+        30,000     ”          ”    0.12m), rifled siege guns.
+        12,000     ”      (calibre of 7), used as a siege gun.
+           150 bombs of 0.32m
+           360   ”      0.27m
+          2500   ”      0.22m
+          5500   ”      0.16m
+       ———-
+Total  138,800 discharges of siege guns and mortars.—“Guerre
+des Communeux,” p. 321.
+
+The great feature of the second siege of Paris was the prudence
+exercised in manoeuvring the men so as to protect them from needless
+exposure, practical experience in German encounters having taught the
+line a severe lesson. From the report of Marshal MacMahon we learn that
+the lost amounted to 83 officers killed, and 430 wounded; 794 soldiers
+killed, and 6,024 wounded, and 183 missing in all.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+
+LIST OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS, MONUMENTS, CHURCHES, AND HOUSES,
+
+DAMAGED OR DESTROYED BY THE COMMUNISTS OF PARIS,
+
+MAY 24-29, 1871.
+
+Fire commenced in the houses marked thus (*).
+
+  Palais des Tuileries (Emperor’s Paris residence). _Burnt_.
+  Musée du Louvre. _Library totally destroyed_.
+  Palais Royal (Prince Napoleon’s Paris residence). _Burnt_.
+  Palais de la Légion d’Honneur (records all gone). _Burnt_.
+  Conseil d’Etat. _Burnt_.
+  Corps Législatif. _Damaged_.
+  Cour des Comptes (Exchequer). _Burnt_.
+  Ministère d’Etat (Minister of State). _Fired, but saved_.
+  Ministère des Finances (Treasury). _Burnt_.
+  Hôtel de Ville. (Town Hall of Paris). _Burnt_.
+  Palais de Justice (Law courts). _Burnt_.
+  Préfecture de Police. _Burnt_.
+  The Conciergerie (House of Detention). _Partly burnt_.
+  Mairie of the 1st Arrondissement. _Dam_.
+  Mairie of the 4th Arrondissement. _Partially burnt_.
+  Mairie of the 11th Arrondissement. _Partially_.
+  Mairie of the 12th Arrondissement. _Burnt_.
+  Mairie of the 13th Arrondissement. _Damaged_.
+  Imprimerie Nationale. (National Printing office). _Damaged_.
+  Polytechnic School. _Damaged_.
+  Manufacture des Gobelins (National tapestry manufactory). _Partially
+  burnt_.
+  Grenier d’Abondance (Enormous corn and other stores). _Burnt_.
+  Colonne Vendôme. _Overthrown on the 16th of May_.
+  Colonne de Juillet, on the Place de la Bastille. _Greatly damaged_.
+  Porte Saint-Denis. _Damaged_.
+  Porte Saint-Martin. _Damaged_.
+  Cathedral of Notre Dame. _Very slightly damaged_.
+  Panthéon. _Very slightly damaged_.
+  Church of Belleville. _Damaged_.
+  Church of Bercy. _Burnt_.
+  Church of La Madeleine. _Slightly dam_.
+  Church of St. Augustin. _Damaged_.
+  Church of Saint Eustache (used as a club). _Fired and much damaged_.
+  Church of Saint Gervais (used as a club). _Damaged_.
+  Church of St. Laurent. _Damaged_.
+  Church of Saint Leu. _Damaged_.
+  Church of Reuilly. _Fired but not burnt_.
+  Church of the Trinité. _Damaged_.
+  Church of La Villette. _Damaged_.
+  Sainte-Chapelle. _Slightly, if at all, dam_.
+  Théâtre du Châtelet. _Fired, but saved_.
+  Théâtre Lyrique. _Burnt_.
+  Ba-ta-clan Music Hall. _Fired, but not burnt_.
+  Théâtre des Délassements-Comiques. _Burnt_.
+  Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin. _Totally destroyed_.
+  Théâtre Cluny. _Only damaged_.
+  Théâtre Odéon. _Damaged_.
+  Abattoir de Grenelle. _Damaged_.
+  Assistance Publique (offices of public charity). _Burnt_.
+  Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (Bank of Deposit). _Burnt_.
+  Caisse de Poissy (Bank of Deposit). _Burnt_.
+  Service des Ponts et Chaussées of the 13th Arrondissement (Civil
+  engineer’s office). _Partially_.
+  Arsenal. _Partly burnt_.
+  Caserne du Château-d’Eau (barracks). _Damaged_.
+  Caserne Mouffetard. _Damaged_.
+  Caserne Napoléon. _Damaged_.
+  Caserne Quai d’Orsay. _Burnt_.
+  Caserne de Reuilly. _Burnt_.
+  Docks, Bonded Warehouses and Storehouses at La Villette. _Burnt_.
+  Les Halles Centrales (Great general market). _Damaged_.
+  Marché du Temple (General market). _Damaged_.
+  Marché Voltaire (General market). _Dam_.
+  Bridge over the Canal de l’Ourcq. _Dam_.
+  Passerelle de la Villette (Foot-bridge). _Burnt_.
+  Pont d’Austerlitz, with restaurant Trousseau and sluice-keeper’s
+  house. _All burnt_.
+  Rotonde de la Villette. _Damaged_.
+  Hospice de l’Enfant Jesus. _Damaged_.
+  Hospital Lariboisière. _Damaged_.
+  Hospital Salpétrière: (House of refuge and lunatic-asylum for women).
+  _Burnt_.
+  Prison of la Roquette. _Damaged_.
+  Gare de Lyon (Lyons railway terminus). _Fired and damaged_.
+  Gare d’Orléans (Orleans railway terminus.) _Damaged_.
+  Gare Montparnasse (Western railway terminus). _Damaged_.
+  Gare de Strasbourg (Eastern railway terminus). _Damaged_.
+  Gare de Vincennes (Vincennes railway terminus). _Damaged_.
+  House of M. Thiers (Place St. Georges). _Pulled down (previously)_.
+  Cimetière du Père-Lachaise (cemetery). _Damaged_.
+  Barrière Charenton. _Damaged_.
+  Luxembourg: Powder Magazine in rear of Palace _blown up_, some
+  subsidiary buildings _burnt_, and whole quarter _damaged_.
+
+  Avenue des Amandiers: Nos. 1, 2, 4, _Burnt_.
+    No. 69. _Damaged_.
+  Avenue de Choisy: Nos. 202, 221. _Dam._
+  Avenue de Clichy: Nos. 2, 4, 22. _Dam._
+  Avenue d’Italie: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 78, 88. _Damaged._
+  Avenue d’Orléans: Nos. 79, 81, 83. _Dam._
+  Avenue Victoria: Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5. _Burnt._
+    No. 6. _Damaged._
+  Avenue de Vincennes: Nos. 2, 4, 10. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard Beaumarchais: No. 1. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 2, 13, 15, 26, 28, 30, 109. _Dam._
+  Boulevard de Bercy: No. 4, 8. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle: Nos. 11, 15. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard Bourdon: Nos. 7, 17. _Dam._
+  Boulevard des Capucines: No. 11;
+      Maison Giroux, Nos. 43, 58, 60. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard de la Chapelle: Nos. 10, 12,
+      14, 18, 20, coach houses and stables,
+      22, 30, 34, 40, 62, 86, 90, 94,
+      100, 122, 141, 143, 145, 147, “Aux
+      Buttes Chaumont,” 157, 163, 165,
+      169, 208, “Au Cadran Bleu,” 216,
+      218. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard de Charonne: Nos. 50, 52, 74. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard de Clichy: No. 77; Convent and
+      Church; Nos. 79, 81, 84, 86. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Contrescarpe: Nos. 2, 4. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 42, 46. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard de la Gare: No. 131. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Hausmann: Nos. 23, 72. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard d’Italie: Nos. 7, 69. _Dam._
+  Boulevard de la Madeleine: No. 1. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Magenta: Nos. 1, 3, 5, 6, 15,
+      48, 70, 78, 98, 114, “Au Méridien,”
+      118, 143, 151, 153, 156. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard Malesherbes: Nos. 9, 33. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard Mazas: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 22, 26, 28 bis, 30, 60. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Montmartre: No, 1. _Dam._
+  Boulevard du Montparnasse: Nos. 9 bis,
+      41, 70, 100, 120, 150. _Damaged._
+    Nos. 25, three shops, 110, 112. _Burnt._
+  Boulevard Ornano: No. 56. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 1, 4, 7, 9, 22, 27, 32. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Poissonnière: No. 15. _Dam._
+  Boulevard du Port-Royal: Nos. 16, 18, 20. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard du Prince Eugène: Magazins-Réunis
+      (co-operative store). _Dam._
+  Boulevard Richard-Lenoir: Nos. 20, 82. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 1, 5, 7, 9, 31, 36, 50, 69, 76,
+      87, 93, 107, 109, 116, 118, 136, 140. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard Saint-Denis: Nos. 6, 13, Café Magny. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard St. Jacques: Nos*. 69. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Saint-Marcel: No. 21. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Saint Martin: Nos. 14, 16, 18, 20. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard Saint Michel: No. 20; Café du Musée, 25;
+      Café Miller, 65;
+      Restaurant Molière, 73; Dreher Beer House, 99;
+      School of Mines. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Sébastopol: Nos. 9, 11, 13, 15. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 42, *65, 83. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard du Temple: Nos. 52, 54. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 2, 19, 20, 22, 24, 26, 30, 32, 34,
+      35, 38, 40, 44, 50. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard de la Villette: Nos. 85, 87, 117, Usine Falk. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 97, 128, 134, 136, 138, 140, 162. _Damaged_.
+  Boulevard Voltaire: Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 20, 22, 28, 60. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 38, 63, 55, 60, 78, 94, 97, 98, 141, 166. _Damaged_.
+  Carrefour de l’Observatoire; No. 11. _Damaged_.
+  Chaussée Clignancourt: “Château-Rouge” (a public dancing-room).
+  _Damaged_.
+  Chaussée du Maine: No. 164. _Dam_.
+  Chaussée de Ménilmontant: Nos. 56, 58, 81, 98. _Damaged_.
+  Croix-Rouge (cross way): Nos. 2, 4. _Burnt_.
+  Faubourg Montmartre: No. 50,64. _Dam_.
+  Faubourg Poissonnière: Nos. 39, 168. _Damaged_.
+  Faubourg Saint-Antoine: No. 2. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 1, 8, 4, 6, 6, 7, 22, 141, 164, 156, 158, 162. _Damaged_.
+  Faubourg Saint-Denis: Nos. 68, 77,114, 208 bis, 214. _Damaged_.
+  Faubourg Saint-Honoré: Nos. 1, 2, 3. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 4, 29, 30, 33, 85. _Damaged_.
+  Faubourg Saint-Martin: Nos. *55, 66, 67, 69, 71, “Tapis Rouge.”
+  _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 147, 184, 221, 234, 267. _Dam_.
+  Faubourg du Temple: No. 30. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 9, 16, 17, 19, 20, 26, 29, 32, 33, 36, 41, 47, 48, 49, 53, 64,
+    66, 73, 81, 82, 98, 94, 106, 117. _Dam_.
+  Impasse Constantine: No. 2. _Damaged_.
+  Impasse Saint-Sauveur: No. 2. _Dam_.
+  Passage du Sauinon. _Damaged_.
+  Place de la Bastille: Nos. 8, 10, 12, Poste de l’Ecluse. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 4, 5, 6, 14. _Damaged_.
+  Place Blanche: Nos. 2, 3. _Damaged_.
+  Place Cambronne: No. 8. _Damaged_.
+  Place du Château-d’Eau: Nos. 7, 15. _Burnt_.
+    *9,13, “Pauvres Jacques;” Nos. 17, 19, 21, 23, Café du
+  Château-d’Eau. _Damaged_.
+  Place de la Concorde (Fountain). _Dam_.
+  Place de la Concorde (Statue of Lille). _Destroyed_.
+  Place de l’Hôtel de Ville: Nos. 1, 3, 7, 9, 11. _Burnt_.
+  Place de Jessaint: No. 4. _Damaged_.
+  Place du Louvre: No. 1. _Burnt_.
+  Place de la Madeleine: No. 31. _Dam_.
+  Place de l’Odéon: No. 8; Café de Bruxelles. _Damaged_.
+  Place de l’Opera: No. 3. _Damaged_.
+  Place Pigalle: No. 1. _Damaged_.
+  Place de la Sorbonne: No. 8. _Dam_.
+  Place Valhubert: “Châlet du Jardin.” _Damaged_.
+  Place des Victoires: No. 2. _Damaged_.
+  Place de Vintimille: Nos. 1, 27. _Dam_.
+  Place Voltaire: No. 7. _Burnt_.
+    No. 9. _Damaged_.
+  Quai d’Anjou: Nos. 5, 11, 19, 23, 27, 43; “Au Petit Matelot.”
+  _Damaged_.
+  Quai de Bercy: No. 12, 13. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 3, 5, 10. _Damaged_.
+  Quai de Béthune: Nos. 12, 20. _Dam_.
+  Quai Bourbon: No. 3. _Damaged_.
+  Quai des Célestins: No. 6. _Damaged_.
+  Quai de Gèvres: No. 2. _Burnt_.
+  Quai de l’Hôtel-de-Ville: Nos. 28, 68, 72, 78, 82. _Damaged_.
+  Quai de Jemappes: Nos. 18, 80, 34, 42. _Damaged_.
+    No. 32. _Burnt_.
+  Quai de la Loire: Nos. 10, 84, 86, 88. _Burnt_.
+    No. 60. _Damaged_.
+  Quai du Louvre: Nos. 2, 4, 6. _Dam_.
+  Quai de la Mégisserie: No. 22; “Belle Jardinière.” _Damaged_.
+  Quai d’Orsay (a Club). _Damaged._
+  Quai de la Rapée: No. 92, 94, 96, 98, 100, _Burnt_.
+  Quai de Valmy: Nos. 27, 29. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 31, 39, 48, 71, 73, 79. _Dam._
+  Quai Voltaire: No. 9, 13, 17. _Dam._
+  Rue d’Alibert: Nos. 1, 2; _Damaged._
+  Rue d’Allemagne: Nos. 2, 10. _Dam._
+  Rue d’Alsace: Nos. 31, 33, 39. _Dam._
+  Rue des Amandiers: Nos. 3, 4, 20, 65,86, 87. _Damaged._
+  Rue Amelot: Nos. 2, 21, 25, 104, 106,139. _Damaged._
+  Rue de l’Ancienne Comédie: No. 2: “À Mazarin” (drapers). _Damaged._
+  Rue d’Angoulême: Nos. 2, 28, 31, 43, 72bis. _Damaged._
+  Rue d’Anjou: No. 23. _Damaged._
+  Rue de l’Arcade: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue de l’Arsenal: No. 3. _Burnt._
+  Rue d’Assas: Nos. 80, *78, 86, 90, 96, 98, 106, 112, 118, 124. _Dam._
+  Rue d’Aubervilliers: No. 138. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 2, 24, 88, 92, 96. _Damaged._
+  Rue Audran: No. 1. _Damaged._
+  Rue d’Aval: No. 11. _Damaged._
+    No. 17. _Burnt._
+  Rue du Bac: Nos. 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 54, 55, 56, Leborgne House, 58, 62, 64. _Damaged._
+  Rue Barrault: Nos. 3, 31. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Belleville: Nos. 1, 2, 66, 70, 89, 91, 133. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Bercy: No. 257. _Damaged._
+  Rue Bichat: No. 67. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Bisson: No. 49. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Blanche: Nos. 97, 99. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Boissy-d’Anglas: No. 31. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 33, 35, 37. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Bondy: Nos. 16, 17, 19, 21. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. *22, *32; 24, 26, Grand Café Parisien, 28, 30, 40, 44.
+    _Damaged_.
+  Rue Bréa: Nos; 1. _Burnt_.
+    No. 3. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Bruxelles: No. 29. _Damaged_
+  Rue de Buffon: Nos. 1, 3. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Butte-aux-Cailles: Nos. 1, 16. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Butte-Chaumont: No. 1. _Burnt_.
+  Rue Cail: No. 25. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Castex: No. 20. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Cerisaie: Nos. 20, 41, 45, 47. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Chapelle: Nos. 6, 16, 19, 35, 37, 75, 77. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Charbonnière: Nos. 32, 42. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Charenton: No. 1. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 100, 102, 187, 214, 230.
+    _Dam._.
+  Rue de Charonne: Nos. 61,79,155. _Dam._.
+  Rue du Château: Nos. 169,180. _Dam._
+  Rue du Château-d’Eau: Nos. 1, 3, 73. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 32, 55, 71, 75, 79, 81, _Dam._
+  Rue de la Chaussée-d’Antin: Nos. 58, 64, 68. _Damaged_.
+  Rue du Chemin-Vert: Nos. 46,54. _Dam._
+  Rue Clavel: No. 3. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Clignancourt: Nos. 9, 39, 43, 45, 49, 59. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Conti: No. 2. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Cotte: No. 8. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Coutellerie: No. 2. _Burnt_.
+  Rue de Crimée: Nos. 156, 158. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 81, 83, 155, 163. _Damaged_.
+  Rue du Croissant: (Saint Joseph’s Market). _Damaged_.
+  Rue Curial: No. 134. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Damesne: No. 1. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Delambre: Nos. 2, 4, _Burnt_.
+  Rue Descartes: No. 6. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Domat: No. 24. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Dombasle: No. 61. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Durantin: No. 7. _Damaged_.
+  Rue des Ecoles: No. 25. _Damaged_.
+  Rue d’Elzévir: Nos. 4,7, ll, 12; “Auberge de la Bouteille” (inn).
+  _Dam._
+  Rue de l’Espérance: Nos. 7, 11. _Dam._
+  Rue Fléchier: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue Folies-Méricourt: Nos. 51, 64, 75. _Damaged._
+    No. 115. _Burnt._
+  Rue des Francs-Bourgeois: No. 33, Hotel Carnavalet. _Damaged._
+  Rue Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire: No. 18. _Dam._
+  Rue de la Glacière: Nos. 36, 75. _Dam._
+  Rue Grange-aux-Belles: No. 20. _Dam._
+  Rue de Grenelle: Nos. 1, 3. _Burnt._
+    No. 34. _Damaged._
+  Rue Guy-Patin: No. 3. _Damaged._
+  Rue des Halles: No. 28. _Damaged._
+  Rue Jacques-Coeur: No. 31. _Dam._
+  Rue Joquelet: No. 12. _Damaged._
+  Rue Julien-Lacroix: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Jussieu: No. 41. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Lafayette: No. 107, 127. _Dam._
+    Nos. 196, Aubin (fireworks), 208, 213, 215. _Damaged._
+  Rue Lacuée: Nos. 2, 4, 6. _Burnt._
+  Rue de Lappe: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue Lepelletier: No. 26. _Damaged._
+  Rue Lesdiguières: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue Levert: No. 12. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Lille: Nos. 27, 37, 39, 43, 45,
+      *47, 48, 49, 50, 51, Museum of M. Gatteaux, bequeathed to nation,
+      53, 55, 57, 61, 63, 65, 67, 69, 81, 83. _Burnt._
+  Rue Louis-le-Qrand: Nos. 32, 34. _Dam._
+  Rue du Louvre: Nos. 6, 8. _Burnt._
+  Rue de la Lune: No. 1. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Lyon: No. 16. _Damaged._
+  Rue des Marais: No. 68. _Damaged._
+  Rue du Maroc: No. 38. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Meaux: Nos. 2, 14. _Damaged._
+  Rue Ménars: No. 8. _Damaged._
+  Rue Meslay: No. 2. _Burnt._
+  Rue Montmartre: Nos. 49, 53, 55. _Dam._
+  Rue Montorgueil: Nos. 1, 29, 31, 33, 65. _Damaged._
+  Rue Mouffetard: Nos. 132, 134, 136,
+      138, 139, 150; Church of St. Médard. _Damaged._
+  Rue du Moulin-des-Près: Nos. 83, 85. _Damaged._
+  Rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs: No. 105, Piver’s. _Damaged._
+  Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs: Nos. 52, 54.
+    Studio of M. John Leighton. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 55, 57. _Damaged._
+  Rue Notre-Dame-de-Nazareth: Nos. 16, 31. _Damaged._
+  Rue Oberkampf: No. 4; À la Ville
+      d’Alençon, No. 11, 12, 13, 15, 25,
+      36, 37, 41, 49, 50, 53, 57, 60, 67. _Damaged._
+  Rue aux Ours: Nos. 47, 48, 49, 55. _Dam._
+  Rue des Petites-Ecuries: Nos. 2, 4. _Damaged._
+  Rue du Petit-Muse: No. 21. _Damaged._
+  Rue Pierre Lescot: No. 16. _Damaged._
+  Rue Popincourt: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue du Pressoir: No. 54. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Provence: No. *20. No. 23. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Puebla: Nos. 2, 3, 4, 17, 30, 292. _Damaged._
+  Rue Racine: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue Rambuteau: Nos. 32, 58, 60, 102.
+      “Aux Fabriques de France:” No. 124. _Damaged._
+    No. 16, “Colosse de Rhodes;” No. 19,
+      Café du Marais; Nos. 26, 28, 30,
+      34, 62, 65, 72; Mr. Leforestier’s
+      house, “À l’Alliance,” Nos. 49, 61,
+      63, 66, 69, 71. _Damaged._
+  Rue Ramey: Nos. 41, 43. _Damaged._
+  Rue Rampon: No. 18. _Damaged._
+  Rue Réaumur: Nos. 14, 25, 43. _Dam._
+  Rue de Rennes: No. 2; Café de Rennes, 161. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Reuilly: No. 68. _Damaged._
+  Rue du Rhin: No. 6. _Damaged._
+  Rue Riquet: Nos. 63, 64. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Rivoli: Nos. 33, 35, 37, 39, 79,
+      80, 82, 84, 86, 91, 98, 100; “À Pygmalion.” _Burnt._
+    Nos. 41, 88, 128, 210, 226, 236, 238. _Damaged._
+  Rue Rollin; No. 18. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Roquette: Nos. 1, 3, 6, 7, 9, 11 13, 18, 19, 20, 22,
+    24, 26. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 4, 8, 15, 17, 34, 87, 38, 78. _Dam_.
+  Rue Royale: Nos. 15, 18, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 24, 27. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint André-des-Arts: Nos. 26, 42. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint-Antoine: Nos. 3, 7, 9, 114, 142, 150, 152, 160, 176,
+    178, 182,192, 194, 198, 199, 201, 202, 203, 204, 206, 207, 212;
+    “À la Fiancée,” No. 213; “Phares de la Bastille,” 214, 216, 218,
+    220, 222, 224, 226, 228, 232, 234, 236; Protestant Church. _Dam_.
+  Petite rue Saint Antoine: Nos, 3, 7, 9. _Damaged_.
+    Nos. 11, 18. _Burnt_.
+  Rue Saint-Denis: No. 223; Église Saint Leu. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint-Fiacre: No. 15. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint-Honoré: No. 422. _Burnt_.
+    No. 132. _Dam_.
+  Rue Saint-Jacques: Nos. 26, 146, 164, Café de l’Ecole de Droit,1
+    36, 195, 198, 216. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint-Lazare: No. 46. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Sainte-Marguerite: No. 22. _Dam_.
+  Rue Saint-Martin: Nos. 8, 10; “The Bon-Diable.” Nos. 12, 14. _Burnt_
+    Nos. *16, 248. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint-Maur: Nos. 151, 184, 225, 227. _Damaged_.
+  Rue des Saints-Pères: Nos. 46, 48. _Dam_.
+  Rue Saint-Sabin: Nos. 2, 4, 6. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 3, 10, 12, 14. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint Sébastien: Nos. 42, 43, 44. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Sauval: No. 13. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Santé: No. 63. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Sedaine: No. 1. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20. _Damaged_.
+  Rue du Sentier: No. 22. _Damaged_.
+  Rue du 4 Septembre: No. 13. _Dam_.
+  Rue de Sèvres: No. 2. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 14, 16 (reservoir); Nos. 91, 92, 141. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Sully: No. 11. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Suresnes: Nos. 1, 9, 15, 17, 19. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Tacherie: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4. _Burnt_.
+  Rue Taitbout: Nos. 22, 26. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Taranne*: No. 10. _Damaged_.
+  Rue du Temple: Nos. 7, 10, 39, 201. _Damaged_.
+    No. 207. _Burnt_.
+  Rue Toquelet: No. 12. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Traversière: No. 53. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Turbigo; Nos. 1, 3; “Au Grand Parisien,” Nos. 5, 8, 11, 19,
+    21, 47; Church of Saint-Nicholas-des-Champs, Nos. 51, 53, 56, 63,
+    74. _Damaged_.
+  Rue De Vaugirard: Nos. 60, 68, 69, 70, Convent des Carmes, 82, School
+    for Girls, 92, School for Boys. _Dam_.
+  Rue Vavin: Nos. 2, *18, 20, 22. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 16, 34, 36, 39. _Damaged_.
+    54 (Collection of M. Reiber, Architect). _Destroyed_.
+  Rue de la Victoire: No. 61. _Damaged_.
+  Rue du Vieux-Colombier: No. 31. _Dam_.
+  Rue Vilin: No. 2. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Villette: Nos. 20, 25, 26, 70. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Ville l’Evêque: Nos. 7, 18. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Volta: No. 38. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Wiarmes: No. 1. _Damaged_.
+
+The barricades of Paris numbered about 600—from a slight breast-work to
+a veritable fortress.
+
+
+
+
+ INDEX TO PLAN.
+
+
+B. Burnt. P.B. Partly Burnt. D. Damaged. S. Damaged by Shot and Shell.
+
+NORTH OF THE RIVER SEINE.
+
+Div. of Map.
+1     Palace of the Tuileries, B     8
+2     Museum of the Louvre, P.B     8
+3     Palais Royal, B     8
+4     The Bourse (Exchange)     8
+5     The New Opera House     8
+6     The Church of the Madeleine, D     8
+7     The Column Vendôme (overthrown)     8
+8     The Palace of the Elysée     7
+9     The Triumphal Arch, D     7
+10     Palais de l’Industrie, B     7
+11     Church of St. Augustin, D     8
+12     ” of the Trinity, B     8
+13     ” Notre Dame de Lorette     8
+14     Ministère of Marine     8
+15     Bibliothèque Nationale     8
+16     Halles Centrales, S     8
+17     Church of Saint Eustache, D     8
+18     Opéra Comique     8
+19     Church of St. Vincent de Paul     8
+20     Hospital of Lariboisière, D     3
+21     Barracks of Prince Eugène, D     9
+22     Hospital of St. Louis     9
+23     Prison of La Roquette, D     14
+24     Statue of Prince Eugène (removed)     14
+25     Hôtel de Ville, B     13
+26     Tower of St. Jacques, D     13
+27     Prison of Mazas     14
+28     Barracks Napoléon, B     14
+29     Conservatoire of Arts and Métiers     9
+30     Hospital of St. Eugénie     15
+31     Cattle Market and Slaughter H     5
+32     Magasins of Bercy (sacked)     20
+33     Ministère des Finances, B     8
+34     Place de la Concorde, D     8
+86     Porte St. Denis, D     8
+36     Porte St. Martin, D     9
+37     Theatre of Porte St. Martin, B     9
+38     Church of St. Laurent, D     9
+39     Mairie 1st Arrondissement, D     8
+40     Théâtre du Chatelet, P.B     13
+41     Théâtre Lyrique, B     13
+42     Caisse Municipale, B     13
+43     Assistance Publique, B     13
+44     Mairie IVth Arrondissement, P.B     14
+45     Magasins Réunis, D     9
+46     Théâtre des Del. Comiques, B     9
+47     Mairie XIth Arrondissement, P.B     14
+48     Column of July, D     14
+49     The Arsenal, B     14
+50     Hospital of Salpétrière, B     19
+51     Granary of Abundance, B     14
+52     Lyons Railway Station, PB     14
+53     Mairie of XIIth Arrondissement and Church of Bercy, B     14
+SOUTH OF THE RIVER SEINE.
+
+1     Foreign Office, D.     7
+2     Military School     12
+3     Les Invalides and Tomb of Napoléon I.     12
+4     Corps Législatif     7
+5     Barracks d’Orsay, P.B.     8
+6     Palace of the Institute     13
+7     The Mint     13
+8     Church of St. Sulpice     13
+9     Palace of the Luxembourg, D.     13
+10     Odéon Theatre, D.     13
+11     Museum of Cluny     13
+12     Palais de Justice, B.     13
+13     Cathedral of Notre Dame     13
+14     Church of the Pantheon, D.     13
+15     Church of Val de Grâce     13
+16     The Observatory     18
+17     Wine Market (sacked)     14
+18     Palace of Légion d’Honneur, B.     8
+19     Conseil d’État and Exchequer, B.     8
+20     Bank of Deposit, B.     8
+21     Western Railway Station, B.     13
+22     Gobelins Tapestry Manufactory, P.B.     18
+23     Orleans Railway Station, P.B.     14
+
+See western side of Plan for the fire and devastation caused by shot
+and shell during the engagements between the Federal troops and the
+army of Versailles:—Point du Jour, Auteuil, Passy, Porte Maillot,
+Avenue de la Grande Armée (Arc de Triomphe, much injured), Neuilly,
+Villiers, Lavallois, &c.
+
+[Maps: (press map to enlarge)]
+
+[Illustration: Plan of Paris Illustrative Of Mr. Leighton’s Paris]
+
+[Illustration: Plan of Paris Illustrative Of Mr. Leighton’s Paris]
+
+[Illustration: Parts Destroyed Or Damaged During the Reign of The
+Commune]
+
+[Illustration: Plan of Paris Illustrative Of Mr. Leighton’s Paris]
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Paris under the Commune, by John Leighton
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Paris under the Commune, by John Leighton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Paris under the Commune
+       The Seventy-Three Days of the Second Siege; With Numerous
+       Illustrations, Sketches Taken on the Spot, and Portraits
+       (from the Original Photographs)
+
+Author: John Leighton
+
+Release Date: January 29, 2004 [EBook #10861]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARIS UNDER THE COMMUNE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Robert Connal, Wilelmina Malliere and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE THE COLUMN OF JULY (HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF)]
+
+PARIS
+
+UNDER THE COMMUNE:  OR,
+
+THE SEVENTY-THREE DAYS OF THE
+
+SECOND SIEGE
+
+WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS, SKETCHES TAKEN ON THE SPOT, AND PORTRAITS
+(FROM THE ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS).
+
+BY JOHN LEIGHTON, F.S.A.,
+
+&C.
+
+LONDON:
+
+1871.
+
+
+
+
+     Socialism, or the Red Republic, is all one; for it would
+   tear down the tricolour and set up the red flag. It would make
+   penny pieces out of the Column Vend�me. It would knock down
+   the statue of Napoleon and raise up that of Marat in its
+   stead. It would suppress the Acad�mie, the �cole
+   Polytechnique, and the Legion of Honour. To the grand device
+   Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, it would add "Ou la mort."
+   It would bring about a general bankruptcy. It would ruin the
+   rich without enriching the poor. It would destroy labour,
+   which gives to each one his bread. It would abolish property
+   and family. It would march about with the heads of the
+   proscribed on pikes, fill the prisons with the suspected, and
+   empty them by massacres. It would convert France into the
+   country of gloom. It would strangle liberty, stifle the arts,
+   silence thought, and deny God. It would bring into action
+   these two fatal machines, one of which never works without the
+   other--the assignat press and the guillotine. In a word, it
+   would do in cold blood what the men of 1793 did in fever, and
+   after the grand horrors which our fathers saw, we should have
+   the horrible in all that was low and small.
+
+(VICTOR HUGO, 1848.)
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+Early in June of the present year I was making notes and sketches,
+without the least idea of what I should do with them. I was at the
+Mont-Parnasse Station of the Western Railway, awaiting a train from
+Paris to St. Cloud. Our fellow passengers, as we discovered afterwards,
+were principally prisoners for Versailles; the guards, soldiers; and the
+line, for two miles at least, appeared desolation and ruin.
+
+The fa�ade of the station, a very large one, was pockmarked all over by
+Federal bullets, whilst cannon balls had cut holes through the stone
+wall as if it had been cheese, and gone down the line, towards Cherbourg
+or Brest! The restaurant below was nearly annihilated, the counters,
+tables, and chairs being reduced to a confused heap. But there was a
+book-stall and on that book-stall reposed a little work, entitled the
+"Bataille des Sept Jours," a brochure which a friend bought and gave to
+me, saying, "_Voil� la texte de vos croquis_," From seven days my ideas
+naturally wandered to seventy-three--the duration of the reign of the
+Commune--and then again to two hundred and twenty days--that included
+the Commune of 1871 and its antecedents. Hence this volume, which I
+liken to a French ch�teau, to which I have added a second storey and
+wings.
+
+And now that the house is finished, I must render my obligations to M.
+Mend�s and numerous French friends, for their kind assistance and
+valuable aid, including my confr�res of "_The Graphic_," who have
+allowed me to enliven the walls with pictures from their stores; and
+last, and not least, my best thanks are due to an English Peer, who
+placed at my disposal his unique collection of prints and journals of
+the period bearing upon the subject--a subject I am pretty familiar
+with. Powder has done its work, the smell of petroleum has passed away,
+the house that called me master has vanished from the face of the earth,
+and my concierge and his wife are reported _fusill�s_ by the
+Versaillais; and to add to the disaster, my rent was paid in advance,
+having been deposited with a _notaire_ prior to the First Siege.... But
+my neighbours, where are they? In my immediate neighbourhood six houses
+were entirely destroyed, and as many more half ruined. I can only speak
+of one friend, an amiable and able architect, who, alas! remonstrated in
+person, and received a ball from a revolver through the back of his
+neck. His head is bowed for life. He has lost his pleasure and his
+treasure, a valuable museum of art,--happily they could not burn his
+reputation, or the monument of his life--a range of goodly folio volumes
+that exist "_pour tous_."
+
+L.
+
+LONDON, 1871
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+CONTENTS
+
+LIST OF PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER--The 30th October, 1870--The H�tel de Ville
+invaded--Governor Trochu resigns--A Revolt attempted--Meetings, Place de
+la Bastille--The Prussians enter Paris--Hostility of the National Guard
+
+I. The Memorable 18th of March--Line and Nationals
+Fraternise--Discipline at a Discount
+
+II. Assassination of Generals Lecomte and Cl�ment Thomas
+
+III. Proclamation of M. Picard--The Government retires to Versailles
+
+IV. The New Regime Proclaimed--Obscurity of New Masters
+
+V. Paris Hesitates--Small Sympathy with Versailles
+
+VI. The Buttes Montmartre
+
+VII. An Issue Possible--An Approved Proclamation
+
+VIII. Demonstration of the Friends of Order
+
+IX. The Drama of the Rue de la Paix--Victims to Order
+
+X. A Wedding
+
+XI. The Bourse and Belleville
+
+XII. Watching and Waiting
+
+XIII. A Timid but Prudent Person
+
+XIV Some Federal Opinions
+
+XV. Proclamation of Admiral Saisset--Paris Satisfied.
+
+XVI. A Widow
+
+XVII. The Central Committee Triumphs
+
+XVIII. Paris Elections
+
+XIX. The Commune a Fact--A Motley Assembly
+
+XX. Proclamation of the Elections
+
+XXI. A Batch of Official Decrees--Landlord, and Tenant
+
+XXII. Requisitions and Feasts
+
+XXIII. Removals and Retirements
+
+XXIV. A General Flight
+
+XXV. An Envoy to Garibaldi
+
+XXVI. Commencement of Civil War--Beyond the Arc de Triomphe
+
+XXVII. Mont Val�rien opens on the Federals--Contradictory News
+
+XXVIII. Death of General Duval--Able Administration
+
+XXIX. Antipathy to the Church--The Archbishop Interrogated
+
+XXX. The Accomplices of Versailles
+
+XXXI. Death of Colonel Flourens
+
+XXXII. The Cross and the Red Flag
+
+XXXIII. Colonel Assy of Creuzot--Disgrace of Lullier
+
+XXXIV. Fighting goes on
+
+XXXV. Federal Funerals
+
+XXXVI. Prudent Counsel
+
+XXXVII. Suppression of Newspapers
+
+XXXVIII. The Second Bombardment--Avenue de la Grande Arm�e--Reckless Aim
+of the Versaillais
+
+XXXIX. The Plan of Bergeret
+
+XL. Another General--Police and Pressgang--A Citizen of the World
+
+XLI. Women and Children
+
+XLII. Why is Conciliation Impossible?
+
+XLIII. The Portable Guillotine
+
+XLIV. The Common Grave
+
+XLV. Idle Paris
+
+XLVI. The Press
+
+XLVII. Day follows Day
+
+XLVIII. The Condemned Column--Model Decrees
+
+XLIX. Thiers and Conciliation--Paris and France
+
+L. Communist Caricatures--Political Satire
+
+LI. Gustave Courbet--Federation of Art--Courbet, President
+
+LII. Camp, Place Vend�me
+
+LIII. Elections of the 16th of April
+
+LIV. The "Change" under the Commune
+
+LV. Elections sans Electors--Farce of Universal Suffrage
+
+LVI. � la Mode de Londres
+
+LVII. The Little Sisters of the Poor
+
+LVIII. B�con and Asni�res taken--Declaration to the French
+People--Federation of Communes--The Commune or the Deluge
+
+LIX. A Court-Martial
+
+LX. A Heroic Gamin
+
+LXI. Killing the Dead
+
+LXII. The Truce at Neuilly--Porte-Maillot destroyed--Neuilly in Ruins
+
+LXIII. Masonic Mediation--The Envoy of Peace--Citizens and Brothers--A
+White Flag on Porte-Maillot
+
+LXIV. Prudent Monsieur Pyat
+
+LXV. Resources of the Commune--The Royal Road to Riches
+
+LXVI. The Prophecy of Proudhon
+
+LXVII. Revolutionary Balloons
+
+LXVIII. A Confession of Conscience
+
+LXIX. Communist Journalism--Sensation Articles
+
+LXX. Fort Issy falls
+
+LXXI. Cluseret arrested
+
+LXXII. The Executive Commission--Committee of Public Safety
+
+LXXIII. A Competent Tribunal
+
+LXXIV. The Password betrayed
+
+LXXV. The Condemned Chapel
+
+LXXVI. Restitution is Robbery
+
+LXXVII. The Nuns of Picpus
+
+LXXVIII. Rossel resigns--The Semblance of a Government
+
+LXXIX. Want of Funds--The Sinews of War
+
+LXXX. Passwords--The Chariot of Apollo--Refractories
+
+LXXXI. Sacrilege--Clubs in the Churches
+
+LXXXII. Refractories in Danger
+
+LXXXIII. The Home of M. Thiers, Demolition and Removal
+
+LXXXIV. Filial Love
+
+LXXXV. Communal Secessionists--Save himself who can
+
+LXXXVI. The Failing Cause--The Column Vend�me falls
+
+LXXXVII. A Concert at the Tuileries
+
+LXXXVIII. Cartridge Magazine Explosion
+
+LXXXIX. The Advent of Action--Paris ceases to smile
+
+XC. The Troops enter--Street Fortifications--Insurgents at home
+
+XCI. Arrests and Murders
+
+XCII. Fire and Sword
+
+XCIII. Barricade at the Place de Clichy
+
+XCIV. Rack and Ruin
+
+XCV. Bloodshed and Brigandage
+
+XCVI. H�tel de Ville on Fire--A Furnace
+
+XCVII. P�troleurs and P�troleuses
+
+XCVIII. Streets of Paris
+
+XCIX. The Expiring Demons--The Hostages--Reprisals--Cemeteries
+
+C. Sewers and Catacombs
+
+CI. Mourning and Sadness
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+Chronology of the Commune
+
+Memoir of Rochefort.
+
+The 18th of March
+
+The Prussians and the Commune
+
+Memoir of Gambon
+
+Memoir of Lullier
+
+Memoir of Protot
+
+Translation from Victor Hugo
+
+Note of Jourde
+
+Last Proclamations of the Commune
+
+Note of F�rr�
+
+The Hostages--Gendarmes, &c.
+
+President Bonjean
+
+Note of Urbain.
+
+Devastations of Paris
+
+Official Report of General Ladmirault
+
+Ammunition expended on Second Siege of Paris
+
+List of Monuments and Buildings destroyed
+
+Index to Plan--Damage by Fire, &c.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS:
+
+*Separate Plates on tinted paper.
+
+*FRONTISPIECE:--THE COLUMN OF JULY (HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF)
+
+PORTRAIT OF M. THIERS, PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
+
+*THE STATE OF PARTY--PICTURED By THEMSELVES. ALLEGORICAL
+PAGE--ROCHEFORT, CL�MENT THOMAS, &c. (_facsimile_)
+
+COLUMN OF JULY--PLACE DE LA BASTILLE
+
+THE BUTTES MONTMARTRE--FEDERAL ARTILLERY PARKED THERE
+
+MONTMARTRE--FIRST LINE OF SENTINELS
+
+THE RED FLAG OF THE COLUMN OF JULY
+
+*PURIFICATION OF THE CHAMPS �LYS�ES AFTER THE DEPARTURE OF THE
+PRUSSIANS--CONSTRUCTION OF THE FIRST BARRICADE, 18TH MARCH
+
+DEFENCE OF THE HOTEL DE VILLE
+
+SENTINELS, BOULEVARD SAINT-MICHEL
+
+BEHIND A BARRICADE--THE D�JEUNER
+
+PORTRAIT OF GAMBON, MEMBER OF THE COMMUNE
+
+BEHIND A BARRICADE--THE EVENING MEAL
+
+PLACE DE LA CONCORDE--FEDERALS GOING OUT
+
+PORTRAIT OF GENERAL BERGERET
+
+PORTRAIT OF ABB� DEGUERRY, CUR� OF THE MADELEINE
+
+PORTRAIT OF RAOUL RIGAULT, PROCUREUR OF THE COMMUNE
+
+PORTRAIT OF MONSEIGNEUR DARBOY, ARCHBISHOP OF PARIS
+
+PORTRAIT OF COLONEL FLOURENS
+
+PORTRAIT OF COLONEL ASSY, GOVERNOR OF THE HOTEL DE VILLE
+
+THE RED FLAG ON THE PANTHEON
+
+PORTRAIT OF GENERAL CLUSERET
+
+THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE DE L'�TOILE
+
+HORSE CHASSEUR ACTING AS COMMUNIST ARTILLERYMAN
+
+MARINE GUNNER AND STREET BOY
+
+THE CORPS L�GISLATIF--HEAD QUARTERS OF GENERAL BERGERET
+
+PORTRAIT OF GENERAL DOMBROWSKI
+
+*BURNING THE GUILLOTINE IN THE PLACE VOLTAIRE
+
+COLONNE VEND�ME
+
+*CARICATURE DURING THE COMMUNE--LITTLE PARIS AND HIS PLAYTHINGS
+(_facsimile_)
+
+*THE MODERN "EROSTRATE"--COURBET AND THE DEBRIS OF THE VEND�ME COLUMN
+
+*FEDERAL VISIT TO THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR
+
+PORTRAIT OF VERMOREL, DELEGATE OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMISSION
+
+FEMALE CURIOSITY AT PORTE MAILLOT
+
+PORTE MAILLOT AND CHAPEL OF ST. FERDINAND
+
+ARMISTICE--INHABITANTS OF NEUILLY ENTERING PARIS
+
+WATCHING FOR THE FIRST SHOT FROM FORT VALERIEN
+
+FEMALE IMPERTURBABILITY AFTER THE ARMISTICE
+
+PORTRAIT OF PROTOT, DELEGATE OF JUSTICE
+
+PORTRAIT OF F�LIX PYAT, MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY
+
+FREEMASONS AT THE RAMPARTS
+
+PORTRAIT OF VERMESCH, EDITOR OF THE "P�RE DUCHESNE"
+
+PORTRAIT OF PASCHAL CROUSSET, DELEGATE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
+
+PORTRAIT OF DUPONT, COMMISSIONER OF TRADE AND COMMERCE
+
+CHAPELLE EXPIATOIRE (CONDEMNED BY THE COMMUNE)
+
+*CARICATURE DURING THE COMMUNE--PARIS EATS A GENERAL A-DAY (_facsimile_)
+
+PORTRAIT OF DELESCLUZE, DELEGATE OF WAR
+
+PORTRAIT OF FONTAINE, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC DOMAINS AND REGISTRATION
+
+R�FRACTAIRES ESCAPING FROM THE CITY BY NIGHT
+
+PORTRAIT OF GENERAL LA C�CILIA
+
+CHURCH OF ST. EUSTACHE (EXTERIOR)
+
+INTERIOR OF ST. EUSTACHE, USED AS A RED CLUB
+
+HOUSE OF M. THIERS IN THE PLACE ST. GEORGES
+
+HOUSE DURING DEMOLITION--AFTER ITS SACK
+
+PORTRAIT OF COURNET, PREFECT OF POLICE
+
+PORTRAIT OF ARTHUR ARNOULD, COMMISSIONER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
+
+*THE SEINE: FOUNDERED GUN-BOATS--PORTE MAILLOT, DESOLATION AND
+DESTRUCTION
+
+BARRICADE OF THE RUE CASTIGLIONE FROM THE PLACE VEND�ME
+
+PALACE OF THE TUILERIES
+
+PORTRAIT OF RAZOUA, GOVERNOR OF THE MILITARY SCHOOL
+
+*CAF� LIFE UNDER THE COMMUNE--A SLIGHT INTERRUPTION--PLAY-BILLS AND
+BURNT-OFFERINGS--"SPECTACLES DE PARIS"
+
+*PLACE DE LA CONCORDE--STATUES OF LILLE AND STRASBOURG
+
+*FIRE AND WATER--THE EFFECT OF FIRE ON THE FOUNTAINS OF THE PLACE DE LA
+CONCORDE AND THE CH�TEAU D'EAU--HIRONDELLES DE PARIS
+
+PORTRAIT OF JULES VALL�S, DELEGATE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND OF PUBLIC
+INSTRUCTION
+
+BARRICADE CLOSING THE RUE DE RIVOLI FROM THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE
+
+*BULLET MARKS "EN FACE" AND "EN PROFIL"--THE TREES AND LAMPS
+
+RUE ROYALE, LOOKING FROM THE MADELEINE TO THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE
+
+*A WARM CORNER OF THE TUILERIES
+
+PORTRAIT OF MILLI�RE, EX-DEPUTY, MEMBER OF THE COMMUNE
+
+PALAIS DE JUSTICE
+
+*POLICE OF PARIS--MINISTRY OF FINANCE, RUE DE RIVOLI
+
+PORTRAIT OF FERR�, PREFECT OF POLICE
+
+PALACE OF THE LUXEMBOURG (AMBULANCE HOSPITAL OF THE COMMUNE)
+
+*P�TROLEURS AND P�TROLEUSES
+
+*THE THEATRE OF THE PORTE ST-MARTIN--ALL THAT REMAINS OF THE HOME OF
+SENSATION DRAMA
+
+CELL OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF PARIS IN THE PRISON OF LA ROQUETTE
+
+YARD OF LA ROQUETTE WHERE THE ARCHBISHOP AND HOSTAGES WERE SHOT
+
+*MY NEIGHBOUR OPPOSITE, BUSINESS CARRIED ON AS USUAL--MY NEIGHBOUR NEXT
+DOOR, HE THINKS HIMSELF FORTUNATE
+
+PARIS UNDERGROUND (SEWERS AND CATACOMBS)
+
+*THE ENEMIES OF PROGRESS (LES ARISTOCRATES ENCORE)--CORPS DE GARDE DE
+L'ARM�E DE VERSAILLES
+
+*THE PUBLIC PROMENADES--A CAMP IN THE LUXEMBOURG--THE NEW
+MASTERS--PROCLAMATION OVER PROCLAMATION
+
+THE LUXEMBOURG (PRESENT TOWN HALL OF PARIS, 1871)
+
+PORTRAIT OF MARSHAL MACMAHON, DUKE OF MAGENTA
+
+*LIGHT AND AIR ONCE MORE--THE FOSSE COMMUNE (THE END)
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+MUS�E OF THE LOUVRE, FROM THE PLACE DU CARROUSEL
+
+PALAIS ROYAL
+
+HOTEL DE VILLE
+
+FOREIGN OFFICE
+
+PALACE OF THE LEGION OF HONOUR
+
+MAP OF PARIS, WITH INDICATIONS OF ALL THE PARTS DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.
+
+[Illustration: M. THIERS, Voted Chief of the Executive Power Feb.
+18,1871, and President of the Republic, Sept. 1871.]
+
+
+
+
+
+PARIS
+
+UNDER THE COMMUNE.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+
+Late in the day of the 30th October, 1870, the agitation was great in
+Paris; the news had spread that the village of Le Bourget had been
+retaken by the Prussians. The military report had done what it could to
+render the pill less bitter by saying that "_this village did not form a
+part of the system of defence_," but the people though kept in ignorance
+perceived instinctively that there must be weakness on the part of the
+chiefs. After so much French blood had been shed in taking the place,
+men of brave will would not have been wanting to occupy it. We admit
+that Le Bourget may not have been important from a military point of
+view, but as regarding its moral effect its loss was much to be
+regretted.
+
+The irritation felt by the population of Paris was changed into
+exasperation, when on the following day the news of the reduction of
+Metz appeared in the _Official Journal_:
+
+    "The Government has just been acquainted with the sad intelligence
+    of the capitulation of Metz. Marshal Bazaine and his army were
+    compelled to surrender, after heroic efforts, which the want of food
+    and ammunition alone rendered it impossible to maintain. They have
+    been made prisoners of war."
+
+And after this the Government talks of an armistice! What! Strasburg,
+Toul, Metz, and so many other towns have resisted to the last dire
+extremity, and Paris, who expects succour from the provinces, is to
+capitulate, while a single effort is left untried? Has she no more
+bread? No more powder? Have her citizens no more blood in their veins?
+No, no! No armistice!
+
+In the morning, a deputation, formed of officers of the National Guards,
+went to the H�tel de Ville to learn from the Government what were its
+intentions. They were received by M. Etienne Arago, who promised them
+that the decision should be made known to them about two o'clock.
+
+The rappel was beaten at the time mentioned; battalions of the National
+Guards poured into the Place, some armed, many without arms.
+
+Over the sea of heads the eye was attracted by banners, and enormous
+placards bearing the inscriptions--
+
+"Vive la R�publique!
+
+"No Armistice!"
+
+or else
+
+"Vive la Commune!
+
+"Death to Cowards!"
+
+Rochefort,[1] with several other members of the Government, shows
+himself at the principal gate, which is guarded by a company of Mobiles.
+General Trochu appears in undress; he is received with cries of "_Vive
+la R�publique! La lev�e en masse!_ No Armistice! The National Guards,
+who demand the _lev�e en masse_, would but cause a slaughter. We must
+have cannon first; we will have them." Alas! it had been far better to
+have had none whatever, as what follows will prove. While some cry,
+"Vive Trochu!" others shout, "Down with Trochu!" Before long the H�tel
+de Ville is invaded; the courts, the saloons, the galleries, all are
+filled. Each one offers his advice, but certain groups insist positively
+on the resignation of the Government. Lists of names are passed from
+hand to hand; among the names are those of Dorian (president),
+Schoelcher, Delescluze, Ledru Rollin, F�lix Pyat.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Cries are raised that if the Government refuse to resign, its members
+will be arrested.
+
+"Yes! yes! seize them!" And an officer springs forward to make them
+prisoners as they sit in council.
+
+"Excuse me, Monsieur, but what warrant have you for so doing?" asks one
+of the members.
+
+"I have nothing to do with warrants. I act in the name of the people!"
+
+"Have you consulted the people? Those assembled here do not constitute
+the people."
+
+The officer was disconcerted. Not long afterwards, however, the crowd is
+informed that the members of the Government are arrested.
+
+The principal scene took place in the cabinet of the ex-prefect. Citizen
+Blanqui approaches the table; addressing the people, he requests them to
+evacuate the room so as to allow the commission to deliberate. The
+commission! What commission? Where does it spring from? No one knew
+anything of it, so the members must evidently have named themselves.
+Monsieur Blanqui had seen to that, no doubt. During this time the
+adjoining room is the theatre of the most extraordinary excitement; the
+men of the 106th Battalion, who were on guard in the interior of the
+H�tel de Ville, are compelled to use their arms to prevent any one else
+entering. After some tumult and struggling, but without any spilling of
+blood, some National Guards of this battalion manage to fight their way
+through to the room in which the members of the Government are
+prisoners, and succeed in delivering them.
+
+At about two o'clock in the morning, the 106th Battalion had completely
+cleared the H�tel de Ville of the crowds. No violence had been done, and
+General Trochu was reviewing a body of men ranged in battle order, which
+extended from the Place de l'H�tel de Ville to the Place de la Concorde.
+An hour later, quiet was completely restored.
+
+The members of the Government, who had been incarcerated during several
+hours, now wished to show their authority; they felt that their power
+had been shaken, and saw the necessity of strengthening it. What can a
+Government do in such a case? Call for a pl�biscite. But this time Paris
+alone was consulted, and for a good reason. Thus, on the 1st November,
+the people, of Paris were enjoined to express their wishes by answering
+yes or no to this simple question:--
+
+    "Do the people of Paris recognise the authority of the Government
+    for the National Defence?"
+
+This was clear, positive, and free from all ambiguity.
+
+The partizans of the Commune declared vehemently that those who voted in
+the affirmative were reactionists. "Give us the Commune of '93!" shouted
+those who thought they knew a little more about the matter than the
+rest. They were generally rather badly received. It is no use speaking
+of '93! Replace your Blanquis, your F�lix Pyats, your Flourens by men
+like those of the grand revolution, and then we shall be glad to hear
+what you have to say on the subject.
+
+The inhabitants of Montmartre, La-Chapelle, Belleville, behaved like
+good citizens, keeping a brave heart in the hour of misfortune.
+
+However it came about, the Government was maintained by a majority of
+557,995 votes against 62,638.
+
+Well, Messieurs of the Commune, try again, or, still better, remain
+quiet.
+
+During the night of the 21st of January the members of the National
+Defence and the chief officers of the army were assembled around the
+table in the council-room. They were still under the mournful impression
+left by the fatal day of the nineteenth, on which hundreds of citizens
+had fallen at Montretout, at Garches, and at Buzenval. Thanks to the
+want of foresight of the Government, the people of Paris were rationed
+to 300 grammes of detestable black bread a day for each person. All
+representations made to them had been in vain. Ration our bread by
+degrees, had been said, we should thus accustom ourselves to privation,
+and be prepared insensibly, for greater sufferings, while the duration
+of our provisions would be lengthened. But the answer always was:
+"Bread? We shall have enough, and to spare." When the great crisis was
+seen approaching, the public feeling showed itself by violent agitation.
+It was not surprising, therefore, that all the faces of these gentlemen
+at the council-table bore marks of great depression. The Governor of
+Paris offered his resignation, as he was in the habit of doing after
+every rather stormy sitting; but his colleagues refused to accept it, as
+they had before. What was to be done? Had not the Governor of Paris
+sworn never to capitulate? After a night spent in discussing the
+question, the members of Government decided on the following plan of
+action. You will see that it was as simple as it was innocent! The
+following announcement was placarded on all the walls:--
+
+    "The Government for the National Defence has decided that the chief
+    commandment of the army of Paris shall in future be separate from
+    the presidency of the Government.
+
+    "General Vinoy is named Commandant-in-Chief of the army of Paris.
+
+    "The title and functions of the Governor of Paris are suppressed."
+
+The trick is played: if they capitulate now, it will no longer be the
+act of the Governor of Paris. How ingenious this would have been, if it
+had not been pitiful!
+
+    "General Trochu retains the presidency of the Government."
+
+By the side of this placard was the proclamation of General Thomas.
+
+    "TO THE NATIONAL GUARD.
+
+    "Last night, a handful of insurgents forced open the prison of
+    Mazas, and delivered several of the prisoners, amongst whom was M.
+    Flourens. The same men attempted to occupy the _mairie_ of the 20th
+    arrondissement (Belleville), and to install the chiefs of the
+    insurrection there; your commander-in-chief relies on your
+    patriotism to repress this shameful sedition.
+
+    "The safety of Paris is at stake.
+
+    "While the enemy is bombarding our forts, the factions within our
+    walls use all their efforts to paralyse the defence.
+
+    "In the name of the public good, in the name of law, and of the high
+    and sacred duty that commands you all to unite in the defence of
+    Paris, hold yourselves ready to frustrate this most criminal
+    attempt; at the first call, let the National Guard rise to a man,
+    and the perturbators will be struck powerless.
+
+    "The Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard,
+
+    "CLEMENT THOMAS.
+
+    "A true copy.
+
+    "Minister of the Interior ad interim,
+
+    "JULES FAVRE.
+
+    "Paris, 22nd January, 1871."
+
+In the morning, large groups of people assembled from mere curiosity,
+appeared on the Place of the H�tel de Ville, which however wore a
+peaceful aspect.
+
+At about half-past two in the afternoon, a detachment of a hundred and
+fifty armed National Guards issued from the Rue du Temple, and stationed
+themselves before the H�tel de Ville, crying, "Down with Trochu!" "Long
+live the Commune!" A short colloquy was then held between several of the
+National Guards and some officers of the Mobiles, who spoke with perfect
+calmness. Suddenly, a shot is fired, and at the same moment, as in the
+grand scene of a melodrama, the windows and the great door are flung
+open, and two lines of Mobile Guards are seen, the front rank kneeling,
+the second standing, and all levelling their muskets and prepared to
+fire. Then came a volley which spread terror amidst the crowds of people
+in the Place, who precipitated themselves in all directions, uttering
+cries and shrieks. In another moment the Place is cleared. Ah! those
+famous chassepots can work miracles.
+
+The insurgents, during this mad flight of men, women, and children, had
+answered the attack, some aiming from the shelter of angles and posts,
+others discharging their rifles from the windows of neighbouring houses.
+
+Then the order to cease firing is heard, and a train of litterbearers,
+waving their handkerchiefs as flags, approach from the Avenue Victoria.
+At the H�tel de Ville one officer only is wounded, but on the Place lie
+a dozen victims, two of whom are women.
+
+At four o'clock the 117th Battalion of the National Guard takes up its
+position before the municipal palace. They are reinforced by a
+detachment of _gendarmes_, mounted and on foot, and by companies of
+Mobiles, under the command of General Carr�ard.
+
+General Cl�ment Thomas hastens to address a few words to the 117th;
+later, he paid with his life for thus appearing on the side of order.
+Finally, General Vinoy arrives, followed by his staff, to take measures
+against any renewed acts of aggression. Mitrailleuses and cannon are
+stationed before the H�tel de Ville; the drums beat the _rappel_
+throughout the town, and a great number of battalions of National Guards
+assemble in the Rue de Rivoli, at the Louvre, and on the Place de la
+Concorde; others bivouac before the Palais de l'Industrie, while on the
+other side of the Champs Elys�es regiments of cavalry, infantry, and
+mobiles, are drawn out. The agitators have disappeared, calm is
+restored, within the city be it understood, for all this did not
+interrupt the animated interchange of shells between the French and
+Prussian batteries, and a great number of Parisians, who had twice
+helped to disperse the insurgents of October and January, thought
+involuntarily of the Commune of the 10th of August, 1793, which headed
+the revolution, and said to themselves that there were perhaps some
+amongst the present insurgents who, like the former, would rise up to
+deliver them from the Prussians. For these agitators have some
+appearance of truth on their side: "You are weak and timorous," they cry
+to those in power; "you seem awaiting a defeat rather than expecting a
+victory. Give place to the energetic, obscure though they may be; for
+the men of the great Commune, of our first glorious revolution, they
+also were for the greater part unknown. We have confidence in the army
+of Paris, and we will break the iron circle of invasion."
+
+Though the Communists have since then shown bravery, and sometimes
+heroism, in their struggle against the Versailles troops, we are very
+doubtful, now that we have seen their chiefs in action, whether the
+efforts they talked of would have been crowned with success. Their
+object was power, and, having nothing to risk and all to gain, they
+would have forthwith disposed of public property in order to procure
+themselves enjoyment and honours. The few right-minded men who at first
+committed themselves, proved this by the fact of their giving in their
+resignation a few days after the Commune had established itself.
+
+Tranquillity had returned. In the morning of the 25th, guards patrolled
+the Place de la Bastille, the Place du Ch�teau d'Eau, the Boulevard
+Magenta, and the outer boulevards. Paris started as if she had been
+aroused from some fearful dream, and the waking thought of the enemy at
+her gates stirred up all her energies once more.
+
+The Communists had been defeated for the second time; but they were soon
+to take a terrible revenge.
+
+The vow made by the Governor of Paris had been repeated by the majority
+of the Parisians, and all parties seemed to have rallied round him under
+the same device: vanquish or die. After the forts, the barricades, and
+as a last resource, the burning of the city. Who knows? Perhaps the
+fanatics of resistance had already made out the plan of destruction
+which served later for the Commune. It has been proved that nothing in
+this work of ruin was impromptu.
+
+The news of the convention of the 28th of January, the preliminary of
+the capitulation of Paris, was thus very badly received, and M.
+Gambetta, by exhorting the people, in his celebrated circular of the
+31st of January, to resist to the death, sowed the seeds of civil war:--
+
+    "CITIZENS,--
+
+    "The enemy has just inflicted upon France the most cruel insult that
+    she has yet had to endure in this accursed war, the too-heavy
+    punishment of the errors and weaknesses of a great people.
+
+    "Paris, the impregnable, vanquished by famine, is no longer able to
+    hold in respect the German hordes. On the 28th of January, the
+    capital succumbed, her forts surrendered to the enemy. The city
+    still remains intact, wresting, as it were, by her own power and
+    moral grandeur, a last homage from barbarity.
+
+    "But in falling, Paris leaves us the glorious legacy of her heroic
+    sacrifices. During five months of privation and suffering, she has
+    given to France the time to collect herself, to call her children
+    together, to find arms, to compose armies, young as yet, but valiant
+    and determined, and to whom is wanting only that solidity which can
+    be obtained but by experience. Thanks to Paris, we hold in our
+    hands, if we are but resolute and patriotic, all that is needed to
+    revenge, and set ourselves free once more.
+
+    "But, as though evil fortune had resolved to overwhelm us, something
+    even more terrible and more fraught with anguish than the fall of
+    Paris, was awaiting us.
+
+    "Without our knowledge, without either warning, us or consulting us,
+    an armistice, the culpable weakness of which was known to us too
+    late, has been signed, which delivers into the hands of the
+    Prussians the departments occupied by our soldiers, and which
+    obliges us to wait for three weeks, in the midst of the disastrous
+    circumstances in which the country is plunged, before a national
+    assembly can be assembled.
+
+    "We sent to Paris for some explanation, and then awaited in silence
+    the promised arrival of a member of the government, to whom we were
+    determined to resign our office. As delegates of government, we
+    desired to obey, and thereby prove to all, friends and dissidents,
+    by setting an example of moderation and respect of duty, that
+    democracy is not only the greatest of all political principles, but
+    also the most scrupulous of governments.
+
+    "However, no one has arrived from Paris, and it is necessary to act,
+    come what may; the perfidious machinations of the enemies of France
+    must be frustrated.
+
+    "Prussia relies upon the armistice to enervate and dissolve our
+    armies; she hopes that the Assembly, meeting after so long a
+    succession of disasters, and under the impression of the terrible
+    fall of Paris, wilt be timid and weak, and ready to submit to a
+    shameful peace.
+
+    "It is for us to upset these calculations, and to turn the very
+    instruments which are prepared to crush the spirit of resistance,
+    into spurs that shall arouse and excite it.
+
+    "Let us make this same armistice into a code of instruction for our
+    young troops; let us employ the three coming weeks in pushing on the
+    organization of the defence and of the war more ardently than ever.
+
+    "Instead of the meeting of cowardly reactionists that our enemies
+    expect, let us form an assembly that shall be veritably national and
+    republican, desirous of peace, if peace can ensure the honour, the
+    rank, and the integrity of our country, but capable of voting for
+    war rather than aiding in the assassination of France.
+
+    "FRENCHMEN,
+
+    "Remember that our fathers left us France, whole and indivisible;
+    let us not be traitors to our history; let us not deliver up our
+    traditional domains into the hands of barbarians. Who then will sign
+    the armistice? Not you, legitimists, who fought so valiantly under
+    the flag of the Republic, in the defence of the ancient kingdom of
+    France; nor you, sons of the bourgeois of 1789, whose work was to
+    unite the old provinces in a pact of indissoluble union; nor you,
+    workmen of the towns, whose intelligence and generous patriotism
+    represent France in all her strength and grandeur, the leader of
+    modern nations; nor you, tillers of the soil, who never have spared
+    your blood in the defence of the Revolution, which gave you the
+    ownership of your land and your title of citizen.
+
+    "No! Not one Frenchman will be found to sign this infamous act; the
+    enemy's attempt to mutilate France will be frustrated, for, animated
+    with the same love of the mother country and bearing our reverses
+    with fortitude, we shall become strong once more and drive out the
+    foreign legions.
+
+    "To the attainment of this noble end, we must devote our hearts, our
+    wills, our lives, and, a still greater sacrifice perhaps, put aside
+    our preferences.
+
+    "We must close our ranks about the Republic, show presence of mind
+    and strength of purpose; and without passion or weakness, swear,
+    like free men, to defend France and the Republic against all and
+    everyone.
+
+    "To arms!"
+
+The Government, by obtaining from M. de Bismarck a condition that the
+National Guards should retain their arms, hoped to win public favour
+again, as one offers a rattle to a fractious child to keep him quiet;
+and it published the news on the 3rd of February:
+
+    "After the most strenuous efforts on our part, we have obtained, for
+    the National Guard, the condition ratified by the convention of the
+    28th January."
+
+Three days after, on the 6th of February, Gambetta wrote:
+
+    "His conscience would not permit him to remain a member of a
+    government with which he no longer agreed in principle."
+
+The candidates, elected in Paris on the 8th of February, were Louis
+Blanc, Victor Hugo, Garibaldi, Gambetta, Rochefort, Delescluze, Pyat,
+Lockroy, Floquet, Milli�re, Tolain, Malon. The provinces, on the other
+hand, chose their deputies from among the party of reaction, the members
+of which have been so well-known since under the name of _rurals._
+
+Loud murmurs arose in the ranks of the National Guard, when the decrees
+of the 18th and 19th of February, concerning their pay, were published;
+and later, when an order from headquarters required the marching
+companies to send in to the state dep�t all their campaigning
+paraphernalia.
+
+On the 18th of February, M. Thiers was named chief of the executive
+power by a vote of the Assembly.
+
+On Sunday, the 26th of February, the Place de la Bastille, in which
+manifestations had been held for the last two days in celebration of the
+revolution of February '48, became as a shrine, to which whole
+battalions of the National Guard marched to the sound of music, their
+flags adorned with caps of liberty and cockades. The Column of July was
+hung with banners and decorated with wreaths of immortelles. Violent
+harangues, the theme of which was the upholding of the Republic "to the
+death," were uttered at its foot. One man, of the name of Budaille,
+pretended that he held proofs of the treachery of the Government for the
+National Defence, and promised that he would produce them at the proper
+time and place.
+
+Up to this moment, the demonstrations seemed to have but one
+result--that of impeding circulation; but they soon gave rise to scenes
+of tumult and disorder. Towards one o'clock, when perhaps twenty or
+thirty thousand persons were on the above Place, an individual, accused
+of being a spy, was dragged by an infuriated mob to the river, and
+flung, bound hand and foot, into the look by the Ile Saint Louis, amidst
+the wild cries and imprecations of the madmen whose prey he had become.
+
+The night of the 26th was very agitated; drums beat to arms, and on the
+morning of the 27th the Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard issued
+a proclamation, in which he appealed to the good citizens of Paris, and
+confided the care of the city to the National Guard. This had no effect,
+however, on the aspect of the Place de la Bastille; the crowd continued
+to applaud, frantically, the incendiary speeches of the socialist party,
+who had sworn to raise Paris at any cost.
+
+[Illustration: COLUMN OF JULY, PLACE DE LA BASTILLE.]
+
+On the same day, the 27th of February, the Government informed the
+people of Paris of the result of the negociations with Prussia, in the
+following proclamation:
+
+    "The Government appeals to your patriotism and your wisdom; you hold
+    in your hands the future of Paris and of France herself. It is for
+    you to save or to ruin both!
+
+    "After a heroic resistance, famine forced you to open your gates to
+    the victorious enemy; the armies that should have come to your aid
+    were driven over the Loire. These incontestable facts have compelled
+    the Government for the National Defence to open negotiations of
+    peace.
+
+    "For six days your negotiators have disputed the ground foot by
+    foot; they did all that was humanly possible, to obtain less
+    rigorous conditions. They have signed the preliminaries of peace,
+    which are about to be submitted to the National Assembly.
+
+    "During the time necessary for the examination and discussion of
+    these preliminaries, hostilities would have recommenced, and blood
+    would, have flowed afresh and uselessly, without a prolongation of
+    the armistice.
+
+    "This prolongation could only be obtained on the condition of a
+    partial and very temporary occupation of a portion of Paris:
+    absolutely to be limited to the quarter of the Champs Elys�es. Not
+    more than thirty thousand men are to enter the city, and they are to
+    retire as soon as the preliminaries of peace have been ratified,
+    which act can only occupy a few days.
+
+    "If this convention were not to be respected the armistice would be
+    at an end: the enemy, already master of the forts, would occupy the
+    whole of Paris by force. Your property, your works of art, your
+    monuments, now guaranteed by the convention, would cease to exist.
+
+    "The misfortune would reach the whole of France. The frightful
+    ravages of the war, which have not heretofore passed the Loire,
+    would extend to the Pyrenees.
+
+    "It is then absolutely true to say that the salvation of France is
+    at stake. Do not imitate the error of those who would not listen to
+    us when, eight months ago, we abjured them not to undertake a war
+    which must be fatal.
+
+    "The French army which defended Paris with so much courage will
+    occupy the left of the Seine, to ensure the loyal execution of the
+    new armistice. It is for the National Guard to lend its aid, by
+    keeping order in the rest of the city.
+
+    "Let all good citizens who earned honour as its chiefs, and showed
+    themselves so brave before the enemy, reassume their authority, and
+    the cruel situation of the moment will be terminated by peace and the
+    return of public prosperity."
+
+This clause of the occupation of Paris by the Prussians was regarded by
+some people as a mere satisfaction of national vanity; but the greater
+number considered it as an apple of discord thrown by M. de Bismarck,
+who had every reason to desire that civil war should break out, thus
+making himself an accomplice of the Socialists and the members of the
+International. Confining ourselves simply to the analysis of facts, and
+to those considerations which may enlighten public opinion respecting
+the causes of events, we shall not allow ourselves to be carried over
+the vast field of hypothesis, but preserve the modest character of
+narrators. On the night of the 27th of February, the admiral commanding
+the third section of the fortifications, having noticed the hostile
+attitude of the National Guard, caused the troops which had been
+disarmed in accordance with the conditions of the armistice to withdraw
+into the interior of the city. The men of Belleville profited by the
+circumstance to pillage the powder magazines which had been entrusted to
+their charge, and on the following day they went, preceded by drums and
+trumpets, to the barracks of the Rue de la P�pini�re to invite the
+sailors lodged there to join them in a patriotic manifestation on that
+night. Believing that the object was to prevent the Prussians entering
+Paris, a certain number of these brave fellows, who had behaved so
+admirably during the siege, set out towards the Place de la Bastille but
+having been met on their way by some of their officers, they soon
+separated themselves from the rioters. Thirty of them had been invited
+to an open-air banquet in the Place de la Bastille; but seeing the
+probability of some disorder they nearly all retired, and on the
+following morning only eight of them were missing at the roll-call. Not
+one of the six thousand marines lodged in the barracks of the Ecole
+Militaire absented himself. On the same day, the 28th, a secret
+society, which we learned later to know and to fear, issued its first
+circular under the name of the Central Committee of the National Guard;
+the part since played by this body has been too important for us to omit
+to insert this proclamation here: its decisions became official acts
+which overthrew all constituted authority.
+
+    "CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL GUARD.
+
+    "Citizens,--
+
+    "The general feeling of the population appears to be to offer no
+    opposition to the entry of the Prussians into Paris. The Central
+    Committee, which had emitted contrary advice, declares its intention
+    of adhering to the following resolutions:--
+
+    "'All around the quarters occupied by the enemy, barricades shall be
+    raised so as to isolate completely that part of the town. The
+    inhabitants of the circumscribed portion should be required to quit
+    it immediately.
+
+    "'The National Guard, in conjunction with the army, shall form an
+    unbroken line along the whole circuit, and take care that the enemy,
+    thus isolated upon ground which is no longer of our city, shall
+    communicate in no manner with any of the other parts of Paris.
+
+    "'The Central Committee engages the National Guard to lend, its aid
+    for the execution of the necessary measures to bring about this
+    result, and to avoid any aggressive acts which would have the
+    immediate effect of overthrowing the Republic."'
+
+But here is a little treacherous placard, manuscript and anonymous,
+which takes a much fairer tone:--
+
+    "A convention has permitted the Prussians to occupy the Champs
+    Elys�es, from the Seine to the Faubourg St. Honor�, and as far as
+    the Place de la Concorde.
+
+    "Be it so! The greater the injury, the more terrible the revenge.
+
+    "But, if some panderer dare to pass the circle of our shame, let him
+    be instantly declared traitor, let him become a target for our
+    balls, an object for our petroleum, a mark for our Orsini bombs,[2]
+    an aim for our daggers!
+
+    "Let this be told to all.
+
+    "By decision of the Horatii,
+
+    "(Signed) POPULUS."
+
+The effervescence in the minds of the people was so great, that the
+entry of the Prussians was delayed for forty-eight hours, but on the
+first of March, at ten in the morning, they had come into the city, and
+the smoke of their bivouac fires was seen in the Champs Elys�es. On the
+evening of the same day, a telegram from Bordeaux announced that the
+National Assembly had ratified the preliminaries of peace by a majority
+of 546 voices against 107. On the following day the ex-Minister of
+Foreign Affairs left for Versailles, and by nine o'clock in the evening,
+everything was prepared for the evacuation of the troops, which was
+effected by eleven, on the third of March. During the short period of
+their stay, the city was in veritable mourning; the public edifices
+(even the Bourse) were closed, as were the shops, the warehouses, and
+the greater part of the caf�s. At the windows hung black flags, or the
+tricolour covered with black crape, and veils of the same material
+concealed the faces of the statues[3] on the Place de la Concorde.
+
+All these demonstrations had, however, a pacific character, and the
+presence of the enemy in Paris gave rise to no serious incident.
+
+Nevertheless, the agitation of the public mind was not allayed; some
+attributed this to a plot the Socialists had formed, and which had
+arrived at maturity. Others believed that the Prussians had left
+emissaries, creators of disorder, behind them, in revenge for their
+reception on the Place de la Concorde. In truth, their entry was
+anything but triumphal; their national airs were received with hisses;
+their officers were hooted as they promenaded in the Tuileries, and
+those who attempted to visit the Louvre were compelled to retreat
+without having satisfied their curiosity. On the evening of the 3rd of
+March, a note emanating from the Ministry of the Interior, pointed out
+in the following terms the danger to be feared from the Central
+Committee:--
+
+    "Incidents of the most regrettable nature have occurred during the
+    last few days, and menace seriously the peace of the capital.
+    Certain National Guards in arms, following the orders, not of their
+    legitimate chiefs, but of an anonymous Central Committee, which
+    could not give them any instructions without committing a crime
+    severely punishable by the law, took possession of a considerable
+    quantity of arms and ammunition of war, under the pretext of saving
+    them from the enemy, whose invasion they pretended to fear. Such
+    acts should at any rate have ceased after the departure of the
+    Prussian army. But such is not the case, for this evening the
+    guard-house at the Gobelins was invaded, and a number of cartridges
+    stolen.
+
+    "Those who provoke these disorders draw upon themselves a most
+    terrible responsibility; it is at the very moment that the city of
+    Paris, relieved from contact with the foreigner, desires to reassume
+    its habits of serenity and industry, that these men are sowing
+    trouble and preparing civil war. The Government appeals to all good
+    citizens to aid in stifling in the germ these culpable
+    manifestations.
+
+[Illustration: THE HILL OF MONTMARTRE!--WITH THE GUNS OF THE
+NATIONAL GUARD PARKED THERE. VIEW TAKEN FROM THE PLACE ST. PIERRE.]
+
+    "Let all who have at heart the honour and the peace of the city
+    arise; let the National Guard, repulsing all perfidious
+    instigations, rally round its officers, and prevent evils of which
+    the consequences will be incalculable. The Government and the
+    Commander-in-Chief (General d'Aurelle de Paladines, nominated on
+    the same day by M. Thiers to the chief command of the National
+    Guard) are determined to do their duty energetically; they will
+    cause the laws to be executed; they count on the patriotism and the
+    devotion of all the inhabitants of Paris."
+
+It was indeed time to put a stop to the existing state of affairs, for
+already twenty-six guns were in the possession of the insurgents, who
+had formed a regular park of artillery in the Place d'Italie, and this
+is the aspect of the Buttes Montmartre on the sixth of March, as
+described by an eye-witness:--
+
+    "The heights have become a veritable camp. Three or four hundred
+    National Guards, belonging partly to the 61st and 168th Battalions,
+    mount guard there day and night, and relieve each other regularly,
+    like old campaigners. They have two drummers and four trumpeters,
+    who beat the rappel or ring out the charge whenever the freak takes
+    them, without any one knowing why or wherefore. The officers, with
+    broad red belts, high boots, and their long swords dragging after
+    them, parade the Place with pipes or cigars in their months. They
+    glance disdainfully at the passers-by, and seem almost overpowered
+    with the importance of the high mission they imagine themselves
+    called upon to fulfil. "This is of what their mission consists: at
+    the moment of the entry of the Prussians into Paris, the National
+    Guard of Montmartre, fearing that the artillery would be taken from
+    them to be delivered to the enemy, assembled and dragged their
+    pieces, about twenty in number, up to the plateau which forms the
+    summit of Montmartre, and then placed them in charge of a special
+    guard. Now that the Prussians have left, they still keep their
+    stronghold, thinking to use it in the defence of the Republic
+    against the attacks of the reactionists. The guns are pointed
+    towards Paris, and guard is kept without a moment's relaxation.
+    There are four principal posts, the most important being at the foot
+    of the hill, on the Place Saint Pierre. The guards bivouac in the
+    open air, their muskets piled, ready at hand. Sentinels are placed
+    at the corner of each street, most of them lads of sixteen or
+    seventeen; but they are thoroughly in earnest, and treat the
+    passers-by roughly enough.
+
+    [Illustration: SENTINELS AT MONTMARTRE.]
+
+    "All the streets which debouche on the Place Saint-Pierre are closed
+    by barricades of paving-stones. The most important was formed of an
+    overturned cart, filled with huge stones, and with a red flag reared
+    upon the summit. A death-like silence reigned around. There were but
+    few passers-by, none but National Guards with their guns on their
+    shoulders."
+
+The appearance of the Boulevard de Clichy and Boulevard Rochechouart is
+completely different. The caf�s are overflowing with people, the
+concert-rooms open. Men and women pass tranquilly to and fro, without
+disturbing themselves about the cannon that are pointed towards them.
+
+The Government, before coming to active measures, appealed to the good
+sense of the people in a proclamation, dated the 8th of March, saying
+that this substitution of legal authority by a secret power would retard
+the evacuation of the enemy, and perhaps expose us to disasters still
+more complete and terrible.
+
+    "Let us look our position calmly in the face. We have been
+    conquered; nearly half of our territory has been in the power of a
+    million of Germans, who have imposed upon us a fine of five
+    milliards. Our only means of discharging this weighty debt is by the
+    strictest economy, the most exemplary conduct and care. We must not
+    lose a moment before putting our hands to work, which is our one and
+    solitary hope. And at this awful moment shall our miserable folly
+    lead us into a civil strife?...
+
+    "If, while they are meeting to treat with the enemy, our negotiators
+    have sedition to fear, they will break down as they did on the 31st
+    of October, when the events of the H�tel de Ville authorised the
+    enemy to refuse us an armistice which might have saved us."
+
+This form of reasoning was not illogical, but those who were working in
+secret for the furtherance of their own ambition, oared little to be
+convinced, and their myrmidons obeyed them blindly, and gloated over the
+wild, bombastic language of the demagogic press, which, though they did
+not understand it, impressed them no less with its inflated phrases.
+
+The Government, perceiving that it would be perhaps necessary to use
+rigorous measures, gave orders to hasten the arrival of the rest of the
+Army of the North.
+
+Some few days after the 18th of March, they resolved to deal a decided
+blow to the Democratic party in suppressing at once the _Vengeur_, the
+_Mot d'Ordre_, the _Cri du Peuple_, the _Caricature_, the _P�re
+Duchesne_, and the _Bouche de Fer_.
+
+The National Guards had a perfect mania for collecting cannon; after
+having placed in battery the mitrailleuses and pieces of seven, the
+produce of patriotic subscriptions, they also seized upon others
+belonging to the State, and carried them off to the Buttes Montmartre,
+where they had about a hundred pieces. The retaking of this artillery
+was the matter in question. While they at Versailles were occupied with
+the solution of the problem, the National Guards continued their
+manifestations at the Place de la Bastille, dragging these pieces of
+artillery in triumph from the Champ de Mars to the Luxembourg, from the
+park of Montrouge to Notre Dame, from the Place des Vosges to the Place
+d'Italie, and from the Buttes Montmartre to the Buttes Chaumont.
+
+Before making use of force, the Government desired to make a last effort
+at conciliation, and on the 17th of March the following proclamation was
+posted on the walls:--
+
+    "INHABITANTS of PARIS,
+
+    "Once more we address ourselves to you, to your reason, and your
+    patriotism, and we hope that you will listen to us.
+
+    "Your grand city, which cannot live except with order, is profoundly
+    troubled in some of its quarters, and this trouble, without
+    spreading to other parts, is sufficient nevertheless to prevent the
+    return of industry and comfort.
+
+    "For some time a number of ill-advised men, under the pretext of
+    resisting the Prussians, who are no longer within our walls, have
+    constituted themselves masters of a part of the city, thrown up
+    entrenchments, mounting guard there and forcing you to do the same,
+    all by order of a secret committee, which takes upon itself to
+    command a portion of the National Guard, thus setting aside the
+    authority of General d'Aurelle de Paladines so worthy to be at your
+    head, and would form a government in opposition to that which exists
+    legally, the offspring of universal suffrage.
+
+    "These men, who have already caused you so much harm, whom you
+    yourselves dispersed on the 31st of October, are placarding their
+    intention to protect you against the Prussians, who have only made
+    an appearance within our walls, and whose definite departure is
+    retarded by these disorders, and pointing guns, which if fired would
+    only ruin your houses and destroy your wives and yourselves; in
+    fact, compromising the very Republic they pretend to defend; for if
+    it is firmly established in the opinion of France that the Republic
+    is the necessary companion of disorder, the Republic will be lost.
+    Do not place any trust in them, but listen to the truth which we
+    tell you in all sincerity.
+
+    "The Government instituted by the whole nation could have retaken
+    before this these stolen guns, which at present only menace your
+    safety, seized these ridiculous entrenchments which hinder nothing
+    but business, and have placed in the hands of justice the criminals
+    who do not hesitate to create civil war immediately after that with
+    the foreigner, but it desired to give those who were misled the time
+    to separate themselves from those who deceived them.
+
+    "However, the time allowed for honourable men to separate themselves
+    from the others, and which is deducted from your tranquillity, your
+    welfare, and the welfare of France, cannot be indefinitely
+    prolonged.
+
+    "While such a state of things lasts, commerce is arrested, your
+    shops are deserted, orders which would come from all parts are
+    suspended; your arms are idle, credit cannot be recreated, the
+    capital which the Government requires to rid the territory of the
+    presence of the enemy, comes to hand but slowly. In your own
+    interest, in that of your city, as well as in that of France, the
+    Government is resolved to act. The culprits who pretend to institute
+    a Government of their own must be delivered up to justice. The guns
+    stolen from the State must be replaced in the arsenals; and, in
+    order to carry out this act of justice and reason, the Government
+    counts upon your assistance.
+
+    "Let all good citizens separate themselves from the bad; let them
+    aid, instead of opposing, the public forces; they will thus hasten
+    the return of comfort to the city, and render service to the
+    Republic itself, which disorder is ruining in the opinion of France.
+
+    "Parisians! We use this language to you because we esteem your good
+    sense, your wisdom, your patriotism; but, this warning being given,
+    you will approve of our having resort to force at all costs, and
+    without a day's delay, that order, the only condition of your
+    welfare, be re-established entirely, immediately, and unalterably."
+
+As soon as the party of disorder saw the intentions of the Government of
+Versailles thus set forth, a chorus of recriminations burst
+forth:--"They want to put an end to the Republic!"--"They are about to
+fire on our brothers!"--"They wish to set up a king," &c. The same
+strain for ever! In order to prevent as far as possible the mischievous
+effects of this insurrectionary propaganda, the Government issued the
+following proclamation, which bore date the 18th of March:--
+
+    "NATIONAL GUARDS of PARIS!--
+
+    "Absurd rumours are spread abroad that the Government contemplates a
+    _coup d'�tat._
+
+    "The Government of the Republic has not, and cannot have, any other
+    object but the welfare of the Republic.
+
+    "The measures which have been taken were indispensable to the
+    maintenance of order; it was, and is still, determined to put an end
+    to an insurrectionary committee, the members of which, nearly all
+    unknown to the population of Paris, preach nothing but Communist
+    doctrines, will deliver up Paris to pillage, and bring France into
+    her grave, unless the National Guard and the army do not rise with
+    one accord in the defence of the country and of the Republic."
+
+The Government had many parleys with the insurrectionary National Guards
+at Montmartre; at one moment there was a rumour that the guns had been
+given up. It appeared that the guardians of this artillery had
+manifested some intention of restoring it, horses had even been sent
+without any military force to create mistrust, but the men declared that
+they would not deliver the guns, except to the battalions to which they
+properly belonged. Was there bad faith here? or had those who made the
+promise undertaken to deliver up the skin before they had killed the
+bear.
+
+Public opinion shaped itself generally in somewhat the following
+form:--"If they are tricking each other, that is not very dangerous!"
+
+Many an honest citizen went to bed on the seventeenth of March full of
+hope. He saw Paris marching with quick steps towards the
+re-establishment of its business, and the resumption of its usual
+aspect; the emigrants and foreigners would arrive in crowds, their
+pockets overflowing with gold to make purchases and put the industry of
+Paris under contributions the French and foreign bankers will rival each
+other to pay the indemnity of five milliards.
+
+The dream of good M. Prudhomme[4] was, however, somewhat clouded by the
+figure of the Buttes Montmartre bristling with cannon; but the number of
+guards had become so diminished, and they seemed so tired of the
+business, that it appeared as if they were about to quit for good. The
+following chapter will inform you what were the waking thoughts of the
+Parisians on the morning of the eighteenth of March.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: PURIFICATION OF THE CHAMPS �LYS�ES AFTER
+THE DEPARTURE OF THE PRUSSIANS MAR 1871]
+
+[Illustration: BUILDING A BARRICADE. MARCH 18. 1871.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: Memoir, see Appendix I.]
+
+[Footnote 2: The police had seized, some time before, in Paris, ten
+thousand Orsini bombs, and hundreds of others of a new construction,
+charged with fulminating mercury.]
+
+[Footnote 3: The eight gigantic female figures, representing the
+principal towns of France: Strasbourg, Lille, Metz, &c., &c.]
+
+[Footnote 4: "Joseph Prudhomme" is the typical representative of the
+Parisian middle-class (_Bourgeois_); the honest simple father of family,
+peaceful but patriotic, proud of his country and ready to die for it.]
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+
+Listen! What does that mean? Is it a transient squall or the first gust
+of a tempest? Is it due to nature or to man's agency; is it an �meute or
+the advent of a revolution that is to overturn everything?
+
+Such were my reflections when awakened, on the 18th of March, 1871, at
+about four in the morning, by a noise due to the tramp of many feet.
+From my window, in the gloomy white fog, I could see detachments of
+soldiers walking under the walls, proceeding slowly, wrapped in their
+grey capotes; a soft drizzling rain falling at the time. Half awake, I
+descended to the street in time to interrogate two soldiers passing in
+the rear.
+
+"Where are you going?" asked I.--"We do not know," says one; "Report
+says we are going to Montmartre," adds the other.[5] They were really
+going to Montmartre. At five o'clock in the morning the 88th Regiment of
+the line occupied the top of the hill and the little streets leading to
+it, a place doubtless familiar to some of them, who on Sundays and f�te
+days had clambered up the hill-sides in company with apple-faced rustics
+from the outskirts, and middle-class people of the quarter; taking part
+in the crowd on the Place Saint-Pierre, with its games and amusements,
+and "assisting," as they would say, at shooting in a barrel, admiring
+the ability of some, whilst reviling the stupidity of others; when they
+had a few sous in their pockets they would try their own skill at
+throwing big balls into the mouths of fantastic monsters, painted upon a
+square board, while their country friends nibbled at spice-nuts, and
+thought them delicious. But on this 18th of March morning there are no
+women, nor spice-nuts, nor sport on the Place Saint-Pierre: all is slush
+and dirt, and the poor lines-men are obliged to stand at ease, resting
+upon their arms, not in the best of humour with the weather or the
+prospect before them.
+
+Ah! and the guns of the National Guard that frown from their embrasures
+on the top of the hill, have they been made use of against the
+Prussians? No! they have made no report during the siege, and were only
+heard on the days on which they were christened and paid for; elegant
+things, hardly to be blackened with powder, that it was always hoped
+would be pacific and never dangerous to the capital. Cruel irony! those
+guns for which Paris paid, and those American mitrailleuses, made out of
+the savings of both rich and poor, the farthings of the frugal
+housewife, and the napoleons of the millionaires; the contributions of
+the artists who designed, and the poets who pen'd, are ruining Paris
+instead of protecting it. The brass mouths that ate the bread of
+humanity are turned upon the nation itself to devour it also.
+
+But, to return to the 88th Regiment of Line, did they take the guns?
+Yes, but they gave them up again, and to whom? why, to a crowd of women
+and children; and as to the chiefs, no one seemed to know what had
+become of them. It is related, however, that General Lecomte had been
+made a prisoner and led to the Ch�teau-Rouge, and that at nine o'clock
+some Chasseurs d'Afrique charged pretty vigorously in the Place Pigalle
+a detachment of National Guards, who replied by a volley of bullets. An
+officer of Chasseurs was shot, and his men ran away, the greater part,
+it is said, into the wine-shops, where they fraternised with the
+patriots, who offered them drink. I was told on the spot that General
+Vinoy, who was on horseback, became encircled in a mob of women, had a
+stone and a cap[6] thrown at him, and thought it prudent to escape,
+leaving the National Guards and linesmen to promenade in good fellowship
+three abreast, dispersing themselves about the outer boulevards and
+about Paris. Indeed, I have just seen a drunken couple full of wine and
+friendship, strongly reminding one of a duel ending in a jolly
+breakfast. And who is to blame for this? Nobody knows. All agree that it
+is a bungle,--the fault of maladministration and want of tact.
+Certainly the National Guards at Montmartre had no right to hold the
+cannons belonging to the National Guards, as a body, or to menace the
+reviving trade and tranquillity of Paris, by means of guns turned
+against its peaceful citizens and Government officials; but was it
+necessary to use violence to obtain possession of the cannons? Should
+not all the means of conciliation be exhausted first, and might we not
+hope that the citizens at Montmartre would themselves end by abandoning
+the pieces of artillery[7] which they hardly protected. In fact, they
+were encumbered by their own barricades, and they might take upon
+themselves to repave their streets and return to order.
+
+Monsieur Thiers and his ministers were not of that opinion. They
+preferred acting, and with vigour. Very well! but when resolutions are
+formed, one should be sure of fulfilling them, for in circumstances of
+such importance failure itself makes the attempt an error.[8]
+
+Well! said the Government, who could imagine that the line would throw
+up the butt ends of their muskets,[9] or that the Chasseurs, after the
+loss of a single officer, would turn their backs upon the Nationals, and
+that their only deeds should be the imbibing of plentiful potations at
+the cost of the insurgents? But how could it be otherwise? Not many days
+since the soldiers were wandering idly through the streets with the
+National Guards; were billeted upon the people, eating their soup and
+chatting with their wires and daughters, unaccustomed to discipline and
+the rigour of military organisation; enervated by defeat, having been
+maintained by their officers in the illusion of their invincibility;
+annoyed by their uniform, of which they ceased to be proud, the
+humiliated soldiers sought to escape into the citizen. Were the
+commanding officers ignorant of the prevailing spirit of the troops?
+Must we admit that they were grossly deceived, or that they deceived the
+Government, when the latter might and ought to have been in a position
+to foresee the result. Possibly the Assembly had the right to coerce,
+but they had no right to be ignorant of their power. They must have
+known that 100,000 arms (chassepots, tabati�res,[10] and muskets) were
+in the hands of disaffected men, clanking on the floors of the dealers
+in adulterated wines and spirits, and low cabarets. The fact is, the
+Government took a leap in the dark, and wondered when they found the
+position difficult.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 5: Appendix, note 2.]
+
+[Footnote 6: A mark of insult.]
+
+[Footnote 7: This useless artillery was much ridiculed; jokers said that
+the notary of General Trochu was working out faithfully the "plan" of
+his illustrious client in these tardy fortifications.]
+
+[Footnote 8: How was the Government to act in the presence of these
+facts; to await events, or to strike a great blow?
+
+Some think that the resistance of the insurgents was strengthened by the
+measures taken by Government, which ought to have been more diplomatic
+and skilful. The agitation of these men of Montmartre, at the entry of
+the Prussians, had calmed down in a few hours; it was now the duty of
+Government to allay the irritation which had caused the insurgents to
+form their Montmartre stronghold, and not to follow the advice of
+infuriated reactionaries, who make no allowance for events and
+circumstances, neither analysing the elements of that which they are
+combating, nor weighing the measures they do not even know how to apply
+with tact.
+
+The guns had not been re-taken, but Paris was very calm. Dissensions had
+broken out in the Montmartre Committee, some of whose members wished the
+cannon to be returned (the Committee sat at No, 8 of the Rue des
+Rosiers, with a court-martial on one hand, and military head-quarters on
+the other). Danger seemed now to be averted, and the authorities had but
+one thing to do, to allow all agitation to die out, without listening to
+blind or treacherous counsellors, who advocated a system of immediate
+repression. It was said, however, that the greater number of the members
+of Government were inclined to temporise, but the provisional
+appointment of General Valentin to the direction of the Prefecture of
+Police, seemed to contradict this assertion.
+
+During this time, the leaders who held Montmartre, spurred on by the
+ambitious around them, and by those desirous of kindling civil war for
+the sake of the illicit gains to be obtained from it, were getting up a
+manifestation, which was to claim for the National Guard the right of
+electing its commander-in-chief; and the post was to be offered to
+Menotti Garibaldi. But though the men of Montmartre declared that all
+who did not sign the manifestos were traitors, yet the addresses
+remained almost entirely blank. The insurrection had evidently few
+supporters. According to others, the insurrection of 1871 was the result
+of a vast conspiracy, planned and nurtured under the influence of a six
+months' siege. No simple Paris _�meute_, but a grand social movement,
+organised by the great and universal revolutionary power; the Soci�t�
+Internationale, Garibaldiism, Mazziniism, and Fenianism, have given each
+other rendezvous in Paris. Cluseret, the American; Frankel, the
+Prussian; Dombrowski, the Russian; Brunswick, the Lithuanian; Romanelli,
+the Italian; Okolowitz, the Pole; Spillthorn, the Belgian; and La
+C�cilia, Wroblewski, Wenzel, Hertzfel, Bozyski, Syneck, Prolowitz, and a
+hundred others, equally illustrious, brought together from every quarter
+of the globe; such were these ardent conspirators, all imbued, like
+their colleagues the Flourens, the Eudes, the Henrys, the Duvals, and
+_tutti quanti_, with the principles of the French school of democracy
+and socialism.
+
+This strong and terrible band, we are told, is under the command of a
+chief who remains hidden and mute, while ostensibly it obeys the Pyats,
+Delescluzes, and Rocheforts, politicians, who not being generals, never
+condescend to fight.
+
+In the first days of March all was prepared for a coming explosion, and
+in spite of the departure of the Prussians, the Socialist party
+determined that it should take place. (_Guerre des Communeux_, p. 61.)]
+
+[Footnote 9: A sign that they refused to fight.]
+
+[Footnote 10: A smooth-bore musket arranged as breech-loader, and called
+a snuff-box, from the manner of opening the breech to adjust the
+charge.]
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+
+At three o'clock in the afternoon there was a dense group of linesmen
+and Nationals in one of the streets bordering on the Elys�e-Montmartre.
+The person who told us this did not recollect the name of the street,
+but men were eagerly haranguing the crowd, talking of General Lecomte,
+and his having twice ordered the troops to fire upon the citizen
+militia.
+
+"And what he did was right," said an old gentleman who was listening.
+
+Words that were no sooner uttered than they provoked a torrent of curses
+and imprecations from the by-standers. But he continued observing that
+General Lecomte had only acted under the orders of his superiors; being
+commanded to take the guns and to disperse the crowd, his only duty was
+to obey.
+
+These remarks being received in no friendly spirit, hostility to the
+stranger increased, when a vivandi�re approached, and looking the
+gentleman who had exposed himself to the fury of the mob full in the
+face, exclaimed, "It is Cl�ment Thomas!" And in truth it was General
+Cl�ment Thomas; he was not in uniform. A torrent of abuse was poured
+forth by a hundred voices at once, and the anger of the crowd seemed
+about to extend itself to violence, when a ruffian cried out: "You
+defend the rascal Lecomte! Well, we'll put you both together, and a
+pretty pair you'll be!" and this project being approved of, the General
+was hurried, not without having to submit to fresh insults, to where
+General Lecomte had been imprisoned since the morning.
+
+From this moment the narrative I have collected differs but little from
+that circulated through Paris.
+
+At about four o'clock in the afternoon the two generals were conducted
+from their prison by a hundred National Guards, the hands of General
+Lecomte being bound together, whilst those of Cl�ment Thomas were free.
+In this manner they were escorted to the top of the hill of Montmartre,
+where they stopped before No. 6 of the Rue des Rosiers: it is a little
+house I had often seen, a peaceful and comfortable habitation, with a
+garden in front. What passed within it perhaps will never be known. Was
+it there that the Central Committee of the National Guard held their
+sittings in full conclave? or were they represented by a few of its
+members? Many persons think that the house was not occupied, and that
+the National Guards conducted their prisoners within its walls to make
+the crowd believe they were proceeding to a trial, or at least to give
+the appearance of legality to the execution of premeditated acts. Of one
+thing there remains little doubt, namely, that soldiers of the line
+stood round about at the time, and that the trial, if any took place,
+was not long, the condemned being conducted to a walled enclosure at the
+end of the street.
+
+[Illustration: HOTEL DE VILLE, AS FORTIFIED BY THE NATIONAL GUARD,
+MARCH, 1871. The H�tel de Ville of Paris, which witnessed so many
+national ceremonies and republican triumphs, was commenced in 1533, and
+it was finished in 1628. Here the first Bourbon, Henry IV., celebrated
+his entry into Paris after the siege of 1589, and Bailly the _maire_, on
+the 17th July, 1789, presented Louis XVI. to the people, wearing a
+tricolor cockade. Henry IV. became a Catholic in order to enter "his
+good city of Paris" whilst Louis XVI. wore the democratic insignia in
+order to keep it. A few days later the 172 commissioners of sections,
+representing the municipality of Paris, established the Commune. The
+H�tel de Ville was the seat of the First Committee of Public Safety, and
+from the green chamber, Robespierre governed the Convention and France
+till his fall on the 9th Thermidor. From 1800 to 1830 f�tes held the
+place of political manifestations. In 1810 Bonaparte received
+Marie-Louise here; in 1821, the baptism of the Duke of Bordeaux was
+celebrated here; in 1825 f�tes were given to the Duc d'Angouleme on his
+return from Spain, and to Charles X., arriving from Rheims. Five years
+later, from the same balcony where Bailly presented Louis XVI. to the
+people, Lafayette, standing by the side of Louis Philippe, said, "This
+is the best of Republics!" It was here, in 1848, that De Lamartine
+courageously declared to an infuriated mob that, as long as _he_ lived,
+the red flag should not be the flag of France. During the fatal days of
+June, 1848, the H�tel de Ville was only saved from destruction by the
+intrepidity of a few brave men. The Queen of England was received here
+in 1865, and the sovereigns who visited Paris since have been f�ted
+therein. On the 4th of September the bloodless revolution was
+proclaimed; and on the 31st of October, 1870, and the 22nd of January,
+1871, Flourens and Blanqui made a fruitless attempt to substitute the
+red flag for the tricolor; but their partisans succeeded on the 18th of
+March, when it was fortified, and became the head-quarters of the
+Commune of 1871.]
+
+As soon as they had halted, an officer of the National Guard seized
+General Cl�ment Thomas by the collar of his coat and shook him violently
+several times, exclaiming, whilst he held the muzzle of a revolver close
+to his throat,--"Confess that you have betrayed the Republic." To this
+Monsieur Cl�ment Thomas only replied by a shrug of his shoulders; upon
+this the officer retired, leaving the General standing alone in the
+front of the wall, with a line of soldiers opposite.
+
+Who gave the signal to fire is unknown, but a report of twenty muskets
+rent the air, and General Cl�ment Thomas fell with his face to the
+earth.
+
+"It is your turn now," said one of the assassins, addressing General
+Lecomte, who immediately advanced from the crowd, stepping over the body
+of Cl�ment Thomas to take his place, awaiting with his back to the wall
+the fatal moment.
+
+"Fire!" cried the officer, and all was over.
+
+Half an hour after, in the Rue des Acacias, I came across an old woman
+who wanted three francs for a bullet--a bullet she had extracted from
+the plaster of a wall at the end of the Rue des Rosiers.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+
+It is ten o'clock in the evening, and if I were not so tired I would go
+to the H�tel de Ville, which, I am told, has been taken possession of by
+the National Guards; the 18th of March is continuing the 31st of
+October. But the events of this day have made me so weary that I can
+hardly write all I have seen and heard. On the outer boulevards the wine
+shops are crowded with tipsy people, the drunken braggarts who boast
+they have made a revolution. When a stroke succeeds there are plenty of
+rascals ready to say: I did it. Drinking, singing, and talking are the
+order of the day. At every step you come upon "piled arms." At the
+corner of the Passage de l'Elys�e-des-Beaux-Arts I met crowds of people,
+some lying on the ground; here a battalion standing at ease but ready
+to march; and at the entrance of the Rue Blanche and the Rue Fontaine
+were some stones, ominously posed one on the other, indicating symptoms
+of a barricade. In the Rue des Abbesses I counted three cannons and a
+mitrailleuse, menacing the Rue des Martyrs. In the Rue des Acacias, a
+man had been arrested, and was being conducted by National Guards to the
+guard-house: I heard he was a thief. Such arrests are characteristic
+features in a Parisian �meute. Notwithstanding these little scenes the
+disorder is not excessive, and but for the multitude of men in uniform
+one might believe it the evening of a popular f�te; the victors are
+amusing themselves.
+
+[Illustration: Sentinels, Rue Du Val De Gr�ce and Boulevard St. Michel.]
+
+Among the Federals this evening there are very few linesmen; perhaps
+they have gone to their barracks to enjoy their meal of soup and bread.
+
+Upon the main boulevards noisy groups are commenting upon the events of
+the day. At the corner of the Rue Drouot an officer of the 117th
+Battalion is reading in a loud voice, or rather reciting, for he knows
+it all by heart, the proclamation of M. Picard, the official poster of
+the afternoon.
+
+    "The Government appeals to you to defend your city, your home, your
+    children, and your property.
+
+    "Some frenzied men, commanded by unknown chiefs, direct against
+    Paris the guns defended from, the Prussians.
+
+    "They oppose force to the National Guard and the army.
+
+    "Will you suffer it?
+
+    "Will you, under the eyes of the strangers ready to profit by our
+    discord, abandon Paris to sedition?
+
+    "If you do not extinguish it in the germ, the Republic and France
+    will be ruined for ever.
+
+    "Their destiny is in your hands.
+
+    "The Government desires that you should hold your arms energetically
+    to maintain the law and preserve the Republic from anarchy. Gather
+    round your leaders; it is the only means of escaping ruin and the
+    domination of the foreigner.
+
+    "The Minister of the Interior,
+
+    "ERNEST PICARD."
+
+The crowd listened with attention, shouted two or three times "To
+arms!" and then dispersed--I thought for an instant, to arm themselves,
+though in reality it was only to reinforce another group forming on the
+other side of the way.
+
+This day the Friends of Order have been very apathetic, so much so that
+Paris is divided between two parties: the one active and the other
+passive.
+
+To speak truly, I do not know what the population of Paris could have
+done to resist the insurrection. "Gather round your chiefs," says the
+proclamation. This is more easily said than done, when we do not know
+what has become of them. The division caused in the National Guard by
+the Coup d'Etat of the Central Committee had for its consequence the
+disorganisation of all command. Who was to distinguish, and where was
+one to find the officers that had remained faithful to the cause of
+order?
+
+It is true they sounded the "rappel"[11] and beat the "g�n�rale";[12]
+but who commanded it? Was it the regular Government or the revolutionary
+Committee?
+
+More than one good citizen was ready to do his duty; but, after having
+put on his uniform and buckled his belt, he felt very puzzled, afraid of
+aiding the entente instead of strengthening the defenders of the law.
+Therefore the peaceful citizen soldiers regarded not the call of the
+trumpet and the drum.
+
+It is wise to stay at home when one knows not where to go. Besides, the
+line has not replied, and bad examples are contagious; moreover, is it
+fair to demand of fathers of families, of merchants and tradesmen, in
+fact of soldiers of necessity, an effort before which professional
+soldiers withdraw? The fact is the Government had fled. Perhaps a few
+ministers still remained in Paris, but the main body had gone to join
+the Assembly at Versailles.
+
+I do not blame their somewhat precipitate departure,[13] perhaps it was
+necessary; nevertheless it seems to me that their presence would have
+put an end to irresolution on the part of timid people.
+
+Meanwhile, from the Madeleine to the Gymnase, the caf�s overflowed with
+swells and idlers of both sexes. On the outer boulevards they got drunk,
+and on the inner tipsy, the only difference being in the quality of the
+liquors imbibed.
+
+What an extraordinary people are the French!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 11: The roll call.]
+
+[Footnote 12: Muster call in time of danger, which is beaten only by a
+superior order emanating from the Commander-in-chief in a stronghold or
+garrison town.]
+
+[Footnote 13: The army of Paris was drawn off to Versailles in the night
+of the 18th of March, and on the 19th, the employ�s of all the
+ministries and public offices left Paris for the same destination.
+
+On the 19th of March, as early as eight in the morning, Monsieur Thiers
+addressed the following circular to the authorities of all the
+departments:--
+
+    "The whole of the Government is assembled at Versailles: the
+    National Assembly will meet there also.
+
+    "The army, to the number of forty thousand men, has been assembled
+    there in good order, under the command of General Vinoy. All the
+    chiefs of the army, and all the civil authorities have arrived
+    there.
+
+    "The civil and military authorities will execute no other orders but
+    those issued by the legitimate government residing at Versailles,
+    under penalty of dismissal.
+
+    "The members of the National Assembly are all requested to hasten
+    their return, so as to be present at the sitting of the 20th of
+    March.
+
+    "The present despatch will be made known to the public.
+
+    "A. THIERS."]
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+
+Next morning, the 19th of March, I was in haste to know the events of
+last night, what attitude Paris had assumed after her first surprise.
+The night, doubtless, had brought counsel, and perhaps settled the
+discord existing between the Government and the Central Committee.
+
+Early in the morning things appeared much as usual; the streets were
+peaceful, servants shopping, and the ordinary passengers going to and
+fro. In passing I met a casual acquaintance to whom I had spoken now and
+then, a man with whom I had served during the siege when we mounted
+guard on the ramparts. "Well," said I, "good morning, have you any
+news?"--"News," replied he, "no, not that I know of. Ah I yes, there is
+a rumour that something took place yesterday at Montmartre." This was
+told me in the centre of the city, in the Rue de la Grange-Bateli�re.
+Truly there are in Paris persons marvellously apathetic and ignorant. I
+would wager not a little that by searching in the retired quarters, some
+might be found who believe they are still governed by Napoleon III., and
+have never heard of the war with Prussia, except as a not improbable
+eventuality.
+
+On the boulevards there was but little excitement. The newspaper vendors
+were in plenty. I do not like to depend upon these public sheets for
+information, for however impartial or sincere a reporter may be, he
+cannot represent facts otherwise than according to the impression they
+make upon him, and to value facts by the impression they make upon
+others is next to impossible.
+
+I directed my steps to the Rue Drouot in search of placards, and
+plentiful I found them, and white too, showing that Paris was not
+without a government; for white is the official colour even under a red
+Republic.[14]
+
+Taking out a pencil I copied hastily the proclamation of the new
+masters, and I think that I did well, for we forget very quickly both
+proclamations and persons. Where are they now, the official bills of
+last year?
+
+    "R�PUBLIQUE FRAN�AISE. "Libert�, Egalit�, Fraternit�. "_To the
+    People_.
+
+    "Citizens,--The people of Paris have shaken off the yoke endeavoured
+    to be imposed upon them."
+
+What yoke, gentlemen--I beg pardon, citizens of the Committee? I assure
+you, as part of the people, that I have never felt that any one has
+tried to impose one upon me. I recollect, if my memory serves me, that a
+few guns were spoken of, but nothing about yokes. Then the expression
+"People of Paris," is a gross exaggeration. The inhabitants of
+Montmartre and their neighbours of that industrious suburb are certainly
+a part of the people, and not the less respectable or worthy of our
+consideration because they live out of the centre (indeed, I have always
+preferred a coal man of the Chauss�e Clignancourt to a coxcomb of the
+Rue Taitbout); but for all that, they are not the whole population.
+Thus, your sentence does not imply anything, and moreover, with all its
+superannuated metaphor, the rhetoric is out of date. I think it would
+have been better to say simply--
+
+    "Citizens,--The inhabitants of Montmartre and of Belleville have
+    taken their guns and intend to keep them."
+
+But then it would not have the air of a proclamation. Extraordinary
+fact! you may overturn an entire country, but you must not touch the
+official style; it is immutable. One may triumph over empires, but must
+respect red tape. Let us read on:
+
+    "Tranquil, calm in our force, we have awaited without fear as
+    without provocation, the shameless madmen who menaced the Republic."
+
+The Republic? Again an improper expression, it was the cannons they
+wanted to take.
+
+    "This time, our brothers of the army...."
+
+Ah! your brothers of the army! They are your brothers because they
+fraternised and threw up the butt-ends of their muskets. In your family
+you acknowledge no brotherhood except those who hold the same opinion.
+
+    "This time, our brothers of the army would not raise their hands
+    against the holy ark of our liberty."
+
+Oh! So the guns are a holy ark now. A very holy metaphor, for people not
+greatly enamoured of churchmen.
+
+    "Thanks for all; and let Paris and France unite to build a Republic,
+    and accept with acclamations the only government that will close for
+    ever the flood gates of invasion and civil war.
+
+    "The state of siege is raised.
+
+    "The people of Paris are convoked in their sections to elect a
+    Commune. The safety of all citizens is assured by the body of the
+    National Guard.
+
+    "H�tel de Ville of Paris, the 19th of March, 1871.
+
+    "The Central Committee of the National Guard:
+
+    "Assy, Billioray, Ferrat, Babick, Ed. Moreau, Oh. Dupont, Varlin,
+    Boursier, Mortier, Gouhier, Lavallette, Fr. Jourde, Rousseau, Ch.
+    Lullier, Blanchet, G. Gaillard, Barroud, H. Geresme, Fabre,
+    Pougeret."[15]
+
+There is one reproach that the new Parisian Revolution could not be
+charged with; it is that of having placed at the head men of proved
+incapacity. Those who dared to assert that each of the persons named
+above had not more genius than would be required to regenerate two or
+three nations would greatly astonish me. In a drama of Victor Hugo it is
+said a parentless child ought to be deemed a gentleman; thus an obscure
+individual ought, on the same terms, to be considered a man of genius.
+
+But on the walls of the Rue Drouot many more proclamations were to be
+seen.
+
+    "R�PUBLIQUE FRAN�AISE.
+
+    "LIBERT�, EGALIT�, FRATERNIT�,
+
+    "To the National Guards of Paris.
+
+    "CITIZENS,--You had entrusted us with the charge of organising the
+    defence of Paris and of your rights."
+
+Oh! as to that, no; a thousand times, no! I admit--since you appear to
+cling to it--that Cannon are an ark of strength, but under no pretext
+whatever will I allow that I entrusted you with the charge of organising
+anything whatsoever. I know nothing of you; I have never heard you
+spoken of. There is no one in the world of whom I am more ignorant than
+Ferrat, Babick, unless it be Gaillard and Pougeret (though I was
+national guard myself, and caught cold on the ramparts for the King of
+Prussia[16] as much as anyone else). I neither know what you wish nor
+where you are leading those who follow you; and I can prove to you, if
+you like, that there are at least a hundred thousand men who caught cold
+too, and who, at the present moment, are in exactly the same state of
+mind concerning you "We are aware of having fulfilled our mission."
+
+You are very good to have taken so much trouble, but I have no
+recollection of having given you a mission to fulfil of any kind
+whatever!
+
+    "Assisted by your courage and presence of mind!..."
+
+Ah, gentlemen, this is flattery!
+
+    "We have driven out the government that was betraying you.
+
+    "Our mandate has now expired..."
+
+Always this same mandate which we gave you, eh?
+
+    "We now return it to you, for we do not pretend to take the place of
+    those which the popular breath has overthrown.
+
+    "Prepare yourselves, let the Communal election commence forthwith,
+    and give to us the only reward we have ever hoped for--that of
+    seeing the establishment of a true republic. In the meanwhile we
+    retain the H�tel de Ville in the name of the people.
+
+    "H�tel de Ville, Paris, 19th March, 1871.
+
+    "The Central Committee of the National Guards:
+
+    "Assy, Billioray, and others."
+
+Placarded up also is another proclamation[17] signed by the citizens
+Assy, Billioray, and others, announcing that the Communal elections will
+take place on Wednesday next, 22nd of March, that is to say in three
+days.
+
+This then is the result of yesterday's doings, and the revolution of
+the 18th March can be told in a few words.
+
+There were cannon at Montmartre; the Government wished to take them but
+was not able, thanks to the fraternal feeling and cowardice of the
+soldiers of the Line. A secret society, composed of several delegates of
+several battalions, took advantage of the occasion to assert loudly that
+they represented the entire population, and commanded the people to
+elect the Commune of Paris--whether they wished or not.
+
+What will Paris do now between these dictators, sprung from heaven knows
+where, and the Government fled to Versailles?
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 14: No one may use white placards--they are reserved by the
+government.
+
+The following is an extract from the _Official Journal_ of Versailles,
+bearing the date of the 20th of March, which explains the official form
+of the announcements made by the Central Committee:--
+
+"Yesterday, 19th March, the offices of the _Official Journal_, in Paris,
+were broken into, the employ�s having escaped to Versailles with the
+documents, to join the Government and the National Assembly. The
+invaders took possession of the printing machines, the materials, and
+even the official and non-official articles which had been set up in
+type, and remained in the composing-rooms. It is thus that they were
+enabled to give an appearance of regularity to the publication of their
+decrees, and to deceive the Parisian public by a false _Official
+Journal_."]
+
+[Footnote 15: Here is an extract from the _Official Journal_ upon the
+subject (numbers of the 29th March and 1st June):--
+
+"In the insurrection, the momentary triumph of which has crushed Paris
+beneath so odious and humiliating a yoke, carried the distresses of
+France to their height, and put civilisation in peril, the International
+Society has borne a part which has suddenly revealed to all the fatal
+power of this dangerous association.
+
+"On the 19th of March, the day after the outbreak of the terrible
+sedition, of which the last horrors will form one of the most frightful
+pages in history, there appeared upon the walls a placard which made
+known to Paris the names of its new masters.
+
+"With the exception of one, alone, (Assy), who had acquired a deplorable
+notoriety, these names were unknown to almost all who read them; they
+had suddenly emerged from utter obscurity, and people asked themselves
+with astonishment, with stupor, what unseen power could have given them
+an influence and a meaning which they did not possess in themselves.
+This power was the International; these names were those of some of its
+members."]
+
+[Footnote 16: _Travailler pour le Roi de Prusse_, "to work for the King
+of Prussia," is an old French saying, which means to work for nothing,
+to no purpose.]
+
+[Footnote 17: "THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL GUARD.
+
+"Inasmuch:--
+
+"That it is most urgent that the Communal administration of the City of
+Paris shall be formed immediately,
+
+"Decrees:--
+
+"1st. The elections for the Communal Council of the City of Paris will
+take place on Wednesday next, the 22nd of March.
+
+"2nd. The electors will vote with lists, and in their own
+arrondissements.
+
+"Each arrondissement will elect a councillor for each twenty thousand of
+inhabitants, and an extra one for a surplus of more than ten thousand.
+
+"3rd. The poll will be open from eight in the morning to six in the
+evening. The result will be made known at once.
+
+"4th. The municipalities of the twenty arrondissements are entrusted with
+the proper execution of the present decree.
+
+"A placard indicating the number of councillors for each arrondissement
+will shortly be posted up.
+
+"H�tel de Ville, Paris, 29th March, 1871."]
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+
+Paris remains inactive, and watches events as one watches running water.
+What does this indifference spring from? Surprise and the disappearance
+of the chiefs might yesterday have excused the inaction of Paris, but
+twenty-four hours have passed over, every man has interrogated his
+conscience, and been able to listen to its answer. There has been time
+to reconnoitre, to concert together; there would have been time to act!
+
+Why is nothing done? Why has nothing been done yet? Generals Cl�ment
+Thomas and Lecomte have been assassinated; this is as incontestable as
+it is odious. Does all Paris wish to partake with the criminals in the
+responsibility of this crime? The regular Government has been expelled.
+Does Paris consent to this expulsion? Men invested with no rights, or,
+at least, with insufficient rights, have usurped the power. Does Paris
+so far forget itself as to submit to this usurpation without resistance?
+
+No, most assuredly no. Paris abominates crime, does not approve of the
+expulsion of the Government, and does not acknowledge the right of the
+members of the Central Committee to impose its wishes upon us. Why then
+does Paris remain passive and patient? Does it not fear that it will be
+said that silence implies consent? How is it that I myself, for example,
+instead of writing my passing impressions on these pages, do not take my
+musket to punish the criminals and resist this despotism? It is that we
+all feel the present situation to be a, singularly complicated one. The
+Government which has withdrawn to Versailles committed so many faults
+that it would be difficult to side with it without reserve. The weakness
+and inability the greater part of those who composed it showed during
+the siege, their obstinacy in remaining deaf to the legitimate wishes of
+the capital, have ill disposed us for depending on a state of things
+which it would have been impossible to approve of entirely. In fine,
+these unknown revolutionists, guilty most certainly, but perhaps
+sincere, claim for Paris rights that almost the whole of Paris is
+inclined to demand. It is impossible not to acknowledge that the
+municipal franchise is wished for and becomes henceforth necessary.
+
+It is for this reason that although aghast at the excesses in
+perspective and those already committed by the dictators of the 18th
+March, though revolted at the thought of all the blood spilled and yet
+to be spilled--this is the reason that we side with no party. The past
+misdeeds of the legitimate Government of Versailles damp our enthusiasm
+for it, while some few laudable ideas put forth by the illegitimate
+government of the H�tel de Ville diminish our horror of its crimes, and
+our apprehensions at its misdoings.
+
+Then--why not dare say it?--Paris, which is so impressionable, so
+excitable, so romantic, in admiration before all that is bold, has but a
+moderate sympathy for that which is prudent. We may smile, as I did just
+now, at the emphatic proclamation of the Central Committee, but that
+does not prevent us from recognizing that its power is real, and the
+ferocious elements that it has so suddenly revealed are not without a
+certain grandeur. It might have been spitefully remarked that more than
+one patriot in his yesterday evening walk on the outer boulevards and in
+the environs of the H�tel de Ville, had taken more _petit vin_ than was
+reasonable in honour of the Republic and of the Commune, but that has
+not prevented our feeling a surprise akin to admiration at the view of
+those battalions hastening from all quarters at some invisible signal,
+and ready at any moment to give up their lives to defend ... what? Their
+guns, and these guns were in their eyes the palpable symbols of their
+rights and liberties. During this time the heroic Assembly was
+pettifogging at Versailles, and the Government was going to join them.
+Paris does not follow those who fly.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+
+The Butte-Montmartre is _en f�te_. The weather is charming, and every
+one goes to see the cannon and inspect the barricades, Men, women, and
+children mount the hilly streets, and they all appear joyous ... for
+what, they cannot say themselves, but who can resist the charm of
+sunshine? If it rained, the city would be in mourning. Now the citizens
+have closed their shops and put on their best clothes, and are going to
+dine at the restaurant. These are the very enemies of disorder, the
+small shopkeepers and the humble citizens. Strange contradiction! But
+what would you have? the sun is so bright, the weather is so lovely.
+Yesterday no work was done because of the insurrection; it was like a
+Sunday. To-day therefore is the holiday-Monday of the insurrection.
+
+[Illustration: BEHIND A BARRICADE: THIS MORNING MEAL--THIRTY SOUS A DAY
+AND NOTHING TO DO.]
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+
+In the midst of all these troubles, in which every one is borne along,
+without any knowledge of where he is drifting--with the Central
+Committee making proclamations on one side, and the Versailles
+Government training troops on the other, a few men have arisen who have
+spoken some words of reason. These men may be certain from this moment
+that they are approved of by Paris, and will be obeyed By Paris--by the
+honest and intelligent Paris--by the Paris which is ready to favour that
+side which can prove that it has the most justice in it.
+
+The deputies and maires of Paris have placarded the following
+proclamation:--
+
+    "R�PUBLIQUE FRAN�AISE.
+
+    "LIBERT�, �GALIT�, FRATERNIT�.
+
+    "Citizens,--Impressed with the absolute necessity of saving Paris
+    and the Republic by the removal of every cause of collision, and
+    convinced that the best means of attaining this grand object is to
+    give satisfaction to the legitimate wishes of the people, we have
+    resolved this very day to demand of the National Assembly the
+    adoption of two measures which we have every hope will contribute to
+    bring back tranquillity to the public mind.
+
+    "These two measures are: The election of all the officers of the
+    National Guard, without exception, and the establishment of a
+    municipal council, elected by the whole of the citizens.
+
+    "What we desire, and what the public welfare requires under all
+    circumstances; and which the present situation renders more
+    indispensable than ever, is, order in liberty and by liberty.
+
+    "_Vive la France!_ Vive la R�publique!
+
+    "_The representatives of the Seine_:
+
+    "Louis Blanc, V. Schoelcher, Edmond Adam, Floquet, Martin Bernard,
+    Langlois, Edouard Lockroy, Farcy, Brisson, Greppo, Milli�re.
+
+    "_The maires and adjoints of Paris_:
+
+    "1st Arrondissement: Ad. Adam, Meline, adjoints.--2nd
+    Arrondissement: Tirard, maire, representative of the Seine; Ad.
+    Brelay, Ch�ron, Loiseau-Pinson, adjoints.--3rd Arrondissement;
+    Bonvalet, maire; Ch. Murat, adjoint.--4th Arrondissement: Vautrain,
+    maire; Loiseau, Callon, adjoints.--5th Arrondissement: Jourdan,
+    adjoint.--6th Arrondissement: H�risson, maire; A. Leroy,
+    adjoint.--7th Arrondissement: Arnaud (de l'Ari�ge), maire,
+    representative of the Seine.--8th Arrondissement: Carnot, maire,
+    representative of the Seine.--9th Arrondissement: Desmaret,
+    maire.--10th Arrondissement: Dubail, maire; A. Murat,
+    Degoyves-Denunques, adjoints.--11th Arrondissement: Motu, maire,
+    representative of the Seine; Blanchon, Poirier, Tolain,
+    representative of the Seine.--12th Arrondissement: Denizot, Dumas,
+    Turillon, adjoints.--18th Arrondissement: L�o Meillet, Combes,
+    adjoints.--14th Arrondissement: H�ligon, adjoint.--15th
+    Arrondissement: Jobbe-Duval, adjoint.--16th Arrondissement: Henri
+    Martin, maire and representative of the Seine,--17th.
+    Arrondissement: FRAN�OIS FAVRE, maire; MALOU, VILLENEUVE, CACHEUX,
+    adjoints.--18th. Arrondissement: CL�MENCEAU, maire and
+    representative of the people; J.B. LAFONT, DEREURE, JACLARD,
+    adjoints."
+
+This proclamation has now been posted two hours, and I have not yet met
+a single person who does not approve of it entirely. The deputies of the
+Seine and the _maires_ of Paris have, by the flight of the Government to
+Versailles, become the legitimate chiefs. We have elected them, it is
+for them to lead us. To them belongs the duty of reconciling the
+Assembly with the city; and it appears to us that they have taken the
+last means of bringing about that conciliation, by disengaging all that
+is legitimate and practical in its claims from the exaggeration of the
+_�meute_. Let them therefore have all praise for this truly patriotic
+attempt. Let them hasten to obtain from the Assembly a recognition of
+our rights. In acceding to the demands of the deputies and the _maires_,
+the Government will not be treating with insurrection; on the contrary,
+it will effect a radical triumph over it, for it will take away from it
+every pretext of existence, and will separate from it, in a definite
+way, all those men who have been blinded to the illegal and violent
+manner in which this programme is drawn up, by the justice of certain
+parts of it.
+
+If the Assembly consent to this, all that will remain of the 18th of
+March will be the recollection--painful enough, without doubt--of one
+sanguinary day, while out of a great evil will come a great benefit.
+
+Whatever may happen, we are resolute; we--that is to say, all those who,
+without having followed the Government of Versailles, and without having
+taken an active part in the insurrection, equally desire the
+re-establishment of legitimate power and the development of municipal
+liberties--we are resolved to follow where our deputies and the _maires_
+may lead us. They represent at this, moment the only legal authority
+which seems to us to have fairly understood the difficulties of the
+situation, and if, in the case of all hope of conciliation being lost,
+they should tell us to take up arms, we will do so.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+
+Paris has this evening, the 21st of March, an air of extraordinary
+contentment; it has belief in the deputies and the _maires_, it has
+trust even, in the National Assembly. People talk of the manifestation
+of the Friends of Order and approve of it. A foreigner, a Russian,
+Monsieur A---- J----, who has inhabited Paris for ten years, and is
+consequently Parisian, has given me the following information, of which
+I took hasty note:--
+
+    "At half-past one o'clock to-day a group, of which I made one, was
+    formed in the place of the New Opera-house. We numbered scarcely
+    twenty persons, and we had a flag on which was inscribed, 'Meeting
+    of the Friends of Order.' This flag was carried by a soldier of the
+    line, an employ�, it is said, of the house of Siraudin, the great
+    confectioners. We marched along the boulevards as far as the Rue de
+    Richelieu; windows were opened as we passed, and the people cried,
+    '_Vive l'Ordre! Vive l'Assembl�e Nationale! A bas la Commune!_' Few
+    as we were at starting our numbers soon grew to three hundred, to
+    five hundred, to a thousand. Our troop followed the Rue de
+    Richelieu, increasing as it went. At the Place de la Bourse a
+    captain at the head of his National Guards tried to stop us. We
+    continued our course, the company saluted our flag as, we passed,
+    and the drums beat to arms. After having traversed, still increasing
+    in numbers, the streets which surround the Bourse, we returned to
+    the boulevards, where the most lively enthusiasm burst out around
+    us. We halted opposite the Rue Drouot. The _mairie_ of the Ninth
+    Arrondissement was occupied by a battalion attached to the Central
+    Committee--the 229th, I believe. Although there was some danger of a
+    collision, we made our way into the street, resolved to do our duty,
+    which was to protest against the interference with order and the
+    disregard for established laws; but no resistance was opposed to us.
+    The National Guards came out in front of the door of the _mairie_
+    and presented arms to us, and we were about to continue our way,
+    when some one remarked that our flag, on which, as I have already
+    said, were the woods 'Meeting of the Friends of Order,' might expose
+    us to the danger of being taken for '_r�actionnaires_,' and that we
+    ought to add the words '_Vive la R�publique!_' Those who headed the
+    manifestation came to a halt, and a few of them went into a caf�,
+    and there wrote the words on the flag with chalk. We then resumed
+    our march, following the widest and most frequented paths, and were
+    received with acclamations everywhere. A quarter of an hour later we
+    arrived at the Rue de la Paix and were marching towards the Place
+    Vend�me, where the battalions of the Committee were collected in
+    masses, and where, as is well known, the staff of the National Guard
+    had its head-quarters. There, as in the Rue Drouot, the drums were
+    beaten and arms presented to us; more than that, an officer came and
+    informed the leaders of the manifestation that a delegate of the
+    Central Committee begged them to proceed to the staff quarters. At
+    this moment I was carrying the flag. We advanced in silence. When we
+    arrived beneath the balcony, surrounded by National Guards, whose
+    attitude was generally peaceful; there appeared on the balcony a
+    rather young man, without uniform, but wearing a red scarf, and
+    surrounded by several superior officers; he came forward and
+    said--'Citizens, in the name of the Central Committee....' when he
+    was interrupted by a storm of hisses and by cries of '_Vive l'Ordre!
+    Vive l'Assembl�e Nationale! Vive la R�publique!_' In spite of these
+    daring interruptions we were not subjected to any violence, nor
+    even to any threats, and without troubling ourselves any more about
+    the delegate, we marched round the column, and having regained the
+    boulevards proceeded towards the Place de la Concorde. There, some
+    one proposed that we should visit Admiral Saisset, who lived in the
+    Rue Pauquet, in the quarter of the Champs Elys�es, when a grave
+    looking man with grey hair said that Admiral Saisset was at
+    Versailles. 'But,' he added, 'there are several admirals amongst
+    you.' He gave his own name, it was Admiral de Chaill�. From that
+    moment he headed the manifestation, which passed over the Pont de la
+    Concorde to the Faubourg St. Germain. Constantly received with
+    acclamations, and increasing in numbers, we paraded successively all
+    the streets of the quarter, and each time that we passed before a
+    guard-house the men presented arms. On the Place St. Sulpice a
+    battalion drew up to allow us to pass. We afterwards went along the
+    Boulevard St. Michel and the Boulevard de Strasbourg. During this
+    part of our course we were joined by a large group, preceded by a
+    tricolor flag with the inscription, '_Vive l'Assembl�e Nationale!_'
+    From this time the two flags floated side by side at the head of the
+    augmented procession. As we were about to turn into the Boulevard
+    Bonne-Nouvelle, a man dressed in a paletot and wearing a grey felt
+    hat, threw himself upon me as I was carrying the standard of the
+    Friends of Order, but a negro, dressed in the uniform of the
+    National Guard, who marched beside me, kept the man off, who
+    thereupon turned against the person that carried the other flag,
+    wrested it from him, and with extraordinary strength broke the
+    staff, which was a strong one, over his knee. This incident caused
+    some confusion; the man was seized and carried off, and I fear he
+    was rather maltreated. We then made our way back to the boulevards.
+    At our appearance the enthusiasm of the passers-by was immense; and
+    certainly, without exaggeration, we numbered between three and four
+    thousand persons by the time we got back to the front of the New
+    Opera-house, where we were to separate. A Zouave climbed up a tree
+    in front of the Grand H�tel, and fixed our flag on the highest
+    branch. It was arranged that we should meet on the following day, in
+    uniform but without arms, at the same place."
+
+This account differs a little from those given in the newspapers, but I
+have the best reason to believe it absolutely true.
+
+What will be the effect of this manifestation? Will those who desire
+"Order through Liberty and in Liberty" succeed in meeting in
+sufficiently large numbers to bring to reason, without having recourse
+to force, the numerous partizans of the Commune? Whatever may happen,
+this manifestation proves that Paris has no intention of being disposed
+of without her own consent. In connection with the action of the
+deputies in the National Assembly, it cannot have been ineffective in
+aiding the coming pacification.
+
+Many hopeful promises of concord and quiet circulate this evening
+amongst the less violent groups.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+
+What is this fusillade? Against whom is it directed? Against the
+Prussians? No! Against Frenchmen, against passers-by, against those who
+cry "_Vive la R�publique et vive l'Ordre_." Men are falling dead or
+wounded, women flying, shops closing, amid the whistling of the
+bullets,--all Paris terrified. This is what I have just seen or heard.
+We are done for then at last. We shall see the barricades thrown up in
+our streets; we shall meet the horrid litters, from which hang hands
+black with powder; every woman will weep in the evening when her husband
+is late in returning home, and all mothers will be seized with terror.
+France, alas! France, herself a weeping mother, will fall by the hands
+of her own children.
+
+I had started, in company with a friend, from the Passage Choiseul on my
+way to the Tuileries, which has been occupied since yesterday by a
+battalion devoted to the Central Committee. On arming at the corner of
+the Rue St. Roch and the Rue Neuve des Petits Champs we perceived a
+considerable crowd in the direction of the Rue de la Paix. "What is
+going on now?" said I to my friend. "I think," said he, "that it is an
+unarmed manifestation going to the Place Vend�me; it passed along the
+boulevards a short time since, crying "_Vive l'Ordre_."
+
+As we talked we were approaching the Rue de la Paix. All at once a
+horrible noise was heard. It was the report of musketry. A white smoke
+rose along the walls, cries issued from all parts, the crowd fled
+terrified, and a hundred yards before us I saw a woman fall. Is she
+wounded or dead? What is this massacre? What fearful deeds are passing
+in open day, in this glorious sunshine? We had scarcely time to escape
+into one of the cross-streets, followed by the frightened crowd, when
+the shops were closed, hurriedly, and the horrible news spread to all
+parts of terrified Paris.
+
+Reports, varying extremely in form, spread with extraordinary rapidity;
+some were grossly exaggerated, others the reverse. "Two hundred victims
+have fallen," said one. "There were no balls in the guns," said another.
+The opinions regarding the cause of the conflict were strangely various.
+Perhaps we shall never know, with absolute certainty, what passed in the
+Place, Vend�me and the Rue de la Paix. For myself, I was at once; too
+far and too near the scene of action; too near, for I had narrowly
+missed being killed; too far, for I saw nothing but the smoke and the
+flight, of the terrified crowd.
+
+One thing certain is that the Friends of Order who, yesterday, succeeded
+in assembling a large number of citizens, had to-day tried to renew its
+attempt at pacification by unarmed numbers. Three or four thousand
+persons entered the Rue de la Paix towards two o'clock in the afternoon,
+crying, "_L'Ordre! L'Ordre! Vive l'Ordre!_" The Central Committee had
+doubtless issued severe orders, for the foremost sentinels of the Place,
+far from presenting arms to the "Friends of Order," as they had done the
+day before, formally refused to let them continue their way. And then
+what happened? Two crowds were face to face; one unarmed, the other
+armed, both under strong excitement, one trying to press forward, the
+other determined to oppose its passage. A pistol-shot was heard. This
+was a signal. Down went the muskets, the armed crowd fired, and the
+unarmed dispersed in mad flight, leaving dead and wounded on their path.
+
+But who fired that first pistol-shot? "One of the citizens of the
+demonstration; and moreover, the sentinels had their muskets torn from
+them;" affirm the partisans of the Central Committee, and they bring
+forward, among other proofs; the evidence of an eye-witness, a foreign
+general, who saw it all from a window of the Rue de la Paix. But these
+assertions are but little to be relied upon. Can it be seriously
+believed that a crowd, to all appearance peaceful, would commit such an
+act of aggression? Who would have been insane enough to expose a mass of
+unarmed people to such dire revenge, by a challenge as criminal as it
+was useless? The account according to which the pistol was fired by an
+officer of the Federal guard from the foot of the Place Vend�me, thus
+giving the signal to those under his orders to fire upon the citizens,
+improbable as appears such an excess of cold-blooded barbarity, is much
+the more credible. And now how many women mourn their husbands and son's
+wounded, and perhaps dead? How many victims have fallen? The number is
+not yet known. Monsieur Barle, a lieutenant of the National Guard, was
+shot in the stomach. Monsieur Gaston Jollivet, who some time ago
+committed the offence, grave in our eyes, of publishing a comic ode in
+which he allows himself to ridicule our illustrious and beloved master,
+Victor Hugo, but was certainly guilty of none in desiring a return to
+order, had his arm fractured, it is said. Monsieur Otto Hottinger, one
+of the directors of the French Bank, fell, struck by two balls, while
+raising a wounded man from the ground.
+
+One of my friends assures me that half-an-hour after the fusillade he
+was fired at, as he was coming out from a _porte-coch�re_,[18] by
+National Guards in ambuscade.
+
+At four o'clock, at the corner of the Rue de la Paix and the Rue Neuve
+des Petits Champs, an old man, dressed in a blouse, still lay where he
+had fallen across the body of a _cantini�re_, and beside him a soldier
+of the line, the staff of a tricolour flag grasped in his dead hand. Is
+this soldier the same of whom my friend Monsieur A---- J---- speaks in
+his account of the first demonstration, and who was said to be an
+employ� at Siraudin's?
+
+There were many other victims--Monsieur de P�ne, the editor of
+_Paris-Journal_, dangerously wounded by a ball that penetrated the
+thigh; Monsieur Portel, lieutenant in the Eclaireurs Franchetti, wounded
+in the neck and right foot; Monsieur Bernard, a merchant, killed;
+Monsieur Giraud, a stockbroker, also killed. Fresh names are added to
+the funereal list every moment.
+
+Where will this revolution lead us, which was begun by the murder of two
+Generals and is being carried on by the assassination of passers-by?
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 18: Porte-coch�re (carriage gateway).]
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+
+In the midst of all this horror and terror I saw one little incident
+which made me smile, though it was sad too; an idyl which might be an
+elegy. Three hired carriages descended the Rue Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. It
+was a wedding. In the first carriage was the bride, young and pretty, in
+tears; in the second, the bridegroom, looking anything but pleased. As
+the horses were proceeding slowly on account of the hill, I approached
+and inquired the cause of the discontent. A disagreeable circumstance
+had happened, the _gar�on d'honneur_ told me. They had been to the
+_mairie_ to be married, but the _mairie_ had been turned into a
+guard-house, and instead of the _mairie_ and his clerks, they found
+soldiers of the Commune. The sergeant had offered to replace the
+municipal functionary, but the grands-parents had not consented to such
+an arrangement, and they were forced to return with the connubial knot
+still to be tied. An unhappy state of things. "Pooh!" said an old woman
+who was passing by, "they can marry to-morrow.--There is always time
+enough to commit suicide."
+
+It is true, they can marry to-morrow; but these young people wished to
+be married to-day. What are revolutions to them? What would it have
+mattered to the Commune had these lovers been united to-day? Is one ever
+sure of recovering happiness that has once escaped? Ah! this
+insurrection, I hate it for the men it has killed, and the widows it has
+made; and also for the sake of those pretty eyes that glistened with
+tears under the bridal wreath.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+
+The _mairie_ of the Second Arrondissement seems destined to be the
+centre of resistance to the Central Committee. The Federals have not
+been able, or have not dared, to occupy it. In the quarter of the Place
+de la Bourse and the Place des Victoires, National Guards have assembled
+and declared themselves Friends of Order. But they are few in number.
+Yesterday morning, the 23rd of March, they were reinforced by battalions
+that joined them, one by one, from all parts of Paris. They obey the
+orders, they say, of Admiral Saisset, raised to the superior command of
+the National Guard. It is believed that there are mitrailleuses within
+the Bourse and in the court of the Messageries. The massacre of the Rue
+de la Paix decided the most timorous. There is a determination to have
+done, by some means or other, with tyrants who represent in fact but a
+small part of the population of Paris, and who wish to dominate over the
+whole city. The preparations for resistance are being made between the
+H�tel de Ville on the one hand, where the members of the Committee are
+sitting, formidably defended, and the Place Vend�me, crammed with
+insurgents, on the other. Is it civil war--civil war, with all its
+horrors, that is about to commence? A company of Gardes Mobiles has
+joined the battalions of Order. Pupils of the Ecole Polytechnique come
+and go between the _mairie_ of the Second Arrondissement and the Grand
+H�tel, where Admiral Saisset and his staff are said to be installed.[19]
+A triple line of National Guards closes the entrance of the Rue Vivienne
+against carriages and everybody who does not belong to the quarter.
+Nevertheless, a large number of people, eager for information, manage to
+pass the sentries in spite of the rule. On the Place de la Bourse a
+great crowd discusses, and gesticulates around the piled bayonets which
+glitter in the sun. I notice that the pockets of the National Guards are
+crammed full; a large number of cartridges has been distributed.
+
+The orders are strict: no one is to quit his post. There are men,
+however, who have been standing there, without sleep, for twenty-four
+hours. No one must leave the camp of the Friends of Order even to go and
+dine. Those who have no money either have rations given them or are
+provided at the expense of the _mairie_, from a restaurant of the Rue
+des Filles Saint-Thomas, with a dinner consisting of soup and bouilli, a
+plate of meat, vegetables, and a bottle of wine. I hear one of them
+exclaim,
+
+"If the Federals knew that we not only get our pay, but are also fed
+like princes, they would come over to us, every man of them. As for us,
+we are determined to obey the _maires_ and deputies of Paris." Much
+astonishment is manifested at the absence of Vice-Admiral Saisset; as he
+has accepted the command he ought to show himself. Certain croakers even
+insinuate that the vice-admiral hesitates to organise the resistance,
+but we will not listen to them, and are on the whole full of confidence
+and resolution. "We are numerous, determined; we have right on our side,
+and will triumph."
+
+At about four o'clock an alarm is sounded. We hear cries of "To arms! To
+arms!" The drums beat, the trumpets sound, the ranks are formed. The
+ominous click, click, as the men cock their rifles, is heard on all
+sides. The moment of action has arrived. There are more than ten
+thousand men, well armed and determined. A company of Mobiles and the
+National Guards defend the entrance of the Rue Vivienne. All this tumult
+is caused by one of the battalions from Belleville, passing along the
+boulevards with three pieces of cannon.
+
+What is about to happen? When the insurgents reach the top of the Rue
+Vivienne they seem to hesitate. In a few seconds the boulevards, which
+were just now crowded, are suddenly deserted; and even the caf�s are
+closed.
+
+At such a moment as this, a single accidental shot (several such have
+happened this morning; a woman standing at a window at the corner of the
+Rue Saint Marc was nearly killed by the carelessness, of one of the
+Guards),--a single shot, a cry even, or a menacing gesture would suffice
+to kindle the blaze. Nobody. moves or speaks. I feel myself tremble
+before the possibility of an irreparable disaster; it is a solemn and
+terrible moment.
+
+The battalion from Belleville presents arms; we reply, and they pass on.
+The danger is over; we breathe again. In a few seconds the crowd has
+returned to the boulevards.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 19: Lieutenant-Colonel de Beaugrand had improvised
+staff-quarters at the Grand H�tel, and the nomination of Admiral
+Saisset, together with M. Schoelcher and Langlois, had strengthened the
+enmity of the two parties. The Central Committee, seeing the danger
+which threatened, announced that the Communal elections were adjourned
+to Sunday the 26th March.]
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+
+It is two in the morning. Tired of doing nothing I take out my
+note-book, seat myself on a doorstep opposite the Restaurant Catelain,
+and jet down my memoranda by the light of a street lamp.
+
+As soon as night came on, every measure of precaution was taken. We have
+no idea by whom we are commanded, but it would appear that a serious
+defence is contemplated, and is being executed with prudence. Is it
+Admiral Saisset who is at our head? We hope so. Although we have been so
+often disappointed in our chiefs, we have not yet lost the desire to
+place confidence in some one. To-night we believe in the admiral. Ever
+and anon our superior officers retire to the _mairies_, and receive
+strict orders concerning their duty. We are quite an army in ourselves;
+our centre is in the Place de la Bourse, our wings extend into the
+adjoining streets. Lines of Nationals guard all the openings; sentinels
+are posted sixty feet in front to give the alarm. Within the enclosed
+space there is no one to be seen, but the houses are inhabited as usual.
+The doors have been left open by order, and also all the windows on the
+first floors. Each company, divided under the command of sergeants, has
+taken possession of three or four houses. At the first signal of alarm
+the street-doors are to be closed, the men to rush to the windows, and
+from there to fire on the assailants. "Hold yourselves in readiness; it
+is very possible you may be attacked. On the approach of the enemy the
+guards in the streets are to fall back under fire towards the houses,
+and take shelter there. Those posted at the windows are to keep up an
+unceasing fire on the insurgents. In the meantime the bulk of our forces
+will come to our aid, and clear the streets with their mitrailleuses."
+
+So we waited, resolved on obedience, calm, with a silent but fervent
+prayer that we might not be obliged to turn our arms against our
+fellow-townsmen.
+
+The night is beautiful. Some of our men are talking in groups on the
+thresholds of the doors, others, rolled in their blankets, are lying on
+the ground asleep. In the upper storeys of some of the houses lights are
+still twinkling through the muslin curtains; lower down all is darkness.
+Scarcely a sound is to be heard, only now and then the rumble of a heavy
+cart, or perhaps a cannon in the distance; and nearer to us the sudden
+noise of a musket that slips from its resting-place on to the pavement.
+Every hour the dull sound of many feet is heard; it is the patrol of
+Mobiles making its round. We question them as they pass.--"Anything
+fresh?"--"Nothing," is the invariable reply.--"How far have you
+been?"--"As far as the Rue de la Paix," they answer, and pass on.
+Interrupted conversations are resumed, and the sleepers, who had been
+awakened by the noise, close their eyes again. We are watching and
+waiting,--may we watch and wait in vain!
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+
+Never have I seen the dawn break with greater pleasure. Almost everyone
+has some time in his life passed such sleepless nights, when it seems to
+him that the darkness will never disappear, and the desire for light and
+day becomes a fearful longing. Never was dawn more grateful than after
+that wretched night. And yet the fear of a disastrous collision did not
+disappear with the night. It was even likely that the Federals might
+have waited for the morning to begin their attack, just when fatigue is
+greatest, sleep most difficult to fight against, and therefore
+discipline necessarily slackened. Anyhow, the light seemed to reassure
+us; we could scarcely believe that the crime of civil war could be
+perpetrated in the day-time. The night had been full of fears, the
+morning found us bright and happy. Not all of us, however. I smile as I
+remember an incident which occurred a little before daylight. One of our
+comrades, who had been lying near me, got up, went out into the street,
+and paced up and down some time, as if to shake off cramp or cold. My
+eyes followed him mechanically; he was walking in front of the houses,
+the backs of which look out upon the Passage des Panoramas, and as he
+did so he cast furtive glances through the open doorways. He went into
+one, and came out with a disappointed expression on his face. Having
+repeated this strange manoeuvre several times, he reached a
+_porte-coch�re_ that was down by the side of the Restaurant Catelain. He
+remained a few minutes, then reappeared with a beaming countenance, and
+made straight for where I was standing, rubbing his hands gleefully.
+
+"Monsieur," said he, in a low voice, so as not to be overheard, "do you
+approve of this plan of action, which consists, in case of attack, of
+shooting from the windows on the assailants?"--"A necessity of street
+fighting," said I. "Let us hope we shall not have to try it."--"Oh! of
+course; but I should have preferred it if they had taken other
+measures."--"Why?" I asked.--"Why, you see, when we are in the houses
+the insurgents will try to force their way in."--I could not see what he
+was driving at, so I said, "Most probably."--"But if they do get in?" he
+insisted:--"I will trust to our being reinforced from the Place de la
+Bourse before they can effect an entrance."--"Doubtless! doubtless!" he
+answered; but I saw he was anything but convinced.--"But you know
+reinforcements often arrive too late, and if the Federals should get in,
+we shall be shot down like dogs in those rooms overhead!"--I
+acknowledged that this would be, to say the least, disagreeable, but
+argued that in time of war one must take one's chance.--"Do you think,
+then, monsieur," he continued, "that, if in the event of the insurgents
+entering we were to look out for a back door to escape by, we should be
+acting the part of cowards?"--"Of cowards? no; but of excessively
+prudent individuals? yes.":--"Well, monsieur, I am prudent, and there is
+an end of it!" exclaimed my comrade, with an air of triumph, "and I
+think I have found----"--"The back door in question?"--"Just go; look
+down that passage in front of us; at the end there is a door which
+leads--where do you think?"--"Into the Passage des Panoramas, does it
+not?"--"Yes, monsieur, and now you see what I mean."--I told him I did
+not think I did.--"Why, you see," he explained, "when the enemy comes we
+must rush into that passage, shut the lower door, and make for our post
+at the windows, where we will do our duty bravely to our last cartridge.
+But suppose, in the meantime, that those devils, succeed in breaking
+open the lower door with the butt end of their muskets--and it is not
+very strong--what shall we do then?"--"Why, of course," I said, "we must
+plant ourselves at the top of the staircase and receive them at the
+point of our bayonets."--"By no means;" he expostulated.--"But we must;
+it is our duty."--"Oh! I fancied we might have gained the door that
+leads into the passage," he went on, looking rather shame-faced.--"What,
+run away!"--"No, not exactly; only find some place of safety!"--"Well,
+if it comes to that," I replied, "you may do just as you like; only I
+warn you that the passage is occupied by a hundred of our men, and that
+all the outlets are barricaded."--"No, not all," he said with
+conviction, "and that is why I appeal to you. You are a journalist, are
+you not?"--"Sometimes."--"Yes, but you are; and you know actors and all
+those sort of people, and you go behind the scenes, I dare say, and know
+where the actors dress themselves, and all that."--I looked at my brave
+comrade in some surprise, but he continued without noticing me, "And,
+you know all the ins and outs of the theatre, the corridors, the
+trapdoors."--"Suppose I do, what good can that do you?"--"All the good
+in the world, monsieur; it will be the saving of me. Why we shall only
+have to find the actors' entrance of the _Vari�t�s_, which is in the
+passage, then ring, at the bell; the porter knows you, and will admit
+us. You can guide us both up the staircase and behind the scenes, and we
+can easily hunt out some hole or corner in which to hide until the fight
+is over."--"Then," said I, feeling rather disgusted with my companion,
+"we can bravely walk out of the front door on the boulevards, and go and
+eat a comfortable breakfast, while the others are busy carrying away our
+dead comrades from the staircase we ought to have helped to defend!"
+
+The poor man looked at me aghast, and then went off. I saw that I had
+hurt his feelings, and I thought perhaps I had been wrong in making him
+feel the cowardice of his proposition. I had known him for some months;
+he lived in the same street as I did, and I remembered that he had a
+wife and children. Perhaps he was right in wishing to protect his life
+at any price. I thought it over for a minute or two, and then it went
+out of my mind altogether.
+
+At four in the morning we had another alarm; in an instant every one was
+on foot and rushing to the windows. The house to which I was ordered was
+the very one that had inspired my ingenious friend with his novel plan
+of evasion. I found him already installed in the room from whence we
+were to fire into the street.--"You do not know what I have done," said
+he, coming up to me.--"No."--"Well, you know the door which opens on to
+the passage; you remember it?"--"Of course I do."--"I found there was a
+key; so what do you think I did? I double-locked the door, and went and
+slipped the key down the nearest drain! Ha! ha! The fellow who tries to
+escape that way will be finely caught!"
+
+I seized him cordially by the hand and shook it many times. He was
+beaming, and I was pleased also. I could not help feeling that however
+low France may have fallen, one must never despair of a country in which
+cowards even can be brave.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+
+On Friday, the 24th of March, at nine in the morning, we are still in
+the quarter of the Bourse. Some of the men have not slept for
+forty-eight hours. We are tired but still resolved. Our numbers are
+increasing every hour. I have just seen three battalions, with
+trumpeters and all complete, come up and join us. They will now be able
+to let the men who have been so long on duty get a little rest. As to
+what is going on, we are but very incompletely informed. The Federals
+are fortifying themselves more strongly than ever at the Place de
+l'H�tel de Ville and the Place Vend�me. They are very numerous, and have
+lots of artillery. Why do they not act on the offensive? Or do they
+want, as we do, to avoid a conflict? Certainly our hand shall not be the
+first to spill French blood. These hours of hesitation on both sides
+calm men's minds. The deputies and mayors of Paris are trying to obtain
+from the National Assembly the recognition of the municipal franchise.
+If the Government has the good sense to make these concessions, which
+are both legitimate and urgent, rather than remain doggedly on the
+defensive, with the conviction that it has right on its ride; if, in a
+word, it remembers the well-known maxim, "_Summum jus, summa injuria_,"
+the horrors of civil war may be averted. We are told, and I fancy
+correctly, that the Federal Guards are not without fear concerning the
+issue of the events into which they have hurried. The chiefs must also
+be uneasy. Even those who have declared themselves irreconcileable in
+the hour of triumph would not perhaps be sorry now if a little
+condescension on the part of the Assembly furnished them with a pretext
+of not continuing the rebellion. Just now, several Guards of the 117th
+Battalion, a part of which has declared for the Central Committee, who
+happened to be passing, stopped to chat with our outposts. Civil war to
+the knife did not at all appear to be their most ardent desire. One of
+them said: "We were called to arms, what could we do but obey? They give
+us our pay, and so here we are." Were they sincere in this? Did they
+come with the hope of joining us, or to spy into what we were doing?
+Others, however, either more frank or less clever at deception, declared
+that they wanted the Commune, and would have, it at any price. This,
+however, was by far the smaller number; the majority of the insurgents
+are of the opinion of these men who joined in conversation with us. It
+is quite possible to believe that some understanding might be brought
+about. A fact has just been related to me which confirms me in my
+opinion.
+
+The Comptoir d'Escompte was occupied by a post of Federals. A company of
+Government Guards from the 9th Arrondissement marched up to take
+possession. "You have been here for two whole days; go home and rest,"
+said the officer in command of the latter. But the Federals obstinately
+refused to be sent away. The officer insisted.--"We are in our own
+quarter, you are from Belleville; it is our place to guard the Comptoir
+d'Escompte."--It was all of no avail until the officer said: "Go away
+directly, and we will give you a hundred francs."--They did not wait for
+the offer to be repeated, but accepted the money and marched off. Now
+men who are willing to sell their consciences at two francs a head--for
+there were fifty of them--cannot have any very formidable political
+opinions. I forgot to say that this post of Federals was commanded by
+the Italian Tibaldi, the same who had been arrested in one of the
+passages of the H�tel de Ville during the riots of the 31st October.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+
+The news is excellent, in a few hours perhaps it will be better. We
+rejoice beforehand at the almost certain prospect of pacification. The
+sun shines, the boulevards are crowded with people, the faces of the
+women especially are beaming. What is the cause of all this joy? A
+placard has just been posted up on all the walls in the city. I copy it
+with pleasure.
+
+    "DEAR FELLOW CITIZENS,--I hasten to announce to you that together
+    with the Deputies of the Seine and the Mayors of Paris, we have
+    obtained from the Government of the National Assembly: 1st. The
+    complete recognition of your municipal franchises; 2nd. The right of
+    electing all the officers of the National Guard, as well as the
+    general-in-chief; 3rd. Modifications of the law on bills; 4th. A
+    project for a law on rents, favourable to tenants paying 1,200
+    francs a year, or less than that sum. Until you have confirmed my
+    nomination, or until you name some one else in my stead, I shall
+    continue to remain at my post to watch over the execution of these
+    conciliatory measures that we have succeeded in obtaining, and to
+    contribute to the well-being of the Republic!
+
+    "The Vice-Admiral and
+
+    Provisional Commander,
+
+    SAISSET
+
+    Paris, 23rd March."
+
+Well! this is opportune and to the purpose. The National Assembly has
+understood that, in a town like Paris, a revolution in which a third of
+the population is engaged, cannot be alone actuated by motives of
+robbery and murder;[20] and that if some of the demands of the people
+are illegitimate or premature, there are at least others, which it is
+but right should obtain justice. Paris is never entirely in the wrong.
+Certainly among the authors and leaders of the 18th March, there are
+many who are very guilty. The murderers of General Lecomte and General
+Cl�ment Thomas should be sought out and punished. All honest men must
+demand and expect that a minute inquiry be instituted concerning the
+massacres in the Place Vend�me. It must be acknowledged that all the
+Federals, officers and soldiers, are not devils or drunkards. A few
+hundred men getting drunk in the cabarets--(I have perhaps been wrong to
+lay so much stress here upon the prevalence of this vice among the
+insurrectionists)--a few tipsy brutes, ought not to be sufficient to
+authorise us to condemn a hundred thousand men, among whom are certainly
+to be found some right-minded persons who are convinced of the justice
+of their cause. These unknown and suddenly elevated chiefs, whom the
+revolution has singled out, are they all unworthy of our esteem, and
+devoid of capacity? They possess, perhaps, a new and vital force that it
+would be right and perhaps necessary to utilise somehow. The ideas which
+they represent ought to be studied, and if they prove useful, put into
+practice. This is what the Assembly has understood and what it has done.
+By concessions which enlarge rather than diminish its influence, it puts
+all right-minded men, soldiers and officers, under the obligation of
+returning to their allegiance. Those who, having read the proclamation
+of Admiral Saisset, still refuse to recognise the Government, are no
+longer men acting for the sake of Paris and the Republic, but rioters
+guilty of pursuing the most criminal paths, for the gratification of
+their own bad passions. Thus the tares will be separated from the wheat,
+and torn up without mercy. Yesterday and the day before, at the Place de
+la Bourse, at the Place des Victoires and the Bank, we were resolved on
+resistance--resistance, nothing more, for none of us, I am sure, would
+have fired a shot without sufficient provocation--and even this
+resolution cost us much pain and some hesitation. We felt that in the
+event of our being attacked, our shots might strike many an innocent
+breast--and perhaps at the last moment our hearts would have failed us.
+Now, no thoughts of that kind can hinder us. In recognising our demand,
+the Assembly has got right entirely on its side, we shall now consider
+all rebellion against the authority of which it makes so able a use, as
+an act entailing immediate punishment. Until now, fearing to be
+abandoned or misunderstood by the Government, we had determined to obey
+the mayors and deputies elected by the people, but the Assembly, by its
+judicious conduct, has shown itself worthy confidence. Let them command,
+we are ready to obey.
+
+Truly this change in the attitude of the Government is at once strange
+and delightful. No later than yesterday their language was quite
+different. The manner in which the majority received the mayors did not
+lead us to expect a termination so favourable to the wishes of all
+concerned. But this is all past, let us not recriminate. Let us rather
+rejoice in our present good fortune, and try and forget the dangers
+which seemed but now so imminent. I hear from all sides that the
+Deputies of the Seine and the mayors, fully empowered, are busy
+concluding the last arrangements. Municipal elections are talked of, for
+the 2nd April; thus every cause for discontent is about to disappear.
+Capital! Paris is satisfied. Shops re-open. The promenades are crowded
+with people; the Place Vend�me alone does not brighten with the rest,
+but it soon will. The weather is lovely, people accost each other in the
+streets with a smile; one almost wonders they do not embrace. Is to-day
+Friday? No, it is Sunday. Bravo! Assembly.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 20: At the same time that the proclamation of Admiral Saisset
+encouraged the partizans of the Assembly, proofs were not wanting of the
+poverty of the Commune in money, as well as men: a new loan obtained
+from the Bank of France, which had already advanced half a million of
+francs, and the military nominations which raised Brunel, Eudes, and
+Duval from absolute obscurity to the rank of general. These were
+indications decidedly favourable to the party of order.]
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+
+On the ground-floor of the house of my neighbour there is an
+upholsterer's workshop. The day before yesterday the master went out to
+fetch some work, and this morning he had not yet returned. In an agony
+of apprehension his wife went everywhere in search of him. His body has
+just been found at the Morgue with a bullet through its head. Some say
+he was walking across the Rue de la Paix on his way home, and was shot
+by accident; but the _Journal Officiel_ announces that this poor man,
+Wahlin, was a national guard, assassinated by the revolvers of the
+manifestation. Whom are we to believe? Anyhow, the man is to be buried
+tomorrow, and his poor wife is a widow.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+
+What is the meaning of all this! Are we deceiving ourselves, or being
+deceived? We await in vain the consummation of Admiral Saisset's
+promises. In officially announcing that the Assembly had acceded to the
+just demands of the mayors and deputies, did he take upon himself to
+pass delusive hopes as accomplished facts? It seems pretty certain now
+that the Government will make no concessions, that the proclamation is
+only waste paper, and that the Provisional Commander of the National
+Guard has been leading us into error--with a laudable intention
+doubtless--or else has himself been deceived likewise. The united
+efforts of the Deputies of the Seine and the Mayors of Paris have been
+unequal to rouse the apathy of the Assembly.[21] In vain did Louis Blanc
+entreat the representatives of France to approve the conciliatory
+conduct of the representatives of Paris. "May the responsibility of what
+may happen be on your own heads!" cried M. Cl�menceau. He was right; a
+little condescension might have saved all; such obstinacy is fatal.
+Deprived of the countenance of the Assembly, and left to themselves, the
+Deputies and Mayors of Paris, desirous above all of avoiding civil war,
+have been obliged to accede to the wishes of the Central Committee, and
+insist upon the municipal elections being proceeded with immediately.
+They could not have acted otherwise, and yet it is humiliating for them
+to have to bow before superior force, and their authority is compromised
+by so doing. What the Assembly, representing the whole of France, could
+have done with no loss of dignity, and even with honour to itself, the
+former accomplish only at the risk of losing their influence; what to
+the Assembly would have been an honourable concession is to them
+dangerous although necessary submission. The Committee would have been
+annulled if the Government had consented to the municipal elections, but
+thanks to a tardy consent, rung from the Deputies and Mayors of Paris,
+it triumphs. The result of the humiliation to which the representatives
+of Paris have been forced to submit to prevent the effusion of blood,
+will be the entire abdication of their authority, which will remain
+vested in the Central Committee until the members of the Commune are
+elected. Abandoned by the Government since the departure of the chief of
+the executive power and the ministers, we rallied round the
+representatives, who, unsustained by the Government, are obliged to
+submit to the revolutionists. We must now choose between the Commune and
+anarchy.
+
+Therefore, to-day, Sunday, the 26th March, the male population of Paris
+is hurrying to the poll. It is in vain that the journals have begged the
+people not to vote; the elections were only announced yesterday, and the
+electors have had no time to reconsider the choice they have to make,
+and yet they insist on voting. Those who decline to obey the suggestions
+of the Central Committee, will re-elect the late mayors or choose among
+the deputies, but vote they will. The present attitude of the regular
+Government has done much towards furthering the revolution. The mistakes
+of the Assembly have diminished in the eyes of the public the crime of
+revolt. Everywhere the murder of Generals Cl�ment Thomas and Lecomte is
+openly regretted; but those who repeat that the Central Committee
+declares having had nothing to do with it, are listened to with
+patience. The rumour that they were shot by soldiers gains ground, and
+seems less incredulously received. As to the massacres of the Rue de la
+Paix, we are told that this event is enveloped in mystery, that the
+evidence is most contradictory, etc., etc.[22] There is evidently a
+decided reactionary movement in favour of the partizans of the Commune.
+Without approving their acts their activity is incontestable. They have
+done much in a short time. People exclaim, "There are men for you!"
+This state of things is very alarming to all those who have remained
+faithful to the Assembly, which in spite of its errors has not ceased to
+be the legal representative of the country. It is a cruel position for
+the Parisians who are obliged to choose between a regular Government
+which they would desire to obey, but which by its faults renders such
+obedience impossible, and an illegitimate power, that, although guilty
+in its acts, and stained with crime, still represents the opinions of
+the republican majority. By to-night, therefore, the Commune will have
+been called into existence; an illegal existence it may be argued,
+doubtless, by the partizans of constitutional legality, who would
+consider as null and void elections carried on without the consent of
+the nation, as represented by the Assembly. Legal or not, however, the
+elections have taken place, and the fact alone is of some importance. In
+a few hours the Executive Power of the Republic will have to treat,
+whether it will or no, with a force which has constituted itself with as
+much legality as it had in its power to assume under the circumstances.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 21: The news of the check which the Maires of Paris had
+suffered in the Assembly suddenly loosened the bond which for two days
+had united the friends of order, and profound discouragement seized upon
+the public mind. It was at this moment that the deputies from the
+Committee presented themselves at the Mairie of the first
+arrondissement, preceded by three pieces of artillery, a very warlike
+accompaniment to a deputation. It was arranged that the Communal
+election should be managed by the existing Maires, and that the
+battalions of each quarter of the city, whether federal or not, should
+occupy the voting places of their sections; but this did not prevent the
+Committee on the following morning occupying the Mairie of
+Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, in spite of the arrangement, by their most
+devoted battalions.]
+
+[Footnote 22: The following are the terms in which the Commune spoke of
+the events of the 18th March, and excused the murder of the two
+generals:
+
+"CITIZENS,--The day of the 18th of March, which for interested reasons
+has been travestied in the most odious manner, will be called in
+history, The Day of the People's Justice!
+
+The Government, now subverted--always maladroit--rushed into a conflict
+without considering either its own unpopularity, or the fraternal
+feeling that animates the armies; the entire army, when ordered to
+commit fratricide, replied with cries of "Vive la R�publique!" "Vive la
+Garde Nationale!"
+
+Two men alone, who had rendered themselves unpopular by acts which we
+now pronounce as iniquitous, were struck down in a moment of popular
+indignation.
+
+The Committee of the Federation of the National Guard, in order to
+render homage to truth, declare it was a stranger to these two
+executions.
+
+At the present moment the ministries are constituted, the prefect of
+police has assumed his duties, the public offices are again active, and
+we invite all citizens to maintain the utmost calmness and order."]
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+
+Crowds in the streets and promenades. This evening all the theatres will
+be re-opened. In the meantime the voting is going on. The weather is
+delightful, so I take a stroll along the promenades. Under the colonnade
+of the Ch�telet there is a long line of electors awaiting their turn. I
+fancy that in this quarter the candidates of the Central Committee will
+be surely elected. Women, in bright-coloured dresses and fresh spring
+bonnets, are walking to and fro. I hear some one say that there are a
+great many cannon at the H�tel de Ville. Two friends meet together in
+the square of the Arts et M�tiers.--"Are you alone, madame?" says one
+lady to another.--"Yes, madame; I am waiting for my husband, who is gone
+to vote."
+
+A child, who is skipping, cries out, "Mama, mama, what is the Commune?"
+
+The fiacre drivers make the revolution an excuse for asking extravagant
+fares; this does not prevent their having very decided political
+opinions. One who, drove one would scarcely have been approved of by the
+Central Committee.--"_Cocher_, what is the fare?" I ask.--"Five francs,
+monsieur."--"All right; take me to the mairie Place Saint-Sulpice."
+--"Beg pardon, monsieur, but if you are going to vote, it will be
+ten francs!"
+
+On the Boulevard de Strasbourg there are streams of people dressed in
+holiday attire; itinerant dealers in tops, pamphlets, souvenirs of the
+siege--bits of black bread, made on purpose, and framed and glazed, also
+bits of shells--and scented soap, and coloured pictures; crowds of
+beggars everywhere. In this part of the town the revolution looks very
+much like a fair.
+
+At the mairie of the 6th Arrondissement there are very few people. I
+enter into conversation with one of the officials there. He tells me he
+has never seen voting carried on with greater spirit.
+
+I meet a friend who has just returned from Belleville, and ask him the
+news, of course.--"The voting is progressing in capital order," he tells
+me; "the men go up to the poll as they would mount the breach. They have
+no choice but to obey blindly."--"The Central Committee?" I
+inquire.--"Yes, but the Committee itself only obeys orders."
+--"Whose?"--"Why those of the International, of course."
+
+At a corner near the boulevards, a compact little knot of people is
+stationed in front of a poster. I fancy they are studying the
+proclamation of one of the candidates, but it turns out only to be a
+play-bill. The crowd continues to thicken; the caf�s are crammed; gold
+chignons are plentiful enough at every table; here and there a red
+Garibaldi shirt is visible, like poppies amongst the corn. Every now and
+then a horseman gallops wildly past with dispatches from one section to
+another. The results of some of the elections are creeping out. At
+Montrouge, Bercy, Batignolles, and the Marais, they tell us the members
+of the Central Committee are elected by a very large majority. Here the
+hoarse voice of a boy strikes in,--"Buy the account of the grand
+conspiracy of Citoyen Thiers against the Republic!" Then another chimes
+in with wares of a less political and more vulgar nature. The movement
+to and fro and the excitement is extraordinary. While the populace basks
+in the sun the destiny of the city is being decided.--"M. Desmarest is
+elected for the 9th Arrondissement," says some one close to
+me.--"Lesueur is capital in the 'Partie de Piquet,'" says another. Oh!
+people of Paris!
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+
+It is over. We have a "Municipal Council," according to some; a
+"Commune," according to others. Not quite legally elected, but
+sufficiently so. Eighty councillors, sixty of whom are quite unknown
+men. Who can have recommended them, or, rather, imposed them on the
+electors? Can there really be some occult power at work under cover of
+the ex-Central Committee? Is the Commune only a pretext, and are we at
+the d�but of a social and political revolution? I overheard a partizan
+of the new doctrines say,--"The Proletariat is vindicating its rights,
+which have been unjustly trampled on by the aristocratic bourgeoisie.
+This is the workman's 1789!"
+
+Another person expresses the same thing in rather a different form.
+"This is the revolt of the _canaille_ against all kind of supremacy, the
+supremacy of fortune, and the supremacy of intellect. The equality of
+man before the law has been acknowledged, now they want to proclaim the
+equality of intellect. Soon universal suffrage will give place to the
+drawing of lots. There was a time in Athens when the names of the
+archontes were taken haphazard out of a bag, like the numbers at loto."
+
+However, the revolution has not yet clearly defined its tendencies, and
+in the meantime what are we to think of the unknown beings who represent
+it? A man in whom I have the greatest confidence, and who has passed his
+life in studying questions of social science, and who therefore has
+mixed in nearly all the revolutionary circles, and is personally
+acquainted with the chiefs, said to me just now, in speaking of the new
+Municipal Council,[23]--"It will be an assemblage of a very motley
+character. There will be much good and much bad in it. We may safely
+divide it into three distinct parts: firstly, ten or twelve men
+belonging to the International, who have both thought and studied and
+may be able to act, mixed with these several foreigners; secondly, a
+number of young men, ardent but inexperienced, some of whom are imbued
+with Jacobin principles; thirdly, and by far the largest portion,
+unsuccessful plotters in former revolutions, journalists, orators, and
+conspirators,--noisy, active, and effervescent, having no particular tie
+amongst themselves except the absence of any common bond of unity with
+the two former divisions, and being confounded now with one, now with
+the other. The members of the International alone have any real
+political value; they are Socialists. The Jacobin element is decidedly
+dangerous."--If in reality the Communal Assembly is thus composed, how
+will it act? Let us wait and see; in the meantime the city is calm.
+Never did so critical a moment wear so calm an exterior. By the bye,
+where are the Prussians?[24]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 23: The _Figaro_ gives the following list of those who held
+service under the Commune:--
+
+    Anys-el-Bittar, Librarian MSS. Department, Biblioth�que Nationale.
+    (Egyptian)
+
+    Biondetti, Surgeon 233rd Battalion. (Italian.)
+
+    Babiok, a Member of the Commune. (Pole.)
+
+    Beoka, Adjutant to the 207th Battalion. (Pole.)
+
+    Cluseret, General, Delegate of War. (American.)
+
+    Cernatesco, Surgeon of Francs Tireurs. (Pole.)
+
+    Crapulinski, Colonel of Staff. (Pole.)
+
+    Carneiro de Cunha, Surgeon 38th Battalion. (Portuguese.)
+
+    Charalambo, Surgeon of the Federal Scouts. (Pole.)
+
+    Dombrowski, General. (Russian.)
+
+    Dombrowski (his brother), Colonel of Staff. (Russian.)
+
+    Durnoff, Commandant of Legion. (Pole.)
+
+    Echenlaub, Colonel. (German.)
+
+    Ferrera Gola, General Manager of Field Hospitals. (Portuguese.)
+
+    Frankel, a Member of the Commune. (Prussian.)
+
+    Giorok, Commandant of the Fort d'Issy. (Valachian.)
+
+    Grejorok, Commandant of the Artillery at Montmartre.(Valachian.)
+
+    Kertzfeld, Chief Manager of Field Hospitals. (German.)
+
+    Iziquerdo, Surgeon of the 88th Battalion. (Pole.)
+
+    Jalowski, Surgeon of the Zouaves de la R�publique. (Pole.)
+
+    Kobosko, Despatch Bearer.
+
+    La Cecilia, General. (Italian.)
+
+    Landowski, Aide-de-Camp of General Dombrowski. (Pole.)
+
+    Mizara, Commandant of the 104th Battalion. (Italian.)
+
+    Maratuch, Surgeon's mate of the 72nd Battalion. (Hungarian.)
+
+    Moro, Commandant of the 22nd Battalion. (Italian.)
+
+    Okolowicz and his brothers, General and Staff Officers. (Poles.)
+
+    Ostyn, a Member of the Commune. (Belgian.)
+
+    Olinski, Chief of the 17th Legion. (Pole.)
+
+    Pisani, Aide-de-Camp of Flourens. (Italian.)
+
+    Potampenki, Aide-de-Camp of General Dombrowski. (Pole.)
+
+    Ploubinski, Staff Officer. (Pole.)
+
+    Pazdzierswski, Commandant of the Fort de Vanves. (Pole.)
+
+    Piazza, Chief of Legion. (Italian.)
+
+    Pugno, Music-manager at the Opera-house. (Italian.)
+
+    Romanelli, Manager of the War Offices. (Italian.)
+
+    Rozyski, Surgeon of the 144th Battalion. (Pole.)
+
+    Rubinowicz, Surgeon of the Marines. (Pole.)
+
+    Syneck, Surgeon of the 151st Battalion. (German.)
+
+    Skalski, Surgeon of the 240th Battalion. (Pole.)
+
+    Soteriade, Surgeon. (Spaniard.)
+
+    Thaller, Under Governor of the Fort de Bic�tre. (German.)
+
+    Van Ostal, Commandant of the 115th Battalion. (Dutch.)
+
+    Vetzel, Commandant of the Southern Forts. (German.)
+
+    Wroblewski, General Commandant of the Southern Army. (Pole.)
+
+    Witton, Surgeon of the 72nd Battalion. (American.)
+
+    Zengerler, Surgeon of the 74th Battalion, (German.)]
+
+[Footnote 24: The Prussians and the Commune, see Appendix 3.]
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+
+Who can help being carried away by the enthusiasm of a crowd? I am not a
+political man, I am only an observer who sees, hears, and feels.
+
+I was on the Place de l'H�tel de Ville at the moment when the names of
+the successful candidates were proclaimed, and the emotion is still
+fresh upon me.[25] There were perhaps a hundred thousand men there,
+assembled from all quarters of the city. The neighbouring streets were
+also full, and the bayonets glittering in the sun filled the Place with
+brilliant flashes like miniature lightning. In the centre of the fa�ade
+of the building a platform was erected, over which presided a statue of
+the Republic, wearing a Phrygian cap. The bronze basso-relievo of Henry
+IV. had been carefully hidden with clusters of flags. Each window was
+alive with faces. I saw several women on the roof, and the _gamins_ were
+everywhere, hanging on to the sculptured ornaments, or riding fearlessly
+on the shoulders of the marble busts. One by one the battalions had
+taken up their position on the Place with their bands. When they were
+all assembled they struck up the Marseillaise, which was re-echoed by a
+thousand voices. It was grand in the extreme, and the magnificent hymn,
+which late defeats had shorn of its glory, swelled forth again with all
+its old splendour revived. Suddenly the cannon is heard, the voices rise
+louder and louder; a sea of standards, bayonets, and human heads waves
+backwards and forwards in front of the platform. The cannon roars, but
+we only hear it between the intervals of the hymn. Then all the sounds
+are confounded in one universal shout, that shout of the vast multitude
+which seems to have but one heart and one voice. The members of the
+Committee, each with a tricolor scarf across his breast, have taken
+their places on the platform. One of them reads out the names of the
+elected councillors. Then the cannon roars once more, but is almost
+drowned by the deafening huzzas of the crowd. Oh! people of Paris, who
+on the day of the "_Crosse en l'air_"[26] got tipsy in the wine-shops of
+Montmartre, whose ranks furnished the murderers of Thomas and Lecomte,
+who in the Rue de la Paix shot down unconscious passengers, who are
+capable of the wildest extravagance and most execrable deeds, you are
+also in your days of glory, grand and magnificent, when a volcano of
+generous passions rages within, and the hearts even of those who condemn
+you most, are scorched in the flames.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 25: The result of the voting was made known at four o'clock on
+the 28th March. The papers devoted to the Commune asserted, on the
+following day, that _two hundred and fifteen_ battalions were assembled
+on that day, and that the average strength of each corps was one
+thousand men. Who could have believed that the Place de l'H�tel de Ville
+was capable of accommodating so many! This farcical assertion of the two
+hundred and fifteen battalions has passed into a proverb.]
+
+[Footnote 26: When they turned the butt-ends (_crosses_) of their guns
+in the air, as a sign they would not fight.]
+
+
+
+
+XXI.
+
+
+"Citizens," says the _Official Journal_ this morning, "your Commune is
+constituted." Then follows decree upon decree. White posters are being
+stuck up everywhere. Why are they at the H�tel de Ville, if not to
+publish decrees? The conscription is abolished. We shall see no more
+poor young fellows marching through the town with their numbers in their
+caps, and fired with that noble patriotism which is imbibed in the
+cabarets at so much a glass. We shall have no more soldiers, but to make
+up for that we shall all be National Guards. There's a glorious decree,
+as Edgar Po� says. As to the landlords, their vexation is extreme; even
+the tenants do not seem so satisfied as they ought to be. Not to have to
+pay any rent is very delightful, certainly, but they scarcely dare
+believe in such good fortune. Thus when Orpheus, trying to rescue
+Eurydice from "the infernal regions," interrupts with "his harmonious
+strains" the tortures of eternal punishment, Prometheus did not
+doubtless show as much delight as he ought to have done, on discovering
+that the beak of the vulture was no longer gnawing at his vitals,
+"scarcely daring to believe in such good fortune." Orpheus is the
+Commune; Eurydice, Liberty; "the infernal regions," the Government of
+the 4th September; "the harmonious strains," the decrees of the Commune;
+Prometheus, the tenant; and the vulture, the landlord!
+
+In plain terms, however--forgive me for joking on such a subject--the
+decree which annuls the payment of the rents for the quarters ending
+October 1870, January 1871, and April 1871, does not appear to me at all
+extravagant, and really I do not see what there is to object to in the
+following lines which accompany it:--
+
+    "In consideration of the expenses of the war having been chiefly
+    sustained by the industrial, commercial, and working portion of the
+    population, it is but just that the proprietors of houses and land
+    should also bear their part of the burthen...."
+
+Let us talk it over together, Mr. Landlord. You have a house and I live
+in it. It is true that the chimneys smoke, and that you most
+energetically refuse to have them repaired. However, the house is yours,
+and you possess most decidedly the right of making a profit by it.
+Understand, once for all, that I never contest your right. As for me, I
+depend upon my wit, I do not possess much, but I have a tool--it may be
+either a pen, or a pencil, or a hammer--which enables me, in the
+ordinary course of things, to live and to pay with more or less
+regularity my quarter's rent. If I had not possessed this tool, you
+would have taken good care not to let me inhabit your house or any part
+or portion thereof, because you would have considered me in no position
+to pay you your rent. Now, during the war my tool has unquestionably
+rendered me but poor service. It has remained ignobly idle in the
+inkstand, in the folio, or on the bench. Not only have I been unable to
+use it, but I have also in some sort lost the knack of handling it; I
+must have some time to get myself into working order again. While I was
+working but little, and eating less, what were you doing? Oh! I do not
+mean to say that you were as flourishing as in the triumphant days of
+the Empire, but still I have not heard of any considerable number of
+landlords being found begging at the corners of the streets, and I do
+not fancy you made yourselves conspicuous by your assiduous attendance
+at the Municipal Cantines. I have even heard that you or many of your
+brother-landlords took pretty good care not to be in Paris during the
+Prussian siege, and that you contented yourselves with forming the most
+ardent wishes, for the final triumph of French arms, from beneath the
+wide-spreading oaks of your ch�teaux in Touraine and Beauce, or from the
+safe haven of a Normandy fishing village; while we, accompanied it is
+true by your most fervent prayers, took our turn at mounting guard, on
+the fortifications during the bitter cold nights, or knee-deep in the
+mud of the trenches. However, I do not blame those who sought safety in
+flight; each person is free to do as he pleases; what I object to is
+your coming back and saying, "During seven or eight months you have done
+no work, you have been obliged to pawn your furniture to buy bread for
+your wife and children; I pity you from the bottom of my heart--be so
+kind as to hand me over my three quarters' rent." No, a thousand times
+no; such a demand is absurd, wicked, ridiculous; and I declare that if
+there is no possible compromise between the strict execution of the law
+and his decree of the Commune, I prefer, without the least hesitation,
+to abide by the latter; I prefer to see a little poverty replace for a
+time the long course of prosperity that has been enjoyed by this very
+small class of individuals, than to see the last articles of furniture
+of five hundred thousand suffering wretches, put up to auction and
+knocked down for one-twentieth part of their value. There must, however,
+be some way of conciliating the interests of both landlords and tenants.
+Would it be sufficient to accord delays to the latter, and force the
+former to wait a certain time for their money? I think not; if I were
+allowed three years to pay off my three quarters' rent, I should still
+be embarrassed. The tool of the artisan is not like the peasant's plot
+of ground, which is more productive after having lain fallow. During the
+last few sad months, when I had no work to do, I was obliged to draw
+upon the future, a future heavily mortgaged; when I shall perhaps
+scarcely be able to meet the expenses of each day, will there be any
+possibility of acquitting the debts of the past? You may sell my
+furniture if the law gives you the right to do so, but I shall not pay!
+
+The only possible solution, believe me, is that in favour of the
+tenants, only it ought not to be applied in so wholesale a fashion.
+Inquiries should be instituted, and to those tenants from whom the war
+has taken away all possibility of payment an unconditional receipt
+should be delivered: to those who have suffered less, a proportionate
+reduction should be allowed; but those whom the invasion has not ruined
+or seriously impoverished--and the number is large, among provision
+merchants, caf� keepers, and private residents--let those pay directly.
+In this way the landlords will lose lees than one may imagine, because
+it will be the lowest rents that will be forfeited. The decree of the
+Commune is based on a right principle, but too generally applied.
+
+The new Government--for it is a Government--does not confine itself to
+decrees. It has to install itself in its new quarters and make
+arrangements.[27]
+
+In a few hours it has organized more than ten committees--the executive,
+the financial, the public-service, the educational, the military, the
+legal, and the committee of public safety. No end of committees and
+committeemen: it is to be hoped that the business will be promptly
+despatched!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 27: Organisation of the Commissions on the 31st of March:
+
+    _Executive Commission_.--Citizens Eudes, Tridou, Vaillant,
+    Lefran�ais, Duval, F�lix Pyat, Bergeret.
+
+    _Commission of Finance_.--Victor Cl�ment, Varlin, Jourde, Beslay,
+    R�g�re.
+
+    _Military Commission_.--General E. Duval, General Bergeret, General
+    Eudes, Colonel Chardon, Colonel Flourens, Colonel Pindly, Commandant
+    Ranvier.
+
+    _Commission of Public Justice_.--Ranc, Protot, L�o Meillet,
+    Vermorel, Ledroit, Babick.
+
+    _Commission of Public Safety_.--Raoul Rigault, Ferr�, Assy, Cournet,
+    Oudet, Chalain, G�rardin.
+
+    _Victualling Commission_.--Dereure, Champy, Ostyn, Cl�ment, Parizel,
+    Emile Cl�ment, Fortun� Henry.
+
+    _Commission of Industry and Trade_.--Malon, Frankel, Theiz, Dupont,
+    Avrial, Loiseau-Pinson, Eug�ne G�rardin, Puget.
+
+    _Commission of Foreign Affairs_.--Delescluze, Ranc, Paschal
+    Grousset, Ulysse Parent, Arthur Arnould, Antoine Arnauld, Charles
+    G�rardin.
+
+    _Commission of Public Service_.--Ostyn, Billioray, Cl�ment (J.B.)
+    Martelet, Mortier, Rastoul.
+
+    _Commission of Education_.--Jules Vall�s, Doctor Goupil, Lef�vre,
+    Urbain,[28] Albert Leroy, Verdure, Demay, Doctor Robinet.]
+
+[Footnote 28: Memoir, see Appendix XIII.]
+
+
+
+
+XXII.
+
+
+Come, let us understand each other. Who are you, members of the
+Commune? Those among you who are in some sort known to the public do not
+possess, however, enough of its confidence to make up for the want of
+knowledge it has of the others. Have a care how you excite our mistrust.
+You have published decrees that certainly are open to criticism, but
+that are not entirely obnoxious, for their object is to uphold the
+interests of that portion of the population, which you most particularly
+represent, and from whom you hold your commission. We will forgive the
+decrees if you do nothing worse. Yesterday, the 30th March, during the
+night (why in the night?) some men wearing a red scarf and followed by
+several others with arms, presented themselves at the Union Insurance
+Company. On the porter refusing to deliver up the keys of the offices he
+was arrested. They then proceeded to break open the doors with the
+butt-end of their muskets, and put seals on the strong box. What can
+this portend? Have you been elected to break open private offices and
+put seals on cash-boxes? That same night, a friend of mine who happened
+to be passing across one of the bridges on his way home, noticed that
+the windows of the H�tel de Ville were brilliantly lighted. Could they
+be having a ball already? he wondered. He made inquiries and discovered
+that it was not a ball, but a banquet; three or four hundred National
+Guards from Belleville had invaded the apartments and had ordered a
+dinner to be served to them. They were accompanied by a corresponding
+number of female companions, and were drinking, talking, and singing to
+their hearts' content. What do you mean by that, members of the Commune?
+Have you been elected to keep open-house, and do you propose to inscribe
+over the entrance of the municipal palace: "Ample accommodation for
+feasts and banquets," as a companion to your motto of "Liberty,
+Equality, and Fraternity?"
+
+
+
+
+XXIII.
+
+
+    "I tell you, you shall not go!"--"But I will."--"Well, you may, but
+    not your furniture."--"And who shall prevent my carrying off my
+    furniture if I choose?"--"I will."--"I defy
+    you!"--"Thief!"--"Robber!"
+
+
+This animated discussion was being carried on at the door of a house, in
+front of which a cart filled with furniture was standing; a crowd of
+street boys was fast assembling, and the heads of curious neighbours
+appeared grinning in all the windows.
+
+A partizan of the Commune had determined to profit by the decree.
+Matters at first had seemed to go on quietly. The concierge, taken aback
+by the sudden apparition of the van, had not summoned up courage to
+prevent the furniture from being stowed away in it. The landlord,
+however, had got scent of the affair, and had hastened to this spot.
+Now, the tenant was a determined character, and as the van-men refused
+to mix themselves up in the fray, he himself shouldered his last article
+of furniture and carried it to the van. He was about to place it within
+cover of the awning, when the landlord, like a miser deprived of his
+treasure, seized it and deposited it on the pavement. The tenant
+re-grasped his spoil and thrust it again into the cart, from whence it
+was instantly drawn forth again by the enraged landlord. This game was
+carried on for some time, each as determined as the other, grasping;
+snatching, and pulling this unfortunate piece of furniture until one
+wrench, stronger than the former, entirely dislocated its component
+parts, and laid it in a ruined heap upon the ground. This was the moment
+for the tenant to show himself a man of spirit. Taking advantage of the
+surprise of the landlord, he swept the broken remains of his property
+deftly into the van, bounded on to the driver's seat, shook the reins,
+cracked his whip, and started off at a thundering gallop, pursued by the
+huzzas of the crowd, the cries of the van-men, and the oaths of the
+disappointed landlord. The van and its team of lean cattle were soon
+lost to view, and the landlord was left alone on his doorstep, shaking
+his fist and muttering "Brigand!"
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.
+
+
+What a quantity of luggage! Even those who had the good fortune of
+witnessing the emigration before the siege would never have supposed
+that there could be so much luggage in Paris. Well-to-do looking trunks
+with brass ornaments, black wooden boxes, hairy trunks, leathern
+hat-boxes, and cardboard bonnet-boxes, portmanteaux and carpet bags are
+piled up on vehicles of every description, of which more than ten
+thousand block up the roads leading to the railway stations. Everybody
+is wild to get away; it is whispered about that the Commune, the horrid
+Commune, is about to issue a decree forbidding the Parisians to quit
+Paris. So all prudent individuals are making off, with their bank-notes
+and shares in their pocket-books. I see a man I know, walking very fast,
+wearing a troubled expression on his face. I ask him where he is
+going.--"you do not know what has happened to me?" he cries. I confess I
+do not.--"The most extraordinary thing: I am condemned to
+death!"--"You!" I exclaim.--"Yes! by the Commune!"--"And wherefore?" I
+ask.--"Because I write on the _Figaro_."--"Why, I never knew
+that!"--"Oh! not very often; but last year I addressed a letter to the
+Editor, to explain to him that my new farce called 'My Aunt's Garters'
+had nothing at all to do with 'My Uncle's Braces,' which is by somebody
+else. You understand that I did not want to change the title, which is
+rather good of its kind, so I wrote to the _Figaro_, and as my letter
+was inserted, and as the Commune condemns all the contributors.... You
+see ...!"--"Perfectly! Why, my dear fellow, you ought to have been off
+before. Of course you go to Versailles?"--"Why, yes."--"By the railway?"
+I cannot help having a joke at his expense.--"Yes, of course."--"Well,
+if I were you, I would not, really; the engine might blow up, or you
+might run into a luggage train. Such things do happen in the best of
+times, and I think the Commune capable of anything to get rid of so
+dangerous an adversary."--"You don't mean to say," says the poor little,
+man in a tremor, "that they would go to such lengths! Well, at any rate
+I will travel by the road."[29]
+
+A little farther up the Boulevard des Italiens I see another
+acquaintance. "What, still in Paris?" I say, shaking hands with him.--"I
+am off this evening," he answers.--"Are you condemned to death?"--"No,
+but I shall be tried to-night."--"The devil! Do you write on the
+_Figaro_!"--"No, no, it is quite a long story. Three years ago, I made
+the acquaintance of a charming blonde, who reciprocated my advances, and
+made herself highly agreeable. In a word, I was smitten. Unfortunately
+there was a husband in the case!"--"The devil there was!"--"He made
+inquiries, and found out who I was, and ..."--"And invited you to mortal
+combat?"--"Oh! no, he is a hosier. But from that day forth he became my
+most bitter enemy."--"Very disagreeable of him, I am sure, but I do not
+see how the enmity of this retail dealer obliges you to quit
+Paris?"--"Why, you see he has a cousin who is elected a member of the
+Commune."--"I understand your uneasiness; you fear the latent revenge of
+this unreasonable hosier."--"I am to be tried to-night, but it is not
+the fear of death which makes me fly. It is worse than that. Those
+H�tel de Ville people are capable of anything, and I hear they are going
+to make a law on divorce. I know the malignity of the lady's
+husband--and I believe he is capable of getting a divorce, and forcing
+me to marry her!"
+
+So, under one pretext and another, almost everyone is going away. As for
+me, I am like a hardened Parisian--my boots have a rooted dislike to any
+other pavement than that of the boulevards. Who is right, I, or those
+who are rushing off? Is there really danger here for those who are not
+ardently attached to the principles of the Commune? I try to believe
+not. True there have been arrests--domiciliary visits and other illegal
+and tyrannical acts--but I do not think it can last.[30] May we not hope
+that the dangerous element in the Commune will soon be neutralised by
+the more intelligent portion of the Municipal Council, if, indeed, that
+portion exists? I cannot believe that a revolution, accomplished by
+one-third of the population of Paris, and tolerated by another (the
+remaining fraction having taken flight), can be entirely devoid of the
+spirit of generosity and usefulness, capable only of appropriating the
+funds of others, and unjustly imprisoning innocent citizens. Besides,
+even if the Commune, instead of trying to make us forget the bloody
+deeds with which it preceded its establishment, or seeking to repair the
+faults of which it has been guilty, on the contrary continues to commit
+such excesses, thus harrying to its ruin a city which has already
+suffered so much, even then I will not leave it. I will cling to it to
+the last, as a sailor who has grown to love the ship that has borne him
+gallantly in so many voyages, clings to the wreck of his favourite, and
+refuses to be saved without it.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 29: The following is a document which completely justifies
+these apprehensions:--
+
+"30th March--The Commune of Paris--Orders from the Central Committee to
+the officer in command, of the battalion on guard at the station of
+Ouest-Ceinture.
+
+"To stop all trains proceeding in the direction of Paris at the
+Ouest-Ceinture station.
+
+"To place an energetic man night and day at this post. This man is to
+mount guard with a beam, which he is to throw across the rails at the
+arrival of each train, so as to cause it to run off the rails, if the
+engine-driver refuses to stop.
+
+"HENRI, Chief of a Legion."]
+
+[Footnote 30: Vexatious measures accumulated:
+
+The pacific M. Glais-Bizoin was arrested in a tobacconist's shop, where
+he was, doubtless, lighting a reactionary cigar. He fancied at first
+that there had been a mistake, but he was taken before the Committee,
+which caused him, however, to be liberated.
+
+M. Maris Proth, a writer in _Charivari_, which is certainly not a
+royalist journal, was arrested on the following day, and detained for a
+longer time.
+
+On the same day a search was made at the house of the publisher
+Lacroix.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Gambon.]
+
+XXV.
+
+
+Garibaldi is expected. Gambon has gone to Corsica to meet him. He is to
+be placed at the head of the National Guard. It is devoutly to be hoped
+that he will not come.[31]
+
+Firstly, because his presence at this moment would create new dangers;
+and secondly, because this admirable and honoured man would compromise
+his glory uselessly in our sorry discords. If I, an obscure citizen, had
+the honour of being one of those to whom the liberator of Naples lends
+an ear, I would go to him without hesitation, and, after having bent
+before him as I would before some ancient hero arisen from his glorious
+sepulchre, say to him,--"General, you have delivered your country. At
+the head of a few hundred men you have won battles and taken towns. Your
+name recalls the name of William Tell. Wherever there were chains to
+rend and yokes to break, you were seen to hasten. Like the warriors Hugo
+exalts in his _L�gende des Si�cles_, you have been the champion of
+justice, the knight-errant of liberty. You appear to us victorious in a
+distant vision, as in the realm of legend. For the glory of our age in
+which heroes are wanting, it befits you to remain that which you are.
+Continue afar off, so that you may continue great. It is not that your
+glory is such that it can only be seen at a distance, and loses when
+regarded, too nearly. Not so! But you would be hampered amongst us.
+There is not space enough here for you to draw your sword freely. We are
+adroit, strange, and complicated. You are simple, and in that lies your
+greatness. We belong to our time, you have the honour to be an
+anachronism. You would be useless to your friends, destructive to
+yourself. What would you, a giant fighting with the sword, do against
+dwarfs who have cannon? You are courageous, but they are cunning, and
+would conquer you. For the sake of the nineteenth century you must not
+be vanquished. Do not come; in your simplicity you would be caught in
+the spider's web of clever mediocrity, and your grand efforts to tear
+yourself free would only be laughed at. Great man, you would be treated
+like a pigmy."
+
+It is probable, however, that if I held such a discourse to General
+Garibaldi, General Garibaldi would politely show me the door. Other and
+more powerful counsellors have inspired him with different ideas.
+Friendship dangerous indeed! How deeply painful is it that no man,
+however intelligent or great, can clearly distinguish the line, where
+the mission for which Heaven has endowed him ceases, and, disdaining all
+celebrity foreign to his true glory, consent to remain such as future
+ages will admire.[32]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 31: The Citizen Gambon, representative of the Department of
+the Seine, left Paris charged with a mission to seek Garibaldi, but was
+arrested at Bonifacio, in the island of Corsica, just as he was
+embarking for Caprera.
+
+For Memoir, see Appendix 4.]
+
+[Footnote 32: Garibaldi was chosen by the Central Committee for
+Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard, but he refused in the
+following terms, pretending not to be aware of the condition of Paris:--
+
+"Caprera, 28th March, 1871.
+
+"CITIZENS,--
+
+"Thanks for the honour you have conferred upon me by my nomination as
+Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard of Paris, which I love, and
+whose dangers and glory I should be proud to share.
+
+"I owe you, however, the following explanations:--
+
+"A commandant of the National Guard of Paris, a commander of the Army of
+Paris, and a directing committee, whatever they may be, are three powers
+which are not reconcilable with the present situation of France.
+
+"Despotism has the advantage over us, the advantage of the concentration
+of power, and it is this same centralisation which you should oppose to
+your enemies.
+
+"Choose an honest citizen, and such are not wanting: Victor Hugo, Louis
+Blanc, F�lix Pyat, Edgar Quinet, or another of the elders of radical
+democracy, would serve the purpose. The generals Oremer and Billot, who,
+I see, have your confidence, may be counted in the number.
+
+"Be assured that one honest man should be charged with the supreme
+command and full powers; such a man would choose other honest men to
+assist him in the difficult task of saving the country.
+
+"If you should have the good fortune to find a Washington, France will
+recover from shipwreck, and in a short time will be grander than ever.
+
+"These conditions are not an excuse for escaping the duty of serving
+republican France. No! I do not despair of fighting by the side of these
+_braves_, and I am,
+
+"Yours devotedly,
+
+(Signed), "G. GARIBALDI."]
+
+
+
+
+XXVI.
+
+
+Monday, the 3rd of April.[33] A fearful day! I have been hurrying this
+way and that, looking, questioning, reading. It is now ten o'clock in
+the evening. And what do I know? Nothing certain; nothing except this,
+which is awful,--they are fighting.
+
+Yes, at the gates of Paris, Frenchmen against Frenchmen, beneath the
+eyes of the Prussians, who are watching the battle-field like ravens:
+they are fighting. I have seen ambulance waggons pass full of National
+Guards. By whom have they been wounded? By Zouaves. Is this thing
+credible, is it possible? Ah! those guns, cannon, and mitrailleuses, why
+were they not all claimed by the enemy--all, every one, from soldiers
+and Parisians alike? But little hindrance would that have proved. It had
+been resolved--by what monstrous will?--that we should be hurled to the
+very bottom of the precipice. These Frenchmen, who would kill Frenchmen,
+would not be checked by lack of arms. If they could not shoot each
+other, they would strangle each other.
+
+[Illustration: THE BARRICADE: EVENING MEAL--SOUP AND CIGARS, AND A
+"PETIT VERRE."]
+
+This, indeed, was unlooked for. An insurrection was feared; men thought
+of the June days; that evening when the battalions devoted to the
+National Assembly camped in the neighbourhood of the Bank, we imagined,
+as a horrible possibility, muskets pointed from between the stones of
+barricades, blood flowing in the streets, men killed, women in tears.
+But who could have foretold that a new species of civil war was
+preparing? That Paris, separated from France, would be blockaded by
+Frenchmen? That it would once more be deprived of communication with the
+provinces; once more starved perhaps? That there would be, not a few men
+struggling to the death in one of the quarters of the town, but two
+armies in presence, each with chiefs, fortifications and cannon? That
+Paris, in a word, would be besieged anew? How abominable a surprise of
+fate!
+
+The cannonading has been heard since morning. Ah! that sound, which,
+during the siege, made our hearts beat with hope,--yes, with hope, for
+it made us believe in a possible deliverance--how horrible it was this
+morning. I went towards the Champs Elys�es. Paris was deserted. Had it
+understood at last that its honour, its existence even, were at stake in
+this revolution, or was it only not up yet? Battalions were marching
+along the boulevards, with music playing. They were going towards the
+Place Vend�me, and were singing. The _cantini�res_ were carrying guns.
+Some one told me that men had been at work all night in the
+neighbourhood of the H�tel de Ville, and that the streets adjoining it
+were blocked with barricades. But in fact no one knows anything, except
+that there is fighting in Neuilly, that the "Royalists" have attacked,
+and that "our brothers are being slaughtered." A few groups are
+assembled in the Place de la Concorde. I approach, and find them
+discussing the question of the rents,--yes, of the rents! Ah! it is
+certain those who are being killed at this moment will not have to pay
+their landlord. On reaching the Rond Point I can distinctly perceive a
+compact crowd round the Triumphal Arch, and I meet some tired National
+Guards who are returning from the battle. They are ragged, dusty, and
+dreary. "What has happened?"--"We are betrayed!" says one.--"Death to
+the traitors!" cries another.
+
+No certain news from the field of battle. A runaway, seated outside a
+caf� amidst a group of eager questioners, recounts that the barricade at
+the Neuilly bridge has been attacked by _sergents de ville_ dressed as
+soldiers, and Pontifical Zouaves carrying a white flag.--"A
+parliamentary flag?" asks some one.--"No! a royalist flag," answered the
+runaway.--"And the barricade has been taken?"--"We had no cartridges; we
+had not eaten for twenty-four hours; of course we had to decamp."
+
+Farther on a soldier of the line affirms that the barricade has been
+taken again. The cannon roars still. Mont Val�rien is firing, it is
+said, on the Courbevoie barracks, where a battalion of Federal guards
+was stationed yesterday.--"But they were off before daybreak," adds the
+soldier.
+
+As I continue my road the groups become more numerous. I lift my head
+and see a shell burst over the Avenue of the Grande Arm�e, leaving a
+puff of white smoke hanging for a few seconds like a cloud-flake
+detached by the wind.
+
+On I go still. The height on which the Arc de Triomphe stands is covered
+with people; a great many women and children among them. They are
+mounted on posts, clinging to the projections of the Arch, hanging to
+the sculpture of the bas-reliefs. One man has put a plank upon the tops
+of three chairs, and by paying a few _sous_ the gapers can hoist
+themselves upon it. From this position one can perceive a motionless,
+attentive crowd reaching down the whole length of the Avenue of the
+Grande Arm�e, as far as the Porte Maillot, from which a great cloud of
+white smoke springs up every moment followed by a violent explosion,--it
+is the cannon of the ramparts firing on the Rond Point of Courbevoie;
+and beyond this the Avenue de Neuilly stretching far out in the
+sunshine, deserted and dusty, a human form crossing it rapidly from time
+to time; and farthest of all, beyond the Seine, beyond the Avenue de
+l'Empereur, deserted too, the hill of Courbevoie, where a battery of the
+Versailles troops is established. But stretch my eyes as I may I cannot
+distinguish the guns; but a few men, sentinels doubtless, can be made
+out. They are _sergents de ville_, says my right-hand neighbour; but he
+on my left says they are Pontifical Zouaves. They must have good eyes to
+recognise the uniforms at this distance. The most contradictory rumours
+circulate as to the barricade on the bridge; it is impossible for one to
+ascertain whether it has remained in the possession of the soldiers or
+the Federals. There has been but little fighting, moreover, since I
+came. A little later, at twelve o'clock, the fusillade ceases entirely.
+But the battery on the ramparts continues to fire upon Courbevoie, and
+Mont Val�rien still shells Neuilly at intervals. Suddenly a flood of
+dust, coming from Porte Maillot, thrusts back the thick of the crowd,
+and as it flies, widening, and whirling more madly as it comes, everyone
+is seized with terror, and rushes away screaming and gesticulating. A
+shell has just fallen, it is said, in the Avenue of the Grande Arm�e.
+Not a soul remains about the Triumphal Arch. The adjoining streets are
+filled with people who have run to take shelter there. By little and
+little, however, the people begin to recover themselves, the flight is
+stopped in the middle, and, laughing at their momentary panic, they turn
+back again. A quarter of an hour afterwards the crowd is everywhere as
+compact as before.
+
+[Illustration: PLACE DE LA CONCORDE AND CHAMPS ELYSEES, FROM THE GARDENS
+OF THE TUILERIES--FEDERALISTS GOING OUT TO FIGHT THE VERSAILLAIS.
+
+This panorama gives an idea of the theatre of operations of the Second
+Siege of Paris. The Prussians closed the eastern enceinte, whilst the
+Federals held the southern forts to the last, with the exception of Issy
+and Vanves that were abandoned. Point-du-Jour and Porte Maillot were the
+parts particularly attacked; the former being defended by the Federal
+gunboats on the Seine. Mont Val�rien, it will be seen, commands the
+whole of the distant plateau. About one mile and a half beyond the
+Triumphal Arch the river Seine intersects the space from south to north,
+enclosing the Bois de Boulogne and the villages of Neuilly, Villiers,
+and Courcelles, being a sort of outer fortification. The walls of Paris
+follow the same line, falling about half a mile on the other side of the
+Arch, and parallel runs a line of railway within the fortified wall.
+
+This view exhibits the portion the Prussians were permitted to occupy
+for two days: all the outlets, except the west, being barricaded and
+defended.]
+
+This spectacle, however, of combatants and gapers distresses me, and in
+despair of learning anything I return into the city.
+
+At some distance from the scene of events one gets better information,
+or, at any rate, a great deal more of it. Imagination has better play
+when it is farther from the fact. A hundred absurd stories reach me.
+What appears tolerably certain is, that the Federals have received a
+check, not very important in itself, the Versailles troops having made
+but little advance, but at any rate a check which might have some
+influence on the resolution of the National Guards. They have been told
+that the army would not fight, that the soldiers of the line would turn
+the butt-ends of their guns into the air at Neuilly as they had done at
+Montmartre. But now they begin to believe that the army will fight, and
+those who cry the loudest that it was the _sergents de ville_ and
+Charette's Zouaves who led the attack alone, seem as if they said it to
+give themselves courage and keep up their illusions.
+
+But from which side did the first shot come? On this point everyone has
+something to say, and no one knows what to believe. Official reports are
+looked for with the utmost impatience. The walls, generally so
+communicative, are mute up to this hour. The least improbable of the
+versions circulated is the following: At break of day some shots are
+said to have been exchanged between the Federal advanced guard and the
+patrols of the Versailles troops. None dead or wounded; only powder
+wasted, happily. A little later, and a few minutes after the arrival of
+General Vinoy at Mont Val�rien, a messenger with a flag of truce,
+preceded by a trumpeter and accompanied by two _sergents de ville_
+(inevitably), is said to have presented himself at the bridge of
+Courbevoie. The name of the messenger has been given,--Monsieur
+Pasquier, surgeon-in-chief to the regiment of mounted _gendarmes_. Two
+of the National Guards go to meet him; after some words exchanged, one
+of the Federals blows out Monsieur Pasquier's brains with his revolver,
+and ten minutes later Mont Val�rien opens a formidable fire, which
+continues as fiercely four hours afterwards.
+
+Meanwhile the drams beat to arms, on all sides. A considerable number of
+battalions defile along the Boulevard Montmartre; more than twenty
+thousand men, some say, who pretend to know. On they march, singing and
+shouting "_Vive la Commune! Vive la R�publique!_" They are answered by a
+few shouts. These are not the Montmartre and Belleville guards alone;
+peaceful faces of citizens and merchants may be seen under the military
+_k�pis_, and many hands are white as no workman's are. They march in
+good order,--they are calm and resolved; one feels that these men are
+ready to die for a cause that they believe to be just. I raise my hat
+as they pass; one must do honour to those who, even if they be guilty,
+push their devotion so far as to expose themselves to death for their
+convictions.
+
+But what are these convictions? What is the Commune? The men who sit at
+the H�tel de Ville have published no programme, yet they kill and are
+killed for the sake of the Commune. Oh, words! words! What power they
+have over you, heroic and most simple people!
+
+In the evening out came a proclamation. There was so great a crowd
+wherever it was posted up that I had not the chance of copying it; but
+it ran somewhat in these terms:--
+
+    "CITIZENS,--This morning the Royalists have ATTACKED.
+
+    "Impatient, before our moderation they have ATTACKED.
+
+    "Unable to bring French bayonets against us, they have opposed us
+    with the Imperial Guard and Pontifical Zouaves.
+
+    "They have bombarded the inoffensive village of Neuilly.
+
+    "Charette's _chouans_, Cathelineau's _Vend�ens_, Trochu's _Bretons_,
+    Valentin's _gendarmes_, have rushed upon us.
+
+    "There are dead and wounded.
+
+    "Against this attack, renewed from the Prussians, Paris should rise
+    to a man.
+
+    "Thanks to the support of the National Guard, the victory will be
+    ours!"
+
+Victory! What victory? Oh, the bitter pain! Paris shedding the blood of
+France, France shedding the blood of Paris! From whatever side the
+triumph comes, will it not be accursed?
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 33: On the 1st of April several shots were fired under the
+walls of Fort Issy, but it was not until the next day, the 2nd of April,
+at nine o'clock in the morning, that the action commenced in earnest at
+Courbevoie, by an attack of the Versailles army. The federals, who
+thought themselves masters of the place, were stopped by the steady
+firing of a regiment of gendarmerie and heavy cannonading from Mont
+Val�rien. At first the National Guards retreated, then disputed every
+foot of ground with much courage. In the neighbourhood the desolation
+and misery was extreme.
+
+The revolution had now entered a new phase; the military proceedings had
+begun, and it was about to be proved that, the Communist generals had
+even less genius than those of the D�fense Nationale, although it must
+be admitted that the latter did not know the extent of the resources
+they had at their disposal. When we remember the small advantage those
+generals managed to derive from the heroism of the Parisian population,
+who, during the second siege showed that they knew how to fight and how
+to die, it is marvellous that many people have gone so far as to regret
+that the �meute of the 31st of October was not successful, believing
+that if the Commune had triumphed at that time, Paris would have been
+saved. All this seems very doubtful now, and opinions have veered round
+considerably, for it is not such men as Duval, Cluseret, La C�cilia,
+Eudes, or Bergeret, who could have protected Paris against the science
+of the Prussian generals.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL BERGERET.]
+
+XXVII.
+
+
+To whom shall we listen? Whom believe? It would take a hundred pages,
+and more, to relate all the different rumours which have circulated
+to-day, the 4th of April, the second day of the horrible straggle. Let
+us hastily note down the most persistent of these assertions; later I
+will put some order into this pell-mell of news.
+
+All through the night the drums beat to arms in every quarter of the
+town. Companies assembled rapidly, and directed their way towards the
+Place Vend�me or the Porte Maillot, shouting, "_A Versailles!_" Since
+five this morning, General Bergeret has occupied the Rond-Point of
+Courbevoie. This position has been evacuated by the troops of the
+Assembly. How was this? Were the Federals not beaten yesterday?
+
+(One thing goes against General Bergeret in the opinion of his troops:
+he drives to battle in a carriage.)
+
+He has formed his troops into columns. No less than sixty thousand men
+are under his orders; two batteries of seven guns support the infantry;
+omnibuses follow, filled with provisions. They march towards the Mont
+Val�rien; after having taken the fort, they will march on Versailles by
+Rueil and Nanterre.[34] After they have taken the Mont Val�rien! there
+is not a moment's doubt about the success of the enterprise. "We were
+assured," said a Federal general to me, "that the fort would open its
+doors at the first sight of us." But they counted without General
+Cholleton, who commands the fortress. The advance-guard of the Federals
+is received by a formidable discharge of shot and shells. Panic! Cries
+of rage! A regular rout to the words, "We are betrayed!"[35] The army of
+the Commune is divided into two fragments: one--scarcely three
+battalions strong--flies in the direction of Versailles, the other
+regains Paris with praiseworthy precipitation. Must the Parisian
+combatants be accused of cowardice for this flight? No! They were
+surprised; had never expected such a reception from Mont Val�rien; had
+they been warned, they would have held out better. After all, there was
+more fright than harm done in the affair; the huge fortress could have
+annihilated the Communists, and it was satisfied with dispersing them.
+But what has become of the three battalions that passed Mont Val�rien?
+Bravely they went forward.
+
+In the meantime another movement was being made upon Versailles by
+Meudon and Clamart. A small number of battalions had marched out during
+the night, and are massed under cover of the forts of Issy and Vanves.
+They have managed to establish a battery of a few guns on a wooded
+eminence, at the foot of the glacis of Fort. Issy, and their pieces are
+firing upon the batteries of the Versailles troops at Meudon, which are
+answering them furiously. It is a duel of artillery, as in the time--the
+good time, alas!--of the Prussians.
+
+Up to this moment the information is tolerably clear; probable even, and
+one is able to come to some idea of the respective positions of the
+belligerents. But towards two o'clock in the afternoon all the reports
+get confused and contradictory.
+
+An estafette, who has come from the Porte Maillot, cried to a group
+formed on the place of the New Opera-house, "We are victorious! Flourens
+has entered Versailles at the head of forty thousand men. A hundred
+deputies have been taken. Thiers is a prisoner."
+
+Elsewhere it is said that in the rout of that morning, at the foot of
+Mont Val�rien, Flourens had disappeared. And where could he have found
+the forty thousand men to lead them to Versailles?
+
+At the same time a rumour spreads that General Bergeret has been
+grievously wounded by a shell. "Pure exaggeration!" some one answers.
+"The General has only had two horses killed under him."
+
+Before him, rather, since he drives to battle. What appears most
+certain of all is that there is furious fighting going on between S�vres
+and Meudon. I hear it said that the 118th of the line have turned the
+butts of their guns into the air, and that the Parisians have taken
+twelve mitrailleuses from the Versailles troops.
+
+There is fighting, too, at Ch�tillon. The Federals have won great
+advantages. Nevertheless an individual who went out that side to
+investigate, announces that he saw three battalions return with very
+little air of triumph, and that other battalions, forming the reserve,
+had refused to march.
+
+A shower of contradictions, in which the news for the most part has no
+other source than the opinion and desire of the person who brings it. It
+is by the result alone that we can appreciate what is passed. At one
+moment I give up trying to get information as a bad job, but I begin
+questioning again in spite of myself; the desire to know is even
+stronger than the very strong certainty that I shall be able to learn
+nothing.
+
+I turn to the Champs Elys�es. The cannon is roaring; ambulance waggons
+descend the Avenue, and stop before the Palais de l'Industrie; over the
+way Punch is making his audience roar with laughter as usual. Oh! the
+miserable times! The horrible fratricidal struggle! May those who were
+its cause be accursed for ever!
+
+While some are killing and others dying, the members of the Commune are
+rendering decrees, and the walls are white with official proclamations.
+
+    "Messieurs Thiers, Favre, Picard, Dufaure, Simon and Pothuan are
+    impeached; their property will be seized and sequestrated until they
+    deliver themselves up to public justice."
+
+This impeachment and sequestration, will it bring back husbands to the
+widows and fathers to the orphans?
+
+    "The Commune of Paris adopts the families of citizens who have
+    fallen or may fall in opposing the criminal aggression of the
+    Royalists, directed against Paris and against the French republic."
+
+Infinitely better than adopting the orphans would be to save the fathers
+from death. Oh, these absurd decrees! You separate the Church from the
+State; you suppress the budget of public worship; you confiscate the
+property of the clergy. A pretty time to think about such acts! What is
+necessary, what is indispensable, is to restore quiet, to avoid
+massacres, and to stifle hatred. That you will not decree. No! no! That
+which is now happening you have desired, and you still desire it; you
+have profited by the provocations you have received to bring about the
+most frightful conflict which the history of unfortunate France records;
+and you will persevere, and in order to revive the fainting courage of
+those whom you have devoted to inevitable defeat and death, you bring
+into action all the hypocrisy with which you have charged your enemies!
+
+    "Bergeret and Flourens have joined their forces; they are marching
+    on Versailles. Success is certain!"
+
+You cause this announcement to be placarded in the street--false news,
+is it not? But men can only be led to their ruin by being deceived. You
+add:
+
+    "The fire of the army of Versailles has not occasioned us any
+    appreciable loss."
+
+Ah! As to this let us ask the women who await at the gates of the city
+the return of your soldiers, and crowd sobbing round the bloody litters!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 34: The combined plan of the three generals of the Commune
+consisted, like the famous plan of General Boum, in proceeding by three
+different roads: the first column, under the orders of Bergeret,
+seconded by Flourens, went by Rueil; the second, commanded by Duval,
+marched upon Versailles by lower Meudon, Chaville, and Viroflay; covered
+by the fire of Fort Issy, and the redoubt of Moulineaux; and lastly, the
+third, with General Eudes at its head, took the Clamart road, protected
+by the fort of Vanves.]
+
+[Footnote 35: Though no fort covered Bergeret's eight battalions with
+its fire, yet Bergeret was so sure that the artillerymen of Mont
+Val�rien would do as the line did on the 18th of March, i.e., refuse to
+fire, that he advanced boldly as far as the bridge of Neuilly, and had
+made a halt at the Rond-Point des Berg�res, when a heavy cannonading
+from Mont Val�rien separated a part of the column from its main body.]
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII.
+
+
+Every hour that flies by, becomes more sinister than the last. They
+fight at Clamart as they fight at Neuilly, at Meudon and at Courbevoie.
+Everywhere rage the mitrailleuses, the cannon, and the rifle; the
+victories of the Communalists are lyingly proclaimed. The truth of their
+pretended triumphs will soon be known; and unhappily victory will be as
+detestable as defeat.
+
+    General Duval has been made prisoner and put to death. "If you had
+    taken me," asked General Vinoy, "would you not have shot
+    me?"--"Without hesitation," replied Duval. And Vinoy gave the word
+    of command, "Fire!"
+
+But this anecdote, though widely spread, is probably false. It is
+scarcely likely that a Commander-in-Chief of the Versailles troops would
+have consented to hold such a dialogue with an "_insurgent_."
+
+Flourens also is killed. Where and how is not yet known with any
+certainty. Several versions are given. Some speak of a ball in the head,
+or the neck, or the chest; others spread the report that his skull was
+cut open by a sword.
+
+Flourens is thought about and talked of by men of the most opposite
+opinions. This singular man inspires no antipathy even amongst those who
+might hold him in the greatest detestation. I shall one day try to
+account for the partiality of opinion in favour of this young and
+romantic insurgent.
+
+Duval shot, Flourens killed, Bergeret lying in the pangs of death; the
+enthusiasm of the Federals might well be cooled down. Not in the least!
+The battalions that march along the boulevards have the same resolute
+air, as they sing and shout "_Vive la Commune!_" Are they the dupes of
+their chiefs to that extent as to believe the pompous proclamations with
+their hourly announcements of attacks repelled, of redoubts taken, of
+soldiers of the line made prisoners? It is not probable. And besides,
+the guards of the respective quarters must see the return of those who
+have been to the fight, and whose anxious wives are waiting on the steps
+of the doors; must learn from them that the forward marches have in
+reality been routs, and that many dead and wounded have been left on the
+field, when the Commune reports only declare "losses of little
+importance." Whence comes this ardour that the first rush and defeat
+cannot check? Is it nourished by the reports, true or false, of the
+cruelties of the Versaillais which are spread by the hundred? The
+"murder" of Duval, the "assassination" of Flourens, prisoners shot,
+_vivandi�res_ violated, all these culpable inventions--can they be
+inventions, or does civil war make such barbarians of us?--are indeed of
+a nature to excite the enthusiasm of hate, and the men march to a
+probable defeat with the same air as they would march to certain
+victory. Ah! whether led astray or not, whether guilty, even, or
+whatever the motive that impels them, they are brave! And when they pass
+thus they are grand. Yes! in spite of the rags that serve the greater
+number of them for uniforms, in spite of the drunken gait of some, as a
+whole they are superb! And the reason of the coldest partisan of order
+at any price, struggles in vain against the admiration which these men
+inspire as they march to their death.
+
+It must be admitted, too, that there is much less disorder in the
+command than might be expected. The battalions all know whom they are to
+obey. Some go to the H�tel de Ville, others to the Place Vend�me, many
+to the forts, a few to the advanced posts; marches and counter-marches
+are managed without confusion, and the combatants are in general well
+provided with ammunition, and supplied with provisions. Far as one is
+from esteeming the chiefs of the Federals, one is obliged to admit that
+there is something remarkable in this rapid organisation of a whole army
+in the midst of one of the most complete political convulsions. Who,
+then, directs? Who commands? The members of the Commune, divided as they
+are in opinion, do not appear capable, on account of their number and
+lamentable inexperience, of taking the sole lead in military affairs. Is
+there not some one either amongst them or in the background, who knows
+how to think, direct, and act? Is it Bergeret? Is it Cluseret? The
+future perhaps will unravel the mystery. In the meantime, and in spite
+of the reverses to which the Federals have had to submit during these
+last days, the whole of Paris unites in unanimous surprise at the
+extreme regularity with which the administrative system of the war seems
+to work, the surprise being the greater that, during the siege, the
+"legitimate" chiefs with much more powerful means, and having
+disciplined troops at their command, did not succeed in obtaining the
+same striking results.
+
+But would it not have been better far that that order had never existed?
+Better a thousand times that the command had been less precise than that
+those commanded should have been led to a death without glory? For the
+last few days Neuilly, so joyous in times gone by with its busy shops,
+its frequented _restaurants_ and princely parks; Neuilly, with the
+Versailles batteries on one side and the Paris guns on the other, under
+an incessant rain of shells and _mitraille_ from Mont Val�rien; Neuilly,
+with her bridge taken and re-taken, her barricades abandoned and
+re-conquered, has been for the last few days like a vast abyss, into
+which the Federal battalions, seized with mortal giddiness, are
+precipitated one after another. Each house is a fortress. Yesterday, the
+_gendarmes_ had advanced as far as the market of Sablonville; this
+morning they were driven back beyond the church. Upon this church, a
+child; the son of Monsieur Leullier, planted a red flag amidst a shower
+of projectiles. "That child will make a true man," said Cluseret, the
+war delegate. Ah, yes! provided he is not a corpse ere then. Shots are
+fired from window to window. A house is assaulted; there are encounters,
+on the stairs; it is a horrible struggle in which no quarter is given,
+night and day, through all hours. The rage and fury on both sides are
+terrific. Men that were friends a week ago have but one desire--to
+assassinate each other. An inhabitant of Neuilly, who succeeded in
+escaping, related this to me: Two enemies, a soldier of the line and a
+Federal, had an encounter in the bathing establishment of the Avenue de
+Neuilly, a little above the Rue des Huissiers. Now pursuing, now flying
+from each other in their bayonet-fight, they reached the roof of the
+house, and there, flinging down their arms, they closed in a mad
+struggle. On the sloping roof, the tiles of which crush beneath them, at
+a hundred feet from the ground, they struggled without mercy, without
+respite, until at last the soldier felt his strength give way, and
+endeavoured to escape from the gripe of his adversary. Then, the
+Federal--the person from whom I learnt this was at an opposite window
+and lost not a single one of their movements--the Federal drew a knife
+from his pocket and prepared himself to strike his half-prostrate
+antagonist, who, feeling that all hope was lost, threw himself flat on
+the roof, seized his enemy by the leg, and dragging him with him by a
+sudden movement, they rolled over and fell on to the pavement below.
+Neither was killed, but the soldier had his face crimsoned with blood
+and dust, and the Federal, who had fallen across his adversary,
+despatched him by plunging his knife in his chest.
+
+Such is this infamous struggle! Such is this savage strife! Will it not
+cease until there is no more blood to shed? In the meantime, Paris of
+the boulevards, the elegant and fast-living Paris, lounges, strolls, and
+smiles. In spite of the numerous departures there are still enough blas�
+dandies and beauties of light locks and lighter reputation to bring the
+blush to an honest man's cheek. The theatres are open; "_La Pi�ce du
+Pape_" is being played. Do you know "The Pope's Money?" It is a suitable
+piece for diverting the thoughts from the horrors of civil war. A year
+ago the Pope was supported by French bayonets, but his light coinage
+would not pass in Paris. Now Papal zouaves are killing the citizens of
+Paris, and we take light silver and lighter paper. The piece is flimsy
+enough. It is not its political significance that makes it diverting,
+but the _double-entendre_ therein. One must laugh a little, you
+understand. Men are dying out yonder, we might as well laugh a little
+here. Low whispers in the _baignoires_, munching of sugared violets in
+the stage boxes--everything's for the best. Mademoiselle N�nuphar (named
+so by antithesis) is said to have the most beautiful eyes in the world.
+I will wager that that handsome man behind her has already compared them
+to mitraille shot, seeing the ravages they commit. It would be
+impossible to be more complimentary,--more witty and to the point. Ah!
+look you, those who are fighting at this moment, who to-day by their
+cannon and chassepots are exposing Paris to a terrible revenge, guilty
+as these men are, I hold them higher than those who roar with laughter
+when the whole city is in despair, who have not even the modesty to hide
+their joys from our distresses, and who amuse themselves openly with
+shameless women, while mothers are weeping for their children!
+
+On the boulevards it is worse still; there, vice exhibits itself and
+triumphs. Is it then true what a young fellow, a poor student and bitter
+philosopher, said to me just now: "When all Paris is destroyed, when its
+houses, its palaces, and its monuments thrown down and crushed, strew
+its accursed soil and form but one vast ruin beneath the sky, then, from
+out of this shapeless mass will rise as from a huge sepulchre, the
+phantom of a woman, a skeleton dressed in a brilliant dress, with
+shoulders bared, and a toquet on its head; and this phantom, running
+from ruin to ruin, turning its head every now and then to see if some
+libertine is following her through the waste--this phantom is the
+leprous soul of Paris!"
+
+When midnight approaches, the _caf�s_ are shut. The delegates of the
+Central Committee at the ex-prefecture have the habit of sending patrols
+of National Guards to hasten and overlook the closing of all public
+places. But this precaution, like so many others, is useless. There are
+secret doors which escape the closest investigations. When the shutters
+are put up, light filters through the interstices of the boards. Go
+close up to them, apply your eye to one of those lighted crevices,
+listen to the cannon roaring, the mitrailleuses horribly spitting, the
+musketry cracking, and then look into the interior of the closed rooms.
+People are talking, eating, and smoking; waiters go to and fro. There
+are women too. The men are gay and silly. Champagne bottles are being
+uncorked. "Ah! ah! it's the fusillade!" Lovers and mistresses are in
+common here. This orgie has the most telling effect, I tell you, in the
+midst of the city loaded with maledictions, a few steps from the
+battle-field where the bayonets are dealing their death thrusts, and the
+shells are scattering blood. And later, after the laughter and the songs
+and the drink, they take an open carriage, if the night is fine, and go
+to the Champs Elys�es, and there mount upon the box by the coachman to
+try and see the fight--if "those people" knew how to die as well as they
+know how to laugh it would be better for them.
+
+Other _bons viveurs_, more discreet, hide themselves on the first floors
+of some houses and in some of the clubs. But they are betrayed by the
+sparkle of the chandeliers which pierces the heavy curtains. If you walk
+along by the walls you will hear the conversation of the gamesters and
+the joyous clink of the gold pieces.
+
+Ah! the cowardice of the merry ones! Oh, thrice pardonable anger of
+those who starve!
+
+
+
+
+XXIX.
+
+
+At one o'clock this morning, the 5th of April, on my return from one of
+these nightly excursions through Paris, I was following the Rue du Mont
+Thabor so as to gain the boulevards, when on crossing the Rue
+Saint-Honor� I perceived a small number of National Guards ranged along
+the pavement. The incident was a common one, and I took no notice of it.
+In the Rue du Mont Thabor not a person was to be seen; all was in
+silence and solitude. Suddenly a door opened a few steps in front of
+me; a man came out and hurried away in the direction opposite to that of
+the church. This departure looked like a flight. I stopped and lent my
+attention. Soon two National Guards rushed out by the same door, ran,
+shouting as they went, after the fugitive, who had had but a short start
+of them, and overtaking him, without difficulty brought him back between
+them, while the National Guards that I had seen in the Rue Saint-Honor�
+ran up at the noise. The exclamations and insults of all kinds that were
+vociferated led me to ascertain that the man they had arrested was the
+Abb� Deguerry, _cur�_ of the Madeleine. He was dragged into the house,
+the door was shut, and all sank into silence again.
+
+That morning I learned that Monseigneur Darboy, the Archbishop of Paris,
+was taken at the same hour and in almost similar circumstances.
+
+[Illustration: ABB� DEGUERRY, Cur� of the Madeleine.]
+
+The arrests of several other ecclesiastics are cited. The _cur�_ of St.
+S�verin and the _cur�_ of St. Eustache have been made prisoners, it is
+said; the first in his own house, the second at the moment when he was
+leaving his church. The _cur�_ of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires was to have
+been arrested also, but warned in time, he was able to place himself in
+safety.
+
+Monseigneur Darboy, being conducted to the ex-prefecture (why the
+_ex_-prefecture? It seems to me it works just as well as when it was
+purely and simply a prefecture), was cross-examined there by the citizen
+delegate Rigault. It must be said that Monsieur Rigault had begun to
+make himself talked about during these last few days. He is evidently a
+man who has a natural vocation for the employment he has chosen, for he
+arrests, and arrests, and still arrests. He is young, cold, and cynical.
+But his cynicism does not exclude him from a certain gaiety, as we shall
+see. It was the Citizen Rigault, then, who examined the Archbishop of
+Paris. I am not inordinately curious, but I should very much like to
+know what the cynical member of the Commune could ask of Monseigneur
+Darboy. Having committed apparently but one crime, that of being a
+priest, and having no inclination to disguise it, it is difficult to
+know what the interrogatory could turn upon. Monsieur Rigault's
+imagination furnished him no doubt with ample materials for the
+interview, and he has probably as much vocation for the part of a
+magistrate as for that of a police officer. But however it may be, the
+journals of the Commune record this fragment with ill-disguised
+admiration.
+
+[Illustration: RAOUL RIGAULT[36]]
+
+[Illustration: MONSEIGNEUR DARBOY, Archbishop of Paris.]
+
+"My children"--the white-haired Archbishop of Paris is reported to have
+said at one moment.
+
+"Citizen," interrupted the Citizen Rigault, who is not yet thirty, "you
+are not before children, but before magistrates."
+
+That was smart! And I can conceive the enthusiasm with which Monsieur
+Rigault inspires the members of the Commune. But this excellent citizen
+did not confine himself to this haughty repartee. I am informed (and I
+have reason to believe with truth) that he added: "Moreover, that's too
+old a tale. You have been trying it on these eighteen hundred years."
+
+Now everyone must admit that this is as remarkable for its wit as for
+its elegance, and it is just what might be expected of the amiable
+delegate, who, the other day, in a moment of exaggerated clemency,
+permitted an abb� to visit a prisoner in the Conciergerie, and furnished
+him with a _laisser-passer_ that ran thus: "Admit the bearer, who styles
+himself the servant of one of the name of God." Oh! what graceful,
+charming wit!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 36: Rigault became connected with Rochefort in the year 1869,
+and with him was engaged on the journal called the _Marseillaise_, and
+produced articles which subjected him more than once to fine and
+imprisonment. In the month of September, 1870, he was appointed by the
+Government of the National Defence, Commissaire of Police, but having
+taken part in the insurrection of the 31st of October, he was, on the
+following day, dismissed from office. Shortly after this he made his
+appearance as a writer in Blanqui's paper the _Patrie en Danger_; but,
+presently, he took a military turn, and got himself elected to the
+command of a battalion of the National Guard. He seems to have been born
+an informer or police spy, for we are told when at school, he used to
+amuse himself by filling up lists of proscriptions, with the names of
+his fellow-pupils. With such charming natural instincts, it is not at
+all surprising that he was on the 18th of March, appointed by the
+Commune Government, Prefect of Police.]
+
+
+
+
+XXX.
+
+
+I am beginning to feel decidedly uncomfortable. This new decree of the
+Commune seriously endangers the liberty of all those who are so
+unfortunate as to have incurred the ill-will of their concierge, or
+whose dealings with his next-door neighbour have not been of a strictly
+amicable nature. Let us copy the 1st article of this ferocious decree.
+
+    "All persons accused of complicity with the Government of Versailles
+    shall be immediately taken and incarcerated."[37]
+
+Pest! they do not mince matters! Why, the first good-for-nothing
+rascal--to whom, perhaps, I refused to lend five francs seven years
+ago--may go round to Citizen Rigault and tell him that I am in regular
+communication with Versailles, whereupon I am immediately incarcerated.
+For, I beg it may be observed, it is not necessary that the complicity
+with "the traitors" should be proved. The denunciation is quite
+sufficient for one to be sent to contemplate the blue sky through the
+bars of the Conciergerie.[38] Besides, what do the words "complicity
+with the Government of Versailles" mean? All depends upon the way one
+looks at those things. I am not sure that I am innocent. I remember
+distinctly having several times bowed to a pleasant fellow--I say
+pleasant fellow, hoping that these lines will not fall under the
+observation of any one at the Prefecture of Police--who at this very
+moment is quite capable, the rogue, of eating a comfortable dinner at
+the H�tel des R�servoirs at Versailles in company with one or more of
+the members of the National Assembly. You can understand now why I am
+beginning to feel rather uncomfortable. To know a man who knows a
+deputy, constitutes, I am fully persuaded--otherwise I am unworthy to
+live under the paternal government of the Commune--a most decided
+complicity with the men of Versailles. I really think it would be only
+commonly prudent to steal out of Paris in a coal sack, as a friend of
+mine did the other day, or in some other agreeable fashion.[39] See what
+may come of a bow!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 37: DECREE CONCERNING THE SUSPECTED.
+
+"Commune of Paris:
+
+"Considering that the Government of Versailles has wantonly trampled on
+the rights of humanity, and set at defiance the rights of war; that it
+has perpetrated horrors such as even the invaders of our soil have
+shrunk from committing;
+
+"Considering that the representatives of the Commune of Paris have an
+imperative duty devolving upon them,--that of defending the lives and
+honour of two millions of inhabitants, who have committed their
+destinies to their charge; and that it behoves them at once to take
+measures equal to the gravity of the situation;
+
+"Considering that the politicians and magistrates of the city ought to
+reconcile the general weal with respect for public liberty,
+
+"Decrees:
+
+"Art. 1. All persons charged with complicity with the Government of
+Versailles will be immediately brought to justice and incarcerated.
+
+"Art. 2. A 'jury, of accusation' will be summoned within the twenty-four
+hours to examine the charges brought before it.
+
+"Art. 3. The jury must pass sentence within the forty-eight hours.
+
+"Art. 4. All the accused, convicted by the jury, will be retained as
+hostages by the People of Paris.
+
+"Art. 6. Every execution of a prisoner of war, or of a member of the
+regular Government of the Commune of Paris, will be at once followed by
+the execution of a triple number of hostages, retained by virtue of
+article 4, who will be chosen by lot.
+
+"Art. 6. All prisoners of war will be summoned before the 'jury of
+accusation,' who will decide whether they be immediately set at liberty
+or retained as hostages."]
+
+
+
+
+XXXI.
+
+
+Flourens is dead: we heard that last night for certain. A National Guard
+had previously brought back the colonel's horse from Bougival, but it
+was only a few hours ago that we heard any details. An attempt was made
+to take him prisoner at Rueil. A gendarme called out to him to
+surrender, he replied by a pistol shot; another gendarme advanced, and
+wounded him in the side, a third cleft his skull with a sabre out. Some
+people do not believe in the pistol shot, and talk of assassination. How
+many such events are there, the truth of which will never be clearly
+proved! One thing certain is, that Flourens is dead. His body was
+recognised at Versailles by some one in the service of Garnier fr�res.
+His mother started this morning to fetch the corpse of her son. It is
+strange that one is so painfully affected by the violent death of this
+man. He has been mixed up in all the revolutionary attempts of the last
+few years, and ought to be particularly obnoxious to all peaceful and
+order-loving citizens; but the truth is, his was a sincerely ardent and
+enthusiastic spirit. He was a thorough believer in the principles he
+maintained. Whatever may be the religion he professes, the apostle
+inspires esteem, and the martyr compassion. This apostle, this martyr,
+was born to affluence; son of an illustrious savant, he may be almost
+said to have been born to hereditary distinction. He was still quite
+young when he threw himself heart and soul into politics. There was
+fighting in Crete, and so off he went. There he revolted against the
+revolt itself, got imprisoned, escaped, outwitted the gendarmes, got
+retaken: his adventures sound like a legend or romance. It is because he
+was so romantic, that he is so interesting. He returned to France full
+of generous impulses. He was as prodigal of his money as he had been of
+his blood. In the bitter cold winters he fed and clothed the poor of
+Belleville, going from attic to attic with money and consolation. You
+remember what Victor Hugo says of the sublime Pauline Roland. The spirit
+of Flourens much resembled hers. The patriot could act the part of a
+sister of charity. At other times, an enthusiast in search of a social
+Eldorado, he would put himself at the service of the most forlorn cause;
+never was anyone so imprudent. He was of a most active and critical
+disposition: it was impossible for him to remain quiet. When he was not
+seemingly employed, he was agitating something in the shade. His
+friendship for Rochefort was great. These two turbulent spirits, one
+with his pen, the other with his physical activity, remind us each of
+the other. Both ran to extremes, Rochefort in his literary invectives,
+Flourens in his hairbreadth adventures. Although they were often allied,
+these two, they were sometimes opposed. Have you never seen two young
+artists in a studio performing the old trick, one making a speech, while
+the other, with his head and body hidden in the folds of a cloak,
+stretches forth his arms and executes the most extravagant gestures?
+Rochefort and Flourens performed this farce in politics, the former
+talking, the latter gesticulating; but on the day of the burial of
+Victor Noir they went different ways. On that day Rochefort, to do him
+justice, saved a large multitude of men from terrible danger. Flourens,
+always the same, wished the body to be carried to P�re Lachaise; on the
+road there must have been a collision; that was what he desired, but he
+was defeated. The tongue prevailed, a hundred thousand cries of
+vengeance filled the air, but they were only cries, and no mischief was
+done, except to a few graves in the Neuilly cemetery. Flourens awaited a
+better occasion, but by no means passively. He was a man of barricades;
+he did not seem to think that paving-stones were made to walk on, he
+only cared to see them heaped up across a street for the protection of
+armed patriots. Although he always wore the dress of a gentleman, he was
+not one of those black-coated individuals who incite the men to
+rebellion and keep out of the way while the fight is going on; he helped
+to defend the barricades he had ordered to be thrown up. Wherever there
+was a chance of being killed, he was sure to be; and in the midst of all
+this he never lost his placid expression, nor the politeness of a
+gentleman, nor the look of extreme youth which beamed from his eyes, and
+must have been on his face even when he fell under the cruel blows of
+the gendarmes. Now he is dead. He is judged harshly, he is condemned,
+but he cannot be hated. He was a madman, but he was a hero. The conduct
+of Flourens at the H�tel de Ville in the night of the 31st October is
+hardly in keeping with so favourable a view. The French forgive and
+forget with facility--let that pass.
+
+[Illustration: COLONEL FLOURENS.[40]]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 38: Prison of Detention.]
+
+[Footnote 39: The following is still more na�ve:--A man takes a
+return-ticket for the environs, and sometimes finds a guard silly enough
+to allow him to pass on the supposition that such a ticket was
+sufficient proof of his intention of returning to Paris.
+
+Others get into the waiting-room without tickets, under the pretext of
+speaking to some one there.
+
+M. Bergerat, a poet, passed the barrier in a cart-load of charcoal.]
+
+[Footnote 40: Flourens was born in 1838, and was the son of the
+well-known _savant_ and physiologist of this name. He completed his
+studies with brilliancy, and succeeded his father as professor of the
+Coll�ge de France. His opening lecture on the History of Man made a
+profound impression on the scientific world. However, he retired from
+this post in 1864, and turned his undivided attention to the political
+questions of the day. Deeply compromised by certain pamphlets written by
+him, he left France for Candia, where he espoused the popular cause
+against the Turks. On his return to France he was imprisoned for three
+months for political offences. Rochefort's candidature was hotly
+supported by him. In 1870 he rose against the Government, with a large
+force of the Belleville _faubouriens_. He was prosecuted, and took
+refuge in London. After the fourth of September he was placed at the
+head of five battalions of National Guards. He was again imprisoned for
+having instigated the rising of October, and it was not till the
+twenty-second of March that he was set at liberty. On the second of
+April he set out for Versailles at the head of an insurgent troop. He
+was met midway by a mounted patrol, and in the _m�l�e_ that ensued he
+was killed.]
+
+
+
+
+XXXII.
+
+
+In the midst of so many horrible events, which interest the whole mass
+of the people, ought I to mention an incident which broke but one heart?
+Yes, I think the sad episode is not without importance, even in so vast
+a picture. It was a child's funeral. The little wooden coffin, scantily
+covered with a black pall, was not larger, as Th�ophile Gautier says,
+"than a violin case." There were few mourners. A woman, the mother
+doubtless, in a black stuff dress and white crimped cap, holding by the
+hand a boy, who had not yet reached the age of sorrowing tears, and
+behind them a little knot of neighbours and friends. The small
+procession crept along the wide street in the bright sunlight.
+
+When it reached the church they found the door closed, and yet the money
+for the mass had been paid the night before, and the hour for the
+ceremony fixed. One of the women went forward towards the door of the
+vestry, where she was met by a National Guard, who told her with a
+superfluity of oaths that she must not go in, that the ---- cur�, the
+sacristan, and all the d---- fellows of the church were locked up, and
+that they would no longer have anything to do with patriots. Then the
+mother approached and said, "But who will bury my poor child if the cur�
+is in prison?" and then she began to weep bitterly at the thought that
+there would be no prayers put up for the good of the little spirit, and
+that no holy water would be sprinkled on its coffin. Yes, members of the
+Commune, she wept, and she wept longer and more bitterly later at the
+cemetery, when she saw them lower the body of her child into the grave,
+without a prayer or a recommendation to God's mercy. You must not scoff
+at her, you see she was a poor weak woman, with ideas of the narrowest
+sort; but there are other mothers like her, quite unworthy of course to
+bear the children of patriots, who do not want their dear ones to be
+buried like dogs; who cannot understand that to pray is a crime, and to
+kneel down before God an offence to humanity, and who still are weak
+enough to wish to see a cross planted on the tombs of those they have
+loved and lost! Not the cross of the nineteenth century--a red
+flag![41]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 41: Early in April the Commune forbade divine service in the
+Pantheon. They out off the arms of the cross, and replaced it by the red
+flag during a salute of artillery.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: COLONEL ASSY.]
+
+XXXIII.
+
+
+Communal fraternity is decidedly in the ascendant; it is putting into
+practice this admirable precept, "Arrest each other." They say M.
+Delescluze has been sent to the Conciergerie. Yesterday Lullier was
+arrested, to-day Assy. It was not sufficient to change Executive
+Committees--if I may be allowed to say so--with no more ceremony than
+one would change one's boots; the Commune conducts itself, in respect to
+those members that become obnoxious to it, absolutely as if they were no
+more than ordinary archbishops.
+
+[Illustration: PLACING THE RED FLAG
+ON THE PANTHEON. (The hole in the dome was occasioned by a Prussian
+shell.)]
+
+What! Assy--Assy[42] of Creuzot--who signed before all his comrades the
+proclamations of the Central Committee, in virtue, not only of his
+ability, but in obedience to the alphabetical order of the thing--Assy
+no longer reigns at the H�tel de Ville!--publishes no more decrees,
+discusses no longer with F. Cournet, nor with G. Tridon. Wherefore this
+fall after so much glory? It is whispered about that Assy has thought it
+prudent to put aside a few rolls of bank notes found in the drawers of
+the late Government. What, is that all? How long have politicians been
+so scrupulous? Members of the Commune, how very punctilious you have
+grown. Now if the Citizen Assy were accused of having in 1843 been
+intimately acquainted with a lady whose son is now valet to M. Thiers'
+first cousin, or if he had been seen in a church, and it were clearly
+proved that he was there with any other intention than that of
+delicately picking the pockets of the faithful, then I could understand
+your indignation. But the idea of arresting a man because he has
+appropriated the booty of the traitors, is too absurd; if you go on
+acting in that way people will think you are growing conscientious!
+
+As to Citizen Lullier,[43] who was one of the first victims of
+"fraternity," he is imprisoned because he did not succeed in capturing
+Mont Val�rien. I think with horror that if I had been in the place of
+Citizen Lullier I should most certainly have had to undergo the same
+punishment, for how in the devil's name I could have managed to
+transport that impregnable fortress on to the council-table at the H�tel
+de Ville I have not the least conception. It is as bad as if you were in
+Switzerland, and asked the first child you met to go and fetch Mont
+Blanc; of course the child would go and have a game of marbles with his
+companions, and come back without the smallest trace of Mont Blanc in
+his arms, thereupon you would whip the youngster within an ace of his
+life. However, it appears that M. Lullier objected to being whipped, or
+rather imprisoned, and being as full of cunning as of valour he managed
+to slip out of his place of confinement, without drum or trumpet. "Dear
+Rochefort," he writes to the editor of _Le Mot d'Ordre_, "you know of
+what infamous machinations I have been the victim." I suppose M.
+Rochefort does, but I am obliged to confess that I have not the least
+idea, unless indeed M. Lullier means by "machinations" the order that
+was given him to bring Mont Val�rien in his waistcoat pocket.
+"Imprisoned without motive," he continues, "by order of the Central
+Committee, I was thrown ..." (Oh! you should not have _thrown_ M.
+Lullier) "into the Prefecture of Police," (the ex-Prefecture, if you
+please), "and put in solitary confinement at the very moment when Paris
+was in want of men of action and military experience." Oh, fie! men of
+the Commune, you had at your disposal a man of action--who does not know
+the noble actions of Citizen Lullier? A man of military experience--who
+does not know what profound experience M. Lullier has acquired in his
+numerous campaigns--and yet you put him, or rather throw him, into the
+Prefecture! This is bad, very bad. "The Prefecture is transformed into a
+state prison, and the most rigorous discipline is maintained." It
+appears then that the Communal prison is anything but a fool's paradise.
+"However, in spite of everything, I and my secretary managed to make our
+escape calmly ..."--the calm of the high-minded--"from a cell where I
+was strictly guarded, to pass two court-yards and a dozen or two of
+soldiers, to have three doors opened for me while the sentinels
+presented arms as I passed ..." What a wonderful escape: the adventures
+of Baron Munchausen are nothing to it. What a fine chapter poor old
+Dumas might have made of it. The door of the cell is passed under the
+very nose of the jailer, who has doubtless been drugged with some
+narcotic, of which M. Lullier has learnt the secret during his travels
+in the East Indies; the twelve guards in the court-yards are seized one
+after another by the throat, thrown on the ground, bound with cords, and
+prevented from giving the alarm by twelve gags thrust into their twelve
+mouths; the three doors are opened by three enormous false keys, the
+work of a member of the Commune, locksmith by trade, who has remained
+faithful to the cause of M. Lullier; and last, but not least, the
+sentinels, plunged in ecstasy at the sight of the glorious fugitive,
+present arms. What a scene for a melodrama! The most interesting figure,
+however, in my opinion, is the secretary. I have the greatest respect
+for that secretary, who never dreamt one instant of abandoning his
+master, and I can see him, while Lullier is accomplishing his miracles,
+calmly writing in the midst of the danger, with a firm hand, the
+faithful account of these immortal adventures. "I have now," continues
+the ex-prisoner of the ex-Prefecture, "two hundred determined men, who
+serve me as a guard, and three excellent revolvers, loaded, in my
+pocket. I had foolishly remained too long without arms and without
+friends; now I am resolved to blow the brains out of the first man who
+tries to arrest me!" I heard a bourgeois who had read this exclaim, that
+he wished to Heaven each member of the Commune would come to arrest him
+in turn. Oh! blood-thirsty bourgeois! Then Lullier finishes up by
+declaring that he scorns to hide, but continues to show himself freely
+and openly on the boulevards. What a proud, what a noble nature! Oh, ye
+marionettes, ye fantoccini! Yet let me not be unjust; I will try and
+believe in you once more, in spite of armed requisitions, in spite of
+arrests, of robberies--for there have been robberies in spite of your
+decrees--I will try and believe that you have not only taken possession
+of the H�tel de Ville for the purpose of setting up a Punch and Judy
+show and playing your sinister farces; I want to believe that you had
+and still have honourable and avowable intentions; that it is only your
+natural inexperience joined to the difficulties of the moment which is
+the cause of your faults and your follies; I want to believe that there
+are among you, even after the successive dismissal of so many of your
+members, some honourable men who deplore the evil that has been done,
+who wish to repair it, and who will try to make us forget the crimes and
+forfeits of the civil war by the benefits which revolution sometimes
+brings in its train. Yes, I am naturally full of hope, and will try and
+believe this; but, honestly, what hope can you have of inspiring
+confidence in those who are not prejudiced as I am in favour of
+innovators, when they see you arrest each other in this fashion, and
+know that you have among you such generals as Bergeret, such honest
+citizens as Assy, and such escaped lunatics as Lullier?
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 42: Assy, who first became publicly known as the leader of the
+strike at Messrs. Schneider's works at Creuzot, was an engineer. He was
+born in 1840. He became a member of the International Society, and was
+selected in 1870 to organise the Creuzot strike. Being threatened with
+arrest, he went to Paris, but did not remain there long, and on the 21st
+of March in that year, a few days after his return to Creuzot, the
+strike of the miners commenced. Assy was, finally, arrested and tried
+before the Correctional Tribune of Paris as chief and founder of a
+secret society, but he was acquitted of that charge.
+
+At the siege of Paris, Assy was appointed as an officer in a free
+guerilla corps of the Isle of France. Subsequently he was a lieutenant
+in the 192nd battalion of the National Guard. Getting on the Central
+Committee, he took an active share in the events that occurred.
+Appointed commander of the 67th battalion on the 17th March, we find him
+on the morning of the 18th as Governor of the H�tel de Ville, and
+colonel of the National Guard, organising with the members of the
+committee the means of a serious resistance--giving orders for the
+construction of barricades--stopping the transport of munitions and
+provisions from Paris. Becoming a member of the Commune, he took an
+active part in carrying into effect the decrees which led, among other
+things, to the demolition of the Vend�me Column and of the house of M.
+Thiers. He was arrested in April, and was succeeded as Governor of the
+H�tel de Ville by one Pindy, who retained the office till the army
+entered Paris. Assy was held prisoner, _sur parole_, at the H�tel de
+Ville, till the 19th April, when he was liberated. After this Assy was
+engaged in superintending the manufacture of munitions of war. He was
+the sole superintendent of the supply, especially as regards quality.
+Among the warlike stores manufactured were incendiary shells filled with
+petroleum, intended to be thrown into Paris during the insurrection. It
+is certain that these engines of destruction could only have been made
+at the factory superintended by Assi. He was arrested on the 21st May.
+Assy was one of the chiefs of the insurrection; he denied signing the
+decrees for the execution of the hostages, or order for the enrolment of
+the military in the National Guard. Assy was condemned by the tribunal
+of Versailles, Sept. 2, to confinement for life in a French fortress--a
+light penalty for the deeds of this important insurgent.]
+
+[Footnote 43: Memoir, see Appendix 5.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL CLUSERET.]
+
+XXXIV.
+
+
+The fighting still continues, the cannonading is almost
+incessant. However, the damage done is but small. To-day, the 7th April,
+things seem to be in pretty much the same position as they were after
+Bergeret had been beaten back and Flourens killed. The forts of Vanves
+and Issy bombard the Versailles batteries, which in their turn vomit
+shot and shell on Vanves and Issy. Idle spectators, watching from the
+Trocad�ro, see long lines of white smoke arise in the distance. Every
+morning, Citizen Cluseret,[44] the war delegate, announces that an
+assault of gendarmes has been victoriously repulsed by the garrisons in
+the forts. It is quite certain that if the Versaillais do attack they
+are repulsed, as they make no progress whatever; but do they attack,
+that is the question? I am rather inclined to think that these attacks
+and repulses are mere inventions. It seems evident to me that the
+generals of the National Assembly, who are now busy establishing
+batteries and concentrating their forces, will not make a serious
+attempt until they are certain of victory. In the meantime they are
+satisfied to complete the ruin of the forts which were already so much
+damaged by the Prussians.
+
+Between Courbevoie and the Porte Maillot the fighting is continual.
+Ground is lost and gained, such and such a house that was just now
+occupied by the Versaillais is now in the hands of the Federals, and
+_vice vers�_. Neither side is wholly victorious, but the fighting goes
+on. What! is there no one to cry out "Enough! Enough blood, enough
+tears! Enough Frenchmen killed by Frenchmen, Republicans killed by
+Republicans." Men fall on each side with the same war cry on their lips.
+Oh! when will all this dreadful misunderstanding cease?
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 44: The biography of this general of the Commune is very
+imperfect, down to the time when he was elected for the 1st
+Arrondissement of Paris, and was thereupon appointed Minister of War, or
+in Communal phraseology, Delegate at the War Department. He seems to
+have been one of those beings, without country or family, but who are
+blessed, by way of compensation, with a plurality of names; we do not
+know whether Cluseret was really his own, or how many aliases he had
+made use of.
+
+It is said that he was formerly captain in a battalion of Chasseurs
+d'Afrique, but was dismissed the army upon being convicted of
+defalcations, in connection with the purchase of horses, and, that soon
+after his dismissal from the French army, he went to the United States,
+where he served in the revolutionary war, and attained to the rank of
+General. Then we have another story, to the effect that having been
+entrusted with the care of a flock of lambs, the number of the animals
+decreased so rapidly, that nothing but the existence of a large pack of
+wolves near at hand, could possibly have accounted for it in an honest
+way; this affair is said to have occurred at Churchill, Such vague
+charges as these however deserve but little credit.
+
+After closing his career as a shepherd, he became a defender of the
+Pope's flock, enlisting in the brigade against which Garibaldi took the
+field. The next we hear of him is that he joined the Fenians, and made
+an attempt to get possession of Chester Castle, but that he fell under
+suspicion of being a traitor, and was glad to escape to France, where,
+report says, he found refuge with a religious community.
+
+          "When the devil was sick,
+          The devil a monk would be;
+          But when the devil was well,
+          The devil a monk was he!"
+
+]
+
+
+
+
+XXXV.
+
+
+Thirty men carrying muffled drums, thirty more with trumpets draped in
+crape, head a long procession; every now and then the drums roll
+dismally, and the trumpets give a long sad wail.
+
+Numerous detachments of all the battalions come next, marching slowly,
+their arms reversed. A small bunch of red immortelles is on every
+breast. Has the choice of the colour a political signification, or is it
+a symbol of a bloody death?
+
+Next appears an immense funeral car draped with black, and drawn by four
+black horses; the gigantic pall is of velvet, with silver stars. At the
+corners float four great trophies of red flags.
+
+Then another car of the same sort appears, another, and again another;
+in each of them there are thirty-two corpses. Behind the cars march the
+members of the Commune bare-headed, and wearing red scarfs. Alas! always
+that sanguinary colour! Last of all, between a double row of National
+Guards, follows a vast multitude of men, women, and children, all
+sorrowful and dejected, many in tears.
+
+The procession proceeds along the boulevards; it started from the
+Beaujon hospital, and is going to the P�re Lachaise: as it passes all
+heads are bared. One man alone up at a window remains covered; the crowd
+hiss him. Shame on him who will not bow before those who died for a
+cause, whether it may be a worthy one or not! On looking on those
+corpses, do not remember the evil they caused when they were alive. They
+are dead now, and have become sacred. But remember, oh! remember, that
+it is to the crimes of a few that are due the deaths of so many, and let
+us help to hasten the hour when the criminals, whoever they be, and to
+whatever party they belong; will feel the weight of the inexorable
+Nemesis of human destiny.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVI.
+
+
+We are to have no more letters! As in the time of the siege, if you
+desire to obtain news of your mother or your wife, you have no other
+alternative than to consult a somnambulist or a fortune-teller. This is
+not at all a complicated operation; of course you possess a ribbon or a
+look of hair, something appertaining to the absent person. This suffices
+to keep you informed, hour by hour, of what she says, does, and thinks.
+Perhaps you would prefer the ordinary course of things, and that you
+would rather receive a letter than consult a charlatan. But if so, I
+would advise you not to say so. They would accuse you of being, what you
+are doubtless, a reactionist, and you might get into trouble.
+
+Yesterday a young man was walking in the Champs Elys�es, a Guard
+National stalked up to him and asked him for a light for his cigar.--"I
+am really very sorry," said he, "but my cigar has gone out."--"Oh! your
+cigar is out, is it? Oh! so you blush to render a service to a patriot!
+Reactionist that you are!" Thereupon a torrent of invectives was poured
+on the poor young man, who was quickly surrounded by a crowd of eager
+faces: One charming young person exclaimed, "Why, he is a disguised
+sergent-de-ville!"--"Yes, yes; he is a gendarme!" is echoed on all
+sides.--"I think he looks like Ernest Picard," says one.--"Throw him
+into the Seine," says another.--"To the Seine, to the Seine, the spy!"
+and the unfortunate victim is pushed, jostled, and hurried off. A dense
+crowd of National Guards, women, and children had by this time
+collected, all crying out at the top of their voices, and without any
+idea of what was the matter, "Shoot him! throw him the water! hang him!"
+Superstitious individuals leaned towards hanging for the sake of the
+cords. As to the original cause of the commotion, no one seemed to
+remember anything about it. I overheard one man say,--"It appears that
+they arrested him just as he was setting fire to the ambulance at the
+Palais de l'Industrie!" As to what became of the young man I do not
+know; I trust he was neither hanged, shot, nor drowned. At any rate, let
+it be a lesson to others not to get embroiled in dangerous adventures of
+that kind; and whatever your anxiety may be concerning your family or
+affairs, you would do well to hide it carefully under a smiling
+exterior. Suppose you meet one of your friends, who says to you, "My
+dear fellow, how anxious you must be?" You must answer, "Anxious! oh,
+not at all. On the contrary, I never felt more free of care in my
+life."--"Oh! I thought your aunt was ill, and as you do not receive any
+letters ..."--"Not receive any letters!" you continue in the same
+strain, "who told you that? Not receive any letters! why, I have more
+than I want! what an idea!"--"Then you must be strangely favoured," says
+your mystified companion; "for since Citizen Theiz[45] has taken
+possession of the Post-office, the communications are stopped."--"Don't
+believe it. It is a rumour set on float by the reactionists. Why, those
+terrible reactionists go so far as to pretend that the Commune has
+imprisoned the priests, arrested journalists, and stopped the
+newspapers!"--"Well, you may say what you please, but a proclamation of
+Citizen Theiz announces that communication with the departments will not
+be re-established for some days."--"Nothing but modesty on his part; he
+has only to show himself at the Post-office, and the service, which has
+been put out of order by those wretched reactionists, will be
+immediately reorganised."--"So I am to understand that you have news
+every day of your aunt."--"Of course."--"Well, I am delighted to hear
+it; for one of my friends, who arrived from Marseilles this morning,
+told me that your aunt was dead."--"Dead, good heavens! what do you
+mean? Now I think of it, I did not get a letter this morning."--"There
+you see!"
+
+You must not, however, allow your sorrow to carry you away, at the risk
+of your personal safety, but answer readily. "I see it all, for a wonder
+I did not get a letter this morning; Citizen Theiz is a kind-hearted
+man, and did not want to make me unhappy."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 45: A working chaser, and one of the most active and
+influential members of the International Society. He was among the
+accused who were tried in July, 1870, and was condemned to two years'
+imprisonment. On the formation of the Central Committee, he was
+appointed Vice-President. It was Theiz who saved the General Post
+Office, Rue J.J. Rousseau, from the total destruction decreed by other
+members of the Commune. His fate is not well known. Director of the
+General Post-office in the Rue J.J. Rousseau, he is said to have saved
+that important establishment, doomed to destruction by the Commune.
+Theiz escaped from Paris to London on the 29th of July; he took an
+active part in the struggle to the last, and was close to Vermorel when
+wounded at the barricade of the Ch�teau d'Eau.]
+
+
+
+
+XXXVII.
+
+
+The queen of the age is the Press. Lately dethroned and somewhat shorn
+of her majesty, but still a queen. It is in vain that the press has
+sometimes degraded itself in the eyes of honest men by stooping to
+applaud and approve of crimes and excesses, that journalists have done
+what they can to lower it; still the august offspring of the human mind,
+the press, has really lost neither its power nor its fascination.
+Misunderstood, misapplied, it may have done some harm, but no one can
+question the signal service which it has been able to render, or the
+nobility of its mission. If it has sometimes been the organ of false
+prophets, its voice has also been often raised to instruct and
+encourage.
+
+When last night you went secretly, in a manner worthy of the act, to
+seize on the printing presses of the _Journal des D�bats_, the _Paris
+Journal_, and the _Constitutionnel_, were you aware of what you were
+doing? You imagined, perhaps, this act would have no other result than
+that of suppressing violently a private concern--which is one kind of
+robbery--and of reducing to a state of beggary--which is a crime--the
+numerous individuals, journalists, printers, compositors, and others who
+are employed on the journal, and who live by its means. You have done
+worse than this. You have stopped, as far as it was in your power, the
+current of human progress. You have suppressed man's noblest.
+right--the right of expressing his opinions to the world; you are no
+better than the pickpocket who appropriates your handkerchief. You have
+taken our freedom of thought by the throat, and said, "It is in my way,
+I will strangle it." Wherefore have you acted thus? To shut the mouths
+of those who contradict you, is to admit that you are not so very sure
+of being in the right. To suppress the journals is to confess your fear
+of them; to avoid the light is to excite our suspicion concerning the
+deeds you are perpetrating in the darkness. We shut our windows when we
+do not desire to be seen. Little confidence is inspired by closed doors.
+Your councils at the H�tel de Ville are secret as the proceedings of
+certain legal cases, the details of which might be hurtful to public
+morality. Again I say, wherefore this mystery? What strange projects
+have you on foot? Do you discuss among you, propositions of a nature
+which your modesty declines to make known to the world? This fear of
+publicity, of opposition, you have proved afresh, by the nocturnal
+visits of your National Guards to the printing offices, wherein they
+forced an entrance like housebreakers. Shall we be reduced to judge of
+your acts, and of the bloody incidents of the civil war, only by your
+own asseverations and those of your accomplices? You must be very
+determined to act guiltily and to be obliged to tell lies, as you take
+so much trouble to get rid of those, who might pass sentence on you, and
+who might convict you of falsehood. Therefore you have not only
+committed a crime in so doing, but made a great mistake as well. No one
+can meddle with the liberty of the press with impunity. The persecution
+of the press always brings with it its own punishment. Look back to the
+many years of the Imperial Government, to the few months of the
+Government of the 4th of September; of all the crimes perpetrated by the
+former, of all the errors committed by the latter, those crimes and
+errors which most particularly hastened the end were those that were
+levelled against the freedom of the press. The most valable excuse in
+favour of the revolt of the 18th of March was certainly the suppression
+of several journals by General Vinoy, with the consent of M. Thiers. How
+can you be so rash as to make the very same mistakes which have been the
+destruction of former governments, and also so unmindful of your own
+honour as to commit the very crime which reduces you to the same level
+as your enemies?
+
+Ah I truly those who were ready to judge you with patience and
+impartiality, those who at first were perhaps, on the whole, favourable
+to you, because it seemed to them that you represented some of the
+legitimate aspirations of Paris, even those, seeing you act like
+thoughtless tyrants, will feel it quite impossible to blind themselves
+any longer to your faults; those who having wished to esteem you for the
+sake of liberty, will for the sake of liberty, be obliged to despise
+you!
+
+
+
+
+XXXVIII.
+
+
+It cannot be true. I will not believe it. It cannot be possible that
+Paris is to be again bombarded: and by whom? By Frenchmen! In spite of
+the danger I was told there was to be apprehended near Neuilly, I wished
+to see with my own eyes what was going on. So this morning, the 8th
+April, I went to the Champs Elys�es.
+
+Until I reached the Rond Point there was nothing unusual, only perhaps
+fewer people to be seen about. The omnibus does not go any farther than
+the corner of the Avenue Marigny. An Englishwoman, whom the conductor
+had just helped down, came up to me and asked me the way; she wanted to
+go to the Rue Galil�e, but did not like to walk up the wide avenue. I
+pointed out to her a side-street, and continued my way. A little higher
+up a line of National Guards, standing about ten feet distant from each
+other, had orders to stop passengers from going any farther. "You can't
+pass."--"But ...," and I stopped to think of some plausible motive to
+justify my curiosity. However, I was saved the trouble. Although I had
+only uttered a hesitating "but," the sentinel seemed to consider that
+sufficient, and replied, "Oh, very well, you can pass."
+
+The avenue seemed more and more deserted as I advanced. The shutters of
+all the houses were closed. Here and there a passenger slipped along
+close to the walls of the houses, ready to take refuge within the
+street-doors, which had been left open by order, directly they heard the
+whizzing of a shell. In front of the shop of a carriage-builder,
+securely closed, were piled heaps of rifles; most of the National Guards
+were stretched on the pavement fast asleep, while some few were walking
+up and down smoking their pipes, and others playing at the plebeian game
+of "bouchon."[46] I was told that a shell had burst a quarter of an hour
+before at the corner of the Rue de Morny. A captain was seated there on
+the ground beside his wife, who had just brought him his breakfast; the
+poor fellow was literally cut in two, and the woman had been carried
+away to a neighbouring chemist's shop dangerously wounded. I was told
+she was still there, so I turned my steps in that direction. A small
+group of people were assembled before the door. I managed to get near,
+but saw nothing, as the poor thing had been carried into the surgery.
+They told me that she had been wounded in the neck by a bit of the
+shell, and that she was now under the care of one of the surgeons of the
+Press Ambulance. I then continued my walk up the avenue. The
+cannonading, which had seemed to cease for some little time, now began
+again with greater intensity than ever. Clouds of white smoke arose in
+the direction of the Porte Maillot, while bombs from Mont Val�rien burst
+over the Arc de Triomphe. On the right and left of me were companies of
+Federals. A little further on a battalion, fully equipped, with blankets
+and saucepans strapped to their knapsacks, and loaves of bread stuck
+aloft on their bayonets, moved in the direction of Porte Maillot. By
+the side of the captain in command of the first company marched a woman
+in a strange costume, the skirt of a vivandi�re and the jacket of a
+National Guard, a Phrygian cap on her head, a chassepot in her hand, and
+a revolver stuck in her belt. From the distance at which I was standing
+she looked both young and pretty. I asked some Federals who she was; one
+told me she was the wife of Citizen Eudes,[47] a member of the Commune,
+and another that she was a newspaper seller in the Avenue des Ternes,
+whose child had been killed in the Rue des Acacias the night before by a
+fragment of a shell, and that she had sworn to revenge him. It appeared
+the battalion was on its way to support the combatants at Neuilly, who
+were in want of help. From what I hear the gendarmes and sergents de
+ville had fought their way as far as the Rue des Huissiers. Now I had no
+doubt the Versailles generals had made use of the gendarmes and sergents
+de ville, who were most of them old and tried soldiers, but if in very
+truth they were wherever the imagination of the Federals persisted in
+placing them, they must either have been as numerous as the grains of
+sand on the sea-shore, or else their leaders must have found out a way
+of making them serve in several places at once. Having followed the
+battalion, I found myself a few yards in front of the Arc de Triomphe.
+Suddenly a hissing, whizzing sound is heard in the distance, and rapidly
+approaches us; it sounds very much like the noise of a sky-rocket. "A
+shell!" cried the sergeant, and the whole battalion to a man, threw
+itself on the ground with a load jingling of saucepans and bayonets.
+Indeed there was some danger. The terrible projectile lowered as it
+approached, and then fell with a terrific noise a little way from us, in
+front of the last house on the left-hand side of the avenue. I had never
+seen a shell burst so near me before; a good idea of what it is like may
+be had from those sinister looking paintings, that one sees sometimes
+suspended round the necks of certain blind beggars, supposed to
+represent an explosion in a mine. I think no one was hurt, and the
+mischief done seemed to consist in a Wide hole in the asphalte and a
+door reduced to splinters. The National Guards got up from the ground,
+and several of them proceeded to pick up fragments of the shell. They
+had, however, not gone many yards when another cry of alarm was given,
+and again we heard the ominous Whizzing sound; in an instant we were all
+on our faces. The second shell burst, but we did not see it; we only saw
+at the top of the house that had already been struck, a window open
+suddenly and broken panes fall to the ground. The shell had most likely
+gone through the roof and burst in the attic. Was there anyone in those
+upper stories? However, we were on our legs again and had doubled the
+Arc de Triomphe. I had succeeded in ingratiating myself with the men of
+the rear-guard, and I hoped to be able to go as far with them as I
+pleased. Strange enough, and I confess it with _naif_ delight, I did not
+feel at all afraid. Although half an inch difference in the inclination
+of the cannon might have cost me my life, still I felt inclined to
+proceed on my way. I begin to think that it is not difficult to be brave
+when one is not naturally a coward! Beneath the great arch were
+assembled a hundred or so of persons who seemed to consider themselves
+in safety, and who from time to time ventured a few steps forward, for
+the purpose of examining the damage done to Etex's sculptured group by
+three successive shells. But in the Avenue de la Grande Arm�e only three
+Federals were to be seen, and I think I was the only man in plain
+clothes they had allowed to go so far. I could distinctly perceive a
+small barricade erected in front of the Porte Maillot on this side of
+the ramparts. The bastion to the right was hard at work cannonading the
+heights of Courbevoie; great columns of smoke, succeeded by terrific
+explosions, testified to the zeal of the Communist artillerymen. Beyond
+the ramparts the Avenue de Neuilly extended, dusty and deserted.
+Unfortunately the sun blinded me, and I could not distinguish well what
+was going on in the distance. By this time the sound of musketry was
+heard distinctly. I was told they were fighting principally at Saint
+James and in the park of Neuilly. I tried to pass out of the gates with
+the battalion, but an officer caught sight of me, and in no measured
+tones ordered me back. I ought not to complain, however, he rendered me
+good service; for although the fire of the Versaillais had somewhat
+diminished, I do not think the place could have been much longer
+tenable, to judge from the quantities of bits of shell that strewed the
+road; from the numerous litters that were being borne away with their
+bloody burthens; from the railway-station in ruins, and the condition of
+the neighbouring houses, which had nearly all of them great black holes
+in their fronts. The Federals did not seem at all impressed by their
+critical position; sounds of laughter reached me from the interior of a
+casemate, from the chimney of which smoke was arising, and guards
+running hither and thither were whistling merrily the _Chant du D�part_,
+with a look of complete satisfaction.
+
+[Illustration: THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE, EAST SIDE (THE FINEST), UNINJURED.
+Damaged on the other side. During the Prussian siege it was defended
+from injury, though no shells reached it. Uncovered before the civil
+war.]
+
+I managed to reach the Rue du D�barcad�re, which is situated close to
+the ramparts. An acquaintance of mine lives there. I knew he was away,
+but I thought the porter would recognise and allow me to take up a
+position at one of the windows. Next door, the corner house, I found a
+shell had gone into a wine-merchant's shop there, who could very well
+have dispensed with such a visitor, and had behaved in the most unruly
+fashion, breaking the glass, smashing the tables and counter, but
+neither killing nor wounding anybody. The porter knew me quite well, and
+invited me to walk upstairs to the apartments of my friend, situated on
+the third floor. From the windows I could not see the bastion, which was
+hidden by the station; but to the left, in the distance, beyond the Bois
+de Boulogne, wherein I fancied I perceived troops moving between the
+branches, but whether Versaillais or Parisians I could not tell, arose
+the tremendous Mont Val�rien bathed in sunlight. The flashes from the
+cannon, which in daylight have a pale silver tint, succeeded each other
+rapidly; the explosions were formidable, and the fort was crowned with a
+wreath of smoke. They appeared to be firing in the direction of
+Levallois, rather than on the Porte Maillot. The Federals did not seem
+to attempt to reply. Turning myself towards the right I could scan
+nearly the whole length of the Avenue de Neuilly. The bare piece of
+ground which constitutes the military zone was completely deserted;
+several shells fell there that had been aimed doubtless at the Porte
+Maillot or the bastion. The position I had taken up at the window was
+rather a perilous one. I was just behind the bastion. Beyond the
+military zone most of the houses seemed uninhabited, but I saw
+distinctly the National Guards in front of the Restaurant Gilet, making
+their soup on the side-walk. I was too far away to judge of the extent
+of the mischief done by the cannonading, but I was told that several
+roofs had fallen in and many walls had been thrown down in that quarter.
+All that I could see of the market-place was empty; but the sound of
+musketry, and the smoke which issued from the houses on one side of it,
+told me that the Federals were there in sufficient numbers. A little
+further on I saw the barrels of the rifles sticking out of the windows,
+with little wreaths of smoke curling out of them; small knots of armed
+men every now and then marched hurriedly across the avenue, and
+disappeared into the opposite houses. Partly on account of the distance,
+and partly on account of the blinding sun, and partly, perhaps, on
+account of the emotion I experienced, which made me desire and yet fear
+to see, I could distinguish the bridge but indistinctly, with the dark
+line of a barricade in front of it. What surprised me most in the battle
+which I was busily observing, was the extraordinarily small number of
+combatants that were visible, when suddenly--it was about two o'clock in
+the afternoon--the Versailles batteries at Courbevoie, which had been
+silent for some time, began firing furiously. The horrid screech of the
+mitrailleuse drowned the hissing of the shells; the whole breadth of the
+long avenue was covered by a kind of white mist. The bastion in front of
+me replied energetically. It seemed to me as if the interior part of my
+ear was being rent asunder, when suddenly I heard a dull heavy sound,
+such as I had not heard before, and I felt the house tremble beneath me.
+Loud cries arose from the National Guards on the ramparts. I fancied
+that a rain of shot and shell had destroyed the drawbridge of the Porte
+Maillot; but it was not so; in the distance I saw that the clouds of
+smoke were rolling nearer and nearer, and that the roar of the musketry,
+which had greatly increased, sounded close by. I felt sure that a rush
+was being made from Courbevoie--that the Versaillais were advancing. The
+shells were flying over our heads in the direction of the Champs
+Elys�es. I began to distinguish that a tumultuous mass of human beings
+were marching on in the smoke, in the dust, in the sun. The guns on the
+bastion now thundered forth incessantly. There was no mistaking by this
+time, there were the Versaillais; I could see the red trowsers of the
+men of the line. The Federals were shooting them down from the windows.
+Then I saw the advanced guard stop, hesitate beneath the balls which
+seemed to rain on them from the Place du March�, and presently retire.
+Whereupon a large number of Federals poured forth from the houses, and,
+walking close to the walls, to be as much as possible out of the way of
+the projectiles, hurried after the retreating enemy. But suddenly, when
+they had arrived a little too far for me to distinguish anything very
+clearly, they in their turn came to a standstill, and then retraced
+their steps, and returned to their positions within the houses. The fire
+from the Versaillais then sensibly diminished, but that of the bastions
+continued its furious attack. It was thus that I witnessed one of those
+_chass�-crois�s_ under fire, which have become so frequent since this
+dreadful civil war was concentrated at Neuilly.
+
+[Illustration: HORSE CHASSEUR ACTING AS A COMMUNIST ARTILLERY MAN,
+ATTENDED BY A GAMIN SPONGER.]
+
+As it would have been most imprudent to follow the railway cutting, or
+to have gone back by the Avenue de la Grande Arm�e, where the Versailles
+shells were still falling, I walked up the Rue du D�barcad�re, and then
+turned into the Rue Saint-Ferdinand, and soon found myself in the Place
+des Ternes, in front of the church. There was a most dismal aspect about
+the whole of this quarter. Situated close to the ramparts, it is very
+much exposed, and had suffered greatly. Nearly all the shops were shut;
+some of the doors, however, of those where wine or provisions, are sold,
+were standing open, while on the shutters of others were inscribed in
+chalk, "The entrance is beneath the gateway." I was astonished to see
+that the church was open, a rare sight in these days. Why, is it
+possible that the Commune has committed the unqualifiable imprudence of
+not arresting the cur� of Saint-Ferdinand, and that she is weak
+enough--may she not have to regret it!--to permit the inhabitants of
+Ternes to be baptised, married, and buried according to the deplorable
+rites and ceremonies of Catholicism, which has happily fallen into
+disuse in the other quarters of Paris? I can now understand why the
+shells fall so persistently in this poor arrondissement: the anger of
+the goddess of Reason (shall we not soon have a goddess of Reason?) lies
+heavily on this quarter, the shame of the capital, where the inhabitants
+still try to look as if they believed in heaven! In spite of everything,
+however, I entered the church; there were a great many women on their
+knees, and several men too. The prayers of the dead were being said over
+the coffin of a woman who, I was told, was killed yesterday by a ball
+in the chest, whilst crossing the Avenue des Ternes, just a little above
+the railway bridge. A ball, how strange! yet I was assured such was the
+case. It is pretty evident, then, that the Versaillais were considerably
+nearer to Paris, on this side at least, than the official despatches
+lead us to suppose.
+
+On returning to the street I directed my steps in the direction of the
+Place d'Eylau. Two National Guards passed me, bearing a litter between
+them.--"Oh, you can look if you like," said one. So I drew back the
+checked curtain. On the mattress was stretched a woman, decently
+dressed, with a child of two or three years lying on her breast. They
+both looked very pale; one of the woman's arms was hanging down; her
+sleeve was stained with blood; the hand had been carried away.--"Where
+were they wounded?" I asked.--"Wounded! they are dead. It is the wife
+and child of the velocipede-maker in the Avenue de Wagram; if you will
+go and break the news to him you will do us a good service."
+
+It was therefore quite true, certain, incontestable. The balls and
+shells of the Versaillais were not content with killing the combatants
+and knocking down the forts and ramparts. They were also killing women
+and children, ordinary passers-by; not only those who were attracted by
+an imprudent curiosity to go where they had no business, but
+unfortunates who were necessarily obliged to venture into the
+neighbouring streets, for the purpose of buying bread. Not only do the
+shells of the National Assembly reach the buildings situated close to
+the city walls, but they often fall considerably farther in, crushing
+inoffensive houses, and breaking the sculpture on the public monuments.
+No one can deny this. I have seen it with my own eyes. Anyhow, the
+projectiles fall nearer and nearer the centre. Yesterday they fell in
+the Avenue de la Grande Arm�e; to-day they fly over the Arc de Triomphe,
+and fall in the Place d'Eylau and the Avenue d'Uhrich. Who knows but
+what to-morrow they will have reached the Place de la Concorde, and the
+next day perhaps I may be killed by one on the Boulevard Montmartre?
+Paris bombarded! Take care, gentlemen of the National Assembly! What the
+Prussians did, and what gave rise to such a clamour of indignation on
+the part of the Government of the 4th September, it will be both
+infamous and imprudent for you to attempt. You kill Frenchmen who are in
+arms against their countrymen,--alas! that is a horrible necessity in
+civil war,--but spare the lives and the dwellings of those who are not
+arrayed against you, and who are perhaps your allies. It is all very
+well to argue that guns are not endowed with the gifts of intelligence
+and mercy, and that one cannot make them do exactly what one likes; but
+what have you done with those marvellous marksmen who, during the siege,
+continually threw down the enemy's batteries and interrupted his works
+with such extraordinary precision, and who pretended that at a distance
+of seven thousand metres they could hit the gilded spike of a Prussian
+helmet? Wherefore have they become so clumsy since they changed places
+with their adversaries? Joking apart, in a word, you are doing yourself
+the greatest injury in being so uselessly cruel; every shell overleaping
+the fortifications is not only a crime, but a great mistake. Remember,
+that in this horrible duel which is going on, victory will not really
+remain with that party which shall have triumphed over the other, by the
+force of arms (yours undoubtedly), but to the one who, by his conduct,
+shall have succeeded in proving to the neutral population, which
+observes and judges, that right was on his side. I do not say but what
+your cause is the best; for although we may have to reproach you with an
+imprudent resistance, unnecessary attacks, and a wilful obstinacy not to
+see what was legitimate and honourable in the wishes of the Parisians,
+still we must consider that you represent, legally, the whole of France.
+I do not say, therefore, but what your cause is the best; frankly
+though, can you hope to bring over to your side that large body of
+citizens, whose confidence you had shaken, by massacring innocent people
+in the streets, and destroying their dwellings? If this bombardment
+continues, if it increases in violence as it seems likely to do, you
+will become odious, and then, were you a hundred times in the right,
+you will still be in the wrong. Therefore, it is most urgent that you
+give orders to the artillerymen of Courbevoie and Mont Val�rien, to
+moderate their zeal, if you do not desire that Paris--neutral
+Paris--should make dangerous comparisons between the Assembly which
+flings us its shells, and the Commune which launches its decrees, and
+come to the conclusion that decrees are less dangerous missiles than
+cannon-balls. As to the legality of the thing, we do not much care about
+that; we have seen so many governments, more or less legal, that we are
+somewhat _blas�s_ on that point; and a few millions of votes have
+scarcely power enough to put us in good humour with shot and shell.
+Certainly the Commune, such as the men at the H�tel de Ville have
+constituted it, is not a brilliant prospect. It arrests priests, stops
+newspapers, wishes to incorporate us, in spite of ourselves, in the
+National Guard; robs us--so we are told; lies inveterately--that is
+incontestable, and altogether makes itself a great bore; but what does
+that matter?--human nature is full of weaknesses, and prefers to be
+bored than bombarded.
+
+[Illustration: MARINE GUNNER AND STREET-BOY.
+
+During the Prussian siege the sailors of the French navy played an
+important part, their bravery, activity, and ingenuity being much
+esteemed by the Parisians. Some, of them took the red side, and manned
+the gun-boats on the Seine. Knowing the prestige attached to the brave
+marines, the Communist generals made use of the naval clothes found in
+the marine stores, and dressed therein some of the valliant heroes of
+Belleville and Montmartre.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 46: The game of pitch-halfpenny, in, which, in France, a cork
+(_bouchon_), with halfpence on the top of it, is placed on the ground.]
+
+[Footnote 47: General Eudes was the Alcibiades, or rather the Saint
+Just, of the Commune. He had the face and manners of a fashionable
+_tenorino_, the luxurious taste of the Athenian, the cruel inflexibility
+of Robespierre's prot�g�. He was born at Bonay, in the arrondissement of
+Coutances. His father was a tradesman of the Boulevard des Italians. In
+his examination before the Council of War in August, 1870, Eudes called
+himself a shorthand writer and law student, though his real position was
+said to be that of a linendraper's clerk. His first notable exploit was
+the assassination of a fireman at La Villette. For this crime he was
+brought before the First Council of War at Paris. Here he informed the
+President, in somewhat unparliamentary terms, that "the betrayers of the
+country were not the Republicans, and that to destroy the Imperial
+Government was to annihilate the Prussians." In spite of the eloquent
+appeal of his counsel, he was condemned to death. The events of the
+fourth of September prevented the execution of this sentence, and he
+lived to take an active part in the agitation of the thirty-first of
+October. He was again tried for this conduct and acquitted, together
+with Vermorel, Ribaldi, Lefran�ais and others. Eudes' name figures in
+the first decrees of the Commune, and on the last of those of the
+Committee of Public Safety. On the second of April he was appointed
+Delegate for War, and, conjointly with Cluseret, organised ten corps of
+the Enfants Perdus of Belleville. He promised to each of his volunteers
+an annuity of 300 francs and a decoration. Eudes was an atheist of the
+most violent type, and sayings are attributed to him which make one
+shudder.]
+
+
+
+
+XXXIX.
+
+
+Where is Bergeret? What have they done with Bergeret? We miss Bergeret.
+They have no right to suppress Bergeret, who, according to the official
+document, was "himself" at Neuilly; Bergeret, who drove to battle in an
+open carriage; who enlivened our ennui with a little fun. They were
+perfectly at liberty to take away his command and give it to whomsoever
+they chose; I am quite agreeable to that, but they had no right to take
+him away and prevent him amusing us. Alas! we do not have the chance so
+often![48]
+
+Rumours are afloat that he has been taken to the Conciergerie. Poor
+Bergeret! and why is he so treated? Because he got the Federals beaten
+in trying to lead them to Versailles?
+
+[Illustration: CORPS LEGISLATIF.--THE HEAD-QUARTERS OF GENERAL
+BERGERET.]
+
+Citizens, if you will allow me to express my humble opinion on the
+subject, I shall take the opportunity of insinuating that the plan of
+Citizen Bergeret--which has, I acknowledge, been completely
+unsuccessful--was the only possible one capable of transforming into a
+triumphant revolution, the �meute of Montmartre, now the Commune of
+Paris.
+
+Let us look at it from a logical point of view, if you please. Does it
+seem possible to you, that Paris can hold its own against the whole of
+the rest of France? No, most certainly not. Today, especially, after the
+disasters that have occurred to the communal insurrectionists of
+Marseilles, Lyons, and Toulouse--disasters which your lying official
+reports have in vain tried to transform into successes; today, I say,
+you cannot possibly nourish any delusive hopes of help from the
+provinces. In a few days, you will have the whole country in array in
+front of your ramparts and your ruined fortresses, and then you are
+lost; yes, lost, in spite of all the blinded heroism of those whom you
+have beguiled to the slaughter. The only hope you could reasonably have
+conceived was that of profiting by the first moment of surprise and
+disorder, which the victorious revolt had occasioned among the small
+number of hesitating soldiery which then constituted the whole of the
+French army; to surprise Versailles, inadequately defended, and seize,
+if it were possible, on the Assembly and the Government. Your sudden
+revolution wanted to be followed up by a brusque attack, there would
+then have been some hope--a faint one, I confess, but still a hope, and
+this plan of Bergeret, by the very reason of its audacity, should not
+have been condemned by you, who have only succeeded through violence and
+audacity, and can only go on prospering by the same means. Now what do
+you mean to do? To resist the whole of France? To resist your enemies
+inside the walls, besides those enemies outside, who increase in numbers
+and confidence every day? Your defeat is certain, and from this day
+forth is only a question of time. You were decidedly wrong to put
+Bergeret "in the shade" as they say at the H�tel de Ville,--firstly,
+because he amused us; and secondly, because he tried the only thing that
+could possibly have succeeded--an enterprise worthy of a brilliant
+madman.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 48: General Bergeret, Member of the Central Committee,
+Delegate of War, &c., was a bookseller's assistant. He emerged in 1869
+from a printing-office to support the irreconcileable candidates in the
+election meetings.
+
+Events progressed, and on the 18th of March Victor Bergeret reappeared,
+resplendent in gold lace and embroidery, happy to have found at last a
+government, to which Jules Favre did not belong.
+
+When Bergeret, who never had any higher grade than that of sergeant in
+the National Guard, was made general, he believed himself to be a
+soldier. A friend of this pasteboard officer said one day, "If Bergeret
+were to live a hundred years, he would always swear he had been a
+general."
+
+On the 8th April, Victor Bergeret was arrested by order of the Executive
+Commission for having refused obedience to Cluseret, a general too, and
+his superior, and he was incarcerated in the prison of Mazas, where he
+remained for a short time, until the day when Cluseret was shut up there
+himself. In fact, Cluseret went into the very cell which Bergeret had
+just quitted, and found an autograph note written on the wall by his
+predecessor, and addressed to himself. The words ran thus:--
+
+"CITIZEN CLUSERET,--
+
+"You have had me shut up here, and you will be here yourself before
+eight days are over.
+
+"G�N�RAL BERGERET."
+
+On leaving the prison of Mazas, Bergeret was still kept a prisoner for a
+time in a magnificent apartment of the H�tel de Ville, decorated with
+gilded panneling and cerise-coloured satin. His wife was allowed to join
+him here, and he also obtained permission to keep with him a little
+terrier, of which he was extremely fond. Shortly afterwards he was
+reinstated, took his place again in the Communal Assembly, and was
+attached to the commission of war. The beautiful palace of the president
+of the Corps L�gislatif was now his residence, and there he delighted in
+receiving the friends who had known him when he was poor. His invariable
+home-dress in palace as in prison, was red from head to foot: red
+jacket, red trousers, and red Phrygian cap.
+
+One day, a short time after his release from prison, he said to an
+intimate friend:--"Affairs are going well, but the Commune is in need of
+money, I know it, and they are wrong not to confide in me. I would lend
+them ten thousand francs willingly." The generalship had singularly
+enriched the booksellers assistant, Victor Bergeret.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL DOMBROWSKI.]
+
+XL.
+
+
+Who takes Bergeret's place? Dombrowski.[49] Who had the idea of doing
+this? Cluseret. First of all we had the Central Committee, then we had
+the Commune, and now we have Cluseret. It looks as if Cluseret had
+swallowed the Commune, which had previously swallowed and only half
+digested the Central Committee. We are told that Cluseret is a great
+man, that Cluseret is strong, that Cluseret will save Paris. Cluseret
+issues decrees, and sees that they are executed. The Commune says, "_we
+wish_;" but Cluseret says, "_I wish_." It is he who has conceived and
+promulgated the following edict:
+
+    "In consideration of the patriotic demands of a large number of
+    National Guards, who, although they are married men, wish to have
+    the honour of defending their municipal rights, even at the expense
+    of their lives ..."
+
+I should like to know some of those National Guards who attach so little
+importance to their lives! Show me two, and I will myself consent to be
+the third. But I am interrupting Dictator Cluseret.
+
+    "The decree of the fifth of April is therefore modified:"
+
+The decree of the fifth of April was made by the Commune, but Cluseret
+does not care a straw for that.
+
+    "From seventeen to nineteen, service in the marching-companies is
+    voluntary, but from nineteen to forty it is obligatory for the
+    National Guards, married or unmarried.
+
+    "I recommend all good patriots to be their own police, and to see
+    that this edict is carried out in their respective quartern, and to
+    force the refractory to serve."
+
+As to the last paragraph of Cluseret's decree it is impossible to joke
+about it, it is by far too odious. This exhortation in favour of a
+press-gang,--this wish that each man should become a spy upon his
+neighbour (he says it in so many words), fills me with anger and
+disgust. What! I may be passing in the streets, going about my own
+business, and the first Federal who pleases, anybody with dirty hands, a
+wretch you may be sure, for none but a wretch would follow the
+recommendations of Cluseret,--an escaped convict, may take me by the
+collar and say, "Come along and be killed for the sake of my municipal
+independence." Or else I may be in bed at night, quietly asleep, as it
+is clearly my right to be, and four or five fellows, fired with
+patriotic ardour, may break in my door, if I do not hasten to open it on
+the first summons like a willing slave, and, whether I like it or not,
+drag me in night-cap and slippers, in my shirt perhaps, if it so pleases
+the brave _sans-culottes_, to the nearest outpost. Now I swear to you,
+Cluseret, I would not bear this, if I had not, during the last few
+hungry days of the siege, sold to a curiosity dealer--your colleague now
+in the Commune--my revolver, which I had hoped na�vely might defend me
+against the Prussians! Think, a revolver with six balls, if you please,
+and which, alas! I forgot to discharge!
+
+We can only hope that even at this moment, when the revolution has
+brought out of the darkness into the light, so many rascals and cowards,
+just as the sediment rises to the top when the wine is shaken, we must
+hope, that there will be found in Paris, nobody to undertake the mean
+office of spy and detective; and that the decree of M. Cluseret will
+remain a dead-letter, like so many other decrees of the Commune. I will
+not believe all I am told; I will not believe that last night several
+men, without any precise orders, without any legal character whatever,
+merely National Guards, introduced themselves into peaceful families;
+waking the wife and children, and carrying off the husband as one
+carries off a housebreaker or an escaped convict. I am told that this is
+a fact, that it has happened more than fifty times at Montmartre,
+Batignolles, and Belleville; yet I will not believe it.[50] I prefer to
+believe that these tales are "inventions of Versailles" than to admit
+the possibility of such infamy.
+
+Come now, Cluseret, War Delegate, whatever he likes to call himself.
+Where does he come from, what has he done, and what services has he
+rendered, to give him a right thus to impose his sovereign wishes upon
+us?
+
+He is not a Frenchman; nor is he an American; for the honour of France I
+prefer his being an American. His history is as short as it is
+inglorious. He once served in the French army, and left, one does not
+know why; then went to fight in America during the war. His enemies
+affirm that he fought for the Slave States, his friends the contrary. It
+does not seem very clear which side he was on--both, perhaps. Oh,
+America! you had taken him from us, why did you not keep him? Cluseret
+came back to us with the glory of having forsworn his country.
+Immediately the revolutionists received him with open arms. Only think,
+an American! Do you like America? People want to make an America
+everywhere. Modern Republics have had formidable enemies to contend
+with--America and the revolution of '98. We are sad parodists. We cannot
+be free in our own fashion, but are always obliged to imitate what has
+been or what is. But that which is adapted to one climate or country, is
+it always that which is the fittest thing for another? I will return,
+however, to this subject another time. America, who is so vaunted, and
+whom I should admire as much as could reasonably be wished, if men did
+not try to remodel France after her image, one must be blind not to see
+what she has of weakness and of narrowness, amid much that is truly
+grand. It was said to me once by some one, "The American mind may be
+compared to a compound liqueur, composed of the yeast of Anglo-Saxon
+beer, the foam of Spanish wines, and the dregs of the _petit-bleu_ of
+Suresnes, heated to boiling point by the applause and admiration given
+by the genuine pale ale, the true sherry, and authentic Ch�teau-Margaux
+to these their deposits. From time to time the caldron seethes with a
+little too much violence, and the bubbling drink pours over upon the old
+world, bringing back to the pure source, to the true vintage, their
+deteriorated products. Oh! The poor wines of France! How many
+adulterations have they been submitted to!" Calumny and exaggeration no
+doubt; but I am angry with America for sending Cluseret back, as I am
+angry with the Commune for having imposed him on Paris. The Commune,
+however, has an admirable excuse: it has not, perhaps, found among true
+Frenchmen one with an ambition criminal enough to direct, according to
+her wishes, the destruction of Paris by Paris, and France by France.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 49: There are two versions of Dombrowski's earlier history. By
+his admirers he was said to have headed the last Polish insurrection:
+the party of order stigmatise him as a Russian adventurer, who had
+fought in Poland, but against the Poles, and in the Caucasus, in Italy,
+and in France--wherever; in fine, blows were to be given and money
+earned. He entered France, like many other adventurous knights, in
+Garibaldi's suite, came to Paris after the siege, and immediately after
+the outbreak of the eighteenth of March was created general by the
+Commune, and gathered round him in guise of staff the most illustrious,
+or least ignoble, of those foreign parasites and vagabonds, who have
+made of Paris a grand occidental Bohemian Babel. These soldiers of
+fortune, most of whom had been "unfortunate" at home, formed the marrow
+of the Commune's military strength.
+
+Dombrowski had gained a name for intrepidity even among these men of
+reckless courage and adventurous lives. He maintained strict discipline,
+albeit to a not very moral purpose. Whoever dared connect his name with
+the word defeat was shot. Like many other Communist generals he took the
+most stringent measures for concealing the truth from his soldiers, and
+thus staved off total demoralisation until the Versailles troops were in
+the heart of Paris. His relations with the Federal authorities were not
+of an uniformly amiable character.]
+
+[Footnote 50: A poor Italian smith told me he had three men seized. They
+had taken a stove near the fortifications of Ternes, when they were
+arrested. "But we are Italians!" they cried. It was no excuse, for the
+Federals replied, "Italians! so much the better; you shall serve as
+Garibaldians!"]
+
+
+
+
+XLI.
+
+
+It was not enough that men should be riddled with balls and torn to
+pieces by shells. The women are also seized with a strange enthusiasm in
+their turn, and they too fall on the battle-field, victims of a terrible
+heroism. What extraordinary beings are these who exchange the needle for
+the needle-gun, the broom for the bayonet, who quit their children that
+they may die by the sides of their husbands or lovers? Amazons of the
+rabble, magnificent and abject, something between Penthesilea and
+Th�roigne de M�ricourt. There they are seen to pass as cantini�res,
+among those who go forth to fight. The men are furious, the women are
+ferocious,--nothing can appal, nothing discourage them. At Neuilly, a
+vivandi�re is wounded in the head; she turns back a moment to staunch
+the blood, then returns to her post of danger. Another, in the 61st
+Battalion, boasts of having killed three _gardiens de la paix_[51] and
+several _gendarmes_. On the plain of Ch�tillon a woman joins a group of
+National Guards, takes her stand amongst them, loads her gun, fires,
+re-loads and fires again, without the slightest interruption. She is the
+last to retire, and even then turns back again and again to fire. A
+_cantini�re_ of the 68th Battalion was killed by a fragment of shell
+which broke the little spirit-barrel she carried, and sent the splinters
+into her stomach. After the engagement of the 3rd of April, nine bodies
+were brought to the _mairie_ of Vaugirard. The poor women of the quarter
+crowd there, chattering and groaning, to look for husbands, brothers and
+son's. They tear a dingy lantern from each other, and put it close to
+the pale faces of the dead, amongst whom they find the body of a young
+woman literally riddled with shot. What means the wild rage that seizes
+upon these furies? Are they conscious of the crimes they commit; do they
+understand the cause for which they die? Yesterday, in a shop of the Rue
+de Montreuil, a woman entered with her gun on her shoulder and her
+bayonet covered with blood. "Wouldn't you do better to stay at home and
+wash your brats?" said an indignant neighbour. Whereupon arose a furious
+altercation, the virago working herself into such a fury that she sprang
+upon her adversary, and bit her violently in the throat, then withdrew a
+few steps, seized her gun, and was going to fire, when she suddenly
+turned pale, her weapon fell from her hands, and she sank back dead. In
+her wild passion she had broken a blood vessel. Such are the women of
+the people in this terrible year of 1871. It has its _cantini�res_ as
+'93 had its _tricoteuses_,[52] but the cantini�res are preferable, for
+the horrible in them partakes of a savage grandeur. Fighting as they are
+against brothers and kinsfolk, they are revolting, but against a foreign
+enemy, they would have been sublime.
+
+Children, even, do not remain passive in this fearful conflict. The
+children! you cry,--but do not smile; one of my friends has just seen a
+poor boy whose eye has been knocked in with the point of a nail. It
+happened thus. It was on Friday evening in the principal street of
+Neuilly. Two hundred boys--the eldest scarcely twelve years old--had
+assembled there; they carried sticks on their shoulders, with knives and
+nails stuck at the end of them. They had their army roll, and their
+numbers were called over in form, and their chiefs--for they had
+chiefs--gave the order to form into half sections, then to march in the
+direction of Charenton; a mite of a child trudged before, blowing in a
+penny trumpet bought at a toy-shop, and they had a cantini�re, a little
+girl of six. Soon, they met another troop of children of about the same
+numbers. Had the encounter been previously arranged? Had it been decided
+that they should give battle? I cannot tell you this, but at all events
+the battle took place, one party being for the Versailles troops, the
+other for the Federals. Such a battle, that the inhabitants of the
+quarter had the greatest difficulty in separating the combatants, and
+there were killed and wounded, as the official despatches of the
+Commune would give it; Alexis Mercier, a lad of twelve, whom his
+comrades had raised to the dignity of captain, was killed by the blow of
+a knife in the stomach.
+
+Ah! believe it, these women drunk with hate, these children playing at
+murder, are symptoms of the terrible malady of the times. A few days
+hence, and this fury for slaughter will have seized all Paris.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 51: The Gardiens de la Paix replaced the Sergents de Ville.
+They carried no sword, and wore a cap with a tricoloured band and
+cockade; in fact were the policemen of Paris. The Gendarmerie are the
+country police.]
+
+[Footnote 52: Tricoteuses (knitters), women who attended political
+clubs--working whilst they listened--1871 refined upon the idea of 1793.
+The first revolution had its Tricoteuses, that of 1871 its
+Petroleuses!!!]
+
+
+
+
+XLII.
+
+
+May conciliation be hoped for yet? Alas! I can scarcely think so. The
+bloody fight will have a bloody end. It is not alone between the Commune
+of Paris and the Assembly of Versailles that there lies an abyss which
+only corpses can fill. Paris itself, at this moment--I mean the Paris
+sincerely desirous of peace--is no longer understood by France; a few
+days of separation have caused strange divisions in men's minds; the
+capital seems to speak the country's language no longer. Timbuctoo is
+not as far from Pekin, as Versailles is distant from Paris. How can one
+hope under such circumstances, that the misunderstanding, the sole cause
+of our misfortunes, can be cleared away? How can one believe that the
+Government of Monsieur Thiers will lend an ear to the propositions
+carried there by the members of the Republican Union of the rights of
+Paris,[53] by the delegates of Parisian trade and by the emissaries of
+the Freemasons;[54] when the principal object of all these propositions
+is the definitive establishment of the Republic, and the fall and entire
+recognition of our municipal liberties. The National Assembly is at the
+same point as it was on the eve of the 18th of March; it disregards now,
+as it did then, the legitimate wishes of the population, and, moreover,
+it will not perceive the fact that the triumphant insurrection--in spite
+of the excesses that everyone condemns--has naturally added to the
+validity of our just revendications. The "Communists" are wrong, but the
+Commune, the true Commune, is right; this is what Paris believes, and,
+unhappily, this is what Versailles will not understand; it wants to
+remain, as to the form of its government, weakly stationary; it makes a
+municipal law that will be judged insufficient; and, as it obstinately
+persists in errors which were worn out a month ago and are rotten now,
+they will soon consider the "conciliators" whose ideas have progressed
+from day to day, as the veritable agents of the insurrection, and send
+them, purely and simply, about their business.
+
+Nevertheless, the desire of seeing this fratricidal war at an end, is so
+great, so ardent, so general, that convinced as we are of the
+uselessness of their efforts, we admire and encourage those who
+undertake the almost hopeless task of pacification with persistent
+courage. True Paris has now but one flag, which is neither the crimson
+rag nor the tricolour standard, but the white flag of truce.
+
+
+
+
+XLIII.
+
+
+Do you know what the Abbaye de Cinq-Pierres is, or rather what it was?
+Mind, not Saint-Pierre, but Cinq-Pierres (Five Stones). Gavroche,[55]
+who loves puns and is very fond of slang, gave this nickname to a set of
+huge stones which stood before the prison of La Roquette, and on which
+the guillotine used to be erected on the mornings when a capital
+punishment was to take place. The executioner was the Abb� de
+Cinq-Pierres, for Gavroche is as logical as he is ingenious. Well! the
+abbey exists no longer, swept clean away from the front of the Roquette
+prison. This is splendid! and as for the guillotine itself, you know
+what has been done with that. Oh! we had a narrow escape! Would you
+believe that that infamous, that abominable Government of Versailles,
+conceived the idea, at the time it sat in Paris, of having a new and
+exquisitely improved guillotine, constructed by anonymous carpenters? It
+is exactly as I have the honour of telling you. You can easily verify
+the fact by reading the proclamation of the "_sous-comit� en exercice._"
+What is the "active under-committee?" I admit that I am in total
+ignorance on the subject; but, what does it matter! In these times when
+committees spring up like mushrooms, it would be absurd to allow oneself
+to be astonished at a committee--and especially a sub-committee--more or
+less. Here is the proclamation:--
+
+"CITIZENS,--Being informed that a guillotine is at this moment in course
+of construction,..." Dear me, yes, while you were fast asleep and
+dreaming, with no other apprehension than that of being sent to prison
+by the members of the Commune, a guillotine was being made. Happily, the
+sub-committee was not asleep. No, not they! "... a guillotine ordered
+and paid for ...". Are you quite sure it was paid for, good
+sub-committee? For that Government, you know, had such a habit of
+cheating poor people out of their rights. "... by the late odious
+government; a portable and rapid guillotine." Ha! What do you say to
+that? Does not that make your blood run cold? Rapid, you understand;
+that is to say, that the guillotining of twelve or fifteen hundred
+patriots in a morning would have been play to the Abb� of Cinq-Pierres.
+And portable, too! A sort of pocket guillotine. When the members of the
+Government had a circuit to make in the provinces, they would have
+carried their guillotine with their seals of office, and if, at Lyons,
+Marseilles, or any other great town, they had met a certain number of
+scoundrels--Snip, snap! In the twinkling of an eye, no more scoundrels
+left. Oh! how cunning! But let us go on reading. "The sub-committee of
+the eleventh arrondissement ..." Oh! so there is a sub-committee for
+each arrondisement, is there? "... has had these infamous instruments of
+monarchical domination ..." One for you, Monsieur Thiers! "... seized,
+and has voted their destruction for ever." Very good intentions,
+sub-committee, but you can't write grammar. "In consequence, they will
+be burnt in front of the _mairie_, for the purification of the
+arrondissement and the preservation of the new liberties." And
+accordingly, a guillotine was burnt on the 7th of April, at ten o'clock
+in the morning, before the statue of Voltaire.
+
+The ceremony was not without a certain weirdness. In the midst of a
+compact crowd of men, women, and children, who shook their fists at the
+odious instrument, some National Guards of the 187th Battalion fed the
+huge flames with broken pieces of the guillotine, which crackled,
+blistered, and blazed, while the statue of the old philosopher, wrapped
+in the smoke, must have sniffed the incense with delight. When nothing
+remained but a heap of glowing ashes, the crowd shouted with joy; and
+for my own part, I fully approved of what had just been done as well as
+of the approbation of the spectators. But, between you and me, do you
+not think that many of the persons there had often stationed themselves
+around the guillotine with rather different intentions than that of
+seeing it burnt? And then, if in reducing this instrument of death to
+ashes, they wished to prove that the time is past when men put men to
+death, it seems to me that they ought not to stop at this. While we are
+at it, let us burn the muskets too,--what say you?
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 53: The citizens, united under the denomination of the League
+of Republican Union of the Rights of Paris, had adopted the following
+programme, which seemed to them to express the wishes of the
+population:--
+
+"Recognition of the Republic.
+
+"Recognition of the rights of Paris to govern itself, to regulate
+its police, its finances, its public charities, its public instruction,
+and the exercise of its religious liberty by a council freely elected
+and all-powerful within the scope of its action.
+
+"The protection of Paris exclusively confided to the National Guard,
+formed of all citizens fit to serve.
+
+"It is to the defence of this programme that the members of the League
+wish to devote their efforts, and they appeal to all citizens to aid
+them in the work, by making known their adhesion, so that the members of
+the League, thereby strengthened and supported, may exercise a powerful
+mediatory influence, tending to bring about the return of peace, and to
+secure the maintenance of the Republic.
+
+"Paris, 6th April, 1871."
+
+Here follow the signatures of former representatives, _maires_, doctors,
+lawyers, literary men, merchants, and others.]
+
+[Footnote 54: MANIFESTO OF THE FREEMASONS.
+
+"In the presence of the fearful events which make all France shudder and
+mourn, in the sight of the precious blood that flows in streams, the
+Freemasons, who represent the sentiments of humanity and have spread
+them through the world, come once more to declare before you, government
+and members of the Assembly, and before you, members of the Commune,
+these great principles which are their law and which ought to be the law
+of every one who has the heart of a man.
+
+"The flag of the Freemasons bears inscribed upon it, the noble
+device--Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Union. The Freemasons uphold
+peace among men, and, in the name of humanity, proclaim the
+inviolability of human life. The Freemasons detest all wars, and cannot
+sufficiently express grief and horror at civil warfare. Their duty and
+their right are to come between you and to say:
+
+"'In the name of humanity, in the name of fraternity, in the name of the
+distracted country, put a stop to this effusion of blood; we ask of you,
+we implore of you, to listen to our appeal.'"]
+
+[Footnote 55: Gavroche is a street boy of Paris, a _gamin_ immortalized
+by Victor Hugo in "Les Mis�rables," a master of Parisian _argot_
+(slang).]
+
+
+
+
+XLIV.
+
+
+I have just witnessed a horrible scene. Alas! what harrowing spectacles
+meet our eyes on every side, and will still before all this comes to an
+end. I accompanied a poor old woman to a cemetery in the east of Paris.
+Her son, who had engaged himself in a battalion of Federal guards, had
+not been home for five days. He was most likely dead, the neighbours
+said, and one bade her "go and look at the Cimeti�re de l'Est, they have
+brought in a load of bodies there." Imagine a deep trench and about
+thirty coffins placed side by side. Numbers of people came there to
+claim their own among the dead. To avoid crowding, the National Guards
+made the people walk in order, two or three abreast, and thus they were
+marshalled among the tombs and crosses. The poor woman and I followed
+the others. From time to time I heard a burst of sobs; some one amongst
+the dead had been recognised. On we go slowly, step by step, as if we
+were at the doors of a theatre. At last we arrive before the first
+coffin. The poor mother I have come with is very weak and very sad; it
+is I who lift up the thin lid of the coffin. A grey-haired corpse is
+lying within it, from the shoulders downwards nothing but a heap of torn
+flesh, and clothes, and congealed blood. We continue on. The second
+coffin also contains the body of an old man; no wounds are to be seen;
+he was probably killed by a ball. Still we advance. I observe that the
+old men are in far greater number than the young. The wounds are often
+fearful. Sometimes the face is entirely mutilated. When I had closed the
+lid of the last coffin the poor mother uttered a cry of relief; her son
+was not there! For myself, I was stupefied with horror, and only
+recovered my senses on being pushed on by the men behind me, who wanted
+to see in their turn. "Well! when will he have done?" said one. "I
+suppose he thinks that it is all for him."
+
+[Illustration: Burning the Guillotine. April]
+
+
+
+
+XLV.
+
+
+What is absolutely stupefying in the midst of all this, is the smiling
+aspect of the streets and the promenades. The constantly increasing
+emigration is only felt by the diminution in the number of depraved
+women and dissipated men; enough, however, remain to fill the caf�s and
+give life to the boulevards. It might almost be said that Paris is in
+its normal state.
+
+Every morning, from the Champs Elys�es, Les Ternes, and Vaugirard,
+families are seen removing into the town, out of the way of the
+bombardment, as at the time when Jules Favre anathematised the barbarity
+of the Prussians. Some pass in cabs, others on foot, walking sadly, with
+their bedding and household furniture piled on a cart. If you question
+these poor people, they will all tell you of the shells from the
+Versailles batteries, destroying houses and killing women and children.
+What matters it? Paris goes her usual round of business and pleasure.
+The Commune suppresses journals and imprisons journalists. Monsieur
+Richardet, of the _National_, was marched off to prison yesterday, for
+the sole crime of having requested a passport of the savage Monsieur
+Rigault; the Commune thrusts the priests into cells, and turns out the
+young girls from the convents, imprisons Monsieur O'yan, one of the
+directors of the Seminary of St. Sulpice; hurls a warrant of arrest at
+Monsieur Tresca, who escapes; tries to capture Monsieur Henri Vrignault,
+who however, succeeds in reaching a place of safety; the Commune causes
+perquisitions to be made by armed men in the banking houses, seizes upon
+title deeds and money; has strong-boxes burst open by willing
+locksmiths; when the locksmiths are tired, the soldiers of the Commune
+help them with the butt-ends of their muskets. They do worse still,
+these Communists--they do all that the consciousness of supreme power
+can suggest to despots without experience; each day they send honest
+fathers of families to their death, who think they are suffering for the
+good cause, when they are only dying for the good pleasure of Monsieur
+Avrial and Monsieur Billioray. Well! and what is Paris doing all this
+time? Paris reads the papers, lounges, runs after the last news and
+ejaculates: "Ah! ah! they have put Amouroux into prison! The Archbishop
+of Paris has been transferred from the Conciergerie to Mazas! Several
+thousand francs have been stolen from Monsieur Denouille! Diable!
+Diable!" And then Paris begins the same round of newspaper reading,
+lounging, and gossiping again. Nothing seems changed. Nothing seems
+interrupted. Even the proclamation of the famous Cluseret, who
+threatens us all with active service in the marching regiments, has not
+succeeded in troubling the tranquillity and indifference of the greater
+number of Parisians. They look on at what is taking place, as at a
+performance, and only bestow just enough interest upon it to afford them
+amusement. This evening the cannonading has increased; on listening
+attentively, we can distinguish the sounds of platoon-firing; but Paris
+takes its glass of beer tranquilly at the Caf� de Madrid and its
+Mazagran at the Caf� Riche. Sometimes, towards midnight, when the sky is
+clear, Paris goes to the Champs Elys�es, to see things a little nearer,
+strolls under the trees, and smoking a cigar exclaims: "Ah! there go the
+shells." Then leisurely compares the roar of the battle of to-day to
+that of yesterday. In strolling about thus in the neighbourhood of the
+shells, Paris exposes itself voluntarily to danger; Paris is
+indifferent, and use is second nature. Then bed-time comes, Paris looks
+over the evening papers, and asks, with a yawn, where the devil all this
+will end? By a conciliation? Or the Prussians perhaps? And then Paris
+falls asleep, and gets up the next morning, just as fresh and lusty as
+if Napoleon the Third were still Emperor by the grace of God and the
+will of the French nation.
+
+
+
+
+XLVI.
+
+
+An insertion in the _Journal Officiel_ of Versailles has justly
+irritated the greater part of the French press. This is the paragraph.
+"False news of the most infamous kind has been spread in Paris where no
+independent journal is allowed to appear." From these few lines it may
+be concluded, that in the eyes of the Government of Versailles the whole
+of the Paris newspapers, whose editors have not deserted their posts,
+have entirely submitted to the Commune, and only think and say what the
+Commune permits them to think and say. This is an egregious calumny. No,
+thank heaven! The Parisian press has not renounced its independence, and
+if no account is taken (as is perfectly justifiable) of a heap of
+miserable little sheets which no sooner appear than they die, and of
+some few others edited by members of the Commune, one would be obliged
+to acknowledge, on the contrary, that since the 18th of March the great
+majority of journals have exhibited proofs of a proud and courageous
+independence. Each day, without allowing themselves to be intimidated,
+either by menaces of forcible suppression or threats of arrest, they
+have fearlessly told the members of the Commune their opinion without
+concealment or circumlocution. The French press has undoubtedly
+committed many offences during the last few years, and is not altogether
+irresponsible for the troubles which have overwhelmed the unhappy
+country; but reparation is being made for these offences in this present
+hour of danger, and the fearless attitude which it has maintained before
+these men of the H�tel de Ville, atones nobly for the past. It has
+constituted itself judge; condemns what is condemnable, resists
+violence, endeavours to enlighten the masses. Sometimes too--and this is
+perhaps its greatest crime in the eyes of the Versailles Government--it
+permits itself to disapprove entirely of the acts of the National
+Assembly; some journals going as far as to insinuate that the Government
+is not altogether innocent of the present calamities. But what does this
+prove? That the press is no more the servant of the Assembly than it is
+the slave of the Commune; in a word, that it is free.
+
+And what false news is this of which the _Journal Officiel_ of
+Versailles complains, and against which it seems to warn us? Does it
+think it likely that we should be silly enough to give credence to the
+shouts of victory that are recorded each morning, on the handbills of
+the Commune? Does it suppose that we look upon the deputies as nothing
+but a race of anthropophagi who dine every day off Communists and
+Federals at the _tables d'h�te_ of the H�tel des R�servoirs? Not at
+all. We easily unravel the truth, from the entanglement of exaggerations
+forged by the men of the H�tel de Ville; and it is precisely this just
+appreciation of things that we owe to those papers which the _Journal
+Officiel_ condemns so inconsiderately.
+
+But it is not of fake news alone, probably, that the Versailles Assembly
+is afraid. It would not perhaps be sorry that we should ignore the real
+state of things, and I wager that if it had the power it would willingly
+suppress ill-informed journals--although they are not Communist the
+least in the world--who allow themselves to state that for six days the
+shells of Versailles have fallen upon Les Ternes, the Champs Elys�es and
+the Avenue Wagram, and have already cost as many tears and as much
+bloodshed, as the Prussian shells of fearful memory.
+
+
+
+
+XLVII.
+
+
+Wednesday, 12th April.--Another day passed as yesterday was, as
+to-morrow will be. The Versaillais attack the forts of Vanves and Issy
+and are repulsed. There is fighting at Neuilly, at Bagneux, at Asni�res.
+In the town requisitions and arrests are being made. A detachment of
+National Guards arrives before the Northern railway-station. They
+inquire for the director, but director there is none. Embarrassing
+situation this. The National Guards cannot come all this way for
+nothing. Determined on arresting some one, they carry off M. F�lix
+Mathias, head of the works, and M. Coutin, chief inspector. An hour
+later other National Guards imprison M. Lucien Dubois, general inspector
+of markets, in the dep�t of the ex-Prefecture of Police. Here and there
+a few journalists are arrested without cause, to serve as examples; some
+priests are despatched to Mazas, among others M. Lartigues, _cur�_ of
+_Saint Leu_. Yesterday the following was placarded on the shut doors of
+the church at Montmartre:
+
+    "Since priests are bandits and churches retreats where they have
+    morally assassinated the masses, causing _France to cower beneath
+    the clutches of the infamous Bonapartes, Favres, and Trochus_, the
+    delegates of the stone masons at the ex-Prefecture of Police give
+    orders that the church of Saint-Pierre (not Cinq-Pierres this time)
+    shall be closed, and decrees the imprisonment of its priests and its
+    _Fr�res Ignorantins_. Signed by Le Mousau."
+
+To-day it is the turn of the church of Notre Dame de Lorette. A
+considerable number of worshippers had assembled in the holy place. The
+National Guards arrive, headed by men in plain clothes. Under the Empire
+such men were called spies. The women found praying are turned out,
+those who do not obey promptly enough, with blows. This done, the guards
+retire. What they had come there for is not known. But what we are
+certain of is, that they will begin again to-morrow in this same church,
+or in another. The days resemble each other as the children of an
+accursed family. What frightful catastrophe will break this shameful
+monotony?
+
+
+
+
+XLVIII.
+
+
+Eh! What? It is impossible! Are your brains scattered? I speak
+figuratively, awaiting the time when they will be scattered in earnest.
+It must be some miserable jester who has worded, printed, and placarded
+this unconscionable decree. But no, it is in the usual form, the usual
+type. This is rather too much, Gentlemen of the Commune; it outsteps the
+bounds of the ridiculous; you count a little too much this time on the
+complicity of some of the population, and on the patience of others.
+Here is the decree:
+
+[Illustration: THE COLUMN IN THE PLACE VEND�ME.
+
+Erected by the first Napoleon to commemorate his German campaign of
+1805.
+
+An imitation of the Column of Trajan, at Rome, slightly taller.
+
+It cost 1,500,000 francs!]
+
+    "THE COMMUNE OF PARIS,
+
+    "Considering that the Imperial column of the Place Vend�me is a
+    monument of barbarian, a symbol of brute force, of false glory, an
+    encouragement of military spirit, a denial of international rights,
+    a permanent insult offered by the conquerors to the conquered, a
+    perpetual conspiracy against one of the great principles of the
+    French Republic, namely: Fraternity,
+
+    "Decrees:
+
+    "_Sole article_.--The Colonne Vend�me is to be demolished."
+
+Now I must tell you plainly, you are absurd, contemptible, and odious!
+This sorry farce outstrips all one could have imagined, and all that the
+Versailles papers said of you must have been true; for what you are
+doing now is worse than anything they could ever have dared to imagine.
+It was not enough to violate the churches, to suppress the
+liberties,--the liberty of writing, the liberty of speaking, the liberty
+of free circulation, the liberty of risking one's life or not. It was
+not enough that blood should be recklessly spilled, that women should be
+made widows and children orphans, trade stopped and commerce ruined; it
+was not enough that the dignity of defeat--the only glory
+remaining--should be swallowed up in the shameful disaster of civil war;
+in a word, it was not sufficient to have destroyed the present,
+compromised the future; you wish now to obliterate the past! Funereal
+mischief! Why, the Colonne Vend�me is France, and a trophy of its past
+greatness,--alas, at present in the shade--is not the monument, but the
+record of a victorious race who strode through the world conquering as
+they went, planting the tricolour everywhere. In destroying the Colonne
+Vend�me, do not imagine that you are simply overthrowing a bronze column
+surmounted by the statue of an emperor; you disinter the remains of your
+forefathers to shake their fleshless bones, and say to them, "You were
+wrong in being brave and proud and great; you were wrong to conquer
+towns, to win battles; you were wrong to astound the universe by raising
+the vision of France glorified. It is scattering to the wind the ashes
+of heroes! It is telling those aged soldiers, seen formerly in the
+streets (where are they now? Why do we meet them no longer? Have you
+killed them, or does their glory refuse to come in contact with your
+infamy?) It is telling the maimed soldiers of the Invalides, "You are
+but blockheads and brigands. So you have lost a leg, and you an arm! So
+much the worse for you idle scamps. Look on these rascals crippled for
+their country's honour!" It is like snatching from them the crosses
+they have won, and delivering them into the hands of the shameless
+street urchins, who will cry, "A hero! a hero!" as they cry "Thief!
+thief!" There is certainly purer and less costly grandeur than that
+which results from war and conquests. You are free to dream for your
+country a glory different to the ancient glory; but the heroic past, do
+not overthrow it, do not suppress it, now especially, when you have
+nothing with which to replace it, but the disgraces of the present. Yet,
+no! Complete your work, continue in the same path. The destruction of
+the Colonne Vend�me is but a beginning, be logical and continue; I
+propose a few decrees:
+
+    "The Commune of Paris, considering that the Church of Notre Dame de
+    Paris is a monument of superstition, a symbol of divine tyranny, an
+    affirmation of fanaticism, a denial of human rights, a permanent
+    insult offered by believers to atheists, a perpetual conspiracy
+    against one of the great principles of the Commune, namely, the
+    convenience of its members,
+
+    "Decrees:
+
+    "The Church of Notre Dame shall be demolished."
+
+What say you to my proposition? Does it not agree with your dearest
+desire? But you can do better and better: believe me you ought to have
+the courage of your opinions.
+
+    "The Commune of Paris, considering that the Museum of the Louvre
+    contains a great number of pictures, of statues, and other objects
+    of art, which, by the subjects they represent, bring eternally to
+    the mind of the people the actions of gods, and kings, and priests;
+    that these actions indicated by flattering brush or chisel are often
+    delineated in such a way as to diminish the hatred that priests,
+    kings, and gods should inspire to all good citizens; moreover, the
+    admiration excited by the works of human genius is a perpetual
+    assault on one of the great principles of the Commune, namely, its
+    imbecility,
+
+    "Decrees:
+
+    "_Sole article_.--The Museum of the Louvre shall be burned to the
+    ground."
+
+Do not attempt to reply that in spite of the recollections of religion
+and despotism attached to these monuments you would leave Notre Dame and
+the Museum of the Louvre untouched for the sake of their artistic
+importance. Beware of insinuating that you would have respected the
+Colonne Vend�me had it possessed some merit as a work of art. You!
+respect the masterpieces of human art! Wherefore? Since when, and by
+what right? No, little as you may have been known before you were
+masters, you were yet known enough for us to assert that one of
+you--whom I will name: M. Lefran�ais--wished in 1848 to set fire to the
+_Salon Carr�_; there is another of you--whom I will also name: M. Jules
+Vall�s--asserts that Homer was an old fool. It is true that M. Jules
+Vall�s is Minister of Public Instruction. If you have spared Notre Dame
+and the Museum of the Louvre up to this moment, it is that you dared not
+touch them, which is a proof, not of respect but of cowardice.
+
+Ah! our eyes are open at last! We are no longer dazzled by the
+chimerical hopes we nourished for a moment, of obtaining, through you
+communal liberties. You did but adopt those opinions for the sake of
+misleading us, as a thief assumes the livery of a house to enter his
+master's room and lay hands on his money. We see you now as you are. We
+had hoped that you were revolutionists, too ardent, too venturous
+perhaps, but on the whole impelled by a noble intention: you are nothing
+but insurgents, insurgents whose aim is to sack and pillage, favoured by
+disturbances and darkness. If a few well-intentioned men were among you,
+they have fled in horror. Count your numbers, you are but a handful. If
+there still remain any among you, who have not lost all power of
+discriminating between justice and injustice, they look towards the
+door, and would fly if they dared. Yet this handful of furious fools
+governs Paris still. Some among us have been ordered to their death,
+and they have gone! How long will this last? Did we not surrender our
+arms? Can we not assemble, as we did a month ago near the Bank, and deal
+justice ourselves without awaiting an army from Versailles? Ah I we must
+acknowledge that the deputies of the Seine and the Maires of Paris,
+misled like ourselves, erred in siding with the insurrectionists. They
+wished to avert street fighting. Is the strife we are witnessing not far
+more horrible than that we have escaped? One day's struggle, and it
+would have ended. Yes, we were wrong to lay down our arms; but who could
+have believed--the excesses of the first few days seemed more like the
+sad consequences of popular effervescence than like premeditated
+crimes--who could have believed that the chiefs of the insurrection lied
+with such impudence as is now only too evident, and that before long the
+Commune would be the first to deprive us of the liberties it was its
+duty to protect and develope? The "Rurals" were right then,--they who
+had been so completely in the wrong in refusing to lend an attentive ear
+to the just prayers of a people eager for liberty, they were right when
+they warned us against the ignorance and wickedness of these men. Ah!
+were the National Assembly but to will it, there would yet be time to
+save Paris. If it really wished to establish a definite Republic, and
+concede to the capital of France the right, free and entire, of electing
+an independent municipality, with what ardour should we not rally round
+the legitimate Government! How soon would the H�tel de Ville be
+delivered from the contemptible men who have planted themselves there.
+If the National Assembly could only comprehend us! If it would only
+consent to give Paris its liberty, and France its tranquillity, by means
+of honourable concessions!
+
+
+
+
+XLIX.
+
+
+The delegates of the League of the Republican Union of the Rights of
+Paris returned from Versailles to-day, the 14th April, and published the
+following reports:--
+
+    "CITIZENS,--The undersigned, chosen by you to present your programme
+    to the Government of Versailles, and to proffer the good offices of
+    the League to aid in the conclusion of an armistice, have the honour
+    of submitting you an account of their mission.
+
+    "The delegates, having made known to Monsieur Thiers the programme
+    of the League, he replied that as chief of the sole legal government
+    existing in France he had not to discuss the basis of a treaty, but
+    notwithstanding he was quite ready to treat with such persons whom
+    he considered as representing Republican principles, and to acquaint
+    them with the intentions of the chief of the executive power.
+
+    "It is in accordance with these observations, which denote, in fact,
+    the true character of our mission, that Monsieur Thiers has made the
+    following declarations on different points of our programme.
+
+    "Respecting the recognition of the Republic, Monsieur Thiers answers
+    for its existence as long as he remains in power. A Republican state
+    was put into his hands, and he stakes his honour on its
+    conservation."
+
+Ay! it is precisely that which will not satisfy Paris--Paris sighing for
+peace and liberty. We have all the most implicit faith in Thiers'
+honour. We are assured that the words, "French Republic" will head the
+white Government placards as long as he remains in power. But when
+Thiers is withdrawn from power--National Assemblies can be capricious
+sometimes--what assures us that we shall not fall victims to a
+monarchical or even an imperial restoration? Ghosts can appear in French
+history as well as in Anne Radcliffe's novels. To attempt to consider
+the elected members who sit at Versailles as sincere Republicans is an
+effort beyond the powers of our credulity. You see that Thiers himself
+dares not speak his thoughts on what might happen were he to withdraw
+from power. Thus we find ourselves, as before, in a state of transition,
+and this state of transition is just what appals us. We address
+ourselves to the Assembly, and ask of it, "We are Republican; are you
+Republican?" And the Assembly pretends to be deaf, and the deputies
+content themselves with humming under their breaths, some the royal tune
+of "The White Cockade," and others the imperial air of "Partant pour la
+Syrie." This does not quite satisfy us. It is true that Thiers says he
+will maintain the form of government established in Paris as long as he
+possibly can; but he only promises for himself, and it results clearly
+from all this that we shall not keep the Republic long, since its
+definite establishment depends in fact on the majority in the Assembly,
+while the Assembly is royalist, with a slight sprinkle of imperialism
+here and there. But let us continue the reading of the reports.
+
+    "Respecting the municipal franchise of Paris, Monsieur Thiers
+    declares that Paris will enjoy its franchise on the same conditions
+    as those of the other towns, according to a common
+    law, such as will be set forth by the Assembly of the representatives
+    of all France. Paris will have the common right,
+    nothing less and nothing more."
+
+This again is little satisfactory. What will this common right be? What
+will the law set forth by the representatives of all France be worth?
+Once more we have the most entire confidence in Thiers. But have we the
+right to expect a law conformable to our wishes from an assembly of men
+who hold opinions radically opposed to ours on the point which is in
+fact the most important in the question--on the form of government?
+
+    "Concerning the protection of Paris, now exclusively confided to the
+    National Guards, Monsieur Thiers declares that he will proceed at
+    once to the organization of the National Guard, but that cannot be
+    to the absolute exclusion of the army."
+
+In my personal opinion, the President is perfectly right here; but from
+the point of view which it was the mission of the delegates of the
+Republican Union to take, is not this third declaration as evasive as
+the preceding?
+
+    "Respecting the actual situation and the means of putting an end to
+    the effusion of blood, Monsieur Thiers declares that not recognising
+    as belligerents the persons engaged in the struggle against the
+    National Assembly, he neither can nor will treat the question of an
+    armistice; but he declares that if the National Guards of Paris make
+    no hostile attack, the troops of Versailles will make none either,
+    until the moment, yet undetermined, when the executive power shall
+    resolve upon action and commence the war."
+
+Oh, words! words! We are perfectly aware that Thiers has the right to
+speak thus, and that all combatants are not belligerents. But what! Is
+it as just as it is legal to argue the point so closely, when the lives
+of so many men are at stake; and is a small grammatical concession so
+serious a thing, that sooner than make it one should expose oneself to
+all the horrible feelings of remorse that the most rightful conqueror
+experiences at the sight of the battle-field?
+
+    "Monsieur Thiers adds: 'Those who abandon the contest, that is to
+    say, who return to their homes and renounce their hostile attitude,
+    will be safe from all pursuit.'"
+
+Is Thiers quite certain that he will not find himself abandoned by the
+Assembly at the moment when he enters upon this path of mercy and
+forgiveness?
+
+    "Monsieur Thiers alone excepts the assassins of General Lecomte and
+    General Cl�ment Thomas, who if taken will be tried for the crime."
+
+And here he is undoubtedly right. We must have been blind indeed the
+day that this double crime failed to open our eyes to the true
+characters of the men who, if they did not commit it or cause it to be
+committed, made at least no attempt to discover the criminals!
+
+    "Monsieur Thiers, recognising the impossibility for a great part of the
+    population, now deprived of work, to live without the allotted pay,
+    will continue to distribute that pay for several weeks longer.
+
+    "Such, citizens, is, etc., etc."
+
+This report is signed by A. Dessonnaz, A. Adam, and Donvallet. Alas! we
+had foreseen what the result of the honourable attempt made by the
+delegates of the Republican Union would be. And this result proves that
+not only is the National Guard at war with the regular troops, but that
+a persistent opposition is also made by the National Assembly of
+Versailles to the most reasonable portion of the people of Paris. And
+yet the Assembly represents France, and speaks and acts only as she is
+commissioned to speak and act. The truth then is this,--Paris is
+republican and France is not republican; there is division between the
+capital and the country. The present convulsion, brought about by a
+group of madmen, has its source in this divergence of feeling. And what
+will happen? Will Paris, once more vanquished by universal suffrage,
+bend her neck and accept the yoke of the provincials and rustics? The
+right of these is incontestable; but will it, by reason of superiority
+of numbers, take precedence of our right, as incontestable as theirs?
+These are dark questions, which hold the minds of men in suspense, and
+which, in spite of our desire to bring the National Assembly over to our
+side, the greater part of whose members could not join us without
+betraying their trust, cause us to bear the intolerable tyranny of the
+men of the H�tel de Ville, even while their sinister lucubrations
+inspire us with disgust.
+
+
+
+
+L.
+
+
+During this time the walls resound with fun. Paris of the street and
+gutter--Paris, Gavroche and blackguard, rolls with laughter before the
+caricatures which ingenious salesmen stick with pins on shutters and
+house doors. Who designed these wild pictures, glaringly coloured and
+common, seldom amusing and often outrageously coarse? They are signed
+with unknown names--pseudonyms doubtless; their authors, amongst whom it
+is sad to think that artists of talent must be counted, are like women,
+high born and depraved, mixing with their faces masked in hideous
+orgies.
+
+These vile pictures with their infamous calumnies keep up and even
+kindle contempt and hatred in ignorant minds. Laughter is often far from
+innocent. But the passers-by think little of this, and are amused enough
+when they see Jules Favre's head represented by a radish, or the
+_embonpoint_ of Monsieur Picard by a pumpkin. Where will all this
+unwholesome stuff be scattered in a few days? Flown away and dispersed.
+Eccentric amateurs will tear their hair at the impossibility of
+obtaining for their collections these frivolous witnesses of troubled
+times. I will make a few notes so as to diminish their despair as far as
+I am able.
+
+A green soil and a red sky--In a black coffin is a half-naked woman,
+with a Phrygian cap on her head, endeavouring to push up the lid with
+all her might. Jules Favre, lean, small, head enormous, under lip thick
+and protruding, hair wildly flying like a willow in a storm, wearing a
+dress coat, and holding a nail in one hand and a hammer in the other,
+with his knee pressed upon the coffin-lid, is trying to nail it down, in
+spite of the very natural protestations of the half-naked woman. In the
+distance, and running towards them, is Monsieur Thiers, with a great
+broad face and spectacles, also armed with a hammer. Below is written:
+"If one were to listen to these accursed Republics, they would never
+die." Signed, Faustin. Same author--Same woman. But this time she lies
+in a bed hung with red flags for curtains. Her shoulders a little too
+bare, perhaps, for a Republic, but she must be made attractive to her
+good friends the Federals. At the head of the bed a portrait of
+Rochefort; Rochefort is the favoured one of this lady, it seems. Were I
+he, I should persuade her to dress a little more decently. Three black
+men, in brigands' hats, their limbs dragging, and their faces distorted,
+approach the bed, singing like the robbers in Fra Diavolo: "Ad.... vance
+... ad ... vance ... with ... pru ... dence ...!" The first, Monsieur
+Thiers, carries a heavy club and a dark lantern; Jules Favre, the
+second, brandishes a knife, and the third, carries nothing, but wears a
+peacock's feather in his hat, and.... I have never seen Monsieur
+Picard, but they tell me that it is he.
+
+The young Republic again, with shoulders bare and the style of face of a
+_petite dame_ of the Rue Bossuet. She comes to beg Monsieur Thiers,
+cobbler and cookshop-keeper, who "finds places for pretenders out of
+employ, and changes their old boots for new at the most reasonable
+prices," to have her shoes mended. "Wait a bit! wait a bit!" says the
+cobbler to himself, "I'll manage 'em so as to put an end to her
+walking."
+
+Here is a green monkey perched on the extreme height of a microscopic
+tribune. At the end of his tail he wears a crown; on his head is a
+Phrygian cap. It is Monsieur Thiers of course. "Gentlemen," says he, "I
+assure you that I am republican, and that I adore the vile multitude."
+But underneath is written: "We'll pluck the Gallic cock!" The author of
+this is also Monsieur Faustin. I have here a special reproach to add to
+what I have already said of these objectionable stupidities. I do not
+like the manner in which the author takes off Monsieur Thiers; he quite
+forgets the old and well-known resemblance of the chief of the executive
+power to Monsieur Prud'homme, or what is the same thing, to Prud'homme's
+inventor, Henri Monnier. One day Gil Perez the actor, met Henri Monnier
+on the Boulevard Montmartre. "Well, old fellow!" cried he, "are you
+back? When are you and I going to get at our practical jokes again?"
+Henri Monnier looked profoundly astonished; it was Monsieur Thiers!
+
+The next one is signed Pilotel. Pilotel, the savage commissioner! He who
+arrested Monsieur Chaudey, and who pocketed eight hundred and fifteen
+francs found in Monsieur Chaudey's drawers. Ah! Pilotel, if by some
+unlucky adventure you were to succumb behind a barricade, you would cry
+like Nero: "Qualis artifex pereo!" But let us leave the author to
+criticise the work. A Gavroche, not the Gavroche of the _Mis�rables_,
+but the boy of Belleville, chewing tobacco like a Jack-tar, drunk as a
+Federal, in a purple blouse, green trousers, his hands in his pockets,
+his cap on the nape of his neck; squat, violent, and brutish. With an
+impudent jerk of the head he grumbles out: "I don't want any of your
+kings!" This coarse sketch is graphic and not without merit.
+
+Horror of horrors! "Council of Revision of the Amazons of Paris," this
+next is called. Oh! if the brave Amazons are like these formidable
+monstrosities, it would be quite sufficient to place them in the first
+rank, and I am sure that not a soldier of the line, not a guardian of
+the peace, not a _gendarme_ would hesitate a moment at the sight, but
+all would fly without exception, in hot haste and in agonised terror,
+forgetting in their panic even to turn the butt ends of their muskets in
+the air. One of these Amazons--but how has my sympathy for the amateurs
+of collections led me into the description of these creatures of
+ugliness and immodesty?--one of them.... but no, I prefer leaving to
+your imagination those Himalayan masses of flesh, and pyramids of
+bone--these Penthesileas of the Commune of Paris that are before me.
+
+Ah! Here is choleric old "Father Duchesne" in a towering passion, with
+short legs, bare arms, and rubicund face, topped with an immense red
+cap. In one hand he holds a diminutive Monsieur Thiers and stifles him
+as if he were a sparrow. Here, the drawing is not only vile, but stupid
+too.
+
+This time we have the nude, and it is not the Republic, but France that
+is represented. If the Republic can afford to bare her shoulders, France
+may dispense with drapery entirely. She has a dove which she presses to
+her bosom. On one side is a portrait of Monsieur Rochefort. Again! Why
+this unlovely-looking journalist is a regular Lovelace. Finally, two
+cats (M. Jules Favre and M. Thiers) are to be seen outside the garret
+window with their claws ready for pouncing. "Poor dove!" is the tame
+inscription below the sketch.[56]
+
+[Illustration: LITTLE PARIS AND HIS PLAYTHINGS. NURSE. Mais! sacr�
+vingt-cinq mille noms d'un moutard! What will you want next?
+
+PETIT PARIS. I'll have the moon!]
+
+Next we find a Holy Family, by Murillo. Jules Favre, as Joseph, leads
+the ass by the reins, and a wet-nurse, who holds the Comte de Paris in
+her arms instead of the infant Jesus, is seated between the two
+panniers, trying to look at once like Monsieur Thiers and the Holy
+Virgin. The sketch is called "The Flight.... to Versailles." Oh! fie!
+fie! Messieurs the Caricaturists, can you not be funny without trenching
+on sacred ground?
+
+We might refer to dozens more. Some date from the day when Paris shook
+off the Empire, and are so infamous that, by a natural reaction of
+feeling, they inspire a sort of esteem for those they try to make you
+despise; others, those which were seen by everyone during the siege, are
+less vile, because, of the patriotic rage which originated them, and
+excused them; but they are as odious as they can be nevertheless. But
+the amateurs of collections who neglected to buy fly-sheets one by one
+as they appeared, must be satisfied with the above.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 56: As a power for the encouragement of virtue and the
+suppression of vice, caricature cannot be too highly estimated, though
+often abused. It is doubtful which exercises the greater influence, poem
+or picture. In England, perhaps, picture wields the greater power; in
+France, song. Yet, "let me write the ballads and you may govern the
+people," is an English axiom which was well known before pictures became
+so plentiful or so popular, or the refined cartoons of Mr. Punch were
+ever dreamt of. In Paris, where art-education is highly developed,
+fugitive designs seems to have, with but few exceptions, descended into
+vile abuse and indecent metaphor, the wildest invective being exhausted
+upon trivial matters--hence the failure.
+
+The art advocates of the Commune, with but few exceptions, seem to have
+been of the most humble sort, inspired with the melodramatic taste of
+our Seven Dials or the New Out, venting itself in ill-drawn heroic
+females, symbols of the Republic, clad in white, wearing either mural
+crowns or Phrygian caps, and waving red flags. They are the work of
+aspiring juvenile artists or uneducated men. I allude to art favourable
+to the Commune, and not that co�val with it, or the vast mass of
+pictorial unpleasantly born of gallic rage during the Franco-Prussian
+war, including such designs as the horrible allegory of Bayard, "Sedan,
+1870," a large work depicting Napoleon III. drawn in a cal�che and four,
+over legions of his dying soldiers, in the presence of a victorious
+enemy and the shades of his forefathers', and the well-known subject, so
+popular in photography, of "The Pillory," Napoleon between King William
+and Bismarck, also set in the midst of a mass of dead and dying
+humanity. Paper pillories are always very popular in Paris, and under
+the Commune the heads of Tropmann and Thiers were exhibited in a wooden
+vice, inscribed Pantin and Neuilly underneath. And, again, in another
+print, entitled "The Infamous," we have Thiers, Favre, and MacMahon,
+seen in a heavenly upper storey, fixed to stakes, contemplating a dead
+mother and her child, slain in their happy home, the wounds very
+sanguine and visible, the only remaining relict being a child of very
+tender years in an overturned cradle; beneath is the inscription "Their
+Works." Communal art seems also to have been very severe upon landlords,
+who are depicted with long faces and threadbare garments, seeking alms
+in the street, or flying with empty bags and lean stomachs from a very
+yellow sun, bearing the words "The Commune, 1871." Whilst as a contrast,
+a fat labourer, with a patch on his blouse, luxuriates in the same
+golden sunshine. As a sample of the better kind of French art, we give
+two fac-similes, by Bertal, from _The Grelot_, a courageous journal
+started during the Commune; it existed unmolested, and still continues.
+We here insert a fac-simile of a sketch called "Paris and his
+Playthings."
+
+"What destruction the unhappy, spoiled, and ill-bred child whose name is
+Paris has done, especially of late!
+
+"France, his strapping nurse, put herself in a passion in vain, the
+child would not listen to reason. He broke Trochu's arms, ripped up
+Gambetta, to see what there was inside. He blew out the lantern of
+Rochefort; as to Bergeret himself, he trampled him under foot.
+
+"He has dislocated all his puppets, strewed the ground with the _d�bris_
+of his fancies, and he is not yet content,--'What do you want, you
+wretched baby?'--'I want the moon!' The old woman called the Assembly
+was right in refusing this demand,--'The moon, you little wretch, and
+what would you do with it if you had it?'--'I would pull it to bits, as
+I did the rest.'"
+
+Further on will be found "Paris eating a General a day" (Chapter
+LXXVIII). Early in June, 1871 there appeared in the same journal "The
+International Centipede," "John Bull and the Blanche Albion." The Queen
+of England, clad in white, holding in her hands a model of the Palace of
+Westminster, and sundry docks, resists the approach of an interminable
+centipede, on which she stamps, vainly endeavouring to impede the
+progress of the coil of fire and blood approaching to soil and fire her
+fair robe; beside her stands John Bull, in a queer mixed costume, half
+sailor, with the smalls and gaiters of a coalheaver. He bears the Habeas
+Corpus Act under his arm, but stands aghast and paralysed, it never
+seeming to have occurred to the artist that this "Monsieur John Boule,
+Esquire," was well adapted by his beetle-crushers to stamp out the
+vermin. Perhaps, it is needless to add, that the snake-like form issues
+from a hole in distant Prussia, meandering through many nations, causing
+great consternation, and that M. Thiers is finishing off the French
+section in admirable style.]
+
+
+
+
+LI.
+
+
+What has Monsieur Courbet to do among these people? He is a painter, not
+a politician. A few beery speeches uttered at the Hautefeuille Caf�
+cannot turn his past into a revolutionary one, and an order refused for
+the simple reason that it is more piquant for a man to have his
+button-hole without ornament than with a slip of red ribbon in it, when
+it is well known that he disdains whatever every one else admires, is
+but a poor title to fame. To your last, Napoleon Gaillard![57] To your
+paint-brushes, Gustave Courbet! And if we say this, it is not only from
+fear that the meagre lights of Monsieur Courbet are insufficient, and
+may draw the Commune into new acts of folly,--(though we scarcely know,
+alas! if there be any folly the Commune has left undone,)--but it is,
+above all, because we fear the odium and ridicule that the false
+politician may throw upon the painter. Yes! whatever may be our horror
+for the nude women and unsightly productions with which Monsieur
+Courbet[58] has honoured the exhibitions of paintings, we remember with
+delight several, admirably true to nature, with sunshine and summer
+breezes playing among the leaves, and streams murmuring refreshingly
+over the pebbles, and rocks whereon climbing plants cling closely; and,
+besides these landscapes, a good picture here and there, executed, if
+not by the hand of an artist--for the word artist possesses a higher
+meaning in our eyes--at least by the hand of a man of some power, and we
+hate that this painter should be at the H�tel de Ville at the moment
+when the spring is awakening in forest and field, and when he would do
+so much better to go into the woods of Meudon or Fontainebleau to study
+the waving of the branches and the eccentric twists and turns of the
+oak-tree's huge trunk, than in making answers to Monsieur
+Lefran�ais--iconoclast in theory only as yet--and to Monsieur Jules
+Vall�s, who has read Homer in Madame Dacier's translation, or has never
+read it at all. That one should try a little of everything, even of
+polities, when one is capable of nothing else, is, if not excusable,
+at any rate comprehensible; but when a man can make excellent boots like
+Napoleon Gaillard, or good paintings like Gustave Courbet, that he
+should deliberately lay himself open to ridicule, and perhaps to
+everlasting execration, is what we cannot admit. To this Monsieur
+Courbet would reply: "It is the artists that I represent; it is the
+rights and claims of modern art that I uphold. There must be a great
+revolution in painting as in politics; we must federate too, I tell you;
+we'll decapitate those aristocrats, the Titians and Paul Veroneses;
+we'll establish, instead of a jury, a revolutionary tribunal, which
+shall condemn to instant death any man who troubles himself about the
+ideal--that king whom we have knocked off his throne; and at this
+tribunal I will be at once complainant, lawyer, and judge. Yes! my
+brother painters, rally around me, and we will die for the Commune of
+Art. As to those who are not of my opinion, I don't care the snap of a
+finger about them." By this last expression the friends of Monsieur
+Gustave Courbet will perceive that we are not without some experience of
+his style of conversation. Courbet, my master, you don't know what you
+are talking about, and all true artists will send you to old Harry, you
+and your federation. Do you know what an artistic association, such as
+you understand it, would result in? In serving the puerile ambition of
+one man--its chief, for there will be a chief, will there not, Monsieur
+Courbet?--and the puerile rancours of a parcel of daubers, without name
+and without talent. Artist in our way we assert, that no matter, what
+painter, even had he composed works superior in their way to Courbet's
+"_Combat de Cerfs_" and "_Femme au Perroquet_," who came and said, "Let
+us federate," we would answer him plainly: "Leave us in peace, messieurs
+of the federation, we are dreamers and workers; when we exhibit or
+publish and are happy enough to meet with a man who will buy or print a
+few thousand copies of our work without reducing himself to beggary, we
+are happy. When that is done, we do not trouble ourselves much about our
+work; the indulgence of a few friends, and the indignation of a few
+fools, is all we ask or hope for. We federate? Why? With whom? If our
+work is bad, will the association with any society in the world make it
+good? Will the works of others gain anything by their association with
+ours? Let us go home, _messieurs les artistes_, let us shut our doors,
+let us say to our servants--if we have any--that we are at home to no
+one, and, after having cut our best pencil, or seized our best pen, let
+us labour in solitude, without relaxation, with no other thought than
+that of doing the best we can, with no higher judge than that of our own
+artistic conscience; and when the work is completed, let us cordially
+shake hands with those of our comrades who love us; let us help them,
+and let them bring help to us, but freely, without obligation, without
+subscriptions, without societies, and without statutes. We have nothing
+to do with these free-masonries, absurd when brought into the domain of
+intelligence, and in which two or three hundred people get together to
+do that, which some new-comer, however unknown his budding fame, would
+accomplish at a blow, in the face of all the associations in the world."
+This is what I should na�vely reply to Monsieur Courbet if he took it
+into his head to offer me any advice or compact whatsoever to sign.
+
+[Illustration: THE MODERN "EROSTRATE" COURBET.]
+
+[Illustration: IN PROGRESS OF REMOVAL, JUNE 7 1871]
+
+The artists have done still better than we should; they have not
+answered at all, for one cannot call the "General Assembly of all the
+Artists in Design," presided over by Monsieur Gustave Courbet, and held
+on the 13th of April, 1871, in the great amphitheatre of the Ecole de
+M�decine, a real meeting of French artists. We know several celebrated
+painters, and we saw none of them there. The citizens Potier and Boulaix
+had been named secretaries. We congratulate them; for this high
+distinction may, perhaps, aid in founding their reputation, which was in
+great want of a basis of some kind. But there were some sculptors there,
+perhaps? We saw some long beards, beards that were quite unknown to us,
+and their owners may have been sculptors, perhaps. For Paris is a city
+of sculptors. But if artists were wanting, there were talkers enough.
+Have you ever remarked that there are no orators so indefatigable as
+those who have nothing to say? And the interruptions, the clamour, the
+apostrophising, more highly coloured than courteous! Such an
+overwhelming tumult was never heard:--
+
+    "No more jury!"
+
+    "Yes! yes! a jury! a jury!"
+
+    "Out with the reactionist!"
+
+    "Down with Cabanel!"
+
+    "And the women? Are the women to be on the jury?"
+
+    "Neither the women, nor the infirm."
+
+And all the time there is Monsieur Gustave Courbet, the chairman,
+desperately ringing his bell for order, and launching some expressive
+exclamation from time to time. And the result of all this? Absolutely
+nothing at all! No! stop! There were a few statutes proposed--and every
+one amused himself immensely. "Well! so much the better," said
+one. "Every one laughed, and no harm was done to anybody."
+
+We beg your pardon! There was a great deal of harm done--to Monsieur
+Courbet.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 57: Gaillard Senior (a sort of Odger), cobbler of Belleville
+and democratic stump orator. Appointed, April 8, to the Presidency of
+the Commission of Barricades.]
+
+[Footnote 58: As a painter Courbet has been very diversely judged. He
+was the chief of the ultra-realistic school, and therefore a natural
+subject for the contempt and abuse of the admirers of "legitimate art."
+But his later use of the political power entrusted to him has drawn down
+upon him the wrath of an immense majority of the French public, which
+his artistic misdemeanours had scarcely touched. On the sixteenth of
+April he was elected a member of the Commune by the 6th arrondissement
+of Paris, and forthwith appointed Director of the Beaux Arts. Until this
+time his life had been purely professional, and consequently of mediocre
+interest for the general public. He was born at Ornans, department of
+the Doubs, in 1819, and received his primary instructions from the Abb�
+Gousset, afterwards Archbishop of Rheims. He first applied himself to
+the study of mathematics, painting the while, and apparently aiming at a
+fusion of both pursuits. He subsequently read for the bar for a short
+time, and, finally, adopting art as his sole profession, threw himself
+heart and soul into a R�naissance movement as the apostle of a new
+style. The peculiarities of his manner soon brought him into notoriety,
+and a school of imitators grouped itself around him. His pride became a
+proverb. In 1870 he was offered the cross of the Legion of Honour, and
+refused it, arrogantly declaring that he would have none of a
+distinction given to tradesmen and ministers. The part he took in the
+destruction of the Colonne Vend�me is familiar to all readers of the
+English press. Three weeks after the fall of the Commune he was
+denounced by a Federal officer, and discovered at the house of a friend
+hiding in a wardrobe, and in September was condemned by the tribunal at
+Versailles to six months' imprisonment and a fine of 600 francs--a
+slight penalty that astonished everyone.]
+
+
+
+
+LII.
+
+
+It is forbidden to cross the Place Vend�me, and naturally, walking there
+is prohibited too. I had been prowling about every afternoon for the
+last few days, trying to pass the sentinels of the Rue de la Paix,
+hoping that some lucky chance might enable me to evade the military
+order; all I got for my pains was a sharply articulated "_Passes au
+large!_" and I remained shut out.
+
+To-day, as I was watching for a favourable opportunity, a _petite dame_
+who held up her skirts to show her stockings, which were as red as the
+flag of the H�tel de Ville--out upon you for a female Communist!
+--approached the sentinel and addressed him with her most
+gracious, smile. And oh, these Federals! The man in office forgot his
+duty, and at once began with the lady a conversation of such an intimate
+description, that for discretion's sake I felt myself obliged to take a
+slight turn to the left, and a minute later I had slipped into the
+forbidden Place.
+
+A Place?--no, a camp it might more properly be called. Here and there,
+are seen a crowd of little tents, which would be white if they were
+washed, and littered about with straw. Under the tents lie National
+Guards; they are not seen, but plainly heard, for they are snoring. You
+remember the absurd old bit of chop-logic often repeated in the classes
+of philosophy? One might apply it thus: he sleeps well who has a good
+conscience; the Federals sleep well; ergo, the Federals have a good
+conscience. Guards walk to and fro with their pipes in their mouths. If
+I were to say that these honourable Communists show by their easy
+manner, gentlemanly bearing, and superior conversation, that they belong
+to the cream of Parisian society, you would perhaps be impertinent
+enough not to believe one word of what I said. I think it, therefore,
+preferable in every way to assert the direct contrary. There is a group
+of them flinging away their pay at the usual game of _bouchon_. "The
+Soldier's Pay and the Game of Cork" is the title that might be given by
+those who would write the history of the National Guard from the
+beginning of the siege to the present time. And if to the cork they
+added the bottle, they might pride themselves upon having found a
+perfect one. This is how it comes to pass. The wife is hungry, and the
+children are hungry, but the father is thirsty, and he receives the pay.
+What does he do? He is thirsty, and he must drink; one must think of
+oneself in this world. When he has satisfied his thirst, what remains? A
+few sous, the empty bottle, and the cork. Very good. He plays his last
+sou on the famous game, and in the evening, when he returns home, he
+carries to his family--what?--the empty bottle!
+
+On the Place two barricades have been made, one across the Rue de la
+Paix, and the other before the Rue Castiglione. "Two formidable
+barricades," say the newspapers, which may be read thus: "A heap of
+paving stones to the right, and a heap of paving stones to the left." I
+whisper to myself that two small field-pieces, one on the place of the
+New Opera-house, and the other at the Rue de Rivoli, would not be long
+before they got the better of these two barricades, in spite of the guns
+that here and there display their long, bright cylinders.
+
+The Federals have decidedly a taste for gallantry. About twenty women--I
+say young women, but not pretty women--are selling coffee to the
+National Guards, and add to their change a few ogling smiles meant to be
+engaging.
+
+As to the Column, it has not the least appearance of being frightened by
+the decree of the Commune which threatens it with a speedy fall. There
+it stands like a huge bronze I, and the emperor is the dot upon it. The
+four eagles are still there, at the four corners of the pedestal, with
+their wreaths of immortelles, and the two red flags which wave from the
+top seem but little out of place. The column is like the ancient honour
+of France, that neither decrees nor bayonets can intimidate, and which
+in the midst of threats and tumult, holds itself aloft in serene and
+noble dignity.
+
+
+
+
+LIII.
+
+
+Who would think it? They are voting. When I say "they are voting," I
+mean to say "they might vote;" for as for going to the poll, Paris seems
+to trouble itself but little about it. The Commune, too, seems somewhat
+embarrassed. You remember Victor Hugo's song of the Adventurers of the
+Sea:
+
+        "En partant du golfe d'Otrente
+          Nous �tions trente,
+        Mais en arrivant � Cadix
+          Nous n'�tions que dix."[59]
+
+The gentlemen of the H�tel de Ville might sing this song with a few
+slight variations. The Gulf of Otranto was not their starting point, but
+the Buttes Montmartre; though to make up for it they were eighty in
+number. On arriving at C----, no, I mean, the decree of the Colonne
+Vend�me, they were a few more than ten, but not many. What charming
+stanzas in imitation of Victor Hugo might Th�odore de Banville and
+Albert Glatigny write on the successive desertions of the members of the
+Commune. The first to withdraw were the _maires_ of Paris, frightened to
+death at having been sent by the votes of their fellow-citizens into an
+assembly which was not at all, it appears, their ideal of a municipal
+council. And upon this subject Monsieur Desmarest, Monsieur Tirard, and
+their _adjoints_ will perhaps permit me an unimportant question. What
+right had they to persuade their electors and the Friends of Order, to
+vote for the Commune of Paris if they were resolved to decline all
+responsibility when the votes had been given them? Their presence at the
+H�tel de Ville, would it not have infused--as we hoped--a powerful
+spirit of moderation even in the midst of excesses that could even then
+be foretold? When they have done all they can to persuade people to
+vote, have they the right to consider themselves ineligible? In a word,
+why did they propose to us to elect the Commune of Paris if the Commune
+were a bad thing? and if it were a good thing, why did they refuse to
+take their part in it? Whatever the cause, no sooner were they elected
+than they sent in their resignations. Then the hesitating and the timid
+disappeared one after another, not having the courage to continue the
+absurdity to the end. Add to all this the arrests made in its very
+bosom by the Assembly of the H�tel de Ville itself, and you will then
+have an idea of the extent of the dilemma. A few days more and the
+Commune will come to an end for want of Communists, and then we shall
+cry, "Haste to the poll, citizens of Paris!" And the white official
+handbills will announce supplementary elections for Sunday, 16th of
+April.
+
+But here comes the difficulty; there may be elections, but not the
+shadow of an elector. Of candidates there are enough, more than enough,
+even to spare; Toting lists where the electors' names are inscribed;
+ballot-urns-no, ballot-boxes this time-to receive the lists; these are
+all to be found, but voters to put the lists into the ballot-boxes, to
+elect the candidates, we seek them in vain. The voting localities may be
+compared to the desert of Sahara viewed at the moment when not a caravan
+is to be seen on the whole extent of the horizon, so complete is the
+solitude wherever the eager crowd of voters was expected to hasten to
+the poll. Are we then so far from the day when the Commune of Paris, in
+spite of the numerous absentees, was formed--thanks to the strenuous
+efforts of the few electors left to us? Alas! At that time we had still
+some illusions left to us, whilst now.... Have you ever been at the
+second representation of a piece when the first was a failure? The first
+day there was a cram, the second day only the claque remained. People
+had found oat the worth of the piece, you see. Nevertheless, though the
+place is peopled only with silence and solitude, the claque continues to
+do its duty, for it receives its pay. For the same reason one sees a few
+battalions marching to the poll, all together, in step, just as they
+would march to the fighting at the Porte Maillot; and as they return
+they cry, "Oh! citizens, how the people are voting! Never was such
+enthusiasm seen!" But behind the scenes,--I mean in the H�tel de
+Ville,--authors and actors whisper to each other: "There is no doubt
+about it, it is a failure!"
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 59:
+
+        On leaving the gulf of Otranto
+          There were thirty of us there,
+        But on arriving at Cadiz
+          There were no more than ten.
+
+]
+
+
+
+
+LIV.
+
+
+And what has become of the Bourse? What are the brokers and jobbers
+saying and doing now? I ask myself this question for the first time, as
+in ordinary circumstances, the Bourse is of all sublunary things that
+which occupies me the least. I am one of those excessively stupid
+people, who have never yet been able to understand how all those
+black-coated individuals can occupy three mortal hours of every day, in
+coming and going beneath the colonnade of the "temple of Plutus." I know
+perfectly well that stockbrokers and jobbers exist; but if I were asked
+what these stockbrokers and jobbers do, I should be incapable of
+answering a single word. We have all our special ignorances. I have
+heard, it is true, of the _Corbeille_,[60] but I ingeniously imagined,
+in my simple ignorance, that this famous basket was made in wicker work,
+and crammed with sweet-scented leaves and flowers, which the gentlemen
+of the Bourse, with the true gallantry of their nation, made up into
+emblematical bouquets to offer to their lady friends. I was shown,
+however, how much I was deceived by a friend who enlightened me, more or
+less, as to what is really done in the Bourse in usual times, and what
+they are doing there now.
+
+I must begin by acknowledging that in using the worn metaphor of the
+"temple of Plutus" just now, I knew little of what I was talking about.
+
+The Bourse is not a temple; if it were it would necessarily be a church
+or something like one, and consequently would have been closed long ago
+by our most gracious sovereign, the Commune of Paris.
+
+The Bourse, then, is open; but what is the good of that? you will say,
+for all those who haunt it now, could get in just as well through closed
+doors and opposing railings; spectres and other supernatural beings
+never find any difficulty in insinuating themselves through keyholes and
+slipping between bars. 'Poor phantoms! Thanks to the weakness of our
+Government, which has neglected to put seals on the portals of the
+Bourse, they are under the obligation of going in and coming out like
+the most ordinary individuals; and a Parisian, who has not learned, by a
+long intimacy with Hoffmann and Edgar Po�, to distinguish the living
+from the dead, might take these ghosts of the money-market for simple
+_boursiers_. Thank heaven! I am not a man to allow myself to be deceived
+by specious appearances on such a subject, and I saw at once with whom I
+had to do.
+
+On the grand staircase there were four or five of them, spectres lean as
+vampires who have not sucked blood for three months; they were walking
+in silence, with the creeping, furtive step peculiar to apparitions who
+glide among the yew-trees in church-yards. From time to time one of them
+pulled a ghost of a notebook from his ghost of a waistcoat-pocket, and
+wrote appearances of notes with the shadow of a pencil. Others gathered
+together in groups, and one could distinctly hear the rattling of bones
+beneath their shadowy overcoats. They spoke in that peculiar voice which
+is only understood by the _confr�res_ of the magi Eliphas Levy, and they
+recall to each other's mind the quotations of former days, Austrian
+funds triumphant, Government stock at 70 (_quantum mutata ab ill�_),
+bonds of the city of Paris 1860-1869, and the fugitive apotheosis of the
+Suez shares. They said with sighs: "You remember the premiums? In former
+times there were reports made, in former times there were settling days
+at the end of the month, and huge pocket-book's were so well filled,
+that they nearly burst; but now, we wander amidst the ruins of our
+defunct splendour, as the shade of Diomedes wandered amid the ruins of
+his house at Pompeii. We are of those who were; the imaginary quotations
+of shares that have disappeared, are like vain epitaphs on tombs, and
+we, despairing ghosts, we should die a second time of grief, if we were
+not allowed to appear to each other in this deserted palace, here to
+brood over our past financial glories!" Thus spoke the phantoms of the
+money market, and then added: "Oh! Commune, Commune, give us back our
+settling days?" From time to time a phantom, which still retains its
+haughty air, and in which we recognise a defunct of distinction, passes
+near them. In the days of Napoleon the Third and the Prussians this was
+a stockbroker; it passed along with a mass of documents under its
+arm,--as the father of Hamlet, rising from the grave, still wore his
+helmet and his sword. It enters the building, goes towards the
+_Corbeille_, shouts out once or twice, is answered only by an echo in
+the solitude, and then returns, saluted on his passage by his
+fellow-ghost. And to think that a little bombardment, followed by a
+successful attack, seven or eight houses set on fire by the Versailles
+shells, seven or eight hundred Federals shot, a few women blown to
+pieces, and a few children killed, would suffice to restore these
+desolate spectres to life and joy. But, alas! hope for them is deferred;
+the last circular of Monsieur Thiers announces that the great military
+operations will not commence for several days. They must wait still
+longer yet. The people who cross the Place de la Bourse draw aside with
+a sort of religious terror from the necropolis where sleep the three per
+cents and the shares of the _Cr�dit Foncier_; and if the churches were
+not closed, more than one charitable soul would perhaps burn a candle to
+lay the unquiet spirits of these despairing jobbers.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 60: A circular space in the great hall of the Bourse, enclosed
+with a railing, and in which the stockbrokers stand to take bids. It is
+nicknamed the basket (_corbeille_).]
+
+
+
+
+LV.
+
+
+The game is played, the Commune is _au complet_. In the first
+arrondissement 21260 electors, are inscribed, and there were 9 voters!
+Monsieur V�sinier had 2 votes, and Monsieur V�sinier was elected.
+Monsieur Lacord--more clever still--has no votes at all, and, triumphing
+by the unanimity of his electors, Monsieur Lacord will preside over the
+Commune of Paris in future. A very logical arrangement. It must be
+evident to all serious minds that the legislators of the H�tel de Ville
+have promulgated _in petto_ a law which they did not think it necessary
+to make known, but which exists nevertheless, and most be couched
+somewhat in the following terms:--"Clause 1st. The elections will not be
+considered valid, if the number of voters exceed a thousandth part of
+the electors entered.--Clause 2nd. Every candidate who has less than
+fifteen votes will be elected; if he has sixteen his election will be a
+matter of discussion." The poll is just like the game called, "He who
+loses gains, and he who gains loses!" and the probable advantages of
+such an arrangement are seen at once. Now let us do a bit of Communal
+reasoning. By whom was France led within an inch of destruction? By
+Napoleon the Third. How many votes did Napoleon the Third obtain? Seven
+millions and more. By whom was Paris delivered into the hands of the
+Prussians? By the dictators of the 4th September. How many votes did the
+dictators of the 4th September get for themselves in the city of Paris?
+More than three hundred thousand. _Ergo_, the candidates who obtain the
+greatest number of votes are swindlers and fools. The Commune of Paris
+cannot allow such abuses to exist; the Commune maintains universal
+suffrage--the grand basis of republican institutions--but turns it
+topsy-turvy. Michon has only had half a vote,--then Michon is our
+master!
+
+Ah! you do not only make us tremble and weep, you make us laugh too.
+What is this miserable parody of universal suffrage? What is this farce
+of the will of the people being represented by a half a dozen electors?
+The unknown individual, who owes his triumph to the kindness of his
+concierge and his water-carrier, becomes a member of the Commune. I
+shall be governed by V�sinier, with Briosne and Viard as supporters. Do
+you not see that the few men, with any sense left, who still support
+you, have refused to present themselves as candidates, and that even
+amongst those who were mad enough to declare themselves eligible, there
+are some who dispute the validity of the elections? No; you see nothing
+of all this, or rather it suits you to be blind. What are right and
+justice to you? Let us reign, let us govern, let us decree, let us
+triumph. All is contained in that. Rogeard pleases us, so we'll have
+Rogeard. If the people won't have Rogeard, so much the worse for the
+people. Beautiful! admirable! But why don't you speak out your opinion
+frankly? There were some honest brigands (_par pari refertur_) in the
+Roman States who were perhaps no better than you are, but at least they
+made no pretension of being otherwise than lawless, and followed their
+calling of brigands without hypocrisy. When, by the course of various
+adventures, the band got diminished in numbers, they stuck no handbills
+on the walls to invite people to elect new brigands to fill up the
+vacant places; they simply chose among the vagabonds and such like
+individuals those, who seemed to them, the most capable of dealing a
+blow with a stiletto or stripping a traveller of his valuables, and the
+band, thus properly reinforced, went about its usual occupations. The
+devil! _Messieurs_, one must say what is what, and call things by their
+names. Let us call a cat a cat, and Pilotel a thief. The time of
+illusions is past; you need not be so careful to keep your masks on; we
+have seen your faces. We have had the carnival of the Commune, and now
+Ash-Wednesday is come. You disguised yourselves cunningly, _Messieurs_;
+you routed out from the old cupboards and corners of history the
+cast-off revolutionary rags of the men of '98; and, sticking some
+ornaments of the present fashion upon them,--waistcoats � la Commune and
+hats � la Federation,--you dressed yourselves up in them and then struck
+attitudes. People perceived, it is true, that the clothes that were made
+for giants, were too wide for you pigmies; they hung round your figures
+like collapsed balloons; but you, cunning that you were, you said, "We
+have been wasted by persecution." And when, at the very beginning, some
+stains of blood were seen upon your old disguises; "Pay no attention,"
+said you, "it is only the red flag we have in our pockets that is
+sticking out." And it happened that some few believed you. We ourselves,
+in the very face of all our suspicions, let ourselves be caught by the
+waving of your big Scaramouche sleeves, that were a great deal too long
+for your arms. Then you talked of such beautiful things: liberty,
+emancipation of workmen, association of the working-classes, that we
+listened and thought we would see you at your task before we condemned
+you utterly. And now we have seen you at your task, and knowing how you
+work, we won't give you any more work to do. Down with your mask, I tell
+you! Come, false Danton, be Rigault again, and let S�railler's[61] face
+come out from behind that Saint Just mask he has on. You, Napol�on
+Gaillard, though you are a shoemaker, you are not even a Simon. Drop the
+Robespierre, Rogeard! Off with the trappings borrowed from the dark,
+grand days! Be mean, small, and ridiculous,--be yourselves; we shall all
+be a great deal more at our ease when you are despicable and we are
+despising you again.
+
+Paris said to you yesterday just what I am telling you now. This almost
+general abstention of electors, compared with the eagerness of former
+times, is but the avowal of the error to which your masquerade has given
+rise. And what does it prove but the resolution to mix in your carnival
+no more? We see clearly through it now, I tell you, that the saturnalia
+is wearing to its end. In vain does the orchestra of cannon and
+mitrailleuses, under the direction of the conductor, Cluseret, play
+madly on and invite us to the f�te. We will dance no more, and there is
+an end of it!
+
+But it will be fatal to Paris if, after saying this, she sit satisfied.
+Contempt is not enough, there must be abhorrence too, and actual
+measures taken against those we abhor. It is not sufficient to neglect
+the poll, one abstains when one is in doubt, but now that we doubt no
+longer it is time to act. While wrongful work is being done, those that
+stand aside with folded arms become accomplices. Think that for more
+than a fortnight the firing has not ceased; that Neuilly and Asni�res
+have been turned into cemeteries; that husbands are falling, wives
+weeping, children suffering. Think that yesterday, the 18th of April,
+the chapel of Longchamps became a dependance--an extra dead-house--of
+the ambulances of the Press, so numerous were that day's dead. Think of
+the savage decrees passed upon the hostages and the refractory, those
+who shunned the Federates; of the requisitions and robberies; of the
+crowded prisons and the empty workshops, of the possible massacres and
+the certain pillage. Think of our own compromised honour, and let us be
+up and doing, so that those who have remained in Paris during these
+mournful hours, shall not have stood by her only to see her fall and
+die.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 61: S�railler, a member of the International, intrusted with a
+commission to London on behalf of the Central Committee to borrow cash
+for the daily pay of thirty sous to the National Guard.]
+
+
+
+
+LVI.
+
+
+Paris! for once I defy you to remain indifferent. You have had much to
+bear, during these latter days; it has been said to you, that you should
+kneel in your churches no more, and you have not knelt there; that the
+newspapers that pleased you, should be read no more, and you have not
+read them. You have continued to smile--with but the tips of your lips,
+it is true--and to promenade on the boulevards. But now comes stalking
+on that which will make you shudder indeed! Do you know what I have just
+read in the _Ind�pendance Belge_? Ah! poor Paris, the days of your glory
+are past, your ancient fame is destroyed, the old nursery rhyme will
+mock you, "_Vous n'irez plus au Bois, vos lauriers sont coup�s._"[62]
+This is what has happened; you are supplanted on the throne of fashion.
+The world, uneasy about the form of bonnet to be worn this sorrowful
+year, and seeing you occupied with your internal discords, anxiously
+turned to London for help, and London henceforth dictates to all the
+modistes of the universe. City of desolation, I pity you! No more will
+you impose your sovereign laws, concerning _Suivez-moi-jeune-homme_[63]
+and dog-skin gloves. No more will your boots and shirt-collars reach,
+by the force of their reputation, the sparely-dressed inhabitants of the
+Sandwich Islands. And, deepest of humiliations, it is your old rival, it
+is your tall and angular sister, it is the black city of London, who
+takes your glittering sword and transforms it into a policeman's baton
+of wood! You are destined to see within your walls--if any walls remain
+to you--your own wives and daughters clog their dainty tread with
+encumbrances of English leather, flatten their heads beneath
+mushroom-shaped hats, surround themselves with crinoline and flounces,
+and wear magenta, that abominable mixture of red and blue which always
+filled your soul with horror. Then, to increase the resemblance of your
+Parisian women with the Londoners or Cockneys (for it is time you learnt
+the fashionable language of England), your dentists will sell them new
+sets of teeth, called insular sets, which can be fitted over their
+natural front teeth, and will protrude about a third of an inch beyond
+the upper lip. And they will have corsets offered them whose aim is to
+prolong the waist to the farthest possible limits and compress the
+fairest forms--a fact, for report says they lace in London, whilst here
+we have nearly abandoned the corset. Well, my Paris, do you tremble and
+shiver? Oh! when those days of horror come to pass! when you see that
+not only have you forfeited your pride, but your vanity too; when you
+are convinced that the Commune has not only rendered you odious, but
+ridiculous as well; ah! then, when you wear bonnets that you have not
+invented, how deeply will you regret that you did not rebel on that day,
+when some of the best of your citizens were put _au secret_ in the cells
+of Mazas prison![64]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 62: The refrain of a nursery song,--
+
+        "Go no more to the wood, for all the laurels are cut."
+
+]
+
+[Footnote 63: The long floating ends of the neck ribbons.]
+
+[Footnote 64: The Parisian play-writer's English exhibits all the
+typical peculiarities noted above. We have our ideal, if not typical,
+Frenchman, little less truthful perhaps--taken from refugees and
+excursionists, from the close-cropped, dingy denizen of Leicester
+Square; our tourist suits, heavy pedestrian toots, "wide-awakes," and
+faded fashions, used up in travel--all these things are put down to
+insular peculiarities.]
+
+
+
+
+LVII.
+
+
+I have just heard or read, a touching story; and here it is as I
+remember it. In the Faubourg Saint Antoine lives a community of women
+with whom the aged of the poor find shelter; those who have become
+infirm, or have dropped into helpless childishness, whether men or
+women, are received there without question or payment. There they are
+lodged, fed and clothed, and humbly prayed for.
+
+Last evening, sleep was just beginning to reign in the little community.
+The old people had been put to rest, each Little Sister had done her
+duty and was asleep, when the report of a gun resounded at the
+house-door. You can imagine the startings and the terror. The Little
+Sisters of the poor are not accustomed to have such noises in their
+ears, and there was a tumult and hubbub such as the house had never
+known, while they hurriedly rose, and the old people stared at each
+other from their white beds in the long dormitories. When the house-door
+was got open, a party of men, with a menacing look about them, strode in
+with their guns and swords, making a horrible racket. One of them was
+the chief, and he had a great beard and a terrible voice. All the Little
+Sisters gathered in a trembling crowd about the superior.
+
+"Shut the doors," cried the captain, "and if one of these women attempt
+to escape--one, two, three, fire!" Then the Good Mother--that is the
+Little Sisters' name for their superior--made a step forward and said,
+"What do you wish, messieurs?"
+
+"Citizens, _sacrebleu!_"
+
+The Good Mother crossed herself and, repeated, "What do you wish, my
+brothers?"
+
+[Illustration: Federal Visit to The Little Sisters of The Poor.]
+
+Now, if Citizen Rigault, who put Monseigneur Darboy down so wittily, had
+been there, how briskly he would have told the stupid woman that these
+were National Guards, and not brothers, before her. But even Rigault
+cannot be everywhere at once. "We want to inspect your funds," replied
+the officer. The Good Mother signed to him to follow, opened a cupboard,
+pulled out a drawer, and said, "This is what we have." The box had
+twenty-two francs in it. "Is that all?" asked the captain in a
+suspicious tone.--"Nothing more, monsieur," she said; "besides, you can
+look everywhere for yourselves." So the National Guards spread through
+the house, opened the rooms, searched the cupboards and chests, and came
+at last, without having found anything, to the dormitories, where the
+Little Sisters' old nurselings were lying. Every head was upraised in
+astonishment and fear, and all, stammering and trembling, began
+jabbering out at once, "What are you doing here? You are not going to
+hurt the good Sisters? It's a shame! It's infamous! Go away! It's
+cowardly! My good monsieur, what will become of us if you take them
+away?" The old women were furious, and the old men in lamentations.
+Officer and men scarcely expected such a scene, and began to hesitate in
+their search. "Well, well, my good people," said the officer, who had
+been the most violent, and had now softened down, "we won't take the
+Little Sisters away, and we won't hurt them either. There, there--are
+you satisfied?"--and the men began to go downstairs again.--"My sister,
+you have not shut your drawer," said the captain, as he passed the
+cupboard.--"That is true, monsieur; I am not in the habit of doing it.
+In our house, you see, it is quite useless."--"Never mind, shut it
+to-day at any rate. How can I know all the men I have about me?" And as
+he spoke, the captain turned back, shut the drawer himself, without
+touching the contents, and gave the key to the superior. He seemed quite
+ill at ease, and got out at last, "We didn't know ... if we had known it
+was like this ... you see we had been told ... yes, yes, it is very good
+of you to take care of those poor old folks upstairs." Now that the man
+seemed embarrassed and showed some kindliness in his manner, a Little
+Sister who had quite got over her fear, went up to him and told him how
+frightened they had been for a whole month past; that they had been told
+that the Reds wanted to take their house. Ah! it was horrible! But
+monsieur would protect them, would he not?
+
+"That I will," bravely answered the captain; "give me your hand. And
+now, if any one wants to harm you, he will have me to deal with first."
+
+A few minutes later, the National Guards were gone, the Little Sisters
+and the old nurslings were at rest again, and the house was just as
+silent and peaceful as if it were no abominable resort of plotters and
+conspirators.
+
+But if I had been the Commune of Paris, would I not have shot that
+captain!
+
+
+
+
+LVIII.
+
+
+The people of the H�tel de Ville said to themselves, "All our fine
+doings and talking come to nothing, the delegate Cluseret and the
+commandant Dombrowski send us the most encouraging despatches in vain,
+we shall never succeed in persuading the Parisian population, that our
+struggle against the army of Versailles is a long string of decisive
+victories; whatever we may do, they will finish by finding out that the
+federate battalions gave way strangely in face of the iron-plated
+mitrailleuses the day before yesterday at Asni�res, and it would be
+difficult to make them believe that this village, so celebrated for
+fried fish and Paris Cockneys, is still in our possession, unless we can
+manage to persuade them that although we have evacuated Asni�res, we
+still energetically maintain our position there. The fact is, affairs
+are taking a tolerably bad turn for us. How are we to get over the
+inconvenience of being vanquished? What are we to do to destroy the bad
+impression produced by our doubtful triumphs?" And thereupon the members
+of the Commune fell to musing. "Parbleu!" cried they, after a few
+moments' reflection--the elect of Paris are capable of more in a single
+second than all the deputies of the National Assembly in three
+years--"Let decrees, proclamations, and placards be prepared. By what
+means, did we succeed in imposing on the donkeys of Paris? Why, by
+decrees, by proclamations, by placards. Courage, then, let us persevere.
+Ha! the traitors have taken the ch�teau of B�con, and have seized upon
+Asni�res. What matters! quick, eighty pens and eighty inkstands. To
+work, men of letters; painters and shoemakers, to work! Franckel, who is
+Hungarian; Napol�on Gaillard, who is a cobbler; Dombrowski, who is a
+Pole; and Billioray, who writes _omelette_ with an h, will make perhaps
+rather a mess of it. But, thank heaven! We have amongst us F�lix Pyat,
+the great dramatist; Pierre Denis, who has made such bad verses that he
+must write good prose; and lastly, Vermorel, the author of '_Ces
+Dames_,' a little book illustrated with photographs for the use of
+schools, and '_Desperanza_,' a novel which caused Gustave Flaubert many
+a nightmare. To work, comrades, to work! We have been asked for a long
+time what we understand by the words--La Commune. Tell them, if you
+know. Write it, proclaim it, and we will placard it. Even if you don't
+know, tell them all the same; the great art of a good cook consists in
+making jugged hare without hare of any kind." And this is why there
+appeared this morning on the walls an immense placard, with the
+following words in enormous letters: "Declaration to the French people."
+
+Twenty days ago a long proclamation, which pretended to express and
+define the tendencies of the revolution of the eighteenth of March,
+would perhaps have had some effect. To-day we have awaked from many
+illusions, and the finest phrases in the world will not overcome our
+obstinate indifference. Let us, however, read and note.
+
+[Illustration: VERMOREL,[65] DELEGATE OF PUBLIC SAFETY.]
+
+    "In the painful and terrible conflict which once more imposes upon
+    Paris the horrors of the siege and the bombardment, which makes
+    French blood flow, which causes our brothers, our wives, our
+    children, to perish, crushed by shot and shell, it is urgent that
+    public opinion should not be divided, that the national conscience
+    should not be troubled."
+
+That's right! I entirely agree with you; it is undoubtedly very urgent
+that public opinion should not be divided. But let us see what means you
+are going to take to obtain so desirable a result.
+
+    "Paris and the whole nation must know what is the nature, the
+    reason, the object of the revolution which is now being
+    accomplished."
+
+Doubtless; but if that be indispensable to-day, would it have been less
+useful on the very first day of the revolution; we do not see why you
+have made us wait quite so long for it.
+
+    "The responsibility of the mourning, the suffering, and the
+    misfortunes of which we are the victims should fall upon those who,
+    after having betrayed France and delivered Paris to the foreigner,
+    pursue with blind obstinacy the destruction of the capital, in order
+    to bury under the ruins of the Republic and of Liberty the double
+    evidence of their treason and their crime."
+
+Heigho! what a phrase! These clear and precise expressions, that throw
+so much light on the gloom of the situation, are these yours, F�lix
+Pyat? Did the Commune say "_Pyat Lux!_" Or were they yours, Pierre
+Denis? Or yours, Vermorel? I particularly admire the double evidence
+buried under the ruins of the Republic. Happy metaphor!
+
+    "The duty of the Commune is to affirm and determine the aspirations
+    and the views of the population of Paris; to fix precisely the
+    character of the movement of the 18th of March, misunderstood,
+    misinterpreted, and vilified by the men who sit at Versailles."
+
+Ah, yes, that is the duty of the Commune, but for heaven's sake don't
+keep us waiting, you see we are dying with impatience.
+
+    "Once more, Paris labours and suffers for the whole of France, and
+    by her combats and her sacrifices prepares the way for intellectual,
+    moral, administrative and economic regeneration, glory and
+    prosperity."
+
+That is so true that since the Commune existed in Paris, the workshops
+are closed, the factories are idle, and France, for whom the capital
+sacrifices herself, loses something like fifty millions a day. These are
+facts, it seems to me; and I don't see what the traitors of Versailles
+can say in reply.
+
+    "What does Paris demand?"
+
+Ah! yes, what does she ask? Truly we should not be sorry to know. Or
+rather, what do you ask; for in the same way as Louis le Grand had the
+right to say, "The State, I am the State," you may say "Paris, we are
+Paris."
+
+    "Paris demands the recognition and the consolidation of the
+    Republic, the only form of government compatible with the rights of
+    the people, and the regular and free development of society."
+
+This once you are right. Paris demands the Republic, and must yearn for
+it eagerly indeed, since neither your excesses nor your follies have
+succeeded in changing its mind.
+
+    "It demands the absolute entirety of the Commune extended to all the
+    localities of France, ensuring to everyone the integrity of its
+    rights, and to every Frenchman the free exercise of his faculties
+    and abilities as man, citizen, and workman. The rights of the
+    Commune should have no other limit, but the equal rights of all
+    other Communes adhering to the contract, an association which would
+    assure the unity of France."
+
+This is a little obscure. What I understand is something like this. You
+would make France a federation of Communes, but what is the meaning of
+words "adherence to the contract?" You admit then that certain Communes
+might refuse their adhesion. In that case what would be the situation
+of these rebels? Would you leave them free? Or would you force them to
+obey the conventions of the majority? Do you think it would be
+sufficient, in the case of such a town as Pezenas, for example, refusing
+to adhere, that the association would be incomplete? That is to say,
+that French unity would not exist? Are you very sure about Pezenas? Who
+tells you that Pezenas may not have its own idea of independence, and
+that, we may not hear presently that it has elected a duke who raises an
+army and coins money. Duke of Pezenas! that sounds well. Remember, also,
+that many other localities might follow the example of Pezenas, and
+perhaps in order to insure the entirety of the Commune, it might have
+been wise to have asked them if they wanted it. Now, what do you
+understand by "localities?" Marseilles is a locality; an isolated farm
+in the middle of a field is also a locality. So France would be divided
+into an infinite number of Communes. Would they agree amongst
+themselves, these innumerable little states? Supposing they are agreed
+to the contract, it is not impossible that petty rivalries should lead
+to quarrels, or even to blows; an action about a party-wall might lead
+to a civil war. How would you reduce the recalcitrant localities to
+reason? for even supposing that the Communes have the right to subjugate
+a Commune, the disaffected one could always escape you by declaring that
+it no longer adheres to the social compact. So that if this secession
+were produced not only by the vanity of one or more little hamlets, but
+by the pride of one or more great towns, France would find herself all
+at once deprived of her most important cities. Ah! messieurs, this part
+of your programme certainly leaves something to be desired, and I
+recommend you to improve it, unless indeed you prefer to suppress it
+altogether.
+
+    "The inherent rights of the Commune are 'the vote of the Commmunal
+    budget, the levying and the division of taxes, the direction of the
+    local services, the organisation of the magistrature, of the police,
+    and of education, and of the administration of the property
+    belonging to the Commune.'"
+
+This paragraph is cunning. It does not seem so at first sight, but look
+at it closely, and you will see that the most Machiavellic spirit has
+presided over its production. The ability consists in placing side by
+side with the rights which incontestably belong to the Commune, other
+rights which do not belong to it the least in the world, and in not
+appearing to attach more importance to one than to the other, so that
+the reader, carried away by the evident legitimacy of many of your
+claims, may say to himself, "Really all that is very just." Let us
+unravel if you please this skein of red worsted so ingeniously tangled.
+The vote of the Communal budget, receipts and expenses, the levying and
+division of taxes, the administration of the Communal property, are
+rights which certainly belong to the Commune; if it had not got them it
+would not exist. And why do they belong to it? Because it alone could
+know what is good for it in these matters, and could come to such
+decision upon them, as it thought fit, without injuring the whole
+country. But it is not the same as regards measures concerning the
+magistracy, the police, and education. Well, suppose one fine day a
+Commune should say, "Magistrates? I don't want any magistrates; these
+black-robed gentry are no use to me; let others nourish these idlers,
+who send brave thieves and honest assassins to the galleys; I love
+assassins and I honour thieves, and more, I choose that the culprits
+should judge the magistrates of the Republic." Now, if a Commune were to
+say that, or something like that, what could you answer in reply?
+Absolutely nothing; for, according to your system, each locality in
+France has the right to organise its magistracy as it pleases. As
+regards the police and education, it would be easy to make out similar
+hypotheses, and thus to exhibit the absurdity of your Communal
+pretensions. Should a Commune say, "No person shall be arrested in
+future, and it is prohibited under pain of death to learn by heart the
+fable of the wolf and the fox." What could you say to that? Nothing,
+unless you admitted that you were mistaken just now in supposing, that
+the integrity of the Commune ought to have no other limit but the right
+of equal independence of all the other Communes. There exists another
+limit, and that is the general interests of the country, which cannot
+permit one part of it to injure the rest, by bad example or in any other
+way; the central power alone can judge those questions where a single
+absurd measure--of which more than one "locality" may probably be
+guilty--might compromise the honour or the interests of France; the
+magistracy, the police, and education, are evidently questions of that
+nature.
+
+The other rights of the Commune are, always be it understood, according
+to the declaration made to the French people:
+
+    "The choice by election or competition; with the responsibility and
+    the permanent right of control over magistrates and communal
+    functionaries of every class;
+
+    "The absolute guarantee of individual liberty, of liberty of
+    conscience, and of liberty of labour;
+
+    "The permanent participation of the citizens in Communal affairs by
+    the free manifestations of their opinions, and the free defence of
+    their interests: guarantees to this effect to be given by the
+    Commune, the only power charged with the surveillance and the
+    protection of the full and just exercise of the rights of meeting
+    and publicity;
+
+    "The organisation of the city defences and of the National Guard,
+    which elects its own officers, and alone ensures the maintenance of
+    order in the city."
+
+With regard to the affirmation of these rights we may repeat that which
+we have said above, that some of them really belong to the Commune, but
+that the greater part of them do not.
+
+    "Paris desires nothing more in the way of local guarantees, on
+    condition, let it be understood, of finding in the great central
+    administration ..."
+
+    "... In the great central administration appointed by the federated
+    Commune the realisation and the practice of the same principles."
+
+That is to say, in other words, that Paris will consent willingly to be
+of the same opinion as others, if all the world is of the same opinion
+as itself.
+
+    "But, thanks to its independence, and profiting by its liberty of
+    action, Paris reserves to itself the right of effecting, as it
+    pleases, the administrative and economic reforms demanded by the
+    population; to create proper institutions for the development and
+    propagation of instruction, production, commerce, and credit; to
+    universalize power and property,..."
+
+Whew! Universalize property! Pray what does that mean, may I ask?
+Communalism here presents a singular likeness to Communism!
+
+    "... According to the necessities of the moment, the desire of those
+    interested, and the lessons famished by experience:
+
+    "Our enemies deceive themselves or the country when they accuse
+    Paris of wishing to impose its will or its supremacy on the rest of
+    the nation, and to pretend to a dictatorship which would be a
+    positive offence against the independence and the sovereignty of the
+    other Communes:
+
+    "They deceive themselves, or they deceive the country, when they
+    accuse Paris of desiring the destruction of French unity,
+    constituted by the Revolution amid the acclamations of our fathers
+    hurrying to the Festival of the Federation from all points of
+    ancient France:
+
+    "Political unity as imposed upon us up to the present time by the
+    empire, the monarchy, and parliamentarism, is nothing more than
+    despotic centralization, whether intelligent, arbitrary, or onerous.
+
+    "Political unity, such as Paris demands, is the voluntary
+    association of all local initiatives, the spontaneous and free
+    cooperation of individual energies with one single common
+    object--the well-being and the security of all.
+
+    "The Communal revolution, inaugurated by the popular action of the
+    18th of March, ushers in a new era of experimental, positive, and
+    scientific politics."
+
+Do you not think that during the last paragraphs the tone of the
+declaration is somewhat modified? It would seem as though Felix Pyat had
+become tired, and handed the pen to Pierre Denis or to Delescluze,
+--after Communalism comes socialism.
+
+    "Communal revolution is the end of the old governmental and clerical
+    world, of militarism, of officialism (this new editor seems fond of
+    words ending in ism), of exploitation, of commission, of monopolies,
+    and of privileges to which the proletariat owes his thralldom, and
+    the country her misfortunes and disasters."
+
+Of course there is nothing in the world that would please me better; but
+if I were very certain that Citizen Rigault did not possess an improved
+glass enabling him to observe me from a distance of several miles,
+without leaving his study or his armchair, if I were very certain that
+Citizen Rigault could not read over my shoulder what I am writing at
+this moment, I might perhaps venture to insinuate, that the revolution
+of the 18th of March appears to me to be, at the present moment, the
+apotheosis of most of the crimes which it pretends to have suppressed.
+
+    "Let then our grand and beloved country, deceived by falsehood and
+    calumnies, be reassured!"
+
+Well, in order that she may be reassured there is only one thing to be
+done,--be off with you!
+
+    "The struggle going on between Paris and Versailles is one of those
+    which can never be terminated by deceitful compromises. There can be
+    no doubt as to the issue. (Oh, no! there is no doubt about it.)
+    Victory, pursued with indomitable energy by the National Guard, will
+    remain with principle and justice.
+
+    We ask it of France."
+
+Where is the necessity, since you have the indomitable energy of the
+National Guard?".
+
+    "Convinced that Paris under arms possesses as much calmness as
+    bravery ..."
+
+You will find that a very difficult thing to persuade France to believe.
+
+    "... That it maintains order with equal energy and enthusiasm ..."
+
+Order? No doubt, that which reigned at Warsaw; the order that reigned on
+the day after the 2nd of December.
+
+    "... That it sacrifices itself with as much judgment as heroism ..."
+
+Yes; the judgment of a man who throws himself out of a fourth-floor
+window to prove that his head is harder than the paving-stones.
+
+    "... That it is only armed through devotion for the glory and
+    liberty of all--let France cause this bloody conflict to cease!"
+
+She'll cause it to cease, never fear, but not in the way you understand
+it.
+
+    "It is for France to disarm Versailles ..."
+
+Up to the present time she has certainly done precisely the contrary.
+
+    "... by the manifestations of her irresistible will. As she will be
+    partaker in our conquests, let her take part in our efforts, let her
+    be our ally in this conflict, which can only finish by the triumph
+    of the Communal idea, or the ruin of Paris."
+
+The ruin of Paris! That is only, I suppose, a figurative expression.
+
+    "For ourselves, citizens of Paris, it is our mission to accomplish
+    the modern revolution, the grandest and most fruitful of all those
+    that have illuminated history.
+
+    "Our duty is to struggle and to conquer!
+
+    "THE COMMUNE OF PARIS."
+
+Such is this long, emphatic, but often obscure declaration. It is not
+wanting, however, in a certain eloquence; and, although frequently
+disfigured by glaring exaggerations, it contains here and there some
+just ideas, or at least, such as conform to the views of the great
+majority. Will it destroy the bad effect produced by the successive
+defeats of the Federals at Neuilly and at Asni�res? Will it produce any
+good feeling towards the Commune in the minds of those who are daily
+drawing farther and farther from the men of the Commune? No; it is too
+late. Had this proclamation been placarded fifteen or twenty days
+sooner, some parts of it might have been approved and the rest
+discussed. Today we pass it by with a smile. Ah! many things have
+happened during the last three days. The acts of the Commune of Paris no
+longer allow us to take its declarations seriously, and we look upon its
+members as too mad--if not worse--to believe that by any accident they
+can be reasonable. These men have finished by rendering detestable
+whatever good there originally was in their idea.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 65: He was born in 1841, in the department of the Rh�ne. His
+education was completed very early. At the age of twenty he was engaged
+on two journals of the opposition, _La Jeune France_, and _La Jeunesse_.
+Those papers were soon suppressed, and their young contributor was
+imprisoned for three months. In 1864 he became one of the staff of the
+_Presse_, whence he passed to the _Libert�_ in 1866. Two years later he
+founded the _Courrier Fran�ais_; but from the multiplicity of fines
+imposed upon it, and from the imprisonment of its founder, the new
+journal expired very shortly. After a year's incarceration at
+Sainte-P�lagie, Vermorel was engaged on the _R�forme_, which continued
+to appear until the fall of the Empire. During the siege he served as a
+private in the National Guard. He became a member of the Committee of
+Justice under the Commune, and was one of those who, at its fall,
+neither deserted nor disgraced it. He is reported to have mounted a
+barricade armed only with a cane, crying "I come here to die and not to
+fight." His mother obtained permission to transport his remains to
+Venice.]
+
+
+
+
+LIX.
+
+
+We have a court-martial; it is presided over by the citizen Rossel,
+chief of the grand staff of the army. It has just condemned to death the
+Commandant Girod, who refused to march against the "enemy." The
+Executive Committee, however, has pardoned Commandant Girod. Let us look
+at this matter a little. If the Executive Committee occupies its time in
+undoing what the court-martial has done, I can't quite understand why
+the executive has instituted a court-martial at all. If I were a member
+of the latter I should get angry. "What! I should say, they instal me in
+the hall where the courts-martial are held, they appoint guards to
+attend upon me, and my president has the right to say, 'Guards, remove
+the prisoner.' In a word, they convert me into something which resembles
+a judge as much as a parody can resemble the work burlesqued, and when
+I, a member of the court-martial, desire to take advantage of the rights
+that have been conferred upon me, and order the Commandant Girod to be
+shot, they stand in the way of justice, and save the life of him I have
+condemned. This is absurd! I had a liking for this commandant, and I
+wished him to die by my hands."
+
+Never mind, court-martial, take it coolly; you will have your revenge
+before long. At this moment there are at least sixty-three ecclesiastics
+in the prisons of Mazas, the Conciergerie, and La Sant�. Although they
+are not precisely soldiers, they will be sent before you to be judged,
+and you may do just what you like with them, without any fear of the
+executive commission interposing its veto. The refractory also will give
+you work to do, and against them you can exercise your pleasure. As to
+the Commandant Girod, his is a different case, you understand. He is the
+friend of citizen Delescluze. The members of the Commune have not so
+many friends that they can afford to have any of them suppressed. But
+don't be downcast; a dozen priests are well worth a major of the
+National Guard.
+
+
+
+
+LX.
+
+
+It is precisely because the men that the Commune sends to the front,
+fight and die so gloriously, that we feel exasperated against its
+members. A curse upon them, for thus wasting the moral riches of Paris!
+Confusion to them, for enlisting into so bad a service, the first-rate
+forces which a successful revolt leaves at their disposal. I will tell
+you what happened yesterday, the 22nd of April, on the Boulevard Bineau;
+and then I think you will agree with me that France, who has lost so
+much, still retains some of the bright, dauntless courage which was her.
+pride of old.
+
+A trumpeter, a mere lad of seventeen, was marching at the head of his
+detachment, which had been ordered to take possession of a barricade
+that the Versailles troops were supposed to have abandoned. When I say,
+"he marched," I am making a most incorrect statement, for he turned
+somersets and executed flying leaps on the road, far in advance of his
+comrades, until his progress was arrested by the barricade; this he
+greeted with a mocking gesture, and then, with a bound or two, was on
+the other side. There had been some mistake, the barricade had not been
+abandoned. Our young trumpeter was immediately surrounded by a pretty
+large number of troops of the line, who had lain hidden among the sacks
+of earth and piles of stones, in the hope of surprising the company
+which was advancing towards them. Several rifles were pointed at the
+poor boy, and a sergeant said: "If you move a foot, if you utter a
+sound, you die!" The lad's reply was to leap to the highest part of the
+barricade and cry out, with all the strength of his young voice, "Don't
+come on! They are here!" Then he fell backwards, pierced by four balls,
+but his comrades were saved!
+
+
+
+
+LXI.
+
+
+Another, and a sadder scene happened in the Avenue des Ternes. A
+funeral procession was passing along. The coffin, borne by two men, was
+very small, the coffin of a young child. The father, a workman in a
+blouse, walked behind with a little knot of other mourners. A sad sight,
+but the catastrophe was horrible. Suddenly a shell from Mont Val�rien
+fell on the tiny coffin, and, bursting, scattered the remains of the
+dead child upon the living father. The corpse was entirely destroyed,
+with the trappings that had surrounded it. Massacring the dead! Truly
+those cannons are a wonderful, a refined invention!
+
+
+
+
+LXII.
+
+
+At last the unhappy inhabitants of Neuilly are able to leave their
+cellars. For three weeks, they have been hourly expecting the roofs of
+their houses to fall in and crush them; and with much difficulty have
+managed during the quieter moments of the day to procure enough to keep
+them from dying of starvation. For three weeks they have endured all the
+terrors, all the dangers of battle and bombardment. Many are dead--they
+all thought themselves sure to die. Horrible details are told. A little
+past Gilet's restaurant, where the omnibus office used to be, lived an
+old couple, man and wife. At the beginning of the civil war, two shells
+burst, one after another, in their poor lodging, destroying every
+article of furniture. Utterly destitute, they took refuge in the cellar,
+where after a few hours of horrible suspense, the old man died. He was
+seventy, and the fright killed him; his wife was younger and stronger,
+and survived. In the rare intervals between the firing she went out and
+spoke to her neighbours through the cellar gratings--"My husband is
+dead. He must be buried; what am I to do?"--Carrying him to the
+cemetery was of course out of the question; no one could have been found
+to render this mournful duty. Besides, the bearers would probably have
+met a shell or a bullet on the way, and then others must have been found
+to carry them. One day, the old woman ventured as far as the Porte
+Maillot, and cried out as loud as she could, "My husband is dead in a
+cellar; come and fetch him, and let us both through the gates!"--The
+sentinel facetiously (let us hope it was nothing worse) took aim at her
+with his rifle, and she fled back to her cellar. At night, she slept by
+the side of the corpse, and when the light of morning filtered into her
+dreary place of refuge, and lighted up the body lying there, she sobbed
+with grief and terror. Her husband had been dead four days, when
+putrefaction set in, and she, able to bear it no longer, rushed out
+screaming to her neighbours: "You must bury him, or I will go into the
+middle of the avenue and await death there!"--They took pity on her, and
+came down into her cellar, dug a hole there and put the corpse in it.
+During three weeks she continued there, resting herself on the
+newly-turned earth. To-day, when they went to fetch her she fainted with
+horror; the grave had been dug too shallow, and one of the legs of the
+corpse was exposed to gaze.
+
+[Illustration: FEMALE CURIOSITY AT PORTE MAILLOT. "Prenez garde,
+Mam'zelle."]
+
+This morning, the 25th of April, at nine o'clock, a dense crowd moved up
+the Champs Elys�es: pedestrians of all ages and classes, and vehicles of
+every description. The truce obtained by the members of the _Republican
+Union of the rights of Paris_ was about to begin, and relief was to be
+carried to the sufferers at Neuilly. However, some precautions were
+necessary, for neither the shooting nor the cannonade had ceased yet,
+and every moment one expected to see some projectile or other fall among
+the advancing multitude. In the Avenue de la Grande Arm�e a shell had
+struck a house, and set fire to it. Gradually the sound of the artillery
+diminished, and then died away entirely; the crowd hastened to the
+ramparts.
+
+[Illustration: PORTE MAILLOT AND CHAPEL OF ST. FERDINAND.
+
+The chapel was erected by Louis Philippe in memory of the Duke of
+Orleans, killed on the spot, July 18th, 1842.]
+
+The Porte Maillot has been entirely destroyed for some time, in spite of
+what the Commune has told us to the contrary; the drawbridge is torn
+from its place, the ruined walls and bastions have fallen into the moat.
+The railway-station is a shapeless mass of blackened bricks, broken
+stones, glass, and iron-work; the cutting where the trains used to pass
+is half filled up with the ruins. It is impossible to get along that
+way. Fancy the hopeless confusion here, arising among this myriad of
+anxious beings, these hundreds of carts and waggons, all crowding to the
+same spot. Each one presses onwards, pushing his neighbour, screaming
+and vociferating; the National Guards try in vain to keep order. To add
+to the difficulties there is some form to be gone through about passes.
+I manage to hang on to a cart which is just going over the bridge; after
+a thousand stoppages and a great deal of pushing and squeezing, I
+succeeded in getting out, my clothes in rags. A desolate scene meets my
+eyes. In front of us, is the open space called the military zone, a
+dusty desert, with but one building remaining, the chapel of Longchamps;
+it has been converted into an ambulance, and the white flag with the red
+cross is waving above it. Truly the wounded there must be in no little
+danger from the shells, as it lies directly in their path. To the left
+is the Bois de Boulogne, or rather what used to be the wood, for from
+where I stand but few trees are visible, the rest is a barren waste. I
+hasten on, besides I am hard pressed from behind. Here we are in
+Neuilly, at last. The desolation is fearful, the reality surpassing all
+I could have imagined. Nearly all the roofs of the houses are battered
+in, rafters stick out of the broken windows; some of the walls, too,
+have fallen, and those that remain standing are riddled with blackened
+holes. It is there that the dreadful shells have entered, breaking,
+grinding furniture, pictures, glasses, and even human beings. We crunch
+broken glass beneath our feet at every step; there is not a whole pane
+in all the windows. Here and there are houses which the bullets seemed
+to have delighted to pound to atoms, and from which dense clouds of red
+and white dust are wafted towards us. Well, Parisians, what do you say
+to that? Do you not think that Citizen Cluseret, although an American,
+is an excellent patriot, and "In consideration of Neuilly being in
+ruins, and of this happy result being chiefly due to the glorious
+resistance organized by the delegate Citizen Cluseret, decrees: That the
+destroyer of Neuilly, Citizen Cluseret, has merited the gratitude of
+France and the Republic."
+
+[Illustration: THE INHABITANTS OF NEUILLY ENTERING PARIS DURING THE
+ARMISTICE OF THE 28TH OF APRIL
+
+The firing ceased from nine in the morning until five in the afternoon,
+when Paris cabs, furniture-vans, ambulance-waggons, band-barrows, and
+all sorts of vehicles were requisitioned to bring in the sad remains and
+dilapidated household goods of the suburban _bombard�s_. They entered
+by the gate of Ternes--for that of Porte Maillot was in ruins and
+impassable. Many went to the Palais de l'Industrie, in the Champs
+Elys�es, where a commission sat to allot vacant apartments in Paris. On
+this occasion some robberies were committed, and refractories escaped:
+it is even said that hard-hearted landlords wished to prevent their
+lodgers from departing--an object in which the proprietors were not very
+successful. The poor woman perched on the top of her relics, saved from
+the cellar in which she had lived in terror for fourteen days, deplores
+the loss of her husband and the shapeless mass of ruin and rubbish she
+once called her happy home; whilst her boys bring in green stuff from
+the surburban gardens, and a middle-aged neighbour stalks along with his
+pet parrot, the bird all the while amusing himself with elaborate
+imitations of the growl of the mitrailleuse and the hissing of shells
+ending with terrific and oft-repeated explosions.]
+
+Out of all the houses, or rather from what was once the houses, emerge
+the inhabitants carrying different articles of furniture, tables,
+mattresses, boxes. They come out as it were from their graves. Relations
+meet and embrace, after having suffered almost the bitterness of death.
+Thousands run backwards and forwards; the carts are heaped up to
+overflowing, everything that is not destroyed must be carried away. A
+large van filled with orphan children moves on towards the barrier; a
+sister of charity is seated beside the driver. The most impatient of the
+refugees are already through the Porte Maillot; who will give them
+hospitality there? No one seems to think of that. The excitement caused
+by all this movement is almost joyous under the brilliant rays of the
+sun. But time presses, in a few minutes the short truce will have
+expired. Stragglers hurry along with heavy loads. At the gates, the
+crowding and confusion are greater than in the morning. Carts heavily
+laden, move slowly and with difficulty; the contents of several are
+spilled on the highway. More shouting, crowding, and pushing, until the
+gates are passed at last, and the emigrant crowd disperses along the
+different streets and avenues into the heart of Paris. A happy release
+from bondage, but what a dismal promised land!
+
+Then the cannonading and musketry on either side recommences. Destroy,
+kill, this horrible quarrel can only end with the annihilation of one of
+the two parties engaged. Go on killing each other if you will have it
+so, combatants, fellow-countrymen. Some wretched women and children will
+at least sleep in safety to-night, in spite of you!
+
+[Illustration: _Federal Officer_. Pardon, Monsieur, but we cannot allow
+civilians to remain here.
+
+_Monsieur_. I wait for Val�rien to open upon us.]
+
+Yes, my good friends and idlers, the sad scene would not have been
+complete without your presence to relieve its sadness. If respect for
+your persons kept you away from danger, it at least gives zest to the
+place, a locality that in a few short minutes will be dangerous again.
+At five the armistice was over, but for all that, the National Guard had
+great difficulty in clearing the ground, until real danger, the
+excitement sought for, arrived, and sent the spectators much further up
+the Avenue de la Grande Arm�e.
+
+[Illustration: MDLLE, ET SES COUSINES. 5.30. Great guns of Val�rien, why
+do you not begin! Know you that tubes charged with bright eyes are
+directed against you!]
+
+
+
+
+LXIII.
+
+
+I had almost made up my mind not to continue these notes. Tired and
+weary, I remained two days at home, wishing to see nothing, hear
+nothing, trying to absorb myself in my books, and to take up the lost
+thread of my interrupted studies, but all to no purpose.
+
+It is ten in the morning, and I am out again in search of news. How many
+things may have happened in two days! Not far from the H�tel de Ville
+excited groups are assembled at the corners of the streets that lead out
+of the Rue de Rivoli. They seem waiting for something--what are they
+waiting for? Vague rumours, principally of a peaceful and conciliatory
+nature, circulate from group to group, where women decidedly
+predominate.
+
+"If _they_ help us we are saved!" says a workwoman, who is holding a
+little boy in the dress of a national guard by the hand.--"Who?" I
+ask.--"Ah! Monsieur, it is the Freemasons who are taking the side of the
+Commune; they are going to cross Paris before our eyes. The Commune must
+be in the right if the Freemasons think so."--"Here they come!" says the
+little boy, pulling his mother along with all his strength.
+
+[Illustration: PROTOT[66], DELEGATE OF JUSTICE.]
+
+The vehicles draw up on one side to make room, the crowd presses to the
+edge of the pavement. The drums beat, a military band strikes up the
+"Marseillaise." First come five staff-officers, and then six members of
+the Commune, wearing their red scarfs, fringed with gold. I fancy I
+recognize Citizens Delescluze and Protot among them. "They are going to
+the H�tel de Ville!" cries an enthusiastic butcher-boy, holding a large
+basket of meat on his head, which he steadies with one hand, while with
+the other he makes wild signs to two companions on the other side of
+the way. "I saw them this morning in the Place du Carrousel," he
+continues in the same strain. "That was fine, I tell you! And then this
+battalion came to fetch them, with the music and all. Now they are going
+to salute the Republic; come along, I say. Double quick time!" So the
+butcher-boy, and the woman with the child, and myself, and all the rest
+of the bystanders, turn and follow the eight or ten thousand members of
+Parisian freemasonry who are crowding along the Rue de Rivoli. In the
+front and rear of the procession I notice a large number of unarmed men,
+dressed in loose Zouave trousers of dark-blue cloth, with white gaiters,
+white bands, and blue jackets. Their heads are mostly bare. I am told
+these are the Communist sharpshooters. Ever so far on in front of us a
+large white banner is floating, bearing an inscription which I cannot
+manage to read on account of the distance. However, the butcher-boy has
+made it out, and informs us that "Love one another" is written there.
+Happy, delusive Freemasons! "Tolerate one another" is scarcely
+practicable! In the meantime we continue to follow at the heels of the
+procession. There is much shouting and noise, here and there a feeble
+"_Vive la Commune!_" But the principal cries are, "Down with the
+murderers! Death to assassins! Down with Versailles!" A Freemason doffs
+his hat and shouts, "_Vive la Paix!_ It is peace we are going to seek!"
+
+I am still sadly confused, and cannot make up my mind what all this is
+about. Patience, however, I shall know all at the H�tel de Ville. Here
+we are. The National Guard keeps the ground, and the whole procession
+files into the Cour d'Honneur. Carried on by the crowd, I find myself
+near the entrance and can see what is going on inside. The whole of the
+Commune is out on the balcony, at the top of the grand staircase, in
+front of the statue of the Republic, which like the Communists wears a
+red scarf. Great trophies of red flags are waving everywhere. Men
+bearing the banners of the society are stationed on every step; on each
+is inscribed, in golden letters, mottos of peace and fraternity. A
+patriarchal Freemason, wearing his collar and badges, has arrived in a
+carriage; they help him to alight with marks of the greatest respect.
+The court is by this time full to overflowing, an enthusiastic cry of
+"Vive la Franc Ma�onnerie! Vive la R�publique Universelle!" is re-echoed
+from mouth to mouth. Citizen F�lix Pyat, member of the Commune, who is
+on the balcony, comes forward to speak. I congratulate myself on being
+at last about to hear what all this means. But I am disappointed. The
+pushing and squeezing is unbearable. I have vigorously to defend my hat,
+stick, purse, and cigar-case, and am half stifled besides. I almost
+despair of catching a single word, but at last succeed in hearing a
+few detached sentences:--"Universal nationality.... liberty, equality,
+and fraternity.... manifestos of the heart...." (what is that?) "the
+standard of humanity.... ramparts...." If I could only get a little
+nearer--the words "homicidal balls.... fratricidal bullets.... universal
+peace...." alone reach me. Is it to hear such stuff as this, that the
+Freemasons have come to the H�tel de Ville? I suppose so, for after a
+little more of the same kind the whole is drowned in a stupendous roar
+of "Vive la Commune!" and "Vive la R�publique!" I have given up all hope
+of ever understanding.
+
+[Illustration: F�LIX PYAT.[67]]
+
+"They have come to draw lots to see who is to go and kill M. Thiers,"
+cries a red-haired gamin.--"Idiot," retorts his comrade, "they have no
+arms!"--"Listen, and you will hear," says the first, which is capital
+advice, if I could but follow it. The pushing becomes intolerable, when
+suddenly the bald head of an unfortunate citizen executes a fatal
+plunge--I can breathe at last--and the following words reach me pretty
+clearly:--"The Commune has decided that we shall choose five members who
+are to have the honour of escorting you, and we are to draw
+lots...."--"There! was I not right?" cries he of the carrotty hair; "I
+knew they were going to draw lots!" A cleverly administered blow,
+however, soon silences his elation, and we hear that the lots have been
+drawn, and that five members are chosen to aid "this glorious, this
+victorious act." There seems more rhyme than reason in this. "An act
+that will be read of in the future history of France and of humanity."
+Here the irrepressible breaks out again:--"Now I am sure they are going
+to kill M. Thiers!" Whereupon his irritated adversary seizes him by the
+collar, gives his head some well-applied blows against the curb-stone,
+and then, pushing through the crowd, carries him off bodily. As for me,
+my curiosity unsatisfied, I grow resigned--may the will of the Commune
+be done--and I give it up. More hopeless mystification from the Citizen
+Beslay, who regrets not having been chosen to aid in this "heroic act."
+He also alludes to the drawing of lots, and I begin after all to fancy
+poor M. Thiers must be at the bottom of it all, but he continues:
+--"Citizens, what can I say after the eloquent discourse of
+F�lix Pyat? You are about to interest yourselves in an act of
+fraternity...." (then something horrible is surely contemplated) "in
+hoisting your banner on the walls of our city, and mixing in our ranks
+against our enemies of Versailles." A sudden light breaks upon me. In
+the meantime Citizen Beslay is embracing the nearest Freemason, while
+another begs the honour of being the first to plant his banner, the
+Pers�v�rance, which was unfurled in 1790, on the ramparts. Here a band
+plays the "Marseillaise," horribly out of tune; a red flag is given to
+the Freemasons, with an appropriate harangue; then the Citizen T�rifocq
+takes back the flag, with another harangue, and ends by waving it aloft
+and roaring, "Now, citizens, no more words; to action!"
+
+This is clear, the Freemasons are to hoist their banner on to the walls
+of Paris side by side with the standard of the Commune; and who is blind
+enough to imagine, that the shells and bullets, indiscriminately
+homicidal, fratricidal, and infanticidal as they prove, are imbued with
+tact sufficient to steer clear of the Freemasons' banners, and injure in
+their flight only those of the Commune? As the Versailles projectiles
+have only one end in view, that of piercing both the Parisians and their
+standards, as a national consequence if both Parisians and standards are
+pierced, it is likewise most probable that the Masonic banners will not
+remain unscathed in so dangerous a neighbourhood. And if so, what will
+be the result? According to Citizen T�rifocq "the Freemasons of Paris
+will call to their aid the direst vengeance; the Masons of all the
+provinces of France will follow their example; everywhere the brothers
+will fraternise with the troops which are marching on to help Paris. On
+the other hand, if the Versailles gunners do not aim at the Masons, but
+only at the National Guards (_sic!_), then the Masons will join the
+battalions in the field, and encourage by their example the gallant
+soldiers, defenders of the city." This is all rather complicated--what
+can come of it? Escorted by an ever-increasing crowd, we reach the Place
+de la Bastille. Several discourses are spouted forth at the foot of the
+column, but the combined effects of noise, dust, and fatigue have
+blunted my senses, and I hear nothing; it seems, however to be about the
+same thing over again, for the same acclamations of the crowd greet the
+same gestures on the part of the orators.
+
+We are off again down the Boulevards; the long procession, with its
+waving banners and glittering signs, is hailed by the populace with
+delight. Having reached the Place de la Concorde, I loiter behind.
+Groups are stationed here and there. I go from one to another, trying to
+gather what these open-air politicians think of all this Masonic parade.
+Shortly fugitives are seen hurrying back from the Champs Elys�es,
+shouting, and gesticulating. "Horror! Abomination! They respect nothing!
+Vengeance!" I hear a brother-mason has been killed by a shell opposite
+the Rue du Colys�e; that the white flag is riddled with shot; that the
+Versailles rifles have singled out, killed and wounded several masons.
+
+In a very short time the terrible news, increased and exaggerated as it
+spread, filled every quarter of Paris with consternation. I returned
+home in a most perplexed state of mind, from which I could not arouse
+myself until the arrival, towards evening, of a friend, a freemason, and
+consequently well informed. This, it appears, is what took place.
+
+"At the moment when the procession arrived in the Champs Elys�es it
+formed itself into several groups, each choosing a separate avenue or
+street. One followed the Faubourg St. Honor� and the Avenue Friedland as
+far as the Triumphal Arch, till it reached the Porte Maillot; a second
+proceeded to the Porte des Ternes by the Avenue des Ternes; a third to
+the Porte Dauphine by the Avenue �hrich. Not a single freemason was
+wounded on the way, though shells fell on their passage from time to
+time. The VV.'.[Transcriber's note: triangular symbol of three dots here]
+of each lodge marched at the head, displaying their masonic banners.
+
+[Illustration: THE FREEMASONS AT THE RAMPARTS. GAMINS COLLECTING
+SHELLS.]
+
+"As soon as the white flag was seen flying from the bastion on the right
+of the Porte Maillot, the Versailles batteries ceased firing. The
+freemasons were then able to pass the ramparts and proceed towards
+Neuilly. There they were received rather coldly by the colonel in
+command of the detachment. The officers, including those in high
+command, were violently indignant against Paris. But the soldiers
+themselves seemed utterly weary of war.
+
+"After some parleying the members of the manifestation obtained leave to
+send a certain number of delegates to Versailles, in order to make a
+second attempt at conciliation with the Government."
+
+Will this new effort be more successful than the preceding one? Will the
+company of freemasons obtain what the Republican Union failed in
+procuring? I would fain believe it, but cannot. The obstinacy of the
+Versailles Assembly has become absolute deafness, though we must admit
+that the freemasons' way of trying to bring about reconciliation was
+rather singular, somewhat like holding a knife at Monsieur Thiers'
+throat and crying out, "Peace or your life!"
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 66: Memoir, see Appendix 6.]
+
+[Footnote 67: F�lix Pyat was born in 1810 at Vierzon. He came to
+Paris for the purpose of studying law, but soon abandoned his
+intention for the more genial profession of journalist. He
+contributed to the _Figaro_, the _Charivari_, the _Revue de Paris_,
+and the _National_. In 1848 he was named Commissary-General, and
+subsequently deputy of the department of the Cher. Having signed
+Ledru-Rollin's call to arms, he was obliged after the events of June
+to take refuge in England. Profiting by the amnesty of the fifteenth
+of August, 1869, he returned to France, but made himself so
+obnoxious to the Government by his virulent abuse of the Empire,
+that he was again expelled. The revolution of the fourth of
+September allowed him to re-enter France. He commenced an immediate
+and violent attack on the new government, which he continued until
+his journal, _Le Combat_, was suppressed. Needless to say that he
+was one of the chief actors in the insurrections of the thirty-first
+of October and the twenty-second of January. He was elected deputy,
+but soon resigned, for the purpose of connecting himself with the
+cause of the Commune. He edited the _Vengeur_ and the _Commune_
+newspapers, and obtained a decree suppressing nearly all rival or
+antagonistic publications. At the fall of the Commune he fled no one
+knows where.]
+
+
+
+
+LXIV.
+
+
+No! no! Monsieur F�lix Pyat, you must remain, if you please. You have
+been of it, you are of it, and you shall be of it. It is well that you
+should go through all the tenses of the verb, I am not astonished that a
+man as clever as you, finding that things were taking a bad turn, should
+have thought fit to give in your resignation. When the house is burning,
+one jumps out of window. But your cleverness has been so much pure loss,
+for your amiable confederates are waiting in the street to thrust you
+back into the midst of the flames again. It is in vain that you have
+written the following letter, a chef-d'oeuvre in its way, to the
+president of
+
+    "CITIZEN PRESIDENT,--If I had not been detained at the Ministry of
+    War on the day when the election took place, I should have voted
+    with the minority of the Commune. I think that the majority, for
+    this once, is in the wrong."
+
+    "For this once" is polite.
+
+    "I doubt if she will ever retrieve her error."
+
+    If the Commune were to retrace its steps at each error it made, it
+    would advance slowly.
+
+    "I think that the elected have not the right of replacing the
+    electors. I think that the representatives have not the right of
+    taking the place of the sovereign power. I think that the Commune
+    cannot create a single one of its own members, neither make them nor
+    unmake them; and, therefore, that it cannot of itself furnish that
+    which is wanted to legalise their nominations'."
+
+Oh! Monsieur F�lix Pyat, legality is strangely out of fashion, and it is
+well for Versailles that it is so.
+
+    "I think also, seeing that the war has changed the population...."
+
+Yes; the war has changed the population, if not in the way you
+understand it, at least in this sense, that a great many reasonable
+people have gone mad, and that many--ah! how many?--are now dead.
+
+    "I think that it was more just to change the law than to violate it.
+    The ballot gave birth to the Commune, and in completing itself
+    without it, the Commune commits suicide. I will not be an accomplice
+    in the fault."
+
+We understand that; it is quite enough to be an accomplice in the crime.
+
+    "I am so convinced of this truth, that if the Commune persist in
+    what I call an usurpation of the elective power, I could not
+    reconcile the respect due to the rote of the majority with the
+    respect due to my own conscience; I shall therefore be obliged, much
+    to my regret, to give in my resignation to the Commune before the
+    victory.
+
+    "_Salut et Fraternit�_.
+
+    "F�LIX PYAT."
+
+"Before the victory" is exquisitely comic! But, carried away by the
+desire of exhibiting the wit of which he is master, Monsieur F�lix Pyat
+fails to perceive that his irony is a little too transparent, that
+"before the victory" evidently meant "before the defeat," and that
+consequently, without taking into account the excellent reasons given in
+his letter to the president of the Commune, we shall only recollect that
+rats run away when the vessel is about to sink. But this time the rats
+must remain at the bottom of the hold. Tour colleagues, Monsieur Pyat,
+will not permit you to be the only one to withdraw from the honours,
+since you have been with them in the strife. Not daring to fly
+themselves, they will make you stay. Vermorel will seize you by the
+collar at the moment you are about to open the door and make your
+escape; and Monsieur Pierre Denis,[68] who used to be a poet as well as
+a cobbler, will murmur in your ear these verses of Victor Hugo[69],
+which, with a few slight modifications, will suit your case exactly:--
+
+     "Maintenant il se dit: 'L'empire est chancelant;
+          La victoire est peu s�re.'
+     Il cherche � s'en aller, furtif et reculant.
+          Reste dans la masure!"
+
+     "Tu dis: 'Le plafond croule; ils vont, si l'on me voit,
+          Emp�cher que je sorte.'
+     N'osant rester ni fuir, tu regardes le toit,
+          Tu regardes la porte.
+
+     "Tu mets timidement la main sur le verrou;
+          Reste en leurs rangs fun�bres!
+     Reste! La loi qu'ils ont enfouie en un trou
+          Est l� dans les t�n�bres.
+
+     "Reste! Elle est l�, le flanc perc� de leurs couteaux,
+          Gisante, et sur sa bi�re
+     Ils ont mis une dalle. Un pan de ton manteau
+          Est pris sous cette pierre.
+
+     "Tu ne t'en iras pas! Quoi! quitter leur maison!
+          Et fuir leur destin�e!
+     Quoi! tu voudrais trahir jusqu'� la trahison
+          Elle-m�me indign�e!
+
+     "Quoi! n'as-tu pas tenu l'�chelle � ces fripons
+          En pleine connivence?
+     Le sac de ces voleurs ne fut-il pas, r�ponds,
+          Cousu par toi d'avance?
+
+     "Les mensonges, la haine au dard froid et visqueux,
+          Habitent ce repaire;
+     Tu t'en vas! De quel droit, �tant plus renard qu'eux
+          Et plus qu'elle vip�re?"
+
+And Monsieur F�lix Pyat will remain, in spite of the thousand and one
+good reasons he would find to make a short tour in Belgium. His
+colleagues will try persuasion, if necessary--"You are good, you are
+great, you are pure; what would become of us without you?" and they will
+hold on to him to the end, like cowards who in the midst of danger cling
+to their companions, shrieking out, "We will die together!" and embrace
+them convulsively to prevent their escape.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 68: A writer in the _Vengeur_.]
+
+[Footnote 69: For translation, see Appendix 7.]
+
+
+
+
+LXV.
+
+
+An anonymous writer, who is no other, it is said, than the citizen
+Delescluze, has just published the following:--
+
+    "The Commune has assured to itself the receipt of a sum of 600,000
+    francs a day--eighteen millions a month."
+
+There was once upon a time a French forger, named Coll�, celebrated for
+the extent and importance of his swindling, and who possessed, it was
+said, a very large fortune. When questioned upon the subject, he used to
+answer: "I have assured to myself a receipt of a hundred francs a
+day--three thousand francs a month."
+
+Between Coll� and the Commune there exists a difference, however: in the
+first place, Coll� affected a particular liking for the clergy, whose
+various garbs he used frequently to assume, and the Commune cannot
+endure _cur�s_ and secondly, while Coll�, in assuring himself a receipt
+of three thousand francs a month, had done all that was possible for him
+to do, the Commune puts up with a miserable eighteen millions, when it
+might have ensured to itself a great deal more. It is astounding, and, I
+may add, little in accordance with its dignity, that it should be
+satisfied with so moderate an allowance. You show too much modesty; it
+is not worth while being victorious for so little. Eighteen millions--a
+mere nothing! Your delicacy might be better understood were you more
+scrupulous as to the choice of your means. Thank Heaven! you do not err
+on that score. Come! a little more energy, if you please. "But!" sighs
+the Commune, "I have done my best, it seems to me. Thanks to Jourde,[70]
+who throws Law into the shade, and to Dereure,[71] the shoemaker
+--Financier and Cobbler of La Fontaine's Fable--I pocket daily
+the gross value of the sale of tobacco, which is a pretty speculation
+enough, since I have had to pay neither the cost of the raw materials
+nor of the manufacture. I have besides this, thanks to what I call the
+'regular income from the public departments,' a good number of little
+revenues which do not cost me much and bring me in a good deal. Now
+there's the Post, for instance. I take good care to despatch none of the
+letters that are confided to me, but I manage to secure the price of the
+postage by an arrangement with my employ�s. This shows cleverness and
+tact, I think. Finally, in addition to this, I get the railway companies
+to be kind enough to drop into my pockets the sum of two millions of
+francs: the Northern Railway Company will supply me with three hundred
+and ninety-three thousand francs; the Western, with two hundred and
+seventy-five thousand; the Eastern, three hundred and fifty-four
+thousand francs; the Lyons Railway Company, with six hundred and
+ninety-two thousand francs; the Orleans Railway, three hundred and
+seventy-six thousand francs. It is the financial delegate, Monsieur
+Jourde, who has the most brains of the whole band, who planned this
+ingenious arrangement. And, in truth, I consider that I have done all
+that is in my power, and you are wrong in trying to humiliate me by
+drawing comparisons between myself and Coll�, who had some good, in him,
+but who was in no way equal to me." My dear, good Commune, I do not deny
+that, you have the most excellent intentions; I approve the tobacco
+speculation and the funds drawn from the public service money, in which
+you include, I suppose, the profits made in your nocturnal visits to the
+public and other coffers, and your fruitful rounds in the churches. As
+to the tax levied on railways, it inspires me with an admiration
+approaching enthusiasm. But, for mercy's sake, do not allow yourself to
+stop there. Nothing is achieved so long as anything remains to be done.
+You waste your time in counting up the present sources of your revenues,
+while so many opportunities remain of increasing them. Are there no
+bankers, no stock-brokers, no notaries, in Paris? Send a few of these
+honest patriots of yours to the houses of the reactionaries. A hundred
+thousand francs from one, two hundred thousand francs from another; it
+is always worth the taking. From small streams come great rivers. In
+your place I would not neglect the shopkeepers' tills either, or the
+money-chests of the rich. They are of the _bourgeoisie_, those people,
+and the _bourgeois_ are your enemies. Tax them, _morbleu!_ Tax them by
+all means. Have you not all your friends and your friends' friends to
+look after? Is it false keys that fail you? But they are easily made,
+and amongst your number you will certainly find one or two locksmiths
+quite ready to help you. Take Pilotel, for instance: a sane man, that!
+There were only eight hundred francs in the escritoire of Monsieur
+Chaudey, and he appropriated the eight hundred francs. Thus, you see,
+how great houses and good governments are founded. And when there is no
+longer any money, you must seize hold of the goods and furniture of your
+fellow-citizens. You will find receivers of stolen goods among you, no
+doubt. They told me yesterday that you had sent the Titiens and Paul
+Veroneses of the Louvre to London, in order to be able to make money out
+of them. A most excellent measure, that I can well explain to myself,
+because I can understand that Monsieur Courbet must have a great desire
+to get rid of these two painters, for whom he feels so legitimate and
+profound a hatred. But, alas! it was but a false report. You confined
+yourselves to putting up for sale the materials composing the Column of
+the Place Vend�me; dividing them into four lots, two lots of stone and
+cement, and two lots of metal. Two lots only? Why! you know nothing
+about making the best of your merchandise. There is something better
+than stone and metal in this column. There is that in it which a number
+of silly people used to call in other times the glory of France. What a
+pretty spectacle--when the sale by auction is over--to see the buyers
+carrying away under their arms--one, a bit of Wagram; another, a bit of
+Jena; and some, who had thought to be buying a pound or two of bronze,
+having made the acquisition of the First Consul at Arcole or the Emperor
+at Austerlitz. It is a sad pity that you did not puff up the value and
+importance of your sale to the bidders. Your speculation would then have
+turned out better. You have managed badly, my dear Commune; you have not
+known how to take advantage of your position. Repair your faults, impose
+your taxes, appropriate, confiscate! All may be yours, disdain nothing,
+and have no fear of resistance; everyone is afraid of you. Here! I have
+five francs in my own pocket, will you have them?
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 70: Jourde occupied the position of financial Minister under
+the Commune Government. He is well-educated, and is said to be one of
+the most intellectually distinguished of the Federal functionaries. He
+is a medical student, and said to be twenty-seven years of age. See
+Appendix 8.]
+
+[Footnote 71: A working cobbler, and member of the International
+Society, which he represented at the Congress of B�le. He occupied a
+post on the _Marseillaise_ newspaper, became a Commissary of Police
+after the fourth of September, and took part on the popular side in the
+outbreak of the thirty-first of October. He was deprived of his office
+by General Trochu's government, and appointed one of the delegates for
+justice, by the authorities of the Commune.]
+
+
+
+
+LXVI.
+
+
+    "The social revolution could end but in one great catastrophe, of
+    which the immediate effects would be--
+
+    "To make the land a barren waste:
+
+    "To put a strait jacket upon society:
+
+    "And, if it were possible that such a state of things could be
+    prolonged for several weeks--
+
+    "To cause three or four millions of human beings to perish by
+    horrible famine.
+
+    "When the Government shall be without resources, when the country
+    shall be without produce and without commerce:
+
+    "When starving Paris, blockaded by the departments, will no longer
+    discharge its debts and make payments, no longer export nor import:
+
+    "When workmen, demoralised by the politics taught at the clubs and
+    the closing of the workshops, will have found a means of living, no
+    matter how:
+
+    "When the State appropriates to itself the silver and ornaments of
+    the citizens for the purpose of sending them to the Mint:
+
+    "When perquisitions made in the private houses are the only means of
+    collecting taxes:
+
+    "When hungry bands spread over the country, committing robbery and
+    devastation:
+
+    "When the peasant, armed with loaded gun, has to neglect the
+    cultivation of his crops in order to protect them:
+
+    "When the first sheaf shall have been stolen, the first house
+    forced, the first church profaned, the first torch fired, the first
+    woman violated:
+
+    "When the first blood shall have been spilt:
+
+    "When the first head shall have fallen:
+
+    "When abomination and desolation shall have spread over all France--
+
+    "Oh! then you will know what we mean by a social revolution:
+
+    "A multitude let loose, arms in hand, mad with revenge and fury:
+
+    "Soldiers, pikes, empty homes, knives and crowbars:
+
+    "The city, silent and oppressed; the police in our very homes,
+    opinions suspected, words noted down, tears observed, sighs counted,
+    silence watched; spying and denunciations:
+
+    "Inexorable requisitions, forced and progressive loans, paper money
+    made worthless:
+
+    "Civil war, and the enemy on the frontiers:
+
+    "Pitiless proconsuls, a supreme committee, with hearts of stone--
+
+    "This would be the fruits of what they call democratic and social
+    revolution."
+
+Who wrote this admirable page?--Proudhon.
+
+O all-merciful Providence! Take pity on France, for she has come to
+this.
+
+
+
+
+LXVII.
+
+
+A balloon! A balloon! Quick! A balloon! There is not a moment to be
+lost. The inhabitants of Brive-la-Gaillarde and the mountaineers of
+Savoy are thirsting for news; let us shower manna on them. Write away!
+Pierre Denis! Pump in your gas, emulators of Godard! And may the four
+winds of heaven carry our "Declarations" to the four quarters of France!
+Ah! ah! The Versaillais--band of traitors that they are!--did not
+calculate on this. They raise soldiers, the simpletons; they bombard our
+forts and our houses, the idiots! But we make decrees, and distribute
+our proclamations throughout the country by means of an unlimited number
+of revolutionary aeronauts. May they be guided by the wind which blows
+across the mountains! How the honest labourers, the good farmers, the
+eager workers of the departments will rejoice when they receive,
+dropping, from the sky, the pages on which are inscribed the rights and
+duties of the man of the present day! They will not hesitate one single
+instant. They will leave their fields, their homes, their workshops, and
+cry, "A musket! a musket!" with no thought that they leave behind them
+women without husbands, and children without fathers! They will fly to
+us, happy to conquer or die for the glory of Citizen Delescluze and
+Citizen Vermorel! What ardour! What patriotism! Already they are on
+their way; they are coming, they are come! Those who had no fire-arms
+have seized their pickaxes or pieces of their broken ploughs! Hurrah!
+Forward! March! To arms, citizens, to arms! Hail to France, who comes to
+the rescue of Paris!
+
+All to no purpose. I tell you the people of Brive-la-Gaillarde and the
+mountaineers of Savoy have not once thought of taking up arms. They have
+never been more tranquil or more resolute on remaining in peace and
+quiet than now. When they see one of your balloons--always supposing
+that it has any other end in view than of depositing repentant
+communists in safe, snug corners, pass the lines of the Versailles
+troops--when they see one of your balloons, they simply exclaim,
+"Hulloa! Here's a balloon! Where in the world can it come from?" If
+some printed papers fall from the sky, the peasant picks them up,
+saying, "I shall give them to my son to read, when he returns from
+school." The evening comes, the son spells them out, while the father
+listens. The son cannot understand; the father falls asleep. "Ah! those
+Parisians!" cries the mother. Can you wonder? These people are born to
+live and die without knowing all that is admirable in the men of the
+H�tel de Ville. They are fools enough to cling to their own lives and
+the lives of those near them. They do not go to war amongst themselves;
+they are poor ignorant creatures, and you will never make them believe
+that when once they have paid their taxes, worked, fed their wives and
+children, there still remains to them one duty to fulfil, more holy,
+more imperative than all others,--that of coming to the Porte-Maillot to
+receive a ball or a fragment of shell in their skulls.
+
+But these balloons might be made of some use, nevertheless. Pick out
+one, the best made, the largest in size, the best rigged; put in Citizen
+F�lix Pyat--who, you may be sure, will not be the last to sit down--and
+Citizen Delescluze too, nor must we omit Citizen Cluseret, nor any of
+the citizens who at the present moment constitute the happiness of Paris
+and the tranquillity of France! Now inflate this admirable balloon,
+which is to bear off all your hopes, with the lightest gases. Then blow,
+ye winds, terrifically, furiously, and bear it from us! Balloons can be
+capricious at times. Have you read, the story of Hans Pfaal? Good
+Heavens! if the wind could only carry them away, up to the moon, or even
+a great deal further still.
+
+
+
+
+LXVIII.
+
+
+I'm surprised myself, as I re-read the preceding pages, at the strange
+contradictions I meet with. During the first few days I was almost
+favourable to the Commune; I waited, I hoped. To-day all is very
+different. When I write down in the evening what I have seen and thought
+in the day, I allow myself to blame with severity men that inspired me
+formerly with some kind of sympathy. What has taken place? Have my
+opinions changed? I do not think so. Besides, I have in reality but one
+opinion. I receive impressions, describing these impressions without
+reserve, without prejudice. If these stray leaves should ever be
+collected in a volume, they will at least possess the rare merit of
+being thoroughly sincere. Is it then, that my nature is modified? By no
+means. If I were indulgent a month ago, it was that I did not know those
+of whom I spoke, and that I am of a naturally hopeful and benevolent
+disposition: if I now show myself severe, it is that--like the rest of
+Paris--I have learned to know them better.
+
+
+
+
+LXIX.
+
+
+The Commune has naturally brought an infinite number of journals into
+existence. Try, if you will, to count the leaves of the forest, the
+grains of sand on the seashore, the stars in the heavens, but do not, in
+your wildest dreams, attempt to enumerate the newspapers that have seen
+the light since the famous day of the 18th of March. F�lix Pyat has a
+journal, _Le Vengeur_; Vermorel has a journal, _Le Cri du People_;
+Delescluze has a journal, _Le Reveil_; there is not a member of the
+Commune but indulges in the luxury of a sheet in which he tells his
+colleagues daily all the evil he thinks of them. It must be acknowledged
+that these gentlemen have an extremely bad opinion one of the other. I
+defy even the _Gaulois_ of Versailles--yes, the _Gaulois_ itself--to
+treat F�lix Pyat as Vermorel treats him, and if it be remembered on the
+other hand what F�lix Pyat says of Vermorel, the _Gaulois_ will be found
+singularly good-natured. Napoleon cautioned us long ago "to wash our
+dirty linen at home," but good patriots cannot be expected to profit by
+the counsels of a tyrant. So the columns of the Commune papers are
+devoted to the daily and mutual pulling to pieces of the Commune's
+members. But where will these ephemeral sheets be in six months, in one
+month, or in a week's time perhaps? The wind which wafts away the leaves
+of the rose and the laurel, will be no less cruel for the political
+leaves. Let us then, for the sake of posterity, offer a specimen of what
+is--or as we shall soon say, what was--the Communalist press of to-day.
+Be they edited by Marotteau, or Duchesne, or Paschal Grousset, or by any
+other emulator of Paul-Louis Courier, these worthy journals are all much
+alike, and one example will suffice for the whole.
+
+[Illustration: VERMESCH (P�RE DUCHESNE).[72]]
+
+First of all, and generally in enormous type, stand the LATEST NEWS, the
+news from the Porte Maillot where the friends of the Commune are
+fighting, and the news from Versailles where the enemies of the country
+are sitting. They usually run somewhat in this style:--
+
+    "It is more and more confirmed that the Assembly of Versailles is
+    surrounded and made prisoner by the troops returned from Germany.
+    The generals of the Empire have newly proclaimed Napoleon: the
+    Third, Emperor. After a violent quarrel about two National Guards
+    whom Marshal MacMahon had had shot, but had omitted to have cooked
+    for his soldiers, Monsieur Thiers sent a challenge to the Marshal,
+    by his two seconds. These seconds were no other than the Comte de
+    Chambord and the Comte de Paris. Marshal MacMahon chose the
+    ex-Emperor and Paul de Cassagnac. The duel took place in the Rue
+    des Reservoirs, in the midst of an immense crowd. The Marshal was
+    killed, and was therefore obliged to renounce the command of the
+    troops. But the Assembly would not accept his resignation.
+
+    "We are in the position to assert that a company of the 132nd
+    Battalion has this morning surrounded fifteen thousand gendarmes and
+    sergents-de-ville, in the park of Neuilly. Seeing that all
+    resistance was useless, the supporters of Monsieur Thiers
+    surrendered without reserve. Among them were seventeen members of
+    the National Assembly, who, not content with ordering the
+    assassination of our brothers, had wished also to be present at the
+    massacre.
+
+    [Illustration: PASCHAL GROUSSET, DELEGATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS.][73]
+
+    "A person worthy of credit has related to us the following fact:--A
+    _cantini�re_ of the 44th Battalion (from the Batignolles quarter),
+    was in the act of pouring out a glass of brandy for an artilleryman
+    of the Fort of Vanves, when suddenly the artilleryman was out in two
+    by a Versailles shell; the brave _cantini�re_ drank off the contents
+    of the glass just poured out for the dead man who lay in bits at her
+    feet, and took his place at the guns. She performed her new part of
+    artilleryman so bravely, that ten minutes later there was not a
+    single gun uninjured in the Meudon battery. As to those who were
+    serving the pieces there, they were all hurled to a distance of
+    several miles, and amongst them were said to have been
+    recognised--we give this news however with great reserve--Monsieur
+    Ollivier, the ex-minister of the ex-Emperor, and Count von Bismarck,
+    who wished to verify for himself the actual range of the guns that
+    he had lent to his good friends of Versailles."
+
+After the LATEST NEWS come the reports of the day, the _bulletin du
+jour_ as it is called now, and it is in this that the editor, a member
+of the Commune, reveals his talent. We trust that the following example
+is not quite unworthy of the pen of Monsieur F�lix Pyat, or the
+signature of Monsieur Vermorel:--
+
+    "Paris, 29th April, 1871.
+
+    "They are lying in wait for us, these tigers athirst for blood.
+
+    "They are there, these Vandals, who have sworn that in all Paris not
+    a single man shall be spared, nor a single stone, left standing.
+
+    "But we are not in their power yet. No, nor shall we ever be.
+
+    "The National Guard is on the watch; victorious and sublime, their
+    soldierly breasts are not of flesh and blood, but of bronze, from
+    which the balls rebound as they stand, dauntless, before the enemy.
+
+    "Ah! so these lachrymose Jules Favres, these fat Picards, these
+    hungry Jules Ferrys, said amongst themselves, 'We will take Paris,
+    we will tear it up, and its soil shall be divided after the victory
+    between the wives of the _sergents de ville!_' They are beginning
+    to understand all the insanity of their plan. Why, it is Paris that
+    will take Versailles, that will take all those blear-eyed old men
+    who, because they cannot look steadily at Monsieur Thiers' face,
+    fancy that it is the sun.
+
+    "It is in vain that they gorge with blood and wine their deceived
+    soldiers; the moment is approaching when these men will no longer
+    consent to march against the city which is fighting for them.
+    Already, yesterday, the m�l�e of a battle could be distinguished
+    from the fort of Vanves; the line had come to blows with the
+    _gendarmes_ of Valentin and Charette's Zouaves. Courage, Parisians!
+    A few more days and you will have triumphed over all the infamy that
+    dares to stop the march of the victorious Commune!
+
+    "But it is not enough to vanquish the enemies without, we must get
+    rid also of the enemies that are within.
+
+    "No more pity! no more vacillation! The justice of the people is
+    wearied of formalities, and cries out for vengeance. Death to spies!
+    Death to the _r�actionaires_! Death to the priests! Why does the
+    Commune feed this collection of malefactors in your prisons, while
+    the money they cost us daily would be so useful to the women and
+    children of those who are fighting for the cause of Paris? We are
+    assured that one of the prisoners ate half a chicken for his dinner
+    yesterday; how many good patriots might have been saved from
+    suffering with the sum which was taken from the chests of the
+    Republic for this orgie! There is no longer time to hesitate; the
+    Versaillais are shooting and mutilating the prisoners; we must
+    revenge ourselves! We must show them such an example, that in
+    perceiving from afar the heads of their infamous accomplices, the
+    traitors of Versailles, stuck upon our ramparts, confounded by the
+    magnanimity of the Commune, they will lay down their arms at last,
+    and deliver themselves up as prisoners.
+
+    "As to the refractory of Paris, we cannot find words to express the
+    astonishment we experience at the weakness that has been shown with
+    regard to them.
+
+    "What! we permit that there should still be cowards in Paris? I
+    thought they were all at Versailles. We allow still to remain
+    amongst us men who are not of our opinion? This state of things has
+    lasted too long. Let them take their muskets or die. Shoot them
+    down, those who refuse to go forward. They have wives and children,
+    they are fathers of families, they say; a fine reason indeed! The
+    Commune before everything! And, besides, there must be no pity for
+    the wives of _r�actionaires_ and the children of spies!"
+
+The _bulletins du jour_ are sometimes set forth in gentler terms; but we
+have chosen a fair average specimen between the lukewarm and the most
+violent.
+
+Then comes the solid, serious article, generally written by a pen
+invested with all due authority, by the man who has the most head in the
+place. The subject varies according to circumstances; but the main point
+of the article is generally to show that Paris has never been so rich,
+so free, nor so happy, as under the government of the Commune; and this
+is a truth that is certainly not difficult to prove. Is not the fact of
+being able to live without working the best possible proof that people
+are well off? Well! look at the National Guards; they have not touched a
+tool for a whole month, and they have such a supply of money that they
+are obliged to make over some of it to the wineshop-keepers in exchange
+for an unlimited number of litres and sealed bottles. Then, who could
+say that we are not free? The journals that allowed themselves to assert
+the contrary have been prudently suppressed. Besides, is it not being
+free to have shaken off the shameful yoke of the men who sold France; to
+be no longer subjected to the oppression of snobs, _r�actionaires_, and
+traitors? And as to the most perfect happiness, it stands to reason,
+since we are both free and rich, that we must be in the incontestable
+enjoyment of it. Finally, after the official dispatches edited in the
+style you are acquainted with, and after the accounts of the last
+battles, come the miscellaneous news, the _faits divers_; and here it is
+that the ingenuity of the writers displays itself to the greatest
+advantage.
+
+    "Yesterday evening, towards ten o'clock, the attention of the
+    passers-by in the Rue St. Denis was attracted by cries which seemed
+    to proceed from a four-storied house situated at the corner of the
+    Rue Sainte-Apolline. The cries were evidently cries of despair. Some
+    people went to the nearest guardhouse to make the fact known, and
+    four National Guards, preceded by their corporal, entered the house.
+    Guided by the sound of the cries they arrived at the fourth storey,
+    and broke open the door. A horrible spectacle was then exposed to
+    the view of the Guards and of the persons who had followed them in
+    their quest. Three young children lay stretched on the floor of the
+    room, the disorder of which denoted a recent struggle. The poor
+    little things were without any covering whatever, and there were
+    traces of blows upon their bodies; one of them had a cut across the
+    forehead. The National Guards questioned the children with an almost
+    maternal kindness. They had not eaten for four days, and, in
+    consequence of this prolonged fast, they were in such a state of
+    moral and physical abasement that no precise information could be
+    obtained from them. The corporal then addressed himself to the
+    neighbours, and soon became acquainted with a part of the terrible
+    truth.
+
+    "In this room lived a poor work-girl, young and pretty. One day, as
+    she was carrying back her work to the shop, she observed that she
+    was followed by a well-dressed man, whose physiognomy indicated the
+    lowest passions. He spoke to her, and was at first repulsed; but,
+    like the tempter Faust offering jewels to Marguerite, he tempted her
+    with bright promises, and the poor girl, to whom work did not always
+    come, listened to the base seducer. Blame her not too harshly, pity
+    her rather, and reserve all your indignation for the wretch who
+    betrayed her.
+
+    "After three years, which were but anguish and remorse to the
+    miserable woman, and during which she had no other consolation but
+    the smiles of the children whose very existence was a crime, she was
+    becoming reconciled at last to her life, when the father of her
+    children deserted her.
+
+    "This desertion coincided with the glorious revolution of the 18th
+    of March; and the poor work-girl, who had still room in her heart
+    for patriotism, found some consolation in reflecting that the day,
+    so miserable for her, had at least brought happiness to France.
+
+    "A fortnight passed, the poor abandoned mother had given up all hope
+    of ever seeing the father of her three children again, when one
+    evening--it was last Friday--a man, wrapped in a black cloak,
+    introduced himself into the house, and made inquiries of the
+    _concierge_--a great patriot, and commander of the 114th
+    Battalion--whether Mademoiselle O... were at home? Upon an answer in
+    the affirmative from the heroic defender of Right and Liberties of
+    Paris, the man mounted the stairs to the poor workwoman's rooms. It
+    was he--the seducer; the _concierge_ had recognised him. What passed
+    between the murderer and his victims? That will be known,
+    perhaps--never! But certain it is, that an hour afterwards he went
+    out, still enveloped in his black mantle.
+
+    "The next day, and the days following, the _concierge_ was much
+    astonished not to see his lodger of the fourth floor, who was
+    accustomed to stop and talk with him on her way to fetch her _caf�
+    au lait_. But his deep sense of duty as commander of the 114th
+    Battalion occupied his mind so thoroughly, that he paid but little
+    attention to the incident. Neither did he regard the sighs and sobs
+    which were heard from the upper stories. He can scarcely be blamed
+    for this negligence; he was studying his _vade-mecum_.
+
+    "On the fourth day, however, the cries were so violent that they
+    began to inspire the passers-by with alarm, and we have related how
+    four men, headed by their _caporal_, were sought for to inquire into
+    the cause.
+
+    "We have already told what was seen and heard, but the explanations
+    of the neighbours were not sufficient to clear up the darkest side
+    of the mystery, and perhaps the truth would never have been known if
+    the _caporal_--exhibiting, by a rare proof of intelligence, how far
+    he was worthy of the grade with which his comrades had honoured
+    him--had not been inspired with the idea of lifting up the curtain
+    of the bed.
+
+    "Horror! Upon the bed lay stretched the corpse of the unhappy
+    mother, a dagger plunged into her heart, and in her clutched hand
+    was found a paper upon which the victim, before rendering her last
+    breath, had traced the following lines:--
+
+    "'I die, murdered by him who has betrayed me; he would have murdered
+    also my three children, if a noise in the next room had not caused
+    him to take flight. He had come from Versailles for the express
+    purpose of accomplishing this quadruple crime, and, by this means,
+    obliterate every trace of his past villany. His name is Jules Ferry.
+    You who read this, revenge me!'"
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 72: Vermesch, who was born at Lille, in 1846, though not an
+official member of the Commune, was one of its most powerful champions.
+He was founder and principal editor of the _P�re Duchesne_, a poor
+imitation of the journal, published under the same title, by H�bert, in
+the time of the first Revolution. This paper, one of the most
+characteristic of the Commune, was filled with trivialities, in the
+vilest taste and slang, which cannot be rendered in English. The first
+number of Vermesch's journal was published on the 6th of March, but was
+suppressed by General Vinoy; it re-appeared, however, on the eighteenth
+of the same month, and met with such prodigious success, that even its
+editor himself was astonished. Intoxicated with the result, the writers
+became more and more virulent, and not content with penning the vilest
+personal abuse, Vermesch assumed the _r�le_ of public informer. For
+instance, he denounced M. Gustave Chaudey, a writer in the _Si�cle_, in
+the _P�re Duchesne_ of the 12th of April, and that journalist was
+arrested in consequence on the following day. The journal became, not
+only the medium of all kinds of personal abuse and vengeance, but did
+the duty of inquisitor for the Communal Government, for whom it produced
+a terrible crop of victims. The _Official Journal_ contained a number of
+decrees, the drafts of which at first appeared in _P�re Duchesne_.
+
+Amongst other acts, Vermesch organised what he called the battalion of
+the Enfants of the _P�re Duchesne_, and considering the origin of this
+corps, the character of the rabble which filled its ranks may easily be
+imagined. The children of such a father could only be found amidst the
+lowest dregs of the Parisian population; fit instruments for the
+infamous work which was afterwards to be done.]
+
+[Footnote 73: Paschal Grousset prepared himself for politics by the
+study of medicine; from the anatomy of heads he passed to the dissection
+of ideas. Having turned journalist, he wrote scientific articles in
+_Figaro_, contributed to the _Standard_, and was one of the editors of
+the _Marseillaise_ when the challenge, which gave rise to the death of
+Victor Noir and the famous trial at Tours, was sent to Prince Pierre
+Bonaparte. Immediately after the revolution of the eighteenth of March
+he started the _Nouvelle R�publique_, an ephemeral publication which
+only lived a week. On the second of April he commenced the _Affranchi_,
+or journal of free men, as he called it, Vesinier joining him in the
+management of it. The popularity of Grousset caused him to be elected a
+member of the Commune in April, and the Government soon appointed him
+Minister of Foreign Affairs. He communicated circulars to the
+representatives of different nations at Paris, in order to obtain a
+recognition of the Commune; he also sent proclamations to the large
+towns of France, appealing to arms. But his means of communication with
+other governments, and indeed with his own envoys, was very restricted.
+
+He was one of those who took refuge at the _Mairie_ of the Eleventh
+Arrondissement, and who, knowing well that the struggle was really over,
+said to the silly heroes who protected them, "All is well. The
+Versailles mob is turned, and you will soon join your brethren in the
+Champs Elys�es." Many of them that night entered the valley of the
+shadow of death! On the third of June the ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs
+was arrested in the Rue Condorcet, dressed as a woman, and marched off
+to Versailles.]
+
+
+
+
+LXX.
+
+
+    "Issy is taken!
+
+    "Issy is not taken!
+
+    "M�gy[74] has delivered it up!
+
+    "Eudes holds it still."
+
+
+I have heard nothing but contradictory news since this morning. Is Fort
+Issy in the hands of the Versailles troops--yes or no? Hoping to get
+better information by approaching the scene of conflict, I went to the
+Porte d'Issy, but returned without having succeeded in learning
+anything.
+
+There were but few people in that direction; some National Guards,
+sheltered by a casemate, and a few women, watching for the return of
+their sons and husbands, were all I saw. The cannonading was terrific;
+in less than a quarter of an hour I heard five shells whistle over my
+head.
+
+Towards twelve o'clock the drawbridge was lowered, and I saw a party of
+about sixty soldiers, dusty, tired, and dejected, advancing towards me.
+These were some of the "revengers of the Republic."
+
+"Where do you come from?" I asked them.
+
+"From the trenches. There were four hundred of us, and we are all that
+remain."
+
+But when I asked them whether the Fort of Issy were taken, they made no
+answer.
+
+Following the soldiers came four men, bearing a litter, on which a dead
+body lay stretched; and it was with this sad procession that I
+re-entered Paris. From time to time the men deposited their load on the
+ground, and went into a wine-shop to drink. I took advantage of one of
+these moments when the corpse lay abandoned, to lift the cloak that had
+been spread over it. It was the body of a young man, almost a lad; his
+wound was hidden, but the collar of his shirt was dyed crimson with
+blood. When the men returned for the third time, their gait was so
+unsteady that it was with difficulty they raised the poor boy's bier,
+and then went off staggering. At the turning of a street the corpse
+fell, and I ran up as it was being picked from the ground; one of the
+drunken men was shedding tears, and maudling out, "My poor brother!"
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 74: M�gy, the famous governor of the Fort of Issy, was
+implicated in the last, supposed, plot against the life of Napoleon III.
+Having shot one of the police agents charged with his arrest, he was
+tried and condemned to death. He was, however, delivered from prison on
+the fourth of September, and appointed to the command of a battalion of
+National Guards, with which he marched against the H�tel de Ville on the
+thirty-first of October and the twentieth of January. He was named a
+member of the Commune on the eighteenth of March, and set fire to the
+Cour des Comptes and the Palace of the L�gion d'Honneur on the
+twenty-third of May, 1871.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXI.
+
+
+We shall see no more of Cluseret! Cluseret is done for, Cluseret is in
+prison![75] What has he done? Is he in disgrace on account of Fort Issy?
+This would scarcely be just, considering that if the fort were evacuated
+yesterday it was reoccupied this morning; by the bye, I cannot explain
+satisfactorily to myself why the Versaillais should have abandoned this
+position, which they seem to have considered of some importance. If it
+is not on account of Fort Issy that Cluseret was politely asked to go
+and keep Monseigneur Darboy company, why was it? I remember hearing
+yesterday and the day before something about a letter of General
+Fabrice, in which that amiable Prussian, it is reported, begged General
+Cluseret to intercede with the Commune in behalf of the imprisoned
+priests. Is it possible that the Communal delegate, at the risk of
+passing for a Jesuit, could have made the required demand? Why, M.
+Cluseret, that was quite enough for you to be put in prison, and shot
+too into the bargain. However, you did not intercede for anybody, for
+the very excellent reason that General Fabrice no more thought of
+writing to you, than of giving back Alsace and Lorraine. So we must
+search somewhere else for the motive of this sudden eclipse. Some say
+there was a quarrel with Dombrowski, that the latter thought fit to
+sign a truce without the authority of Cluseret--a truce, what an idea!
+Has Dombrowski any scruples about slaughter?--that Cluseret flew into a
+great rage; but that his rival got the best of it in the end. You see if
+one is an American and the other a Pole, the Commune must have a hard
+time of it between the two!
+
+No, neither the evacuation of Fort Issy--in spite of what the _Journal
+Officiel_ says--Monseigneur Darboy, nor the quarrel with Dombrowski are
+the real causes of the fall of Cluseret. Cluseret's destiny was to fall;
+Cluseret has fallen because he did not like gold lace and
+embroidery--"that is the question," all the rest are pretexts.
+
+So the noble delegate imagined he could quietly issue a proclamation one
+morning commanding all the officers under his orders to rip off the gold
+and silver bands which luxuriantly ornament their sleeves and caps![76]
+He thought his staff would forego epaulets and other military gewgaws.
+Why, the man must have been mad! What would Cora or Armentine have said
+if they had seen their military heroes stalk into the Caf� de Su�de or
+the Caf� de Madrid, shorn of all their brilliant appendages, which made
+them look so wonderfully like the monkey-general at the Neuilly fair, in
+the good old times, when there were such things as fairs, and before
+Neuilly was a ruin. Ask any soldier, Federal or otherwise, if he will
+give up his pay, or his jingling sword, or even his rank; he may perhaps
+consent, but ask him to rip off his embroidery, and he will answer,
+never! How can you imagine a man of sense consenting not to look like a
+mountebank?
+
+Another of these absurd prescriptions has done much to lower Cluseret in
+public estimation. One day he took it into his head to prevent his
+officers from galloping in the streets and boulevards, under the
+miserable pretext that the rapid evolutions of these horsemen had
+occasioned several accidents. Well, and if they had, do you think a
+gallant captain of horse is going to deprive himself of the pleasure of
+curvetting within sight of his lady love, for the pitiful reason, that
+he may perchance upset an old woman or two or three children? Citizen
+Cluseret does not know what he is talking about! It is certain that if
+this valiant general has such a very great horror of accidents, he
+should begin by stopping the firing at Courbevoie, which is a great deal
+more dangerous than the galloping of a horse on the Boulevard
+Montmartre. As you may imagine, the officers went on galloping and
+wearing their finery under the very nose of the general, while he walked
+about stoically in plain clothes. However, although they did not obey
+him, they owed him a grudge for the orders he had given. Opposition was
+being hatched, and was ready to burst forth on the first opportunity,
+which happened to be the evacuation of Fort Issy.[76] Cluseret has
+fallen a victim to his taste for simplicity, but he carries with him the
+regrets of all the illused cab-horses which, in the absence of
+thoroughbreds, have to suffice the gallant staff, and who, poor
+creatures, were only too delighted not to gallop.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 75: General Cluseret was a great personage for a time with the
+Communists, and his military talents were lauded to the skies, but
+suddenly he was committed to prison, and was succeeded in the command of
+the army by Rossel. The cause of his imprisonment is not clear. Some say
+that he was discovered to be in correspondence with the Thiers
+government, others that he was suspected of aiming at the Dictatorship.
+During the confusion that occurred on the first entry of the Versailles
+troops into Paris, when the Archbishop of Paris and the other so-called
+"hostages" had been barbarously assassinated, when the Louvre, the
+Palais Royal, and the H�tel de Ville were in flames, Cluseret escaped
+from prison, and was not heard of again until it was reported that his
+body had been found buried beneath the rubbish of the last barricade.
+Was report correct?]
+
+[Footnote 76: "THE MINISTER OF WAR TO THE NATIONAL GUARD.
+
+"CITOYENS,--I notice with pain that, forgetful of our modest origin, the
+ridiculous mania for trimmings, embroidery, and shoulder-knots has begun
+to take hold upon you.
+
+"To work! You have for the first time accomplished a revolution by, and
+for, labour.
+
+"Let us not forget our origin, and, above all, do not let us be ashamed
+of it, Workmen we were! workmen let us remain!
+
+"In the name of virtue against vice, of duty against abuse, of austerity
+against corruption, we have triumphed; let us not forget the fact.
+
+"Let us be, above all, men of honour and duty; we shall then found an
+austere Republic, the only one that has or can have reason for its
+existence.
+
+"I appeal to the good sense of my fellow-citizens: let us have no more
+tags and lace, no more glitter, no more frippery which costs so little
+at the shops yet is so dear to our responsibility.
+
+"In future, anyone who cannot deduce proof of his right to wear the
+insignia of his nominal rank, or, who shall add to the regular uniform
+of the National Guard, tags, lace, or other vain distinctions, will be
+liable to be punished.
+
+"I profit by this occasion to remind each of you of the necessity of
+absolute obedience to the authorities, for in obeying those whom you
+have elected you are only obeying yourselves.
+
+"The Delegate of War,
+
+"Paris, April 7th, 1871,
+
+(Signed) "E. CLUSERET."]
+
+
+
+
+LXXII.
+
+
+Suppose that a man in disguise goes into the opera ball intoxicated,
+rushes hither and thither, gesticulating, insulting the women, mocking
+the men, turns off the gas, then sets light to some curtains, until such
+a hue and cry is raised that he is turned out of the place. Whereupon
+our mask runs off to the nearest costumier's, changes his clown's dress
+for that of a pantaloon, and returns to the opera to recommence his old
+tricks, saying, "I have changed my dress, no one will recognise me." But
+he is wrong, there is no mistaking his way of doing business.
+
+The crowd surrounds him and cries, "We recognise you, _beau masque!_"
+and if he has had the imprudence to secure the doors, they throw him out
+of window.
+
+We recognise you, Executive Commission;[77] it is in vain that you
+disguise yourself in the bloody rags of the Committee of Public Safety,
+your are still yourself, you are still F�lix Pyat, you are still
+Ranvier, you have never ceased to be G�rardin; you hope to make
+yourself obeyed more readily under this lugubrious costume, but you
+mistake. Command us to go and fight, and we will not budge; pursue us,
+and we will hardly run away; put us in prison, and we will only laugh.
+You are no more a Terror, than Gil-P�rez the actor is Talma; the knocks
+you receive have pushed aside your false nose; it is in vain that you
+decree, that you rob, that you incarcerate; you are too grotesque to be
+terrible. Even if you carried the parody out to the end, and thought
+fit to erect a guillotine and sharpen the knife, we should even then
+decline to look seriously upon you, and were we to see one by one five
+hundred heads fell into the basket, we should still persist in thinking
+that your axe was of wood, and your guillotine of cardboard!
+
+[Illustration: DUPONT, DELEGATE OF TRADE AND COMMERCE.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 77: The affair of the 30th of April signally disappointed the
+chiefs of the insurrection, who decreed the formation of a Committee of
+Public Safety, and caused Cluseret to disappear. "The incapacity and
+negligence of the Delegate of War having," they said, "almost lost them
+the possession of Fort Issy, the Executive Commission considered it
+their duty to propose the arrest of Citizen Cluseret, which was
+forthwith decreed by the Commune."]
+
+
+
+
+LXXIII.
+
+
+The Parisian _Official Journal_ says: "The members of the Commune are
+not amenable to any other tribunal than their own" (that of the
+Commune). Ah! truly, men of the H�tel de Ville, you imagine that, do
+you? Have you forgotten that there are such tribunals as court-martials
+and assizes?
+
+
+
+
+LXXIV.
+
+
+M. Rossel is really very unfortunate! What is M. Rossel?[78] Why, the
+provisional successor of Citizen Cluseret. It was not a bad idea to put
+in the word _provisional_. The Commune had confided to him the care of
+military matters, which he had accepted, but with an air of
+condescension. This "Communeux" looks to me like an aristocrat. At any
+rate he has not been fortunate. Scarcely had he taken upon himself the
+safety of Paris, when the redoubt of Moulin-Saquet was surprised by the
+Versaillais. This accident was not calculated to enhance the courage of
+the Federals. The whole affair has been kept as dark as possible, but
+the porter of the house where I live, who was there, has told me strange
+things.
+
+"Will you believe, Monsieur, that I had just finished a game of cards
+with the captain, and was preparing to have a bit of sleep, for it was
+near upon eleven o'clock, when I thought I heard something like the
+noise of troops marching. I looked round to see if any one heard it
+besides myself, but the men were already asleep, and a circular line of
+boots was sticking out all round the tents. The captain said: 'I daresay
+it is the patrol from the Rue de Villejuif.'--'Oh, yes,' said I, 'from
+the barricade,' and I fell to sleep without a thought of danger. In
+fact, there seemed nothing to fear, as the Moulin-Saquet overlooks the
+whole of the plain which stretches from Vitry to Choisy-le-Roi, and from
+Villejuif to the Seine. It was impossible for a man to approach the
+redoubt without being seen by the sentinel. I had, therefore, been
+asleep a few minutes when I was awoke by the following dialogue:--'Stop!
+who goes there?'--'The patrol.'--'Corporal, forward!'--Oh! said I to
+myself, it is our comrades come to see us; there will be some healths
+drunk before morning, and I got up to go and give them a welcome. The
+captain was also astir. 'The password!' he cried. The chief of the
+patrol came forward and answered--'Vengeance!' I remember wondering at
+the moment why he spoke so loud in giving the pass-word, when suddenly
+I saw three men rush forward, seize our captain, and throw him down. At
+the same time two or three hundred men, dressed as National Guards,
+threw themselves into the camp, rushed upon the sleeping artillery-men
+with their bayonets, and then fired several volleys into the tents where
+our poor comrades were asleep. What I had taken at first for National
+Guards were only those devils of sergents-de-ville dressed up! So, you
+see, as it was each man for himself, and the high road for everybody, I
+just threw myself down on my face, and let myself drop into the
+trenches. There was no fear of the noise of my fall being heard in the
+riot. I managed to hide myself pretty well in a hole I found there, and
+which had doubtless been made by a shell. I could not see anything, but
+I heard all that was going on. Clic! clac! clic! went the rifles, almost
+like the cracking of a whip, answered by the most dismal cries from the
+wounded. I could hear also the grinding of wheels, and made sure they
+were taking away our guns, the robbers! When all was silent except the
+groans of the dying men, I crept out of my hiding place. Would you
+believe it, Monsieur, I was the only one able to stand up; the
+Versaillais had taken all those who had not run away or were not
+wounded; I saw them, the pilfering thieves, making off towards Vitry, as
+fast as their legs could carry them!"
+
+"You have no idea, lieutenant," I said to the porter, "how the
+Versaillais got to know the pass-word?"--"No, only the captain, who is
+an honest fellow enough, but rather too fond of the bottle, went in the
+evening to the route d'Orl�ans where there are lots of wine-shops
+..."--"And you think he got tipsy, and let the pass-word out to some spy
+or other?"--"I would not swear he did not; but what I am more sure of,
+is that we are betrayed!"
+
+Alas! yes, unfortunates, you are betrayed, but not in the way you think.
+You are being cheated by these madmen and criminals who are busy
+publishing decrees at the H�tel de Ville, while you are dying by scores
+at Issy, Vanves, Montrouge, Neuilly, and the Moulin-Saquet; they betray
+you when they talk of Royalists and Imperialists; they deceive you when
+they tell you, that victory is certain, and that even defeat would be
+glorious. I tell you, that victory is impossible, and that your defeat
+will be without honour; for when you fell, crying, "Vive la Commune!"
+"Vive la R�publique!" the Commune is F�lix Pyat, and the Republic,
+Vermorel.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 78: Colonel Rossel was one of the most capable members of the
+Commune Government. He was born in 1844, and was the son of Commandant
+Louis Rossel, an officer who acquired a high reputation in the Chinese
+war. The young Louis Rossel received a sound military education at the
+Prytan�e of La Fl�che, and subsequently at the �cole Polytechnique, at
+which latter institution he gained high honours. He served as captain of
+engineers in the army of Metz, and was one of the officers who signed
+the protestation against the surrender of Bazaine. He succeeded in
+eluding the vigilance of the Prussians, and appeared at Tours to offer
+his services to the Government of National Defence. Gambetta, then
+Minister of War, appointed Rossel to the rank of colonel in the
+so-called auxiliary army. After the signature of the peace
+preliminaries, the new government refused to ratify the promotion
+granted by Gambetta, but offered Rossel the rank of major. This
+seriously offended the ex-Dictator's ex-colonel, who shortly after the
+tenth of March, put his sword at the disposition of the Commune. He was
+at first appointed chief of the staff of General Cluseret, whom he
+subsequently replaced as delegate for war. On April 16 he became
+president of the Communist court-martial; he acted with great vigour in
+all military affairs until the 10th of May, when the Commune ordered his
+arrest.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: CHAPELLE EXPIATOIRE.]
+
+LXXV.
+
+
+Malediction on the man who imagined this decree; malediction on the
+assembly that approved it; and cursed be the hand which shall first
+touch a stone of that tomb! Oh I believe me, I am not among those who
+regret the times of royal prerogatives, and who believe that everything
+would have gone well, in the most peaceful country in the world, if
+Louis XVII had only succeeded to the throne after his father, Louis XVI.
+The author of the revolution of 1798 knew what he was about in
+multiplying such terrible catastrophes. The name of that author was
+Infallible Necessity. Indeed I am quite ready to confess that the
+indolent husband of Marie Antoinette had none of those qualities which
+make a great king, and I will even add, if you wish it absolutely, that
+the solitary fact of being a king is a crime worthy a thousand deaths.
+As to Marie Antoinette herself--"the Austrian," _P�re Duchesne_ would
+call her--I allow that in history she is not quite so amiable as she
+appears in the novels of Alexandra Dumas, and that her near relationship
+to the queen Caroline-Marie, whose little suppers at Naples, in company
+with Lady Hamilton, one is well acquainted with, gives some excuse for
+the calumnies of which she has been the object. Have I said enough to
+prevent myself being the recipient, in the event of a Bourbon
+restoration, of the most modest pension that ever came out of a royal
+treasury? Well, in spite of what I have said, and in spite of what I
+think, I repeat, "Do not touch that tomb!" Like the Column Vend�me,
+which is the symbol of an heroic and terrible epoch in history, the
+Chapelle Expiatoire[79] is a souvenir of the old monarchical reign, an
+age which was neither devoid of sorrow, nor of honour for France. Can
+you not be republican without suppressing history, which was royalist?
+The last remains of monarchy repose in peace beneath that gloomy
+monument; may it be respected, as we respect the ashes of those who
+respected it; and you, breakers of images, profaners of past glory, do
+you not fear, in executing your decree, to produce an effect
+diametrically opposed to that which you desire? By persecuting kings
+even in their last resting-place, are you not afraid to excite the pity,
+the regret perhaps, of those whose consciences still hesitate? In the
+interest of the Republic, I say, take care! The memory of the dead
+stalks forth from open sepulchres!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 79: This chapel was erected by Louis XVIII. upon the spot
+where, during the Revolution of 1793, the remains of Louis XVI, and his
+Queen had been obscurely interred.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXVI.
+
+
+Rejoice, poor housewives, who, on days of poverty, were obliged to carry
+to the Mont-de-Pi�t�[80] the discoloured remains of your wedding dress,
+or your husband's Sunday coat; rejoice, artisans, who, after a day of
+toil, thought your bed so hard since your last mattress was taken to the
+Rue des Blancs-Manteaux, to rejoin your last pair of sheets. The Commune
+has decreed that "all objects in pawn at the Mont-de-Pi�t�, for a sum
+not exceeding twenty francs, shall be given back gratuitously to all
+persons who shall prove their legitimate right to the said objects."
+Thanks to this benevolent decree, you may now hope that things you have
+pawned will be restored to you before three or four hundred days!
+
+Count on your fingers; the number of articles to which the decree
+applies is at least 1,200,000. As there are only three offices for the
+claimants to apply to, and considering the forms which have to be
+observed, I do not think more than three thousand objects can be given
+back daily; the Commune says four thousand, but the Commune does not
+know what it is talking about. However, even if we calculate four
+thousand a-day, the whole would take up ten or twelve months.
+
+During this time men and women, whom poverty had long ere this taught
+the road to the Mont-de-Pi�t�, would have to get up early, neglect the
+daily work by which they live, and go and stand awaiting their turn at
+the office, frozen in winter, baked in summer, thankful to obtain a
+moment's rest upon one of the wooden benches in the great bare hall; and
+when they have been there a long, weary time, to see their number, drawn
+by lot, put off to the next day or the day after, or the week or the
+month following perhaps.
+
+Still we must not blame the Commune for the sad disappointment of this
+long delay, it would be impossible to shorten it. One thing, which is
+less impossible, is to indemnify the administration of the Mont-de-Pi�t�
+for this gratuitous restitution. Citizen Jourde, delegate of the
+finances, says, "I will give 100,000 francs a-week." Without stopping to
+consider where this able political economist means to get his weekly
+100,000 francs, I will be content with remarking that this sum would in
+no wise cover the loss to the Mont-de-Pi�t�, and that the Commune will
+only be giving alms out of other people's purses. If, however, thanks to
+this decree, some few poor creatures are enabled to get back those goods
+and chattels which they were obliged to dispose of in the hour of need,
+there will not be much cause to complain. The Mont-de-Pi�t� usually does
+a very good business, and there will always be enough misery in Paris
+for it to grow rich upon. Besides, the Commune owes the poor wounded,
+mutilated, dying fellows who have been brought from Neuilly and Issy, at
+least a mattress to die in some little comfort upon.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 80: The governmental pawnbroking establishments. All the
+pawnbroking is carried on by the Government.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXVII.
+
+
+They have put them into the prison of Saint-Lazare. Whom? The nuns of
+the convent of Picpus. They have put them there because they have been
+arrested. But why were they arrested? That is what Monsieur Rigault
+himself could not clearly explain. Some of the nuns are old. They have
+been living long in seclusion, and have only changed cells; having been
+the captives of Heaven, they have become the prisoners of Citizen
+Mouton. In such an abject place too, poor harmless souls! Victor Hugo
+has said, speaking of that wretched prison, "Saint-Lazare! we must crush
+that edifice." Yes, later, when we have the time; we must now pull down
+the Column Vend�me and the Chapelle Expiatoire. In the meantime these
+poor ladies are very sad. One of my friends went to see them; they have
+neither their prayer-books nor their crucifix; they have had even the
+amulets they wore round their necks taken from them. This seems nothing
+to you, citizens of the Commune. You are men of advanced opinions. You
+care as much about a crucifix as a fish for an apple; and perhaps you
+are right. You have studied the question, and you say in the evening,
+looking up at the stars, "There is no God." But you must understand that
+with these poor nuns it is quite a different matter. They have not read
+philosophical treatises; they still believe that the Almighty created
+the world in six days, and that the Son died on the cross for the sake
+of the world. When they were free, or rather when they were in a prison
+of their own choosing, they prayed in the morning, they prayed at noon,
+they prayed at night, and only interrupted this most pernicious
+occupation for the purpose of teaching poor little girls that it is good
+to be virtuous, honest, and grateful, and that Heaven rewards those who
+do rightly. That was their occupation, poor simple souls, and you have
+sent them to Saint Lazare for that. You should have chosen another
+prison, for their presence must be disagreeable to the usual female
+denizens of the place. But there, or elsewhere, they do not complain;
+they only ask for a prayer-book and a wooden crucifix. Come, Citizen
+Delegate of the ex-Prefecture, one little concession, and unless the
+future of the Republic is likely to be compromised by so doing, give
+them a cross. A cross is only two pieces of wood placed one on the
+other. I promise you there will be wood enough in the forest the day
+honest men make up their minds to exercise their muscles on your backs,
+you bullying slave-drivers!
+
+
+
+
+LXXVIII.
+
+
+After Bergeret came Cluseret; after Cluseret, Rossel. But Rossel has
+just sent in his resignation. My idea is, that we take back Cluseret,
+that we may have Bergeret, and so on, unless we prefer to throw
+ourselves into the open arms of General Lullier. The choice of another
+general for the defence of Paris is however no business of mine; and the
+Commune, a sultan without a favourite, may throw his handkerchief if he
+pleases, to the tender Delescluze, as some say he has the intention--I
+have not the least objection. Why should not Delescluze[81] be an
+excellent general? He is a journalist, and what journalist does not know
+more about military matters than Napoleon I., or Von Moltke himself? In
+the meantime we are in mourning for our third War Delegate, and we shall
+no longer see Rossel on his dark bay, galloping between the Place
+Vend�me and the Fort Montrouge. He has just written the following letter
+to the members of the Commune:--
+
+[Illustration: QUELLE GOURMANDE! Paris at Table
+
+--Waiter--Two or three more stuffed generals!
+
+--We are out of them.
+
+--Very well, then a dozen colonels in caper sauce.
+
+--A Dozen?--Yes! Directly!!]
+
+    "CITIZENS, MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNE,--Having been charged by you with
+    the War Department, I feel myself no longer capable of bearing the
+    responsibility of a command wherein every one deliberates, and no
+    one obeys.
+
+    "When it was necessary to organise the artillery, the Central
+    Committee of Artillery deliberated, but nothing was done.
+    After a month's revolution, that service is only carried on, thanks
+    to the energy of a very small number of volunteers.
+
+    "On my nomination to the Ministry, I wanted to further the search
+    for arms, the requisition of horses, and the pursuit of refractory
+    citizens; I asked help of the Commune.
+
+    "The Commune deliberated, but passed no resolutions.
+
+    "Later, the Central Committee came and offered its services to the
+    War Department; I accepted them in the most decisive manner, and
+    delivered up to its members all the documents I had concerning its
+    organisation. Since then the Central Committee has been
+    deliberating, and has done nothing. During this time the enemy
+    multiplied its venturesome attacks on Fort Issy; had I had the
+    smallest military force at my command, I would have punished them
+    for it.
+
+    "The garrison, badly commanded, took flight; the officers
+    deliberated, and sent away from the fort Captain Dumont, an
+    energetic man, who had been ordered to command them. Still
+    deliberating, they evacuated the fort, after having stupidly talked
+    of blowing it up,--as difficult a thing for them to do as to defend
+    it.
+
+[Illustration: DELESCLUZE, DELEGATE OF WAR.[82]]
+
+    "Even that was not enough. Yesterday, when every one ought to have
+    been at work or fighting, the chiefs were deliberating upon another
+    system of organisation from that which I had adopted, so as to make
+    up for their want of forethought and authority. The results of their
+    council were a project, when we want men, and a declaration of
+    principles, when we wanted acts.
+
+    "My indignation brought them back to other thoughts, and they
+    promised me for to-day the largest force they could possibly muster,
+    --an organised one of not more than 12,000 men. With these I undertook
+    to march on the enemy. These men were to muster at eleven o'clock: it
+    is now one, and they are not ready, and the promised 12,000 has
+    dwindled to about 7,000, which is not at all the same thing.
+
+    "Thus, the utter uselessness of the artillery committee prevented
+    the organization of the artillery; the hesitation of the Central
+    Committee stopped all arrangements; the petty discussions of the
+    officers, paralyses the concentration of the troops.
+
+    "I am not a man to mind having recourse to violence. Yesterday,
+    while the chiefs discussed, a company of men with loaded rifles
+    awaited in the court. But I did not want to take upon myself the
+    initiative of so energetic a measure, or draw upon myself the odium
+    of such executions as would have been necessary to extricate
+    obedience and victory from such a chaos. Even if I had been
+    protected by the publicity of my acts, I need not have given up my
+    position.
+
+    "But the Commune has not had the courage to confront publicity.
+    Twice I wished to give some necessary explanations, and twice, in
+    spite of me, it insisted on a secret council.
+
+    "My predecessor was wrong to remain in so absurd a position.
+
+    "Enlightened by his example, and knowing that the strength of a
+    revolutionary, only consists in the clearness of his position, I
+    have only two alternatives, either to break the chains which impede
+    my actions, or to retire.
+
+    "I will not break the chains, because those chains are you, and your
+    weakness,--I will not touch the sovereignty of the people.
+
+    "I retire; and have the honour to beg for a cell at Mazas.
+
+    "ROSSEL."[83]
+
+Most certainly I do not like the Paris Commune, such as the men of the
+H�tel de Ville understand it. Deceived at first by my own delusive
+hopes, I now am sure that we have nothing to expect from it but follies
+upon follies, crimes upon crimes. I hate it on account of the suppressed
+newspapers, of the imprisoned journalists, of the priests shut up at
+Mazas like assassins, of the nuns shut up at Saint-Lazare like
+courtesans; I hate it because it incites to the crime of civil war those
+who would have been ready to fight against the Prussians, but who do not
+wish to fight against Frenchmen; I hate it on account of the fathers of
+families sent to battle and to death; on account of our ruined ramparts,
+our dismantled forts, each stone of which as it falls wounds or
+destroys; on account of the widowed women and the orphaned children, all
+of whom they can never pension in spite of their decrees; I cannot
+pardon them the robbing of the banks, nor the money extorted from the
+railway companies, nor the loan-shares sold to a money-changer at Li�ge;
+I hate it on account of Cl�mence the spy, and Allix the madman. I am
+sorry to think that two or three intelligent men should be mixed up with
+it, and have to share in its fall. I hate it particularly on account of
+the just principles it at one time represented, and of the admirable and
+fruitful ideas of municipal independence, which it, was not able to
+carry out honestly, and which, because of the excesses that have been
+committed in their name, will have lost for ever, perhaps, all chance of
+triumphing. Still, great as is my horror of this parody of a government
+to which we have had to submit for nearly two months, I could not
+forbear a feeling of repulsion on reading the letter of Citizen Rossel.
+It is a capitally written letter, firm, concise, conclusive, differing
+entirely from the bombastic, unintelligible documents to which the
+Commune has accustomed us; and besides, it brings to light several
+details at which I rejoice, because it permits me to hope that the reign
+of our tyrants is nearly at an end. I am glad to hear that the Commune,
+if it possesses artillery, is short of artillerymen. It delights me to
+learn that they can only dispose of seven thousand combatants. I had
+feared that it would be enabled to kill a great many more; and as to
+what Citizen Rossel says of the committees and officers who deliberate
+but do not act, it is most pleasant news, for it convinces me, that the
+Commune has not the power to continue much longer a war, which can but
+result in the death of Paris; and yet I highly disapprove of the letter
+of Citizen Rossel, because it is on his part an act of treachery, and it
+is not for the friends and servants of the Commune to reveal its faults
+and to show up its weaknesses. Who obliged Rossel, commander of the
+staff, to take the place of his general, disgraced and imprisoned? Did
+he not accept willingly a position, the difficulties of which he had
+already recognised? He says himself that his predecessor was wrong to
+have stayed in so absurd a position, and why did he voluntarily put
+himself there, where he blamed another for remaining? If the new
+delegate hoped by his own cleverness to modify the position, he ought
+not, the position remaining the same, accuse anything but his own
+incapacity. In a word, the conclusion at which we arrive is, that he
+only accepted power to be able to throw it off with effect, like Cato,
+who only went to the public theatres for the purpose of fussily leaving
+the place, at the moment when the audience called the actors before the
+curtain. Not being able or perhaps willing to save the Commune, M.
+Rossel desired to save himself at its expense. There is something
+ungentlemanly in this. Do not, however, imagine for a moment that I
+believe in M. Rossel having been bought by M. Thiers. All those
+ridiculous stories of sums of money having been offered to the members
+of the Commune, are merely absurd inventions.[84] What do you think they
+say of Cluseret? That he was in the habit of taking his breakfast at the
+Caf� d'Orsay, and afterwards playing a game of dominoes. One day his
+adversary is reported to have said to him, "If you will deliver the fort
+of Montrouge to the Versaillais, I will give you two millions." What
+fools people must be to believe such absurdities! Rossel has not sold
+himself, for the very good reason that nobody ever thought of buying
+him. It was his own idea to do what he did. For the pleasure of being
+insolent and showing his boldness, he has pulled down from its pedestal
+what he adored, consequently the most criminal among the members of the
+Commune, once a swindler, now a pilferer, is free to say to M. Rossel,
+who is, I am told, a man of intelligence and honesty, "You are worse
+than I am, for you have betrayed us!"
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 81: PARIS AT DINNER.--An ogress, gentleman! A famished
+creature, faring sumptuously; her face flushed with wine, her eyes
+bright, her hands trembling. Madame Lutetia is a strapping woman still,
+with a queenly air about her, in spite of the red patches on her tunic;
+somewhat shorn of her ornaments, it is true, as she has had to pawn the
+greater part of her jewelry, but the orgie once over she will be again
+what she was before.
+
+For the time being she is wholly absorbed in her gastronomic exertions.
+She has already devoured a Bergeret with peas, a Lullier with anchovy
+sauce, an Assy and potatoes, a Cluseret with tomatos, a Rossel with
+capers, besides a large quantity of small fry, and she is not yet
+appeased. The _ma�tre-d'h�tel_ Delescluze waits upon her somewhat in
+trepidation, with a sickly smile on his face. What if, after such a meal
+of generals and colonels, the ogress were to devour the waiter!--_Fac
+simile of design from the "Grelot," 17th May, 1871_.]
+
+[Footnote 82: Delescluze's wild life began at Dreux, in 1809. Driven
+from home on account of his bad conduct, he came to Paris, and obtained
+employment in an attorney's office, from which he was very soon
+afterwards, it is said, discharged for robbery. In 1834, he underwent
+the first of his long list of imprisonments, for the part he took in the
+April revolution, and in the following year, being compromised in a
+conspiracy against the safety of the state, he took refuge in Belgium,
+Where he obtained the editorship of the _Courrier de Charleroi_. In 1840
+he returned to Paris, where he founded a journal called the _R�volution
+D�mocratique et Sociale_, which brought him fifteen months' imprisonment
+and twenty thousand francs fine. After a long period of liberty of
+nearly eight years, he was condemned to transportation by the High Court
+of Justice, but the condemnation was given in his absence, for he had
+slipped over to England, where he remained until 1853. On his returning
+in that year to France he was immediately imprisoned at Mazas,
+transferred afterwards to Belle-Isle, and then successively to the hulks
+of Corte, Ajaccio, Toulon, Brest, and finally to Cayenne. These sojourns
+lasted until 1868, when the amnesty permitted him to return to France,
+where he made haste to bring out another new journal, _Le R�veil_, which
+of course earned him fines and imprisonments with great rapidity, three
+of each within the twelvemonth.
+
+In the month of February, 1871, he was elected deputy by a large number
+of votes; and later, when the Assembly went to Bordeaux, sat there for
+some time, and then gave in his resignation, in order to take part with
+the Commune.
+
+By the Commune he was made delegate at the Ministry of War, after the
+pretended flight of Rossel, and in a sitting of the 20th of April, in
+which the project of burning Paris was discussed, Delescluze ended his
+speech with the words--"If we must die, we will give to Liberty a pile
+worthy of her."]
+
+[Footnote 83: He was convinced of the hopelessness of any further
+struggle after the capture of Fort Issy; gave in his resignation, and
+hid himself to escape the vengeance of his former colleagues. He was
+supposed to be in England or Switzerland, whereas, in fact, he had fled
+no farther than the Boulevard Saint Germain. He was arrested by the
+police on the ninth of June, disguised as an employ� of the Northern
+Railway. He was first interrogated at the Petit Luxembourg, and
+afterwards conducted handcuffed to Versailles, where three mouths after
+he was tried by court-martial and sentenced to military degradation and
+death.]
+
+[Footnote 84: "A plot had just been discovered between Bourget of the
+Internationale, Billioray, member of the Commune, and C�risier, captain
+of the 101st Battalion of the insurgent National Guard. For a certain
+sum of money they were to deliver Port Issy into the hands of General
+Valentin, of the Versailles army. The succession of Rossel to the
+Ministry of War frustrated the whole project.
+
+"In the night of the 17th of May another attempt of the same kind met
+with failure. The Communists Bourget, Billioray, Mortier, C�risier, and
+Pilotel, the artist, traitors to their own treacherous cause, were to
+open the gates to the soldiers of Versailles, an hour after midnight, at
+the Point du Jour; the soldiers to be disguised as National Guards. But,
+at the appointed hour, C�risier took fright, and contented himself with
+the money he had received on account (twenty-five thousand francs) in
+payment for his treachery, and did no more. When the Versailles troops
+presented themselves at the gates, they had to beat a retreat under a
+heavy fire of mitrailleuses." _Guerre des Communeux_.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXIX.
+
+
+I was told the following by an eye-witness of the scene. In a small room
+at the H�tel de Ville five personages were seated round a table at
+dinner. The repast was of the most modest kind, and consisted of soup,
+one dish of meat, one kind of vegetable, cheese, and a bottle of vin
+ordinaire each. One would have thought, oneself in a restaurant at two
+francs a head, if it had not been that the condiments had got musty
+during the siege; besides, there was something solemn and official in
+the very smell of the viands which took away one's appetite. However,
+our five personages swallowed their food as fast as they could. At the
+head of the table sat Citizen Jourde. Jourde looks about eight and
+twenty; he has a delicate looking, mathematical head, with brown curly
+hair and sallow complexion, a kind of Henri Heine of the Finance. Tall
+and thin, with his red scarf tied round his waist, he reminds us of one
+of the old Convention of '89. They sat for some time in silence, as if
+they were observing each other. At the end of the first course, Jourde
+took up a spoon and examined it, saying, "Silver! true there is silver
+at the H�tel de Ville, I will send for it to-morrow!" One of the other
+guests said, "Pardon me, I have to answer for it, and shall not give it
+up."--"Oh, yes you will," answered Jourde, "I will have an order sent to
+you from the Domaine,"[85] and then, as if he were thinking aloud, goes
+on to express his satisfaction at having found an unexpected sum of
+three hundred thousand francs, as it were on the dinner-table. A whole
+day's pay! He will be able to put by four millions at the end of the
+week; he tries to be economical, but the war runs away with everything.
+"You must at least give me three days' notice for the payment of sums
+amounting to more than a hundred thousand francs," says he, with a
+shrug of the shoulders, particularly addressed to Beslay. Then he speaks
+of his hopes of reducing the Prussian debt before the year is out, if
+the Commune lives so long; touches on subjects connected with the taxes,
+patents and duties, "or else bank-notes worth fire hundred francs in the
+morning, will only be worth twenty sous in the evening; money is scarce,
+it is leaving the city. I do not see much copper about, but if you leave
+me alone, I promise to succeed." All this was said in a tone of the most
+sincere conviction. When the dinner was over, he hastily bowed and
+rushed off, without having taken any notice of what was said to him.
+Every now and then cries arose in the streets, and made the members of
+the Commune start as they sat there behind their sombre curtains. "Do
+you think they can come in?" asked some one of Johannard, to which he
+replies, "What a wild idea! Delescluze knows it is impossible, and
+Dombrowski, a cold unexcitable fellow, only laughs when people mention
+it; does he not, Rigault?" Thereupon the personage addressed, who has
+not yet spoken, bows his head in sign of acquiescence. He looks young in
+spite of his thick, black beard; his eyes are weak, his expression is
+sly and disagreeable, and looks as if he might sometimes have his hours
+of coarse joviality. Then a porti�re was lowered, or a door shut, and
+the person who had overheard the preceding heard and saw no more.
+
+[Illustration: FONTAINE, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC DOMAINS AND
+REGISTRATION.[86]]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 85: The Commune occupied the Mint, and directed Citizen
+Camelinat, bronze-fitter, to manufacture gold and silver coin to the
+amount of 1,500,000 francs. Of that sum, 76,000 francs only was saved by
+the Versailles troops on their entry. The different articles of gold and
+silver found at the H�tel des Monnaies represented a total weight of
+1,186 lbs., and consisted of objects taken from the churches, religious
+houses, and government offices, Imperial plate, and presents to the city
+of Paris. All these objects have been sent to the repository of the
+Domaine, where they maybe claimed on identification by their owners.]
+
+[Footnote 86: Fontaine was nominated on the 18th of March director of
+the public domains and of registration. His name figures in the history
+of the revolutions, �meutes, and insurrections of Paris from 1848. He
+was a professional insurgent.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXX.
+
+
+I am beginning to regret Cluseret. He was impatient, especially in
+speech. He used to say "Every man a National Guard!" But with Cluseret,
+as with one's conscience, there were possible conciliations. You had
+only to answer the decrees of the war-delegate by an enthusiastic "Why I
+am delighted, indeed I was just going to beg you to send me to the
+Porte-Maillot;" which having done, one was free to go about one's
+business without fear of molestation. As to leaving Paris, in spite of
+the law which condemned every man under forty to remain in the city;
+nothing was easier. You had but to go to the Northern Railway Station,
+and prefer your request to a citizen, seated at a table behind a
+partition in the passport office.[87] When he asked you your age you had
+only to answer "Seventy-eight," passing your hand through your sable
+locks as you spoke--"Only that? I thought you looked older," the
+accommodating individual would answer, at the same time putting into
+your hand a paper on which was written some cabalistic sign. One day I
+had taken it into my head to go and spend two hours at Bougival, and my
+pass bore the strange word "Carnivolus" written on it. Provided with
+this mysterious document, I was enabled to procure a first-class ticket
+and jump into the next train that started. I was free, and nothing could
+have prevented my going, if such had been my wish, to proclaim the
+Commune at Mont Blanc or Monaco.
+
+How the times are changed! The Committee of Public Safety and the
+Central Committee now join together in making the lives of the poor
+_r�fractaires_[88] a burthen to them. I do not speak of the
+disarmaments, which have nothing particularly disagreeable about them,
+for an unarmed man may clearly nourish the hope that he is not to be
+sent to battle. But there are other things, and I really should not
+object to be a little over eighty for a few days. Domiciliary visits
+have become very frequent. Four National Guards walk into the house of
+the first citizen they please, and politely or otherwise, explain to him
+that it is his strict duty to go into the trenches at Vanves and kill as
+many Frenchmen as he can. If the citizen resists he is carried off, and
+told that on account of his resistance he will have the honour of being
+put at the head of his battalion at the first engagement. These visits
+often end in violence. I am told that in the Rue Oudinot a young man
+received a savage bayonet thrust because he resisted the corporal's
+order; and as these occurrences are not uncommon, the _r�fractaires_
+cannot be said to live in peace and comfort. They are subject to
+continual terror, the sour visage of their _concierge_ fills them with
+misgivings, he may be one of the Commune. As to going to bed, it must
+not be thought of; it is during the hours of night that the Communal
+agents are particularly active. This necessity of changing domicile has
+lead to certain Am�lias and Rosalines and other ladies of that
+description having the words "Hospitality to _R�fractaires_" written in
+pencil on their cards. Men who decline to take advantage of such
+opportunities have to go about from h�tel to h�tel, giving imaginary
+names, suspicious of the waiters, and awaking at the least sound,
+thinking it is the noise of feet ascending the stairs, or the rattle of
+muskets on the landing. The day before yesterday a number of
+_r�fractaires_, having the courage of despair, walked to the Porte
+Saint-Ouen--"Will you let us out?" asked they of the commanding officer,
+who answered in a decided negative; whereupon the party, which was three
+hundred strong, fell upon the captain and his men, whom they disarmed,
+and five minutes afterwards they were running free across the fields.
+
+Others employ softer means of corruption; resort to the wine-shops of
+Belleville, where they make themselves agreeable in every way, and soon
+succeed in entering into friendly conversation with some of the least
+ferocious among the Federals of the place.
+
+[Illustration: R�FRACTAIRES ESCAPING FROM PARIS]
+
+"You are on duty, Tuesday, at the Porte de la Chapelle?"--"Why,
+yes."--"So that you might very easily let a comrade out who wants to go
+and pay a visit at Saint-Denis?"--"Quite out of the question; the others
+would prevent me, or denounce me to the captain."--"You think there is
+nothing to be done with the captain?"--"Oh! no; he is a staunch patriot,
+he is!"--"How very tiresome; and I wanted most particularly to go to
+Saint-Denis on Tuesday evening. I would gladly give twenty francs out of
+my own pocket for the sake of a little walk outside the
+fortifications."--"There is only one way."--"And how is that?"--"You
+don't care much about going out by the door, do you?"--"Well, no; what I
+want is to get outside."--"Oh! then listen to me; come to La-Chapelle
+early on Tuesday evening, and walk up and down the rampart. I will try
+and be on duty at eight o'clock, and look out for you. When I see you I
+will take care not to say _qui vive_."--"That's easy enough; and what
+then?"--"Why, then I will secure around you a thick rope which of course
+you will have with you!"--"The devil!"--"And I will throw you into the
+trench."--"By Jove! That will be a leap."--"Oh! I will do it very
+carefully, without hurting you. I will let you slip softly down the
+wall."--"Humph!"--"When you reach the ground below, in an instant you
+can be up and off into the darkness. Do you accept? Yes or no?"--"I
+should certainly prefer to drive out of the city in a coach and six,
+but nevertheless I accept."
+
+Generally, this plan answers admirably. They say that the Federals of
+Belleville and Montmartre make a nice little income with this kind of
+business. Sometimes, however, the plan only half succeeds, and either
+the rope breaks, or the Federal considers, he may manage capitally to
+reconcile his interest with his duty, by sending a ball after the
+escaped _r�fractaire_.
+
+Disguises are also the order of the day. A poet, whose verses were
+received at the Com�die Fran�aise with enthusiasm during the siege,
+managed to get away, thanks to an official on the Northern Railway, who
+lent him his coat and cap. Another poet--they are an ingenious
+race--conceived a plan of greater boldness. One day on the Boulevard he
+called a fiacre, having first taken care to choose a coachman of
+respectable age, "_Cocher_, drive to the Rue Montorgueil, to the best
+restaurant you can find." On the way the poet reasoned thus to himself:
+"This coachman has in his pocket, as they all have, a Communal passport,
+which allows him to go out and come into Paris as he pleases; let me
+remember the fourth act of my last melodrama, and I am saved."
+
+The cab stopped in front of a restaurant of decent exterior not far from
+Philippe's. The young man went in, asked for a private room, and told
+the waiter to send up the coachman, as he had something to say to him,
+and to procure a boy to hold the horse. The coachman walked into the
+room, where the breakfast was ready served.
+
+"Now, coachman, I am going to keep you all day, so do not refuse to
+drink a glass with me to keep up your strength."
+
+An hour after the poet and the coachman had breakfasted like old
+friends; six empty bottles testified that neither one nor the other were
+likely to die of thirst. The poet grumbled internally to himself as he
+thought of the three bottles of Clos-Vougeot, one of L�oville, two of
+Moulin-au-Vent, that had been consumed, and the fellow not drunk yet.
+Then he determined to try surer means, and called to the waiter to
+bring champagne. "It is no use, young fellow," laughed the coachman, who
+was familiar at least, if he was not drunk; "champagne won't make any
+difference; if you counted on that to get my passport, you reckoned
+without your host!"--"The devil I did," cried the poor young man,
+horrified to see his scheme fall through, and to think of the prodigious
+length of the bill he should have to pay for nothing.--"Others, have
+tried it on, but I am too wide awake by half," said the coachman, adding
+as he emptied the last bottle into his glass, "give me two ten-franc
+pieces and I will get you through."--"How can I be grateful enough?"
+cried the poet, although in reality he felt rather humiliated to find
+that the grand scene in his fourth act had not succeeded.--"Call the
+waiter, and pay the bill." The waiter was called, and the bill paid with
+a sigh. "Now give me your jacket."--"My jacket?"--"Yes, this thing in
+velvet you have on your back." The poet did as he was bid. "Now your
+waistcoat and trousers."--"My trousers! Oh, insatiable coachman!"--"Make
+haste will you, or else I shall take you to the nearest guard-room for a
+confounded _r�fractaire_, as you are." The clothes were immediately
+given up. "Very well; now take mine, dress yourself in them, and let's
+be off." While the young man was putting on with decided distaste the
+garments of the _cocher_, the latter managed to introduce his ponderous
+bulk into those of the poet. This done, out they went. "Get up on the
+box."--"On the box?"--"Yes, idiot," said the coachman, growing more and
+more familiar; "I am going to get into the cab, now drive me wherever
+you please." The plan was a complete success. At the Porte de Ch�tillon
+the disguised poet exhibited his passport, and the National Guard who
+looked in at the window of the carriage cried out, "Oh, he may pass; he
+might be my grandfather." The cab rolled over the draw-bridge, and it
+was in this way that M ...,--ah! I was just going to let the cat out of
+the bag--it was in this way that our young poet broke the law of the
+Commune, and managed to dine that same evening at the H�tel des
+R�servoirs at Versailles, with a deputy of the right on his left hand,
+and a deputy of the left on his right hand.
+
+Shall I go away? Why not? Do I particularly wish to be shut up one
+morning in some barrack-room, or sent in spite of myself to the
+out-posts? My position of _r�fractaire_ is sensibly aggravated by the
+fact of my being in rather a dangerous neighbourhood. For the last few
+days, I have felt rather astonished at the searching glances that a
+neighbour always casts upon me, when we met in the street. I told my
+servant to try and find out who this man was. Great heavens! this
+scowling neighbour of mine is G�rardin--G�rardin of the Commune! Add to
+this the perilous fact, that our _concierge_ is lieutenant in a Federal
+battalion, and you will have good reason to consider me the most
+unfortunate of _r�fractaires_. However, what does it matter? I decide on
+remaining; I will stay and see the end, even should the terrible Pyat
+and the sweet Vermorel both of them be living under the same roof with
+me, even if my _concierge_ be M. Delescluze himself!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 87: The decree which rendered obligatory the service in the
+marching companies of the National Guard, and the establishment of
+courts-martial, spread terror among the population, and thousands of
+people thronged daily to the Prefecture of Police. Sometimes, the queue
+extended from the Place Dauphine to beyond the Pont Neuf. But soon
+afterwards, stratagems of every kind were put into requisition to escape
+from the researches of the Commune, which became more eager and
+determined, from day to day, after the publication of the following
+decree, the chef-d'oeuvre of the too famous Raoul Rigault:--
+
+"EX-PREFECTURE OF POLICE.
+
+"Delivery of Passports.
+
+"Considering that the civil authority cannot favour the non-execution of
+the decrees of the Commune, without failing in its duty, and that it is
+highly necessary that all communications with those who carry on this
+savage war against us should be prevented,
+
+"The member of the Committee of Public Safety, Delegate at the
+Prefecture of Police,
+
+"Decrees:--
+
+"Art. 1. Passports can only be delivered on the production of
+satisfactory documents.
+
+"Art. 2. No passport will be delivered to individuals between the ages
+of seventeen and thirty-five years, as such fall within the military
+law.
+
+"Art. 3. No passport will be issued to any member of the old police, or
+who are in relation with Versailles.
+
+"Art. 4. Any persons who come within the conditions of Articles 2 or 3,
+and apply for passports, will be immediately sent to the d�p�t of the
+ex-Prefecture of Police.
+
+(Signed) "RAOUL RIGAULT,
+
+"Member of the Committee of Public Safety."]
+
+[Footnote 88: Those who decline to join the Commune.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXXI.
+
+
+Glorious news! I have seen Lullier again. We had lost Cluseret, lost
+Rossel; Delescluze does not suffice, and except for Dombrowski and La
+C�cilia with his prima-donna-like name, the company of the Commune would
+be sadly wanting in stars. Happily! Lullier has been restored to us.
+What had become of him? he only wrote seven or eight letters a day to
+Rochefort and Maroteau, that I can find out. How did he manage to employ
+that indomitable activity of his, and that of his two hundred friends,
+who with their red Garibaldis and blue sailor trousers made him the most
+picturesque escort you can imagine? Was he meditating some gigantic
+enterprises the dictatorship that Cluseret had dreamed of and Rossel
+disdained, was he about to assume it for the good of the Republic? I
+have no idea; but whatever he has been doing, I have seen him again at
+the club held in the church of Saint Jacques.
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL LA C�CILIA.[89]]
+
+Ha! ha! Worthless hypocrites and inquisitors, who for the last eighteen
+hundred years have crushed, degraded, and tortured the poor; you thought
+our turn was never to come, you monks, priests, and archbishops! Thanks
+to the Commune you now preach in the prisons of the Republic; you may
+confess, if you like, the spiders of your dungeons, and give the holy
+viaticum to the rats which play around your legs! You can no longer do
+any harm to patriots. No more churches, no more convents! Those who
+have not houses in the Champs Elys�es shall lodge in your convents; in
+your churches shall be held honest assemblies, which will give the
+people their rights; as to their duties, that is an invention of
+reactionists. No more of your sermons or speeches: after Bossuet,
+Napol�on Gaillard!
+
+[Illustration: THE CHURCH OF SAINT EUSTACHE. Used as a Red Club. Partly
+destroyed by fire.]
+
+On entering the church of Saint Eustache yesterday, I was agreeably
+surprised to find the font full of tobacco instead of holy-water, and to
+see the altar in the distance covered with bottles and glasses. Some one
+informed me that was the counter. In one of the lateral chapels, a
+statue of the Virgin had been dressed out in the uniform of a
+vivandi�re, with a pipe in her mouth. I was, however, particularly
+charmed with the amiable faces of the people I saw collected there. The
+sex to which we owe the _tricoteuses_ was decidedly in the majority. It
+was quite delightful not to see any of those elegant dresses and
+frivolous manners, which have for so long disgraced the better half of
+the human race. Thank heaven! my eyes fell with rapture on the heroic
+rags of those ladies who do us the honour of sweeping our streets for
+us. Many of these female patriots were proud to bear in the centre of
+their faces a rubicund nose, that rivalled in colour the Communal flag
+on the H�tel de Ville. Oh, glorious red nose, the distinguished sign of
+Republicanism! As to the men, they seemed to have been chosen among the
+first ranks of the new aristocracy. It was charming to note the military
+elegance with which their caps were slightly inclined over one ear;
+their faces, naturally hideous, were illuminated with the joy of
+freedom, and certainly the thick smoke which emanated from their pipes,
+must have been more agreeable as an offering, than the faint vapours of
+incense that used to arise from the gilded censers. "Marriage,
+citoyennes, is the greatest error of ancient humanity. To be married is
+to be a slave. Will you be slaves?"--"No, no!" cried all the female part
+of the audience, and the orator, a tall gaunt woman with a nose like the
+beak of a hawk, and a jaundice-coloured complexion, flattered by such
+universal applause, continued, "Marriage, therefore, cannot be tolerated
+any longer in a free city. It ought to be considered a crime, and
+suppressed by the most severe measures. Nobody has the right to sell his
+liberty, and thereby to set a bad example to his fellow citizens. The
+matrimonial state is a perpetual crime against morality. Don't tell me
+that marriage may be tolerated, if you institute divorce. Divorce is
+only an expedient, and if I may be allowed to use the word, an Orleanist
+expedient!" (Thunders of applause.) "Therefore, I propose to this
+assembly, that it should get the Commune of Paris to modify the decree,
+which assures pensions to the legitimate or illegitimate companions of
+the National Guards, killed in the defence of our municipal rights. No
+half measures. We, the illegitimate companions, will no longer suffer
+the legitimate wives to usurp rights they no longer possess, and which
+they ought never to have had at all. Let the decree be modified. All for
+the free women, none for the slaves!"
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH OF ST. EUSTACHE--COMMUNIST CLUB.]
+
+The orator descends from the pulpit amidst the most lively
+congratulations. I am told by some one standing near me, that the orator
+is a monthly nurse, who used to be a somnambulist in her youth. But the
+crowd opens now to give place to a male orator, who mounts the spiral
+staircase, passes his hand through his hair, and darts a piercing glance
+on the multitude beneath. It is Citizen Lullier.
+
+This young man has really a very agreeable physiognomy; his forehead is
+intelligent, his eyes pleasant. Looking on M. Lullier's sympathetic
+face, one is sorry to remember his eccentricities. But what is all this
+noise about? What has he said? what has he done? I only heard the words
+"Dombrowski," and "La C�cilia." Every one starts to his feet,
+exasperated, shouting. Several chairs are about to be flung at the
+orator. He is surrounded, hooted. "Down with Lullier! Long live
+Dombrowski!" The tumult increases. Citizen Lullier seems perfectly calm
+in the midst of it all, but refuses to leave the pulpit; he tries in
+vain to speak and explain. Two women, two amiable hags, throw themselves
+upon him; several men rush up also; he is taken up bodily and carried
+away, resisting to the utmost and shouting to the last. The people jump
+up on the chairs, Lullier has disappeared, and I hear him no more; what
+have they done with him!
+
+What do you think of all this, gentlemen and Catholics! Do you still
+regret the priests and choristers who used awhile ago to preach and
+chant in the Parisian churches? Where is the man, who at the very sight
+of this new congregation, so tolerant, so intelligent, listening with
+such gratitude to these noble lessons of politics and morality; where is
+the man, who could any longer blind himself to the admirable influence
+of the present revolution? Innumerable are the benefits that the Paris
+Commune showers upon us! As I leave the church, a little vagabond walks
+up to the font, and taking a pinch of tobacco,--"In the name of the...!"
+says he, then fills his pipe; "In the name of the ...!" proceeding to
+strike a lucifer, adds, "In the name of the ...!"--"Confound the
+blasphemous rascal!" say I, giving him a good box on the ears. After
+having written these lines I felt inclined to erase them; on second
+thoughts I let them remain--they belong to history!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 89: A political refugee, who left his country in 1869 for
+Prussia, where he taught mathematics in the University of Ulm, and
+afterwards accepted service under Garibaldi.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXXII.
+
+
+This morning I took a walk in the most innocent manner, having committed
+no crime that I knew of. It was lovely weather, and the streets looked
+gay, as they generally do when it is very bright, even when the hearts
+of the people are most sad. I passed through the Rue Saint-Honor�, the
+Palais Royal, and finally the Rue Richelieu. I beg pardon for these
+details, but I am particularly careful in indicating the road I took, as
+I wish the inhabitants of the places in question, to bear witness that I
+did not steal in passing a single quartern loaf, or appropriate the
+smallest article of jewellery. As I was about to turn on to the
+boulevards, one of the four National Guards who were on duty, I do not
+know what for, at the corner of the street, cried out, "You can't pass!"
+All right, thought I to myself; there is nothing fresh I suppose, only
+the Commune does not want people to pass; of course, it has right on its
+side. Thereupon I began to retrace my steps. "You can't pass," calls out
+another sentinel, by the time I have reached the other side of the
+street.
+
+This is strange, the Commune cannot mean to limit my walk to a
+melancholy pacing up and down between two opposite pavements. A sergeant
+came up to me; I recognised him as a Spaniard, who during the siege
+belonged to my company. "Why are you not in uniform?" he asked me, with
+a roughness that I fancied was somewhat mitigated by the remembrance of
+the many cigars I had given him, the nights we were on guard during the
+siege. I understood in an instant what they wanted with me, and replied
+unhesitatingly, "Because it is not my turn to be on guard,"--"No, of
+course it's not, it never is. You have been taking your ease this long
+time, while others have been getting killed." It was evident this
+Spaniard had not taken the cigars I had given him, in good part, and was
+now revenging himself.--"What do you want with me?" I said; "let's have
+done with this." Instead of answering, he signed to two Federals
+standing near, who immediately placed themselves one on each side of me,
+and cried, "March!" I was perfectly agreeable, although this walk was
+not exactly in the direction I had intended. On the way I heard a woman
+say, "Poor young man I They have taken him in the act." I was conducted
+to the church of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, and marched into the vestry,
+where about fifty _r�fractaires_ were already assembled.
+
+Behind a deal table, on which were placed a small register, an inkstand
+stuck in a great bung, and two quill pens, sat three young men, almost
+boys, in uniform. You might have imagined them to be Minos, Aeacus, and
+Rhadamanthus, at the age when they played at leap-frog. "Your name?"
+said Rhadamanthus, addressing me. I did not think twice about it, but
+gave them a name which has never been mine. Suddenly some one behind me
+burst out laughing; I turned round and recognised an old friend, whom I
+had not noticed among the other prisoners. "Your profession?" inquired
+Minos.--"Prizefighter," I answered, putting my arms akimbo and looking
+as ferocious as possible, by way of keeping up the character I had
+momentarily assumed. To the rest of the questions that were addressed to
+me, I replied in the same satisfactory manner. When it was over, Minos
+said to me, "That is enough; now go and sit down, and wait until you are
+called."--"Pardon me, my young friend, but I shall not go and sit down,
+nor shall I wait a moment more."--"Are you making fun of us? We are
+transacting most serious business, our lives are at stake. Go and sit
+down."--"I have already had the honour to remark, my dear Rhadamanthus,
+that I did not mean to sit down. Be kind enough to allow me to depart
+instantly."--"You ask _me_ to do this?"--"Yes! you!" I shouted in a
+tremendous voice. The three judges looked at me in great perplexity, and
+began whispering amongst themselves. A prize fighter, by jingo! I
+thought the moment had come to strike a decisive blow, so I pulled out
+of my pocket a little green card, which I desired them to examine.
+Immediately Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanthus got up, bowed to me most
+respectfully, and called out to two National Guards who were at the
+door, "Allow the citizen to pass."--"By-the-bye," said I, pointing, to
+my friend, "this gentleman is with me."--"Allow both the citizens to
+pass," shouted the lads in chorus.--"This is capital," cried my friend
+as soon as we were well outside the door.--"How did you manage?"--"I
+have a pass from the Central Committee."--"In your own name?"--"No, I
+bought it of the widow of a Federal; who was on very good terms with
+Citizen F�lix Pyat."--"Why, it is just like a romance."--"Yes, but a
+romance that allows me to live pretty safely in the midst of this
+strange reality. Anyhow, I think we had better look out for other
+lodgings."
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: HOUSE OF M. THIERS, PLACE SAINT-GEORGES.]
+
+LXXXIII.
+
+
+At ten o'clock in the evening I was walking up the Rue
+Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. In these times the streets are quite deserted at
+that hour. Looking on in front I saw that the Place Saint-Georges was
+lighted up by long tongues of flame, that the wind blew hither and
+thither. I hastened on, and was soon standing in front of M. Thiers'
+house.[90] At the open gate stood a sentinel; a large fire had been
+lighted in the court by the National Guards; not that the night was
+cold, they seemed to have lighted it merely for the pleasure of burning
+furniture and pictures, that had been left behind by the Communal
+waggoners. They had already begun to pull down the right side of the
+house; a pickaxe was leaning against a loosened stone; the roof had
+fallen in, and a rafter was sticking out of one of the windows. The fire
+rose higher and higher; would it not be better that the flames should
+reach the house and consume it in an hour or two, than to see it being
+gradually pulled down, stone by stone, for many days to come? In the
+court I perceived several trucks full of books and linen. A National
+Guard picked up a small picture that was lying near the gate; I bent
+forward and saw that it was a painting of a satyr playing on a flute.
+How sad and cruel all this seemed! The men lounging about looked
+demoniacal in the red light of the fire. I turned away, thinking not of
+the political man, but of the house where he had worked, where he had
+thought, of the books that no longer stood on the shelves, of the
+favourite chair that had been burnt on the very hearth by which he had
+sat so long; I thought of all the dumb witnesses of a long life
+destroyed, dispersed, lost, of the relatives, and friends whose traces
+had disappeared from the rooms empty to-day, in ruins to-morrow; I
+thought of all this, and of all the links that would be broken by a
+dispersion, and I trembled at the idea that some day--in these times
+anything seems possible--men may break open the doors of my modest
+habitation, knock about the furniture of which I have grown fond,
+destroy my books which have so long been the companions of my studies,
+tear the pictures from my walls, and burn the verses that I love for the
+sake of the trouble they have given me to make,--kill, in a word, all
+that renders life agreeable to me, more cruelly than if four Federals
+were to take me off and shoot me at the corner of a street. But I am
+not a political man. I belong to no party--who would think of doing me
+any injury? I am perfectly harmless, with my lovesick metaphor. Ah I how
+egotistical one is! It was of my own home that I thought while I stood
+in front of the ruin in the Place Saint-Georges. I confess that I was
+particularly touched by the misfortunes of that house, because it
+awakened in me the fear of my own, misfortune, most improbable, and most
+diminutive, it is true, in comparison with that.
+
+[Illustration: HOUSE OF M. THIERS DURING DEMOLITION AND REMOVAL.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 90: It should be remarked that the destruction of M. Thiers'
+house coincided with the first success of the Versailles army; it was
+the spirit of hatred and mad destructiveness which dictated the
+following decree, issued by the Committee of Public Safety on the 10th
+of May:--
+
+"Art. 1. The goods and property of Thiers (they even denied him the
+appellation of citizen) are seized by order of the administration of
+public domains.
+
+"Art. 2. The house of Thiers, situated at the Place Saint-Georges, to be
+demolished."
+
+On the following day the National Assembly, in presence of the activity
+exhibited by M. Thiers, declared that the proscribed, whose house was
+demolished, had exhibited proofs of an amount of patriotism and
+political ability which inspired every confidence in the future. On the
+12th of the same month works were commenced at Versailles for the
+formation of a railway-station sufficient for all the wants of an
+important army, the initiation of which was due to M. Thiers; a
+conference was opened on the 19th April with the Western Railway
+Company, the plans were approved on the 22nd of the same month, and the
+preliminary works were commenced on the 12th of May. When these are
+terminated, they will consist of thirty-five parallel lines of rails,
+more than a mile in length. But the principal point in the plan is, that
+by means of branches to Pontoise and Chevreuse, this immense station may
+be placed in direct communication with all the lines of railway in
+France. It is easy enough to draw the following conclusion, namely, that
+if the necessity should ever again arise, Paris would cease to be the
+central depot for all commercial movements, and thus the paralysis of
+the affairs of the whole country would be avoided, in case the Parisian
+populace should again be bitten by the barricade mania. At one time it
+was feared that the collections of M. Thiers were destroyed in the
+conflagration at the Tuileries; but M. Courbet reports that on the 12th
+of May he asked what he ought to do about the different things taken at
+the house of M. Thiers, and if they were to be sent to the Louvre or to
+be publicly sold, and he was then appointed a member of the commission
+to examine the case. Regarding his conduct at the time of the
+demolishing of the house of M. Thiers, he arrived too late, he says, to
+make an inventory; the furniture and effects had been already packed by
+the _employ�s_ of the Garde Meuble; "I made some observations about it,
+and on going through the empty apartments, I noticed two small figures
+that I packed in paper, thinking they might be private _souvenirs_, and
+that I would return them some day to their owner. All the other things
+were already destroyed or gone."]
+
+
+
+
+LXXXIV.
+
+
+An anecdote: Parisian all over; but with such stuff are they amused!
+
+Raoul Rigault, the man who arrests, was breakfasting with Gaston
+Dacosta, the man who destroys. These two friends are worthy of each
+other. Rigault has incarcerated the Archbishop of Paris, but Dacosta
+claims the merit of having loosened the first stone in M. Thiers' house.
+But however, Rigault would destroy if Dacosta were not there to do so;
+and if Rigault did not arrest, Dacosta would arrest for him.
+
+They talked as they ate. Rigault enumerated the list of people he had
+sent to the Conciergerie and to Mazas, and thought with consternation
+that soon there would be no one left for him to arrest. Suddenly he
+stopped his fork on its way to his mouth, and his face assumed a most
+doleful expression.--"What's the matter?" cried Dacosta, alarmed.--"Ah!"
+said Rigault, tears choking his utterance, "Papa is not in
+Paris."--"Well, and what does it matter if your father is not
+here?"--"Alas!" exclaimed Rigault, bursting out crying, "I could have
+had him arrested!"[91]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 91: The illegality of his conduct, however, was too
+glaring even for the Commune, and he was removed from his post on a
+complaint made by Arthur Arnould, to the committee, concerning the
+arbitrary arrest of a number of persons. Cournet was appointed to the
+Prefecture in Rigault's stead, but the amateur policeman and informer
+did not renounce work; he found the greatest pleasure, as he himself
+expressed it, in acting the spy over the official spies. This man was a
+well-known frequenter of the low caf�s of the Quartier Latin, and his
+face bore such evidences of his debauched life, that though only
+twenty-eight years of age, he looked nearer forty.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: COURNET, MEMBER OF COMMITTEE OF GENERAL SAFETY.]
+
+LXXXV.
+
+
+The horrible cracking sound that is heard at sea when a vessel splits
+upon a rock, is not a surer sign of peril to the terrified crew, than
+are the vain efforts, contradictions and agitation at the H�tel de
+Ville, the forerunners of disaster to the men of the Commune. Listen!
+the vessel is about to heave asunder. Everybody gives orders, no one
+obeys them. One man looks defiantly at another; this man denounces that,
+and Rigault thinks seriously of arresting them both. There is a majority
+which is not united, and a minority that cannot agree amongst
+themselves. Twenty-one members retire, they do well.[92] I am glad to
+find on the list the names of the few that Paris' still believes in, and
+whom, thanks to this tardy resignation, it will not learn to despise.
+For instance, Arthur Arnould. But why should they take the trouble to
+seek out a pretext? Why did they not say simply: "We have left them
+because we find them full of wickedness; we were blinded as you were at
+first, but now we in our turn see clearly; a good cause has been lost by
+madmen or worse, and we have abandoned it because, if we were to stay a
+moment longer, now that we are no longer blinded, we should be
+committing a criminal act" Such words as these would have opened the
+eyes of so many wretched beings, who are going to their deaths and think
+they do well to die! As to those who remain, they must feel that their
+power is slipping from them. They did not arrest or detain Rossel; it
+would seem as if they dared not touch him because he was right in
+thinking what he said, although he was very wrong to say it as he did.
+While the Commune hesitates, the military plans of the Versaillais are
+being carried out. Vanves taken, Montrouge in ruins, breaches opened at
+the Point-du-Jour, at the Porte-Maillot, at Saint-Ouen; the Communists
+have only to choose now, between flight and the horrors of a terrible
+death struggle! May they fly, far, far away, beyond the reach of
+vengeance, despised, forgotten if that be possible! I am told that the
+Central Committee is trying now to substitute itself for the Commune,
+which was elected by its desire.[94] One born of the other, they will
+die together.
+
+[Illustration: ARTHUR ARNOULD, COMMISSIONER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.][93]
+
+[Illustration: FOUNDERED CRAFT ON THE SEINE]
+
+[Illustration: PORTE MAILLOT & Avenue de la Grande Arm�e.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 92: An important document has just made the round of the
+Communal press--the manifesto of the minority of the Commune, in which
+twenty-one members declare their refusal to take any farther part in the
+deliberations of the body, which they accuse of having delivered its
+powers into the hands of the Committee of Public Safety, and thus
+rendering itself null. This declaration is signed by:--Arthur Arnould,
+Avrial, Andrieux, Arnold, Cl�mence, Victor Cl�ment, Courbet, Franckel,
+Eug�ne G�rardin, Jourde, Lefran�ais, Longuet, Malon, Ostyn, Pindy,
+S�railler, Tridon, Theisz, Varlin, Vermorel, Jules Vall�s.
+
+Adding to these twenty-one secessionists, twenty-one members who have
+resigned:--Adam, Barr�, Brelay, Beslay, De Bouteiller, Ch�ron,
+Desmarest, Ferry, Fruneau, Goupil, Loiseau-Pinson, Leroy, Lef�vre,
+M�line, Murat, Marmottan, Nast, Ulysse Parent, Robineat, Rane, Tirard;
+
+Three who have not sat: Briosne, Menotti Garibaldi, Rogeard;
+
+Two dead: Duval, Flourens;
+
+One captured: Blanqui;
+
+One escaped: Charles G�rardin;
+
+Five incarcerated: Allix, Panille dit Blanchet, Brunel, Emile Cl�ment,
+Cluseret;--
+
+Out of 101 members elected to the Commune on the 26th of March and the
+16th of April, only forty-seven now remain:--Amouroux, Ant. Arnaud,
+Assy, Babick, Billioray, Cl�ment, Champy, Chardon, Chalain, Demay,
+Dupont, Decamp, Dereure, Durant, Delescluze, Eudes, Henry Fortun�,
+Ferr�, Gambon, Geresme, Paschal Grousset, Johannard, Ledroit, Langevin,
+Lonclas, Mortier, L�o Meiller, Martelet, J. Miot, Oudet, Protot, Paget,
+Pilotel, F�lix Pyat, Philippe, Parisel, Pottier, R�g�re, Raoul Rigault,
+Sicard, Triquet, Urbain, Vaillant, Verdure, V�smier, Viart.]
+
+[Footnote 93: Arnould is a man of about forty-seven years of age, small
+in stature, lively and intelligent. He has written in many of the
+Democratic journals of Paris and the provinces; and his literary talents
+are of a good kind. Being connected with Rochefort's journal, the
+_Marseillaise_, he was sent by the latter to challenge Pierre Bonaparte,
+and was a witness at the trial which followed the murder of Victor Noir.
+
+Although naturally drawn by his connections into the movement of the
+eighteenth of March, he always protested loudly against the arbitrary
+acts of the Commune, and it is surprising that he did not fall under
+accusation, by his colleagues. He opposed particularly the proposals for
+the suppression of newspapers. "It is prodigious to me," he said, in
+full meeting of the committee, "that people will still talk of arresting
+others for expressing their opinions."
+
+He voted against the organisation of the Committee of Public Safety on
+the ground:--
+
+"That such an institution would be directly opposed to the political
+opinions of the electoral body, of which the Commune is the
+representative."
+
+He protested most energetically against secret imprisonment--
+
+"Secret incarceration has something immoral in it; it is moral torture
+substituted for physical.
+
+"I cannot understand men who have passed their life in combating the
+errors of despotism, falling into the same faults when they arrive at
+power. Of two things one: either secret imprisonment is an indispensable
+and good thing; or, it is odious. If it was good it was wrong to oppose
+it, and if it be odious and immoral, we ought not to continue it."
+
+What on earth had he then to do in the Commune?
+
+"Que diable allait-il faire dans cette gal�re?"]
+
+[Footnote 94: "REPUBLICAN FEDERATION OF THE NATIONAL GUARD.
+
+"Central Committee.
+
+"To the People of Paris! To the National Guard!
+
+"Rumours of dissensions between the majority of the Commune and the
+Central Committee have been spread by our common enemies with a
+persistency which, once for all, must be crushed by public compact.
+
+"The Central Committee, appointed to the administration of military
+affairs by the Committee of Public Safety, will enter upon office from
+this day.
+
+"This Committee, which has upheld the standard of the Communal
+revolution, has undergone no change and no deterioration. It is today
+what it was yesterday, the legitimate defender of the Commune, the basis
+of its power, at the same time as it is the determined enemy of civil
+war; the sentinel placed by the people to protect the rights that they
+have conquered,
+
+    "In the name, then, of the Commune, and of the Central Committee,
+    who sign this pact of good faith, let these gross suspicions and
+    calumnies be swept away. Let hearts beat, let hands be ready to
+    strike in the good cause, and may we triumph in the name of union
+    and fraternity.
+
+    "Long live the Republic!
+
+    "Long live the Commune!
+
+    "Long live the Communal Federation!
+
+    "The Commission of the Commune, BERGERET, CHAMPY, GERESME, LEDROIT,
+    LONGLAS, URBAIN.
+
+    "The Central Committee. "Paris, 18th May, 1871."
+
+]
+
+
+
+
+LXXXVI.
+
+
+It was five o'clock in the afternoon. The day had been splendid and the
+sun shone brilliantly on Caesar still standing on the glorious pedestal
+of his victories. Outside the barricades of the Rue de la Paix and the
+Rue Castiglione, the crowd was standing in a compact mass, as far as the
+Tuileries on one side and the New Opera House on the other. There must
+have been from twenty to twenty-fire thousand people there. Strangers
+accosted each other by the title of Citizen, I heard some talking about
+an eccentric Englishman who had paid three thousand francs for the
+pleasure of being the last to climb to the summit of the column. Nearly
+every one blamed him for not having given the money to the people.
+Others said that Citizen Jourde would not manage to cover his expenses;
+Abadie[95] the engineer had asked thirty-two thousand francs to pull
+down the great trophy, and that the stone and plaster was after all, not
+covered with more than an inch or two of bronze, that it was not so many
+metres high, and would not make a great many two-sous pieces after all.
+These sous seemed to occupy the public mind exceedingly, but the
+principal subjects of conversation, were the fears concerning the
+probable effects of the fall.
+
+[Illustration: BARRICADE OF THE RUE CASTIGLIONE, FROM THE PLACE
+VEND�ME.]
+
+The event was slow in accomplishment. The wide Place was thinly
+sprinkled with spectators, not more than three hundred in all,
+privileged beings with tickets, or wearing masonic badges; or officers
+of the staff. Bergeret at one of the windows was coolly smoking a
+cigarette; military bands were assembled at the four angles of the
+Place; the sound of female laughter reached us from the open windows of
+the Minist�re de la Justice. The horses of the mounted sentinels
+curvetted with impatience; bayonets glittered in the sun; children gaped
+wearily, seated on the curbstone. The hour of the ceremony was past; a
+rope had broken. Around the piled faggots on which the column was to
+fall, great fascines of flags of the favourite colour were flying.
+
+The crowd did not seem to enjoy being kept in suspense, and proclaimed
+their impatience by stamping with measured tread, and crying "Music!"
+
+At half-past five there was a sudden movement and bustle around the
+barricade of the Rue Castiglione. The members of the Commune appeared
+with their inevitable red scarfs.[96] Then there was a great hush. At
+the same instant the windlass creaked; the ropes which hung from the
+summit of the column tightened; the gaping hole in the masonry below,
+gradually closed; the statue bent forward in the rays of the setting
+sun, and then suddenly describing in the air a gigantic sweep, fell
+among the flags with a dull, heavy thud, scattering a whirlwind of
+blinding dust in the air.
+
+Then the bands struck up the "Marseillaise," and cries of "Vive la
+Commune" were re-echoed on all sides by the terror or the indifference
+of the multitude. In a marvellously short time, however, all was quiet
+again, so quiet, indeed, that I distinctly heard a dog bark as it ran
+frightened across the Place.
+
+I daresay the members of the Commune, who presided over the
+accomplishment of this disgraceful deed, exclaimed in the pride of their
+miserable hearts, "Caesar, those whom you salute shall live!"
+
+Everybody of course wished to get a bit of the ruin, as visitors to
+Paris eagerly bought bits of siege bread framed and glazed, and there
+was a general rush towards the place; but the National Guards crossed,
+their bayonets in front of the barricade, and no one was allowed to
+pass. So that the crowd quickly dispersed to its respective dinners. "It
+is fallen!" said some to those who had not been fortunate enough to see
+the sight. "The head of the statue came off--no one was killed." The
+boys cried out, "Oh, it was a jolly sight all the same!" But the greater
+part of the people were silent as they trudged away.
+
+Then night came on, and next day a land-mark and a finger-post seemed
+missing in our every-day journey. Until we lose a familiar object we
+hardly appreciate its existence.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 95: Abadie arranged to demolish the Colonne Vend�me for 32,000
+or 38,000 francs, forfeiting 600 francs for every day's delay after the
+fourth of May. This reduced the sum to be paid to him by 6000 francs.]
+
+[Footnote 96: Regarding Courbet and the destruction of the Column, he
+rejects the accusation on the ground that this decree had been voted
+previously to his admission in the Commune, and on the request he had
+made under the Government of the 4th of May of removing the column to
+the esplanade of the Invalides. He affirms that the official paper has
+altered his own words at the Commune, and he pretends having proposed to
+the Government to rebuild the column at his own expense, if it can be
+proved that he has been the cause of its destruction.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXXVII.
+
+
+On the sixteenth, I received a prospectus through my concierge. There
+was to be a concert, mixed with speeches--a sort of popular f�te at the
+Tuileries. The places varied in price from ten sous to five francs. Five
+francs the Salle des Mar�chaux; ten sous the garden, which was to be
+illuminated with Venetian lamps among the orange-trees; the whole to be
+enlivened by fireworks from the Courbevoie batteries.
+
+I had tact enough not to put on white gloves, and set out for the
+palace.
+
+It was not a fairy-like sight; indeed, it was a most depressing
+spectacle. A crowd of thieves and vagabonds, of dustmen and rag-pickers,
+with four or five gold bands on their sleeves and caps, (the insignia of
+officers of the National Guard), were hurrying along down the grand
+staircase, chewing "imperiales," spitting, and repeating the old jokes
+of '93. As to the women--they were sadly out of place. They simpered,
+and gave themselves airs, and some of them even beat time with their
+fans, as Mademoiselle Caillot was singing, to look as if they knew
+something about music.
+
+[Illustration: THE PALACE OF THE TUILERIES, FROM THE GARDEN. The last
+concert held in the Tuileries by the Commune took place on Sunday, the
+21st of March, when Anteuil and Passy had been in the power of the army
+for several hours. Two days later the old palace was in flames. Citizen
+F�lix Pyat had advanced the preservation of the Tuileries in the
+_Vengeur_, proposing to convert it into an asylum for the victims of
+work and the martyrs of the Republic. "This residence," he wrote, "ought
+to be devoted to the people, who had already taken possession of it."]
+
+The concert took place in the Salle des Mar�chaux: a platform had been
+erected for the performers. The velvet curtains with their golden bees
+still draped the windows. From the gallery above I could see all that
+was going on. The Imperial balcony opens out of it; I went there, and
+leaned on the balustrade with a certain feeling of emotion. Below were
+the illuminated gardens, and far away at the end of the Champs Elys�es,
+almost lost in the purple of the sky, rose the Arc de Triomphe de
+l'Etoile.
+
+The roaring of the cannon at Vanves and Montrouge reached me where I
+stood. When the duet of the "_Ma�tre de Chapelle_" was over, I returned
+into the hall; the distant crashing of the mitrailleuse at Neuilly,
+borne towards us on the fresh spring breeze, in through the open
+windows, joined its voice to the applause of the audience.
+
+Oh! what an audience! The faces in general looked fit subjects for the
+gibbet; others were simply disgusting: surprise, pleasure, and fear of
+Equality were reflected on every physiognomy. The carpenter, Pindy,
+military governor of the H�tel de Ville, was in close conversation with
+a girl from Philippe's. The ex-spy Cl�mence muttered soft speeches into
+the ear of a retired _chiffonni�re_, who smiled awkwardly in reply. The
+cobbler Dereure was intently contemplating his boots; while Brilier,
+late coachman, hissed the singers by way of encouragement, as he would
+have done to his horses. They were going to recite some verses: I only
+waited to hear--
+
+     "PUIS, QUEL AVEUGLEMENT! QUEL NON-SENS POLITIQUE!"
+
+an Alexandrine, doubtless, launched at the National Assembly, and made
+my way to the garden as quickly as I could.
+
+There, in spite of the Venetian lamps, all was very dull and dark. The
+walks were almost deserted, although it was scarcely half-past nine. I
+took a turn beneath the trees: the evening was cold; and I soon left the
+gardens by the Rue de Rivoli gate. A good many people were standing
+there "to see the grand people come from the f�te"--a f�te given by
+lackeys in a deserted mansion!
+
+
+
+
+LXXXVIII.
+
+
+I was busy writing, when suddenly I heard a fearful detonation, followed
+by report on report. The windows rattled: I thought the house was
+shaking under me. The noise continued: it seemed as if cannon were
+roaring on all sides. I rushed down into the street; frightened people
+were running hither and thither, and asking questions. Some thought that
+the Versaillais were bombarding Paris on all sides. On the Boulevards I
+was told it was the fort of Vanves that had been blown up. At last I
+arrived on the Place de la Concorde: there the consternation was great,
+but nothing was known for certain. Looking up, I saw high up in the sky
+what looked like a dark cloud, but which was not a cloud. I tried again
+and again to obtain information. It appeared pretty certain that an
+explosion had taken place near the Ecole Militaire-doubtless at the
+Grenelle powder-magazine, I then turned into the Champs Elys�es. A
+distant cracking was audible, like the noise of a formidable battery of
+mitrailleuses. Puffs of white smoke arose in the air and mingled with
+the dark cloud there. I no longer walked, I ran: I hoped to be able to
+see something from the Rond Point de l'Etoile. Once there, a grand and
+fearful sight met my eyes. Vast columns of smoke rolled over one another
+towards the sky. Every now and then the wind swept them a little on one
+side, and for an instant a portion of the city was visible beneath the
+rolling vapours. Then in an instant a flame burst out--only one, but
+that gigantic, erect, brilliant, as one that might dart forth from a
+Tolcano suddenly opened, up through the smoke which was reddened,
+illumined by the eruption of the fire. At the same moment there were
+explosions as of a hundred waggons of powder blown up one after another.
+All this scene, in its hideous splendour, blinded and deafened me. I
+wanted to get nearer, to feel the heat of the burning, to rush on. I had
+the fire-frenzy!
+
+[Illustration: RAZOUA, GOVERNOR OF THE �COLE MILITAIRE.[97]]
+
+Going down to the Quai de Passy, I found a dense crowd there. Some one
+screamed out: "Go back! go back! the fire will soon reach the
+cartridge-magazine." The words had scarcely been uttered, when a storm
+of balls fell like hail amongst us. Each person thought himself wounded,
+and many took to their heels. It did not enter into my head to run away.
+From where I was then, the sight was still more terribly beautiful, and
+the crowd that had withdrawn from the spot soon re-assembled again.
+Dreadful details were passed from mouth to mouth. Four five-storied
+houses had fallen; no one dared to think even of the number of the
+victims. Bodies had been seen to fall from the windows, horribly
+mutilated; arms and legs had been picked up in different places. Near
+the powder-magazine is a hospital, which was shaken from foundation to
+roof: for an instant it had trembled violently as if it were going to
+fall. The nurses, dressers, and even the sick had rushed from the wards,
+shrieking in an agony of fear; the frightened horses, too, with blood
+streaming down their sides, pranced madly among the fugitives, or
+galloped away as fast as they could from the awful scene.
+
+As to the cause of the explosion, opinions varied much. Some said it was
+owing to the negligence of the overseers or the imprudence of the
+workwomen; others, that the fire was caused by a shell. A woman rushed
+up to us, screaming out that she had just seen a man arrested in a shed
+in the Champ de Mars, who acknowledged having blown up the
+powder-magazine, by order of the Versailles government. Of course this
+was inevitable. The Commune would not let such a good opportunity pass
+for accusing its enemies. A few innocent people will be arrested, tried
+with more or less form, and shot; when they are so many corpses, the
+Commune will exclaim, "You see they must have been guilty: they have
+been shot!"
+
+As evening came on I turned home, thinking that the cup was now filled
+to overflowing, and that the devoted city had had to suffer defeat,
+civil war, infamy, and death; but that this last disaster seemed almost
+more than divine justice. Ever and anon I turned my head to gaze again.
+In the gathering gloom, the flames looked blood-red, as if the Commune
+had unfurled its sinister banner over that irreparable disaster.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 97: Razoua served in a regiment of Spahis in Africa. Becoming
+acquainted with the journalists who used to frequent the Caf� de Madrid,
+he was a constant attendant there. He took up literature, and in 1867
+published some violent articles in the _Pilori_ of Victor Noir. He
+afterwards went with Delescluze to the _R�veil_, where his revolutionary
+principles were manifested. In the month of February, 1871, he was
+elected a member of the National Assembly by the people of Paris. After
+having sat for some time at Bordeaux, he gave his resignation, and
+became one of the Communal council.
+
+Appointed governor of the �cole Militaire, he distinguished himself in
+no way in his position, except by the sumptuous dinners and d�je�ners
+with which he regaled his friends.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXXIX.
+
+
+I have gazed so long on what was passing around me that my eyes are
+weary. I have watched the slow decline of joy, of comfort and luxury,
+almost without knowing how everything has been dying around me, as a man
+in a ball-room where the candles are put out, one by one, may not
+perceive at first the gathering gloom. To see Paris, as it is at the
+present moment, as the Commune has made it, requires an effort. Let me
+shut my eyes, and evoke the vision of Paris as it was, living, joyous,
+happy even in the midst of sadness. I have done so--I have brought it
+all back to me; now I will open my eyes and look around me.
+
+In the street that I inhabit not a vehicle of any kind is visible. Men
+in the uniform of National Guards pass and repass on the pavement; a
+lady is talking with her _concierge_ on the threshold of one of the
+houses. They talk low. Many of the shops are closed; some have only the
+shutters up; a few are quite open. I see a woman at the bar of the
+wine-shop opposite, drinking.
+
+Some quarters still resist the encroachments of silence and apathy. Some
+arteries continue to beat. Some ribbons here and there brighten up the
+shop-windows: bare-headed shopgirls pass by with a smile on their lips;
+men look after them as they trip along. At the corner of the Boulevards
+a sort of tumult is occasioned by a number of small boys and girls,
+venders of Communal journals, who screech out the name and title of
+their wares at the top of their voices. But even there where the crowd
+is thickest, one feels as if there were a void. The two contrary ideas
+of multitude and solitude seem to present themselves at once in one's
+mind. A weird impression! Imagine a vast desert with a crowd in it.
+
+The Boulevards look interminable. There used to be a hundred obstacles
+between you and the distance; now there is nothing to prevent your
+looking as far as you like. Here and there a cab, an omnibus or two, and
+that is all. The passers-by are no longer promenaders. They have come
+out because they were obliged: without that they would have remained at
+home. The distances seem enormous now, and people who used to saunter
+about from morning till night will tell you now that "the Madeleine is a
+long way off." Very few men in black coats or blouses are to be seen;
+only very old men dare show themselves out of uniform. In front of the
+caf�'s are seated officers of the Federal army, sometimes seven or eight
+around a table. When you get near enough, you generally find they are
+talking of the dismissal of their last commander. Here and there a lady
+walks rapidly by, closely veiled, mostly dressed in black, with an
+unpretending bonnet. The gallop of a horse is distinctly audible--in
+other times one would never have noticed such a thing; it is an express
+with despatches, a Garibaldian, or one of the _Vengeurs de Flourens_,
+who is hoisted on a heavy cart-horse that ploughs the earth with its
+ponderous forefeet. Several companies of Federals file up towards the
+Madeleine, their rations of bread stuck on the top of their bayonets.
+Look down the side-streets, to the right or the left, and you will see
+the sidewalks deserted, and not a vehicle from one end to the other of
+the road. Even on the Boulevards there are times when there is no one to
+be seen at all. However, beneath it all there is a longing to awaken,
+which is crushed and kept down by the general apathy.
+
+In the evening one's impulses burst forth; one must move about; one must
+live. Passengers walk backwards and forwards, talking in a loud voice.
+But the crowd condenses itself between the Rue Richelieu and the Rue du
+Faubourg Montmartre. Solitude has something terrible about it just now.
+People congregate together for the pleasure of elbowing each other, of
+trying to believe they are in great force. Quite a crowd collects round
+a little barefooted girl, who is singing at the corner of a street. A
+man seated before a low table is burning _pastilles_; another offers
+barley-sugar for sale; another has portraits of celebrities. Everybody
+tries hard to be gay; but the shops are closed, and the gas is sparingly
+lighted, so that broad shadows lie between the groups.
+
+Some few persons go to the theatres; the playbills, however, are not
+seductive. If you go in, you will find the house nearly empty; the
+actors gabble their parts with as little action as possible. You see
+they are bored, and they bore us. Sometimes when some actor, naturally
+comic, says or does something funny, the audience laughs, and then
+suddenly leaves off and looks more serious than before. Laughter seems
+out of place. One does not know how to bear it; so one walks up and down
+the corridors, then instead of returning to the play, wanders out again
+on to the Boulevard. It is ten o'clock--dreadfully late. Many of the
+caf�s are already closed for the night. At Tortoni's and the Caf�
+Anglais, not a glimmer is visible. The crowd has nearly disappeared.
+Only a few officers remain, who have been drinking all the evening in an
+_estaminet_. They call to each other to hurry on; perhaps one of them is
+drunk, but even he is not amusing. Let us go home. Scarcely anyone is
+left in the street. A bell is rung here and there, as the last of us
+reach our respective homes.
+
+That, Commune de Paris, is what you have made of Paris! The Prussians
+came, Paris awaited them quietly with a smile; the shells fell on its
+houses, it ate black bread, it waited hours in the cold to obtain an
+ounce of horse-flesh or thirty pounds of green wood; it fought, but was
+vanquished; it was told to surrender, and "it was given up," as they say
+at the H�tel de Ville; and yet through all, Paris had not ceased to
+smile. And this, they say, constitutes its greatness; it was the last
+protestation against unmerited misfortunes; it was the remembrance of
+having once been proud and happy, and the hope of becoming so again; it
+was, in a word, Paris declaring it was Paris still. Well, what neither
+defeats, nor famine, nor capitulation could do, thou hast done! And
+accursed be thou, O Commune; for, as Macbeth murdered sleep, thou hast
+murdered our smiles!
+
+
+
+
+XC.
+
+
+The roaring of cannon close at hand, the whizzing of shells, volleys of
+musketry! I hear this in my sleep, and awake with a start. I dress and
+go out. I am told the troops have come in. "How? where? when?" I ask of
+the National Guards who come rushing down the street, crying out, "We
+are betrayed!" They, however, know but very little. They have come from
+the Trocadero, and have seen the red trousers of the soldiers in the
+distance. Fighting is going on near the viaduct of Auteuil, at the Champ
+de Mars. Did the assault take place last night or this morning? It is
+quite impossible to obtain any reliable information. Some talk of a
+civil engineer having made signals to the Versaillais; others say a
+captain in the navy was the first to enter Paris.[98] Suddenly about
+thirty men rush into the streets crying, "We must make a barricade." I
+turn back, fearing to be pressed into the service. The cannonading
+appears dreadfully near. A shell whistles over my head. I hear some
+one say, "The batteries of Montmartre are bombarding the Arc de
+Triomphe;" and strange enough, in this moment of horror and uncertainty,
+the thought crosses my mind that now the side of the arch on which is
+the bas-relief of Rude will be exposed to the shells. On the Boulevard
+there is only here and there a passenger hurrying along. The shops are
+closed; even the caf�'s are shut up. The harsh screech of the
+mitrailleuse grows louder and nearer. The battle seems to be close at
+hand, all round me. A thousand contradictory suppositions rush through
+my brain and hurry me along, and here on the Boulevard there is no one
+that can tell me anything. I walk in the direction of the Madeleine,
+drawn there by a violent desire to know what is going on, which
+silences the voice of prudence. As I approach the Chauss�e d'Antin I
+perceive a multitude of men, women, and children running backwards and
+forwards, carrying paving-stones. A barricade is being thrown up; it is
+already more than three feet high. Suddenly I hear the rolling of heavy
+wheels; I turn, and a strange sight is before me--a mass of women in
+rags, livid, horrible, and yet grand, with the Phrygian cap on their
+heads, and the skirts of their robes tied round their waists, were
+harnessed to a mitrailleuse, which they dragged along at full speed;
+other women pushing vigorously behind. The whole procession, in its
+sombre colours, with dashes of red here and there, thunders past me; I
+follow it as fast as I can. The mitrailleuse draws up a little in front
+of the barricade, and is hailed with wild clamours by the insurgents.
+The Amazons are being unharnessed as I come up. "Now," said a young
+_gamin_, such as one used to see in the gallery of the Th��tre Porte St.
+Martin, "don't you be acting the spy here, or I will break your head
+open as if you were a Versaillais."--"Don't waste ammunition," cried an
+old man with a long white beard--a patriarch of civil war--"don't waste
+ammunition; and as for the spy, let him help to carry paving-stones.
+Monsieur," said he, turning to me with much politeness, "will you be so
+kind as to go and fetch those stones from the corner there?"
+
+[Illustration: Cafe Life Under the Commune.]
+
+[Illustration: SPECTACLES DE PARIS.]
+
+I did as I was bid, although I thought, with anything but pleasure, that
+if at that moment the barricade were attacked and taken, I might be shot
+before I had the time to say, "Allow me to explain." But the scene which
+surrounds me interests me in spite of myself. Those grim hags, with
+their red headdresses, passing the stones I give them rapidly from hand
+to hand, the men who are building them up only leaving off for a moment
+now and then to swallow a cup of coffee, which a young girl prepares
+over a small tin stove; the rifles symmetrically piled; the barricade,
+which rises higher and higher; the solitude in which we are
+working--only here and there a head appears at a window, and is quickly
+withdrawn; the ever-increasing noise of the battle; and, over all, the
+brightness of a dazzling morning sun--all this has something sinister
+and yet horribly captivating about it. While we are at work, they talk;
+I listen. The Versaillais have been coming in all night.[99] The Porte
+de la Muette and the Porte Dauphine have been surrendered by the 13th
+and the 113th battalions of the first arrondissement. "Those two numbers
+13 will bring them ill-luck," says a woman. Vinoy is established at the
+Trocad�ro, and Douai at the Point du Jour: they continue to advance. The
+Champ de Mars has been taken from the Federals after two hours'
+fighting. A battery is erected at the Arc de Triomphe, which sweeps the
+Champs Elys�es and bombards the Tuileries. A shell has fallen in the Rue
+du March� Saint Honor�. In the Cours-la-Reine the 188th battalion stood
+bravely. The Tuileries is armed with guns, and shells the Arc de
+Triomphe. In the Avenue de Marigny the gendarmes have shot twelve
+Federals who had surrendered; their bodies are still lying on the
+pavement in front of the tobacconist's. Rue de S�vres, the _Vengeurs de
+Flourens_ have put to flight a whole regiment of the line: the
+_Vengeurs_ have sworn to resist to a man. They are fighting in the
+Champs �lys�es, around the Minist�re de la Guerre, and on the Boulevard
+Haussman. Dombrowski has been killed at the Ch�teau de la Muette. The
+Versaillais have attacked the Western Saint Lazare station, and are
+marching towards the P�pini�re barracks. "We have been sold, betrayed,
+and surprised; but what does it matter, we will triumph. We want no more
+chiefs or generals; behind the barricades every man is a marshal!"
+
+[Illustration: _Place de la Concorde_]
+
+[Illustration: _Poor Pradier's Statues. Lille suffers from her friends
+in fight--whilst Strasbourg--in crape--mourns the foe of France._]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Eight or ten men come flying down the Chauss�e d'Antin; they join,
+crying out, "The Versaillais have taken the barracks; they are
+establishing a battery. Delescluze has been captured at the Minist�re de
+la Guerre."--"It is false!" exclaims a vivandi�re; "we have just seen
+him at the H�tel de Ville."--"Yes, yes," cry out other women, "he is at
+the H�tel de Ville. He gave us a mitrailleuse. Jules Vall�s embraced us,
+one after another; he is a fine man, he is! He told us all was going
+well, that the Versaillais should never have Paris, that we shall
+surround them, and that it will all be over in two days."--"Vive la
+Commune!" is the reply. The barricade is by this time finished. They
+expect to be attacked every second. "You," said a sergeant, "you had
+better be off, if you care for your life." I do not wait for the man to
+repeat his warning. I retrace my steps up the Boulevard, which is less
+solitary than it was. Several groups are standing at the doors. It
+appears quite certain that the troops of the Assembly have been pretty
+successful since they came in. The Federals, surprised by the suddenness
+and number of the attacks, at first lost much ground. But the resistance
+is being organised. They hold their own at the Place de la Concorde; at
+the Place Vend�me they are very numerous, and have at their disposal a
+formidable amount of artillery. Montmartre is shelling furiously. I turn
+up the Rue Vivienne, where I meet several people in search of news. They
+tell me that "two battalions of the Faubourg Saint Germain have just
+gone over to the troops, with their muskets reversed. A captain of the
+National Guard has been the first in that quarter to unfurl the
+tricolour. A shell had set fire to the Minist�re des Finances, but the
+firemen in the midst of the shot and shell had managed to put it out."
+At the Place de la Bourse I find three of four hundred Federals
+constructing a barricade; having gained some experience, I hurry on to
+escape the trouble of being pressed into the service. The surrounding
+streets are almost deserted; Paris is in hiding. The cannonading is
+becoming more furious every minute. I cross the garden of the Palais
+Royal. There I see a few loiterers, a knot of children are skipping. The
+Rue de Rivoli is all alive with people. A battalion marches hurriedly
+from the H�tel de Ville; at the head rides a young man mounted on a
+superb black horse. It is Dombrowski. I had been told he was dead. He is
+very pale. "A fragment of shell hit him in the chest at La Muette, but
+did not enter the flesh," says some one. The men sing the _Chant du
+D�part_ as they march along. I see a few women carrying arms among the
+insurgents; one who walks just behind Dombrowski has a child in her
+arms. Looking in the direction of the Place de la Concorde, I see smoke
+arising from the terrace of the Tuileries. In front of the Minist�re des
+Finances, this side of the barricade is a black mass of something; I
+think I can distinguish wheels; it is either cannon or engines. All
+around is confusion. I can hear the musketry distinctly, but the noise
+seems to come from the Champs �lys�es; they are not firing at the
+barricade. I turn and walk towards the H�tel de Ville: mounted expresses
+ride constantly past; companies of Federals are here and there lying on
+the ground around their piled muskets. By the Rue du Louvre there is
+another barricade; a little further there is another and then
+another.[100] Close to Saint Germain l'Auxerrois women are busy pulling
+down the wooden seats; children are rolling empty wine-barrels and
+carrying sacks of earth. As one nears the H�tel de Ville the barricades
+are higher, better armed, and better manned. All the Nationals here
+look ardent, resolved, and fierce. They say little, and do not shout at
+all. Two guards, seated on the pavement, are playing at picquet. I push
+on, and am allowed to pass. The barricades are terminated here, and I
+have nothing to fear from paving-stones. Looking up, I see that all the
+windows are closed, with the exception of one, where two old women are
+busy putting a mattress between the window and the shutter. A sentinel,
+mounting guard in front of the Caf� de la Compagnie du Gaz, cries out to
+me, "You can't pass here!" I therefore seat myself at a table in front
+of the caf�, which has doubtless been left open by order, and where
+several officers are talking in a most animated manner. One of them
+rises and advances towards me. He asks me rudely what I am doing there.
+I will not allow myself to be abashed by his tone, but draw out my pass
+from my pocket and show it him, without saying a word. "All right," says
+he, and then seats himself by my side, and tells me, "I know it already,
+that a part of the left bank of the river is occupied by the troops of
+the Assembly, that fighting is going on everywhere, and that the army
+on this side is gradually retreating.--Street fighting is our affair,
+you see," he continues. "In such battles as that, the merest gamin from
+Belleville knows more about it than MacMahon.... It will be terrible.
+The enemy shoots the prisoners." (For the last two months the Commune
+had been saying the same thing.) "We shall give no quarter."--I ask him,
+"Is it Delescluze who is determined to resist?"--"Yes," he answers.[101]
+"Lean forward a little. Look at those three windows to the left of the
+trophy. That is the Salle de l'�tat-Major. Delescluze is there giving
+orders, signing commissions. He has not slept for three days. Just now I
+scarcely knew him, he was so worn out with fatigue. The Committee of
+Public Safety sits permanently in a room adjoining, making out
+proclamations and decrees."--"Ha, ha!" said I, "decrees!"--"Yes,
+citizen, he has just decreed heroism!"[102] The officer gives me several
+other bits of information. Tells me that "Lullier this very morning has
+had thirty _r�fractaires_ shot, and that Rigault has gone to Mazas to
+look after the hostages." While he is talking, I try to see what is
+going on in the Place de l'H�tel de Ville. Two or three thousand
+Federals are there, some seated, some lying on the ground. A lively
+discussion is going on. Several little barrels are standing about on
+chairs; the men are continually getting up and crowding round the
+barrels, some have no glasses, but drink in the palms of their hands.
+Women walk up and down in bands, gesticulating wildly. The men shout,
+the women shriek. Mounted expresses gallop out of the H�tel, some in the
+direction of the Bastille, some towards the Place de la Concorde. The
+latter fly past us crying out, "All's well!" A man comes out on the
+balcony of the H�tel de Ville and addresses the crowd. All the Federals
+start to their feet enthusiastically.--"That's Vall�s," says my
+neighbour to me. I had already recognised him. I frequently saw him in
+the students' quarter in a little _cr�merie_ in the Rue Serpente. He was
+given to making verses, rather bad ones by-the-bye; I remember one in
+particular, a panegyric on a green coat. They used to say he had a
+situation in the _pompes fun�bres_.[103] His face even then wore a
+bitter and violent expression. He left poetry for journalism, and then
+journalism for politics.
+
+[Illustration: JULES VALL�S, COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.[104]]
+
+To-day he is spouting forth at a window of the H�tel de Ville. I cannot
+catch a word of what he says; but as he retires he is wildly applauded.
+Such applause pains me sadly. I feel that these men and these women are
+mad for blood, and will know how to die. Alas! how many dead and dying
+already! neither the cannonading nor the musketry has ceased an instant.
+I now see a number of women walk out of the H�tel, the crowd makes room
+for them to pass. They come our way. They are dressed in black, and have
+black crape tied round their arms and a red cockade in their bonnets. My
+friend the officer tells me that they are the governesses who have taken
+the places of the nuns. Then he walks up to them and says, "Have you
+succeeded?"--"Yes," answers one of them, "here is our commission. The
+school children are to be employed in making sacks and filling them with
+earth, the eldest ones to load the rifles behind the barricades. They
+will receive rations like National Guards, and a pension will be given
+to the mothers of those who die for the Republic. They are mad to fight,
+I assure you. We have made them work hard during the last month, this
+will be their holiday!" The woman who says this is young and pretty, and
+speaks with a sweet smile on her lips. I shudder. Suddenly two staff
+officers appear and ride furiously up to the H�tel de Ville; they have
+come from the Place Vend�me. An instant later and the trumpets sound.
+The companies form in the Place, and great agitation reigns in the
+H�tel. Men rush in and out. The officers who are in the caf� where I am
+get up instantly, and go to take their places at the head of their men.
+A rumour spreads that the Versaillais have taken the barricades on the
+Place de la Concorde.--"By Jove! I think you had better go home," says
+my neighbour to me, as he clasps his sword belt; "we shall have hot work
+here, and that shortly." I think it prudent to follow this advice. One
+glance at the Place before I go. The companies of Federals have just
+started off by the Rue de Rivoli and the quays at a quick march, crying
+"Vive la Commune!" a ferocious joy beaming in their faces. A young man,
+almost a lad, lags a little behind, a woman rushes up to him, and lays
+hold of his collar, screaming, "Well, and you, are you not going to get
+yourself killed with the others?"
+
+[Illustration: BARRICADE DIVIDING THE RUE DE RIVOLI AND THE PLACE DE LA
+CONCORDE.]
+
+I reach the Rue Vieille-du-Temple, where another barricade is being
+built up. I place a paving-stone upon it and pass on. Soon I see open
+shops and passengers in the streets. This tradesmen's quarter seems to
+have outlived the riot of Paris. Here one might almost forget the
+frightful civil war which wages so near, if the conversation of those
+around did not betray the anguish of the speakers, and if you did not
+hear the cannon roaring out unceasingly, "People of Paris, listen to me!
+I am ruining your houses. Listen to me! I am killing your children."
+
+On the boulevards more barricades; some nearly finished, others scarcely
+commenced. One constructed near the Porte Saint Martin looks formidable.
+That spot seems destined to be the theatre of bloody scenes, of riot and
+revolution. In 1852, corpses laid piled up behind the railing, and all
+the pavement tinged with blood. I return home profoundly sad; I can
+scarcely think.--I feel in a dream, and am tired to death; my eyelids
+droop of themselves; I am like one of those houses there with closed
+shutters.
+
+Near the Gymnase I meet a friend whom I thought was at Versailles. We
+shake hands sadly. "When did you come back?" I ask.--"To-day; I followed
+the troops."--Then turning back with me he tells me what he has seen. He
+had a pass, and walked into Paris behind the artillery and the line, as
+far as the Trocad�ro, where the soldiers halted to take up their line of
+battle. Not a single man was visible along the whole length of the
+quays. At the Champ de Mars he did not see any insurgents. The musketry
+seemed very violent near Vaugirard on the Pont Royal and around the
+Palais de l'Industrie. Shells from Montmartre repeatedly fell on the
+quays. He could not see much,--however only the smoke in the distance.
+Not a soul did he meet. Such frightful noise in such solitude was
+fearful. He continued his way under shelter of the parapet. In one place
+he saw some gamins cutting huge pieces of flesh off the dead body of a
+horse that was lying in the path. There must have been fighting there.
+Down by the water a man fishing while two shells fell in the river, a
+little higher up, a yard or two from the shore. Then he thought it
+prudent to get nearer to the Palais de l'Industrie. The fighting was
+nearly over then, but not quite. The Champs Elys�es was melancholy in
+the extreme; not a soul was there. This was only too literally true; for
+several corpses lay on the ground. He saw a soldier of the line lying
+beneath a tree, his forehead covered with blood. The man opened his
+month as if to speak as he heard the sound of footsteps, the eyelids
+quivered and then there was a shiver, and all was over. My friend walked
+slowly away. He saw trees thrown down and bronze lamp-posts broken;
+glass crackled under his feet as he passed near the ruined kiosques.
+Every now and then turning his head he saw shells from Montmartre fall
+on the Arc de Triomphe and break off large fragments of stone. Near the
+Tuileries was a confused mass of soldiery against a background of smoke.
+Suddenly he heard the whizzing of a ball and saw the branch of a tree
+fall. From one end of the avenue to the other, no one; the road
+glistened white in the sun. Many dead were to be seen lying about as he
+crossed the Champs Elys�es. All the streets to the left were full of
+soldiery; there had been fighting there, but it was over now. The
+insurgents had retreated in the direction of the Madeleine. In many
+places tricolor flags were hanging from the windows, and women were
+smiling, and waving their handkerchiefs to the troops. The presence of
+the soldiery seemed to reassure everybody. The concierges were seated
+before their doors with pipes in their mouths, recounting to attentive
+listeners the perils from which they had escaped; how balls pierced the
+mattresses put up at the windows, and how the Federals had got into the
+houses to hide. One said, "I found three of them in my court; I told a
+lieutenant they were there, and he had them shot. But I wish they would
+take them away; I cannot keep dead bodies in the house." Another was
+talking with some soldiers, and pointing out a house to them. Four men
+and a corporal went into the place indicated, and an instant afterwards
+my friend heard the cracking of rifles. The concierge rubbed his hands
+and winked at the bystanders, while another was saying, "They respect
+nothing those Federals; during the battle they came in to steal. They
+wanted to take away my clothes, my linen, everything I have, but I told
+them to leave that, that it was not good enough for them, that they
+ought to go up to the first floor, where they would find clocks and
+plate, and I gave them the key. Well, Messieurs, you would never believe
+what they have done, the rascals! They took the key and went and
+pillaged everything on the first floor!" My friend had heard enough, and
+passed on. The agitation everywhere was very great. The soldiers went
+hither and thither, rang the bells, went into the houses; and brought
+out with them pale-faced prisoners. The inhabitants continued to smile
+politely, but grimly. Here and there dead bodies were lying in the road.
+A man who was pushing a truck allowed one of the wheels to pass over a
+corpse that was lying with its head on the curbstone. "Bah!" said he,
+"it won't do him any harm." The dead and wounded were, however, being
+carried away as quickly as possible.
+
+[Illustration: SHELL HOLE--A CONVENIENT SEAT.]
+
+[Illustration: IN THE RUES.]
+
+[Illustration: SHOT MARKS--EN PROFIL.]
+
+[Illustration: ON THE BOULEVARDS]
+
+[Illustration: PLUS DE LUMI�RE!!]
+
+[Illustration: PLUS D'OMBRE!]
+
+[Illustration: BULLET HOLE--EN FACE]
+
+The cannon had now ceased roaring, and the fight was still going on
+close at hand--at the Tuileries doubtless. The townspeople were tranquil
+and the soldiery disdainful. A strange contrast; all these good citizens
+smiling and chatting, and the soldiers, who had come to save them at the
+peril of their lives, looking down upon them with the most careless
+indifference. My friend reached the Boulevard Haussmann; there the
+corpses were in large numbers. He counted thirty in less than a hundred
+yards. Some were lying under the doorways; a dead woman was seated on
+the bottom stair of one of the houses. Near the church of "La Trinit�"
+were two guns, the reports from which were deafening; several of the
+shells fell on a bathing establishment in the Rue Taitbout opposite the
+Boulevard. On the Boulevard itself, not a person was to be seen. Here
+and there dark masses, corpses doubtless. However, the moment the noise
+of the report of a gun had died away, and while the gunners were
+reloading, heads were thrust out from doors to see what damage had been
+done--to count the number of trees broken, benches torn up, and kiosques
+overturned. From some of the windows rifles were fired. My friend then
+reached the street he lived in and went home. He was told that during
+the morning they had violently bombarded the Coll�ge Chaptal, where the
+Zouaves of the Commune had fortified themselves; but the engagement was
+not a long one, they made several prisoners and shot the rest.
+
+My friend shut himself up at home, determined not to go out. But his
+impatience to see and hear what was going on forced him into the streets
+again. The P�pini�re barracks were occupied by troops of the line; he
+was able to get to the New Opera without trouble, leaving the Madeleine,
+where dreadful fighting was going on, to the right. On the way were to
+be seen piled muskets, soldiers sitting and lying about, and corpses
+everywhere. He then managed, without incurring too much danger, to reach
+the Boulevards, where the insurgents, who were then very numerous, had
+not yet been attacked. He worked for some little time at the barricade,
+and then was allowed to pass on. It was thus that we had met. Just as we
+were about to turn up the Faubourg Montmartre a man rushed up saying
+that three hundred Federals had taken refuge in the church of the
+Madeleine, followed by gendarmes, and had gone on fighting for more than
+an hour. "Now," he finished up by saying, "if the _cur�_ were to return
+he would find plenty of people to bury!"
+
+I am now at home. Evening has come at last; I am jotting down these
+notes just as they come into my head. I am too much fatigued both in
+mind and body to attempt to put my thoughts into order. The cannonading
+is incessant, and the fusillade also. I pity those that die, and those
+that kill! Oh! poor Paris, when will experience make you wiser?
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 98: It was known by this time at Versailles in what a
+desperate condition was the Commune, by the information of persons
+devoted to order, but who remained amongst the insurgents to keep watch
+over and restrain them as much as possible.
+
+The Versailles authorities know that, thanks to the well-directed fire
+of Montretout, the bastions of the Point du Jour were no longer tenable,
+and that their defenders had abandoned them and had organized new works
+of defence; nevertheless, the operations were earned on just as
+systematically as if the fire of the besieged had not ceased for several
+days, when, on Sunday, the 21st May, about midday, an officer on duty in
+the trenches, in course of formation in the Bois de Boulogne, perceived
+a man making signs with a white handkerchief near the military post of
+Saint Cloud; the officer immediately approached near enough to hear the
+bearer of the flag of truce, say:--
+
+"My name is Ducatel, and I belong to the service of the Engineers of
+Roads and Bridges, and I have been a soldier. I declare that your
+entrance into Paris is easy, and as a guarantee of the truth of what I
+say, I am about to give myself up;" so saying, he passed over the fosse
+by means of one of the supports of the drawbridge, in spite of several
+shots fired at him by Federals hidden in the houses at Auteuil, but none
+of which reached him.
+
+A few resolute men now passed over the fosse, and arrived without
+accident on the other side. A few insurgents, who were still there, made
+off without loss of time, leaving the invaders to establish themselves,
+and wait for reinforcements.
+
+A short time after a white flag was exhibited in the neighbouring
+bastion, which bore the number 62, and the fire from Montretout and Mont
+Val�rien was stopped, the infantry of the Marine took possession of the
+gate, out the telegraphic wires which were supposed to be in
+communication with torpedoes, while information was immediately
+despatched to Versailles of these important events.
+
+The division of General Verg�, placed for the time under the orders of
+General Douay, entered the gate at half-past three in the afternoon, and
+took possession of Point du Jour, after having taken several barricades;
+at one of these, Ducatel was sent with a flag of trace towards the
+insurgents, who offered to surrender, but he received a bayonet wound,
+was carried off to the �cole Militaire, tried by court-martial and
+condemned to death, from which he was fortunately snatched by the
+arrival of the Versailles troops at the Trocad�ro at two o'clock in the
+morning.
+
+At the same time, the first corps d'arm�e (that of General L'Admirault),
+made its way into the city by the Portes d'Auteuil and Passy, and took
+up a strong position in the streets of Passy.]
+
+[Footnote 99: At ten o'clock at night, the army had taken possession of
+the region comprised between the _ceinture_, or circular railway, and
+the fortifications, the streets of Auteuil to the viaduct, and the
+bridge of Grenelle.
+
+At midnight, the movement which had been suspended for a time to rest
+the troops, was recommenced all along the line.
+
+At two o'clock in the morning, General Douay occupied the Trocad�ro; and
+at about four o'clock his soldiers, after a short struggle, captured the
+chateau of La Muette, making about six hundred prisoners, and then,
+advancing in the direction of Porte Maillot, they joined the troops of
+General Clinchant, who had got within the ramparts on that side.
+
+At the break of day, the tricolour floated over the Arc de Triomphe,
+without the Versailles forces having sustained sensible loss. All this
+passed on the right bank of the Seine.]
+
+[Footnote 100: The insurrectionists followed a decided and pre-conceived
+plan. The barricades, which intersected the streets of Paris in every
+direction, were arranged on a general system which showed considerable
+skill. Was this ensemble a conception of Cluseret? or a plan of
+Gaillard, or Eudes, or Rossel? No one now could say which, but at any
+rate we are able to deduce the plan from the facts and set it out as
+follows:--
+
+Within the line of the fortifications the insurgents had formed a second
+line of defence, which runs on the right bank of the river, by the
+Trocadero, the Triumphal Arch, the Boulevard de Courcelles, the
+Boulevard de Batignolles, and the Boulevard de Rochechouart; and on the
+left across the bridge of I�na, the Avenue de la Bourdonnaye, the �cole
+Militaire, the Boulevard des Invalides, the Boulevard Montparnasse, and
+the Western Railway Station. Along the whole extent of this circuit the
+entrances of the streets were barricades, and the "Places" turned into
+redoubts.
+
+From this double _enceinte_ of fortifications the lines of defence
+converged along the great boulevards, the Rue Royale, by the Ministry of
+Marine, the terrace of the Tuileries Gardens, the Place de la Concorde,
+the Palace of the Corps L�gislatif, the Rue de Bourgogne, and the Rue de
+Varenne. This third _enceinte_ of defence was the pride of the
+insurgents; they were never tired of admiring their celebrated barricade
+of the Rue St. Florentin, and that which intercepted the quay at the
+corner of the Tuileries Gardens on the Place de la Concorde.
+
+This is not all. Supposing that the third line were forced, the
+insurgents would not even then be without resource. On the left bank of
+the Seine they fell back successively on the Rue de Grenelle, Rue Saint
+Dominique, and Rue de Lille, all three closed by barricades; on the
+right bank they could carry on the struggle by the Rue
+Neuve-des-Petits-Champs, the Rue de la Paix, and the Place Vend�me, and
+even when beaten back from these last retreats, they could still defend
+the Rue St. Honor� and operate a retreat by the Palace of the Tuileries,
+the Louvre, and the H�tel de Ville.]
+
+[Footnote 101: In the following proclamation, published on the 21st May,
+Delescluze stimulated the Communist party, which felt its power melting
+away on all sides:
+
+"TO THE PEOPLE OF PARIS, TO THE NATIONAL GUARD.
+
+"CITIZENS,--We have had enough of militaryism; let us have no more
+stuffs embroidered and gilt at every seam!
+
+"Make room for the people, the real combatants, the bare arms! The hour
+of the revolutionary war has struck!
+
+"The people know nothing of scientific manoeuvres, but with a rifle in
+hand and the pavement beneath their feet, they fear not all the
+strategists of the monarchical school.
+
+"To arms, citizens! To arms! You must conquer, or, as you well know,
+fall again into the pitiless hands of the _r�actionaires_ and clericals
+of Versailles; those wretches who with intention delivered France up to
+Prussia, and now make us pay the ransom of their treason!
+
+"If you desire the generous blood which you have shed like water during
+the last six weeks not to have been shed in vain, if you would see
+liberty and equality established in France, if you would spare your
+children sufferings and misery such as you have endured, you will rise
+as one man, and before your formidable bands the enemy who indulges the
+idea of bringing you again under his yoke, will reap nothing but the
+harvest of the useless crimes with which he has disgraced himself during
+the past two months.
+
+"Citizens! your representatives will fight and die with you, if fall we
+must; but, in the name of our glorious France, mother of all the popular
+revolutions, the permanent source of ideas of justice and unity, which
+should be and which will be the laws of the world, march to the
+encounter of the enemy, and let your revolutionary energy prove to him
+that Paris may he sold, but can never be delivered up or conquered.
+
+"The Commune confides in you, and you may trust the Commune!
+
+"The civil delegate at the Ministry of War,
+
+"(Signed)
+
+"CH. DELESCLUZE.
+
+"Countersigned by the Committee of Public Safety:--Antoine Arnauld,
+Billioray, E. Eudes, F. Gambon, G. Ranvier."
+
+Such was the despairing cry of the insurrection at bay.]
+
+[Footnote 102: See Appendix, No. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 103: There are no private undertakers and funeral furnishers
+in Paris. It is all done by a company, under the supervision of
+Government, a very large concern, called the _Pompes Fun�bres_.]
+
+[Footnote 104: Jules Vall�s was one of the most conspicuous among the
+men of the 18th of March. He had been journalist, working printer, a
+clerk at the H�tel de Ville, editor of a newspaper, pamphleteer, and
+caf� orator in turn, but always noisy and boastful. Andr� Gill, the
+caricaturist, once drew him as an undertaker's dog, dragging a saucepan
+behind him, and the caricature told Vall�s' story well enough. In face
+he was ugly, but energetic in expression, almost to ferociousness.
+
+He was born at Puy, in 1833, and on leaving the college of Nantes, came
+to study law in Paris, but politics occupied him chiefly, and he soon
+got himself shut up in Mazas as a political prisoner. After some time
+spent in confinement, he obtained his liberty, and published at Nantes,
+a pamphlet under the title of "Money: by a literary man become a
+journalist;" and the pamphlet, having gained him some slight popularity,
+he was engaged, later, on the _Figaro_, to write the reports of the
+Bourse, and in the meantime he eked out his slender salary by working as
+a clerk at the H�tel de Ville. When Ernest Feydeau brought out the
+_Epoque_, in 1864, Jules Vall�s published a few articles in its columns,
+and a little later became a writer on the _Ev�nement_, with the
+magnificent salary of eighteen thousand francs a year. A month
+afterwards, he was without occupation again, but he soon re-appeared
+with a new journal of his own, _La Rue, La Sue_, in its turn, however,
+only lived during a few numbers, and Jules Vall�s now took up caf�
+politics, and practised table oratory at the _Estaminet de Madrid_,
+where he fostered and expounded the projects which he has since brought
+to so fearful a result.
+
+In 1869, he became one of the most inveterate speakers at election
+meetings, and presented himself as a candidate for the Corps L�gislatif.
+He was not elected, but the profession of opinions that he then made was
+certain to obtain him a seat in the Communal Assembly. One of the last
+articles in the _Cri du People_ of Jules Vall�s announced the fatal
+resolution of defending Paris by all possible means. An article
+finishing with this prophetic sentence, "M. Thiers, if he is chemist
+enough will understand us."]
+
+
+
+
+XCI.
+
+
+It is imprudent to go out; the night was almost peaceable, the morning
+is hideous. The roar of musketry is intense and without interruption. I
+suppose there must be fighting going on in the Rue du Faubourg
+Montmartre. I start back, the noise is so fearful. In the Cour Tr�vise
+not a person to be seen, the houses are closely shut and barred. On a
+second floor I hear a great moving of furniture, and hear quite
+distinctly the sound of sobbing, of female sobbing. I hear that the
+second floor of the house is inhabited by a member of the Commune and
+his family. I am about to go up and see if I can be of any help to the
+women in case of danger, when I see a man precipitately enter the Court.
+He wears a uniform of lieutenant; I recognise him, it is the porter. He
+stops, looks around him, and seeing that he is alone, takes his rifle in
+both hands and throws it with all his strength over the high wall which
+is on the left hand of the Court. That done, he rushes into the house.
+There I distinctly hear him say to his wife, "The barricade is taken,
+give me a _blouse_, they are at Montmartre. We are done for!" I think,
+the porter must have made a mistake, and that the battery is not taken
+yet, for I hear the whistling of a shell that, seems to come from
+Montmartre. The deafening clamour on all sides redoubles, all the
+separate noises seem to confound themselves in one ceaseless roar, like
+the working of a million of hammers on a million of anvils. I can
+scarcely bear it; my hands clutch the door-posts convulsively. I lean
+out as far as I can, but see nothing but a company of soldiers preceded
+by two gendarmes, who are entering the Court. They stop before the door
+of the house. Several of them go in, and then I hear the sound of a door
+suddenly opened and shut, and heavy steps on the wooden floor. I feel
+myself trembling; this man they have come to arrest--are they going to
+shoot him here, in his own apartment, before his wife? Thank God, no!
+The two gendarmes reappear in the street holding the prisoner between
+them; his hands are bound; the soldiers surround them, and they are
+going to march away, when the man, lifting up his arms, cries fiercely,
+"I have but one regret, that I did not blow up the whole of the
+quarter." At this instant the window above is opened, and a woman with
+grey hair leans out, crying, "Die in peace, I will avenge you!" At these
+words the soldiers arrest their steps, and the two gendarmes re-enter
+the house. They are going to take the wife prisoner after having taken
+the husband. I fall back into a chair horrified; I shut my eyes not to
+see, and I press my hands on my ears, not to hear the dreadful sound of
+the musketry, but the horrible shrill noise is triumphant, and I hear it
+all the same.
+
+
+
+
+XCII.
+
+
+Oh! those that hear it not, how happy they must be; they will never
+understand how fearful this continuous, this dreadful noise is, and to
+feel that each ball is aimed at some breast, and each shell brings ruin
+in its train. Fear and horror wrings one's heart and maddens one's
+brain. Visions pass before one's eyes of corpses, of houses crushing
+sleeping inmates, of men falling and crying out for mercy! and one
+feels quite strange to go on living among the crowds that die!
+
+I have been out a little while, a ball whistled over my shoulder, and
+flattened itself against an iron bar on a shop front. I heard a mass of
+glass shiver into fragments on the pavement. I determined to return
+home.
+
+On my way back, I had to pass in front of a liqueur shop, the door of
+which was open, and several men were talking there. I stopped to learn
+the news. Montmartre is taken; the Federals had not opposed much
+resistance; but a great deal of firing had gone on in the side streets
+and lanes. Seven insurgents were surrounded. "Give yourselves up, and
+your lives will be saved," cried out the soldiers. They replied, "We are
+prisoners;" but one of them drew his revolver and shot an officer in the
+leg. Then the soldiers took the seven men, threw them into a large hole,
+and shot them from above like so many rabbits. Another man told me that
+he had seen a child lying dead at the corner of the Rue de Rome. "A
+pretty little fellow," he said, "his brains were strewed on the pavement
+beside him." A third, that when all the fighting was over at the Place
+Saint-Pierre a rifle shot was heard, and a captain of Chasseurs fell
+dead. The major who was there, looked up and saw a man trying to hide
+himself behind a chimney pot; the soldiers got into the house, seized
+him on the roof, and brought him down into the Place. What did the
+insurgent do, but walked up to the major, smiling, and hit him a blow on
+the cheek. The major set him up against a wall, and blew his brains out
+with a revolver. Another insurgent who was arrested, made an insulting
+grimace at the soldiers; they shot him. On the southern sides of Paris,
+the operations of the army have not been so fortunate as on this. In the
+Faubourg St. Germain it advances very slowly, if it advance at all. The
+Federals fight with heroic courage at the Mont-Parnasse Station, the Rue
+Notre-Dame-des-Champs, and the Croix-Rouge; from the corners of the
+streets, from the windows, from the balconies proceed shots rarely
+ineffective. This sort of warfare fatigues the soldiers, particularly
+as the discipline prevents them from using the same measures. At
+Saint-Quen, likewise, the march of the troops is stayed; the barricade
+of the Rue de Clichy holds out, and will hold out some time. In other
+quarters the advantages gained by the Versaillais are evident. Here and
+there some small show of resistance is offered, but the insurgents are
+flying. I cannot tell whether all these floating rumours are true. As I
+return home, I look round; in the Rue Geoffrey-Marie, near the Faubourg
+Montmartre, I see a National Guard alone in the middle of the street,
+nothing to screen him whatsoever; he loads his rifle and fires, loads
+and fires again; again and again! Thirty-three times! Then the rifle
+slips to the ground, and the man staggers and falls.
+
+
+
+
+XCIII.
+
+
+This morning, the 23rd, after a combat of three hours, the barricade of
+the Place de Clichy has not yet yielded. Yet two battalions of National
+Guards had, at the beginning of the fight, reversed their arms, and were
+fraternising with the soldiers on the Place de la Maine, a hundred and
+fifty yards from the scene of the fray. The cracking of the rifles, the
+explosion of shells, and the sound of mitrailleuses filled the air. The
+smell of powder was stifling. Dreadful cries arose from the poor wounded
+wretches; and the whizzing projectiles from Montmartre rent the air
+above in their fiery course. "Beneath us," said an inhabitant of
+Batignolles who gave me these particulars, "beneath us the city lay like
+a seething caldron."
+
+The beating of drums and the sharp trumpet-calls mixed in this monstrous
+din, and were every now and then lost in the tremendous noise of the
+firing.
+
+About half-past one the sounds grew quieter; the barricade was taken.
+The insurgents were retreating to La Chapelle and Belleville in
+disorder; the soldiers of the line rushed like a torrent into the Avenue
+de Clichy, leaving a tricolour flag hoisted upon the dismantled
+barricade.
+
+Here and there, in the streets, the struggle had not ceased. In the Rue
+Blanche a rifle-shot proceeded from a ground-floor; the man was taken
+and executed outside his own door. The artillery was moving up the Rue
+Chaptal towards Montmartre and La Chapelle. The day was very hot; pails
+of water were thrown over the guns to quench their burning thirst. All
+the young men who were found in the streets were provisionally put under
+arrest, for they feared everyone, even children, and horrible vengeance
+and thirst for blood had seized upon all. Suddenly an isolated shot
+would be heard, followed a minute or two after by five or six others.
+One knew reprisal had been done.
+
+At about four o'clock in the afternoon, when the quarters of Belleville
+and Clichy were pretty well cleared of troops, two insurgents were
+walking, one behind the other, in the Rue L�onie. The one who walked
+last lifted his rifle and fired carelessly in the direction of the
+windows; the report sounded very loudly in the silent street, and a pane
+of glass fell in fragments to the ground. The insurgent who was in front
+did not even turn his head; these men seem to have become quite reckless
+and deaf to everything.
+
+What the troops feared the most were the sharp-shooters hidden in the
+houses, aiming through little holes and cracks; suddenly a snap would be
+heard, and the officers would lift their glassed to their eyes; more
+often nothing was to be seen at all, but if the slightest shadow were
+visible behind a window curtain, the order was, "Search that house!" The
+executions did not take place in the apartments. Now and then an
+inhabitant or two were brought down into the street, and those never
+returned!
+
+
+
+
+XCIV.
+
+
+It is the middle of the night; and I awake with a terrible start. A
+bright red light streams through the panes. I throw open the window; the
+sky to the left is one mass of dark smoke and lurid streaks of light--it
+is a fire, Paris on fire![105] I dress and go out. At the corner of the
+Rue de Tr�vise a sentinel stops me, "You can't pass." I am so bewildered
+that I do not think of noticing whether he is a Federal or a soldier.
+What am I to do, where am I to go? Although an hour ago balls were
+whistling around, there are now people at every window. "The Minist�re
+des Finances is on fire! the Rue Royale! the Louvre!" The Louvre! I can
+scarcely avoid a cry of horror. In a minute the enormity of the disaster
+has broken upon me. Oh! _chefs-d'oeuvre_ without number! I see you
+devoured, consumed, reduced to ashes! I see the walls tottering, the
+canvases fall from the frames and shrivel up; the "Marriage of Canaan"
+is in flames! Raphael is struggling in the burning furnace! Leonardo da
+Vinci is no more! This was, indeed, an unexpected calamity! Fortune had
+reserved this terrible surprise for us! But I will not believe it, these
+rumours are false, doubtless! How should these people who inhabit this
+quarter know what I am ignorant of? Yet over our heads the sky is tinged
+with black and red!
+
+[Illustration: RUINS OF THE RUE ROYALE, LOOKING TOWARDS THE PLACE DE LA
+CONCORDE AND ACROSS THE RUE DU FAUBOURG SAINT-HONORE.]
+
+A strange smell fills the air, like that of a monstrous petroleum lamp
+just lighted. That dreaded word, petroleum, makes me shudder. Once
+distinctly I hear the sound of a vast body falling heavily. Not to be
+able to obtain information is terrible; not to know what is going on,
+while all around seems on fire; the day is beginning to break, the
+musketry and the cannonading commences afresh, it is a hell, with
+death for its girdle! In front of me I see the corner of a building
+lighted up by the fire, on which little spirals of smoke are reflected
+from the distant conflagration. I rush home, I want to hide myself, to
+sleep, to forget. When I am in my room, I see through the white curtains
+of the window a bright light. I tremble and rush to the window! It is
+the gilt letters of a signboard, on the opposite side of the way, that
+are darting forth brilliant flashes, borrowed from the distant flames.
+
+[Illustration: A BAY of the TUILERIES--from the PLACE du CARROUSEL.]
+
+[Illustration: A WARM CORNER APPROACHING THE LOUVRE.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 105: The 24th May the COMMITTEE FOR PUBLIC SAFETY issued these
+cold-blooded decrees:--
+
+    "Citizen Milli�re, at the head of one hundred and fifty
+    fuse-bearers, is to set fire to all houses Of suspicious aspect, as
+    well as to the public monuments of the left bank of the Seine.
+
+    "Citizen Dereure, with one hundred and fifty fuse-bearers, is
+    charged with the 1st and 2nd Arrondissement.
+
+    "Citizen Billioray, with one hundred men, is charged with the 9th,
+    10th, and 20th Arrondissements.
+
+    "Citizen V�sinier, with fifty men, has the Boulevards of the
+    Madeleine and of the Bastille especially entrusted to him.
+
+    "These Citizens are to come to an understanding with the officers
+    commanding the barricades, for the execution of these orders.
+
+    "DELESCLUZE, R�G�RE, RANVINE, JOHANNARD, V�SINIER, BRUNEL,
+    DOMBROWSKI.
+
+    "Paris, 3 Prairial, year 79."
+
+]
+
+[Illustration: Milli�re[106]]
+
+
+
+
+XCV.
+
+
+Certainly I nursed no vain illusions. What you had done, gentlemen of
+the Commune, had enlightened me as to your value, and as to the purity
+of your intentions. Seeing you lie, steal, and kill, I had said to you,
+"You are liars, robbers, and murderers;" but truly, in spite of Citizen
+F�lix Pyat, who is a coward, and Citizen Miot, who is a fool; in spite
+of Milli�re, who shot _r�fractaires_, and Philippe, whose trade shall be
+nameless; in spite of Dacosta, who amused himself with telling the
+Jesuits at the Conciergerie, "Mind, you are to be shot in an hour," and
+then an hour afterwards returning to say, "I have thought about it, and
+it is for tomorrow;" in spite of Johannard, who executed a child of
+fifteen guilty of selling a suppressed newspaper; in spite of Rigault,
+who, chucking the son of Chaudey under the chin, laughingly said to him,
+"Tomorrow, little one, we shall shoot papa;" in spite of all the madmen
+and fools that constituted the Commune de Paris, who after being guilty
+of more extravagances than are necessary to get a man sent to the
+Madhouse of Charenton, and more crimes than are sufficient to shut him
+up in prison at Sainte-P�lagie, had managed, by means of every form, of
+wickedness and excess, to make our beloved Paris a frightened slave,
+crouching to earth under their abominable tyranny; in spite of
+everything, I could not have dreamed that even their demoniac fury could
+have gone so far as to try to burn Paris, after having ruined it! Nero
+of the gutter! Sardanapalus drunk with vitriol! So your vanity wanted
+such a volcano to engulf you, and you wished to die by the light of such
+an _auto-da-f�_. Instead of torches around your funeral car, you wished
+the Tuileries, the library of the Louvre, and the Palace of the Legion
+of Honour burnt to ashes, the Rue Royale one vast conflagration, where
+the walls as they fell buried alive women and children, and the Rue de
+Lille vomiting fire and smoke like the crater of Vesuvius.
+
+[Illustration: PALAIS DE JUSTICE, PARTLY DESTROYED. SAINTE CHAPELLE,
+SAVED.]
+
+It has pleased you that thousands of families should be ruined, their
+savings scattered in the ashes of the vanished papers of the burnt
+Minist�re des Finances and the _Caisse des d�p�ts_. In seeing that the
+art-galleries of the Louvre had remained intact, only its library burnt,
+you must have been seized with mad rage. How! Notre Dame not yet in
+flames? Sainte-Chapelle not on fire? Have you no more petroleum, no
+more flaming torches? The cry "To Arms!" is not enough, you must shout
+"To Fire!" Would you consume the entire city, and make of its ruins a
+horrible monument to your memory?
+
+Do not say, "We have not done this; it is the people who are working out
+their own revenge, and we stand for nothing, we are as gentle as lambs.
+Ranvier would not hurt a fly." Away with all this pretence; were you not
+on the balcony of the H�tel de Ville with your blood-red scarfs,
+uttering your commands? The populace, deceived and blinded, have but
+obeyed you. Do not all the circumstances leading to this stupendous
+catastrophe, reveal an elaborate and digested plan, determined long
+beforehand? Did we not read this notice, daily, in your official
+journal: "All those who have petroleum are requested immediately to
+declare the quantities in their possession?" Was there not a quick-match
+extinguished in the quarter of the Invalides that was to have
+communicated the flames to barrels of powder placed, long ago, in the
+great sewers? Yes, what has taken place you had decreed. If the
+disasters have not been more terrible, is it not, that, surprised at the
+sudden arrival of the troops, you had not the time to finish your
+preparations? Yes, you are the criminals! It was Eudes who gave out the
+petroleum to the _P�troleuses_; it was Felix Pyat who laid the train of
+gunpowder. It is Tridon who said: "Take care that the phials be not
+uncorked." The public incendiary committee has well performed its duty!
+Wicked criminals! Execrable madmen! May Heaven bear me witness that my
+heart abhors revenge, is always inclined to pardon--but for these! What
+chastisement can be great enough to appease the wrath of justice! What
+vow of repentance could be offered up fervent enough to be received in
+Heaven, even at the moment when, struck down by balls, they offer their
+lives as expiation? Misguided humanity!
+
+[Illustration: MINIST�RE DES FINANCES
+
+RUE DE RIVOLI
+
+POLICE OF PARIS
+
+Au Citoyen Lucas,
+
+Faites de suite flamber Finances et venez nous retrouver. 4 prairial, an
+79.
+
+TH: FERR�.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 106: This Milliere, formerly an advocate and writer on the
+_Marseillaise_, was a native of St-Etienne, and fifty-four years of age,
+a cool speaker, and advocate of advanced ideas, that got him several
+imprisonments. In March 1870 he was taken from the prison of
+Sainte-P�lagie to give evidence at Tours against Pierre Bonaparte for
+the murder of Victor Noir, where his lucid depositions told greatly
+against the prisoner. When regaining his liberty he became more
+revolutionary than ever, writing during the siege in the _Patrie en
+Danger_. At the peace he became one of the members for Paris, and sat at
+Bordeaux and Versailles, agitating social subjects and the law of
+lodgers. About the 10th of April he took part with the Commune, and at
+the entrance of the troops was taken at the Luxembourg after having
+fired six rounds from a revolver, was shot on the steps of the Pantheon,
+and died as he opened his shirt front, shouting, "_Vive la R�publique!
+Vive la Libert�! Vive l'Humanit�!_"]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: FERR�][107]
+
+XCVI.
+
+
+With three friends I stood upon the roof of a house near the new opera,
+watching what was passing around. The spectacle was such, that horror
+paralyses every other sentiment, even that of self-preservation.
+Consternation sits encircled by a blazing atmosphere of terror! The
+H�tel de Ville is in flames; the smoke, at times a deep red, envelops
+all, so that it is impossible to distinguish more than the outlines of
+immense walls; the wind brings, in heavy gusts, a deadly odour--of burnt
+flesh, perhaps--which turns the heart sick and the brain giddy. On the
+other side the Tuileries, the L�gion d'Honneur, the Minist�re de la
+Guerre, and the Minist�re des Finances are flaming still, like five
+great craters of a gigantic volcano! It is the eruption of Paris! Alone,
+a great black mass detaches itself from the universal conflagration, it
+is the Tour Saint-Jacques, standing out like a malediction.
+
+One of the three friends, who are with me on the roof of the house, was
+able, about an hour ago, to get near the H�tel de Ville. He related to
+me what follows:--
+
+    "At the moment of my arrival, the flames burst forth from all the
+    windows of the H�tel de Ville, and the most intense terror seized
+    upon all the inhabitants blocked up in the surrounding quarters, for
+    a terrible rumour is spread; it is said that more than fifty
+    thousand pounds of powder is contained in the subterranean vaults.
+    The incendiaries must have poured the demoniacal liquid in rivers
+    through the great halls, down the great staircases, from the very
+    garrets, to envelop even the Salle du Tr�ne. The great fire throws a
+    blood-red glare over the city, and on the quays of the Institute.
+    Night is so like day that a letter may be read in the street. Is
+    this the end of the famous capital of France? Have the infamous
+    fiends of the committee for public safety ordered, in their cowardly
+    death-agony, that this should be the end? Yes, it is the ruin of all
+    that was grand, generous, radiant, and consolatory for our country
+    that they have decided to consummate, with a chorus of hellish
+    laughter, in which terror and ferocity struggle with brutal
+    degradation.
+
+    "In the midst of this horror, confused rumours are circulated. It is
+    said that the heat will penetrate to the cellars and cause an
+    explosion of whole quarters. Then what will become of the
+    inhabitants, and the riches that they have accumulated? The heat is
+    overwhelming between the Tuileries and the H�tel de Ville--that is,
+    over the space of about a mile. The two barricades of the Rue de
+    Rivoli and of the Rue de la Coutellerie, near which are the offices
+    of the municipal services--the lighting of the city, the octroi,
+    waters, sewers, etc.,--will not be taken until too late, in spite of
+    the energy with which the army attacks them. It is feared that the
+    flame will reach the neighbourhood of the great warehouses, so
+    thickly do the burning flakes fall and scatter destruction. The
+    barricades of the quays are still intact, it will be another hour
+    yet before they are taken. The firemen are there furiously at work,
+    but their efforts are insufficient! It would take tons of ammonia to
+    slake the fury of the petroleum which flows like hot lava upon the
+    place from the H�tel de Ville, and the horrible reflection reddens
+    the waters of the Seine, so that the current of the river seems to
+    flow with blood, which stains the stones as it dashes against the
+    arches of the bridge!"
+
+These scenes are being pictured to me as I gaze upon the terrible
+conflagration, and all that is told me I seem to see. An irresistible
+longing to be near seizes me. I am under the power of an invincible
+attraction. I lean forward, my arms outstretched; I run a great risk of
+falling, but what matters? The sight of these almost sublime horrors has
+burnt itself into my very brain!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 107: Ferr�, the friend of Raoul Bigault, and his colleague in
+the Commission of General Safety, like the latter, had inhabited the
+prisons for a considerable time for his political writings, seditious
+proposals, plots against the state, etc. He is a small man about five
+feet high, and very active. He signed with avidity the suppression of
+nearly all the journals of Paris, and the sentence of death of a great
+number of unfortunate prisoners, with the approbation of Raoul Bigault.
+He willingly undertook to announce to the Archbishop of Paris that his
+last hour had arrived. The following order, drawn up by him, was found
+on the body of an insurgent:--"Set fire to the Ministry of Finance
+immediately, and return here.
+
+4 Prairial, An 79.
+
+(Signed) TH. FERR�."
+
+See Appendix, No. 10.]
+
+
+
+
+XCVII.
+
+She walks with a rapid step, near the shadow of the wall; she is poorly
+dressed; her age is between forty and fifty; her forehead is bound with
+a red checkered handkerchief, from which hang meshes of uncombed hair.
+The face is red and the eyes blurred, and she moves with her look bent
+down on the ground. Her right hand is in her pocket, or in the bosom of
+her half-unbuttoned dress; in the other hand she holds one of the
+high, narrow tin cans in which milk is carried in Paris, but which now,
+in the hands of this woman, contains the dreadful petroleum liquid. As
+she passes a _poste_ of regulars, she smiles and nods; when they speak
+to her she answers, "My good Monsieur!" If the street is deserted she
+stops, consults a bit of dirty paper that she holds in her hand, pauses
+a moment before the grated opening to a cellar, then continues her way,
+steadily, without haste. An hour afterwards, a house is on fire in the
+street she has passed. Who is this woman? Paris calls her a
+_P�troleuse_.[109] One of these _p�troleuses_, who was caught in the act
+in the Rue Truffault, discharged the six barrels of a revolver and
+killed two men before being passed over to execution. Another was seen
+falling in a doorway of a house in the Rue de Boulogne, pierced with
+balls--but this one was a young girl; a bottle filled with petroleum
+fell from her hand as she dropped. Sometimes one of these wretched
+women, might be seen leading by the hand a little boy or girl; and the
+child probably carrying a bottle of the incendiary liquid in his pocket
+with his top and marbles.
+
+[Illustration: PALACE OF THE LUXEMBOURG (GARDEN FRONT).[108]
+
+Used as a Federal Ambulance Hospital.]
+
+[Illustration: LES P�TROLEURS]
+
+[Illustration: P�TROLEUSES]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 108: On the Wednesday succeeding the explosion of the
+powder-magazine in the garden of the Luxembourg, which unroofed a
+portion of the palace, and destroyed the windows, and did fearful damage
+to the surrounding houses, all the Communeux disappeared from the
+neighbourhood. The following night four men returned, bringing a
+quantity of petroleum with them. They gave orders that the six hundred
+wounded men who were then lying in the Palace should be taken away
+immediately. They had commenced their sinister project, and were pouring
+the petroleum about in the cellars, when the soldiers of the Brigade
+Paturel were informed of it, and arrived in time to prevent its
+execution. The criminals were taken and shot on the spot.]
+
+[Footnote 109: The incendiaries formed a veritable army, composed of
+returned convicts, the very dregs of the prisons, pale, thin lads, who
+looked like ghosts, and old women, that looked like horrible witches;
+their number amounted to eight thousand! This army had its chiefs, and
+each detachment was charged with the firing of a quarter. The order for
+the conflagration of public edifices bore the stamp of the Commune, and
+of the Central Committee, and the seal of the delegate at the Ministry
+of War. For the private houses more expeditive means were used. Small
+tickets, of the size of postage stamps, were found pasted upon walls of
+houses in different parts of Paris, with the letters B.P.B. (_bon pour
+br�ler_), literally, good for burning. Some of the tickets were square,
+others oval, with a bacchante's head in the centre. They were affixed on
+spots designated by the chiefs. Every _p�troleuse_ was to receive ten
+francs for each house she fired. Sept. 5,1871. Amongst the insurgents
+tried at Versailles, three p�troleuses were condemned to death, and one
+to imprisonment for life, a host of others being transported or
+otherwise punished.]
+
+
+
+
+XCVIII.
+
+
+It is seven in the evening, the circulation has become almost
+impossible. The streets are lined with patrols, and the regiments of the
+Line camp upon the outer boulevards. They dine, smoke, and bivouac, and
+drink with the citizens on the doorsteps of their houses. In the
+distance is heard the storm of sounds which tells of the despairing
+resistance of Belleville, and along the foot of the houses are seen
+square white patches, showing the walled-up cellars, every hole and
+crevice being plastered up to prevent insertion of the diabolical
+liquid--walled up against _p�troleurs_ and p�troleuses, strings of
+prisoners, among whom are furious women and poor children, their hands
+tied behind their backs, pass along the boulevards towards Neuilly.
+Night comes on, not a lamp is lighted, and the streets become deserted
+as by degrees the sky becomes darker. At nine o'clock the solitude is
+almost absolute. The sound of a musket striking the pavement is heard
+from time to time; a sentinel passes here and there, and the lights in
+the houses grow more and more rare.
+
+
+
+
+XCIX.
+
+
+The hours and the days pass and resemble each other horribly. To write
+the history of the calamities is not yet possible. Each one sees but a
+corner of the picture, and the narratives that are collected are vague
+and contradictory; it appears certain now that the insurrection is
+approaching the end. It is said that the fort of Montrouge is taken; but
+it still hurls its shells upon Paris. Several have just fallen in the
+quarter of the Banque. There is fighting still at the Halles, at the
+Luxembourg, and at the Porte Saint-Martin. Neither the cannonading nor
+the fusillade has ceased, and our ears have become accustomed to the
+continued roar. But, in spite of the barbarous heroism of the Federals,
+the force of their resistance is being exhausted. What has become of the
+chiefs?
+
+We continue to note down the incidents as they reach us.
+
+It is said that Assy has been taken, close to the New Opera House. He
+was going the nightly rounds, almost alone--"Who's there!" cried a
+sentinel. Assy, thinking the man was a Federal, replied, "You should
+have challenged me sooner." In an instant he was surrounded, disarmed,
+and carried off. However, it is a very unlikely tale; it is most
+improbable that Assy should not know that the New Opera was in the hands
+of the Versaillais.
+
+They say that Delescluze has fled, that Dombrowski has died[110] in an
+ambulance, and that Milli�re is a prisoner at Saint-Denis. But these are
+merely rumours, and I am utterly ignorant as to their worth. The only
+thing certain is that the search is being carried on with vigour. Close
+by the smoking ruins of what was once the H�tel de Ville they caught
+Citizen Ferraigu, inspector of the barricades; he confessed to having
+received from the Committee of Public Safety particular orders to burn
+down the shop of the Bon-Diable. Had one of these committeemen been an
+assistant there, and did he owe his former master a grudge? Ferraigu had
+a bottle of petroleum in his pocket; he was shot. I am told that at the
+Th��tre du Ch�telet a court-martial has been established on the stage.
+The Federals are brought up twenty at a time, judged, and condemned,
+they are then marched out on to the Place, with their hands tied behind
+their backs. A mitrailleuse, standing a hundred yards off, mows them
+down like grass. It is an expeditious contrivance. In a yard, in the Rue
+Saint-Denis, is a stable filled with corpses; I have myself seen them
+there. The Porte Saint-Martin Theatre is quite destroyed, a guard is
+stationed near. This morning three _p�troleuses_ were shot there, the
+bodies are still lying on the boulevards. I have just seen two
+insurgents walking between four soldiers; one an old man, the other
+almost a lad. I heard the elder one say to the younger, "All our misery
+comes of our having arms. In '48 we had none, so we took those of the
+soldiers, and then they were without. Now there is more killing and less
+business done." A few minutes after the little procession passed up the
+Rue d'Hauteville, and I heard the reports of two rifles. Oh! what
+horrible days! I feel a prey to the deepest dejection--if it were but
+over! The town looks wretched; even where the fighting is not going on,
+the houses are closed and the streets deserted, except here and there: a
+lonely passenger hurrying along, or a wretched prisoner marching between
+four soldiers. It is all very dreadful! In the streets where the battle
+is still raging the shutters are not closed; as soon as the soldiers get
+into a new quarter of the town they cry out, "Shut the windows, open the
+shutters." The reason for this is, that the open barred outer shutters,
+or _persiennes_, form a capital screen through which aim maybe taken
+with a gun. As for me, in the midst of this horror and sadness, I feel
+like a madman in the night. The rumour that the hostages have been shot
+at Mazas gains ground.[111] I am told that the Archbishop, the Abb�
+Degueiry, and Chaudey have all been assassinated. It was Bigault who
+ordered these executions. He has since been taken, and fell, crying
+"Down with murderers!" This reminds one of Dumollard, the assassin,
+calling the jurymen "Canaille!" Milli�re is said to have been shot in
+the Place du Panth�on. When they told him to kneel down he drew
+himself up to his full height, his eyes flashing defiance. Strange
+caprice of nature, to make these scoundrels brave.
+
+[Illustration: THEATRE PORTE ST MARTIN.
+
+SENSATION DRAMA OUT SENSATIONED.]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: CELL OF THE ARCHBISHOP IN THE PRISON OF LA ROQUETTE.]
+
+[Illustration: COURT-YARD OF PRISON OF LA ROQUETTE, WHERE THE HOSTAGES
+WERE SHOT.]
+
+In the meantime, the Commune is in its death throes. Like the dragon of
+fairy lore, it dies, vomiting flames. La Villette is on fire, houses are
+burning at Belleville and on the Buttes-Chaumont. The resistance is
+concentrated on one side at P�re la Chaise, and on the other at the
+Mont-Parnasse cemetery. The insurrection was mistress of the whole of
+Paris, and then the army came stretching its long arms from the Arc de
+Triomphe to Belleville, from the Champ-de-Mars to the Panth�on. Trying
+hard to burst these bonds, tightly surrounded, now resisting, now
+flying, the _�meute_ has at last retreated. It is over there now, in two
+cemeteries; it watches from behind tombstones; it rests the barrels of
+its rifles on marble crosses, and erects a battery on a sepulchre. The
+shells of the Versaillais fall in the sacred enclosure, plough up the
+earth, and unbury the dead. Something round rolled along a pathway, the
+combatants thought it was a shell; it was a skull! What must these men
+feel who are killing and being killed in the cemetery! To die among the
+dead seems horrible. But they never give it a thought; the bloody thirst
+for destruction which possesses them allows them only to think of one
+thing, of killing! Some of them are gay, they are brave, these men.
+That makes it only the more dreadful; these wretches are heroic! Behind
+the barricades there have been instances of the most splendid valour. A
+man at the Porte Saint-Martin, holding a red flag in his hand, was
+standing, heedless of danger, on a pile of stones. The balls showered
+around him, while he leant carelessly against an empty barrel which
+stood behind.--"Lazy fellow," cried a comrade--"No," said he, "I am only
+leaning that I may not fall when I die." Such are these men; they are
+robbers, incendiaries, assassins, but they are fearless of death. They
+have only that one good quality. They smile and they die. The
+vivandi�res allow themselves to be kissed behind the tombstones; the
+wounded men drink with their comrades, and throw wine on their wounds,
+saying, "Let us drink to the last." And yet, in an hour perhaps, the
+soldiers will fight their way into the cemeteries, which their balls
+reach already, they too mad with rage; then the horrible bayonet
+fighting will commence, man against man among the tombs, flying over the
+mounds, desecrating the monuments, everything that imagination can
+conjure up of most profane and terrible--a battle in a cemetery!
+
+[Illustration: MY NEIGHBOUR 'EN FACE'--BUSINESS CARRIED ON AS USUAL--]
+
+[Illustration: MY NEIGHBOUR NEXT DOOR--WHO THINKS HIMSELF FORTUNATE.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 110: The most reliable account of his death is given by a
+medical student who attended him in his last moments. "Dombrowski was
+passing with several members of the Commune in the Rue Myrrha, near the
+Rue des Poissonniers, when he was struck by a bullet, which traversed
+the lower part of his body. He was carried to a neighbouring chemist's,
+where I bandaged the wound. Before his transportation to the
+Lariboisi�re Hospital, he ordered the fire to cease, but the troops
+defending the barricade disobeyed the injunction. His sword was handed
+by me to a captain of the 45th of the Line. His last words were nearly
+identical with those which he uttered as he fell: 'I am no traitor!'"
+His worst enemies have said of him that he was a good soldier in a bad
+cause.]
+
+[Footnote 111: At the prison of Sainte-P�lagie, on Tuesday, the 23rd of
+May, the unfortunate gendarmes, who had been made prisoners on the 18th,
+were shot, together with M. Chaudey, a writer, on the _Si�cle_, arrested
+at the office of the journal, and conducted, first to Mazas and
+afterwards to Sainte-P�lagie. (Appendix 11).
+
+According to the _Si�cle_, the "Procureur" of the Commune, Raoul
+Rigault, presented himself, at the office at about eleven at night, and
+having sent for M. Chaudey, said to him, without any preamble: "I am
+here to tell you that you have not an hour to live."
+
+"You mean to say that I am to be assassinated," replied Chaudey.
+
+"You are to be shot, and that directly," was the other's rejoinder.
+
+But, on reaching the prison, the National Guards who had been summoned
+refused to do the odious work, and the Procureur went himself to find
+others more docile. Chaudey was led before them, Raoul Rigault drew his
+sword to give the signal, the muskets were levelled and fired, and
+Chaudey fell, but wounded only. A sergeant gave him the death blow by
+discharging his pistol at his head. The next day, a hundred and fifty
+hostages of the Commune, confined at the Prefecture of Police, amongst
+whom were Prince Galitzin and Andreoli, a journalist, were about to be
+shot by an order of Ferr�, when the incendiary fires broke out and
+prevented the execution of the order. At eleven o'clock, Raoul Rigault
+commanded the prisoners to be released, and enjoined them to fight for
+the Commune; upon their refusal, a shower of balls was discharged at
+them. The prisoners rushed for refuge into the Rue du Harlay, which was
+in flames, and were afterwards rescued by a detachment of the line.
+
+That same day was fatal to Raoul Rigault. He was perceived by a party of
+infantry at the moment when he was ringing at the door of a house in the
+Rue Gay Lussac. His colonel's uniform instantly made him a mark for the
+soldiers; he had time to enter the house, however, but was soon
+discovered, gave his name, and allowed himself to be taken off towards
+the Luxembourg, but before reaching it, he began to shout, "Vive la
+Commune!" "Down with the assassins!" and made an effort to escape. The
+soldiers thrust him against a wall and shot him down.
+
+The next day, the 24th, marked the fate of the hostages, who, in
+expectation of an attack of the Versaillais, had been transferred from
+Mazas to La Roquette. "Monseigneur Darboy," writes an eye-witness
+(Monsieur Dubutte, miraculously saved by an error of name), "occupied
+cell No. 21 of the 4th division, and I was at a short distance from him,
+in No. 26. The cell in which the venerable prelate was confined had been
+the office of one of the gaolers; it was somewhat larger than the rest,
+and Monseigneur's companions in captivity had succeeded in obtaining for
+him a chair and a table. On Wednesday, the 24th, at half-past seven in
+the evening, the director of the prison--a certain Lefran�ais, who had
+been a prisoner in the hulks for the space of six years--went up, at the
+head of fifty Federals, into the gallery, near which the most important
+prisoners were incarcerated. Here they ranged themselves along the
+walls, and a few moments later one of the head-gaolers opened the door
+of the archbishop's cell, and called him out. The prelate answered, "I
+am here!" Then the gaoler passed on to M. le President Bonjean's cell
+(Appendix 12), then to that of Abb� Allard, member of the International
+Society in Aid of the Wounded; of P�re du Coudray, Superior of the
+School of Ste-Genevi�ve; and P�re Cl�re, of the Brotherhood of Jesus;
+the last called being the Abb� Deguerry, cur� of the Madeleine. As the
+names were called, each prisoner was led out into the gallery and down
+the staircase to the courtyard; each side, as far as I could judge, was
+lined with Federal guards, who insulted the prisoners in language that I
+cannot repeat. Amid the hues and cries of these wretches my unfortunate
+companions were conducted across the courtyard to the infirmary, before
+which a file of soldiers were drawn up for the execution. Monseigneur
+Darboy advanced and addressed his murderers--addressed them words of
+pardon: then two of the men approached the prelate, and falling on their
+knees implored his pardon. The rest of the Federals threw themselves
+upon them, and thrust them aside with oaths, then, turning to the
+prisoners, they heaped fresh insults upon them. The chief officer of the
+detachment, however, imposed silence on the men, and uttering an oath,
+said, 'You are here to shoot these men, not to insult them.' The
+Federals were silenced, and upon the command of their lieutenant, they
+loaded their muskets.
+
+"P�re Allard was placed against the wall, and was the first who was
+struck; then Monseigneur Darboy fell, and the six prisoners were thus
+shot in turn, showing, at this supreme moment, a saintly dignity and a
+noble courage."]
+
+
+
+
+C.
+
+
+Where are these men going with hurried steps, and with lanterns in their
+hands? Their uniform is that of the National Guard, and consequently of
+Federals, but the tricolour band which they wear on the arm would seem
+to indicate that they belong to the Party of Order. They are making
+their way by one of the entries of the sewers, and preceded by an
+officer are disappearing beneath the sombre vaults. Calling to mind the
+sinister expression of a Communal artillery commander--"The reactionary
+quarters will all be blown up; not one shall be spared," it is
+impossible to avoid feeling a shudder of terror. What if the
+incendiaries all wearing the badge of the Party of Order, be about to
+set fire to mines prepared beforehand, or to barrels of petroleum ready
+to be staved in! The wild demons of the Commune are capable of
+everything; an invention of incendiary firemen is quoted as an example
+of the diabolical genius which presided over the work of destruction;
+individuals wearing the fireman's uniform were seen to throw combustible
+liquids by means of pumps and pails on the burning houses, instead of
+aiding to extinguish the flames.
+
+[Illustration: PARIS UNDERGROUND.]
+
+[Illustration: THE ENEMIES OF PROGRESS.]
+
+[Illustration: CORPS DE GARDE DE L'ARM�E DE VERSAILLES.]
+
+Fortunately, the fear is unfounded, the object of these men, on the
+contrary, is to cut the wires which connect all parts with inflammable
+materials, torpedoes, and other atrocious machines. They have already
+passed several nights in destroying this underground telegraphic system.
+The duty is not without danger; for not only are they exposed to the
+terrible consequences of a sudden explosion, but also to the risk of
+being taken and shot without trial, as traitors to the Commune. That is,
+should they chance to fall in with hostile bands, or appear in
+unfriendly quarters. It appears that these determined and devoted
+citizens have already lost two of their companions in the execution of
+this perilous duty. The intention of the Commune was to charge the whole
+of the main sewers and subways with combustibles; but luckily they had
+not time to mature their schemes, the advance of the Versailles troops
+being too quick for them. The Catacombs were included in the
+arrangement; for did not the able Assy direct his agent Foss� to keep
+them open, as a means of escape? Alas! these subterranean passages that
+underlie so large a portion of ancient Paris, what stories could they
+not tell of starved fugitives and maimed culprits dragging their weary
+limbs into the darkness of these gloomy caverns, only that they might
+die there in peace! Men and women, whose forms will in a few short weeks
+be unrecognisable, whose whitened bones will be crushed and kicked aside
+by the future explorer, who may perchance penetrate the labyrinths, and
+whose dust will finally be mixed up and undistinguishable from that of
+the bones and skulls taken from ancient cemeteries and graveyards with
+which this terrible Golgotha is decorated in Mosaic.
+
+
+
+
+CI.
+
+
+The fire is out, let us contemplate the ruins.[112] The Commune is
+vanquished. Look at Paris, sad, motionless, laid waste. This is what we
+have come to! Consternation is in every breast, solitude is in every
+street. We feel no longer either anger or pity; we are resigned, broken
+by emotion; we see processions of prisoners pass on their way to
+Versailles, and we scarcely look at them; no one thinks of saying
+either, "Wretches!" or "Poor fellows!" The soldiers themselves are very
+silent. Although they, are the victors they are sad; they do not drink,
+they do not sing. Paris might be a town that had been assaulted and
+taken by dumb enemies; the irritation has worn itself off, and the tears
+have not yet come. The tricolour flags which float from all the windows
+surprise us; there does not seem any reason for rejoicing. Yet, of late
+especially, the triumph of the Versaillais has been ardently wished for
+by the greater portion of the population; but all are so tired that they
+have not the energy to rejoice. Let us look back for a moment. First the
+siege, with famine, separation and poverty; then the insurrection of
+Montmartre, surprises, hesitations, cannonading night and day, ceaseless
+musketry, mothers in tears, sons pursued, every calamity has fallen on
+this miserable city. It has been like Rome under Tiberius, then like
+Rome after the barbarians had overrun it. The cannon balls have fallen
+upon Sybaris. So much emotion, so many horrors have worn out the city;
+and then all this blood, this dreadful blood. Corpses in the streets,
+corpses within the houses, corpses everywhere! Of course they were
+terribly guilty, these men that were taken, that were killed; they were
+horrible criminals, those women who poured brandy into the glasses and
+petroleum on the houses! But, in the first moment of victory, were there
+no mistakes? Were those that were shot all guilty? Then the sight of
+these executions, however merited, was cruelly painful. The innocent
+shuddered at the doom of justice. True, Paris is quiet now, but it is
+the quiet of the battle-field on the morrow of a victory; quiet as
+night, and as the tomb! An unsupportable uneasiness oppresses us; shall
+we ever be able to shake off this apathy, to pierce through this gloom?
+Paris, rent and bleeding, turns with sadness from the past, and dares
+not yet raise her eyes to the future!
+
+[Illustration: THE NEW MASTERS
+
+PROCLAMATION OVER PROCLAMATION
+
+PUBLIC PROMENADES.
+
+CAMPS IN THE GARDENS OF THE LUXEMBOURG AND THE TUILERIES--THE SOLDIERS
+LOCKED IN, AND THE PUBLIC LOCKED OUT.
+
+The damage done to the pier was by a Prussian shell in Jan. 1871.]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: PALACE OF THE LUXEMBOURG (STREET FRONT). NOW THE SEAT OF
+THE PREFECTURE OF PARIS.]
+
+POOR PARIS!
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    On August 15th, the _Times_ reporter gave the number awaiting trial
+    at Versailles at 30,000. On the 7th September they had reached
+    39,000, daily arrests adding to the number; out of these, 35,000
+    only had their charges made out, of which 13,900 had been examined,
+    2,800 writs of release having been issued, though only a few
+    hundreds have been set at liberty. There are only 94 reporting
+    officers: 20 attached to the Council of War, 6 to the Orangerie, 4
+    to Satory, 3 to the Prison des Femmes, and 16 to the Western Ports:
+    17 more are to be added shortly.
+
+[Illustration: MARSHAL MACMAHON, Duc de Magenta.
+
+Commander-in-chief of the Army of Versailles.]
+
+[Illustration: LIGHT & AIR ONCE MORE]
+
+[Illustration: THE FOSSE COMMUNE--THE END]
+
+[Illustration: PARIS VERSAILLES]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 112: See Appendix 15, 16, 17, and 18.]
+
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+
+CHRONOLOGY OF THE PARISIAN INSURRECTION,
+
+FROM THE 18th OF MARCH TO THE 29th MAY, 1871.
+
+
+The dash (--) in each day after the commencement of military operations
+divides the civil from the military.
+
+_Saturday, 18th March_: Early in the morning troops take possession of
+the Buttes Montmartre and Belleville. The soldiers charged with the
+recovery of the pieces of artillery fraternise with the people and the
+National Guard. Arrest of Generals Lecomte and Clement Thomas: they are
+shot at Montmartre without trial. National Guards take possession of the
+H�tel de Ville, the Prefecture of Police is invaded by Raoul Rigault,
+Duval, and others.
+
+_Sunday, 19th March_: The Central Committee of the National Guard take
+possession of the offices of the _Journal Officiel_. Arrest of General
+Chanzy. Gustave Flourens, imprisoned at Mazas, is set at liberty by the
+new masters of Paris. M. Thiers addresses a circular to the country
+enjoining obedience to the only authority, that of the Assembly.
+
+_Tuesday, 21st March_: Manifestation of the "Friends of Order."
+Procession for public demonstration. Sitting of the Assembly at
+Versailles. M. Jules Favre advises prompt measures. Appeal to the people
+and army.
+
+_Wednesday, 22nd March_: Friends of Order shot in the Rue de la Paix.
+Lullier arrested by order of the Central Committee.
+
+_Thursday, 23rd March_: Vice-Admiral Saisset is appointed by the
+Assembly Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard.
+
+_Friday, 24th March_: The delegates Brunel, Eudes, Duval, are promoted
+to the rank of generals by the Central Committee. Vice-Admiral Saisset's
+proclamation.
+
+_Saturday, 29th March_: Occupation of the Mairie of the 1st
+Arrondissement by the Federals. First placard of the Committee of
+Conciliation. Rumour of the arrest of Lullier reproached for moderation.
+Vice-Admiral Saisset retires to Versailles. _Sunday, 26th March_:
+Municipal elections to constitute the Commune of Paris.
+
+_Tuesday, 28th March_: 4 p.m., names of the elect proclaimed at the
+H�tel de Ville. Arrival of General Chanzy at Versailles.
+
+_Wednesday, 29th March_: Conscription abolished--all citizens to be
+National Guards. Pawnbroking decree. Organisation of commissions:
+executive, financial, military, etc. Ministers to be called delegates.
+
+_Saturday, 1st April_: The Executive Committee issues a decree to
+suppress the rank and functions of General-in-Chief. General Eudes
+appointed Delegate of War; Bergeret to the staff of the National Guard,
+in place of Brunel; Duval to the military command of the ex-Prefecture
+of Police, where Raoul Rigault was civil delegate.
+
+_Sunday, 2nd April_: Military operations commence 9 a.m. Action at
+Courbevoie. Flourens marches his troops to Versailles, _vi�_ Rueil.
+
+_Monday, 3rd April_: The corps d'arm�e of General Bergeret at the Rond
+Point near Neuilly, is stopped by the artillery of Mont Val�rien.
+Exchange of shot between Fort Issy and Fort Vanves, occupied by
+insurgents, and Meudon.--The separation of Church and State decreed.
+
+_Tuesday, 4th April_: General Duval made prisoner in the engagement at
+Ch�tillon and shot. Death of Flourens at Rueil.--Delescluze, Cournet,
+and Vermorel succeed Generals Bergeret, Eudes, and Duval on the
+Executive Commission. Cluseret Delegate of War, and Bergeret commandant
+of Paris forces.
+
+_Wednesday, 6th April_: General Cluseret commences active operations.
+Military service compulsory for all citizens under forty. Abb� Deguerry,
+and Archbishop of Paris arrested.
+
+_Thursday, 6th April_: Extension of action to Neuilly and Courbevoie.
+Versailles army decreed by executive authority. Obsequies of Flourens at
+Versailles.--Decree concerning the complicity with Versailles, and
+arrest of hostages. The rank of general suppressed by the Commune.
+Dombrowski succeeds Bergeret as Commandant of Paris.
+
+_Friday, 7th April_: Decree for disarming the R�fractaires. The
+guillotine is burnt on the Place Voltaire.
+
+_Saturday, 8th April_: Federals abandon Neuilly.--Commission of
+barricades created and presided over by Gaillard Senior. Military
+occupation of the railway termini by the insurgents.
+
+_Sunday, 9th April_: Insurgents attempt to retake Ch�tillon, but are
+repulsed. Forts Vanves and Montrouge disabled. Mont Val�rien shells the
+Avenue des Ternes.--Assy and Bergeret arrested by order of the Commune.
+
+_Tuesday, 11th April_: Marshal MacMahon, Commander-in-Chief, distributes
+his forces. Commences the investment of fort Issy.
+
+_Wednesday, 12th April_: Versailles batteries established on Ch�tillon.
+The Orleans railway and telegraph out. Communications of the insurgents
+with the south intercepted.--Decree ordering the fall of the Column
+Vend�me. Decree concerning the complementary elections.
+
+_Thursday, 13th April:_ Courbet presides at a meeting of artists at the
+�cole de M�decine. Publication of the reports of the sittings of the
+Commune.
+
+_Friday, 14th April_: The redoubt of Gennevilliers taken. The troops of
+Versailles make advances to the Ch�teau de B�con, a post of
+importance.--Lullier takes the command of the flotilla on the Seine.
+
+_Sunday, 16th April_: Complementary elections. Organisation of a
+court-martial under the presidence of Rossel, chief officer of the
+staff.
+
+_Monday, 11th April_: Capture and fortification of the Ch�teau de B�con.
+
+_Tuesday, 18th April_: Station and houses at Asni�res taken by the army
+of Versailles.
+
+_Thursday, 20th April_: The village of Bagneux is occupied by the
+Versaillais.--Reorganisation of commissions. Eudes appointed
+inspector-general of the southern forts. Transfers his quarters from
+Montrouge to the Palace of the Legion of Honour.
+
+_Saturday, 22nd April_: Deputation from the Freemasons to Versailles.
+
+_Monday, 24th April_: Raoul Rigault takes the office of public
+prosecutor, resigning the Prefecture of Police to Cournet.
+
+_Tuesday, 25th April_: The Versailles batteries at Breteuil, Brimborion,
+Meudon, and Moulin de Pierre trouble the Federal Fort Issy, and battery
+between Bagneux and Ch�tillon shells Fort Vanves. Truce at Neuilly from
+9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The inhabitants of Neuilly enter Paris by the Porte des
+Ternes.
+
+_Wednesday, 26th April_: Capture of Les Moulineaux, outpost of the
+insurgents, by the troops, who strongly fortify themselves on the 27th
+and 28th.
+
+_Saturday, 29th April_: Cemetery and park of Issy taken by the
+Versaillais in the night.--Freemasons make a new attempt at
+conciliation. The Commune levies a sum of two millions of francs from
+the railway companies.
+
+_Sunday, 30th April_: A flag of truce sent to Fort Issy by the
+Versaillais, calling upon the Federals to surrender. General Eudes puts
+fresh troops in the fort, and takes the command himself.--Cluseret
+imprisoned at Mazas by order of the Commune. Rossel appointed
+provisional Delegate of War.
+
+_Monday, 1st May_: The Versaillais take the station of Clamart and the
+Ch�teau of Issy.--Creation of the Committee of Public Safety. Members:
+Antoine Arnauld, L�o Meillet, Ranvier, F�lix Pyat, Charles G�rardin.
+
+_Wednesday, 3rd May_: The troops of General Lacretelle carry the redoubt
+of Moulin Saquet.
+
+_Friday, 5th May_: Colonel Rossel appointed to the direction of military
+affairs. He defines the military quarters: General Dombrowski, Place
+Vend�me; General La C�cilia, at the Ecole Militaire; General Wroblewski,
+at the Elys�e; General Bergeret, at the Corps L�gislatif; General Eudes
+at the Palace of the Legion of Honour. The Central Committee of the
+National Guard charged with Administration of War under the supervision
+of the military commission. The Chapelle Expiatoire condemned to
+destruction--the materials to be sold by auction.
+
+_Saturday, 6th May_: Concert at the Tuileries in aid of the ambulances.
+Suppression of newspapers.
+
+_Monday, 8th May_: Battery of Montretout (70 marine guns) opens fire.
+
+_Tuesday, 9th May_: Morning, insurgents evacuate the Fort Issy.--The
+Committee of Public Safety renewed. Members: Ranvier, Antoine Arnauld,
+Gambon, Eudes, Delescluze. Rossel resigns; his letter to the Commune.
+
+_Wednesday, 10th May_: Cannon from the Fort Issy taken to
+Versailles.--Decree for the demolition of M. Thiers' house. Delescluze
+appointed Delegate of War.
+
+_Friday, 12th May_: Troops take possession of the Couvent des Oiseaux at
+Issy, and the Lyceum at Vanves.
+
+_Saturday, 13th May_: Triumphal entry of the troops into Versailles with
+flags and cannon taken from the Convent. The evacuation of the village
+of Issy completed. Fort Vanves taken by the troops.
+
+_Sunday, 14th May_: Vigorous cannonade from the batteries of Courbevoie,
+B�con, Asni�res on Levallois and Clichy: both villages evacuated.
+Commencement of the demolition of house of M. Thiers.
+
+_Monday, 15th May_: Report of the rearmament of Montmartre.
+
+_Tuesday, 16th May_: The Column Vend�me falls.
+
+_Wednesday, 11th May_: Powder magazine and cartridge factory near the
+Champ de Mars blown up.
+
+_Sunday, 21st May_: 2 p.m. the troops enter Paris.--Rochefort arrives at
+Versailles. Raoul Rigault and R�g�re charged with the hostage decree.
+
+_Monday, 22nd May_: Noon, explosion of the powder magazine of the Man�ge
+d'Etat-Major (staff riding-school). The hostages transferred from Mazas
+to La Roquette. Assy arrested in Paris by the Versaillais. The Assembly
+votes the re-erection of the Column Vend�me.
+
+_Tuesday, 23rd May_: Montmartre taken. Death of Dombrowski. Morning,
+Assy arrives at Versailles. Execution of gendarmes and Gustave Chaudey
+at the prison of Sainte-P�lagie. Night, the Tuileries are set on fire.
+Delescluze and the Committee of Public Safety hold permanent sittings at
+the H�tel de Ville.
+
+_Wednesday, 24th May_: One p.m., the powder magazine at the Palais du
+Luxembourg blown up. The Committee of Public Safety organise detachments
+of fusee-bearers. Raoul Rigault shot in the afternoon by the soldiers.
+In the evening, execution in the Prison of La Roquette of the
+Archbishop, Abb� Deguerry, etc.
+
+_Thursday, 26th May_: The forts Montrouge, Hautes-Bruy�res, Bic�tre
+evacuated by the insurgents. The death of Delescluze is reported to have
+taken place this day. Executions in the Avenue d'Italie of the P�res
+Dominicains of Arcueil.
+
+_Friday, 26th May_: Sixteen priests shot in the Cemetery of P�re
+Lachaise by the insurgents.
+
+_Saturday, 27th May_: The Buttes Chaumont, the heights of Belleville,
+and the Cemetery of P�re Lachaise carried by the troops. Taking of the
+prison La Roquette by the Marines. Deliverance of 169 hostages.
+
+_Sunday, 28th May_: The investment of Belleville complete.
+
+_Monday, 29th May_: Six. p.m., the federal garrison of the fortress of
+Vincennes surrendered at discretion.
+
+
+
+
+I. (Page 2.)
+
+HENRI ROCHEFORT.
+
+
+Henri Rochefort, personal enemy of the Empire, republican humourist of
+the _Marseillaise_, and the lukewarm socialist of the _Mot d'Ordre_, who
+could answer to the judge who demanded his name, "I am Henri Rochefort,
+Comte de Lucey," has been reproached by some with his titles of
+nobility, and with the childish pleasure that he takes in affecting the
+plebeian. It is said of him that he aspires but to descend, but who
+would condemn him for spurning the petrifactions of the Faubourg
+Saint-Germain? A man must march with the times.
+
+Rochefort has distinguished himself among the young men by the
+marvellous tact that he has shown in discovering the way to popular
+favour. If I were allowed to compare a marquis to one of the canine
+species, I should say that he has a keen scent for popularity; but one
+must respect rank in a period like ours, when we may go to sleep to the
+shouts of the _canaille_, and awake to the melodious sounds of "_Vive
+Henri V!_" "Long live the King!"
+
+Born in January, 1830, Henri Rochefort was the son of a marquis,
+although his father, lately dead, was a _vaudevilliste_ and his mother a
+_p�tiss�re_. From such a fusion might have emanated odd tastes, such as
+preferring truffles to potatoes, but putting the knife into requisition
+whilst eating green peas. But in his case Mother Nature had intermingled
+elements so cleverly that Rochefort could be republican and royalist,
+catholic and atheist, without being accused for all that of being a
+political weathercock.
+
+As a writer of drollery and scandal in the _Charivari_, would it have
+been well if he had used his title as a badge? Later, when contributing
+to the _Nain Jaune_, the _Soleil_, the _Ev�nement_, and the _Figaro_,
+when everyone would have been enchanted to call him _mon cher Comte_, he
+never displayed his rank, except when on the ground, face to face with
+the sword or pistol of Prince Achille Murat or Paul de Cassagnac.
+
+A frequenter of _caf�s_, living fast, bitter with journalists,
+hail-fellow with comedians, he lavished his wit for the benefit of minor
+theatres, and expended the exuberance of his patrician blood in comic
+odes. Dispensing thus some of his strength in such pieces as the
+_Vieillesse de Brididi_, the _Foire aux Grotesques_, and _Un Monsieur
+Bien-Mis_, in 1868 he founded the _Lanterne_, and thenceforth became
+the most ardent champion of the revolutionary party; and in the
+brilliant articles we all know, he cast its light on the follies of
+others under the pretext that they were his own. This satirical
+production reached the eleventh number, when its author, overstepping
+all bounds, took Napoleon by the horns and the gendarmes by the nose,
+and committed other extravagances, until the Government fined him to the
+amount of ten thousand francs penalties, and ordered him a short repose
+in the prison of Sainte-P�lagie. The notoriety attaching to his name
+dates from that period, and the events which accompanied the violent
+death of Victor Noir tended to augment his popularity and to convert him
+into the leader of a party, or the bearer of a flag, around which
+rallied all the elements of the struggle against established authority.
+He escaped to Belgium, and studied socialism, which he expounded later
+to an admiring audience of seventeen to eighteen thousand electors at
+Belleville. Elected deputy by the 20th Arrondissement, M. de Rochefort
+became, in 1869, a favourite representative of that class of the
+Parisian population whose bad instincts he had flattered and whose
+tendencies to revolt against authority he had encouraged, and in virtue
+of these claims he was chosen to form part of the Government of the
+National Defence. As President of the Commission of Barricades, after
+the 4th of September, during the siege of Paris, in the midst of the
+difficulties of all sorts caused to the Government of the National
+Defence by the investment of the capital, M. De Rochefort, making more
+and more common cause with the revolutionary party, separated himself
+from his colleagues in the Government who refused to permit the
+establishment of a second Government, the Commune, within a besieged
+city. By this act he openly declared himself a partisan of the Commune,
+and immediately after the acceptance of the preliminaries of peace he
+resigned his position as a deputy, alleging that his commission was at
+an end, and retired to Arcachon.
+
+His wildly sanguinary articles in the _Marseillaise_, and the compacts
+sealed with blood, with Flourens and his associates, now had so
+exhausted our poor Rochefort that at the moment of flourishing his
+handkerchief as the standard of the _canaille_, he dropped pale and
+fainting to the ground, attacked by a severe illness. He was hardly
+convalescent when the events of the 18th of March occurred. But early in
+April, he exerted himself to assume the direction of the _Mot d'Ordre_,
+which, after having been suppressed by order of General Vinoy, the
+military commandant of Paris, had reappeared immediately upon the
+establishment of the Commune. He arrived on the scene of contest about
+the 8th or 10th of April. The daily report of military operations states
+the movements of the enemy, and points out what should be done to meet
+and resist him most advantageously (12th, 13th, and 14th of April; 10th;
+16th, and 20th of May). Imaginary successes, the inaccuracy of which
+must in most instances have been known to the chief editor of the _Mot
+d'Ordre_, encouraged the hopes of the insurgents, while the
+announcement of unsuccessful combats was delayed with evident intention;
+the most ridiculous stories, the falsity of which was evident to the
+plainest common sense, and which could not escape the intelligence of M.
+Rochefort, were published in his journal, and kept up the popular
+excitement (12th, 15th, 19th, 26th, 27th, and 28th of April; 6th and 7th
+of May). It was in this manner that the pretended Pontifical Zouaves
+were brought upon the scene, with emblazoned banners, which were seized
+by the soldiers of the Commune (18th and 19th of April, 8th and 10th of
+May); that the Government of Versailles was furnished with war material
+given by, or purchased from the Prussians (27th and 28th of April, 6th
+and 17th of May); that it was again accused of making use of explosive
+bullets (18th and 19th of May), and of petroleum bombs (20th of April,
+and 2nd, 5th, 17th, and 19th of May); and that the best-known and most
+respected generals had been guilty of the grossest acts of cruelty and
+barbarity. Incitement to civil war (2nd and 26th of April and 14th and
+24th of May) followed, as did also the oft-repeated accusation against
+the Government of wishing to reduce Paris by famine; indescribable
+calumnies directed against the Chief of the Executive Power (2nd, 16th,
+20th, and 30th of April, and 8th of May), against the minister, the
+Chambers (16th of April and 14th of May), and the generals (12th, 16th,
+and 26th of April). The director of the _Mot d'Ordre_ then finding that
+men's minds were prepared for all kinds of excesses, started the idea of
+the demolition of M. Thiers's house by way of reprisal (6th of April);
+he mentioned the artistic wealth which it contained. He also referred to
+the dwellings of other ministers. He returned persistently to this idea,
+and on the 17th of May he invited the people, in the name of justice, to
+burn off-hand that other humiliating monument which is styled the
+History of the Consulate and of the Empire--in short, he insists on the
+execution of these acts of Vandalism. He did not call for the
+destruction of the Column Vend�me, but approved of the decree. He
+demands the destruction of the Expiatory Chapel of Louis XVI. (20th of
+April), and suggests the seizure of the crown jewels, which were in the
+possession of the bank (14th of April). In short, M. Rochefort, having
+entered upon a road which must naturally lead to extremes, finally
+arrives at a proposition for assassination. In the same way as he
+pointed out to the demolishers the house of M. Thiers, and to the
+bandits released by the Commune the treasures of the Church, so he
+points out to the assassins the unfortunate hostages.
+
+A few days before the end of the reign of the Commune he judged it
+prudent, "seeing the gravity of events," to suspend the publication of
+his journal and to quit Paris.
+
+He was arrested at Meaux. It was the "_Meaux de la fin_,"[113] said a
+friend and fellow-writer.
+
+He arrived at Versailles on the twenty-first of May, at two o'clock,
+the same day on which the troops entered Paris. On Sept. 20 Rochefort
+was tried with the Communists before the military tribunal of
+Versailles. Physically he seemed to have suffered much during his three
+months of incarceration. He is reported to have made anything but a
+brilliant defence, and to have restricted himself to pleading past
+actions and good services. He said that he suppressed _The Marseillaise_
+at a loss of 20,000 francs per month, when he had no other private means
+of support, because he thought the effect of its articles would weaken
+the plan of Trochu for the defence of Paris, and that when he (M.
+Rochefort) held the _forces populaires_, and had an _occasion unique_,
+he chose to play a subordinate part. He stated himself a journalist
+_under_ the reign of the Commune, and not an active power _in_ the
+Commune from which in the end he had to fly. Rochefort owned that his
+articles in the _Mot d'Ordre_ had been more or less violent, but he
+pleaded the cause his "_fa�on plus ou moins nerveuse � �crire_" and that
+from illness he did not sometimes see his own journal. When pandering to
+a vulgar audience, Rochefort seemed to have lost his rich vein of
+satire, and to have lost himself in vile abuse. On the 21st he was
+sentenced to transportation for life within the enceinte of a French
+fortress.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 113: "_Le mot de la fin_," the final word--the finale.]
+
+
+
+
+II. (Page 27.)
+
+THE EIGHTEENTH OF MARCH.
+
+
+It was on the day of the 18th of March, exactly six months after the
+appearance of Prussians beneath the walls of Paris, that the Government
+had chosen for the repression of the rebellion. At four o'clock in the
+morning, the troops of the army of Paris received orders to occupy the
+positions that had been assigned to them. All were to take part in the
+action, but it is just to add here that the most arduous and fatiguing
+part fell to the share of the Lustielle division, composed of the
+Paturel brigade (17th battalion of Chasseurs), and of the Lecomte
+brigade (18th battalion of Chasseurs). Three regiments of infantry were
+entrusted with the guard of the H�tel de Ville; another, the 89th,
+mounted guard at the Tuileries. The Place de la Bastille was occupied by
+a battalion of the 64th, and two companies of the 24th. Three other
+battalions remained confined to barracks on the Boulevard du Prince
+Eugene. The Rue de Flandre, the Rue de Puebla, and the Rue de Crim�e
+were filled with strong detachments of Infantry; a battalion of the
+Republican Guard and the 35th Regiment of Infantry were drawn up in the
+neighbourhood of the Buttes Chaumont. The whole quarter around the Place
+Clichy was occupied by the Republican Guard, foot Chasseurs, mounted
+gendarmes, Chasseurs d'Afrique, and a half battery of artillery. Other
+troops, starting from this base-line of operation, were led up the
+heights of Montmartre, together with companies of Gardiens de la Paix
+(the former Sergents-de-Ville converted into soldiers). At six o'clock
+in the morning the first orders were executed; the Gardiens de la Paix
+surrounded a hundred and fifty or two hundred insurgents appointed to
+guard the park of artillery, and the troops made themselves masters of
+all the most important points. The success was complete. Nothing
+remained to be done but to carry off the guns. Unhappily, the horses
+which had been ordered for this purpose did not arrive at the right
+moment. The cause of this fatal delay remains still unknown, but it is
+certain that they were still on the Place de la Concorde at the time
+when they ought to have been harnessed to the guns at Montmartre. Before
+they arrived, agitation had broken out and spread all over the quarter.
+The turbulent population, complaining in indignant tones of circulation
+being stopped, insulted the sentinels placed at the entrances of the
+streets, and threatened the artillerymen who were watching them. At the
+same time, the Central Committee caused the rappel to be beaten, and
+towards seven o'clock in the morning ten or twelve thousand National
+Guards from the arrondissements of Batignolles, Montmartre, La Villette,
+and Belleville poured into the streets. Crowds of lookers-on surrounded
+the soldiers who were mounting guard by the recaptured pieces, the women
+and children asking them pleadingly if they would have the heart to fire
+upon their brothers.
+
+Meanwhile, about a dozen tumbrils, with their horses, had arrived on the
+heights of the Buttes, the guns were dragged off, and were quietly
+proceeding down hill, when, at the corner of the Rue Lepic and the Rue
+des Abbesses, they were stopped by a concourse of several hundred people
+of the quarter, principally women and children. The foot soldiers, who
+were escorting the guns, forgetting their duty, allowed themselves to be
+dispersed by the crowd, and giving way to perfidious persuasion, ended
+by throwing up the butt ends of their guns. These soldiers belonged to
+the 88th Battalion of the Lecomte brigade. The immediate effect of their
+disaffection was to abandon the artillerymen to the power of the crowd
+that was increasing every moment, rendering it utterly impossible for
+them either to retreat or to advance. And the result was, that at nine
+o'clock in the morning the pieces fell once more into the hands of the
+National Guards.
+
+Judging that the enterprise had no chance of succeeding by a return to
+the offensive, G�n�ral Vinoy ordered a retreat, and retired to the
+quarter of Les Ternes. This movement had been, moreover, determined by
+the bad news arriving from other parts of Paris. The operations at
+Belleville had succeeded no better than those at Montmartre. A
+detachment of the 35th had, it is true, attacked and taken the Buttes
+Chaumont, defended only by about twenty National Guards; but as soon as
+the news of the capture had spread in the quarter, the drums beat to
+arms, and in a short time the troops were found fraternising with the
+National Guards of Belleville, who got possession again of the Buttes
+Chaumont, and not only retook their own guns, but also those which the
+artillery had brought up to support the manoeuvre of the infantry of the
+line. At the same time, the 120th shamefully allowed themselves to be
+disarmed by the people, and the insurgents became masters of the
+barracks of the Prince Eug�ne.
+
+At about four o'clock in the afternoon, two columns of National Guards,
+each composed of three battalions, made their way towards the H�tel de
+Ville, where they were joined by a dozen other battalions from the left
+bank of the river; at the same hour, the insurgent guards of Belleville
+took and occupied the Imprimerie Nationale, the Napoleon Barracks, the
+staff-quarters of the Place Vend�me, and the railway stations; the
+arrest of G�n�ral Chanzy completed the work of the day, which had been
+put to profitable account by the insurgents.--"_Guerre de Comunneux de
+Paris._"
+
+
+
+
+III. (Page 77.)
+
+THE PRUSSIANS AND THE COMMUNE.
+
+
+The enemies of yesterday, the Prussians, did not disdain to enter into
+communication with the Central Committee on the 22nd of March. This was
+an additional reason for the new masters of Paris to regard their
+position as established, and the _Official Journal_ took care to make
+known to the public the following despatch received from Prussian
+head-quarters:--
+
+"To the actual Commandant of Paris, the Commander-in-Chief of the third
+corps d'arm�e.
+
+"Head-quarters, Compi�gne,
+
+"21st March, 1871.
+
+"The undersigned Commander-in-Chief takes the liberty of informing you
+that the German troops that occupy the forts on the north and east of
+Paris, as well as the neighbourhood of the right bank of the Seine, have
+received orders to maintain a pacific and friendly attitude, so long as
+the events of which the interior of Paris is the theatre, do not assume
+towards the German forces a hostile character, or such as to endanger
+them, but keep within the terms settled by the treaty of peace.
+
+"But should these events assume a hostile character, the city of Paris
+will be treated as an enemy.
+
+"For the Commandant of the third corps of the Imperial armies,
+
+"(Signed) Chief of the Staff, VON SCHLOSHEIM,
+
+"Major-General."
+
+Paschal Grousset, the delegate of the Central Committee for Foreign
+Affairs, who had succeeded Monsieur Jules Favre, but who instead of
+minister was called delegate, which was much more democratic, replied as
+follows:--
+
+"Paris, 22nd March, 1871.
+
+"To the Commandant-in-Chief of the Imperial Prussian Armies.
+
+"The undersigned, delegate of the Central Committee for Foreign Affairs,
+in reply to your despatch dated from Compi�gne the 21st instant, informs
+you that the revolution, accomplished in Paris by the Central Committee,
+having an essentially municipal character, has no aggressive views
+whatever against the German armies.
+
+"We have no authority to discuss the preliminaries of peace voted by the
+Assembly at Bordeaux.
+
+"The member of the Central Committee, Delegate for Foreign Affairs.
+
+"(Signed) PASCHAL GROUSSET."
+
+It was very logical of you, Monsieur Grousset, to avow that you had no
+authority to discuss the preliminaries of peace voted by the Assembly.
+What right had you then to substitute yourselves for it? He did not,
+however, thus remain midway in his diplomatic career, for after the
+election of the Commune he thought it his duty to address the following
+letter to the German authorities:--
+
+"COMMUNE OF PARIS.
+
+"To the Commander-in-chief of the 3rd Corps.
+
+"GENERAL,
+
+"The delegate of the Commune of Paris for Foreign Affairs has the honour
+to address to you the following observations:--
+
+"The city of Paris, like the rest of France, is interested in the
+observance of the conditions of peace concluded with Prussia; she has
+therefore a right to know how the treaty will be executed. I beg you, in
+consequence, to have the goodness to inform me if the Government of
+Versailles has made the first payment of five hundred millions, and if
+in consequence of such payment, the chiefs of the German army have fixed
+the date for the evacuation of the part of the territory of the
+department of the Seine, and also of the forts which form an integral
+portion of the territory of the Commune of Paris.
+
+"I shall be much obliged, General, if you will be good enough to
+enlighten me in this respect.
+
+"The Delegate for Foreign Affairs,
+
+"(Signed) PASCHAL GROUSSET."
+
+The German general did not think fit, as far as we know, to send any
+answer to the above.
+
+
+
+
+IV. (Page 88.)
+
+GAMBON.
+
+
+There are certain legendary names which when spoken or remembered evoke
+a second image and raise a double personality, Castor implies Pollux;
+Ninos, Euryalus; Damon, Pythias. An inferior species of union connects
+Saint Anthony with his pig, Roland with his mare, and the infinitely
+more modern Gambon with his historic cow. He was "the village Hampden"
+of the Empire. By withstanding the tyranny of Caesar's tax-gatherer and
+refusing to pay the imperial rates, he obtained a popularity upon which
+he existed until the Commune gave him power. His history is brief. About
+a year before the fall of the Second Empire, he declared that he would
+pay no more taxes imposed by the Government. Thereupon, all his
+realizable property, consisting of one cow, was seized by the
+authorities and sold for the benefit of the State. This procured him the
+commiseration of the entire party of _irr�conciliables_. A subscription
+was opened in the columns of the _Marseillaise_ to replace the
+sequestrated animal, and "La vache � Gambon"--"Gambon's cow"--became a
+derisive party cry. Gambon had been a deputy in 1848, and when the
+Commune came into power took a constant though not remarkable part in
+its deliberations. He was appointed member of the Delegation of Justice
+on the twentieth of April.
+
+
+
+
+V. (Page 120.).
+
+LULLIER.
+
+
+Charles Ernest Lullier was born in 1838, admitted into the Naval School
+in 1854, and appointed cadet of the second class in 1856. He was
+expelled the Naval School for want of obedience and for his irascible
+character. When on board the Austerlitz he was noted for his quarrelsome
+disposition and his violent behaviour to his superiors as well as his
+equals, which led to his removal from the ship and to his detention for
+a month on board the Admiral's ship at Brest. He was first brought into
+notoriety by his quarrel with Paul de Cassagnac, the editor of the
+_Pays_, whom he challenged, and who refused his cartel. Lullier is
+celebrated for several acts of the most violent audacity. He struck one
+of the Government counsel in the Palais de Justice, and openly
+threatened the Minister of Marine. He was condemned several times for
+political offences and breaches of discipline. On the fourth of
+September he left Sainte-P�lagie at the same time as Rochefort. He
+attacked the new government in every possible way; and when the events
+of the 18th March occurred, M. Lullier--the man of action, the man
+recommended by Flourens--seized the opportunity to justify the hopes
+formed of him by his political associates, who had not lost sight of
+him, and who elected him military chief of the insurrection. As General
+of the National Guard, he has given us the history of his deeds during
+the 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, and 22nd March. He has since complacently
+described the energy with which he executed his command, has explained
+the means he used, and the points occupied by the insurgents; and has
+described in the same style the occupation of the Paris forts by the
+National Guard.
+
+When, on the 18th of March, the Central Committee offered him the
+command in chief of the National Guard, he would only accept it on the
+following conditions:--
+
+1. The raising of the state of siege.
+
+2. The election by the National Guard of all its officers, including the
+general.
+
+3. Municipal franchises for Paris--that is to say, the right of the
+citizens to meet--to appoint magistrates for the city, and to tax
+themselves by their representatives.
+
+On being appointed he made it a condition that the initiative should
+rest with him, and then he began to execute his duties with a zeal which
+never relaxed till his arrest on the 22nd March. By his orders,
+barricades were erected in the Rue de Rivoli, where he massed the
+insurgent forces. He ordered the occupation of the H�tel de Ville and
+the Napoleon Barracks by Brunel, the commander of the insurgents. At
+midnight he took possession of the Prefecture of Police, at one o'clock
+of the Tuileries, at two o'clock of the Place du Palais Royal, and at
+four o'clock he was informed that the Ministry were to meet at the
+Foreign Office.--"I would have surrounded them," he said, "but Jules
+Favre's presence withheld me. I contented myself therefore with
+occupying the Place Vend�me, the H�tel de Ville, and ordering
+strategical points on the right bank of the river and four on the left."
+
+He was subsequently accused of having sold Mont Val�rien to the
+Versailles authorities, arrested, and thrown into the Conciergerie. He
+reappeared, however, on the 14th April as commander of the flotilla of
+the Commune. Furious with the Central Committee and the Commune he
+opposed them and was arrested, but contrived to escape from Mazas. From
+that moment the general of the Commune put himself in communication with
+Versailles through the mediation of M. Camus and Baron Dathiel de la
+Tuque, who agreed with him to organise a counter revolution. Lullier was
+now busily employed in endeavouring to make people forget the part he
+had taken in the insurrection of the 18th March. He had made it a
+condition that neither he nor his accomplices, Gomez d'Absin and Bisson,
+should be prosecuted. The expenses were calculated at 30,000 francs; of
+which M. Camus gave 2000 francs to Lullier, but the scheme did not
+succeed. Lullier undertook to have all the members of the Commune
+arrested, and to send the hostages to Versailles. Lullier is a man of
+courage, foolhardy even, who never hesitated to fight, and if at the end
+of the Commune he tried to serve the legitimate government, it was from
+a spirit of revenge against the men who had refused his dictation, and
+in his own interest.
+
+
+
+
+VI. (Page 220.)
+
+PROTOT.
+
+
+Citizen Protot, appointed Delegate of Justice by a decree of the
+twentieth of April, 1871, was born in 1839.
+
+As an advocate, he defended M�gy, the famous Communist general of the
+fort of Issy, when he was accused of the assassination of a police agent
+on the eleventh of April, 1870. This trial, and the ability he
+displayed, drew public attention for a moment upon him. Compromised as a
+member of secret societies, he managed to escape the police, but was
+condemned in his absence to fines and imprisonment. Having been himself
+a victim of the law, his attention was first given to the drawing up of
+a decree, thus worded:--
+
+"The notaries and public officers in general shall draw up legal
+documents which fall within their duty without charge."
+
+In the discussion on the subject of the confiscation of the property of
+M. Thiers, he proposed that all the plate and other objects in his
+possession bearing the image of the Orleans family should be sent to the
+mint.
+
+
+
+
+VII. (Page 229.)
+
+
+"And now he thinks: 'The Empire is tottering,
+        There's little chance of victory.'
+Then, creeping furtively backwards, he tries to slink away.
+        Remain, renegade, in the building!
+
+"'The ceiling falls,' you say! 'if they see me
+        They will seize and stop me as I go,'
+Daring neither to rest nor fly, you miserably watch the roof
+        And then the door,
+
+"And shiveringly you put your hand upon the bolt.
+        Back into the dismal ranks!
+Back! Justice, whom they have thrust into a pit,
+        Is there in the darkness.
+
+"Back! She is there, her sides bleeding from their knives,
+        Prostrate; and on her grave
+They have placed a slab. The skirt of your cloak
+        Is caught beneath the stone.
+
+"Thou shalt not go! What! Quit their house!
+  And fly from their fate!
+What! Would you betray even treachery itself,
+  And make even it indignant?
+
+"What! Did you not hold the ladder to these tricksters
+  In open daylight?
+Say, was the sack for these robbers' booty
+  Not made by you beforehand?
+
+"Falsehood, Hate, with its cold and venomous fang,
+  Crouch in this den.
+And thou wouldst leave it! Thou! more cunning than Falsehood,
+  More viperous than Hate."
+
+
+
+
+VIII. (Page 231.)
+
+JOURDE.
+
+
+Jourde certainly occupied one of the most difficult offices of the
+Commune, for he had to find the means to maintain the situation, but as
+the Ministry of Finances is burnt, no documents can be found to show the
+employment he made of the funds which passed through his hands. On the
+30th of May, when he was arrested, disguised as an artizan, with his
+friend Dubois, he had about him a sum of 8070 francs in bank notes, and
+Dubois 3100 francs; making a total sum of 11,170 francs between the two.
+A part of Jourde's cash was hidden in the lining of his waistcoat; he
+declared that it was the only sum taken by him out of the moneys
+belonging to the state, thus clearly proving that he had been guilty of
+embezzlement.
+
+The amounts declared to have been received by Jourde form a total of
+43,891,000 francs, but as the expenses amount to 47,000,000 francs, it
+is clear there is a deficiency of 3,309,000. Notwithstanding this fact,
+all the payments were made up to the 29th of May. It is, then, certain
+that other moneys were received by Jourde, and as he says that cash has
+been refused from some unknown persons who offered to lend 50,000,000
+francs on the guarantee of the picture gallery of the Louvre, the
+suggestion comes naturally to the mind that the 3,309,000 francs may
+have been produced by the sale of valuables in the Tuileries. Jourde was
+sentenced by the tribunal of Versailles to transportation beyond the
+seas.
+
+
+
+
+IX. (Page 316.)
+
+
+These are the last proclamations from the H�tel de Ville. They refer
+immediately to the burning of the capital.
+
+In the evening of the thirty-first of May, when Delescluze denied with
+vehemence that the regular army had made its entry, he wrote to
+Dombrowski:--
+
+    "CITIZEN--I learn that the orders given for the construction of
+    barricades are contradictory.
+
+    "See that this be not repeated.
+
+    "Blow up or burn the houses which interfere with your plans for the
+    defence. The barricades ought to be unattackable from the houses.
+
+    "The defenders of the Commune must be removed above want: give to
+    the necessitous that which is contained in the houses about to be
+    destroyed.
+
+    "Moreover, make all necessary requisitions,
+
+    "DELESCLUZE, A. BILLICRAY."
+
+
+    "Paris, 2nd Prairial, an 79."
+
+On the 22nd appeared the following proclamation:--
+
+    "CITIZENS,--The gate of Saint-Cloud, attacked from four directions
+    at once, was forcibly taken by the Versaillais, who have become
+    masters of a considerable portion of Paris.
+
+    "This reverse, far from discouraging us, should prove a stimulus to
+    our exertions. A people who have dethroned kings, destroyed
+    Bastilles, and established a Republic, can not lose in a day the
+    fruits of the emancipation of the 18th of March.
+
+    "Parisians, the struggle we have commenced cannot be abandoned, for
+    it is a struggle between the past and the future, between liberty
+    and despotism, equality and monopoly, fraternity and servitude, the
+    unity of nations and the egotism of oppressors.
+
+    "AUX ARMES!
+
+    "Yes,--to arms! Let Paris bristle with barricades, and from behind
+    these improvised ramparts let her shout to her enemies the cry of
+    war, its cry of fierce pride of defiance, and of victory; for Paris
+    with her barricades is invincible.
+
+    "Let the pavement of the streets be torn up; firstly, because the
+    projectiles coming from the enemy are less dangerous falling on soft
+    ground; secondly, because these paving-stones, serving as a new
+    means of defence, can be carried to the higher floors where there
+    are balconies.
+
+    "Let revolutionary Paris, the Paris of great deeds, do her duty; the
+    Commune and the Committee for Public Safety will do theirs.
+
+    "H�tel de Ville, 2nd Prairial, an 79,
+
+    "The Committee for Public Safety,
+
+    "ANTOINE ARNAULT, E. EUDES, F. GAMBON, G. RANVIER."
+
+These are the commentaries made by Citizen Delescluze:--
+
+    "Citoyen Jacquet is authorised to find men and materials for the
+    construction of barricades in the Rue du Ch�teau d'Eau and in the
+    Rue d'Albany.
+
+    "The citoyens and citoyennes who refuse their aid will be shot on
+    the spot.
+
+    "The citoyens, chiefs of barricades, are entrusted with the care of
+    assuring tranquillity each in his own quarter.
+
+    "They are to inspect all houses bearing a suspicious appearance &c.,
+    &c.
+
+    "The houses suspected are to be set light to at the first signal
+    given.
+
+    "DELESCLUZE."
+
+
+
+
+X. (Page 335.)
+
+FERR�.
+
+
+At half-past nine on the morning of the 18th of March Ferr� was at No.
+6, Rue des Rosiers, opposing the departure of the prisoners of the
+Republican Guard, by obtaining from the Commander Bardelle the
+revocation of the order for their dismissal, which was known to have
+been issued. He went to the council of the Ch�teau Rouge, whither
+General Lecomte was about to be taken, and made himself conspicuous by
+the persistency with which he called for the death of that general. On
+the morning of Monday, the 24th May, a witness residing at the
+Prefecture of Police saw Ferr� and five others going up the stairs of
+the Prefecture of Police. Ferr� said to him, "Be off as quick as you
+can. We are going to set fire to the place. In a quarter of an hour it
+will be in flames." Half an hear afterwards the witness saw the flames
+burst forth from two windows of the office of the Procureur-G�n�ral.
+When Raoul Rigault was installed during the insurrection, a woman saw
+some persons washing the walls of the Prefecture of Police with
+petroleum. Seeing them going out by the court of the St. Chapelle, she
+noticed among them one smaller than the rest, wearing a grey paletot
+with a black velvet collar, and black striped trousers. On the same day
+a police agent went to La Roquette to order the shooting of Mgr. Darboy
+and the other prisoners--the President Bonjean, the Abb� Allard, the
+P�re Ducoudray, and the Abb� Deguerry. On Saturday, the 27th, Ferr�
+installed himself in the clerk's office of the prison, and ordered the
+release of certain of the criminals and gave them arms and ammunition.
+Upon this they proceeded to massacre a great number of the prisoners,
+among whom were 66 gendarmes. Several witnesses saw Ferr� that day at
+the prison.
+
+
+
+
+XI. (Page 342.)
+
+
+At the trial of Ferr�, August 10, Dr. Puymoyen, physician to the prison
+for juvenile offenders, opposite La Roquette, gave the following graphic
+evidence:--
+
+"Immediately after the insurgents, driven back by the troops, had
+occupied La Roquette, they installed a court-martial at the children's
+prison opposite, where I live. It was from thence I saw the poor
+wretches whom they feigned to release, ushered in to the square, where
+they encountered an ignoble mob, that ill-treated them in the most
+brutal manner. I was told that Ferr� presided over this court-martial.
+Its proceedings were singular. I saw an unfortunate gendarme taken to
+the prison; he had been arrested near the Grenier d'Abondance, on a
+denunciation. He wore a blouse, blue trousers, and an apron, and was
+charged with having stolen them. The mob wanted to enter the prison
+along with him, but the keepers, who behaved very well, prevented the
+invasion of the courtyard. The escort was commanded by a young woman
+carrying a Chassepot, and wearing a chignon. I entered the registrar's
+office with this unfortunate gendarme. One Briand, who was charged to
+question the prisoners summarily, asked him where his clothes came from.
+The man was very cool and courageous, and his perfect self-possession
+disconcerted this _juge d'instruction._ He was asked if he were married,
+and had a family. He replied, 'Yes, I have a wife and eight children.'
+He was then shown into the back office, where the 'judges' were. These
+judges were mere boys, who seemed quite proud of the part they were
+playing, and gave themselves no end of airs, I asked the governor of the
+gaol soon afterwards what had been done with the gendarme. He told me
+that they were going to shoot him. I replied, 'Surely it can't be true.
+I must see the president--we can't allow a married man with eight
+children to be murdered in this way.' I tried to get into the room where
+the court-martial was sitting, but was prevented. One of the National
+Guards on duty at the door told me 'Don't go in there, or you're done
+for (_N'y entrez pas, ou vous �tes f--_).' I made immediately further
+inquiries about M. Grudnemel, and was told he was in 'a provisional
+cell.' I trembled for him, for I knew that meant he would be given up to
+the mob, which would tear him to pieces. When they said, 'This man is to
+be taken to a cell,' that meant that he was to be shot. When they said,
+'Put him in a provisional cell,' it meant that he should be delivered
+over to the mob for butchery, I continued to plead the gendarme's cause
+with the National Guard, dwelling on the fact of his having eight
+children. Thereon, the Woman above referred to, who appeared to be in
+command of the detachment, exclaimed, 'Why does this fellow go in for
+the gendarme?' One of her acolytes replied, 'Smash his jaw.' This woman
+seemed to understand her business. She minutely inspected the men's
+pouches to ascertain that they had plenty of ammunition. She would not
+hear of the gendarme being reprieved, and she had her way. I understood
+that I had better follow the governor's advice and keep quiet. A mere
+boy was placed as sentry at the door of the court-martial. He told
+me, 'You know I sha'n't let you in.' When I saw the poor gendarme leave
+the room he looked at me imploringly; he had probably detected in my
+eyes a look of sympathy. And when he was told that he might go
+out--hearing the yells of the mob--he turned towards me and said, 'But I
+shall be stoned to death;' and, in fact, it was perfectly fearful to
+hear the shouts of the crowd outside. I could not withstand the impulse,
+and I took my place by his side, and tried to address the crowd. 'Think
+on what you are going to do--surely you won't murder the father of
+eight children.' The words were hardly out of my mouth when a kind of
+signal was given. I was shoved back against the wall, and one National
+Guard, clapping his hand on his musket, ejaculated, 'You know, you old
+rascal, there is something for you here,' and he drove his bayonet
+through my whiskers. The unfortunate gendarme was taken across the
+place, close to the shop where they sell funeral wreaths, but there was
+no firing party in attendance. He then took to his heels, but was
+pursued, captured, and put to death. I began to feel rather bewildered,
+and some one urged me to return to the prison, which I did. A young
+linesman was then brought in. He was quite a young fellow, barely
+twenty; his hands were tied behind his back. They decided to kill him
+within the prison. They set upon him, beat him, tore his clothes, so
+that he had hardly a shred of covering left; they made him kneel, then
+made him stand up, blindfolded him then uncovered his eyes; finally they
+put an end to his long agony by shooting him, and flung the body into a
+costermonger's cart close to the gate. Several priests had got out of
+the prison of La Roquette. The Abb� Surat, on passing over a barricade,
+was so imprudent as to state who he was, and showed some articles of
+value he had about him. He had got as far as about the middle of the
+Boulevard du Prince Eug�ne, when he was arrested and taken back to the
+prison, where they prepared to shoot him. But the young woman whom I
+have before mentioned, with a revolver in one hand and a dagger in the
+other, rushed at him exclaiming, 'I must have the honour of giving him
+the first blow.' The abb� instinctively put his hands out to protect
+himself, crying, '_Gr�ce! gr�ce!_' Whereon this fury shouted, '_Gr�ce!
+gr�ce! en voil� un maigre_,' and she discharged her revolver at him. His
+body was not searched, but his shoes were removed. Afterwards his
+pastoral cross and 300 francs were found about him. The boys detained in
+the prison were set at liberty. The smaller ones were made to carry
+pails of petroleum, the others had muskets given them, and were sent to
+fight. Six of them were killed; the remainder came back that night, and
+on the following day. About a hundred boys were taken to Belleville by a
+member of the Commune, quite a young man; they were wanted to make
+sand-bags, to be filled with earth to form barricades."
+
+
+
+
+XII. (Page 345.)
+
+
+Regarding the death of President Bonjean, the Abb� de Marsay said--"That
+gentleman carried his scruples so far that he would not avail himself of
+forty-eight hours' leave on _parole_, fearing he could not get back in
+time; thus did not see his family."
+
+The Abb� Perni, a venerable man with a white beard, who had been a
+missionary said:
+
+    "On Wednesday, the 24th of May, we were ordered back to our cells at
+    La Roquette at an earlier hour than usual, and at about four o'clock
+    in the afternoon a battalion of federates noisily occupied the
+    passage into which our cells opened. They spoke at the topmost pitch
+    of their voices. One of them said, 'We must get rid of these
+    Versailles banditti.' Another replied, 'Yes; let us bowl them over,
+    put them to bed.' I understood what this meant, and prepared for
+    death. Soon after the door next mine was opened, and I heard a man
+    asking if M. Darboy was there. The prisoner replied in the negative.
+    The man passed before my door without stopping, and I soon heard the
+    mild voice of the archbishop answering to his name. The hostages
+    were then dragged put of the lobby; ten minutes later I saw the
+    mournful _cort�ge_ pass in front of my windows; the federates were
+    walking along in a confused way, making a noise to cover the voice
+    of their victims, but I could hear Father Allard exhorting his
+    companions to prepare for death. A little after I heard the report
+    of the muskets, and understood that all was over. On Thursday (the
+    25th) the day passed off quietly, but on Friday shells began to fall
+    on the prison, and at about half-past four in the afternoon a
+    corporal, named Romain. came up, and with a joyful face told us we
+    would soon be free. He said answer to your names; I must have 15. He
+    had a list in his hand, and I must confess a feeling of terror came
+    over us all. Ten hostages answered to their names. One of them, a
+    father of the order of Picpus, asked if he could take his hat.
+    Romain replied, 'Oh, it's no use; you are only going to the
+    registrar's.' None of these unfortunate men ever returned. On
+    Saturday (the 27th) we learnt that several of the prisoners had been
+    armed with hammers, files, &c. They threw us some of these in at the
+    windows. We were then informed that several members of the Commune
+    had arrived at La Roquette. I cannot say whether Ferr� was among
+    them. We were taken back to our cellars, where we expected to be put
+    to death every minute. At about four o'clock the cells of the common
+    prisoners were opened, and they escaped, shouting 'Vive la Commune!'
+    Our keeper himself had disappeared, and a turnkey presently opened
+    our cells, and recommended us to run away. We were afraid this was a
+    trap, but as it might afford a chance we determined to avail
+    ourselves of it. Those amongst us who had plain clothes hurried them
+    on, and I must say the gaolers behaved admirably in this emergency;
+    they lent clothes to such of us as had none, and we were thus all
+    enabled to escape. As for myself, after wandering for about an hour
+    in the streets about the prison, and being unable to find shelter
+    anywhere, and afraid of being murdered in the streets, I determined
+    to return to La Roquette. As I reached it I met the archbishop's
+    secretary, two priests, and two gendarmes, who, like myself, had
+    been driven to return to the prison. One of the keepers told us that
+    the safest for us was the sick ward. We dressed up in the hospital
+    uniform and hid in bed. At eight in the evening the federates, who
+    were not aware that we had escaped, came back and called on the
+    gaolers to produce us. They were told we had gone; fortunately they
+    believed it. On Sunday the troops came in, and I left La Roquette
+    for good this time. In reply to a further question the witness said
+    that as the hostages marched past his windows, on their way to
+    execution, he saw President Bonjean raising his hands, and heard him
+    say, '_Mon Dieu, mon Dieu!_'"
+
+
+
+
+XIII. (Page 82.)
+
+URBAIN.
+
+
+Urbain, formerly head master of an academy, was elected to the Commune,
+and became, in virtue of his former office of teacher, a member of the
+Committee of Instruction, retaining at the same time his office of
+mayor. He finally installed himself in his mayoralty about the middle of
+April, with his sister and young son, and gave protection there to his
+mistress, Leroy, who had great influence over him, and who used to
+frequent the committees and clubs. At the mayoralty of the 7th
+Arrondissement this woman, in the absence of the mayor, took the
+direction and management of affairs. During the administration of Urbain
+searches were made in private and in religious houses, this woman,
+Leroy, sometimes taking part in the proceedings; on these occasions
+seizures were made of letters and articles of value, which were sent to
+the mayoralty and from thence to the police-office. Urbain and the woman
+Leroy are accused of having appropriated to themselves money and
+jewellery. At the mayoralty of the 7th Arrondissement there were
+deposits for public instruction to the amount of 8000 francs, which had
+dwindled down to 2900 francs. Urbain confesses having employed this
+money in helping persons compromised like himself. It is certain that
+during the residence of the woman Leroy at the mayoralty the expenses
+exceeded the sum allowed to Urbain. According to the evidence of a
+domestic everybody tad recourse to this unfortunate deposit, and it is
+stated in the instructions that the accused had left by will to his son
+a sum of 4000 francs in bank notes and gold, deposited in the hands of
+his aunt, Madame Danelair, while there is clear proof that before the
+days of the Commune he did not possess a sou. Madame Leroy herself, who
+came to the mayoralty without a penny, was found in possession of 1000
+francs, which she said were the results of her savings. It appears from
+the statement of M. Laudon, inspector of police, that the search made at
+his house resulted in the subtraction of a sum of 6000 francs, and that
+he has seen a ring which belonged to his wife on the finger of the woman
+Leroy. Though not taking a conspicuous share in the military operations,
+Urbain played an important part. His duty was to visit the military
+stations and to take possession of the Fort d'Issy, which had been
+abandoned. He admits that he thus visited the barracks and the
+ramparts. He ordered the construction of barricades, and says that, on
+the occasion of the repulse of the 22nd May, he resisted the entreaties
+of the woman Leroy, who wished him to give up the struggle and to betake
+himself to the H�tel de Ville, with the view of remaining at his post.
+As a politician, Urbain, in the discussions of the Commune, was very
+zealous and spoke frequently. By his vote he gave his sanction to all
+the violent decrees relating to the hostages, the demolition of the
+Column, the destruction of M. Thiers' house, and the Committee of Public
+Safety, of which he was one of the most ardent supporters. To him is to
+be attributed in particular the demand for the carrying into execution
+the decree relating to the hostages. On this point here is Urbain's
+proposal, copied from the _Official Journal_ of the 18th May:--"I demand
+that either the Commune or the Committee of Public Safety should decree
+that the ten hostages in our custody should be shot within twenty-four
+hours, in retaliation for the murders of our cantini�re and of the
+bearer of our flag of truce, who were shot in defiance of the law of
+nations. I demand that five of the hostages should be executed solemnly
+in the centre of Paris, in presence of deputations from all the
+battalions, and that the rest should be shot at the advanced posts in
+presence of the soldiers who witnessed the murders. I trust my proposal
+will be agreed to." By this proposal Urbain has linked his name to the
+horrible crime committed on the hostages. Latterly he was a member of
+the military committee, and his ability served well the cause of the
+insurgents. He was condemned by the court-martial of Versailles to hard
+labour for life, September 2, 1871.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+THE DEVASTATIONS OF PARIS.
+
+
+The following is the way in which the fires were prepared:--In some
+instances a number of men, acting as _avant-courriers_, went first,
+telling the inhabitants that the Quarter was about to be delivered to
+the flames, and urging them to fly for their lives; in other oases, the
+unfortunate people were told that the whole city would be burnt, and
+that they might as well meet death where they were as run to seek it
+elsewhere. In some places--in the Rue de Vaugirard, for instance--it is
+asserted that sentinels were placed in the streets and ordered to fire
+upon everyone who attempted to escape. One incendiary, who was arrested
+in the Rue de Poitiers, declared that he received ten francs for each
+house which he set on fire. Another system consisted in throwing through
+the cellar doors or traps tin cans or bottles filled with petroleum,
+phosphorus, nitro-glycerine, or other combustibles, with a long sulphur
+match attached to the neck of the vessel, the match being lighted at the
+moment of throwing the explosives into the cellar. Finally, the
+batteries at Belleville and the cemetery of P�re la Chaise sent
+destruction into many quarters by means of petroleum shells.
+
+Eudes, a general of the Commune, sent the following order to one of his
+officers:--
+
+"Fire on the Bourse, the Bank, the Post Office, the Place des Victoires,
+the Place Vend�me, the Garden of the Tuileries, the Babylone Barracks;
+leave the H�tel de Ville to Commandant Pindy and the Delegate of War,
+and the Committee of Public Safety and of the Commune will assemble at
+the _mairie_ of the eleventh Arrondissement, where you are established;
+there we will organize the defence of the popular quarters of the city.
+We will send you cannon and ammunitions from the Parc Basfroi. We will
+hold out to the last, happen what may.
+
+"(Signed) E. EUDES."
+
+The insurgents had collected a considerable quantity of powder in the
+Pantheon, and when the Versailles troops obtained possession of the
+building the officer in command at once searched for the slow match, and
+cut it off when it had not more than a yard to burn!
+
+Instructions were given to the firemen not to extinguish the fires, but
+to retire to the Champ de Mars with the pumps and other apparatus.
+Whenever a man attempted to do anything to arrest the conflagration he
+was fired at. The firemen, who had arrived from all parts, even from
+Belgium, and honest citizens who joined them, worked to extinguish the
+fires amid showers of bullets. At the Treasury the labours of these men
+were four times interrupted by the violent cannonading of the
+insurgents.
+
+The fire broke out at the TUILERIES on Tuesday evening. When the
+battalions at the Arc de Triomphe and at the Corps L�gislatif had
+silenced the guns ranged before the Palace, the insurgents set fire to
+it, and threw out men _en tirailleur_ to prevent anyone from approaching
+to subdue the flames.
+
+At the same moment an attempt was made to set fire to the MINISTRY OF
+MARINE, in obedience to an order given to Commandant Brunel, which was
+thus worded:--"In a quarter of an hour the Tuileries will be in flames;
+as soon as our wounded are removed, you will cause the explosion of the
+Ministry." It was Admiral Pothuau, the minister himself, who, at the
+head of a handful of sailors, set the incendiaries to flight, Brunel
+along with them. They also arrived in time to prevent any damage being
+done to the BIBLIOTH�QUE NATIONALE.
+
+The struggle was terrific during the night; the insurgents, who had
+sought refuge in the Ministry of Finance, after the taking of the
+barricade in the Rue Saint-Florentin, increased the fury of the flames
+by firing from the windows, and discharging jets of petroleum at the
+soldiers.
+
+On Wednesday morning the battle had become fearful. Towards ten o'clock
+columns of smoke rose above Paris, forming a thick cloud, which the
+sun's rays could not penetrate. Then, simultaneously, all the fires
+burst forth: at the CONSEIL D'ETAT, at the LEGION OF HONOUR, at the
+CAISSE DES D�P�TS ET CONSIGNATIONS. at the H�TEL DE VILLE, at the PALAIS
+ROYAL, at the MINISTRY OF FINANCE, at the PREFECTURE DE POLICE, at the
+PALAIS DE JUSTICE, at the TH��TRE LYRIQUE, in the Rue du Bac, the Rue de
+Lille, the Rue de la Croix-Rouge, Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, in a great
+number of houses in the Faubourgs Saint-Germain and Saint-Honor�, in the
+Rue Royale, and in the Rue Boissy d'Anglas. Not many hours later, flames
+were seen to arise from the Avenue Victoria, Boulevard S�bastopol, Rue
+Saint-Martin, at the Ch�teau d'Eau, in the Rue Saint-Antoine, and the
+Rue de Rivoli.
+
+During the night of Friday, the docks of LA VILLETTE, and the warehouses
+of the DOUANE, the GRENIER D'ABONDANCE and the GOBELINS were all
+burning! So great was the glare that small print could be read as far
+off as Versailles, even on that side of the town towards Meudon and
+Ville d'Avray.
+
+THE DOME OF THE INVALIDES.--This was placed in imminent danger. Mines
+were laid on all sides, but their positions were discovered, and the
+electric wires out which were to have communicated the spark.
+
+THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE.--When the noise of the fusillade and
+cannonading ceased, the Place de la Concorde was a scene of absolute
+desolation. On all sides lay broken pieces of candelabra, balustrades,
+paving-stones, asphalte, and heaps of earth. The water-nymphs and
+Tritons of the fountains were much mutilated, and the statue of the town
+of Lille--one of the eight gigantic, seated figures of the principal
+towns of France, which form a prominent ornament to the Place, the work
+of Pradier, and a likeness of one of the Orleans princesses-lay shivered
+on the ground.
+
+THE ARC DE L'ETOILE.--The triumphal arch bears many scars, but none of
+them of much importance. On the fa�ade looking towards Courbevoie, the
+great bas-relief by Etex, representing "War," was struck by three
+shells; the group of "Peace" received only the fragment of one. Here and
+there, in the bas-relief representing the "Passage of the Bridge of
+Areole," and the "Taking of Alexandra," some traces of balls are
+visible. On the whole, no irremediable hum is done here. Rude's
+masterpiece, "The Marseillaise," is untouched.
+
+THE PALACE OF INDUSTRY.--Rumour says Courbet had, among other projects,
+formed an idea of demolishing the Palace of Industry. The painted
+windows of the great nave have received no serious injury. The
+bas-relief of the main fa�ade, picturing Industry and the Arts offering
+their products to the universal exhibitions, has several of its figures
+mutilated. The same has happened to the colossal group by
+Diebolt--France offering laurel crowns to Art and Industry.
+
+THE TUILERIES.--Felix Pyat, in the _Vengeur_, proposed converting the
+Palace of the Tuileries into a school for the children of soldiers. He
+says:--"They have taken possession by the work and activity that reign
+there; a whole floor is filled with tools and activity, and converted
+into workshops for the construction of messenger balloons. King Labour
+is enthroned there. I recognised there among the workmen an exile of the
+revolutionary Commune of London. The workmen and the proscribed at the
+Tuileries! From the prison of London to the palace of the Tuileries. It
+is well!" But in the heart of the Commune the soul of the _Vengeur_
+underwent a change, and insisted on the complete destruction of the
+"infamous pile."
+
+The portion of the building overlooking the river was alone preserved.
+The roofing is destroyed, but the fa�ade is but little injured, the only
+work of art damaged here being a pediment by M. Carrier-Belleuse,
+representing "Agriculture." Fortunately the Government of the Fourth of
+September had sent all the most precious things to the Garde-Meuble
+(Stores); but how can the magnificent Gobelins tapestry, the fine
+ceilings, the works of Charles Lebrun, of Pierre Mignard, of Coypel, of
+Francisque Meillet, of Coysevox, of Girardon, and of many others, and
+the exquisite Salon des Roses be replaced?
+
+The Tuileries burnt for three days, and ten days afterwards the ruins
+blazed forth anew near the Pavillon de Flore. Not only did the devouring
+fire threaten to destroy inestimable treasures, but on Monday a number
+of men carrying slow matches, and led by a man named Napias-Piquet, made
+all their preparations to set fire to several points of the museum of
+the Louvre, and two of the guardians were shot. This Napias-Piquet
+threatened to make of the whole quarter of the Louvre one great
+conflagration. He was taken and shot, and in his pocket was found a note
+of his breakfast of the preceding day, amounting to 57 francs 80
+centimes.
+
+THE LOUVRE.--The preservation of the museum was due to the strong
+masonry, and the thick walls of the new portion of the building, on
+which the raging flames could make no impression. But it ran other
+risks: when the troops entered the building, they planted the tricolour
+on the clock pavilion, which served as an object for the insurgents'
+aim. It was immediately removed, however, when this was perceived. It
+was generally believed that the galleries of the Louvre contained all
+their art treasures. This was not the case; prior to the first siege the
+most precious of the contents had been carefully packed and conveyed to
+the arsenal of Brest, where they safely reposed, but many very admirable
+works remained.
+
+MINISTRY OF FINANCE (Treasury).--On the 22nd of May, the official
+journal of the Commune published a note declaring that the certificates
+of stock and the stock books (_grand livre_) would be burnt within
+forty-eight hours. The Commune was annoyed at the publicity given to
+this note, and a violent debate took place in its council in
+consequence. On this occasion Paschal Grousset uttered the following:--
+
+"I blame those who inserted the note in question, but I demand that
+measures may be taken for the destruction of all such documents
+belonging to those at Versailles, the day that they shall enter Paris."
+
+[Illustration: COURT OF THE LOUVRE, FROM PLACE DU CARROUSEL
+
+The Library is completely destroyed. More than 90,000 volumes are burnt.
+Rare editions, Elzevirs, precious MSS., coins, and unique collections,
+priceless treasures, are irrevocably lost.]
+
+The building forms one of the most striking ruins in Paris. Citizen
+Lucas, appointed by Ferr� to set the Ministry on fire, did his task
+well. The conflagration, which lasted several days, began in the night
+of the 23rd of May. Not only was every part soaked with petroleum, but
+shells had also been placed about the building, and burst successively
+as the fire extended. Scarcely anything remains of the huge pile but the
+offices of the Administration of Forest Lands, which are almost intact.
+A considerable number of valuable documents were saved, but the quantity
+was very small in comparison with the immense collection accumulated
+since the beginning of the century. Four times was the work of salvage
+interrupted by the insurgents. Not a single book in the library has
+escaped; and this library contained almost the whole of the enormous
+correspondence of Colbert, the minister, forming no less than two
+thousand volumes.
+
+[Illustration: PALAIS ROYAL.]
+
+The PALAIS ROYAL.--The palace itself alone is destroyed; the galleries
+of the TH��TRE FRAN�AIS are preserved. The _Constitutionnel_ published
+the following account of the conflagration;--
+
+"It was at three o'clock that this fearful fire burst forth. A
+shopkeeper of the PALAIS ROYAL, M. Emile Le Sach�, came forward in all
+haste to offer his services. A Communist captain, or lieutenant,
+threatened to fire on him if he did not retire on the instant; he added
+that the whole quarter was going to be blown up and burned. In the teeth
+of this threat, however, two fire-engines were brought to the Place, and
+were worked by the people of the neighbourhood. It was four o'clock. No
+water in the Cour des Fontaines. But some was procured by a line of
+people being placed along the passage leading from the Cour d'Honneur,
+who passed full buckets of water from hand to hand.
+
+"A ladder was placed against the wall for the purpose of reaching the
+terrace of the Rue de Valois. The insurgents proved so true to their
+word that the people were forced to renounce the attempt at saving the
+entire pavilion. Fire and smoke burst forth from three windows just
+above the terrace. In the midst of the balls showered from the barricade
+at the corner of the Rue de Rivoli, they succeeded in extinguishing the
+fire on that side. At five o'clock M. O. Sauve, captain in the
+commercial service, with a handful of brave workmen, got a fire engine
+into the Cour d'Honneur, and thus saved a great quantity of pictures,
+precious marbles, furniture, hangings, etc. Here another line of people
+was formed for the carrying of buckets, but unfortunately water ran
+short: the pipes had been cut, the wretches had planned that the
+destruction should be complete. At seven o'clock M. Bessignet, jun.,
+hastened there with four Paris firemen, but already the Pavilion, where
+the flames were first apparent, was entirely consumed.
+
+"On the arrival of the firemen they used every effort to prevent the fire
+communicating itself to the apartments of the Princess Clothilde; it had
+already reached the fa�ade on the side of the Place. Here, too, all the
+fittings and ornaments of the chapel were saved.
+
+"At last, at seven o'clock, the soldiers of the line arrive. 'Long live
+the line!' is shouted on all sides. 'Long live France!' Signals are made
+with the ambulance flags. Help is come at last!
+
+"Those present now regard their position with more coolness, and use
+every effort to combat the fire, pumping from the roofs and upper
+storeys of the neighbouring houses. The fire continues, however,
+increasing and spreading on the theatre side. Here is the greatest
+danger. If the theatre catch light, all the quarter will most probably
+be destroyed. They then determine to avail themselves of the water
+appliances of the theatre to stay the progress of the flames. This is.
+rendered more difficult and dangerous by the continuous firing from the
+Communists installed in the upper story of the H�tel du Louvre. M. Le
+Sache mounts on the roofs, with the principal engineer, to conduct this
+movement. They are compelled to hide out of the way of the shower of
+balls coming from the Communists.
+
+"At ten o'clock the companies from the quarter of the Banque, the 12th
+battalion of National Guards, arrive. The Federals are put to flight.
+Thereupon thirty _sapeurs-pompiers_ of Paris came at full speed and
+succeed in mastering the remaining fire. An hour sooner and all could
+have been saved."
+
+[Illustration: H�tel de Ville.]
+
+THE HOTEL DE VILLE.--The H�tel de Ville was set on fire by order of the
+Committee of Public Safety at the moment when the entry of the troops
+caused them to fly to the Ecole des Chartes, which was thus saved, and
+whence they fled to the Mairie of Belleville. Five battalions of
+National Guards--the 57th, 156th, 178th, 184th, and the 187th--remained
+to prevent any attempt being made to extinguish the fire. Petroleum had
+been poured about the _Salle du Tr�ne_, and the _Salle du Zodiaque_,
+which were decorated by Jean Goujon and Cogniet; in the _Galerie de
+Pierre_, in which were paintings by Lecomte, Baudin, Desgoffes, H�douin,
+and Bellel; in the _Salon des Arcades_, in the _Salon Napol�on_, in the
+_Galerie des F�tes_, and in the _Salon de la Paix_, which contained
+works of Schopin, Picot, Vanchelet, Jadin, Girard, Ingres, Delacroix,
+Landelle, Riesener, Lehmann, Gosse, Benouville and Cabanel. It is not
+only as a fine specimen of architecture that the H�tel de Ville is to
+be regretted, but as the cradle of the municipal and revolutionary
+history of Paris, as well as for the vast collection of archives of the
+city, duplicates of which were at the same moment a prey to the flames
+at the Palais de Justice.
+
+[Illustration: FOREIGN OFFICE.]
+
+THE PREFECTURE OF POLICE was set fire to by the Communal delegate Ferr�
+and a band of drunken National Guards.
+
+THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE, thanks to the prompt arrival of the soldiers, has
+been partially spared. The damage done, however, is very great. In the
+SALLE DES PAS-PERDUS several of the grand arches that support the roof
+have fallen in, and many of the columns are lying in ruins on the
+pavement. The Cour de Cassation and the Cour d'Assises are entirely
+destroyed. The conflagration was stopped, when it reached the Cour
+d'Appel and the Tribunal de Premi�re Instance.
+
+PALACE OF THE QUAI D'ORSAY.--This vast building, in which the Conseil
+d'�tat and the Cour des Comptes held their sittings, has suffered
+seriously, though the walls are not destroyed; but what is irreparable
+is the loss of the many precious documents belonging to the financial
+and legislative history of France. The most famous artists of our time
+have contributed to the decoration of the interior. Jeanron painted the
+twelve allegorical subjects for the vaulted ceiling of the _Salle des
+Pas-Perdus_; Isabey, the Port of Marseilles in the Committee-room. The
+Death of President de Renty, in the _Salle du Contentieux_, was by Paul
+Delaroche; the fine portrait of Napoleon I., as legislator, in the great
+Council Chamber, by Flandrin; and in another apartment the portrait of
+Justinien by Delacroix. These, and many other treasures, are lost; for
+the work of destruction was complete.
+
+MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.--The fa�ade has been seriously injured. It
+was fired upon from the terrace of the Tuileries, and from a gunboat
+lying under cover of the Pont-Royal. The Doric and Ionic columns are
+partly broken, as well as the fifteen medallions in white marble, which
+bore the arms of the principal powers. The apartments in front have been
+greatly damaged, and especially the _salon_ of the ambassadors, where
+the Congress of Paris was held in 1856.
+
+THE PALACE OF THE LEGION OF HONOUR.--This is a specimen of French
+architecture, unique of its kind. Happily, drawings and plans have been
+preserved, and the members of the Legion of Honour have offered a
+subscription for its re-instatement.
+
+THE GOBELINS.--The public gallery, the school of tapestry, and the
+painters' studios have been destroyed. The incendiaries would have
+burned all, works, frames and materials, if the people of the quarter,
+with the Gobelins weavers, had not defended them at the peril of their
+lives. An irreparable loss is that of a valuable collection of tapestry
+dating from the time of Louis XIV.
+
+The military hospital of the VAL DE GR�CE, the ASYLUM FOR THE DEAF AND
+DUMB, the MINT, the fa�ade of the annex of the �COLE-DES-BEAUX-ARTS,
+have been riddled with balls. At the LUXEMBOURG the magnificent
+camellia-house and conservatories exist no longer, and the graceful
+Medici fountain has been injured.
+
+THE BANK had most fortunately been placed in charge of the delegate
+Beslay, who, during the whole time he was there, made every effort to
+prevent the pillage of the valuables. He was ably seconded by all the
+officials and _employ�s_, who had before been armed and incorporated
+into a battalion.
+
+[Illustration: PALACE OF THE LEGION D'HONNEUR.]
+
+POST OFFICE.--The Communal delegate, Theiz, prevented the incendiaries
+from setting fire to this important establishment. THE TRIUMPHAL ARCH OF
+THE PORTE-ST-DENIS.--The bas-relief containing an emblematical figure of
+the Rhine resting on a rudder has been mutilated, a shell having carried
+the arm and its support entirely away. The other bas-relief of Holland
+vanquished and in tears, has been struck by balls, as have also the
+figures of Fame in the tympans of the arcades.
+
+THE TRIUMPHAL ARCH OF THE PORTE-ST-MARTIN.--The sculptures, which
+represent the taking of Limbourg and the defeat of the Germans, have
+suffered considerably. They are the works of Le Hongre and the elder
+Legros.
+
+A tragic incident marked the burning of the THEATRE OF THE PORTE ST.
+MARTIN (see sketch). After laving massacred the proprietor and people of
+the _restaurant_ Ronceray, the Federals set fire to the house and the
+theatre which is adjoining. At eight o'clock in the evening, on
+beholding the first flames arise, the inhabitants of the quarter united
+in endeavouring to extinguish the fire, notwithstanding that the
+projectiles fell thickly in the Boulevard Saint-Martin and in the Rue de
+Bondy. The Federals from behind their barricades at the corner of the
+Rue Bouchardon, fired upon everyone who attempted to enter the theatre.
+
+The ARCHIVES (Record Office), the IMPRIMERIE NATIONALE, and the
+BIBLIOTH�QUE MAZARINE were all preserved through the strenuous
+endeavours of MM. Alfred Maury, Haureau, and Charles Asselineau, who had
+all managed to keep their places in spite of the Commune.
+
+At the DOCKS OF LA VILLETTE, and at the warehouses of the DOUANE, the
+destruction of property has been enormous. Many millions' worth of goods
+were consumed there.
+
+In the great buildings belonging to the MAGASINS R�UNIS (Cooperative
+Stores) an ambulance had been established, and this was in the utmost
+danger during two days. It was only owing to the wonderful energy of M.
+Jahyer that the fire was mastered while the poor wounded men were
+transported to a place of safety.
+
+THE CHURCHES.
+
+NOTRE-DAME.--In the interior of Notre-Dame the insurgents set fire to
+three huge piles of chairs and wood-work. Fortunately the fact was
+discovered before much mischief had happened.
+
+THE SAINTE-CHAPELLE.--This incomparable gem of Gothic art, by some
+marvellous good fortune was neither touched by fire nor shells. It will
+still be an object for the pilgrimages of the erudite and the curious.
+
+THE MADELEINE.--The balls have somewhat damaged the double colonnade of
+the peristyle, but the sculptured pediment by Lemaire is all but
+untouched.
+
+THE TRINIT�.--The fa�ade has been seriously injured. The Federals, from
+their barricades at the entrance of the Chauss�e-d'Antin, bombarded it
+for several hours. The painted windows by Ondinot had been removed
+before the siege--like those of the ancient Cathedral of St. Denis, and
+the Chapel of St. Ferdinand, by Ingres, they repose in safety.
+
+Of all the churches of Paris ST. EUSTACHE has suffered the most. At one
+time the fire had reached the roof, but it was fortunately discovered in
+time.
+
+The paintings at NOTRE-DAME-DE-LORETTE, at SAINT-GERMAIN-L'AUXERROIS,
+and at SAINT-GERMAIN-DES-PR�S have been spared.
+
+It is curious that the churches suffered so little, whilst several
+theatres were burned, including the Porte St. Martin, Th��tre du
+Ch�telet, Lyrique, D�lassements Comiques, etc.
+
+The windows of the church of SAINT-JACQUES-DU-HAUT-PAS are destroyed.
+
+It has been estimated that the value of the houses and other property
+destroyed in Paris amounts to twenty millions sterling. In addition to
+this, it is said that twelve millions' worth of works of art, furniture,
+&c., have disappeared, and that more than two and a half millions' worth
+of merchandise was burnt, making a total of nearly thirty-five millions.
+It has been said that the value of the window-glass alone destroyed
+during the reign of the Commune approaches a million sterling. The
+demand for glass was at one time so great that the supply was quite
+insufficient, and at the present moment the price is 20 per cent. higher
+than usual.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+
+The following order of the day of General de Ladmirault, commanding the
+first army corps of Versailles, sums up the principal episodes of this
+eight days battle:--
+
+"Officers and soldiers of the First Corps d'Arm�e,--
+
+The defences of the lines of Neuilly, Courbevoie, B�con and Asni�res
+served you by way of apprenticeship. Your energy and courage were formed
+amid the greatest works and perils. Every one in his grade has given an
+example of the most complete abnegation and devotion. Artillery,
+engineers, troops of the line, cavalry, volunteers of the Seine-et-Oise,
+you rivalled each other in zeal and ardour. Thus prepared, on the 22nd
+of the month you attacked the insurgents, whose guilty designs and
+criminal undertakings you knew and despised. You devoted yourselves
+nobly to save from destruction the monuments of our old national glory,
+as well as the property of the citizens menaced by savage rage.
+
+On the 23rd of the month, the formidable position of the Buttes
+Montmartre could no longer resist your efforts, in spite of all the
+forces with which they were covered.
+
+This task was confided to the first and second division and the
+volunteers of the Seine and Seine-et-Oise, and the heads of the various
+columns arrived simultaneously at the summit of the position.
+
+On the 24th, the third division, which alone had been charged with the
+task of driving the insurgents out of Neuilly, Levallois-Perret, and
+Saint-Ouen, joined the other divisions, and took possession of the
+terminus of the Eastern Railway, while the first division seized that
+of the Northern line by force of arms.
+
+On the 26th, the third division occupied the _rotonde_--circular place
+--of La Villette.
+
+On the 27th, the first and second division, with the volunteers of the
+Seine-et-Oise, by means of a combined movement, took the Buttes Chaumont
+and the heights of Belleville by assault, the artillery having by its
+able firing prepared the way for the occupation.
+
+Finally, on the 28th, the defences of Belleville yielded, and the first
+corps achieved brilliantly the task which had been confided to them.
+
+During the days of the struggle and fighting you rendered the greatest
+service to civilization, and have acquired a claim to the gratitude of
+the country. Accept then all the praise which is due to you.
+
+Paris, 29th May, 1871.
+
+The General commanding the First Corps d'Armee,
+
+(Signed) "LADMIRAULT."
+
+During the day of the 28th of Kay Marshal MacMahon caused the following
+proclamation to be posted in the streets of Paris:--
+
+"Inhabitants of Paris,--
+
+The army of France is come to save you. Paris is relieved. The last
+positions of the insurgents were taken by our soldiers at four o'clock.
+Today the struggle is at an end; order, labour, and security are
+springing up again.
+
+Paris, Quartier General, the 28th May, 1871.
+
+(Signed) "MACMAHON, Due de Magenta, Marshal of France,
+Commander-in-Chief."
+
+On the 28th of May the war of the Communists was at an end, but the fort
+of Vincennes was still occupied by three hundred National Guards, with
+eighteen of their superior officers and fifteen of the high
+functionaries of the Commune; They made an appeal to the commander of
+the Prussian forces in front of the fort, in the hope of obtaining
+passports for Switzerland. General Vinoy, hearing of this, took at once
+the most energetic measures, and at six o'clock on the 29th of May the
+last defenders of Vincennes surrendered at discretion.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+
+The amount of the extraordinary expenses of the Versailles
+was, at the rate of three millions of francs a day, 216 millions from
+the 18th March to the 28th May. The list of artillery implements
+removed from the arsenals of Douai, Lyon, Besan�on, Toulon, and
+Cherbourg, and forwarded to Versailles from the 18th March to the
+21st May, comprise--
+
+     80 cannons of 0.16m (6 in. 299/1000 diameter) from the War Arsenal
+     60    "        "                "             from the Marine Arsenal
+     10    "    of 0.22m (8 in. 661/1000 diameter) Marine.
+    110 Rifled long  24-pounders.
+     30 Rifled short 24-pounders.
+     80 Rifled siege 12-pounders.
+      3 Mortars of 0.32m (12 in. 598/1000 diameter).
+     15 Mortars of 0.27m (10 in. 629/1000 diameter).
+     15 Mortars of 0.22m (8  in. 661/1000 diameter).
+     40 Mortars of 0.15m (5  in. 905/1000 diameter).
+     ---
+Total 393 artillery siege pieces.
+
+Ammunition received at Versailles--
+
+Shells of    0.16m (marine). . . .  73,000
+  "          0.22m    "  . . . . .  10,000
+  "          0.24m (rifled). . . . 140,000
+  "        for 12-pounder (rifled)  80,000
+Bombs of     0.32m . . . . . . . .   1,000
+  "          0.27m . . . . . . . .   7,000
+  "          0.22m . . . . . . . .   7,000
+  "          0.15m . . . . . . . .  30,000
+                                   -------
+                          Total    348,000
+
+The stock of gunpowder amounted to 400 tons.
+
+Up to the 21st of May, the artillery received 20 tons a day, and on that
+day 50 tons were forwarded to the besieging army.
+
+Up to the 21st of May, the field ordnance consisted of--
+
+      36 batteries of 4-pounders.
+      18   "         12-pounders.
+       4   "          7-pounders (breech-loaders).
+      12   "       of mitrailleuses.
+      --
+
+Total 70 batteries, 63 of which were provided with horses (7 being in
+store).
+
+The ammunition service consisted of--
+
+  80 tumbrels (calibre 12), each containing  54 charges.
+  30   "      (calibre 7),       "           90   "
+ 120   "      (calibre 4)        "          120   "
+  55   "      of mitrailleuses   "          243   "
+5000 cases of ammunition  (for calibre 12), containing 49,000 charges.
+ 600         "            (for calibre 4),    "        12,000   "
+2000         "            (for calibre 7),    "        20,000   "
+1000         "            for mitrailleuses   "        30,000   "
+  16 millions of Chassepot cartridges, and
+   2 millions of Remington cartridges.
+
+On the evening of the 23rd of May the army of Versailles expended--
+
+        26,000 discharges (calibre 0.16m), marine guns.
+          2000     "          "    0.22m),     "
+        60,000     "          "    0.24m), rifled guns.
+        30,000     "          "    0.12m), rifled siege guns.
+        12,000     "      (calibre of 7), used as a siege gun.
+           150 bombs of 0.32m
+           360   "      0.27m
+          2500   "      0.22m
+          5500   "      0.16m
+       -------
+Total  138,800 discharges of siege guns and mortars.--"_Guerre
+des Communeux_," p. 321.
+
+The great feature of the second siege of Paris was the prudence
+exercised in manoeuvring the men so as to protect them from needless
+exposure, practical experience in German encounters having taught the
+line a severe lesson. From the report of Marshal MacMahon we learn that
+the lost amounted to 83 officers killed, and 430 wounded; 794 soldiers
+killed, and 6,024 wounded, and 183 missing in all.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+LIST OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS, MONUMENTS, CHURCHES, AND HOUSES,
+
+DAMAGED OR DESTROYED BY THE COMMUNISTS OF PARIS,
+
+MAY 24-29, 1871.
+
+
+Fire commenced in the houses marked thus (*).
+
+  Palais des Tuileries (Emperor's Paris residence). _Burnt_.
+  Mus�e du Louvre. _Library totally destroyed_.
+  Palais Royal (Prince Napoleon's Paris residence). _Burnt_.
+  Palais de la L�gion d'Honneur (records all gone). _Burnt_.
+  Conseil d'Etat. _Burnt_.
+  Corps L�gislatif. _Damaged_.
+  Cour des Comptes (Exchequer). _Burnt_.
+  Minist�re d'Etat (Minister of State). _Fired, but saved_.
+  Minist�re des Finances (Treasury). _Burnt_.
+  H�tel de Ville. (Town Hall of Paris). _Burnt_.
+  Palais de Justice (Law courts). _Burnt_.
+  Pr�fecture de Police. _Burnt_.
+  The Conciergerie (House of Detention). _Partly burnt_.
+  Mairie of the 1st Arrondissement. _Dam_.
+  Mairie of the 4th Arrondissement. _Partially burnt_.
+  Mairie of the 11th Arrondissement. _Partially_.
+  Mairie of the 12th Arrondissement. _Burnt_.
+  Mairie of the 13th Arrondissement. _Damaged_.
+  Imprimerie Nationale. (National Printing office). _Damaged_.
+  Polytechnic School. _Damaged_.
+  Manufacture des Gobelins (National tapestry manufactory).
+     _Partially burnt_.
+  Grenier d'Abondance (Enormous corn and other stores). _Burnt_.
+  Colonne Vend�me. _Overthrown on the 16th of May_.
+  Colonne de Juillet, on the Place de la Bastille. _Greatly damaged_.
+  Porte Saint-Denis. _Damaged_.
+  Porte Saint-Martin. _Damaged_.
+  Cathedral of Notre Dame. _Very slightly damaged_.
+  Panth�on. _Very slightly damaged_.
+  Church of Belleville. _Damaged_.
+  Church of Bercy. _Burnt_.
+  Church of La Madeleine. _Slightly dam_.
+  Church of St. Augustin. _Damaged_.
+  Church of Saint Eustache (used as a club). _Fired and much damaged_.
+  Church of Saint Gervais (used as a club). _Damaged_.
+  Church of St. Laurent. _Damaged_.
+  Church of Saint Leu. _Damaged_.
+  Church of Reuilly. _Fired but not burnt_.
+  Church of the Trinit�. _Damaged_.
+  Church of La Villette. _Damaged_.
+  Sainte-Chapelle. _Slightly, if at all, dam_.
+  Th��tre du Ch�telet. _Fired, but saved_.
+  Th��tre Lyrique. _Burnt_.
+  Ba-ta-clan Music Hall. _Fired, but not burnt_.
+  Th��tre des D�lassements-Comiques. _Burnt_.
+  Th��tre de la Porte Saint-Martin. _Totally destroyed_.
+  Th��tre Cluny. _Only damaged_.
+  Th��tre Od�on. _Damaged_.
+  Abattoir de Grenelle. _Damaged_.
+  Assistance Publique (offices of public charity). _Burnt_.
+  Caisse des D�p�ts et Consignations (Bank of Deposit). _Burnt_.
+  Caisse de Poissy (Bank of Deposit). _Burnt_.
+  Service des Ponts et Chauss�es of the 13th Arrondissement (Civil
+     engineer's office). _Partially_.
+  Arsenal. _Partly burnt_.
+  Caserne du Ch�teau-d'Eau (barracks). _Damaged_.
+  Caserne Mouffetard. _Damaged_.
+  Caserne Napol�on. _Damaged_.
+  Caserne Quai d'Orsay. _Burnt_.
+  Caserne de Reuilly. _Burnt_.
+  Docks, Bonded Warehouses and Storehouses at La Villette. _Burnt_.
+  Les Halles Centrales (Great general market). _Damaged_.
+  March� du Temple (General market). _Damaged_.
+  March� Voltaire (General market). _Dam_.
+  Bridge over the Canal de l'Ourcq. _Dam_.
+  Passerelle de la Villette (Foot-bridge). _Burnt_.
+  Pont d'Austerlitz, with restaurant Trousseau and sluice-keeper's
+     house. _All burnt_.
+  Rotonde de la Villette. _Damaged_.
+  Hospice de l'Enfant Jesus. _Damaged_.
+  Hospital Lariboisi�re. _Damaged_.
+  Hospital Salp�tri�re: (House of refuge and lunatic-asylum for
+     women). _Burnt_.
+  Prison of la Roquette. _Damaged_.
+  Gare de Lyon (Lyons railway terminus). _Fired and damaged_.
+  Gare d'Orl�ans (Orleans railway terminus.) _Damaged_.
+  Gare Montparnasse (Western railway terminus). _Damaged_.
+  Gare de Strasbourg (Eastern railway terminus). _Damaged_.
+  Gare de Vincennes (Vincennes railway terminus). _Damaged_.
+  House of M. Thiers (Place St. Georges). _Pulled down (previously)_.
+  Cimeti�re du P�re-Lachaise (cemetery). _Damaged_.
+  Barri�re Charenton. _Damaged_.
+  Luxembourg: Powder Magazine in rear
+    of Palace _blown up_, some subsidiary
+    buildings _burnt_, and whole quarter
+    _damaged_.
+
+
+
+  Avenue des Amandiers: Nos. 1, 2, 4, _Burnt_.
+    No. 69. _Damaged_.
+  Avenue de Choisy: Nos. 202, 221. _Dam._
+  Avenue de Clichy: Nos. 2, 4, 22. _Dam._
+  Avenue d'Italie: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 78, 88. _Damaged._
+  Avenue d'Orl�ans: Nos. 79, 81, 83. _Dam._
+  Avenue Victoria: Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5. _Burnt._
+    No. 6. _Damaged._
+  Avenue de Vincennes: Nos. 2, 4, 10. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard Beaumarchais: No. 1. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 2, 13, 15, 26, 28, 30, 109. _Dam._
+  Boulevard de Bercy: No. 4, 8. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle: Nos. 11, 15. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard Bourdon: Nos. 7, 17. _Dam._
+  Boulevard des Capucines: No. 11;
+      Maison Giroux, Nos. 43, 58, 60. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard de la Chapelle: Nos. 10, 12,
+      14, 18, 20, coach houses and stables,
+      22, 30, 34, 40, 62, 86, 90, 94,
+      100, 122, 141, 143, 145, 147, "Aux
+      Buttes Chaumont," 157, 163, 165,
+      169, 208, "Au Cadran Bleu," 216,
+      218. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard de Charonne: Nos. 50, 52, 74. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard de Clichy: No. 77; Convent and
+      Church; Nos. 79, 81, 84, 86. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Contrescarpe: Nos. 2, 4. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 42, 46. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard de la Gare: No. 131. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Hausmann: Nos. 23, 72. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard d'Italie: Nos. 7, 69. _Dam._
+  Boulevard de la Madeleine: No. 1. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Magenta: Nos. 1, 3, 5, 6, 15,
+      48, 70, 78, 98, 114, "Au M�ridien,"
+      118, 143, 151, 153, 156. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard Malesherbes: Nos. 9, 33. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard Mazas: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 22, 26, 28 bis, 30, 60. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Montmartre: No, 1. _Dam._
+  Boulevard du Montparnasse: Nos. 9 bis,
+      41, 70, 100, 120, 150. _Damaged._
+    Nos. 25, three shops, 110, 112. _Burnt._
+  Boulevard Ornano: No. 56. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 1, 4, 7, 9, 22, 27, 32. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Poissonni�re: No. 15. _Dam._
+  Boulevard du Port-Royal: Nos. 16, 18, 20. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard du Prince Eug�ne: Magazins-R�unis
+      (co-operative store). _Dam._
+  Boulevard Richard-Lenoir: Nos. 20, 82. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 1, 5, 7, 9, 31, 36, 50, 69, 76,
+      87, 93, 107, 109, 116, 118, 136, 140. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard Saint-Denis: Nos. 6, 13, Caf� Magny. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard St. Jacques: Nos*. 69. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Saint-Marcel: No. 21. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Saint Martin: Nos. 14, 16, 18, 20. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard Saint Michel: No. 20; Caf� du Mus�e, 25;
+      Caf� Miller, 65;
+      Restaurant Moli�re, 73; Dreher Beer House, 99;
+      School of Mines. _Dam._
+  Boulevard S�bastopol: Nos. 9, 11, 13, 15. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 42, *65, 83. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard du Temple: Nos. 52, 54. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 2, 19, 20, 22, 24, 26, 30, 32, 34,
+      35, 38, 40, 44, 50. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard de la Villette: Nos. 85, 87, 117, Usine Falk. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 97, 128, 134, 136, 138, 140, 162. _Damaged_.
+  Boulevard Voltaire: Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 20, 22, 28, 60. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 38, 63, 55, 60, 78, 94, 97, 98, 141, 166. _Damaged_.
+  Carrefour de l'Observatoire; No. 11. _Damaged_.
+  Chauss�e Clignancourt: "Ch�teau-Rouge" (a public dancing-room). _Damaged_.
+  Chauss�e du Maine: No. 164. _Dam_.
+  Chauss�e de M�nilmontant: Nos. 56, 58, 81, 98. _Damaged_.
+  Croix-Rouge (cross way): Nos. 2, 4. _Burnt_.
+  Faubourg Montmartre: No. 50,64. _Dam_.
+  Faubourg Poissonni�re: Nos. 39, 168. _Damaged_.
+  Faubourg Saint-Antoine: No. 2. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 1, 8, 4, 6, 6, 7, 22, 141, 164, 156, 158, 162. _Damaged_.
+  Faubourg Saint-Denis: Nos. 68, 77,114, 208 bis, 214. _Damaged_.
+  Faubourg Saint-Honor�: Nos. 1, 2, 3. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 4, 29, 30, 33, 85. _Damaged_.
+  Faubourg Saint-Martin: Nos. *55, 66, 67, 69, 71, "Tapis Rouge." _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 147, 184, 221, 234, 267. _Dam_.
+  Faubourg du Temple: No. 30. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 9, 16, 17, 19, 20, 26, 29, 32, 33, 36, 41, 47, 48, 49, 53, 64,
+    66, 73, 81, 82, 98, 94, 106, 117. _Dam_.
+  Impasse Constantine: No. 2. _Damaged_.
+  Impasse Saint-Sauveur: No. 2. _Dam_.
+  Passage du Sauinon. _Damaged_.
+  Place de la Bastille: Nos. 8, 10, 12, Poste de l'Ecluse. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 4, 5, 6, 14. _Damaged_.
+  Place Blanche: Nos. 2, 3. _Damaged_.
+  Place Cambronne: No. 8. _Damaged_.
+  Place du Ch�teau-d'Eau: Nos. 7, 15. _Burnt_.
+    *9,13, "Pauvres Jacques;" Nos. 17, 19, 21, 23, Caf� du
+  Ch�teau-d'Eau. _Damaged_.
+  Place de la Concorde (Fountain). _Dam_.
+  Place de la Concorde (Statue of Lille). _Destroyed_.
+  Place de l'H�tel de Ville: Nos. 1, 3, 7, 9, 11. _Burnt_.
+  Place de Jessaint: No. 4. _Damaged_.
+  Place du Louvre: No. 1. _Burnt_.
+  Place de la Madeleine: No. 31. _Dam_.
+  Place de l'Od�on: No. 8; Caf� de Bruxelles. _Damaged_.
+  Place de l'Opera: No. 3. _Damaged_.
+  Place Pigalle: No. 1. _Damaged_.
+  Place de la Sorbonne: No. 8. _Dam_.
+  Place Valhubert: "Ch�let du Jardin." _Damaged_.
+  Place des Victoires: No. 2. _Damaged_.
+  Place de Vintimille: Nos. 1, 27. _Dam_.
+  Place Voltaire: No. 7. _Burnt_.
+    No. 9. _Damaged_.
+  Quai d'Anjou: Nos. 5, 11, 19, 23, 27, 43; "Au Petit Matelot." _Damaged_.
+  Quai de Bercy: No. 12, 13. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 3, 5, 10. _Damaged_.
+  Quai de B�thune: Nos. 12, 20. _Dam_.
+  Quai Bourbon: No. 3. _Damaged_.
+  Quai des C�lestins: No. 6. _Damaged_.
+  Quai de G�vres: No. 2. _Burnt_.
+  Quai de l'H�tel-de-Ville: Nos. 28, 68, 72, 78, 82. _Damaged_.
+  Quai de Jemappes: Nos. 18, 80, 34, 42. _Damaged_.
+    No. 32. _Burnt_.
+  Quai de la Loire: Nos. 10, 84, 86, 88. _Burnt_.
+    No. 60. _Damaged_.
+  Quai du Louvre: Nos. 2, 4, 6. _Dam_.
+  Quai de la M�gisserie: No. 22; "Belle Jardini�re." _Damaged_.
+  Quai d'Orsay (a Club). _Damaged._
+  Quai de la Rap�e: No. 92, 94, 96, 98, 100, _Burnt_.
+  Quai de Valmy: Nos. 27, 29. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 31, 39, 48, 71, 73, 79. _Dam._
+  Quai Voltaire: No. 9, 13, 17. _Dam._
+  Rue d'Alibert: Nos. 1, 2; _Damaged._
+  Rue d'Allemagne: Nos. 2, 10. _Dam._
+  Rue d'Alsace: Nos. 31, 33, 39. _Dam._
+  Rue des Amandiers: Nos. 3, 4, 20, 65,86, 87. _Damaged._
+  Rue Amelot: Nos. 2, 21, 25, 104, 106,139. _Damaged._
+  Rue de l'Ancienne Com�die: No. 2: "� Mazarin" (drapers). _Damaged._
+  Rue d'Angoul�me: Nos. 2, 28, 31, 43, 72bis. _Damaged._
+  Rue d'Anjou: No. 23. _Damaged._
+  Rue de l'Arcade: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue de l'Arsenal: No. 3. _Burnt._
+  Rue d'Assas: Nos. 80, *78, 86, 90, 96, 98, 106, 112, 118, 124. _Dam._
+  Rue d'Aubervilliers: No. 138. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 2, 24, 88, 92, 96. _Damaged._
+  Rue Audran: No. 1. _Damaged._
+  Rue d'Aval: No. 11. _Damaged._
+    No. 17. _Burnt._
+  Rue du Bac: Nos. 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 54, 55, 56, Leborgne House, 58, 62, 64. _Damaged._
+  Rue Barrault: Nos. 3, 31. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Belleville: Nos. 1, 2, 66, 70, 89, 91, 133. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Bercy: No. 257. _Damaged._
+  Rue Bichat: No. 67. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Bisson: No. 49. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Blanche: Nos. 97, 99. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Boissy-d'Anglas: No. 31. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 33, 35, 37. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Bondy: Nos. 16, 17, 19, 21. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. *22, *32; 24, 26, Grand Caf� Parisien, 28, 30, 40, 44. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Br�a: Nos; 1. _Burnt_.
+    No. 3. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Bruxelles: No. 29. _Damaged_
+  Rue de Buffon: Nos. 1, 3. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Butte-aux-Cailles: Nos. 1, 16. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Butte-Chaumont: No. 1. _Burnt_.
+  Rue Cail: No. 25. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Castex: No. 20. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Cerisaie: Nos. 20, 41, 45, 47. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Chapelle: Nos. 6, 16, 19, 35, 37, 75, 77. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Charbonni�re: Nos. 32, 42. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Charenton: No. 1. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 100, 102, 187, 214, 230. _Dam._.
+  Rue de Charonne: Nos. 61,79,155. _Dam._.
+  Rue du Ch�teau: Nos. 169,180. _Dam._
+  Rue du Ch�teau-d'Eau: Nos. 1, 3, 73. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 32, 55, 71, 75, 79, 81, _Dam._
+  Rue de la Chauss�e-d'Antin: Nos. 58, 64, 68. _Damaged_.
+  Rue du Chemin-Vert: Nos. 46,54. _Dam._
+  Rue Clavel: No. 3. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Clignancourt: Nos. 9, 39, 43, 45, 49, 59. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Conti: No. 2. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Cotte: No. 8. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Coutellerie: No. 2. _Burnt_.
+  Rue de Crim�e: Nos. 156, 158. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 81, 83, 155, 163. _Damaged_.
+  Rue du Croissant: (Saint Joseph's Market). _Damaged_.
+  Rue Curial: No. 134. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Damesne: No. 1. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Delambre: Nos. 2, 4, _Burnt_.
+  Rue Descartes: No. 6. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Domat: No. 24. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Dombasle: No. 61. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Durantin: No. 7. _Damaged_.
+  Rue des Ecoles: No. 25. _Damaged_.
+  Rue d'Elz�vir: Nos. 4,7, ll, 12; "Auberge de la Bouteille" (inn). _Dam._
+  Rue de l'Esp�rance: Nos. 7, 11. _Dam._
+  Rue Fl�chier: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue Folies-M�ricourt: Nos. 51, 64, 75. _Damaged._
+    No. 115. _Burnt._
+  Rue des Francs-Bourgeois: No. 33, Hotel Carnavalet. _Damaged._
+  Rue Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire: No. 18. _Dam._
+  Rue de la Glaci�re: Nos. 36, 75. _Dam._
+  Rue Grange-aux-Belles: No. 20. _Dam._
+  Rue de Grenelle: Nos. 1, 3. _Burnt._
+    No. 34. _Damaged._
+  Rue Guy-Patin: No. 3. _Damaged._
+  Rue des Halles: No. 28. _Damaged._
+  Rue Jacques-Coeur: No. 31. _Dam._
+  Rue Joquelet: No. 12. _Damaged._
+  Rue Julien-Lacroix: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Jussieu: No. 41. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Lafayette: No. 107, 127. _Dam._
+    Nos. 196, Aubin (fireworks), 208, 213, 215. _Damaged._
+  Rue Lacu�e: Nos. 2, 4, 6. _Burnt._
+  Rue de Lappe: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue Lepelletier: No. 26. _Damaged._
+  Rue Lesdigui�res: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue Levert: No. 12. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Lille: Nos. 27, 37, 39, 43, 45,
+      *47, 48, 49, 50, 51, Museum of M. Gatteaux, bequeathed to nation,
+      53, 55, 57, 61, 63, 65, 67, 69, 81, 83. _Burnt._
+  Rue Louis-le-Qrand: Nos. 32, 34. _Dam._
+  Rue du Louvre: Nos. 6, 8. _Burnt._
+  Rue de la Lune: No. 1. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Lyon: No. 16. _Damaged._
+  Rue des Marais: No. 68. _Damaged._
+  Rue du Maroc: No. 38. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Meaux: Nos. 2, 14. _Damaged._
+  Rue M�nars: No. 8. _Damaged._
+  Rue Meslay: No. 2. _Burnt._
+  Rue Montmartre: Nos. 49, 53, 55. _Dam._
+  Rue Montorgueil: Nos. 1, 29, 31, 33, 65. _Damaged._
+  Rue Mouffetard: Nos. 132, 134, 136,
+      138, 139, 150; Church of St. M�dard. _Damaged._
+  Rue du Moulin-des-Pr�s: Nos. 83, 85. _Damaged._
+  Rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs: No. 105, Piver's. _Damaged._
+  Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs: Nos. 52, 54.
+    Studio of M. John Leighton. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 55, 57. _Damaged._
+  Rue Notre-Dame-de-Nazareth: Nos. 16, 31. _Damaged._
+  Rue Oberkampf: No. 4; � la Ville
+      d'Alen�on, No. 11, 12, 13, 15, 25,
+      36, 37, 41, 49, 50, 53, 57, 60, 67. _Damaged._
+  Rue aux Ours: Nos. 47, 48, 49, 55. _Dam._
+  Rue des Petites-Ecuries: Nos. 2, 4. _Damaged._
+  Rue du Petit-Muse: No. 21. _Damaged._
+  Rue Pierre Lescot: No. 16. _Damaged._
+  Rue Popincourt: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue du Pressoir: No. 54. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Provence: No. *20. No. 23. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Puebla: Nos. 2, 3, 4, 17, 30, 292. _Damaged._
+  Rue Racine: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue Rambuteau: Nos. 32, 58, 60, 102.
+      "Aux Fabriques de France:" No. 124. _Damaged._
+    No. 16, "Colosse de Rhodes;" No. 19,
+      Caf� du Marais; Nos. 26, 28, 30,
+      34, 62, 65, 72; Mr. Leforestier's
+      house, "� l'Alliance," Nos. 49, 61,
+      63, 66, 69, 71. _Damaged._
+  Rue Ramey: Nos. 41, 43. _Damaged._
+  Rue Rampon: No. 18. _Damaged._
+  Rue R�aumur: Nos. 14, 25, 43. _Dam._
+  Rue de Rennes: No. 2; Caf� de Rennes, 161. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Reuilly: No. 68. _Damaged._
+  Rue du Rhin: No. 6. _Damaged._
+  Rue Riquet: Nos. 63, 64. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Rivoli: Nos. 33, 35, 37, 39, 79,
+      80, 82, 84, 86, 91, 98, 100; "� Pygmalion." _Burnt._
+    Nos. 41, 88, 128, 210, 226, 236, 238. _Damaged._
+  Rue Rollin; No. 18. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Roquette: Nos. 1, 3, 6, 7, 9, 11 13, 18, 19, 20, 22,
+    24, 26. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 4, 8, 15, 17, 34, 87, 38, 78. _Dam_.
+  Rue Royale: Nos. 15, 18, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 24, 27. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint Andr�-des-Arts: Nos. 26, 42. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint-Antoine: Nos. 3, 7, 9, 114, 142, 150, 152, 160, 176,
+    178, 182,192, 194, 198, 199, 201, 202, 203, 204, 206, 207, 212;
+    "� la Fianc�e," No. 213; "Phares de la Bastille," 214, 216, 218,
+    220, 222, 224, 226, 228, 232, 234, 236; Protestant Church. _Dam_.
+  Petite rue Saint Antoine: Nos, 3, 7, 9. _Damaged_.
+    Nos. 11, 18. _Burnt_.
+  Rue Saint-Denis: No. 223; �glise Saint Leu. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint-Fiacre: No. 15. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint-Honor�: No. 422. _Burnt_.
+    No. 132. _Dam_.
+  Rue Saint-Jacques: Nos. 26, 146, 164, Caf� de l'Ecole de Droit,1
+    36, 195, 198, 216. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint-Lazare: No. 46. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Sainte-Marguerite: No. 22. _Dam_.
+  Rue Saint-Martin: Nos. 8, 10; "The Bon-Diable." Nos. 12, 14. _Burnt_
+    Nos. *16, 248. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint-Maur: Nos. 151, 184, 225, 227. _Damaged_.
+  Rue des Saints-P�res: Nos. 46, 48. _Dam_.
+  Rue Saint-Sabin: Nos. 2, 4, 6. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 3, 10, 12, 14. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint S�bastien: Nos. 42, 43, 44. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Sauval: No. 13. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Sant�: No. 63. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Sedaine: No. 1. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20. _Damaged_.
+  Rue du Sentier: No. 22. _Damaged_.
+  Rue du 4 Septembre: No. 13. _Dam_.
+  Rue de S�vres: No. 2. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 14, 16 (reservoir); Nos. 91, 92, 141. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Sully: No. 11. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Suresnes: Nos. 1, 9, 15, 17, 19. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Tacherie: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4. _Burnt_.
+  Rue Taitbout: Nos. 22, 26. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Taranne*: No. 10. _Damaged_.
+  Rue du Temple: Nos. 7, 10, 39, 201. _Damaged_.
+    No. 207. _Burnt_.
+  Rue Toquelet: No. 12. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Traversi�re: No. 53. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Turbigo; Nos. 1, 3; "Au Grand Parisien," Nos. 5, 8, 11, 19,
+    21, 47; Church of Saint-Nicholas-des-Champs, Nos. 51, 53, 56, 63,
+    74. _Damaged_.
+  Rue De Vaugirard: Nos. 60, 68, 69, 70, Convent des Carmes, 82, School
+    for Girls, 92, School for Boys. _Dam_.
+  Rue Vavin: Nos. 2, *18, 20, 22. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 16, 34, 36, 39. _Damaged_.
+    54 (Collection of M. Reiber, Architect). _Destroyed_.
+  Rue de la Victoire: No. 61. _Damaged_.
+  Rue du Vieux-Colombier: No. 31. _Dam_.
+  Rue Vilin: No. 2. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Villette: Nos. 20, 25, 26, 70. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Ville l'Ev�que: Nos. 7, 18. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Volta: No. 38. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Wiarmes: No. 1. _Damaged_.
+
+The barricades of Paris numbered about 600--from a slight breast-work to
+a veritable fortress.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+INDEX TO PLAN.
+
+    B. Burnt. P.B. Partly Burnt. D. Damaged. S. Damaged by Shot and
+    Shell.
+
+
+NORTH OF THE RIVER SEINE.
+
+                                     Div. of Map.
+   1 Palace of the Tuileries, B.          8
+   2 Museum of the Louvre, P.B.           8
+   3 Palais Royal, B.                     8
+   4 The Bourse (Exchange)                8
+   5 The New Opera-House                  8
+   6 The Church of the Madeleine, D.      8
+   7 The Column Vend�me (overthrown)      8
+   8 The Palace of the Elys�e             7
+   9 The Triumphal Arch, D.               7
+  10 Palais de l'Industrie, B.            7
+  11 Church of St. Augustin, D.           8
+  12    "   of the Trinity, B.            8
+  13    "   Notre Dame de Lorette         8
+  14 Minist�re of Marine                  8
+  15 Biblioth�que Nationale               8
+  16 Halles Centrales, S.                 8
+  17 Church of Saint Eustache, D.         8
+  18 Op�ra Comique                        8
+  19 Church of St. Vincent de Paul        8
+  20 Hospital of Lariboisi�re, D.         3
+  21 Barracks of Prince Eug�ne, D.        9
+  22 Hospital of St. Louis                9
+  23 Prison of La Roquette, D.           14
+  24 Statue of Prince Eug�ne (removed)   14
+  25 H�tel de Ville, B.                  13
+  26 Tower of St. Jacques, D.            13
+  27 Prison of Mazas                     14
+  28 Barracks Napol�on, B.               14
+  29 Conservatoire of Arts and M�tiers    9
+  30 Hospital of St. Eug�nie             15
+  31 Cattle Market and Slaughter H.       5
+  32 Magasins of Bercy (sacked)          20
+  33 Minist�re des Finances, B.           8
+  34 Place de la Concorde, D.             8
+  86 Porte St. Denis, D.                  8
+  36 Porte St. Martin, D.                 9
+  37 Theatre of Porte St. Martin, B.      9
+  38 Church of St. Laurent, D.            9
+  39 Mairie 1st Arrondissement, D.        8
+  40 Th��tre du Chatelet, P.B.           13
+  41 Th��tre Lyrique, B.                 13
+  42 Caisse Municipale, B.               13
+  43 Assistance Publique, B.             13
+  44 Mairie IVth Arrondissement, P.B.    14
+  45 Magasins-R�unis, D.                  9
+  46 Th��tre des Del. Comiques, B.        9
+  47 Mairie XIth Arrondissement, P.B.    14
+  48 Column of July, D.                  14
+  49 The Arsenal, B.                     14
+  50 Hospital of Salp�tri�re, B.         19
+  51 Granary of Abundance, B.            14
+  52 Lyons Railway Station, P.B.         14
+  53 Mairie of XIIth Arrondissement
+     and Church of Bercy, B.             14
+
+SOUTH OF THE RIVER SEINE.
+
+   1 Foreign Office, D.                   7
+   2 Military School                     12
+   3 Les Invalides and Tomb of
+     Napol�on I.                         12
+   4 Corps L�gislatif                     7
+   5 Barracks d'Orsay, P.B.               8
+   6 Palace of the Institute             13
+   7 The Mint                            13
+   8 Church of St. Sulpice               13
+   9 Palace of the Luxembourg, D.        13
+  10 Od�on Theatre, D.                   13
+  11 Museum of Cluny                     13
+  12 Palais de Justice, B.               13
+  13 Cathedral of Notre Dame             13
+  14 Church of the Pantheon, D.          13
+  15 Church of Val de Gr�ce              13
+  16 The Observatory                     18
+  17 Wine Market (sacked)                14
+  18 Palace of L�gion d'Honneur, B.       8
+  19 Conseil d'�tat and Exchequer, B.     8
+  20 Bank of Deposit, B.                  8
+  21 Western Railway Station, B.         13
+  22 Gobelins Tapestry Manufactory, P.B. 18
+  23 Orleans Railway Station, P.B.       14
+
+
+See western side of Plan for the fire and devastation caused by shot and
+shell during the engagements between the Federal troops and the army of
+Versailles:--Point du Jour, Auteuil, Passy, Porte Maillot, Avenue de la
+Grande Arm�e (Arc de Triomphe, much injured), Neuilly, Villiers,
+Lavallois, &c.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: PLAN OF PARIS ILLUSTRATIVE OF MR. LEIGHTON'S "PARIS
+UNDER THE COMMUNE."]
+
+[Illustration: PARTS DESTROYED OR DAMAGED DURING THE REIGN OF THE
+COMMUNE 18. MARCH TO 29. MAY 1871.]
+
+[Illustration: Map of Paris]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Paris under the Commune, by John Leighton
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+<pre>
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Paris under the Commune, by John Leighton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
+the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+Title: Paris under the Commune
+       The Seventy-Three Days of the Second Siege; With Numerous Illustrations,
+       Sketches Taken on the Spot, and Portraits (from the Original Photographs)
+       
+Author: John Leighton
+
+Release Date: January 29, 2004 [EBook #10861]
+[Most recently updated: June 7, 2020]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARIS UNDER THE COMMUNE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Produced by Robert Connal, Wilelmina Malliere
+and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-1"></a>
+<img src="images/001.jpg" width="498" height="386" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>the Column of July</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<h1>PARIS<br/>
+UNDER THE COMMUNE:
+</h1>
+
+<h3>OR,</h3>
+
+<h2>THE SEVENTY-THREE DAYS OF THE<br/>
+SECOND SIEGE</h2>
+
+<h4>WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS, SKETCHES TAKEN ON THE SPOT, AND
+PORTRAITS (FROM THE ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS).</h4>
+
+<h2>BY JOHN LEIGHTON, F.S.A.,<br/>
+&amp;C.</h2>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<img src="images/002.jpg" width="96" height="96" alt="Illustration: " />
+</div>
+
+<h4>LONDON:<br/>
+1871.</h4>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="letter">
+Socialism, or the Red Republic, is all one; for it would tear down the
+tricolour and set up the red flag. It would make penny pieces out of the Column
+Vendôme. It would knock down the statue of Napoleon and raise up that of Marat
+in its stead. It would suppress the Académie, the École Polytechnique, and the
+Legion of Honour. To the grand device Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, it
+would add &ldquo;Ou la mort.&rdquo; It would bring about a general bankruptcy.
+It would ruin the rich without enriching the poor. It would destroy labour,
+which gives to each one his bread. It would abolish property and family. It
+would march about with the heads of the proscribed on pikes, fill the prisons
+with the suspected, and empty them by massacres. It would convert France into
+the country of gloom. It would strangle liberty, stifle the arts, silence
+thought, and deny God. It would bring into action these two fatal machines, one
+of which never works without the other&mdash;the assignat press and the
+guillotine. In a word, it would do in cold blood what the men of 1793 did in
+fever, and after the grand horrors which our fathers saw, we should have the
+horrible in all that was low and small.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+(VICTOR HUGO, 1848.)
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<img src="images/003.jpg" width="96" height="96" alt="Illustration: " />
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="pref01"></a> PREFACE.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Early in June of the present year I was making notes and
+sketches, without the least idea of what I should do with them. I
+was at the Mont-Parnasse Station of the Western Railway, awaiting
+a train from Paris to St. Cloud. Our fellow passengers, as we
+discovered afterwards, were principally prisoners for Versailles;
+the guards, soldiers; and the line, for two miles at least,
+appeared desolation and ruin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The façade of the station, a very large one, was pockmarked all over by Federal
+bullets, whilst cannon balls had cut holes through the stone wall as if it had
+been cheese, and gone down the line, towards Cherbourg or Brest! The restaurant
+below was nearly annihilated, the counters, tables, and chairs being reduced to
+a confused heap. But there was a book-stall and on that book-stall reposed a
+little work, entitled the &ldquo;Bataille des Sept Jours,&rdquo; a brochure
+which a friend bought and gave to me, saying, &ldquo;<i>Voilà la texte de vos
+croquis</i>,&rdquo; From seven days my ideas naturally wandered to
+seventy-three&mdash;the duration of the reign of the Commune&mdash;and then
+again to two hundred and twenty days&mdash;that included the Commune of 1871
+and its antecedents. Hence this volume, which I liken to a French château, to
+which I have added a second storey and wings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now that the house is finished, I must render my obligations to M. Mendès
+and numerous French friends, for their kind assistance and valuable aid,
+including my confrères of &ldquo;<i>The Graphic</i>,&rdquo; who have allowed me
+to enliven the walls with pictures from their stores; and last, and not least,
+my best thanks are due to an English Peer, who placed at my disposal his unique
+collection of prints and journals of the period bearing upon the
+subject&mdash;a subject I am pretty familiar with. Powder has done its work,
+the smell of petroleum has passed away, the house that called me master has
+vanished from the face of the earth, and my concierge and his wife are reported
+<i>fusillés</i> by the Versaillais; and to add to the disaster, my rent was
+paid in advance, having been deposited with a <i>notaire</i> prior to the First
+Siege.... But my neighbours, where are they? In my immediate neighbourhood six
+houses were entirely destroyed, and as many more half ruined. I can only speak
+of one friend, an amiable and able architect, who, alas! remonstrated in
+person, and received a ball from a revolver through the back of his neck. His
+head is bowed for life. He has lost his pleasure and his treasure, a valuable
+museum of art,&mdash;happily they could not burn his reputation, or the
+monument of his life&mdash;a range of goodly folio volumes that exist
+&ldquo;<i>pour tous</i>.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+L.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+LONDON, 1871.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><b>Contents</b></h2>
+
+<table summary="" style="">
+
+<tr>
+<td></td><td><a href="#pref01">PREFACE</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td></td><td><a href="#pref02">LIST OF PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER</td><td><a href="#pref03">The 30th October, 1870&mdash;The Hôtel de Ville
+invaded&mdash;Governor Trochu resigns&mdash;A Revolt
+attempted&mdash;Meetings, Place de la Bastille&mdash;The
+Prussians enter Paris&mdash;Hostility of the National Guard</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>I.</td><td><a href="#I.">The Memorable 18th of March&mdash;Line and Nationals Fraternise&mdash;Discipline at a Discount</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>II.</td><td><a href="#II.">Assassination of Generals Lecomte and Clément
+Thomas</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>III.</td><td><a href="#III.">Proclamation of M. Picard&mdash;The Government retires to
+Versailles</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>IV.</td><td><a href="#IV.">The New Regime Proclaimed&mdash;Obscurity of New Masters</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>V.</td><td><a href="#V.">Paris Hesitates&mdash;Small Sympathy with Versailles</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>VI.</td><td><a href="#VI.">The Buttes Montmartre</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>VII.</td><td><a href="#VII.">An Issue Possible&mdash;An Approved Proclamation</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>VIII.</td><td><a href="#VIII.">Demonstration of the Friends of Order</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>IX.</td><td><a href="#IX.">The Drama of the Rue de la Paix&mdash;Victims to Order</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>X.</td><td><a href="#X.">A Wedding</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XI.</td><td><a href="#XI.">The Bourse and Belleville</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XII.</td><td><a href="#XII.">Watching and Waiting</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XIII.</td><td><a href="#XIII.">A Timid but Prudent Person</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XIV.</td><td><a href="#XIV.">Some Federal Opinions</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XV.</td><td><a href="#XV.">Proclamation of Admiral Saisset&mdash;Paris Satisfied.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XVI.</td><td><a href="#XVI.">A Widow</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XVII.</td><td><a href="#XVII.">The Central Committee Triumphs</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XVIII.</td><td><a href="#XVIII.">Paris Elections</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XIX.</td><td><a href="#XIX.">The Commune a Fact&mdash;A Motley Assembly</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XX.</td><td><a href="#XX.">Proclamation of the Elections</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XXI.</td><td><a href="#XXI.">A Batch of Official Decrees&mdash;Landlord, and Tenant</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XXII.</td><td><a href="#XXII.">Requisitions and Feasts</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XXIII.</td><td><a href="#XXIII.">Removals and Retirements</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XXIV.</td><td><a href="#XXIV.">A General Flight</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XXV.</td><td><a href="#XXV.">An Envoy to Garibaldi</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XXVI.</td><td><a href="#XXVI.">Commencement of Civil War&mdash;Beyond the Arc de Triomphe</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XXVII.</td><td><a href="#XXVII.">Mont Valérien opens on the Federals&mdash;Contradictory News</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XXVIII.</td><td><a href="#XXVIII.">Death of General Duval&mdash;Able Administration</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XXIX.</td><td><a href="#XXIX.">Antipathy to the Church&mdash;The Archbishop Interrogated</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XXX.</td><td><a href="#XXX.">The Accomplices of Versailles</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XXXI.</td><td><a href="#XXXI.">Death of Colonel Flourens</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XXXII.</td><td><a href="#XXXII.">The Cross and the Red Flag</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XXXIII.</td><td><a href="#XXXIII.">Colonel Assy of Creuzot&mdash;Disgrace of Lullier</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XXXIV.</td><td><a href="#XXXIV.">Fighting goes on</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XXXV.</td><td><a href="#XXXV.">Federal Funerals</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XXXVI.</td><td><a href="#XXXVI.">Prudent Counsel</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XXXVII.</td><td><a href="#XXXVII.">Suppression of Newspapers</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XXXVIII.</td><td><a href="#XXXVIII.">The Second Bombardment&mdash;Avenue de la Grande Armée&mdash;Reckless Aim of the Versaillais</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XXXIX.</td><td><a href="#XXXIX.">The Plan of Bergeret</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XL.</td><td><a href="#XL.">Another General&mdash;Police and Pressgang&mdash;A Citizen of the World</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XLI.</td><td><a href="#XLI.">Women and Children</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XLII.</td><td><a href="#XLII.">Why is Conciliation Impossible?</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XLIII.</td><td><a href="#XLIII.">The Portable Guillotine</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XLIV.</td><td><a href="#XLIV.">The Common Grave</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XLV.</td><td><a href="#XLV.">Idle Paris</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XLVI.</td><td><a href="#XLVI.">The Press</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XLVII.</td><td><a href="#XLVII.">Day follows Day</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XLVIII.</td><td><a href="#XLVIII.">The Condemned Column&mdash;Model Decrees</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XLIX.</td><td><a href="#XLIX.">Thiers and Conciliation&mdash;Paris and France</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>L.</td><td><a href="#L.">Communist Caricatures&mdash;Political Satire</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LI.</td><td><a href="#LI.">Gustave Courbet&mdash;Federation of Art&mdash;Courbet, President</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LII.</td><td><a href="#LII.">Camp, Place Vendôme</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LIII.</td><td><a href="#LIII.">Elections of the 16th of April</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LIV.</td><td><a href="#LIV.">The &ldquo;Change&rdquo; under the Commune</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LV.</td><td><a href="#LV.">Elections sans Electors&mdash;Farce of Universal Suffrage</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LVI.</td><td><a href="#LVI.">À la Mode de Londres</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LVII.</td><td><a href="#LVII.">The Little Sisters of the Poor</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LVIII.</td><td><a href="#LVIII.">Bécon and Asnières taken&mdash;Declaration to the French People&mdash;Federation of Communes&mdash;The Commune or the Deluge</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LIX.</td><td><a href="#LIX.">A Court-Martial</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LX.</td><td><a href="#LX.">A Heroic Gamin</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXI.</td><td><a href="#LXI.">Killing the Dead</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXII.</td><td><a href="#LXII.">The Truce at Neuilly&mdash;Porte-Maillot destroyed&mdash;Neuilly in Ruins</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXIII.</td><td><a href="#LXIII.">Masonic Mediation&mdash;The Envoy of Peace&mdash;Citizens and Brothers&mdash;A White Flag on Porte-Maillot</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXIV.</td><td><a href="#LXIV.">Prudent Monsieur Pyat</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXV.</td><td><a href="#LXV.">Resources of the Commune&mdash;The Royal Road to Riches</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXVI.</td><td><a href="#LXVI.">The Prophecy of Proudhon</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXVII.</td><td><a href="#LXVII.">Revolutionary Balloons</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXVIII.</td><td><a href="#LXVIII.">A Confession of Conscience</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXIX.</td><td><a href="#LXIX.">Communist Journalism&mdash;Sensation Articles</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXX.</td><td><a href="#LXX.">Fort Issy falls</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXXI.</td><td><a href="#LXXI.">Cluseret arrested</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXXII.</td><td><a href="#LXXII.">The Executive Commission&mdash;Committee of Public Safety</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXXIII.</td><td><a href="#LXXIII.">A Competent Tribunal</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXXIV.</td><td><a href="#LXXIV.">The Password betrayed</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXXV.</td><td><a href="#LXXV.">The Condemned Chapel</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXXVI.</td><td><a href="#LXXVI.">Restitution is Robbery</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXXVII.</td><td><a href="#LXXVII.">The Nuns of Picpus</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXXVIII.</td><td><a href="#LXXVIII.">Rossel resigns&mdash;The Semblance of a Government</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXXIX.</td><td><a href="#LXXIX.">Want of Funds&mdash;The Sinews of War</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXXX.</td><td><a href="#LXXX.">Passwords&mdash;The Chariot of Apollo&mdash;Refractories</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXXXI.</td><td><a href="#LXXXI.">Sacrilege&mdash;Clubs in the Churches</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXXXII.</td><td><a href="#LXXXII.">Refractories in Danger</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXXXIII.</td><td><a href="#LXXXIII.">The Home of M. Thiers, Demolition and Removal</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXXXIV.</td><td><a href="#LXXXIV.">Filial Love</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXXXV.</td><td><a href="#LXXXV.">Communal Secessionists&mdash;Save himself who can</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXXXVI.</td><td><a href="#LXXXVI.">The Failing Cause&mdash;The Column Vendôme falls</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXXXVII.</td><td><a href="#LXXXVII.">A Concert at the Tuileries</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXXXVIII.</td><td><a href="#LXXXVIII.">Cartridge Magazine Explosion</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>LXXXIX.</td><td><a href="#LXXXIX.">The Advent of Action&mdash;Paris ceases to smile</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XC.</td><td><a href="#XC.">The Troops enter&mdash;Street Fortifications&mdash;Insurgents at home</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XCI.</td><td><a href="#XCI.">Arrests and Murders</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XCII.</td><td><a href="#XCII.">Fire and Sword</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XCIII.</td><td><a href="#XCIII.">Barricade at the Place de Clichy</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XCIV.</td><td><a href="#XCIV.">Rack and Ruin</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XCV.</td><td><a href="#XCV.">Bloodshed and Brigandage</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XCVI.</td><td><a href="#XCVI.">Hôtel de Ville on Fire&mdash;A Furnace</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XCVII.</td><td><a href="#XCVII.">Pétroleurs and Pétroleuses</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XCVIII.</td><td><a href="#XCVIII.">Streets of Paris</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>XCIX.</td><td><a href="#XCIX.">The Expiring Demons&mdash;The Hostages&mdash;Reprisals&mdash;Cemeteries</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>C.</td><td><a href="#C.">Sewers and Catacombs</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>CI.</td><td><a href="#CI.">Mourning and Sadness</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+</table>
+
+<h2><b>APPENDIX</b></h2>
+
+<table summary="" style="">
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#CHRONOLOGY_OF_THE_PARISIAN_INSURRECTION">Chronology of the Commune</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#I._Page_2._HENRI_ROCHEFORT.">Memoir of Rochefort.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#II._Page_27._THE_EIGHTEENTH_OF_MARCH.">The 18th of March</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#III._Page_77._THE_PRUSSIANS_AND_THE_CO">The Prussians and the Commune</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#IV._Page_88._GAMBON.">Memoir of Gambon</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#V._Page_120.._LULLIER.">Memoir of Lullier</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#VI._Page_220._PROTOT.">Memoir of Protot</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#VII._Page_229.">Translation from Victor Hugo</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#VIII._Page_231._JOURDE.">Note of Jourde</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#IX._Page_316.">Last Proclamations of the Commune</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#X._Page_335.">Note of Férré</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#XI._Page_342.">The Hostages&mdash;Gendarmes, &amp;c.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#XII._Page_345.">President Bonjean</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#XIII._Page_82._URBAIN.">Note of Urbain.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#XIV._THE_DEVASTATIONS_OF_PARIS.">Devastations of Paris</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#App._XV.">Official Report of General Ladmirault</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#App._XVI.">Ammunition expended on Second Siege of Paris</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#XVII._LIST_OF_PUBLIC">List of Monuments and Buildings destroyed</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#INDEX_TO_PLAN.">Index to Plan&mdash;Damage by Fire, &amp;c.</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+</table>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<img src="images/004.jpg" width="95" height="96" alt="Illustration: " />
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="pref02"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS:</h2>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-1">FRONTISPIECE</a>:&mdash;THE COLUMN OF JULY (HISTORY REPEATS
+ITSELF)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-2">PORTRAIT OF M. THIERS</a>, PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-3">THE STATE OF PARTY</a>&mdash;PICTURED By THEMSELVES.
+ALLEGORICAL PAGE&mdash;ROCHEFORT, CLÉMENT THOMAS, &amp;c. (<i>facsimile</i>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-4">COLUMN OF JULY</a>&mdash;PLACE DE LA BASTILLE
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-5">THE BUTTES MONTMARTRE</a>&mdash;FEDERAL ARTILLERY PARKED
+THERE
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-6">MONTMARTRE</a>&mdash;FIRST LINE OF SENTINELS
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-7">THE RED FLAG OF THE COLUMN OF JULY</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-8">PURIFICATION OF THE CHAMPS ÉLYSÉES</a> AFTER THE DEPARTURE
+OF THE PRUSSIANS&mdash;CONSTRUCTION OF THE FIRST BARRICADE, 18TH MARCH
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-9">DEFENCE OF THE HOTEL DE VILLE</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-10">SENTINELS,</a> BOULEVARD SAINT-MICHEL
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-11">BEHIND A BARRICADE</a>&mdash;THE DÉJEUNER
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-12">PORTRAIT OF GAMBON</a>, MEMBER OF THE COMMUNE
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-13">BEHIND A BARRICADE</a>&mdash;THE EVENING MEAL
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-14">PLACE DE LA CONCORDE</a>&mdash;FEDERALS GOING OUT
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-15">PORTRAIT OF GENERAL BERGERET</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-16">PORTRAIT OF ABBÉ DEGUERRY</a>, CURÉ OF THE MADELEINE
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-17">PORTRAIT OF RAOUL RIGAULT</a>, PROCUREUR OF THE COMMUNE
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-18">PORTRAIT OF MONSEIGNEUR DARBOY</a>, ARCHBISHOP OF PARIS
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-19">PORTRAIT OF COLONEL FLOURENS</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-20">PORTRAIT OF COLONEL ASSY</a>, GOVERNOR OF THE HOTEL DE
+VILLE
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-21">THE RED FLAG ON THE PANTHEON</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-22">PORTRAIT OF GENERAL CLUSERET</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-23">THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE DE L&rsquo;ÉTOILE</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-24">HORSE CHASSEUR ACTING AS COMMUNIST ARTILLERYMAN</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-25">MARINE GUNNER AND STREET BOY</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-26">THE CORPS LÉGISLATIF</a>&mdash;HEAD QUARTERS OF GENERAL
+BERGERET
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-27">PORTRAIT OF GENERAL DOMBROWSKI</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-28">BURNING THE GUILLOTINE IN THE PLACE VOLTAIRE</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-29">COLONNE VEND&Ocirc;ME</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-30">CARICATURE DURING THE COMMUNE</a>&mdash;LITTLE PARIS AND
+HIS PLAYTHINGS (<i>facsimile</i>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-31">THE MODERN &ldquo;EROSTRATE&rdquo;</a>&mdash;COURBET AND THE DEBRIS OF
+THE VEND&Ocirc;ME COLUMN
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-32">FEDERAL VISIT TO THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-33">PORTRAIT OF VERMOREL</a>, DELEGATE OF THE EXECUTIVE
+COMMISSION
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-34">FEMALE CURIOSITY AT PORTE MAILLOT</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-35">PORTE MAILLOT AND CHAPEL OF ST. FERDINAND</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-36">ARMISTICE</a>&mdash;INHABITANTS OF NEUILLY ENTERING PARIS
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-37">WATCHING FOR THE FIRST SHOT FROM FORT VALERIEN</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-38">FEMALE IMPERTURBABILITY AFTER THE ARMISTICE</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-39">PORTRAIT OF PROTOT</a>, DELEGATE OF JUSTICE
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-40">PORTRAIT OF FÉLIX PYAT</a>, MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE OF
+PUBLIC SAFETY
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-41">FREEMASONS AT THE RAMPARTS</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-42">PORTRAIT OF VERMESCH</a>, EDITOR OF THE &ldquo;PÈRE
+DUCHESNE&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-43">PORTRAIT OF PASCHAL CROUSSET</a>, DELEGATE OF FOREIGN
+AFFAIRS
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-44">PORTRAIT OF DUPONT</a>, COMMISSIONER OF TRADE AND COMMERCE
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-45">CHAPELLE EXPIATOIRE</a> (CONDEMNED BY THE COMMUNE)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-46">CARICATURE DURING THE COMMUNE</a>&mdash;PARIS EATS A
+GENERAL A-DAY (<i>facsimile</i>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-47">PORTRAIT OF DELESCLUZE</a>, DELEGATE OF WAR
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-48">PORTRAIT OF FONTAINE</a>, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC DOMAINS AND
+REGISTRATION
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-49">RÉFRACTAIRES ESCAPING FROM THE CITY BY NIGHT</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-50">PORTRAIT OF GENERAL LA CÉCILIA</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-51">CHURCH OF ST. EUSTACHE</a> (EXTERIOR)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-52">INTERIOR OF ST. EUSTACHE</a>, USED AS A RED CLUB
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-53">HOUSE OF M. THIERS IN THE PLACE ST. GEORGES</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-54">HOUSE DURING DEMOLITION&mdash;</a><a
+href="#image-54">AFTER ITS SACK</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-55">PORTRAIT OF COURNET</a>, PREFECT OF POLICE
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-56">PORTRAIT OF ARTHUR ARNOULD</a>, COMMISSIONER OF FOREIGN
+AFFAIRS
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-57">THE SEINE: FOUNDERED GUN-BOATS</a>&mdash;PORTE MAILLOT,
+DESOLATION AND DESTRUCTION
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-58">BARRICADE OF THE RUE CASTIGLIONE FROM THE PLACE
+VEND&Ocirc;ME</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-59">PALACE OF THE TUILERIES</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-60">PORTRAIT OF RAZOUA</a>, GOVERNOR OF THE MILITARY SCHOOL
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-61">CAFÉ LIFE UNDER THE COMMUNE</a>&mdash;A SLIGHT
+INTERRUPTION&mdash;PLAY-BILLS AND BURNT-OFFERINGS&mdash;&ldquo;SPECTACLES DE
+PARIS&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-62">PLACE DE LA CONCORDE</a>&mdash;STATUES OF LILLE AND
+STRASBOURG
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-63">FIRE AND WATER</a>&mdash;THE EFFECT OF FIRE ON THE
+FOUNTAINS OF THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE AND THE CHÂTEAU
+D&rsquo;EAU&mdash;HIRONDELLES DE PARIS
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-64">PORTRAIT OF JULES VALLÈS</a>, DELEGATE OF FOREIGN
+AFFAIRS AND OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-65">BARRICADE CLOSING THE RUE DE RIVOLI FROM THE PLACE DE LA
+CONCORDE</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-66">BULLET MARKS &ldquo;EN FACE&rdquo; AND &ldquo;EN PROFIL&rdquo;</a>&mdash;THE TREES
+AND LAMPS
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-67">RUE ROYALE</a>, LOOKING FROM THE MADELEINE TO THE PLACE DE
+LA CONCORDE
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-68">A WARM CORNER OF THE TUILERIES</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-69">PORTRAIT OF MILLIÈRE</a>, EX-DEPUTY, MEMBER OF THE
+COMMUNE
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-70">PALAIS DE JUSTICE</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-71">POLICE OF PARIS</a>&mdash;MINISTRY OF FINANCE, RUE DE
+RIVOLI
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-72">PORTRAIT OF FERRÉ</a>, PREFECT OF POLICE
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-73">PALACE OF THE LUXEMBOURG</a> (AMBULANCE HOSPITAL OF THE
+COMMUNE)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-74">PÉTROLEURS AND PÉTROLEUSES</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-75">THE THEATRE OF THE PORTE ST-MARTIN</a>&mdash;ALL THAT
+REMAINS OF THE HOME OF SENSATION DRAMA
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-76">CELL OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF PARIS IN THE PRISON OF LA
+ROQUETTE</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-77">YARD OF LA ROQUETTE</a> WHERE THE ARCHBISHOP AND HOSTAGES
+WERE SHOT
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-78">MY NEIGHBOUR</a> OPPOSITE, BUSINESS CARRIED ON AS
+USUAL&mdash;MY NEIGHBOUR NEXT DOOR, HE THINKS HIMSELF FORTUNATE
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-79">PARIS UNDERGROUND</a> (SEWERS AND CATACOMBS)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-80">THE ENEMIES OF PROGRESS</a> (LES ARISTOCRATES
+ENCORE)&mdash;CORPS DE GARDE DE L&rsquo;ARMÉE DE VERSAILLES
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-81">THE PUBLIC PROMENADES</a>&mdash;A CAMP IN THE
+LUXEMBOURG&mdash;THE NEW MASTERS&mdash;PROCLAMATION OVER PROCLAMATION
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-82">THE LUXEMBOURG</a> (PRESENT TOWN HALL OF PARIS, 1871)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-83">PORTRAIT OF MARSHAL MACMAHON</a>, DUKE OF MAGENTA
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-84">LIGHT AND AIR ONCE MORE</a>&mdash;THE FOSSE COMMUNE (THE
+END)
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+APPENDIX.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-85">MUSÉE OF THE LOUVRE</a>, FROM THE PLACE DU CARROUSEL
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-86">PALAIS ROYAL</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-87">HOTEL DE VILLE</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-88">FOREIGN OFFICE</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-89">PALACE OF THE LEGION OF HONOUR</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#image-90">MAP OF PARIS,</a> WITH INDICATIONS OF ALL THE PARTS DAMAGED
+OR DESTROYED.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-2"></a>
+<img src="images/005.jpg" width="331" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>M. Thiers,<br/>
+Voted Chief of the Executive Power Feb. 18.1871,<br/>
+and President of the Republic, Sept. 1871.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>PARIS<br/>
+UNDER THE COMMUNE.</h2>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="pref03"></a>INTRODUCTORY.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<img title="Liberté Égalité Fraternité"
+style="width: 93px; height: 96px;" alt="Liberté Égalité Fraternité"
+src="images/006.jpg" />
+Late in the day of the 30th October, 1870, the agitation was great in Paris;
+the news had spread that the village of Le Bourget had been retaken by the
+Prussians. The military report had done what it could to render the pill less
+bitter by saying that &ldquo;<i>this village did not form a part of the system of
+defence</i>,&rdquo; but the people though kept in ignorance perceived instinctively
+that there must be weakness on the part of the chiefs. After so much French
+blood had been shed in taking the place, men of brave will would not have been
+wanting to occupy it. We admit that Le Bourget may not have been important from
+a military point of view, but as regarding its moral effect its loss was much
+to be regretted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The irritation felt by the population of Paris was changed
+into exasperation, when on the following day the news of the
+reduction of Metz appeared in the <i>Official Journal</i>:
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;The Government has just been acquainted with the sad intelligence of the
+capitulation of Metz. Marshal Bazaine and his army were compelled to surrender,
+after heroic efforts, which the want of food and ammunition alone rendered it
+impossible to maintain. They have been made prisoners of war.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And after this the Government talks of an armistice! What!
+Strasburg, Toul, Metz, and so many other towns have resisted to
+the last dire extremity, and Paris, who expects succour from the
+provinces, is to capitulate, while a single effort is left
+untried? Has she no more bread? No more powder? Have her citizens
+no more blood in their veins? No, no! No armistice!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the morning, a deputation, formed of officers of the
+National Guards, went to the Hôtel de Ville to learn from
+the Government what were its intentions. They were received by M.
+Etienne Arago, who promised them that the decision should be made
+known to them about two o&rsquo;clock.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The rappel was beaten at the time mentioned; battalions of the
+National Guards poured into the Place, some armed, many without
+arms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Over the sea of heads the eye was attracted by banners, and
+enormous placards bearing the inscriptions&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Vive la République!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;No Armistice!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+or else
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Vive la Commune!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Death to Cowards!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Rochefort,<a href="#fn-1" name="fnref-1" id="fnref-1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> with several
+other members of the Government, shows himself at the principal
+gate, which is guarded by a company of Mobiles. General Trochu
+appears in undress; he is received with cries of &ldquo;<i>Vive la
+République! La levée en masse!</i> No Armistice!
+The National Guards, who demand the <i>levée en masse</i>,
+would but cause a slaughter. We must have cannon first; we will
+have them.&rdquo; Alas! it had been far better to have had none
+whatever, as what follows will prove. While some cry, &ldquo;Vive
+Trochu!&rdquo; others shout, &ldquo;Down with Trochu!&rdquo; Before long the
+Hôtel de Ville is invaded; the courts, the saloons, the
+galleries, all are filled. Each one offers his advice, but
+certain groups insist positively on the resignation of the
+Government. Lists of names are passed from hand to hand; among
+the names are those of Dorian (president), Schoelcher,
+Delescluze, Ledru Rollin, Félix Pyat.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-3"></a>
+<img src="images/007.jpg" width="309" height="480" alt="THE STATE OF PARTY
+PICTURED By THEMSELVES" />
+</div>
+
+<p>
+Cries are raised that if the Government refuse to resign, its
+members will be arrested.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Yes! yes! seize them!&rdquo; And an officer springs forward to make
+them prisoners as they sit in council.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Excuse me, Monsieur, but what warrant have you for so doing?&rdquo;
+asks one of the members.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I have nothing to do with warrants. I act in the name of the
+people!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Have you consulted the people? Those assembled here do not
+constitute the people.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The officer was disconcerted. Not long afterwards, however,
+the crowd is informed that the members of the Government are
+arrested.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The principal scene took place in the cabinet of the
+ex-prefect. Citizen Blanqui approaches the table; addressing the
+people, he requests them to evacuate the room so as to allow the
+commission to deliberate. The commission! What commission? Where
+does it spring from? No one knew anything of it, so the members
+must evidently have named themselves. Monsieur Blanqui had seen
+to that, no doubt. During this time the adjoining room is the
+theatre of the most extraordinary excitement; the men of the
+106th Battalion, who were on guard in the interior of the
+Hôtel de Ville, are compelled to use their arms to prevent
+any one else entering. After some tumult and struggling, but
+without any spilling of blood, some National Guards of this
+battalion manage to fight their way through to the room in which
+the members of the Government are prisoners, and succeed in
+delivering them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At about two o&rsquo;clock in the morning, the 106th Battalion had
+completely cleared the Hôtel de Ville of the crowds. No
+violence had been done, and General Trochu was reviewing a body
+of men ranged in battle order, which extended from the Place de
+l&rsquo;Hôtel de Ville to the Place de la Concorde. An hour
+later, quiet was completely restored.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The members of the Government, who had been incarcerated
+during several hours, now wished to show their authority; they
+felt that their power had been shaken, and saw the necessity of
+strengthening it. What can a Government do in such a case? Call
+for a plébiscite. But this time Paris alone was consulted,
+and for a good reason. Thus, on the 1st November, the people, of
+Paris were enjoined to express their wishes by answering yes or
+no to this simple question:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Do the people of Paris recognise the authority of the Government for the
+National Defence?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was clear, positive, and free from all ambiguity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The partizans of the Commune declared vehemently that those
+who voted in the affirmative were reactionists. &ldquo;Give us the
+Commune of &rsquo;93!&ldquo; shouted those who thought they knew a little
+more about the matter than the rest. They were generally rather
+badly received. It is no use speaking of &rsquo;93! Replace your
+Blanquis, your Félix Pyats, your Flourens by men like
+those of the grand revolution, and then we shall be glad to hear
+what you have to say on the subject.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The inhabitants of Montmartre, La-Chapelle, Belleville,
+behaved like good citizens, keeping a brave heart in the hour of
+misfortune.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+However it came about, the Government was maintained by a
+majority of 557,995 votes against 62,638.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, Messieurs of the Commune, try again, or, still better,
+remain quiet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the night of the 21st of January the members of the
+National Defence and the chief officers of the army were
+assembled around the table in the council-room. They were still
+under the mournful impression left by the fatal day of the
+nineteenth, on which hundreds of citizens had fallen at
+Montretout, at Garches, and at Buzenval. Thanks to the want of
+foresight of the Government, the people of Paris were rationed to
+300 grammes of detestable black bread a day for each person. All
+representations made to them had been in vain. Ration our bread
+by degrees, had been said, we should thus accustom ourselves to
+privation, and be prepared insensibly, for greater sufferings,
+while the duration of our provisions would be lengthened. But the
+answer always was: &ldquo;Bread? We shall have enough, and to spare.&rdquo;
+When the great crisis was seen approaching, the public feeling
+showed itself by violent agitation. It was not surprising,
+therefore, that all the faces of these gentlemen at the
+council-table bore marks of great depression. The Governor of
+Paris offered his resignation, as he was in the habit of doing
+after every rather stormy sitting; but his colleagues refused to
+accept it, as they had before. What was to be done? Had not the
+Governor of Paris sworn never to capitulate? After a night spent
+in discussing the question, the members of Government decided on
+the following plan of action. You will see that it was as simple
+as it was innocent! The following announcement was placarded on
+all the walls:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;The Government for the National Defence has decided that the chief commandment
+of the army of Paris shall in future be separate from the presidency of the
+Government.<br/>
+    &ldquo;General Vinoy is named Commandant-in-Chief of the army of Paris.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The title and functions of the Governor of Paris are suppressed.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A trick was played: if they capitulate now, it will no longer
+be the act of the Governor of Paris. How ingenious this would
+have been, if it had not been pitiful!
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;General Trochu retains the presidency of the Government.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By the side of this placard was the proclamation of General
+Thomas.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+&ldquo;TO THE NATIONAL GUARD.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Last night, a handful of insurgents forced open the prison of Mazas, and
+delivered several of the prisoners, amongst whom was M. Flourens. The same men
+attempted to occupy the <i>mairie</i> of the 20th arrondissement (Belleville),
+and to install the chiefs of the insurrection there; your commander-in-chief
+relies on your patriotism to repress this shameful sedition.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The safety of Paris is at stake.<br/>
+    &ldquo;While the enemy is bombarding our forts, the factions within our
+    walls use all their efforts to paralyse the defence.<br/>
+    &ldquo;In the name of the public good, in the name of law, and of the high
+    and sacred duty that commands you all to unite in the defence of
+    Paris, hold yourselves ready to frustrate this most criminal
+    attempt; at the first call, let the National Guard rise to a man,
+    and the perturbators will be struck powerless.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard,
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+&ldquo;CLEMENT THOMAS.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;A true copy.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+    &ldquo;Minister of the Interior ad interim,<br/>
+    &ldquo;JULES FAVRE.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;Paris, 22nd January, 1871.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the morning, large groups of people assembled from mere
+curiosity, appeared on the Place of the Hôtel de Ville,
+which however wore a peaceful aspect.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At about half-past two in the afternoon, a detachment of a
+hundred and fifty armed National Guards issued from the Rue du
+Temple, and stationed themselves before the Hôtel de Ville,
+crying, &ldquo;Down with Trochu!&rdquo; &ldquo;Long live the Commune!&rdquo; A short
+colloquy was then held between several of the National Guards and
+some officers of the Mobiles, who spoke with perfect calmness.
+Suddenly, a shot is fired, and at the same moment, as in the
+grand scene of a melodrama, the windows and the great door are
+flung open, and two lines of Mobile Guards are seen, the front
+rank kneeling, the second standing, and all levelling their
+muskets and prepared to fire. Then came a volley which spread
+terror amidst the crowds of people in the Place, who precipitated
+themselves in all directions, uttering cries and shrieks. In
+another moment the Place is cleared. Ah! those famous chassepots
+can work miracles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The insurgents, during this mad flight of men, women, and
+children, had answered the attack, some aiming from the shelter
+of angles and posts, others discharging their rifles from the
+windows of neighbouring houses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then the order to cease firing is heard, and a train of
+litterbearers, waving their handkerchiefs as flags, approach from
+the Avenue Victoria. At the Hôtel de Ville one officer only
+is wounded, but on the Place lie a dozen victims, two of whom are
+women.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At four o&rsquo;clock the 117th Battalion of the National Guard
+takes up its position before the municipal palace. They are
+reinforced by a detachment of <i>gendarmes</i>, mounted and on
+foot, and by companies of Mobiles, under the command of General
+Carréard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+General Clément Thomas hastens to address a few words
+to the 117th; later, he paid with his life for thus appearing on
+the side of order. Finally, General Vinoy arrives, followed by
+his staff, to take measures against any renewed acts of
+aggression. Mitrailleuses and cannon are stationed before the
+Hôtel de Ville; the drums beat the <i>rappel</i> throughout
+the town, and a great number of battalions of National Guards
+assemble in the Rue de Rivoli, at the Louvre, and on the Place de
+la Concorde; others bivouac before the Palais de l&rsquo;Industrie,
+while on the other side of the Champs Elysées regiments of
+cavalry, infantry, and mobiles, are drawn out. The agitators have
+disappeared, calm is restored, within the city be it understood,
+for all this did not interrupt the animated interchange of shells
+between the French and Prussian batteries, and a great number of
+Parisians, who had twice helped to disperse the insurgents of
+October and January, thought involuntarily of the Commune of the
+10th of August, 1793, which headed the revolution, and said to
+themselves that there were perhaps some amongst the present
+insurgents who, like the former, would rise up to deliver them
+from the Prussians. For these agitators have some appearance of
+truth on their side: &ldquo;You are weak and timorous,&rdquo; they cry to
+those in power; &ldquo;you seem awaiting a defeat rather than expecting
+a victory. Give place to the energetic, obscure though they may
+be; for the men of the great Commune, of our first glorious
+revolution, they also were for the greater part unknown. We have
+confidence in the army of Paris, and we will break the iron
+circle of invasion.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Though the Communists have since then shown bravery, and
+sometimes heroism, in their struggle against the Versailles
+troops, we are very doubtful, now that we have seen their chiefs
+in action, whether the efforts they talked of would have been
+crowned with success. Their object was power, and, having nothing
+to risk and all to gain, they would have forthwith disposed of
+public property in order to procure themselves enjoyment and
+honours. The few right-minded men who at first committed
+themselves, proved this by the fact of their giving in their
+resignation a few days after the Commune had established
+itself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Tranquillity had returned. In the morning of the 25th, guards
+patrolled the Place de la Bastille, the Place du Château
+d&rsquo;Eau, the Boulevard Magenta, and the outer boulevards. Paris
+started as if she had been aroused from some fearful dream, and
+the waking thought of the enemy at her gates stirred up all her
+energies once more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Communists had been defeated for the second time; but they
+were soon to take a terrible revenge.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The vow made by the Governor of Paris had been repeated by the
+majority of the Parisians, and all parties seemed to have rallied
+round him under the same device: vanquish or die. After the
+forts, the barricades, and as a last resource, the burning of the
+city. Who knows? Perhaps the fanatics of resistance had already
+made out the plan of destruction which served later for the
+Commune. It has been proved that nothing in this work of ruin was
+impromptu.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The news of the convention of the 28th of January, the
+preliminary of the capitulation of Paris, was thus very badly
+received, and M. Gambetta, by exhorting the people, in his
+celebrated circular of the 31st of January, to resist to the
+death, sowed the seeds of civil war:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;CITIZENS,&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;The enemy has just inflicted upon France the most cruel insult that
+    she has yet had to endure in this accursed war, the too-heavy
+    punishment of the errors and weaknesses of a great people.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Paris, the impregnable, vanquished by famine, is no longer able to
+    hold in respect the German hordes. On the 28th of January, the
+    capital succumbed, her forts surrendered to the enemy. The city
+    still remains intact, wresting, as it were, by her own power and
+    moral grandeur, a last homage from barbarity.<br/>
+    &ldquo;But in falling, Paris leaves us the glorious legacy of her heroic
+    sacrifices. During five months of privation and suffering, she has
+    given to France the time to collect herself, to call her children
+    together, to find arms, to compose armies, young as yet, but valiant
+    and determined, and to whom is wanting only that solidity which can
+    be obtained but by experience. Thanks to Paris, we hold in our
+    hands, if we are but resolute and patriotic, all that is needed to
+    revenge, and set ourselves free once more.<br/>
+    &ldquo;But, as though evil fortune had resolved to overwhelm us, something
+    even more terrible and more fraught with anguish than the fall of
+    Paris, was awaiting us.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Without our knowledge, without either warning, us or consulting us,
+    an armistice, the culpable weakness of which was known to us too
+    late, has been signed, which delivers into the hands of the
+    Prussians the departments occupied by our soldiers, and which
+    obliges us to wait for three weeks, in the midst of the disastrous
+    circumstances in which the country is plunged, before a national
+    assembly can be assembled.<br/>
+    &ldquo;We sent to Paris for some explanation, and then awaited in silence
+    the promised arrival of a member of the government, to whom we were
+    determined to resign our office. As delegates of government, we
+    desired to obey, and thereby prove to all, friends and dissidents,
+    by setting an example of moderation and respect of duty, that
+    democracy is not only the greatest of all political principles, but
+    also the most scrupulous of governments.<br/>
+    &ldquo;However, no one has arrived from Paris, and it is necessary to act,
+    come what may; the perfidious machinations of the enemies of France
+    must be frustrated.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Prussia relies upon the armistice to enervate and dissolve our
+    armies; she hopes that the Assembly, meeting after so long a
+    succession of disasters, and under the impression of the terrible
+    fall of Paris, wilt be timid and weak, and ready to submit to a
+    shameful peace.<br/>
+    &ldquo;It is for us to upset these calculations, and to turn the very
+    instruments which are prepared to crush the spirit of resistance,
+    into spurs that shall arouse and excite it.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Let us make this same armistice into a code of instruction for our
+    young troops; let us employ the three coming weeks in pushing on the
+    organization of the defence and of the war more ardently than ever.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Instead of the meeting of cowardly reactionists that our enemies
+    expect, let us form an assembly that shall be veritably national and
+    republican, desirous of peace, if peace can ensure the honour, the
+    rank, and the integrity of our country, but capable of voting for
+    war rather than aiding in the assassination of France.<br/>
+    &ldquo;FRENCHMEN,<br/>
+    &ldquo;Remember that our fathers left us France, whole and indivisible;
+    let us not be traitors to our history; let us not deliver up our
+    traditional domains into the hands of barbarians. Who then will sign
+    the armistice? Not you, legitimists, who fought so valiantly under
+    the flag of the Republic, in the defence of the ancient kingdom of
+    France; nor you, sons of the bourgeois of 1789, whose work was to
+    unite the old provinces in a pact of indissoluble union; nor you,
+    workmen of the towns, whose intelligence and generous patriotism
+    represent France in all her strength and grandeur, the leader of
+    modern nations; nor you, tillers of the soil, who never have spared
+    your blood in the defence of the Revolution, which gave you the
+    ownership of your land and your title of citizen.<br/>
+    &ldquo;No! Not one Frenchman will be found to sign this infamous act; the
+    enemy&rsquo;s attempt to mutilate France will be frustrated, for, animated
+    with the same love of the mother country and bearing our reverses
+    with fortitude, we shall become strong once more and drive out the
+    foreign legions.<br/>
+    &ldquo;To the attainment of this noble end, we must devote our hearts, our
+    wills, our lives, and, a still greater sacrifice perhaps, put aside
+    our preferences.<br/>
+    &ldquo;We must close our ranks about the Republic, show presence of mind
+    and strength of purpose; and without passion or weakness, swear,
+    like free men, to defend France and the Republic against all and
+    everyone.<br/>
+    &ldquo;To arms!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Government, by obtaining from M. de Bismarck a condition
+that the National Guards should retain their arms, hoped to win
+public favour again, as one offers a rattle to a fractious child
+to keep him quiet; and it published the news on the 3rd of
+February:
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;After the most strenuous efforts on our part, we have obtained, for
+    the National Guard, the condition ratified by the convention of the
+    28th January.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Three days after, on the 6th of February, Gambetta wrote:
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;His conscience would not permit him to remain a member of a
+    government with which he no longer agreed in principle.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The candidates, elected in Paris on the 8th of February, were
+Louis Blanc, Victor Hugo, Garibaldi, Gambetta, Rochefort,
+Delescluze, Pyat, Lockroy, Floquet, Millière, Tolain,
+Malon. The provinces, on the other hand, chose their deputies
+from among the party of reaction, the members of which have been
+so well-known since under the name of <i>rurals.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Loud murmurs arose in the ranks of the National Guard, when
+the decrees of the 18th and 19th of February, concerning their
+pay, were published; and later, when an order from headquarters
+required the marching companies to send in to the state
+depôt all their campaigning paraphernalia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 18th of February, M. Thiers was named chief of the
+executive power by a vote of the Assembly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On Sunday, the 26th of February, the Place de la Bastille, in
+which manifestations had been held for the last two days in
+celebration of the revolution of February &rsquo;48, became as a
+shrine, to which whole battalions of the National Guard marched
+to the sound of music, their flags adorned with caps of liberty
+and cockades. The Column of July was hung with banners and
+decorated with wreaths of immortelles. Violent harangues, the
+theme of which was the upholding of the Republic &ldquo;to the death,&rdquo;
+were uttered at its foot. One man, of the name of Budaille,
+pretended that he held proofs of the treachery of the Government
+for the National Defence, and promised that he would produce them
+at the proper time and place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Up to this moment, the demonstrations seemed to have but one
+result&mdash;that of impeding circulation; but they soon gave
+rise to scenes of tumult and disorder. Towards one o&rsquo;clock, when
+perhaps twenty or thirty thousand persons were on the above
+Place, an individual, accused of being a spy, was dragged by an
+infuriated mob to the river, and flung, bound hand and foot, into
+the look by the Ile Saint Louis, amidst the wild cries and
+imprecations of the madmen whose prey he had become.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The night of the 26th was very agitated; drums beat to arms,
+and on the morning of the 27th the Commander-in-Chief of the
+National Guard issued a proclamation, in which he appealed to the
+good citizens of Paris, and confided the care of the city to the
+National Guard. This had no effect, however, on the aspect of the
+Place de la Bastille; the crowd continued to applaud,
+frantically, the incendiary speeches of the socialist party, who
+had sworn to raise Paris at any cost.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-4"></a>
+<img src="images/008.jpg" width="263" height="300" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Column of July, Place de La Bastille.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+On the same day, the 27th of February, the Government informed
+the people of Paris of the result of the negociations with
+Prussia, in the following proclamation:
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;The Government appeals to your patriotism and your wisdom; you hold
+    in your hands the future of Paris and of France herself. It is for
+    you to save or to ruin both!<br/>
+    &ldquo;After a heroic resistance, famine forced you to open your gates to
+    the victorious enemy; the armies that should have come to your aid
+    were driven over the Loire. These incontestable facts have compelled
+    the Government for the National Defence to open negotiations of
+    peace.<br/>
+    &ldquo;For six days your negotiators have disputed the ground foot by
+    foot; they did all that was humanly possible, to obtain less
+    rigorous conditions. They have signed the preliminaries of peace,
+    which are about to be submitted to the National Assembly.<br/>
+    &ldquo;During the time necessary for the examination and discussion of
+    these preliminaries, hostilities would have recommenced, and blood
+    would, have flowed afresh and uselessly, without a prolongation of
+    the armistice.<br/>
+    &ldquo;This prolongation could only be obtained on the condition of a
+    partial and very temporary occupation of a portion of Paris:
+    absolutely to be limited to the quarter of the Champs Elysées. Not
+    more than thirty thousand men are to enter the city, and they are to
+    retire as soon as the preliminaries of peace have been ratified,
+    which act can only occupy a few days.<br/>
+    &ldquo;If this convention were not to be respected the armistice would be
+    at an end: the enemy, already master of the forts, would occupy the
+    whole of Paris by force. Your property, your works of art, your
+    monuments, now guaranteed by the convention, would cease to exist.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The misfortune would reach the whole of France. The frightful
+    ravages of the war, which have not heretofore passed the Loire,
+    would extend to the Pyrenees.<br/>
+    &ldquo;It is then absolutely true to say that the salvation of France is
+    at stake. Do not imitate the error of those who would not listen to
+    us when, eight months ago, we abjured them not to undertake a war
+    which must be fatal.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The French army which defended Paris with so much courage will
+    occupy the left of the Seine, to ensure the loyal execution of the
+    new armistice. It is for the National Guard to lend its aid, by
+    keeping order in the rest of the city.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Let all good citizens who
+    earned honour as its chiefs, and showed themselves so brave before
+    the enemy, reassume their authority, and the cruel situation of the
+    moment will be terminated by peace and the return of public
+    prosperity.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This clause of the occupation of Paris by the Prussians was
+regarded by some people as a mere satisfaction of national
+vanity; but the greater number considered it as an apple of
+discord thrown by M. de Bismarck, who had every reason to desire
+that civil war should break out, thus making himself an
+accomplice of the Socialists and the members of the
+International. Confining ourselves simply to the analysis of
+facts, and to those considerations which may enlighten public
+opinion respecting the causes of events, we shall not allow
+ourselves to be carried over the vast field of hypothesis, but
+preserve the modest character of narrators. On the night of the
+27th of February, the admiral commanding the third section of the
+fortifications, having noticed the hostile attitude of the
+National Guard, caused the troops which had been disarmed in
+accordance with the conditions of the armistice to withdraw into
+the interior of the city. The men of Belleville profited by the
+circumstance to pillage the powder magazines which had been
+entrusted to their charge, and on the following day they went,
+preceded by drums and trumpets, to the barracks of the Rue de la
+Pépinière to invite the sailors lodged there to
+join them in a patriotic manifestation on that night. Believing
+that the object was to prevent the Prussians entering Paris, a
+certain number of these brave fellows, who had behaved so
+admirably during the siege, set out towards the Place de la
+Bastille but having been met on their way by some of their
+officers, they soon separated themselves from the rioters. Thirty
+of them had been invited to an open-air banquet in the Place de
+la Bastille; but seeing the probability of some disorder they
+nearly all retired, and on the following morning only eight of
+them were missing at the roll-call. Not one of the six thousand
+marines lodged in the barracks of the Ecole Militaire absented
+himself. On the same day, the 28th, a secret society, which we
+learned later to know and to fear, issued its first circular
+under the name of the Central Committee of the National Guard;
+the part since played by this body has been too important for us
+to omit to insert this proclamation here: its decisions became
+official acts which overthrew all constituted authority.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL GUARD.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Citizens,&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;The general feeling of the population appears to be to offer no
+    opposition to the entry of the Prussians into Paris. The Central
+    Committee, which had emitted contrary advice, declares its intention
+    of adhering to the following resolutions:&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;&lsquo;All around the quarters occupied by the enemy, barricades shall be
+    raised so as to isolate completely that part of the town. The
+    inhabitants of the circumscribed portion should be required to quit
+    it immediately.<br/>
+    &ldquo;&lsquo;The National Guard, in conjunction with the army, shall form an
+    unbroken line along the whole circuit, and take care that the enemy,
+    thus isolated upon ground which is no longer of our city, shall
+    communicate in no manner with any of the other parts of Paris.<br/>
+    &ldquo;&lsquo;The Central Committee engages the National Guard to lend, its aid
+    for the execution of the necessary measures to bring about this
+    result, and to avoid any aggressive acts which would have the
+    immediate effect of overthrowing the Republic.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But here is a little treacherous placard, manuscript and
+anonymous, which takes a much fairer tone:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;A convention has permitted the Prussians to occupy the Champs
+    Elysées, from the Seine to the Faubourg St. Honoré, and as far as
+    the Place de la Concorde.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Be it so! The greater the injury, the more terrible the revenge.<br/>
+    &ldquo;But, if some panderer dare to pass the circle of our shame, let him be
+instantly declared traitor, let him become a target for our balls, an object
+for our petroleum, a mark for our Orsini bombs,<a href="#fn-2" name="fnref-2" id="fnref-2"><sup>[2]</sup></a>
+    an aim for our daggers!<br/>
+    &ldquo;Let this be told to all.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+    &ldquo;By decision of the Horatii,<br/>
+    &ldquo;(Signed) POPULUS.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The effervescence in the minds of the people was so great,
+that the entry of the Prussians was delayed for forty-eight
+hours, but on the first of March, at ten in the morning, they had
+come into the city, and the smoke of their bivouac fires was seen
+in the Champs Elysées. On the evening of the same day, a
+telegram from Bordeaux announced that the National Assembly had
+ratified the preliminaries of peace by a majority of 546 voices
+against 107. On the following day the ex-Minister of Foreign
+Affairs left for Versailles, and by nine o&rsquo;clock in the evening,
+everything was prepared for the evacuation of the troops, which
+was effected by eleven, on the third of March. During the short
+period of their stay, the city was in veritable mourning; the
+public edifices (even the Bourse) were closed, as were the shops,
+the warehouses, and the greater part of the cafés. At the
+windows hung black flags, or the tricolour covered with black
+crape, and veils of the same material concealed the faces of the
+statues<a href="#fn-3" name="fnref-3" id="fnref-3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> on the Place de la
+Concorde.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All these demonstrations had, however, a pacific character,
+and the presence of the enemy in Paris gave rise to no serious
+incident.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nevertheless, the agitation of the public mind was not
+allayed; some attributed this to a plot the Socialists had
+formed, and which had arrived at maturity. Others believed that
+the Prussians had left emissaries, creators of disorder, behind
+them, in revenge for their reception on the Place de la Concorde.
+In truth, their entry was anything but triumphal; their national
+airs were received with hisses; their officers were hooted as
+they promenaded in the Tuileries, and those who attempted to
+visit the Louvre were compelled to retreat without having
+satisfied their curiosity. On the evening of the 3rd of March, a
+note emanating from the Ministry of the Interior, pointed out in
+the following terms the danger to be feared from the Central
+Committee:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;Incidents of the most regrettable nature have occurred during the
+    last few days, and menace seriously the peace of the capital.
+    Certain National Guards in arms, following the orders, not of their
+    legitimate chiefs, but of an anonymous Central Committee, which
+    could not give them any instructions without committing a crime
+    severely punishable by the law, took possession of a considerable
+    quantity of arms and ammunition of war, under the pretext of saving
+    them from the enemy, whose invasion they pretended to fear. Such
+    acts should at any rate have ceased after the departure of the
+    Prussian army. But such is not the case, for this evening the
+    guard-house at the Gobelins was invaded, and a number of cartridges
+    stolen.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Those who provoke these disorders draw upon themselves a most
+    terrible responsibility; it is at the very moment that the city of
+    Paris, relieved from contact with the foreigner, desires to reassume
+    its habits of serenity and industry, that these men are sowing
+    trouble and preparing civil war. The Government appeals to all good
+    citizens to aid in stifling in the germ these culpable
+    manifestations.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Let all who have at heart the honour and the peace of the city
+    arise; let the National Guard, repulsing all perfidious
+    instigations, rally round its officers, and prevent evils of which
+    the consequences will be incalculable. The Government and the
+    Commander-in-Chief (General d&rsquo;Aurelle de Paladines, nominated on
+    the same day by M. Thiers to the chief command of the National
+    Guard) are determined to do their duty energetically; they will
+    cause the laws to be executed; they count on the patriotism and the
+    devotion of all the inhabitants of Paris.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-5"></a>
+<img src="images/009.jpg" width="480" height="338" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>The Hill of Montmartre&mdash;with the Guns Of The
+National Guard Parked There. View Taken from the Place St. Pierre.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+It was indeed time to put a stop to the existing state of
+affairs, for already twenty-six guns were in the possession of
+the insurgents, who had formed a regular park of artillery in the
+Place d&rsquo;Italie, and this is the aspect of the Buttes Montmartre
+on the sixth of March, as described by an eye-witness:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;The heights have become a veritable camp. Three or four hundred
+    National Guards, belonging partly to the 61st and 168th Battalions,
+    mount guard there day and night, and relieve each other regularly,
+    like old campaigners. They have two drummers and four trumpeters,
+    who beat the rappel or ring out the charge whenever the freak takes
+    them, without any one knowing why or wherefore. The officers, with
+    broad red belts, high boots, and their long swords dragging after
+    them, parade the Place with pipes or cigars in their months. They
+    glance disdainfully at the passers-by, and seem almost overpowered
+    with the importance of the high mission they imagine themselves
+    called upon to fulfil.<br/>
+    &ldquo;This is of what their mission consists: at
+    the moment of the entry of the Prussians into Paris, the National
+    Guard of Montmartre, fearing that the artillery would be taken from
+    them to be delivered to the enemy, assembled and dragged their
+    pieces, about twenty in number, up to the plateau which forms the
+    summit of Montmartre, and then placed them in charge of a special
+    guard. Now that the Prussians have left, they still keep their
+    stronghold, thinking to use it in the defence of the Republic
+    against the attacks of the reactionists. The guns are pointed
+    towards Paris, and guard is kept without a moment&rsquo;s relaxation.
+    There are four principal posts, the most important being at the foot
+    of the hill, on the Place Saint Pierre. The guards bivouac in the
+    open air, their muskets piled, ready at hand. Sentinels are placed
+    at the corner of each street, most of them lads of sixteen or
+    seventeen; but they are thoroughly in earnest, and treat the
+    passers-by roughly enough.<br/>
+    &ldquo;All the streets which debouche on the Place Saint-Pierre are closed<br/>
+    by barricades of paving-stones. The most important was formed of an<br/>
+    overturned cart, filled with huge stones, and with a red flag reared<br/>
+    upon the summit. A death-like silence reigned around. There were but<br/>
+    few passers-by, none but National Guards with their guns on their<br/>
+    shoulders.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-6"></a>
+<img src="images/010.jpg" width="450" height="366" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Sentinels at Montmartre</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+The appearance of the Boulevard de Clichy and Boulevard
+Rochechouart is completely different. The cafés are
+overflowing with people, the concert-rooms open. Men and women
+pass tranquilly to and fro, without disturbing themselves about
+the cannon that are pointed towards them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Government, before coming to active measures, appealed to
+the good sense of the people in a proclamation, dated the 8th of
+March, saying that this substitution of legal authority by a
+secret power would retard the evacuation of the enemy, and
+perhaps expose us to disasters still more complete and
+terrible.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;Let us look our position calmly in the face. We have been
+    conquered; nearly half of our territory has been in the power of a
+    million of Germans, who have imposed upon us a fine of five
+    milliards. Our only means of discharging this weighty debt is by the
+    strictest economy, the most exemplary conduct and care. We must not
+    lose a moment before putting our hands to work, which is our one and
+    solitary hope. And at this awful moment shall our miserable folly
+    lead us into a civil strife?...<br/>
+    &ldquo;If, while they are meeting to treat with the enemy, our negotiators
+    have sedition to fear, they will break down as they did on the 31st
+    of October, when the events of the Hôtel de Ville authorised the
+    enemy to refuse us an armistice which might have saved us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This form of reasoning was not illogical, but those who were
+working in secret for the furtherance of their own ambition,
+oared little to be convinced, and their myrmidons obeyed them
+blindly, and gloated over the wild, bombastic language of the
+demagogic press, which, though they did not understand it,
+impressed them no less with its inflated phrases.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Government, perceiving that it would be perhaps necessary
+to use rigorous measures, gave orders to hasten the arrival of
+the rest of the Army of the North.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some few days after the 18th of March, they resolved to deal a
+decided blow to the Democratic party in suppressing at once the
+<i>Vengeur</i>, the <i>Mot d&rsquo;Ordre</i>, the <i>Cri du Peuple</i>,
+the <i>Caricature</i>, the <i>Père Duchesne</i>, and the
+<i>Bouche de Fer</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The National Guards had a perfect mania for collecting cannon;
+after having placed in battery the mitrailleuses and pieces of
+seven, the produce of patriotic subscriptions, they also seized
+upon others belonging to the State, and carried them off to the
+Buttes Montmartre, where they had about a hundred pieces. The
+retaking of this artillery was the matter in question. While they
+at Versailles were occupied with the solution of the problem, the
+National Guards continued their manifestations at the Place de la
+Bastille, dragging these pieces of artillery in triumph from the
+Champ de Mars to the Luxembourg, from the park of Montrouge to
+Notre Dame, from the Place des Vosges to the Place d&rsquo;Italie, and
+from the Buttes Montmartre to the Buttes Chaumont.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before making use of force, the Government desired to make a
+last effort at conciliation, and on the 17th of March the
+following proclamation was posted on the walls:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;INHABITANTS of PARIS,<br/>
+    &ldquo;Once more we address ourselves to you, to your reason, and your
+    patriotism, and we hope that you will listen to us.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Your grand city, which cannot live except with order, is profoundly
+    troubled in some of its quarters, and this trouble, without
+    spreading to other parts, is sufficient nevertheless to prevent the
+    return of industry and comfort.<br/>
+    &ldquo;For some time a number of ill-advised men, under the pretext of
+    resisting the Prussians, who are no longer within our walls, have
+    constituted themselves masters of a part of the city, thrown up
+    entrenchments, mounting guard there and forcing you to do the same,
+    all by order of a secret committee, which takes upon itself to
+    command a portion of the National Guard, thus setting aside the
+    authority of General d&rsquo;Aurelle de Paladines so worthy to be at your
+    head, and would form a government in opposition to that which exists
+    legally, the offspring of universal suffrage.<br/>
+    &ldquo;These men, who have already caused you so much harm, whom you
+    yourselves dispersed on the 31st of October, are placarding their
+    intention to protect you against the Prussians, who have only made
+    an appearance within our walls, and whose definite departure is
+    retarded by these disorders, and pointing guns, which if fired would
+    only ruin your houses and destroy your wives and yourselves; in
+    fact, compromising the very Republic they pretend to defend; for if
+    it is firmly established in the opinion of France that the Republic
+    is the necessary companion of disorder, the Republic will be lost.
+    Do not place any trust in them, but listen to the truth which we
+    tell you in all sincerity.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The Government instituted by the whole nation could have retaken
+    before this these stolen guns, which at present only menace your
+    safety, seized these ridiculous entrenchments which hinder nothing
+    but business, and have placed in the hands of justice the criminals
+    who do not hesitate to create civil war immediately after that with
+    the foreigner, but it desired to give those who were misled the time
+    to separate themselves from those who deceived them.<br/>
+    &ldquo;However, the time allowed for honourable men to separate themselves
+    from the others, and which is deducted from your tranquillity, your
+    welfare, and the welfare of France, cannot be indefinitely
+    prolonged.<br/>
+    &ldquo;While such a state of things lasts, commerce is arrested, your
+    shops are deserted, orders which would come from all parts are
+    suspended; your arms are idle, credit cannot be recreated, the
+    capital which the Government requires to rid the territory of the
+    presence of the enemy, comes to hand but slowly. In your own
+    interest, in that of your city, as well as in that of France, the
+    Government is resolved to act. The culprits who pretend to institute
+    a Government of their own must be delivered up to justice. The guns
+    stolen from the State must be replaced in the arsenals; and, in
+    order to carry out this act of justice and reason, the Government
+    counts upon your assistance.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Let all good citizens separate themselves from the bad; let them
+    aid, instead of opposing, the public forces; they will thus hasten
+    the return of comfort to the city, and render service to the
+    Republic itself, which disorder is ruining in the opinion of France.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Parisians! We use this language to you because we esteem your good
+    sense, your wisdom, your patriotism; but, this warning being given,
+    you will approve of our having resort to force at all costs, and
+    without a day&rsquo;s delay, that order, the only condition of your
+    welfare, be re-established entirely, immediately, and unalterably.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As soon as the party of disorder saw the intentions of the
+Government of Versailles thus set forth, a chorus of
+recriminations burst forth:&mdash;&ldquo;They want to put an end to the
+Republic!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;They are about to fire on our
+brothers!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;They wish to set up a king,&rdquo; &amp;c. The same
+strain for ever! In order to prevent as far as possible the
+mischievous effects of this insurrectionary propaganda, the
+Government issued the following proclamation, which bore date the
+18th of March:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;NATIONAL GUARDS of PARIS!&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;Absurd rumours are spread abroad that the Government contemplates a
+    <i>coup d&rsquo;état.</i><br/>
+    &ldquo;The Government of the Republic has not, and cannot have, any other
+    object but the welfare of the Republic.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The measures which have been taken were indispensable to the
+    maintenance of order; it was, and is still, determined to put an end
+    to an insurrectionary committee, the members of which, nearly all
+    unknown to the population of Paris, preach nothing but Communist
+    doctrines, will deliver up Paris to pillage, and bring France into
+    her grave, unless the National Guard and the army do not rise with
+    one accord in the defence of the country and of the Republic.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Government had many parleys with the insurrectionary
+National Guards at Montmartre; at one moment there was a rumour
+that the guns had been given up. It appeared that the guardians
+of this artillery had manifested some intention of restoring it,
+horses had even been sent without any military force to create
+mistrust, but the men declared that they would not deliver the
+guns, except to the battalions to which they properly belonged.
+Was there bad faith here? or had those who made the promise
+undertaken to deliver up the skin before they had killed the
+bear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Public opinion shaped itself generally in somewhat the
+following form:&mdash;&ldquo;If they are tricking each other, that is
+not very dangerous!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Many an honest citizen went to bed on the seventeenth of March
+full of hope. He saw Paris marching with quick steps towards the
+re-establishment of its business, and the resumption of its usual
+aspect; the emigrants and foreigners would arrive in crowds,
+their pockets overflowing with gold to make purchases and put the
+industry of Paris under contributions the French and foreign
+bankers will rival each other to pay the indemnity of five
+milliards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The dream of good M. Prudhomme<a href="#fn-4" name="fnref-4"
+id="fnref-4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> was, however, somewhat clouded by the figure of
+the Buttes Montmartre bristling with cannon; but the number of guards had
+become so diminished, and they seemed so tired of the business, that it
+appeared as if they were about to quit for good. The following chapter will
+inform you what were the waking thoughts of the Parisians on the morning of the
+eighteenth of March.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-7"></a>
+<img src="images/011.jpg" width="92" height="133" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>THE GENIUS OF<br/>THE RED<br/>FLAG.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-1" id="fn-1"></a> <a href="#fnref-1">[1]</a>
+Memoir, see <a href="#I._Page_2._HENRI_ROCHEFORT.">Appendix I</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-2" id="fn-2"></a> <a href="#fnref-2">[2]</a>
+The police had seized, some time before, in Paris, ten thousand Orsini bombs,
+and hundreds of others of a new construction, charged with fulminating mercury.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-3" id="fn-3"></a> <a href="#fnref-3">[3]</a>
+The eight gigantic female figures, representing the principal towns of France:
+Strasbourg, Lille, Metz, &amp;c., &amp;c.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-4" id="fn-4"></a> <a href="#fnref-4">[4]</a>
+&ldquo;Joseph Prudhomme&rdquo; is the typical representative of the Parisian
+middle-class (<i>Bourgeois</i>); the honest simple father of family, peaceful
+but patriotic, proud of his country and ready to die for it.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-8"></a>
+<img src="images/012.jpg" width="395" height="653" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Purification of the Champs Élysées&mdash;After The
+Departure of the Prussians Mar 1871.<br/>Building A Barricade. March 18.
+1871.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="I."></a> I.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<img style="width: 96px; height: 101px;" alt="L"
+title="L" src="images/013.jpg" />isten! What does that mean? Is it
+a transient squall or the first gust of a tempest? Is it due to
+nature or to man&rsquo;s agency; is it an émeute or the advent
+of a revolution that is to overturn everything?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such were my reflections when awakened, on the 18th of March,
+1871, at about four in the morning, by a noise due to the tramp
+of many feet. From my window, in the gloomy white fog, I could
+see detachments of soldiers walking under the walls, proceeding
+slowly, wrapped in their grey capotes; a soft drizzling rain
+falling at the time. Half awake, I descended to the street in
+time to interrogate two soldiers passing in the rear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where are you going?&rdquo; asked I.&mdash;&ldquo;We do not know,&rdquo;
+says one; &ldquo;Report says we are going to Montmartre,&rdquo; adds the
+other.<a href="#fn-5" name="fnref-5" id="fnref-5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> They were
+really going to Montmartre. At five o&rsquo;clock in the morning the 88th
+Regiment of the line occupied the top of the hill and the little streets
+leading to it, a place doubtless familiar to some of them, who on Sundays and
+fête days had clambered up the hill-sides in company with apple-faced rustics
+from the outskirts, and middle-class people of the quarter; taking part in the
+crowd on the Place Saint-Pierre, with its games and amusements, and
+&ldquo;assisting,&rdquo; as they would say, at shooting in a barrel, admiring
+the ability of some, whilst reviling the stupidity of others; when they had a
+few sous in their pockets they would try their own skill at throwing big balls
+into the mouths of fantastic monsters, painted upon a square board, while their
+country friends nibbled at spice-nuts, and thought them delicious. But on this
+18th of March morning there are no women, nor spice-nuts, nor sport on the
+Place Saint-Pierre: all is slush and dirt, and the poor lines-men are obliged
+to stand at ease, resting upon their arms, not in the best of humour with the
+weather or the prospect before them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ah! and the guns of the National Guard that frown from their
+embrasures on the top of the hill, have they been made use of
+against the Prussians? No! they have made no report during the
+siege, and were only heard on the days on which they were
+christened and paid for; elegant things, hardly to be blackened
+with powder, that it was always hoped would be pacific and never
+dangerous to the capital. Cruel irony! those guns for which Paris
+paid, and those American mitrailleuses, made out of the savings
+of both rich and poor, the farthings of the frugal housewife, and
+the napoleons of the millionaires; the contributions of the
+artists who designed, and the poets who pen&rsquo;d, are ruining Paris
+instead of protecting it. The brass mouths that ate the bread of
+humanity are turned upon the nation itself to devour it also.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But, to return to the 88th Regiment of Line, did they take the guns? Yes, but
+they gave them up again, and to whom? why, to a crowd of women and children;
+and as to the chiefs, no one seemed to know what had become of them. It is
+related, however, that General Lecomte had been made a prisoner and led to the
+Château-Rouge, and that at nine o&rsquo;clock some Chasseurs d&rsquo;Afrique
+charged pretty vigorously in the Place Pigalle a detachment of National Guards,
+who replied by a volley of bullets. An officer of Chasseurs was shot, and his
+men ran away, the greater part, it is said, into the wine-shops, where they
+fraternised with the patriots, who offered them drink. I was told on the spot
+that General Vinoy, who was on horseback, became encircled in a mob of women,
+had a stone and a cap<a href="#fn-6" name="fnref-6"
+id="fnref-6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> thrown at him, and thought it prudent to
+escape, leaving the National Guards and linesmen to promenade in good
+fellowship three abreast, dispersing themselves about the outer boulevards and
+about Paris. Indeed, I have just seen a drunken couple full of wine and
+friendship, strongly reminding one of a duel ending in a jolly breakfast. And
+who is to blame for this? Nobody knows. All agree that it is a
+bungle,&mdash;the fault of maladministration and want of tact. Certainly the
+National Guards at Montmartre had no right to hold the cannons belonging to the
+National Guards, as a body, or to menace the reviving trade and tranquillity of
+Paris, by means of guns turned against its peaceful citizens and Government
+officials; but was it necessary to use violence to obtain possession of the
+cannons? Should not all the means of conciliation be exhausted first, and might
+we not hope that the citizens at Montmartre would themselves end by abandoning
+the pieces of artillery<a href="#fn-7" name="fnref-7"
+id="fnref-7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> which they hardly protected. In fact, they were
+encumbered by their own barricades, and they might take upon themselves to
+repave their streets and return to order.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Monsieur Thiers and his ministers were not of that opinion.
+They preferred acting, and with vigour. Very well! but when
+resolutions are formed, one should be sure of fulfilling them,
+for in circumstances of such importance failure itself makes the
+attempt an error.<a href="#fn-8" name="fnref-8" id="fnref-8"><sup>[8]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well! said the Government, who could imagine that the line would throw up the
+butt ends of their muskets,<a href="#fn-9" name="fnref-9"
+id="fnref-9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> or that the Chasseurs, after the loss of a
+single officer, would turn their backs upon the Nationals, and that their only
+deeds should be the imbibing of plentiful potations at the cost of the
+insurgents? But how could it be otherwise? Not many days since the soldiers
+were wandering idly through the streets with the National Guards; were billeted
+upon the people, eating their soup and chatting with their wires and daughters,
+unaccustomed to discipline and the rigour of military organisation; enervated
+by defeat, having been maintained by their officers in the illusion of their
+invincibility; annoyed by their uniform, of which they ceased to be proud, the
+humiliated soldiers sought to escape into the citizen. Were the commanding
+officers ignorant of the prevailing spirit of the troops? Must we admit that
+they were grossly deceived, or that they deceived the Government, when the
+latter might and ought to have been in a position to foresee the result.
+Possibly the Assembly had the right to coerce, but they had no right to be
+ignorant of their power. They must have known that 100,000 arms (chassepots,
+tabatières,<a href="#fn-10" name="fnref-10" id="fnref-10"><sup>[10]</sup></a>
+and muskets) were in the hands of disaffected men, clanking on the floors of
+the dealers in adulterated wines and spirits, and low cabarets. The fact is,
+the Government took a leap in the dark, and wondered when they found the
+position difficult.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-5" id="fn-5"></a> <a href="#fnref-5">[5]</a>
+<a href="#II._Page_27._THE_EIGHTEENTH_OF_MARCH.">Appendix, note 2</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-6" id="fn-6"></a> <a href="#fnref-6">[6]</a>
+A mark of insult.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-7" id="fn-7"></a> <a href="#fnref-7">[7]</a>
+This useless artillery was much ridiculed; jokers said that the notary of
+General Trochu was working out faithfully the &ldquo;plan&rdquo; of his
+illustrious client in these tardy fortifications.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-8" id="fn-8"></a> <a href="#fnref-8">[8]</a>
+How was the Government to act in the presence of these facts; to await events,
+or to strike a great blow?<br/>
+    Some think that the resistance of the insurgents was strengthened by the
+measures taken by Government, which ought to have been more diplomatic and
+skilful. The agitation of these men of Montmartre, at the entry of the
+Prussians, had calmed down in a few hours; it was now the duty of Government to
+allay the irritation which had caused the insurgents to form their Montmartre
+stronghold, and not to follow the advice of infuriated reactionaries, who make
+no allowance for events and circumstances, neither analysing the elements of
+that which they are combating, nor weighing the measures they do not even know
+how to apply with tact.<br/>
+    The guns had not been re-taken, but Paris was very calm. Dissensions had
+broken out in the Montmartre Committee, some of whose members wished the cannon
+to be returned (the Committee sat at No, 8 of the Rue des Rosiers, with a
+court-martial on one hand, and military head-quarters on the other). Danger
+seemed now to be averted, and the authorities had but one thing to do, to allow
+all agitation to die out, without listening to blind or treacherous
+counsellors, who advocated a system of immediate repression. It was said,
+however, that the greater number of the members of Government were inclined to
+temporise, but the provisional appointment of General Valentin to the direction
+of the Prefecture of Police, seemed to contradict this assertion.<br/>
+    During this time, the leaders who held Montmartre, spurred on by the
+ambitious around them, and by those desirous of kindling civil war for the sake
+of the illicit gains to be obtained from it, were getting up a manifestation,
+which was to claim for the National Guard the right of electing its
+commander-in-chief; and the post was to be offered to Menotti Garibaldi. But
+though the men of Montmartre declared that all who did not sign the manifestos
+were traitors, yet the addresses remained almost entirely blank. The
+insurrection had evidently few supporters. According to others, the
+insurrection of 1871 was the result of a vast conspiracy, planned and nurtured
+under the influence of a six months&rsquo; siege. No simple Paris
+<i>émeute</i>, but a grand social movement, organised by the great and
+universal revolutionary power; the Société Internationale, Garibaldiism,
+Mazziniism, and Fenianism, have given each other rendezvous in Paris. Cluseret,
+the American; Frankel, the Prussian; Dombrowski, the Russian; Brunswick, the
+Lithuanian; Romanelli, the Italian; Okolowitz, the Pole; Spillthorn, the
+Belgian; and La Cécilia, Wroblewski, Wenzel, Hertzfel, Bozyski, Syneck,
+Prolowitz, and a hundred others, equally illustrious, brought together from
+every quarter of the globe; such were these ardent conspirators, all imbued,
+like their colleagues the Flourens, the Eudes, the Henrys, the Duvals, and
+<i>tutti quanti</i>, with the principles of the French school of democracy and
+socialism.<br/>
+    This strong and terrible band, we are told, is under the command of a chief
+who remains hidden and mute, while ostensibly it obeys the Pyats, Delescluzes,
+and Rocheforts, politicians, who not being generals, never condescend to
+fight.<br/>
+    In the first days of March all was prepared for a coming explosion, and in
+spite of the departure of the Prussians, the Socialist party determined that it
+should take place. (<i>Guerre des Communeux</i>, p. 61.)
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-9" id="fn-9"></a> <a href="#fnref-9">[9]</a>
+A sign that they refused to fight.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-10" id="fn-10"></a> <a href="#fnref-10">[10]</a>
+A smooth-bore musket arranged as breech-loader, and called a snuff-box, from
+the manner of opening the breech to adjust the charge.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="II."></a> II.</h2>
+
+<p>
+At three o&rsquo;clock in the afternoon there was a dense group of
+linesmen and Nationals in one of the streets bordering on the
+Elysée-Montmartre. The person who told us this did not
+recollect the name of the street, but men were eagerly haranguing
+the crowd, talking of General Lecomte, and his having twice
+ordered the troops to fire upon the citizen militia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;And what he did was right,&rdquo; said an old gentleman who was
+listening.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Words that were no sooner uttered than they provoked a torrent
+of curses and imprecations from the by-standers. But he continued
+observing that General Lecomte had only acted under the orders of
+his superiors; being commanded to take the guns and to disperse
+the crowd, his only duty was to obey.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These remarks being received in no friendly spirit, hostility
+to the stranger increased, when a vivandière approached,
+and looking the gentleman who had exposed himself to the fury of
+the mob full in the face, exclaimed, &ldquo;It is Clément
+Thomas!&rdquo; And in truth it was General Clément Thomas; he
+was not in uniform. A torrent of abuse was poured forth by a
+hundred voices at once, and the anger of the crowd seemed about
+to extend itself to violence, when a ruffian cried out: &ldquo;You
+defend the rascal Lecomte! Well, we&rsquo;ll put you both together, and
+a pretty pair you&rsquo;ll be!&rdquo; and this project being approved of, the
+General was hurried, not without having to submit to fresh
+insults, to where General Lecomte had been imprisoned since the
+morning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From this moment the narrative I have collected differs but
+little from that circulated through Paris.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At about four o&rsquo;clock in the afternoon the two generals were
+conducted from their prison by a hundred National Guards, the
+hands of General Lecomte being bound together, whilst those of
+Clément Thomas were free. In this manner they were
+escorted to the top of the hill of Montmartre, where they stopped
+before No. 6 of the Rue des Rosiers: it is a little house I had
+often seen, a peaceful and comfortable habitation, with a garden
+in front. What passed within it perhaps will never be known. Was
+it there that the Central Committee of the National Guard held
+their sittings in full conclave? or were they represented by a
+few of its members? Many persons think that the house was not
+occupied, and that the National Guards conducted their prisoners
+within its walls to make the crowd believe they were proceeding
+to a trial, or at least to give the appearance of legality to the
+execution of premeditated acts. Of one thing there remains little
+doubt, namely, that soldiers of the line stood round about at the
+time, and that the trial, if any took place, was not long, the
+condemned being conducted to a walled enclosure at the end of the
+street.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-9"></a>
+<img src="images/014.jpg" width="600" height="277" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Hotel de Ville, As Fortified by the National Guard,
+March, 1871.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="letter">
+The Hôtel de Ville of Paris, Which Witnessed So Many National Ceremonies and
+Republican Triumphs, Was Commenced in 1533, And It Was Finished in 1628. Here
+the First Bourbon, Henry Iv., Celebrated His Entry Into Paris After the Siege
+of 1589, and Bailly The maire, On The 17th July, 1789, Presented Louis Xvi. To
+the People, Wearing A Tricolor Cockade. Henry Iv. Became a Catholic in Order to
+Enter &ldquo;his Good City of Paris&rdquo; Whilst Louis Xvi. Wore the Democratic
+Insignia In Order to Keep It. A Few Days Later the 172 Commissioners of
+Sections, Representing the Municipality of Paris, Established The Commune. The
+Hôtel de Ville Was the Seat of The First Committee Of Public Safety, And From
+the Green Chamber, Robespierre Governed The Convention and France Till his Fall
+on the 9th Thermidor. From 1800 to 1830 Fêtes Held The Place of Political
+Manifestations. In 1810 Bonaparte Received Marie-Louise Here; in 1821, the
+Baptism of The Duke Of Bordeaux Was Celebrated Here; in 1825 Fêtes Were Given
+to the Duc D&rsquo;angouleme on His Return from Spain, and to Charles X., Arriving
+From Rheims. Five Years Later, from the Same Balcony Where Bailly Presented
+Louis Xvi. To The People, Lafayette, Standing by the Side of Louis Philippe,
+Said, &ldquo;this Is the Best of Republics!&rdquo; It Was Here, in 1848, That de
+Lamartine Courageously Declared to an Infuriated Mob That, As Long As he Lived,
+The Red Flag Should Not Be the Flag of France. During The Fatal Days Of June,
+1848, the Hôtel de Ville Was Only Saved from Destruction by The Intrepidity of
+a Few Brave Men. The Queen Of England Was Received Here In 1865, and the
+Sovereigns Who Visited Paris Since Have Been Fêted Therein. On the 4th of
+September The Bloodless Revolution Was Proclaimed; and on the 31st of October,
+1870, And The 22nd Of January, 1871, Flourens and Blanqui Made a Fruitless
+Attempt to Substitute The Red Flag for the Tricolor; But Their Partisans
+Succeeded on The 18th Of March, when It Was Fortified, and Became the
+Head-quarters of The Commune of 1871.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As soon as they had halted, an officer of the National Guard
+seized General Clément Thomas by the collar of his coat
+and shook him violently several times, exclaiming, whilst he held
+the muzzle of a revolver close to his throat,&mdash;&ldquo;Confess that
+you have betrayed the Republic.&rdquo; To this Monsieur Clément
+Thomas only replied by a shrug of his shoulders; upon this the
+officer retired, leaving the General standing alone in the front
+of the wall, with a line of soldiers opposite.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Who gave the signal to fire is unknown, but a report of twenty
+muskets rent the air, and General Clément Thomas fell with
+his face to the earth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;It is your turn now,&rdquo; said one of the assassins, addressing
+General Lecomte, who immediately advanced from the crowd,
+stepping over the body of Clément Thomas to take his
+place, awaiting with his back to the wall the fatal moment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Fire!&rdquo; cried the officer, and all was over.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Half an hour after, in the Rue des Acacias, I came across an
+old woman who wanted three francs for a bullet&mdash;a bullet she
+had extracted from the plaster of a wall at the end of the Rue
+des Rosiers.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="III."></a> III.</h2>
+
+<p>
+It is ten o&rsquo;clock in the evening, and if I were not so tired I
+would go to the Hôtel de Ville, which, I am told, has been
+taken possession of by the National Guards; the 18th of March is
+continuing the 31st of October. But the events of this day have
+made me so weary that I can hardly write all I have seen and
+heard. On the outer boulevards the wine shops are crowded with
+tipsy people, the drunken braggarts who boast they have made a
+revolution. When a stroke succeeds there are plenty of rascals
+ready to say: I did it. Drinking, singing, and talking are the
+order of the day. At every step you come upon &ldquo;piled arms.&rdquo; At
+the corner of the Passage de l&rsquo;Elysée-des-Beaux-Arts I met
+crowds of people, some lying on the ground; here a battalion
+standing at ease but ready to march; and at the entrance of the
+Rue Blanche and the Rue Fontaine were some stones, ominously
+posed one on the other, indicating symptoms of a barricade. In
+the Rue des Abbesses I counted three cannons and a mitrailleuse,
+menacing the Rue des Martyrs. In the Rue des Acacias, a man had
+been arrested, and was being conducted by National Guards to the
+guard-house: I heard he was a thief. Such arrests are
+characteristic features in a Parisian émeute.
+Notwithstanding these little scenes the disorder is not
+excessive, and but for the multitude of men in uniform one might
+believe it the evening of a popular fête; the victors are
+amusing themselves.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-10"></a>
+<img src="images/015.jpg" width="500" height="408" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Sentinels, Rue du Val de Grâce and Boulevard St. Michel</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+Among the Federals this evening there are very few linesmen;
+perhaps they have gone to their barracks to enjoy their meal of
+soup and bread.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Upon the main boulevards noisy groups are commenting upon the
+events of the day. At the corner of the Rue Drouot an officer of
+the 117th Battalion is reading in a loud voice, or rather
+reciting, for he knows it all by heart, the proclamation of M.
+Picard, the official poster of the afternoon.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;The Government appeals to you to defend your city, your home, your
+    children, and your property.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Some frenzied men, commanded by unknown chiefs, direct against
+    Paris the guns defended from, the Prussians.<br/>
+    &ldquo;They oppose force to the National Guard and the army.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Will you suffer it?<br/>
+    &ldquo;Will you, under the eyes of the strangers ready to profit by our
+    discord, abandon Paris to sedition?<br/>
+    &ldquo;If you do not extinguish it in the germ, the Republic and France
+    will be ruined for ever.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Their destiny is in your hands.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The Government desires that you should hold your arms energetically
+    to maintain the law and preserve the Republic from anarchy. Gather
+    round your leaders; it is the only means of escaping ruin and the
+    domination of the foreigner.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+    &ldquo;The Minister of the Interior,<br/>
+    &ldquo;ERNEST PICARD.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The crowd listened with attention, shouted two or three times
+&ldquo;To arms!&rdquo; and then dispersed&mdash;I thought for an instant, to
+arm themselves, though in reality it was only to reinforce
+another group forming on the other side of the way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This day the Friends of Order have been very apathetic, so
+much so that Paris is divided between two parties: the one active
+and the other passive.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To speak truly, I do not know what the population of Paris
+could have done to resist the insurrection. &ldquo;Gather round your
+chiefs,&rdquo; says the proclamation. This is more easily said than
+done, when we do not know what has become of them. The division
+caused in the National Guard by the Coup d&rsquo;Etat of the Central
+Committee had for its consequence the disorganisation of all
+command. Who was to distinguish, and where was one to find the
+officers that had remained faithful to the cause of order?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is true they sounded the &ldquo;rappel&rdquo;<a href="#fn-11"
+name="fnref-11" id="fnref-11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> and beat the
+&ldquo;générale&rdquo;;<a href="#fn-12" name="fnref-12"
+id="fnref-12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> but who commanded it? Was it the regular
+Government or the revolutionary Committee?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+More than one good citizen was ready to do his duty; but,
+after having put on his uniform and buckled his belt, he felt
+very puzzled, afraid of aiding the entente instead of
+strengthening the defenders of the law. Therefore the peaceful
+citizen soldiers regarded not the call of the trumpet and the
+drum.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is wise to stay at home when one knows not where to go.
+Besides, the line has not replied, and bad examples are
+contagious; moreover, is it fair to demand of fathers of
+families, of merchants and tradesmen, in fact of soldiers of
+necessity, an effort before which professional soldiers withdraw?
+The fact is the Government had fled. Perhaps a few ministers
+still remained in Paris, but the main body had gone to join the
+Assembly at Versailles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I do not blame their somewhat precipitate departure,<a href="#fn-13"
+name="fnref-13" id="fnref-13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> perhaps it was necessary;
+nevertheless it seems to me that their presence would have put an end to
+irresolution on the part of timid people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile, from the Madeleine to the Gymnase, the cafés
+overflowed with swells and idlers of both sexes. On the outer
+boulevards they got drunk, and on the inner tipsy, the only
+difference being in the quality of the liquors imbibed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What an extraordinary people are the French!
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-11" id="fn-11"></a> <a href="#fnref-11">[11]</a>
+The roll call.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-12" id="fn-12"></a> <a href="#fnref-12">[12]</a>
+Muster call in time of danger, which is beaten only by a superior order
+emanating from the Commander-in-chief in a stronghold or garrison town.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-13" id="fn-13"></a> <a href="#fnref-13">[13]</a>
+The army of Paris was drawn off to Versailles in the night of the 18th of
+March, and on the 19th, the employés of all the ministries and public offices
+left Paris for the same destination.<br/>
+    On the 19th of March, as early as eight in the morning, Monsieur Thiers
+addressed the following circular to the authorities of all the
+departments:&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;The whole of the Government is assembled at Versailles: the
+    National Assembly will meet there also.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The army, to the number of forty thousand men, has been assembled
+    there in good order, under the command of General Vinoy. All the
+    chiefs of the army, and all the civil authorities have arrived
+    there.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The civil and military authorities will execute no other orders but
+    those issued by the legitimate government residing at Versailles,
+    under penalty of dismissal.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The members of the National Assembly are all requested to hasten
+    their return, so as to be present at the sitting of the 20th of
+    March.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The present despatch will be made known to the public.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<small>&ldquo;A. THIERS.&rdquo;</small>
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="IV."></a> IV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Next morning, the 19th of March, I was in haste to know the
+events of last night, what attitude Paris had assumed after her
+first surprise. The night, doubtless, had brought counsel, and
+perhaps settled the discord existing between the Government and
+the Central Committee.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Early in the morning things appeared much as usual; the
+streets were peaceful, servants shopping, and the ordinary
+passengers going to and fro. In passing I met a casual
+acquaintance to whom I had spoken now and then, a man with whom I
+had served during the siege when we mounted guard on the
+ramparts. &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said I, &ldquo;good morning, have you any
+news?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;News,&rdquo; replied he, &ldquo;no, not that I know of. Ah I
+yes, there is a rumour that something took place yesterday at
+Montmartre.&rdquo; This was told me in the centre of the city, in the
+Rue de la Grange-Batelière. Truly there are in Paris
+persons marvellously apathetic and ignorant. I would wager not a
+little that by searching in the retired quarters, some might be
+found who believe they are still governed by Napoleon III., and
+have never heard of the war with Prussia, except as a not
+improbable eventuality.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the boulevards there was but little excitement. The
+newspaper vendors were in plenty. I do not like to depend upon
+these public sheets for information, for however impartial or
+sincere a reporter may be, he cannot represent facts otherwise
+than according to the impression they make upon him, and to value
+facts by the impression they make upon others is next to
+impossible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I directed my steps to the Rue Drouot in search of placards, and plentiful I
+found them, and white too, showing that Paris was not without a government; for
+white is the official colour even under a red Republic.<a href="#fn-14"
+name="fnref-14" id="fnref-14"><sup>[14]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Taking out a pencil I copied hastily the proclamation of the
+new masters, and I think that I did well, for we forget very
+quickly both proclamations and persons. Where are they now, the
+official bills of last year?
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+    &ldquo;RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité.&rdquo;<br/>
+    <i>To the People</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;Citizens,&mdash;The people of Paris have shaken off the yoke endeavoured
+    to be imposed upon them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What yoke, gentlemen&mdash;I beg pardon, citizens of the
+Committee? I assure you, as part of the people, that I have never
+felt that any one has tried to impose one upon me. I recollect,
+if my memory serves me, that a few guns were spoken of, but
+nothing about yokes. Then the expression &ldquo;People of Paris,&rdquo; is a
+gross exaggeration. The inhabitants of Montmartre and their
+neighbours of that industrious suburb are certainly a part of the
+people, and not the less respectable or worthy of our
+consideration because they live out of the centre (indeed, I have
+always preferred a coal man of the Chaussée Clignancourt
+to a coxcomb of the Rue Taitbout); but for all that, they are not
+the whole population. Thus, your sentence does not imply
+anything, and moreover, with all its superannuated metaphor, the
+rhetoric is out of date. I think it would have been better to say
+simply&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;Citizens,&mdash;The inhabitants of Montmartre and of Belleville have
+    taken their guns and intend to keep them.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But then it would not have the air of a proclamation.
+Extraordinary fact! you may overturn an entire country, but you
+must not touch the official style; it is immutable. One may
+triumph over empires, but must respect red tape. Let us read
+on:
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;Tranquil, calm in our force, we have awaited without fear as
+    without provocation, the shameless madmen who menaced the Republic.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Republic? Again an improper expression, it was the cannons
+they wanted to take.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;This time, our brothers of the army....&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ah! your brothers of the army! They are your brothers because
+they fraternised and threw up the butt-ends of their muskets. In
+your family you acknowledge no brotherhood except those who hold
+the same opinion.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;This time, our brothers of the army would not raise their hands
+    against the holy ark of our liberty.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Oh! So the guns are a holy ark now. A very holy metaphor, for
+people not greatly enamoured of churchmen.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Thanks for all; and let Paris and France unite to build a Republic, and
+accept with acclamations the only government that will close for ever the flood
+gates of invasion and civil war.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The state of siege is raised.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The people of Paris are convoked in their sections to elect a
+Commune. The safety of all citizens is assured by the body of the National
+Guard.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Hôtel de Ville of Paris, the 19th of March, 1871.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The Central Committee of the National Guard:<br/>
+    &ldquo;Assy, Billioray, Ferrat, Babick, Ed. Moreau, Oh. Dupont, Varlin,
+Boursier, Mortier, Gouhier, Lavallette, Fr. Jourde, Rousseau, Ch. Lullier,
+Blanchet, G. Gaillard, Barroud, H. Geresme, Fabre, Pougeret.&rdquo;<a
+href="#fn-15" name="fnref-15" id="fnref-15"><sup>[15]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There is one reproach that the new Parisian Revolution could
+not be charged with; it is that of having placed at the head men
+of proved incapacity. Those who dared to assert that each of the
+persons named above had not more genius than would be required to
+regenerate two or three nations would greatly astonish me. In a
+drama of Victor Hugo it is said a parentless child ought to be
+deemed a gentleman; thus an obscure individual ought, on the same
+terms, to be considered a man of genius.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But on the walls of the Rue Drouot many more proclamations
+were to be seen.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+    &ldquo;RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE.<br/>
+    &ldquo;LIBERTÉ, EGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ,<br/>
+    &ldquo;To the National Guards of Paris.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;CITIZENS,&mdash;You had entrusted us with the charge of organising the
+    defence of Paris and of your rights.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Oh! as to that, no; a thousand times, no! I admit&mdash;since you appear to
+cling to it&mdash;that Cannon are an ark of strength, but under no pretext
+whatever will I allow that I entrusted you with the charge of organising
+anything whatsoever. I know nothing of you; I have never heard you spoken of.
+There is no one in the world of whom I am more ignorant than Ferrat, Babick,
+unless it be Gaillard and Pougeret (though I was national guard myself, and
+caught cold on the ramparts for the King of Prussia<a href="#fn-16"
+name="fnref-16" id="fnref-16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> as much as anyone else). I
+neither know what you wish nor where you are leading those who follow you; and
+I can prove to you, if you like, that there are at least a hundred thousand men
+who caught cold too, and who, at the present moment, are in exactly the same
+state of mind concerning you &ldquo;We are aware of having fulfilled our
+mission.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+You are very good to have taken so much trouble, but I have no
+recollection of having given you a mission to fulfil of any kind
+whatever!
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;Assisted by your courage and presence of mind!...&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ah, gentlemen, this is flattery!
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;We have driven out the government that was betraying you.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Our mandate has now expired...&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Always this same mandate which we gave you, eh?
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;We now return it to you, for we do not pretend to take the place of
+    those which the popular breath has overthrown.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Prepare yourselves, let the Communal election commence forthwith,
+    and give to us the only reward we have ever hoped for&mdash;that of
+    seeing the establishment of a true republic. In the meanwhile we
+    retain the Hôtel de Ville in the name of the people.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Hôtel de Ville, Paris, 19th March, 1871.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The Central Committee of the National Guards:<br/>
+    &ldquo;Assy, Billioray, and others.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Placarded up also is another proclamation<a href="#fn-17" name="fnref-17"
+id="fnref-17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> signed by the citizens Assy, Billioray, and
+others, announcing that the Communal elections will take place on Wednesday
+next, 22nd of March, that is to say in three days.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This then is the result of yesterday&rsquo;s doings, and the
+revolution of the 18th March can be told in a few words.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There were cannon at Montmartre; the Government wished to take
+them but was not able, thanks to the fraternal feeling and
+cowardice of the soldiers of the Line. A secret society, composed
+of several delegates of several battalions, took advantage of the
+occasion to assert loudly that they represented the entire
+population, and commanded the people to elect the Commune of
+Paris&mdash;whether they wished or not.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What will Paris do now between these dictators, sprung from
+heaven knows where, and the Government fled to Versailles?
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-14" id="fn-14"></a> <a href="#fnref-14">[14]</a>
+No one may use white placards&mdash;they are reserved by the government.<br/>
+    The following is an extract from the <i>Official Journal</i> of Versailles,
+bearing the date of the 20th of March, which explains the official form of the
+announcements made by the Central Committee:&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;Yesterday, 19th March, the offices of the <i>Official Journal</i>,
+in Paris, were broken into, the employés having escaped to Versailles with the
+documents, to join the Government and the National Assembly. The invaders took
+possession of the printing machines, the materials, and even the official and
+non-official articles which had been set up in type, and remained in the
+composing-rooms. It is thus that they were enabled to give an appearance of
+regularity to the publication of their decrees, and to deceive the Parisian
+public by a false <i>Official Journal</i>.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-15" id="fn-15"></a> <a href="#fnref-15">[15]</a>
+Here is an extract from the <i>Official Journal</i> upon the subject (numbers
+of the 29th March and 1st June):&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;In the insurrection, the momentary triumph of which has crushed
+Paris beneath so odious and humiliating a yoke, carried the distresses of
+France to their height, and put civilisation in peril, the International
+Society has borne a part which has suddenly revealed to all the fatal power of
+this dangerous association.<br/>
+    &ldquo;On the 19th of March, the day after the outbreak of the terrible
+sedition, of which the last horrors will form one of the most frightful pages
+in history, there appeared upon the walls a placard which made known to Paris
+the names of its new masters.<br/>
+    &ldquo;With the exception of one, alone, (Assy), who had acquired a
+deplorable notoriety, these names were unknown to almost all who read them;
+they had suddenly emerged from utter obscurity, and people asked themselves
+with astonishment, with stupor, what unseen power could have given them an
+influence and a meaning which they did not possess in themselves. This power
+was the International; these names were those of some of its members.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-16" id="fn-16"></a> <a href="#fnref-16">[16]</a>
+<i>Travailler pour le Roi de Prusse</i>, &ldquo;to work for the King of
+Prussia,&rdquo; is an old French saying, which means to work for nothing, to no
+purpose.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-17" id="fn-17"></a> <a href="#fnref-17">[17]</a>
+&ldquo;THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL GUARD.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Inasmuch:&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;That it is most urgent that the Communal administration of the City
+of Paris shall be formed immediately,<br/>
+    &ldquo;Decrees:&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;1st. The elections for the Communal Council of the City of Paris
+will take place on Wednesday next, the 22nd of March.<br/>
+    &ldquo;2nd. The electors will vote with lists, and in their own
+arrondissements.<br/>
+    Each arrondissement will elect a councillor for each twenty thousand of
+inhabitants, and an extra one for a surplus of more than ten thousand.<br/>
+    3rd. The poll will be open from eight in the morning to six in the evening.
+The result will be made known at once.<br/>
+    4th. The municipalities of the twenty arrondissements are entrusted with
+the proper execution of the present decree.<br/>
+    A placard indicating the number of councillors for each arrondissement will
+shortly be posted up.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Hôtel de Ville, Paris, 29th March, 1871.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="V."></a> V.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Paris remains inactive, and watches events as one watches
+running water. What does this indifference spring from? Surprise
+and the disappearance of the chiefs might yesterday have excused
+the inaction of Paris, but twenty-four hours have passed over,
+every man has interrogated his conscience, and been able to
+listen to its answer. There has been time to reconnoitre, to
+concert together; there would have been time to act!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Why is nothing done? Why has nothing been done yet? Generals
+Clément Thomas and Lecomte have been assassinated; this is
+as incontestable as it is odious. Does all Paris wish to partake
+with the criminals in the responsibility of this crime? The
+regular Government has been expelled. Does Paris consent to this
+expulsion? Men invested with no rights, or, at least, with
+insufficient rights, have usurped the power. Does Paris so far
+forget itself as to submit to this usurpation without
+resistance?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+No, most assuredly no. Paris abominates crime, does not
+approve of the expulsion of the Government, and does not
+acknowledge the right of the members of the Central Committee to
+impose its wishes upon us. Why then does Paris remain passive and
+patient? Does it not fear that it will be said that silence
+implies consent? How is it that I myself, for example, instead of
+writing my passing impressions on these pages, do not take my
+musket to punish the criminals and resist this despotism? It is
+that we all feel the present situation to be a, singularly
+complicated one. The Government which has withdrawn to Versailles
+committed so many faults that it would be difficult to side with
+it without reserve. The weakness and inability the greater part
+of those who composed it showed during the siege, their obstinacy
+in remaining deaf to the legitimate wishes of the capital, have
+ill disposed us for depending on a state of things which it would
+have been impossible to approve of entirely. In fine, these
+unknown revolutionists, guilty most certainly, but perhaps
+sincere, claim for Paris rights that almost the whole of Paris is
+inclined to demand. It is impossible not to acknowledge that the
+municipal franchise is wished for and becomes henceforth
+necessary.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is for this reason that although aghast at the excesses in
+perspective and those already committed by the dictators of the
+18th March, though revolted at the thought of all the blood
+spilled and yet to be spilled&mdash;this is the reason that we
+side with no party. The past misdeeds of the legitimate
+Government of Versailles damp our enthusiasm for it, while some
+few laudable ideas put forth by the illegitimate government of
+the Hôtel de Ville diminish our horror of its crimes, and
+our apprehensions at its misdoings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then&mdash;why not dare say it?&mdash;Paris, which is so
+impressionable, so excitable, so romantic, in admiration before
+all that is bold, has but a moderate sympathy for that which is
+prudent. We may smile, as I did just now, at the emphatic
+proclamation of the Central Committee, but that does not prevent
+us from recognizing that its power is real, and the ferocious
+elements that it has so suddenly revealed are not without a
+certain grandeur. It might have been spitefully remarked that
+more than one patriot in his yesterday evening walk on the outer
+boulevards and in the environs of the Hôtel de Ville, had
+taken more <i>petit vin</i> than was reasonable in honour of the
+Republic and of the Commune, but that has not prevented our
+feeling a surprise akin to admiration at the view of those
+battalions hastening from all quarters at some invisible signal,
+and ready at any moment to give up their lives to defend ...
+what? Their guns, and these guns were in their eyes the palpable
+symbols of their rights and liberties. During this time the
+heroic Assembly was pettifogging at Versailles, and the
+Government was going to join them. Paris does not follow those
+who fly.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="VI."></a> VI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+The Butte-Montmartre is <i>en fête</i>. The weather is
+charming, and every one goes to see the cannon and inspect the
+barricades, Men, women, and children mount the hilly streets, and
+they all appear joyous ... for what, they cannot say themselves,
+but who can resist the charm of sunshine? If it rained, the city
+would be in mourning. Now the citizens have closed their shops
+and put on their best clothes, and are going to dine at the
+restaurant. These are the very enemies of disorder, the small
+shopkeepers and the humble citizens. Strange contradiction! But
+what would you have? the sun is so bright, the weather is so
+lovely. Yesterday no work was done because of the insurrection;
+it was like a Sunday. To-day therefore is the holiday-Monday of
+the insurrection.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-11"></a>
+<img src="images/016.jpg" width="381" height="500" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Behind a Barricade: The Morning Meal&mdash;thirty Sous A
+Day and nothing to eat</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="VII."></a> VII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+In the midst of all these troubles, in which every one is
+borne along, without any knowledge of where he is
+drifting&mdash;with the Central Committee making proclamations on
+one side, and the Versailles Government training troops on the
+other, a few men have arisen who have spoken some words of
+reason. These men may be certain from this moment that they are
+approved of by Paris, and will be obeyed By Paris&mdash;by the
+honest and intelligent Paris&mdash;by the Paris which is ready to
+favour that side which can prove that it has the most justice in
+it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The deputies and maires of Paris have placarded the following
+proclamation:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+    &ldquo;RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE.<br/>
+    &ldquo;LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;Citizens,&mdash;Impressed with the absolute necessity of saving Paris
+    and the Republic by the removal of every cause of collision, and
+    convinced that the best means of attaining this grand object is to
+    give satisfaction to the legitimate wishes of the people, we have
+    resolved this very day to demand of the National Assembly the
+    adoption of two measures which we have every hope will contribute to
+    bring back tranquillity to the public mind.<br/>
+    &ldquo;These two measures are: The election of all the officers of the
+    National Guard, without exception, and the establishment of a
+    municipal council, elected by the whole of the citizens.<br/>
+    &ldquo;What we desire, and what the public welfare requires under all
+    circumstances; and which the present situation renders more
+    indispensable than ever, is, order in liberty and by liberty.<br/>
+    &ldquo;<i>Vive la France!</i> Vive la République!
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+    &ldquo;<i>The representatives of the Seine</i>:
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;Louis Blanc, V. Schoelcher, Edmond Adam, Floquet, Martin Bernard,
+    Langlois, Edouard Lockroy, Farcy, Brisson, Greppo, Millière.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+    &ldquo;<i>The maires and adjoints of Paris</i>:
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;1st Arrondissement: Ad. Adam, Meline, adjoints.&mdash;2nd
+    Arrondissement: Tirard, maire, representative of the Seine; Ad.
+    Brelay, Chéron, Loiseau-Pinson, adjoints.&mdash;3rd Arrondissement;
+    Bonvalet, maire; Ch. Murat, adjoint.&mdash;4th Arrondissement: Vautrain,
+    maire; Loiseau, Callon, adjoints.&mdash;5th Arrondissement: Jourdan,
+    adjoint.&mdash;6th Arrondissement: Hérisson, maire; A. Leroy,
+    adjoint.&mdash;7th Arrondissement: Arnaud (de l&rsquo;Ariége), maire,
+    representative of the Seine.&mdash;8th Arrondissement: Carnot, maire,
+    representative of the Seine.&mdash;9th Arrondissement: Desmaret,
+    maire.&mdash;10th Arrondissement: Dubail, maire; A. Murat,
+    Degoyves-Denunques, adjoints.&mdash;11th Arrondissement: Motu, maire,
+    representative of the Seine; Blanchon, Poirier, Tolain,
+    representative of the Seine.&mdash;12th Arrondissement: Denizot, Dumas,
+    Turillon, adjoints.&mdash;18th Arrondissement: Léo Meillet, Combes,
+    adjoints.&mdash;14th Arrondissement: Héligon, adjoint.&mdash;15th
+    Arrondissement: Jobbe-Duval, adjoint.&mdash;16th Arrondissement: Henri
+    Martin, maire and representative of the Seine,&mdash;17th.
+    Arrondissement: FRANÇOIS FAVRE, maire; MALOU, VILLENEUVE, CACHEUX,
+    adjoints.&mdash;18th. Arrondissement: CLÉMENCEAU, maire and
+    representative of the people; J.B. LAFONT, DEREURE, JACLARD,
+    adjoints.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This proclamation has now been posted two hours, and I have
+not yet met a single person who does not approve of it entirely.
+The deputies of the Seine and the <i>maires</i> of Paris have, by
+the flight of the Government to Versailles, become the legitimate
+chiefs. We have elected them, it is for them to lead us. To them
+belongs the duty of reconciling the Assembly with the city; and
+it appears to us that they have taken the last means of bringing
+about that conciliation, by disengaging all that is legitimate
+and practical in its claims from the exaggeration of the
+<i>émeute</i>. Let them therefore have all praise for this
+truly patriotic attempt. Let them hasten to obtain from the
+Assembly a recognition of our rights. In acceding to the demands
+of the deputies and the <i>maires</i>, the Government will not be
+treating with insurrection; on the contrary, it will effect a
+radical triumph over it, for it will take away from it every
+pretext of existence, and will separate from it, in a definite
+way, all those men who have been blinded to the illegal and
+violent manner in which this programme is drawn up, by the
+justice of certain parts of it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If the Assembly consent to this, all that will remain of the
+18th of March will be the recollection&mdash;painful enough,
+without doubt&mdash;of one sanguinary day, while out of a great
+evil will come a great benefit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whatever may happen, we are resolute; we&mdash;that is to say,
+all those who, without having followed the Government of
+Versailles, and without having taken an active part in the
+insurrection, equally desire the re-establishment of legitimate
+power and the development of municipal liberties&mdash;we are
+resolved to follow where our deputies and the <i>maires</i> may
+lead us. They represent at this, moment the only legal authority
+which seems to us to have fairly understood the difficulties of
+the situation, and if, in the case of all hope of conciliation
+being lost, they should tell us to take up arms, we will do
+so.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="VIII."></a> VIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Paris has this evening, the 21st of March, an air of
+extraordinary contentment; it has belief in the deputies and the
+<i>maires</i>, it has trust even, in the National Assembly.
+People talk of the manifestation of the Friends of Order and
+approve of it. A foreigner, a Russian, Monsieur A&mdash;&mdash;
+J&mdash;&mdash;, who has inhabited Paris for ten years, and is
+consequently Parisian, has given me the following information, of
+which I took hasty note:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;At half-past one o&rsquo;clock to-day a group, of which I made one, was formed in
+the place of the New Opera-house. We numbered scarcely twenty persons, and we
+had a flag on which was inscribed, &lsquo;Meeting of the Friends of Order.&rsquo; This flag
+was carried by a soldier of the line, an employé, it is said, of the house of
+Siraudin, the great confectioners. We marched along the boulevards as far as
+the Rue de Richelieu; windows were opened as we passed, and the people cried,
+&lsquo;<i>Vive l&rsquo;Ordre! Vive l&rsquo;Assemblée Nationale! A bas la Commune!</i>&rsquo; Few as we
+were at starting our numbers soon grew to three hundred, to five hundred, to a
+thousand. Our troop followed the Rue de Richelieu, increasing as it went. At
+the Place de la Bourse a captain at the head of his National Guards tried to
+stop us. We continued our course, the company saluted our flag as, we passed,
+and the drums beat to arms. After having traversed, still increasing in
+numbers, the streets which surround the Bourse, we returned to the boulevards,
+where the most lively enthusiasm burst out around us. We halted opposite the
+Rue Drouot. The <i>mairie</i> of the Ninth Arrondissement was occupied by a
+battalion attached to the Central Committee&mdash;the 229th, I believe.
+Although there was some danger of a collision, we made our way into the street,
+resolved to do our duty, which was to protest against the interference with
+order and the disregard for established laws; but no resistance was opposed to
+us. The National Guards came out in front of the door of the <i>mairie</i> and
+presented arms to us, and we were about to continue our way, when some one
+remarked that our flag, on which, as I have already said, were the woods
+&lsquo;Meeting of the Friends of Order,&rsquo; might expose us to the danger of being taken
+for &lsquo;<i>réactionnaires</i>,&rsquo; and that we ought to add the words &lsquo;<i>Vive la
+République!</i>&rsquo; Those who headed the manifestation came to a halt, and a few
+of them went into a café, and there wrote the words on the flag with chalk. We
+then resumed our march, following the widest and most frequented paths, and
+were received with acclamations everywhere. A quarter of an hour later we
+arrived at the Rue de la Paix and were marching towards the Place Vendôme,
+where the battalions of the Committee were collected in masses, and where, as
+is well known, the staff of the National Guard had its head-quarters. There, as
+in the Rue Drouot, the drums were beaten and arms presented to us; more than
+that, an officer came and informed the leaders of the manifestation that a
+delegate of the Central Committee begged them to proceed to the staff quarters.
+At this moment I was carrying the flag. We advanced in silence. When we arrived
+beneath the balcony, surrounded by National Guards, whose attitude was
+generally peaceful; there appeared on the balcony a rather young man, without
+uniform, but wearing a red scarf, and surrounded by several superior officers;
+he came forward and said&mdash;&lsquo;Citizens, in the name of the Central
+Committee....&rsquo; when he was interrupted by a storm of hisses and by cries of
+&lsquo;<i>Vive l&rsquo;Ordre! Vive l&rsquo;Assemblée Nationale! Vive la République!</i>&rsquo; In spite
+of these daring interruptions we were not subjected to any violence, nor even
+to any threats, and without troubling ourselves any more about the delegate, we
+marched round the column, and having regained the boulevards proceeded towards
+the Place de la Concorde. There, some one proposed that we should visit Admiral
+Saisset, who lived in the Rue Pauquet, in the quarter of the Champs Elysées,
+when a grave looking man with grey hair said that Admiral Saisset was at
+Versailles. &lsquo;But,&rsquo; he added, &lsquo;there are several admirals amongst you.&rsquo; He gave
+his own name, it was Admiral de Chaillé. From that moment he headed the
+manifestation, which passed over the Pont de la Concorde to the Faubourg St.
+Germain. Constantly received with acclamations, and increasing in numbers, we
+paraded successively all the streets of the quarter, and each time that we
+passed before a guard-house the men presented arms. On the Place St. Sulpice a
+battalion drew up to allow us to pass. We afterwards went along the Boulevard
+St. Michel and the Boulevard de Strasbourg. During this part of our course we
+were joined by a large group, preceded by a tricolor flag with the inscription,
+&lsquo;<i>Vive l&rsquo;Assemblée Nationale!</i>&rsquo; From this time the two flags floated side
+by side at the head of the augmented procession. As we were about to turn into
+the Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle, a man dressed in a paletot and wearing a grey
+felt hat, threw himself upon me as I was carrying the standard of the Friends
+of Order, but a negro, dressed in the uniform of the National Guard, who
+marched beside me, kept the man off, who thereupon turned against the person
+that carried the other flag, wrested it from him, and with extraordinary
+strength broke the staff, which was a strong one, over his knee. This incident
+caused some confusion; the man was seized and carried off, and I fear he was
+rather maltreated. We then made our way back to the boulevards. At our
+appearance the enthusiasm of the passers-by was immense; and certainly, without
+exaggeration, we numbered between three and four thousand persons by the time
+we got back to the front of the New Opera-house, where we were to separate. A
+Zouave climbed up a tree in front of the Grand Hôtel, and fixed our flag on the
+highest branch. It was arranged that we should meet on the following day, in
+uniform but without arms, at the same place.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This account differs a little from those given in the
+newspapers, but I have the best reason to believe it absolutely
+true.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What will be the effect of this manifestation? Will those who
+desire &ldquo;Order through Liberty and in Liberty&rdquo; succeed in meeting
+in sufficiently large numbers to bring to reason, without having
+recourse to force, the numerous partizans of the Commune?
+Whatever may happen, this manifestation proves that Paris has no
+intention of being disposed of without her own consent. In
+connection with the action of the deputies in the National
+Assembly, it cannot have been ineffective in aiding the coming
+pacification.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Many hopeful promises of concord and quiet circulate this
+evening amongst the less violent groups.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="IX."></a> IX.</h2>
+
+<p>
+What is this fusillade? Against whom is it directed? Against
+the Prussians? No! Against Frenchmen, against passers-by, against
+those who cry &ldquo;<i>Vive la République et vive l&rsquo;Ordre</i>.&rdquo;
+Men are falling dead or wounded, women flying, shops closing,
+amid the whistling of the bullets,&mdash;all Paris terrified.
+This is what I have just seen or heard. We are done for then at
+last. We shall see the barricades thrown up in our streets; we
+shall meet the horrid litters, from which hang hands black with
+powder; every woman will weep in the evening when her husband is
+late in returning home, and all mothers will be seized with
+terror. France, alas! France, herself a weeping mother, will fall
+by the hands of her own children.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had started, in company with a friend, from the Passage
+Choiseul on my way to the Tuileries, which has been occupied
+since yesterday by a battalion devoted to the Central Committee.
+On arming at the corner of the Rue St. Roch and the Rue Neuve des
+Petits Champs we perceived a considerable crowd in the direction
+of the Rue de la Paix. &ldquo;What is going on now?&rdquo; said I to my
+friend. &ldquo;I think,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;that it is an unarmed manifestation
+going to the Place Vendôme; it passed along the boulevards
+a short time since, crying &ldquo;<i>Vive l&rsquo;Ordre</i>.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we talked we were approaching the Rue de la Paix. All at
+once a horrible noise was heard. It was the report of musketry. A
+white smoke rose along the walls, cries issued from all parts,
+the crowd fled terrified, and a hundred yards before us I saw a
+woman fall. Is she wounded or dead? What is this massacre? What
+fearful deeds are passing in open day, in this glorious sunshine?
+We had scarcely time to escape into one of the cross-streets,
+followed by the frightened crowd, when the shops were closed,
+hurriedly, and the horrible news spread to all parts of terrified
+Paris.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Reports, varying extremely in form, spread with extraordinary
+rapidity; some were grossly exaggerated, others the reverse. &ldquo;Two
+hundred victims have fallen,&rdquo; said one. &ldquo;There were no balls in
+the guns,&rdquo; said another. The opinions regarding the cause of the
+conflict were strangely various. Perhaps we shall never know,
+with absolute certainty, what passed in the Place, Vendôme
+and the Rue de la Paix. For myself, I was at once; too far and
+too near the scene of action; too near, for I had narrowly missed
+being killed; too far, for I saw nothing but the smoke and the
+flight, of the terrified crowd.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One thing certain is that the Friends of Order who, yesterday,
+succeeded in assembling a large number of citizens, had to-day
+tried to renew its attempt at pacification by unarmed numbers.
+Three or four thousand persons entered the Rue de la Paix towards
+two o&rsquo;clock in the afternoon, crying, &ldquo;<i>L&rsquo;Ordre! L&rsquo;Ordre! Vive
+l&rsquo;Ordre!</i>&rdquo; The Central Committee had doubtless issued severe
+orders, for the foremost sentinels of the Place, far from
+presenting arms to the &ldquo;Friends of Order,&rdquo; as they had done the
+day before, formally refused to let them continue their way. And
+then what happened? Two crowds were face to face; one unarmed,
+the other armed, both under strong excitement, one trying to
+press forward, the other determined to oppose its passage. A
+pistol-shot was heard. This was a signal. Down went the muskets,
+the armed crowd fired, and the unarmed dispersed in mad flight,
+leaving dead and wounded on their path.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But who fired that first pistol-shot? &ldquo;One of the citizens of
+the demonstration; and moreover, the sentinels had their muskets
+torn from them;&rdquo; affirm the partisans of the Central Committee,
+and they bring forward, among other proofs; the evidence of an
+eye-witness, a foreign general, who saw it all from a window of
+the Rue de la Paix. But these assertions are but little to be
+relied upon. Can it be seriously believed that a crowd, to all
+appearance peaceful, would commit such an act of aggression? Who
+would have been insane enough to expose a mass of unarmed people
+to such dire revenge, by a challenge as criminal as it was
+useless? The account according to which the pistol was fired by
+an officer of the Federal guard from the foot of the Place
+Vendôme, thus giving the signal to those under his orders
+to fire upon the citizens, improbable as appears such an excess
+of cold-blooded barbarity, is much the more credible. And now how
+many women mourn their husbands and son&rsquo;s wounded, and perhaps
+dead? How many victims have fallen? The number is not yet known.
+Monsieur Barle, a lieutenant of the National Guard, was shot in
+the stomach. Monsieur Gaston Jollivet, who some time ago
+committed the offence, grave in our eyes, of publishing a comic
+ode in which he allows himself to ridicule our illustrious and
+beloved master, Victor Hugo, but was certainly guilty of none in
+desiring a return to order, had his arm fractured, it is said.
+Monsieur Otto Hottinger, one of the directors of the French Bank,
+fell, struck by two balls, while raising a wounded man from the
+ground.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of my friends assures me that half-an-hour after the fusillade he was fired
+at, as he was coming out from a <i>porte-cochère</i>,<a href="#fn-18"
+name="fnref-18" id="fnref-18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> by National Guards in
+ambuscade.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At four o&rsquo;clock, at the corner of the Rue de la Paix and the
+Rue Neuve des Petits Champs, an old man, dressed in a blouse,
+still lay where he had fallen across the body of a
+<i>cantinière</i>, and beside him a soldier of the line,
+the staff of a tricolour flag grasped in his dead hand. Is this
+soldier the same of whom my friend Monsieur A&mdash;&mdash;
+J&mdash;&mdash; speaks in his account of the first demonstration,
+and who was said to be an employé at Siraudin&rsquo;s?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There were many other victims&mdash;Monsieur de Péne,
+the editor of <i>Paris-Journal</i>, dangerously wounded by a ball
+that penetrated the thigh; Monsieur Portel, lieutenant in the
+Eclaireurs Franchetti, wounded in the neck and right foot;
+Monsieur Bernard, a merchant, killed; Monsieur Giraud, a
+stockbroker, also killed. Fresh names are added to the funereal
+list every moment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Where will this revolution lead us, which was begun by the
+murder of two Generals and is being carried on by the
+assassination of passers-by?
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-18" id="fn-18"></a> <a href="#fnref-18">[18]</a>
+Porte-cochère (carriage gateway).
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="X."></a> X.</h2>
+
+<p>
+In the midst of all this horror and terror I saw one little
+incident which made me smile, though it was sad too; an idyl
+which might be an elegy. Three hired carriages descended the Rue
+Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. It was a wedding. In the first carriage
+was the bride, young and pretty, in tears; in the second, the
+bridegroom, looking anything but pleased. As the horses were
+proceeding slowly on account of the hill, I approached and
+inquired the cause of the discontent. A disagreeable circumstance
+had happened, the <i>garçon d&rsquo;honneur</i> told me. They
+had been to the <i>mairie</i> to be married, but the
+<i>mairie</i> had been turned into a guard-house, and instead of
+the <i>mairie</i> and his clerks, they found soldiers of the
+Commune. The sergeant had offered to replace the municipal
+functionary, but the grands-parents had not consented to such an
+arrangement, and they were forced to return with the connubial
+knot still to be tied. An unhappy state of things. &ldquo;Pooh!&rdquo; said
+an old woman who was passing by, &ldquo;they can marry
+to-morrow.&mdash;There is always time enough to commit
+suicide.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is true, they can marry to-morrow; but these young people
+wished to be married to-day. What are revolutions to them? What
+would it have mattered to the Commune had these lovers been
+united to-day? Is one ever sure of recovering happiness that has
+once escaped? Ah! this insurrection, I hate it for the men it has
+killed, and the widows it has made; and also for the sake of
+those pretty eyes that glistened with tears under the bridal
+wreath.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XI."></a> XI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+The <i>mairie</i> of the Second Arrondissement seems destined to be the centre
+of resistance to the Central Committee. The Federals have not been able, or
+have not dared, to occupy it. In the quarter of the Place de la Bourse and the
+Place des Victoires, National Guards have assembled and declared themselves
+Friends of Order. But they are few in number. Yesterday morning, the 23rd of
+March, they were reinforced by battalions that joined them, one by one, from
+all parts of Paris. They obey the orders, they say, of Admiral Saisset, raised
+to the superior command of the National Guard. It is believed that there are
+mitrailleuses within the Bourse and in the court of the Messageries. The
+massacre of the Rue de la Paix decided the most timorous. There is a
+determination to have done, by some means or other, with tyrants who represent
+in fact but a small part of the population of Paris, and who wish to dominate
+over the whole city. The preparations for resistance are being made between the
+Hôtel de Ville on the one hand, where the members of the Committee are sitting,
+formidably defended, and the Place Vendôme, crammed with insurgents, on the
+other. Is it civil war&mdash;civil war, with all its horrors, that is about to
+commence? A company of Gardes Mobiles has joined the battalions of Order.
+Pupils of the Ecole Polytechnique come and go between the <i>mairie</i> of the
+Second Arrondissement and the Grand Hôtel, where Admiral Saisset and his staff
+are said to be installed.<a href="#fn-19" name="fnref-19"
+id="fnref-19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> A triple line of National Guards closes the
+entrance of the Rue Vivienne against carriages and everybody who does not
+belong to the quarter. Nevertheless, a large number of people, eager for
+information, manage to pass the sentries in spite of the rule. On the Place de
+la Bourse a great crowd discusses, and gesticulates around the piled bayonets
+which glitter in the sun. I notice that the pockets of the National Guards are
+crammed full; a large number of cartridges has been distributed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The orders are strict: no one is to quit his post. There are
+men, however, who have been standing there, without sleep, for
+twenty-four hours. No one must leave the camp of the Friends of
+Order even to go and dine. Those who have no money either have
+rations given them or are provided at the expense of the
+<i>mairie</i>, from a restaurant of the Rue des Filles
+Saint-Thomas, with a dinner consisting of soup and bouilli, a
+plate of meat, vegetables, and a bottle of wine. I hear one of
+them exclaim,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If the Federals knew that we not only get our pay, but are
+also fed like princes, they would come over to us, every man of
+them. As for us, we are determined to obey the <i>maires</i> and
+deputies of Paris.&rdquo; Much astonishment is manifested at the
+absence of Vice-Admiral Saisset; as he has accepted the command
+he ought to show himself. Certain croakers even insinuate that
+the vice-admiral hesitates to organise the resistance, but we
+will not listen to them, and are on the whole full of confidence
+and resolution. &ldquo;We are numerous, determined; we have right on
+our side, and will triumph.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At about four o&rsquo;clock an alarm is sounded. We hear cries of
+&ldquo;To arms! To arms!&rdquo; The drums beat, the trumpets sound, the ranks
+are formed. The ominous click, click, as the men cock their
+rifles, is heard on all sides. The moment of action has arrived.
+There are more than ten thousand men, well armed and determined.
+A company of Mobiles and the National Guards defend the entrance
+of the Rue Vivienne. All this tumult is caused by one of the
+battalions from Belleville, passing along the boulevards with
+three pieces of cannon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What is about to happen? When the insurgents reach the top of
+the Rue Vivienne they seem to hesitate. In a few seconds the
+boulevards, which were just now crowded, are suddenly deserted;
+and even the cafés are closed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At such a moment as this, a single accidental shot (several
+such have happened this morning; a woman standing at a window at
+the corner of the Rue Saint Marc was nearly killed by the
+carelessness, of one of the Guards),&mdash;a single shot, a cry
+even, or a menacing gesture would suffice to kindle the blaze.
+Nobody. moves or speaks. I feel myself tremble before the
+possibility of an irreparable disaster; it is a solemn and
+terrible moment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The battalion from Belleville presents arms; we reply, and
+they pass on. The danger is over; we breathe again. In a few
+seconds the crowd has returned to the boulevards.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-19" id="fn-19"></a> <a href="#fnref-19">[19]</a>
+Lieutenant-Colonel de Beaugrand had improvised staff-quarters at the Grand
+Hôtel, and the nomination of Admiral Saisset, together with M. Schoelcher and
+Langlois, had strengthened the enmity of the two parties. The Central
+Committee, seeing the danger which threatened, announced that the Communal
+elections were adjourned to Sunday the 26th March.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XII."></a> XII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+It is two in the morning. Tired of doing nothing I take out my
+note-book, seat myself on a doorstep opposite the Restaurant
+Catelain, and jet down my memoranda by the light of a street
+lamp.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As soon as night came on, every measure of precaution was
+taken. We have no idea by whom we are commanded, but it would
+appear that a serious defence is contemplated, and is being
+executed with prudence. Is it Admiral Saisset who is at our head?
+We hope so. Although we have been so often disappointed in our
+chiefs, we have not yet lost the desire to place confidence in
+some one. To-night we believe in the admiral. Ever and anon our
+superior officers retire to the <i>mairies</i>, and receive
+strict orders concerning their duty. We are quite an army in
+ourselves; our centre is in the Place de la Bourse, our wings
+extend into the adjoining streets. Lines of Nationals guard all
+the openings; sentinels are posted sixty feet in front to give
+the alarm. Within the enclosed space there is no one to be seen,
+but the houses are inhabited as usual. The doors have been left
+open by order, and also all the windows on the first floors. Each
+company, divided under the command of sergeants, has taken
+possession of three or four houses. At the first signal of alarm
+the street-doors are to be closed, the men to rush to the
+windows, and from there to fire on the assailants. &ldquo;Hold
+yourselves in readiness; it is very possible you may be attacked.
+On the approach of the enemy the guards in the streets are to
+fall back under fire towards the houses, and take shelter there.
+Those posted at the windows are to keep up an unceasing fire on
+the insurgents. In the meantime the bulk of our forces will come
+to our aid, and clear the streets with their mitrailleuses.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So we waited, resolved on obedience, calm, with a silent but
+fervent prayer that we might not be obliged to turn our arms
+against our fellow-townsmen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The night is beautiful. Some of our men are talking in groups
+on the thresholds of the doors, others, rolled in their blankets,
+are lying on the ground asleep. In the upper storeys of some of
+the houses lights are still twinkling through the muslin
+curtains; lower down all is darkness. Scarcely a sound is to be
+heard, only now and then the rumble of a heavy cart, or perhaps a
+cannon in the distance; and nearer to us the sudden noise of a
+musket that slips from its resting-place on to the pavement.
+Every hour the dull sound of many feet is heard; it is the patrol
+of Mobiles making its round. We question them as they
+pass.&mdash;&ldquo;Anything fresh?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Nothing,&rdquo; is the invariable
+reply.&mdash;&ldquo;How far have you been?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;As far as the Rue de
+la Paix,&rdquo; they answer, and pass on. Interrupted conversations are
+resumed, and the sleepers, who had been awakened by the noise,
+close their eyes again. We are watching and waiting,&mdash;may we
+watch and wait in vain!
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XIII."></a> XIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Never have I seen the dawn break with greater pleasure. Almost
+everyone has some time in his life passed such sleepless nights,
+when it seems to him that the darkness will never disappear, and
+the desire for light and day becomes a fearful longing. Never was
+dawn more grateful than after that wretched night. And yet the
+fear of a disastrous collision did not disappear with the night.
+It was even likely that the Federals might have waited for the
+morning to begin their attack, just when fatigue is greatest,
+sleep most difficult to fight against, and therefore discipline
+necessarily slackened. Anyhow, the light seemed to reassure us;
+we could scarcely believe that the crime of civil war could be
+perpetrated in the day-time. The night had been full of fears,
+the morning found us bright and happy. Not all of us, however. I
+smile as I remember an incident which occurred a little before
+daylight. One of our comrades, who had been lying near me, got
+up, went out into the street, and paced up and down some time, as
+if to shake off cramp or cold. My eyes followed him mechanically;
+he was walking in front of the houses, the backs of which look
+out upon the Passage des Panoramas, and as he did so he cast
+furtive glances through the open doorways. He went into one, and
+came out with a disappointed expression on his face. Having
+repeated this strange manoeuvre several times, he reached a
+<i>porte-cochère</i> that was down by the side of the
+Restaurant Catelain. He remained a few minutes, then reappeared
+with a beaming countenance, and made straight for where I was
+standing, rubbing his hands gleefully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Monsieur,&rdquo; said he, in a low voice, so as not to be overheard,
+&ldquo;do you approve of this plan of action, which consists, in case of
+attack, of shooting from the windows on the assailants?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;A
+necessity of street fighting,&rdquo; said I. &ldquo;Let us hope we shall not
+have to try it.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Oh! of course; but I should have preferred
+it if they had taken other measures.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Why?&rdquo; I
+asked.&mdash;&ldquo;Why, you see, when we are in the houses the insurgents will
+try to force their way in.&rdquo;&mdash;I could not see what he was driving at,
+so I said, &ldquo;Most probably.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;But if they do get
+in?&rdquo; he insisted:&mdash;&ldquo;I will trust to our being reinforced from
+the Place de la Bourse before they can effect an
+entrance.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Doubtless! doubtless!&rdquo; he answered; but I
+saw he was anything but convinced.&mdash;&ldquo;But you know reinforcements
+often arrive too late, and if the Federals should get in, we shall be shot down
+like dogs in those rooms overhead!&rdquo;&mdash;I acknowledged that this would
+be, to say the least, disagreeable, but argued that in time of war one must
+take one&rsquo;s chance.&mdash;&ldquo;Do you think, then, monsieur,&rdquo; he
+continued, &ldquo;that, if in the event of the insurgents entering we were to
+look out for a back door to escape by, we should be acting the part of
+cowards?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Of cowards? no; but of excessively prudent
+individuals? yes.&rdquo;:&mdash;&ldquo;Well, monsieur, I am prudent, and there
+is an end of it!&rdquo; exclaimed my comrade, with an air of triumph,
+&ldquo;and I think I have found&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; &mdash;&ldquo;The back
+door in question?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Just go; look down that passage in front
+of us; at the end there is a door which leads&mdash;where do you
+think?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Into the Passage des Panoramas, does it
+not?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Yes, monsieur, and now you see what I
+mean.&rdquo;&mdash;I told him I did not think I did.&mdash;&ldquo;Why, you
+see,&rdquo; he explained, &ldquo;when the enemy comes we must rush into that
+passage, shut the lower door, and make for our post at the windows, where we
+will do our duty bravely to our last cartridge. But suppose, in the meantime,
+that those devils, succeed in breaking open the lower door with the butt end of
+their muskets&mdash;and it is not very strong&mdash;what shall we do
+then?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Why, of course,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;we must plant
+ourselves at the top of the staircase and receive them at the point of our
+bayonets.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;By no means;&rdquo; he
+expostulated.&mdash;&ldquo;But we must; it is our duty.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Oh!
+I fancied we might have gained the door that leads into the passage,&rdquo; he
+went on, looking rather shame-faced.&mdash;&ldquo;What, run
+away!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;No, not exactly; only find some place of
+safety!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Well, if it comes to that,&rdquo; I replied,
+&ldquo;you may do just as you like; only I warn you that the passage is
+occupied by a hundred of our men, and that all the outlets are
+barricaded.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;No, not all,&rdquo; he said with conviction,
+&ldquo;and that is why I appeal to you. You are a journalist, are you
+not?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Sometimes.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Yes, but you are; and
+you know actors and all those sort of people, and you go behind the scenes, I
+dare say, and know where the actors dress themselves, and all
+that.&rdquo;&mdash;I looked at my brave comrade in some surprise, but he
+continued without noticing me, &ldquo;And, you know all the ins and outs of the
+theatre, the corridors, the trapdoors.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Suppose I do, what
+good can that do you?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;All the good in the world, monsieur;
+it will be the saving of me. Why we shall only have to find the actors&rsquo;
+entrance of the <i>Variétés</i>, which is in the passage, then ring, at the
+bell; the porter knows you, and will admit us. You can guide us both up the
+staircase and behind the scenes, and we can easily hunt out some hole or corner
+in which to hide until the fight is over.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said
+I, feeling rather disgusted with my companion, &ldquo;we can bravely walk out
+of the front door on the boulevards, and go and eat a comfortable breakfast,
+while the others are busy carrying away our dead comrades from the staircase we
+ought to have helped to defend!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The poor man looked at me aghast, and then went off. I saw
+that I had hurt his feelings, and I thought perhaps I had been
+wrong in making him feel the cowardice of his proposition. I had
+known him for some months; he lived in the same street as I did,
+and I remembered that he had a wife and children. Perhaps he was
+right in wishing to protect his life at any price. I thought it
+over for a minute or two, and then it went out of my mind
+altogether.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At four in the morning we had another alarm; in an instant
+every one was on foot and rushing to the windows. The house to
+which I was ordered was the very one that had inspired my
+ingenious friend with his novel plan of evasion. I found him
+already installed in the room from whence we were to fire into
+the street.&mdash;&ldquo;You do not know what I have done,&rdquo; said he,
+coming up to me.&mdash;&ldquo;No.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Well, you know the door which
+opens on to the passage; you remember it?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Of course I
+do.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;I found there was a key; so what do you think I did?
+I double-locked the door, and went and slipped the key down the
+nearest drain! Ha! ha! The fellow who tries to escape that way
+will be finely caught!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I seized him cordially by the hand and shook it many times. He
+was beaming, and I was pleased also. I could not help feeling
+that however low France may have fallen, one must never despair
+of a country in which cowards even can be brave.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XIV."></a> XIV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+On Friday, the 24th of March, at nine in the morning, we are
+still in the quarter of the Bourse. Some of the men have not
+slept for forty-eight hours. We are tired but still resolved. Our
+numbers are increasing every hour. I have just seen three
+battalions, with trumpeters and all complete, come up and join
+us. They will now be able to let the men who have been so long on
+duty get a little rest. As to what is going on, we are but very
+incompletely informed. The Federals are fortifying themselves
+more strongly than ever at the Place de l&rsquo;Hôtel de Ville
+and the Place Vendôme. They are very numerous, and have
+lots of artillery. Why do they not act on the offensive? Or do
+they want, as we do, to avoid a conflict? Certainly our hand
+shall not be the first to spill French blood. These hours of
+hesitation on both sides calm men&rsquo;s minds. The deputies and
+mayors of Paris are trying to obtain from the National Assembly
+the recognition of the municipal franchise. If the Government has
+the good sense to make these concessions, which are both
+legitimate and urgent, rather than remain doggedly on the
+defensive, with the conviction that it has right on its ride; if,
+in a word, it remembers the well-known maxim, &ldquo;<i>Summum jus,
+summa injuria</i>,&rdquo; the horrors of civil war may be averted. We
+are told, and I fancy correctly, that the Federal Guards are not
+without fear concerning the issue of the events into which they
+have hurried. The chiefs must also be uneasy. Even those who have
+declared themselves irreconcileable in the hour of triumph would
+not perhaps be sorry now if a little condescension on the part of
+the Assembly furnished them with a pretext of not continuing the
+rebellion. Just now, several Guards of the 117th Battalion, a
+part of which has declared for the Central Committee, who
+happened to be passing, stopped to chat with our outposts. Civil
+war to the knife did not at all appear to be their most ardent
+desire. One of them said: &ldquo;We were called to arms, what could we
+do but obey? They give us our pay, and so here we are.&rdquo; Were they
+sincere in this? Did they come with the hope of joining us, or to
+spy into what we were doing? Others, however, either more frank
+or less clever at deception, declared that they wanted the
+Commune, and would have, it at any price. This, however, was by
+far the smaller number; the majority of the insurgents are of the
+opinion of these men who joined in conversation with us. It is
+quite possible to believe that some understanding might be
+brought about. A fact has just been related to me which confirms
+me in my opinion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Comptoir d&rsquo;Escompte was occupied by a post of Federals. A
+company of Government Guards from the 9th Arrondissement marched
+up to take possession. &ldquo;You have been here for two whole days; go
+home and rest,&rdquo; said the officer in command of the latter. But
+the Federals obstinately refused to be sent away. The officer
+insisted.&mdash;&ldquo;We are in our own quarter, you are from
+Belleville; it is our place to guard the Comptoir
+d&rsquo;Escompte.&rdquo;&mdash;It was all of no avail until the officer said:
+&ldquo;Go away directly, and we will give you a hundred
+francs.&rdquo;&mdash;They did not wait for the offer to be repeated,
+but accepted the money and marched off. Now men who are willing
+to sell their consciences at two francs a head&mdash;for there
+were fifty of them&mdash;cannot have any very formidable
+political opinions. I forgot to say that this post of Federals
+was commanded by the Italian Tibaldi, the same who had been
+arrested in one of the passages of the Hôtel de Ville
+during the riots of the 31st October.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XV."></a> XV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+The news is excellent, in a few hours perhaps it will be
+better. We rejoice beforehand at the almost certain prospect of
+pacification. The sun shines, the boulevards are crowded with
+people, the faces of the women especially are beaming. What is
+the cause of all this joy? A placard has just been posted up on
+all the walls in the city. I copy it with pleasure.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;DEAR FELLOW CITIZENS,&mdash;I hasten to announce to you that together with the
+Deputies of the Seine and the Mayors of Paris, we have obtained from the
+Government of the National Assembly: 1st. The complete recognition of your
+municipal franchises; 2nd. The right of electing all the officers of the
+National Guard, as well as the general-in-chief; 3rd. Modifications of the law
+on bills; 4th. A project for a law on rents, favourable to tenants paying 1,200
+francs a year, or less than that sum. Until you have confirmed my nomination,
+or until you name some one else in my stead, I shall continue to remain at my
+post to watch over the execution of these conciliatory measures that we have
+succeeded in obtaining, and to contribute to the well-being of the Republic!
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+    &ldquo;The Vice-Admiral and<br/>
+    Provisional Commander,<br/>
+    SAISSET<br/>
+    Paris, 23rd March.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well! this is opportune and to the purpose. The National Assembly has
+understood that, in a town like Paris, a revolution in which a third of the
+population is engaged, cannot be alone actuated by motives of robbery and
+murder;<a href="#fn-20" name="fnref-20" id="fnref-20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> and
+that if some of the demands of the people are illegitimate or premature, there
+are at least others, which it is but right should obtain justice. Paris is
+never entirely in the wrong. Certainly among the authors and leaders of the
+18th March, there are many who are very guilty. The murderers of General
+Lecomte and General Clément Thomas should be sought out and punished. All
+honest men must demand and expect that a minute inquiry be instituted
+concerning the massacres in the Place Vendôme. It must be acknowledged that all
+the Federals, officers and soldiers, are not devils or drunkards. A few hundred
+men getting drunk in the cabarets&mdash;(I have perhaps been wrong to lay so
+much stress here upon the prevalence of this vice among the
+insurrectionists)&mdash;a few tipsy brutes, ought not to be sufficient to
+authorise us to condemn a hundred thousand men, among whom are certainly to be
+found some right-minded persons who are convinced of the justice of their
+cause. These unknown and suddenly elevated chiefs, whom the revolution has
+singled out, are they all unworthy of our esteem, and devoid of capacity? They
+possess, perhaps, a new and vital force that it would be right and perhaps
+necessary to utilise somehow. The ideas which they represent ought to be
+studied, and if they prove useful, put into practice. This is what the Assembly
+has understood and what it has done. By concessions which enlarge rather than
+diminish its influence, it puts all right-minded men, soldiers and officers,
+under the obligation of returning to their allegiance. Those who, having read
+the proclamation of Admiral Saisset, still refuse to recognise the Government,
+are no longer men acting for the sake of Paris and the Republic, but rioters
+guilty of pursuing the most criminal paths, for the gratification of their own
+bad passions. Thus the tares will be separated from the wheat, and torn up
+without mercy. Yesterday and the day before, at the Place de la Bourse, at the
+Place des Victoires and the Bank, we were resolved on
+resistance&mdash;resistance, nothing more, for none of us, I am sure, would
+have fired a shot without sufficient provocation&mdash;and even this resolution
+cost us much pain and some hesitation. We felt that in the event of our being
+attacked, our shots might strike many an innocent breast&mdash;and perhaps at
+the last moment our hearts would have failed us. Now, no thoughts of that kind
+can hinder us. In recognising our demand, the Assembly has got right entirely
+on its side, we shall now consider all rebellion against the authority of which
+it makes so able a use, as an act entailing immediate punishment. Until now,
+fearing to be abandoned or misunderstood by the Government, we had determined
+to obey the mayors and deputies elected by the people, but the Assembly, by its
+judicious conduct, has shown itself worthy confidence. Let them command, we are
+ready to obey.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Truly this change in the attitude of the Government is at once
+strange and delightful. No later than yesterday their language
+was quite different. The manner in which the majority received
+the mayors did not lead us to expect a termination so favourable
+to the wishes of all concerned. But this is all past, let us not
+recriminate. Let us rather rejoice in our present good fortune,
+and try and forget the dangers which seemed but now so imminent.
+I hear from all sides that the Deputies of the Seine and the
+mayors, fully empowered, are busy concluding the last
+arrangements. Municipal elections are talked of, for the 2nd
+April; thus every cause for discontent is about to disappear.
+Capital! Paris is satisfied. Shops re-open. The promenades are
+crowded with people; the Place Vendôme alone does not
+brighten with the rest, but it soon will. The weather is lovely,
+people accost each other in the streets with a smile; one almost
+wonders they do not embrace. Is to-day Friday? No, it is Sunday.
+Bravo! Assembly.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-20" id="fn-20"></a> <a href="#fnref-20">[20]</a>
+At the same time that the proclamation of Admiral Saisset encouraged the
+partizans of the Assembly, proofs were not wanting of the poverty of the
+Commune in money, as well as men: a new loan obtained from the Bank of France,
+which had already advanced half a million of francs, and the military
+nominations which raised Brunel, Eudes, and Duval from absolute obscurity to
+the rank of general. These were indications decidedly favourable to the party
+of order.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XVI."></a> XVI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+On the ground-floor of the house of my neighbour there is an
+upholsterer&rsquo;s workshop. The day before yesterday the master went
+out to fetch some work, and this morning he had not yet returned.
+In an agony of apprehension his wife went everywhere in search of
+him. His body has just been found at the Morgue with a bullet
+through its head. Some say he was walking across the Rue de la
+Paix on his way home, and was shot by accident; but the
+<i>Journal Officiel</i> announces that this poor man, Wahlin, was
+a national guard, assassinated by the revolvers of the
+manifestation. Whom are we to believe? Anyhow, the man is to be
+buried tomorrow, and his poor wife is a widow.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XVII."></a> XVII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+What is the meaning of all this! Are we deceiving ourselves, or being deceived?
+We await in vain the consummation of Admiral Saisset&rsquo;s promises. In
+officially announcing that the Assembly had acceded to the just demands of the
+mayors and deputies, did he take upon himself to pass delusive hopes as
+accomplished facts? It seems pretty certain now that the Government will make
+no concessions, that the proclamation is only waste paper, and that the
+Provisional Commander of the National Guard has been leading us into
+error&mdash;with a laudable intention doubtless&mdash;or else has himself been
+deceived likewise. The united efforts of the Deputies of the Seine and the
+Mayors of Paris have been unequal to rouse the apathy of the Assembly.<a
+href="#fn-21" name="fnref-21" id="fnref-21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> In vain did
+Louis Blanc entreat the representatives of France to approve the conciliatory
+conduct of the representatives of Paris. &ldquo;May the responsibility of what
+may happen be on your own heads!&rdquo; cried M. Clémenceau. He was right; a
+little condescension might have saved all; such obstinacy is fatal. Deprived of
+the countenance of the Assembly, and left to themselves, the Deputies and
+Mayors of Paris, desirous above all of avoiding civil war, have been obliged to
+accede to the wishes of the Central Committee, and insist upon the municipal
+elections being proceeded with immediately. They could not have acted
+otherwise, and yet it is humiliating for them to have to bow before superior
+force, and their authority is compromised by so doing. What the Assembly,
+representing the whole of France, could have done with no loss of dignity, and
+even with honour to itself, the former accomplish only at the risk of losing
+their influence; what to the Assembly would have been an honourable concession
+is to them dangerous although necessary submission. The Committee would have
+been annulled if the Government had consented to the municipal elections, but
+thanks to a tardy consent, rung from the Deputies and Mayors of Paris, it
+triumphs. The result of the humiliation to which the representatives of Paris
+have been forced to submit to prevent the effusion of blood, will be the entire
+abdication of their authority, which will remain vested in the Central
+Committee until the members of the Commune are elected. Abandoned by the
+Government since the departure of the chief of the executive power and the
+ministers, we rallied round the representatives, who, unsustained by the
+Government, are obliged to submit to the revolutionists. We must now choose
+between the Commune and anarchy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Therefore, to-day, Sunday, the 26th March, the male population of Paris is
+hurrying to the poll. It is in vain that the journals have begged the people
+not to vote; the elections were only announced yesterday, and the electors have
+had no time to reconsider the choice they have to make, and yet they insist on
+voting. Those who decline to obey the suggestions of the Central Committee,
+will re-elect the late mayors or choose among the deputies, but vote they will.
+The present attitude of the regular Government has done much towards furthering
+the revolution. The mistakes of the Assembly have diminished in the eyes of the
+public the crime of revolt. Everywhere the murder of Generals Clément Thomas
+and Lecomte is openly regretted; but those who repeat that the Central
+Committee declares having had nothing to do with it, are listened to with
+patience. The rumour that they were shot by soldiers gains ground, and seems
+less incredulously received. As to the massacres of the Rue de la Paix, we are
+told that this event is enveloped in mystery, that the evidence is most
+contradictory, etc., etc.<a href="#fn-22" name="fnref-22"
+id="fnref-22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> There is evidently a decided reactionary
+movement in favour of the partizans of the Commune. Without approving their
+acts their activity is incontestable. They have done much in a short time.
+People exclaim, &ldquo;There are men for you!&rdquo; This state of things is
+very alarming to all those who have remained faithful to the Assembly, which in
+spite of its errors has not ceased to be the legal representative of the
+country. It is a cruel position for the Parisians who are obliged to choose
+between a regular Government which they would desire to obey, but which by its
+faults renders such obedience impossible, and an illegitimate power, that,
+although guilty in its acts, and stained with crime, still represents the
+opinions of the republican majority. By to-night, therefore, the Commune will
+have been called into existence; an illegal existence it may be argued,
+doubtless, by the partizans of constitutional legality, who would consider as
+null and void elections carried on without the consent of the nation, as
+represented by the Assembly. Legal or not, however, the elections have taken
+place, and the fact alone is of some importance. In a few hours the Executive
+Power of the Republic will have to treat, whether it will or no, with a force
+which has constituted itself with as much legality as it had in its power to
+assume under the circumstances.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-21" id="fn-21"></a> <a href="#fnref-21">[21]</a>
+The news of the check which the Maires of Paris had suffered in the Assembly
+suddenly loosened the bond which for two days had united the friends of order,
+and profound discouragement seized upon the public mind. It was at this moment
+that the deputies from the Committee presented themselves at the Mairie of the
+first arrondissement, preceded by three pieces of artillery, a very warlike
+accompaniment to a deputation. It was arranged that the Communal election
+should be managed by the existing Maires, and that the battalions of each
+quarter of the city, whether federal or not, should occupy the voting places of
+their sections; but this did not prevent the Committee on the following morning
+occupying the Mairie of Saint-Germain-l&rsquo;Auxerrois, in spite of the
+arrangement, by their most devoted battalions.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-22" id="fn-22"></a> <a href="#fnref-22">[22]</a>
+The following are the terms in which the Commune spoke of the events of the
+18th March, and excused the murder of the two generals:<br/>
+    &ldquo;CITIZENS,&mdash;The day of the 18th of March, which for
+interested reasons has been travestied in the most odious manner,
+will be called in history, The Day of the People&rsquo;s Justice!<br/>
+    The Government, now subverted&mdash;always
+maladroit&mdash;rushed into a conflict without considering either
+its own unpopularity, or the fraternal feeling that animates the
+armies; the entire army, when ordered to commit fratricide,
+replied with cries of &ldquo;Vive la République!&rdquo; &ldquo;Vive la Garde
+Nationale!&rdquo;<br/>
+    Two men alone, who had rendered themselves unpopular by acts
+which we now pronounce as iniquitous, were struck down in a
+moment of popular indignation.<br/>
+    The Committee of the Federation of the National Guard, in
+order to render homage to truth, declare it was a stranger to
+these two executions.<br/>
+    At the present moment the ministries are constituted, the
+prefect of police has assumed his duties, the public offices are
+again active, and we invite all citizens to maintain the utmost
+calmness and order.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XVIII."></a> XVIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Crowds in the streets and promenades. This evening all the
+theatres will be re-opened. In the meantime the voting is going
+on. The weather is delightful, so I take a stroll along the
+promenades. Under the colonnade of the Châtelet there is a
+long line of electors awaiting their turn. I fancy that in this
+quarter the candidates of the Central Committee will be surely
+elected. Women, in bright-coloured dresses and fresh spring
+bonnets, are walking to and fro. I hear some one say that there
+are a great many cannon at the Hôtel de Ville. Two friends
+meet together in the square of the Arts et
+Métiers.&mdash;&ldquo;Are you alone, madame?&rdquo; says one lady to
+another.&mdash;&ldquo;Yes, madame; I am waiting for my husband, who is
+gone to vote.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A child, who is skipping, cries out, &ldquo;Mama, mama, what is the
+Commune?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fiacre drivers make the revolution an excuse for asking
+extravagant fares; this does not prevent their having very
+decided political opinions. One who, drove one would scarcely
+have been approved of by the Central
+Committee.&mdash;&ldquo;<i>Cocher</i>, what is the fare?&rdquo; I
+ask.&mdash;&ldquo;Five francs, monsieur.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;All right; take me to
+the mairie Place Saint-Sulpice.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Beg pardon, monsieur, but
+if you are going to vote, it will be ten francs!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the Boulevard de Strasbourg there are streams of people
+dressed in holiday attire; itinerant dealers in tops, pamphlets,
+souvenirs of the siege&mdash;bits of black bread, made on
+purpose, and framed and glazed, also bits of shells&mdash;and
+scented soap, and coloured pictures; crowds of beggars
+everywhere. In this part of the town the revolution looks very
+much like a fair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the mairie of the 6th Arrondissement there are very few
+people. I enter into conversation with one of the officials
+there. He tells me he has never seen voting carried on with
+greater spirit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I meet a friend who has just returned from Belleville, and ask
+him the news, of course.&mdash;&ldquo;The voting is progressing in
+capital order,&rdquo; he tells me; &ldquo;the men go up to the poll as they
+would mount the breach. They have no choice but to obey
+blindly.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;The Central Committee?&rdquo; I inquire.&mdash;&ldquo;Yes,
+but the Committee itself only obeys
+orders.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Whose?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Why those of the International, of
+course.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At a corner near the boulevards, a compact little knot of
+people is stationed in front of a poster. I fancy they are
+studying the proclamation of one of the candidates, but it turns
+out only to be a play-bill. The crowd continues to thicken; the
+cafés are crammed; gold chignons are plentiful enough at
+every table; here and there a red Garibaldi shirt is visible,
+like poppies amongst the corn. Every now and then a horseman
+gallops wildly past with dispatches from one section to another.
+The results of some of the elections are creeping out. At
+Montrouge, Bercy, Batignolles, and the Marais, they tell us the
+members of the Central Committee are elected by a very large
+majority. Here the hoarse voice of a boy strikes in,&mdash;&ldquo;Buy
+the account of the grand conspiracy of Citoyen Thiers against the
+Republic!&rdquo; Then another chimes in with wares of a less political
+and more vulgar nature. The movement to and fro and the
+excitement is extraordinary. While the populace basks in the sun
+the destiny of the city is being decided.&mdash;&ldquo;M. Desmarest is
+elected for the 9th Arrondissement,&rdquo; says some one close to
+me.&mdash;&ldquo;Lesueur is capital in the &lsquo;Partie de Piquet,&rsquo;&rdquo; says
+another. Oh! people of Paris!
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XIX."></a>XIX.</h2>
+
+<p>
+It is over. We have a &ldquo;Municipal Council,&rdquo; according to some;
+a &ldquo;Commune,&rdquo; according to others. Not quite legally elected, but
+sufficiently so. Eighty councillors, sixty of whom are quite
+unknown men. Who can have recommended them, or, rather, imposed
+them on the electors? Can there really be some occult power at
+work under cover of the ex-Central Committee? Is the Commune only
+a pretext, and are we at the début of a social and
+political revolution? I overheard a partizan of the new doctrines
+say,&mdash;&ldquo;The Proletariat is vindicating its rights, which have
+been unjustly trampled on by the aristocratic bourgeoisie. This
+is the workman&rsquo;s 1789!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another person expresses the same thing in rather a different
+form. &ldquo;This is the revolt of the <i>canaille</i> against all kind
+of supremacy, the supremacy of fortune, and the supremacy of
+intellect. The equality of man before the law has been
+acknowledged, now they want to proclaim the equality of
+intellect. Soon universal suffrage will give place to the drawing
+of lots. There was a time in Athens when the names of the
+archontes were taken haphazard out of a bag, like the numbers at
+loto.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+However, the revolution has not yet clearly defined its tendencies, and in the
+meantime what are we to think of the unknown beings who represent it? A man in
+whom I have the greatest confidence, and who has passed his life in studying
+questions of social science, and who therefore has mixed in nearly all the
+revolutionary circles, and is personally acquainted with the chiefs, said to me
+just now, in speaking of the new Municipal Council,<a href="#fn-23"
+name="fnref-23" id="fnref-23"><sup>[23]</sup></a> &ldquo;It will be an
+assemblage of a very motley character. There will be much good and much bad in
+it. We may safely divide it into three distinct parts: firstly, ten or twelve
+men belonging to the International, who have both thought and studied and may
+be able to act, mixed with these several foreigners; secondly, a number of
+young men, ardent but inexperienced, some of whom are imbued with Jacobin
+principles; thirdly, and by far the largest portion, unsuccessful plotters in
+former revolutions, journalists, orators, and conspirators,&mdash;noisy,
+active, and effervescent, having no particular tie amongst themselves except
+the absence of any common bond of unity with the two former divisions, and
+being confounded now with one, now with the other. The members of the
+International alone have any real political value; they are Socialists. The
+Jacobin element is decidedly dangerous.&rdquo;&mdash;If in reality the Communal
+Assembly is thus composed, how will it act? Let us wait and see; in the
+meantime the city is calm. Never did so critical a moment wear so calm an
+exterior. By the bye, where are the Prussians?<a href="#fn-24" name="fnref-24"
+id="fnref-24"><sup>[24]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-23" id="fn-23"></a> <a href="#fnref-23">[23]</a>
+The <i>Figaro</i> gives the following those who held service under the
+Commune:&mdash;<br/>
+<br/>
+Anys-el-Bittar, Librarian MSS. Department, Bibliothèque Nationale. (Egyptian)<br/>
+Biondetti, Surgeon 233rd Battalion. (Italian.)<br/>
+Babiok, a Member of the Commune. (Pole.)<br/>
+Beoka, Adjutant to the 207th Battalion. (Pole.)<br/>
+Cluseret, General, Delegate of War. (American.)<br/>
+Cernatesco, Surgeon of Francs Tireurs. (Pole.)<br/>
+Crapulinski, Colonel of Staff. (Pole.)<br/>
+Carneiro de Cunha, Surgeon 38th Battalion. (Portuguese.)<br/>
+Charalambo, Surgeon of the Federal Scouts. (Pole.)<br/>
+Dombrowski, General. (Russian.)<br/>
+Dombrowski (his brother), Colonel of Staff. (Russian.)<br/>
+Durnoff, Commandant of Legion. (Pole.)<br/>
+Echenlaub, Colonel. (German.)<br/>
+Ferrera Gola, General Manager of Field Hospitals. (Portuguese.)<br/>
+Frankel, a Member of the Commune. (Prussian.)<br/>
+Giorok, Commandant of the Fort d&rsquo;Issy. (Valachian.)<br/>
+Grejorok, Commandant of the Artillery at Montmartre.(Valachian.)<br/>
+Kertzfeld, Chief Manager of Field Hospitals. (German.)<br/>
+Iziquerdo, Surgeon of the 88th Battalion. (Pole.)<br/>
+Jalowski, Surgeon of the Zouaves de la République. (Pole.)<br/>
+Kobosko, Despatch Bearer.<br/>
+La Cecilia, General. (Italian.)<br/>
+Landowski, Aide-de-Camp of General Dombrowski. (Pole.)<br/>
+Mizara, Commandant of the 104th Battalion. (Italian.)<br/>
+Maratuch, Surgeon&rsquo;s mate of the 72nd Battalion. (Hungarian.)<br/>
+Moro, Commandant of the 22nd Battalion. (Italian.)<br/>
+Okolowicz and his brothers, General and Staff Officers. (Poles.)<br/>
+Ostyn, a Member of the Commune. (Belgian.)<br/>
+Olinski, Chief of the 17th Legion. (Pole.)<br/>
+Pisani, Aide-de-Camp of Flourens. (Italian.)<br/>
+Potampenki, Aide-de-Camp of General Dombrowski. (Pole.)<br/>
+Ploubinski, Staff Officer. (Pole.)<br/>
+Pazdzierswski, Commandant of the Fort de Vanves. (Pole.)<br/>
+Piazza, Chief of Legion. (Italian.)<br/>
+Pugno, Music-manager at the Opera-house. (Italian.)<br/>
+Romanelli, Manager of the War Offices. (Italian.)<br/>
+Rozyski, Surgeon of the 144th Battalion. (Pole.)<br/>
+Rubinowicz, Surgeon of the Marines. (Pole.)<br/>
+Syneck, Surgeon of the 151st Battalion. (German.)<br/>
+Skalski, Surgeon of the 240th Battalion. (Pole.)<br/>
+Soteriade, Surgeon. (Spaniard.)<br/>
+Thaller, Under Governor of the Fort de Bicêtre. (German.)<br/>
+Van Ostal, Commandant of the 115th Battalion. (Dutch.)<br/>
+Vetzel, Commandant of the Southern Forts. (German.)<br/>
+Wroblewski, General Commandant of the Southern Army. (Pole.)<br/>
+Witton, Surgeon of the 72nd Battalion. (American.)<br/>
+Zengerler, Surgeon of the 74th Battalion, (German.)]
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-24" id="fn-24"></a> <a href="#fnref-24">[24]</a>
+The Prussians and the Commune, see <a href=
+"#III._Page_77._THE_PRUSSIANS_AND_THE_CO">Appendix 3</a>.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XX."></a> XX.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Who can help being carried away by the enthusiasm of a crowd?
+I am not a political man, I am only an observer who sees, hears,
+and feels.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I was on the Place de l&rsquo;Hôtel de Ville at the moment when the names of
+the successful candidates were proclaimed, and the emotion is still fresh upon
+me.<a href="#fn-25" name="fnref-25" id="fnref-25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> There
+were perhaps a hundred thousand men there, assembled from all quarters of the
+city. The neighbouring streets were also full, and the bayonets glittering in
+the sun filled the Place with brilliant flashes like miniature lightning. In
+the centre of the façade of the building a platform was erected, over which
+presided a statue of the Republic, wearing a Phrygian cap. The bronze
+basso-relievo of Henry IV. had been carefully hidden with clusters of flags.
+Each window was alive with faces. I saw several women on the roof, and the
+<i>gamins</i> were everywhere, hanging on to the sculptured ornaments, or
+riding fearlessly on the shoulders of the marble busts. One by one the
+battalions had taken up their position on the Place with their bands. When they
+were all assembled they struck up the Marseillaise, which was re-echoed by a
+thousand voices. It was grand in the extreme, and the magnificent hymn, which
+late defeats had shorn of its glory, swelled forth again with all its old
+splendour revived. Suddenly the cannon is heard, the voices rise louder and
+louder; a sea of standards, bayonets, and human heads waves backwards and
+forwards in front of the platform. The cannon roars, but we only hear it
+between the intervals of the hymn. Then all the sounds are confounded in one
+universal shout, that shout of the vast multitude which seems to have but one
+heart and one voice. The members of the Committee, each with a tricolor scarf
+across his breast, have taken their places on the platform. One of them reads
+out the names of the elected councillors. Then the cannon roars once more, but
+is almost drowned by the deafening huzzas of the crowd. Oh! people of Paris,
+who on the day of the &ldquo;<i>Crosse en l&rsquo;air</i>&rdquo;<a
+href="#fn-26" name="fnref-26" id="fnref-26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> got tipsy in
+the wine-shops of Montmartre, whose ranks furnished the murderers of Thomas and
+Lecomte, who in the Rue de la Paix shot down unconscious passengers, who are
+capable of the wildest extravagance and most execrable deeds, you are also in
+your days of glory, grand and magnificent, when a volcano of generous passions
+rages within, and the hearts even of those who condemn you most, are scorched
+in the flames.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-25" id="fn-25"></a> <a href="#fnref-25">[25]</a>
+The result of the voting was made known at four o&rsquo;clock on the 28th
+March. The papers devoted to the Commune asserted, on the following day, that
+<i>two hundred and fifteen</i> battalions were assembled on that day, and that
+the average strength of each corps was one thousand men. Who could have
+believed that the Place de l&rsquo;Hôtel de Ville was capable of accommodating
+so many! This farcical assertion of the two hundred and fifteen battalions has
+passed into a proverb.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-26" id="fn-26"></a> <a href="#fnref-26">[26]</a>
+When they turned the butt-ends (<i>crosses</i>) of their guns in the air, as a
+sign they would not fight.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XXI."></a> XXI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Citizens,&rdquo; says the <i>Official Journal</i> this morning,
+&ldquo;your Commune is constituted.&rdquo; Then follows decree upon decree.
+White posters are being stuck up everywhere. Why are they at the
+Hôtel de Ville, if not to publish decrees? The conscription
+is abolished. We shall see no more poor young fellows marching
+through the town with their numbers in their caps, and fired with
+that noble patriotism which is imbibed in the cabarets at so much
+a glass. We shall have no more soldiers, but to make up for that
+we shall all be National Guards. There&rsquo;s a glorious decree, as
+Edgar Poë says. As to the landlords, their vexation is
+extreme; even the tenants do not seem so satisfied as they ought
+to be. Not to have to pay any rent is very delightful, certainly,
+but they scarcely dare believe in such good fortune. Thus when
+Orpheus, trying to rescue Eurydice from &ldquo;the infernal regions,&rdquo;
+interrupts with &ldquo;his harmonious strains&rdquo; the tortures of eternal
+punishment, Prometheus did not doubtless show as much delight as
+he ought to have done, on discovering that the beak of the
+vulture was no longer gnawing at his vitals, &ldquo;scarcely daring to
+believe in such good fortune.&rdquo; Orpheus is the Commune; Eurydice,
+Liberty; &ldquo;the infernal regions,&rdquo; the Government of the 4th
+September; &ldquo;the harmonious strains,&rdquo; the decrees of the Commune;
+Prometheus, the tenant; and the vulture, the landlord!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In plain terms, however&mdash;forgive me for joking on such a
+subject&mdash;the decree which annuls the payment of the rents
+for the quarters ending October 1870, January 1871, and April
+1871, does not appear to me at all extravagant, and really I do
+not see what there is to object to in the following lines which
+accompany it:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;In consideration of the expenses of the war having been chiefly sustained by
+the industrial, commercial, and working portion of the population, it is but
+just that the proprietors of houses and land should also bear their part of the
+burthen....&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Let us talk it over together, Mr. Landlord. You have a house
+and I live in it. It is true that the chimneys smoke, and that
+you most energetically refuse to have them repaired. However, the
+house is yours, and you possess most decidedly the right of
+making a profit by it. Understand, once for all, that I never
+contest your right. As for me, I depend upon my wit, I do not
+possess much, but I have a tool&mdash;it may be either a pen, or
+a pencil, or a hammer&mdash;which enables me, in the ordinary
+course of things, to live and to pay with more or less regularity
+my quarter&rsquo;s rent. If I had not possessed this tool, you would
+have taken good care not to let me inhabit your house or any part
+or portion thereof, because you would have considered me in no
+position to pay you your rent. Now, during the war my tool has
+unquestionably rendered me but poor service. It has remained
+ignobly idle in the inkstand, in the folio, or on the bench. Not
+only have I been unable to use it, but I have also in some sort
+lost the knack of handling it; I must have some time to get
+myself into working order again. While I was working but little,
+and eating less, what were you doing? Oh! I do not mean to say
+that you were as flourishing as in the triumphant days of the
+Empire, but still I have not heard of any considerable number of
+landlords being found begging at the corners of the streets, and
+I do not fancy you made yourselves conspicuous by your assiduous
+attendance at the Municipal Cantines. I have even heard that you
+or many of your brother-landlords took pretty good care not to be
+in Paris during the Prussian siege, and that you contented
+yourselves with forming the most ardent wishes, for the final
+triumph of French arms, from beneath the wide-spreading oaks of
+your châteaux in Touraine and Beauce, or from the safe
+haven of a Normandy fishing village; while we, accompanied it is
+true by your most fervent prayers, took our turn at mounting
+guard, on the fortifications during the bitter cold nights, or
+knee-deep in the mud of the trenches. However, I do not blame
+those who sought safety in flight; each person is free to do as
+he pleases; what I object to is your coming back and saying,
+&ldquo;During seven or eight months you have done no work, you have
+been obliged to pawn your furniture to buy bread for your wife
+and children; I pity you from the bottom of my heart&mdash;be so
+kind as to hand me over my three quarters&rsquo; rent.&rdquo; No, a thousand
+times no; such a demand is absurd, wicked, ridiculous; and I
+declare that if there is no possible compromise between the
+strict execution of the law and his decree of the Commune, I
+prefer, without the least hesitation, to abide by the latter; I
+prefer to see a little poverty replace for a time the long course
+of prosperity that has been enjoyed by this very small class of
+individuals, than to see the last articles of furniture of five
+hundred thousand suffering wretches, put up to auction and
+knocked down for one-twentieth part of their value. There must,
+however, be some way of conciliating the interests of both
+landlords and tenants. Would it be sufficient to accord delays to
+the latter, and force the former to wait a certain time for their
+money? I think not; if I were allowed three years to pay off my
+three quarters&rsquo; rent, I should still be embarrassed. The tool of
+the artisan is not like the peasant&rsquo;s plot of ground, which is
+more productive after having lain fallow. During the last few sad
+months, when I had no work to do, I was obliged to draw upon the
+future, a future heavily mortgaged; when I shall perhaps scarcely
+be able to meet the expenses of each day, will there be any
+possibility of acquitting the debts of the past? You may sell my
+furniture if the law gives you the right to do so, but I shall
+not pay!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The only possible solution, believe me, is that in favour of
+the tenants, only it ought not to be applied in so wholesale a
+fashion. Inquiries should be instituted, and to those tenants
+from whom the war has taken away all possibility of payment an
+unconditional receipt should be delivered: to those who have
+suffered less, a proportionate reduction should be allowed; but
+those whom the invasion has not ruined or seriously
+impoverished&mdash;and the number is large, among provision
+merchants, café keepers, and private residents&mdash;let
+those pay directly. In this way the landlords will lose lees than
+one may imagine, because it will be the lowest rents that will be
+forfeited. The decree of the Commune is based on a right
+principle, but too generally applied.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The new Government&mdash;for it is a Government&mdash;does not confine itself
+to decrees. It has to install itself in its new quarters and make
+arrangements.<a href="#fn-27" name="fnref-27" id="fnref-27"><sup>[27]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In a few hours it has organized more than ten
+committees&mdash;the executive, the financial, the
+public-service, the educational, the military, the legal, and the
+committee of public safety. No end of committees and
+committeemen: it is to be hoped that the business will be
+promptly despatched!
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-27" id="fn-27"></a> <a href="#fnref-27">[27]</a>
+Organisation of the Commissions on the 31st of March:<br/>
+<br/>
+<i>Executive Commission</i>.&mdash;Citizens Eudes, Tridou, Vaillant,
+Lefrançais, Duval, Félix Pyat, Bergeret.<br/>
+<i>Commission of Finance</i>.&mdash;Victor Clément, Varlin, Jourde, Beslay,
+Régère.<br/>
+<i>Military Commission</i>.&mdash;General E. Duval, General Bergeret, General
+Eudes, Colonel Chardon, Colonel Flourens, Colonel Pindly, Commandant
+Ranvier.<br/>
+<i>Commission of Public Justice</i>.&mdash;Ranc, Protot, Léo Meillet,
+Vermorel, Ledroit, Babick.<br/>
+<i>Commission of Public Safety</i>.&mdash;Raoul Rigault, Ferré, Assy, Cournet,
+Oudet, Chalain, Gérardin.<br/>
+<i>Victualling Commission</i>.&mdash;Dereure, Champy, Ostyn, Clément, Parizel,
+Emile Clément, Fortuné Henry.<br/>
+<i>Commission of Industry and Trade</i>.&mdash;Malon, Frankel, Theiz, Dupont,
+Avrial, Loiseau-Pinson, Eugène Gérardin, Puget.<br/>
+<i>Commission of Foreign Affairs</i>.&mdash;Delescluze, Ranc, Paschal
+Grousset, Ulysse Parent, Arthur Arnould, Antoine Arnauld, Charles
+Gérardin.<br/>
+<i>Commission of Public Service</i>.&mdash;Ostyn, Billioray, Clément (J.B.)
+Martelet, Mortier, Rastoul.<br/>
+<i>Commission of Education</i>.&mdash;Jules Vallès, Doctor Goupil, Lefèvre,
+Urbain,<a href="#fn-28" name="fnref-28" id="fnref-28"><sup>[28]</sup></a>
+Albert Leroy, Verdure, Demay, Doctor Robinet.]
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-28" id="fn-28"></a> <a href="#fnref-28">[28]</a>
+Memoir, see <a href="#XIII._Page_82._URBAIN.">Appendix XIII</a>.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XXII."></a> XXII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Come, let us understand each other. Who are you, members of
+the Commune? Those among you who are in some sort known to the
+public do not possess, however, enough of its confidence to make
+up for the want of knowledge it has of the others. Have a care
+how you excite our mistrust. You have published decrees that
+certainly are open to criticism, but that are not entirely
+obnoxious, for their object is to uphold the interests of that
+portion of the population, which you most particularly represent,
+and from whom you hold your commission. We will forgive the
+decrees if you do nothing worse. Yesterday, the 30th March,
+during the night (why in the night?) some men wearing a red scarf
+and followed by several others with arms, presented themselves at
+the Union Insurance Company. On the porter refusing to deliver up
+the keys of the offices he was arrested. They then proceeded to
+break open the doors with the butt-end of their muskets, and put
+seals on the strong box. What can this portend? Have you been
+elected to break open private offices and put seals on
+cash-boxes? That same night, a friend of mine who happened to be
+passing across one of the bridges on his way home, noticed that
+the windows of the Hôtel de Ville were brilliantly lighted.
+Could they be having a ball already? he wondered. He made
+inquiries and discovered that it was not a ball, but a banquet;
+three or four hundred National Guards from Belleville had invaded
+the apartments and had ordered a dinner to be served to them.
+They were accompanied by a corresponding number of female
+companions, and were drinking, talking, and singing to their
+hearts&rsquo; content. What do you mean by that, members of the
+Commune? Have you been elected to keep open-house, and do you
+propose to inscribe over the entrance of the municipal palace:
+&ldquo;Ample accommodation for feasts and banquets,&rdquo; as a companion to
+your motto of &ldquo;Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XXIII."></a> XXIII.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;I tell you, you shall not go!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;But I will.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Well, you may, but
+not your furniture.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;And who shall prevent my carrying off my furniture
+if I choose?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;I will.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;I defy
+you!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Thief!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Robber!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This animated discussion was being carried on at the door of a
+house, in front of which a cart filled with furniture was
+standing; a crowd of street boys was fast assembling, and the
+heads of curious neighbours appeared grinning in all the
+windows.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A partizan of the Commune had determined to profit by the
+decree. Matters at first had seemed to go on quietly. The
+concierge, taken aback by the sudden apparition of the van, had
+not summoned up courage to prevent the furniture from being
+stowed away in it. The landlord, however, had got scent of the
+affair, and had hastened to this spot. Now, the tenant was a
+determined character, and as the van-men refused to mix
+themselves up in the fray, he himself shouldered his last article
+of furniture and carried it to the van. He was about to place it
+within cover of the awning, when the landlord, like a miser
+deprived of his treasure, seized it and deposited it on the
+pavement. The tenant re-grasped his spoil and thrust it again
+into the cart, from whence it was instantly drawn forth again by
+the enraged landlord. This game was carried on for some time,
+each as determined as the other, grasping; snatching, and pulling
+this unfortunate piece of furniture until one wrench, stronger
+than the former, entirely dislocated its component parts, and
+laid it in a ruined heap upon the ground. This was the moment for
+the tenant to show himself a man of spirit. Taking advantage of
+the surprise of the landlord, he swept the broken remains of his
+property deftly into the van, bounded on to the driver&rsquo;s seat,
+shook the reins, cracked his whip, and started off at a
+thundering gallop, pursued by the huzzas of the crowd, the cries
+of the van-men, and the oaths of the disappointed landlord. The
+van and its team of lean cattle were soon lost to view, and the
+landlord was left alone on his doorstep, shaking his fist and
+muttering &ldquo;Brigand!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XXIV."></a> XXIV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+What a quantity of luggage! Even those who had the good fortune of witnessing
+the emigration before the siege would never have supposed that there could be
+so much luggage in Paris. Well-to-do looking trunks with brass ornaments, black
+wooden boxes, hairy trunks, leathern hat-boxes, and cardboard bonnet-boxes,
+portmanteaux and carpet bags are piled up on vehicles of every description, of
+which more than ten thousand block up the roads leading to the railway
+stations. Everybody is wild to get away; it is whispered about that the
+Commune, the horrid Commune, is about to issue a decree forbidding the
+Parisians to quit Paris. So all prudent individuals are making off, with their
+bank-notes and shares in their pocket-books. I see a man I know, walking very
+fast, wearing a troubled expression on his face. I ask him where he is
+going.&mdash;&ldquo;you do not know what has happened to me?&rdquo; he cries. I
+confess I do not.&mdash;&ldquo;The most extraordinary thing: I am condemned to
+death!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;You!&rdquo; I exclaim.&mdash;&ldquo;Yes! by the
+Commune!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;And wherefore?&rdquo; I ask.&mdash;&ldquo;Because
+I write on the <i>Figaro</i>.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Why, I never knew
+that!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Oh! not very often; but last year I addressed a
+letter to the Editor, to explain to him that my new farce called &lsquo;My
+Aunt&rsquo;s Garters&rsquo; had nothing at all to do with &lsquo;My
+Uncle&rsquo;s Braces,&rsquo; which is by somebody else. You understand that I
+did not want to change the title, which is rather good of its kind, so I wrote
+to the <i>Figaro</i>, and as my letter was inserted, and as the Commune
+condemns all the contributors.... You see ...!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Perfectly!
+Why, my dear fellow, you ought to have been off before. Of course you go to
+Versailles?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Why, yes.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;By the
+railway?&rdquo; I cannot help having a joke at his expense.&mdash;&ldquo;Yes,
+of course.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Well, if I were you, I would not, really; the
+engine might blow up, or you might run into a luggage train. Such things do
+happen in the best of times, and I think the Commune capable of anything to get
+rid of so dangerous an adversary.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t mean to
+say,&rdquo; says the poor little, man in a tremor, &ldquo;that they would go to
+such lengths! Well, at any rate I will travel by the road.&rdquo;<a
+href="#fn-29" name="fnref-29" id="fnref-29"><sup>[29]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A little farther up the Boulevard des Italiens I see another
+acquaintance. &ldquo;What, still in Paris?&rdquo; I say, shaking hands with
+him.&mdash;&ldquo;I am off this evening,&rdquo; he answers.&mdash;&ldquo;Are you
+condemned to death?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;No, but I shall be tried
+to-night.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;The devil! Do you write on the
+<i>Figaro</i>!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;No, no, it is quite a long story. Three
+years ago, I made the acquaintance of a charming blonde, who
+reciprocated my advances, and made herself highly agreeable. In a
+word, I was smitten. Unfortunately there was a husband in the
+case!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;The devil there was!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;He made inquiries, and
+found out who I was, and ...&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;And invited you to mortal
+combat?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Oh! no, he is a hosier. But from that day forth
+he became my most bitter enemy.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Very disagreeable of him,
+I am sure, but I do not see how the enmity of this retail dealer
+obliges you to quit Paris?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Why, you see he has a cousin
+who is elected a member of the Commune.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;I understand your
+uneasiness; you fear the latent revenge of this unreasonable
+hosier.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;I am to be tried to-night, but it is not the fear
+of death which makes me fly. It is worse than that. Those
+Hôtel de Ville people are capable of anything, and I hear
+they are going to make a law on divorce. I know the malignity of
+the lady&rsquo;s husband&mdash;and I believe he is capable of getting a
+divorce, and forcing me to marry her!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So, under one pretext and another, almost everyone is going away. As for me, I
+am like a hardened Parisian&mdash;my boots have a rooted dislike to any other
+pavement than that of the boulevards. Who is right, I, or those who are rushing
+off? Is there really danger here for those who are not ardently attached to the
+principles of the Commune? I try to believe not. True there have been
+arrests&mdash;domiciliary visits and other illegal and tyrannical
+acts&mdash;but I do not think it can last.<a href="#fn-30" name="fnref-30"
+id="fnref-30"><sup>[30]</sup></a> May we not hope that the dangerous element in
+the Commune will soon be neutralised by the more intelligent portion of the
+Municipal Council, if, indeed, that portion exists? I cannot believe that a
+revolution, accomplished by one-third of the population of Paris, and tolerated
+by another (the remaining fraction having taken flight), can be entirely devoid
+of the spirit of generosity and usefulness, capable only of appropriating the
+funds of others, and unjustly imprisoning innocent citizens. Besides, even if
+the Commune, instead of trying to make us forget the bloody deeds with which it
+preceded its establishment, or seeking to repair the faults of which it has
+been guilty, on the contrary continues to commit such excesses, thus harrying
+to its ruin a city which has already suffered so much, even then I will not
+leave it. I will cling to it to the last, as a sailor who has grown to love the
+ship that has borne him gallantly in so many voyages, clings to the wreck of
+his favourite, and refuses to be saved without it.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-29" id="fn-29"></a> <a href="#fnref-29">[29]</a>
+The following is a document which completely justifies these
+apprehensions:&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;30th March&mdash;The Commune of Paris&mdash;Orders from the
+Central Committee to the officer in command, of the battalion on
+guard at the station of Ouest-Ceinture.<br/>
+    &ldquo;To stop all trains proceeding in the direction of Paris at
+the Ouest-Ceinture station.<br/>
+    &ldquo;To place an energetic man night and day at this post. This
+man is to mount guard with a beam, which he is to throw across
+the rails at the arrival of each train, so as to cause it to run
+off the rails, if the engine-driver refuses to stop.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<small>&ldquo;HENRI, Chief of a Legion.&rdquo;</small>
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-30" id="fn-30"></a> <a href="#fnref-30">[30]</a>
+Vexatious measures accumulated:<br/>
+    
+The pacific M. Glais-Bizoin was arrested in a tobacconist&rsquo;s
+shop, where he was, doubtless, lighting a reactionary cigar. He
+fancied at first that there had been a mistake, but he was taken
+before the Committee, which caused him, however, to be
+liberated.<br/>
+    
+M. Maris Proth, a writer in <i>Charivari</i>, which is
+certainly not a royalist journal, was arrested on the following
+day, and detained for a longer time.<br/>
+    
+On the same day a search was made at the house of the
+publisher Lacroix.]
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-12"></a>
+<img src="images/017.jpg" width="332" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Gambon.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="XXV."></a> XXV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Garibaldi is expected. Gambon has gone to Corsica to meet him. He is to be
+placed at the head of the National Guard. It is devoutly to be hoped that he
+will not come.<a href="#fn-31" name="fnref-31"
+id="fnref-31"><sup>[31]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Firstly, because his presence at this moment would create new
+dangers; and secondly, because this admirable and honoured man
+would compromise his glory uselessly in our sorry discords. If I,
+an obscure citizen, had the honour of being one of those to whom
+the liberator of Naples lends an ear, I would go to him without
+hesitation, and, after having bent before him as I would before
+some ancient hero arisen from his glorious sepulchre, say to
+him,&mdash;&ldquo;General, you have delivered your country. At the head
+of a few hundred men you have won battles and taken towns. Your
+name recalls the name of William Tell. Wherever there were chains
+to rend and yokes to break, you were seen to hasten. Like the
+warriors Hugo exalts in his <i>Légende des
+Siècles</i>, you have been the champion of justice, the
+knight-errant of liberty. You appear to us victorious in a
+distant vision, as in the realm of legend. For the glory of our
+age in which heroes are wanting, it befits you to remain that
+which you are. Continue afar off, so that you may continue great.
+It is not that your glory is such that it can only be seen at a
+distance, and loses when regarded, too nearly. Not so! But you
+would be hampered amongst us. There is not space enough here for
+you to draw your sword freely. We are adroit, strange, and
+complicated. You are simple, and in that lies your greatness. We
+belong to our time, you have the honour to be an anachronism. You
+would be useless to your friends, destructive to yourself. What
+would you, a giant fighting with the sword, do against dwarfs who
+have cannon? You are courageous, but they are cunning, and would
+conquer you. For the sake of the nineteenth century you must not
+be vanquished. Do not come; in your simplicity you would be
+caught in the spider&rsquo;s web of clever mediocrity, and your grand
+efforts to tear yourself free would only be laughed at. Great
+man, you would be treated like a pigmy.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is probable, however, that if I held such a discourse to General Garibaldi,
+General Garibaldi would politely show me the door. Other and more powerful
+counsellors have inspired him with different ideas. Friendship dangerous
+indeed! How deeply painful is it that no man, however intelligent or great, can
+clearly distinguish the line, where the mission for which Heaven has endowed
+him ceases, and, disdaining all celebrity foreign to his true glory, consent to
+remain such as future ages will admire.<a href="#fn-32" name="fnref-32"
+id="fnref-32"><sup>[32]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-31" id="fn-31"></a> <a href="#fnref-31">[31]</a>
+The Citizen Gambon, representative of the Department of the Seine, left Paris
+charged with a mission to seek Garibaldi, but was arrested at Bonifacio, in the
+island of Corsica, just as he was embarking for Caprera.<br/>
+    For Memoir, see <a href="#IV._Page_88._GAMBON.">Appendix 4</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-32" id="fn-32"></a> <a href="#fnref-32">[32]</a>
+Garibaldi was chosen by the Central Committee for Commander-in-Chief of the
+National Guard, but he refused in the following terms, pretending not to be
+aware of the condition of Paris:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<small>&ldquo;Caprera, 28th March, 1871.</small>
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+&ldquo;CITIZENS,&mdash;<br/>
+&ldquo;Thanks for the honour you have conferred upon me by my nomination
+as Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard of Paris, which I love, and
+whose dangers and glory I should be proud to share.<br/>
+    &ldquo;I owe you, however, the following explanations:&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;A commandant of the National Guard of Paris, a commander of the
+Army of Paris, and a directing committee, whatever they may be, are
+three powers which are not reconcilable with the present situation of
+France.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Despotism has the advantage over us, the advantage of the
+concentration of power, and it is this same centralisation which you
+should oppose to your enemies.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Choose an honest citizen, and such are not wanting: Victor Hugo,
+Louis Blanc, Félix Pyat, Edgar Quinet, or another of the elders of
+radical democracy, would serve the purpose. The generals Oremer and
+Billot, who, I see, have your confidence, may be counted in the number.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Be assured that one honest man should be charged with the supreme
+command and full powers; such a man would choose other honest men to
+assist him in the difficult task of saving the country.<br/>
+    &ldquo;If you should have the good fortune to find a Washington, France
+will recover from shipwreck, and in a short time will be grander than
+ever.<br/>
+    &ldquo;These conditions are not an excuse for escaping the duty of
+serving republican France. No! I do not despair of fighting by the side
+of these <i>braves</i>, and I am,
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<small>&ldquo;Yours devotedly,<br/>
+(Signed), &ldquo;G. GARIBALDI.&rdquo;</small>
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XXVI."></a> XXVI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Monday, the 3rd of April.<a href="#fn-33" name="fnref-33"
+id="fnref-33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> A fearful day! I have been hurrying this way
+and that, looking, questioning, reading. It is now ten o&rsquo;clock in the
+evening. And what do I know? Nothing certain; nothing except this, which is
+awful,&mdash;they are fighting.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yes, at the gates of Paris, Frenchmen against Frenchmen,
+beneath the eyes of the Prussians, who are watching the
+battle-field like ravens: they are fighting. I have seen
+ambulance waggons pass full of National Guards. By whom have they
+been wounded? By Zouaves. Is this thing credible, is it possible?
+Ah! those guns, cannon, and mitrailleuses, why were they not all
+claimed by the enemy&mdash;all, every one, from soldiers and
+Parisians alike? But little hindrance would that have proved. It
+had been resolved&mdash;by what monstrous will?&mdash;that we
+should be hurled to the very bottom of the precipice. These
+Frenchmen, who would kill Frenchmen, would not be checked by lack
+of arms. If they could not shoot each other, they would strangle
+each other.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-13"></a>
+<img src="images/018.jpg" width="316" height="480" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>The Barricade: Evening Meal&mdash;soup and cigars, and a &ldquo;petit verre&rdquo;</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+This, indeed, was unlooked for. An insurrection was feared;
+men thought of the June days; that evening when the battalions
+devoted to the National Assembly camped in the neighbourhood of
+the Bank, we imagined, as a horrible possibility, muskets pointed
+from between the stones of barricades, blood flowing in the
+streets, men killed, women in tears. But who could have foretold
+that a new species of civil war was preparing? That Paris,
+separated from France, would be blockaded by Frenchmen? That it
+would once more be deprived of communication with the provinces;
+once more starved perhaps? That there would be, not a few men
+struggling to the death in one of the quarters of the town, but
+two armies in presence, each with chiefs, fortifications and
+cannon? That Paris, in a word, would be besieged anew? How
+abominable a surprise of fate!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The cannonading has been heard since morning. Ah! that sound,
+which, during the siege, made our hearts beat with
+hope,&mdash;yes, with hope, for it made us believe in a possible
+deliverance&mdash;how horrible it was this morning. I went
+towards the Champs Elysées. Paris was deserted. Had it
+understood at last that its honour, its existence even, were at
+stake in this revolution, or was it only not up yet? Battalions
+were marching along the boulevards, with music playing. They were
+going towards the Place Vendôme, and were singing. The
+<i>cantinières</i> were carrying guns. Some one told me
+that men had been at work all night in the neighbourhood of the
+Hôtel de Ville, and that the streets adjoining it were
+blocked with barricades. But in fact no one knows anything,
+except that there is fighting in Neuilly, that the &ldquo;Royalists&rdquo;
+have attacked, and that &ldquo;our brothers are being slaughtered.&rdquo; A
+few groups are assembled in the Place de la Concorde. I approach,
+and find them discussing the question of the rents,&mdash;yes, of
+the rents! Ah! it is certain those who are being killed at this
+moment will not have to pay their landlord. On reaching the Rond
+Point I can distinctly perceive a compact crowd round the
+Triumphal Arch, and I meet some tired National Guards who are
+returning from the battle. They are ragged, dusty, and dreary.
+&ldquo;What has happened?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;We are betrayed!&rdquo; says
+one.&mdash;&ldquo;Death to the traitors!&rdquo; cries another.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+No certain news from the field of battle. A runaway, seated
+outside a café amidst a group of eager questioners,
+recounts that the barricade at the Neuilly bridge has been
+attacked by <i>sergents de ville</i> dressed as soldiers, and
+Pontifical Zouaves carrying a white flag.&mdash;&ldquo;A parliamentary
+flag?&rdquo; asks some one.&mdash;&ldquo;No! a royalist flag,&rdquo; answered the
+runaway.&mdash;&ldquo;And the barricade has been taken?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;We had
+no cartridges; we had not eaten for twenty-four hours; of course
+we had to decamp.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Farther on a soldier of the line affirms that the barricade
+has been taken again. The cannon roars still. Mont
+Valérien is firing, it is said, on the Courbevoie
+barracks, where a battalion of Federal guards was stationed
+yesterday.&mdash;&ldquo;But they were off before daybreak,&rdquo; adds the
+soldier.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I continue my road the groups become more numerous. I lift
+my head and see a shell burst over the Avenue of the Grande
+Armée, leaving a puff of white smoke hanging for a few
+seconds like a cloud-flake detached by the wind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On I go still. The height on which the Arc de Triomphe stands
+is covered with people; a great many women and children among
+them. They are mounted on posts, clinging to the projections of
+the Arch, hanging to the sculpture of the bas-reliefs. One man
+has put a plank upon the tops of three chairs, and by paying a
+few <i>sous</i> the gapers can hoist themselves upon it. From
+this position one can perceive a motionless, attentive crowd
+reaching down the whole length of the Avenue of the Grande
+Armée, as far as the Porte Maillot, from which a great
+cloud of white smoke springs up every moment followed by a
+violent explosion,&mdash;it is the cannon of the ramparts firing
+on the Rond Point of Courbevoie; and beyond this the Avenue de
+Neuilly stretching far out in the sunshine, deserted and dusty, a
+human form crossing it rapidly from time to time; and farthest of
+all, beyond the Seine, beyond the Avenue de l&rsquo;Empereur, deserted
+too, the hill of Courbevoie, where a battery of the Versailles
+troops is established. But stretch my eyes as I may I cannot
+distinguish the guns; but a few men, sentinels doubtless, can be
+made out. They are <i>sergents de ville</i>, says my right-hand
+neighbour; but he on my left says they are Pontifical Zouaves.
+They must have good eyes to recognise the uniforms at this
+distance. The most contradictory rumours circulate as to the
+barricade on the bridge; it is impossible for one to ascertain
+whether it has remained in the possession of the soldiers or the
+Federals. There has been but little fighting, moreover, since I
+came. A little later, at twelve o&rsquo;clock, the fusillade ceases
+entirely. But the battery on the ramparts continues to fire upon
+Courbevoie, and Mont Valérien still shells Neuilly at
+intervals. Suddenly a flood of dust, coming from Porte Maillot,
+thrusts back the thick of the crowd, and as it flies, widening,
+and whirling more madly as it comes, everyone is seized with
+terror, and rushes away screaming and gesticulating. A shell has
+just fallen, it is said, in the Avenue of the Grande
+Armée. Not a soul remains about the Triumphal Arch. The
+adjoining streets are filled with people who have run to take
+shelter there. By little and little, however, the people begin to
+recover themselves, the flight is stopped in the middle, and,
+laughing at their momentary panic, they turn back again. A
+quarter of an hour afterwards the crowd is everywhere as compact
+as before.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-14"></a>
+<img src="images/019.jpg" width="480" height="327" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Place de La Concorde and Champs Elysees, from the Gardens
+of the Tuileries&mdash;Federalists going out to fight the Versaillais:</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="letter">
+This panorama gives an idea of the theatre of operations of the Second Siege of
+Paris. The Prussians closed the eastern enceinte, whilst the Federals held the
+southern forts to the last, with the exception of Issy and Vanves that were
+abandoned. Point-du-Jour and Porte Maillot were the parts particularly
+attacked; the former being defended by the Federal gunboats on the Seine. Mont
+Valérien, it will be seen, commands the whole of the distant plateau. About one
+mile and a half beyond the Triumphal Arch the river Seine intersects the space
+from south to north, enclosing the Bois de Boulogne and the villages of
+Neuilly, Villiers, and Courcelles, being a sort of outer fortification. The
+walls of Paris follow the same line, falling about half a mile on the other
+side of the Arch, and parallel runs a line of railway within the fortified
+wall. This view exhibits the portion the Prussians were permitted to occupy for
+two days: all the outlets, except the west, being barricaded and defended. 
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This spectacle, however, of combatants and gapers distresses
+me, and in despair of learning anything I return into the
+city.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At some distance from the scene of events one gets better
+information, or, at any rate, a great deal more of it.
+Imagination has better play when it is farther from the fact. A
+hundred absurd stories reach me. What appears tolerably certain
+is, that the Federals have received a check, not very important
+in itself, the Versailles troops having made but little advance,
+but at any rate a check which might have some influence on the
+resolution of the National Guards. They have been told that the
+army would not fight, that the soldiers of the line would turn
+the butt-ends of their guns into the air at Neuilly as they had
+done at Montmartre. But now they begin to believe that the army
+will fight, and those who cry the loudest that it was the
+<i>sergents de ville</i> and Charette&rsquo;s Zouaves who led the
+attack alone, seem as if they said it to give themselves courage
+and keep up their illusions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But from which side did the first shot come? On this point
+everyone has something to say, and no one knows what to believe.
+Official reports are looked for with the utmost impatience. The
+walls, generally so communicative, are mute up to this hour. The
+least improbable of the versions circulated is the following: At
+break of day some shots are said to have been exchanged between
+the Federal advanced guard and the patrols of the Versailles
+troops. None dead or wounded; only powder wasted, happily. A
+little later, and a few minutes after the arrival of General
+Vinoy at Mont Valérien, a messenger with a flag of truce,
+preceded by a trumpeter and accompanied by two <i>sergents de
+ville</i> (inevitably), is said to have presented himself at the
+bridge of Courbevoie. The name of the messenger has been
+given,&mdash;Monsieur Pasquier, surgeon-in-chief to the regiment
+of mounted <i>gendarmes</i>. Two of the National Guards go to
+meet him; after some words exchanged, one of the Federals blows
+out Monsieur Pasquier&rsquo;s brains with his revolver, and ten minutes
+later Mont Valérien opens a formidable fire, which
+continues as fiercely four hours afterwards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile the drams beat to arms, on all sides. A considerable
+number of battalions defile along the Boulevard Montmartre; more
+than twenty thousand men, some say, who pretend to know. On they
+march, singing and shouting &ldquo;<i>Vive la Commune! Vive la
+République!</i>&rdquo; They are answered by a few shouts. These
+are not the Montmartre and Belleville guards alone; peaceful
+faces of citizens and merchants may be seen under the military
+<i>képis</i>, and many hands are white as no workman&rsquo;s
+are. They march in good order,&mdash;they are calm and resolved;
+one feels that these men are ready to die for a cause that they
+believe to be just. I raise my hat as they pass; one must do
+honour to those who, even if they be guilty, push their devotion
+so far as to expose themselves to death for their
+convictions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But what are these convictions? What is the Commune? The men
+who sit at the Hôtel de Ville have published no programme,
+yet they kill and are killed for the sake of the Commune. Oh,
+words! words! What power they have over you, heroic and most
+simple people!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the evening out came a proclamation. There was so great a
+crowd wherever it was posted up that I had not the chance of
+copying it; but it ran somewhat in these terms:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;CITIZENS,&mdash;This morning the Royalists have ATTACKED.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Impatient, before our moderation they have ATTACKED.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Unable to bring French bayonets against us, they have opposed us
+    with the Imperial Guard and Pontifical Zouaves.<br/>
+    &ldquo;They have bombarded the inoffensive village of Neuilly.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Charette&rsquo;s <i>chouans</i>, Cathelineau&rsquo;s <i>Vendéens</i>, Trochu&rsquo;s <i>Bretons</i>,
+    Valentin&rsquo;s <i>gendarmes</i>, have rushed upon us.<br/>
+    &ldquo;There are dead and wounded.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Against this attack, renewed from the Prussians, Paris should rise
+    to a man.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Thanks to the support of the National Guard, the victory will be
+    ours!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Victory! What victory? Oh, the bitter pain! Paris shedding the
+blood of France, France shedding the blood of Paris! From
+whatever side the triumph comes, will it not be accursed?
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-33" id="fn-33"></a> <a href="#fnref-33">[33]</a>
+On the 1st of April several shots were fired under the walls of Fort Issy, but
+it was not until the next day, the 2nd of April, at nine o&rsquo;clock in the
+morning, that the action commenced in earnest at Courbevoie, by an attack of
+the Versailles army. The federals, who thought themselves masters of the place,
+were stopped by the steady firing of a regiment of gendarmerie and heavy
+cannonading from Mont Valérien. At first the National Guards retreated, then
+disputed every foot of ground with much courage. In the neighbourhood the
+desolation and misery was extreme.<br/>
+    The revolution had now entered a new phase; the military proceedings had
+begun, and it was about to be proved that, the Communist generals had even less
+genius than those of the Défense Nationale, although it must be admitted that
+the latter did not know the extent of the resources they had at their disposal.
+When we remember the small advantage those generals managed to derive from the
+heroism of the Parisian population, who, during the second siege showed that
+they knew how to fight and how to die, it is marvellous that many people have
+gone so far as to regret that the émeute of the 31st of October was not
+successful, believing that if the Commune had triumphed at that time, Paris
+would have been saved. All this seems very doubtful now, and opinions have
+veered round considerably, for it is not such men as Duval, Cluseret, La
+Cécilia, Eudes, or Bergeret, who could have protected Paris against the science
+of the Prussian generals.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-15"></a>
+<img src="images/020.jpg" width="293" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>General Bergeret.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="XXVII."></a> XXVII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+To whom shall we listen? Whom believe? It would take a
+hundred pages, and more, to relate all the different rumours
+which have circulated to-day, the 4th of April, the second day of
+the horrible straggle. Let us hastily note down the most
+persistent of these assertions; later I will put some order into
+this pell-mell of news.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All through the night the drums beat to arms in every quarter
+of the town. Companies assembled rapidly, and directed their way
+towards the Place Vendôme or the Porte Maillot, shouting,
+&ldquo;<i>A Versailles!</i>&rdquo; Since five this morning, General Bergeret
+has occupied the Rond-Point of Courbevoie. This position has been
+evacuated by the troops of the Assembly. How was this? Were the
+Federals not beaten yesterday?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(One thing goes against General Bergeret in the opinion of his
+troops: he drives to battle in a carriage.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He has formed his troops into columns. No less than sixty thousand men are
+under his orders; two batteries of seven guns support the infantry; omnibuses
+follow, filled with provisions. They march towards the Mont Valérien; after
+having taken the fort, they will march on Versailles by Rueil and Nanterre.<a
+href="#fn-34" name="fnref-34" id="fnref-34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> After they have
+taken the Mont Valérien! there is not a moment&rsquo;s doubt about the success
+of the enterprise. &ldquo;We were assured,&rdquo; said a Federal general to me,
+&ldquo;that the fort would open its doors at the first sight of us.&rdquo; But
+they counted without General Cholleton, who commands the fortress. The
+advance-guard of the Federals is received by a formidable discharge of shot and
+shells. Panic! Cries of rage! A regular rout to the words, &ldquo;We are
+betrayed!&rdquo;<a href="#fn-35" name="fnref-35"
+id="fnref-35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> The army of the Commune is divided into two
+fragments: one&mdash;scarcely three battalions strong&mdash;flies in the
+direction of Versailles, the other regains Paris with praiseworthy
+precipitation. Must the Parisian combatants be accused of cowardice for this
+flight? No! They were surprised; had never expected such a reception from Mont
+Valérien; had they been warned, they would have held out better. After all,
+there was more fright than harm done in the affair; the huge fortress could
+have annihilated the Communists, and it was satisfied with dispersing them. But
+what has become of the three battalions that passed Mont Valérien? Bravely they
+went forward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the meantime another movement was being made upon
+Versailles by Meudon and Clamart. A small number of battalions
+had marched out during the night, and are massed under cover of
+the forts of Issy and Vanves. They have managed to establish a
+battery of a few guns on a wooded eminence, at the foot of the
+glacis of Fort. Issy, and their pieces are firing upon the
+batteries of the Versailles troops at Meudon, which are answering
+them furiously. It is a duel of artillery, as in the
+time&mdash;the good time, alas!&mdash;of the Prussians.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Up to this moment the information is tolerably clear; probable
+even, and one is able to come to some idea of the respective
+positions of the belligerents. But towards two o&rsquo;clock in the
+afternoon all the reports get confused and contradictory.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An estafette, who has come from the Porte Maillot, cried to a
+group formed on the place of the New Opera-house, &ldquo;We are
+victorious! Flourens has entered Versailles at the head of forty
+thousand men. A hundred deputies have been taken. Thiers is a
+prisoner.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Elsewhere it is said that in the rout of that morning, at the
+foot of Mont Valérien, Flourens had disappeared. And where
+could he have found the forty thousand men to lead them to
+Versailles?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the same time a rumour spreads that General Bergeret has
+been grievously wounded by a shell. &ldquo;Pure exaggeration!&rdquo; some one
+answers. &ldquo;The General has only had two horses killed under
+him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before him, rather, since he drives to battle. What appears
+most certain of all is that there is furious fighting going on
+between Sèvres and Meudon. I hear it said that the 118th
+of the line have turned the butts of their guns into the air, and
+that the Parisians have taken twelve mitrailleuses from the
+Versailles troops.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There is fighting, too, at Châtillon. The Federals have
+won great advantages. Nevertheless an individual who went out
+that side to investigate, announces that he saw three battalions
+return with very little air of triumph, and that other
+battalions, forming the reserve, had refused to march.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A shower of contradictions, in which the news for the most
+part has no other source than the opinion and desire of the
+person who brings it. It is by the result alone that we can
+appreciate what is passed. At one moment I give up trying to get
+information as a bad job, but I begin questioning again in spite
+of myself; the desire to know is even stronger than the very
+strong certainty that I shall be able to learn nothing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I turn to the Champs Elysées. The cannon is roaring;
+ambulance waggons descend the Avenue, and stop before the Palais
+de l&rsquo;Industrie; over the way Punch is making his audience roar
+with laughter as usual. Oh! the miserable times! The horrible
+fratricidal struggle! May those who were its cause be accursed
+for ever!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While some are killing and others dying, the members of the
+Commune are rendering decrees, and the walls are white with
+official proclamations.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Messieurs Thiers, Favre, Picard, Dufaure, Simon and Pothuan are impeached;
+their property will be seized and sequestrated until they deliver themselves up
+to public justice.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This impeachment and sequestration, will it bring back
+husbands to the widows and fathers to the orphans?
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;The Commune of Paris adopts the families of citizens who have fallen or may
+fall in opposing the criminal aggression of the Royalists, directed against
+Paris and against the French republic.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Infinitely better than adopting the orphans would be to save
+the fathers from death. Oh, these absurd decrees! You separate
+the Church from the State; you suppress the budget of public
+worship; you confiscate the property of the clergy. A pretty time
+to think about such acts! What is necessary, what is
+indispensable, is to restore quiet, to avoid massacres, and to
+stifle hatred. That you will not decree. No! no! That which is
+now happening you have desired, and you still desire it; you have
+profited by the provocations you have received to bring about the
+most frightful conflict which the history of unfortunate France
+records; and you will persevere, and in order to revive the
+fainting courage of those whom you have devoted to inevitable
+defeat and death, you bring into action all the hypocrisy with
+which you have charged your enemies!
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Bergeret and Flourens have joined their forces; they are marching on
+Versailles. Success is certain!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+You cause this announcement to be placarded in the
+street&mdash;false news, is it not? But men can only be led to
+their ruin by being deceived. You add:
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;The fire of the army of Versailles has not occasioned us any appreciable
+loss.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ah! As to this let us ask the women who await at the gates of
+the city the return of your soldiers, and crowd sobbing round the
+bloody litters!
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-34" id="fn-34"></a> <a href="#fnref-34">[34]</a>
+The combined plan of the three generals of the Commune consisted, like the
+famous plan of General Boum, in proceeding by three different roads: the first
+column, under the orders of Bergeret, seconded by Flourens, went by Rueil; the
+second, commanded by Duval, marched upon Versailles by lower Meudon, Chaville,
+and Viroflay; covered by the fire of Fort Issy, and the redoubt of Moulineaux;
+and lastly, the third, with General Eudes at its head, took the Clamart road,
+protected by the fort of Vanves.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-35" id="fn-35"></a> <a href="#fnref-35">[35]</a>
+Though no fort covered Bergeret&rsquo;s eight battalions with its fire, yet
+Bergeret was so sure that the artillerymen of Mont Valérien would do as the
+line did on the 18th of March, i.e., refuse to fire, that he advanced boldly as
+far as the bridge of Neuilly, and had made a halt at the Rond-Point des
+Bergères, when a heavy cannonading from Mont Valérien separated a part of the
+column from its main body.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XXVIII."></a> XXVIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Every hour that flies by, becomes more sinister than the last.
+They fight at Clamart as they fight at Neuilly, at Meudon and at
+Courbevoie. Everywhere rage the mitrailleuses, the cannon, and
+the rifle; the victories of the Communalists are lyingly
+proclaimed. The truth of their pretended triumphs will soon be
+known; and unhappily victory will be as detestable as defeat.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+General Duval has been made prisoner and put to death. &ldquo;If you had taken me,&rdquo;
+asked General Vinoy, &ldquo;would you not have shot me?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Without hesitation,&rdquo;
+replied Duval. And Vinoy gave the word of command, &ldquo;Fire!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But this anecdote, though widely spread, is probably false. It
+is scarcely likely that a Commander-in-Chief of the Versailles
+troops would have consented to hold such a dialogue with an
+&ldquo;<i>insurgent</i>.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Flourens also is killed. Where and how is not yet known with
+any certainty. Several versions are given. Some speak of a ball
+in the head, or the neck, or the chest; others spread the report
+that his skull was cut open by a sword.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Flourens is thought about and talked of by men of the most
+opposite opinions. This singular man inspires no antipathy even
+amongst those who might hold him in the greatest detestation. I
+shall one day try to account for the partiality of opinion in
+favour of this young and romantic insurgent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Duval shot, Flourens killed, Bergeret lying in the pangs of
+death; the enthusiasm of the Federals might well be cooled down.
+Not in the least! The battalions that march along the boulevards
+have the same resolute air, as they sing and shout &ldquo;<i>Vive la
+Commune!</i>&rdquo; Are they the dupes of their chiefs to that extent
+as to believe the pompous proclamations with their hourly
+announcements of attacks repelled, of redoubts taken, of soldiers
+of the line made prisoners? It is not probable. And besides, the
+guards of the respective quarters must see the return of those
+who have been to the fight, and whose anxious wives are waiting
+on the steps of the doors; must learn from them that the forward
+marches have in reality been routs, and that many dead and
+wounded have been left on the field, when the Commune reports
+only declare &ldquo;losses of little importance.&rdquo; Whence comes this
+ardour that the first rush and defeat cannot check? Is it
+nourished by the reports, true or false, of the cruelties of the
+Versaillais which are spread by the hundred? The &ldquo;murder&rdquo; of
+Duval, the &ldquo;assassination&rdquo; of Flourens, prisoners shot,
+<i>vivandières</i> violated, all these culpable
+inventions&mdash;can they be inventions, or does civil war make
+such barbarians of us?&mdash;are indeed of a nature to excite the
+enthusiasm of hate, and the men march to a probable defeat with
+the same air as they would march to certain victory. Ah! whether
+led astray or not, whether guilty, even, or whatever the motive
+that impels them, they are brave! And when they pass thus they
+are grand. Yes! in spite of the rags that serve the greater
+number of them for uniforms, in spite of the drunken gait of
+some, as a whole they are superb! And the reason of the coldest
+partisan of order at any price, struggles in vain against the
+admiration which these men inspire as they march to their
+death.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It must be admitted, too, that there is much less disorder in
+the command than might be expected. The battalions all know whom
+they are to obey. Some go to the Hôtel de Ville, others to
+the Place Vendôme, many to the forts, a few to the advanced
+posts; marches and counter-marches are managed without confusion,
+and the combatants are in general well provided with ammunition,
+and supplied with provisions. Far as one is from esteeming the
+chiefs of the Federals, one is obliged to admit that there is
+something remarkable in this rapid organisation of a whole army
+in the midst of one of the most complete political convulsions.
+Who, then, directs? Who commands? The members of the Commune,
+divided as they are in opinion, do not appear capable, on account
+of their number and lamentable inexperience, of taking the sole
+lead in military affairs. Is there not some one either amongst
+them or in the background, who knows how to think, direct, and
+act? Is it Bergeret? Is it Cluseret? The future perhaps will
+unravel the mystery. In the meantime, and in spite of the
+reverses to which the Federals have had to submit during these
+last days, the whole of Paris unites in unanimous surprise at the
+extreme regularity with which the administrative system of the
+war seems to work, the surprise being the greater that, during
+the siege, the &ldquo;legitimate&rdquo; chiefs with much more powerful means,
+and having disciplined troops at their command, did not succeed
+in obtaining the same striking results.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But would it not have been better far that that order had
+never existed? Better a thousand times that the command had been
+less precise than that those commanded should have been led to a
+death without glory? For the last few days Neuilly, so joyous in
+times gone by with its busy shops, its frequented
+<i>restaurants</i> and princely parks; Neuilly, with the
+Versailles batteries on one side and the Paris guns on the other,
+under an incessant rain of shells and <i>mitraille</i> from Mont
+Valérien; Neuilly, with her bridge taken and re-taken, her
+barricades abandoned and re-conquered, has been for the last few
+days like a vast abyss, into which the Federal battalions, seized
+with mortal giddiness, are precipitated one after another. Each
+house is a fortress. Yesterday, the <i>gendarmes</i> had advanced
+as far as the market of Sablonville; this morning they were
+driven back beyond the church. Upon this church, a child; the son
+of Monsieur Leullier, planted a red flag amidst a shower of
+projectiles. &ldquo;That child will make a true man,&rdquo; said Cluseret,
+the war delegate. Ah, yes! provided he is not a corpse ere then.
+Shots are fired from window to window. A house is assaulted;
+there are encounters, on the stairs; it is a horrible struggle in
+which no quarter is given, night and day, through all hours. The
+rage and fury on both sides are terrific. Men that were friends a
+week ago have but one desire&mdash;to assassinate each other. An
+inhabitant of Neuilly, who succeeded in escaping, related this to
+me: Two enemies, a soldier of the line and a Federal, had an
+encounter in the bathing establishment of the Avenue de Neuilly,
+a little above the Rue des Huissiers. Now pursuing, now flying
+from each other in their bayonet-fight, they reached the roof of
+the house, and there, flinging down their arms, they closed in a
+mad struggle. On the sloping roof, the tiles of which crush
+beneath them, at a hundred feet from the ground, they struggled
+without mercy, without respite, until at last the soldier felt
+his strength give way, and endeavoured to escape from the gripe
+of his adversary. Then, the Federal&mdash;the person from whom I
+learnt this was at an opposite window and lost not a single one
+of their movements&mdash;the Federal drew a knife from his pocket
+and prepared himself to strike his half-prostrate antagonist,
+who, feeling that all hope was lost, threw himself flat on the
+roof, seized his enemy by the leg, and dragging him with him by a
+sudden movement, they rolled over and fell on to the pavement
+below. Neither was killed, but the soldier had his face crimsoned
+with blood and dust, and the Federal, who had fallen across his
+adversary, despatched him by plunging his knife in his chest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such is this infamous struggle! Such is this savage strife!
+Will it not cease until there is no more blood to shed? In the
+meantime, Paris of the boulevards, the elegant and fast-living
+Paris, lounges, strolls, and smiles. In spite of the numerous
+departures there are still enough blasé dandies and
+beauties of light locks and lighter reputation to bring the blush
+to an honest man&rsquo;s cheek. The theatres are open; &ldquo;<i>La
+Pièce du Pape</i>&rdquo; is being played. Do you know &ldquo;The
+Pope&rsquo;s Money?&rdquo; It is a suitable piece for diverting the thoughts
+from the horrors of civil war. A year ago the Pope was supported
+by French bayonets, but his light coinage would not pass in
+Paris. Now Papal zouaves are killing the citizens of Paris, and
+we take light silver and lighter paper. The piece is flimsy
+enough. It is not its political significance that makes it
+diverting, but the <i>double-entendre</i> therein. One must laugh
+a little, you understand. Men are dying out yonder, we might as
+well laugh a little here. Low whispers in the <i>baignoires</i>,
+munching of sugared violets in the stage boxes&mdash;everything&rsquo;s
+for the best. Mademoiselle Nénuphar (named so by
+antithesis) is said to have the most beautiful eyes in the world.
+I will wager that that handsome man behind her has already
+compared them to mitraille shot, seeing the ravages they commit.
+It would be impossible to be more complimentary,&mdash;more witty
+and to the point. Ah! look you, those who are fighting at this
+moment, who to-day by their cannon and chassepots are exposing
+Paris to a terrible revenge, guilty as these men are, I hold them
+higher than those who roar with laughter when the whole city is
+in despair, who have not even the modesty to hide their joys from
+our distresses, and who amuse themselves openly with shameless
+women, while mothers are weeping for their children!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the boulevards it is worse still; there, vice exhibits
+itself and triumphs. Is it then true what a young fellow, a poor
+student and bitter philosopher, said to me just now: &ldquo;When all
+Paris is destroyed, when its houses, its palaces, and its
+monuments thrown down and crushed, strew its accursed soil and
+form but one vast ruin beneath the sky, then, from out of this
+shapeless mass will rise as from a huge sepulchre, the phantom of
+a woman, a skeleton dressed in a brilliant dress, with shoulders
+bared, and a toquet on its head; and this phantom, running from
+ruin to ruin, turning its head every now and then to see if some
+libertine is following her through the waste&mdash;this phantom
+is the leprous soul of Paris!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When midnight approaches, the <i>cafés</i> are shut.
+The delegates of the Central Committee at the ex-prefecture have
+the habit of sending patrols of National Guards to hasten and
+overlook the closing of all public places. But this precaution,
+like so many others, is useless. There are secret doors which
+escape the closest investigations. When the shutters are put up,
+light filters through the interstices of the boards. Go close up
+to them, apply your eye to one of those lighted crevices, listen
+to the cannon roaring, the mitrailleuses horribly spitting, the
+musketry cracking, and then look into the interior of the closed
+rooms. People are talking, eating, and smoking; waiters go to and
+fro. There are women too. The men are gay and silly. Champagne
+bottles are being uncorked. &ldquo;Ah! ah! it&rsquo;s the fusillade!&rdquo; Lovers
+and mistresses are in common here. This orgie has the most
+telling effect, I tell you, in the midst of the city loaded with
+maledictions, a few steps from the battle-field where the
+bayonets are dealing their death thrusts, and the shells are
+scattering blood. And later, after the laughter and the songs and
+the drink, they take an open carriage, if the night is fine, and
+go to the Champs Elysées, and there mount upon the box by
+the coachman to try and see the fight&mdash;if &ldquo;those people&rdquo;
+knew how to die as well as they know how to laugh it would be
+better for them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Other <i>bons viveurs</i>, more discreet, hide themselves on
+the first floors of some houses and in some of the clubs. But
+they are betrayed by the sparkle of the chandeliers which pierces
+the heavy curtains. If you walk along by the walls you will hear
+the conversation of the gamesters and the joyous clink of the
+gold pieces.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ah! the cowardice of the merry ones! Oh, thrice pardonable
+anger of those who starve!
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XXIX."></a> XXIX.</h2>
+
+<p>
+At one o&rsquo;clock this morning, the 5th of April, on my return
+from one of these nightly excursions through Paris, I was
+following the Rue du Mont Thabor so as to gain the boulevards,
+when on crossing the Rue Saint-Honoré I perceived a small
+number of National Guards ranged along the pavement. The incident
+was a common one, and I took no notice of it. In the Rue du Mont
+Thabor not a person was to be seen; all was in silence and
+solitude. Suddenly a door opened a few steps in front of me; a
+man came out and hurried away in the direction opposite to that
+of the church. This departure looked like a flight. I stopped and
+lent my attention. Soon two National Guards rushed out by the
+same door, ran, shouting as they went, after the fugitive, who
+had had but a short start of them, and overtaking him, without
+difficulty brought him back between them, while the National
+Guards that I had seen in the Rue Saint-Honoré ran up at
+the noise. The exclamations and insults of all kinds that were
+vociferated led me to ascertain that the man they had arrested
+was the Abbé Deguerry, <i>curé</i> of the
+Madeleine. He was dragged into the house, the door was shut, and
+all sank into silence again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That morning I learned that Monseigneur Darboy, the Archbishop
+of Paris, was taken at the same hour and in almost similar
+circumstances.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-16"></a>
+<img src="images/021.jpg" width="357" height="500" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>ABBÉ DEGUERRY,<br/>Curé of the Madeleine.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+The arrests of several other ecclesiastics are cited. The
+<i>curé</i> of St. Séverin and the
+<i>curé</i> of St. Eustache have been made prisoners, it
+is said; the first in his own house, the second at the moment
+when he was leaving his church. The <i>curé</i> of
+Notre-Dame-des-Victoires was to have been arrested also, but
+warned in time, he was able to place himself in safety.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Monseigneur Darboy, being conducted to the ex-prefecture (why
+the <i>ex</i>-prefecture? It seems to me it works just as well as
+when it was purely and simply a prefecture), was cross-examined
+there by the citizen delegate Rigault. It must be said that
+Monsieur Rigault had begun to make himself talked about during
+these last few days. He is evidently a man who has a natural
+vocation for the employment he has chosen, for he arrests, and
+arrests, and still arrests. He is young, cold, and cynical. But
+his cynicism does not exclude him from a certain gaiety, as we
+shall see. It was the Citizen Rigault, then, who examined the
+Archbishop of Paris. I am not inordinately curious, but I should
+very much like to know what the cynical member of the Commune
+could ask of Monseigneur Darboy. Having committed apparently but
+one crime, that of being a priest, and having no inclination to
+disguise it, it is difficult to know what the interrogatory could
+turn upon. Monsieur Rigault&rsquo;s imagination furnished him no doubt
+with ample materials for the interview, and he has probably as
+much vocation for the part of a magistrate as for that of a
+police officer. But however it may be, the journals of the
+Commune record this fragment with ill-disguised admiration.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-17"></a>
+<img src="images/022.jpg" width="330" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Raoul Rigault<a href="#fn-36" name="fnref-36"
+id="fnref-36"><sup>[36]</sup></a></b></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-18"></a>
+<img src="images/023.jpg" width="276" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Monseigneur Darboy,<br/>Archbishop of Paris.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;My children&rdquo;&mdash;the white-haired Archbishop of Paris is
+reported to have said at one moment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Citizen,&rdquo; interrupted the Citizen Rigault, who is not yet
+thirty, &ldquo;you are not before children, but before
+magistrates.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That was smart! And I can conceive the enthusiasm with which
+Monsieur Rigault inspires the members of the Commune. But this
+excellent citizen did not confine himself to this haughty
+repartee. I am informed (and I have reason to believe with truth)
+that he added: &ldquo;Moreover, that&rsquo;s too old a tale. You have been
+trying it on these eighteen hundred years.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now everyone must admit that this is as remarkable for its wit
+as for its elegance, and it is just what might be expected of the
+amiable delegate, who, the other day, in a moment of exaggerated
+clemency, permitted an abbé to visit a prisoner in the
+Conciergerie, and furnished him with a <i>laisser-passer</i> that
+ran thus: &ldquo;Admit the bearer, who styles himself the servant of
+one of the name of God.&rdquo; Oh! what graceful, charming wit!
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-36" id="fn-36"></a> <a href="#fnref-36">[36]</a>
+Rigault became connected with Rochefort in the year 1869, and with him was
+engaged on the journal called the <i>Marseillaise</i>, and produced articles
+which subjected him more than once to fine and imprisonment. In the month of
+September, 1870, he was appointed by the Government of the National Defence,
+Commissaire of Police, but having taken part in the insurrection of the 31st of
+October, he was, on the following day, dismissed from office. Shortly after
+this he made his appearance as a writer in Blanqui&rsquo;s paper the <i>Patrie
+en Danger</i>; but, presently, he took a military turn, and got himself elected
+to the command of a battalion of the National Guard. He seems to have been born
+an informer or police spy, for we are told when at school, he used to amuse
+himself by filling up lists of proscriptions, with the names of his
+fellow-pupils. With such charming natural instincts, it is not at all
+surprising that he was on the 18th of March, appointed by the Commune
+Government, Prefect of Police.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XXX."></a> XXX.</h2>
+
+<p>
+I am beginning to feel decidedly uncomfortable. This new
+decree of the Commune seriously endangers the liberty of all
+those who are so unfortunate as to have incurred the ill-will of
+their concierge, or whose dealings with his next-door neighbour
+have not been of a strictly amicable nature. Let us copy the 1st
+article of this ferocious decree.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;All persons accused of complicity with the Government of Versailles
+shall be immediately taken and incarcerated.&rdquo;<a href="#fn-37"
+name="fnref-37" id="fnref-37"><sup>[37]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pest! they do not mince matters! Why, the first good-for-nothing
+rascal&mdash;to whom, perhaps, I refused to lend five francs seven years
+ago&mdash;may go round to Citizen Rigault and tell him that I am in regular
+communication with Versailles, whereupon I am immediately incarcerated. For, I
+beg it may be observed, it is not necessary that the complicity with &ldquo;the
+traitors&rdquo; should be proved. The denunciation is quite sufficient for one
+to be sent to contemplate the blue sky through the bars of the Conciergerie.<a
+href="#fn-38" name="fnref-38" id="fnref-38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> Besides, what
+do the words &ldquo;complicity with the Government of Versailles&rdquo; mean?
+All depends upon the way one looks at those things. I am not sure that I am
+innocent. I remember distinctly having several times bowed to a pleasant
+fellow&mdash;I say pleasant fellow, hoping that these lines will not fall under
+the observation of any one at the Prefecture of Police&mdash;who at this very
+moment is quite capable, the rogue, of eating a comfortable dinner at the Hôtel
+des Réservoirs at Versailles in company with one or more of the members of the
+National Assembly. You can understand now why I am beginning to feel rather
+uncomfortable. To know a man who knows a deputy, constitutes, I am fully
+persuaded&mdash;otherwise I am unworthy to live under the paternal government
+of the Commune&mdash;a most decided complicity with the men of Versailles. I
+really think it would be only commonly prudent to steal out of Paris in a coal
+sack, as a friend of mine did the other day, or in some other agreeable
+fashion.<a href="#fn-39" name="fnref-39" id="fnref-39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> See
+what may come of a bow!
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-37" id="fn-37"></a> <a href="#fnref-37">[37]</a>
+DECREE CONCERNING THE SUSPECTED.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<small>&ldquo;Commune of Paris:</small>
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+&ldquo;Considering that the Government of Versailles has wantonly
+trampled on the rights of humanity, and set at defiance the
+rights of war; that it has perpetrated horrors such as even the
+invaders of our soil have shrunk from committing;<br/>
+    &ldquo;Considering that the representatives of the Commune of Paris
+have an imperative duty devolving upon them,&mdash;that of
+defending the lives and honour of two millions of inhabitants,
+who have committed their destinies to their charge; and that it
+behoves them at once to take measures equal to the gravity of the
+situation;<br/>
+    &ldquo;Considering that the politicians and magistrates of the city
+ought to reconcile the general weal with respect for public
+liberty,<br/>
+    &ldquo;Decrees:<br/>
+    &ldquo;Art. 1. All persons charged with complicity with the
+Government of Versailles will be immediately brought to justice
+and incarcerated.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Art. 2. A &lsquo;jury, of accusation&rsquo; will be summoned within the
+twenty-four hours to examine the charges brought before it.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Art. 3. The jury must pass sentence within the forty-eight
+hours.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Art. 4. All the accused, convicted by the jury, will be
+retained as hostages by the People of Paris.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Art. 6. Every execution of a prisoner of war, or of a member
+of the regular Government of the Commune of Paris, will be at
+once followed by the execution of a triple number of hostages,
+retained by virtue of article 4, who will be chosen by lot.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Art. 6. All prisoners of war will be summoned before the
+&lsquo;jury of accusation,&rsquo; who will decide whether they be immediately
+set at liberty or retained as hostages.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-38" id="fn-38"></a> <a href="#fnref-38">[38]</a>
+Prison of Detention.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-39" id="fn-39"></a> <a href="#fnref-39">[39]</a>
+The following is still more naïve:&mdash;A man takes a return-ticket for the
+environs, and sometimes finds a guard silly enough to allow him to pass on the
+supposition that such a ticket was sufficient proof of his intention of
+returning to Paris.<br/>
+    Others get into the waiting-room without tickets, under the pretext of
+speaking to some one there.<br/>
+    M. Bergerat, a poet, passed the barrier in a cart-load of charcoal.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-19"></a>
+<img src="images/024.jpg" width="359" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Colonel Flourens.<a href="#fn-40" name="fnref-40"
+id="fnref-40"><sup>[40]</sup></a></b></p>
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="XXXI."></a> XXXI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Flourens is dead: we heard that last night for certain. A National Guard had
+previously brought back the colonel&rsquo;s horse from Bougival, but it was
+only a few hours ago that we heard any details. An attempt was made to take him
+prisoner at Rueil. A gendarme called out to him to surrender, he replied by a
+pistol shot; another gendarme advanced, and wounded him in the side, a third
+cleft his skull with a sabre out. Some people do not believe in the pistol
+shot, and talk of assassination. How many such events are there, the truth of
+which will never be clearly proved! One thing certain is, that Flourens is
+dead. His body was recognised at Versailles by some one in the service of
+Garnier frères. His mother started this morning to fetch the corpse of her son.
+It is strange that one is so painfully affected by the violent death of this
+man. He has been mixed up in all the revolutionary attempts of the last few
+years, and ought to be particularly obnoxious to all peaceful and order-loving
+citizens; but the truth is, his was a sincerely ardent and enthusiastic spirit.
+He was a thorough believer in the principles he maintained. Whatever may be the
+religion he professes, the apostle inspires esteem, and the martyr compassion.
+This apostle, this martyr, was born to affluence; son of an illustrious savant,
+he may be almost said to have been born to hereditary distinction. He was still
+quite young when he threw himself heart and soul into politics. There was
+fighting in Crete, and so off he went. There he revolted against the revolt
+itself, got imprisoned, escaped, outwitted the gendarmes, got retaken: his
+adventures sound like a legend or romance. It is because he was so romantic,
+that he is so interesting. He returned to France full of generous impulses. He
+was as prodigal of his money as he had been of his blood. In the bitter cold
+winters he fed and clothed the poor of Belleville, going from attic to attic
+with money and consolation. You remember what Victor Hugo says of the sublime
+Pauline Roland. The spirit of Flourens much resembled hers. The patriot could
+act the part of a sister of charity. At other times, an enthusiast in search of
+a social Eldorado, he would put himself at the service of the most forlorn
+cause; never was anyone so imprudent. He was of a most active and critical
+disposition: it was impossible for him to remain quiet. When he was not
+seemingly employed, he was agitating something in the shade. His friendship for
+Rochefort was great. These two turbulent spirits, one with his pen, the other
+with his physical activity, remind us each of the other. Both ran to extremes,
+Rochefort in his literary invectives, Flourens in his hairbreadth adventures.
+Although they were often allied, these two, they were sometimes opposed. Have
+you never, seen two young artists in a studio performing the old trick, one
+making a speech, while the other, with his head and body hidden in the folds of
+a cloak, stretches forth his arms and executes the most extravagant gestures?
+Rochefort and Flourens performed this farce in politics, the former talking,
+the latter gesticulating; but on the day of the burial of Victor Noir they went
+different ways. On that day Rochefort, to do him justice, saved a large
+multitude of men from terrible danger. Flourens, always the same, wished the
+body to be carried to Père Lachaise; on the road there must have been a
+collision; that was what he desired, but he was defeated. The tongue prevailed,
+a hundred thousand cries of vengeance filled the air, but they were only cries,
+and no mischief was done, except to a few graves in the Neuilly cemetery.
+Flourens awaited a better occasion, but by no means passively. He was a man of
+barricades; he did not seem to think that paving-stones were made to walk on,
+he only cared to see them heaped up across a street for the protection of armed
+patriots. Although he always wore the dress of a gentleman, he was not one of
+those black-coated individuals who incite the men to rebellion and keep out of
+the way while the fight is going on; he helped to defend the barricades he had
+ordered to be thrown up. Wherever there was a chance of being killed, he was
+sure to be; and in the midst of all this he never lost his placid expression,
+nor the politeness of a gentleman, nor the look of extreme youth which beamed
+from his eyes, and must have been on his face even when he fell under the cruel
+blows of the gendarmes. Now he is dead. He is judged harshly, he is condemned,
+but he cannot be hated. He was a madman, but he was a hero. The conduct of
+Flourens at the Hôtel de Ville in the night of the 31st October is hardly in
+keeping with so favourable a view. The French forgive and forget with
+facility&mdash;let that pass.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-40" id="fn-40"></a> <a href="#fnref-40">[40]</a>
+Flourens was born in 1838, and was the son of the well-known <i>savant</i> and
+physiologist of this name. He completed his studies with brilliancy, and
+succeeded his father as professor of the Collège de France. His opening lecture
+on the History of Man made a profound impression on the scientific world.
+However, he retired from this post in 1864, and turned his undivided attention
+to the political questions of the day. Deeply compromised by certain pamphlets
+written by him, he left France for Candia, where he espoused the popular cause
+against the Turks. On his return to France he was imprisoned for three months
+for political offences. Rochefort&rsquo;s candidature was hotly supported by
+him. In 1870 he rose against the Government, with a large force of the
+Belleville <i>faubouriens</i>. He was prosecuted, and took refuge in London.
+After the fourth of September he was placed at the head of five battalions of
+National Guards. He was again imprisoned for having instigated the rising of
+October, and it was not till the twenty-second of March that he was set at
+liberty. On the second of April he set out for Versailles at the head of an
+insurgent troop. He was met midway by a mounted patrol, and in the <i>mêlée</i>
+that ensued he was killed.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XXXII."></a> XXXII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+In the midst of so many horrible events, which interest the
+whole mass of the people, ought I to mention an incident which
+broke but one heart? Yes, I think the sad episode is not without
+importance, even in so vast a picture. It was a child&rsquo;s funeral.
+The little wooden coffin, scantily covered with a black pall, was
+not larger, as Théophile Gautier says, &ldquo;than a violin
+case.&rdquo; There were few mourners. A woman, the mother doubtless, in
+a black stuff dress and white crimped cap, holding by the hand a
+boy, who had not yet reached the age of sorrowing tears, and
+behind them a little knot of neighbours and friends. The small
+procession crept along the wide street in the bright
+sunlight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When it reached the church they found the door closed, and yet the money for
+the mass had been paid the night before, and the hour for the ceremony fixed.
+One of the women went forward towards the door of the vestry, where she was met
+by a National Guard, who told her with a superfluity of oaths that she must not
+go in, that the &mdash;&mdash; curé, the sacristan, and all the d&mdash;&mdash;
+fellows of the church were locked up, and that they would no longer have
+anything to do with patriots. Then the mother approached and said, &ldquo;But
+who will bury my poor child if the curé is in prison?&rdquo; and then she began
+to weep bitterly at the thought that there would be no prayers put up for the
+good of the little spirit, and that no holy water would be sprinkled on its
+coffin. Yes, members of the Commune, she wept, and she wept longer and more
+bitterly later at the cemetery, when she saw them lower the body of her child
+into the grave, without a prayer or a recommendation to God&rsquo;s mercy. You
+must not scoff at her, you see she was a poor weak woman, with ideas of the
+narrowest sort; but there are other mothers like her, quite unworthy of course
+to bear the children of patriots, who do not want their dear ones to be buried
+like dogs; who cannot understand that to pray is a crime, and to kneel down
+before God an offence to humanity, and who still are weak enough to wish to see
+a cross planted on the tombs of those they have loved and lost! Not the cross
+of the nineteenth century&mdash;a red flag! such as now graces the dome of the
+church of the Pantheon.<a href="#fn-41" name="fnref-41"
+id="fnref-41"><sup>[41]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-41" id="fn-41"></a> <a href="#fnref-41">[41]</a>
+Early in April the Commune forbade divine service in the Pantheon. They cut off
+the arms of the cross, and replaced it by the red flag during a salute of
+artillery.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-20"></a>
+<img src="images/025.jpg" width="289" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Colonel Assy.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="XXXIII."></a> XXXIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Communal fraternity is decidedly in the ascendant; it is
+putting into practice this admirable precept, &ldquo;Arrest each
+other.&rdquo; They say M. Delescluze has been sent to the Conciergerie.
+Yesterday Lullier was arrested, to-day Assy. It was not
+sufficient to change Executive Committees&mdash;if I may be
+allowed to say so&mdash;with no more ceremony than one would
+change one&rsquo;s boots; the Commune conducts itself, in respect to
+those members that become obnoxious to it, absolutely as if they
+were no more than ordinary archbishops.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-21"></a>
+<img src="images/026.jpg" width="354" height="500" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Placing the Red Flag on the Pantheon.<br/>(The hole in the
+dome was occasioned by a Prussian shell.)</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+What! Assy&mdash;Assy<a href="#fn-42" name="fnref-42"
+id="fnref-42"><sup>[42]</sup></a> of Creuzot&mdash;who signed before all his
+comrades the proclamations of the Central Committee, in virtue, not only of his
+ability, but in obedience to the alphabetical order of the thing&mdash;Assy no
+longer reigns at the Hôtel de Ville!&mdash;publishes no more decrees, discusses
+no longer with F. Cournet, nor with G. Tridon. Wherefore this fall after so
+much glory? It is whispered about that Assy has thought it prudent to put aside
+a few rolls of bank notes found in the drawers of the late Government. What, is
+that all? How long have politicians been so scrupulous? Members of the Commune,
+how very punctilious you have grown. Now if the Citizen Assy were accused of
+having in 1843 been intimately acquainted with a lady whose son is now valet to
+M. Thiers&rsquo; first cousin, or if he had been seen in a church, and it were
+clearly proved that he was there with any other intention than that of
+delicately picking the pockets of the faithful, then I could understand your
+indignation. But the idea of arresting a man because he has appropriated the
+booty of the traitors, is too absurd; if you go on acting in that way people
+will think you are growing conscientious!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As to Citizen Lullier,<a href="#fn-43" name="fnref-43"
+id="fnref-43"><sup>[43]</sup></a> who was one of the first victims of
+&ldquo;fraternity,&rdquo; he is imprisoned because he did not succeed in
+capturing Mont Valérien. I think with horror that if I had been in the place of
+Citizen Lullier I should most certainly have had to undergo the same
+punishment, for how in the devil&rsquo;s name I could have managed to transport
+that impregnable fortress on to the council-table at the Hôtel de Ville I have
+not the least conception. It is as bad as if you were in Switzerland, and asked
+the first child you met to go and fetch Mont Blanc; of course the child would
+go and have a game of marbles with his companions, and come back without the
+smallest trace of Mont Blanc in his arms, thereupon you would whip the
+youngster within an ace of his life. However, it appears that M. Lullier
+objected to being whipped, or rather imprisoned, and being as full of cunning
+as of valour he managed to slip out of his place of confinement, without drum
+or trumpet. &ldquo;Dear Rochefort,&rdquo; he writes to the editor of <i>Le Mot
+d&rsquo;Ordre</i>, &ldquo;you know of what infamous machinations I have been
+the victim.&rdquo; I suppose M. Rochefort does, but I am obliged to confess
+that I have not the least idea, unless indeed M. Lullier means by
+&ldquo;machinations&rdquo; the order that was given him to bring Mont Valérien
+in his waistcoat pocket. &ldquo;Imprisoned without motive,&rdquo; he continues,
+&ldquo;by order of the Central Committee, I was thrown ...&rdquo; (Oh! you
+should not have <i>thrown</i> M. Lullier) &ldquo;into the Prefecture of
+Police,&rdquo; (the ex-Prefecture, if you please), &ldquo;and put in solitary
+confinement at the very moment when Paris was in want of men of action and
+military experience.&rdquo; Oh, fie! men of the Commune, you had at your
+disposal a man of action&mdash;who does not know the noble actions of Citizen
+Lullier? A man of military experience&mdash;who does not know what profound
+experience M. Lullier has acquired in his numerous campaigns&mdash;and yet you
+put him, or rather throw him, into the Prefecture! This is bad, very bad.
+&ldquo;The Prefecture is transformed into a state prison, and the most rigorous
+discipline is maintained.&rdquo; It appears then that the Communal prison is
+anything but a fool&rsquo;s paradise. &ldquo;However, in spite of everything, I
+and my secretary managed to make our escape calmly ...&rdquo;&mdash;the calm of
+the high-minded&mdash;&ldquo;from a cell where I was strictly guarded, to pass
+two court-yards and a dozen or two of soldiers, to have three doors opened for
+me while the sentinels presented arms as I passed ...&rdquo; What a wonderful
+escape: the adventures of Baron Munchausen are nothing to it. What a fine
+chapter poor old Dumas might have made of it. The door of the cell is passed
+under the very nose of the jailer, who has doubtless been drugged with some
+narcotic, of which M. Lullier has learnt the secret during his travels in the
+East Indies; the twelve guards in the court-yards are seized one after another
+by the throat, thrown on the ground, bound with cords, and prevented from
+giving the alarm by twelve gags thrust into their twelve mouths; the three
+doors are opened by three enormous false keys, the work of a member of the
+Commune, locksmith by trade, who has remained faithful to the cause of M.
+Lullier; and last, but not least, the sentinels, plunged in ecstasy at the
+sight of the glorious fugitive, present arms. What a scene for a melodrama! The
+most interesting figure, however, in my opinion, is the secretary. I have the
+greatest respect for that secretary, who never dreamt one instant of abandoning
+his master, and I can see him, while Lullier is accomplishing his miracles,
+calmly writing in the midst of the danger, with a firm hand, the faithful
+account of these immortal adventures. &ldquo;I have now,&rdquo; continues the
+ex-prisoner of the ex-Prefecture, &ldquo;two hundred determined men, who serve
+me as a guard, and three excellent revolvers, loaded, in my pocket. I had
+foolishly remained too long without arms and without friends; now I am resolved
+to blow the brains out of the first man who tries to arrest me!&rdquo; I heard
+a bourgeois who had read this exclaim, that he wished to Heaven each member of
+the Commune would come to arrest him in turn. Oh! blood-thirsty bourgeois! Then
+Lullier finishes up by declaring that he scorns to hide, but continues to show
+himself freely and openly on the boulevards. What a proud, what a noble nature!
+Oh, ye marionettes, ye fantoccini! Yet let me not be unjust; I will try and
+believe in you once more, in spite of armed requisitions, in spite of arrests,
+of robberies&mdash;for there have been robberies in spite of your
+decrees&mdash;I will try and believe that you have not only taken possession of
+the Hôtel de Ville for the purpose of setting up a Punch and Judy show and
+playing your sinister farces; I want to believe that you had and still have
+honourable and avowable intentions; that it is only your natural inexperience
+joined to the difficulties of the moment which is the cause of your faults and
+your follies; I want to believe that there are among you, even after the
+successive dismissal of so many of your members, some honourable men who
+deplore the evil that has been done, who wish to repair it, and who will try to
+make us forget the crimes and forfeits of the civil war by the benefits which
+revolution sometimes brings in its train. Yes, I am naturally full of hope, and
+will try and believe this; but, honestly, what hope can you have of inspiring
+confidence in those who are not prejudiced as I am in favour of innovators,
+when they see you arrest each other in this fashion, and know that you have
+among you such generals as Bergeret, such honest citizens as Assy, and such
+escaped lunatics as Lullier?
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-42" id="fn-42"></a> <a href="#fnref-42">[42]</a>
+Assy, who first became publicly known as the leader of the strike at Messrs.
+Schneider&rsquo;s works at Creuzot, was an engineer. He was born in 1840. He
+became a member of the International Society, and was selected in 1870 to
+organise the Creuzot strike. Being threatened with arrest, he went to Paris,
+but did not remain there long, and on the 21st of March in that year, a few
+days after his return to Creuzot, the strike of the miners commenced. Assy was,
+finally, arrested and tried before the Correctional Tribune of Paris as chief
+and founder of a secret society, but he was acquitted of that charge.<br/>
+    At the siege of Paris, Assy was appointed as an officer in a free guerilla
+corps of the Isle of France. Subsequently he was a lieutenant in the 192nd
+battalion of the National Guard. Getting on the Central Committee, he took an
+active share in the events that occurred. Appointed commander of the 67th
+battalion on the 17th March, we find him on the morning of the 18th as Governor
+of the Hôtel de Ville, and colonel of the National Guard, organising with the
+members of the committee the means of a serious resistance&mdash;giving orders
+for the construction of barricades&mdash;stopping the transport of munitions
+and provisions from Paris. Becoming a member of the Commune, he took an active
+part in carrying into effect the decrees which led, among other things, to the
+demolition of the Vendôme Column and of the house of M. Thiers. He was arrested
+in April, and was succeeded as Governor of the Hôtel de Ville by one Pindy, who
+retained the office till the army entered Paris. Assy was held prisoner, <i>sur
+parole</i>, at the Hôtel de Ville, till the 19th April, when he was liberated.
+After this Assy was engaged in superintending the manufacture of munitions of
+war. He was the sole superintendent of the supply, especially as regards
+quality. Among the warlike stores manufactured were incendiary shells filled
+with petroleum, intended to be thrown into Paris during the insurrection. It is
+certain that these engines of destruction could only have been made at the
+factory superintended by Assi. He was arrested on the 21st May. Assy was one of
+the chiefs of the insurrection; he denied signing the decrees for the execution
+of the hostages, or order for the enrolment of the military in the National
+Guard. Assy was condemned by the tribunal of Versailles, Sept. 2, to
+confinement for life in a French fortress&mdash;a light penalty for the deeds
+of this important insurgent.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-43" id="fn-43"></a> <a href="#fnref-43">[43]</a>
+Memoir, see <a href="#V._Page_120.._LULLIER.">Appendix 5</a>.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-22"></a>
+<img src="images/027.jpg" width="319" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>General Cluseret.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="XXXIV."></a>XXXIV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+The fighting still continues, the cannonading is almost incessant. However, the
+damage done is but small. To-day, the 7th April, things seem to be in pretty
+much the same position as they were after Bergeret had been beaten back and
+Flourens killed. The forts of Vanves and Issy bombard the Versailles batteries,
+which in their turn vomit shot and shell on Vanves and Issy. Idle spectators,
+watching from the Trocadéro, see long lines of white smoke arise in the
+distance. Every morning, Citizen Cluseret,<a href="#fn-44" name="fnref-44"
+id="fnref-44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> the war delegate, announces that an assault
+of gendarmes has been victoriously repulsed by the garrisons in the forts. It
+is quite certain that if the Versaillais do attack they are repulsed, as they
+make no progress whatever; but do they attack, that is the question? I am
+rather inclined to think that these attacks and repulses are mere inventions.
+It seems evident to me that the generals of the National Assembly, who are now
+busy establishing batteries and concentrating their forces, will not make a
+serious attempt until they are certain of victory. In the meantime they are
+satisfied to complete the ruin of the forts which were already so much damaged
+by the Prussians.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Between Courbevoie and the Porte Maillot the fighting is
+continual. Ground is lost and gained, such and such a house that
+was just now occupied by the Versaillais is now in the hands of
+the Federals, and <i>vice versâ</i>. Neither side is wholly
+victorious, but the fighting goes on. What! is there no one to
+cry out &ldquo;Enough! Enough blood, enough tears! Enough Frenchmen
+killed by Frenchmen, Republicans killed by Republicans.&rdquo; Men fall
+on each side with the same war cry on their lips. Oh! when will
+all this dreadful misunderstanding cease?
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-44" id="fn-44"></a> <a href="#fnref-44">[44]</a>
+The biography of this general of the Commune is very imperfect, down to the
+time when he was elected for the 1st Arrondissement of Paris, and was thereupon
+appointed Minister of War, or in Communal phraseology, Delegate at the War
+Department. He seems to have been one of those beings, without country or
+family, but who are blessed, by way of compensation, with a plurality of names;
+we do not know whether Cluseret was really his own, or how many aliases he had
+made use of.<br/>
+    It is said that he was formerly captain in a battalion of
+Chasseurs d&rsquo;Afrique, but was dismissed the army upon being
+convicted of defalcations, in connection with the purchase of
+horses, and, that soon after his dismissal from the French army,
+he went to the United States, where he served in the
+revolutionary war, and attained to the rank of General. Then we
+have another story, to the effect that having been entrusted with
+the care of a flock of lambs, the number of the animals decreased
+so rapidly, that nothing but the existence of a large pack of
+wolves near at hand, could possibly have accounted for it in an
+honest way; this affair is said to have occurred at Churchill,
+Such vague charges as these however deserve but little
+credit.<br/>
+    After closing his career as a shepherd, he became a defender
+of the Pope&rsquo;s flock, enlisting in the brigade against which
+Garibaldi took the field. The next we hear of him is that he
+joined the Fenians, and made an attempt to get possession of
+Chester Castle, but that he fell under suspicion of being a
+traitor, and was glad to escape to France, where, report says, he
+found refuge with a religious community.
+<br/>
+<br/>
+        &ldquo;When the devil was sick,<br/>
+        The devil a monk would be;<br/>
+        But when the devil was well,<br/>
+        The devil a monk was he!
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XXXV."></a> XXXV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Thirty men carrying muffled drums, thirty more with trumpets
+draped in crape, head a long procession; every now and then the
+drums roll dismally, and the trumpets give a long sad wail.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Numerous detachments of all the battalions come next, marching
+slowly, their arms reversed. A small bunch of red immortelles is
+on every breast. Has the choice of the colour a political
+signification, or is it a symbol of a bloody death?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next appears an immense funeral car draped with black, and
+drawn by four black horses; the gigantic pall is of velvet, with
+silver stars. At the corners float four great trophies of red
+flags.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then another car of the same sort appears, another, and again
+another; in each of them there are thirty-two corpses. Behind the
+cars march the members of the Commune bare-headed, and wearing
+red scarfs. Alas! always that sanguinary colour! Last of all,
+between a double row of National Guards, follows a vast multitude
+of men, women, and children, all sorrowful and dejected, many in
+tears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The procession proceeds along the boulevards; it started from
+the Beaujon hospital, and is going to the Père Lachaise:
+as it passes all heads are bared. One man alone up at a window
+remains covered; the crowd hiss him. Shame on him who will not
+bow before those who died for a cause, whether it may be a worthy
+one or not! On looking on those corpses, do not remember the evil
+they caused when they were alive. They are dead now, and have
+become sacred. But remember, oh! remember, that it is to the
+crimes of a few that are due the deaths of so many, and let us
+help to hasten the hour when the criminals, whoever they be, and
+to whatever party they belong; will feel the weight of the
+inexorable Nemesis of human destiny.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XXXVI."></a> XXXVI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+We are to have no more letters! As in the time of the siege,
+if you desire to obtain news of your mother or your wife, you
+have no other alternative than to consult a somnambulist or a
+fortune-teller. This is not at all a complicated operation; of
+course you possess a ribbon or a look of hair, something
+appertaining to the absent person. This suffices to keep you
+informed, hour by hour, of what she says, does, and thinks.
+Perhaps you would prefer the ordinary course of things, and that
+you would rather receive a letter than consult a charlatan. But
+if so, I would advise you not to say so. They would accuse you of
+being, what you are doubtless, a reactionist, and you might get
+into trouble.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yesterday a young man was walking in the Champs Elysées, a Guard National
+stalked up to him and asked him for a light for his cigar.&mdash;&ldquo;I am
+really very sorry,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;but my cigar has gone
+out.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Oh! your cigar is out, is it? Oh! so you blush to
+render a service to a patriot! Reactionist that you are!&rdquo; Thereupon a
+torrent of invectives was poured on the poor young man, who was quickly
+surrounded by a crowd of eager faces: One charming young person exclaimed,
+&ldquo;Why, he is a disguised sergent-de-ville!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Yes, yes;
+he is a gendarme!&rdquo; is echoed on all sides.&mdash;&ldquo;I think he looks
+like Ernest Picard,&rdquo; says one.&mdash;&ldquo;Throw him into the
+Seine,&rdquo; says another.&mdash;&ldquo;To the Seine, to the Seine, the
+spy!&rdquo; and the unfortunate victim is pushed, jostled, and hurried off. A
+dense crowd of National Guards, women, and children had by this time collected,
+all crying out at the top of their voices, and without any idea of what was the
+matter, &ldquo;Shoot him! throw him the water! hang him!&rdquo; Superstitious
+individuals leaned towards hanging for the sake of the cords. As to the
+original cause of the commotion, no one seemed to remember anything about it. I
+overheard one man say,&mdash;&ldquo;It appears that they arrested him just as
+he was setting fire to the ambulance at the Palais de l&rsquo;Industrie!&rdquo;
+As to what became of the young man I do not know; I trust he was neither
+hanged, shot, nor drowned. At any rate, let it be a lesson to others not to get
+embroiled in dangerous adventures of that kind; and whatever your anxiety may
+be concerning your family or affairs, you would do well to hide it carefully
+under a smiling exterior. Suppose you meet one of your friends, who says to
+you, &ldquo;My dear fellow, how anxious you must be?&rdquo; You must answer,
+&ldquo;Anxious! oh, not at all. On the contrary, I never felt more free of care
+in my life.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Oh! I thought your aunt was ill, and as you do
+not receive any letters ...&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Not receive any letters!&rdquo;
+you continue in the same strain, &ldquo;who told you that? Not receive any
+letters! why, I have more than I want! what an idea!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Then
+you must be strangely favoured,&rdquo; says your mystified companion;
+&ldquo;for since Citizen Theiz<a href="#fn-45" name="fnref-45"
+id="fnref-45"><sup>[45]</sup></a> has taken possession of the Post-office, the
+communications are stopped.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t believe it. It is a
+rumour set on float by the reactionists. Why, those terrible reactionists go so
+far as to pretend that the Commune has imprisoned the priests, arrested
+journalists, and stopped the newspapers!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Well, you may say
+what you please, but a proclamation of Citizen Theiz announces that
+communication with the departments will not be re-established for some
+days.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Nothing but modesty on his part; he has only to show
+himself at the Post-office, and the service, which has been put out of order by
+those wretched reactionists, will be immediately
+reorganised.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;So I am to understand that you have news every
+day of your aunt.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Of course.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Well, I am
+delighted to hear it; for one of my friends, who arrived from Marseilles this
+morning, told me that your aunt was dead.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Dead, good
+heavens! what do you mean? Now I think of it, I did not get a letter this
+morning.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;There you see!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+You must not, however, allow your sorrow to carry you away, at
+the risk of your personal safety, but answer readily. &ldquo;I see it
+all, for a wonder I did not get a letter this morning; Citizen
+Theiz is a kind-hearted man, and did not want to make me
+unhappy.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-45" id="fn-45"></a> <a href="#fnref-45">[45]</a>
+A working chaser, and one of the most active and influential members of the
+International Society. He was among the accused who were tried in July, 1870,
+and was condemned to two years&rsquo; imprisonment. On the formation of the
+Central Committee, he was appointed Vice-President. It was Theiz who saved the
+General Post Office, Rue J.J. Rousseau, from the total destruction decreed by
+other members of the Commune. His fate is not well known. Director of the
+General Post-office in the Rue J.J. Rousseau, he is said to have saved that
+important establishment, doomed to destruction by the Commune. Theiz escaped
+from Paris to London on the 29th of July; he took an active part in the
+struggle to the last, and was close to Vermorel when wounded at the barricade
+of the Château d&rsquo;Eau.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XXXVII."></a> XXXVII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+The queen of the age is the Press. Lately dethroned and
+somewhat shorn of her majesty, but still a queen. It is in vain
+that the press has sometimes degraded itself in the eyes of
+honest men by stooping to applaud and approve of crimes and
+excesses, that journalists have done what they can to lower it;
+still the august offspring of the human mind, the press, has
+really lost neither its power nor its fascination. Misunderstood,
+misapplied, it may have done some harm, but no one can question
+the signal service which it has been able to render, or the
+nobility of its mission. If it has sometimes been the organ of
+false prophets, its voice has also been often raised to instruct
+and encourage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When last night you went secretly, in a manner worthy of the
+act, to seize on the printing presses of the <i>Journal des
+Débats</i>, the <i>Paris Journal</i>, and the
+<i>Constitutionnel</i>, were you aware of what you were doing?
+You imagined, perhaps, this act would have no other result than
+that of suppressing violently a private concern&mdash;which is
+one kind of robbery&mdash;and of reducing to a state of
+beggary&mdash;which is a crime&mdash;the numerous individuals,
+journalists, printers, compositors, and others who are employed
+on the journal, and who live by its means. You have done worse
+than this. You have stopped, as far as it was in your power, the
+current of human progress. You have suppressed man&rsquo;s noblest.
+right&mdash;the right of expressing his opinions to the world;
+you are no better than the pickpocket who appropriates your
+handkerchief. You have taken our freedom of thought by the
+throat, and said, &ldquo;It is in my way, I will strangle it.&rdquo;
+Wherefore have you acted thus? To shut the mouths of those who
+contradict you, is to admit that you are not so very sure of
+being in the right. To suppress the journals is to confess your
+fear of them; to avoid the light is to excite our suspicion
+concerning the deeds you are perpetrating in the darkness. We
+shut our windows when we do not desire to be seen. Little
+confidence is inspired by closed doors. Your councils at the
+Hôtel de Ville are secret as the proceedings of certain
+legal cases, the details of which might be hurtful to public
+morality. Again I say, wherefore this mystery? What strange
+projects have you on foot? Do you discuss among you, propositions
+of a nature which your modesty declines to make known to the
+world? This fear of publicity, of opposition, you have proved
+afresh, by the nocturnal visits of your National Guards to the
+printing offices, wherein they forced an entrance like
+housebreakers. Shall we be reduced to judge of your acts, and of
+the bloody incidents of the civil war, only by your own
+asseverations and those of your accomplices? You must be very
+determined to act guiltily and to be obliged to tell lies, as you
+take so much trouble to get rid of those, who might pass sentence
+on you, and who might convict you of falsehood. Therefore you
+have not only committed a crime in so doing, but made a great
+mistake as well. No one can meddle with the liberty of the press
+with impunity. The persecution of the press always brings with it
+its own punishment. Look back to the many years of the Imperial
+Government, to the few months of the Government of the 4th of
+September; of all the crimes perpetrated by the former, of all
+the errors committed by the latter, those crimes and errors which
+most particularly hastened the end were those that were levelled
+against the freedom of the press. The most valable excuse in
+favour of the revolt of the 18th of March was certainly the
+suppression of several journals by General Vinoy, with the
+consent of M. Thiers. How can you be so rash as to make the very
+same mistakes which have been the destruction of former
+governments, and also so unmindful of your own honour as to
+commit the very crime which reduces you to the same level as your
+enemies?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ah I truly those who were ready to judge you with patience and
+impartiality, those who at first were perhaps, on the whole,
+favourable to you, because it seemed to them that you represented
+some of the legitimate aspirations of Paris, even those, seeing
+you act like thoughtless tyrants, will feel it quite impossible
+to blind themselves any longer to your faults; those who having
+wished to esteem you for the sake of liberty, will for the sake
+of liberty, be obliged to despise you!
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XXXVIII."></a> XXXVIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+It cannot be true. I will not believe it. It cannot be
+possible that Paris is to be again bombarded: and by whom? By
+Frenchmen! In spite of the danger I was told there was to be
+apprehended near Neuilly, I wished to see with my own eyes what
+was going on. So this morning, the 8th April, I went to the
+Champs Elysées.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Until I reached the Rond Point there was nothing unusual, only
+perhaps fewer people to be seen about. The omnibus does not go
+any farther than the corner of the Avenue Marigny. An
+Englishwoman, whom the conductor had just helped down, came up to
+me and asked me the way; she wanted to go to the Rue
+Galilée, but did not like to walk up the wide avenue. I
+pointed out to her a side-street, and continued my way. A little
+higher up a line of National Guards, standing about ten feet
+distant from each other, had orders to stop passengers from going
+any farther. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t pass.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;But ...,&rdquo; and I stopped to
+think of some plausible motive to justify my curiosity. However,
+I was saved the trouble. Although I had only uttered a hesitating
+&ldquo;but,&rdquo; the sentinel seemed to consider that sufficient, and
+replied, &ldquo;Oh, very well, you can pass.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The avenue seemed more and more deserted as I advanced. The shutters of all the
+houses were closed. Here and there a passenger slipped along close to the walls
+of the houses, ready to take refuge within the street-doors, which had been
+left open by order, directly they heard the whizzing of a shell. In front of
+the shop of a carriage-builder, securely closed, were piled heaps of rifles;
+most of the National Guards were stretched on the pavement fast asleep, while
+some few were walking up and down smoking their pipes, and others playing at
+the plebeian game of &ldquo;bouchon.&rdquo;<a href="#fn-46" name="fnref-46"
+id="fnref-46"><sup>[46]</sup></a> I was told that a shell had burst a quarter
+of an hour before at the corner of the Rue de Morny. A captain was seated there
+on the ground beside his wife, who had just brought him his breakfast; the poor
+fellow was literally cut in two, and the woman had been carried away to a
+neighbouring chemist&rsquo;s shop dangerously wounded. I was told she was still
+there, so I turned my steps in that direction. A small group of people were
+assembled before the door. I managed to get near, but saw nothing, as the poor
+thing had been carried into the surgery. They told me that she had been wounded
+in the neck by a bit of the shell, and that she was now under the care of one
+of the surgeons of the Press Ambulance. I then continued my walk up the avenue.
+The cannonading, which had seemed to cease for some little time, now began
+again with greater intensity than ever. Clouds of white smoke arose in the
+direction of the Porte Maillot, while bombs from Mont Valérien burst over the
+Arc de Triomphe. On the right and left of me were companies of Federals. A
+little further on a battalion, fully equipped, with blankets and saucepans
+strapped to their knapsacks, and loaves of bread stuck aloft on their bayonets,
+moved in the direction of Porte Maillot. By the side of the captain in command
+of the first company marched a woman in a strange costume, the skirt of a
+vivandière and the jacket of a National Guard, a Phrygian cap on her head, a
+chassepot in her hand, and a revolver stuck in her belt. From the distance at
+which I was standing she looked both young and pretty. I asked some Federals
+who she was; one told me she was the wife of Citizen Eudes,<a href="#fn-47"
+name="fnref-47" id="fnref-47"><sup>[47]</sup></a> a member of the Commune, and
+another that she was a newspaper seller in the Avenue des Ternes, whose child
+had been killed in the Rue des Acacias the night before by a fragment of a
+shell, and that she had sworn to revenge him. It appeared the battalion was on
+its way to support the combatants at Neuilly, who were in want of help. From
+what I hear the gendarmes and sergents de ville had fought their way as far as
+the Rue des Huissiers. Now I had no doubt the Versailles generals had made use
+of the gendarmes and sergents de ville, who were most of them old and tried
+soldiers, but if in very truth they were wherever the imagination of the
+Federals persisted in placing them, they must either have been as numerous as
+the grains of sand on the sea-shore, or else their leaders must have found out
+a way of making them serve in several places at once. Having followed the
+battalion, I found myself a few yards in front of the Arc de Triomphe. Suddenly
+a hissing, whizzing sound is heard in the distance, and rapidly approaches us;
+it sounds very much like the noise of a sky-rocket. &ldquo;A shell!&rdquo;
+cried the sergeant, and the whole battalion to a man, threw itself on the
+ground with a load jingling of saucepans and bayonets. Indeed there was some
+danger. The terrible projectile lowered as it approached, and then fell with a
+terrific noise a little way from us, in front of the last house on the
+left-hand side of the avenue. I had never seen a shell burst so near me before;
+a good idea of what it is like may be had from those sinister looking
+paintings, that one sees sometimes suspended round the necks of certain blind
+beggars, supposed to represent an explosion in a mine. I think no one was hurt,
+and the mischief done seemed to consist in a Wide hole in the asphalte and a
+door reduced to splinters. The National Guards got up from the ground, and
+several of them proceeded to pick up fragments of the shell. They had, however,
+not gone many yards when another cry of alarm was given, and again we heard the
+ominous Whizzing sound; in an instant we were all on our faces. The second
+shell burst, but we did not see it; we only saw at the top of the house that
+had already been struck, a window open suddenly and broken panes fall to the
+ground. The shell had most likely gone through the roof and burst in the attic.
+Was there anyone in those upper stories? However, we were on our legs again and
+had doubled the Arc de Triomphe. I had succeeded in ingratiating myself with
+the men of the rear-guard, and I hoped to be able to go as far with them as I
+pleased. Strange enough, and I confess it with <i>naif</i> delight, I did not
+feel at all afraid. Although half an inch difference in the inclination of the
+cannon might have cost me my life, still I felt inclined to proceed on my way.
+I begin to think that it is not difficult to be brave when one is not naturally
+a coward! Beneath the great arch were assembled a hundred or so of persons who
+seemed to consider themselves in safety, and who from time to time ventured a
+few steps forward, for the purpose of examining the damage done to Etex&rsquo;s
+sculptured group by three successive shells. But in the Avenue de la Grande
+Armée only three Federals were to be seen, and I think I was the only man in
+plain clothes they had allowed to go so far. I could distinctly perceive a
+small barricade erected in front of the Porte Maillot on this side of the
+ramparts. The bastion to the right was hard at work cannonading the heights of
+Courbevoie; great columns of smoke, succeeded by terrific explosions, testified
+to the zeal of the Communist artillerymen. Beyond the ramparts the Avenue de
+Neuilly extended, dusty and deserted. Unfortunately the sun blinded me, and I
+could not distinguish well what was going on in the distance. By this time the
+sound of musketry was heard distinctly. I was told they were fighting
+principally at Saint James and in the park of Neuilly. I tried to pass out of
+the gates with the battalion, but an officer caught sight of me, and in no
+measured tones ordered me back. I ought not to complain, however, he rendered
+me good service; for although the fire of the Versaillais had somewhat
+diminished, I do not think the place could have been much longer tenable, to
+judge from the quantities of bits of shell that strewed the road; from the
+numerous litters that were being borne away with their bloody burthens; from
+the railway-station in ruins, and the condition of the neighbouring houses,
+which had nearly all of them great black holes in their fronts. The Federals
+did not seem at all impressed by their critical position; sounds of laughter
+reached me from the interior of a casemate, from the chimney of which smoke was
+arising, and guards running hither and thither were whistling merrily the
+<i>Chant du Départ</i>, with a look of complete satisfaction.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-23"></a>
+<img src="images/028.jpg" width="500" height="413" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>The Arc de Triomphe, East Side (the Finest), Uninjured. 
+</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="letter">
+Damaged on the other side. During the Prussian siege it was defended from
+injury, though no shells reached it. Uncovered before the civil war.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I managed to reach the Rue du Débarcadère, which is situated close to the
+ramparts. An acquaintance of mine lives there. I knew he was away, but I
+thought the porter would recognise and allow me to take up a position at one of
+the windows. Next door, the corner house, I found a shell had gone into a
+wine-merchant&rsquo;s shop there, who could very well have dispensed with such a
+visitor, and had behaved in the most unruly fashion, breaking the glass,
+smashing the tables and counter, but neither killing nor wounding anybody. The
+porter knew me quite well, and invited me to walk upstairs to the apartments of
+my friend, situated on the third floor. From the windows I could not see the
+bastion, which was hidden by the station; but to the left, in the distance,
+beyond the Bois de Boulogne, wherein I fancied I perceived troops moving
+between the branches, but whether Versaillais or Parisians I could not tell,
+arose the tremendous Mont Valérien bathed in sunlight. The flashes from the
+cannon, which in daylight have a pale silver tint, succeeded each other
+rapidly; the explosions were formidable, and the fort was crowned with a wreath
+of smoke. They appeared to be firing in the direction of Levallois, rather than
+on the Porte Maillot. The Federals did not seem to attempt to reply. Turning
+myself towards the right I could scan nearly the whole length of the Avenue de
+Neuilly. The bare piece of ground which constitutes the military zone was
+completely deserted; several shells fell there that had been aimed doubtless at
+the Porte Maillot or the bastion. The position I had taken up at the window was
+rather a perilous one. I was just behind the bastion. Beyond the military zone
+most of the houses seemed uninhabited, but I saw distinctly the National Guards
+in front of the Restaurant Gilet, making their soup on the side-walk. I was too
+far away to judge of the extent of the mischief done by the cannonading, but I
+was told that several roofs had fallen in and many walls had been thrown down
+in that quarter. All that I could see of the market-place was empty; but the
+sound of musketry, and the smoke which issued from the houses on one side of
+it, told me that the Federals were there in sufficient numbers. A little
+further on I saw the barrels of the rifles sticking out of the windows, with
+little wreaths of smoke curling out of them; small knots of armed men every now
+and then marched hurriedly across the avenue, and disappeared into the opposite
+houses. Partly on account of the distance, and partly on account of the
+blinding sun, and partly, perhaps, on account of the emotion I experienced,
+which made me desire and yet fear to see, I could distinguish the bridge but
+indistinctly, with the dark line of a barricade in front of it. What surprised
+me most in the battle which I was busily observing, was the extraordinarily
+small number of combatants that were visible, when suddenly&mdash;it was about
+two o&rsquo;clock in the afternoon&mdash;the Versailles batteries at Courbevoie,
+which had been silent for some time, began firing furiously. The horrid screech
+of the mitrailleuse drowned the hissing of the shells; the whole breadth of the
+long avenue was covered by a kind of white mist. The bastion in front of me
+replied energetically. It seemed to me as if the interior part of my ear was
+being rent asunder, when suddenly I heard a dull heavy sound, such as I had not
+heard before, and I felt the house tremble beneath me. Loud cries arose from
+the National Guards on the ramparts. I fancied that a rain of shot and shell
+had destroyed the drawbridge of the Porte Maillot; but it was not so; in the
+distance I saw that the clouds of smoke were rolling nearer and nearer, and
+that the roar of the musketry, which had greatly increased, sounded close by. I
+felt sure that a rush was being made from Courbevoie&mdash;that the Versaillais
+were advancing. The shells were flying over our heads in the direction of the
+Champs Elysées. I began to distinguish that a tumultuous mass of human beings
+were marching on in the smoke, in the dust, in the sun. The guns on the bastion
+now thundered forth incessantly. There was no mistaking by this time, there
+were the Versaillais; I could see the red trowsers of the men of the line. The
+Federals were shooting them down from the windows. Then I saw the advanced
+guard stop, hesitate beneath the balls which seemed to rain on them from the
+Place du Marché, and presently retire. Whereupon a large number of Federals
+poured forth from the houses, and, walking close to the walls, to be as much as
+possible out of the way of the projectiles, hurried after the retreating enemy.
+But suddenly, when they had arrived a little too far for me to distinguish
+anything very clearly, they in their turn came to a standstill, and then
+retraced their steps, and returned to their positions within the houses. The
+fire from the Versaillais then sensibly diminished, but that of the bastions
+continued its furious attack. It was thus that I witnessed one of those
+<i>chassé-croisés</i> under fire, which have become so frequent since this
+dreadful civil war was concentrated at Neuilly.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-24"></a>
+<img src="images/029.jpg" width="320" height="450" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Horse Chasseur acting as a communist artillery man,
+attended by a gamin sponger.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+As it would have been most imprudent to follow the railway
+cutting, or to have gone back by the Avenue de la Grande
+Armée, where the Versailles shells were still falling, I
+walked up the Rue du Débarcadère, and then turned
+into the Rue Saint-Ferdinand, and soon found myself in the Place
+des Ternes, in front of the church. There was a most dismal
+aspect about the whole of this quarter. Situated close to the
+ramparts, it is very much exposed, and had suffered greatly.
+Nearly all the shops were shut; some of the doors, however, of
+those where wine or provisions, are sold, were standing open,
+while on the shutters of others were inscribed in chalk, &ldquo;The
+entrance is beneath the gateway.&rdquo; I was astonished to see that
+the church was open, a rare sight in these days. Why, is it
+possible that the Commune has committed the unqualifiable
+imprudence of not arresting the curé of Saint-Ferdinand,
+and that she is weak enough&mdash;may she not have to regret
+it!&mdash;to permit the inhabitants of Ternes to be baptised,
+married, and buried according to the deplorable rites and
+ceremonies of Catholicism, which has happily fallen into disuse
+in the other quarters of Paris? I can now understand why the
+shells fall so persistently in this poor arrondissement: the
+anger of the goddess of Reason (shall we not soon have a goddess
+of Reason?) lies heavily on this quarter, the shame of the
+capital, where the inhabitants still try to look as if they
+believed in heaven! In spite of everything, however, I entered
+the church; there were a great many women on their knees, and
+several men too. The prayers of the dead were being said over the
+coffin of a woman who, I was told, was killed yesterday by a ball
+in the chest, whilst crossing the Avenue des Ternes, just a
+little above the railway bridge. A ball, how strange! yet I was
+assured such was the case. It is pretty evident, then, that the
+Versaillais were considerably nearer to Paris, on this side at
+least, than the official despatches lead us to suppose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On returning to the street I directed my steps in the
+direction of the Place d&rsquo;Eylau. Two National Guards passed me,
+bearing a litter between them.&mdash;&ldquo;Oh, you can look if you
+like,&rdquo; said one. So I drew back the checked curtain. On the
+mattress was stretched a woman, decently dressed, with a child of
+two or three years lying on her breast. They both looked very
+pale; one of the woman&rsquo;s arms was hanging down; her sleeve was
+stained with blood; the hand had been carried away.&mdash;&ldquo;Where
+were they wounded?&rdquo; I asked.&mdash;&ldquo;Wounded! they are dead. It is
+the wife and child of the velocipede-maker in the Avenue de
+Wagram; if you will go and break the news to him you will do us a
+good service.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was therefore quite true, certain, incontestable. The balls
+and shells of the Versaillais were not content with killing the
+combatants and knocking down the forts and ramparts. They were
+also killing women and children, ordinary passers-by; not only
+those who were attracted by an imprudent curiosity to go where
+they had no business, but unfortunates who were necessarily
+obliged to venture into the neighbouring streets, for the purpose
+of buying bread. Not only do the shells of the National Assembly
+reach the buildings situated close to the city walls, but they
+often fall considerably farther in, crushing inoffensive houses,
+and breaking the sculpture on the public monuments. No one can
+deny this. I have seen it with my own eyes. Anyhow, the
+projectiles fall nearer and nearer the centre. Yesterday they
+fell in the Avenue de la Grande Armée; to-day they fly
+over the Arc de Triomphe, and fall in the Place d&rsquo;Eylau and the
+Avenue d&rsquo;Uhrich. Who knows but what to-morrow they will have
+reached the Place de la Concorde, and the next day perhaps I may
+be killed by one on the Boulevard Montmartre? Paris bombarded!
+Take care, gentlemen of the National Assembly! What the Prussians
+did, and what gave rise to such a clamour of indignation on the
+part of the Government of the 4th September, it will be both
+infamous and imprudent for you to attempt. You kill Frenchmen who
+are in arms against their countrymen,&mdash;alas! that is a
+horrible necessity in civil war,&mdash;but spare the lives and
+the dwellings of those who are not arrayed against you, and who
+are perhaps your allies. It is all very well to argue that guns
+are not endowed with the gifts of intelligence and mercy, and
+that one cannot make them do exactly what one likes; but what
+have you done with those marvellous marksmen who, during the
+siege, continually threw down the enemy&rsquo;s batteries and
+interrupted his works with such extraordinary precision, and who
+pretended that at a distance of seven thousand metres they could
+hit the gilded spike of a Prussian helmet? Wherefore have they
+become so clumsy since they changed places with their
+adversaries? Joking apart, in a word, you are doing yourself the
+greatest injury in being so uselessly cruel; every shell
+overleaping the fortifications is not only a crime, but a great
+mistake. Remember, that in this horrible duel which is going on,
+victory will not really remain with that party which shall have
+triumphed over the other, by the force of arms (yours
+undoubtedly), but to the one who, by his conduct, shall have
+succeeded in proving to the neutral population, which observes
+and judges, that right was on his side. I do not say but what
+your cause is the best; for although we may have to reproach you
+with an imprudent resistance, unnecessary attacks, and a wilful
+obstinacy not to see what was legitimate and honourable in the
+wishes of the Parisians, still we must consider that you
+represent, legally, the whole of France. I do not say, therefore,
+but what your cause is the best; frankly though, can you hope to
+bring over to your side that large body of citizens, whose
+confidence you had shaken, by massacring innocent people in the
+streets, and destroying their dwellings? If this bombardment
+continues, if it increases in violence as it seems likely to do,
+you will become odious, and then, were you a hundred times in the
+right, you will still be in the wrong. Therefore, it is most
+urgent that you give orders to the artillerymen of Courbevoie and
+Mont Valérien, to moderate their zeal, if you do not
+desire that Paris&mdash;neutral Paris&mdash;should make dangerous
+comparisons between the Assembly which flings us its shells, and
+the Commune which launches its decrees, and come to the
+conclusion that decrees are less dangerous missiles than
+cannon-balls. As to the legality of the thing, we do not much
+care about that; we have seen so many governments, more or less
+legal, that we are somewhat <i>blasés</i> on that point;
+and a few millions of votes have scarcely power enough to put us
+in good humour with shot and shell. Certainly the Commune, such
+as the men at the Hôtel de Ville have constituted it, is
+not a brilliant prospect. It arrests priests, stops newspapers,
+wishes to incorporate us, in spite of ourselves, in the National
+Guard; robs us&mdash;so we are told; lies inveterately&mdash;that
+is incontestable, and altogether makes itself a great bore; but
+what does that matter?&mdash;human nature is full of weaknesses,
+and prefers to be bored than bombarded.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-25"></a>
+<img src="images/030.jpg" width="288" height="397" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Marine Gunner and Street-boy.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="letter">
+During the Prussian siege the sailors of the French navy played an important
+part, their bravery, activity, and ingenuity being much esteemed by the
+Parisians. Some, of them took the red side, and manned the gun-boats on the
+Seine. Knowing the prestige attached to the brave marines, the Communist
+generals made use of the naval clothes found in the marine stores, and dressed
+therein some of the valliant heroes of Belleville and Montmartre.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-46" id="fn-46"></a> <a href="#fnref-46">[46]</a>
+The game of pitch-halfpenny, in, which, in France, a cork (<i>bouchon</i>),
+with halfpence on the top of it, is placed on the ground.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-47" id="fn-47"></a> <a href="#fnref-47">[47]</a>
+General Eudes was the Alcibiades, or rather the Saint Just, of the Commune. He
+had the face and manners of a fashionable <i>tenorino</i>, the luxurious taste
+of the Athenian, the cruel inflexibility of Robespierre&rsquo;s protégé. He was
+born at Bonay, in the arrondissement of Coutances. His father was a tradesman
+of the Boulevard des Italians. In his examination before the Council of War in
+August, 1870, Eudes called himself a shorthand writer and law student, though
+his real position was said to be that of a linendraper&rsquo;s clerk. His first
+notable exploit was the assassination of a fireman at La Villette. For this
+crime he was brought before the First Council of War at Paris. Here he informed
+the President, in somewhat unparliamentary terms, that &ldquo;the betrayers of
+the country were not the Republicans, and that to destroy the Imperial
+Government was to annihilate the Prussians.&rdquo; In spite of the eloquent
+appeal of his counsel, he was condemned to death. The events of the fourth of
+September prevented the execution of this sentence, and he lived to take an
+active part in the agitation of the thirty-first of October. He was again tried
+for this conduct and acquitted, together with Vermorel, Ribaldi, Lefrançais and
+others. Eudes&rsquo; name figures in the first decrees of the Commune, and on
+the last of those of the Committee of Public Safety. On the second of April he
+was appointed Delegate for War, and, conjointly with Cluseret, organised ten
+corps of the Enfants Perdus of Belleville. He promised to each of his
+volunteers an annuity of 300 francs and a decoration. Eudes was an atheist of
+the most violent type, and sayings are attributed to him which make one
+shudder.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XXXIX."></a> XXXIX.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Where is Bergeret? What have they done with Bergeret? We miss Bergeret. They
+have no right to suppress Bergeret, who, according to the official document,
+was &ldquo;himself&rdquo; at Neuilly; Bergeret, who drove to battle in an open
+carriage; who enlivened our ennui with a little fun. They were perfectly at
+liberty to take away his command and give it to whomsoever they chose; I am
+quite agreeable to that, but they had no right to take him away and prevent him
+amusing us. Alas! we do not have the chance so often!<a href="#fn-48"
+name="fnref-48" id="fnref-48"><sup>[48]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Rumours are afloat that he has been taken to the Conciergerie.
+Poor Bergeret! and why is he so treated? Because he got the
+Federals beaten in trying to lead them to Versailles?</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-26"></a>
+<img src="images/031.jpg" width="498" height="386" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>CORPS LEGISLATIF.&mdash;THE HEAD-QUARTERS OF GENERAL BERGERET</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+Citizens, if you will allow me to express my humble opinion on
+the subject, I shall take the opportunity of insinuating that the
+plan of Citizen Bergeret&mdash;which has, I acknowledge, been
+completely unsuccessful&mdash;was the only possible one capable
+of transforming into a triumphant revolution, the émeute
+of Montmartre, now the Commune of Paris.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Let us look at it from a logical point of view, if you please.
+Does it seem possible to you, that Paris can hold its own against
+the whole of the rest of France? No, most certainly not. Today,
+especially, after the disasters that have occurred to the
+communal insurrectionists of Marseilles, Lyons, and
+Toulouse&mdash;disasters which your lying official reports have
+in vain tried to transform into successes; today, I say, you
+cannot possibly nourish any delusive hopes of help from the
+provinces. In a few days, you will have the whole country in
+array in front of your ramparts and your ruined fortresses, and
+then you are lost; yes, lost, in spite of all the blinded heroism
+of those whom you have beguiled to the slaughter. The only hope
+you could reasonably have conceived was that of profiting by the
+first moment of surprise and disorder, which the victorious
+revolt had occasioned among the small number of hesitating
+soldiery which then constituted the whole of the French army; to
+surprise Versailles, inadequately defended, and seize, if it were
+possible, on the Assembly and the Government. Your sudden
+revolution wanted to be followed up by a brusque attack, there
+would then have been some hope&mdash;a faint one, I confess, but
+still a hope, and this plan of Bergeret, by the very reason of
+its audacity, should not have been condemned by you, who have
+only succeeded through violence and audacity, and can only go on
+prospering by the same means. Now what do you mean to do? To
+resist the whole of France? To resist your enemies inside the
+walls, besides those enemies outside, who increase in numbers and
+confidence every day? Your defeat is certain, and from this day
+forth is only a question of time. You were decidedly wrong to put
+Bergeret &ldquo;in the shade&rdquo; as they say at the Hôtel de
+Ville,&mdash;firstly, because he amused us; and secondly, because
+he tried the only thing that could possibly have
+succeeded&mdash;an enterprise worthy of a brilliant madman.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-48" id="fn-48"></a> <a href="#fnref-48">[48]</a>
+General Bergeret, Member of the Central Committee, Delegate of War, &amp;c.,
+was a bookseller&rsquo;s assistant. He emerged in 1869 from a printing-office
+to support the irreconcileable candidates in the election meetings.<br/>
+    Events progressed, and on the 18th of March Victor Bergeret
+reappeared, resplendent in gold lace and embroidery, happy to
+have found at last a government, to which Jules Favre did not
+belong.<br/>
+    When Bergeret, who never had any higher grade than that of
+sergeant in the National Guard, was made general, he believed
+himself to be a soldier. A friend of this pasteboard officer said
+one day, &ldquo;If Bergeret were to live a hundred years, he would
+always swear he had been a general.&rdquo;<br/>
+    On the 8th April, Victor Bergeret was arrested by order of the
+Executive Commission for having refused obedience to Cluseret, a
+general too, and his superior, and he was incarcerated in the
+prison of Mazas, where he remained for a short time, until the
+day when Cluseret was shut up there himself. In fact, Cluseret
+went into the very cell which Bergeret had just quitted, and
+found an autograph note written on the wall by his predecessor,
+and addressed to himself. The words ran thus:&mdash;<br/>
+<br/>
+    &ldquo;CITIZEN CLUSERET,&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;You have had me shut up here, and you will be here yourself before eight
+days are over.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<small>&ldquo;GÉNÉRAL BERGERET.&rdquo;</small>
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+On leaving the prison of Mazas, Bergeret was still kept a prisoner for a time
+in a magnificent apartment of the Hôtel de Ville, decorated with gilded
+panneling and cerise-coloured satin. His wife was allowed to join him here, and
+he also obtained permission to keep with him a little terrier, of which he was
+extremely fond. Shortly afterwards he was reinstated, took his place again in
+the Communal Assembly, and was attached to the commission of war. The beautiful
+palace of the president of the Corps Législatif was now his residence, and
+there he delighted in receiving the friends who had known him when he was poor.
+His invariable home-dress in palace as in prison, was red from head to foot:
+red jacket, red trousers, and red Phrygian cap.<br/>
+    One day, a short time after his release from prison, he said to an intimate
+friend:&mdash;&ldquo;Affairs are going well, but the Commune is in need of
+money, I know it, and they are wrong not to confide in me. I would lend them
+ten thousand francs willingly.&rdquo; The generalship had singularly enriched
+Jules Bergeret (himself).
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-27"></a>
+<img src="images/032.jpg" width="320" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>General Dombrowski.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="XL."></a>XL.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Who takes Bergeret&rsquo;s place? Dombrowski.<a href="#fn-49" name="fnref-49"
+id="fnref-49"><sup>[49]</sup></a> Who had the idea of doing this? Cluseret.
+First of all we had the Central Committee, then we had the Commune, and now we
+have Cluseret. It looks as if Cluseret had swallowed the Commune, which had
+previously swallowed and only half digested the Central Committee. We are told
+that Cluseret is a great man, that Cluseret is strong, that Cluseret will save
+Paris. Cluseret issues decrees, and sees that they are executed. The Commune
+says, &ldquo;<i>we wish</i>;&rdquo; but Cluseret says, &ldquo;<i>I
+wish</i>.&rdquo; It is he who has conceived and promulgated the following
+edict:
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;In consideration of the patriotic demands of a large number of National
+Guards, who, although they are married men, wish to have the honour of
+defending their municipal rights, even at the expense of their lives ...&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I should like to know some of those National Guards who attach
+so little importance to their lives! Show me two, and I will
+myself consent to be the third. But I am interrupting Dictator
+Cluseret.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;The decree of the fifth of April is therefore modified:&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The decree of the fifth of April was made by the Commune, but
+Cluseret does not care a straw for that.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;From seventeen to nineteen, service in the marching-companies is
+    voluntary, but from nineteen to forty it is obligatory for the
+    National Guards, married or unmarried.<br/>
+    &ldquo;I recommend all good patriots to be their own police, and to see
+    that this edict is carried out in their respective quartern, and to
+    force the refractory to serve.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As to the last paragraph of Cluseret&rsquo;s decree it is impossible
+to joke about it, it is by far too odious. This exhortation in
+favour of a press-gang,&mdash;this wish that each man should
+become a spy upon his neighbour (he says it in so many words),
+fills me with anger and disgust. What! I may be passing in the
+streets, going about my own business, and the first Federal who
+pleases, anybody with dirty hands, a wretch you may be sure, for
+none but a wretch would follow the recommendations of
+Cluseret,&mdash;an escaped convict, may take me by the collar and
+say, &ldquo;Come along and be killed for the sake of my municipal
+independence.&rdquo; Or else I may be in bed at night, quietly asleep,
+as it is clearly my right to be, and four or five fellows, fired
+with patriotic ardour, may break in my door, if I do not hasten
+to open it on the first summons like a willing slave, and,
+whether I like it or not, drag me in night-cap and slippers, in
+my shirt perhaps, if it so pleases the brave
+<i>sans-culottes</i>, to the nearest outpost. Now I swear to you,
+Cluseret, I would not bear this, if I had not, during the last
+few hungry days of the siege, sold to a curiosity
+dealer&mdash;your colleague now in the Commune&mdash;my revolver,
+which I had hoped naïvely might defend me against the
+Prussians! Think, a revolver with six balls, if you please, and
+which, alas! I forgot to discharge!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We can only hope that even at this moment, when the revolution has brought out
+of the darkness into the light, so many rascals and cowards, just as the
+sediment rises to the top when the wine is shaken, we must hope, that there
+will be found in Paris, nobody to undertake the mean office of spy and
+detective; and that the decree of M. Cluseret will remain a dead-letter, like
+so many other decrees of the Commune. I will not believe all I am told; I will
+not believe that last night several men, without any precise orders, without
+any legal character whatever, merely National Guards, introduced themselves
+into peaceful families; waking the wife and children, and carrying off the
+husband as one carries off a housebreaker or an escaped convict. I am told that
+this is a fact, that it has happened more than fifty times at Montmartre,
+Batignolles, and Belleville; yet I will not believe it.<a href="#fn-50"
+name="fnref-50" id="fnref-50"><sup>[50]</sup></a> I prefer to believe that
+these tales are &ldquo;inventions of Versailles&rdquo; than to admit the
+possibility of such infamy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Come now, Cluseret, War Delegate, whatever he likes to call
+himself. Where does he come from, what has he done, and what
+services has he rendered, to give him a right thus to impose his
+sovereign wishes upon us?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He is not a Frenchman; nor is he an American; for the honour
+of France I prefer his being an American. His history is as short
+as it is inglorious. He once served in the French army, and left,
+one does not know why; then went to fight in America during the
+war. His enemies affirm that he fought for the Slave States, his
+friends the contrary. It does not seem very clear which side he
+was on&mdash;both, perhaps. Oh, America! you had taken him from
+us, why did you not keep him? Cluseret came back to us with the
+glory of having forsworn his country. Immediately the
+revolutionists received him with open arms. Only think, an
+American! Do you like America? People want to make an America
+everywhere. Modern Republics have had formidable enemies to
+contend with&mdash;America and the revolution of &rsquo;98. We are sad
+parodists. We cannot be free in our own fashion, but are always
+obliged to imitate what has been or what is. But that which is
+adapted to one climate or country, is it always that which is the
+fittest thing for another? I will return, however, to this
+subject another time. America, who is so vaunted, and whom I
+should admire as much as could reasonably be wished, if men did
+not try to remodel France after her image, one must be blind not
+to see what she has of weakness and of narrowness, amid much that
+is truly grand. It was said to me once by some one, &ldquo;The American
+mind may be compared to a compound liqueur, composed of the yeast
+of Anglo-Saxon beer, the foam of Spanish wines, and the dregs of
+the <i>petit-bleu</i> of Suresnes, heated to boiling point by the
+applause and admiration given by the genuine pale ale, the true
+sherry, and authentic Château-Margaux to these their
+deposits. From time to time the caldron seethes with a little too
+much violence, and the bubbling drink pours over upon the old
+world, bringing back to the pure source, to the true vintage,
+their deteriorated products. Oh! The poor wines of France! How
+many adulterations have they been submitted to!&rdquo; Calumny and
+exaggeration no doubt; but I am angry with America for sending
+Cluseret back, as I am angry with the Commune for having imposed
+him on Paris. The Commune, however, has an admirable excuse: it
+has not, perhaps, found among true Frenchmen one with an ambition
+criminal enough to direct, according to her wishes, the
+destruction of Paris by Paris, and France by France.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-49" id="fn-49"></a> <a href="#fnref-49">[49]</a>
+There are two versions of Dombrowski&rsquo;s earlier history. By his admirers
+he was said to have headed the last Polish insurrection: the party of order
+stigmatise him as a Russian adventurer, who had fought in Poland, but against
+the Poles, and in the Caucasus, in Italy, and in France&mdash;wherever; in
+fine, blows were to be given and money earned. He entered France, like many
+other adventurous knights, in Garibaldi&rsquo;s suite, came to Paris after the
+siege, and immediately after the outbreak of the eighteenth of March was
+created general by the Commune, and gathered round him in guise of staff the
+most illustrious, or least ignoble, of those foreign parasites and vagabonds,
+who have made of Paris a grand occidental Bohemian Babel. These soldiers of
+fortune, most of whom had been &ldquo;unfortunate&rdquo; at home, formed the
+marrow of the Commune&rsquo;s military strength.<br/>
+    Dombrowski had gained a name for intrepidity even among these men of
+reckless courage and adventurous lives. He maintained strict discipline, albeit
+to a not very moral purpose. Whoever dared connect his name with the word
+defeat was shot. Like many other Communist generals he took the most stringent
+measures for concealing the truth from his soldiers, and thus staved off total
+demoralisation until the Versailles troops were in the heart of Paris. His
+relations with the Federal authorities were not of an uniformly amiable
+character.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-50" id="fn-50"></a> <a href="#fnref-50">[50]</a>
+A poor Italian smith told me he had three men seized. They had taken a stove
+near the fortifications of Ternes, when they were arrested. &ldquo;But we are
+Italians!&rdquo; they cried. It was no excuse, for the Federals replied,
+&ldquo;Italians! so much the better; you shall serve as Garibaldians!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XLI."></a> XLI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+It was not enough that men should be riddled with balls and torn to pieces by
+shells. The women are also seized with a strange enthusiasm in their turn, and
+they too fall on the battle-field, victims of a terrible heroism. What
+extraordinary beings are these who exchange the needle for the needle-gun, the
+broom for the bayonet, who quit their children that they may die by the sides
+of their husbands or lovers? Amazons of the rabble, magnificent and abject,
+something between Penthesilea and Théroigne de Méricourt. There they are seen
+to pass as cantinières, among those who go forth to fight. The men are furious,
+the women are ferocious,&mdash;nothing can appal, nothing discourage them. At
+Neuilly, a vivandière is wounded in the head; she turns back a moment to
+staunch the blood, then returns to her post of danger. Another, in the 61st
+Battalion, boasts of having killed three <i>gardiens de la paix</i><a
+href="#fn-51" name="fnref-51" id="fnref-51"><sup>[51]</sup></a> and several
+<i>gendarmes</i>. On the plain of Châtillon a woman joins a group of National
+Guards, takes her stand amongst them, loads her gun, fires, re-loads and fires
+again, without the slightest interruption. She is the last to retire, and even
+then turns back again and again to fire. A <i>cantinière</i> of the 68th
+Battalion was killed by a fragment of shell which broke the little
+spirit-barrel she carried, and sent the splinters into her stomach. After the
+engagement of the 3rd of April, nine bodies were brought to the <i>mairie</i>
+of Vaugirard. The poor women of the quarter crowd there, chattering and
+groaning, to look for husbands, brothers and son&rsquo;s. They tear a dingy
+lantern from each other, and put it close to the pale faces of the dead,
+amongst whom they find the body of a young woman literally riddled with shot.
+What means the wild rage that seizes upon these furies? Are they conscious of
+the crimes they commit; do they understand the cause for which they die?
+Yesterday, in a shop of the Rue de Montreuil, a woman entered with her gun on
+her shoulder and her bayonet covered with blood. &ldquo;Wouldn&rsquo;t you do
+better to stay at home and wash your brats?&rdquo; said an indignant neighbour.
+Whereupon arose a furious altercation, the virago working herself into such a
+fury that she sprang upon her adversary, and bit her violently in the throat,
+then withdrew a few steps, seized her gun, and was going to fire, when she
+suddenly turned pale, her weapon fell from her hands, and she sank back dead.
+In her wild passion she had broken a blood vessel. Such are the women of the
+people in this terrible year of 1871. It has its <i>cantinières</i> as
+&rsquo;93 had its <i>tricoteuses</i>,<a href="#fn-52" name="fnref-52"
+id="fnref-52"><sup>[52]</sup></a> but the cantinières are preferable, for the
+horrible in them partakes of a savage grandeur. Fighting as they are against
+brothers and kinsfolk, they are revolting, but against a foreign enemy, they
+would have been sublime.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Children, even, do not remain passive in this fearful
+conflict. The children! you cry,&mdash;but do not smile; one of
+my friends has just seen a poor boy whose eye has been knocked in
+with the point of a nail. It happened thus. It was on Friday
+evening in the principal street of Neuilly. Two hundred
+boys&mdash;the eldest scarcely twelve years old&mdash;had
+assembled there; they carried sticks on their shoulders, with
+knives and nails stuck at the end of them. They had their army
+roll, and their numbers were called over in form, and their
+chiefs&mdash;for they had chiefs&mdash;gave the order to form
+into half sections, then to march in the direction of Charenton;
+a mite of a child trudged before, blowing in a penny trumpet
+bought at a toy-shop, and they had a cantinière, a little
+girl of six. Soon, they met another troop of children of about
+the same numbers. Had the encounter been previously arranged? Had
+it been decided that they should give battle? I cannot tell you
+this, but at all events the battle took place, one party being
+for the Versailles troops, the other for the Federals. Such a
+battle, that the inhabitants of the quarter had the greatest
+difficulty in separating the combatants, and there were killed
+and wounded, as the official despatches of the Commune would give
+it; Alexis Mercier, a lad of twelve, whom his comrades had raised
+to the dignity of captain, was killed by the blow of a knife in
+the stomach.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ah! believe it, these women drunk with hate, these children
+playing at murder, are symptoms of the terrible malady of the
+times. A few days hence, and this fury for slaughter will have
+seized all Paris.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-51" id="fn-51"></a> <a href="#fnref-51">[51]</a>
+The Gardiens de la Paix replaced the Sergents de Ville. They carried no sword,
+and wore a cap with a tricoloured band and cockade; in fact were the policemen
+of Paris. The Gendarmerie are the country police.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-52" id="fn-52"></a> <a href="#fnref-52">[52]</a>
+Tricoteuses (knitters), women who attended political clubs&mdash;working whilst
+they listened&mdash;1871 refined upon the idea of 1793. The first revolution
+had its Tricoteuses, that of 1871 its Petroleuses!!!
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XLII."></a> XLII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+May conciliation be hoped for yet? Alas! I can scarcely think so. The bloody
+fight will have a bloody end. It is not alone between the Commune of Paris and
+the Assembly of Versailles that there lies an abyss which only corpses can
+fill. Paris itself, at this moment&mdash;I mean the Paris sincerely desirous of
+peace&mdash;is no longer understood by France; a few days of separation have
+caused strange divisions in men&rsquo;s minds; the capital seems to speak the
+country&rsquo;s language no longer. Timbuctoo is not as far from Pekin, as
+Versailles is distant from Paris. How can one hope under such circumstances,
+that the misunderstanding, the sole cause of our misfortunes, can be cleared
+away? How can one believe that the Government of Monsieur Thiers will lend an
+ear to the propositions carried there by the members of the Republican Union of
+the rights of Paris,<a href="#fn-53" name="fnref-53"
+id="fnref-53"><sup>[53]</sup></a> by the delegates of Parisian trade and by the
+emissaries of the Freemasons;<a href="#fn-54" name="fnref-54"
+id="fnref-54"><sup>[54]</sup></a> when the principal object of all these
+propositions is the definitive establishment of the Republic, and the fall and
+entire recognition of our municipal liberties. The National Assembly is at the
+same point as it was on the eve of the 18th of March; it disregards now, as it
+did then, the legitimate wishes of the population, and, moreover, it will not
+perceive the fact that the triumphant insurrection&mdash;in spite of the
+excesses that everyone condemns&mdash;has naturally added to the validity of
+our just revendications. The &ldquo;Communists&rdquo; are wrong, but the
+Commune, the true Commune, is right; this is what Paris believes, and,
+unhappily, this is what Versailles will not understand; it wants to remain, as
+to the form of its government, weakly stationary; it makes a municipal law that
+will be judged insufficient; and, as it obstinately persists in errors which
+were worn out a month ago and are rotten now, they will soon consider the
+&ldquo;conciliators&rdquo; whose ideas have progressed from day to day, as the
+veritable agents of the insurrection, and send them, purely and simply, about
+their business.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nevertheless, the desire of seeing this fratricidal war at an
+end, is so great, so ardent, so general, that convinced as we are
+of the uselessness of their efforts, we admire and encourage
+those who undertake the almost hopeless task of pacification with
+persistent courage. True Paris has now but one flag, which is
+neither the crimson rag nor the tricolour standard, but the white
+flag of truce.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-53" id="fn-53"></a> <a href="#fnref-53">[53]</a>
+The citizens, united under the denomination of the League of Republican Union
+of the Rights of Paris, had adopted the following programme, which seemed to
+them to express the wishes of the population:&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;Recognition of the Republic.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Recognition of the rights of Paris to govern itself,
+ to regulate its police, its finances, its public charities,
+ its public instruction, and the exercise of its religious
+liberty by a council freely elected and all-powerful within the
+ scope of its action.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The protection of Paris exclusively confided to the National
+Guard, formed of all citizens fit to serve.<br/>
+    &ldquo;It is to the defence of this programme that the members of the
+League wish to devote their efforts, and they appeal to all citizens to
+aid them in the work, by making known their adhesion, so that the
+members of the League, thereby strengthened and supported, may exercise
+a powerful mediatory influence, tending to bring about the return of
+peace, and to secure the maintenance of the Republic.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Paris, 6th April, 1871.&rdquo;<br/>
+    Here follow the signatures of former representatives,
+<i>maires</i>, doctors, lawyers, literary men, merchants, and
+others.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-54" id="fn-54"></a> <a href="#fnref-54">[54]</a>
+MANIFESTO OF THE FREEMASONS.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;In the presence of the fearful events which make all France shudder and
+mourn, in the sight of the precious blood that flows in streams, the
+Freemasons, who represent the sentiments of humanity and have spread them
+through the world, come once more to declare before you, government and members
+of the Assembly, and before you, members of the Commune, these great principles
+which are their law and which ought to be the law of every one who has the
+heart of a man.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The flag of the Freemasons bears inscribed upon it, the noble
+device&mdash;Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Union. The Freemasons uphold peace
+among men, and, in the name of humanity, proclaim the inviolability of human
+life. The Freemasons detest all wars, and cannot sufficiently express grief and
+horror at civil warfare. Their duty and their right are to come between you and
+to say:<br/>
+    &ldquo;&lsquo;In the name of humanity, in the name of fraternity, in the
+name of the distracted country, put a stop to this effusion of blood; we ask of
+you, we implore of you, to listen to our appeal.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XLIII."></a> XLIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Do you know what the Abbaye de Cinq-Pierres is, or rather what it was? Mind,
+not Saint-Pierre, but Cinq-Pierres (Five Stones). Gavroche,<a href="#fn-55"
+name="fnref-55" id="fnref-55"><sup>[55]</sup></a> who loves puns and is very
+fond of slang, gave this nickname to a set of huge stones which stood before
+the prison of La Roquette, and on which the guillotine used to be erected on
+the mornings when a capital punishment was to take place. The executioner was
+the Abbé de Cinq-Pierres, for Gavroche is as logical as he is ingenious. Well!
+the abbey exists no longer, swept clean away from the front of the Roquette
+prison. This is splendid! and as for the guillotine itself, you know what has
+been done with that. Oh! we had a narrow escape! Would you believe that that
+infamous, that abominable Government of Versailles, conceived the idea, at the
+time it sat in Paris, of having a new and exquisitely improved guillotine,
+constructed by anonymous carpenters? It is exactly as I have the honour of
+telling you. You can easily verify the fact by reading the proclamation of the
+&ldquo;<i>sous-comité en exercice.</i>&rdquo; What is the &ldquo;active
+under-committee?&rdquo; I admit that I am in total ignorance on the subject;
+but, what does it matter! In these times when committees spring up like
+mushrooms, it would be absurd to allow oneself to be astonished at a
+committee&mdash;and especially a sub-committee&mdash;more or less. Here is the
+proclamation:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;CITIZENS,&mdash;Being informed that a guillotine is at this
+moment in course of construction,...&rdquo; Dear me, yes, while you
+were fast asleep and dreaming, with no other apprehension than
+that of being sent to prison by the members of the Commune, a
+guillotine was being made. Happily, the sub-committee was not
+asleep. No, not they! &ldquo;... a guillotine ordered and paid for
+...&rdquo;. Are you quite sure it was paid for, good sub-committee? For
+that Government, you know, had such a habit of cheating poor
+people out of their rights. &ldquo;... by the late odious government; a
+portable and rapid guillotine.&rdquo; Ha! What do you say to that? Does
+not that make your blood run cold? Rapid, you understand; that is
+to say, that the guillotining of twelve or fifteen hundred
+patriots in a morning would have been play to the Abbé of
+Cinq-Pierres. And portable, too! A sort of pocket guillotine.
+When the members of the Government had a circuit to make in the
+provinces, they would have carried their guillotine with their
+seals of office, and if, at Lyons, Marseilles, or any other great
+town, they had met a certain number of scoundrels&mdash;Snip,
+snap! In the twinkling of an eye, no more scoundrels left. Oh!
+how cunning! But let us go on reading. &ldquo;The sub-committee of the
+eleventh arrondissement ...&rdquo; Oh! so there is a sub-committee for
+each arrondisement, is there? &ldquo;... has had these infamous
+instruments of monarchical domination ...&rdquo; One for you, Monsieur
+Thiers! &ldquo;... seized, and has voted their destruction for ever.&rdquo;
+Very good intentions, sub-committee, but you can&rsquo;t write grammar.
+&ldquo;In consequence, they will be burnt in front of the
+<i>mairie</i>, for the purification of the arrondissement and the
+preservation of the new liberties.&rdquo; And accordingly, a guillotine
+was burnt on the 7th of April, at ten o&rsquo;clock in the morning,
+before the statue of Voltaire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The ceremony was not without a certain weirdness. In the midst
+of a compact crowd of men, women, and children, who shook their
+fists at the odious instrument, some National Guards of the 187th
+Battalion fed the huge flames with broken pieces of the
+guillotine, which crackled, blistered, and blazed, while the
+statue of the old philosopher, wrapped in the smoke, must have
+sniffed the incense with delight. When nothing remained but a
+heap of glowing ashes, the crowd shouted with joy; and for my own
+part, I fully approved of what had just been done as well as of
+the approbation of the spectators. But, between you and me, do
+you not think that many of the persons there had often stationed
+themselves around the guillotine with rather different intentions
+than that of seeing it burnt? And then, if in reducing this
+instrument of death to ashes, they wished to prove that the time
+is past when men put men to death, it seems to me that they ought
+not to stop at this. While we are at it, let us burn the muskets
+too,&mdash;what say you?
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-55" id="fn-55"></a> <a href="#fnref-55">[55]</a>
+Gavroche is a street boy of Paris, a <i>gamin</i> immortalized by Victor Hugo
+in &ldquo;Les Misérables,&rdquo; a master of Parisian <i>argot</i> (slang).
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XLIV."></a> XLIV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+I have just witnessed a horrible scene. Alas! what harrowing
+spectacles meet our eyes on every side, and will still before all
+this comes to an end. I accompanied a poor old woman to a
+cemetery in the east of Paris. Her son, who had engaged himself
+in a battalion of Federal guards, had not been home for five
+days. He was most likely dead, the neighbours said, and one bade
+her &ldquo;go and look at the Cimetière de l&rsquo;Est, they have
+brought in a load of bodies there.&rdquo; Imagine a deep trench and
+about thirty coffins placed side by side. Numbers of people came
+there to claim their own among the dead. To avoid crowding, the
+National Guards made the people walk in order, two or three
+abreast, and thus they were marshalled among the tombs and
+crosses. The poor woman and I followed the others. From time to
+time I heard a burst of sobs; some one amongst the dead had been
+recognised. On we go slowly, step by step, as if we were at the
+doors of a theatre. At last we arrive before the first coffin.
+The poor mother I have come with is very weak and very sad; it is
+I who lift up the thin lid of the coffin. A grey-haired corpse is
+lying within it, from the shoulders downwards nothing but a heap
+of torn flesh, and clothes, and congealed blood. We continue on.
+The second coffin also contains the body of an old man; no wounds
+are to be seen; he was probably killed by a ball. Still we
+advance. I observe that the old men are in far greater number
+than the young. The wounds are often fearful. Sometimes the face
+is entirely mutilated. When I had closed the lid of the last
+coffin the poor mother uttered a cry of relief; her son was not
+there! For myself, I was stupefied with horror, and only
+recovered my senses on being pushed on by the men behind me, who
+wanted to see in their turn. &ldquo;Well! when will he have done?&rdquo; said
+one. &ldquo;I suppose he thinks that it is all for him.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-28"></a>
+<img src="images/033.jpg" width="298" height="480" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Burning the Guillotine. April</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XLV."></a> XLV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+What is absolutely stupefying in the midst of all this, is the
+smiling aspect of the streets and the promenades. The constantly
+increasing emigration is only felt by the diminution in the
+number of depraved women and dissipated men; enough, however,
+remain to fill the cafés and give life to the boulevards.
+It might almost be said that Paris is in its normal state.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Every morning, from the Champs Elysées, Les Ternes, and
+Vaugirard, families are seen removing into the town, out of the
+way of the bombardment, as at the time when Jules Favre
+anathematised the barbarity of the Prussians. Some pass in cabs,
+others on foot, walking sadly, with their bedding and household
+furniture piled on a cart. If you question these poor people,
+they will all tell you of the shells from the Versailles
+batteries, destroying houses and killing women and children. What
+matters it? Paris goes her usual round of business and pleasure.
+The Commune suppresses journals and imprisons journalists.
+Monsieur Richardet, of the <i>National</i>, was marched off to
+prison yesterday, for the sole crime of having requested a
+passport of the savage Monsieur Rigault; the Commune thrusts the
+priests into cells, and turns out the young girls from the
+convents, imprisons Monsieur O&rsquo;yan, one of the directors of the
+Seminary of St. Sulpice; hurls a warrant of arrest at Monsieur
+Tresca, who escapes; tries to capture Monsieur Henri Vrignault,
+who however, succeeds in reaching a place of safety; the Commune
+causes perquisitions to be made by armed men in the banking
+houses, seizes upon title deeds and money; has strong-boxes burst
+open by willing locksmiths; when the locksmiths are tired, the
+soldiers of the Commune help them with the butt-ends of their
+muskets. They do worse still, these Communists&mdash;they do all
+that the consciousness of supreme power can suggest to despots
+without experience; each day they send honest fathers of families
+to their death, who think they are suffering for the good cause,
+when they are only dying for the good pleasure of Monsieur Avrial
+and Monsieur Billioray. Well! and what is Paris doing all this
+time? Paris reads the papers, lounges, runs after the last news
+and ejaculates: &ldquo;Ah! ah! they have put Amouroux into prison! The
+Archbishop of Paris has been transferred from the Conciergerie to
+Mazas! Several thousand francs have been stolen from Monsieur
+Denouille! Diable! Diable!&rdquo; And then Paris begins the same round
+of newspaper reading, lounging, and gossiping again. Nothing
+seems changed. Nothing seems interrupted. Even the proclamation
+of the famous Cluseret, who threatens us all with active service
+in the marching regiments, has not succeeded in troubling the
+tranquillity and indifference of the greater number of Parisians.
+They look on at what is taking place, as at a performance, and
+only bestow just enough interest upon it to afford them
+amusement. This evening the cannonading has increased; on
+listening attentively, we can distinguish the sounds of
+platoon-firing; but Paris takes its glass of beer tranquilly at
+the Café de Madrid and its Mazagran at the Café
+Riche. Sometimes, towards midnight, when the sky is clear, Paris
+goes to the Champs Elysées, to see things a little nearer,
+strolls under the trees, and smoking a cigar exclaims: &ldquo;Ah! there
+go the shells.&rdquo; Then leisurely compares the roar of the battle of
+to-day to that of yesterday. In strolling about thus in the
+neighbourhood of the shells, Paris exposes itself voluntarily to
+danger; Paris is indifferent, and use is second nature. Then
+bed-time comes, Paris looks over the evening papers, and asks,
+with a yawn, where the devil all this will end? By a
+conciliation? Or the Prussians perhaps? And then Paris falls
+asleep, and gets up the next morning, just as fresh and lusty as
+if Napoleon the Third were still Emperor by the grace of God and
+the will of the French nation.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XLVI."></a> XLVI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+An insertion in the <i>Journal Officiel</i> of Versailles has
+justly irritated the greater part of the French press. This is
+the paragraph. &ldquo;False news of the most infamous kind has been
+spread in Paris where no independent journal is allowed to
+appear.&rdquo; From these few lines it may be concluded, that in the
+eyes of the Government of Versailles the whole of the Paris
+newspapers, whose editors have not deserted their posts, have
+entirely submitted to the Commune, and only think and say what
+the Commune permits them to think and say. This is an egregious
+calumny. No, thank heaven! The Parisian press has not renounced
+its independence, and if no account is taken (as is perfectly
+justifiable) of a heap of miserable little sheets which no sooner
+appear than they die, and of some few others edited by members of
+the Commune, one would be obliged to acknowledge, on the
+contrary, that since the 18th of March the great majority of
+journals have exhibited proofs of a proud and courageous
+independence. Each day, without allowing themselves to be
+intimidated, either by menaces of forcible suppression or threats
+of arrest, they have fearlessly told the members of the Commune
+their opinion without concealment or circumlocution. The French
+press has undoubtedly committed many offences during the last few
+years, and is not altogether irresponsible for the troubles which
+have overwhelmed the unhappy country; but reparation is being
+made for these offences in this present hour of danger, and the
+fearless attitude which it has maintained before these men of the
+Hôtel de Ville, atones nobly for the past. It has
+constituted itself judge; condemns what is condemnable, resists
+violence, endeavours to enlighten the masses. Sometimes
+too&mdash;and this is perhaps its greatest crime in the eyes of
+the Versailles Government&mdash;it permits itself to disapprove
+entirely of the acts of the National Assembly; some journals
+going as far as to insinuate that the Government is not
+altogether innocent of the present calamities. But what does this
+prove? That the press is no more the servant of the Assembly than
+it is the slave of the Commune; in a word, that it is free.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And what false news is this of which the <i>Journal
+Officiel</i> of Versailles complains, and against which it seems
+to warn us? Does it think it likely that we should be silly
+enough to give credence to the shouts of victory that are
+recorded each morning, on the handbills of the Commune? Does it
+suppose that we look upon the deputies as nothing but a race of
+anthropophagi who dine every day off Communists and Federals at
+the <i>tables d&rsquo;hôte</i> of the Hôtel des
+Réservoirs? Not at all. We easily unravel the truth, from
+the entanglement of exaggerations forged by the men of the
+Hôtel de Ville; and it is precisely this just appreciation
+of things that we owe to those papers which the <i>Journal
+Officiel</i> condemns so inconsiderately.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But it is not of fake news alone, probably, that the
+Versailles Assembly is afraid. It would not perhaps be sorry that
+we should ignore the real state of things, and I wager that if it
+had the power it would willingly suppress ill-informed
+journals&mdash;although they are not Communist the least in the
+world&mdash;who allow themselves to state that for six days the
+shells of Versailles have fallen upon Les Ternes, the Champs
+Elysées and the Avenue Wagram, and have already cost as
+many tears and as much bloodshed, as the Prussian shells of
+fearful memory.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XLVII."></a> XLVII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Wednesday, 12th April.&mdash;Another day passed as yesterday
+was, as to-morrow will be. The Versaillais attack the forts of
+Vanves and Issy and are repulsed. There is fighting at Neuilly,
+at Bagneux, at Asnières. In the town requisitions and
+arrests are being made. A detachment of National Guards arrives
+before the Northern railway-station. They inquire for the
+director, but director there is none. Embarrassing situation
+this. The National Guards cannot come all this way for nothing.
+Determined on arresting some one, they carry off M. Félix
+Mathias, head of the works, and M. Coutin, chief inspector. An
+hour later other National Guards imprison M. Lucien Dubois,
+general inspector of markets, in the depôt of the
+ex-Prefecture of Police. Here and there a few journalists are
+arrested without cause, to serve as examples; some priests are
+despatched to Mazas, among others M. Lartigues,
+<i>curé</i> of <i>Saint Leu</i>. Yesterday the following
+was placarded on the shut doors of the church at Montmartre:
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Since priests are bandits and churches retreats where they have morally
+assassinated the masses, causing <i>France to cower beneath the clutches of the
+infamous Bonapartes, Favres, and Trochus</i>, the delegates of the stone masons
+at the ex-Prefecture of Police give orders that the church of Saint-Pierre (not
+Cinq-Pierres this time) shall be closed, and decrees the imprisonment of its
+priests and its <i>Frères Ignorantins</i>. Signed by Le Mousau.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To-day it is the turn of the church of Notre Dame de Lorette.
+A considerable number of worshippers had assembled in the holy
+place. The National Guards arrive, headed by men in plain
+clothes. Under the Empire such men were called spies. The women
+found praying are turned out, those who do not obey promptly
+enough, with blows. This done, the guards retire. What they had
+come there for is not known. But what we are certain of is, that
+they will begin again to-morrow in this same church, or in
+another. The days resemble each other as the children of an
+accursed family. What frightful catastrophe will break this
+shameful monotony?
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XLVIII."></a> XLVIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Eh! What? It is impossible! Are your brains scattered? I speak
+figuratively, awaiting the time when they will be scattered in
+earnest. It must be some miserable jester who has worded,
+printed, and placarded this unconscionable decree. But no, it is
+in the usual form, the usual type. This is rather too much,
+Gentlemen of the Commune; it outsteps the bounds of the
+ridiculous; you count a little too much this time on the
+complicity of some of the population, and on the patience of
+others. Here is the decree:
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-29"></a>
+<img src="images/034.jpg" width="500" height="472" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>The Column in the Place Vendôme.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="letter">
+Erected by the first Napoleon to commemorate his German campaign of 1805. An
+imitation of the Column of Trajan, at Rome, slightly taller. It cost 1,500,000
+francs!
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+    &ldquo;THE COMMUNE OF PARIS,
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;Considering that the Imperial column of the Place Vendôme is a
+    monument of barbarian, a symbol of brute force, of false glory, an
+    encouragement of military spirit, a denial of international rights,
+    a permanent insult offered by the conquerors to the conquered, a
+    perpetual conspiracy against one of the great principles of the
+    French Republic, namely: Fraternity,<br/>
+    &ldquo;Decrees:<br/>
+    &ldquo;<i>Sole article</i>.&mdash;The Colonne Vendôme is to be demolished.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I must tell you plainly, you are absurd, contemptible, and
+odious! This sorry farce outstrips all one could have imagined,
+and all that the Versailles papers said of you must have been
+true; for what you are doing now is worse than anything they
+could ever have dared to imagine. It was not enough to violate
+the churches, to suppress the liberties,&mdash;the liberty of
+writing, the liberty of speaking, the liberty of free
+circulation, the liberty of risking one&rsquo;s life or not. It was not
+enough that blood should be recklessly spilled, that women should
+be made widows and children orphans, trade stopped and commerce
+ruined; it was not enough that the dignity of defeat&mdash;the
+only glory remaining&mdash;should be swallowed up in the shameful
+disaster of civil war; in a word, it was not sufficient to have
+destroyed the present, compromised the future; you wish now to
+obliterate the past! Funereal mischief! Why, the Colonne
+Vendôme is France, and a trophy of its past
+greatness,&mdash;alas, at present in the shade&mdash;is not the
+monument, but the record of a victorious race who strode through
+the world conquering as they went, planting the tricolour
+everywhere. In destroying the Colonne Vendôme, do not
+imagine that you are simply overthrowing a bronze column
+surmounted by the statue of an emperor; you disinter the remains
+of your forefathers to shake their fleshless bones, and say to
+them, &ldquo;You were wrong in being brave and proud and great; you
+were wrong to conquer towns, to win battles; you were wrong to
+astound the universe by raising the vision of France glorified.
+It is scattering to the wind the ashes of heroes! It is telling
+those aged soldiers, seen formerly in the streets (where are they
+now? Why do we meet them no longer? Have you killed them, or does
+their glory refuse to come in contact with your infamy?) It is
+telling the maimed soldiers of the Invalides, &ldquo;You are but
+blockheads and brigands. So you have lost a leg, and you an arm!
+So much the worse for you idle scamps. Look on these rascals
+crippled for their country&rsquo;s honour!&rdquo; It is like snatching from
+them the crosses they have won, and delivering them into the
+hands of the shameless street urchins, who will cry, &ldquo;A hero! a
+hero!&rdquo; as they cry &ldquo;Thief! thief!&rdquo; There is certainly purer and
+less costly grandeur than that which results from war and
+conquests. You are free to dream for your country a glory
+different to the ancient glory; but the heroic past, do not
+overthrow it, do not suppress it, now especially, when you have
+nothing with which to replace it, but the disgraces of the
+present. Yet, no! Complete your work, continue in the same path.
+The destruction of the Colonne Vendôme is but a beginning,
+be logical and continue; I propose a few decrees:
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;The Commune of Paris, considering that the Church of Notre Dame de
+    Paris is a monument of superstition, a symbol of divine tyranny, an
+    affirmation of fanaticism, a denial of human rights, a permanent
+    insult offered by believers to atheists, a perpetual conspiracy
+    against one of the great principles of the Commune, namely, the
+    convenience of its members,<br/>
+    &ldquo;Decrees:<br/>
+    &ldquo;The Church of Notre Dame shall be demolished.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What say you to my proposition? Does it not agree with your
+dearest desire? But you can do better and better: believe me you
+ought to have the courage of your opinions.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;The Commune of Paris, considering that the Museum of the Louvre
+    contains a great number of pictures, of statues, and other objects
+    of art, which, by the subjects they represent, bring eternally to
+    the mind of the people the actions of gods, and kings, and priests;
+    that these actions indicated by flattering brush or chisel are often
+    delineated in such a way as to diminish the hatred that priests,
+    kings, and gods should inspire to all good citizens; moreover, the
+    admiration excited by the works of human genius is a perpetual
+    assault on one of the great principles of the Commune, namely, its
+    imbecility,<br/>
+    &ldquo;Decrees:<br/>
+    &ldquo;<i>Sole article</i>.&mdash;The Museum of the Louvre shall be burned to the
+    ground.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Do not attempt to reply that in spite of the recollections of
+religion and despotism attached to these monuments you would
+leave Notre Dame and the Museum of the Louvre untouched for the
+sake of their artistic importance. Beware of insinuating that you
+would have respected the Colonne Vendôme had it possessed
+some merit as a work of art. You! respect the masterpieces of
+human art! Wherefore? Since when, and by what right? No, little
+as you may have been known before you were masters, you were yet
+known enough for us to assert that one of you&mdash;whom I will
+name: M. Lefrançais&mdash;wished in 1848 to set fire to
+the <i>Salon Carré</i>; there is another of you&mdash;whom
+I will also name: M. Jules Vallès&mdash;asserts that Homer
+was an old fool. It is true that M. Jules Vallès is
+Minister of Public Instruction. If you have spared Notre Dame and
+the Museum of the Louvre up to this moment, it is that you dared
+not touch them, which is a proof, not of respect but of
+cowardice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ah! our eyes are open at last! We are no longer dazzled by the
+chimerical hopes we nourished for a moment, of obtaining, through
+you communal liberties. You did but adopt those opinions for the
+sake of misleading us, as a thief assumes the livery of a house
+to enter his master&rsquo;s room and lay hands on his money. We see you
+now as you are. We had hoped that you were revolutionists, too
+ardent, too venturous perhaps, but on the whole impelled by a
+noble intention: you are nothing but insurgents, insurgents whose
+aim is to sack and pillage, favoured by disturbances and
+darkness. If a few well-intentioned men were among you, they have
+fled in horror. Count your numbers, you are but a handful. If
+there still remain any among you, who have not lost all power of
+discriminating between justice and injustice, they look towards
+the door, and would fly if they dared. Yet this handful of
+furious fools governs Paris still. Some among us have been
+ordered to their death, and they have gone! How long will this
+last? Did we not surrender our arms? Can we not assemble, as we
+did a month ago near the Bank, and deal justice ourselves without
+awaiting an army from Versailles? Ah I we must acknowledge that
+the deputies of the Seine and the Maires of Paris, misled like
+ourselves, erred in siding with the insurrectionists. They wished
+to avert street fighting. Is the strife we are witnessing not far
+more horrible than that we have escaped? One day&rsquo;s struggle, and
+it would have ended. Yes, we were wrong to lay down our arms; but
+who could have believed&mdash;the excesses of the first few days
+seemed more like the sad consequences of popular effervescence
+than like premeditated crimes&mdash;who could have believed that
+the chiefs of the insurrection lied with such impudence as is now
+only too evident, and that before long the Commune would be the
+first to deprive us of the liberties it was its duty to protect
+and develope? The &ldquo;Rurals&rdquo; were right then,&mdash;they who had
+been so completely in the wrong in refusing to lend an attentive
+ear to the just prayers of a people eager for liberty, they were
+right when they warned us against the ignorance and wickedness of
+these men. Ah! were the National Assembly but to will it, there
+would yet be time to save Paris. If it really wished to establish
+a definite Republic, and concede to the capital of France the
+right, free and entire, of electing an independent municipality,
+with what ardour should we not rally round the legitimate
+Government! How soon would the Hôtel de Ville be delivered
+from the contemptible men who have planted themselves there. If
+the National Assembly could only comprehend us! If it would only
+consent to give Paris its liberty, and France its tranquillity,
+by means of honourable concessions!
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XLIX."></a> XLIX.</h2>
+
+<p>
+The delegates of the League of the Republican Union of the
+Rights of Paris returned from Versailles to-day, the 14th April,
+and published the following reports:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;CITIZENS,&mdash;The undersigned, chosen by you to present your programme
+    to the Government of Versailles, and to proffer the good offices of
+    the League to aid in the conclusion of an armistice, have the honour
+    of submitting you an account of their mission.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The delegates, having made known to Monsieur Thiers the programme
+    of the League, he replied that as chief of the sole legal government
+    existing in France he had not to discuss the basis of a treaty, but
+    notwithstanding he was quite ready to treat with such persons whom
+    he considered as representing Republican principles, and to acquaint
+    them with the intentions of the chief of the executive power.<br/>
+    &ldquo;It is in accordance with these observations, which denote, in fact,
+    the true character of our mission, that Monsieur Thiers has made the
+    following declarations on different points of our programme.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Respecting the recognition of the Republic, Monsieur Thiers answers
+    for its existence as long as he remains in power. A Republican state
+    was put into his hands, and he stakes his honour on its
+    conservation.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ay! it is precisely that which will not satisfy
+Paris&mdash;Paris sighing for peace and liberty. We have all the
+most implicit faith in Thiers&rsquo; honour. We are assured that the
+words, &ldquo;French Republic&rdquo; will head the white Government placards
+as long as he remains in power. But when Thiers is withdrawn from
+power&mdash;National Assemblies can be capricious
+sometimes&mdash;what assures us that we shall not fall victims to
+a monarchical or even an imperial restoration? Ghosts can appear
+in French history as well as in Anne Radcliffe&rsquo;s novels. To
+attempt to consider the elected members who sit at Versailles as
+sincere Republicans is an effort beyond the powers of our
+credulity. You see that Thiers himself dares not speak his
+thoughts on what might happen were he to withdraw from power.
+Thus we find ourselves, as before, in a state of transition, and
+this state of transition is just what appals us. We address
+ourselves to the Assembly, and ask of it, &ldquo;We are Republican; are
+you Republican?&rdquo; And the Assembly pretends to be deaf, and the
+deputies content themselves with humming under their breaths,
+some the royal tune of &ldquo;The White Cockade,&rdquo; and others the
+imperial air of &ldquo;Partant pour la Syrie.&rdquo; This does not quite
+satisfy us. It is true that Thiers says he will maintain the form
+of government established in Paris as long as he possibly can;
+but he only promises for himself, and it results clearly from all
+this that we shall not keep the Republic long, since its definite
+establishment depends in fact on the majority in the Assembly,
+while the Assembly is royalist, with a slight sprinkle of
+imperialism here and there. But let us continue the reading of
+the reports.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Respecting the municipal franchise of Paris, Monsieur Thiers declares that
+Paris will enjoy its franchise on the same conditions as those of the other
+towns, according to a common law, such as will be set forth by the Assembly of
+the representatives of all France. Paris will have the common right, nothing
+less and nothing more.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This again is little satisfactory. What will this common right
+be? What will the law set forth by the representatives of all
+France be worth? Once more we have the most entire confidence in
+Thiers. But have we the right to expect a law conformable to our
+wishes from an assembly of men who hold opinions radically
+opposed to ours on the point which is in fact the most important
+in the question&mdash;on the form of government?
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Concerning the protection of Paris, now exclusively confided to the National
+Guards, Monsieur Thiers declares that he will proceed at once to the
+organization of the National Guard, but that cannot be to the absolute
+exclusion of the army.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In my personal opinion, the President is perfectly right here;
+but from the point of view which it was the mission of the
+delegates of the Republican Union to take, is not this third
+declaration as evasive as the preceding?
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Respecting the actual situation and the means of putting an end to the
+effusion of blood, Monsieur Thiers declares that not recognising as
+belligerents the persons engaged in the struggle against the National Assembly,
+he neither can nor will treat the question of an armistice; but he declares
+that if the National Guards of Paris make no hostile attack, the troops of
+Versailles will make none either, until the moment, yet undetermined, when the
+executive power shall resolve upon action and commence the war.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Oh, words! words! We are perfectly aware that Thiers has the
+right to speak thus, and that all combatants are not
+belligerents. But what! Is it as just as it is legal to argue the
+point so closely, when the lives of so many men are at stake; and
+is a small grammatical concession so serious a thing, that sooner
+than make it one should expose oneself to all the horrible
+feelings of remorse that the most rightful conqueror experiences
+at the sight of the battle-field?
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Monsieur Thiers adds: &lsquo;Those who abandon the contest, that is to say, who
+return to their homes and renounce their hostile attitude, will be safe from
+all pursuit.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Is Thiers quite certain that he will not find himself
+abandoned by the Assembly at the moment when he enters upon this
+path of mercy and forgiveness?
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Monsieur Thiers alone excepts the assassins of General Lecomte and General
+Clément Thomas, who if taken will be tried for the crime.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And here he is undoubtedly right. We must have been blind
+indeed the day that this double crime failed to open our eyes to
+the true characters of the men who, if they did not commit it or
+cause it to be committed, made at least no attempt to discover
+the criminals!
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Monsieur Thiers, recognising the impossibility for a great part of the
+population, now deprived of work, to live without the allotted pay, will
+continue to distribute that pay for several weeks longer. &ldquo;Such, citizens, is,
+etc., etc.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This report is signed by A. Dessonnaz, A. Adam, and Donvallet.
+Alas! we had foreseen what the result of the honourable attempt
+made by the delegates of the Republican Union would be. And this
+result proves that not only is the National Guard at war with the
+regular troops, but that a persistent opposition is also made by
+the National Assembly of Versailles to the most reasonable
+portion of the people of Paris. And yet the Assembly represents
+France, and speaks and acts only as she is commissioned to speak
+and act. The truth then is this,&mdash;Paris is republican and
+France is not republican; there is division between the capital
+and the country. The present convulsion, brought about by a group
+of madmen, has its source in this divergence of feeling. And what
+will happen? Will Paris, once more vanquished by universal
+suffrage, bend her neck and accept the yoke of the provincials
+and rustics? The right of these is incontestable; but will it, by
+reason of superiority of numbers, take precedence of our right,
+as incontestable as theirs? These are dark questions, which hold
+the minds of men in suspense, and which, in spite of our desire
+to bring the National Assembly over to our side, the greater part
+of whose members could not join us without betraying their trust,
+cause us to bear the intolerable tyranny of the men of the
+Hôtel de Ville, even while their sinister lucubrations
+inspire us with disgust.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="L."></a>L.</h2>
+
+<p>
+During this time the walls resound with fun. Paris of the
+street and gutter&mdash;Paris, Gavroche and blackguard, rolls
+with laughter before the caricatures which ingenious salesmen
+stick with pins on shutters and house doors. Who designed these
+wild pictures, glaringly coloured and common, seldom amusing and
+often outrageously coarse? They are signed with unknown
+names&mdash;pseudonyms doubtless; their authors, amongst whom it
+is sad to think that artists of talent must be counted, are like
+women, high born and depraved, mixing with their faces masked in
+hideous orgies.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These vile pictures with their infamous calumnies keep up and
+even kindle contempt and hatred in ignorant minds. Laughter is
+often far from innocent. But the passers-by think little of this,
+and are amused enough when they see Jules Favre&rsquo;s head
+represented by a radish, or the <i>embonpoint</i> of Monsieur
+Picard by a pumpkin. Where will all this unwholesome stuff be
+scattered in a few days? Flown away and dispersed. Eccentric
+amateurs will tear their hair at the impossibility of obtaining
+for their collections these frivolous witnesses of troubled
+times. I will make a few notes so as to diminish their despair as
+far as I am able.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A green soil and a red sky&mdash;In a black coffin is a
+half-naked woman, with a Phrygian cap on her head, endeavouring
+to push up the lid with all her might. Jules Favre, lean, small,
+head enormous, under lip thick and protruding, hair wildly flying
+like a willow in a storm, wearing a dress coat, and holding a
+nail in one hand and a hammer in the other, with his knee pressed
+upon the coffin-lid, is trying to nail it down, in spite of the
+very natural protestations of the half-naked woman. In the
+distance, and running towards them, is Monsieur Thiers, with a
+great broad face and spectacles, also armed with a hammer. Below
+is written: &ldquo;If one were to listen to these accursed Republics,
+they would never die.&rdquo; Signed, Faustin. Same author&mdash;Same
+woman. But this time she lies in a bed hung with red flags for
+curtains. Her shoulders a little too bare, perhaps, for a
+Republic, but she must be made attractive to her good friends the
+Federals. At the head of the bed a portrait of Rochefort;
+Rochefort is the favoured one of this lady, it seems. Were I he,
+I should persuade her to dress a little more decently. Three
+black men, in brigands&rsquo; hats, their limbs dragging, and their
+faces distorted, approach the bed, singing like the robbers in
+Fra Diavolo: &ldquo;Ad.... vance ... ad ... vance ... with ... pru ...
+dence ...!&rdquo; The first, Monsieur Thiers, carries a heavy club and
+a dark lantern; Jules Favre, the second, brandishes a knife, and
+the third, carries nothing, but wears a peacock&rsquo;s feather in his
+hat, and.... I have never seen Monsieur Picard, but they tell me
+that it is he.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The young Republic again, with shoulders bare and the style of
+face of a <i>petite dame</i> of the Rue Bossuet. She comes to beg
+Monsieur Thiers, cobbler and cookshop-keeper, who &ldquo;finds places
+for pretenders out of employ, and changes their old boots for new
+at the most reasonable prices,&rdquo; to have her shoes mended. &ldquo;Wait a
+bit! wait a bit!&rdquo; says the cobbler to himself, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll manage &rsquo;em
+so as to put an end to her walking.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here is a green monkey perched on the extreme height of a
+microscopic tribune. At the end of his tail he wears a crown; on
+his head is a Phrygian cap. It is Monsieur Thiers of course.
+&ldquo;Gentlemen,&rdquo; says he, &ldquo;I assure you that I am republican, and
+that I adore the vile multitude.&rdquo; But underneath is written:
+&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll pluck the Gallic cock!&rdquo; The author of this is also
+Monsieur Faustin. I have here a special reproach to add to what I
+have already said of these objectionable stupidities. I do not
+like the manner in which the author takes off Monsieur Thiers; he
+quite forgets the old and well-known resemblance of the chief of
+the executive power to Monsieur Prud&rsquo;homme, or what is the same
+thing, to Prud&rsquo;homme&rsquo;s inventor, Henri Monnier. One day Gil Perez
+the actor, met Henri Monnier on the Boulevard Montmartre. &ldquo;Well,
+old fellow!&rdquo; cried he, &ldquo;are you back? When are you and I going to
+get at our practical jokes again?&rdquo; Henri Monnier looked
+profoundly astonished; it was Monsieur Thiers!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next one is signed Pilotel. Pilotel, the savage
+commissioner! He who arrested Monsieur Chaudey, and who pocketed
+eight hundred and fifteen francs found in Monsieur Chaudey&rsquo;s
+drawers. Ah! Pilotel, if by some unlucky adventure you were to
+succumb behind a barricade, you would cry like Nero: &ldquo;Qualis
+artifex pereo!&rdquo; But let us leave the author to criticise the
+work. A Gavroche, not the Gavroche of the
+<i>Misérables</i>, but the boy of Belleville, chewing
+tobacco like a Jack-tar, drunk as a Federal, in a purple blouse,
+green trousers, his hands in his pockets, his cap on the nape of
+his neck; squat, violent, and brutish. With an impudent jerk of
+the head he grumbles out: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want any of your kings!&rdquo; This
+coarse sketch is graphic and not without merit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Horror of horrors! &ldquo;Council of Revision of the Amazons of
+Paris,&rdquo; this next is called. Oh! if the brave Amazons are like
+these formidable monstrosities, it would be quite sufficient to
+place them in the first rank, and I am sure that not a soldier of
+the line, not a guardian of the peace, not a <i>gendarme</i>
+would hesitate a moment at the sight, but all would fly without
+exception, in hot haste and in agonised terror, forgetting in
+their panic even to turn the butt ends of their muskets in the
+air. One of these Amazons&mdash;but how has my sympathy for the
+amateurs of collections led me into the description of these
+creatures of ugliness and immodesty?&mdash;one of them.... but
+no, I prefer leaving to your imagination those Himalayan masses
+of flesh, and pyramids of bone&mdash;these Penthesileas of the
+Commune of Paris that are before me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ah! Here is choleric old &ldquo;Father Duchesne&rdquo; in a towering
+passion, with short legs, bare arms, and rubicund face, topped
+with an immense red cap. In one hand he holds a diminutive
+Monsieur Thiers and stifles him as if he were a sparrow. Here,
+the drawing is not only vile, but stupid too.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This time we have the nude, and it is not the Republic, but France that is
+represented. If the Republic can afford to bare her shoulders, France may
+dispense with drapery entirely. She has a dove which she presses to her bosom.
+On one side is a portrait of Monsieur Rochefort. Again! Why this
+unlovely-looking journalist is a regular Lovelace. Finally, two cats (M. Jules
+Favre and M. Thiers) are to be seen outside the garret window with their claws
+ready for pouncing. &ldquo;Poor dove!&rdquo; is the tame inscription below the
+sketch.<a href="#fn-56" name="fnref-56" id="fnref-56"><sup>[56]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next we find a Holy Family, by Murillo. Jules Favre, as
+Joseph, leads the ass by the reins, and a wet-nurse, who holds
+the Comte de Paris in her arms instead of the infant Jesus, is
+seated between the two panniers, trying to look at once like
+Monsieur Thiers and the Holy Virgin. The sketch is called &ldquo;The
+Flight.... to Versailles.&rdquo; Oh! fie! fie! Messieurs the
+Caricaturists, can you not be funny without trenching on sacred
+ground?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We might refer to dozens more. Some date from the day when
+Paris shook off the Empire, and are so infamous that, by a
+natural reaction of feeling, they inspire a sort of esteem for
+those they try to make you despise; others, those which were seen
+by everyone during the siege, are less vile, because, of the
+patriotic rage which originated them, and excused them; but they
+are as odious as they can be nevertheless. But the amateurs of
+collections who neglected to buy fly-sheets one by one as they
+appeared, must be satisfied with the above.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-56" id="fn-56"></a> <a href="#fnref-56">[56]</a>
+As a power for the encouragement of virtue and the suppression of vice,
+caricature cannot be too highly estimated, though often abused. It is doubtful
+which exercises the greater influence, poem or picture. In England, perhaps,
+picture wields the greater power; in France, song. Yet, &ldquo;let me write the
+ballads and you may govern the people,&rdquo; is an English axiom which was
+well known before pictures became so plentiful or so popular, or the refined
+cartoons of Mr. Punch were ever dreamt of. In Paris, where art-education is
+highly developed, fugitive designs seems to have, with but few exceptions,
+descended into vile abuse and indecent metaphor, the wildest invective being
+exhausted upon trivial matters&mdash;hence the failure.<br/>
+    The art advocates of the Commune, with but few exceptions, seem to have
+been of the most humble sort, inspired with the melodramatic taste of our Seven
+Dials or the New Out, venting itself in ill-drawn heroic females, symbols of
+the Republic, clad in white, wearing either mural crowns or Phrygian caps, and
+waving red flags. They are the work of aspiring juvenile artists or uneducated
+men. I allude to art favourable to the Commune, and not that coëval with it, or
+the vast mass of pictorial unpleasantly born of gallic rage during the
+Franco-Prussian war, including such designs as the horrible allegory of Bayard,
+&ldquo;Sedan, 1870,&rdquo; a large work depicting Napoleon III. drawn in a
+calèche and four, over legions of his dying soldiers, in the presence of a
+victorious enemy and the shades of his forefathers&rsquo;, and the well-known
+subject, so popular in photography, of &ldquo;The Pillory,&rdquo; Napoleon
+between King William and Bismarck, also set in the midst of a mass of dead and
+dying humanity. Paper pillories are always very popular in Paris, and under the
+Commune the heads of Tropmann and Thiers were exhibited in a wooden vice,
+inscribed Pantin and Neuilly underneath. And, again, in another print, entitled
+&ldquo;The Infamous,&rdquo; we have Thiers, Favre, and MacMahon, seen in a
+heavenly upper storey, fixed to stakes, contemplating a dead mother and her
+child, slain in their happy home, the wounds very sanguine and visible, the
+only remaining relict being a child of very tender years in an overturned
+cradle; beneath is the inscription &ldquo;Their Works.&rdquo; Communal art
+seems also to have been very severe upon landlords, who are depicted with long
+faces and threadbare garments, seeking alms in the street, or flying with empty
+bags and lean stomachs from a very yellow sun, bearing the words &ldquo;The
+Commune, 1871.&rdquo; Whilst as a contrast, a fat labourer, with a patch on his
+blouse, luxuriates in the same golden sunshine.<br/>
+    As a sample of the better kind of French art, we give two fac-similes, by
+Bertal, from <i>The Grelot</i>, a courageous journal started during the
+Commune; it existed unmolested, and still continues. We here insert a
+fac-simile of a sketch called &ldquo;Paris and his Playthings.&rdquo;<br/>
+    &ldquo;What destruction the unhappy, spoiled, and ill-bred child
+whose name is Paris has done, especially of late!<br/>
+    &ldquo;France, his strapping nurse, put herself in a passion in
+vain, the child would not listen to reason. He broke Trochu&rsquo;s
+arms, ripped up Gambetta, to see what there was inside. He blew
+out the lantern of Rochefort; as to Bergeret himself, he trampled
+him under foot.<br/>
+    &ldquo;He has dislocated all his puppets, strewed the ground with
+the <i>débris</i> of his fancies, and he is not yet
+content,&mdash;&lsquo;What do you want, you wretched baby?&rsquo;&mdash;&lsquo;I
+want the moon!&rsquo; The old woman called the Assembly was right in
+refusing this demand,&mdash;&lsquo;The moon, you little wretch, and
+what would you do with it if you had it?&rsquo;&mdash;&lsquo;I would pull it
+to bits, as I did the rest.&rsquo;&rdquo;<br/>
+    Further on will be found &ldquo;<a href="#image-46">Paris eating a
+General a day</a>&rdquo; (Chapter LXXVIII). Early in June, 1871 there
+appeared in the same journal &ldquo;The International Centipede,&rdquo; &ldquo;John
+Bull and the Blanche Albion.&rdquo; The Queen of England, clad in
+white, holding in her hands a model of the Palace of Westminster,
+and sundry docks, resists the approach of an interminable
+centipede, on which she stamps, vainly endeavouring to impede the
+progress of the coil of fire and blood approaching to soil and
+fire her fair robe; beside her stands John Bull, in a queer mixed
+costume, half sailor, with the smalls and gaiters of a
+coalheaver. He bears the Habeas Corpus Act under his arm, but
+stands aghast and paralysed, it never seeming to have occurred to
+the artist that this &ldquo;Monsieur John Boule, Esquire,&rdquo; was well
+adapted by his beetle-crushers to stamp out the vermin. Perhaps,
+it is needless to add, that the snake-like form issues from a
+hole in distant Prussia, meandering through many nations, causing
+great consternation, and that M. Thiers is finishing off the
+French section in admirable style.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-30"></a>
+<img src="images/035.jpg" width="500" height="376" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Little Paris and his Playthings. Nurse. Mais! Sacré mille
+noms d&rsquo;un moutard! what will you want next?&mdash;PETIT PARIS: I’ll have the
+moon!</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LI."></a> LI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+What has Monsieur Courbet to do among these people? He is a painter, not a
+politician. A few beery speeches uttered at the Hautefeuille Café cannot turn
+his past into a revolutionary one, and an order refused for the simple reason
+that it is more piquant for a man to have his button-hole without ornament than
+with a slip of red ribbon in it, when it is well known that he disdains
+whatever every one else admires, is but a poor title to fame. To your last,
+Napoleon Gaillard!<a href="#fn-57" name="fnref-57"
+id="fnref-57"><sup>[57]</sup></a> To your paint-brushes, Gustave Courbet! And
+if we say this, it is not only from fear that the meagre lights of Monsieur
+Courbet are insufficient, and may draw the Commune into new acts of
+folly,&mdash;(though we scarcely know, alas! if there be any folly the Commune
+has left undone,)&mdash;but it is, above all, because we fear the odium and
+ridicule that the false politician may throw upon the painter. Yes! whatever
+may be our horror for the nude women and unsightly productions with which
+Monsieur Courbet<a href="#fn-58" name="fnref-58"
+id="fnref-58"><sup>[58]</sup></a> has honoured the exhibitions of paintings, we
+remember with delight several, admirably true to nature, with sunshine and
+summer breezes playing among the leaves, and streams murmuring refreshingly
+over the pebbles, and rocks whereon climbing plants cling closely; and, besides
+these landscapes, a good picture here and there, executed, if not by the hand
+of an artist&mdash;for the word artist possesses a higher meaning in our
+eyes&mdash;at least by the hand of a man of some power, and we hate that this
+painter should be at the Hôtel de Ville at the moment when the spring is
+awakening in forest and field, and when he would do so much better to go into
+the woods of Meudon or Fontainebleau to study the waving of the branches and
+the eccentric twists and turns of the oak-tree&rsquo;s huge trunk, than in
+making answers to Monsieur Lefrançais&mdash;iconoclast in theory only as
+yet&mdash;and to Monsieur Jules Vallès, who has read Homer in Madame
+Dacier&rsquo;s translation, or has never read it at all. That one should try a
+little of everything, even of polities, when one is capable of nothing else,
+is, if not excusable, at any rate comprehensible; but when a man can make
+excellent boots like Napoleon Gaillard, or good paintings like Gustave Courbet,
+that he should deliberately lay himself open to ridicule, and perhaps to
+everlasting execration, is what we cannot admit. To this Monsieur Courbet would
+reply: &ldquo;It is the artists that I represent; it is the rights and claims
+of modern art that I uphold. There must be a great revolution in painting as in
+politics; we must federate too, I tell you; we&rsquo;ll decapitate those
+aristocrats, the Titians and Paul Veroneses; we&rsquo;ll establish, instead of
+a jury, a revolutionary tribunal, which shall condemn to instant death any man
+who troubles himself about the ideal&mdash;that king whom we have knocked off
+his throne; and at this tribunal I will be at once complainant, lawyer, and
+judge. Yes! my brother painters, rally around me, and we will die for the
+Commune of Art. As to those who are not of my opinion, I don&rsquo;t care the
+snap of a finger about them.&rdquo; By this last expression the friends of
+Monsieur Gustave Courbet will perceive that we are not without some experience
+of his style of conversation. Courbet, my master, you don&rsquo;t know what you
+are talking about, and all true artists will send you to old Harry, you and
+your federation. Do you know what an artistic association, such as you
+understand it, would result in? In serving the puerile ambition of one
+man&mdash;its chief, for there will be a chief, will there not, Monsieur
+Courbet?&mdash;and the puerile rancours of a parcel of daubers, without name
+and without talent. Artist in our way we assert, that no matter, what painter,
+even had he composed works superior in their way to Courbet&rsquo;s
+&ldquo;<i>Combat de Cerfs</i>&rdquo; and &ldquo;<i>Femme au
+Perroquet</i>,&rdquo; who came and said, &ldquo;Let us federate,&rdquo; we
+would answer him plainly: &ldquo;Leave us in peace, messieurs of the
+federation, we are dreamers and workers; when we exhibit or publish and are
+happy enough to meet with a man who will buy or print a few thousand copies of
+our work without reducing himself to beggary, we are happy. When that is done,
+we do not trouble ourselves much about our work; the indulgence of a few
+friends, and the indignation of a few fools, is all we ask or hope for. We
+federate? Why? With whom? If our work is bad, will the association with any
+society in the world make it good? Will the works of others gain anything by
+their association with ours? Let us go home, <i>messieurs les artistes</i>, let
+us shut our doors, let us say to our servants&mdash;if we have any&mdash;that
+we are at home to no one, and, after having cut our best pencil, or seized our
+best pen, let us labour in solitude, without relaxation, with no other thought
+than that of doing the best we can, with no higher judge than that of our own
+artistic conscience; and when the work is completed, let us cordially shake
+hands with those of our comrades who love us; let us help them, and let them
+bring help to us, but freely, without obligation, without subscriptions,
+without societies, and without statutes. We have nothing to do with these
+free-masonries, absurd when brought into the domain of intelligence, and in
+which two or three hundred people get together to do that, which some
+new-comer, however unknown his budding fame, would accomplish at a blow, in the
+face of all the associations in the world.&rdquo; This is what I should naïvely
+reply to Monsieur Courbet if he took it into his head to offer me any advice or
+compact whatsoever to sign.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-31"></a>
+<img src="images/036.jpg" width="271" height="500" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>The Modern &ldquo;Erostrate&rdquo; Courbet. In progress
+of removal. June 1871.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+The artists have done still better than we should; they have
+not answered at all, for one cannot call the &ldquo;General Assembly of
+all the Artists in Design,&rdquo; presided over by Monsieur Gustave
+Courbet, and held on the 13th of April, 1871, in the great
+amphitheatre of the Ecole de Médecine, a real meeting of
+French artists. We know several celebrated painters, and we saw
+none of them there. The citizens Potier and Boulaix had been
+named secretaries. We congratulate them; for this high
+distinction may, perhaps, aid in founding their reputation, which
+was in great want of a basis of some kind. But there were some
+sculptors there, perhaps? We saw some long beards, beards that
+were quite unknown to us, and their owners may have been
+sculptors, perhaps. For Paris is a city of sculptors. But if
+artists were wanting, there were talkers enough. Have you ever
+remarked that there are no orators so indefatigable as those who
+have nothing to say? And the interruptions, the clamour, the
+apostrophising, more highly coloured than courteous! Such an
+overwhelming tumult was never heard:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;No more jury!&rdquo;<br/>
+&ldquo;Yes! yes! a jury! a jury!&rdquo;<br/>
+&ldquo;Out with the reactionist!&rdquo;<br/>
+&ldquo;Down with Cabanel!&rdquo;<br/>
+&ldquo;And the women? Are the women to be on the jury?&rdquo;<br/>
+&ldquo;Neither the women, nor the infirm.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And all the time there is Monsieur Gustave Courbet, the
+chairman, desperately ringing his bell for order, and launching
+some expressive exclamation from time to time. And the result of
+all this? Absolutely nothing at all! No! stop! There were a few
+statutes proposed&mdash;and every one amused himself immensely.
+&ldquo;Well! so much the better,&rdquo; said one. &ldquo;Every one laughed, and no
+harm was done to anybody.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We beg your pardon! There was a great deal of harm
+done&mdash;to Monsieur Courbet.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-57" id="fn-57"></a> <a href="#fnref-57">[57]</a>
+Gaillard Senior (a sort of Odger), cobbler of Belleville and democratic stump
+orator. Appointed, April 8, to the Presidency of the Commission of Barricades.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-58" id="fn-58"></a> <a href="#fnref-58">[58]</a>
+As a painter Courbet has been very diversely judged. He was the chief of the
+ultra-realistic school, and therefore a natural subject for the contempt and
+abuse of the admirers of &ldquo;legitimate art.&rdquo; But his later use of the
+political power entrusted to him has drawn down upon him the wrath of an
+immense majority of the French public, which his artistic misdemeanours had
+scarcely touched. On the sixteenth of April he was elected a member of the
+Commune by the 6th arrondissement of Paris, and forthwith appointed Director of
+the Beaux Arts. Until this time his life had been purely professional, and
+consequently of mediocre interest for the general public. He was born at
+Ornans, department of the Doubs, in 1819, and received his primary instructions
+from the Abbé Gousset, afterwards Archbishop of Rheims. He first applied
+himself to the study of mathematics, painting the while, and apparently aiming
+at a fusion of both pursuits. He subsequently read for the bar for a short
+time, and, finally, adopting art as his sole profession, threw himself heart
+and soul into a Rénaissance movement as the apostle of a new style. The
+peculiarities of his manner soon brought him into notoriety, and a school of
+imitators grouped itself around him. His pride became a proverb. In 1870 he was
+offered the cross of the Legion of Honour, and refused it, arrogantly declaring
+that he would have none of a distinction given to tradesmen and ministers. The
+part he took in the destruction of the Colonne Vendôme is familiar to all
+readers of the English press. Three weeks after the fall of the Commune he was
+denounced by a Federal officer, and discovered at the house of a friend hiding
+in a wardrobe, and in September was condemned by the tribunal at Versailles to
+six months&rsquo; imprisonment and a fine of 600 francs&mdash;a slight penalty
+that astonished everyone.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LII."></a> LII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+It is forbidden to cross the Place Vendôme, and
+naturally, walking there is prohibited too. I had been prowling
+about every afternoon for the last few days, trying to pass the
+sentinels of the Rue de la Paix, hoping that some lucky chance
+might enable me to evade the military order; all I got for my
+pains was a sharply articulated &ldquo;<i>Passes au large!</i>&rdquo; and I
+remained shut out.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To-day, as I was watching for a favourable opportunity, a
+<i>petite dame</i> who held up her skirts to show her stockings,
+which were as red as the flag of the Hôtel de
+Ville&mdash;out upon you for a female Communist!&mdash;approached
+the sentinel and addressed him with her most gracious, smile. And
+oh, these Federals! The man in office forgot his duty, and at
+once began with the lady a conversation of such an intimate
+description, that for discretion&rsquo;s sake I felt myself obliged to
+take a slight turn to the left, and a minute later I had slipped
+into the forbidden Place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A Place?&mdash;no, a camp it might more properly be called.
+Here and there, are seen a crowd of little tents, which would be
+white if they were washed, and littered about with straw. Under
+the tents lie National Guards; they are not seen, but plainly
+heard, for they are snoring. You remember the absurd old bit of
+chop-logic often repeated in the classes of philosophy? One might
+apply it thus: he sleeps well who has a good conscience; the
+Federals sleep well; ergo, the Federals have a good conscience.
+Guards walk to and fro with their pipes in their mouths. If I
+were to say that these honourable Communists show by their easy
+manner, gentlemanly bearing, and superior conversation, that they
+belong to the cream of Parisian society, you would perhaps be
+impertinent enough not to believe one word of what I said. I
+think it, therefore, preferable in every way to assert the direct
+contrary. There is a group of them flinging away their pay at the
+usual game of <i>bouchon</i>. &ldquo;The Soldier&rsquo;s Pay and the Game of
+Cork&rdquo; is the title that might be given by those who would write
+the history of the National Guard from the beginning of the siege
+to the present time. And if to the cork they added the bottle,
+they might pride themselves upon having found a perfect one. This
+is how it comes to pass. The wife is hungry, and the children are
+hungry, but the father is thirsty, and he receives the pay. What
+does he do? He is thirsty, and he must drink; one must think of
+oneself in this world. When he has satisfied his thirst, what
+remains? A few sous, the empty bottle, and the cork. Very good.
+He plays his last sou on the famous game, and in the evening,
+when he returns home, he carries to his
+family&mdash;what?&mdash;the empty bottle!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the Place two barricades have been made, one across the Rue
+de la Paix, and the other before the Rue Castiglione. &ldquo;Two
+formidable barricades,&rdquo; say the newspapers, which may be read
+thus: &ldquo;A heap of paving stones to the right, and a heap of paving
+stones to the left.&rdquo; I whisper to myself that two small
+field-pieces, one on the place of the New Opera-house, and the
+other at the Rue de Rivoli, would not be long before they got the
+better of these two barricades, in spite of the guns that here
+and there display their long, bright cylinders.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Federals have decidedly a taste for gallantry. About
+twenty women&mdash;I say young women, but not pretty
+women&mdash;are selling coffee to the National Guards, and add to
+their change a few ogling smiles meant to be engaging.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As to the Column, it has not the least appearance of being
+frightened by the decree of the Commune which threatens it with a
+speedy fall. There it stands like a huge bronze I, and the
+emperor is the dot upon it. The four eagles are still there, at
+the four corners of the pedestal, with their wreaths of
+immortelles, and the two red flags which wave from the top seem
+but little out of place. The column is like the ancient honour of
+France, that neither decrees nor bayonets can intimidate, and
+which in the midst of threats and tumult, holds itself aloft in
+serene and noble dignity.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LIII."></a> LIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Who would think it? They are voting. When I say &ldquo;they are
+voting,&rdquo; I mean to say &ldquo;they might vote;&rdquo; for as for going to the
+poll, Paris seems to trouble itself but little about it. The
+Commune, too, seems somewhat embarrassed. You remember Victor
+Hugo&rsquo;s song of the Adventurers of the Sea:
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;En partant du golfe d&rsquo;Otrente<br/>
+    Nous étions trente,<br/>
+Mais en arrivant à Cadix<br/>
+    Nous n&rsquo;étions que dix.&rdquo;<a href="#fn-59" name="fnref-59"
+id="fnref-59"><sup>[59]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The gentlemen of the Hôtel de Ville might sing this song
+with a few slight variations. The Gulf of Otranto was not their
+starting point, but the Buttes Montmartre; though to make up for
+it they were eighty in number. On arriving at C&mdash;&mdash;,
+no, I mean, the decree of the Colonne Vendôme, they were a
+few more than ten, but not many. What charming stanzas in
+imitation of Victor Hugo might Théodore de Banville and
+Albert Glatigny write on the successive desertions of the members
+of the Commune. The first to withdraw were the <i>maires</i> of
+Paris, frightened to death at having been sent by the votes of
+their fellow-citizens into an assembly which was not at all, it
+appears, their ideal of a municipal council. And upon this
+subject Monsieur Desmarest, Monsieur Tirard, and their
+<i>adjoints</i> will perhaps permit me an unimportant question.
+What right had they to persuade their electors and the Friends of
+Order, to vote for the Commune of Paris if they were resolved to
+decline all responsibility when the votes had been given them?
+Their presence at the Hôtel de Ville, would it not have
+infused&mdash;as we hoped&mdash;a powerful spirit of moderation
+even in the midst of excesses that could even then be foretold?
+When they have done all they can to persuade people to vote, have
+they the right to consider themselves ineligible? In a word, why
+did they propose to us to elect the Commune of Paris if the
+Commune were a bad thing? and if it were a good thing, why did
+they refuse to take their part in it? Whatever the cause, no
+sooner were they elected than they sent in their resignations.
+Then the hesitating and the timid disappeared one after another,
+not having the courage to continue the absurdity to the end. Add
+to all this the arrests made in its very bosom by the Assembly of
+the Hôtel de Ville itself, and you will then have an idea
+of the extent of the dilemma. A few days more and the Commune
+will come to an end for want of Communists, and then we shall
+cry, &ldquo;Haste to the poll, citizens of Paris!&rdquo; And the white
+official handbills will announce supplementary elections for
+Sunday, 16th of April.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But here comes the difficulty; there may be elections, but not
+the shadow of an elector. Of candidates there are enough, more
+than enough, even to spare; Toting lists where the electors&rsquo;
+names are inscribed; ballot-urns-no, ballot-boxes this time-to
+receive the lists; these are all to be found, but voters to put
+the lists into the ballot-boxes, to elect the candidates, we seek
+them in vain. The voting localities may be compared to the desert
+of Sahara viewed at the moment when not a caravan is to be seen
+on the whole extent of the horizon, so complete is the solitude
+wherever the eager crowd of voters was expected to hasten to the
+poll. Are we then so far from the day when the Commune of Paris,
+in spite of the numerous absentees, was formed&mdash;thanks to
+the strenuous efforts of the few electors left to us? Alas! At
+that time we had still some illusions left to us, whilst now....
+Have you ever been at the second representation of a piece when
+the first was a failure? The first day there was a cram, the
+second day only the claque remained. People had found oat the
+worth of the piece, you see. Nevertheless, though the place is
+peopled only with silence and solitude, the claque continues to
+do its duty, for it receives its pay. For the same reason one
+sees a few battalions marching to the poll, all together, in
+step, just as they would march to the fighting at the Porte
+Maillot; and as they return they cry, &ldquo;Oh! citizens, how the
+people are voting! Never was such enthusiasm seen!&rdquo; But behind
+the scenes,&mdash;I mean in the Hôtel de
+Ville,&mdash;authors and actors whisper to each other: &ldquo;There is
+no doubt about it, it is a failure!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-59" id="fn-59"></a> <a href="#fnref-59">[59]</a><br/>
+On leaving the gulf of Otranto<br/>
+    There were thirty of us there,<br/>
+But on arriving at Cadiz<br/>
+    There were no more than ten.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LIV."></a> LIV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+And what has become of the Bourse? What are the brokers and jobbers saying and
+doing now? I ask myself this question for the first time, as in ordinary
+circumstances, the Bourse is of all sublunary things that which occupies me the
+least. I am one of those excessively stupid people, who have never yet been
+able to understand how all those black-coated individuals can occupy three
+mortal hours of every day, in coming and going beneath the colonnade of the
+&ldquo;temple of Plutus.&rdquo; I know perfectly well that stockbrokers and
+jobbers exist; but if I were asked what these stockbrokers and jobbers do, I
+should be incapable of answering a single word. We have all our special
+ignorances. I have heard, it is true, of the <i>Corbeille</i>,<a href="#fn-60"
+name="fnref-60" id="fnref-60"><sup>[60]</sup></a> but I ingeniously imagined,
+in my simple ignorance, that this famous basket was made in wicker work, and
+crammed with sweet-scented leaves and flowers, which the gentlemen of the
+Bourse, with the true gallantry of their nation, made up into emblematical
+bouquets to offer to their lady friends. I was shown, however, how much I was
+deceived by a friend who enlightened me, more or less, as to what is really
+done in the Bourse in usual times, and what they are doing there now.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I must begin by acknowledging that in using the worn metaphor
+of the &ldquo;temple of Plutus&rdquo; just now, I knew little of what I was
+talking about.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Bourse is not a temple; if it were it would necessarily be
+a church or something like one, and consequently would have been
+closed long ago by our most gracious sovereign, the Commune of
+Paris.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Bourse, then, is open; but what is the good of that? you
+will say, for all those who haunt it now, could get in just as
+well through closed doors and opposing railings; spectres and
+other supernatural beings never find any difficulty in
+insinuating themselves through keyholes and slipping between
+bars. &lsquo;Poor phantoms! Thanks to the weakness of our Government,
+which has neglected to put seals on the portals of the Bourse,
+they are under the obligation of going in and coming out like the
+most ordinary individuals; and a Parisian, who has not learned,
+by a long intimacy with Hoffmann and Edgar Poë, to
+distinguish the living from the dead, might take these ghosts of
+the money-market for simple <i>boursiers</i>. Thank heaven! I am
+not a man to allow myself to be deceived by specious appearances
+on such a subject, and I saw at once with whom I had to do.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the grand staircase there were four or five of them,
+spectres lean as vampires who have not sucked blood for three
+months; they were walking in silence, with the creeping, furtive
+step peculiar to apparitions who glide among the yew-trees in
+church-yards. From time to time one of them pulled a ghost of a
+notebook from his ghost of a waistcoat-pocket, and wrote
+appearances of notes with the shadow of a pencil. Others gathered
+together in groups, and one could distinctly hear the rattling of
+bones beneath their shadowy overcoats. They spoke in that
+peculiar voice which is only understood by the
+<i>confrères</i> of the magi Eliphas Levy, and they recall
+to each other&rsquo;s mind the quotations of former days, Austrian
+funds triumphant, Government stock at 70 (<i>quantum mutata ab
+illâ</i>), bonds of the city of Paris 1860-1869, and the
+fugitive apotheosis of the Suez shares. They said with sighs:
+&ldquo;You remember the premiums? In former times there were reports
+made, in former times there were settling days at the end of the
+month, and huge pocket-book&rsquo;s were so well filled, that they
+nearly burst; but now, we wander amidst the ruins of our defunct
+splendour, as the shade of Diomedes wandered amid the ruins of
+his house at Pompeii. We are of those who were; the imaginary
+quotations of shares that have disappeared, are like vain
+epitaphs on tombs, and we, despairing ghosts, we should die a
+second time of grief, if we were not allowed to appear to each
+other in this deserted palace, here to brood over our past
+financial glories!&rdquo; Thus spoke the phantoms of the money market,
+and then added: &ldquo;Oh! Commune, Commune, give us back our settling
+days?&rdquo; From time to time a phantom, which still retains its
+haughty air, and in which we recognise a defunct of distinction,
+passes near them. In the days of Napoleon the Third and the
+Prussians this was a stockbroker; it passed along with a mass of
+documents under its arm,&mdash;as the father of Hamlet, rising
+from the grave, still wore his helmet and his sword. It enters
+the building, goes towards the <i>Corbeille</i>, shouts out once
+or twice, is answered only by an echo in the solitude, and then
+returns, saluted on his passage by his fellow-ghost. And to think
+that a little bombardment, followed by a successful attack, seven
+or eight houses set on fire by the Versailles shells, seven or
+eight hundred Federals shot, a few women blown to pieces, and a
+few children killed, would suffice to restore these desolate
+spectres to life and joy. But, alas! hope for them is deferred;
+the last circular of Monsieur Thiers announces that the great
+military operations will not commence for several days. They must
+wait still longer yet. The people who cross the Place de la
+Bourse draw aside with a sort of religious terror from the
+necropolis where sleep the three per cents and the shares of the
+<i>Crédit Foncier</i>; and if the churches were not
+closed, more than one charitable soul would perhaps burn a candle
+to lay the unquiet spirits of these despairing jobbers.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-60" id="fn-60"></a> <a href="#fnref-60">[60]</a>
+A circular space in the great hall of the Bourse, enclosed with a railing, and
+in which the stockbrokers stand to take bids. It is nicknamed the basket
+(<i>corbeille</i>).
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LV."></a> LV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+The game is played, the Commune is <i>au complet</i>. In the
+first arrondissement 21260 electors, are inscribed, and there
+were 9 voters! Monsieur Vésinier had 2 votes, and Monsieur
+Vésinier was elected. Monsieur Lacord&mdash;more clever
+still&mdash;has no votes at all, and, triumphing by the unanimity
+of his electors, Monsieur Lacord will preside over the Commune of
+Paris in future. A very logical arrangement. It must be evident
+to all serious minds that the legislators of the Hôtel de
+Ville have promulgated <i>in petto</i> a law which they did not
+think it necessary to make known, but which exists nevertheless,
+and most be couched somewhat in the following
+terms:&mdash;&ldquo;Clause 1st. The elections will not be considered
+valid, if the number of voters exceed a thousandth part of the
+electors entered.&mdash;Clause 2nd. Every candidate who has less
+than fifteen votes will be elected; if he has sixteen his
+election will be a matter of discussion.&rdquo; The poll is just like
+the game called, &ldquo;He who loses gains, and he who gains loses!&rdquo;
+and the probable advantages of such an arrangement are seen at
+once. Now let us do a bit of Communal reasoning. By whom was
+France led within an inch of destruction? By Napoleon the Third.
+How many votes did Napoleon the Third obtain? Seven millions and
+more. By whom was Paris delivered into the hands of the
+Prussians? By the dictators of the 4th September. How many votes
+did the dictators of the 4th September get for themselves in the
+city of Paris? More than three hundred thousand. <i>Ergo</i>, the
+candidates who obtain the greatest number of votes are swindlers
+and fools. The Commune of Paris cannot allow such abuses to
+exist; the Commune maintains universal suffrage&mdash;the grand
+basis of republican institutions&mdash;but turns it topsy-turvy.
+Michon has only had half a vote,&mdash;then Michon is our
+master!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ah! you do not only make us tremble and weep, you make us laugh too. What is
+this miserable parody of universal suffrage? What is this farce of the will of
+the people being represented by a half a dozen electors? The unknown
+individual, who owes his triumph to the kindness of his concierge and his
+water-carrier, becomes a member of the Commune. I shall be governed by
+Vésinier, with Briosne and Viard as supporters. Do you not see that the few
+men, with any sense left, who still support you, have refused to present
+themselves as candidates, and that even amongst those who were mad enough to
+declare themselves eligible, there are some who dispute the validity of the
+elections? No; you see nothing of all this, or rather it suits you to be blind.
+What are right and justice to you? Let us reign, let us govern, let us decree,
+let us triumph. All is contained in that. Rogeard pleases us, so we&rsquo;ll
+have Rogeard. If the people won&rsquo;t have Rogeard, so much the worse for the
+people. Beautiful! admirable! But why don&rsquo;t you speak out your opinion
+frankly? There were some honest brigands (<i>par pari refertur</i>) in the
+Roman States who were perhaps no better than you are, but at least they made no
+pretension of being otherwise than lawless, and followed their calling of
+brigands without hypocrisy. When, by the course of various adventures, the band
+got diminished in numbers, they stuck no handbills on the walls to invite
+people to elect new brigands to fill up the vacant places; they simply chose
+among the vagabonds and such like individuals those, who seemed to them, the
+most capable of dealing a blow with a stiletto or stripping a traveller of his
+valuables, and the band, thus properly reinforced, went about its usual
+occupations. The devil! <i>Messieurs</i>, one must say what is what, and call
+things by their names. Let us call a cat a cat, and Pilotel a thief. The time
+of illusions is past; you need not be so careful to keep your masks on; we have
+seen your faces. We have had the carnival of the Commune, and now Ash-Wednesday
+is come. You disguised yourselves cunningly, <i>Messieurs</i>; you routed out
+from the old cupboards and corners of history the cast-off revolutionary rags
+of the men of &rsquo;98; and, sticking some ornaments of the present fashion
+upon them,&mdash;waistcoats à la Commune and hats à la Federation,&mdash;you
+dressed yourselves up in them and then struck attitudes. People perceived, it
+is true, that the clothes that were made for giants, were too wide for you
+pigmies; they hung round your figures like collapsed balloons; but you, cunning
+that you were, you said, &ldquo;We have been wasted by persecution.&rdquo; And
+when, at the very beginning, some stains of blood were seen upon your old
+disguises; &ldquo;Pay no attention,&rdquo; said you, &ldquo;it is only the red
+flag we have in our pockets that is sticking out.&rdquo; And it happened that
+some few believed you. We ourselves, in the very face of all our suspicions,
+let ourselves be caught by the waving of your big Scaramouche sleeves, that
+were a great deal too long for your arms. Then you talked of such beautiful
+things: liberty, emancipation of workmen, association of the working-classes,
+that we listened and thought we would see you at your task before we condemned
+you utterly. And now we have seen you at your task, and knowing how you work,
+we won&rsquo;t give you any more work to do. Down with your mask, I tell you!
+Come, false Danton, be Rigault again, and let Sérailler&rsquo;s<a href="#fn-61"
+name="fnref-61" id="fnref-61"><sup>[61]</sup></a> face come out from behind
+that Saint Just mask he has on. You, Napoléon Gaillard, though you are a
+shoemaker, you are not even a Simon. Drop the Robespierre, Rogeard! Off with
+the trappings borrowed from the dark, grand days! Be mean, small, and
+ridiculous,&mdash;be yourselves; we shall all be a great deal more at our ease
+when you are despicable and we are despising you again.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Paris said to you yesterday just what I am telling you now.
+This almost general abstention of electors, compared with the
+eagerness of former times, is but the avowal of the error to
+which your masquerade has given rise. And what does it prove but
+the resolution to mix in your carnival no more? We see clearly
+through it now, I tell you, that the saturnalia is wearing to its
+end. In vain does the orchestra of cannon and mitrailleuses,
+under the direction of the conductor, Cluseret, play madly on and
+invite us to the fête. We will dance no more, and there is
+an end of it!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But it will be fatal to Paris if, after saying this, she sit
+satisfied. Contempt is not enough, there must be abhorrence too,
+and actual measures taken against those we abhor. It is not
+sufficient to neglect the poll, one abstains when one is in
+doubt, but now that we doubt no longer it is time to act. While
+wrongful work is being done, those that stand aside with folded
+arms become accomplices. Think that for more than a fortnight the
+firing has not ceased; that Neuilly and Asnières have been
+turned into cemeteries; that husbands are falling, wives weeping,
+children suffering. Think that yesterday, the 18th of April, the
+chapel of Longchamps became a dependance&mdash;an extra
+dead-house&mdash;of the ambulances of the Press, so numerous were
+that day&rsquo;s dead. Think of the savage decrees passed upon the
+hostages and the refractory, those who shunned the Federates; of
+the requisitions and robberies; of the crowded prisons and the
+empty workshops, of the possible massacres and the certain
+pillage. Think of our own compromised honour, and let us be up
+and doing, so that those who have remained in Paris during these
+mournful hours, shall not have stood by her only to see her fall
+and die.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-61" id="fn-61"></a> <a href="#fnref-61">[61]</a>
+Sérailler, a member of the International, intrusted with a commission to London
+on behalf of the Central Committee to borrow cash for the daily pay of thirty
+sous to the National Guard.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LVI."></a> LVI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Paris! for once I defy you to remain indifferent. You have had much to bear,
+during these latter days; it has been said to you, that you should kneel in
+your churches no more, and you have not knelt there; that the newspapers that
+pleased you, should be read no more, and you have not read them. You have
+continued to smile&mdash;with but the tips of your lips, it is true&mdash;and
+to promenade on the boulevards. But now comes stalking on that which will make
+you shudder indeed! Do you know what I have just read in the <i>Indépendance
+Belge</i>? Ah! poor Paris, the days of your glory are past, your ancient fame
+is destroyed, the old nursery rhyme will mock you, &ldquo;<i>Vous n&rsquo;irez
+plus au Bois, vos lauriers sont coupés.</i>&rdquo;<a href="#fn-62"
+name="fnref-62" id="fnref-62"><sup>[62]</sup></a> This is what has happened;
+you are supplanted on the throne of fashion. The world, uneasy about the form
+of bonnet to be worn this sorrowful year, and seeing you occupied with your
+internal discords, anxiously turned to London for help, and London henceforth
+dictates to all the modistes of the universe. City of desolation, I pity you!
+No more will you impose your sovereign laws, concerning
+<i>Suivez-moi-jeune-homme</i><a href="#fn-63" name="fnref-63"
+id="fnref-63"><sup>[63]</sup></a> and dog-skin gloves. No more will your boots
+and shirt-collars reach, by the force of their reputation, the sparely-dressed
+inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands. And, deepest of humiliations, it is your
+old rival, it is your tall and angular sister, it is the black city of London,
+who takes your glittering sword and transforms it into a policeman&rsquo;s
+baton of wood! You are destined to see within your walls&mdash;if any walls
+remain to you&mdash;your own wives and daughters clog their dainty tread with
+encumbrances of English leather, flatten their heads beneath mushroom-shaped
+hats, surround themselves with crinoline and flounces, and wear magenta, that
+abominable mixture of red and blue which always filled your soul with horror.
+Then, to increase the resemblance of your Parisian women with the Londoners or
+Cockneys (for it is time you learnt the fashionable language of England), your
+dentists will sell them new sets of teeth, called insular sets, which can be
+fitted over their natural front teeth, and will protrude about a third of an
+inch beyond the upper lip. And they will have corsets offered them whose aim is
+to prolong the waist to the farthest possible limits and compress the fairest
+forms&mdash;a fact, for report says they lace in London, whilst here we have
+nearly abandoned the corset. Well, my Paris, do you tremble and shiver? Oh!
+when those days of horror come to pass! when you see that not only have you
+forfeited your pride, but your vanity too; when you are convinced that the
+Commune has not only rendered you odious, but ridiculous as well; ah! then,
+when you wear bonnets that you have not invented, how deeply will you regret
+that you did not rebel on that day, when some of the best of your citizens were
+put <i>au secret</i> in the cells of Mazas prison!<a href="#fn-64"
+name="fnref-64" id="fnref-64"><sup>[64]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-62" id="fn-62"></a> <a href="#fnref-62">[62]</a>
+The refrain of a nursery song,&mdash;<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Go no more to the wood, for all the laurels are cut.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-63" id="fn-63"></a> <a href="#fnref-63">[63]</a>
+The long floating ends of the neck ribbons.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-64" id="fn-64"></a> <a href="#fnref-64">[64]</a>
+The Parisian play-writer&rsquo;s English exhibits all the typical peculiarities
+noted above. We have our ideal, if not typical, Frenchman, little less truthful
+perhaps&mdash;taken from refugees and excursionists, from the close-cropped,
+dingy denizen of Leicester Square; our tourist suits, heavy pedestrian toots,
+&ldquo;wide-awakes,&rdquo; and faded fashions, used up in travel&mdash;all
+these things are put down to insular peculiarities.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LVII."></a> LVII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+I have just heard or read, a touching story; and here it is as
+I remember it. In the Faubourg Saint Antoine lives a community of
+women with whom the aged of the poor find shelter; those who have
+become infirm, or have dropped into helpless childishness,
+whether men or women, are received there without question or
+payment. There they are lodged, fed and clothed, and humbly
+prayed for.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Last evening, sleep was just beginning to reign in the little
+community. The old people had been put to rest, each Little
+Sister had done her duty and was asleep, when the report of a gun
+resounded at the house-door. You can imagine the startings and
+the terror. The Little Sisters of the poor are not accustomed to
+have such noises in their ears, and there was a tumult and hubbub
+such as the house had never known, while they hurriedly rose, and
+the old people stared at each other from their white beds in the
+long dormitories. When the house-door was got open, a party of
+men, with a menacing look about them, strode in with their guns
+and swords, making a horrible racket. One of them was the chief,
+and he had a great beard and a terrible voice. All the Little
+Sisters gathered in a trembling crowd about the superior.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Shut the doors,&rdquo; cried the captain, &ldquo;and if one of these
+women attempt to escape&mdash;one, two, three, fire!&rdquo; Then the
+Good Mother&mdash;that is the Little Sisters&rsquo; name for their
+superior&mdash;made a step forward and said, &ldquo;What do you wish,
+messieurs?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Citizens, <i>sacrebleu!</i>&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Good Mother crossed herself and, repeated, &ldquo;What do you
+wish, my brothers?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-32"></a>
+<img src="images/037.jpg" width="370" height="600" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Federal Visit to the Little Sisters of The Poor.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;That I will,&rdquo; bravely answered the captain; &ldquo;give me your
+hand. And now, if any one wants to harm you, he will have me to
+deal with first.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A few minutes later, the National Guards were gone, the Little
+Sisters and the old nurslings were at rest again, and the house
+was just as silent and peaceful as if it were no abominable
+resort of plotters and conspirators.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But if I had been the Commune of Paris, would I not have shot
+that captain!
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LVIII."></a> LVIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+The people of the Hôtel de Ville said to themselves,
+&ldquo;All our fine doings and talking come to nothing, the delegate
+Cluseret and the commandant Dombrowski send us the most
+encouraging despatches in vain, we shall never succeed in
+persuading the Parisian population, that our struggle against the
+army of Versailles is a long string of decisive victories;
+whatever we may do, they will finish by finding out that the
+federate battalions gave way strangely in face of the iron-plated
+mitrailleuses the day before yesterday at Asnières, and it
+would be difficult to make them believe that this village, so
+celebrated for fried fish and Paris Cockneys, is still in our
+possession, unless we can manage to persuade them that although
+we have evacuated Asnières, we still energetically
+maintain our position there. The fact is, affairs are taking a
+tolerably bad turn for us. How are we to get over the
+inconvenience of being vanquished? What are we to do to destroy
+the bad impression produced by our doubtful triumphs?&rdquo; And
+thereupon the members of the Commune fell to musing. &ldquo;Parbleu!&rdquo;
+cried they, after a few moments&rsquo; reflection&mdash;the elect of
+Paris are capable of more in a single second than all the
+deputies of the National Assembly in three years&mdash;&ldquo;Let
+decrees, proclamations, and placards be prepared. By what means,
+did we succeed in imposing on the donkeys of Paris? Why, by
+decrees, by proclamations, by placards. Courage, then, let us
+persevere. Ha! the traitors have taken the château of
+Bécon, and have seized upon Asnières. What matters!
+quick, eighty pens and eighty inkstands. To work, men of letters;
+painters and shoemakers, to work! Franckel, who is Hungarian;
+Napoléon Gaillard, who is a cobbler; Dombrowski, who is a
+Pole; and Billioray, who writes <i>omelette</i> with an h, will
+make perhaps rather a mess of it. But, thank heaven! We have
+amongst us Félix Pyat, the great dramatist; Pierre Denis,
+who has made such bad verses that he must write good prose; and
+lastly, Vermorel, the author of &lsquo;<i>Ces Dames</i>,&rsquo; a little book
+illustrated with photographs for the use of schools, and
+&lsquo;<i>Desperanza</i>,&rsquo; a novel which caused Gustave Flaubert many a
+nightmare. To work, comrades, to work! We have been asked for a
+long time what we understand by the words&mdash;La Commune. Tell
+them, if you know. Write it, proclaim it, and we will placard it.
+Even if you don&rsquo;t know, tell them all the same; the great art of
+a good cook consists in making jugged hare without hare of any
+kind.&rdquo; And this is why there appeared this morning on the walls
+an immense placard, with the following words in enormous letters:
+&ldquo;Declaration to the French people.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Twenty days ago a long proclamation, which pretended to
+express and define the tendencies of the revolution of the
+eighteenth of March, would perhaps have had some effect. To-day
+we have awaked from many illusions, and the finest phrases in the
+world will not overcome our obstinate indifference. Let us,
+however, read and note.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-33"></a>
+<img src="images/038.jpg" width="332" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Vermorel,<a href="#fn-65" name="fnref-65"
+id="fnref-65"><sup>[65]</sup></a> Delegate of Public Safety.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;In the painful and terrible conflict which once more imposes upon Paris the
+horrors of the siege and the bombardment, which makes French blood flow, which
+causes our brothers, our wives, our children, to perish, crushed by shot and
+shell, it is urgent that public opinion should not be divided, that the
+national conscience should not be troubled.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That&rsquo;s right! I entirely agree with you; it is undoubtedly
+very urgent that public opinion should not be divided. But let us
+see what means you are going to take to obtain so desirable a
+result.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Paris and the whole nation must know what is the nature, the reason, the
+object of the revolution which is now being accomplished.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Doubtless; but if that be indispensable to-day, would it have
+been less useful on the very first day of the revolution; we do
+not see why you have made us wait quite so long for it.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;The responsibility of the mourning, the suffering, and the misfortunes of
+which we are the victims should fall upon those who, after having betrayed
+France and delivered Paris to the foreigner, pursue with blind obstinacy the
+destruction of the capital, in order to bury under the ruins of the Republic
+and of Liberty the double evidence of their treason and their crime.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Heigho! what a phrase! These clear and precise expressions,
+that throw so much light on the gloom of the situation, are these
+yours, Félix Pyat? Did the Commune say &ldquo;<i>Pyat Lux!</i>&rdquo;
+Or were they yours, Pierre Denis? Or yours, Vermorel? I
+particularly admire the double evidence buried under the ruins of
+the Republic. Happy metaphor!
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;The duty of the Commune is to affirm and determine the aspirations and the
+views of the population of Paris; to fix precisely the character of the
+movement of the 18th of March, misunderstood, misinterpreted, and vilified by
+the men who sit at Versailles.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ah, yes, that is the duty of the Commune, but for heaven&rsquo;s
+sake don&rsquo;t keep us waiting, you see we are dying with
+impatience.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Once more, Paris labours and suffers for the whole of France, and by her
+combats and her sacrifices prepares the way for intellectual, moral,
+administrative and economic regeneration, glory and prosperity.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That is so true that since the Commune existed in Paris, the
+workshops are closed, the factories are idle, and France, for
+whom the capital sacrifices herself, loses something like fifty
+millions a day. These are facts, it seems to me; and I don&rsquo;t see
+what the traitors of Versailles can say in reply.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;What does Paris demand?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ah! yes, what does she ask? Truly we should not be sorry to
+know. Or rather, what do you ask; for in the same way as Louis le
+Grand had the right to say, &ldquo;The State, I am the State,&rdquo; you may
+say &ldquo;Paris, we are Paris.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Paris demands the recognition and the consolidation of the Republic, the only
+form of government compatible with the rights of the people, and the regular
+and free development of society.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This once you are right. Paris demands the Republic, and must
+yearn for it eagerly indeed, since neither your excesses nor your
+follies have succeeded in changing its mind.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;It demands the absolute entirety of the Commune extended to all the localities
+of France, ensuring to everyone the integrity of its rights, and to every
+Frenchman the free exercise of his faculties and abilities as man, citizen, and
+workman. The rights of the Commune should have no other limit, but the equal
+rights of all other Communes adhering to the contract, an association which
+would assure the unity of France.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This is a little obscure. What I understand is something like
+this. You would make France a federation of Communes, but what is
+the meaning of words &ldquo;adherence to the contract?&rdquo; You admit then
+that certain Communes might refuse their adhesion. In that case
+what would be the situation of these rebels? Would you leave them
+free? Or would you force them to obey the conventions of the
+majority? Do you think it would be sufficient, in the case of
+such a town as Pezenas, for example, refusing to adhere, that the
+association would be incomplete? That is to say, that French
+unity would not exist? Are you very sure about Pezenas? Who tells
+you that Pezenas may not have its own idea of independence, and
+that, we may not hear presently that it has elected a duke who
+raises an army and coins money. Duke of Pezenas! that sounds
+well. Remember, also, that many other localities might follow the
+example of Pezenas, and perhaps in order to insure the entirety
+of the Commune, it might have been wise to have asked them if
+they wanted it. Now, what do you understand by &ldquo;localities?&rdquo;
+Marseilles is a locality; an isolated farm in the middle of a
+field is also a locality. So France would be divided into an
+infinite number of Communes. Would they agree amongst themselves,
+these innumerable little states? Supposing they are agreed to the
+contract, it is not impossible that petty rivalries should lead
+to quarrels, or even to blows; an action about a party-wall might
+lead to a civil war. How would you reduce the recalcitrant
+localities to reason? for even supposing that the Communes have
+the right to subjugate a Commune, the disaffected one could
+always escape you by declaring that it no longer adheres to the
+social compact. So that if this secession were produced not only
+by the vanity of one or more little hamlets, but by the pride of
+one or more great towns, France would find herself all at once
+deprived of her most important cities. Ah! messieurs, this part
+of your programme certainly leaves something to be desired, and I
+recommend you to improve it, unless indeed you prefer to suppress
+it altogether.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;The inherent rights of the Commune are &lsquo;the vote of the Commmunal budget, the
+levying and the division of taxes, the direction of the local services, the
+organisation of the magistrature, of the police, and of education, and of the
+administration of the property belonging to the Commune.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This paragraph is cunning. It does not seem so at first sight,
+but look at it closely, and you will see that the most
+Machiavellic spirit has presided over its production. The ability
+consists in placing side by side with the rights which
+incontestably belong to the Commune, other rights which do not
+belong to it the least in the world, and in not appearing to
+attach more importance to one than to the other, so that the
+reader, carried away by the evident legitimacy of many of your
+claims, may say to himself, &ldquo;Really all that is very just.&rdquo; Let
+us unravel if you please this skein of red worsted so ingeniously
+tangled. The vote of the Communal budget, receipts and expenses,
+the levying and division of taxes, the administration of the
+Communal property, are rights which certainly belong to the
+Commune; if it had not got them it would not exist. And why do
+they belong to it? Because it alone could know what is good for
+it in these matters, and could come to such decision upon them,
+as it thought fit, without injuring the whole country. But it is
+not the same as regards measures concerning the magistracy, the
+police, and education. Well, suppose one fine day a Commune
+should say, &ldquo;Magistrates? I don&rsquo;t want any magistrates; these
+black-robed gentry are no use to me; let others nourish these
+idlers, who send brave thieves and honest assassins to the
+galleys; I love assassins and I honour thieves, and more, I
+choose that the culprits should judge the magistrates of the
+Republic.&rdquo; Now, if a Commune were to say that, or something like
+that, what could you answer in reply? Absolutely nothing; for,
+according to your system, each locality in France has the right
+to organise its magistracy as it pleases. As regards the police
+and education, it would be easy to make out similar hypotheses,
+and thus to exhibit the absurdity of your Communal pretensions.
+Should a Commune say, &ldquo;No person shall be arrested in future, and
+it is prohibited under pain of death to learn by heart the fable
+of the wolf and the fox.&rdquo; What could you say to that? Nothing,
+unless you admitted that you were mistaken just now in supposing,
+that the integrity of the Commune ought to have no other limit
+but the right of equal independence of all the other Communes.
+There exists another limit, and that is the general interests of
+the country, which cannot permit one part of it to injure the
+rest, by bad example or in any other way; the central power alone
+can judge those questions where a single absurd measure&mdash;of
+which more than one &ldquo;locality&rdquo; may probably be guilty&mdash;might
+compromise the honour or the interests of France; the magistracy,
+the police, and education, are evidently questions of that
+nature.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The other rights of the Commune are, always be it understood,
+according to the declaration made to the French people:
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;The choice by election or competition; with the responsibility and
+    the permanent right of control over magistrates and communal
+    functionaries of every class;<br/>
+    &ldquo;The absolute guarantee of individual liberty, of liberty of
+    conscience, and of liberty of labour;<br/>
+    &ldquo;The permanent participation of the citizens in Communal affairs by
+    the free manifestations of their opinions, and the free defence of
+    their interests: guarantees to this effect to be given by the
+    Commune, the only power charged with the surveillance and the
+    protection of the full and just exercise of the rights of meeting
+    and publicity;<br/>
+    &ldquo;The organisation of the city defences and of the National Guard,
+    which elects its own officers, and alone ensures the maintenance of
+    order in the city.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With regard to the affirmation of these rights we may repeat
+that which we have said above, that some of them really belong to
+the Commune, but that the greater part of them do not.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;Paris desires nothing more in the way of local guarantees, on
+    condition, let it be understood, of finding in the great central
+    administration ...&rdquo;<br/>
+    &ldquo;... In the great central administration appointed by the federated
+    Commune the realisation and the practice of the same principles.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That is to say, in other words, that Paris will consent
+willingly to be of the same opinion as others, if all the world
+is of the same opinion as itself.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;But, thanks to its independence, and profiting by its liberty of action, Paris
+reserves to itself the right of effecting, as it pleases, the administrative
+and economic reforms demanded by the population; to create proper institutions
+for the development and propagation of instruction, production, commerce, and
+credit; to universalize power and property,...&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whew! Universalize property! Pray what does that mean, may I
+ask? Communalism here presents a singular likeness to
+Communism!
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;... According to the necessities of the moment, the desire of those
+    interested, and the lessons famished by experience:<br/>
+    &ldquo;Our enemies deceive themselves or the country when they accuse
+    Paris of wishing to impose its will or its supremacy on the rest of
+    the nation, and to pretend to a dictatorship which would be a
+    positive offence against the independence and the sovereignty of the
+    other Communes:<br/>
+    &ldquo;They deceive themselves, or they deceive the country, when they
+    accuse Paris of desiring the destruction of French unity,
+    constituted by the Revolution amid the acclamations of our fathers
+    hurrying to the Festival of the Federation from all points of
+    ancient France:<br/>
+    &ldquo;Political unity as imposed upon us up to the present time by the
+    empire, the monarchy, and parliamentarism, is nothing more than
+    despotic centralization, whether intelligent, arbitrary, or onerous.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Political unity, such as Paris demands, is the voluntary
+    association of all local initiatives, the spontaneous and free
+    cooperation of individual energies with one single common
+    object&mdash;the well-being and the security of all.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The Communal revolution, inaugurated by the popular action of the
+    18th of March, ushers in a new era of experimental, positive, and
+    scientific politics.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Do you not think that during the last paragraphs the tone of
+the declaration is somewhat modified? It would seem as though
+Felix Pyat had become tired, and handed the pen to Pierre Denis
+or to Delescluze,&mdash;after Communalism comes socialism.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Communal revolution is the end of the old governmental and clerical world, of
+militarism, of officialism (this new editor seems fond of words ending in ism),
+of exploitation, of commission, of monopolies, and of privileges to which the
+proletariat owes his thralldom, and the country her misfortunes and disasters.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of course there is nothing in the world that would please me
+better; but if I were very certain that Citizen Rigault did not
+possess an improved glass enabling him to observe me from a
+distance of several miles, without leaving his study or his
+armchair, if I were very certain that Citizen Rigault could not
+read over my shoulder what I am writing at this moment, I might
+perhaps venture to insinuate, that the revolution of the 18th of
+March appears to me to be, at the present moment, the apotheosis
+of most of the crimes which it pretends to have suppressed.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Let then our grand and beloved country, deceived by falsehood and calumnies,
+be reassured!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Well, in order that she may be reassured there is only one
+thing to be done,&mdash;be off with you!
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;The struggle going on between Paris and Versailles is one of those
+    which can never be terminated by deceitful compromises. There can be
+    no doubt as to the issue. (Oh, no! there is no doubt about it.)
+    Victory, pursued with indomitable energy by the National Guard, will
+    remain with principle and justice.<br/>
+    We ask it of France.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Where is the necessity, since you have the indomitable energy
+of the National Guard?&rdquo;.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Convinced that Paris under arms possesses as much calmness as bravery ...&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+You will find that a very difficult thing to persuade France
+to believe.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;... That it maintains order with equal energy and enthusiasm ...&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Order? No doubt, that which reigned at Warsaw; the order that
+reigned on the day after the 2nd of December.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;... That it sacrifices itself with as much judgment as heroism ...&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yes; the judgment of a man who throws himself out of a
+fourth-floor window to prove that his head is harder than the
+paving-stones.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;... That it is only armed through devotion for the glory and liberty of
+all&mdash;let France cause this bloody conflict to cease!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She&rsquo;ll cause it to cease, never fear, but not in the way you
+understand it.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;It is for France to disarm Versailles ...&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Up to the present time she has certainly done precisely the
+contrary.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;... by the manifestations of her irresistible will. As she will be partaker in
+our conquests, let her take part in our efforts, let her be our ally in this
+conflict, which can only finish by the triumph of the Communal idea, or the
+ruin of Paris.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The ruin of Paris! That is only, I suppose, a figurative
+expression.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;For ourselves, citizens of Paris, it is our mission to accomplish
+    the modern revolution, the grandest and most fruitful of all those
+    that have illuminated history.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Our duty is to struggle and to conquer!<br/>
+    &ldquo;THE COMMUNE OF PARIS.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such is this long, emphatic, but often obscure declaration. It
+is not wanting, however, in a certain eloquence; and, although
+frequently disfigured by glaring exaggerations, it contains here
+and there some just ideas, or at least, such as conform to the
+views of the great majority. Will it destroy the bad effect
+produced by the successive defeats of the Federals at Neuilly and
+at Asnières? Will it produce any good feeling towards the
+Commune in the minds of those who are daily drawing farther and
+farther from the men of the Commune? No; it is too late. Had this
+proclamation been placarded fifteen or twenty days sooner, some
+parts of it might have been approved and the rest discussed.
+Today we pass it by with a smile. Ah! many things have happened
+during the last three days. The acts of the Commune of Paris no
+longer allow us to take its declarations seriously, and we look
+upon its members as too mad&mdash;if not worse&mdash;to believe
+that by any accident they can be reasonable. These men have
+finished by rendering detestable whatever good there originally
+was in their idea.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-65" id="fn-65"></a> <a href="#fnref-65">[65]</a>
+He was born in 1841, in the department of the Rhône. His education was
+completed very early. At the age of twenty he was engaged on two journals of
+the opposition, <i>La Jeune France</i>, and <i>La Jeunesse</i>. Those papers
+were soon suppressed, and their young contributor was imprisoned for three
+months. In 1864 he became one of the staff of the <i>Presse</i>, whence he
+passed to the <i>Liberté</i> in 1866. Two years later he founded the
+<i>Courrier Français</i>; but from the multiplicity of fines imposed upon it,
+and from the imprisonment of its founder, the new journal expired very shortly.
+After a year&rsquo;s incarceration at Sainte-Pélagie, Vermorel was engaged on
+the <i>Réforme</i>, which continued to appear until the fall of the Empire.
+During the siege he served as a private in the National Guard. He became a
+member of the Committee of Justice under the Commune, and was one of those who,
+at its fall, neither deserted nor disgraced it. He is reported to have mounted
+a barricade armed only with a cane, crying &ldquo;I come here to die and not to
+fight.&rdquo; His mother obtained permission to transport his remains to
+Venice.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LIX."></a> LIX.</h2>
+
+<p>
+We have a court-martial; it is presided over by the citizen
+Rossel, chief of the grand staff of the army. It has just
+condemned to death the Commandant Girod, who refused to march
+against the &ldquo;enemy.&rdquo; The Executive Committee, however, has
+pardoned Commandant Girod. Let us look at this matter a little.
+If the Executive Committee occupies its time in undoing what the
+court-martial has done, I can&rsquo;t quite understand why the
+executive has instituted a court-martial at all. If I were a
+member of the latter I should get angry. &ldquo;What! I should say,
+they instal me in the hall where the courts-martial are held,
+they appoint guards to attend upon me, and my president has the
+right to say, &lsquo;Guards, remove the prisoner.&rsquo; In a word, they
+convert me into something which resembles a judge as much as a
+parody can resemble the work burlesqued, and when I, a member of
+the court-martial, desire to take advantage of the rights that
+have been conferred upon me, and order the Commandant Girod to be
+shot, they stand in the way of justice, and save the life of him
+I have condemned. This is absurd! I had a liking for this
+commandant, and I wished him to die by my hands.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Never mind, court-martial, take it coolly; you will have your
+revenge before long. At this moment there are at least
+sixty-three ecclesiastics in the prisons of Mazas, the
+Conciergerie, and La Santé. Although they are not
+precisely soldiers, they will be sent before you to be judged,
+and you may do just what you like with them, without any fear of
+the executive commission interposing its veto. The refractory
+also will give you work to do, and against them you can exercise
+your pleasure. As to the Commandant Girod, his is a different
+case, you understand. He is the friend of citizen Delescluze. The
+members of the Commune have not so many friends that they can
+afford to have any of them suppressed. But don&rsquo;t be downcast; a
+dozen priests are well worth a major of the National Guard.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LX."></a> LX.</h2>
+
+<p>
+It is precisely because the men that the Commune sends to the
+front, fight and die so gloriously, that we feel exasperated
+against its members. A curse upon them, for thus wasting the
+moral riches of Paris! Confusion to them, for enlisting into so
+bad a service, the first-rate forces which a successful revolt
+leaves at their disposal. I will tell you what happened
+yesterday, the 22nd of April, on the Boulevard Bineau; and then I
+think you will agree with me that France, who has lost so much,
+still retains some of the bright, dauntless courage which was
+her. pride of old.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A trumpeter, a mere lad of seventeen, was marching at the head
+of his detachment, which had been ordered to take possession of a
+barricade that the Versailles troops were supposed to have
+abandoned. When I say, &ldquo;he marched,&rdquo; I am making a most incorrect
+statement, for he turned somersets and executed flying leaps on
+the road, far in advance of his comrades, until his progress was
+arrested by the barricade; this he greeted with a mocking
+gesture, and then, with a bound or two, was on the other side.
+There had been some mistake, the barricade had not been
+abandoned. Our young trumpeter was immediately surrounded by a
+pretty large number of troops of the line, who had lain hidden
+among the sacks of earth and piles of stones, in the hope of
+surprising the company which was advancing towards them. Several
+rifles were pointed at the poor boy, and a sergeant said: &ldquo;If you
+move a foot, if you utter a sound, you die!&rdquo; The lad&rsquo;s reply was
+to leap to the highest part of the barricade and cry out, with
+all the strength of his young voice, &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t come on! They are
+here!&rdquo; Then he fell backwards, pierced by four balls, but his
+comrades were saved!
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXI."></a> LXI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Another, and a sadder scene happened in the Avenue des Ternes.
+A funeral procession was passing along. The coffin, borne by two
+men, was very small, the coffin of a young child. The father, a
+workman in a blouse, walked behind with a little knot of other
+mourners. A sad sight, but the catastrophe was horrible. Suddenly
+a shell from Mont Valérien fell on the tiny coffin, and,
+bursting, scattered the remains of the dead child upon the living
+father. The corpse was entirely destroyed, with the trappings
+that had surrounded it. Massacring the dead! Truly those cannons
+are a wonderful, a refined invention!
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXII."></a> LXII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+At last the unhappy inhabitants of Neuilly are able to leave
+their cellars. For three weeks, they have been hourly expecting
+the roofs of their houses to fall in and crush them; and with
+much difficulty have managed during the quieter moments of the
+day to procure enough to keep them from dying of starvation. For
+three weeks they have endured all the terrors, all the dangers of
+battle and bombardment. Many are dead&mdash;they all thought
+themselves sure to die. Horrible details are told. A little past
+Gilet&rsquo;s restaurant, where the omnibus office used to be, lived an
+old couple, man and wife. At the beginning of the civil war, two
+shells burst, one after another, in their poor lodging,
+destroying every article of furniture. Utterly destitute, they
+took refuge in the cellar, where after a few hours of horrible
+suspense, the old man died. He was seventy, and the fright killed
+him; his wife was younger and stronger, and survived. In the rare
+intervals between the firing she went out and spoke to her
+neighbours through the cellar gratings&mdash;&ldquo;My husband is dead.
+He must be buried; what am I to do?&rdquo;&mdash;Carrying him to the
+cemetery was of course out of the question; no one could have
+been found to render this mournful duty. Besides, the bearers
+would probably have met a shell or a bullet on the way, and then
+others must have been found to carry them. One day, the old woman
+ventured as far as the Porte Maillot, and cried out as loud as
+she could, &ldquo;My husband is dead in a cellar; come and fetch him,
+and let us both through the gates!&rdquo;&mdash;The sentinel
+facetiously (let us hope it was nothing worse) took aim at her
+with his rifle, and she fled back to her cellar. At night, she
+slept by the side of the corpse, and when the light of morning
+filtered into her dreary place of refuge, and lighted up the body
+lying there, she sobbed with grief and terror. Her husband had
+been dead four days, when putrefaction set in, and she, able to
+bear it no longer, rushed out screaming to her neighbours: &ldquo;You
+must bury him, or I will go into the middle of the avenue and
+await death there!&rdquo;&mdash;They took pity on her, and came down
+into her cellar, dug a hole there and put the corpse in it.
+During three weeks she continued there, resting herself on the
+newly-turned earth. To-day, when they went to fetch her she
+fainted with horror; the grave had been dug too shallow, and one
+of the legs of the corpse was exposed to gaze.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-34"></a>
+<img src="images/039.jpg" width="324" height="450" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Female Curiosity at Porte Maillot.<br/>
+&ldquo;Prenez Garde, Mam&rsquo;zelle&rdquo;</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+This morning, the 25th of April, at nine o&rsquo;clock, a dense
+crowd moved up the Champs Elysées: pedestrians of all ages
+and classes, and vehicles of every description. The truce
+obtained by the members of the <i>Republican Union of the rights
+of Paris</i> was about to begin, and relief was to be carried to
+the sufferers at Neuilly. However, some precautions were
+necessary, for neither the shooting nor the cannonade had ceased
+yet, and every moment one expected to see some projectile or
+other fall among the advancing multitude. In the Avenue de la
+Grande Armée a shell had struck a house, and set fire to
+it. Gradually the sound of the artillery diminished, and then
+died away entirely; the crowd hastened to the ramparts.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-35"></a>
+<img src="images/040.jpg" width="500" height="416" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Porte Maillot and Chapel of St. Ferdinand.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="letter">
+The chapel was erected by Louis Philippe in memory of the Duke of Orleans,
+killed on the spot, July 18th, 1842.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Porte Maillot has been entirely destroyed for some time,
+in spite of what the Commune has told us to the contrary; the
+drawbridge is torn from its place, the ruined walls and bastions
+have fallen into the moat. The railway-station is a shapeless
+mass of blackened bricks, broken stones, glass, and iron-work;
+the cutting where the trains used to pass is half filled up with
+the ruins. It is impossible to get along that way. Fancy the
+hopeless confusion here, arising among this myriad of anxious
+beings, these hundreds of carts and waggons, all crowding to the
+same spot. Each one presses onwards, pushing his neighbour,
+screaming and vociferating; the National Guards try in vain to
+keep order. To add to the difficulties there is some form to be
+gone through about passes. I manage to hang on to a cart which is
+just going over the bridge; after a thousand stoppages and a
+great deal of pushing and squeezing, I succeeded in getting out,
+my clothes in rags. A desolate scene meets my eyes. In front of
+us, is the open space called the military zone, a dusty desert,
+with but one building remaining, the chapel of Longchamps; it has
+been converted into an ambulance, and the white flag with the red
+cross is waving above it. Truly the wounded there must be in no
+little danger from the shells, as it lies directly in their path.
+To the left is the Bois de Boulogne, or rather what used to be
+the wood, for from where I stand but few trees are visible, the
+rest is a barren waste. I hasten on, besides I am hard pressed
+from behind. Here we are in Neuilly, at last. The desolation is
+fearful, the reality surpassing all I could have imagined. Nearly
+all the roofs of the houses are battered in, rafters stick out of
+the broken windows; some of the walls, too, have fallen, and
+those that remain standing are riddled with blackened holes. It
+is there that the dreadful shells have entered, breaking,
+grinding furniture, pictures, glasses, and even human beings. We
+crunch broken glass beneath our feet at every step; there is not
+a whole pane in all the windows. Here and there are houses which
+the bullets seemed to have delighted to pound to atoms, and from
+which dense clouds of red and white dust are wafted towards us.
+Well, Parisians, what do you say to that? Do you not think that
+Citizen Cluseret, although an American, is an excellent patriot,
+and &ldquo;In consideration of Neuilly being in ruins, and of this
+happy result being chiefly due to the glorious resistance
+organized by the delegate Citizen Cluseret, decrees: That the
+destroyer of Neuilly, Citizen Cluseret, has merited the gratitude
+of France and the Republic.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-36"></a>
+<img src="images/041.jpg" width="758" height="406" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>The Inhabitants of Neuilly Entering Paris During The Armisctice of the 18th of April.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="letter">
+The firing ceased from nine in the morning until five in the afternoon, when
+Paris cabs, furniture-vans, ambulance-waggons, band-barrows, and all sorts of
+vehicles were requisitioned to bring in the sad remains and dilapidated
+household goods of the suburban bombardés. They entered by the gate of
+Ternes&mdash;for that of Porte Maillot was in ruins and impassable. Many went
+to the Palais de l&rsquo;Industrie, in the Champs Elysées, where a commission sat to
+allot vacant apartments in Paris. On this occasion some robberies were
+committed, and refractories escaped: it is even said that hard-hearted
+landlords wished to prevent their lodgers from departing&mdash;an object in
+which the proprietors were not very successful. The poor woman perched on the
+top of her relics, saved from the cellar in which she had lived in terror for
+fourteen days, deplores the loss of her husband and the shapeless mass of ruin
+and rubbish she once called her happy home; whilst her boys bring in green
+stuff from the surburban gardens, and a middle-aged neighbour stalks along with
+his pet parrot, the bird all the while amusing himself with elaborate
+imitations of the growl of the mitrailleuse and the hissing of shells ending
+with terrific and oft-repeated explosions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Out of all the houses, or rather from what was once the
+houses, emerge the inhabitants carrying different articles of
+furniture, tables, mattresses, boxes. They come out as it were
+from their graves. Relations meet and embrace, after having
+suffered almost the bitterness of death. Thousands run backwards
+and forwards; the carts are heaped up to overflowing, everything
+that is not destroyed must be carried away. A large van filled
+with orphan children moves on towards the barrier; a sister of
+charity is seated beside the driver. The most impatient of the
+refugees are already through the Porte Maillot; who will give
+them hospitality there? No one seems to think of that. The
+excitement caused by all this movement is almost joyous under the
+brilliant rays of the sun. But time presses, in a few minutes the
+short truce will have expired. Stragglers hurry along with heavy
+loads. At the gates, the crowding and confusion are greater than
+in the morning. Carts heavily laden, move slowly and with
+difficulty; the contents of several are spilled on the highway.
+More shouting, crowding, and pushing, until the gates are passed
+at last, and the emigrant crowd disperses along the different
+streets and avenues into the heart of Paris. A happy release from
+bondage, but what a dismal promised land!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then the cannonading and musketry on either side recommences.
+Destroy, kill, this horrible quarrel can only end with the
+annihilation of one of the two parties engaged. Go on killing
+each other if you will have it so, combatants, fellow-countrymen.
+Some wretched women and children will at least sleep in safety
+to-night, in spite of you!
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-37"></a>
+<img src="images/042.jpg" width="450" height="375" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b><i>Federal Officer</i>. Pardon, Monsieur, but we cannot allow
+civilians to remain here.<br/>
+<i>Monsieur</i>. I wait for Valérien to open upon us.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+Yes, my good friends and idlers, the sad scene would not have
+been complete without your presence to relieve its sadness. If
+respect for your persons kept you away from danger, it at least
+gives zest to the place, a locality that in a few short minutes
+will be dangerous again. At five the armistice was over, but for
+all that, the National Guard had great difficulty in clearing the
+ground, until real danger, the excitement sought for, arrived,
+and sent the spectators much further up the Avenue de la Grande
+Armée.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-38"></a>
+<img src="images/043.jpg" width="450" height="397" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Mdlle, et Ses Cousines.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="letter">
+5.30. Great Guns of Valérien, Why do you not begin? Know you that tubes charged
+with bright eyes are directed against you?
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXIII."></a> LXIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+I had almost made up my mind not to continue these notes.
+Tired and weary, I remained two days at home, wishing to see
+nothing, hear nothing, trying to absorb myself in my books, and
+to take up the lost thread of my interrupted studies, but all to
+no purpose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is ten in the morning, and I am out again in search of
+news. How many things may have happened in two days! Not far from
+the Hôtel de Ville excited groups are assembled at the
+corners of the streets that lead out of the Rue de Rivoli. They
+seem waiting for something&mdash;what are they waiting for? Vague
+rumours, principally of a peaceful and conciliatory nature,
+circulate from group to group, where women decidedly
+predominate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;If <i>they</i> help us we are saved!&rdquo; says a workwoman, who
+is holding a little boy in the dress of a national guard by the
+hand.&mdash;&ldquo;Who?&rdquo; I ask.&mdash;&ldquo;Ah! Monsieur, it is the
+Freemasons who are taking the side of the Commune; they are going
+to cross Paris before our eyes. The Commune must be in the right
+if the Freemasons think so.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Here they come!&rdquo; says the
+little boy, pulling his mother along with all his strength.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-39"></a>
+<img src="images/044.jpg" width="341" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Protot<a href="#fn-66" name="fnref-66"
+id="fnref-66"><sup>[66]</sup></a>, Delegate of
+Justice.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+The vehicles draw up on one side to make room, the crowd
+presses to the edge of the pavement. The drums beat, a military
+band strikes up the &ldquo;Marseillaise.&rdquo; First come five
+staff-officers, and then six members of the Commune, wearing
+their red scarfs, fringed with gold. I fancy I recognize Citizens
+Delescluze and Protot among them. &ldquo;They are going to the
+Hôtel de Ville!&rdquo; cries an enthusiastic butcher-boy, holding
+a large basket of meat on his head, which he steadies with one
+hand, while with the other he makes wild signs to two companions
+on the other side of the way. &ldquo;I saw them this morning in the
+Place du Carrousel,&rdquo; he continues in the same strain. &ldquo;That was
+fine, I tell you! And then this battalion came to fetch them,
+with the music and all. Now they are going to salute the
+Republic; come along, I say. Double quick time!&rdquo; So the
+butcher-boy, and the woman with the child, and myself, and all
+the rest of the bystanders, turn and follow the eight or ten
+thousand members of Parisian freemasonry who are crowding along
+the Rue de Rivoli. In the front and rear of the procession I
+notice a large number of unarmed men, dressed in loose Zouave
+trousers of dark-blue cloth, with white gaiters, white bands, and
+blue jackets. Their heads are mostly bare. I am told these are
+the Communist sharpshooters. Ever so far on in front of us a
+large white banner is floating, bearing an inscription which I
+cannot manage to read on account of the distance. However, the
+butcher-boy has made it out, and informs us that &ldquo;Love one
+another&rdquo; is written there. Happy, delusive Freemasons! &ldquo;Tolerate
+one another&rdquo; is scarcely practicable! In the meantime we continue
+to follow at the heels of the procession. There is much shouting
+and noise, here and there a feeble &ldquo;<i>Vive la Commune!</i>&rdquo; But
+the principal cries are, &ldquo;Down with the murderers! Death to
+assassins! Down with Versailles!&rdquo; A Freemason doffs his hat and
+shouts, &ldquo;<i>Vive la Paix!</i> It is peace we are going to
+seek!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I am still sadly confused, and cannot make up my mind what all
+this is about. Patience, however, I shall know all at the
+Hôtel de Ville. Here we are. The National Guard keeps the
+ground, and the whole procession files into the Cour d&rsquo;Honneur.
+Carried on by the crowd, I find myself near the entrance and can
+see what is going on inside. The whole of the Commune is out on
+the balcony, at the top of the grand staircase, in front of the
+statue of the Republic, which like the Communists wears a red
+scarf. Great trophies of red flags are waving everywhere. Men
+bearing the banners of the society are stationed on every step;
+on each is inscribed, in golden letters, mottos of peace and
+fraternity. A patriarchal Freemason, wearing his collar and
+badges, has arrived in a carriage; they help him to alight with
+marks of the greatest respect. The court is by this time full to
+overflowing, an enthusiastic cry of &ldquo;Vive la Franc
+Maçonnerie! Vive la République Universelle!&rdquo; is
+re-echoed from mouth to mouth. Citizen Félix Pyat, member
+of the Commune, who is on the balcony, comes forward to speak. I
+congratulate myself on being at last about to hear what all this
+means. But I am disappointed. The pushing and squeezing is
+unbearable. I have vigorously to defend my hat, stick, purse, and
+cigar-case, and am half stifled besides. I almost despair of
+catching a single word, but at last succeed in hearing a few
+detached sentences:&mdash;&ldquo;Universal nationality.... liberty,
+equality, and fraternity.... manifestos of the heart....&rdquo; (what
+is that?) &ldquo;the standard of humanity.... ramparts....&rdquo; If I could
+only get a little nearer&mdash;the words &ldquo;homicidal balls....
+fratricidal bullets.... universal peace....&rdquo; alone reach me. Is
+it to hear such stuff as this, that the Freemasons have come to
+the Hôtel de Ville? I suppose so, for after a little more
+of the same kind the whole is drowned in a stupendous roar of
+&ldquo;Vive la Commune!&rdquo; and &ldquo;Vive la République!&rdquo; I have given
+up all hope of ever understanding.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-40"></a>
+<img src="images/045.jpg" width="299" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Félix Pyat.<a href="#fn-67" name="fnref-67"
+id="fnref-67"><sup>[67]</sup></a></b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;They have come to draw lots to see who is to go and kill M.
+Thiers,&rdquo; cries a red-haired gamin.&mdash;&ldquo;Idiot,&rdquo; retorts his
+comrade, &ldquo;they have no arms!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Listen, and you will hear,&rdquo;
+says the first, which is capital advice, if I could but follow
+it. The pushing becomes intolerable, when suddenly the bald head
+of an unfortunate citizen executes a fatal plunge&mdash;I can
+breathe at last&mdash;and the following words reach me pretty
+clearly:&mdash;&ldquo;The Commune has decided that we shall choose five
+members who are to have the honour of escorting you, and we are
+to draw lots....&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;There! was I not right?&rdquo; cries he of the
+carrotty hair; &ldquo;I knew they were going to draw lots!&rdquo; A cleverly
+administered blow, however, soon silences his elation, and we
+hear that the lots have been drawn, and that five members are
+chosen to aid &ldquo;this glorious, this victorious act.&rdquo; There seems
+more rhyme than reason in this. &ldquo;An act that will be read of in
+the future history of France and of humanity.&rdquo; Here the
+irrepressible breaks out again:&mdash;&ldquo;Now I am sure they are
+going to kill M. Thiers!&rdquo; Whereupon his irritated adversary
+seizes him by the collar, gives his head some well-applied blows
+against the curb-stone, and then, pushing through the crowd,
+carries him off bodily. As for me, my curiosity unsatisfied, I
+grow resigned&mdash;may the will of the Commune be done&mdash;and
+I give it up. More hopeless mystification from the Citizen
+Beslay, who regrets not having been chosen to aid in this &ldquo;heroic
+act.&rdquo; He also alludes to the drawing of lots, and I begin after
+all to fancy poor M. Thiers must be at the bottom of it all, but
+he continues:&mdash;&ldquo;Citizens, what can I say after the eloquent
+discourse of Félix Pyat? You are about to interest
+yourselves in an act of fraternity....&rdquo; (then something horrible
+is surely contemplated) &ldquo;in hoisting your banner on the walls of
+our city, and mixing in our ranks against our enemies of
+Versailles.&rdquo; A sudden light breaks upon me. In the meantime
+Citizen Beslay is embracing the nearest Freemason, while another
+begs the honour of being the first to plant his banner, the
+Persévérance, which was unfurled in 1790, on the
+ramparts. Here a band plays the &ldquo;Marseillaise,&rdquo; horribly out of
+tune; a red flag is given to the Freemasons, with an appropriate
+harangue; then the Citizen Térifocq takes back the flag,
+with another harangue, and ends by waving it aloft and roaring,
+&ldquo;Now, citizens, no more words; to action!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This is clear, the Freemasons are to hoist their banner on to
+the walls of Paris side by side with the standard of the Commune;
+and who is blind enough to imagine, that the shells and bullets,
+indiscriminately homicidal, fratricidal, and infanticidal as they
+prove, are imbued with tact sufficient to steer clear of the
+Freemasons&rsquo; banners, and injure in their flight only those of the
+Commune? As the Versailles projectiles have only one end in view,
+that of piercing both the Parisians and their standards, as a
+national consequence if both Parisians and standards are pierced,
+it is likewise most probable that the Masonic banners will not
+remain unscathed in so dangerous a neighbourhood. And if so, what
+will be the result? According to Citizen Térifocq &ldquo;the
+Freemasons of Paris will call to their aid the direst vengeance;
+the Masons of all the provinces of France will follow their
+example; everywhere the brothers will fraternise with the troops
+which are marching on to help Paris. On the other hand, if the
+Versailles gunners do not aim at the Masons, but only at the
+National Guards (<i>sic!</i>), then the Masons will join the
+battalions in the field, and encourage by their example the
+gallant soldiers, defenders of the city.&rdquo; This is all rather
+complicated&mdash;what can come of it? Escorted by an
+ever-increasing crowd, we reach the Place de la Bastille. Several
+discourses are spouted forth at the foot of the column, but the
+combined effects of noise, dust, and fatigue have blunted my
+senses, and I hear nothing; it seems, however to be about the
+same thing over again, for the same acclamations of the crowd
+greet the same gestures on the part of the orators.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We are off again down the Boulevards; the long procession,
+with its waving banners and glittering signs, is hailed by the
+populace with delight. Having reached the Place de la Concorde, I
+loiter behind. Groups are stationed here and there. I go from one
+to another, trying to gather what these open-air politicians
+think of all this Masonic parade. Shortly fugitives are seen
+hurrying back from the Champs Elysées, shouting, and
+gesticulating. &ldquo;Horror! Abomination! They respect nothing!
+Vengeance!&rdquo; I hear a brother-mason has been killed by a shell
+opposite the Rue du Colysée; that the white flag is
+riddled with shot; that the Versailles rifles have singled out,
+killed and wounded several masons.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In a very short time the terrible news, increased and
+exaggerated as it spread, filled every quarter of Paris with
+consternation. I returned home in a most perplexed state of mind,
+from which I could not arouse myself until the arrival, towards
+evening, of a friend, a freemason, and consequently well
+informed. This, it appears, is what took place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;At the moment when the procession arrived in the Champs
+Elysées it formed itself into several groups, each
+choosing a separate avenue or street. One followed the Faubourg
+St. Honoré and the Avenue Friedland as far as the
+Triumphal Arch, till it reached the Porte Maillot; a second
+proceeded to the Porte des Ternes by the Avenue des Ternes; a
+third to the Porte Dauphine by the Avenue Ührich. Not a
+single freemason was wounded on the way, though shells fell on
+their passage from time to time. The VV.&middot;. of each lodge
+marched at the head, displaying their masonic banners.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-41"></a>
+<img src="images/046.jpg" width="346" height="450" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>The Freemasons at the Ramparts. Gamins collecting shells.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;As soon as the white flag was seen flying from the bastion on
+the right of the Porte Maillot, the Versailles batteries ceased
+firing. The freemasons were then able to pass the ramparts and
+proceed towards Neuilly. There they were received rather coldly
+by the colonel in command of the detachment. The officers,
+including those in high command, were violently indignant against
+Paris. But the soldiers themselves seemed utterly weary of
+war.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;After some parleying the members of the manifestation
+obtained leave to send a certain number of delegates to
+Versailles, in order to make a second attempt at conciliation
+with the Government.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Will this new effort be more successful than the preceding
+one? Will the company of freemasons obtain what the Republican
+Union failed in procuring? I would fain believe it, but cannot.
+The obstinacy of the Versailles Assembly has become absolute
+deafness, though we must admit that the freemasons&rsquo; way of trying
+to bring about reconciliation was rather singular, somewhat like
+holding a knife at Monsieur Thiers&rsquo; throat and crying out, &ldquo;Peace
+or your life!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-66" id="fn-66"></a> <a href="#fnref-66">[66]</a>
+Memoir, see <a href="#VI._Page_220._PROTOT.">Appendix 6</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-67" id="fn-67"></a> <a href="#fnref-67">[67]</a>
+Félix Pyat was born in 1810 at Vierzon. He came to Paris for the purpose of
+studying law, but soon abandoned his intention for the more genial profession
+of journalist. He contributed to the <i>Figaro</i>, the <i>Charivari</i>, the
+<i>Revue de Paris</i>, and the <i>National</i>. In 1848 he was named
+Commissary-General, and subsequently deputy of the department of the Cher.
+Having signed Ledru-Rollin&rsquo;s call to arms, he was obliged after the
+events of June to take refuge in England. Profiting by the amnesty of the
+fifteenth of August, 1869, he returned to France, but made himself so obnoxious
+to the Government by his virulent abuse of the Empire, that he was again
+expelled. The revolution of the fourth of September allowed him to re-enter
+France. He commenced an immediate and violent attack on the new government,
+which he continued until his journal, <i>Le Combat</i>, was suppressed.
+Needless to say that he was one of the chief actors in the insurrections of the
+thirty-first of October and the twenty-second of January. He was elected
+deputy, but soon resigned, for the purpose of connecting himself with the cause
+of the Commune. He edited the <i>Vengeur</i> and the <i>Commune</i> newspapers,
+and obtained a decree suppressing nearly all rival or antagonistic
+publications. At the fall of the Commune he fled no one knows where.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXIV."></a> LXIV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+No! no! Monsieur Félix Pyat, you must remain, if you
+please. You have been of it, you are of it, and you shall be of
+it. It is well that you should go through all the tenses of the
+verb, I am not astonished that a man as clever as you, finding
+that things were taking a bad turn, should have thought fit to
+give in your resignation. When the house is burning, one jumps
+out of window. But your cleverness has been so much pure loss,
+for your amiable confederates are waiting in the street to thrust
+you back into the midst of the flames again. It is in vain that
+you have written the following letter, a chef-d&rsquo;oeuvre in its
+way, to the president of
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;CITIZEN PRESIDENT,&mdash;If I had not been detained at the Ministry of
+    War on the day when the election took place, I should have voted
+    with the minority of the Commune. I think that the majority, for
+    this once, is in the wrong.&rdquo;<br/>
+    &ldquo;For this once&rdquo; is polite.<br/>
+    &ldquo;I doubt if she will ever retrieve her error.&rdquo;<br/>
+    If the Commune were to retrace its steps at each error it made, it
+    would advance slowly.<br/>
+    &ldquo;I think that the elected have not the right of replacing the
+    electors. I think that the representatives have not the right of
+    taking the place of the sovereign power. I think that the Commune
+    cannot create a single one of its own members, neither make them nor
+    unmake them; and, therefore, that it cannot of itself furnish that
+    which is wanted to legalise their nominations&rsquo;.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Oh! Monsieur Félix Pyat, legality is strangely out of
+fashion, and it is well for Versailles that it is so.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;I think also, seeing that the war has changed the population....&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yes; the war has changed the population, if not in the way you
+understand it, at least in this sense, that a great many
+reasonable people have gone mad, and that many&mdash;ah! how
+many?&mdash;are now dead.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;I think that it was more just to change the law than to violate it. The ballot
+gave birth to the Commune, and in completing itself without it, the Commune
+commits suicide. I will not be an accomplice in the fault.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We understand that; it is quite enough to be an accomplice in
+the crime.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;I am so convinced of this truth, that if the Commune persist in
+    what I call an usurpation of the elective power, I could not
+    reconcile the respect due to the rote of the majority with the
+    respect due to my own conscience; I shall therefore be obliged, much
+    to my regret, to give in my resignation to the Commune before the
+    victory.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+    &ldquo;<i>Salut et Fraternité</i>.<br/>
+    &ldquo;FÉLIX PYAT.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Before the victory&rdquo; is exquisitely comic! But, carried away by the
+desire of exhibiting the wit of which he is master, Monsieur Félix Pyat fails
+to perceive that his irony is a little too transparent, that &ldquo;before the
+victory&rdquo; evidently meant &ldquo;before the defeat,&rdquo; and that
+consequently, without taking into account the excellent reasons given in his
+letter to the president of the Commune, we shall only recollect that rats run
+away when the vessel is about to sink. But this time the rats must remain at
+the bottom of the hold. Tour colleagues, Monsieur Pyat, will not permit you to
+be the only one to withdraw from the honours, since you have been with them in
+the strife. Not daring to fly themselves, they will make you stay. Vermorel
+will seize you by the collar at the moment you are about to open the door and
+make your escape; and Monsieur Pierre Denis,<a href="#fn-68" name="fnref-68"
+id="fnref-68"><sup>[68]</sup></a> who used to be a poet as well as a cobbler,
+will murmur in your ear these verses of Victor Hugo<a href="#fn-69"
+name="fnref-69" id="fnref-69"><sup>[69]</sup></a>, which, with a few slight
+modifications, will suit your case exactly:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Maintenant il se dit: &lsquo;L&rsquo;empire est chancelant;<br/>
+    La victoire est peu sûre.&rsquo;<br/>
+Il cherche à s&rsquo;en aller, furtif et reculant.<br/>
+    Reste dans la masure!&rdquo;<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Tu dis: &lsquo;Le plafond croule; ils vont, si l&rsquo;on me voit,<br/>
+    Empêcher que je sorte.&rsquo;<br/>
+N&rsquo;osant rester ni fuir, tu regardes le toit,<br/>
+    Tu regardes la porte.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Tu mets timidement la main sur le verrou;<br/>
+    Reste en leurs rangs funèbres!<br/>
+Reste! La loi qu&rsquo;ils ont enfouie en un trou<br/>
+    Est là dans les ténèbres.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Reste! Elle est là, le flanc percé de leurs couteaux,<br/>
+    Gisante, et sur sa bière<br/>
+Ils ont mis une dalle. Un pan de ton manteau<br/>
+    Est pris sous cette pierre.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Tu ne t&rsquo;en iras pas! Quoi! quitter leur maison!<br/>
+    Et fuir leur destinée!<br/>
+Quoi! tu voudrais trahir jusqu&rsquo;à la trahison<br/>
+    Elle-même indignée!<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Quoi! n&rsquo;as-tu pas tenu l&rsquo;échelle à ces fripons<br/>
+    En pleine connivence?<br/>
+Le sac de ces voleurs ne fut-il pas, réponds,<br/>
+    Cousu par toi d&rsquo;avance?<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Les mensonges, la haine au dard froid et visqueux,<br/>
+    Habitent ce repaire;<br/>
+Tu t&rsquo;en vas! De quel droit, étant plus renard qu&rsquo;eux<br/>
+    Et plus qu&rsquo;elle vipère?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And Monsieur Félix Pyat will remain, in spite of the
+thousand and one good reasons he would find to make a short tour
+in Belgium. His colleagues will try persuasion, if
+necessary&mdash;&ldquo;You are good, you are great, you are pure; what
+would become of us without you?&rdquo; and they will hold on to him to
+the end, like cowards who in the midst of danger cling to their
+companions, shrieking out, &ldquo;We will die together!&rdquo; and embrace
+them convulsively to prevent their escape.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-68" id="fn-68"></a> <a href="#fnref-68">[68]</a>
+A writer in the <i>Vengeur</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-69" id="fn-69"></a> <a href="#fnref-69">[69]</a>
+For translation, see <a href="#VII._Page_229.">Appendix 7</a>.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXV."></a> LXV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+An anonymous writer, who is no other, it is said, than the
+citizen Delescluze, has just published the following:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;The Commune has assured to itself the receipt of a sum of 600,000 francs a
+day&mdash;eighteen millions a month.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was once upon a time a French forger, named
+Collé, celebrated for the extent and importance of his
+swindling, and who possessed, it was said, a very large fortune.
+When questioned upon the subject, he used to answer: &ldquo;I have
+assured to myself a receipt of a hundred francs a day&mdash;three
+thousand francs a month.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Between Collé and the Commune there exists a difference, however: in the first
+place, Collé affected a particular liking for the clergy, whose various garbs
+he used frequently to assume, and the Commune cannot endure <i>curés</i> and
+secondly, while Collé, in assuring himself a receipt of three thousand francs a
+month, had done all that was possible for him to do, the Commune puts up with a
+miserable eighteen millions, when it might have ensured to itself a great deal
+more. It is astounding, and, I may add, little in accordance with its dignity,
+that it should be satisfied with so moderate an allowance. You show too much
+modesty; it is not worth while being victorious for so little. Eighteen
+millions&mdash;a mere nothing! Your delicacy might be better understood were
+you more scrupulous as to the choice of your means. Thank Heaven! you do not
+err on that score. Come! a little more energy, if you please.
+&ldquo;But!&rdquo; sighs the Commune, &ldquo;I have done my best, it seems to
+me. Thanks to Jourde,<a href="#fn-70" name="fnref-70"
+id="fnref-70"><sup>[70]</sup></a> who throws Law into the shade, and to
+Dereure,<a href="#fn-71" name="fnref-71" id="fnref-71"><sup>[71]</sup></a> the
+shoemaker&mdash;Financier and Cobbler of La Fontaine&rsquo;s Fable&mdash;I
+pocket daily the gross value of the sale of tobacco, which is a pretty
+speculation enough, since I have had to pay neither the cost of the raw
+materials nor of the manufacture. I have besides this, thanks to what I call
+the &lsquo;regular income from the public departments,&rsquo; a good number of
+little revenues which do not cost me much and bring me in a good deal. Now
+there&rsquo;s the Post, for instance. I take good care to despatch none of the
+letters that are confided to me, but I manage to secure the price of the
+postage by an arrangement with my employés. This shows cleverness and tact, I
+think. Finally, in addition to this, I get the railway companies to be kind
+enough to drop into my pockets the sum of two millions of francs: the Northern
+Railway Company will supply me with three hundred and ninety-three thousand
+francs; the Western, with two hundred and seventy-five thousand; the Eastern,
+three hundred and fifty-four thousand francs; the Lyons Railway Company, with
+six hundred and ninety-two thousand francs; the Orleans Railway, three hundred
+and seventy-six thousand francs. It is the financial delegate, Monsieur Jourde,
+who has the most brains of the whole band, who planned this ingenious
+arrangement. And, in truth, I consider that I have done all that is in my
+power, and you are wrong in trying to humiliate me by drawing comparisons
+between myself and Collé, who had some good, in him, but who was in no way
+equal to me.&rdquo; My dear, good Commune, I do not deny that, you have the
+most excellent intentions; I approve the tobacco speculation and the funds
+drawn from the public service money, in which you include, I suppose, the
+profits made in your nocturnal visits to the public and other coffers, and your
+fruitful rounds in the churches. As to the tax levied on railways, it inspires
+me with an admiration approaching enthusiasm. But, for mercy&rsquo;s sake, do
+not allow yourself to stop there. Nothing is achieved so long as anything
+remains to be done. You waste your time in counting up the present sources of
+your revenues, while so many opportunities remain of increasing them. Are there
+no bankers, no stock-brokers, no notaries, in Paris? Send a few of these honest
+patriots of yours to the houses of the reactionaries. A hundred thousand francs
+from one, two hundred thousand francs from another; it is always worth the
+taking. From small streams come great rivers. In your place I would not neglect
+the shopkeepers&rsquo; tills either, or the money-chests of the rich. They are
+of the <i>bourgeoisie</i>, those people, and the <i>bourgeois</i> are your
+enemies. Tax them, <i>morbleu!</i> Tax them by all means. Have you not all your
+friends and your friends&rsquo; friends to look after? Is it false keys that
+fail you? But they are easily made, and amongst your number you will certainly
+find one or two locksmiths quite ready to help you. Take Pilotel, for instance:
+a sane man, that! There were only eight hundred francs in the escritoire of
+Monsieur Chaudey, and he appropriated the eight hundred francs. Thus, you see,
+how great houses and good governments are founded. And when there is no longer
+any money, you must seize hold of the goods and furniture of your
+fellow-citizens. You will find receivers of stolen goods among you, no doubt.
+They told me yesterday that you had sent the Titiens and Paul Veroneses of the
+Louvre to London, in order to be able to make money out of them. A most
+excellent measure, that I can well explain to myself, because I can understand
+that Monsieur Courbet must have a great desire to get rid of these two
+painters, for whom he feels so legitimate and profound a hatred. But, alas! it
+was but a false report. You confined yourselves to putting up for sale the
+materials composing the Column of the Place Vendôme; dividing them into four
+lots, two lots of stone and cement, and two lots of metal. Two lots only? Why!
+you know nothing about making the best of your merchandise. There is something
+better than stone and metal in this column. There is that in it which a number
+of silly people used to call in other times the glory of France. What a pretty
+spectacle&mdash;when the sale by auction is over&mdash;to see the buyers
+carrying away under their arms&mdash;one, a bit of Wagram; another, a bit of
+Jena; and some, who had thought to be buying a pound or two of bronze, having
+made the acquisition of the First Consul at Arcole or the Emperor at
+Austerlitz. It is a sad pity that you did not puff up the value and importance
+of your sale to the bidders. Your speculation would then have turned out
+better. You have managed badly, my dear Commune; you have not known how to take
+advantage of your position. Repair your faults, impose your taxes, appropriate,
+confiscate! All may be yours, disdain nothing, and have no fear of resistance;
+everyone is afraid of you. Here! I have five francs in my own pocket, will you
+have them?
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-70" id="fn-70"></a> <a href="#fnref-70">[70]</a>
+Jourde occupied the position of financial Minister under the Commune
+Government. He is well-educated, and is said to be one of the most
+intellectually distinguished of the Federal functionaries. He is a medical
+student, and said to be twenty-seven years of age. See <a
+href="#VIII._Page_231._JOURDE.">Appendix 8</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-71" id="fn-71"></a> <a href="#fnref-71">[71]</a>
+A working cobbler, and member of the International Society, which he
+represented at the Congress of Bâle. He occupied a post on the
+<i>Marseillaise</i> newspaper, became a Commissary of Police after the fourth
+of September, and took part on the popular side in the outbreak of the
+thirty-first of October. He was deprived of his office by General
+Trochu&rsquo;s government, and appointed one of the delegates for justice, by
+the authorities of the Commune.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXVI."></a> LXVI.</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;The social revolution could end but in one great catastrophe, of
+    which the immediate effects would be&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;To make the land a barren waste:<br/>
+    &ldquo;To put a strait jacket upon society:<br/>
+    &ldquo;And, if it were possible that such a state of things could be
+    prolonged for several weeks&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;To cause three or four millions of human beings to perish by
+    horrible famine.<br/>
+    &ldquo;When the Government shall be without resources, when the country
+    shall be without produce and without commerce:<br/>
+    &ldquo;When starving Paris, blockaded by the departments, will no longer
+    discharge its debts and make payments, no longer export nor import:<br/>
+    &ldquo;When workmen, demoralised by the politics taught at the clubs and
+    the closing of the workshops, will have found a means of living, no
+    matter how:<br/>
+    &ldquo;When the State appropriates to itself the silver and ornaments of
+    the citizens for the purpose of sending them to the Mint:<br/>
+    &ldquo;When perquisitions made in the private houses are the only means of
+    collecting taxes:<br/>
+    &ldquo;When hungry bands spread over the country, committing robbery and
+    devastation:<br/>
+    &ldquo;When the peasant, armed with loaded gun, has to neglect the
+    cultivation of his crops in order to protect them:<br/>
+    &ldquo;When the first sheaf shall have been stolen, the first house
+    forced, the first church profaned, the first torch fired, the first
+    woman violated:<br/>
+    &ldquo;When the first blood shall have been spilt:<br/>
+    &ldquo;When the first head shall have fallen:<br/>
+    &ldquo;When abomination and desolation shall have spread over all France&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;Oh! then you will know what we mean by a social revolution:<br/>
+    &ldquo;A multitude let loose, arms in hand, mad with revenge and fury:<br/>
+    &ldquo;Soldiers, pikes, empty homes, knives and crowbars:<br/>
+   &ldquo;The city, silent and oppressed; the police in our very homes,
+    opinions suspected, words noted down, tears observed, sighs counted,
+    silence watched; spying and denunciations:<br/>
+    &ldquo;Inexorable requisitions, forced and progressive loans, paper money
+    made worthless:<br/>
+    &ldquo;Civil war, and the enemy on the frontiers:<br/>
+    &ldquo;Pitiless proconsuls, a supreme committee, with hearts of stone&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;This would be the fruits of what they call democratic and social
+    revolution.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Who wrote this admirable page?&mdash;Proudhon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+O all-merciful Providence! Take pity on France, for she has
+come to this.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXVII."></a> LXVII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+A balloon! A balloon! Quick! A balloon! There is not a moment
+to be lost. The inhabitants of Brive-la-Gaillarde and the
+mountaineers of Savoy are thirsting for news; let us shower manna
+on them. Write away! Pierre Denis! Pump in your gas, emulators of
+Godard! And may the four winds of heaven carry our &ldquo;Declarations&rdquo;
+to the four quarters of France! Ah! ah! The
+Versaillais&mdash;band of traitors that they are!&mdash;did not
+calculate on this. They raise soldiers, the simpletons; they
+bombard our forts and our houses, the idiots! But we make
+decrees, and distribute our proclamations throughout the country
+by means of an unlimited number of revolutionary aeronauts. May
+they be guided by the wind which blows across the mountains! How
+the honest labourers, the good farmers, the eager workers of the
+departments will rejoice when they receive, dropping, from the
+sky, the pages on which are inscribed the rights and duties of
+the man of the present day! They will not hesitate one single
+instant. They will leave their fields, their homes, their
+workshops, and cry, &ldquo;A musket! a musket!&rdquo; with no thought that
+they leave behind them women without husbands, and children
+without fathers! They will fly to us, happy to conquer or die for
+the glory of Citizen Delescluze and Citizen Vermorel! What
+ardour! What patriotism! Already they are on their way; they are
+coming, they are come! Those who had no fire-arms have seized
+their pickaxes or pieces of their broken ploughs! Hurrah!
+Forward! March! To arms, citizens, to arms! Hail to France, who
+comes to the rescue of Paris!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All to no purpose. I tell you the people of Brive-la-Gaillarde
+and the mountaineers of Savoy have not once thought of taking up
+arms. They have never been more tranquil or more resolute on
+remaining in peace and quiet than now. When they see one of your
+balloons&mdash;always supposing that it has any other end in view
+than of depositing repentant communists in safe, snug corners,
+pass the lines of the Versailles troops&mdash;when they see one
+of your balloons, they simply exclaim, &ldquo;Hulloa! Here&rsquo;s a balloon!
+Where in the world can it come from?&rdquo; If some printed papers fall
+from the sky, the peasant picks them up, saying, &ldquo;I shall give
+them to my son to read, when he returns from school.&rdquo; The evening
+comes, the son spells them out, while the father listens. The son
+cannot understand; the father falls asleep. &ldquo;Ah! those
+Parisians!&rdquo; cries the mother. Can you wonder? These people are
+born to live and die without knowing all that is admirable in the
+men of the Hôtel de Ville. They are fools enough to cling
+to their own lives and the lives of those near them. They do not
+go to war amongst themselves; they are poor ignorant creatures,
+and you will never make them believe that when once they have
+paid their taxes, worked, fed their wives and children, there
+still remains to them one duty to fulfil, more holy, more
+imperative than all others,&mdash;that of coming to the
+Porte-Maillot to receive a ball or a fragment of shell in their
+skulls.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But these balloons might be made of some use, nevertheless.
+Pick out one, the best made, the largest in size, the best
+rigged; put in Citizen Félix Pyat&mdash;who, you may be
+sure, will not be the last to sit down&mdash;and Citizen
+Delescluze too, nor must we omit Citizen Cluseret, nor any of the
+citizens who at the present moment constitute the happiness of
+Paris and the tranquillity of France! Now inflate this admirable
+balloon, which is to bear off all your hopes, with the lightest
+gases. Then blow, ye winds, terrifically, furiously, and bear it
+from us! Balloons can be capricious at times. Have you read, the
+story of Hans Pfaal? Good Heavens! if the wind could only carry
+them away, up to the moon, or even a great deal further
+still.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXVIII."></a> LXVIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+I&rsquo;m surprised myself, as I re-read the preceding pages, at the
+strange contradictions I meet with. During the first few days I
+was almost favourable to the Commune; I waited, I hoped. To-day
+all is very different. When I write down in the evening what I
+have seen and thought in the day, I allow myself to blame with
+severity men that inspired me formerly with some kind of
+sympathy. What has taken place? Have my opinions changed? I do
+not think so. Besides, I have in reality but one opinion. I
+receive impressions, describing these impressions without
+reserve, without prejudice. If these stray leaves should ever be
+collected in a volume, they will at least possess the rare merit
+of being thoroughly sincere. Is it then, that my nature is
+modified? By no means. If I were indulgent a month ago, it was
+that I did not know those of whom I spoke, and that I am of a
+naturally hopeful and benevolent disposition: if I now show
+myself severe, it is that&mdash;like the rest of Paris&mdash;I
+have learned to know them better.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXIX."></a> LXIX.</h2>
+
+<p>
+The Commune has naturally brought an infinite number of
+journals into existence. Try, if you will, to count the leaves of
+the forest, the grains of sand on the seashore, the stars in the
+heavens, but do not, in your wildest dreams, attempt to enumerate
+the newspapers that have seen the light since the famous day of
+the 18th of March. Félix Pyat has a journal, <i>Le
+Vengeur</i>; Vermorel has a journal, <i>Le Cri du People</i>;
+Delescluze has a journal, <i>Le Reveil</i>; there is not a member
+of the Commune but indulges in the luxury of a sheet in which he
+tells his colleagues daily all the evil he thinks of them. It
+must be acknowledged that these gentlemen have an extremely bad
+opinion one of the other. I defy even the <i>Gaulois</i> of
+Versailles&mdash;yes, the <i>Gaulois</i> itself&mdash;to treat
+Félix Pyat as Vermorel treats him, and if it be remembered
+on the other hand what Félix Pyat says of Vermorel, the
+<i>Gaulois</i> will be found singularly good-natured. Napoleon
+cautioned us long ago &ldquo;to wash our dirty linen at home,&rdquo; but good
+patriots cannot be expected to profit by the counsels of a
+tyrant. So the columns of the Commune papers are devoted to the
+daily and mutual pulling to pieces of the Commune&rsquo;s members. But
+where will these ephemeral sheets be in six months, in one month,
+or in a week&rsquo;s time perhaps? The wind which wafts away the leaves
+of the rose and the laurel, will be no less cruel for the
+political leaves. Let us then, for the sake of posterity, offer a
+specimen of what is&mdash;or as we shall soon say, what
+was&mdash;the Communalist press of to-day. Be they edited by
+Marotteau, or Duchesne, or Paschal Grousset, or by any other
+emulator of Paul-Louis Courier, these worthy journals are all
+much alike, and one example will suffice for the whole.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-42"></a>
+<img src="images/047.jpg" width="290" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Vermesch (père Duchesne).<a href="#fn-72" name="fnref-72"
+id="fnref-72"><sup>[72]</sup></a></b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+First of all, and generally in enormous type, stand the LATEST
+NEWS, the news from the Porte Maillot where the friends of the
+Commune are fighting, and the news from Versailles where the
+enemies of the country are sitting. They usually run somewhat in
+this style:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;It is more and more confirmed that the Assembly of Versailles is
+    surrounded and made prisoner by the troops returned from Germany.
+    The generals of the Empire have newly proclaimed Napoleon: the
+    Third, Emperor. After a violent quarrel about two National Guards
+    whom Marshal MacMahon had had shot, but had omitted to have cooked
+    for his soldiers, Monsieur Thiers sent a challenge to the Marshal,
+    by his two seconds. These seconds were no other than the Comte de
+    Chambord and the Comte de Paris. Marshal MacMahon chose the
+    ex-Emperor and Paul de Cassagnac. The duel took place in the Rue
+    des Reservoirs, in the midst of an immense crowd. The Marshal was
+    killed, and was therefore obliged to renounce the command of the
+    troops. But the Assembly would not accept his resignation.<br/>
+    &ldquo;We are in the position to assert that a company of the 132nd
+    Battalion has this morning surrounded fifteen thousand gendarmes and
+    sergents-de-ville, in the park of Neuilly. Seeing that all
+    resistance was useless, the supporters of Monsieur Thiers
+    surrendered without reserve. Among them were seventeen members of
+    the National Assembly, who, not content with ordering the
+    assassination of our brothers, had wished also to be present at the
+    massacre.<br/>
+    &ldquo;A person worthy of credit has related to us the following fact:&mdash;A
+<i>cantinière</i> of the 44th Battalion (from the Batignolles quarter), was in
+the act of pouring out a glass of brandy for an artilleryman of the Fort of
+Vanves, when suddenly the artilleryman was out in two by a Versailles shell;
+the brave <i>cantinière</i> drank off the contents of the glass just poured out
+for the dead man who lay in bits at her feet, and took his place at the guns.
+She performed her new part of artilleryman so bravely, that ten minutes later
+there was not a single gun uninjured in the Meudon battery. As to those who
+were serving the pieces there, they were all hurled to a distance of several
+miles, and amongst them were said to have been recognised&mdash;we give this
+news however with great reserve&mdash;Monsieur Ollivier, the ex-minister of the
+ex-Emperor, and Count von Bismarck, who wished to verify for himself the actual
+range of the guns that he had lent to his good friends of Versailles.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-43"></a>
+<img src="images/048.jpg" width="338" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>PASCHAL GROUSSET, DELEGATE FOR FOREIGN
+AFFAIRS.<a href="#fn-73" name="fnref-73" id="fnref-73"><sup>[73]</sup></a></b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+After the LATEST NEWS come the reports of the day, the
+<i>bulletin du jour</i> as it is called now, and it is in this
+that the editor, a member of the Commune, reveals his talent. We
+trust that the following example is not quite unworthy of the pen
+of Monsieur Félix Pyat, or the signature of Monsieur
+Vermorel:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+&ldquo;Paris, 29th April, 1871.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;They are lying in wait for us, these tigers athirst for blood.<br/>
+    &ldquo;They are there, these Vandals, who have sworn that in all Paris not
+    a single man shall be spared, nor a single stone, left standing.<br/>
+    &ldquo;But we are not in their power yet. No, nor shall we ever be.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The National Guard is on the watch; victorious and sublime, their
+    soldierly breasts are not of flesh and blood, but of bronze, from
+    which the balls rebound as they stand, dauntless, before the enemy.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Ah! so these lachrymose Jules Favres, these fat Picards, these
+    hungry Jules Ferrys, said amongst themselves, &lsquo;We will take Paris,
+    we will tear it up, and its soil shall be divided after the victory
+    between the wives of the <i>sergents de ville!</i>&rsquo; &ldquo;They are beginning
+    to understand all the insanity of their plan. Why, it is Paris that
+    will take Versailles, that will take all those blear-eyed old men
+    who, because they cannot look steadily at Monsieur Thiers&rsquo; face,
+    fancy that it is the sun.<br/>
+    &ldquo;It is in vain that they gorge with blood and wine their deceived
+    soldiers; the moment is approaching when these men will no longer
+    consent to march against the city which is fighting for them.
+    Already, yesterday, the mêlée of a battle could be distinguished
+    from the fort of Vanves; the line had come to blows with the
+    <i>gendarmes</i> of Valentin and Charette&rsquo;s Zouaves. Courage, Parisians!
+    A few more days and you will have triumphed over all the infamy that
+    dares to stop the march of the victorious Commune!<br/>
+    &ldquo;But it is not enough to vanquish the enemies without, we must get
+    rid also of the enemies that are within.<br/>
+    &ldquo;No more pity! no more vacillation! The justice of the people is
+    wearied of formalities, and cries out for vengeance. Death to spies!
+    Death to the <i>réactionaires</i>! Death to the priests! Why does the
+    Commune feed this collection of malefactors in your prisons, while
+    the money they cost us daily would be so useful to the women and
+    children of those who are fighting for the cause of Paris? We are
+    assured that one of the prisoners ate half a chicken for his dinner
+    yesterday; how many good patriots might have been saved from
+    suffering with the sum which was taken from the chests of the
+    Republic for this orgie! There is no longer time to hesitate; the
+    Versaillais are shooting and mutilating the prisoners; we must
+    revenge ourselves! We must show them such an example, that in
+    perceiving from afar the heads of their infamous accomplices, the
+    traitors of Versailles, stuck upon our ramparts, confounded by the
+    magnanimity of the Commune, they will lay down their arms at last,
+    and deliver themselves up as prisoners.<br/>
+    &ldquo;As to the refractory of Paris, we cannot find words to express the
+    astonishment we experience at the weakness that has been shown with
+    regard to them.<br/>
+    &ldquo;What! we permit that there should still be cowards in Paris? I
+    thought they were all at Versailles. We allow still to remain
+    amongst us men who are not of our opinion? This state of things has
+    lasted too long. Let them take their muskets or die. Shoot them
+    down, those who refuse to go forward. They have wives and children,
+    they are fathers of families, they say; a fine reason indeed! The
+    Commune before everything! And, besides, there must be no pity for
+    the wives of <i>réactionaires</i> and the children of spies!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The <i>bulletins du jour</i> are sometimes set forth in
+gentler terms; but we have chosen a fair average specimen between
+the lukewarm and the most violent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then comes the solid, serious article, generally written by a
+pen invested with all due authority, by the man who has the most
+head in the place. The subject varies according to circumstances;
+but the main point of the article is generally to show that Paris
+has never been so rich, so free, nor so happy, as under the
+government of the Commune; and this is a truth that is certainly
+not difficult to prove. Is not the fact of being able to live
+without working the best possible proof that people are well off?
+Well! look at the National Guards; they have not touched a tool
+for a whole month, and they have such a supply of money that they
+are obliged to make over some of it to the wineshop-keepers in
+exchange for an unlimited number of litres and sealed bottles.
+Then, who could say that we are not free? The journals that
+allowed themselves to assert the contrary have been prudently
+suppressed. Besides, is it not being free to have shaken off the
+shameful yoke of the men who sold France; to be no longer
+subjected to the oppression of snobs,
+<i>réactionaires</i>, and traitors? And as to the most
+perfect happiness, it stands to reason, since we are both free
+and rich, that we must be in the incontestable enjoyment of it.
+Finally, after the official dispatches edited in the style you
+are acquainted with, and after the accounts of the last battles,
+come the miscellaneous news, the <i>faits divers</i>; and here it
+is that the ingenuity of the writers displays itself to the
+greatest advantage.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;Yesterday evening, towards ten o&rsquo;clock, the attention of the
+    passers-by in the Rue St. Denis was attracted by cries which seemed
+    to proceed from a four-storied house situated at the corner of the
+    Rue Sainte-Apolline. The cries were evidently cries of despair. Some
+    people went to the nearest guardhouse to make the fact known, and
+    four National Guards, preceded by their corporal, entered the house.
+    Guided by the sound of the cries they arrived at the fourth storey,
+    and broke open the door. A horrible spectacle was then exposed to
+    the view of the Guards and of the persons who had followed them in
+    their quest. Three young children lay stretched on the floor of the
+    room, the disorder of which denoted a recent struggle. The poor
+    little things were without any covering whatever, and there were
+    traces of blows upon their bodies; one of them had a cut across the
+    forehead. The National Guards questioned the children with an almost
+    maternal kindness. They had not eaten for four days, and, in
+    consequence of this prolonged fast, they were in such a state of
+    moral and physical abasement that no precise information could be
+    obtained from them. The corporal then addressed himself to the
+    neighbours, and soon became acquainted with a part of the terrible
+    truth.<br/>
+    &ldquo;In this room lived a poor work-girl, young and pretty. One day, as
+    she was carrying back her work to the shop, she observed that she
+    was followed by a well-dressed man, whose physiognomy indicated the
+    lowest passions. He spoke to her, and was at first repulsed; but,
+    like the tempter Faust offering jewels to Marguerite, he tempted her
+    with bright promises, and the poor girl, to whom work did not always
+    come, listened to the base seducer. Blame her not too harshly, pity
+    her rather, and reserve all your indignation for the wretch who
+    betrayed her.<br/>
+    &ldquo;After three years, which were but anguish and remorse to the
+    miserable woman, and during which she had no other consolation but
+    the smiles of the children whose very existence was a crime, she was
+    becoming reconciled at last to her life, when the father of her
+    children deserted her.<br/>
+    &ldquo;This desertion coincided with the glorious revolution of the 18th
+    of March; and the poor work-girl, who had still room in her heart
+    for patriotism, found some consolation in reflecting that the day,
+    so miserable for her, had at least brought happiness to France.<br/>
+    &ldquo;A fortnight passed, the poor abandoned mother had given up all hope
+    of ever seeing the father of her three children again, when one
+    evening&mdash;it was last Friday&mdash;a man, wrapped in a black cloak,
+    introduced himself into the house, and made inquiries of the
+    <i>concierge</i>&mdash;a great patriot, and commander of the 114th
+    Battalion&mdash;whether Mademoiselle O... were at home? Upon an answer in
+    the affirmative from the heroic defender of Right and Liberties of
+    Paris, the man mounted the stairs to the poor workwoman&rsquo;s rooms. It
+    was he&mdash;the seducer; the <i>concierge</i> had recognised him. What passed
+    between the murderer and his victims? That will be known,
+    perhaps&mdash;never! But certain it is, that an hour afterwards he went
+    out, still enveloped in his black mantle.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The next day, and the days following, the <i>concierge</i> was much
+    astonished not to see his lodger of the fourth floor, who was
+    accustomed to stop and talk with him on her way to fetch her <i>café
+    au lait</i>. But his deep sense of duty as commander of the 114th
+    Battalion occupied his mind so thoroughly, that he paid but little
+    attention to the incident. Neither did he regard the sighs and sobs
+    which were heard from the upper stories. He can scarcely be blamed
+    for this negligence; he was studying his <i>vade-mecum</i>.<br/>
+    &ldquo;On the fourth day, however, the cries were so violent that they
+    began to inspire the passers-by with alarm, and we have related how
+    four men, headed by their <i>caporal</i>, were sought for to inquire into
+    the cause.<br/>
+    &ldquo;We have already told what was seen and heard, but the explanations
+    of the neighbours were not sufficient to clear up the darkest side
+    of the mystery, and perhaps the truth would never have been known if
+    the <i>caporal</i>&mdash;exhibiting, by a rare proof of intelligence, how far
+    he was worthy of the grade with which his comrades had honoured
+    him&mdash;had not been inspired with the idea of lifting up the curtain
+    of the bed.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Horror! Upon the bed lay stretched the corpse of the unhappy
+    mother, a dagger plunged into her heart, and in her clutched hand
+    was found a paper upon which the victim, before rendering her last
+    breath, had traced the following lines:&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;&lsquo;I die, murdered by him who has betrayed me; he would have murdered
+    also my three children, if a noise in the next room had not caused
+    him to take flight. He had come from Versailles for the express
+    purpose of accomplishing this quadruple crime, and, by this means,
+    obliterate every trace of his past villany. His name is Jules Ferry.
+    You who read this, revenge me!&rsquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-72" id="fn-72"></a> <a href="#fnref-72">[72]</a>
+Vermesch, who was born at Lille, in 1846, though not an official member of the
+Commune, was one of its most powerful champions. He was founder and principal
+editor of the <i>Père Duchesne</i>, a poor imitation of the journal, published
+under the same title, by Hébert, in the time of the first Revolution. This
+paper, one of the most characteristic of the Commune, was filled with
+trivialities, in the vilest taste and slang, which cannot be rendered in
+English. The first number of Vermesch&rsquo;s journal was published on the 6th
+of March, but was suppressed by General Vinoy; it re-appeared, however, on the
+eighteenth of the same month, and met with such prodigious success, that even
+its editor himself was astonished. Intoxicated with the result, the writers
+became more and more virulent, and not content with penning the vilest personal
+abuse, Vermesch assumed the <i>rôle</i> of public informer. For instance, he
+denounced M. Gustave Chaudey, a writer in the <i>Siècle</i>, in the <i>Père
+Duchesne</i> of the 12th of April, and that journalist was arrested in
+consequence on the following day. The journal became, not only the medium of
+all kinds of personal abuse and vengeance, but did the duty of inquisitor for
+the Communal Government, for whom it produced a terrible crop of victims. The
+<i>Official Journal</i> contained a number of decrees, the drafts of which at
+first appeared in <i>Père Duchesne</i>.<br/>
+    Amongst other acts, Vermesch organised what he called the battalion of the
+Enfants of the <i>Père Duchesne</i>, and considering the origin of this corps,
+the character of the rabble which filled its ranks may easily be imagined. The
+children of such a father could only be found amidst the lowest dregs of the
+Parisian population; fit instruments for the infamous work which was afterwards
+to be done.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-73" id="fn-73"></a> <a href="#fnref-73">[73]</a>
+Paschal Grousset prepared himself for politics by the study of medicine; from
+the anatomy of heads he passed to the dissection of ideas. Having turned
+journalist, he wrote scientific articles in <i>Figaro</i>, contributed to the
+<i>Standard</i>, and was one of the editors of the <i>Marseillaise</i> when the
+challenge, which gave rise to the death of Victor Noir and the famous trial at
+Tours, was sent to Prince Pierre Bonaparte. Immediately after the revolution of
+the eighteenth of March he started the <i>Nouvelle République</i>, an ephemeral
+publication which only lived a week. On the second of April he commenced the
+<i>Affranchi</i>, or journal of free men, as he called it, Vesinier joining him
+in the management of it. The popularity of Grousset caused him to be elected a
+member of the Commune in April, and the Government soon appointed him Minister
+of Foreign Affairs. He communicated circulars to the representatives of
+different nations at Paris, in order to obtain a recognition of the Commune; he
+also sent proclamations to the large towns of France, appealing to arms. But
+his means of communication with other governments, and indeed with his own
+envoys, was very restricted.<br/>
+    He was one of those who took refuge at the <i>Mairie</i> of the Eleventh
+Arrondissement, and who, knowing well that the struggle was really over, said
+to the silly heroes who protected them, &ldquo;All is well. The Versailles mob
+is turned, and you will soon join your brethren in the Champs Elysées.&rdquo;
+Many of them that night entered the valley of the shadow of death! On the third
+of June the ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs was arrested in the Rue Condorcet,
+dressed as a woman, and marched off to Versailles.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXX."></a> LXX.</h2>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Issy is taken! Issy is not taken! Mégy<a href="#fn-74" name="fnref-74"
+id="fnref-74"><sup>[74]</sup></a> has delivered it up! Eudes holds it
+still.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I have heard nothing but contradictory news since this
+morning. Is Fort Issy in the hands of the Versailles
+troops&mdash;yes or no? Hoping to get better information by
+approaching the scene of conflict, I went to the Porte d&rsquo;Issy,
+but returned without having succeeded in learning anything.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There were but few people in that direction; some National
+Guards, sheltered by a casemate, and a few women, watching for
+the return of their sons and husbands, were all I saw. The
+cannonading was terrific; in less than a quarter of an hour I
+heard five shells whistle over my head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Towards twelve o&rsquo;clock the drawbridge was lowered, and I saw a
+party of about sixty soldiers, dusty, tired, and dejected,
+advancing towards me. These were some of the &ldquo;revengers of the
+Republic.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Where do you come from?&rdquo; I asked them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;From the trenches. There were four hundred of us, and we are
+all that remain.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But when I asked them whether the Fort of Issy were taken,
+they made no answer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Following the soldiers came four men, bearing a litter, on
+which a dead body lay stretched; and it was with this sad
+procession that I re-entered Paris. From time to time the men
+deposited their load on the ground, and went into a wine-shop to
+drink. I took advantage of one of these moments when the corpse
+lay abandoned, to lift the cloak that had been spread over it. It
+was the body of a young man, almost a lad; his wound was hidden,
+but the collar of his shirt was dyed crimson with blood. When the
+men returned for the third time, their gait was so unsteady that
+it was with difficulty they raised the poor boy&rsquo;s bier, and then
+went off staggering. At the turning of a street the corpse fell,
+and I ran up as it was being picked from the ground; one of the
+drunken men was shedding tears, and maudling out, &ldquo;My poor
+brother!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-74" id="fn-74"></a> <a href="#fnref-74">[74]</a>
+Mégy, the famous governor of the Fort of Issy, was implicated in the last,
+supposed, plot against the life of Napoleon III. Having shot one of the police
+agents charged with his arrest, he was tried and condemned to death. He was,
+however, delivered from prison on the fourth of September, and appointed to the
+command of a battalion of National Guards, with which he marched against the
+Hôtel de Ville on the thirty-first of October and the twentieth of January. He
+was named a member of the Commune on the eighteenth of March, and set fire to
+the Cour des Comptes and the Palace of the Légion d&rsquo;Honneur on the
+twenty-third of May, 1871.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXXI."></a> LXXI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+We shall see no more of Cluseret! Cluseret is done for, Cluseret is in
+prison!<a href="#fn-75" name="fnref-75" id="fnref-75"><sup>[75]</sup></a> What
+has he done? Is he in disgrace on account of Fort Issy? This would scarcely be
+just, considering that if the fort were evacuated yesterday it was reoccupied
+this morning; by the bye, I cannot explain satisfactorily to myself why the
+Versaillais should have abandoned this position, which they seem to have
+considered of some importance. If it is not on account of Fort Issy that
+Cluseret was politely asked to go and keep Monseigneur Darboy company, why was
+it? I remember hearing yesterday and the day before something about a letter of
+General Fabrice, in which that amiable Prussian, it is reported, begged General
+Cluseret to intercede with the Commune in behalf of the imprisoned priests. Is
+it possible that the Communal delegate, at the risk of passing for a Jesuit,
+could have made the required demand? Why, M. Cluseret, that was quite enough
+for you to be put in prison, and shot too into the bargain. However, you did
+not intercede for anybody, for the very excellent reason that General Fabrice
+no more thought of writing to you, than of giving back Alsace and Lorraine. So
+we must search somewhere else for the motive of this sudden eclipse. Some say
+there was a quarrel with Dombrowski, that the latter thought fit to sign a
+truce without the authority of Cluseret&mdash;a truce, what an idea! Has
+Dombrowski any scruples about slaughter?&mdash;that Cluseret flew into a great
+rage; but that his rival got the best of it in the end. You see if one is an
+American and the other a Pole, the Commune must have a hard time of it between
+the two!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+No, neither the evacuation of Fort Issy&mdash;in spite of what
+the <i>Journal Officiel</i> says&mdash;Monseigneur Darboy, nor
+the quarrel with Dombrowski are the real causes of the fall of
+Cluseret. Cluseret&rsquo;s destiny was to fall; Cluseret has fallen
+because he did not like gold lace and embroidery&mdash;&ldquo;that is
+the question,&rdquo; all the rest are pretexts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So the noble delegate imagined he could quietly issue a proclamation one
+morning commanding all the officers under his orders to rip off the gold and
+silver bands which luxuriantly ornament their sleeves and caps!<a href="#fn-76"
+name="fnref-76" id="fnref-76"><sup>[76]</sup></a> He thought his staff would
+forego epaulets and other military gewgaws. Why, the man must have been mad!
+What would Cora or Armentine have said if they had seen their military heroes
+stalk into the Café de Suède or the Café de Madrid, shorn of all their
+brilliant appendages, which made them look so wonderfully like the
+monkey-general at the Neuilly fair, in the good old times, when there were such
+things as fairs, and before Neuilly was a ruin. Ask any soldier, Federal or
+otherwise, if he will give up his pay, or his jingling sword, or even his rank;
+he may perhaps consent, but ask him to rip off his embroidery, and he will
+answer, never! How can you imagine a man of sense consenting not to look like a
+mountebank?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another of these absurd prescriptions has done much to lower Cluseret in public
+estimation. One day he took it into his head to prevent his officers from
+galloping in the streets and boulevards, under the miserable pretext that the
+rapid evolutions of these horsemen had occasioned several accidents. Well, and
+if they had, do you think a gallant captain of horse is going to deprive
+himself of the pleasure of curvetting within sight of his lady love, for the
+pitiful reason, that he may perchance upset an old woman or two or three
+children? Citizen Cluseret does not know what he is talking about! It is
+certain that if this valiant general has such a very great horror of accidents,
+he should begin by stopping the firing at Courbevoie, which is a great deal
+more dangerous than the galloping of a horse on the Boulevard Montmartre. As
+you may imagine, the officers went on galloping and wearing their finery under
+the very nose of the general, while he walked about stoically in plain clothes.
+However, although they did not obey him, they owed him a grudge for the orders
+he had given. Opposition was being hatched, and was ready to burst forth on the
+first opportunity, which happened to be the evacuation of Fort Issy. Cluseret
+has fallen a victim to his taste for simplicity, but he carries with him the
+regrets of all the illused cab-horses which, in the absence of thoroughbreds,
+have to suffice the gallant staff, and who, poor creatures, were only too
+delighted not to gallop.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-75" id="fn-75"></a> <a href="#fnref-75">[75]</a>
+General Cluseret was a great personage for a time with the Communists, and his
+military talents were lauded to the skies, but suddenly he was committed to
+prison, and was succeeded in the command of the army by Rossel. The cause of
+his imprisonment is not clear. Some say that he was discovered to be in
+correspondence with the Thiers government, others that he was suspected of
+aiming at the Dictatorship. During the confusion that occurred on the first
+entry of the Versailles troops into Paris, when the Archbishop of Paris and the
+other so-called &ldquo;hostages&rdquo; had been barbarously assassinated, when
+the Louvre, the Palais Royal, and the Hôtel de Ville were in flames, Cluseret
+escaped from prison, and was not heard of again until it was reported that his
+body had been found buried beneath the rubbish of the last barricade. Was
+report correct?
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-76" id="fn-76"></a> <a href="#fnref-76">[76]</a>
+&ldquo;THE MINISTER OF WAR TO THE NATIONAL GUARD.<br/>
+    &ldquo;CITOYENS,&mdash;I notice with pain that, forgetful of our modest origin,
+the ridiculous mania for trimmings, embroidery, and shoulder-knots has
+begun to take hold upon you.<br/>
+    &ldquo;To work! You have for the first time accomplished a revolution by,
+and for, labour.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Let us not forget our origin, and, above all, do not let us be
+ashamed of it, Workmen we were! workmen let us remain!<br/>
+    &ldquo;In the name of virtue against vice, of duty against abuse, of
+austerity against corruption, we have triumphed; let us not forget the
+fact.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Let us be, above all, men of honour and duty; we shall then found
+an austere Republic, the only one that has or can have reason for its
+existence.<br/>
+    &ldquo;I appeal to the good sense of my fellow-citizens: let us have no
+more tags and lace, no more glitter, no more frippery which costs so
+little at the shops yet is so dear to our responsibility.<br/>
+    &ldquo;In future, anyone who cannot deduce proof of his right to wear the
+insignia of his nominal rank, or, who shall add to the regular uniform
+of the National Guard, tags, lace, or other vain distinctions, will be
+liable to be punished.<br/>
+    &ldquo;I profit by this occasion to remind each of you of the necessity
+of absolute obedience to the authorities, for in obeying those whom you
+have elected you are only obeying yourselves.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<small>&ldquo;The Delegate of War,<br/>
+    &ldquo;Paris, April 7th, 1871,<br/>
+    (Signed) &ldquo;E. CLUSERET.&rdquo;</small>
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXXII."></a> LXXII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Suppose that a man in disguise goes into the opera ball
+intoxicated, rushes hither and thither, gesticulating, insulting
+the women, mocking the men, turns off the gas, then sets light to
+some curtains, until such a hue and cry is raised that he is
+turned out of the place. Whereupon our mask runs off to the
+nearest costumier&rsquo;s, changes his clown&rsquo;s dress for that of a
+pantaloon, and returns to the opera to recommence his old tricks,
+saying, &ldquo;I have changed my dress, no one will recognise me.&rdquo; But
+he is wrong, there is no mistaking his way of doing business.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The crowd surrounds him and cries, &ldquo;We recognise you, <i>beau
+masque!</i>&rdquo; and if he has had the imprudence to secure the
+doors, they throw him out of window.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We recognise you, Executive Commission;<a href="#fn-77" name="fnref-77"
+id="fnref-77"><sup>[77]</sup></a> it is in vain that you disguise yourself in
+the bloody rags of the Committee of Public Safety, your are still yourself, you
+are still Félix Pyat, you are still Ranvier, you have never ceased to be
+Gérardin; you hope to make yourself obeyed more readily under this lugubrious
+costume, but you mistake. Command us to go and fight, and we will not budge;
+pursue us, and we will hardly run away; put us in prison, and we will only
+laugh. You are no more a Terror, than Gil-Pérez the actor is Talma; the knocks
+you receive have pushed aside your false nose; it is in vain that you decree,
+that you rob, that you incarcerate; you are too grotesque to be terrible. Even
+if you carried the parody out to the end, and thought fit to erect a guillotine
+and sharpen the knife, we should even then decline to look seriously upon you,
+and were we to see one by one five hundred heads fell into the basket, we
+should still persist in thinking that your axe was of wood, and your guillotine
+of cardboard!
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-44"></a>
+<img src="images/049.jpg" width="327" height="384" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Dupont, Delegate of Trade and Commerce.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-77" id="fn-77"></a> <a href="#fnref-77">[77]</a>
+The affair of the 30th of April signally disappointed the chiefs of the
+insurrection, who decreed the formation of a Committee of Public Safety, and
+caused Cluseret to disappear. &ldquo;The incapacity and negligence of the
+Delegate of War having,&rdquo; they said, &ldquo;almost lost them the
+possession of Fort Issy, the Executive Commission considered it their duty to
+propose the arrest of Citizen Cluseret, which was forthwith decreed by the
+Commune.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXXIII."></a> LXXIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+The Parisian <i>Official Journal</i> says: &ldquo;The members of the
+Commune are not amenable to any other tribunal than their own&rdquo;
+(that of the Commune). Ah! truly, men of the Hôtel de
+Ville, you imagine that, do you? Have you forgotten that there
+are such tribunals as court-martials and assizes?
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXXIV."></a> LXXIV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+M. Rossel is really very unfortunate! What is M. Rossel?<a href="#fn-78"
+name="fnref-78" id="fnref-78"><sup>[78]</sup></a> Why, the provisional
+successor of Citizen Cluseret. It was not a bad idea to put in the word
+<i>provisional</i>. The Commune had confided to him the care of military
+matters, which he had accepted, but with an air of condescension. This
+&ldquo;Communeux&rdquo; looks to me like an aristocrat. At any rate he has not
+been fortunate. Scarcely had he taken upon himself the safety of Paris, when
+the redoubt of Moulin-Saquet was surprised by the Versaillais. This accident
+was not calculated to enhance the courage of the Federals. The whole affair has
+been kept as dark as possible, but the porter of the house where I live, who
+was there, has told me strange things.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Will you believe, Monsieur, that I had just finished a game
+of cards with the captain, and was preparing to have a bit of
+sleep, for it was near upon eleven o&rsquo;clock, when I thought I
+heard something like the noise of troops marching. I looked round
+to see if any one heard it besides myself, but the men were
+already asleep, and a circular line of boots was sticking out all
+round the tents. The captain said: &lsquo;I daresay it is the patrol
+from the Rue de Villejuif.&rsquo;&mdash;&lsquo;Oh, yes,&rsquo; said I, &lsquo;from the
+barricade,&rsquo; and I fell to sleep without a thought of danger. In
+fact, there seemed nothing to fear, as the Moulin-Saquet
+overlooks the whole of the plain which stretches from Vitry to
+Choisy-le-Roi, and from Villejuif to the Seine. It was impossible
+for a man to approach the redoubt without being seen by the
+sentinel. I had, therefore, been asleep a few minutes when I was
+awoke by the following dialogue:&mdash;&lsquo;Stop! who goes
+there?&rsquo;&mdash;&lsquo;The patrol.&rsquo;&mdash;&lsquo;Corporal, forward!&rsquo;&mdash;Oh!
+said I to myself, it is our comrades come to see us; there will
+be some healths drunk before morning, and I got up to go and give
+them a welcome. The captain was also astir. &lsquo;The password!&rsquo; he
+cried. The chief of the patrol came forward and
+answered&mdash;&lsquo;Vengeance!&rsquo; I remember wondering at the moment
+why he spoke so loud in giving the pass-word, when suddenly I saw
+three men rush forward, seize our captain, and throw him down. At
+the same time two or three hundred men, dressed as National
+Guards, threw themselves into the camp, rushed upon the sleeping
+artillery-men with their bayonets, and then fired several volleys
+into the tents where our poor comrades were asleep. What I had
+taken at first for National Guards were only those devils of
+sergents-de-ville dressed up! So, you see, as it was each man for
+himself, and the high road for everybody, I just threw myself
+down on my face, and let myself drop into the trenches. There was
+no fear of the noise of my fall being heard in the riot. I
+managed to hide myself pretty well in a hole I found there, and
+which had doubtless been made by a shell. I could not see
+anything, but I heard all that was going on. Clic! clac! clic!
+went the rifles, almost like the cracking of a whip, answered by
+the most dismal cries from the wounded. I could hear also the
+grinding of wheels, and made sure they were taking away our guns,
+the robbers! When all was silent except the groans of the dying
+men, I crept out of my hiding place. Would you believe it,
+Monsieur, I was the only one able to stand up; the Versaillais
+had taken all those who had not run away or were not wounded; I
+saw them, the pilfering thieves, making off towards Vitry, as
+fast as their legs could carry them!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You have no idea, lieutenant,&rdquo; I said to the porter, &ldquo;how the
+Versaillais got to know the pass-word?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;No, only the
+captain, who is an honest fellow enough, but rather too fond of
+the bottle, went in the evening to the route d&rsquo;Orléans
+where there are lots of wine-shops ...&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;And you think he
+got tipsy, and let the pass-word out to some spy or
+other?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;I would not swear he did not; but what I am more
+sure of, is that we are betrayed!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Alas! yes, unfortunates, you are betrayed, but not in the way
+you think. You are being cheated by these madmen and criminals
+who are busy publishing decrees at the Hôtel de Ville,
+while you are dying by scores at Issy, Vanves, Montrouge,
+Neuilly, and the Moulin-Saquet; they betray you when they talk of
+Royalists and Imperialists; they deceive you when they tell you,
+that victory is certain, and that even defeat would be glorious.
+I tell you, that victory is impossible, and that your defeat will
+be without honour; for when you fell, crying, &ldquo;Vive la Commune!&rdquo;
+&ldquo;Vive la République!&rdquo; the Commune is Félix Pyat,
+and the Republic, Vermorel.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-78" id="fn-78"></a> <a href="#fnref-78">[78]</a>
+Colonel Rossel was one of the most capable members of the Commune Government.
+He was born in 1844, and was the son of Commandant Louis Rossel, an officer who
+acquired a high reputation in the Chinese war. The young Louis Rossel received
+a sound military education at the Prytanée of La Flèche, and subsequently at
+the École Polytechnique, at which latter institution he gained high honours. He
+served as captain of engineers in the army of Metz, and was one of the officers
+who signed the protestation against the surrender of Bazaine. He succeeded in
+eluding the vigilance of the Prussians, and appeared at Tours to offer his
+services to the Government of National Defence. Gambetta, then Minister of War,
+appointed Rossel to the rank of colonel in the so-called auxiliary army. After
+the signature of the peace preliminaries, the new government refused to ratify
+the promotion granted by Gambetta, but offered Rossel the rank of major. This
+seriously offended the ex-Dictator&rsquo;s ex-colonel, who shortly after the
+tenth of March, put his sword at the disposition of the Commune. He was at
+first appointed chief of the staff of General Cluseret, whom he subsequently
+replaced as delegate for war. On April 16 he became president of the Communist
+court-martial; he acted with great vigour in all military affairs until the
+10th of May, when the Commune ordered his arrest.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-45"></a>
+<img src="images/050.jpg" width="500" height="408" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Chapelle Expiatoire.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="LXXV."></a>LXXV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Malediction on the man who imagined this decree; malediction on the assembly
+that approved it; and cursed be the hand which shall first touch a stone of
+that tomb! Oh I believe me, I am not among those who regret the times of royal
+prerogatives, and who believe that everything would have gone well, in the most
+peaceful country in the world, if Louis XVII had only succeeded to the throne
+after his father, Louis XVI. The author of the revolution of 1798 knew what he
+was about in multiplying such terrible catastrophes. The name of that author
+was Infallible Necessity. Indeed I am quite ready to confess that the indolent
+husband of Marie Antoinette had none of those qualities which make a great
+king, and I will even add, if you wish it absolutely, that the solitary fact of
+being a king is a crime worthy a thousand deaths. As to Marie Antoinette
+herself&mdash;&ldquo;the Austrian,&rdquo; <i>Père Duchesne</i> would call
+her&mdash;I allow that in history she is not quite so amiable as she appears in
+the novels of Alexandra Dumas, and that her near relationship to the queen
+Caroline-Marie, whose little suppers at Naples, in company with Lady Hamilton,
+one is well acquainted with, gives some excuse for the calumnies of which she
+has been the object. Have I said enough to prevent myself being the recipient,
+in the event of a Bourbon restoration, of the most modest pension that ever
+came out of a royal treasury? Well, in spite of what I have said, and in spite
+of what I think, I repeat, &ldquo;Do not touch that tomb!&rdquo; Like the
+Column Vendôme, which is the symbol of an heroic and terrible epoch in history,
+the Chapelle Expiatoire<a href="#fn-79" name="fnref-79"
+id="fnref-79"><sup>[79]</sup></a> is a souvenir of the old monarchical reign,
+an age which was neither devoid of sorrow, nor of honour for France. Can you
+not be republican without suppressing history, which was royalist? The last
+remains of monarchy repose in peace beneath that gloomy monument; may it be
+respected, as we respect the ashes of those who respected it; and you, breakers
+of images, profaners of past glory, do you not fear, in executing your decree,
+to produce an effect diametrically opposed to that which you desire? By
+persecuting kings even in their last resting-place, are you not afraid to
+excite the pity, the regret perhaps, of those whose consciences still hesitate?
+In the interest of the Republic, I say, take care! The memory of the dead
+stalks forth from open sepulchres!
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-79" id="fn-79"></a> <a href="#fnref-79">[79]</a>
+This chapel was erected by Louis XVIII. upon the spot where, during the
+Revolution of 1793, the remains of Louis XVI, and his Queen had been obscurely
+interred.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXXVI."></a> LXXVI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Rejoice, poor housewives, who, on days of poverty, were obliged to carry to the
+Mont-de-Piété<a href="#fn-80" name="fnref-80" id="fnref-80"><sup>[80]</sup></a>
+the discoloured remains of your wedding dress, or your husband&rsquo;s Sunday
+coat; rejoice, artisans, who, after a day of toil, thought your bed so hard
+since your last mattress was taken to the Rue des Blancs-Manteaux, to rejoin
+your last pair of sheets. The Commune has decreed that &ldquo;all objects in
+pawn at the Mont-de-Piété, for a sum not exceeding twenty francs, shall be
+given back gratuitously to all persons who shall prove their legitimate right
+to the said objects.&rdquo; Thanks to this benevolent decree, you may now hope
+that things you have pawned will be restored to you before three or four
+hundred days!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Count on your fingers; the number of articles to which the
+decree applies is at least 1,200,000. As there are only three
+offices for the claimants to apply to, and considering the forms
+which have to be observed, I do not think more than three
+thousand objects can be given back daily; the Commune says four
+thousand, but the Commune does not know what it is talking about.
+However, even if we calculate four thousand a-day, the whole
+would take up ten or twelve months.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During this time men and women, whom poverty had long ere this
+taught the road to the Mont-de-Piété, would have to
+get up early, neglect the daily work by which they live, and go
+and stand awaiting their turn at the office, frozen in winter,
+baked in summer, thankful to obtain a moment&rsquo;s rest upon one of
+the wooden benches in the great bare hall; and when they have
+been there a long, weary time, to see their number, drawn by lot,
+put off to the next day or the day after, or the week or the
+month following perhaps.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Still we must not blame the Commune for the sad disappointment
+of this long delay, it would be impossible to shorten it. One
+thing, which is less impossible, is to indemnify the
+administration of the Mont-de-Piété for this
+gratuitous restitution. Citizen Jourde, delegate of the finances,
+says, &ldquo;I will give 100,000 francs a-week.&rdquo; Without stopping to
+consider where this able political economist means to get his
+weekly 100,000 francs, I will be content with remarking that this
+sum would in no wise cover the loss to the
+Mont-de-Piété, and that the Commune will only be
+giving alms out of other people&rsquo;s purses. If, however, thanks to
+this decree, some few poor creatures are enabled to get back
+those goods and chattels which they were obliged to dispose of in
+the hour of need, there will not be much cause to complain. The
+Mont-de-Piété usually does a very good business,
+and there will always be enough misery in Paris for it to grow
+rich upon. Besides, the Commune owes the poor wounded, mutilated,
+dying fellows who have been brought from Neuilly and Issy, at
+least a mattress to die in some little comfort upon.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-80" id="fn-80"></a> <a href="#fnref-80">[80]</a>
+The governmental pawnbroking establishments. All the pawnbroking is carried on
+by the Government.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXXVII."></a> LXXVII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+They have put them into the prison of Saint-Lazare. Whom? The
+nuns of the convent of Picpus. They have put them there because
+they have been arrested. But why were they arrested? That is what
+Monsieur Rigault himself could not clearly explain. Some of the
+nuns are old. They have been living long in seclusion, and have
+only changed cells; having been the captives of Heaven, they have
+become the prisoners of Citizen Mouton. In such an abject place
+too, poor harmless souls! Victor Hugo has said, speaking of that
+wretched prison, &ldquo;Saint-Lazare! we must crush that edifice.&rdquo; Yes,
+later, when we have the time; we must now pull down the Column
+Vendôme and the Chapelle Expiatoire. In the meantime these
+poor ladies are very sad. One of my friends went to see them;
+they have neither their prayer-books nor their crucifix; they
+have had even the amulets they wore round their necks taken from
+them. This seems nothing to you, citizens of the Commune. You are
+men of advanced opinions. You care as much about a crucifix as a
+fish for an apple; and perhaps you are right. You have studied
+the question, and you say in the evening, looking up at the
+stars, &ldquo;There is no God.&rdquo; But you must understand that with these
+poor nuns it is quite a different matter. They have not read
+philosophical treatises; they still believe that the Almighty
+created the world in six days, and that the Son died on the cross
+for the sake of the world. When they were free, or rather when
+they were in a prison of their own choosing, they prayed in the
+morning, they prayed at noon, they prayed at night, and only
+interrupted this most pernicious occupation for the purpose of
+teaching poor little girls that it is good to be virtuous,
+honest, and grateful, and that Heaven rewards those who do
+rightly. That was their occupation, poor simple souls, and you
+have sent them to Saint Lazare for that. You should have chosen
+another prison, for their presence must be disagreeable to the
+usual female denizens of the place. But there, or elsewhere, they
+do not complain; they only ask for a prayer-book and a wooden
+crucifix. Come, Citizen Delegate of the ex-Prefecture, one little
+concession, and unless the future of the Republic is likely to be
+compromised by so doing, give them a cross. A cross is only two
+pieces of wood placed one on the other. I promise you there will
+be wood enough in the forest the day honest men make up their
+minds to exercise their muscles on your backs, you bullying
+slave-drivers!
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXXVIII."></a> LXXVIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+After Bergeret came Cluseret; after Cluseret, Rossel. But Rossel has just sent
+in his resignation. My idea is, that we take back Cluseret, that we may have
+Bergeret, and so on, unless we prefer to throw ourselves into the open arms of
+General Lullier. The choice of another general for the defence of Paris is
+however no business of mine; and the Commune, a sultan without a favourite, may
+throw his handkerchief if he pleases, to the tender Delescluze, as some say he
+has the intention&mdash;I have not the least objection. Why should not
+Delescluze<a href="#fn-81" name="fnref-81" id="fnref-81"><sup>[81]</sup></a> be
+an excellent general? He is a journalist, and what journalist does not know
+more about military matters than Napoleon I., or Von Moltke himself? In the
+meantime we are in mourning for our third War Delegate, and we shall no longer
+see Rossel on his dark bay, galloping between the Place Vendôme and the Fort
+Montrouge. He has just written the following letter to the members of the
+Commune:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-46"></a>
+<img src="images/051.jpg" width="600" height="478" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Quelle Gourmande! Paris at Table.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="letter">
+Waiter, two or three more stewed generals. &mdash;We are out of them.
+&mdash;Very well, then a dozen colonels in caper sauce. &mdash;A dozen?
+&mdash;Yes: directly!!
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;CITIZENS, MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNE,&mdash;Having been charged by you with
+    the War Department, I feel myself no longer capable of bearing the
+    responsibility of a command wherein every one deliberates, and no
+    one obeys.<br/>
+    &ldquo;When it was necessary to organise the artillery, the
+    Central Committee of Artillery deliberated, but nothing was done.
+    After a month&rsquo;s revolution, that service is only carried on, thanks
+    to the energy of a very small number of volunteers.<br/>
+    &ldquo;On my nomination to the Ministry, I wanted to further the search
+    for arms, the requisition of horses, and the pursuit of refractory
+    citizens; I asked help of the Commune.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The Commune deliberated, but passed no resolutions.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Later, the Central Committee came and offered its services to the
+    War Department; I accepted them in the most decisive manner, and
+    delivered up to its members all the documents I had concerning its
+    organisation. Since then the Central Committee has been
+    deliberating, and has done nothing. During this time the enemy
+    multiplied its venturesome attacks on Fort Issy; had I had the
+    smallest military force at my command, I would have punished them
+    for it.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The garrison, badly commanded, took flight; the officers
+    deliberated, and sent away from the fort Captain Dumont, an
+    energetic man, who had been ordered to command them. Still
+    deliberating, they evacuated the fort, after having stupidly talked
+    of blowing it up,&mdash;as difficult a thing for them to do as to defend
+    it.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Even that was not enough. Yesterday, when every one ought to have
+    been at work or fighting, the chiefs were deliberating upon another
+    system of organisation from that which I had adopted, so as to make
+    up for their want of forethought and authority. The results of their
+    council were a project, when we want men, and a declaration of
+    principles, when we wanted acts.<br/>
+    &ldquo;My indignation brought them back to other thoughts,
+    and they promised me for to-day the largest force
+    they could possibly muster,&mdash;an organised one of not more than
+    12,000 men. With these I undertook to march on the enemy. These men
+    were to muster at eleven o&rsquo;clock: it is now one, and they are not
+    ready, and the promised 12,000 has dwindled to about 7,000, which is
+    not at all the same thing.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Thus, the utter uselessness of the artillery committee prevented
+    the organization of the artillery; the hesitation of the Central
+    Committee stopped all arrangements; the petty discussions of the
+    officers, paralyses the concentration of the troops.<br/>
+    &ldquo;I am not a man to mind having recourse to violence. Yesterday,
+    while the chiefs discussed, a company of men with loaded rifles
+    awaited in the court. But I did not want to take upon myself the
+    initiative of so energetic a measure, or draw upon myself the odium
+    of such executions as would have been necessary to extricate
+    obedience and victory from such a chaos. Even if I had been
+    protected by the publicity of my acts, I need not have given up my
+    position.<br/>
+    &ldquo;But the Commune has not had the courage to confront publicity.
+    Twice I wished to give some necessary explanations, and twice, in
+    spite of me, it insisted on a secret council.<br/>
+    &ldquo;My predecessor was wrong to remain in so absurd a position.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Enlightened by his example, and knowing that the strength of a
+    revolutionary, only consists in the clearness of his position, I
+    have only two alternatives, either to break the chains which impede
+    my actions, or to retire.<br/>
+    &ldquo;I will not break the chains, because those chains are you, and your
+    weakness,&mdash;I will not touch the sovereignty of the people.<br/>
+    &ldquo;I retire; and have the honour to beg for a cell at Mazas.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+&ldquo;ROSSEL.&rdquo;<a href="#fn-82" name="fnref-82" id="fnref-82"><sup>[82]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-47"></a>
+<img src="images/052.jpg" width="318" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Delescluze, Delegate of War.<a href="#fn-83"
+name="fnref-83" id="fnref-83"><sup>[83]</sup></a></b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+Most certainly I do not like the Paris Commune, such as the men of the Hôtel de
+Ville understand it. Deceived at first by my own delusive hopes, I now am sure
+that we have nothing to expect from it but follies upon follies, crimes upon
+crimes. I hate it on account of the suppressed newspapers, of the imprisoned
+journalists, of the priests shut up at Mazas like assassins, of the nuns shut
+up at Saint-Lazare like courtesans; I hate it because it incites to the crime
+of civil war those who would have been ready to fight against the Prussians,
+but who do not wish to fight against Frenchmen; I hate it on account of the
+fathers of families sent to battle and to death; on account of our ruined
+ramparts, our dismantled forts, each stone of which as it falls wounds or
+destroys; on account of the widowed women and the orphaned children, all of
+whom they can never pension in spite of their decrees; I cannot pardon them the
+robbing of the banks, nor the money extorted from the railway companies, nor
+the loan-shares sold to a money-changer at Liège; I hate it on account of
+Clémence the spy, and Allix the madman. I am sorry to think that two or three
+intelligent men should be mixed up with it, and have to share in its fall. I
+hate it particularly on account of the just principles it at one time
+represented, and of the admirable and fruitful ideas of municipal independence,
+which it, was not able to carry out honestly, and which, because of the
+excesses that have been committed in their name, will have lost for ever,
+perhaps, all chance of triumphing. Still, great as is my horror of this parody
+of a government to which we have had to submit for nearly two months, I could
+not forbear a feeling of repulsion on reading the letter of Citizen Rossel. It
+is a capitally written letter, firm, concise, conclusive, differing entirely
+from the bombastic, unintelligible documents to which the Commune has
+accustomed us; and besides, it brings to light several details at which I
+rejoice, because it permits me to hope that the reign of our tyrants is nearly
+at an end. I am glad to hear that the Commune, if it possesses artillery, is
+short of artillerymen. It delights me to learn that they can only dispose of
+seven thousand combatants. I had feared that it would be enabled to kill a
+great many more; and as to what Citizen Rossel says of the committees and
+officers who deliberate but do not act, it is most pleasant news, for it
+convinces me, that the Commune has not the power to continue much longer a war,
+which can but result in the death of Paris; and yet I highly disapprove of the
+letter of Citizen Rossel, because it is on his part an act of treachery, and it
+is not for the friends and servants of the Commune to reveal its faults and to
+show up its weaknesses. Who obliged Rossel, commander of the staff, to take the
+place of his general, disgraced and imprisoned? Did he not accept willingly a
+position, the difficulties of which he had already recognised? He says himself
+that his predecessor was wrong to have stayed in so absurd a position, and why
+did he voluntarily put himself there, where he blamed another for remaining? If
+the new delegate hoped by his own cleverness to modify the position, he ought
+not, the position remaining the same, accuse anything but his own incapacity.
+In a word, the conclusion at which we arrive is, that he only accepted power to
+be able to throw it off with effect, like Cato, who only went to the public
+theatres for the purpose of fussily leaving the place, at the moment when the
+audience called the actors before the curtain. Not being able or perhaps
+willing to save the Commune, M. Rossel desired to save himself at its expense.
+There is something ungentlemanly in this. Do not, however, imagine for a moment
+that I believe in M. Rossel having been bought by M. Thiers. All those
+ridiculous stories of sums of money having been offered to the members of the
+Commune, are merely absurd inventions.<a href="#fn-84" name="fnref-84"
+id="fnref-84"><sup>[84]</sup></a> What do you think they say of Cluseret? That
+he was in the habit of taking his breakfast at the Café d&rsquo;Orsay, and
+afterwards playing a game of dominoes. One day his adversary is reported to
+have said to him, &ldquo;If you will deliver the fort of Montrouge to the
+Versaillais, I will give you two millions.&rdquo; What fools people must be to
+believe such absurdities! Rossel has not sold himself, for the very good reason
+that nobody ever thought of buying him. It was his own idea to do what he did.
+For the pleasure of being insolent and showing his boldness, he has pulled down
+from its pedestal what he adored, consequently the most criminal among the
+members of the Commune, once a swindler, now a pilferer, is free to say to M.
+Rossel, who is, I am told, a man of intelligence and honesty, &ldquo;You are
+worse than I am, for you have betrayed us!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-81" id="fn-81"></a> <a href="#fnref-81">[81]</a>
+PARIS AT DINNER.&mdash;An ogress, gentleman! A famished creature, faring
+sumptuously; her face flushed with wine, her eyes bright, her hands trembling.
+Madame Lutetia is a strapping woman still, with a queenly air about her, in
+spite of the red patches on her tunic; somewhat shorn of her ornaments, it is
+true, as she has had to pawn the greater part of her jewelry, but the orgie
+once over she will be again what she was before.<br/>
+    For the time being she is wholly absorbed in her gastronomic exertions. She
+has already devoured a Bergeret with peas, a Lullier with anchovy sauce, an
+Assy and potatoes, a Cluseret with tomatos, a Rossel with capers, besides a
+large quantity of small fry, and she is not yet appeased. The
+<i>maître-d&rsquo;hôtel</i> Delescluze waits upon her somewhat in trepidation,
+with a sickly smile on his face. What if, after such a meal of generals and
+colonels, the ogress were to devour the waiter!&mdash;<i>Fac simile of design
+from the &ldquo;Grelot,&rdquo; 17th May, 1871</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-82" id="fn-82"></a> <a href="#fnref-82">[82]</a>
+He was convinced of the hopelessness of any further struggle after the capture
+of Fort Issy; gave in his resignation, and hid himself to escape the vengeance
+of his former colleagues. He was supposed to be in England or Switzerland,
+whereas, in fact, he had fled no farther than the Boulevard Saint Germain. He
+was arrested by the police on the ninth of June, disguised as an employé of the
+Northern Railway. He was first interrogated at the Petit Luxembourg, and
+afterwards conducted handcuffed to Versailles, where three mouths after he was
+tried by court-martial and sentenced to military degradation and death.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-83" id="fn-83"></a> <a href="#fnref-83">[83]</a>
+Delescluze&rsquo;s wild life began at Dreux, in 1809. Driven from home on
+account of his bad conduct, he came to Paris, and obtained employment in an
+attorney&rsquo;s office, from which he was very soon afterwards, it is said,
+discharged for robbery. In 1834, he underwent the first of his long list of
+imprisonments, for the part he took in the April revolution, and in the
+following year, being compromised in a conspiracy against the safety of the
+state, he took refuge in Belgium, Where he obtained the editorship of the
+<i>Courrier de Charleroi</i>. In 1840 he returned to Paris, where he founded a
+journal called the <i>Révolution Démocratique et Sociale</i>, which brought him
+fifteen months&rsquo; imprisonment and twenty thousand francs fine. After a
+long period of liberty of nearly eight years, he was condemned to
+transportation by the High Court of Justice, but the condemnation was given in
+his absence, for he had slipped over to England, where he remained until 1853.
+On his returning in that year to France he was immediately imprisoned at Mazas,
+transferred afterwards to Belle-Isle, and then successively to the hulks of
+Corte, Ajaccio, Toulon, Brest, and finally to Cayenne. These sojourns lasted
+until 1868, when the amnesty permitted him to return to France, where he made
+haste to bring out another new journal, <i>Le Réveil</i>, which of course
+earned him fines and imprisonments with great rapidity, three of each within
+the twelvemonth.<br/>
+    In the month of February, 1871, he was elected deputy by a large number of
+votes; and later, when the Assembly went to Bordeaux, sat there for some time,
+and then gave in his resignation, in order to take part with the Commune.<br/>
+    By the Commune he was made delegate at the Ministry of War, after the
+pretended flight of Rossel, and in a sitting of the 20th of April, in which the
+project of burning Paris was discussed, Delescluze ended his speech with the
+words&mdash;&ldquo;If we must die, we will give to Liberty a pile worthy of
+her.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-84" id="fn-84"></a> <a href="#fnref-84">[84]</a>
+&ldquo;A plot had just been discovered between Bourget of the Internationale,
+Billioray, member of the Commune, and Cérisier, captain of the 101st Battalion
+of the insurgent National Guard. For a certain sum of money they were to
+deliver Port Issy into the hands of General Valentin, of the Versailles army.
+The succession of Rossel to the Ministry of War frustrated the whole
+project.<br/>
+    &ldquo;In the night of the 17th of May another attempt of the same kind met
+with failure. The Communists Bourget, Billioray, Mortier, Cérisier, and
+Pilotel, the artist, traitors to their own treacherous cause, were to open the
+gates to the soldiers of Versailles, an hour after midnight, at the Point du
+Jour; the soldiers to be disguised as National Guards. But, at the appointed
+hour, Cérisier took fright, and contented himself with the money he had
+received on account (twenty-five thousand francs) in payment for his treachery,
+and did no more. When the Versailles troops presented themselves at the gates,
+they had to beat a retreat under a heavy fire of mitrailleuses.&rdquo;
+<i>Guerre des Communeux</i>.]
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXXIX."></a> LXXIX.</h2>
+
+<p>
+I was told the following by an eye-witness of the scene. In a small room at the
+Hôtel de Ville five personages were seated round a table at dinner. The repast
+was of the most modest kind, and consisted of soup, one dish of meat, one kind
+of vegetable, cheese, and a bottle of vin ordinaire each. One would have
+thought, oneself in a restaurant at two francs a head, if it had not been that
+the condiments had got musty during the siege; besides, there was something
+solemn and official in the very smell of the viands which took away one&rsquo;s
+appetite. However, our five personages swallowed their food as fast as they
+could. At the head of the table sat Citizen Jourde. Jourde looks about eight
+and twenty; he has a delicate looking, mathematical head, with brown curly hair
+and sallow complexion, a kind of Henri Heine of the Finance. Tall and thin,
+with his red scarf tied round his waist, he reminds us of one of the old
+Convention of &rsquo;89. They sat for some time in silence, as if they were
+observing each other. At the end of the first course, Jourde took up a spoon
+and examined it, saying, &ldquo;Silver! true there is silver at the Hôtel de
+Ville, I will send for it to-morrow!&rdquo; One of the other guests said,
+&ldquo;Pardon me, I have to answer for it, and shall not give it
+up.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Oh, yes you will,&rdquo; answered Jourde, &ldquo;I will
+have an order sent to you from the Domaine,&rdquo;<a href="#fn-85"
+name="fnref-85" id="fnref-85"><sup>[85]</sup></a> and then, as if he were
+thinking aloud, goes on to express his satisfaction at having found an
+unexpected sum of three hundred thousand francs, as it were on the
+dinner-table. A whole day&rsquo;s pay! He will be able to put by four millions
+at the end of the week; he tries to be economical, but the war runs away with
+everything. &ldquo;You must at least give me three days&rsquo; notice for the
+payment of sums amounting to more than a hundred thousand francs,&rdquo; says
+he, with a shrug of the shoulders, particularly addressed to Beslay. Then he
+speaks of his hopes of reducing the Prussian debt before the year is out, if
+the Commune lives so long; touches on subjects connected with the taxes,
+patents and duties, &ldquo;or else bank-notes worth fire hundred francs in the
+morning, will only be worth twenty sous in the evening; money is scarce, it is
+leaving the city. I do not see much copper about, but if you leave me alone, I
+promise to succeed.&rdquo; All this was said in a tone of the most sincere
+conviction. When the dinner was over, he hastily bowed and rushed off, without
+having taken any notice of what was said to him. Every now and then cries arose
+in the streets, and made the members of the Commune start as they sat there
+behind their sombre curtains. &ldquo;Do you think they can come in?&rdquo;
+asked some one of Johannard, to which he replies, &ldquo;What a wild idea!
+Delescluze knows it is impossible, and Dombrowski, a cold unexcitable fellow,
+only laughs when people mention it; does he not, Rigault?&rdquo; Thereupon the
+personage addressed, who has not yet spoken, bows his head in sign of
+acquiescence. He looks young in spite of his thick, black beard; his eyes are
+weak, his expression is sly and disagreeable, and looks as if he might
+sometimes have his hours of coarse joviality. Then a portière was lowered, or a
+door shut, and the person who had overheard the preceding heard and saw no
+more.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-48"></a>
+<img src="images/053.jpg" width="322" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Fontaine, Director of Public Domains And
+Registration<a href="#fn-86" name="fnref-86"
+id="fnref-86"><sup>[86]</sup></a></b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-85" id="fn-85"></a> <a href="#fnref-85">[85]</a>
+The Commune occupied the Mint, and directed Citizen Camelinat, bronze-fitter,
+to manufacture gold and silver coin to the amount of 1,500,000 francs. Of that
+sum, 76,000 francs only was saved by the Versailles troops on their entry. The
+different articles of gold and silver found at the Hôtel des Monnaies
+represented a total weight of 1,186 lbs., and consisted of objects taken from
+the churches, religious houses, and government offices, Imperial plate, and
+presents to the city of Paris. All these objects have been sent to the
+repository of the Domaine, where they maybe claimed on identification by their
+owners.
+
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-86" id="fn-86"></a> <a href="#fnref-86">[86]</a>
+Fontaine was nominated on the 18th of March director of the public domains and
+of registration. His name figures in the history of the revolutions, émeutes,
+and insurrections of Paris from 1848. He was a professional insurgent.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXXX."></a> LXXX.</h2>
+
+<p>
+I am beginning to regret Cluseret. He was impatient, especially in speech. He
+used to say &ldquo;Every man a National Guard!&rdquo; But with Cluseret, as
+with one&rsquo;s conscience, there were possible conciliations. You had only to
+answer the decrees of the war-delegate by an enthusiastic &ldquo;Why I am
+delighted, indeed I was just going to beg you to send me to the
+Porte-Maillot;&rdquo; which having done, one was free to go about one&rsquo;s
+business without fear of molestation. As to leaving Paris, in spite of the law
+which condemned every man under forty to remain in the city; nothing was
+easier. You had but to go to the Northern Railway Station, and prefer your
+request to a citizen, seated at a table behind a partition in the passport
+office.<a href="#fn-87" name="fnref-87" id="fnref-87"><sup>[87]</sup></a> When
+he asked you your age you had only to answer &ldquo;Seventy-eight,&rdquo;
+passing your hand through your sable locks as you spoke&mdash;&ldquo;Only that?
+I thought you looked older,&rdquo; the accommodating individual would answer,
+at the same time putting into your hand a paper on which was written some
+cabalistic sign. One day I had taken it into my head to go and spend two hours
+at Bougival, and my pass bore the strange word &ldquo;Carnivolus&rdquo; written
+on it. Provided with this mysterious document, I was enabled to procure a
+first-class ticket and jump into the next train that started. I was free, and
+nothing could have prevented my going, if such had been my wish, to proclaim
+the Commune at Mont Blanc or Monaco.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+How the times are changed! The Committee of Public Safety and the Central
+Committee now join together in making the lives of the poor
+<i>réfractaires</i><a href="#fn-88" name="fnref-88"
+id="fnref-88"><sup>[88]</sup></a> a burthen to them. I do not speak of the
+disarmaments, which have nothing particularly disagreeable about them, for an
+unarmed man may clearly nourish the hope that he is not to be sent to battle.
+But there are other things, and I really should not object to be a little over
+eighty for a few days. Domiciliary visits have become very frequent. Four
+National Guards walk into the house of the first citizen they please, and
+politely or otherwise, explain to him that it is his strict duty to go into the
+trenches at Vanves and kill as many Frenchmen as he can. If the citizen resists
+he is carried off, and told that on account of his resistance he will have the
+honour of being put at the head of his battalion at the first engagement. These
+visits often end in violence. I am told that in the Rue Oudinot a young man
+received a savage bayonet thrust because he resisted the corporal&rsquo;s
+order; and as these occurrences are not uncommon, the <i>réfractaires</i>
+cannot be said to live in peace and comfort. They are subject to continual
+terror, the sour visage of their <i>concierge</i> fills them with misgivings,
+he may be one of the Commune. As to going to bed, it must not be thought of; it
+is during the hours of night that the Communal agents are particularly active.
+This necessity of changing domicile has lead to certain Amélias and Rosalines
+and other ladies of that description having the words &ldquo;Hospitality to
+<i>Réfractaires</i>&rdquo; written in pencil on their cards. Men who decline to
+take advantage of such opportunities have to go about from hôtel to hôtel,
+giving imaginary names, suspicious of the waiters, and awaking at the least
+sound, thinking it is the noise of feet ascending the stairs, or the rattle of
+muskets on the landing. The day before yesterday a number of
+<i>réfractaires</i>, having the courage of despair, walked to the Porte
+Saint-Ouen&mdash;&ldquo;Will you let us out?&rdquo; asked they of the
+commanding officer, who answered in a decided negative; whereupon the party,
+which was three hundred strong, fell upon the captain and his men, whom they
+disarmed, and five minutes afterwards they were running free across the fields.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Others employ softer means of corruption; resort to the
+wine-shops of Belleville, where they make themselves agreeable in
+every way, and soon succeed in entering into friendly
+conversation with some of the least ferocious among the Federals
+of the place.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-49"></a>
+<img src="images/054.jpg" width="350" height="500" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Réfractaires Escaping from Paris</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;You are on duty, Tuesday, at the Porte de la
+Chapelle?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Why, yes.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;So that you might
+very easily let a comrade out who wants to go and pay a visit at
+Saint-Denis?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Quite out of the question; the others would
+prevent me, or denounce me to the captain.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;You think there
+is nothing to be done with the captain?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Oh! no; he is a
+staunch patriot, he is!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;How very tiresome; and I wanted
+most particularly to go to Saint-Denis on Tuesday evening. I would gladly give
+twenty francs out of my own pocket for the sake of a little walk outside the
+fortifications.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;There is only one
+way.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;And how is that?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t
+care much about going out by the door, do you?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Well, no;
+what I want is to get outside.&ldquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Oh! then listen to me; come
+to La-Chapelle early on Tuesday evening, and walk up and down the rampart. I
+will try and be on duty at eight o&rsquo;clock, and look out for you. When I
+see you I will take care not to say <i>qui
+vive</i>.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;That&rsquo;s easy enough; and what
+then?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Why, then I will secure around you a thick rope which
+of course you will have with you!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;The
+devil!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;And I will throw you into the
+trench.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;By Jove! That will be a
+leap.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Oh! I will do it very carefully, without hurting you.
+I will let you slip softly down the
+wall.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Humph!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;When you reach the ground
+below, in an instant you can be up and off into the darkness. Do you accept?
+Yes or no?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;I should certainly prefer to drive out of the
+city in a coach and six, but nevertheless I accept.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Generally, this plan answers admirably. They say that the
+Federals of Belleville and Montmartre make a nice little income
+with this kind of business. Sometimes, however, the plan only
+half succeeds, and either the rope breaks, or the Federal
+considers, he may manage capitally to reconcile his interest with
+his duty, by sending a ball after the escaped
+<i>réfractaire</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Disguises are also the order of the day. A poet, whose verses
+were received at the Comédie Française with
+enthusiasm during the siege, managed to get away, thanks to an
+official on the Northern Railway, who lent him his coat and cap.
+Another poet&mdash;they are an ingenious race&mdash;conceived a
+plan of greater boldness. One day on the Boulevard he called a
+fiacre, having first taken care to choose a coachman of
+respectable age, &ldquo;<i>Cocher</i>, drive to the Rue Montorgueil, to
+the best restaurant you can find.&rdquo; On the way the poet reasoned
+thus to himself: &ldquo;This coachman has in his pocket, as they all
+have, a Communal passport, which allows him to go out and come
+into Paris as he pleases; let me remember the fourth act of my
+last melodrama, and I am saved.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The cab stopped in front of a restaurant of decent exterior
+not far from Philippe&rsquo;s. The young man went in, asked for a
+private room, and told the waiter to send up the coachman, as he
+had something to say to him, and to procure a boy to hold the
+horse. The coachman walked into the room, where the breakfast was
+ready served.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Now, coachman, I am going to keep you all day, so do not
+refuse to drink a glass with me to keep up your strength.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An hour after the poet and the coachman had breakfasted like old friends; six
+empty bottles testified that neither one nor the other were likely to die of
+thirst. The poet grumbled internally to himself as he thought of the three
+bottles of Clos-Vougeot, one of Léoville, two of Moulin-au-Vent, that had been
+consumed, and the fellow not drunk yet. Then he determined to try surer means,
+and called to the waiter to bring champagne. &ldquo;It is no use, young
+fellow,&rdquo; laughed the coachman, who was familiar at least, if he was not
+drunk; &ldquo;champagne won&rsquo;t make any difference; if you counted on that
+to get my passport, you reckoned without your host!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;The
+devil I did,&rdquo; cried the poor young man, horrified to see his scheme fall
+through, and to think of the prodigious length of the bill he should have to
+pay for nothing.&mdash;&ldquo;Others, have tried it on, but I am too wide awake
+by half,&rdquo; said the coachman, adding as he emptied the last bottle into
+his glass, &ldquo;give me two ten-franc pieces and I will get you
+through.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;How can I be grateful enough?&rdquo; cried the
+poet, although in reality he felt rather humiliated to find that the grand
+scene in his fourth act had not succeeded.&mdash;&ldquo;Call the waiter, and
+pay the bill.&rdquo; The waiter was called, and the bill paid with a sigh.
+&ldquo;Now give me your jacket.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;My
+jacket?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Yes, this thing in velvet you have on your
+back.&rdquo; The poet did as he was bid. &ldquo;Now your waistcoat and
+trousers.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;My trousers! Oh, insatiable
+coachman!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Make haste will you, or else I shall take you to
+the nearest guard-room for a confounded <i>réfractaire</i>, as you are.&rdquo;
+The clothes were immediately given up. &ldquo;Very well; now take mine, dress
+yourself in them, and let&rsquo;s be off.&rdquo; While the young man was
+putting on with decided distaste the garments of the <i>cocher</i>, the latter
+managed to introduce his ponderous bulk into those of the poet. This done, out
+they went. &ldquo;Get up on the box.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;On the
+box?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Yes, idiot,&rdquo; said the coachman, growing more and
+more familiar; &ldquo;I am going to get into the cab, now drive me wherever you
+please.&rdquo; The plan was a complete success. At the Porte de Châtillon the
+disguised poet exhibited his passport, and the National Guard who looked in at
+the window of the carriage cried out, &ldquo;Oh, he may pass; he might be my
+grandfather.&rdquo; The cab rolled over the draw-bridge, and it was in this way
+that M ...,&mdash;ah! I was just going to let the cat out of the bag&mdash;it
+was in this way that our young poet broke the law of the Commune, and managed
+to dine that same evening at the Hôtel des Réservoirs at Versailles, with a
+deputy of the right on his left hand, and a deputy of the left on his right
+hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shall I go away? Why not? Do I particularly wish to be shut up
+one morning in some barrack-room, or sent in spite of myself to
+the out-posts? My position of <i>réfractaire</i> is
+sensibly aggravated by the fact of my being in rather a dangerous
+neighbourhood. For the last few days, I have felt rather
+astonished at the searching glances that a neighbour always casts
+upon me, when we met in the street. I told my servant to try and
+find out who this man was. Great heavens! this scowling neighbour
+of mine is Gérardin&mdash;Gérardin of the Commune!
+Add to this the perilous fact, that our <i>concierge</i> is
+lieutenant in a Federal battalion, and you will have good reason
+to consider me the most unfortunate of
+<i>réfractaires</i>. However, what does it matter? I
+decide on remaining; I will stay and see the end, even should the
+terrible Pyat and the sweet Vermorel both of them be living under
+the same roof with me, even if my <i>concierge</i> be M.
+Delescluze himself!
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-87" id="fn-87"></a> <a href="#fnref-87">[87]</a>
+The decree which rendered obligatory the service in the marching companies of
+the National Guard, and the establishment of courts-martial, spread terror
+among the population, and thousands of people thronged daily to the Prefecture
+of Police. Sometimes, the queue extended from the Place Dauphine to beyond the
+Pont Neuf. But soon afterwards, stratagems of every kind were put into
+requisition to escape from the researches of the Commune, which became more
+eager and determined, from day to day, after the publication of the following
+decree, the chef-d&rsquo;oeuvre of the too famous Raoul Rigault:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<small>&ldquo;EX-PREFECTURE OF POLICE.<br/>
+&ldquo;Delivery of Passports.</small>
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+<small>&ldquo;Considering that the civil authority cannot favour the
+non-execution of the decrees of the Commune, without failing in its
+duty, and that it is highly necessary that all communications with
+those who carry on this savage war against us should be prevented,<br/>
+    &ldquo;The member of the Committee of Public Safety, Delegate at the
+Prefecture of Police,<br/>
+    &ldquo;Decrees:&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;Art. 1. Passports can only be delivered on the production of
+satisfactory documents.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Art. 2. No passport will be delivered to individuals between the
+ages of seventeen and thirty-five years, as such fall within the
+military law.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Art. 3. No passport will be issued to any member of the old
+police, or who are in relation with Versailles.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Art. 4. Any persons who come within the conditions of Articles 2
+or 3, and apply for passports, will be immediately sent to the dépôt of
+the ex-Prefecture of Police.</small>
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<small>(Signed) &ldquo;RAOUL RIGAULT,<br/>
+&ldquo;Member of the Committee of Public Safety.&rdquo;]</small>
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-88" id="fn-88"></a> <a href="#fnref-88">[88]</a>
+Those who decline to join the Commune.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXXXI."></a> LXXXI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Glorious news! I have seen Lullier again. We had lost
+Cluseret, lost Rossel; Delescluze does not suffice, and except
+for Dombrowski and La Cécilia with his prima-donna-like
+name, the company of the Commune would be sadly wanting in stars.
+Happily! Lullier has been restored to us. What had become of him?
+he only wrote seven or eight letters a day to Rochefort and
+Maroteau, that I can find out. How did he manage to employ that
+indomitable activity of his, and that of his two hundred friends,
+who with their red Garibaldis and blue sailor trousers made him
+the most picturesque escort you can imagine? Was he meditating
+some gigantic enterprises the dictatorship that Cluseret had
+dreamed of and Rossel disdained, was he about to assume it for
+the good of the Republic? I have no idea; but whatever he has
+been doing, I have seen him again at the club held in the church
+of Saint Jacques.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-50"></a>
+<img src="images/055.jpg" width="295" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>General La Cécilia.<a href="#fn-89" name="fnref-89"
+id="fnref-89"><sup>[89]</sup></a></b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+Ha! ha! Worthless hypocrites and inquisitors, who for the last
+eighteen hundred years have crushed, degraded, and tortured the
+poor; you thought our turn was never to come, you monks, priests,
+and archbishops! Thanks to the Commune you now preach in the
+prisons of the Republic; you may confess, if you like, the
+spiders of your dungeons, and give the holy viaticum to the rats
+which play around your legs! You can no longer do any harm to
+patriots. No more churches, no more convents! Those who have not
+houses in the Champs Elysées shall lodge in your convents;
+in your churches shall be held honest assemblies, which will give
+the people their rights; as to their duties, that is an invention
+of reactionists. No more of your sermons or speeches: after
+Bossuet, Napoléon Gaillard!
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-51"></a>
+<img src="images/056.jpg" width="500" height="332" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>The Church of Saint Eustache. Used As a Red Club. Partly
+destroyed by fire.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+On entering the church of Saint Eustache yesterday, I was
+agreeably surprised to find the font full of tobacco instead of
+holy-water, and to see the altar in the distance covered with
+bottles and glasses. Some one informed me that was the counter.
+In one of the lateral chapels, a statue of the Virgin had been
+dressed out in the uniform of a vivandière, with a pipe in
+her mouth. I was, however, particularly charmed with the amiable
+faces of the people I saw collected there. The sex to which we
+owe the <i>tricoteuses</i> was decidedly in the majority. It was
+quite delightful not to see any of those elegant dresses and
+frivolous manners, which have for so long disgraced the better
+half of the human race. Thank heaven! my eyes fell with rapture
+on the heroic rags of those ladies who do us the honour of
+sweeping our streets for us. Many of these female patriots were
+proud to bear in the centre of their faces a rubicund nose, that
+rivalled in colour the Communal flag on the Hôtel de Ville.
+Oh, glorious red nose, the distinguished sign of Republicanism!
+As to the men, they seemed to have been chosen among the first
+ranks of the new aristocracy. It was charming to note the
+military elegance with which their caps were slightly inclined
+over one ear; their faces, naturally hideous, were illuminated
+with the joy of freedom, and certainly the thick smoke which
+emanated from their pipes, must have been more agreeable as an
+offering, than the faint vapours of incense that used to arise
+from the gilded censers. &ldquo;Marriage, citoyennes, is the greatest
+error of ancient humanity. To be married is to be a slave. Will
+you be slaves?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;No, no!&rdquo; cried all the female part of the
+audience, and the orator, a tall gaunt woman with a nose like the
+beak of a hawk, and a jaundice-coloured complexion, flattered by
+such universal applause, continued, &ldquo;Marriage, therefore, cannot
+be tolerated any longer in a free city. It ought to be considered
+a crime, and suppressed by the most severe measures. Nobody has
+the right to sell his liberty, and thereby to set a bad example
+to his fellow citizens. The matrimonial state is a perpetual
+crime against morality. Don&rsquo;t tell me that marriage may be
+tolerated, if you institute divorce. Divorce is only an
+expedient, and if I may be allowed to use the word, an Orleanist
+expedient!&rdquo; (Thunders of applause.) &ldquo;Therefore, I propose to this
+assembly, that it should get the Commune of Paris to modify the
+decree, which assures pensions to the legitimate or illegitimate
+companions of the National Guards, killed in the defence of our
+municipal rights. No half measures. We, the illegitimate
+companions, will no longer suffer the legitimate wives to usurp
+rights they no longer possess, and which they ought never to have
+had at all. Let the decree be modified. All for the free women,
+none for the slaves!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-52"></a>
+<img src="images/057.jpg" width="450" height="297" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Interior of the Church Of St.
+Eustache&mdash;communist Club.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+The orator descends from the pulpit amidst the most lively
+congratulations. I am told by some one standing near me, that the
+orator is a monthly nurse, who used to be a somnambulist in her
+youth. But the crowd opens now to give place to a male orator,
+who mounts the spiral staircase, passes his hand through his
+hair, and darts a piercing glance on the multitude beneath. It is
+Citizen Lullier.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This young man has really a very agreeable physiognomy; his
+forehead is intelligent, his eyes pleasant. Looking on M.
+Lullier&rsquo;s sympathetic face, one is sorry to remember his
+eccentricities. But what is all this noise about? What has he
+said? what has he done? I only heard the words &ldquo;Dombrowski,&rdquo; and
+&ldquo;La Cécilia.&rdquo; Every one starts to his feet, exasperated,
+shouting. Several chairs are about to be flung at the orator. He
+is surrounded, hooted. &ldquo;Down with Lullier! Long live Dombrowski!&rdquo;
+The tumult increases. Citizen Lullier seems perfectly calm in the
+midst of it all, but refuses to leave the pulpit; he tries in
+vain to speak and explain. Two women, two amiable hags, throw
+themselves upon him; several men rush up also; he is taken up
+bodily and carried away, resisting to the utmost and shouting to
+the last. The people jump up on the chairs, Lullier has
+disappeared, and I hear him no more; what have they done with
+him!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What do you think of all this, gentlemen and Catholics! Do you
+still regret the priests and choristers who used awhile ago to
+preach and chant in the Parisian churches? Where is the man, who
+at the very sight of this new congregation, so tolerant, so
+intelligent, listening with such gratitude to these noble lessons
+of politics and morality; where is the man, who could any longer
+blind himself to the admirable influence of the present
+revolution? Innumerable are the benefits that the Paris Commune
+showers upon us! As I leave the church, a little vagabond walks
+up to the font, and taking a pinch of tobacco,&mdash;&ldquo;In the name
+of the...!&rdquo; says he, then fills his pipe; &ldquo;In the name of the
+...!&rdquo; proceeding to strike a lucifer, adds, &ldquo;In the name of the
+...!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Confound the blasphemous rascal!&rdquo; say I, giving him
+a good box on the ears. After having written these lines I felt
+inclined to erase them; on second thoughts I let them
+remain&mdash;they belong to history!
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-89" id="fn-89"></a> <a href="#fnref-89">[89]</a>
+A political refugee, who left his country in 1869 for Prussia, where he taught
+mathematics in the University of Ulm, and afterwards accepted service under
+Garibaldi.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXXXII."></a> LXXXII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+This morning I took a walk in the most innocent manner, having
+committed no crime that I knew of. It was lovely weather, and the
+streets looked gay, as they generally do when it is very bright,
+even when the hearts of the people are most sad. I passed through
+the Rue Saint-Honoré, the Palais Royal, and finally the
+Rue Richelieu. I beg pardon for these details, but I am
+particularly careful in indicating the road I took, as I wish the
+inhabitants of the places in question, to bear witness that I did
+not steal in passing a single quartern loaf, or appropriate the
+smallest article of jewellery. As I was about to turn on to the
+boulevards, one of the four National Guards who were on duty, I
+do not know what for, at the corner of the street, cried out,
+&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t pass!&rdquo; All right, thought I to myself; there is
+nothing fresh I suppose, only the Commune does not want people to
+pass; of course, it has right on its side. Thereupon I began to
+retrace my steps. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t pass,&rdquo; calls out another sentinel,
+by the time I have reached the other side of the street.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This is strange, the Commune cannot mean to limit my walk to a
+melancholy pacing up and down between two opposite pavements. A
+sergeant came up to me; I recognised him as a Spaniard, who
+during the siege belonged to my company. &ldquo;Why are you not in
+uniform?&rdquo; he asked me, with a roughness that I fancied was
+somewhat mitigated by the remembrance of the many cigars I had
+given him, the nights we were on guard during the siege. I
+understood in an instant what they wanted with me, and replied
+unhesitatingly, &ldquo;Because it is not my turn to be on
+guard,&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;No, of course it&rsquo;s not, it never is. You have been
+taking your ease this long time, while others have been getting
+killed.&rdquo; It was evident this Spaniard had not taken the cigars I
+had given him, in good part, and was now revenging
+himself.&mdash;&ldquo;What do you want with me?&rdquo; I said; &ldquo;let&rsquo;s have
+done with this.&rdquo; Instead of answering, he signed to two Federals
+standing near, who immediately placed themselves one on each side
+of me, and cried, &ldquo;March!&rdquo; I was perfectly agreeable, although
+this walk was not exactly in the direction I had intended. On the
+way I heard a woman say, &ldquo;Poor young man I They have taken him in
+the act.&rdquo; I was conducted to the church of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette,
+and marched into the vestry, where about fifty
+<i>réfractaires</i> were already assembled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Behind a deal table, on which were placed a small register, an
+inkstand stuck in a great bung, and two quill pens, sat three
+young men, almost boys, in uniform. You might have imagined them
+to be Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanthus, at the age when they
+played at leap-frog. &ldquo;Your name?&rdquo; said Rhadamanthus, addressing
+me. I did not think twice about it, but gave them a name which
+has never been mine. Suddenly some one behind me burst out
+laughing; I turned round and recognised an old friend, whom I had
+not noticed among the other prisoners. &ldquo;Your profession?&rdquo;
+inquired Minos.&mdash;&ldquo;Prizefighter,&rdquo; I answered, putting my arms
+akimbo and looking as ferocious as possible, by way of keeping up
+the character I had momentarily assumed. To the rest of the
+questions that were addressed to me, I replied in the same
+satisfactory manner. When it was over, Minos said to me, &ldquo;That is
+enough; now go and sit down, and wait until you are
+called.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Pardon me, my young friend, but I shall not go
+and sit down, nor shall I wait a moment more.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Are you
+making fun of us? We are transacting most serious business, our
+lives are at stake. Go and sit down.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;I have already had
+the honour to remark, my dear Rhadamanthus, that I did not mean
+to sit down. Be kind enough to allow me to depart
+instantly.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;You ask <i>me</i> to do this?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Yes!
+you!&rdquo; I shouted in a tremendous voice. The three judges looked at
+me in great perplexity, and began whispering amongst themselves.
+A prize fighter, by jingo! I thought the moment had come to
+strike a decisive blow, so I pulled out of my pocket a little
+green card, which I desired them to examine. Immediately Minos,
+Aeacus, and Rhadamanthus got up, bowed to me most respectfully,
+and called out to two National Guards who were at the door,
+&ldquo;Allow the citizen to pass.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;By-the-bye,&rdquo; said I,
+pointing, to my friend, &ldquo;this gentleman is with me.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Allow
+both the citizens to pass,&rdquo; shouted the lads in
+chorus.&mdash;&ldquo;This is capital,&rdquo; cried my friend as soon as we
+were well outside the door.&mdash;&ldquo;How did you manage?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;I
+have a pass from the Central Committee.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;In your own
+name?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;No, I bought it of the widow of a Federal; who was
+on very good terms with Citizen Félix Pyat.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Why,
+it is just like a romance.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Yes, but a romance that allows
+me to live pretty safely in the midst of this strange reality.
+Anyhow, I think we had better look out for other lodgings.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-53"></a>
+<img src="images/058.jpg" width="450" height="393" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>House of M. Thiers, Palace Saint-Georges.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="LXXXIII."></a>LXXXIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+At ten o&rsquo;clock in the evening I was walking up the Rue
+Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. In these times the streets are quite deserted at that
+hour. Looking on in front I saw that the Place Saint-Georges was lighted up by
+long tongues of flame, that the wind blew hither and thither. I hastened on,
+and was soon standing in front of M. Thiers&rsquo; house.<a href="#fn-90"
+name="fnref-90" id="fnref-90"><sup>[90]</sup></a> At the open gate stood a
+sentinel; a large fire had been lighted in the court by the National Guards;
+not that the night was cold, they seemed to have lighted it merely for the
+pleasure of burning furniture and pictures, that had been left behind by the
+Communal waggoners. They had already begun to pull down the right side of the
+house; a pickaxe was leaning against a loosened stone; the roof had fallen in,
+and a rafter was sticking out of one of the windows. The fire rose higher and
+higher; would it not be better that the flames should reach the house and
+consume it in an hour or two, than to see it being gradually pulled down, stone
+by stone, for many days to come? In the court I perceived several trucks full
+of books and linen. A National Guard picked up a small picture that was lying
+near the gate; I bent forward and saw that it was a painting of a satyr playing
+on a flute. How sad and cruel all this seemed! The men lounging about looked
+demoniacal in the red light of the fire. I turned away, thinking not of the
+political man, but of the house where he had worked, where he had thought, of
+the books that no longer stood on the shelves, of the favourite chair that had
+been burnt on the very hearth by which he had sat so long; I thought of all the
+dumb witnesses of a long life destroyed, dispersed, lost, of the relatives, and
+friends whose traces had disappeared from the rooms empty to-day, in ruins
+to-morrow; I thought of all this, and of all the links that would be broken by
+a dispersion, and I trembled at the idea that some day&mdash;in these times
+anything seems possible&mdash;men may break open the doors of my modest
+habitation, knock about the furniture of which I have grown fond, destroy my
+books which have so long been the companions of my studies, tear the pictures
+from my walls, and burn the verses that I love for the sake of the trouble they
+have given me to make,&mdash;kill, in a word, all that renders life agreeable
+to me, more cruelly than if four Federals were to take me off and shoot me at
+the corner of a street. But I am not a political man. I belong to no
+party&mdash;who would think of doing me any injury? I am perfectly harmless,
+with my lovesick metaphor. Ah I how egotistical one is! It was of my own home
+that I thought while I stood in front of the ruin in the Place Saint-Georges. I
+confess that I was particularly touched by the misfortunes of that house,
+because it awakened in me the fear of my own, misfortune, most improbable, and
+most diminutive, it is true, in comparison with that.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-54"></a>
+<img src="images/059.jpg" width="450" height="420" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>House of M. Thiers During Demolition and Removal.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-90" id="fn-90"></a> <a href="#fnref-90">[90]</a>
+It should be remarked that the destruction of M. Thiers&rsquo; house coincided
+with the first success of the Versailles army; it was the spirit of hatred and
+mad destructiveness which dictated the following decree, issued by the
+Committee of Public Safety on the 10th of May:&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;Art. 1. The goods and property of Thiers (they even denied him the
+appellation of citizen) are seized by order of the administration of public
+domains.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Art. 2. The house of Thiers, situated at the Place Saint-Georges, to
+be demolished.&rdquo;<br/>
+    &ldquo;On the following day the National Assembly, in presence of the
+activity exhibited by M. Thiers, declared that the proscribed, whose house was
+demolished, had exhibited proofs of an amount of patriotism and political
+ability which inspired every confidence in the future. On the 12th of the same
+month works were commenced at Versailles for the formation of a railway-station
+sufficient for all the wants of an important army, the initiation of which was
+due to M. Thiers; a conference was opened on the 19th April with the Western
+Railway Company, the plans were approved on the 22nd of the same month, and the
+preliminary works were commenced on the 12th of May. When these are terminated,
+they will consist of thirty-five parallel lines of rails, more than a mile in
+length. But the principal point in the plan is, that by means of branches to
+Pontoise and Chevreuse, this immense station may be placed in direct
+communication with all the lines of railway in France. It is easy enough to
+draw the following conclusion, namely, that if the necessity should ever again
+arise, Paris would cease to be the central depot for all commercial movements,
+and thus the paralysis of the affairs of the whole country would be avoided, in
+case the Parisian populace should again be bitten by the barricade mania. At
+one time it was feared that the collections of M. Thiers were destroyed in the
+conflagration at the Tuileries; but M. Courbet reports that on the 12th of May
+he asked what he ought to do about the different things taken at the house of
+M. Thiers, and if they were to be sent to the Louvre or to be publicly sold,
+and he was then appointed a member of the commission to examine the case.
+Regarding his conduct at the time of the demolishing of the house of M. Thiers,
+he arrived too late, he says, to make an inventory; the furniture and effects
+had been already packed by the <i>employés</i> of the Garde Meuble; &ldquo;I
+made some observations about it, and on going through the empty apartments, I
+noticed two small figures that I packed in paper, thinking they might be
+private <i>souvenirs</i>, and that I would return them some day to their owner.
+All the other things were already destroyed or gone.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXXXIV."></a> LXXXIV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+An anecdote: Parisian all over; but with such stuff are they
+amused!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Raoul Rigault, the man who arrests, was breakfasting with
+Gaston Dacosta, the man who destroys. These two friends are
+worthy of each other. Rigault has incarcerated the Archbishop of
+Paris, but Dacosta claims the merit of having loosened the first
+stone in M. Thiers&rsquo; house. But however, Rigault would destroy if
+Dacosta were not there to do so; and if Rigault did not arrest,
+Dacosta would arrest for him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They talked as they ate. Rigault enumerated the list of people he had sent to
+the Conciergerie and to Mazas, and thought with consternation that soon there
+would be no one left for him to arrest. Suddenly he stopped his fork on its way
+to his mouth, and his face assumed a most doleful
+expression.&mdash;&ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter?&rdquo; cried Dacosta,
+alarmed.&mdash;&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said Rigault, tears choking his utterance,
+&ldquo;Papa is not in Paris.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Well, and what does it matter
+if your father is not here?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Alas!&rdquo; exclaimed Rigault,
+bursting out crying, &ldquo;I could have had him arrested!&rdquo;<a
+href="#fn-91" name="fnref-91" id="fnref-91"><sup>[91]</sup></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-91" id="fn-91"></a> <a href="#fnref-91">[91]</a>
+The illegality of his conduct, however, was complaint made by Arthur Arnould,
+to the committee, concerning the arbitrary arrest of a number of persons.
+Cournet was appointed to the Prefecture in Rigault&rsquo;s stead, but the
+amateur policeman and informer did not renounce work; he found the greatest
+pleasure, as he himself expressed it, in acting the spy over the official
+spies. This man was a well-known frequenter of the low cafés of the Quartier
+Latin, and his face bore such evidences of his debauched life, that though only
+twenty-eight years of age, he looked nearer forty.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-55"></a>
+<img src="images/060.jpg" width="222" height="240" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Cournet, Member of Committee Of General Safety.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="LXXXV."></a>LXXXV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+The horrible cracking sound that is heard at sea when a vessel splits upon a
+rock, is not a surer sign of peril to the terrified crew, than are the vain
+efforts, contradictions and agitation at the Hôtel de Ville, the forerunners of
+disaster to the men of the Commune. Listen! the vessel is about to heave
+asunder. Everybody gives orders, no one obeys them. One man looks defiantly at
+another; this man denounces that, and Rigault thinks seriously of arresting
+them both. There is a majority which is not united, and a minority that cannot
+agree amongst themselves. Twenty-one members retire, they do well.<a
+href="#fn-92" name="fnref-92" id="fnref-92"><sup>[92]</sup></a> I am glad to
+find on the list the names of the few that Paris&rsquo; still believes in, and
+whom, thanks to this tardy resignation, it will not learn to despise. For
+instance, Arthur Arnould. But why should they take the trouble to seek out a
+pretext? Why did they not say simply: &ldquo;We have left them because we find
+them full of wickedness; we were blinded as you were at first, but now we in
+our turn see clearly; a good cause has been lost by madmen or worse, and we
+have abandoned it because, if we were to stay a moment longer, now that we are
+no longer blinded, we should be committing a criminal act&rdquo; Such words as
+these would have opened the eyes of so many wretched beings, who are going to
+their deaths and think they do well to die! As to those who remain, they must
+feel that their power is slipping from them. They did not arrest or detain
+Rossel; it would seem as if they dared not touch him because he was right in
+thinking what he said, although he was very wrong to say it as he did. While
+the Commune hesitates, the military plans of the Versaillais are being carried
+out. Vanves taken, Montrouge in ruins, breaches opened at the Point-du-Jour, at
+the Porte-Maillot, at Saint-Ouen; the Communists have only to choose now,
+between flight and the horrors of a terrible death struggle! May they fly, far,
+far away, beyond the reach of vengeance, despised, forgotten if that be
+possible! I am told that the Central Committee is trying now to substitute
+itself for the Commune, which was elected by its desire.<a href="#fn-93"
+name="fnref-93" id="fnref-93"><sup>[93]</sup></a> One born of the other, they
+will die together.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-56"></a>
+<img src="images/061.jpg" width="298" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Arthur Arnould, Commissioner of Foreign
+Affairs.<a href="#fn-94" name="fnref-94" id="fnref-94"><sup>[94]</sup></a></b></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-57"></a>
+<img src="images/062.jpg" width="347" height="500" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Foundered Craft on the Seine.<br/>
+Porte Maillot et Avenue de la Grande Armée</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-92" id="fn-92"></a> <a href="#fnref-92">[92]</a>
+An important document has just made the round of the Communal press&mdash;the
+manifesto of the minority of the Commune, in which twenty-one members declare
+their refusal to take any farther part in the deliberations of the body, which
+they accuse of having delivered its powers into the hands of the Committee of
+Public Safety, and thus rendering itself null. This declaration is signed
+by:&mdash;Arthur Arnould, Avrial, Andrieux, Arnold, Clémence, Victor Clément,
+Courbet, Franckel, Eugène Gérardin, Jourde, Lefrançais, Longuet, Malon, Ostyn,
+Pindy, Sérailler, Tridon, Theisz, Varlin, Vermorel, Jules Vallès.<br/>
+    Adding to these twenty-one secessionists, twenty-one members who have
+resigned:&mdash;Adam, Barré, Brelay, Beslay, De Bouteiller, Chéron, Desmarest,
+Ferry, Fruneau, Goupil, Loiseau-Pinson, Leroy, Lefèvre, Méline, Murat,
+Marmottan, Nast, Ulysse Parent, Robineat, Rane, Tirard;<br/>
+    Three who have not sat: Briosne, Menotti Garibaldi, Rogeard;<br/>
+    Two dead: Duval, Flourens;<br/>
+    One captured: Blanqui;<br/>
+    One escaped: Charles Gérardin;<br/>
+    Five incarcerated: Allix, Panille dit Blanchet, Brunel, Emile Clément,
+Cluseret;&mdash;<br/>
+    Out of 101 members elected to the Commune on the 26th of March and the 16th
+of April, only forty-seven now remain:&mdash;Amouroux, Ant. Arnaud, Assy,
+Babick, Billioray, Clément, Champy, Chardon, Chalain, Demay, Dupont, Decamp,
+Dereure, Durant, Delescluze, Eudes, Henry Fortuné, Ferré, Gambon, Geresme,
+Paschal Grousset, Johannard, Ledroit, Langevin, Lonclas, Mortier, Léo Meiller,
+Martelet, J. Miot, Oudet, Protot, Paget, Pilotel, Félix Pyat, Philippe,
+Parisel, Pottier, Régère, Raoul Rigault, Sicard, Triquet, Urbain, Vaillant,
+Verdure, Vésmier, Viart.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-93" id="fn-93"></a> <a href="#fnref-93">[93]</a>
+&ldquo;REPUBLICAN FEDERATION OF THE NATIONAL GUARD.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<small>&ldquo;Central Committee.<br/>
+&ldquo;To the People of Paris! To the National Guard!</small>
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+<small>&ldquo;Rumours of dissensions between the majority of the Commune and the
+Central Committee have been spread by our common enemies with a
+persistency which, once for all, must be crushed by public compact.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The Central Committee, appointed to the administration of military
+affairs by the Committee of Public Safety, will enter upon office from
+this day.<br/>
+    &ldquo;This Committee, which has upheld the standard of the Communal
+revolution, has undergone no change and no deterioration. It is today
+what it was yesterday, the legitimate defender of the Commune, the
+basis of its power, at the same time as it is the determined enemy of
+civil war; the sentinel placed by the people to protect the rights that
+they have conquered,<br/>
+    &ldquo;In the name, then, of the Commune, and of the Central Committee,
+    who sign this pact of good faith, let these gross suspicions and
+    calumnies be swept away. Let hearts beat, let hands be ready to
+    strike in the good cause, and may we triumph in the name of union
+    and fraternity.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Long live the Republic!<br/>
+    &ldquo;Long live the Commune!<br/>
+    &ldquo;Long live the Communal Federation!</small>
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<small>&ldquo;The Commission of the Commune,
+    BERGERET, CHAMPY, GERESME, LEDROIT, LONGLAS, URBAIN.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The Central Committee.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Paris, 18th May, 1871.&rdquo;</small>
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-94" id="fn-94"></a> <a href="#fnref-94">[94]</a>
+Arnould is a man of about forty-seven years of age, small in stature, lively
+and intelligent. He has written in many of the Democratic journals of Paris and
+the provinces; and his literary talents are of a good kind. Being connected
+with Rochefort&rsquo;s journal, the <i>Marseillaise</i>, he was sent by the
+latter to challenge Pierre Bonaparte, and was a witness at the trial which
+followed the murder of Victor Noir.<br/>
+    Although naturally drawn by his connections into the movement
+of the eighteenth of March, he always protested loudly against
+the arbitrary acts of the Commune, and it is surprising that he
+did not fall under accusation, by his colleagues. He opposed
+particularly the proposals for the suppression of newspapers. &ldquo;It
+is prodigious to me,&rdquo; he said, in full meeting of the committee,
+&ldquo;that people will still talk of arresting others for expressing
+their opinions.&rdquo;<br/>
+    He voted against the organisation of the Committee of Public
+Safety on the ground:&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;That such an institution would be directly opposed to the
+political opinions of the electoral body, of which the Commune is
+the representative.&rdquo;<br/>
+    He protested most energetically against secret
+imprisonment&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;Secret incarceration has something immoral in it; it is moral
+torture substituted for physical.<br/>
+    &ldquo;I cannot understand men who have passed their life in
+combating the errors of despotism, falling into the same faults
+when they arrive at power. Of two things one: either secret
+imprisonment is an indispensable and good thing; or, it is
+odious. If it was good it was wrong to oppose it, and if it be
+odious and immoral, we ought not to continue it.&rdquo;<br/>
+    What on earth had he then to do in the Commune?<br/>
+    &ldquo;Que diable allait-il faire dans cette galère?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXXXVI."></a> LXXXVI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+It was five o&rsquo;clock in the afternoon. The day had been splendid and the
+sun shone brilliantly on Caesar still standing on the glorious pedestal of his
+victories. Outside the barricades of the Rue de la Paix and the Rue
+Castiglione, the crowd was standing in a compact mass, as far as the Tuileries
+on one side and the New Opera House on the other. There must have been from
+twenty to twenty-fire thousand people there. Strangers accosted each other by
+the title of Citizen, I heard some talking about an eccentric Englishman who
+had paid three thousand francs for the pleasure of being the last to climb to
+the summit of the column. Nearly every one blamed him for not having given the
+money to the people. Others said that Citizen Jourde would not manage to cover
+his expenses; Abadie<a href="#fn-95" name="fnref-95"
+id="fnref-95"><sup>[95]</sup></a> the engineer had asked thirty-two thousand
+francs to pull down the great trophy, and that the stone and plaster was after
+all, not covered with more than an inch or two of bronze, that it was not so
+many metres high, and would not make a great many two-sous pieces after all.
+These sous seemed to occupy the public mind exceedingly, but the principal
+subjects of conversation, were the fears concerning the probable effects of the
+fall.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-58"></a>
+<img src="images/063.jpg" width="512" height="459" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Barricade of the Rue Castiglione, from The Place Vendôme.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+The event was slow in accomplishment. The wide Place was
+thinly sprinkled with spectators, not more than three hundred in
+all, privileged beings with tickets, or wearing masonic badges;
+or officers of the staff. Bergeret at one of the windows was
+coolly smoking a cigarette; military bands were assembled at the
+four angles of the Place; the sound of female laughter reached us
+from the open windows of the Ministère de la Justice. The
+horses of the mounted sentinels curvetted with impatience;
+bayonets glittered in the sun; children gaped wearily, seated on
+the curbstone. The hour of the ceremony was past; a rope had
+broken. Around the piled faggots on which the column was to fall,
+great fascines of flags of the favourite colour were flying.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The crowd did not seem to enjoy being kept in suspense, and
+proclaimed their impatience by stamping with measured tread, and
+crying &ldquo;Music!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At half-past five there was a sudden movement and bustle around the barricade
+of the Rue Castiglione. The members of the Commune appeared with their
+inevitable red scarfs.<a href="#fn-96" name="fnref-96"
+id="fnref-96"><sup>[96]</sup></a> Then there was a great hush. At the same
+instant the windlass creaked; the ropes which hung from the summit of the
+column tightened; the gaping hole in the masonry below, gradually closed; the
+statue bent forward in the rays of the setting sun, and then suddenly
+describing in the air a gigantic sweep, fell among the flags with a dull, heavy
+thud, scattering a whirlwind of blinding dust in the air.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then the bands struck up the &ldquo;Marseillaise,&rdquo; and cries of
+&ldquo;Vive la Commune&rdquo; were re-echoed on all sides by the terror or
+the indifference of the multitude. In a marvellously short time,
+however, all was quiet again, so quiet, indeed, that I distinctly
+heard a dog bark as it ran frightened across the Place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I daresay the members of the Commune, who presided over the
+accomplishment of this disgraceful deed, exclaimed in the pride
+of their miserable hearts, &ldquo;Caesar, those whom you salute shall
+live!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Everybody of course wished to get a bit of the ruin, as
+visitors to Paris eagerly bought bits of siege bread framed and
+glazed, and there was a general rush towards the place; but the
+National Guards crossed, their bayonets in front of the
+barricade, and no one was allowed to pass. So that the crowd
+quickly dispersed to its respective dinners. &ldquo;It is fallen!&rdquo; said
+some to those who had not been fortunate enough to see the sight.
+&ldquo;The head of the statue came off&mdash;no one was killed.&rdquo; The
+boys cried out, &ldquo;Oh, it was a jolly sight all the same!&rdquo; But the
+greater part of the people were silent as they trudged away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then night came on, and next day a land-mark and a finger-post
+seemed missing in our every-day journey. Until we lose a familiar
+object we hardly appreciate its existence.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-95" id="fn-95"></a> <a href="#fnref-95">[95]</a>
+Abadie arranged to demolish the Colonne Vendôme for 32,000 or 38,000 francs,
+forfeiting 600 francs for every day&rsquo;s delay after the fourth of May. This
+reduced the sum to be paid to him by 6000 francs.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-96" id="fn-96"></a> <a href="#fnref-96">[96]</a>
+Regarding Courbet and the destruction of the Column, he rejects the accusation
+on the ground that this decree had been voted previously to his admission in
+the Commune, and on the request he had made under the Government of the 4th of
+May of removing the column to the esplanade of the Invalides. He affirms that
+the official paper has altered his own words at the Commune, and he pretends
+having proposed to the Government to rebuild the column at his own expense, if
+it can be proved that he has been the cause of its destruction.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXXXVII."></a> LXXXVII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+On the sixteenth, I received a prospectus through my
+concierge. There was to be a concert, mixed with speeches&mdash;a
+sort of popular fête at the Tuileries. The places varied in
+price from ten sous to five francs. Five francs the Salle des
+Maréchaux; ten sous the garden, which was to be
+illuminated with Venetian lamps among the orange-trees; the whole
+to be enlivened by fireworks from the Courbevoie batteries.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had tact enough not to put on white gloves, and set out for
+the palace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was not a fairy-like sight; indeed, it was a most
+depressing spectacle. A crowd of thieves and vagabonds, of
+dustmen and rag-pickers, with four or five gold bands on their
+sleeves and caps, (the insignia of officers of the National
+Guard), were hurrying along down the grand staircase, chewing
+&ldquo;imperiales,&rdquo; spitting, and repeating the old jokes of &rsquo;93. As to
+the women&mdash;they were sadly out of place. They simpered, and
+gave themselves airs, and some of them even beat time with their
+fans, as Mademoiselle Caillot was singing, to look as if they
+knew something about music.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-59"></a>
+<img src="images/064.jpg" width="700" height="410" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>The Palace of the Tuileries, from The Garden.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="letter">
+The Last concert held in the Tuileries by the Commune took place on Sunday, the
+21st March, when Auteuil and Passy had been in the power of the army for
+several hours. Two days later the old palace was in flames. Citizen Félix Pyat
+had advocated the preservation of the Tuileries in the &ldquo;Vengeur&rdquo;,
+proposing to convert it into an &ldquo;asylum&rdquo; for the victims of work and
+the martyrs of the Republic. &ldquo;This residence&rdquo;, he wrote, &ldquo;ought
+to be devoted to people, who had already taken possession of it.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The concert took place in the Salle des Maréchaux: a
+platform had been erected for the performers. The velvet curtains
+with their golden bees still draped the windows. From the gallery
+above I could see all that was going on. The Imperial balcony
+opens out of it; I went there, and leaned on the balustrade with
+a certain feeling of emotion. Below were the illuminated gardens,
+and far away at the end of the Champs Elysées, almost lost
+in the purple of the sky, rose the Arc de Triomphe de
+l&rsquo;Etoile.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The roaring of the cannon at Vanves and Montrouge reached me
+where I stood. When the duet of the &ldquo;<i>Maître de
+Chapelle</i>&rdquo; was over, I returned into the hall; the distant
+crashing of the mitrailleuse at Neuilly, borne towards us on the
+fresh spring breeze, in through the open windows, joined its
+voice to the applause of the audience.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Oh! what an audience! The faces in general looked fit subjects
+for the gibbet; others were simply disgusting: surprise,
+pleasure, and fear of Equality were reflected on every
+physiognomy. The carpenter, Pindy, military governor of the
+Hôtel de Ville, was in close conversation with a girl from
+Philippe&rsquo;s. The ex-spy Clémence muttered soft speeches
+into the ear of a retired <i>chiffonnière</i>, who smiled
+awkwardly in reply. The cobbler Dereure was intently
+contemplating his boots; while Brilier, late coachman, hissed the
+singers by way of encouragement, as he would have done to his
+horses. They were going to recite some verses: I only waited to
+hear&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;PUIS, QUEL AVEUGLEMENT! QUEL NON-SENS POLITIQUE!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+an Alexandrine, doubtless, launched at the National Assembly,
+and made my way to the garden as quickly as I could.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There, in spite of the Venetian lamps, all was very dull and
+dark. The walks were almost deserted, although it was scarcely
+half-past nine. I took a turn beneath the trees: the evening was
+cold; and I soon left the gardens by the Rue de Rivoli gate. A
+good many people were standing there &ldquo;to see the grand people
+come from the fête&rdquo;&mdash;a fête given by lackeys in
+a deserted mansion!
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXXXVIII."></a> LXXXVIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+I was busy writing, when suddenly I heard a fearful
+detonation, followed by report on report. The windows rattled: I
+thought the house was shaking under me. The noise continued: it
+seemed as if cannon were roaring on all sides. I rushed down into
+the street; frightened people were running hither and thither,
+and asking questions. Some thought that the Versaillais were
+bombarding Paris on all sides. On the Boulevards I was told it
+was the fort of Vanves that had been blown up. At last I arrived
+on the Place de la Concorde: there the consternation was great,
+but nothing was known for certain. Looking up, I saw high up in
+the sky what looked like a dark cloud, but which was not a cloud.
+I tried again and again to obtain information. It appeared pretty
+certain that an explosion had taken place near the Ecole
+Militaire-doubtless at the Grenelle powder-magazine, I then
+turned into the Champs Elysées. A distant cracking was
+audible, like the noise of a formidable battery of mitrailleuses.
+Puffs of white smoke arose in the air and mingled with the dark
+cloud there. I no longer walked, I ran: I hoped to be able to see
+something from the Rond Point de l&rsquo;Etoile. Once there, a grand
+and fearful sight met my eyes. Vast columns of smoke rolled over
+one another towards the sky. Every now and then the wind swept
+them a little on one side, and for an instant a portion of the
+city was visible beneath the rolling vapours. Then in an instant
+a flame burst out&mdash;only one, but that gigantic, erect,
+brilliant, as one that might dart forth from a Tolcano suddenly
+opened, up through the smoke which was reddened, illumined by the
+eruption of the fire. At the same moment there were explosions as
+of a hundred waggons of powder blown up one after another. All
+this scene, in its hideous splendour, blinded and deafened me. I
+wanted to get nearer, to feel the heat of the burning, to rush
+on. I had the fire-frenzy!
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-60"></a>
+<img src="images/065.jpg" width="200" height="240" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Razoua, Governor of the Ecole militaire<a href="#fn-97"
+name="fnref-97" id="fnref-97"><sup>[97]</sup></a></b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+Going down to the Quai de Passy, I found a dense crowd there.
+Some one screamed out: &ldquo;Go back! go back! the fire will soon
+reach the cartridge-magazine.&rdquo; The words had scarcely been
+uttered, when a storm of balls fell like hail amongst us. Each
+person thought himself wounded, and many took to their heels. It
+did not enter into my head to run away. From where I was then,
+the sight was still more terribly beautiful, and the crowd that
+had withdrawn from the spot soon re-assembled again. Dreadful
+details were passed from mouth to mouth. Four five-storied houses
+had fallen; no one dared to think even of the number of the
+victims. Bodies had been seen to fall from the windows, horribly
+mutilated; arms and legs had been picked up in different places.
+Near the powder-magazine is a hospital, which was shaken from
+foundation to roof: for an instant it had trembled violently as
+if it were going to fall. The nurses, dressers, and even the sick
+had rushed from the wards, shrieking in an agony of fear; the
+frightened horses, too, with blood streaming down their sides,
+pranced madly among the fugitives, or galloped away as fast as
+they could from the awful scene.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As to the cause of the explosion, opinions varied much. Some
+said it was owing to the negligence of the overseers or the
+imprudence of the workwomen; others, that the fire was caused by
+a shell. A woman rushed up to us, screaming out that she had just
+seen a man arrested in a shed in the Champ de Mars, who
+acknowledged having blown up the powder-magazine, by order of the
+Versailles government. Of course this was inevitable. The Commune
+would not let such a good opportunity pass for accusing its
+enemies. A few innocent people will be arrested, tried with more
+or less form, and shot; when they are so many corpses, the
+Commune will exclaim, &ldquo;You see they must have been guilty: they
+have been shot!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As evening came on I turned home, thinking that the cup was
+now filled to overflowing, and that the devoted city had had to
+suffer defeat, civil war, infamy, and death; but that this last
+disaster seemed almost more than divine justice. Ever and anon I
+turned my head to gaze again. In the gathering gloom, the flames
+looked blood-red, as if the Commune had unfurled its sinister
+banner over that irreparable disaster.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-97" id="fn-97"></a> <a href="#fnref-97">[97]</a>
+Razoua served in a regiment of Spahis in Africa. Becoming acquainted with the
+journalists who used to frequent the Café de Madrid, he was a constant
+attendant there. He took up literature, and in 1867 published some violent
+articles in the <i>Pilori</i> of Victor Noir. He afterwards went with
+Delescluze to the <i>Réveil</i>, where his revolutionary principles were
+manifested. In the month of February, 1871, he was elected a member of the
+National Assembly by the people of Paris. After having sat for some time at
+Bordeaux, he gave his resignation, and became one of the Communal council.<br/>
+    Appointed governor of the École Militaire, he distinguished himself in no
+way in his position, except by the sumptuous dinners and déjeûners with which
+he regaled his friends.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="LXXXIX."></a> LXXXIX.</h2>
+
+<p>
+I have gazed so long on what was passing around me that my
+eyes are weary. I have watched the slow decline of joy, of
+comfort and luxury, almost without knowing how everything has
+been dying around me, as a man in a ball-room where the candles
+are put out, one by one, may not perceive at first the gathering
+gloom. To see Paris, as it is at the present moment, as the
+Commune has made it, requires an effort. Let me shut my eyes, and
+evoke the vision of Paris as it was, living, joyous, happy even
+in the midst of sadness. I have done so&mdash;I have brought it
+all back to me; now I will open my eyes and look around me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the street that I inhabit not a vehicle of any kind is
+visible. Men in the uniform of National Guards pass and repass on
+the pavement; a lady is talking with her <i>concierge</i> on the
+threshold of one of the houses. They talk low. Many of the shops
+are closed; some have only the shutters up; a few are quite open.
+I see a woman at the bar of the wine-shop opposite, drinking.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some quarters still resist the encroachments of silence and
+apathy. Some arteries continue to beat. Some ribbons here and
+there brighten up the shop-windows: bare-headed shopgirls pass by
+with a smile on their lips; men look after them as they trip
+along. At the corner of the Boulevards a sort of tumult is
+occasioned by a number of small boys and girls, venders of
+Communal journals, who screech out the name and title of their
+wares at the top of their voices. But even there where the crowd
+is thickest, one feels as if there were a void. The two contrary
+ideas of multitude and solitude seem to present themselves at
+once in one&rsquo;s mind. A weird impression! Imagine a vast desert
+with a crowd in it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Boulevards look interminable. There used to be a hundred
+obstacles between you and the distance; now there is nothing to
+prevent your looking as far as you like. Here and there a cab, an
+omnibus or two, and that is all. The passers-by are no longer
+promenaders. They have come out because they were obliged:
+without that they would have remained at home. The distances seem
+enormous now, and people who used to saunter about from morning
+till night will tell you now that &ldquo;the Madeleine is a long way
+off.&rdquo; Very few men in black coats or blouses are to be seen; only
+very old men dare show themselves out of uniform. In front of the
+café&rsquo;s are seated officers of the Federal army, sometimes
+seven or eight around a table. When you get near enough, you
+generally find they are talking of the dismissal of their last
+commander. Here and there a lady walks rapidly by, closely
+veiled, mostly dressed in black, with an unpretending bonnet. The
+gallop of a horse is distinctly audible&mdash;in other times one
+would never have noticed such a thing; it is an express with
+despatches, a Garibaldian, or one of the <i>Vengeurs de
+Flourens</i>, who is hoisted on a heavy cart-horse that ploughs
+the earth with its ponderous forefeet. Several companies of
+Federals file up towards the Madeleine, their rations of bread
+stuck on the top of their bayonets. Look down the side-streets,
+to the right or the left, and you will see the sidewalks
+deserted, and not a vehicle from one end to the other of the
+road. Even on the Boulevards there are times when there is no one
+to be seen at all. However, beneath it all there is a longing to
+awaken, which is crushed and kept down by the general apathy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the evening one&rsquo;s impulses burst forth; one must move
+about; one must live. Passengers walk backwards and forwards,
+talking in a loud voice. But the crowd condenses itself between
+the Rue Richelieu and the Rue du Faubourg Montmartre. Solitude
+has something terrible about it just now. People congregate
+together for the pleasure of elbowing each other, of trying to
+believe they are in great force. Quite a crowd collects round a
+little barefooted girl, who is singing at the corner of a street.
+A man seated before a low table is burning <i>pastilles</i>;
+another offers barley-sugar for sale; another has portraits of
+celebrities. Everybody tries hard to be gay; but the shops are
+closed, and the gas is sparingly lighted, so that broad shadows
+lie between the groups.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some few persons go to the theatres; the playbills, however,
+are not seductive. If you go in, you will find the house nearly
+empty; the actors gabble their parts with as little action as
+possible. You see they are bored, and they bore us. Sometimes
+when some actor, naturally comic, says or does something funny,
+the audience laughs, and then suddenly leaves off and looks more
+serious than before. Laughter seems out of place. One does not
+know how to bear it; so one walks up and down the corridors, then
+instead of returning to the play, wanders out again on to the
+Boulevard. It is ten o&rsquo;clock&mdash;dreadfully late. Many of the
+cafés are already closed for the night. At Tortoni&rsquo;s and
+the Café Anglais, not a glimmer is visible. The crowd has
+nearly disappeared. Only a few officers remain, who have been
+drinking all the evening in an <i>estaminet</i>. They call to
+each other to hurry on; perhaps one of them is drunk, but even he
+is not amusing. Let us go home. Scarcely anyone is left in the
+street. A bell is rung here and there, as the last of us reach
+our respective homes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That, Commune de Paris, is what you have made of Paris! The
+Prussians came, Paris awaited them quietly with a smile; the
+shells fell on its houses, it ate black bread, it waited hours in
+the cold to obtain an ounce of horse-flesh or thirty pounds of
+green wood; it fought, but was vanquished; it was told to
+surrender, and &ldquo;it was given up,&rdquo; as they say at the Hôtel
+de Ville; and yet through all, Paris had not ceased to smile. And
+this, they say, constitutes its greatness; it was the last
+protestation against unmerited misfortunes; it was the
+remembrance of having once been proud and happy, and the hope of
+becoming so again; it was, in a word, Paris declaring it was
+Paris still. Well, what neither defeats, nor famine, nor
+capitulation could do, thou hast done! And accursed be thou, O
+Commune; for, as Macbeth murdered sleep, thou hast murdered our
+smiles!
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XC."></a> XC.</h2>
+
+<p>
+The roaring of cannon close at hand, the whizzing of shells, volleys of
+musketry! I hear this in my sleep, and awake with a start. I dress and go out.
+I am told the troops have come in. &ldquo;How? where? when?&rdquo; I ask of the
+National Guards who come rushing down the street, crying out, &ldquo;We are
+betrayed!&rdquo; They, however, know but very little. They have come from the
+Trocadero, and have seen the red trousers of the soldiers in the distance.
+Fighting is going on near the viaduct of Auteuil, at the Champ de Mars. Did the
+assault take place last night or this morning? It is quite impossible to obtain
+any reliable information. Some talk of a civil engineer having made signals to
+the Versaillais; others say a captain in the navy was the first to enter
+Paris.<a href="#fn-98" name="fnref-98" id="fnref-98"><sup>[98]</sup></a>
+Suddenly about thirty men rush into the streets crying, &ldquo;We must make a
+barricade.&rdquo; I turn back, fearing to be pressed into the service. The
+cannonading appears dreadfully near. A shell whistles over my head. I hear some
+one say, &ldquo;The batteries of Montmartre are bombarding the Arc de
+Triomphe;&rdquo; and strange enough, in this moment of horror and uncertainty,
+the thought crosses my mind that now the side of the arch on which is the
+bas-relief of Rude will be exposed to the shells. On the Boulevard there is
+only here and there a passenger hurrying along. The shops are closed; even the
+café&rsquo;s are shut up. The harsh screech of the mitrailleuse grows louder
+and nearer. The battle seems to be close at hand, all round me. A thousand
+contradictory suppositions rush through my brain and hurry me along, and here
+on the Boulevard there is no one that can tell me anything. I walk in the
+direction of the Madeleine, drawn there by a violent desire to know what is
+going on, which silences the voice of prudence. As I approach the Chaussée
+d&rsquo;Antin I perceive a multitude of men, women, and children running
+backwards and forwards, carrying paving-stones. A barricade is being thrown up;
+it is already more than three feet high. Suddenly I hear the rolling of heavy
+wheels; I turn, and a strange sight is before me&mdash;a mass of women in rags,
+livid, horrible, and yet grand, with the Phrygian cap on their heads, and the
+skirts of their robes tied round their waists, were harnessed to a
+mitrailleuse, which they dragged along at full speed; other women pushing
+vigorously behind. The whole procession, in its sombre colours, with dashes of
+red here and there, thunders past me; I follow it as fast as I can. The
+mitrailleuse draws up a little in front of the barricade, and is hailed with
+wild clamours by the insurgents. The Amazons are being unharnessed as I come
+up. &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said a young <i>gamin</i>, such as one used to see in
+the gallery of the Théâtre Porte St. Martin, &ldquo;don&rsquo;t you be acting
+the spy here, or I will break your head open as if you were a
+Versaillais.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t waste ammunition,&rdquo; cried an
+old man with a long white beard&mdash;a patriarch of civil
+war&mdash;&ldquo;don&rsquo;t waste ammunition; and as for the spy, let him help
+to carry paving-stones. Monsieur,&rdquo; said he, turning to me with much
+politeness, &ldquo;will you be so kind as to go and fetch those stones from the
+corner there?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-61"></a>
+<img src="images/066.jpg" width="297" height="500" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Café Life Under the Commune.<br/>
+Spectacles of Paris.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+I did as I was bid, although I thought, with anything but pleasure, that if at
+that moment the barricade were attacked and taken, I might be shot before I had
+the time to say, &ldquo;Allow me to explain.&rdquo; But the scene which
+surrounds me interests me in spite of myself. Those grim hags, with their red
+headdresses, passing the stones I give them rapidly from hand to hand, the men
+who are building them up only leaving off for a moment now and then to swallow
+a cup of coffee, which a young girl prepares over a small tin stove; the rifles
+symmetrically piled; the barricade, which rises higher and higher; the solitude
+in which we are working&mdash;only here and there a head appears at a window,
+and is quickly withdrawn; the ever-increasing noise of the battle; and, over
+all, the brightness of a dazzling morning sun&mdash;all this has something
+sinister and yet horribly captivating about it. While we are at work, they
+talk; I listen. The Versaillais have been coming in all night.<a href="#fn-99"
+name="fnref-99" id="fnref-99"><sup>[99]</sup></a> The Porte de la Muette and
+the Porte Dauphine have been surrendered by the 13th and the 113th battalions
+of the first arrondissement. &ldquo;Those two numbers 13 will bring them
+ill-luck,&rdquo; says a woman. Vinoy is established at the Trocadéro, and Douai
+at the Point du Jour: they continue to advance. The Champ de Mars has been
+taken from the Federals after two hours&rsquo; fighting. A battery is erected
+at the Arc de Triomphe, which sweeps the Champs Elysées and bombards the
+Tuileries. A shell has fallen in the Rue du Marché Saint Honoré. In the
+Cours-la-Reine the 188th battalion stood bravely. The Tuileries is armed with
+guns, and shells the Arc de Triomphe. In the Avenue de Marigny the gendarmes
+have shot twelve Federals who had surrendered; their bodies are still lying on
+the pavement in front of the tobacconist&rsquo;s. Rue de Sèvres, the
+<i>Vengeurs de Flourens</i> have put to flight a whole regiment of the line:
+the <i>Vengeurs</i> have sworn to resist to a man. They are fighting in the
+Champs Élysées, around the Ministère de la Guerre, and on the Boulevard
+Haussman. Dombrowski has been killed at the Château de la Muette. The
+Versaillais have attacked the Western Saint Lazare station, and are marching
+towards the Pépinière barracks. &ldquo;We have been sold, betrayed, and
+surprised; but what does it matter, we will triumph. We want no more chiefs or
+generals; behind the barricades every man is a marshal!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-62"></a>
+<img src="images/067.jpg" width="307" height="500" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Poor Pradier&rsquo;s statues.<br/>
+Place de La Concorde: LILLE suffers from her friends in fight, whilst
+STRASBOURG, in crape, mourns the foe of France.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-63"></a>
+<img src="images/068.jpg" width="324" height="500" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Fire And Water&mdash;The effect of fire on the fountains
+of the Place de la Concorde and the Château d&rsquo;Eau&mdash;Hirondelles de
+Paris</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+Eight or ten men come flying down the Chaussée d&rsquo;Antin; they join, crying
+out, &ldquo;The Versaillais have taken the barracks; they are establishing a
+battery. Delescluze has been captured at the Ministère de la
+Guerre.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;It is false!&rdquo; exclaims a vivandière;
+&ldquo;we have just seen him at the Hôtel de Ville.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Yes,
+yes,&rdquo; cry out other women, &ldquo;he is at the Hôtel de Ville. He gave us
+a mitrailleuse. Jules Vallès embraced us, one after another; he is a fine man,
+he is! He told us all was going well, that the Versaillais should never have
+Paris, that we shall surround them, and that it will all be over in two
+days.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Vive la Commune!&rdquo; is the reply. The barricade
+is by this time finished. They expect to be attacked every second.
+&ldquo;You,&rdquo; said a sergeant, &ldquo;you had better be off, if you care
+for your life.&rdquo; I do not wait for the man to repeat his warning. I
+retrace my steps up the Boulevard, which is less solitary than it was. Several
+groups are standing at the doors. It appears quite certain that the troops of
+the Assembly have been pretty successful since they came in. The Federals,
+surprised by the suddenness and number of the attacks, at first lost much
+ground. But the resistance is being organised. They hold their own at the Place
+de la Concorde; at the Place Vendôme they are very numerous, and have at their
+disposal a formidable amount of artillery. Montmartre is shelling furiously. I
+turn up the Rue Vivienne, where I meet several people in search of news. They
+tell me that &ldquo;two battalions of the Faubourg Saint Germain have just gone
+over to the troops, with their muskets reversed. A captain of the National
+Guard has been the first in that quarter to unfurl the tricolour. A shell had
+set fire to the Ministère des Finances, but the firemen in the midst of the
+shot and shell had managed to put it out.&rdquo; At the Place de la Bourse I
+find three of four hundred Federals constructing a barricade; having gained
+some experience, I hurry on to escape the trouble of being pressed into the
+service. The surrounding streets are almost deserted; Paris is in hiding. The
+cannonading is becoming more furious every minute. I cross the garden of the
+Palais Royal. There I see a few loiterers, a knot of children are skipping. The
+Rue de Rivoli is all alive with people. A battalion marches hurriedly from the
+Hôtel de Ville; at the head rides a young man mounted on a superb black horse.
+It is Dombrowski. I had been told he was dead. He is very pale. &ldquo;A
+fragment of shell hit him in the chest at La Muette, but did not enter the
+flesh,&rdquo; says some one. The men sing the <i>Chant du Départ</i> as they
+march along. I see a few women carrying arms among the insurgents; one who
+walks just behind Dombrowski has a child in her arms. Looking in the direction
+of the Place de la Concorde, I see smoke arising from the terrace of the
+Tuileries. In front of the Ministère des Finances, this side of the barricade
+is a black mass of something; I think I can distinguish wheels; it is either
+cannon or engines. All around is confusion. I can hear the musketry distinctly,
+but the noise seems to come from the Champs Élysées; they are not firing at the
+barricade. I turn and walk towards the Hôtel de Ville: mounted expresses ride
+constantly past; companies of Federals are here and there lying on the ground
+around their piled muskets. By the Rue du Louvre there is another barricade; a
+little further there is another and then another.<a href="#fn-100"
+name="fnref-100" id="fnref-100"><sup>[100]</sup></a> Close to Saint Germain
+l&rsquo;Auxerrois women are busy pulling down the wooden seats; children are
+rolling empty wine-barrels and carrying sacks of earth. As one nears the Hôtel
+de Ville the barricades are higher, better armed, and better manned. All the
+Nationals here look ardent, resolved, and fierce. They say little, and do not
+shout at all. Two guards, seated on the pavement, are playing at picquet. I
+push on, and am allowed to pass. The barricades are terminated here, and I have
+nothing to fear from paving-stones. Looking up, I see that all the windows are
+closed, with the exception of one, where two old women are busy putting a
+mattress between the window and the shutter. A sentinel, mounting guard in
+front of the Café de la Compagnie du Gaz, cries out to me, &ldquo;You
+can&rsquo;t pass here!&rdquo; I therefore seat myself at a table in front of
+the café, which has doubtless been left open by order, and where several
+officers are talking in a most animated manner. One of them rises and advances
+towards me. He asks me rudely what I am doing there. I will not allow myself to
+be abashed by his tone, but draw out my pass from my pocket and show it him,
+without saying a word. &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; says he, and then seats himself
+by my side, and tells me, &ldquo;I know it already, that a part of the left
+bank of the river is occupied by the troops of the Assembly, that fighting is
+going on everywhere, and that the army on this side is gradually
+retreating.&mdash;Street fighting is our affair, you see,&rdquo; he continues.
+In such battles as that, the merest gamin from Belleville knows more about it
+than MacMahon.... It will be terrible. The enemy shoots the prisoners.&rdquo;
+(For the last two months the Commune had been saying the same thing.) &ldquo;We
+shall give no quarter.&rdquo;&mdash;I ask him, &ldquo;Is it Delescluze who is
+determined to resist?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he answers.<a
+href="#fn-101" name="fnref-101" id="fnref-101"><sup>[101]</sup></a> &ldquo;Lean
+forward a little. Look at those three windows to the left of the trophy. That
+is the Salle de l&rsquo;État-Major. Delescluze is there giving orders, signing
+commissions. He has not slept for three days. Just now I scarcely knew him, he
+was so worn out with fatigue. The Committee of Public Safety sits permanently
+in a room adjoining, making out proclamations and
+decrees.&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Ha, ha!&rdquo; said I,
+&ldquo;decrees!&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Yes, citizen, he has just decreed
+heroism!&rdquo;<a href="#fn-102" name="fnref-102"
+id="fnref-102"><sup>[102]</sup></a> The officer gives me several other bits of
+information. Tells me that &ldquo;Lullier this very morning has had thirty
+<i>réfractaires</i> shot, and that Rigault has gone to Mazas to look after the
+hostages.&rdquo; While he is talking, I try to see what is going on in the
+Place de l&rsquo;Hôtel de Ville. Two or three thousand Federals are there, some
+seated, some lying on the ground. A lively discussion is going on. Several
+little barrels are standing about on chairs; the men are continually getting up
+and crowding round the barrels, some have no glasses, but drink in the palms of
+their hands. Women walk up and down in bands, gesticulating wildly. The men
+shout, the women shriek. Mounted expresses gallop out of the Hôtel, some in the
+direction of the Bastille, some towards the Place de la Concorde. The latter
+fly past us crying out, &ldquo;All&rsquo;s well!&rdquo; A man comes out on the
+balcony of the Hôtel de Ville and addresses the crowd. All the Federals start
+to their feet enthusiastically.&mdash;&ldquo;That&rsquo;s Vallès,&rdquo; says
+my neighbour to me. I had already recognised him. I frequently saw him in the
+students&rsquo; quarter in a little <i>crémerie</i> in the Rue Serpente. He was
+given to making verses, rather bad ones by-the-bye; I remember one in
+particular, a panegyric on a green coat. They used to say he had a situation in
+the <i>pompes funèbres</i>.<a href="#fn-103" name="fnref-103"
+id="fnref-103"><sup>[103]</sup></a> His face even then wore a bitter and
+violent expression. He left poetry for journalism, and then journalism for
+politics.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-64"></a>
+<img src="images/069.jpg" width="280" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Jules Vallès, Commissioner Of Public
+instruction<a href="#fn-104" name="fnref-104" id="fnref-104"><sup>[104]</sup></a></b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+To-day he is spouting forth at a window of the Hôtel de
+Ville. I cannot catch a word of what he says; but as he retires
+he is wildly applauded. Such applause pains me sadly. I feel that
+these men and these women are mad for blood, and will know how to
+die. Alas! how many dead and dying already! neither the
+cannonading nor the musketry has ceased an instant. I now see a
+number of women walk out of the Hôtel, the crowd makes room
+for them to pass. They come our way. They are dressed in black,
+and have black crape tied round their arms and a red cockade in
+their bonnets. My friend the officer tells me that they are the
+governesses who have taken the places of the nuns. Then he walks
+up to them and says, &ldquo;Have you succeeded?&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; answers
+one of them, &ldquo;here is our commission. The school children are to
+be employed in making sacks and filling them with earth, the
+eldest ones to load the rifles behind the barricades. They will
+receive rations like National Guards, and a pension will be given
+to the mothers of those who die for the Republic. They are mad to
+fight, I assure you. We have made them work hard during the last
+month, this will be their holiday!&rdquo; The woman who says this is
+young and pretty, and speaks with a sweet smile on her lips. I
+shudder. Suddenly two staff officers appear and ride furiously up
+to the Hôtel de Ville; they have come from the Place
+Vendôme. An instant later and the trumpets sound. The
+companies form in the Place, and great agitation reigns in the
+Hôtel. Men rush in and out. The officers who are in the
+café where I am get up instantly, and go to take their
+places at the head of their men. A rumour spreads that the
+Versaillais have taken the barricades on the Place de la
+Concorde.&mdash;&ldquo;By Jove! I think you had better go home,&rdquo; says
+my neighbour to me, as he clasps his sword belt; &ldquo;we shall have
+hot work here, and that shortly.&rdquo; I think it prudent to follow
+this advice. One glance at the Place before I go. The companies
+of Federals have just started off by the Rue de Rivoli and the
+quays at a quick march, crying &ldquo;Vive la Commune!&rdquo; a ferocious joy
+beaming in their faces. A young man, almost a lad, lags a little
+behind, a woman rushes up to him, and lays hold of his collar,
+screaming, &ldquo;Well, and you, are you not going to get yourself
+killed with the others?&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-65"></a>
+<img src="images/070.jpg" width="500" height="443" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Barricade Dividing the Rue de Rivoli and The Place De La
+Concorde</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+I reach the Rue Vieille-du-Temple, where another barricade is
+being built up. I place a paving-stone upon it and pass on. Soon
+I see open shops and passengers in the streets. This tradesmen&rsquo;s
+quarter seems to have outlived the riot of Paris. Here one might
+almost forget the frightful civil war which wages so near, if the
+conversation of those around did not betray the anguish of the
+speakers, and if you did not hear the cannon roaring out
+unceasingly, &ldquo;People of Paris, listen to me! I am ruining your
+houses. Listen to me! I am killing your children.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the boulevards more barricades; some nearly finished,
+others scarcely commenced. One constructed near the Porte Saint
+Martin looks formidable. That spot seems destined to be the
+theatre of bloody scenes, of riot and revolution. In 1852,
+corpses laid piled up behind the railing, and all the pavement
+tinged with blood. I return home profoundly sad; I can scarcely
+think.&mdash;I feel in a dream, and am tired to death; my eyelids
+droop of themselves; I am like one of those houses there with
+closed shutters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Near the Gymnase I meet a friend whom I thought was at
+Versailles. We shake hands sadly. &ldquo;When did you come back?&rdquo; I
+ask.&mdash;&ldquo;To-day; I followed the troops.&rdquo;&mdash;Then turning
+back with me he tells me what he has seen. He had a pass, and
+walked into Paris behind the artillery and the line, as far as
+the Trocadéro, where the soldiers halted to take up their
+line of battle. Not a single man was visible along the whole
+length of the quays. At the Champ de Mars he did not see any
+insurgents. The musketry seemed very violent near Vaugirard on
+the Pont Royal and around the Palais de l&rsquo;Industrie. Shells from
+Montmartre repeatedly fell on the quays. He could not see
+much,&mdash;however only the smoke in the distance. Not a soul
+did he meet. Such frightful noise in such solitude was fearful.
+He continued his way under shelter of the parapet. In one place
+he saw some gamins cutting huge pieces of flesh off the dead body
+of a horse that was lying in the path. There must have been
+fighting there. Down by the water a man fishing while two shells
+fell in the river, a little higher up, a yard or two from the
+shore. Then he thought it prudent to get nearer to the Palais de
+l&rsquo;Industrie. The fighting was nearly over then, but not quite.
+The Champs Elysées was melancholy in the extreme; not a
+soul was there. This was only too literally true; for several
+corpses lay on the ground. He saw a soldier of the line lying
+beneath a tree, his forehead covered with blood. The man opened
+his month as if to speak as he heard the sound of footsteps, the
+eyelids quivered and then there was a shiver, and all was over.
+My friend walked slowly away. He saw trees thrown down and bronze
+lamp-posts broken; glass crackled under his feet as he passed
+near the ruined kiosques. Every now and then turning his head he
+saw shells from Montmartre fall on the Arc de Triomphe and break
+off large fragments of stone. Near the Tuileries was a confused
+mass of soldiery against a background of smoke. Suddenly he heard
+the whizzing of a ball and saw the branch of a tree fall. From
+one end of the avenue to the other, no one; the road glistened
+white in the sun. Many dead were to be seen lying about as he
+crossed the Champs Elysées. All the streets to the left
+were full of soldiery; there had been fighting there, but it was
+over now. The insurgents had retreated in the direction of the
+Madeleine. In many places tricolor flags were hanging from the
+windows, and women were smiling, and waving their handkerchiefs
+to the troops. The presence of the soldiery seemed to reassure
+everybody. The concierges were seated before their doors with
+pipes in their mouths, recounting to attentive listeners the
+perils from which they had escaped; how balls pierced the
+mattresses put up at the windows, and how the Federals had got
+into the houses to hide. One said, &ldquo;I found three of them in my
+court; I told a lieutenant they were there, and he had them shot.
+But I wish they would take them away; I cannot keep dead bodies
+in the house.&rdquo; Another was talking with some soldiers, and
+pointing out a house to them. Four men and a corporal went into
+the place indicated, and an instant afterwards my friend heard
+the cracking of rifles. The concierge rubbed his hands and winked
+at the bystanders, while another was saying, &ldquo;They respect
+nothing those Federals; during the battle they came in to steal.
+They wanted to take away my clothes, my linen, everything I have,
+but I told them to leave that, that it was not good enough for
+them, that they ought to go up to the first floor, where they
+would find clocks and plate, and I gave them the key. Well,
+Messieurs, you would never believe what they have done, the
+rascals! They took the key and went and pillaged everything on
+the first floor!&rdquo; My friend had heard enough, and passed on. The
+agitation everywhere was very great. The soldiers went hither and
+thither, rang the bells, went into the houses; and brought out
+with them pale-faced prisoners. The inhabitants continued to
+smile politely, but grimly. Here and there dead bodies were lying
+in the road. A man who was pushing a truck allowed one of the
+wheels to pass over a corpse that was lying with its head on the
+curbstone. &ldquo;Bah!&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;it won&rsquo;t do him any harm.&rdquo; The dead
+and wounded were, however, being carried away as quickly as
+possible.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-66"></a>
+<img src="images/071.jpg" width="436" height="600" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Shell Hole&mdash;a Convenient Seat. Shot marks: en
+profil&mdash;In the rues&mdash;On the boulevards: Plus de lumière!! Plus
+d&rsquo;ombre!!&mdash;Bullet hole: en face.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+The cannon had now ceased roaring, and the fight was still
+going on close at hand&mdash;at the Tuileries doubtless. The
+townspeople were tranquil and the soldiery disdainful. A strange
+contrast; all these good citizens smiling and chatting, and the
+soldiers, who had come to save them at the peril of their lives,
+looking down upon them with the most careless indifference. My
+friend reached the Boulevard Haussmann; there the corpses were in
+large numbers. He counted thirty in less than a hundred yards.
+Some were lying under the doorways; a dead woman was seated on
+the bottom stair of one of the houses. Near the church of &ldquo;La
+Trinité&rdquo; were two guns, the reports from which were
+deafening; several of the shells fell on a bathing establishment
+in the Rue Taitbout opposite the Boulevard. On the Boulevard
+itself, not a person was to be seen. Here and there dark masses,
+corpses doubtless. However, the moment the noise of the report of
+a gun had died away, and while the gunners were reloading, heads
+were thrust out from doors to see what damage had been
+done&mdash;to count the number of trees broken, benches torn up,
+and kiosques overturned. From some of the windows rifles were
+fired. My friend then reached the street he lived in and went
+home. He was told that during the morning they had violently
+bombarded the Collège Chaptal, where the Zouaves of the
+Commune had fortified themselves; but the engagement was not a
+long one, they made several prisoners and shot the rest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My friend shut himself up at home, determined not to go out.
+But his impatience to see and hear what was going on forced him
+into the streets again. The Pépinière barracks were
+occupied by troops of the line; he was able to get to the New
+Opera without trouble, leaving the Madeleine, where dreadful
+fighting was going on, to the right. On the way were to be seen
+piled muskets, soldiers sitting and lying about, and corpses
+everywhere. He then managed, without incurring too much danger,
+to reach the Boulevards, where the insurgents, who were then very
+numerous, had not yet been attacked. He worked for some little
+time at the barricade, and then was allowed to pass on. It was
+thus that we had met. Just as we were about to turn up the
+Faubourg Montmartre a man rushed up saying that three hundred
+Federals had taken refuge in the church of the Madeleine,
+followed by gendarmes, and had gone on fighting for more than an
+hour. &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; he finished up by saying, &ldquo;if the <i>curé</i>
+were to return he would find plenty of people to bury!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I am now at home. Evening has come at last; I am jotting down
+these notes just as they come into my head. I am too much
+fatigued both in mind and body to attempt to put my thoughts into
+order. The cannonading is incessant, and the fusillade also. I
+pity those that die, and those that kill! Oh! poor Paris, when
+will experience make you wiser?
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-98" id="fn-98"></a> <a href="#fnref-98">[98]</a>
+It was known by this time at Versailles in what a desperate condition was the
+Commune, by the information of persons devoted to order, but who remained
+amongst the insurgents to keep watch over and restrain them as much as
+possible.<br/>
+    The Versailles authorities know that, thanks to the well-directed fire of
+Montretout, the bastions of the Point du Jour were no longer tenable, and that
+their defenders had abandoned them and had organized new works of defence;
+nevertheless, the operations were earned on just as systematically as if the
+fire of the besieged had not ceased for several days, when, on Sunday, the 21st
+May, about midday, an officer on duty in the trenches, in course of formation
+in the Bois de Boulogne, perceived a man making signs with a white handkerchief
+near the military post of Saint Cloud; the officer immediately approached near
+enough to hear the bearer of the flag of truce, say:&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;My name is Ducatel, and I belong to the service of the Engineers of
+Roads and Bridges, and I have been a soldier. I declare that your entrance into
+Paris is easy, and as a guarantee of the truth of what I say, I am about to
+give myself up;&rdquo; so saying, he passed over the fosse by means of one of
+the supports of the drawbridge, in spite of several shots fired at him by
+Federals hidden in the houses at Auteuil, but none of which reached him.<br/>
+    A few resolute men now passed over the fosse, and arrived without accident
+on the other side. A few insurgents, who were still there, made off without
+loss of time, leaving the invaders to establish themselves, and wait for
+reinforcements.<br/>
+    A short time after a white flag was exhibited in the neighbouring bastion,
+which bore the number 62, and the fire from Montretout and Mont Valérien was
+stopped, the infantry of the Marine took possession of the gate, out the
+telegraphic wires which were supposed to be in communication with torpedoes,
+while information was immediately despatched to Versailles of these important
+events.<br/>
+    The division of General Vergé, placed for the time under the orders of
+General Douay, entered the gate at half-past three in the afternoon, and took
+possession of Point du Jour, after having taken several barricades; at one of
+these, Ducatel was sent with a flag of trace towards the insurgents, who
+offered to surrender, but he received a bayonet wound, was carried off to the
+École Militaire, tried by court-martial and condemned to death, from which he
+was fortunately snatched by the arrival of the Versailles troops at the
+Trocadéro at two o&rsquo;clock in the morning.<br/>
+    At the same time, the first corps d&rsquo;armée (that of General
+L&rsquo;Admirault), made its way into the city by the Portes d&rsquo;Auteuil
+and Passy, and took up a strong position in the streets of Passy.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-99" id="fn-99"></a> <a href="#fnref-99">[99]</a>
+At ten o&rsquo;clock at night, the army had taken possession of the region
+comprised between the <i>ceinture</i>, or circular railway, and the
+fortifications, the streets of Auteuil to the viaduct, and the bridge of
+Grenelle.<br/>
+    At midnight, the movement which had been suspended for a time to rest the
+troops, was recommenced all along the line.<br/>
+    At two o&rsquo;clock in the morning, General Douay occupied the Trocadéro;
+and at about four o&rsquo;clock his soldiers, after a short struggle, captured
+the chateau of La Muette, making about six hundred prisoners, and then,
+advancing in the direction of Porte Maillot, they joined the troops of General
+Clinchant, who had got within the ramparts on that side.<br/>
+    At the break of day, the tricolour floated over the Arc de Triomphe,
+without the Versailles forces having sustained sensible loss. All this passed
+on the right bank of the Seine.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-100" id="fn-100"></a> <a href="#fnref-100">[100]</a>
+The insurrectionists followed a decided and pre-conceived plan. The barricades,
+which intersected the streets of Paris in every direction, were arranged on a
+general system which showed considerable skill. Was this ensemble a conception
+of Cluseret? or a plan of Gaillard, or Eudes, or Rossel? No one now could say
+which, but at any rate we are able to deduce the plan from the facts and set it
+out as follows:&mdash;<br/>
+    Within the line of the fortifications the insurgents had
+formed a second line of defence, which runs on the right bank of
+the river, by the Trocadero, the Triumphal Arch, the Boulevard de
+Courcelles, the Boulevard de Batignolles, and the Boulevard de
+Rochechouart; and on the left across the bridge of Iéna,
+the Avenue de la Bourdonnaye, the École Militaire, the
+Boulevard des Invalides, the Boulevard Montparnasse, and the
+Western Railway Station. Along the whole extent of this circuit
+the entrances of the streets were barricades, and the &ldquo;Places&rdquo;
+turned into redoubts.<br/>
+    From this double <i>enceinte</i> of fortifications the lines
+of defence converged along the great boulevards, the Rue Royale,
+by the Ministry of Marine, the terrace of the Tuileries Gardens,
+the Place de la Concorde, the Palace of the Corps
+Législatif, the Rue de Bourgogne, and the Rue de Varenne.
+This third <i>enceinte</i> of defence was the pride of the
+insurgents; they were never tired of admiring their celebrated
+barricade of the Rue St. Florentin, and that which intercepted
+the quay at the corner of the Tuileries Gardens on the Place de
+la Concorde.<br/>
+    This is not all. Supposing that the third line were forced,
+the insurgents would not even then be without resource. On the
+left bank of the Seine they fell back successively on the Rue de
+Grenelle, Rue Saint Dominique, and Rue de Lille, all three closed
+by barricades; on the right bank they could carry on the struggle
+by the Rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs, the Rue de la Paix, and the
+Place Vendôme, and even when beaten back from these last
+retreats, they could still defend the Rue St. Honoré and
+operate a retreat by the Palace of the Tuileries, the Louvre, and
+the Hôtel de Ville.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-101" id="fn-101"></a> <a href="#fnref-101">[101]</a>
+In the following proclamation, published on the 21st May, Delescluze stimulated
+the Communist party, which felt its power melting away on all sides:
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<small>&ldquo;TO THE PEOPLE OF PARIS, TO THE NATIONAL GUARD.</small>
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+<small>&ldquo;CITIZENS,&mdash;We have had enough of militaryism; let us have no more
+stuffs embroidered and gilt at every seam!<br/>
+    &ldquo;Make room for the people, the real combatants, the bare arms! The
+hour of the revolutionary war has struck!<br/>
+    &ldquo;The people know nothing of scientific manoeuvres, but with a rifle
+in hand and the pavement beneath their feet, they fear not all the
+strategists of the monarchical school.<br/>
+    &ldquo;To arms, citizens! To arms! You must conquer, or, as you well
+know, fall again into the pitiless hands of the <i>réactionaires</i>
+and clericals of Versailles; those wretches who with intention
+delivered France up to Prussia, and now make us pay the ransom of their
+treason!<br/>
+    &ldquo;If you desire the generous blood which you have shed like water
+during the last six weeks not to have been shed in vain, if you would
+see liberty and equality established in France, if you would spare your
+children sufferings and misery such as you have endured, you will rise
+as one man, and before your formidable bands the enemy who indulges the
+idea of bringing you again under his yoke, will reap nothing but the
+harvest of the useless crimes with which he has disgraced himself
+during the past two months.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Citizens! your representatives will fight and die with you, if
+fall we must; but, in the name of our glorious France, mother of all
+the popular revolutions, the permanent source of ideas of justice and
+unity, which should be and which will be the laws of the world, march
+to the encounter of the enemy, and let your revolutionary energy prove
+to him that Paris may he sold, but can never be delivered up or
+conquered.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The Commune confides in you, and you may trust the Commune!<br/>
+    &ldquo;The civil delegate at the Ministry of War,</small>
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<small>&ldquo;(Signed)<br/>
+&ldquo;CH. DELESCLUZE.</small>
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+<small>&ldquo;Countersigned by the Committee of Public Safety:&mdash;Antoine Arnauld,
+Billioray, E. Eudes, F. Gambon, G. Ranvier.&rdquo;</small>
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+Such was the despairing cry of the insurrection at bay.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-102" id="fn-102"></a> <a href="#fnref-102">[102]</a>
+See <a href= "#IX._Page_316.">Appendix, No. 9</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-103" id="fn-103"></a> <a href="#fnref-103">[103]</a>
+There are no private undertakers and funeral furnishers in Paris. It is all
+done by a company, under the supervision of Government, a very large concern,
+called the <i>Pompes Funèbres</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-104" id="fn-104"></a> <a href="#fnref-104">[104]</a>
+Jules Vallès was one of the most conspicuous among the men of the 18th of
+March. He had been journalist, working printer, a clerk at the Hôtel de Ville,
+editor of a newspaper, pamphleteer, and café orator in turn, but always noisy
+and boastful. André Gill, the caricaturist, once drew him as an
+undertaker&rsquo;s dog, dragging a saucepan behind him, and the caricature told
+Vallès&rsquo; story well enough. In face he was ugly, but energetic in
+expression, almost to ferociousness.<br/>
+    He was born at Puy, in 1833, and on leaving the college of
+Nantes, came to study law in Paris, but politics occupied him
+chiefly, and he soon got himself shut up in Mazas as a political
+prisoner. After some time spent in confinement, he obtained his
+liberty, and published at Nantes, a pamphlet under the title of
+&ldquo;Money: by a literary man become a journalist;&rdquo; and the pamphlet,
+having gained him some slight popularity, he was engaged, later,
+on the <i>Figaro</i>, to write the reports of the Bourse, and in
+the meantime he eked out his slender salary by working as a clerk
+at the Hôtel de Ville. When Ernest Feydeau brought out the
+<i>Epoque</i>, in 1864, Jules Vallès published a few
+articles in its columns, and a little later became a writer on
+the <i>Evénement</i>, with the magnificent salary of
+eighteen thousand francs a year. A month afterwards, he was
+without occupation again, but he soon re-appeared with a new
+journal of his own, <i>La Rue, La Sue</i>, in its turn, however,
+only lived during a few numbers, and Jules Vallès now took
+up café politics, and practised table oratory at the
+<i>Estaminet de Madrid</i>, where he fostered and expounded the
+projects which he has since brought to so fearful a result.<br/>
+    In 1869, he became one of the most inveterate speakers at
+election meetings, and presented himself as a candidate for the
+Corps Législatif. He was not elected, but the profession
+of opinions that he then made was certain to obtain him a seat in
+the Communal Assembly. One of the last articles in the <i>Cri du
+People</i> of Jules Vallès announced the fatal resolution
+of defending Paris by all possible means. An article finishing
+with this prophetic sentence, &ldquo;M. Thiers, if he is chemist enough
+will understand us.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XCI."></a> XCI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+It is imprudent to go out; the night was almost peaceable, the
+morning is hideous. The roar of musketry is intense and without
+interruption. I suppose there must be fighting going on in the
+Rue du Faubourg Montmartre. I start back, the noise is so
+fearful. In the Cour Trévise not a person to be seen, the
+houses are closely shut and barred. On a second floor I hear a
+great moving of furniture, and hear quite distinctly the sound of
+sobbing, of female sobbing. I hear that the second floor of the
+house is inhabited by a member of the Commune and his family. I
+am about to go up and see if I can be of any help to the women in
+case of danger, when I see a man precipitately enter the Court.
+He wears a uniform of lieutenant; I recognise him, it is the
+porter. He stops, looks around him, and seeing that he is alone,
+takes his rifle in both hands and throws it with all his strength
+over the high wall which is on the left hand of the Court. That
+done, he rushes into the house. There I distinctly hear him say
+to his wife, &ldquo;The barricade is taken, give me a <i>blouse</i>,
+they are at Montmartre. We are done for!&rdquo; I think, the porter
+must have made a mistake, and that the battery is not taken yet,
+for I hear the whistling of a shell that, seems to come from
+Montmartre. The deafening clamour on all sides redoubles, all the
+separate noises seem to confound themselves in one ceaseless
+roar, like the working of a million of hammers on a million of
+anvils. I can scarcely bear it; my hands clutch the door-posts
+convulsively. I lean out as far as I can, but see nothing but a
+company of soldiers preceded by two gendarmes, who are entering
+the Court. They stop before the door of the house. Several of
+them go in, and then I hear the sound of a door suddenly opened
+and shut, and heavy steps on the wooden floor. I feel myself
+trembling; this man they have come to arrest&mdash;are they going
+to shoot him here, in his own apartment, before his wife? Thank
+God, no! The two gendarmes reappear in the street holding the
+prisoner between them; his hands are bound; the soldiers surround
+them, and they are going to march away, when the man, lifting up
+his arms, cries fiercely, &ldquo;I have but one regret, that I did not
+blow up the whole of the quarter.&rdquo; At this instant the window
+above is opened, and a woman with grey hair leans out, crying,
+&ldquo;Die in peace, I will avenge you!&rdquo; At these words the soldiers
+arrest their steps, and the two gendarmes re-enter the house.
+They are going to take the wife prisoner after having taken the
+husband. I fall back into a chair horrified; I shut my eyes not
+to see, and I press my hands on my ears, not to hear the dreadful
+sound of the musketry, but the horrible shrill noise is
+triumphant, and I hear it all the same.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XCII."></a> XCII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Oh! those that hear it not, how happy they must be; they will
+never understand how fearful this continuous, this dreadful noise
+is, and to feel that each ball is aimed at some breast, and each
+shell brings ruin in its train. Fear and horror wrings one&rsquo;s
+heart and maddens one&rsquo;s brain. Visions pass before one&rsquo;s eyes of
+corpses, of houses crushing sleeping inmates, of men falling and
+crying out for mercy! and one feels quite strange to go on living
+among the crowds that die!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I have been out a little while, a ball whistled over my
+shoulder, and flattened itself against an iron bar on a shop
+front. I heard a mass of glass shiver into fragments on the
+pavement. I determined to return home.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On my way back, I had to pass in front of a liqueur shop, the
+door of which was open, and several men were talking there. I
+stopped to learn the news. Montmartre is taken; the Federals had
+not opposed much resistance; but a great deal of firing had gone
+on in the side streets and lanes. Seven insurgents were
+surrounded. &ldquo;Give yourselves up, and your lives will be saved,&rdquo;
+cried out the soldiers. They replied, &ldquo;We are prisoners;&rdquo; but one
+of them drew his revolver and shot an officer in the leg. Then
+the soldiers took the seven men, threw them into a large hole,
+and shot them from above like so many rabbits. Another man told
+me that he had seen a child lying dead at the corner of the Rue
+de Rome. &ldquo;A pretty little fellow,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;his brains were
+strewed on the pavement beside him.&rdquo; A third, that when all the
+fighting was over at the Place Saint-Pierre a rifle shot was
+heard, and a captain of Chasseurs fell dead. The major who was
+there, looked up and saw a man trying to hide himself behind a
+chimney pot; the soldiers got into the house, seized him on the
+roof, and brought him down into the Place. What did the insurgent
+do, but walked up to the major, smiling, and hit him a blow on
+the cheek. The major set him up against a wall, and blew his
+brains out with a revolver. Another insurgent who was arrested,
+made an insulting grimace at the soldiers; they shot him. On the
+southern sides of Paris, the operations of the army have not been
+so fortunate as on this. In the Faubourg St. Germain it advances
+very slowly, if it advance at all. The Federals fight with heroic
+courage at the Mont-Parnasse Station, the Rue
+Notre-Dame-des-Champs, and the Croix-Rouge; from the corners of
+the streets, from the windows, from the balconies proceed shots
+rarely ineffective. This sort of warfare fatigues the soldiers,
+particularly as the discipline prevents them from using the same
+measures. At Saint-Quen, likewise, the march of the troops is
+stayed; the barricade of the Rue de Clichy holds out, and will
+hold out some time. In other quarters the advantages gained by
+the Versaillais are evident. Here and there some small show of
+resistance is offered, but the insurgents are flying. I cannot
+tell whether all these floating rumours are true. As I return
+home, I look round; in the Rue Geoffrey-Marie, near the Faubourg
+Montmartre, I see a National Guard alone in the middle of the
+street, nothing to screen him whatsoever; he loads his rifle and
+fires, loads and fires again; again and again! Thirty-three
+times! Then the rifle slips to the ground, and the man staggers
+and falls.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XCIII."></a> XCIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+This morning, the 23rd, after a combat of three hours, the
+barricade of the Place de Clichy has not yet yielded. Yet two
+battalions of National Guards had, at the beginning of the fight,
+reversed their arms, and were fraternising with the soldiers on
+the Place de la Maine, a hundred and fifty yards from the scene
+of the fray. The cracking of the rifles, the explosion of shells,
+and the sound of mitrailleuses filled the air. The smell of
+powder was stifling. Dreadful cries arose from the poor wounded
+wretches; and the whizzing projectiles from Montmartre rent the
+air above in their fiery course. &ldquo;Beneath us,&rdquo; said an inhabitant
+of Batignolles who gave me these particulars, &ldquo;beneath us the
+city lay like a seething caldron.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The beating of drums and the sharp trumpet-calls mixed in this
+monstrous din, and were every now and then lost in the tremendous
+noise of the firing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About half-past one the sounds grew quieter; the barricade was
+taken. The insurgents were retreating to La Chapelle and
+Belleville in disorder; the soldiers of the line rushed like a
+torrent into the Avenue de Clichy, leaving a tricolour flag
+hoisted upon the dismantled barricade.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here and there, in the streets, the struggle had not ceased.
+In the Rue Blanche a rifle-shot proceeded from a ground-floor;
+the man was taken and executed outside his own door. The
+artillery was moving up the Rue Chaptal towards Montmartre and La
+Chapelle. The day was very hot; pails of water were thrown over
+the guns to quench their burning thirst. All the young men who
+were found in the streets were provisionally put under arrest,
+for they feared everyone, even children, and horrible vengeance
+and thirst for blood had seized upon all. Suddenly an isolated
+shot would be heard, followed a minute or two after by five or
+six others. One knew reprisal had been done.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At about four o&rsquo;clock in the afternoon, when the quarters of
+Belleville and Clichy were pretty well cleared of troops, two
+insurgents were walking, one behind the other, in the Rue
+Léonie. The one who walked last lifted his rifle and fired
+carelessly in the direction of the windows; the report sounded
+very loudly in the silent street, and a pane of glass fell in
+fragments to the ground. The insurgent who was in front did not
+even turn his head; these men seem to have become quite reckless
+and deaf to everything.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What the troops feared the most were the sharp-shooters hidden
+in the houses, aiming through little holes and cracks; suddenly a
+snap would be heard, and the officers would lift their glassed to
+their eyes; more often nothing was to be seen at all, but if the
+slightest shadow were visible behind a window curtain, the order
+was, &ldquo;Search that house!&rdquo; The executions did not take place in
+the apartments. Now and then an inhabitant or two were brought
+down into the street, and those never returned!
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XCIV."></a> XCIV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+It is the middle of the night; and I awake with a terrible start. A bright red
+light streams through the panes. I throw open the window; the sky to the left
+is one mass of dark smoke and lurid streaks of light&mdash;it is a fire, Paris
+on fire!<a href="#fn-105" name="fnref-105" id="fnref-105"><sup>[105]</sup></a>
+I dress and go out. At the corner of the Rue de Trévise a sentinel stops me,
+&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t pass.&rdquo; I am so bewildered that I do not think of
+noticing whether he is a Federal or a soldier. What am I to do, where am I to
+go? Although an hour ago balls were whistling around, there are now people at
+every window. &ldquo;The Ministère des Finances is on fire! the Rue Royale! the
+Louvre!&rdquo; The Louvre! I can scarcely avoid a cry of horror. In a minute
+the enormity of the disaster has broken upon me. Oh!
+<i>chefs-d&rsquo;oeuvre</i> without number! I see you devoured, consumed,
+reduced to ashes! I see the walls tottering, the canvases fall from the frames
+and shrivel up; the &ldquo;Marriage of Canaan&rdquo; is in flames! Raphael is
+struggling in the burning furnace! Leonardo da Vinci is no more! This was,
+indeed, an unexpected calamity! Fortune had reserved this terrible surprise for
+us! But I will not believe it, these rumours are false, doubtless! How should
+these people who inhabit this quarter know what I am ignorant of? Yet over our
+heads the sky is tinged with black and red!
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-67"></a>
+<img src="images/072.jpg" width="500" height="359" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Ruins of the Rue Royale, Looking Towards The Place de La
+Concorde and across the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+A strange smell fills the air, like that of a monstrous
+petroleum lamp just lighted. That dreaded word, petroleum, makes
+me shudder. Once distinctly I hear the sound of a vast body
+falling heavily. Not to be able to obtain information is
+terrible; not to know what is going on, while all around seems on
+fire; the day is beginning to break, the musketry and the
+cannonading commences afresh, it is a hell, with death for its
+girdle! In front of me I see the corner of a building lighted up
+by the fire, on which little spirals of smoke are reflected from
+the distant conflagration. I rush home, I want to hide myself, to
+sleep, to forget. When I am in my room, I see through the white
+curtains of the window a bright light. I tremble and rush to the
+window! It is the gilt letters of a signboard, on the opposite
+side of the way, that are darting forth brilliant flashes,
+borrowed from the distant flames.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-68"></a>
+<img src="images/073.jpg" width="380" height="600" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>A Bay of the Tuileries&mdash;from The Place Du Carrousel.
+A warm corner approching the Louvre</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-69"></a>
+<img src="images/074.jpg" width="250" height="289" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Millière<a href="#fn-106" name="fnref-106"
+id="fnref-106"><sup>[106]</sup></a></b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-105" id="fn-105"></a> <a href="#fnref-105">[105]</a>
+The 24th May the COMMITTEE FOR PUBLIC SAFETY issued these cold-blooded
+decrees:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+<small>&ldquo;Citizen Millière, at the head of one hundred and fifty
+    fuse-bearers, is to set fire to all houses of suspicious aspect, as
+    well as to the public monuments of the left bank of the Seine.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Citizen Dereure, with one hundred and fifty fuse-bearers, is
+    charged with the 1st and 2nd Arrondissement.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Citizen Billioray, with one hundred men, is charged with the 9th,
+    10th, and 20th Arrondissements.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Citizen Vésinier, with fifty men, has the Boulevards of the
+    Madeleine and of the Bastille especially entrusted to him.<br/>
+    &ldquo;These Citizens are to come to an understanding with the officers
+    commanding the barricades, for the execution of these orders.</small>
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<small>&ldquo;DELESCLUZE, RÉGÈRE, RANVINE, JOHANNARD, VÉSINIER, BRUNEL,
+    DOMBROWSKI.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Paris, 3 Prairial, year 79.&rdquo;</small>
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-106" id="fn-106"></a> <a href="#fnref-106">[106]</a>
+This Millière, formerly an advocate and writer on the <i>Marseillaise</i>, was
+a native of St-Etienne, and fifty-four years of age, a cool speaker, and
+advocate of advanced ideas, that got him several imprisonments. In March 1870
+he was taken from the prison of Sainte-Pélagie to give evidence at Tours
+against Pierre Bonaparte for the murder of Victor Noir, where his lucid
+depositions told greatly against the prisoner. When regaining his liberty he
+became more revolutionary than ever, writing during the siege in the <i>Patrie
+en Danger</i>. At the peace he became one of the members for Paris, and sat at
+Bordeaux and Versailles, agitating social subjects and the law of lodgers.
+About the 10th of April he took part with the Commune, and at the entrance of
+the troops was taken at the Luxembourg after having fired six rounds from a
+revolver, was shot on the steps of the Pantheon, and died as he opened his
+shirt front, shouting, &ldquo;<i>Vive la République! Vive la Liberté! Vive
+l&rsquo;Humanité!</i>&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<h2><a name="XCV."></a> XCV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Certainly I nursed no vain illusions. What you had done,
+gentlemen of the Commune, had enlightened me as to your value,
+and as to the purity of your intentions. Seeing you lie, steal,
+and kill, I had said to you, &ldquo;You are liars, robbers, and
+murderers;&rdquo; but truly, in spite of Citizen Félix Pyat, who
+is a coward, and Citizen Miot, who is a fool; in spite of
+Millière, who shot <i>réfractaires</i>, and
+Philippe, whose trade shall be nameless; in spite of Dacosta, who
+amused himself with telling the Jesuits at the Conciergerie,
+&ldquo;Mind, you are to be shot in an hour,&rdquo; and then an hour
+afterwards returning to say, &ldquo;I have thought about it, and it is
+for tomorrow;&rdquo; in spite of Johannard, who executed a child of
+fifteen guilty of selling a suppressed newspaper; in spite of
+Rigault, who, chucking the son of Chaudey under the chin,
+laughingly said to him, &ldquo;Tomorrow, little one, we shall shoot
+papa;&rdquo; in spite of all the madmen and fools that constituted the
+Commune de Paris, who after being guilty of more extravagances
+than are necessary to get a man sent to the Madhouse of
+Charenton, and more crimes than are sufficient to shut him up in
+prison at Sainte-Pélagie, had managed, by means of every
+form, of wickedness and excess, to make our beloved Paris a
+frightened slave, crouching to earth under their abominable
+tyranny; in spite of everything, I could not have dreamed that
+even their demoniac fury could have gone so far as to try to burn
+Paris, after having ruined it! Nero of the gutter! Sardanapalus
+drunk with vitriol! So your vanity wanted such a volcano to
+engulf you, and you wished to die by the light of such an
+<i>auto-da-fé</i>. Instead of torches around your funeral
+car, you wished the Tuileries, the library of the Louvre, and the
+Palace of the Legion of Honour burnt to ashes, the Rue Royale one
+vast conflagration, where the walls as they fell buried alive
+women and children, and the Rue de Lille vomiting fire and smoke
+like the crater of Vesuvius.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-70"></a>
+<img src="images/075.jpg" width="500" height="393" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Palais de Justice, Partly Destroyed. Sainte Chapelle,
+Saved.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+It has pleased you that thousands of families should be
+ruined, their savings scattered in the ashes of the vanished
+papers of the burnt Ministère des Finances and the
+<i>Caisse des dépôts</i>. In seeing that the
+art-galleries of the Louvre had remained intact, only its library
+burnt, you must have been seized with mad rage. How! Notre Dame
+not yet in flames? Sainte-Chapelle not on fire? Have you no more
+petroleum, no more flaming torches? The cry &ldquo;To Arms!&rdquo; is not
+enough, you must shout &ldquo;To Fire!&rdquo; Would you consume the entire
+city, and make of its ruins a horrible monument to your
+memory?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Do not say, &ldquo;We have not done this; it is the people who are
+working out their own revenge, and we stand for nothing, we are
+as gentle as lambs. Ranvier would not hurt a fly.&rdquo; Away with all
+this pretence; were you not on the balcony of the Hôtel de
+Ville with your blood-red scarfs, uttering your commands? The
+populace, deceived and blinded, have but obeyed you. Do not all
+the circumstances leading to this stupendous catastrophe, reveal
+an elaborate and digested plan, determined long beforehand? Did
+we not read this notice, daily, in your official journal: &ldquo;All
+those who have petroleum are requested immediately to declare the
+quantities in their possession?&rdquo; Was there not a quick-match
+extinguished in the quarter of the Invalides that was to have
+communicated the flames to barrels of powder placed, long ago, in
+the great sewers? Yes, what has taken place you had decreed. If
+the disasters have not been more terrible, is it not, that,
+surprised at the sudden arrival of the troops, you had not the
+time to finish your preparations? Yes, you are the criminals! It
+was Eudes who gave out the petroleum to the
+<i>Pétroleuses</i>; it was Felix Pyat who laid the train
+of gunpowder. It is Tridon who said: &ldquo;Take care that the phials
+be not uncorked.&rdquo; The public incendiary committee has well
+performed its duty! Wicked criminals! Execrable madmen! May
+Heaven bear me witness that my heart abhors revenge, is always
+inclined to pardon&mdash;but for these! What chastisement can be
+great enough to appease the wrath of justice! What vow of
+repentance could be offered up fervent enough to be received in
+Heaven, even at the moment when, struck down by balls, they offer
+their lives as expiation? Misguided humanity!
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-71"></a>
+<img src="images/076.jpg" width="315" height="500" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Ministère Des Finances, Rue de Rivoli:<br/>
+POLICE OF PARIS.<br/>
+Au citoyen Lucas, <br/>
+Faites de suite flamber Finances et venez nous retrouver.<br/>
+4 prairial, an 79.
+Th: Ferré.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-72"></a>
+<img src="images/077.jpg" width="318" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Ferré<a href="#fn-107" name="fnref-107" id="fnref-107"><sup>[107]</sup></a></b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-107" id="fn-107"></a> <a href="#fnref-107">[107]</a>
+Ferré, the friend of Raoul Bigault, and his colleague in the Commission of
+General Safety, like the latter, had inhabited the prisons for a considerable
+time for his political writings, seditious proposals, plots against the state,
+etc. He is a small man about five feet high, and very active. He signed with
+avidity the suppression of nearly all the journals of Paris, and the sentence
+of death of a great number of unfortunate prisoners, with the approbation of
+Raoul Bigault. He willingly undertook to announce to the Archbishop of Paris
+that his last hour had arrived. The following order, drawn up by him, was found
+on the body of an insurgent:&mdash;&ldquo;Set fire to the Ministry of Finance
+immediately, and return here.<br/>
+    4 Prairial, An 79.<br/>
+    (Signed) TH. FERRÉ.&rdquo;<br/>
+    See <a href="#X._Page_335.">Appendix, No.10</a>.]
+</p>
+
+<h2><a name="XCVI."></a>XCVI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+With three friends I stood upon the roof of a house near the
+new opera, watching what was passing around. The spectacle was
+such, that horror paralyses every other sentiment, even that of
+self-preservation. Consternation sits encircled by a blazing
+atmosphere of terror! The Hôtel de Ville is in flames; the
+smoke, at times a deep red, envelops all, so that it is
+impossible to distinguish more than the outlines of immense
+walls; the wind brings, in heavy gusts, a deadly odour&mdash;of
+burnt flesh, perhaps&mdash;which turns the heart sick and the
+brain giddy. On the other side the Tuileries, the Légion
+d&rsquo;Honneur, the Ministère de la Guerre, and the
+Ministère des Finances are flaming still, like five great
+craters of a gigantic volcano! It is the eruption of Paris!
+Alone, a great black mass detaches itself from the universal
+conflagration, it is the Tour Saint-Jacques, standing out like a
+malediction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of the three friends, who are with me on the roof of the
+house, was able, about an hour ago, to get near the Hôtel
+de Ville. He related to me what follows:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;At the moment of my arrival, the flames burst forth from all the windows of
+the Hôtel de Ville, and the most intense terror seized upon all the inhabitants
+blocked up in the surrounding quarters, for a terrible rumour is spread; it is
+said that more than fifty thousand pounds of powder is contained in the
+subterranean vaults. The incendiaries must have poured the demoniacal liquid in
+rivers through the great halls, down the great staircases, from the very
+garrets, to envelop even the Salle du Trône. The great fire throws a blood-red
+glare over the city, and on the quays of the Institute. Night is so like day
+that a letter may be read in the street. Is this the end of the famous capital
+of France? Have the infamous fiends of the committee for public safety ordered,
+in their cowardly death-agony, that this should be the end? Yes, it is the ruin
+of all that was grand, generous, radiant, and consolatory for our country that
+they have decided to consummate, with a chorus of hellish laughter, in which
+terror and ferocity struggle with brutal degradation.<br/>
+    &ldquo;In the midst of this horror, confused rumours are circulated. It is said that
+the heat will penetrate to the cellars and cause an explosion of whole
+quarters. Then what will become of the inhabitants, and the riches that they
+have accumulated? The heat is overwhelming between the Tuileries and the Hôtel
+de Ville&mdash;that is, over the space of about a mile. The two barricades of
+the Rue de Rivoli and of the Rue de la Coutellerie, near which are the offices
+of the municipal services&mdash;the lighting of the city, the octroi, waters,
+sewers, etc.,&mdash;will not be taken until too late, in spite of the energy
+with which the army attacks them. It is feared that the flame will reach the
+neighbourhood of the great warehouses, so thickly do the burning flakes fall
+and scatter destruction. The barricades of the quays are still intact, it will
+be another hour yet before they are taken. The firemen are there furiously at
+work, but their efforts are insufficient! It would take tons of ammonia to
+slake the fury of the petroleum which flows like hot lava upon the place from
+the Hôtel de Ville, and the horrible reflection reddens the waters of the
+Seine, so that the current of the river seems to flow with blood, which stains
+the stones as it dashes against the arches of the bridge!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These scenes are being pictured to me as I gaze upon the
+terrible conflagration, and all that is told me I seem to see. An
+irresistible longing to be near seizes me. I am under the power
+of an invincible attraction. I lean forward, my arms
+outstretched; I run a great risk of falling, but what matters?
+The sight of these almost sublime horrors has burnt itself into
+my very brain!
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XCVII."></a> XCVII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+She walks with a rapid step, near the shadow of the wall; she
+is poorly dressed; her age is between forty and fifty; her
+forehead is bound with a red checkered handkerchief, from which
+hang meshes of uncombed hair. The face is red and the eyes
+blurred, and she moves with her look bent down on the ground. Her
+right hand is in her pocket, or in the bosom of her
+half-unbuttoned dress; in the other hand she holds one of the
+high, narrow tin cans in which milk is carried in Paris, but
+which now, in the hands of this woman, contains the dreadful
+petroleum liquid. As she passes a <i>poste</i> of regulars, she
+smiles and nods; when they speak to her she answers, &ldquo;My good
+Monsieur!&rdquo; If the street is deserted she stops, consults a bit of
+dirty paper that she holds in her hand, pauses a moment before
+the grated opening to a cellar, then continues her way, steadily,
+without haste. An hour afterwards, a house is on fire in the
+street she has passed. Who is this woman? Paris calls her a
+<i>Pétroleuse</i>.<a href="#fn-108" name="fnref-108" id="fnref-108"><sup>[108]</sup></a>
+One of these <i>pétroleuses</i>, who was caught in the act
+in the Rue Truffault, discharged the six barrels of a revolver
+and killed two men before being passed over to execution. Another
+was seen falling in a doorway of a house in the Rue de Boulogne,
+pierced with balls&mdash;but this one was a young girl; a bottle
+filled with petroleum fell from her hand as she dropped.
+Sometimes one of these wretched women, might be seen leading by
+the hand a little boy or girl; and the child probably carrying a
+bottle of the incendiary liquid in his pocket with his top and
+marbles.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-73"></a>
+<img src="images/078.jpg" width="500" height="360" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Palace of the Luxembourg (garden Front). Used as a
+Federal Ambulance Hospital.<a href="#fn-109" name="fnref-109"
+id="fnref-109"><sup>[109]</sup></a></b></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-74"></a>
+<img src="images/079.jpg" width="321" height="500" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Les Pétroleurs<br/>Les Pétroleuses</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-108" id="fn-108"></a> <a href="#fnref-108">[108]</a>
+The incendiaries formed a veritable army, composed of returned convicts, the
+very dregs of the prisons, pale, thin lads, who looked like ghosts, and old
+women, that looked like horrible witches; their number amounted to eight
+thousand! This army had its chiefs, and each detachment was charged with the
+firing of a quarter. The order for the conflagration of public edifices bore
+the stamp of the Commune, and of the Central Committee, and the seal of the
+delegate at the Ministry of War. For the private houses more expeditive means
+were used. Small tickets, of the size of postage stamps, were found pasted upon
+walls of houses in different parts of Paris, with the letters B.P.B. (<i>bon
+pour brûler</i>), literally, good for burning. Some of the tickets were square,
+others oval, with a bacchante&rsquo;s head in the centre. They were affixed on
+spots designated by the chiefs. Every <i>pétroleuse</i> was to receive ten
+francs for each house she fired. Sept. 5,1871. Amongst the insurgents tried at
+Versailles, three pétroleuses were condemned to death, and one to imprisonment
+for life, a host of others being transported or otherwise punished.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-109" id="fn-109"></a> <a href="#fnref-109">[109]</a>
+On the Wednesday succeeding the explosion of the powder-magazine in the garden
+of the Luxembourg, which unroofed a portion of the palace, and destroyed the
+windows, and did fearful damage to the surrounding houses, all the Communeux
+disappeared from the neighbourhood. The following night four men returned,
+bringing a quantity of petroleum with them. They gave orders that the six
+hundred wounded men who were then lying in the Palace should be taken away
+immediately. They had commenced their sinister project, and were pouring the
+petroleum about in the cellars, when the soldiers of the Brigade Paturel were
+informed of it, and arrived in time to prevent its execution. The criminals
+were taken and shot on the spot.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XCVIII."></a> XCVIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+It is seven in the evening, the circulation has become almost
+impossible. The streets are lined with patrols, and the regiments
+of the Line camp upon the outer boulevards. They dine, smoke, and
+bivouac, and drink with the citizens on the doorsteps of their
+houses. In the distance is heard the storm of sounds which tells
+of the despairing resistance of Belleville, and along the foot of
+the houses are seen square white patches, showing the walled-up
+cellars, every hole and crevice being plastered up to prevent
+insertion of the diabolical liquid&mdash;walled up against
+<i>pétroleurs</i> and pétroleuses, strings of
+prisoners, among whom are furious women and poor children, their
+hands tied behind their backs, pass along the boulevards towards
+Neuilly. Night comes on, not a lamp is lighted, and the streets
+become deserted as by degrees the sky becomes darker. At nine
+o&rsquo;clock the solitude is almost absolute. The sound of a musket
+striking the pavement is heard from time to time; a sentinel
+passes here and there, and the lights in the houses grow more and
+more rare.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XCIX."></a> XCIX.</h2>
+
+<p>
+The hours and the days pass and resemble each other horribly.
+To write the history of the calamities is not yet possible. Each
+one sees but a corner of the picture, and the narratives that are
+collected are vague and contradictory; it appears certain now
+that the insurrection is approaching the end. It is said that the
+fort of Montrouge is taken; but it still hurls its shells upon
+Paris. Several have just fallen in the quarter of the Banque.
+There is fighting still at the Halles, at the Luxembourg, and at
+the Porte Saint-Martin. Neither the cannonading nor the fusillade
+has ceased, and our ears have become accustomed to the continued
+roar. But, in spite of the barbarous heroism of the Federals, the
+force of their resistance is being exhausted. What has become of
+the chiefs?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We continue to note down the incidents as they reach us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is said that Assy has been taken, close to the New Opera
+House. He was going the nightly rounds, almost alone&mdash;&ldquo;Who&rsquo;s
+there!&rdquo; cried a sentinel. Assy, thinking the man was a Federal,
+replied, &ldquo;You should have challenged me sooner.&rdquo; In an instant he
+was surrounded, disarmed, and carried off. However, it is a very
+unlikely tale; it is most improbable that Assy should not know
+that the New Opera was in the hands of the Versaillais.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They say that Delescluze has fled, that Dombrowski has died<a href="#fn-110"
+name="fnref-110" id="fnref-110"><sup>[110]</sup></a> in an ambulance, and that
+Millière is a prisoner at Saint-Denis. But these are merely rumours, and I am
+utterly ignorant as to their worth. The only thing certain is that the search
+is being carried on with vigour. Close by the smoking ruins of what was once
+the Hôtel de Ville they caught Citizen Ferraigu, inspector of the barricades;
+he confessed to having received from the Committee of Public Safety particular
+orders to burn down the shop of the Bon-Diable. Had one of these committeemen
+been an assistant there, and did he owe his former master a grudge? Ferraigu
+had a bottle of petroleum in his pocket; he was shot. I am told that at the
+Théâtre du Châtelet a court-martial has been established on the stage. The
+Federals are brought up twenty at a time, judged, and condemned, they are then
+marched out on to the Place, with their hands tied behind their backs. A
+mitrailleuse, standing a hundred yards off, mows them down like grass. It is an
+expeditious contrivance. In a yard, in the Rue Saint-Denis, is a stable filled
+with corpses; I have myself seen them there. The Porte Saint-Martin Theatre is
+quite destroyed, a guard is stationed near. This morning three
+<i>pétroleuses</i> were shot there, the bodies are still lying on the
+boulevards. I have just seen two insurgents walking between four soldiers; one
+an old man, the other almost a lad. I heard the elder one say to the younger,
+&ldquo;All our misery comes of our having arms. In &rsquo;48 we had none, so we
+took those of the soldiers, and then they were without. Now there is more
+killing and less business done.&rdquo; A few minutes after the little
+procession passed up the Rue d&rsquo;Hauteville, and I heard the reports of two
+rifles. Oh! what horrible days! I feel a prey to the deepest dejection&mdash;if
+it were but over! The town looks wretched; even where the fighting is not going
+on, the houses are closed and the streets deserted, except here and there: a
+lonely passenger hurrying along, or a wretched prisoner marching between four
+soldiers. It is all very dreadful! In the streets where the battle is still
+raging the shutters are not closed; as soon as the soldiers get into a new
+quarter of the town they cry out, &ldquo;Shut the windows, open the
+shutters.&rdquo; The reason for this is, that the open barred outer shutters,
+or <i>persiennes</i>, form a capital screen through which aim maybe taken with
+a gun. As for me, in the midst of this horror and sadness, I feel like a madman
+in the night. The rumour that the hostages have been shot at Mazas gains
+ground.<a href="#fn-111" name="fnref-111" id="fnref-111"><sup>[111]</sup></a> I
+am told that the Archbishop, the Abbé Degueiry, and Chaudey have all been
+assassinated. It was Bigault who ordered these executions. He has since been
+taken, and fell, crying &ldquo;Down with murderers!&rdquo; This reminds one of
+Dumollard, the assassin, calling the jurymen &ldquo;Canaille!&rdquo; Millière
+is said to have been shot in the Place du Panthéon. When they told him to kneel
+down he drew himself up to his full height, his eyes flashing defiance. Strange
+caprice of nature, to make these scoundrels brave.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-75"></a>
+<img src="images/080.jpg" width="288" height="500" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Theatre Porte St Martin. Sensation Drama out
+sensationed</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-76"></a>
+<img src="images/081.jpg" width="303" height="450" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Cell of the Archbisop in The Prison Of La Roquette.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-77"></a>
+<img src="images/082.jpg" width="500" height="361" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Court-yard of Prison Of La Roquette, Where the Hostages
+were shot.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+In the meantime, the Commune is in its death throes. Like the
+dragon of fairy lore, it dies, vomiting flames. La Villette is on
+fire, houses are burning at Belleville and on the
+Buttes-Chaumont. The resistance is concentrated on one side at
+Père la Chaise, and on the other at the Mont-Parnasse
+cemetery. The insurrection was mistress of the whole of Paris,
+and then the army came stretching its long arms from the Arc de
+Triomphe to Belleville, from the Champ-de-Mars to the
+Panthéon. Trying hard to burst these bonds, tightly
+surrounded, now resisting, now flying, the <i>émeute</i>
+has at last retreated. It is over there now, in two cemeteries;
+it watches from behind tombstones; it rests the barrels of its
+rifles on marble crosses, and erects a battery on a sepulchre.
+The shells of the Versaillais fall in the sacred enclosure,
+plough up the earth, and unbury the dead. Something round rolled
+along a pathway, the combatants thought it was a shell; it was a
+skull! What must these men feel who are killing and being killed
+in the cemetery! To die among the dead seems horrible. But they
+never give it a thought; the bloody thirst for destruction which
+possesses them allows them only to think of one thing, of
+killing! Some of them are gay, they are brave, these men. That
+makes it only the more dreadful; these wretches are heroic!
+Behind the barricades there have been instances of the most
+splendid valour. A man at the Porte Saint-Martin, holding a red
+flag in his hand, was standing, heedless of danger, on a pile of
+stones. The balls showered around him, while he leant carelessly
+against an empty barrel which stood behind.&mdash;&ldquo;Lazy fellow,&rdquo;
+cried a comrade&mdash;&ldquo;No,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;I am only leaning that I
+may not fall when I die.&rdquo; Such are these men; they are robbers,
+incendiaries, assassins, but they are fearless of death. They
+have only that one good quality. They smile and they die. The
+vivandières allow themselves to be kissed behind the
+tombstones; the wounded men drink with their comrades, and throw
+wine on their wounds, saying, &ldquo;Let us drink to the last.&rdquo; And
+yet, in an hour perhaps, the soldiers will fight their way into
+the cemeteries, which their balls reach already, they too mad
+with rage; then the horrible bayonet fighting will commence, man
+against man among the tombs, flying over the mounds, desecrating
+the monuments, everything that imagination can conjure up of most
+profane and terrible&mdash;a battle in a cemetery!
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-78"></a>
+<img src="images/083.jpg" width="768" height="520" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>My Neighbour &lsquo;en face&rsquo;; business carries on as
+usual&mdash;My neighbour next door: who thinks himself fortunate</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-110" id="fn-110"></a> <a href="#fnref-110">[110]</a>
+The most reliable account of his death is given by a medical student who
+attended him in his last moments. &ldquo;Dombrowski was passing with several
+members of the Commune in the Rue Myrrha, near the Rue des Poissonniers, when
+he was struck by a bullet, which traversed the lower part of his body. He was
+carried to a neighbouring chemist&rsquo;s, where I bandaged the wound. Before
+his transportation to the Lariboisière Hospital, he ordered the fire to cease,
+but the troops defending the barricade disobeyed the injunction. His sword was
+handed by me to a captain of the 45th of the Line. His last words were nearly
+identical with those which he uttered as he fell: &lsquo;I am no
+traitor!&rsquo;&rdquo; His worst enemies have said of him that he was a good
+soldier in a bad cause.
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-111" id="fn-111"></a> <a href="#fnref-111">[111]</a>
+At the prison of Sainte-Pélagie, on Tuesday, the 23rd of May, the unfortunate
+gendarmes, who had been made prisoners on the 18th, were shot, together with M.
+Chaudey, a writer, on the <i>Siècle</i>, arrested at the office of the journal,
+and conducted, first to Mazas and afterwards to Sainte-Pélagie. (<a
+href="#XI._Page_342.">Appendix 11</a>).<br/>
+    According to the <i>Siècle</i>, the &ldquo;Procureur&rdquo; of the
+Commune, Raoul Rigault, presented himself, at the office at about
+eleven at night, and having sent for M. Chaudey, said to him,
+without any preamble: &ldquo;I am here to tell you that you have not an
+hour to live.&rdquo;<br/>
+    &ldquo;You mean to say that I am to be assassinated,&rdquo; replied
+Chaudey.<br/>
+    &ldquo;You are to be shot, and that directly,&rdquo; was the other&rsquo;s
+rejoinder.<br/>
+    But, on reaching the prison, the National Guards who had been summoned
+refused to do the odious work, and the Procureur went himself to find others
+more docile. Chaudey was led before them, Raoul Rigault drew his sword to give
+the signal, the muskets were levelled and fired, and Chaudey fell, but wounded
+only. A sergeant gave him the death blow by discharging his pistol at his head.
+The next day, a hundred and fifty hostages of the Commune, confined at the
+Prefecture of Police, amongst whom were Prince Galitzin and Andreoli, a
+journalist, were about to be shot by an order of Ferré, when the incendiary
+fires broke out and prevented the execution of the order. At eleven
+o&rsquo;clock, Raoul Rigault commanded the prisoners to be released, and
+enjoined them to fight for the Commune; upon their refusal, a shower of balls
+was discharged at them. The prisoners rushed for refuge into the Rue du Harlay,
+which was in flames, and were afterwards rescued by a detachment of the
+line.<br/>
+    That same day was fatal to Raoul Rigault. He was perceived by a party of
+infantry at the moment when he was ringing at the door of a house in the Rue
+Gay Lussac. His colonel&rsquo;s uniform instantly made him a mark for the
+soldiers; he had time to enter the house, however, but was soon discovered,
+gave his name, and allowed himself to be taken off towards the Luxembourg, but
+before reaching it, he began to shout, &ldquo;Vive la Commune!&rdquo;
+&ldquo;Down with the assassins!&rdquo; and made an effort to escape. The
+soldiers thrust him against a wall and shot him down.<br/>
+    The next day, the 24th, marked the fate of the hostages, who, in
+expectation of an attack of the Versaillais, had been transferred from Mazas to
+La Roquette. &ldquo;Monseigneur Darboy,&rdquo; writes an eye-witness (Monsieur
+Dubutte, miraculously saved by an error of name), &ldquo;occupied cell No. 21
+of the 4th division, and I was at a short distance from him, in No. 26. The
+cell in which the venerable prelate was confined had been the office of one of
+the gaolers; it was somewhat larger than the rest, and Monseigneur&rsquo;s
+companions in captivity had succeeded in obtaining for him a chair and a table.
+On Wednesday, the 24th, at half-past seven in the evening, the director of the
+prison&mdash;a certain Lefrançais, who had been a prisoner in the hulks for the
+space of six years&mdash;went up, at the head of fifty Federals, into the
+gallery, near which the most important prisoners were incarcerated. Here they
+ranged themselves along the walls, and a few moments later one of the
+head-gaolers opened the door of the archbishop&rsquo;s cell, and called him
+out. The prelate answered, &ldquo;I am here!&rdquo; Then the gaoler passed on
+to M. le President Bonjean&rsquo;s cell (<a href="#XII._Page_345.">Appendix
+12</a>), then to that of Abbé Allard, member of the International Society in
+Aid of the Wounded; of Père du Coudray, Superior of the School of
+Ste-Geneviève; and Père Clère, of the Brotherhood of Jesus; the last called
+being the Abbé Deguerry, curé of the Madeleine. As the names were called, each
+prisoner was led out into the gallery and down the staircase to the courtyard;
+each side, as far as I could judge, was lined with Federal guards, who insulted
+the prisoners in language that I cannot repeat. Amid the hues and cries of
+these wretches my unfortunate companions were conducted across the courtyard to
+the infirmary, before which a file of soldiers were drawn up for the execution.
+Monseigneur Darboy advanced and addressed his murderers&mdash;addressed them
+words of pardon: then two of the men approached the prelate, and falling on
+their knees implored his pardon. The rest of the Federals threw themselves upon
+them, and thrust them aside with oaths, then, turning to the prisoners, they
+heaped fresh insults upon them. The chief officer of the detachment, however,
+imposed silence on the men, and uttering an oath, said, &lsquo;You are here to
+shoot these men, not to insult them.&rsquo; The Federals were silenced, and
+upon the command of their lieutenant, they loaded their muskets.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Père Allard was placed against the wall, and was the first who was
+struck; then Monseigneur Darboy fell, and the six prisoners were thus shot in
+turn, showing, at this supreme moment, a saintly dignity and a noble
+courage.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="C."></a> C.</h2>
+
+<p>
+Where are these men going with hurried steps, and with
+lanterns in their hands? Their uniform is that of the National
+Guard, and consequently of Federals, but the tricolour band which
+they wear on the arm would seem to indicate that they belong to
+the Party of Order. They are making their way by one of the
+entries of the sewers, and preceded by an officer are
+disappearing beneath the sombre vaults. Calling to mind the
+sinister expression of a Communal artillery commander&mdash;&ldquo;The
+reactionary quarters will all be blown up; not one shall be
+spared,&rdquo; it is impossible to avoid feeling a shudder of terror.
+What if the incendiaries all wearing the badge of the Party of
+Order, be about to set fire to mines prepared beforehand, or to
+barrels of petroleum ready to be staved in! The wild demons of
+the Commune are capable of everything; an invention of incendiary
+firemen is quoted as an example of the diabolical genius which
+presided over the work of destruction; individuals wearing the
+fireman&rsquo;s uniform were seen to throw combustible liquids by means
+of pumps and pails on the burning houses, instead of aiding to
+extinguish the flames.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-79"></a>
+<img src="images/084.jpg" width="450" height="450" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Paris Underground</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-80"></a>
+<img src="images/085.jpg" width="365" height="600" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>The Enemies of Progress.<br/>
+Corps de garde de l&rsquo;armée de Versailles</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+Fortunately, the fear is unfounded, the object of these men,
+on the contrary, is to cut the wires which connect all parts with
+inflammable materials, torpedoes, and other atrocious machines.
+They have already passed several nights in destroying this
+underground telegraphic system. The duty is not without danger;
+for not only are they exposed to the terrible consequences of a
+sudden explosion, but also to the risk of being taken and shot
+without trial, as traitors to the Commune. That is, should they
+chance to fall in with hostile bands, or appear in unfriendly
+quarters. It appears that these determined and devoted citizens
+have already lost two of their companions in the execution of
+this perilous duty. The intention of the Commune was to charge
+the whole of the main sewers and subways with combustibles; but
+luckily they had not time to mature their schemes, the advance of
+the Versailles troops being too quick for them. The Catacombs
+were included in the arrangement; for did not the able Assy
+direct his agent Fossé to keep them open, as a means of
+escape? Alas! these subterranean passages that underlie so large
+a portion of ancient Paris, what stories could they not tell of
+starved fugitives and maimed culprits dragging their weary limbs
+into the darkness of these gloomy caverns, only that they might
+die there in peace! Men and women, whose forms will in a few
+short weeks be unrecognisable, whose whitened bones will be
+crushed and kicked aside by the future explorer, who may
+perchance penetrate the labyrinths, and whose dust will finally
+be mixed up and undistinguishable from that of the bones and
+skulls taken from ancient cemeteries and graveyards with which
+this terrible Golgotha is decorated in Mosaic.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="CI."></a> CI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+The fire is out, let us contemplate the ruins.<a href="#fn-112"
+name="fnref-112" id="fnref-112"><sup>[112]</sup></a> The Commune is vanquished.
+Look at Paris, sad, motionless, laid waste. This is what we have come to!
+Consternation is in every breast, solitude is in every street. We feel no
+longer either anger or pity; we are resigned, broken by emotion; we see
+processions of prisoners pass on their way to Versailles, and we scarcely look
+at them; no one thinks of saying either, &ldquo;Wretches!&rdquo; or &ldquo;Poor
+fellows!&rdquo; The soldiers themselves are very silent. Although they, are the
+victors they are sad; they do not drink, they do not sing. Paris might be a
+town that had been assaulted and taken by dumb enemies; the irritation has worn
+itself off, and the tears have not yet come. The tricolour flags which float
+from all the windows surprise us; there does not seem any reason for rejoicing.
+Yet, of late especially, the triumph of the Versaillais has been ardently
+wished for by the greater portion of the population; but all are so tired that
+they have not the energy to rejoice. Let us look back for a moment. First the
+siege, with famine, separation and poverty; then the insurrection of
+Montmartre, surprises, hesitations, cannonading night and day, ceaseless
+musketry, mothers in tears, sons pursued, every calamity has fallen on this
+miserable city. It has been like Rome under Tiberius, then like Rome after the
+barbarians had overrun it. The cannon balls have fallen upon Sybaris. So much
+emotion, so many horrors have worn out the city; and then all this blood, this
+dreadful blood. Corpses in the streets, corpses within the houses, corpses
+everywhere! Of course they were terribly guilty, these men that were taken,
+that were killed; they were horrible criminals, those women who poured brandy
+into the glasses and petroleum on the houses! But, in the first moment of
+victory, were there no mistakes? Were those that were shot all guilty? Then the
+sight of these executions, however merited, was cruelly painful. The innocent
+shuddered at the doom of justice. True, Paris is quiet now, but it is the quiet
+of the battle-field on the morrow of a victory; quiet as night, and as the
+tomb! An unsupportable uneasiness oppresses us; shall we ever be able to shake
+off this apathy, to pierce through this gloom? Paris, rent and bleeding, turns
+with sadness from the past, and dares not yet raise her eyes to the future!
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-81"></a>
+<img src="images/086.jpg" width="368" height="600" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>The New Masters PROCLAMATION OVER PROCLAMATION PUBLIC
+PROMENADES. CAMPS IN THE GARDENS OF THE LUXEMBOURG AND THE TUILERIES&mdash;THE
+SOLDIERS LOCKED IN, AND THE PUBLIC LOCKED OUT. The damage done to the pier was
+by a Prussian shell in Jan. 1871.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-82"></a>
+<img src="images/087.jpg" width="335" height="500" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Palace of the Luxembourg (streat Front). Now The Seat of
+the Prefecture of Paris</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">
+POOR PARIS!
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<img src="images/088.jpg" width="70" height="96" alt="Illustration: " />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">
+On August 15th, the <i>Times</i> reporter gave the number awaiting trial<br/>
+at Versailles at 30,000. On the 7th September they had reached<br/>
+39,000, daily arrests adding to the number; out of these,<br/>
+35,000 only had their charges made out, of which<br/>
+13,900 had been examined, 2,800 writs of<br/>
+release having been issued, though only a<br/>
+few hundreds have been set at liberty.<br/>
+There are only 94 reporting officers:<br/>
+20 attached to the Council of War,<br/>
+6 to the Orangerie, 4 to Satory,<br/>
+3 to the Prison des Femmes,<br/>
+and 16 to the Western Ports:<br/>
+17 more are to be<br/>
+added shortly.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-83"></a>
+<img src="images/089.jpg" width="312" height="400" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Marchal Macmahon, Duc de Magenta.<br/>
+Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Versailles.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-84"></a>
+<img src="images/090.jpg" width="380" height="600" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Light &amp; Air Once More<br/>
+the Fosse commune<br/>
+THE END</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-112" id="fn-112"></a> <a href="#fnref-112">[112]</a>
+See <a href=
+"#XIV._THE_DEVASTATIONS_OF_PARIS.">Appendix 14</a>, <a href=
+"#App._XV.">15</a>, <a href="#App._XVI.">16</a>, and <a href=
+"#XVII._LIST_OF_PUBLIC">17</a>.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<img src="images/091.jpg" width="300" height="146" alt="Illustration: " />
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="APPENDIX."></a> APPENDIX.</h2>
+
+<h3><a name="CHRONOLOGY_OF_THE_PARISIAN_INSURRECTION"></a>
+CHRONOLOGY OF THE PARISIAN INSURRECTION,</h3>
+<h3> FROM THE 18th OF MARCH TO THE 29th MAY, 1871.</h3>
+
+<p>
+The dash (&mdash;) in each day after the commencement of
+military operations divides the civil from the military.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Saturday, 18th March</i>: Early in the morning troops take
+possession of the Buttes Montmartre and Belleville. The soldiers
+charged with the recovery of the pieces of artillery fraternise
+with the people and the National Guard. Arrest of Generals
+Lecomte and Clement Thomas: they are shot at Montmartre without
+trial. National Guards take possession of the Hôtel de
+Ville, the Prefecture of Police is invaded by Raoul Rigault,
+Duval, and others.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Sunday, 19th March</i>: The Central Committee of the
+National Guard take possession of the offices of the <i>Journal
+Officiel</i>. Arrest of General Chanzy. Gustave Flourens,
+imprisoned at Mazas, is set at liberty by the new masters of
+Paris. M. Thiers addresses a circular to the country enjoining
+obedience to the only authority, that of the Assembly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Tuesday, 21st March</i>: Manifestation of the &ldquo;Friends of
+Order.&rdquo; Procession for public demonstration. Sitting of the
+Assembly at Versailles. M. Jules Favre advises prompt measures.
+Appeal to the people and army.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Wednesday, 22nd March</i>: Friends of Order shot in the Rue
+de la Paix. Lullier arrested by order of the Central
+Committee.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Thursday, 23rd March</i>: Vice-Admiral Saisset is appointed
+by the Assembly Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Friday, 24th March</i>: The delegates Brunel, Eudes, Duval,
+are promoted to the rank of generals by the Central Committee.
+Vice-Admiral Saisset&rsquo;s proclamation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Saturday, 29th March</i>: Occupation of the Mairie of the
+1st Arrondissement by the Federals. First placard of the
+Committee of Conciliation. Rumour of the arrest of Lullier
+reproached for moderation. Vice-Admiral Saisset retires to
+Versailles. <i>Sunday, 26th March</i>: Municipal elections to
+constitute the Commune of Paris.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Tuesday, 28th March</i>: 4 p. m., names of the elect
+proclaimed at the Hôtel de Ville. Arrival of General Chanzy
+at Versailles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Wednesday, 29th March</i>: Conscription abolished&mdash;all
+citizens to be National Guards. Pawnbroking decree. Organisation
+of commissions: executive, financial, military, etc. Ministers to
+be called delegates.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Saturday, 1st April</i>: The Executive Committee issues a
+decree to suppress the rank and functions of General-in-Chief.
+General Eudes appointed Delegate of War; Bergeret to the staff of
+the National Guard, in place of Brunel; Duval to the military
+command of the ex-Prefecture of Police, where Raoul Rigault was
+civil delegate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Sunday, 2nd April</i>: Military operations commence 9 a.m.
+Action at Courbevoie. Flourens marches his troops to Versailles,
+<i>viâ</i> Rueil.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Monday, 3rd April</i>: The corps d&rsquo;armée of General
+Bergeret at the Rond Point near Neuilly, is stopped by the
+artillery of Mont Valérien. Exchange of shot between Fort
+Issy and Fort Vanves, occupied by insurgents, and
+Meudon.&mdash;The separation of Church and State decreed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Tuesday, 4th April</i>: General Duval made prisoner in the
+engagement at Châtillon and shot. Death of Flourens at
+Rueil.&mdash;Delescluze, Cournet, and Vermorel succeed Generals
+Bergeret, Eudes, and Duval on the Executive Commission. Cluseret
+Delegate of War, and Bergeret commandant of Paris forces.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Wednesday, 6th April</i>: General Cluseret commences active
+operations. Military service compulsory for all citizens under
+forty. Abbé Deguerry, and Archbishop of Paris
+arrested.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Thursday, 6th April</i>: Extension of action to Neuilly and
+Courbevoie. Versailles army decreed by executive authority.
+Obsequies of Flourens at Versailles.&mdash;Decree concerning the
+complicity with Versailles, and arrest of hostages. The rank of
+general suppressed by the Commune. Dombrowski succeeds Bergeret
+as Commandant of Paris.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Friday, 7th April</i>: Decree for disarming the
+Réfractaires. The guillotine is burnt on the Place
+Voltaire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Saturday, 8th April</i>: Federals abandon
+Neuilly.&mdash;Commission of barricades created and presided over
+by Gaillard Senior. Military occupation of the railway termini by
+the insurgents.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Sunday, 9th April</i>: Insurgents attempt to retake
+Châtillon, but are repulsed. Forts Vanves and Montrouge
+disabled. Mont Valérien shells the Avenue des
+Ternes.&mdash;Assy and Bergeret arrested by order of the
+Commune.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Tuesday, 11th April</i>: Marshal MacMahon,
+Commander-in-Chief, distributes his forces. Commences the
+investment of fort Issy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Wednesday, 12th April</i>: Versailles batteries established
+on Châtillon. The Orleans railway and telegraph out.
+Communications of the insurgents with the south
+intercepted.&mdash;Decree ordering the fall of the Column
+Vendôme. Decree concerning the complementary elections.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Thursday, 13th April:</i> Courbet presides at a meeting of
+artists at the École de Médecine. Publication of
+the reports of the sittings of the Commune.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Friday, 14th April</i>: The redoubt of Gennevilliers taken.
+The troops of Versailles make advances to the Château de
+Bécon, a post of importance.&mdash;Lullier takes the
+command of the flotilla on the Seine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Sunday, 16th April</i>: Complementary elections.
+Organisation of a court-martial under the presidence of Rossel,
+chief officer of the staff.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Monday, 11th April</i>: Capture and fortification of the
+Château de Bécon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Tuesday, 18th April</i>: Station and houses at
+Asnières taken by the army of Versailles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Thursday, 20th April</i>: The village of Bagneux is
+occupied by the Versaillais.&mdash;Reorganisation of commissions.
+Eudes appointed inspector-general of the southern forts.
+Transfers his quarters from Montrouge to the Palace of the Legion
+of Honour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Saturday, 22nd April</i>: Deputation from the Freemasons to
+Versailles.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Monday, 24th April</i>: Raoul Rigault takes the office of
+public prosecutor, resigning the Prefecture of Police to
+Cournet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Tuesday, 25th April</i>: The Versailles batteries at
+Breteuil, Brimborion, Meudon, and Moulin de Pierre trouble the
+Federal Fort Issy, and battery between Bagneux and
+Châtillon shells Fort Vanves. Truce at Neuilly from 9 a.m.
+to 5 p.m. The inhabitants of Neuilly enter Paris by the Porte des
+Ternes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Wednesday, 26th April</i>: Capture of Les Moulineaux,
+outpost of the insurgents, by the troops, who strongly fortify
+themselves on the 27th and 28th.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Saturday, 29th April</i>: Cemetery and park of Issy taken
+by the Versaillais in the night.&mdash;Freemasons make a new
+attempt at conciliation. The Commune levies a sum of two millions
+of francs from the railway companies.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Sunday, 30th April</i>: A flag of truce sent to Fort Issy
+by the Versaillais, calling upon the Federals to surrender.
+General Eudes puts fresh troops in the fort, and takes the
+command himself.&mdash;Cluseret imprisoned at Mazas by order of
+the Commune. Rossel appointed provisional Delegate of War.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Monday, 1st May</i>: The Versaillais take the station of
+Clamart and the Château of Issy.&mdash;Creation of the
+Committee of Public Safety. Members: Antoine Arnauld, Léo
+Meillet, Ranvier, Félix Pyat, Charles Gérardin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Wednesday, 3rd May</i>: The troops of General Lacretelle
+carry the redoubt of Moulin Saquet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Friday, 5th May</i>: Colonel Rossel appointed to the
+direction of military affairs. He defines the military quarters:
+General Dombrowski, Place Vendôme; General La
+Cécilia, at the Ecole Militaire; General Wroblewski, at
+the Elysée; General Bergeret, at the Corps
+Législatif; General Eudes at the Palace of the Legion of
+Honour. The Central Committee of the National Guard charged with
+Administration of War under the supervision of the military
+commission. The Chapelle Expiatoire condemned to
+destruction&mdash;the materials to be sold by auction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Saturday, 6th May</i>: Concert at the Tuileries in aid of
+the ambulances. Suppression of newspapers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Monday, 8th May</i>: Battery of Montretout (70 marine guns)
+opens fire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Tuesday, 9th May</i>: Morning, insurgents evacuate the Fort
+Issy.&mdash;The Committee of Public Safety renewed. Members:
+Ranvier, Antoine Arnauld, Gambon, Eudes, Delescluze. Rossel
+resigns; his letter to the Commune.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Wednesday, 10th May</i>: Cannon from the Fort Issy taken to
+Versailles.&mdash;Decree for the demolition of M. Thiers&rsquo; house.
+Delescluze appointed Delegate of War.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Friday, 12th May</i>: Troops take possession of the Couvent
+des Oiseaux at Issy, and the Lyceum at Vanves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Saturday, 13th May</i>: Triumphal entry of the troops into
+Versailles with flags and cannon taken from the Convent. The
+evacuation of the village of Issy completed. Fort Vanves taken by
+the troops.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Sunday, 14th May</i>: Vigorous cannonade from the batteries
+of Courbevoie, Bécon, Asnières on Levallois and
+Clichy: both villages evacuated. Commencement of the demolition
+of house of M. Thiers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Monday, 15th May</i>: Report of the rearmament of
+Montmartre.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Tuesday, 16th May</i>: The Column Vendôme falls.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Wednesday, 11th May</i>: Powder magazine and cartridge
+factory near the Champ de Mars blown up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Sunday, 21st May</i>: 2 p.m. the troops enter
+Paris.&mdash;Rochefort arrives at Versailles. Raoul Rigault and
+Régère charged with the hostage decree.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Monday, 22nd May</i>: Noon, explosion of the powder
+magazine of the Manège d&rsquo;Etat-Major (staff riding-school).
+The hostages transferred from Mazas to La Roquette. Assy arrested
+in Paris by the Versaillais. The Assembly votes the re-erection
+of the Column Vendôme.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Tuesday, 23rd May</i>: Montmartre taken. Death of
+Dombrowski. Morning, Assy arrives at Versailles. Execution of
+gendarmes and Gustave Chaudey at the prison of
+Sainte-Pélagie. Night, the Tuileries are set on fire.
+Delescluze and the Committee of Public Safety hold permanent
+sittings at the Hôtel de Ville.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Wednesday, 24th May</i>: One p.m., the powder magazine at
+the Palais du Luxembourg blown up. The Committee of Public Safety
+organise detachments of fusee-bearers. Raoul Rigault shot in the
+afternoon by the soldiers. In the evening, execution in the
+Prison of La Roquette of the Archbishop, Abbé Deguerry,
+etc.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Thursday, 26th May</i>: The forts Montrouge,
+Hautes-Bruyères, Bicêtre evacuated by the
+insurgents. The death of Delescluze is reported to have taken
+place this day. Executions in the Avenue d&rsquo;Italie of the
+Pères Dominicains of Arcueil.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Friday, 26th May</i>: Sixteen priests shot in the Cemetery
+of Père Lachaise by the insurgents.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Saturday, 27th May</i>: The Buttes Chaumont, the heights of
+Belleville, and the Cemetery of Père Lachaise carried by
+the troops. Taking of the prison La Roquette by the Marines.
+Deliverance of 169 hostages.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Sunday, 28th May</i>: The investment of Belleville
+complete.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Monday, 29th May</i>: Six. p.m., the federal garrison of
+the fortress of Vincennes surrendered at discretion.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="I._Page_2._HENRI_ROCHEFORT."></a> I. (Page 2.)</h2>
+
+<h3> HENRI ROCHEFORT.</h3>
+
+<p>
+Henri Rochefort, personal enemy of the Empire, republican
+humourist of the <i>Marseillaise</i>, and the lukewarm socialist
+of the <i>Mot d&rsquo;Ordre</i>, who could answer to the judge who
+demanded his name, &ldquo;I am Henri Rochefort, Comte de Lucey,&rdquo; has
+been reproached by some with his titles of nobility, and with the
+childish pleasure that he takes in affecting the plebeian. It is
+said of him that he aspires but to descend, but who would condemn
+him for spurning the petrifactions of the Faubourg Saint-Germain?
+A man must march with the times.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Rochefort has distinguished himself among the young men by the
+marvellous tact that he has shown in discovering the way to
+popular favour. If I were allowed to compare a marquis to one of
+the canine species, I should say that he has a keen scent for
+popularity; but one must respect rank in a period like ours, when
+we may go to sleep to the shouts of the <i>canaille</i>, and
+awake to the melodious sounds of &ldquo;<i>Vive Henri V!</i>&rdquo; &ldquo;Long
+live the King!&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Born in January, 1830, Henri Rochefort was the son of a
+marquis, although his father, lately dead, was a
+<i>vaudevilliste</i> and his mother a
+<i>pâtissère</i>. From such a fusion might have
+emanated odd tastes, such as preferring truffles to potatoes, but
+putting the knife into requisition whilst eating green peas. But
+in his case Mother Nature had intermingled elements so cleverly
+that Rochefort could be republican and royalist, catholic and
+atheist, without being accused for all that of being a political
+weathercock.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As a writer of drollery and scandal in the <i>Charivari</i>,
+would it have been well if he had used his title as a badge?
+Later, when contributing to the <i>Nain Jaune</i>, the
+<i>Soleil</i>, the <i>Evénement</i>, and the
+<i>Figaro</i>, when everyone would have been enchanted to call
+him <i>mon cher Comte</i>, he never displayed his rank, except
+when on the ground, face to face with the sword or pistol of
+Prince Achille Murat or Paul de Cassagnac.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A frequenter of <i>cafés</i>, living fast, bitter with
+journalists, hail-fellow with comedians, he lavished his wit for
+the benefit of minor theatres, and expended the exuberance of his
+patrician blood in comic odes. Dispensing thus some of his
+strength in such pieces as the <i>Vieillesse de Brididi</i>, the
+<i>Foire aux Grotesques</i>, and <i>Un Monsieur Bien-Mis</i>, in
+1868 he founded the <i>Lanterne</i>, and thenceforth became the
+most ardent champion of the revolutionary party; and in the
+brilliant articles we all know, he cast its light on the follies
+of others under the pretext that they were his own. This
+satirical production reached the eleventh number, when its
+author, overstepping all bounds, took Napoleon by the horns and
+the gendarmes by the nose, and committed other extravagances,
+until the Government fined him to the amount of ten thousand
+francs penalties, and ordered him a short repose in the prison of
+Sainte-Pélagie. The notoriety attaching to his name dates
+from that period, and the events which accompanied the violent
+death of Victor Noir tended to augment his popularity and to
+convert him into the leader of a party, or the bearer of a flag,
+around which rallied all the elements of the struggle against
+established authority. He escaped to Belgium, and studied
+socialism, which he expounded later to an admiring audience of
+seventeen to eighteen thousand electors at Belleville. Elected
+deputy by the 20th Arrondissement, M. de Rochefort became, in
+1869, a favourite representative of that class of the Parisian
+population whose bad instincts he had flattered and whose
+tendencies to revolt against authority he had encouraged, and in
+virtue of these claims he was chosen to form part of the
+Government of the National Defence. As President of the
+Commission of Barricades, after the 4th of September, during the
+siege of Paris, in the midst of the difficulties of all sorts
+caused to the Government of the National Defence by the
+investment of the capital, M. De Rochefort, making more and more
+common cause with the revolutionary party, separated himself from
+his colleagues in the Government who refused to permit the
+establishment of a second Government, the Commune, within a
+besieged city. By this act he openly declared himself a partisan
+of the Commune, and immediately after the acceptance of the
+preliminaries of peace he resigned his position as a deputy,
+alleging that his commission was at an end, and retired to
+Arcachon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His wildly sanguinary articles in the <i>Marseillaise</i>, and
+the compacts sealed with blood, with Flourens and his associates,
+now had so exhausted our poor Rochefort that at the moment of
+flourishing his handkerchief as the standard of the
+<i>canaille</i>, he dropped pale and fainting to the ground,
+attacked by a severe illness. He was hardly convalescent when the
+events of the 18th of March occurred. But early in April, he
+exerted himself to assume the direction of the <i>Mot
+d&rsquo;Ordre</i>, which, after having been suppressed by order of
+General Vinoy, the military commandant of Paris, had reappeared
+immediately upon the establishment of the Commune. He arrived on
+the scene of contest about the 8th or 10th of April. The daily
+report of military operations states the movements of the enemy,
+and points out what should be done to meet and resist him most
+advantageously (12th, 13th, and 14th of April; 10th; 16th, and
+20th of May). Imaginary successes, the inaccuracy of which must
+in most instances have been known to the chief editor of the
+<i>Mot d&rsquo;Ordre</i>, encouraged the hopes of the insurgents, while
+the announcement of unsuccessful combats was delayed with evident
+intention; the most ridiculous stories, the falsity of which was
+evident to the plainest common sense, and which could not escape
+the intelligence of M. Rochefort, were published in his journal,
+and kept up the popular excitement (12th, 15th, 19th, 26th, 27th,
+and 28th of April; 6th and 7th of May). It was in this manner
+that the pretended Pontifical Zouaves were brought upon the
+scene, with emblazoned banners, which were seized by the soldiers
+of the Commune (18th and 19th of April, 8th and 10th of May);
+that the Government of Versailles was furnished with war material
+given by, or purchased from the Prussians (27th and 28th of
+April, 6th and 17th of May); that it was again accused of making
+use of explosive bullets (18th and 19th of May), and of petroleum
+bombs (20th of April, and 2nd, 5th, 17th, and 19th of May); and
+that the best-known and most respected generals had been guilty
+of the grossest acts of cruelty and barbarity. Incitement to
+civil war (2nd and 26th of April and 14th and 24th of May)
+followed, as did also the oft-repeated accusation against the
+Government of wishing to reduce Paris by famine; indescribable
+calumnies directed against the Chief of the Executive Power (2nd,
+16th, 20th, and 30th of April, and 8th of May), against the
+minister, the Chambers (16th of April and 14th of May), and the
+generals (12th, 16th, and 26th of April). The director of the
+<i>Mot d&rsquo;Ordre</i> then finding that men&rsquo;s minds were prepared
+for all kinds of excesses, started the idea of the demolition of
+M. Thiers&rsquo;s house by way of reprisal (6th of April); he mentioned
+the artistic wealth which it contained. He also referred to the
+dwellings of other ministers. He returned persistently to this
+idea, and on the 17th of May he invited the people, in the name
+of justice, to burn off-hand that other humiliating monument
+which is styled the History of the Consulate and of the
+Empire&mdash;in short, he insists on the execution of these acts
+of Vandalism. He did not call for the destruction of the Column
+Vendôme, but approved of the decree. He demands the
+destruction of the Expiatory Chapel of Louis XVI. (20th of
+April), and suggests the seizure of the crown jewels, which were
+in the possession of the bank (14th of April). In short, M.
+Rochefort, having entered upon a road which must naturally lead
+to extremes, finally arrives at a proposition for assassination.
+In the same way as he pointed out to the demolishers the house of
+M. Thiers, and to the bandits released by the Commune the
+treasures of the Church, so he points out to the assassins the
+unfortunate hostages.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A few days before the end of the reign of the Commune he
+judged it prudent, &ldquo;seeing the gravity of events,&rdquo; to suspend the
+publication of his journal and to quit Paris.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was arrested at Meaux. It was the &ldquo;<i>Meaux de la fin</i>,&rdquo;<a
+href="#fn-113" name="fnref-113" id="fnref-113"><sup>[113]</sup></a> said a
+friend and fellow-writer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He arrived at Versailles on the twenty-first of May, at two
+o&rsquo;clock, the same day on which the troops entered Paris. On Sept.
+20 Rochefort was tried with the Communists before the military
+tribunal of Versailles. Physically he seemed to have suffered
+much during his three months of incarceration. He is reported to
+have made anything but a brilliant defence, and to have
+restricted himself to pleading past actions and good services. He
+said that he suppressed <i>The Marseillaise</i> at a loss of
+20,000 francs per month, when he had no other private means of
+support, because he thought the effect of its articles would
+weaken the plan of Trochu for the defence of Paris, and that when
+he (M. Rochefort) held the <i>forces populaires</i>, and had an
+<i>occasion unique</i>, he chose to play a subordinate part. He
+stated himself a journalist <i>under</i> the reign of the
+Commune, and not an active power <i>in</i> the Commune from which
+in the end he had to fly. Rochefort owned that his articles in
+the <i>Mot d&rsquo;Ordre</i> had been more or less violent, but he
+pleaded the cause his &ldquo;<i>façon plus ou moins nerveuse
+à écrire</i>&rdquo; and that from illness he did not
+sometimes see his own journal. When pandering to a vulgar
+audience, Rochefort seemed to have lost his rich vein of satire,
+and to have lost himself in vile abuse. On the 21st he was
+sentenced to transportation for life within the enceinte of a
+French fortress.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NOTES:
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a name="fn-113" id="fn-113"></a> <a href="#fnref-113">[113]</a>
+&ldquo;<i>Le mot de la fin</i>,&rdquo; the final word&mdash;the finale.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="II._Page_27._THE_EIGHTEENTH_OF_MARCH."></a> II.
+(Page 27.)</h2>
+
+<h3>THE EIGHTEENTH OF MARCH.</h3>
+
+<p>
+It was on the day of the 18th of March, exactly six months
+after the appearance of Prussians beneath the walls of Paris,
+that the Government had chosen for the repression of the
+rebellion. At four o&rsquo;clock in the morning, the troops of the army
+of Paris received orders to occupy the positions that had been
+assigned to them. All were to take part in the action, but it is
+just to add here that the most arduous and fatiguing part fell to
+the share of the Lustielle division, composed of the Paturel
+brigade (17th battalion of Chasseurs), and of the Lecomte brigade
+(18th battalion of Chasseurs). Three regiments of infantry were
+entrusted with the guard of the Hôtel de Ville; another,
+the 89th, mounted guard at the Tuileries. The Place de la
+Bastille was occupied by a battalion of the 64th, and two
+companies of the 24th. Three other battalions remained confined
+to barracks on the Boulevard du Prince Eugene. The Rue de
+Flandre, the Rue de Puebla, and the Rue de Crimée were
+filled with strong detachments of Infantry; a battalion of the
+Republican Guard and the 35th Regiment of Infantry were drawn up
+in the neighbourhood of the Buttes Chaumont. The whole quarter
+around the Place Clichy was occupied by the Republican Guard,
+foot Chasseurs, mounted gendarmes, Chasseurs d&rsquo;Afrique, and a
+half battery of artillery. Other troops, starting from this
+base-line of operation, were led up the heights of Montmartre,
+together with companies of Gardiens de la Paix (the former
+Sergents-de-Ville converted into soldiers). At six o&rsquo;clock in the
+morning the first orders were executed; the Gardiens de la Paix
+surrounded a hundred and fifty or two hundred insurgents
+appointed to guard the park of artillery, and the troops made
+themselves masters of all the most important points. The success
+was complete. Nothing remained to be done but to carry off the
+guns. Unhappily, the horses which had been ordered for this
+purpose did not arrive at the right moment. The cause of this
+fatal delay remains still unknown, but it is certain that they
+were still on the Place de la Concorde at the time when they
+ought to have been harnessed to the guns at Montmartre. Before
+they arrived, agitation had broken out and spread all over the
+quarter. The turbulent population, complaining in indignant tones
+of circulation being stopped, insulted the sentinels placed at
+the entrances of the streets, and threatened the artillerymen who
+were watching them. At the same time, the Central Committee
+caused the rappel to be beaten, and towards seven o&rsquo;clock in the
+morning ten or twelve thousand National Guards from the
+arrondissements of Batignolles, Montmartre, La Villette, and
+Belleville poured into the streets. Crowds of lookers-on
+surrounded the soldiers who were mounting guard by the recaptured
+pieces, the women and children asking them pleadingly if they
+would have the heart to fire upon their brothers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile, about a dozen tumbrils, with their horses, had
+arrived on the heights of the Buttes, the guns were dragged off,
+and were quietly proceeding down hill, when, at the corner of the
+Rue Lepic and the Rue des Abbesses, they were stopped by a
+concourse of several hundred people of the quarter, principally
+women and children. The foot soldiers, who were escorting the
+guns, forgetting their duty, allowed themselves to be dispersed
+by the crowd, and giving way to perfidious persuasion, ended by
+throwing up the butt ends of their guns. These soldiers belonged
+to the 88th Battalion of the Lecomte brigade. The immediate
+effect of their disaffection was to abandon the artillerymen to
+the power of the crowd that was increasing every moment,
+rendering it utterly impossible for them either to retreat or to
+advance. And the result was, that at nine o&rsquo;clock in the morning
+the pieces fell once more into the hands of the National
+Guards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Judging that the enterprise had no chance of succeeding by a
+return to the offensive, Général Vinoy ordered a
+retreat, and retired to the quarter of Les Ternes. This movement
+had been, moreover, determined by the bad news arriving from
+other parts of Paris. The operations at Belleville had succeeded
+no better than those at Montmartre. A detachment of the 35th had,
+it is true, attacked and taken the Buttes Chaumont, defended only
+by about twenty National Guards; but as soon as the news of the
+capture had spread in the quarter, the drums beat to arms, and in
+a short time the troops were found fraternising with the National
+Guards of Belleville, who got possession again of the Buttes
+Chaumont, and not only retook their own guns, but also those
+which the artillery had brought up to support the manoeuvre of
+the infantry of the line. At the same time, the 120th shamefully
+allowed themselves to be disarmed by the people, and the
+insurgents became masters of the barracks of the Prince
+Eugène.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At about four o&rsquo;clock in the afternoon, two columns of
+National Guards, each composed of three battalions, made their
+way towards the Hôtel de Ville, where they were joined by a
+dozen other battalions from the left bank of the river; at the
+same hour, the insurgent guards of Belleville took and occupied
+the Imprimerie Nationale, the Napoleon Barracks, the
+staff-quarters of the Place Vendôme, and the railway
+stations; the arrest of Général Chanzy completed
+the work of the day, which had been put to profitable account by
+the insurgents.&mdash;&ldquo;<i>Guerre de Comunneux de Paris.</i>&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="III._Page_77._THE_PRUSSIANS_AND_THE_CO"></a> III.
+(Page 77.)</h2>
+
+<h3>THE PRUSSIANS AND THE COMMUNE.</h3>
+
+<p>
+The enemies of yesterday, the Prussians, did not disdain to
+enter into communication with the Central Committee on the 22nd
+of March. This was an additional reason for the new masters of
+Paris to regard their position as established, and the
+<i>Official Journal</i> took care to make known to the public the
+following despatch received from Prussian
+head-quarters:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;To the actual Commandant of Paris, the Commander-in-Chief of the
+third corps d&rsquo;armée.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Head-quarters, Compiègne,<br/>
+    &ldquo;21st March, 1871.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;The undersigned Commander-in-Chief takes the liberty of informing
+you that the German troops that occupy the forts on the north and east
+of Paris, as well as the neighbourhood of the right bank of the Seine,
+have received orders to maintain a pacific and friendly attitude, so
+long as the events of which the interior of Paris is the theatre, do
+not assume towards the German forces a hostile character, or such as to
+endanger them, but keep within the terms settled by the treaty of
+peace.<br/>
+    &ldquo;But should these events assume a hostile character, the city of
+Paris will be treated as an enemy.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+&ldquo;For the Commandant of the third corps of the Imperial armies,<br/>
+&ldquo;(Signed) Chief of the Staff, VON SCHLOSHEIM,<br/>
+&ldquo;Major-General.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Paschal Grousset, the delegate of the Central Committee for
+Foreign Affairs, who had succeeded Monsieur Jules Favre, but who
+instead of minister was called delegate, which was much more
+democratic, replied as follows:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Paris, 22nd March, 1871.<br/>
+&ldquo;To the Commandant-in-Chief of the Imperial Prussian Armies.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;The undersigned, delegate of the Central Committee for Foreign
+Affairs, in reply to your despatch dated from Compiègne the 21st
+instant, informs you that the revolution, accomplished in Paris by the
+Central Committee, having an essentially municipal character, has no
+aggressive views whatever against the German armies.<br/>
+    &ldquo;We have no authority to discuss the preliminaries of peace voted
+by the Assembly at Bordeaux.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+&ldquo;The member of the Central Committee, Delegate for Foreign Affairs.<br/>
+&ldquo;(Signed) PASCHAL GROUSSET.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was very logical of you, Monsieur Grousset, to avow that
+you had no authority to discuss the preliminaries of peace voted
+by the Assembly. What right had you then to substitute yourselves
+for it? He did not, however, thus remain midway in his diplomatic
+career, for after the election of the Commune he thought it his
+duty to address the following letter to the German
+authorities:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+&ldquo;COMMUNE OF PARIS.<br/>
+&ldquo;To the Commander-in-chief of the 3rd Corps.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;GENERAL,<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;The delegate of the Commune of Paris for Foreign Affairs has the
+honour to address to you the following observations:&mdash;<br/>
+    &ldquo;The city of Paris, like the rest of France, is interested in the
+observance of the conditions of peace concluded with Prussia; she has
+therefore a right to know how the treaty will be executed. I beg you,
+in consequence, to have the goodness to inform me if the Government of
+Versailles has made the first payment of five hundred millions, and if
+in consequence of such payment, the chiefs of the German army have
+fixed the date for the evacuation of the part of the territory of the
+department of the Seine, and also of the forts which form an integral
+portion of the territory of the Commune of Paris.<br/>
+    &ldquo;I shall be much obliged, General, if you will be good enough to
+enlighten me in this respect.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+&ldquo;The Delegate for Foreign Affairs,<br/>
+&ldquo;(Signed) PASCHAL GROUSSET.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The German general did not think fit, as far as we know, to
+send any answer to the above.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="IV._Page_88._GAMBON."></a> IV. (Page 88.)</h2>
+
+<h3>GAMBON.</h3>
+
+<p>
+There are certain legendary names which when spoken or
+remembered evoke a second image and raise a double personality,
+Castor implies Pollux; Ninos, Euryalus; Damon, Pythias. An
+inferior species of union connects Saint Anthony with his pig,
+Roland with his mare, and the infinitely more modern Gambon with
+his historic cow. He was &ldquo;the village Hampden&rdquo; of the Empire. By
+withstanding the tyranny of Caesar&rsquo;s tax-gatherer and refusing to
+pay the imperial rates, he obtained a popularity upon which he
+existed until the Commune gave him power. His history is brief.
+About a year before the fall of the Second Empire, he declared
+that he would pay no more taxes imposed by the Government.
+Thereupon, all his realizable property, consisting of one cow,
+was seized by the authorities and sold for the benefit of the
+State. This procured him the commiseration of the entire party of
+<i>irréconciliables</i>. A subscription was opened in the
+columns of the <i>Marseillaise</i> to replace the sequestrated
+animal, and &ldquo;La vache à Gambon&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;Gambon&rsquo;s
+cow&rdquo;&mdash;became a derisive party cry. Gambon had been a deputy
+in 1848, and when the Commune came into power took a constant
+though not remarkable part in its deliberations. He was appointed
+member of the Delegation of Justice on the twentieth of
+April.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="V._Page_120.._LULLIER."></a> V. (Page 120.).</h2>
+
+<h3>LULLIER.</h3>
+
+<p>
+Charles Ernest Lullier was born in 1838, admitted into the
+Naval School in 1854, and appointed cadet of the second class in
+1856. He was expelled the Naval School for want of obedience and
+for his irascible character. When on board the Austerlitz he was
+noted for his quarrelsome disposition and his violent behaviour
+to his superiors as well as his equals, which led to his removal
+from the ship and to his detention for a month on board the
+Admiral&rsquo;s ship at Brest. He was first brought into notoriety by
+his quarrel with Paul de Cassagnac, the editor of the
+<i>Pays</i>, whom he challenged, and who refused his cartel.
+Lullier is celebrated for several acts of the most violent
+audacity. He struck one of the Government counsel in the Palais
+de Justice, and openly threatened the Minister of Marine. He was
+condemned several times for political offences and breaches of
+discipline. On the fourth of September he left
+Sainte-Pélagie at the same time as Rochefort. He attacked
+the new government in every possible way; and when the events of
+the 18th March occurred, M. Lullier&mdash;the man of action, the
+man recommended by Flourens&mdash;seized the opportunity to
+justify the hopes formed of him by his political associates, who
+had not lost sight of him, and who elected him military chief of
+the insurrection. As General of the National Guard, he has given
+us the history of his deeds during the 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st,
+and 22nd March. He has since complacently described the energy
+with which he executed his command, has explained the means he
+used, and the points occupied by the insurgents; and has
+described in the same style the occupation of the Paris forts by
+the National Guard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When, on the 18th of March, the Central Committee offered him
+the command in chief of the National Guard, he would only accept
+it on the following conditions:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+1. The raising of the state of siege.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+2. The election by the National Guard of all its officers,
+including the general.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+3. Municipal franchises for Paris&mdash;that is to say, the
+right of the citizens to meet&mdash;to appoint magistrates for
+the city, and to tax themselves by their representatives.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On being appointed he made it a condition that the initiative
+should rest with him, and then he began to execute his duties
+with a zeal which never relaxed till his arrest on the 22nd
+March. By his orders, barricades were erected in the Rue de
+Rivoli, where he massed the insurgent forces. He ordered the
+occupation of the Hôtel de Ville and the Napoleon Barracks
+by Brunel, the commander of the insurgents. At midnight he took
+possession of the Prefecture of Police, at one o&rsquo;clock of the
+Tuileries, at two o&rsquo;clock of the Place du Palais Royal, and at
+four o&rsquo;clock he was informed that the Ministry were to meet at
+the Foreign Office.&mdash;&ldquo;I would have surrounded them,&rdquo; he
+said, &ldquo;but Jules Favre&rsquo;s presence withheld me. I contented myself
+therefore with occupying the Place Vendôme, the Hôtel
+de Ville, and ordering strategical points on the right bank of
+the river and four on the left.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was subsequently accused of having sold Mont
+Valérien to the Versailles authorities, arrested, and
+thrown into the Conciergerie. He reappeared, however, on the 14th
+April as commander of the flotilla of the Commune. Furious with
+the Central Committee and the Commune he opposed them and was
+arrested, but contrived to escape from Mazas. From that moment
+the general of the Commune put himself in communication with
+Versailles through the mediation of M. Camus and Baron Dathiel de
+la Tuque, who agreed with him to organise a counter revolution.
+Lullier was now busily employed in endeavouring to make people
+forget the part he had taken in the insurrection of the 18th
+March. He had made it a condition that neither he nor his
+accomplices, Gomez d&rsquo;Absin and Bisson, should be prosecuted. The
+expenses were calculated at 30,000 francs; of which M. Camus gave
+2000 francs to Lullier, but the scheme did not succeed. Lullier
+undertook to have all the members of the Commune arrested, and to
+send the hostages to Versailles. Lullier is a man of courage,
+foolhardy even, who never hesitated to fight, and if at the end
+of the Commune he tried to serve the legitimate government, it
+was from a spirit of revenge against the men who had refused his
+dictation, and in his own interest.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="VI._Page_220._PROTOT."></a> VI. (Page 220.)</h2>
+
+<h3>PROTOT.</h3>
+
+<p>
+Citizen Protot, appointed Delegate of Justice by a decree of
+the twentieth of April, 1871, was born in 1839.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As an advocate, he defended Mégy, the famous Communist
+general of the fort of Issy, when he was accused of the
+assassination of a police agent on the eleventh of April, 1870.
+This trial, and the ability he displayed, drew public attention
+for a moment upon him. Compromised as a member of secret
+societies, he managed to escape the police, but was condemned in
+his absence to fines and imprisonment. Having been himself a
+victim of the law, his attention was first given to the drawing
+up of a decree, thus worded:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;The notaries and public officers in general shall draw up
+legal documents which fall within their duty without charge.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the discussion on the subject of the confiscation of the
+property of M. Thiers, he proposed that all the plate and other
+objects in his possession bearing the image of the Orleans family
+should be sent to the mint.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="VII._Page_229."></a> VII. (Page 229.)</h2>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;And now he thinks: &lsquo;The Empire is tottering,<br/>
+    There&rsquo;s little chance of victory.&rsquo;<br/>
+Then, creeping furtively backwards, he tries to slink away.<br/>
+    Remain, renegade, in the building!<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;&lsquo;The ceiling falls,&rsquo; you say! &lsquo;if they see me<br/>
+    They will seize and stop me as I go,&rsquo;<br/>
+Daring neither to rest nor fly, you miserably watch the roof<br/>
+    And then the door,<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;And shiveringly you put your hand upon the bolt.<br/>
+    Back into the dismal ranks!<br/>
+Back! Justice, whom they have thrust into a pit,<br/>
+    Is there in the darkness.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Back! She is there, her sides bleeding from their knives,<br/>
+    Prostrate; and on her grave<br/>
+They have placed a slab. The skirt of your cloak<br/>
+    Is caught beneath the stone.<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Thou shalt not go! What! Quit their house!<br/>
+    And fly from their fate!<br/>
+What! Would you betray even treachery itself,<br/>
+    And make even it indignant?<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;What! Did you not hold the ladder to these tricksters<br/>
+    In open daylight?<br/>
+Say, was the sack for these robbers&rsquo; booty<br/>
+    Not made by you beforehand?<br/>
+<br/>
+&ldquo;Falsehood, Hate, with its cold and venomous fang,<br/>
+    Crouch in this den.<br/>
+And thou wouldst leave it! Thou! more cunning than Falsehood,<br/>
+    More viperous than Hate.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="VIII._Page_231._JOURDE."></a> VIII. (Page 231.)</h2>
+
+<h3>JOURDE.</h3>
+
+<p>
+Jourde certainly occupied one of the most difficult offices of
+the Commune, for he had to find the means to maintain the
+situation, but as the Ministry of Finances is burnt, no documents
+can be found to show the employment he made of the funds which
+passed through his hands. On the 30th of May, when he was
+arrested, disguised as an artizan, with his friend Dubois, he had
+about him a sum of 8070 francs in bank notes, and Dubois 3100
+francs; making a total sum of 11,170 francs between the two. A
+part of Jourde&rsquo;s cash was hidden in the lining of his waistcoat;
+he declared that it was the only sum taken by him out of the
+moneys belonging to the state, thus clearly proving that he had
+been guilty of embezzlement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The amounts declared to have been received by Jourde form a
+total of 43,891,000 francs, but as the expenses amount to
+47,000,000 francs, it is clear there is a deficiency of
+3,309,000. Notwithstanding this fact, all the payments were made
+up to the 29th of May. It is, then, certain that other moneys
+were received by Jourde, and as he says that cash has been
+refused from some unknown persons who offered to lend 50,000,000
+francs on the guarantee of the picture gallery of the Louvre, the
+suggestion comes naturally to the mind that the 3,309,000 francs
+may have been produced by the sale of valuables in the Tuileries.
+Jourde was sentenced by the tribunal of Versailles to
+transportation beyond the seas.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="IX._Page_316."></a> IX. (Page 316.)</h2>
+
+<p>
+These are the last proclamations from the Hôtel de
+Ville. They refer immediately to the burning of the capital.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the evening of the thirty-first of May, when Delescluze
+denied with vehemence that the regular army had made its entry,
+he wrote to Dombrowski:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;CITIZEN&mdash;I learn that the orders given for the construction of
+    barricades are contradictory.<br/>
+    &ldquo;See that this be not repeated.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Blow up or burn the houses which interfere with your plans for the
+    defence. The barricades ought to be unattackable from the houses.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The defenders of the Commune must be removed above want: give to
+    the necessitous that which is contained in the houses about to be
+    destroyed.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Moreover, make all necessary requisitions,
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+    &ldquo;DELESCLUZE, A. BILLICRAY.&rdquo;<br/>
+    &ldquo;Paris, 2nd Prairial, an 79.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 22nd appeared the following proclamation:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;CITIZENS,&mdash;The gate of Saint-Cloud, attacked from four directions
+    at once, was forcibly taken by the Versaillais, who have become
+    masters of a considerable portion of Paris.<br/>
+    &ldquo;This reverse, far from discouraging us, should prove a stimulus to
+    our exertions. A people who have dethroned kings, destroyed
+    Bastilles, and established a Republic, can not lose in a day the
+    fruits of the emancipation of the 18th of March.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Parisians, the struggle we have commenced cannot be abandoned, for
+    it is a struggle between the past and the future, between liberty
+    and despotism, equality and monopoly, fraternity and servitude, the
+    unity of nations and the egotism of oppressors.<br/>
+<br/>
+    &ldquo;AUX ARMES!<br/>
+<br/>
+    &ldquo;Yes,&mdash;to arms! Let Paris bristle with barricades, and from behind
+    these improvised ramparts let her shout to her enemies the cry of
+    war, its cry of fierce pride of defiance, and of victory; for Paris
+    with her barricades is invincible.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Let the pavement of the streets be torn up; firstly, because the
+    projectiles coming from the enemy are less dangerous falling on soft
+    ground; secondly, because these paving-stones, serving as a new
+    means of defence, can be carried to the higher floors where there
+    are balconies.<br/>
+    &ldquo;Let revolutionary Paris, the Paris of great deeds, do her duty; the
+    Commune and the Committee for Public Safety will do theirs.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+    &ldquo;Hôtel de Ville, 2nd Prairial, an 79,<br/>
+    &ldquo;The Committee for Public Safety,<br/>
+    &ldquo;ANTOINE ARNAULT, E. EUDES, F. GAMBON, G. RANVIER.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These are the commentaries made by Citizen
+Delescluze:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+    &ldquo;Citoyen Jacquet is authorised to find men and materials for the
+    construction of barricades in the Rue du Château d&rsquo;Eau and in the
+    Rue d&rsquo;Albany.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The citoyens and citoyennes who refuse their aid will be shot on
+    the spot.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The citoyens, chiefs of barricades, are entrusted with the care of
+    assuring tranquillity each in his own quarter.<br/>
+    &ldquo;They are to inspect all houses bearing a suspicious appearance &amp;c.,
+    &amp;c.<br/>
+    &ldquo;The houses suspected are to be set light to at the first signal
+    given.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+    &ldquo;DELESCLUZE.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="X._Page_335."></a> X. (Page 335.)</h2>
+
+<h3>FERRÉ.</h3>
+
+<p>
+At half-past nine on the morning of the 18th of March
+Ferré was at No. 6, Rue des Rosiers, opposing the
+departure of the prisoners of the Republican Guard, by obtaining
+from the Commander Bardelle the revocation of the order for their
+dismissal, which was known to have been issued. He went to the
+council of the Château Rouge, whither General Lecomte was
+about to be taken, and made himself conspicuous by the
+persistency with which he called for the death of that general.
+On the morning of Monday, the 24th May, a witness residing at the
+Prefecture of Police saw Ferré and five others going up
+the stairs of the Prefecture of Police. Ferré said to him,
+&ldquo;Be off as quick as you can. We are going to set fire to the
+place. In a quarter of an hour it will be in flames.&rdquo; Half an
+hear afterwards the witness saw the flames burst forth from two
+windows of the office of the Procureur-Général.
+When Raoul Rigault was installed during the insurrection, a woman
+saw some persons washing the walls of the Prefecture of Police
+with petroleum. Seeing them going out by the court of the St.
+Chapelle, she noticed among them one smaller than the rest,
+wearing a grey paletot with a black velvet collar, and black
+striped trousers. On the same day a police agent went to La
+Roquette to order the shooting of Mgr. Darboy and the other
+prisoners&mdash;the President Bonjean, the Abbé Allard,
+the Père Ducoudray, and the Abbé Deguerry. On
+Saturday, the 27th, Ferré installed himself in the clerk&rsquo;s
+office of the prison, and ordered the release of certain of the
+criminals and gave them arms and ammunition. Upon this they
+proceeded to massacre a great number of the prisoners, among whom
+were 66 gendarmes. Several witnesses saw Ferré that day at
+the prison.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XI._Page_342."></a> XI. (Page 342.)</h2>
+
+<p>
+At the trial of Ferré, August 10, Dr. Puymoyen,
+physician to the prison for juvenile offenders, opposite La
+Roquette, gave the following graphic evidence:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;Immediately after the insurgents, driven back by the troops,
+had occupied La Roquette, they installed a court-martial at the
+children&rsquo;s prison opposite, where I live. It was from thence I
+saw the poor wretches whom they feigned to release, ushered in to
+the square, where they encountered an ignoble mob, that
+ill-treated them in the most brutal manner. I was told that
+Ferré presided over this court-martial. Its proceedings
+were singular. I saw an unfortunate gendarme taken to the prison;
+he had been arrested near the Grenier d&rsquo;Abondance, on a
+denunciation. He wore a blouse, blue trousers, and an apron, and
+was charged with having stolen them. The mob wanted to enter the
+prison along with him, but the keepers, who behaved very well,
+prevented the invasion of the courtyard. The escort was commanded
+by a young woman carrying a Chassepot, and wearing a chignon. I
+entered the registrar&rsquo;s office with this unfortunate gendarme.
+One Briand, who was charged to question the prisoners summarily,
+asked him where his clothes came from. The man was very cool and
+courageous, and his perfect self-possession disconcerted this
+<i>juge d&rsquo;instruction.</i> He was asked if he were married, and
+had a family. He replied, &lsquo;Yes, I have a wife and eight
+children.&rsquo; He was then shown into the back office, where the
+&lsquo;judges&rsquo; were. These judges were mere boys, who seemed quite
+proud of the part they were playing, and gave themselves no end
+of airs, I asked the governor of the gaol soon afterwards what
+had been done with the gendarme. He told me that they were going
+to shoot him. I replied, &lsquo;Surely it can&rsquo;t be true. I must see the
+president&mdash;we can&rsquo;t allow a married man with eight children
+to be murdered in this way.&rsquo; I tried to get into the room where
+the court-martial was sitting, but was prevented. One of the
+National Guards on duty at the door told me &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t go in there,
+or you&rsquo;re done for (<i>N&rsquo;y entrez pas, ou vous êtes
+f&mdash;</i>).&rsquo; I made immediately further inquiries about M.
+Grudnemel, and was told he was in &lsquo;a provisional cell.&rsquo; I
+trembled for him, for I knew that meant he would be given up to
+the mob, which would tear him to pieces. When they said, &lsquo;This
+man is to be taken to a cell,&rsquo; that meant that he was to be shot.
+When they said, &lsquo;Put him in a provisional cell,&rsquo; it meant that he
+should be delivered over to the mob for butchery, I continued to
+plead the gendarme&rsquo;s cause with the National Guard, dwelling on
+the fact of his having eight children. Thereon, the Woman above
+referred to, who appeared to be in command of the detachment,
+exclaimed, &lsquo;Why does this fellow go in for the gendarme?&rsquo; One of
+her acolytes replied, &lsquo;Smash his jaw.&rsquo; This woman seemed to
+understand her business. She minutely inspected the men&rsquo;s pouches
+to ascertain that they had plenty of ammunition. She would not
+hear of the gendarme being reprieved, and she had her way. I
+understood that I had better follow the governor&rsquo;s advice and
+keep quiet. A mere boy was placed as sentry at the door of the
+court-martial. He told me, &lsquo;You know I sha&rsquo;n&rsquo;t let you in.&rsquo; When
+I saw the poor gendarme leave the room he looked at me
+imploringly; he had probably detected in my eyes a look of
+sympathy. And when he was told that he might go out&mdash;hearing
+the yells of the mob&mdash;he turned towards me and said, &lsquo;But I
+shall be stoned to death;&rsquo; and, in fact, it was perfectly fearful
+to hear the shouts of the crowd outside. I could not withstand
+the impulse, and I took my place by his side, and tried to
+address the crowd. &lsquo;Think on what you are going to
+do&mdash;surely you won&rsquo;t murder the father of eight children.&rsquo;
+The words were hardly out of my mouth when a kind of signal was
+given. I was shoved back against the wall, and one National
+Guard, clapping his hand on his musket, ejaculated, &lsquo;You know,
+you old rascal, there is something for you here,&rsquo; and he drove
+his bayonet through my whiskers. The unfortunate gendarme was
+taken across the place, close to the shop where they sell funeral
+wreaths, but there was no firing party in attendance. He then
+took to his heels, but was pursued, captured, and put to death. I
+began to feel rather bewildered, and some one urged me to return
+to the prison, which I did. A young linesman was then brought in.
+He was quite a young fellow, barely twenty; his hands were tied
+behind his back. They decided to kill him within the prison. They
+set upon him, beat him, tore his clothes, so that he had hardly a
+shred of covering left; they made him kneel, then made him stand
+up, blindfolded him then uncovered his eyes; finally they put an
+end to his long agony by shooting him, and flung the body into a
+costermonger&rsquo;s cart close to the gate. Several priests had got
+out of the prison of La Roquette. The Abbé Surat, on
+passing over a barricade, was so imprudent as to state who he
+was, and showed some articles of value he had about him. He had
+got as far as about the middle of the Boulevard du Prince
+Eugène, when he was arrested and taken back to the prison,
+where they prepared to shoot him. But the young woman whom I have
+before mentioned, with a revolver in one hand and a dagger in the
+other, rushed at him exclaiming, &lsquo;I must have the honour of
+giving him the first blow.&rsquo; The abbé instinctively put his
+hands out to protect himself, crying, &lsquo;<i>Grâce!
+grâce!</i>&rsquo; Whereon this fury shouted, &lsquo;<i>Grâce!
+grâce! en voilà un maigre</i>,&rsquo; and she discharged
+her revolver at him. His body was not searched, but his shoes
+were removed. Afterwards his pastoral cross and 300 francs were
+found about him. The boys detained in the prison were set at
+liberty. The smaller ones were made to carry pails of petroleum,
+the others had muskets given them, and were sent to fight. Six of
+them were killed; the remainder came back that night, and on the
+following day. About a hundred boys were taken to Belleville by a
+member of the Commune, quite a young man; they were wanted to
+make sand-bags, to be filled with earth to form barricades.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XII._Page_345."></a> XII. (Page 345.)</h2>
+
+<p>
+Regarding the death of President Bonjean, the Abbé de
+Marsay said&mdash;&ldquo;That gentleman carried his scruples so far
+that he would not avail himself of forty-eight hours&rsquo; leave on
+<i>parole</i>, fearing he could not get back in time; thus did
+not see his family.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Abbé Perni, a venerable man with a white beard, who
+had been a missionary said:
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;On Wednesday, the 24th of May, we were ordered back to our cells at La
+Roquette at an earlier hour than usual, and at about four o&rsquo;clock in the
+afternoon a battalion of federates noisily occupied the passage into which our
+cells opened. They spoke at the topmost pitch of their voices. One of them
+said, &lsquo;We must get rid of these Versailles banditti.&rsquo; Another replied, &lsquo;Yes;
+let us bowl them over, put them to bed.&rsquo; I understood what this meant, and
+prepared for death. Soon after the door next mine was opened, and I heard a man
+asking if M. Darboy was there. The prisoner replied in the negative. The man
+passed before my door without stopping, and I soon heard the mild voice of the
+archbishop answering to his name. The hostages were then dragged put of the
+lobby; ten minutes later I saw the mournful <i>cortège</i> pass in front of my
+windows; the federates were walking along in a confused way, making a noise to
+cover the voice of their victims, but I could hear Father Allard exhorting his
+companions to prepare for death. A little after I heard the report of the
+muskets, and understood that all was over. On Thursday (the 25th) the day
+passed off quietly, but on Friday shells began to fall on the prison, and at
+about half-past four in the afternoon a corporal, named Romain. came up, and
+with a joyful face told us we would soon be free. He said answer to your names;
+I must have 15. He had a list in his hand, and I must confess a feeling of
+terror came over us all. Ten hostages answered to their names. One of them, a
+father of the order of Picpus, asked if he could take his hat. Romain replied,
+&lsquo;Oh, it&rsquo;s no use; you are only going to the registrar&rsquo;s.&rsquo; None of these
+unfortunate men ever returned. On Saturday (the 27th) we learnt that several of
+the prisoners had been armed with hammers, files, &amp;c. They threw us some of
+these in at the windows. We were then informed that several members of the
+Commune had arrived at La Roquette. I cannot say whether Ferré was among them.
+We were taken back to our cellars, where we expected to be put to death every
+minute. At about four o&rsquo;clock the cells of the common prisoners were opened,
+and they escaped, shouting &lsquo;Vive la Commune!&rsquo; Our keeper himself had
+disappeared, and a turnkey presently opened our cells, and recommended us to
+run away. We were afraid this was a trap, but as it might afford a chance we
+determined to avail ourselves of it. Those amongst us who had plain clothes
+hurried them on, and I must say the gaolers behaved admirably in this
+emergency; they lent clothes to such of us as had none, and we were thus all
+enabled to escape. As for myself, after wandering for about an hour in the
+streets about the prison, and being unable to find shelter anywhere, and afraid
+of being murdered in the streets, I determined to return to La Roquette. As I
+reached it I met the archbishop&rsquo;s secretary, two priests, and two gendarmes,
+who, like myself, had been driven to return to the prison. One of the keepers
+told us that the safest for us was the sick ward. We dressed up in the hospital
+uniform and hid in bed. At eight in the evening the federates, who were not
+aware that we had escaped, came back and called on the gaolers to produce us.
+They were told we had gone; fortunately they believed it. On Sunday the troops
+came in, and I left La Roquette for good this time. In reply to a further
+question the witness said that as the hostages marched past his windows, on
+their way to execution, he saw President Bonjean raising his hands, and heard
+him say, &lsquo;<i>Mon Dieu, mon Dieu!</i>&rsquo;
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XIII._Page_82._URBAIN."></a> XIII. (Page 82.)</h2>
+
+<h3>URBAIN.</h3>
+
+<p>
+Urbain, formerly head master of an academy, was elected to the
+Commune, and became, in virtue of his former office of teacher, a
+member of the Committee of Instruction, retaining at the same
+time his office of mayor. He finally installed himself in his
+mayoralty about the middle of April, with his sister and young
+son, and gave protection there to his mistress, Leroy, who had
+great influence over him, and who used to frequent the committees
+and clubs. At the mayoralty of the 7th Arrondissement this woman,
+in the absence of the mayor, took the direction and management of
+affairs. During the administration of Urbain searches were made
+in private and in religious houses, this woman, Leroy, sometimes
+taking part in the proceedings; on these occasions seizures were
+made of letters and articles of value, which were sent to the
+mayoralty and from thence to the police-office. Urbain and the
+woman Leroy are accused of having appropriated to themselves
+money and jewellery. At the mayoralty of the 7th Arrondissement
+there were deposits for public instruction to the amount of 8000
+francs, which had dwindled down to 2900 francs. Urbain confesses
+having employed this money in helping persons compromised like
+himself. It is certain that during the residence of the woman
+Leroy at the mayoralty the expenses exceeded the sum allowed to
+Urbain. According to the evidence of a domestic everybody tad
+recourse to this unfortunate deposit, and it is stated in the
+instructions that the accused had left by will to his son a sum
+of 4000 francs in bank notes and gold, deposited in the hands of
+his aunt, Madame Danelair, while there is clear proof that before
+the days of the Commune he did not possess a sou. Madame Leroy
+herself, who came to the mayoralty without a penny, was found in
+possession of 1000 francs, which she said were the results of her
+savings. It appears from the statement of M. Laudon, inspector of
+police, that the search made at his house resulted in the
+subtraction of a sum of 6000 francs, and that he has seen a ring
+which belonged to his wife on the finger of the woman Leroy.
+Though not taking a conspicuous share in the military operations,
+Urbain played an important part. His duty was to visit the
+military stations and to take possession of the Fort d&rsquo;Issy,
+which had been abandoned. He admits that he thus visited the
+barracks and the ramparts. He ordered the construction of
+barricades, and says that, on the occasion of the repulse of the
+22nd May, he resisted the entreaties of the woman Leroy, who
+wished him to give up the struggle and to betake himself to the
+Hôtel de Ville, with the view of remaining at his post. As
+a politician, Urbain, in the discussions of the Commune, was very
+zealous and spoke frequently. By his vote he gave his sanction to
+all the violent decrees relating to the hostages, the demolition
+of the Column, the destruction of M. Thiers&rsquo; house, and the
+Committee of Public Safety, of which he was one of the most
+ardent supporters. To him is to be attributed in particular the
+demand for the carrying into execution the decree relating to the
+hostages. On this point here is Urbain&rsquo;s proposal, copied from
+the <i>Official Journal</i> of the 18th May:&mdash;&ldquo;I demand that
+either the Commune or the Committee of Public Safety should
+decree that the ten hostages in our custody should be shot within
+twenty-four hours, in retaliation for the murders of our
+cantinière and of the bearer of our flag of truce, who
+were shot in defiance of the law of nations. I demand that five
+of the hostages should be executed solemnly in the centre of
+Paris, in presence of deputations from all the battalions, and
+that the rest should be shot at the advanced posts in presence of
+the soldiers who witnessed the murders. I trust my proposal will
+be agreed to.&rdquo; By this proposal Urbain has linked his name to the
+horrible crime committed on the hostages. Latterly he was a
+member of the military committee, and his ability served well the
+cause of the insurgents. He was condemned by the court-martial of
+Versailles to hard labour for life, September 2, 1871.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XIV._THE_DEVASTATIONS_OF_PARIS."></a> XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE DEVASTATIONS OF PARIS.</h3>
+
+<p>
+The following is the way in which the fires were
+prepared:&mdash;In some instances a number of men, acting as
+<i>avant-courriers</i>, went first, telling the inhabitants that
+the Quarter was about to be delivered to the flames, and urging
+them to fly for their lives; in other oases, the unfortunate
+people were told that the whole city would be burnt, and that
+they might as well meet death where they were as run to seek it
+elsewhere. In some places&mdash;in the Rue de Vaugirard, for
+instance&mdash;it is asserted that sentinels were placed in the
+streets and ordered to fire upon everyone who attempted to
+escape. One incendiary, who was arrested in the Rue de Poitiers,
+declared that he received ten francs for each house which he set
+on fire. Another system consisted in throwing through the cellar
+doors or traps tin cans or bottles filled with petroleum,
+phosphorus, nitro-glycerine, or other combustibles, with a long
+sulphur match attached to the neck of the vessel, the match being
+lighted at the moment of throwing the explosives into the cellar.
+Finally, the batteries at Belleville and the cemetery of
+Père la Chaise sent destruction into many quarters by
+means of petroleum shells.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Eudes, a general of the Commune, sent the following order to
+one of his officers:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Fire on the Bourse, the Bank, the Post Office, the Place des
+Victoires, the Place Vendôme, the Garden of the Tuileries, the Babylone
+Barracks; leave the Hôtel de Ville to Commandant Pindy and the Delegate
+of War, and the Committee of Public Safety and of the Commune will
+assemble at the <i>mairie</i> of the eleventh Arrondissement, where
+you are established; there we will organize the defence of the popular
+quarters of the city. We will send you cannon and ammunitions from the
+Parc Basfroi. We will hold out to the last, happen what may.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+&ldquo;(Signed) E. EUDES.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The insurgents had collected a considerable quantity of powder
+in the Pantheon, and when the Versailles troops obtained
+possession of the building the officer in command at once
+searched for the slow match, and cut it off when it had not more
+than a yard to burn!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Instructions were given to the firemen not to extinguish the
+fires, but to retire to the Champ de Mars with the pumps and
+other apparatus. Whenever a man attempted to do anything to
+arrest the conflagration he was fired at. The firemen, who had
+arrived from all parts, even from Belgium, and honest citizens
+who joined them, worked to extinguish the fires amid showers of
+bullets. At the Treasury the labours of these men were four times
+interrupted by the violent cannonading of the insurgents.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fire broke out at the TUILERIES on Tuesday evening. When
+the battalions at the Arc de Triomphe and at the Corps
+Législatif had silenced the guns ranged before the Palace,
+the insurgents set fire to it, and threw out men <i>en
+tirailleur</i> to prevent anyone from approaching to subdue the
+flames.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the same moment an attempt was made to set fire to the
+MINISTRY OF MARINE, in obedience to an order given to Commandant
+Brunel, which was thus worded:&mdash;&ldquo;In a quarter of an hour the
+Tuileries will be in flames; as soon as our wounded are removed,
+you will cause the explosion of the Ministry.&rdquo; It was Admiral
+Pothuau, the minister himself, who, at the head of a handful of
+sailors, set the incendiaries to flight, Brunel along with them.
+They also arrived in time to prevent any damage being done to the
+BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The struggle was terrific during the night; the insurgents,
+who had sought refuge in the Ministry of Finance, after the
+taking of the barricade in the Rue Saint-Florentin, increased the
+fury of the flames by firing from the windows, and discharging
+jets of petroleum at the soldiers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On Wednesday morning the battle had become fearful. Towards
+ten o&rsquo;clock columns of smoke rose above Paris, forming a thick
+cloud, which the sun&rsquo;s rays could not penetrate. Then,
+simultaneously, all the fires burst forth: at the CONSEIL D&rsquo;ETAT,
+at the LEGION OF HONOUR, at the CAISSE DES DÉP&Ocirc;TS ET
+CONSIGNATIONS. at the H&Ocirc;TEL DE VILLE, at the PALAIS ROYAL,
+at the MINISTRY OF FINANCE, at the PREFECTURE DE POLICE, at the
+PALAIS DE JUSTICE, at the THÉÂTRE LYRIQUE, in the
+Rue du Bac, the Rue de Lille, the Rue de la Croix-Rouge, Rue
+Notre-Dame-des-Champs, in a great number of houses in the
+Faubourgs Saint-Germain and Saint-Honoré, in the Rue
+Royale, and in the Rue Boissy d&rsquo;Anglas. Not many hours later,
+flames were seen to arise from the Avenue Victoria, Boulevard
+Sébastopol, Rue Saint-Martin, at the Château d&rsquo;Eau,
+in the Rue Saint-Antoine, and the Rue de Rivoli.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the night of Friday, the docks of LA VILLETTE, and the
+warehouses of the DOUANE, the GRENIER D&rsquo;ABONDANCE and the
+GOBELINS were all burning! So great was the glare that small
+print could be read as far off as Versailles, even on that side
+of the town towards Meudon and Ville d&rsquo;Avray.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+THE DOME OF THE INVALIDES.&mdash;This was placed in imminent
+danger. Mines were laid on all sides, but their positions were
+discovered, and the electric wires out which were to have
+communicated the spark.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE.&mdash;When the noise of the
+fusillade and cannonading ceased, the Place de la Concorde was a
+scene of absolute desolation. On all sides lay broken pieces of
+candelabra, balustrades, paving-stones, asphalte, and heaps of
+earth. The water-nymphs and Tritons of the fountains were much
+mutilated, and the statue of the town of Lille&mdash;one of the
+eight gigantic, seated figures of the principal towns of France,
+which form a prominent ornament to the Place, the work of
+Pradier, and a likeness of one of the Orleans princesses-lay
+shivered on the ground.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+THE ARC DE L&rsquo;ETOILE.&mdash;The triumphal arch bears many
+scars, but none of them of much importance. On the façade
+looking towards Courbevoie, the great bas-relief by Etex,
+representing &ldquo;War,&rdquo; was struck by three shells; the group of
+&ldquo;Peace&rdquo; received only the fragment of one. Here and there, in the
+bas-relief representing the &ldquo;Passage of the Bridge of Areole,&rdquo;
+and the &ldquo;Taking of Alexandra,&rdquo; some traces of balls are visible.
+On the whole, no irremediable hum is done here. Rude&rsquo;s
+masterpiece, &ldquo;The Marseillaise,&rdquo; is untouched.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+THE PALACE OF INDUSTRY.&mdash;Rumour says Courbet had, among
+other projects, formed an idea of demolishing the Palace of
+Industry. The painted windows of the great nave have received no
+serious injury. The bas-relief of the main façade,
+picturing Industry and the Arts offering their products to the
+universal exhibitions, has several of its figures mutilated. The
+same has happened to the colossal group by Diebolt&mdash;France
+offering laurel crowns to Art and Industry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+THE TUILERIES.&mdash;Felix Pyat, in the <i>Vengeur</i>,
+proposed converting the Palace of the Tuileries into a school for
+the children of soldiers. He says:&mdash;&ldquo;They have taken
+possession by the work and activity that reign there; a whole
+floor is filled with tools and activity, and converted into
+workshops for the construction of messenger balloons. King Labour
+is enthroned there. I recognised there among the workmen an exile
+of the revolutionary Commune of London. The workmen and the
+proscribed at the Tuileries! From the prison of London to the
+palace of the Tuileries. It is well!&rdquo; But in the heart of the
+Commune the soul of the <i>Vengeur</i> underwent a change, and
+insisted on the complete destruction of the &ldquo;infamous pile.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The portion of the building overlooking the river was alone
+preserved. The roofing is destroyed, but the façade is but
+little injured, the only work of art damaged here being a
+pediment by M. Carrier-Belleuse, representing &ldquo;Agriculture.&rdquo;
+Fortunately the Government of the Fourth of September had sent
+all the most precious things to the Garde-Meuble (Stores); but
+how can the magnificent Gobelins tapestry, the fine ceilings, the
+works of Charles Lebrun, of Pierre Mignard, of Coypel, of
+Francisque Meillet, of Coysevox, of Girardon, and of many others,
+and the exquisite Salon des Roses be replaced?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Tuileries burnt for three days, and ten days afterwards
+the ruins blazed forth anew near the Pavillon de Flore. Not only
+did the devouring fire threaten to destroy inestimable treasures,
+but on Monday a number of men carrying slow matches, and led by a
+man named Napias-Piquet, made all their preparations to set fire
+to several points of the museum of the Louvre, and two of the
+guardians were shot. This Napias-Piquet threatened to make of the
+whole quarter of the Louvre one great conflagration. He was taken
+and shot, and in his pocket was found a note of his breakfast of
+the preceding day, amounting to 57 francs 80 centimes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+THE LOUVRE.&mdash;The preservation of the museum was due to
+the strong masonry, and the thick walls of the new portion of the
+building, on which the raging flames could make no impression.
+But it ran other risks: when the troops entered the building,
+they planted the tricolour on the clock pavilion, which served as
+an object for the insurgents&rsquo; aim. It was immediately removed,
+however, when this was perceived. It was generally believed that
+the galleries of the Louvre contained all their art treasures.
+This was not the case; prior to the first siege the most precious
+of the contents had been carefully packed and conveyed to the
+arsenal of Brest, where they safely reposed, but many very
+admirable works remained.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+MINISTRY OF FINANCE (Treasury).&mdash;On the 22nd of May, the
+official journal of the Commune published a note declaring that
+the certificates of stock and the stock books (<i>grand
+livre</i>) would be burnt within forty-eight hours. The Commune
+was annoyed at the publicity given to this note, and a violent
+debate took place in its council in consequence. On this occasion
+Paschal Grousset uttered the following:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+&ldquo;I blame those who inserted the note in question, but I demand
+that measures may be taken for the destruction of all such
+documents belonging to those at Versailles, the day that they
+shall enter Paris.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-85"></a>
+<img src="images/092.jpg" width="600" height="278" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Court of the Louvre, from Place Du Carrousel</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="letter">
+The Library is completely destroyed. More than 90,000 volumes are burnt. Rare
+editions, Elzevirs, precious MSS., coins, and unique collections, priceless
+treasures, are irrevocably lost.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The building forms one of the most striking ruins in Paris.
+Citizen Lucas, appointed by Ferré to set the Ministry on
+fire, did his task well. The conflagration, which lasted several
+days, began in the night of the 23rd of May. Not only was every
+part soaked with petroleum, but shells had also been placed about
+the building, and burst successively as the fire extended.
+Scarcely anything remains of the huge pile but the offices of the
+Administration of Forest Lands, which are almost intact. A
+considerable number of valuable documents were saved, but the
+quantity was very small in comparison with the immense collection
+accumulated since the beginning of the century. Four times was
+the work of salvage interrupted by the insurgents. Not a single
+book in the library has escaped; and this library contained
+almost the whole of the enormous correspondence of Colbert, the
+minister, forming no less than two thousand volumes.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-86"></a>
+<img src="images/093.jpg" width="600" height="299" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Palais Royal.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+The PALAIS ROYAL.&mdash;The palace itself alone is destroyed;
+the galleries of the THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS are
+preserved. The <i>Constitutionnel</i> published the following
+account of the conflagration;&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;It was at three o&rsquo;clock that this fearful fire burst forth. A
+shopkeeper of the PALAIS ROYAL, M. Emile Le Saché, came forward in all
+haste to offer his services. A Communist captain, or lieutenant,
+threatened to fire on him if he did not retire on the instant; he added
+that the whole quarter was going to be blown up and burned. In the
+teeth of this threat, however, two fire-engines were brought to the
+Place, and were worked by the people of the neighbourhood. It was four
+o&rsquo;clock. No water in the Cour des Fontaines. But some was procured by a
+line of people being placed along the passage leading from the Cour
+d&rsquo;Honneur, who passed full buckets of water from hand to hand.<br/>
+    &ldquo;A ladder was placed against the wall for the purpose of reaching
+the terrace of the Rue de Valois. The insurgents proved so true to
+their word that the people were forced to renounce the attempt at
+saving the entire pavilion. Fire and smoke burst forth from three
+windows just above the terrace. In the midst of the balls showered from
+the barricade at the corner of the Rue de Rivoli, they succeeded in
+extinguishing the fire on that side. At five o&rsquo;clock M. O. Sauve,
+captain in the commercial service, with a handful of brave workmen, got
+a fire engine into the Cour d&rsquo;Honneur, and thus saved a great quantity
+of pictures, precious marbles, furniture, hangings, etc. Here another
+line of people was formed for the carrying of buckets, but
+unfortunately water ran short: the pipes had been cut, the wretches had
+planned that the destruction should be complete. At seven o&rsquo;clock M.
+Bessignet, jun., hastened there with four Paris firemen, but already
+the Pavilion, where the flames were first apparent, was entirely
+consumed.<br/>
+    &ldquo;On the arrival of the firemen they used every effort to prevent the
+fire communicating itself to the apartments of the Princess Clothilde;
+it had already reached the façade on the side of the Place. Here, too,
+all the fittings and ornaments of the chapel were saved.<br/>
+    At last, at seven o&rsquo;clock, the soldiers of the line arrive. &lsquo;Long
+live the line!&rsquo; is shouted on all sides. &lsquo;Long live France!&rsquo; Signals
+are made with the ambulance flags. Help is come at last!<br/>
+    &ldquo;Those present now regard their position with more coolness, and use
+every effort to combat the fire, pumping from the roofs and upper
+storeys of the neighbouring houses. The fire continues, however,
+increasing and spreading on the theatre side. Here is the greatest
+danger. If the theatre catch light, all the quarter will most probably
+be destroyed. They then determine to avail themselves of the water
+appliances of the theatre to stay the progress of the flames. This is.
+rendered more difficult and dangerous by the continuous firing from the
+Communists installed in the upper story of the Hôtel du Louvre. M. Le
+Sache mounts on the roofs, with the principal engineer, to conduct this
+movement. They are compelled to hide out of the way of the shower of
+balls coming from the Communists.<br/>
+    &ldquo;At ten o&rsquo;clock the companies from the quarter of the Banque, the
+12th battalion of National Guards, arrive. The Federals are put to
+flight. Thereupon thirty <i>sapeurs-pompiers</i> of Paris came at full
+speed and succeed in mastering the remaining fire. An hour sooner and
+all could have been saved.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-87"></a>
+<img src="images/094.jpg" width="600" height="376" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Hôtel de Ville.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+THE HOTEL DE VILLE.&mdash;The Hôtel de Ville was set on
+fire by order of the Committee of Public Safety at the moment
+when the entry of the troops caused them to fly to the Ecole des
+Chartes, which was thus saved, and whence they fled to the Mairie
+of Belleville. Five battalions of National Guards&mdash;the 57th,
+156th, 178th, 184th, and the 187th&mdash;remained to prevent any
+attempt being made to extinguish the fire. Petroleum had been
+poured about the <i>Salle du Trône</i>, and the <i>Salle du
+Zodiaque</i>, which were decorated by Jean Goujon and Cogniet; in
+the <i>Galerie de Pierre</i>, in which were paintings by Lecomte,
+Baudin, Desgoffes, Hédouin, and Bellel; in the <i>Salon
+des Arcades</i>, in the <i>Salon Napoléon</i>, in the
+<i>Galerie des Fêtes</i>, and in the <i>Salon de la
+Paix</i>, which contained works of Schopin, Picot, Vanchelet,
+Jadin, Girard, Ingres, Delacroix, Landelle, Riesener, Lehmann,
+Gosse, Benouville and Cabanel. It is not only as a fine specimen
+of architecture that the Hôtel de Ville is to be regretted,
+but as the cradle of the municipal and revolutionary history of
+Paris, as well as for the vast collection of archives of the
+city, duplicates of which were at the same moment a prey to the
+flames at the Palais de Justice.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-88"></a>
+<img src="images/095.jpg" width="336" height="500" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Foreign Office.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+THE PREFECTURE OF POLICE was set fire to by the Communal
+delegate Ferré and a band of drunken National Guards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE, thanks to the prompt arrival of the
+soldiers, has been partially spared. The damage done, however, is
+very great. In the SALLE DES PAS-PERDUS several of the grand
+arches that support the roof have fallen in, and many of the
+columns are lying in ruins on the pavement. The Cour de Cassation
+and the Cour d&rsquo;Assises are entirely destroyed. The conflagration
+was stopped, when it reached the Cour d&rsquo;Appel and the Tribunal de
+Première Instance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+PALACE OF THE QUAI D&rsquo;ORSAY.&mdash;This vast building, in which
+the Conseil d&rsquo;État and the Cour des Comptes held their
+sittings, has suffered seriously, though the walls are not
+destroyed; but what is irreparable is the loss of the many
+precious documents belonging to the financial and legislative
+history of France. The most famous artists of our time have
+contributed to the decoration of the interior. Jeanron painted
+the twelve allegorical subjects for the vaulted ceiling of the
+<i>Salle des Pas-Perdus</i>; Isabey, the Port of Marseilles in
+the Committee-room. The Death of President de Renty, in the
+<i>Salle du Contentieux</i>, was by Paul Delaroche; the fine
+portrait of Napoleon I., as legislator, in the great Council
+Chamber, by Flandrin; and in another apartment the portrait of
+Justinien by Delacroix. These, and many other treasures, are
+lost; for the work of destruction was complete.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.&mdash;The façade has been
+seriously injured. It was fired upon from the terrace of the
+Tuileries, and from a gunboat lying under cover of the
+Pont-Royal. The Doric and Ionic columns are partly broken, as
+well as the fifteen medallions in white marble, which bore the
+arms of the principal powers. The apartments in front have been
+greatly damaged, and especially the <i>salon</i> of the
+ambassadors, where the Congress of Paris was held in 1856.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+THE PALACE OF THE LEGION OF HONOUR.&mdash;This is a specimen
+of French architecture, unique of its kind. Happily, drawings and
+plans have been preserved, and the members of the Legion of
+Honour have offered a subscription for its re-instatement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+THE GOBELINS.&mdash;The public gallery, the school of
+tapestry, and the painters&rsquo; studios have been destroyed. The
+incendiaries would have burned all, works, frames and materials,
+if the people of the quarter, with the Gobelins weavers, had not
+defended them at the peril of their lives. An irreparable loss is
+that of a valuable collection of tapestry dating from the time of
+Louis XIV.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The military hospital of the VAL DE GRÂCE, the ASYLUM
+FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB, the MINT, the façade of the annex
+of the ÉCOLE-DES-BEAUX-ARTS, have been riddled with balls.
+At the LUXEMBOURG the magnificent camellia-house and
+conservatories exist no longer, and the graceful Medici fountain
+has been injured.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+THE BANK had most fortunately been placed in charge of the
+delegate Beslay, who, during the whole time he was there, made
+every effort to prevent the pillage of the valuables. He was ably
+seconded by all the officials and <i>employés</i>, who had
+before been armed and incorporated into a battalion.
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-89"></a>
+<img src="images/096.jpg" width="338" height="500" alt="Illustration: " />
+<p class="caption"><b>Palace of the Legion D&rsquo;honneur.</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+POST OFFICE.&mdash;The Communal delegate, Theiz, prevented the
+incendiaries from setting fire to this important
+establishment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+THE TRIUMPHAL ARCH OF THE PORTE-ST-DENIS.&mdash;The bas-relief
+containing an emblematical figure of the Rhine resting on a
+rudder has been mutilated, a shell having carried the arm and its
+support entirely away. The other bas-relief of Holland vanquished
+and in tears, has been struck by balls, as have also the figures
+of Fame in the tympans of the arcades.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+THE TRIUMPHAL ARCH OF THE PORTE-ST-MARTIN.&mdash;The
+sculptures, which represent the taking of Limbourg and the defeat
+of the Germans, have suffered considerably. They are the works of
+Le Hongre and the elder Legros.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A tragic incident marked the burning of the THEATRE OF THE
+PORTE ST. MARTIN (see sketch). After laving massacred the
+proprietor and people of the <i>restaurant</i> Ronceray, the
+Federals set fire to the house and the theatre which is
+adjoining. At eight o&rsquo;clock in the evening, on beholding the
+first flames arise, the inhabitants of the quarter united in
+endeavouring to extinguish the fire, notwithstanding that the
+projectiles fell thickly in the Boulevard Saint-Martin and in the
+Rue de Bondy. The Federals from behind their barricades at the
+corner of the Rue Bouchardon, fired upon everyone who attempted
+to enter the theatre.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The ARCHIVES (Record Office), the IMPRIMERIE NATIONALE, and
+the BIBLIOTHÈQUE MAZARINE were all preserved through the
+strenuous endeavours of MM. Alfred Maury, Haureau, and Charles
+Asselineau, who had all managed to keep their places in spite of
+the Commune.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the DOCKS OF LA VILLETTE, and at the warehouses of the
+DOUANE, the destruction of property has been enormous. Many
+millions&rsquo; worth of goods were consumed there.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the great buildings belonging to the MAGASINS RÉUNIS
+(Cooperative Stores) an ambulance had been established, and this
+was in the utmost danger during two days. It was only owing to
+the wonderful energy of M. Jahyer that the fire was mastered
+while the poor wounded men were transported to a place of
+safety.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+THE CHURCHES.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+NOTRE-DAME.&mdash;In the interior of Notre-Dame the insurgents
+set fire to three huge piles of chairs and wood-work. Fortunately
+the fact was discovered before much mischief had happened.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+THE SAINTE-CHAPELLE.&mdash;This incomparable gem of Gothic
+art, by some marvellous good fortune was neither touched by fire
+nor shells. It will still be an object for the pilgrimages of the
+erudite and the curious.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+THE MADELEINE.&mdash;The balls have somewhat damaged the
+double colonnade of the peristyle, but the sculptured pediment by
+Lemaire is all but untouched.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+THE TRINITÉ.&mdash;The façade has been seriously
+injured. The Federals, from their barricades at the entrance of
+the Chaussée-d&rsquo;Antin, bombarded it for several hours. The
+painted windows by Ondinot had been removed before the
+siege&mdash;like those of the ancient Cathedral of St. Denis, and
+the Chapel of St. Ferdinand, by Ingres, they repose in
+safety.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of all the churches of Paris ST. EUSTACHE has suffered the
+most. At one time the fire had reached the roof, but it was
+fortunately discovered in time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The paintings at NOTRE-DAME-DE-LORETTE, at
+SAINT-GERMAIN-L&rsquo;AUXERROIS, and at SAINT-GERMAIN-DES-PRÉS
+have been spared.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is curious that the churches suffered so little, whilst
+several theatres were burned, including the Porte St. Martin,
+Théâtre du Châtelet, Lyrique,
+Délassements Comiques, etc.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The windows of the church of SAINT-JACQUES-DU-HAUT-PAS are
+destroyed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It has been estimated that the value of the houses and other
+property destroyed in Paris amounts to twenty millions sterling.
+In addition to this, it is said that twelve millions&rsquo; worth of
+works of art, furniture, &amp;c., have disappeared, and that more
+than two and a half millions&rsquo; worth of merchandise was burnt,
+making a total of nearly thirty-five millions. It has been said
+that the value of the window-glass alone destroyed during the
+reign of the Commune approaches a million sterling. The demand
+for glass was at one time so great that the supply was quite
+insufficient, and at the present moment the price is 20 per cent.
+higher than usual.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="App._XV."></a> XV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+The following order of the day of General de Ladmirault,
+commanding the first army corps of Versailles, sums up the
+principal episodes of this eight days battle:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Officers and soldiers of the First Corps d&rsquo;Armée,&mdash;<br/>
+    The defences of the lines of Neuilly, Courbevoie, Bécon and
+Asnières served you by way of apprenticeship. Your energy and courage
+were formed amid the greatest works and perils. Every one in his grade
+has given an example of the most complete abnegation and devotion.
+Artillery, engineers, troops of the line, cavalry, volunteers of the
+Seine-et-Oise, you rivalled each other in zeal and ardour. Thus
+prepared, on the 22nd of the month you attacked the insurgents, whose
+guilty designs and criminal undertakings you knew and despised. You
+devoted yourselves nobly to save from destruction the monuments of our
+old national glory, as well as the property of the citizens menaced by
+savage rage.<br/>
+    On the 23rd of the month, the formidable position of the Buttes
+Montmartre could no longer resist your efforts, in spite of all the
+forces with which they were covered.<br/>
+    This task was confided to the first and second division and the
+volunteers of the Seine and Seine-et-Oise, and the heads of the various
+columns arrived simultaneously at the summit of the position.<br/>
+    On the 24th, the third division, which alone had been charged with
+the task of driving the insurgents out of Neuilly, Levallois-Perret,
+and Saint-Ouen, joined the other divisions, and took possession of the
+terminus of the Eastern Railway, while the first division seized that
+of the Northern line by force of arms.<br/>
+    On the 26th, the third division occupied the <i>rotonde</i>&mdash;circular
+place&mdash;of La Villette.<br/>
+    On the 27th, the first and second division, with the volunteers of
+the Seine-et-Oise, by means of a combined movement, took the Buttes
+Chaumont and the heights of Belleville by assault, the artillery having
+by its able firing prepared the way for the occupation.<br/>
+    Finally, on the 28th, the defences of Belleville yielded, and the
+first corps achieved brilliantly the task which had been confided to
+them.<br/>
+    During the days of the struggle and fighting you rendered the
+greatest service to civilization, and have acquired a claim to the
+gratitude of the country. Accept then all the praise which is due to
+you.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+Paris, 29th May, 1871.<br/>
+The General commanding the First Corps d&rsquo;Armee,<br/>
+(Signed) &ldquo;LADMIRAULT.&rdquo;&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the day of the 28th of Kay Marshal MacMahon caused the
+following proclamation to be posted in the streets of
+Paris:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+&ldquo;Inhabitants of Paris,&mdash;<br/>
+    The army of France is come to save you. Paris is relieved. The last
+positions of the insurgents were taken by our soldiers at four o&rsquo;clock.
+Today the struggle is at an end; order, labour, and security are
+springing up again.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+Paris, Quartier General, the 28th May, 1871.<br/>
+(Signed) &ldquo;MACMAHON, Due de Magenta, Marshal of France,<br/>
+Commander-in-Chief.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 28th of May the war of the Communists was at an end,
+but the fort of Vincennes was still occupied by three hundred
+National Guards, with eighteen of their superior officers and
+fifteen of the high functionaries of the Commune; They made an
+appeal to the commander of the Prussian forces in front of the
+fort, in the hope of obtaining passports for Switzerland. General
+Vinoy, hearing of this, took at once the most energetic measures,
+and at six o&rsquo;clock on the 29th of May the last defenders of
+Vincennes surrendered at discretion.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="App._XVI."></a> XVI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+The amount of the extraordinary expenses of the Versailles
+was, at the rate of three millions of francs a day, 216 millions
+from the 18th March to the 28th May. The list of artillery
+implements removed from the arsenals of Douai, Lyon,
+Besançon, Toulon, and Cherbourg, and forwarded to
+Versailles from the 18th March to the 21st May,
+comprise&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+     80 cannons of 0.16m (6 in. 299/1000 diameter) from the War Arsenal
+     60    &rdquo;        &rdquo;                &rdquo;             from the Marine Arsenal
+     10    &rdquo;    of 0.22m (8 in. 661/1000 diameter) Marine.
+    110 Rifled long  24-pounders.
+     30 Rifled short 24-pounders.
+     80 Rifled siege 12-pounders.
+      3 Mortars of 0.32m (12 in. 598/1000 diameter).
+     15 Mortars of 0.27m (10 in. 629/1000 diameter).
+     15 Mortars of 0.22m (8  in. 661/1000 diameter).
+     40 Mortars of 0.15m (5  in. 905/1000 diameter).
+     &mdash;&mdash;
+Total 393 artillery siege pieces.
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+Ammunition received at Versailles&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+Shells of    0.16m (marine). . . .  73,000
+  &rdquo;          0.22m    &rdquo;  . . . . .  10,000
+  &rdquo;          0.24m (rifled). . . . 140,000
+  &rdquo;        for 12-pounder (rifled)  80,000
+Bombs of     0.32m . . . . . . . .   1,000
+  &rdquo;          0.27m . . . . . . . .   7,000
+  &rdquo;          0.22m . . . . . . . .   7,000
+  &rdquo;          0.15m . . . . . . . .  30,000
+                                   &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;
+                          Total    348,000
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+The stock of gunpowder amounted to 400 tons.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Up to the 21st of May, the artillery received 20 tons a day,
+and on that day 50 tons were forwarded to the besieging army.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Up to the 21st of May, the field ordnance consisted
+of&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+      36 batteries of 4-pounders.
+      18   &rdquo;         12-pounders.
+       4   &rdquo;          7-pounders (breech-loaders).
+      12   &rdquo;       of mitrailleuses.
+      &mdash;
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+Total 70 batteries, 63 of which were provided with horses (7
+being in store).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The ammunition service consisted of&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+  80 tumbrels (calibre 12), each containing  54 charges.
+  30   &rdquo;      (calibre 7),       &rdquo;           90   &rdquo;
+ 120   &rdquo;      (calibre 4)        &rdquo;          120   &rdquo;
+  55   &rdquo;      of mitrailleuses   &rdquo;          243   &rdquo;
+5000 cases of ammunition  (for calibre 12), containing 49,000 charges.
+ 600         &rdquo;            (for calibre 4),    &rdquo;        12,000   &rdquo;
+2000         &rdquo;            (for calibre 7),    &rdquo;        20,000   &rdquo;
+1000         &rdquo;            for mitrailleuses   &rdquo;        30,000   &rdquo;
+  16 millions of Chassepot cartridges, and
+   2 millions of Remington cartridges.
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+On the evening of the 23rd of May the army of Versailles
+expended&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+        26,000 discharges (calibre 0.16m), marine guns.
+          2000     &rdquo;          &rdquo;    0.22m),     &rdquo;
+        60,000     &rdquo;          &rdquo;    0.24m), rifled guns.
+        30,000     &rdquo;          &rdquo;    0.12m), rifled siege guns.
+        12,000     &rdquo;      (calibre of 7), used as a siege gun.
+           150 bombs of 0.32m
+           360   &rdquo;      0.27m
+          2500   &rdquo;      0.22m
+          5500   &rdquo;      0.16m
+       &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;-
+Total  138,800 discharges of siege guns and mortars.&mdash;&ldquo;<i>Guerre
+des Communeux</i>,&rdquo; p. 321.
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+The great feature of the second siege of Paris was the
+prudence exercised in manoeuvring the men so as to protect them
+from needless exposure, practical experience in German encounters
+having taught the line a severe lesson. From the report of
+Marshal MacMahon we learn that the lost amounted to 83 officers
+killed, and 430 wounded; 794 soldiers killed, and 6,024 wounded,
+and 183 missing in all.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="XVII._LIST_OF_PUBLIC"></a>XVII.</h2>
+
+<h2>LIST OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS, MONUMENTS, CHURCHES, AND HOUSES,</h2>
+
+<h3>DAMAGED OR DESTROYED BY THE COMMUNISTS OF PARIS,</h3>
+
+<p class="center">
+<b>MAY 24-29, 1871.</b>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fire commenced in the houses marked thus (*).
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+  Palais des Tuileries (Emperor&rsquo;s Paris residence). <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Musée du Louvre. <i>Library totally destroyed</i>.<br/>
+  Palais Royal (Prince Napoleon&rsquo;s Paris residence). <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Palais de la Légion d&rsquo;Honneur (records all gone). <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Conseil d&rsquo;Etat. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Corps Législatif. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Cour des Comptes (Exchequer). <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Ministère d&rsquo;Etat (Minister of State). <i>Fired, but saved</i>.<br/>
+  Ministère des Finances (Treasury). <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Hôtel de Ville. (Town Hall of Paris). <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Palais de Justice (Law courts). <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Préfecture de Police. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  The Conciergerie (House of Detention). <i>Partly burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Mairie of the 1st Arrondissement. <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Mairie of the 4th Arrondissement. <i>Partially burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Mairie of the 11th Arrondissement. <i>Partially</i>.<br/>
+  Mairie of the 12th Arrondissement. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Mairie of the 13th Arrondissement. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Imprimerie Nationale. (National Printing office). <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Polytechnic School. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Manufacture des Gobelins (National tapestry manufactory). <i>Partially burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Grenier d&rsquo;Abondance (Enormous corn and other stores). <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Colonne Vendôme. <i>Overthrown on the 16th of May</i>.<br/>
+  Colonne de Juillet, on the Place de la Bastille. <i>Greatly damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Porte Saint-Denis. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Porte Saint-Martin. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Cathedral of Notre Dame. <i>Very slightly damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Panthéon. <i>Very slightly damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Church of Belleville. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Church of Bercy. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Church of La Madeleine. <i>Slightly dam</i>.<br/>
+  Church of St. Augustin. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Church of Saint Eustache (used as a club). <i>Fired and much damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Church of Saint Gervais (used as a club). <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Church of St. Laurent. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Church of Saint Leu. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Church of Reuilly. <i>Fired but not burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Church of the Trinité. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Church of La Villette. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Sainte-Chapelle. <i>Slightly, if at all, dam</i>.<br/>
+  Théâtre du Châtelet. <i>Fired, but saved</i>.<br/>
+  Théâtre Lyrique. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Ba-ta-clan Music Hall. <i>Fired, but not burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Théâtre des Délassements-Comiques. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin. <i>Totally destroyed</i>.<br/>
+  Théâtre Cluny. <i>Only damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Théâtre Odéon. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Abattoir de Grenelle. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Assistance Publique (offices of public charity). <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (Bank of Deposit). <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Caisse de Poissy (Bank of Deposit). <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Service des Ponts et Chaussées of the 13th Arrondissement (Civil engineer&rsquo;s office). <i>Partially</i>.<br/>
+  Arsenal. <i>Partly burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Caserne du Château-d&rsquo;Eau (barracks). <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Caserne Mouffetard. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Caserne Napoléon. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Caserne Quai d&rsquo;Orsay. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Caserne de Reuilly. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Docks, Bonded Warehouses and Storehouses at La Villette. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Les Halles Centrales (Great general market). <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Marché du Temple (General market). <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Marché Voltaire (General market). <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Bridge over the Canal de l&rsquo;Ourcq. <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Passerelle de la Villette (Foot-bridge). <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Pont d&rsquo;Austerlitz, with restaurant Trousseau and sluice-keeper&rsquo;s house. <i>All burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Rotonde de la Villette. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Hospice de l&rsquo;Enfant Jesus. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Hospital Lariboisière. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Hospital Salpétrière: (House of refuge and lunatic-asylum for women). <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Prison of la Roquette. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Gare de Lyon (Lyons railway terminus). <i>Fired and damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Gare d&rsquo;Orléans (Orleans railway terminus.) <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Gare Montparnasse (Western railway terminus). <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Gare de Strasbourg (Eastern railway terminus). <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Gare de Vincennes (Vincennes railway terminus). <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  House of M. Thiers (Place St. Georges). <i>Pulled down (previously)</i>.<br/>
+  Cimetière du Père-Lachaise (cemetery). <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Barrière Charenton. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Luxembourg: Powder Magazine in rear of Palace <i>blown up</i>, some subsidiary
+    buildings <i>burnt</i>, and whole quarter <i>damaged</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+  Avenue des Amandiers: Nos. 1, 2, 4, <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    No. 69. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Avenue de Choisy: Nos. 202, 221. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Avenue de Clichy: Nos. 2, 4, 22. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Avenue d&rsquo;Italie: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 78, 88. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Avenue d&rsquo;Orléans: Nos. 79, 81, 83. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Avenue Victoria: Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+    No. 6. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Avenue de Vincennes: Nos. 2, 4, 10. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard Beaumarchais: No. 1. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+    Nos. 2, 13, 15, 26, 28, 30, 109. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard de Bercy: No. 4, 8. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle: Nos. 11, 15. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard Bourdon: Nos. 7, 17. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard des Capucines: No. 11;<br/>
+      Maison Giroux, Nos. 43, 58, 60. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard de la Chapelle: Nos. 10, 12,<br/>
+      14, 18, 20, coach houses and stables,<br/>
+      22, 30, 34, 40, 62, 86, 90, 94,<br/>
+      100, 122, 141, 143, 145, 147, &ldquo;Aux<br/>
+      Buttes Chaumont,&rdquo; 157, 163, 165,<br/>
+      169, 208, &ldquo;Au Cadran Bleu,&rdquo; 216,<br/>
+      218. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard de Charonne: Nos. 50, 52, 74. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard de Clichy: No. 77; Convent and<br/>
+      Church; Nos. 79, 81, 84, 86. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard Contrescarpe: Nos. 2, 4. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+    Nos. 42, 46. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard de la Gare: No. 131. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard Hausmann: Nos. 23, 72. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard d&rsquo;Italie: Nos. 7, 69. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard de la Madeleine: No. 1. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard Magenta: Nos. 1, 3, 5, 6, 15,<br/>
+      48, 70, 78, 98, 114, &ldquo;Au Méridien,&rdquo;<br/>
+      118, 143, 151, 153, 156. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard Malesherbes: Nos. 9, 33. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard Mazas: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+    Nos. 22, 26, 28 bis, 30, 60. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard Montmartre: No, 1. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard du Montparnasse: Nos. 9 bis,<br/>
+      41, 70, 100, 120, 150. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+    Nos. 25, three shops, 110, 112. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard Ornano: No. 56. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+    Nos. 1, 4, 7, 9, 22, 27, 32. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard Poissonnière: No. 15. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard du Port-Royal: Nos. 16, 18, 20. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard du Prince Eugène: Magazins-Réunis<br/>
+      (co-operative store). <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard Richard-Lenoir: Nos. 20, 82. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+    Nos. 1, 5, 7, 9, 31, 36, 50, 69, 76,<br/>
+      87, 93, 107, 109, 116, 118, 136, 140. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard Saint-Denis: Nos. 6, 13, Café Magny. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard St. Jacques: Nos*. 69. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard Saint-Marcel: No. 21. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard Saint Martin: Nos. 14, 16, 18, 20. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard Saint Michel: No. 20; Café du Musée, 25;<br/>
+      Café Miller, 65;<br/>
+      Restaurant Molière, 73; Dreher Beer House, 99;<br/>
+      School of Mines. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard Sébastopol: Nos. 9, 11, 13, 15. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+    Nos. 42, *65, 83. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard du Temple: Nos. 52, 54. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+    Nos. 2, 19, 20, 22, 24, 26, 30, 32, 34,<br/>
+      35, 38, 40, 44, 50. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Boulevard de la Villette: Nos. 85, 87, 117, Usine Falk. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    Nos. 97, 128, 134, 136, 138, 140, 162. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Boulevard Voltaire: Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 20, 22, 28, 60. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    Nos. 38, 63, 55, 60, 78, 94, 97, 98, 141, 166. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Carrefour de l&rsquo;Observatoire; No. 11. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Chaussée Clignancourt: &ldquo;Château-Rouge&rdquo; (a public dancing-room). <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Chaussée du Maine: No. 164. <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Chaussée de Ménilmontant: Nos. 56, 58, 81, 98. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Croix-Rouge (cross way): Nos. 2, 4. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Faubourg Montmartre: No. 50,64. <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Faubourg Poissonnière: Nos. 39, 168. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Faubourg Saint-Antoine: No. 2. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    Nos. 1, 8, 4, 6, 6, 7, 22, 141, 164, 156, 158, 162. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Faubourg Saint-Denis: Nos. 68, 77,114, 208 bis, 214. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Faubourg Saint-Honoré: Nos. 1, 2, 3. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    Nos. 4, 29, 30, 33, 85. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Faubourg Saint-Martin: Nos. *55, 66, 67, 69, 71, &ldquo;Tapis Rouge.&rdquo; <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    Nos. 147, 184, 221, 234, 267. <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Faubourg du Temple: No. 30. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    Nos. 9, 16, 17, 19, 20, 26, 29, 32, 33, 36, 41, 47, 48, 49, 53, 64,<br/>
+    66, 73, 81, 82, 98, 94, 106, 117. <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Impasse Constantine: No. 2. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Impasse Saint-Sauveur: No. 2. <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Passage du Sauinon. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Place de la Bastille: Nos. 8, 10, 12, Poste de l&rsquo;Ecluse. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    Nos. 4, 5, 6, 14. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Place Blanche: Nos. 2, 3. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Place Cambronne: No. 8. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Place du Château-d&rsquo;Eau: Nos. 7, 15. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    *9,13, &ldquo;Pauvres Jacques;&rdquo; Nos. 17, 19, 21, 23, Café du<br/>
+  Château-d&rsquo;Eau. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Place de la Concorde (Fountain). <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Place de la Concorde (Statue of Lille). <i>Destroyed</i>.<br/>
+  Place de l&rsquo;Hôtel de Ville: Nos. 1, 3, 7, 9, 11. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Place de Jessaint: No. 4. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Place du Louvre: No. 1. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Place de la Madeleine: No. 31. <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Place de l&rsquo;Odéon: No. 8; Café de Bruxelles. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Place de l&rsquo;Opera: No. 3. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Place Pigalle: No. 1. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Place de la Sorbonne: No. 8. <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Place Valhubert: &ldquo;Châlet du Jardin.&rdquo; <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Place des Victoires: No. 2. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Place de Vintimille: Nos. 1, 27. <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Place Voltaire: No. 7. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    No. 9. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Quai d&rsquo;Anjou: Nos. 5, 11, 19, 23, 27, 43; &ldquo;Au Petit Matelot.&rdquo; <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Quai de Bercy: No. 12, 13. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    Nos. 3, 5, 10. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Quai de Béthune: Nos. 12, 20. <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Quai Bourbon: No. 3. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Quai des Célestins: No. 6. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Quai de Gèvres: No. 2. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Quai de l&rsquo;Hôtel-de-Ville: Nos. 28, 68, 72, 78, 82. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Quai de Jemappes: Nos. 18, 80, 34, 42. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+    No. 32. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Quai de la Loire: Nos. 10, 84, 86, 88. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    No. 60. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Quai du Louvre: Nos. 2, 4, 6. <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Quai de la Mégisserie: No. 22; &ldquo;Belle Jardinière.&rdquo; <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Quai d&rsquo;Orsay (a Club). <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Quai de la Rapée: No. 92, 94, 96, 98, 100, <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Quai de Valmy: Nos. 27, 29. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+    Nos. 31, 39, 48, 71, 73, 79. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Quai Voltaire: No. 9, 13, 17. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Rue d&rsquo;Alibert: Nos. 1, 2; <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue d&rsquo;Allemagne: Nos. 2, 10. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Rue d&rsquo;Alsace: Nos. 31, 33, 39. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Rue des Amandiers: Nos. 3, 4, 20, 65,86, 87. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Amelot: Nos. 2, 21, 25, 104, 106,139. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue de l&rsquo;Ancienne Comédie: No. 2: &ldquo;À Mazarin&rdquo; (drapers). <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue d&rsquo;Angoulême: Nos. 2, 28, 31, 43, 72bis. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue d&rsquo;Anjou: No. 23. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue de l&rsquo;Arcade: No. 2. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue de l&rsquo;Arsenal: No. 3. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+  Rue d&rsquo;Assas: Nos. 80, *78, 86, 90, 96, 98, 106, 112, 118, 124. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Rue d&rsquo;Aubervilliers: No. 138. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+    Nos. 2, 24, 88, 92, 96. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Audran: No. 1. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue d&rsquo;Aval: No. 11. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+    No. 17. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+  Rue du Bac: Nos. 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+    Nos. 54, 55, 56, Leborgne House, 58, 62, 64. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Barrault: Nos. 3, 31. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue de Belleville: Nos. 1, 2, 66, 70, 89, 91, 133. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue de Bercy: No. 257. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Bichat: No. 67. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Bisson: No. 49. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Blanche: Nos. 97, 99. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Boissy-d&rsquo;Anglas: No. 31. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    Nos. 33, 35, 37. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de Bondy: Nos. 16, 17, 19, 21. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    Nos. *22, *32; 24, 26, Grand Café Parisien, 28, 30, 40, 44. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Bréa: Nos; 1. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    No. 3. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de Bruxelles: No. 29. <i>Damaged</i><br/>
+  Rue de Buffon: Nos. 1, 3. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de la Butte-aux-Cailles: Nos. 1, 16. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de la Butte-Chaumont: No. 1. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Cail: No. 25. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Castex: No. 20. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de la Cerisaie: Nos. 20, 41, 45, 47. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de la Chapelle: Nos. 6, 16, 19, 35, 37, 75, 77. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de la Charbonnière: Nos. 32, 42. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de Charenton: No. 1. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 100, 102, 187, 214, 230. <i>Dam.</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de Charonne: Nos. 61,79,155. <i>Dam.</i>.<br/>
+  Rue du Château: Nos. 169,180. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Rue du Château-d&rsquo;Eau: Nos. 1, 3, 73. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    Nos. 32, 55, 71, 75, 79, 81, <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Rue de la Chaussée-d&rsquo;Antin: Nos. 58, 64, 68. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue du Chemin-Vert: Nos. 46,54. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Rue Clavel: No. 3. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de Clignancourt: Nos. 9, 39, 43, 45, 49, 59. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Conti: No. 2. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de Cotte: No. 8. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de la Coutellerie: No. 2. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de Crimée: Nos. 156, 158. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    Nos. 81, 83, 155, 163. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue du Croissant: (Saint Joseph&rsquo;s Market). <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Curial: No. 134. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Damesne: No. 1. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Delambre: Nos. 2, 4, <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Descartes: No. 6. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Domat: No. 24. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Dombasle: No. 61. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Durantin: No. 7. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue des Ecoles: No. 25. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue d&rsquo;Elzévir: Nos. 4,7, ll, 12; &ldquo;Auberge de la Bouteille&rdquo; (inn). <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Rue de l&rsquo;Espérance: Nos. 7, 11. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Rue Fléchier: No. 2. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Folies-Méricourt: Nos. 51, 64, 75. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+    No. 115. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+  Rue des Francs-Bourgeois: No. 33, Hotel Carnavalet. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire: No. 18. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Rue de la Glacière: Nos. 36, 75. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Rue Grange-aux-Belles: No. 20. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Rue de Grenelle: Nos. 1, 3. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+    No. 34. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Guy-Patin: No. 3. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue des Halles: No. 28. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Jacques-Coeur: No. 31. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Rue Joquelet: No. 12. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Julien-Lacroix: No. 2. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue de Jussieu: No. 41. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue de Lafayette: No. 107, 127. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+    Nos. 196, Aubin (fireworks), 208, 213, 215. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Lacuée: Nos. 2, 4, 6. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+  Rue de Lappe: No. 2. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Lepelletier: No. 26. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Lesdiguières: No. 2. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Levert: No. 12. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue de Lille: Nos. 27, 37, 39, 43, 45,<br/>
+      *47, 48, 49, 50, 51, Museum of M. Gatteaux, bequeathed to nation,<br/>
+      53, 55, 57, 61, 63, 65, 67, 69, 81, 83. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+  Rue Louis-le-Qrand: Nos. 32, 34. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Rue du Louvre: Nos. 6, 8. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+  Rue de la Lune: No. 1. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue de Lyon: No. 16. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue des Marais: No. 68. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue du Maroc: No. 38. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue de Meaux: Nos. 2, 14. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Ménars: No. 8. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Meslay: No. 2. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+  Rue Montmartre: Nos. 49, 53, 55. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Rue Montorgueil: Nos. 1, 29, 31, 33, 65. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Mouffetard: Nos. 132, 134, 136,<br/>
+      138, 139, 150; Church of St. Médard. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue du Moulin-des-Près: Nos. 83, 85. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs: No. 105, Piver&rsquo;s. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs: Nos. 52, 54.<br/>
+    Studio of M. John Leighton. <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+    Nos. 55, 57. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Notre-Dame-de-Nazareth: Nos. 16, 31. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Oberkampf: No. 4; À la Ville<br/>
+      d&rsquo;Alençon, No. 11, 12, 13, 15, 25,<br/>
+      36, 37, 41, 49, 50, 53, 57, 60, 67. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue aux Ours: Nos. 47, 48, 49, 55. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Rue des Petites-Ecuries: Nos. 2, 4. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue du Petit-Muse: No. 21. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Pierre Lescot: No. 16. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Popincourt: No. 2. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue du Pressoir: No. 54. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue de Provence: No. *20. No. 23. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue de Puebla: Nos. 2, 3, 4, 17, 30, 292. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Racine: No. 2. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Rambuteau: Nos. 32, 58, 60, 102.<br/>
+      &ldquo;Aux Fabriques de France:&rdquo; No. 124. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+    No. 16, &ldquo;Colosse de Rhodes;&rdquo; No. 19,<br/>
+      Café du Marais; Nos. 26, 28, 30,<br/>
+      34, 62, 65, 72; Mr. Leforestier&rsquo;s<br/>
+      house, &ldquo;À l&rsquo;Alliance,&rdquo; Nos. 49, 61,<br/>
+      63, 66, 69, 71. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Ramey: Nos. 41, 43. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Rampon: No. 18. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Réaumur: Nos. 14, 25, 43. <i>Dam.</i><br/>
+  Rue de Rennes: No. 2; Café de Rennes, 161. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue de Reuilly: No. 68. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue du Rhin: No. 6. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Riquet: Nos. 63, 64. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue de Rivoli: Nos. 33, 35, 37, 39, 79,<br/>
+      80, 82, 84, 86, 91, 98, 100; &ldquo;À Pygmalion.&rdquo; <i>Burnt.</i><br/>
+    Nos. 41, 88, 128, 210, 226, 236, 238. <i>Damaged.</i><br/>
+  Rue Rollin; No. 18. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de la Roquette: Nos. 1, 3, 6, 7, 9, 11 13, 18, 19, 20, 22,<br/>
+    24, 26. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    Nos. 4, 8, 15, 17, 34, 87, 38, 78. <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Royale: Nos. 15, 18, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    Nos. 24, 27. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Saint André-des-Arts: Nos. 26, 42. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Saint-Antoine: Nos. 3, 7, 9, 114, 142, 150, 152, 160, 176,<br/>
+    178, 182,192, 194, 198, 199, 201, 202, 203, 204, 206, 207, 212;<br/>
+    &ldquo;À la Fiancée,&rdquo; No. 213; &ldquo;Phares de la Bastille,&rdquo; 214, 216, 218,<br/>
+    220, 222, 224, 226, 228, 232, 234, 236; Protestant Church. <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Petite rue Saint Antoine: Nos, 3, 7, 9. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+    Nos. 11, 18. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Saint-Denis: No. 223; Église Saint Leu. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Saint-Fiacre: No. 15. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Saint-Honoré: No. 422. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    No. 132. <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Saint-Jacques: Nos. 26, 146, 164, Café de l&rsquo;Ecole de Droit,1<br/>
+    36, 195, 198, 216. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Saint-Lazare: No. 46. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Sainte-Marguerite: No. 22. <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Saint-Martin: Nos. 8, 10; &ldquo;The Bon-Diable.&rdquo; Nos. 12, 14. <i>Burnt</i><br/>
+    Nos. *16, 248. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Saint-Maur: Nos. 151, 184, 225, 227. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue des Saints-Pères: Nos. 46, 48. <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Saint-Sabin: Nos. 2, 4, 6. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    Nos. 3, 10, 12, 14. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Saint Sébastien: Nos. 42, 43, 44. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Sauval: No. 13. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de la Santé: No. 63. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Sedaine: No. 1. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    Nos. 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue du Sentier: No. 22. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue du 4 Septembre: No. 13. <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de Sèvres: No. 2. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    Nos. 14, 16 (reservoir); Nos. 91, 92, 141. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de Sully: No. 11. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de Suresnes: Nos. 1, 9, 15, 17, 19. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de la Tacherie: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Taitbout: Nos. 22, 26. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Taranne*: No. 10. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue du Temple: Nos. 7, 10, 39, 201. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+    No. 207. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Toquelet: No. 12. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Traversière: No. 53. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de Turbigo; Nos. 1, 3; &ldquo;Au Grand Parisien,&rdquo; Nos. 5, 8, 11, 19,<br/>
+    21, 47; Church of Saint-Nicholas-des-Champs, Nos. 51, 53, 56, 63,<br/>
+    74. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue De Vaugirard: Nos. 60, 68, 69, 70, Convent des Carmes, 82, School<br/>
+    for Girls, 92, School for Boys. <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Vavin: Nos. 2, *18, 20, 22. <i>Burnt</i>.<br/>
+    Nos. 16, 34, 36, 39. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+    54 (Collection of M. Reiber, Architect). <i>Destroyed</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de la Victoire: No. 61. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue du Vieux-Colombier: No. 31. <i>Dam</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Vilin: No. 2. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de la Villette: Nos. 20, 25, 26, 70. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de la Ville l&rsquo;Evêque: Nos. 7, 18. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue Volta: No. 38. <i>Damaged</i>.<br/>
+  Rue de Wiarmes: No. 1. <i>Damaged</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The barricades of Paris numbered about 600&mdash;from a slight
+breast-work to a veritable fortress.
+</p>
+
+<h2><a name="INDEX_TO_PLAN."></a> INDEX TO PLAN.</h2>
+
+<p class="center">
+B. Burnt. P.B. Partly Burnt. D. Damaged. S. Damaged by Shot and Shell.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+NORTH OF THE RIVER SEINE.
+</p>
+
+<table cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2" style=
+"width: 45%; text-align: left; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
+ border="1">
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<td><br/>
+</td>
+<td><br/>
+</td>
+<td>Div. of Map.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1</td>
+<td>Palace of the Tuileries, B</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>2</td>
+<td>Museum of the Louvre, P.B</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>3</td>
+<td>Palais Royal, B</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>4</td>
+<td>The Bourse (Exchange)</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>5</td>
+<td>The New Opera House</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>6</td>
+<td>The Church of the Madeleine, D</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>7</td>
+<td>The Column Vendôme (overthrown)</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>8</td>
+<td>The Palace of the Elysée</td>
+<td>7</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>9</td>
+<td>The Triumphal Arch, D</td>
+<td>7</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>10</td>
+<td>Palais de l&rsquo;Industrie, B</td>
+<td>7</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>11</td>
+<td>Church of St. Augustin, D</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>12</td>
+<td>&rdquo; of the Trinity, B</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>13</td>
+<td>&rdquo; Notre Dame de Lorette</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>14</td>
+<td>Ministère of Marine</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>15</td>
+<td>Bibliothèque Nationale</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>16</td>
+<td>Halles Centrales, S</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>17</td>
+<td>Church of Saint Eustache, D</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>18</td>
+<td>Opéra Comique</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>19</td>
+<td>Church of St. Vincent de Paul</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>20</td>
+<td>Hospital of Lariboisière, D</td>
+<td>3</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>21</td>
+<td>Barracks of Prince Eugène, D</td>
+<td>9</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>22</td>
+<td>Hospital of St. Louis</td>
+<td>9</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>23</td>
+<td>Prison of La Roquette, D</td>
+<td>14</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>24</td>
+<td>Statue of Prince Eugène (removed)</td>
+<td>14</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>25</td>
+<td>Hôtel de Ville, B</td>
+<td>13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>26</td>
+<td>Tower of St. Jacques, D</td>
+<td>13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>27</td>
+<td>Prison of Mazas</td>
+<td>14</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>28</td>
+<td>Barracks Napoléon, B</td>
+<td>14</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>29</td>
+<td>Conservatoire of Arts and Métiers</td>
+<td>9</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>30</td>
+<td>Hospital of St. Eugénie</td>
+<td>15</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>31</td>
+<td>Cattle Market and Slaughter H</td>
+<td>5</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>32</td>
+<td>Magasins of Bercy (sacked)</td>
+<td>20</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>33</td>
+<td>Ministère des Finances, B</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>34</td>
+<td>Place de la Concorde, D</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>86</td>
+<td>Porte St. Denis, D</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>36</td>
+<td>Porte St. Martin, D</td>
+<td>9</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>37</td>
+<td>Theatre of Porte St. Martin, B</td>
+<td>9</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>38</td>
+<td>Church of St. Laurent, D</td>
+<td>9</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>39</td>
+<td>Mairie 1st Arrondissement, D</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>40</td>
+<td>Théâtre du Chatelet, P.B</td>
+<td>13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>41</td>
+<td>Théâtre Lyrique, B</td>
+<td>13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>42</td>
+<td>Caisse Municipale, B</td>
+<td>13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>43</td>
+<td>Assistance Publique, B</td>
+<td>13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>44</td>
+<td>Mairie IVth Arrondissement, P.B</td>
+<td>14</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>45</td>
+<td>Magasins Réunis, D</td>
+<td>9</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>46</td>
+<td>Théâtre des Del. Comiques, B</td>
+<td>9</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>47</td>
+<td>Mairie XIth Arrondissement, P.B</td>
+<td>14</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>48</td>
+<td>Column of July, D</td>
+<td>14</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>49</td>
+<td>The Arsenal, B</td>
+<td>14</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>50</td>
+<td>Hospital of Salpétrière, B</td>
+<td>19</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>51</td>
+<td>Granary of Abundance, B</td>
+<td>14</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>52</td>
+<td>Lyons Railway Station, PB</td>
+<td>14</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>53</td>
+<td>Mairie of XIIth Arrondissement and Church of Bercy, B</td>
+<td>14</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+
+<p class="center">
+SOUTH OF THE RIVER SEINE.
+</p>
+
+<table cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2" style=
+"width: 45%; text-align: left; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"
+ border="1">
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<td>1</td>
+<td>Foreign Office, D.</td>
+<td>7</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>2</td>
+<td>Military School</td>
+<td>12</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>3</td>
+<td>Les Invalides and Tomb of Napoléon I.</td>
+<td>12</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>4</td>
+<td>Corps Législatif</td>
+<td>7</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>5</td>
+<td>Barracks d&rsquo;Orsay, P.B.</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>6</td>
+<td>Palace of the Institute</td>
+<td>13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>7</td>
+<td>The Mint</td>
+<td>13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>8</td>
+<td>Church of St. Sulpice</td>
+<td>13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>9</td>
+<td>Palace of the Luxembourg, D.</td>
+<td>13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>10</td>
+<td>Odéon Theatre, D.</td>
+<td>13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>11</td>
+<td>Museum of Cluny</td>
+<td>13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>12</td>
+<td>Palais de Justice, B.</td>
+<td>13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>13</td>
+<td>Cathedral of Notre Dame</td>
+<td>13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>14</td>
+<td>Church of the Pantheon, D.</td>
+<td>13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>15</td>
+<td>Church of Val de Grâce</td>
+<td>13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>16</td>
+<td>The Observatory</td>
+<td>18</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>17</td>
+<td>Wine Market (sacked)</td>
+<td>14</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>18</td>
+<td>Palace of Légion d&rsquo;Honneur, B.</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>19</td>
+<td>Conseil d&rsquo;État and Exchequer, B.</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>20</td>
+<td>Bank of Deposit, B.</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>21</td>
+<td>Western Railway Station, B.</td>
+<td>13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>22</td>
+<td>Gobelins Tapestry Manufactory, P.B.</td>
+<td>18</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>23</td>
+<td>Orleans Railway Station, P.B.</td>
+<td>14</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+
+<p>
+See western side of Plan for the fire and devastation caused
+by shot and shell during the engagements between the Federal
+troops and the army of Versailles:&mdash;Point du Jour, Auteuil,
+Passy, Porte Maillot, Avenue de la Grande Armée (Arc de
+Triomphe, much injured), Neuilly, Villiers, Lavallois,
+&amp;c.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+[Maps: (press map to enlarge)]
+</p>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a name="image-90"></a>
+<a href="images/097.jpg">
+<img src="images/097.jpg" width="96" height="59" alt="Illustration: " /></a>
+<p class="caption"><b>Plan of Paris Illustrative Of Mr. Leighton&rsquo;s Paris</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a href="images/098.jpg">
+<img src="images/098.jpg" width="96" height="62" alt="Illustration: " /></a>
+<p class="caption"><b>Plan of Paris Illustrative Of Mr. Leighton&rsquo;s Paris</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a href="images/099.jpg">
+<img src="images/099.jpg" width="96" height="69" alt="Illustration: " /></a>
+<p class="caption"><b>Parts Destroyed Or Damaged During the Reign of The Commune</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="fig" style="width:100%;">
+<a href="images/100.jpg">
+<img src="images/100.jpg" width="96" height="69" alt="Illustration: " /></a>
+<p class="caption"><b>Plan of Paris Illustrative Of Mr. Leighton&rsquo;s Paris</b></p>
+</div>
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Paris under the Commune, by John Leighton
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Paris under the Commune, by John Leighton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Paris under the Commune
+       The Seventy-Three Days of the Second Siege; With Numerous
+       Illustrations, Sketches Taken on the Spot, and Portraits
+       (from the Original Photographs)
+
+Author: John Leighton
+
+Release Date: January 29, 2004 [EBook #10861]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARIS UNDER THE COMMUNE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Robert Connal, Wilelmina Malliere and PG Distributed
+Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE THE COLUMN OF JULY (HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF)]
+
+PARIS
+
+UNDER THE COMMUNE:  OR,
+
+THE SEVENTY-THREE DAYS OF THE
+
+SECOND SIEGE
+
+WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS, SKETCHES TAKEN ON THE SPOT, AND PORTRAITS
+(FROM THE ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS).
+
+BY JOHN LEIGHTON, F.S.A.,
+
+&C.
+
+LONDON:
+
+1871.
+
+
+
+
+     Socialism, or the Red Republic, is all one; for it would
+   tear down the tricolour and set up the red flag. It would make
+   penny pieces out of the Column Vendome. It would knock down
+   the statue of Napoleon and raise up that of Marat in its
+   stead. It would suppress the Academie, the Ecole
+   Polytechnique, and the Legion of Honour. To the grand device
+   Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, it would add "Ou la mort."
+   It would bring about a general bankruptcy. It would ruin the
+   rich without enriching the poor. It would destroy labour,
+   which gives to each one his bread. It would abolish property
+   and family. It would march about with the heads of the
+   proscribed on pikes, fill the prisons with the suspected, and
+   empty them by massacres. It would convert France into the
+   country of gloom. It would strangle liberty, stifle the arts,
+   silence thought, and deny God. It would bring into action
+   these two fatal machines, one of which never works without the
+   other--the assignat press and the guillotine. In a word, it
+   would do in cold blood what the men of 1793 did in fever, and
+   after the grand horrors which our fathers saw, we should have
+   the horrible in all that was low and small.
+
+(VICTOR HUGO, 1848.)
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+Early in June of the present year I was making notes and sketches,
+without the least idea of what I should do with them. I was at the
+Mont-Parnasse Station of the Western Railway, awaiting a train from
+Paris to St. Cloud. Our fellow passengers, as we discovered afterwards,
+were principally prisoners for Versailles; the guards, soldiers; and the
+line, for two miles at least, appeared desolation and ruin.
+
+The facade of the station, a very large one, was pockmarked all over by
+Federal bullets, whilst cannon balls had cut holes through the stone
+wall as if it had been cheese, and gone down the line, towards Cherbourg
+or Brest! The restaurant below was nearly annihilated, the counters,
+tables, and chairs being reduced to a confused heap. But there was a
+book-stall and on that book-stall reposed a little work, entitled the
+"Bataille des Sept Jours," a brochure which a friend bought and gave to
+me, saying, "_Voila la texte de vos croquis_," From seven days my ideas
+naturally wandered to seventy-three--the duration of the reign of the
+Commune--and then again to two hundred and twenty days--that included
+the Commune of 1871 and its antecedents. Hence this volume, which I
+liken to a French chateau, to which I have added a second storey and
+wings.
+
+And now that the house is finished, I must render my obligations to M.
+Mendes and numerous French friends, for their kind assistance and
+valuable aid, including my confreres of "_The Graphic_," who have
+allowed me to enliven the walls with pictures from their stores; and
+last, and not least, my best thanks are due to an English Peer, who
+placed at my disposal his unique collection of prints and journals of
+the period bearing upon the subject--a subject I am pretty familiar
+with. Powder has done its work, the smell of petroleum has passed away,
+the house that called me master has vanished from the face of the earth,
+and my concierge and his wife are reported _fusilles_ by the
+Versaillais; and to add to the disaster, my rent was paid in advance,
+having been deposited with a _notaire_ prior to the First Siege.... But
+my neighbours, where are they? In my immediate neighbourhood six houses
+were entirely destroyed, and as many more half ruined. I can only speak
+of one friend, an amiable and able architect, who, alas! remonstrated in
+person, and received a ball from a revolver through the back of his
+neck. His head is bowed for life. He has lost his pleasure and his
+treasure, a valuable museum of art,--happily they could not burn his
+reputation, or the monument of his life--a range of goodly folio volumes
+that exist "_pour tous_."
+
+L.
+
+LONDON, 1871
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+CONTENTS
+
+LIST OF PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER--The 30th October, 1870--The Hotel de Ville
+invaded--Governor Trochu resigns--A Revolt attempted--Meetings, Place de
+la Bastille--The Prussians enter Paris--Hostility of the National Guard
+
+I. The Memorable 18th of March--Line and Nationals
+Fraternise--Discipline at a Discount
+
+II. Assassination of Generals Lecomte and Clement Thomas
+
+III. Proclamation of M. Picard--The Government retires to Versailles
+
+IV. The New Regime Proclaimed--Obscurity of New Masters
+
+V. Paris Hesitates--Small Sympathy with Versailles
+
+VI. The Buttes Montmartre
+
+VII. An Issue Possible--An Approved Proclamation
+
+VIII. Demonstration of the Friends of Order
+
+IX. The Drama of the Rue de la Paix--Victims to Order
+
+X. A Wedding
+
+XI. The Bourse and Belleville
+
+XII. Watching and Waiting
+
+XIII. A Timid but Prudent Person
+
+XIV Some Federal Opinions
+
+XV. Proclamation of Admiral Saisset--Paris Satisfied.
+
+XVI. A Widow
+
+XVII. The Central Committee Triumphs
+
+XVIII. Paris Elections
+
+XIX. The Commune a Fact--A Motley Assembly
+
+XX. Proclamation of the Elections
+
+XXI. A Batch of Official Decrees--Landlord, and Tenant
+
+XXII. Requisitions and Feasts
+
+XXIII. Removals and Retirements
+
+XXIV. A General Flight
+
+XXV. An Envoy to Garibaldi
+
+XXVI. Commencement of Civil War--Beyond the Arc de Triomphe
+
+XXVII. Mont Valerien opens on the Federals--Contradictory News
+
+XXVIII. Death of General Duval--Able Administration
+
+XXIX. Antipathy to the Church--The Archbishop Interrogated
+
+XXX. The Accomplices of Versailles
+
+XXXI. Death of Colonel Flourens
+
+XXXII. The Cross and the Red Flag
+
+XXXIII. Colonel Assy of Creuzot--Disgrace of Lullier
+
+XXXIV. Fighting goes on
+
+XXXV. Federal Funerals
+
+XXXVI. Prudent Counsel
+
+XXXVII. Suppression of Newspapers
+
+XXXVIII. The Second Bombardment--Avenue de la Grande Armee--Reckless Aim
+of the Versaillais
+
+XXXIX. The Plan of Bergeret
+
+XL. Another General--Police and Pressgang--A Citizen of the World
+
+XLI. Women and Children
+
+XLII. Why is Conciliation Impossible?
+
+XLIII. The Portable Guillotine
+
+XLIV. The Common Grave
+
+XLV. Idle Paris
+
+XLVI. The Press
+
+XLVII. Day follows Day
+
+XLVIII. The Condemned Column--Model Decrees
+
+XLIX. Thiers and Conciliation--Paris and France
+
+L. Communist Caricatures--Political Satire
+
+LI. Gustave Courbet--Federation of Art--Courbet, President
+
+LII. Camp, Place Vendome
+
+LIII. Elections of the 16th of April
+
+LIV. The "Change" under the Commune
+
+LV. Elections sans Electors--Farce of Universal Suffrage
+
+LVI. A la Mode de Londres
+
+LVII. The Little Sisters of the Poor
+
+LVIII. Becon and Asnieres taken--Declaration to the French
+People--Federation of Communes--The Commune or the Deluge
+
+LIX. A Court-Martial
+
+LX. A Heroic Gamin
+
+LXI. Killing the Dead
+
+LXII. The Truce at Neuilly--Porte-Maillot destroyed--Neuilly in Ruins
+
+LXIII. Masonic Mediation--The Envoy of Peace--Citizens and Brothers--A
+White Flag on Porte-Maillot
+
+LXIV. Prudent Monsieur Pyat
+
+LXV. Resources of the Commune--The Royal Road to Riches
+
+LXVI. The Prophecy of Proudhon
+
+LXVII. Revolutionary Balloons
+
+LXVIII. A Confession of Conscience
+
+LXIX. Communist Journalism--Sensation Articles
+
+LXX. Fort Issy falls
+
+LXXI. Cluseret arrested
+
+LXXII. The Executive Commission--Committee of Public Safety
+
+LXXIII. A Competent Tribunal
+
+LXXIV. The Password betrayed
+
+LXXV. The Condemned Chapel
+
+LXXVI. Restitution is Robbery
+
+LXXVII. The Nuns of Picpus
+
+LXXVIII. Rossel resigns--The Semblance of a Government
+
+LXXIX. Want of Funds--The Sinews of War
+
+LXXX. Passwords--The Chariot of Apollo--Refractories
+
+LXXXI. Sacrilege--Clubs in the Churches
+
+LXXXII. Refractories in Danger
+
+LXXXIII. The Home of M. Thiers, Demolition and Removal
+
+LXXXIV. Filial Love
+
+LXXXV. Communal Secessionists--Save himself who can
+
+LXXXVI. The Failing Cause--The Column Vendome falls
+
+LXXXVII. A Concert at the Tuileries
+
+LXXXVIII. Cartridge Magazine Explosion
+
+LXXXIX. The Advent of Action--Paris ceases to smile
+
+XC. The Troops enter--Street Fortifications--Insurgents at home
+
+XCI. Arrests and Murders
+
+XCII. Fire and Sword
+
+XCIII. Barricade at the Place de Clichy
+
+XCIV. Rack and Ruin
+
+XCV. Bloodshed and Brigandage
+
+XCVI. Hotel de Ville on Fire--A Furnace
+
+XCVII. Petroleurs and Petroleuses
+
+XCVIII. Streets of Paris
+
+XCIX. The Expiring Demons--The Hostages--Reprisals--Cemeteries
+
+C. Sewers and Catacombs
+
+CI. Mourning and Sadness
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+Chronology of the Commune
+
+Memoir of Rochefort.
+
+The 18th of March
+
+The Prussians and the Commune
+
+Memoir of Gambon
+
+Memoir of Lullier
+
+Memoir of Protot
+
+Translation from Victor Hugo
+
+Note of Jourde
+
+Last Proclamations of the Commune
+
+Note of Ferre
+
+The Hostages--Gendarmes, &c.
+
+President Bonjean
+
+Note of Urbain.
+
+Devastations of Paris
+
+Official Report of General Ladmirault
+
+Ammunition expended on Second Siege of Paris
+
+List of Monuments and Buildings destroyed
+
+Index to Plan--Damage by Fire, &c.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS:
+
+*Separate Plates on tinted paper.
+
+*FRONTISPIECE:--THE COLUMN OF JULY (HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF)
+
+PORTRAIT OF M. THIERS, PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
+
+*THE STATE OF PARTY--PICTURED By THEMSELVES. ALLEGORICAL
+PAGE--ROCHEFORT, CLEMENT THOMAS, &c. (_facsimile_)
+
+COLUMN OF JULY--PLACE DE LA BASTILLE
+
+THE BUTTES MONTMARTRE--FEDERAL ARTILLERY PARKED THERE
+
+MONTMARTRE--FIRST LINE OF SENTINELS
+
+THE RED FLAG OF THE COLUMN OF JULY
+
+*PURIFICATION OF THE CHAMPS ELYSEES AFTER THE DEPARTURE OF THE
+PRUSSIANS--CONSTRUCTION OF THE FIRST BARRICADE, 18TH MARCH
+
+DEFENCE OF THE HOTEL DE VILLE
+
+SENTINELS, BOULEVARD SAINT-MICHEL
+
+BEHIND A BARRICADE--THE DEJEUNER
+
+PORTRAIT OF GAMBON, MEMBER OF THE COMMUNE
+
+BEHIND A BARRICADE--THE EVENING MEAL
+
+PLACE DE LA CONCORDE--FEDERALS GOING OUT
+
+PORTRAIT OF GENERAL BERGERET
+
+PORTRAIT OF ABBE DEGUERRY, CURE OF THE MADELEINE
+
+PORTRAIT OF RAOUL RIGAULT, PROCUREUR OF THE COMMUNE
+
+PORTRAIT OF MONSEIGNEUR DARBOY, ARCHBISHOP OF PARIS
+
+PORTRAIT OF COLONEL FLOURENS
+
+PORTRAIT OF COLONEL ASSY, GOVERNOR OF THE HOTEL DE VILLE
+
+THE RED FLAG ON THE PANTHEON
+
+PORTRAIT OF GENERAL CLUSERET
+
+THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE DE L'ETOILE
+
+HORSE CHASSEUR ACTING AS COMMUNIST ARTILLERYMAN
+
+MARINE GUNNER AND STREET BOY
+
+THE CORPS LEGISLATIF--HEAD QUARTERS OF GENERAL BERGERET
+
+PORTRAIT OF GENERAL DOMBROWSKI
+
+*BURNING THE GUILLOTINE IN THE PLACE VOLTAIRE
+
+COLONNE VENDOME
+
+*CARICATURE DURING THE COMMUNE--LITTLE PARIS AND HIS PLAYTHINGS
+(_facsimile_)
+
+*THE MODERN "EROSTRATE"--COURBET AND THE DEBRIS OF THE VENDOME COLUMN
+
+*FEDERAL VISIT TO THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR
+
+PORTRAIT OF VERMOREL, DELEGATE OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMISSION
+
+FEMALE CURIOSITY AT PORTE MAILLOT
+
+PORTE MAILLOT AND CHAPEL OF ST. FERDINAND
+
+ARMISTICE--INHABITANTS OF NEUILLY ENTERING PARIS
+
+WATCHING FOR THE FIRST SHOT FROM FORT VALERIEN
+
+FEMALE IMPERTURBABILITY AFTER THE ARMISTICE
+
+PORTRAIT OF PROTOT, DELEGATE OF JUSTICE
+
+PORTRAIT OF FELIX PYAT, MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY
+
+FREEMASONS AT THE RAMPARTS
+
+PORTRAIT OF VERMESCH, EDITOR OF THE "PERE DUCHESNE"
+
+PORTRAIT OF PASCHAL CROUSSET, DELEGATE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
+
+PORTRAIT OF DUPONT, COMMISSIONER OF TRADE AND COMMERCE
+
+CHAPELLE EXPIATOIRE (CONDEMNED BY THE COMMUNE)
+
+*CARICATURE DURING THE COMMUNE--PARIS EATS A GENERAL A-DAY (_facsimile_)
+
+PORTRAIT OF DELESCLUZE, DELEGATE OF WAR
+
+PORTRAIT OF FONTAINE, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC DOMAINS AND REGISTRATION
+
+REFRACTAIRES ESCAPING FROM THE CITY BY NIGHT
+
+PORTRAIT OF GENERAL LA CECILIA
+
+CHURCH OF ST. EUSTACHE (EXTERIOR)
+
+INTERIOR OF ST. EUSTACHE, USED AS A RED CLUB
+
+HOUSE OF M. THIERS IN THE PLACE ST. GEORGES
+
+HOUSE DURING DEMOLITION--AFTER ITS SACK
+
+PORTRAIT OF COURNET, PREFECT OF POLICE
+
+PORTRAIT OF ARTHUR ARNOULD, COMMISSIONER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
+
+*THE SEINE: FOUNDERED GUN-BOATS--PORTE MAILLOT, DESOLATION AND
+DESTRUCTION
+
+BARRICADE OF THE RUE CASTIGLIONE FROM THE PLACE VENDOME
+
+PALACE OF THE TUILERIES
+
+PORTRAIT OF RAZOUA, GOVERNOR OF THE MILITARY SCHOOL
+
+*CAFE LIFE UNDER THE COMMUNE--A SLIGHT INTERRUPTION--PLAY-BILLS AND
+BURNT-OFFERINGS--"SPECTACLES DE PARIS"
+
+*PLACE DE LA CONCORDE--STATUES OF LILLE AND STRASBOURG
+
+*FIRE AND WATER--THE EFFECT OF FIRE ON THE FOUNTAINS OF THE PLACE DE LA
+CONCORDE AND THE CHATEAU D'EAU--HIRONDELLES DE PARIS
+
+PORTRAIT OF JULES VALLES, DELEGATE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND OF PUBLIC
+INSTRUCTION
+
+BARRICADE CLOSING THE RUE DE RIVOLI FROM THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE
+
+*BULLET MARKS "EN FACE" AND "EN PROFIL"--THE TREES AND LAMPS
+
+RUE ROYALE, LOOKING FROM THE MADELEINE TO THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE
+
+*A WARM CORNER OF THE TUILERIES
+
+PORTRAIT OF MILLIERE, EX-DEPUTY, MEMBER OF THE COMMUNE
+
+PALAIS DE JUSTICE
+
+*POLICE OF PARIS--MINISTRY OF FINANCE, RUE DE RIVOLI
+
+PORTRAIT OF FERRE, PREFECT OF POLICE
+
+PALACE OF THE LUXEMBOURG (AMBULANCE HOSPITAL OF THE COMMUNE)
+
+*PETROLEURS AND PETROLEUSES
+
+*THE THEATRE OF THE PORTE ST-MARTIN--ALL THAT REMAINS OF THE HOME OF
+SENSATION DRAMA
+
+CELL OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF PARIS IN THE PRISON OF LA ROQUETTE
+
+YARD OF LA ROQUETTE WHERE THE ARCHBISHOP AND HOSTAGES WERE SHOT
+
+*MY NEIGHBOUR OPPOSITE, BUSINESS CARRIED ON AS USUAL--MY NEIGHBOUR NEXT
+DOOR, HE THINKS HIMSELF FORTUNATE
+
+PARIS UNDERGROUND (SEWERS AND CATACOMBS)
+
+*THE ENEMIES OF PROGRESS (LES ARISTOCRATES ENCORE)--CORPS DE GARDE DE
+L'ARMEE DE VERSAILLES
+
+*THE PUBLIC PROMENADES--A CAMP IN THE LUXEMBOURG--THE NEW
+MASTERS--PROCLAMATION OVER PROCLAMATION
+
+THE LUXEMBOURG (PRESENT TOWN HALL OF PARIS, 1871)
+
+PORTRAIT OF MARSHAL MACMAHON, DUKE OF MAGENTA
+
+*LIGHT AND AIR ONCE MORE--THE FOSSE COMMUNE (THE END)
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+MUSEE OF THE LOUVRE, FROM THE PLACE DU CARROUSEL
+
+PALAIS ROYAL
+
+HOTEL DE VILLE
+
+FOREIGN OFFICE
+
+PALACE OF THE LEGION OF HONOUR
+
+MAP OF PARIS, WITH INDICATIONS OF ALL THE PARTS DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.
+
+[Illustration: M. THIERS, Voted Chief of the Executive Power Feb.
+18,1871, and President of the Republic, Sept. 1871.]
+
+
+
+
+
+PARIS
+
+UNDER THE COMMUNE.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+
+Late in the day of the 30th October, 1870, the agitation was great in
+Paris; the news had spread that the village of Le Bourget had been
+retaken by the Prussians. The military report had done what it could to
+render the pill less bitter by saying that "_this village did not form a
+part of the system of defence_," but the people though kept in ignorance
+perceived instinctively that there must be weakness on the part of the
+chiefs. After so much French blood had been shed in taking the place,
+men of brave will would not have been wanting to occupy it. We admit
+that Le Bourget may not have been important from a military point of
+view, but as regarding its moral effect its loss was much to be
+regretted.
+
+The irritation felt by the population of Paris was changed into
+exasperation, when on the following day the news of the reduction of
+Metz appeared in the _Official Journal_:
+
+    "The Government has just been acquainted with the sad intelligence
+    of the capitulation of Metz. Marshal Bazaine and his army were
+    compelled to surrender, after heroic efforts, which the want of food
+    and ammunition alone rendered it impossible to maintain. They have
+    been made prisoners of war."
+
+And after this the Government talks of an armistice! What! Strasburg,
+Toul, Metz, and so many other towns have resisted to the last dire
+extremity, and Paris, who expects succour from the provinces, is to
+capitulate, while a single effort is left untried? Has she no more
+bread? No more powder? Have her citizens no more blood in their veins?
+No, no! No armistice!
+
+In the morning, a deputation, formed of officers of the National Guards,
+went to the Hotel de Ville to learn from the Government what were its
+intentions. They were received by M. Etienne Arago, who promised them
+that the decision should be made known to them about two o'clock.
+
+The rappel was beaten at the time mentioned; battalions of the National
+Guards poured into the Place, some armed, many without arms.
+
+Over the sea of heads the eye was attracted by banners, and enormous
+placards bearing the inscriptions--
+
+"Vive la Republique!
+
+"No Armistice!"
+
+or else
+
+"Vive la Commune!
+
+"Death to Cowards!"
+
+Rochefort,[1] with several other members of the Government, shows
+himself at the principal gate, which is guarded by a company of Mobiles.
+General Trochu appears in undress; he is received with cries of "_Vive
+la Republique! La levee en masse!_ No Armistice! The National Guards,
+who demand the _levee en masse_, would but cause a slaughter. We must
+have cannon first; we will have them." Alas! it had been far better to
+have had none whatever, as what follows will prove. While some cry,
+"Vive Trochu!" others shout, "Down with Trochu!" Before long the Hotel
+de Ville is invaded; the courts, the saloons, the galleries, all are
+filled. Each one offers his advice, but certain groups insist positively
+on the resignation of the Government. Lists of names are passed from
+hand to hand; among the names are those of Dorian (president),
+Schoelcher, Delescluze, Ledru Rollin, Felix Pyat.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Cries are raised that if the Government refuse to resign, its members
+will be arrested.
+
+"Yes! yes! seize them!" And an officer springs forward to make them
+prisoners as they sit in council.
+
+"Excuse me, Monsieur, but what warrant have you for so doing?" asks one
+of the members.
+
+"I have nothing to do with warrants. I act in the name of the people!"
+
+"Have you consulted the people? Those assembled here do not constitute
+the people."
+
+The officer was disconcerted. Not long afterwards, however, the crowd is
+informed that the members of the Government are arrested.
+
+The principal scene took place in the cabinet of the ex-prefect. Citizen
+Blanqui approaches the table; addressing the people, he requests them to
+evacuate the room so as to allow the commission to deliberate. The
+commission! What commission? Where does it spring from? No one knew
+anything of it, so the members must evidently have named themselves.
+Monsieur Blanqui had seen to that, no doubt. During this time the
+adjoining room is the theatre of the most extraordinary excitement; the
+men of the 106th Battalion, who were on guard in the interior of the
+Hotel de Ville, are compelled to use their arms to prevent any one else
+entering. After some tumult and struggling, but without any spilling of
+blood, some National Guards of this battalion manage to fight their way
+through to the room in which the members of the Government are
+prisoners, and succeed in delivering them.
+
+At about two o'clock in the morning, the 106th Battalion had completely
+cleared the Hotel de Ville of the crowds. No violence had been done, and
+General Trochu was reviewing a body of men ranged in battle order, which
+extended from the Place de l'Hotel de Ville to the Place de la Concorde.
+An hour later, quiet was completely restored.
+
+The members of the Government, who had been incarcerated during several
+hours, now wished to show their authority; they felt that their power
+had been shaken, and saw the necessity of strengthening it. What can a
+Government do in such a case? Call for a plebiscite. But this time Paris
+alone was consulted, and for a good reason. Thus, on the 1st November,
+the people, of Paris were enjoined to express their wishes by answering
+yes or no to this simple question:--
+
+    "Do the people of Paris recognise the authority of the Government
+    for the National Defence?"
+
+This was clear, positive, and free from all ambiguity.
+
+The partizans of the Commune declared vehemently that those who voted in
+the affirmative were reactionists. "Give us the Commune of '93!" shouted
+those who thought they knew a little more about the matter than the
+rest. They were generally rather badly received. It is no use speaking
+of '93! Replace your Blanquis, your Felix Pyats, your Flourens by men
+like those of the grand revolution, and then we shall be glad to hear
+what you have to say on the subject.
+
+The inhabitants of Montmartre, La-Chapelle, Belleville, behaved like
+good citizens, keeping a brave heart in the hour of misfortune.
+
+However it came about, the Government was maintained by a majority of
+557,995 votes against 62,638.
+
+Well, Messieurs of the Commune, try again, or, still better, remain
+quiet.
+
+During the night of the 21st of January the members of the National
+Defence and the chief officers of the army were assembled around the
+table in the council-room. They were still under the mournful impression
+left by the fatal day of the nineteenth, on which hundreds of citizens
+had fallen at Montretout, at Garches, and at Buzenval. Thanks to the
+want of foresight of the Government, the people of Paris were rationed
+to 300 grammes of detestable black bread a day for each person. All
+representations made to them had been in vain. Ration our bread by
+degrees, had been said, we should thus accustom ourselves to privation,
+and be prepared insensibly, for greater sufferings, while the duration
+of our provisions would be lengthened. But the answer always was:
+"Bread? We shall have enough, and to spare." When the great crisis was
+seen approaching, the public feeling showed itself by violent agitation.
+It was not surprising, therefore, that all the faces of these gentlemen
+at the council-table bore marks of great depression. The Governor of
+Paris offered his resignation, as he was in the habit of doing after
+every rather stormy sitting; but his colleagues refused to accept it, as
+they had before. What was to be done? Had not the Governor of Paris
+sworn never to capitulate? After a night spent in discussing the
+question, the members of Government decided on the following plan of
+action. You will see that it was as simple as it was innocent! The
+following announcement was placarded on all the walls:--
+
+    "The Government for the National Defence has decided that the chief
+    commandment of the army of Paris shall in future be separate from
+    the presidency of the Government.
+
+    "General Vinoy is named Commandant-in-Chief of the army of Paris.
+
+    "The title and functions of the Governor of Paris are suppressed."
+
+The trick is played: if they capitulate now, it will no longer be the
+act of the Governor of Paris. How ingenious this would have been, if it
+had not been pitiful!
+
+    "General Trochu retains the presidency of the Government."
+
+By the side of this placard was the proclamation of General Thomas.
+
+    "TO THE NATIONAL GUARD.
+
+    "Last night, a handful of insurgents forced open the prison of
+    Mazas, and delivered several of the prisoners, amongst whom was M.
+    Flourens. The same men attempted to occupy the _mairie_ of the 20th
+    arrondissement (Belleville), and to install the chiefs of the
+    insurrection there; your commander-in-chief relies on your
+    patriotism to repress this shameful sedition.
+
+    "The safety of Paris is at stake.
+
+    "While the enemy is bombarding our forts, the factions within our
+    walls use all their efforts to paralyse the defence.
+
+    "In the name of the public good, in the name of law, and of the high
+    and sacred duty that commands you all to unite in the defence of
+    Paris, hold yourselves ready to frustrate this most criminal
+    attempt; at the first call, let the National Guard rise to a man,
+    and the perturbators will be struck powerless.
+
+    "The Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard,
+
+    "CLEMENT THOMAS.
+
+    "A true copy.
+
+    "Minister of the Interior ad interim,
+
+    "JULES FAVRE.
+
+    "Paris, 22nd January, 1871."
+
+In the morning, large groups of people assembled from mere curiosity,
+appeared on the Place of the Hotel de Ville, which however wore a
+peaceful aspect.
+
+At about half-past two in the afternoon, a detachment of a hundred and
+fifty armed National Guards issued from the Rue du Temple, and stationed
+themselves before the Hotel de Ville, crying, "Down with Trochu!" "Long
+live the Commune!" A short colloquy was then held between several of the
+National Guards and some officers of the Mobiles, who spoke with perfect
+calmness. Suddenly, a shot is fired, and at the same moment, as in the
+grand scene of a melodrama, the windows and the great door are flung
+open, and two lines of Mobile Guards are seen, the front rank kneeling,
+the second standing, and all levelling their muskets and prepared to
+fire. Then came a volley which spread terror amidst the crowds of people
+in the Place, who precipitated themselves in all directions, uttering
+cries and shrieks. In another moment the Place is cleared. Ah! those
+famous chassepots can work miracles.
+
+The insurgents, during this mad flight of men, women, and children, had
+answered the attack, some aiming from the shelter of angles and posts,
+others discharging their rifles from the windows of neighbouring houses.
+
+Then the order to cease firing is heard, and a train of litterbearers,
+waving their handkerchiefs as flags, approach from the Avenue Victoria.
+At the Hotel de Ville one officer only is wounded, but on the Place lie
+a dozen victims, two of whom are women.
+
+At four o'clock the 117th Battalion of the National Guard takes up its
+position before the municipal palace. They are reinforced by a
+detachment of _gendarmes_, mounted and on foot, and by companies of
+Mobiles, under the command of General Carreard.
+
+General Clement Thomas hastens to address a few words to the 117th;
+later, he paid with his life for thus appearing on the side of order.
+Finally, General Vinoy arrives, followed by his staff, to take measures
+against any renewed acts of aggression. Mitrailleuses and cannon are
+stationed before the Hotel de Ville; the drums beat the _rappel_
+throughout the town, and a great number of battalions of National Guards
+assemble in the Rue de Rivoli, at the Louvre, and on the Place de la
+Concorde; others bivouac before the Palais de l'Industrie, while on the
+other side of the Champs Elysees regiments of cavalry, infantry, and
+mobiles, are drawn out. The agitators have disappeared, calm is
+restored, within the city be it understood, for all this did not
+interrupt the animated interchange of shells between the French and
+Prussian batteries, and a great number of Parisians, who had twice
+helped to disperse the insurgents of October and January, thought
+involuntarily of the Commune of the 10th of August, 1793, which headed
+the revolution, and said to themselves that there were perhaps some
+amongst the present insurgents who, like the former, would rise up to
+deliver them from the Prussians. For these agitators have some
+appearance of truth on their side: "You are weak and timorous," they cry
+to those in power; "you seem awaiting a defeat rather than expecting a
+victory. Give place to the energetic, obscure though they may be; for
+the men of the great Commune, of our first glorious revolution, they
+also were for the greater part unknown. We have confidence in the army
+of Paris, and we will break the iron circle of invasion."
+
+Though the Communists have since then shown bravery, and sometimes
+heroism, in their struggle against the Versailles troops, we are very
+doubtful, now that we have seen their chiefs in action, whether the
+efforts they talked of would have been crowned with success. Their
+object was power, and, having nothing to risk and all to gain, they
+would have forthwith disposed of public property in order to procure
+themselves enjoyment and honours. The few right-minded men who at first
+committed themselves, proved this by the fact of their giving in their
+resignation a few days after the Commune had established itself.
+
+Tranquillity had returned. In the morning of the 25th, guards patrolled
+the Place de la Bastille, the Place du Chateau d'Eau, the Boulevard
+Magenta, and the outer boulevards. Paris started as if she had been
+aroused from some fearful dream, and the waking thought of the enemy at
+her gates stirred up all her energies once more.
+
+The Communists had been defeated for the second time; but they were soon
+to take a terrible revenge.
+
+The vow made by the Governor of Paris had been repeated by the majority
+of the Parisians, and all parties seemed to have rallied round him under
+the same device: vanquish or die. After the forts, the barricades, and
+as a last resource, the burning of the city. Who knows? Perhaps the
+fanatics of resistance had already made out the plan of destruction
+which served later for the Commune. It has been proved that nothing in
+this work of ruin was impromptu.
+
+The news of the convention of the 28th of January, the preliminary of
+the capitulation of Paris, was thus very badly received, and M.
+Gambetta, by exhorting the people, in his celebrated circular of the
+31st of January, to resist to the death, sowed the seeds of civil war:--
+
+    "CITIZENS,--
+
+    "The enemy has just inflicted upon France the most cruel insult that
+    she has yet had to endure in this accursed war, the too-heavy
+    punishment of the errors and weaknesses of a great people.
+
+    "Paris, the impregnable, vanquished by famine, is no longer able to
+    hold in respect the German hordes. On the 28th of January, the
+    capital succumbed, her forts surrendered to the enemy. The city
+    still remains intact, wresting, as it were, by her own power and
+    moral grandeur, a last homage from barbarity.
+
+    "But in falling, Paris leaves us the glorious legacy of her heroic
+    sacrifices. During five months of privation and suffering, she has
+    given to France the time to collect herself, to call her children
+    together, to find arms, to compose armies, young as yet, but valiant
+    and determined, and to whom is wanting only that solidity which can
+    be obtained but by experience. Thanks to Paris, we hold in our
+    hands, if we are but resolute and patriotic, all that is needed to
+    revenge, and set ourselves free once more.
+
+    "But, as though evil fortune had resolved to overwhelm us, something
+    even more terrible and more fraught with anguish than the fall of
+    Paris, was awaiting us.
+
+    "Without our knowledge, without either warning, us or consulting us,
+    an armistice, the culpable weakness of which was known to us too
+    late, has been signed, which delivers into the hands of the
+    Prussians the departments occupied by our soldiers, and which
+    obliges us to wait for three weeks, in the midst of the disastrous
+    circumstances in which the country is plunged, before a national
+    assembly can be assembled.
+
+    "We sent to Paris for some explanation, and then awaited in silence
+    the promised arrival of a member of the government, to whom we were
+    determined to resign our office. As delegates of government, we
+    desired to obey, and thereby prove to all, friends and dissidents,
+    by setting an example of moderation and respect of duty, that
+    democracy is not only the greatest of all political principles, but
+    also the most scrupulous of governments.
+
+    "However, no one has arrived from Paris, and it is necessary to act,
+    come what may; the perfidious machinations of the enemies of France
+    must be frustrated.
+
+    "Prussia relies upon the armistice to enervate and dissolve our
+    armies; she hopes that the Assembly, meeting after so long a
+    succession of disasters, and under the impression of the terrible
+    fall of Paris, wilt be timid and weak, and ready to submit to a
+    shameful peace.
+
+    "It is for us to upset these calculations, and to turn the very
+    instruments which are prepared to crush the spirit of resistance,
+    into spurs that shall arouse and excite it.
+
+    "Let us make this same armistice into a code of instruction for our
+    young troops; let us employ the three coming weeks in pushing on the
+    organization of the defence and of the war more ardently than ever.
+
+    "Instead of the meeting of cowardly reactionists that our enemies
+    expect, let us form an assembly that shall be veritably national and
+    republican, desirous of peace, if peace can ensure the honour, the
+    rank, and the integrity of our country, but capable of voting for
+    war rather than aiding in the assassination of France.
+
+    "FRENCHMEN,
+
+    "Remember that our fathers left us France, whole and indivisible;
+    let us not be traitors to our history; let us not deliver up our
+    traditional domains into the hands of barbarians. Who then will sign
+    the armistice? Not you, legitimists, who fought so valiantly under
+    the flag of the Republic, in the defence of the ancient kingdom of
+    France; nor you, sons of the bourgeois of 1789, whose work was to
+    unite the old provinces in a pact of indissoluble union; nor you,
+    workmen of the towns, whose intelligence and generous patriotism
+    represent France in all her strength and grandeur, the leader of
+    modern nations; nor you, tillers of the soil, who never have spared
+    your blood in the defence of the Revolution, which gave you the
+    ownership of your land and your title of citizen.
+
+    "No! Not one Frenchman will be found to sign this infamous act; the
+    enemy's attempt to mutilate France will be frustrated, for, animated
+    with the same love of the mother country and bearing our reverses
+    with fortitude, we shall become strong once more and drive out the
+    foreign legions.
+
+    "To the attainment of this noble end, we must devote our hearts, our
+    wills, our lives, and, a still greater sacrifice perhaps, put aside
+    our preferences.
+
+    "We must close our ranks about the Republic, show presence of mind
+    and strength of purpose; and without passion or weakness, swear,
+    like free men, to defend France and the Republic against all and
+    everyone.
+
+    "To arms!"
+
+The Government, by obtaining from M. de Bismarck a condition that the
+National Guards should retain their arms, hoped to win public favour
+again, as one offers a rattle to a fractious child to keep him quiet;
+and it published the news on the 3rd of February:
+
+    "After the most strenuous efforts on our part, we have obtained, for
+    the National Guard, the condition ratified by the convention of the
+    28th January."
+
+Three days after, on the 6th of February, Gambetta wrote:
+
+    "His conscience would not permit him to remain a member of a
+    government with which he no longer agreed in principle."
+
+The candidates, elected in Paris on the 8th of February, were Louis
+Blanc, Victor Hugo, Garibaldi, Gambetta, Rochefort, Delescluze, Pyat,
+Lockroy, Floquet, Milliere, Tolain, Malon. The provinces, on the other
+hand, chose their deputies from among the party of reaction, the members
+of which have been so well-known since under the name of _rurals._
+
+Loud murmurs arose in the ranks of the National Guard, when the decrees
+of the 18th and 19th of February, concerning their pay, were published;
+and later, when an order from headquarters required the marching
+companies to send in to the state depot all their campaigning
+paraphernalia.
+
+On the 18th of February, M. Thiers was named chief of the executive
+power by a vote of the Assembly.
+
+On Sunday, the 26th of February, the Place de la Bastille, in which
+manifestations had been held for the last two days in celebration of the
+revolution of February '48, became as a shrine, to which whole
+battalions of the National Guard marched to the sound of music, their
+flags adorned with caps of liberty and cockades. The Column of July was
+hung with banners and decorated with wreaths of immortelles. Violent
+harangues, the theme of which was the upholding of the Republic "to the
+death," were uttered at its foot. One man, of the name of Budaille,
+pretended that he held proofs of the treachery of the Government for the
+National Defence, and promised that he would produce them at the proper
+time and place.
+
+Up to this moment, the demonstrations seemed to have but one
+result--that of impeding circulation; but they soon gave rise to scenes
+of tumult and disorder. Towards one o'clock, when perhaps twenty or
+thirty thousand persons were on the above Place, an individual, accused
+of being a spy, was dragged by an infuriated mob to the river, and
+flung, bound hand and foot, into the look by the Ile Saint Louis, amidst
+the wild cries and imprecations of the madmen whose prey he had become.
+
+The night of the 26th was very agitated; drums beat to arms, and on the
+morning of the 27th the Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard issued
+a proclamation, in which he appealed to the good citizens of Paris, and
+confided the care of the city to the National Guard. This had no effect,
+however, on the aspect of the Place de la Bastille; the crowd continued
+to applaud, frantically, the incendiary speeches of the socialist party,
+who had sworn to raise Paris at any cost.
+
+[Illustration: COLUMN OF JULY, PLACE DE LA BASTILLE.]
+
+On the same day, the 27th of February, the Government informed the
+people of Paris of the result of the negociations with Prussia, in the
+following proclamation:
+
+    "The Government appeals to your patriotism and your wisdom; you hold
+    in your hands the future of Paris and of France herself. It is for
+    you to save or to ruin both!
+
+    "After a heroic resistance, famine forced you to open your gates to
+    the victorious enemy; the armies that should have come to your aid
+    were driven over the Loire. These incontestable facts have compelled
+    the Government for the National Defence to open negotiations of
+    peace.
+
+    "For six days your negotiators have disputed the ground foot by
+    foot; they did all that was humanly possible, to obtain less
+    rigorous conditions. They have signed the preliminaries of peace,
+    which are about to be submitted to the National Assembly.
+
+    "During the time necessary for the examination and discussion of
+    these preliminaries, hostilities would have recommenced, and blood
+    would, have flowed afresh and uselessly, without a prolongation of
+    the armistice.
+
+    "This prolongation could only be obtained on the condition of a
+    partial and very temporary occupation of a portion of Paris:
+    absolutely to be limited to the quarter of the Champs Elysees. Not
+    more than thirty thousand men are to enter the city, and they are to
+    retire as soon as the preliminaries of peace have been ratified,
+    which act can only occupy a few days.
+
+    "If this convention were not to be respected the armistice would be
+    at an end: the enemy, already master of the forts, would occupy the
+    whole of Paris by force. Your property, your works of art, your
+    monuments, now guaranteed by the convention, would cease to exist.
+
+    "The misfortune would reach the whole of France. The frightful
+    ravages of the war, which have not heretofore passed the Loire,
+    would extend to the Pyrenees.
+
+    "It is then absolutely true to say that the salvation of France is
+    at stake. Do not imitate the error of those who would not listen to
+    us when, eight months ago, we abjured them not to undertake a war
+    which must be fatal.
+
+    "The French army which defended Paris with so much courage will
+    occupy the left of the Seine, to ensure the loyal execution of the
+    new armistice. It is for the National Guard to lend its aid, by
+    keeping order in the rest of the city.
+
+    "Let all good citizens who earned honour as its chiefs, and showed
+    themselves so brave before the enemy, reassume their authority, and
+    the cruel situation of the moment will be terminated by peace and the
+    return of public prosperity."
+
+This clause of the occupation of Paris by the Prussians was regarded by
+some people as a mere satisfaction of national vanity; but the greater
+number considered it as an apple of discord thrown by M. de Bismarck,
+who had every reason to desire that civil war should break out, thus
+making himself an accomplice of the Socialists and the members of the
+International. Confining ourselves simply to the analysis of facts, and
+to those considerations which may enlighten public opinion respecting
+the causes of events, we shall not allow ourselves to be carried over
+the vast field of hypothesis, but preserve the modest character of
+narrators. On the night of the 27th of February, the admiral commanding
+the third section of the fortifications, having noticed the hostile
+attitude of the National Guard, caused the troops which had been
+disarmed in accordance with the conditions of the armistice to withdraw
+into the interior of the city. The men of Belleville profited by the
+circumstance to pillage the powder magazines which had been entrusted to
+their charge, and on the following day they went, preceded by drums and
+trumpets, to the barracks of the Rue de la Pepiniere to invite the
+sailors lodged there to join them in a patriotic manifestation on that
+night. Believing that the object was to prevent the Prussians entering
+Paris, a certain number of these brave fellows, who had behaved so
+admirably during the siege, set out towards the Place de la Bastille but
+having been met on their way by some of their officers, they soon
+separated themselves from the rioters. Thirty of them had been invited
+to an open-air banquet in the Place de la Bastille; but seeing the
+probability of some disorder they nearly all retired, and on the
+following morning only eight of them were missing at the roll-call. Not
+one of the six thousand marines lodged in the barracks of the Ecole
+Militaire absented himself. On the same day, the 28th, a secret
+society, which we learned later to know and to fear, issued its first
+circular under the name of the Central Committee of the National Guard;
+the part since played by this body has been too important for us to omit
+to insert this proclamation here: its decisions became official acts
+which overthrew all constituted authority.
+
+    "CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL GUARD.
+
+    "Citizens,--
+
+    "The general feeling of the population appears to be to offer no
+    opposition to the entry of the Prussians into Paris. The Central
+    Committee, which had emitted contrary advice, declares its intention
+    of adhering to the following resolutions:--
+
+    "'All around the quarters occupied by the enemy, barricades shall be
+    raised so as to isolate completely that part of the town. The
+    inhabitants of the circumscribed portion should be required to quit
+    it immediately.
+
+    "'The National Guard, in conjunction with the army, shall form an
+    unbroken line along the whole circuit, and take care that the enemy,
+    thus isolated upon ground which is no longer of our city, shall
+    communicate in no manner with any of the other parts of Paris.
+
+    "'The Central Committee engages the National Guard to lend, its aid
+    for the execution of the necessary measures to bring about this
+    result, and to avoid any aggressive acts which would have the
+    immediate effect of overthrowing the Republic."'
+
+But here is a little treacherous placard, manuscript and anonymous,
+which takes a much fairer tone:--
+
+    "A convention has permitted the Prussians to occupy the Champs
+    Elysees, from the Seine to the Faubourg St. Honore, and as far as
+    the Place de la Concorde.
+
+    "Be it so! The greater the injury, the more terrible the revenge.
+
+    "But, if some panderer dare to pass the circle of our shame, let him
+    be instantly declared traitor, let him become a target for our
+    balls, an object for our petroleum, a mark for our Orsini bombs,[2]
+    an aim for our daggers!
+
+    "Let this be told to all.
+
+    "By decision of the Horatii,
+
+    "(Signed) POPULUS."
+
+The effervescence in the minds of the people was so great, that the
+entry of the Prussians was delayed for forty-eight hours, but on the
+first of March, at ten in the morning, they had come into the city, and
+the smoke of their bivouac fires was seen in the Champs Elysees. On the
+evening of the same day, a telegram from Bordeaux announced that the
+National Assembly had ratified the preliminaries of peace by a majority
+of 546 voices against 107. On the following day the ex-Minister of
+Foreign Affairs left for Versailles, and by nine o'clock in the evening,
+everything was prepared for the evacuation of the troops, which was
+effected by eleven, on the third of March. During the short period of
+their stay, the city was in veritable mourning; the public edifices
+(even the Bourse) were closed, as were the shops, the warehouses, and
+the greater part of the cafes. At the windows hung black flags, or the
+tricolour covered with black crape, and veils of the same material
+concealed the faces of the statues[3] on the Place de la Concorde.
+
+All these demonstrations had, however, a pacific character, and the
+presence of the enemy in Paris gave rise to no serious incident.
+
+Nevertheless, the agitation of the public mind was not allayed; some
+attributed this to a plot the Socialists had formed, and which had
+arrived at maturity. Others believed that the Prussians had left
+emissaries, creators of disorder, behind them, in revenge for their
+reception on the Place de la Concorde. In truth, their entry was
+anything but triumphal; their national airs were received with hisses;
+their officers were hooted as they promenaded in the Tuileries, and
+those who attempted to visit the Louvre were compelled to retreat
+without having satisfied their curiosity. On the evening of the 3rd of
+March, a note emanating from the Ministry of the Interior, pointed out
+in the following terms the danger to be feared from the Central
+Committee:--
+
+    "Incidents of the most regrettable nature have occurred during the
+    last few days, and menace seriously the peace of the capital.
+    Certain National Guards in arms, following the orders, not of their
+    legitimate chiefs, but of an anonymous Central Committee, which
+    could not give them any instructions without committing a crime
+    severely punishable by the law, took possession of a considerable
+    quantity of arms and ammunition of war, under the pretext of saving
+    them from the enemy, whose invasion they pretended to fear. Such
+    acts should at any rate have ceased after the departure of the
+    Prussian army. But such is not the case, for this evening the
+    guard-house at the Gobelins was invaded, and a number of cartridges
+    stolen.
+
+    "Those who provoke these disorders draw upon themselves a most
+    terrible responsibility; it is at the very moment that the city of
+    Paris, relieved from contact with the foreigner, desires to reassume
+    its habits of serenity and industry, that these men are sowing
+    trouble and preparing civil war. The Government appeals to all good
+    citizens to aid in stifling in the germ these culpable
+    manifestations.
+
+[Illustration: THE HILL OF MONTMARTRE!--WITH THE GUNS OF THE
+NATIONAL GUARD PARKED THERE. VIEW TAKEN FROM THE PLACE ST. PIERRE.]
+
+    "Let all who have at heart the honour and the peace of the city
+    arise; let the National Guard, repulsing all perfidious
+    instigations, rally round its officers, and prevent evils of which
+    the consequences will be incalculable. The Government and the
+    Commander-in-Chief (General d'Aurelle de Paladines, nominated on
+    the same day by M. Thiers to the chief command of the National
+    Guard) are determined to do their duty energetically; they will
+    cause the laws to be executed; they count on the patriotism and the
+    devotion of all the inhabitants of Paris."
+
+It was indeed time to put a stop to the existing state of affairs, for
+already twenty-six guns were in the possession of the insurgents, who
+had formed a regular park of artillery in the Place d'Italie, and this
+is the aspect of the Buttes Montmartre on the sixth of March, as
+described by an eye-witness:--
+
+    "The heights have become a veritable camp. Three or four hundred
+    National Guards, belonging partly to the 61st and 168th Battalions,
+    mount guard there day and night, and relieve each other regularly,
+    like old campaigners. They have two drummers and four trumpeters,
+    who beat the rappel or ring out the charge whenever the freak takes
+    them, without any one knowing why or wherefore. The officers, with
+    broad red belts, high boots, and their long swords dragging after
+    them, parade the Place with pipes or cigars in their months. They
+    glance disdainfully at the passers-by, and seem almost overpowered
+    with the importance of the high mission they imagine themselves
+    called upon to fulfil. "This is of what their mission consists: at
+    the moment of the entry of the Prussians into Paris, the National
+    Guard of Montmartre, fearing that the artillery would be taken from
+    them to be delivered to the enemy, assembled and dragged their
+    pieces, about twenty in number, up to the plateau which forms the
+    summit of Montmartre, and then placed them in charge of a special
+    guard. Now that the Prussians have left, they still keep their
+    stronghold, thinking to use it in the defence of the Republic
+    against the attacks of the reactionists. The guns are pointed
+    towards Paris, and guard is kept without a moment's relaxation.
+    There are four principal posts, the most important being at the foot
+    of the hill, on the Place Saint Pierre. The guards bivouac in the
+    open air, their muskets piled, ready at hand. Sentinels are placed
+    at the corner of each street, most of them lads of sixteen or
+    seventeen; but they are thoroughly in earnest, and treat the
+    passers-by roughly enough.
+
+    [Illustration: SENTINELS AT MONTMARTRE.]
+
+    "All the streets which debouche on the Place Saint-Pierre are closed
+    by barricades of paving-stones. The most important was formed of an
+    overturned cart, filled with huge stones, and with a red flag reared
+    upon the summit. A death-like silence reigned around. There were but
+    few passers-by, none but National Guards with their guns on their
+    shoulders."
+
+The appearance of the Boulevard de Clichy and Boulevard Rochechouart is
+completely different. The cafes are overflowing with people, the
+concert-rooms open. Men and women pass tranquilly to and fro, without
+disturbing themselves about the cannon that are pointed towards them.
+
+The Government, before coming to active measures, appealed to the good
+sense of the people in a proclamation, dated the 8th of March, saying
+that this substitution of legal authority by a secret power would retard
+the evacuation of the enemy, and perhaps expose us to disasters still
+more complete and terrible.
+
+    "Let us look our position calmly in the face. We have been
+    conquered; nearly half of our territory has been in the power of a
+    million of Germans, who have imposed upon us a fine of five
+    milliards. Our only means of discharging this weighty debt is by the
+    strictest economy, the most exemplary conduct and care. We must not
+    lose a moment before putting our hands to work, which is our one and
+    solitary hope. And at this awful moment shall our miserable folly
+    lead us into a civil strife?...
+
+    "If, while they are meeting to treat with the enemy, our negotiators
+    have sedition to fear, they will break down as they did on the 31st
+    of October, when the events of the Hotel de Ville authorised the
+    enemy to refuse us an armistice which might have saved us."
+
+This form of reasoning was not illogical, but those who were working in
+secret for the furtherance of their own ambition, oared little to be
+convinced, and their myrmidons obeyed them blindly, and gloated over the
+wild, bombastic language of the demagogic press, which, though they did
+not understand it, impressed them no less with its inflated phrases.
+
+The Government, perceiving that it would be perhaps necessary to use
+rigorous measures, gave orders to hasten the arrival of the rest of the
+Army of the North.
+
+Some few days after the 18th of March, they resolved to deal a decided
+blow to the Democratic party in suppressing at once the _Vengeur_, the
+_Mot d'Ordre_, the _Cri du Peuple_, the _Caricature_, the _Pere
+Duchesne_, and the _Bouche de Fer_.
+
+The National Guards had a perfect mania for collecting cannon; after
+having placed in battery the mitrailleuses and pieces of seven, the
+produce of patriotic subscriptions, they also seized upon others
+belonging to the State, and carried them off to the Buttes Montmartre,
+where they had about a hundred pieces. The retaking of this artillery
+was the matter in question. While they at Versailles were occupied with
+the solution of the problem, the National Guards continued their
+manifestations at the Place de la Bastille, dragging these pieces of
+artillery in triumph from the Champ de Mars to the Luxembourg, from the
+park of Montrouge to Notre Dame, from the Place des Vosges to the Place
+d'Italie, and from the Buttes Montmartre to the Buttes Chaumont.
+
+Before making use of force, the Government desired to make a last effort
+at conciliation, and on the 17th of March the following proclamation was
+posted on the walls:--
+
+    "INHABITANTS of PARIS,
+
+    "Once more we address ourselves to you, to your reason, and your
+    patriotism, and we hope that you will listen to us.
+
+    "Your grand city, which cannot live except with order, is profoundly
+    troubled in some of its quarters, and this trouble, without
+    spreading to other parts, is sufficient nevertheless to prevent the
+    return of industry and comfort.
+
+    "For some time a number of ill-advised men, under the pretext of
+    resisting the Prussians, who are no longer within our walls, have
+    constituted themselves masters of a part of the city, thrown up
+    entrenchments, mounting guard there and forcing you to do the same,
+    all by order of a secret committee, which takes upon itself to
+    command a portion of the National Guard, thus setting aside the
+    authority of General d'Aurelle de Paladines so worthy to be at your
+    head, and would form a government in opposition to that which exists
+    legally, the offspring of universal suffrage.
+
+    "These men, who have already caused you so much harm, whom you
+    yourselves dispersed on the 31st of October, are placarding their
+    intention to protect you against the Prussians, who have only made
+    an appearance within our walls, and whose definite departure is
+    retarded by these disorders, and pointing guns, which if fired would
+    only ruin your houses and destroy your wives and yourselves; in
+    fact, compromising the very Republic they pretend to defend; for if
+    it is firmly established in the opinion of France that the Republic
+    is the necessary companion of disorder, the Republic will be lost.
+    Do not place any trust in them, but listen to the truth which we
+    tell you in all sincerity.
+
+    "The Government instituted by the whole nation could have retaken
+    before this these stolen guns, which at present only menace your
+    safety, seized these ridiculous entrenchments which hinder nothing
+    but business, and have placed in the hands of justice the criminals
+    who do not hesitate to create civil war immediately after that with
+    the foreigner, but it desired to give those who were misled the time
+    to separate themselves from those who deceived them.
+
+    "However, the time allowed for honourable men to separate themselves
+    from the others, and which is deducted from your tranquillity, your
+    welfare, and the welfare of France, cannot be indefinitely
+    prolonged.
+
+    "While such a state of things lasts, commerce is arrested, your
+    shops are deserted, orders which would come from all parts are
+    suspended; your arms are idle, credit cannot be recreated, the
+    capital which the Government requires to rid the territory of the
+    presence of the enemy, comes to hand but slowly. In your own
+    interest, in that of your city, as well as in that of France, the
+    Government is resolved to act. The culprits who pretend to institute
+    a Government of their own must be delivered up to justice. The guns
+    stolen from the State must be replaced in the arsenals; and, in
+    order to carry out this act of justice and reason, the Government
+    counts upon your assistance.
+
+    "Let all good citizens separate themselves from the bad; let them
+    aid, instead of opposing, the public forces; they will thus hasten
+    the return of comfort to the city, and render service to the
+    Republic itself, which disorder is ruining in the opinion of France.
+
+    "Parisians! We use this language to you because we esteem your good
+    sense, your wisdom, your patriotism; but, this warning being given,
+    you will approve of our having resort to force at all costs, and
+    without a day's delay, that order, the only condition of your
+    welfare, be re-established entirely, immediately, and unalterably."
+
+As soon as the party of disorder saw the intentions of the Government of
+Versailles thus set forth, a chorus of recriminations burst
+forth:--"They want to put an end to the Republic!"--"They are about to
+fire on our brothers!"--"They wish to set up a king," &c. The same
+strain for ever! In order to prevent as far as possible the mischievous
+effects of this insurrectionary propaganda, the Government issued the
+following proclamation, which bore date the 18th of March:--
+
+    "NATIONAL GUARDS of PARIS!--
+
+    "Absurd rumours are spread abroad that the Government contemplates a
+    _coup d'etat._
+
+    "The Government of the Republic has not, and cannot have, any other
+    object but the welfare of the Republic.
+
+    "The measures which have been taken were indispensable to the
+    maintenance of order; it was, and is still, determined to put an end
+    to an insurrectionary committee, the members of which, nearly all
+    unknown to the population of Paris, preach nothing but Communist
+    doctrines, will deliver up Paris to pillage, and bring France into
+    her grave, unless the National Guard and the army do not rise with
+    one accord in the defence of the country and of the Republic."
+
+The Government had many parleys with the insurrectionary National Guards
+at Montmartre; at one moment there was a rumour that the guns had been
+given up. It appeared that the guardians of this artillery had
+manifested some intention of restoring it, horses had even been sent
+without any military force to create mistrust, but the men declared that
+they would not deliver the guns, except to the battalions to which they
+properly belonged. Was there bad faith here? or had those who made the
+promise undertaken to deliver up the skin before they had killed the
+bear.
+
+Public opinion shaped itself generally in somewhat the following
+form:--"If they are tricking each other, that is not very dangerous!"
+
+Many an honest citizen went to bed on the seventeenth of March full of
+hope. He saw Paris marching with quick steps towards the
+re-establishment of its business, and the resumption of its usual
+aspect; the emigrants and foreigners would arrive in crowds, their
+pockets overflowing with gold to make purchases and put the industry of
+Paris under contributions the French and foreign bankers will rival each
+other to pay the indemnity of five milliards.
+
+The dream of good M. Prudhomme[4] was, however, somewhat clouded by the
+figure of the Buttes Montmartre bristling with cannon; but the number of
+guards had become so diminished, and they seemed so tired of the
+business, that it appeared as if they were about to quit for good. The
+following chapter will inform you what were the waking thoughts of the
+Parisians on the morning of the eighteenth of March.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: PURIFICATION OF THE CHAMPS ELYSEES AFTER
+THE DEPARTURE OF THE PRUSSIANS MAR 1871]
+
+[Illustration: BUILDING A BARRICADE. MARCH 18. 1871.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: Memoir, see Appendix I.]
+
+[Footnote 2: The police had seized, some time before, in Paris, ten
+thousand Orsini bombs, and hundreds of others of a new construction,
+charged with fulminating mercury.]
+
+[Footnote 3: The eight gigantic female figures, representing the
+principal towns of France: Strasbourg, Lille, Metz, &c., &c.]
+
+[Footnote 4: "Joseph Prudhomme" is the typical representative of the
+Parisian middle-class (_Bourgeois_); the honest simple father of family,
+peaceful but patriotic, proud of his country and ready to die for it.]
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+
+Listen! What does that mean? Is it a transient squall or the first gust
+of a tempest? Is it due to nature or to man's agency; is it an emeute or
+the advent of a revolution that is to overturn everything?
+
+Such were my reflections when awakened, on the 18th of March, 1871, at
+about four in the morning, by a noise due to the tramp of many feet.
+From my window, in the gloomy white fog, I could see detachments of
+soldiers walking under the walls, proceeding slowly, wrapped in their
+grey capotes; a soft drizzling rain falling at the time. Half awake, I
+descended to the street in time to interrogate two soldiers passing in
+the rear.
+
+"Where are you going?" asked I.--"We do not know," says one; "Report
+says we are going to Montmartre," adds the other.[5] They were really
+going to Montmartre. At five o'clock in the morning the 88th Regiment of
+the line occupied the top of the hill and the little streets leading to
+it, a place doubtless familiar to some of them, who on Sundays and fete
+days had clambered up the hill-sides in company with apple-faced rustics
+from the outskirts, and middle-class people of the quarter; taking part
+in the crowd on the Place Saint-Pierre, with its games and amusements,
+and "assisting," as they would say, at shooting in a barrel, admiring
+the ability of some, whilst reviling the stupidity of others; when they
+had a few sous in their pockets they would try their own skill at
+throwing big balls into the mouths of fantastic monsters, painted upon a
+square board, while their country friends nibbled at spice-nuts, and
+thought them delicious. But on this 18th of March morning there are no
+women, nor spice-nuts, nor sport on the Place Saint-Pierre: all is slush
+and dirt, and the poor lines-men are obliged to stand at ease, resting
+upon their arms, not in the best of humour with the weather or the
+prospect before them.
+
+Ah! and the guns of the National Guard that frown from their embrasures
+on the top of the hill, have they been made use of against the
+Prussians? No! they have made no report during the siege, and were only
+heard on the days on which they were christened and paid for; elegant
+things, hardly to be blackened with powder, that it was always hoped
+would be pacific and never dangerous to the capital. Cruel irony! those
+guns for which Paris paid, and those American mitrailleuses, made out of
+the savings of both rich and poor, the farthings of the frugal
+housewife, and the napoleons of the millionaires; the contributions of
+the artists who designed, and the poets who pen'd, are ruining Paris
+instead of protecting it. The brass mouths that ate the bread of
+humanity are turned upon the nation itself to devour it also.
+
+But, to return to the 88th Regiment of Line, did they take the guns?
+Yes, but they gave them up again, and to whom? why, to a crowd of women
+and children; and as to the chiefs, no one seemed to know what had
+become of them. It is related, however, that General Lecomte had been
+made a prisoner and led to the Chateau-Rouge, and that at nine o'clock
+some Chasseurs d'Afrique charged pretty vigorously in the Place Pigalle
+a detachment of National Guards, who replied by a volley of bullets. An
+officer of Chasseurs was shot, and his men ran away, the greater part,
+it is said, into the wine-shops, where they fraternised with the
+patriots, who offered them drink. I was told on the spot that General
+Vinoy, who was on horseback, became encircled in a mob of women, had a
+stone and a cap[6] thrown at him, and thought it prudent to escape,
+leaving the National Guards and linesmen to promenade in good fellowship
+three abreast, dispersing themselves about the outer boulevards and
+about Paris. Indeed, I have just seen a drunken couple full of wine and
+friendship, strongly reminding one of a duel ending in a jolly
+breakfast. And who is to blame for this? Nobody knows. All agree that it
+is a bungle,--the fault of maladministration and want of tact.
+Certainly the National Guards at Montmartre had no right to hold the
+cannons belonging to the National Guards, as a body, or to menace the
+reviving trade and tranquillity of Paris, by means of guns turned
+against its peaceful citizens and Government officials; but was it
+necessary to use violence to obtain possession of the cannons? Should
+not all the means of conciliation be exhausted first, and might we not
+hope that the citizens at Montmartre would themselves end by abandoning
+the pieces of artillery[7] which they hardly protected. In fact, they
+were encumbered by their own barricades, and they might take upon
+themselves to repave their streets and return to order.
+
+Monsieur Thiers and his ministers were not of that opinion. They
+preferred acting, and with vigour. Very well! but when resolutions are
+formed, one should be sure of fulfilling them, for in circumstances of
+such importance failure itself makes the attempt an error.[8]
+
+Well! said the Government, who could imagine that the line would throw
+up the butt ends of their muskets,[9] or that the Chasseurs, after the
+loss of a single officer, would turn their backs upon the Nationals, and
+that their only deeds should be the imbibing of plentiful potations at
+the cost of the insurgents? But how could it be otherwise? Not many days
+since the soldiers were wandering idly through the streets with the
+National Guards; were billeted upon the people, eating their soup and
+chatting with their wires and daughters, unaccustomed to discipline and
+the rigour of military organisation; enervated by defeat, having been
+maintained by their officers in the illusion of their invincibility;
+annoyed by their uniform, of which they ceased to be proud, the
+humiliated soldiers sought to escape into the citizen. Were the
+commanding officers ignorant of the prevailing spirit of the troops?
+Must we admit that they were grossly deceived, or that they deceived the
+Government, when the latter might and ought to have been in a position
+to foresee the result. Possibly the Assembly had the right to coerce,
+but they had no right to be ignorant of their power. They must have
+known that 100,000 arms (chassepots, tabatieres,[10] and muskets) were
+in the hands of disaffected men, clanking on the floors of the dealers
+in adulterated wines and spirits, and low cabarets. The fact is, the
+Government took a leap in the dark, and wondered when they found the
+position difficult.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 5: Appendix, note 2.]
+
+[Footnote 6: A mark of insult.]
+
+[Footnote 7: This useless artillery was much ridiculed; jokers said that
+the notary of General Trochu was working out faithfully the "plan" of
+his illustrious client in these tardy fortifications.]
+
+[Footnote 8: How was the Government to act in the presence of these
+facts; to await events, or to strike a great blow?
+
+Some think that the resistance of the insurgents was strengthened by the
+measures taken by Government, which ought to have been more diplomatic
+and skilful. The agitation of these men of Montmartre, at the entry of
+the Prussians, had calmed down in a few hours; it was now the duty of
+Government to allay the irritation which had caused the insurgents to
+form their Montmartre stronghold, and not to follow the advice of
+infuriated reactionaries, who make no allowance for events and
+circumstances, neither analysing the elements of that which they are
+combating, nor weighing the measures they do not even know how to apply
+with tact.
+
+The guns had not been re-taken, but Paris was very calm. Dissensions had
+broken out in the Montmartre Committee, some of whose members wished the
+cannon to be returned (the Committee sat at No, 8 of the Rue des
+Rosiers, with a court-martial on one hand, and military head-quarters on
+the other). Danger seemed now to be averted, and the authorities had but
+one thing to do, to allow all agitation to die out, without listening to
+blind or treacherous counsellors, who advocated a system of immediate
+repression. It was said, however, that the greater number of the members
+of Government were inclined to temporise, but the provisional
+appointment of General Valentin to the direction of the Prefecture of
+Police, seemed to contradict this assertion.
+
+During this time, the leaders who held Montmartre, spurred on by the
+ambitious around them, and by those desirous of kindling civil war for
+the sake of the illicit gains to be obtained from it, were getting up a
+manifestation, which was to claim for the National Guard the right of
+electing its commander-in-chief; and the post was to be offered to
+Menotti Garibaldi. But though the men of Montmartre declared that all
+who did not sign the manifestos were traitors, yet the addresses
+remained almost entirely blank. The insurrection had evidently few
+supporters. According to others, the insurrection of 1871 was the result
+of a vast conspiracy, planned and nurtured under the influence of a six
+months' siege. No simple Paris _emeute_, but a grand social movement,
+organised by the great and universal revolutionary power; the Societe
+Internationale, Garibaldiism, Mazziniism, and Fenianism, have given each
+other rendezvous in Paris. Cluseret, the American; Frankel, the
+Prussian; Dombrowski, the Russian; Brunswick, the Lithuanian; Romanelli,
+the Italian; Okolowitz, the Pole; Spillthorn, the Belgian; and La
+Cecilia, Wroblewski, Wenzel, Hertzfel, Bozyski, Syneck, Prolowitz, and a
+hundred others, equally illustrious, brought together from every quarter
+of the globe; such were these ardent conspirators, all imbued, like
+their colleagues the Flourens, the Eudes, the Henrys, the Duvals, and
+_tutti quanti_, with the principles of the French school of democracy
+and socialism.
+
+This strong and terrible band, we are told, is under the command of a
+chief who remains hidden and mute, while ostensibly it obeys the Pyats,
+Delescluzes, and Rocheforts, politicians, who not being generals, never
+condescend to fight.
+
+In the first days of March all was prepared for a coming explosion, and
+in spite of the departure of the Prussians, the Socialist party
+determined that it should take place. (_Guerre des Communeux_, p. 61.)]
+
+[Footnote 9: A sign that they refused to fight.]
+
+[Footnote 10: A smooth-bore musket arranged as breech-loader, and called
+a snuff-box, from the manner of opening the breech to adjust the
+charge.]
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+
+At three o'clock in the afternoon there was a dense group of linesmen
+and Nationals in one of the streets bordering on the Elysee-Montmartre.
+The person who told us this did not recollect the name of the street,
+but men were eagerly haranguing the crowd, talking of General Lecomte,
+and his having twice ordered the troops to fire upon the citizen
+militia.
+
+"And what he did was right," said an old gentleman who was listening.
+
+Words that were no sooner uttered than they provoked a torrent of curses
+and imprecations from the by-standers. But he continued observing that
+General Lecomte had only acted under the orders of his superiors; being
+commanded to take the guns and to disperse the crowd, his only duty was
+to obey.
+
+These remarks being received in no friendly spirit, hostility to the
+stranger increased, when a vivandiere approached, and looking the
+gentleman who had exposed himself to the fury of the mob full in the
+face, exclaimed, "It is Clement Thomas!" And in truth it was General
+Clement Thomas; he was not in uniform. A torrent of abuse was poured
+forth by a hundred voices at once, and the anger of the crowd seemed
+about to extend itself to violence, when a ruffian cried out: "You
+defend the rascal Lecomte! Well, we'll put you both together, and a
+pretty pair you'll be!" and this project being approved of, the General
+was hurried, not without having to submit to fresh insults, to where
+General Lecomte had been imprisoned since the morning.
+
+From this moment the narrative I have collected differs but little from
+that circulated through Paris.
+
+At about four o'clock in the afternoon the two generals were conducted
+from their prison by a hundred National Guards, the hands of General
+Lecomte being bound together, whilst those of Clement Thomas were free.
+In this manner they were escorted to the top of the hill of Montmartre,
+where they stopped before No. 6 of the Rue des Rosiers: it is a little
+house I had often seen, a peaceful and comfortable habitation, with a
+garden in front. What passed within it perhaps will never be known. Was
+it there that the Central Committee of the National Guard held their
+sittings in full conclave? or were they represented by a few of its
+members? Many persons think that the house was not occupied, and that
+the National Guards conducted their prisoners within its walls to make
+the crowd believe they were proceeding to a trial, or at least to give
+the appearance of legality to the execution of premeditated acts. Of one
+thing there remains little doubt, namely, that soldiers of the line
+stood round about at the time, and that the trial, if any took place,
+was not long, the condemned being conducted to a walled enclosure at the
+end of the street.
+
+[Illustration: HOTEL DE VILLE, AS FORTIFIED BY THE NATIONAL GUARD,
+MARCH, 1871. The Hotel de Ville of Paris, which witnessed so many
+national ceremonies and republican triumphs, was commenced in 1533, and
+it was finished in 1628. Here the first Bourbon, Henry IV., celebrated
+his entry into Paris after the siege of 1589, and Bailly the _maire_, on
+the 17th July, 1789, presented Louis XVI. to the people, wearing a
+tricolor cockade. Henry IV. became a Catholic in order to enter "his
+good city of Paris" whilst Louis XVI. wore the democratic insignia in
+order to keep it. A few days later the 172 commissioners of sections,
+representing the municipality of Paris, established the Commune. The
+Hotel de Ville was the seat of the First Committee of Public Safety, and
+from the green chamber, Robespierre governed the Convention and France
+till his fall on the 9th Thermidor. From 1800 to 1830 fetes held the
+place of political manifestations. In 1810 Bonaparte received
+Marie-Louise here; in 1821, the baptism of the Duke of Bordeaux was
+celebrated here; in 1825 fetes were given to the Duc d'Angouleme on his
+return from Spain, and to Charles X., arriving from Rheims. Five years
+later, from the same balcony where Bailly presented Louis XVI. to the
+people, Lafayette, standing by the side of Louis Philippe, said, "This
+is the best of Republics!" It was here, in 1848, that De Lamartine
+courageously declared to an infuriated mob that, as long as _he_ lived,
+the red flag should not be the flag of France. During the fatal days of
+June, 1848, the Hotel de Ville was only saved from destruction by the
+intrepidity of a few brave men. The Queen of England was received here
+in 1865, and the sovereigns who visited Paris since have been feted
+therein. On the 4th of September the bloodless revolution was
+proclaimed; and on the 31st of October, 1870, and the 22nd of January,
+1871, Flourens and Blanqui made a fruitless attempt to substitute the
+red flag for the tricolor; but their partisans succeeded on the 18th of
+March, when it was fortified, and became the head-quarters of the
+Commune of 1871.]
+
+As soon as they had halted, an officer of the National Guard seized
+General Clement Thomas by the collar of his coat and shook him violently
+several times, exclaiming, whilst he held the muzzle of a revolver close
+to his throat,--"Confess that you have betrayed the Republic." To this
+Monsieur Clement Thomas only replied by a shrug of his shoulders; upon
+this the officer retired, leaving the General standing alone in the
+front of the wall, with a line of soldiers opposite.
+
+Who gave the signal to fire is unknown, but a report of twenty muskets
+rent the air, and General Clement Thomas fell with his face to the
+earth.
+
+"It is your turn now," said one of the assassins, addressing General
+Lecomte, who immediately advanced from the crowd, stepping over the body
+of Clement Thomas to take his place, awaiting with his back to the wall
+the fatal moment.
+
+"Fire!" cried the officer, and all was over.
+
+Half an hour after, in the Rue des Acacias, I came across an old woman
+who wanted three francs for a bullet--a bullet she had extracted from
+the plaster of a wall at the end of the Rue des Rosiers.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+
+It is ten o'clock in the evening, and if I were not so tired I would go
+to the Hotel de Ville, which, I am told, has been taken possession of by
+the National Guards; the 18th of March is continuing the 31st of
+October. But the events of this day have made me so weary that I can
+hardly write all I have seen and heard. On the outer boulevards the wine
+shops are crowded with tipsy people, the drunken braggarts who boast
+they have made a revolution. When a stroke succeeds there are plenty of
+rascals ready to say: I did it. Drinking, singing, and talking are the
+order of the day. At every step you come upon "piled arms." At the
+corner of the Passage de l'Elysee-des-Beaux-Arts I met crowds of people,
+some lying on the ground; here a battalion standing at ease but ready
+to march; and at the entrance of the Rue Blanche and the Rue Fontaine
+were some stones, ominously posed one on the other, indicating symptoms
+of a barricade. In the Rue des Abbesses I counted three cannons and a
+mitrailleuse, menacing the Rue des Martyrs. In the Rue des Acacias, a
+man had been arrested, and was being conducted by National Guards to the
+guard-house: I heard he was a thief. Such arrests are characteristic
+features in a Parisian emeute. Notwithstanding these little scenes the
+disorder is not excessive, and but for the multitude of men in uniform
+one might believe it the evening of a popular fete; the victors are
+amusing themselves.
+
+[Illustration: Sentinels, Rue Du Val De Grace and Boulevard St. Michel.]
+
+Among the Federals this evening there are very few linesmen; perhaps
+they have gone to their barracks to enjoy their meal of soup and bread.
+
+Upon the main boulevards noisy groups are commenting upon the events of
+the day. At the corner of the Rue Drouot an officer of the 117th
+Battalion is reading in a loud voice, or rather reciting, for he knows
+it all by heart, the proclamation of M. Picard, the official poster of
+the afternoon.
+
+    "The Government appeals to you to defend your city, your home, your
+    children, and your property.
+
+    "Some frenzied men, commanded by unknown chiefs, direct against
+    Paris the guns defended from, the Prussians.
+
+    "They oppose force to the National Guard and the army.
+
+    "Will you suffer it?
+
+    "Will you, under the eyes of the strangers ready to profit by our
+    discord, abandon Paris to sedition?
+
+    "If you do not extinguish it in the germ, the Republic and France
+    will be ruined for ever.
+
+    "Their destiny is in your hands.
+
+    "The Government desires that you should hold your arms energetically
+    to maintain the law and preserve the Republic from anarchy. Gather
+    round your leaders; it is the only means of escaping ruin and the
+    domination of the foreigner.
+
+    "The Minister of the Interior,
+
+    "ERNEST PICARD."
+
+The crowd listened with attention, shouted two or three times "To
+arms!" and then dispersed--I thought for an instant, to arm themselves,
+though in reality it was only to reinforce another group forming on the
+other side of the way.
+
+This day the Friends of Order have been very apathetic, so much so that
+Paris is divided between two parties: the one active and the other
+passive.
+
+To speak truly, I do not know what the population of Paris could have
+done to resist the insurrection. "Gather round your chiefs," says the
+proclamation. This is more easily said than done, when we do not know
+what has become of them. The division caused in the National Guard by
+the Coup d'Etat of the Central Committee had for its consequence the
+disorganisation of all command. Who was to distinguish, and where was
+one to find the officers that had remained faithful to the cause of
+order?
+
+It is true they sounded the "rappel"[11] and beat the "generale";[12]
+but who commanded it? Was it the regular Government or the revolutionary
+Committee?
+
+More than one good citizen was ready to do his duty; but, after having
+put on his uniform and buckled his belt, he felt very puzzled, afraid of
+aiding the entente instead of strengthening the defenders of the law.
+Therefore the peaceful citizen soldiers regarded not the call of the
+trumpet and the drum.
+
+It is wise to stay at home when one knows not where to go. Besides, the
+line has not replied, and bad examples are contagious; moreover, is it
+fair to demand of fathers of families, of merchants and tradesmen, in
+fact of soldiers of necessity, an effort before which professional
+soldiers withdraw? The fact is the Government had fled. Perhaps a few
+ministers still remained in Paris, but the main body had gone to join
+the Assembly at Versailles.
+
+I do not blame their somewhat precipitate departure,[13] perhaps it was
+necessary; nevertheless it seems to me that their presence would have
+put an end to irresolution on the part of timid people.
+
+Meanwhile, from the Madeleine to the Gymnase, the cafes overflowed with
+swells and idlers of both sexes. On the outer boulevards they got drunk,
+and on the inner tipsy, the only difference being in the quality of the
+liquors imbibed.
+
+What an extraordinary people are the French!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 11: The roll call.]
+
+[Footnote 12: Muster call in time of danger, which is beaten only by a
+superior order emanating from the Commander-in-chief in a stronghold or
+garrison town.]
+
+[Footnote 13: The army of Paris was drawn off to Versailles in the night
+of the 18th of March, and on the 19th, the employes of all the
+ministries and public offices left Paris for the same destination.
+
+On the 19th of March, as early as eight in the morning, Monsieur Thiers
+addressed the following circular to the authorities of all the
+departments:--
+
+    "The whole of the Government is assembled at Versailles: the
+    National Assembly will meet there also.
+
+    "The army, to the number of forty thousand men, has been assembled
+    there in good order, under the command of General Vinoy. All the
+    chiefs of the army, and all the civil authorities have arrived
+    there.
+
+    "The civil and military authorities will execute no other orders but
+    those issued by the legitimate government residing at Versailles,
+    under penalty of dismissal.
+
+    "The members of the National Assembly are all requested to hasten
+    their return, so as to be present at the sitting of the 20th of
+    March.
+
+    "The present despatch will be made known to the public.
+
+    "A. THIERS."]
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+
+Next morning, the 19th of March, I was in haste to know the events of
+last night, what attitude Paris had assumed after her first surprise.
+The night, doubtless, had brought counsel, and perhaps settled the
+discord existing between the Government and the Central Committee.
+
+Early in the morning things appeared much as usual; the streets were
+peaceful, servants shopping, and the ordinary passengers going to and
+fro. In passing I met a casual acquaintance to whom I had spoken now and
+then, a man with whom I had served during the siege when we mounted
+guard on the ramparts. "Well," said I, "good morning, have you any
+news?"--"News," replied he, "no, not that I know of. Ah I yes, there is
+a rumour that something took place yesterday at Montmartre." This was
+told me in the centre of the city, in the Rue de la Grange-Bateliere.
+Truly there are in Paris persons marvellously apathetic and ignorant. I
+would wager not a little that by searching in the retired quarters, some
+might be found who believe they are still governed by Napoleon III., and
+have never heard of the war with Prussia, except as a not improbable
+eventuality.
+
+On the boulevards there was but little excitement. The newspaper vendors
+were in plenty. I do not like to depend upon these public sheets for
+information, for however impartial or sincere a reporter may be, he
+cannot represent facts otherwise than according to the impression they
+make upon him, and to value facts by the impression they make upon
+others is next to impossible.
+
+I directed my steps to the Rue Drouot in search of placards, and
+plentiful I found them, and white too, showing that Paris was not
+without a government; for white is the official colour even under a red
+Republic.[14]
+
+Taking out a pencil I copied hastily the proclamation of the new
+masters, and I think that I did well, for we forget very quickly both
+proclamations and persons. Where are they now, the official bills of
+last year?
+
+    "REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE. "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite. "_To the
+    People_.
+
+    "Citizens,--The people of Paris have shaken off the yoke endeavoured
+    to be imposed upon them."
+
+What yoke, gentlemen--I beg pardon, citizens of the Committee? I assure
+you, as part of the people, that I have never felt that any one has
+tried to impose one upon me. I recollect, if my memory serves me, that a
+few guns were spoken of, but nothing about yokes. Then the expression
+"People of Paris," is a gross exaggeration. The inhabitants of
+Montmartre and their neighbours of that industrious suburb are certainly
+a part of the people, and not the less respectable or worthy of our
+consideration because they live out of the centre (indeed, I have always
+preferred a coal man of the Chaussee Clignancourt to a coxcomb of the
+Rue Taitbout); but for all that, they are not the whole population.
+Thus, your sentence does not imply anything, and moreover, with all its
+superannuated metaphor, the rhetoric is out of date. I think it would
+have been better to say simply--
+
+    "Citizens,--The inhabitants of Montmartre and of Belleville have
+    taken their guns and intend to keep them."
+
+But then it would not have the air of a proclamation. Extraordinary
+fact! you may overturn an entire country, but you must not touch the
+official style; it is immutable. One may triumph over empires, but must
+respect red tape. Let us read on:
+
+    "Tranquil, calm in our force, we have awaited without fear as
+    without provocation, the shameless madmen who menaced the Republic."
+
+The Republic? Again an improper expression, it was the cannons they
+wanted to take.
+
+    "This time, our brothers of the army...."
+
+Ah! your brothers of the army! They are your brothers because they
+fraternised and threw up the butt-ends of their muskets. In your family
+you acknowledge no brotherhood except those who hold the same opinion.
+
+    "This time, our brothers of the army would not raise their hands
+    against the holy ark of our liberty."
+
+Oh! So the guns are a holy ark now. A very holy metaphor, for people not
+greatly enamoured of churchmen.
+
+    "Thanks for all; and let Paris and France unite to build a Republic,
+    and accept with acclamations the only government that will close for
+    ever the flood gates of invasion and civil war.
+
+    "The state of siege is raised.
+
+    "The people of Paris are convoked in their sections to elect a
+    Commune. The safety of all citizens is assured by the body of the
+    National Guard.
+
+    "Hotel de Ville of Paris, the 19th of March, 1871.
+
+    "The Central Committee of the National Guard:
+
+    "Assy, Billioray, Ferrat, Babick, Ed. Moreau, Oh. Dupont, Varlin,
+    Boursier, Mortier, Gouhier, Lavallette, Fr. Jourde, Rousseau, Ch.
+    Lullier, Blanchet, G. Gaillard, Barroud, H. Geresme, Fabre,
+    Pougeret."[15]
+
+There is one reproach that the new Parisian Revolution could not be
+charged with; it is that of having placed at the head men of proved
+incapacity. Those who dared to assert that each of the persons named
+above had not more genius than would be required to regenerate two or
+three nations would greatly astonish me. In a drama of Victor Hugo it is
+said a parentless child ought to be deemed a gentleman; thus an obscure
+individual ought, on the same terms, to be considered a man of genius.
+
+But on the walls of the Rue Drouot many more proclamations were to be
+seen.
+
+    "REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE.
+
+    "LIBERTE, EGALITE, FRATERNITE,
+
+    "To the National Guards of Paris.
+
+    "CITIZENS,--You had entrusted us with the charge of organising the
+    defence of Paris and of your rights."
+
+Oh! as to that, no; a thousand times, no! I admit--since you appear to
+cling to it--that Cannon are an ark of strength, but under no pretext
+whatever will I allow that I entrusted you with the charge of organising
+anything whatsoever. I know nothing of you; I have never heard you
+spoken of. There is no one in the world of whom I am more ignorant than
+Ferrat, Babick, unless it be Gaillard and Pougeret (though I was
+national guard myself, and caught cold on the ramparts for the King of
+Prussia[16] as much as anyone else). I neither know what you wish nor
+where you are leading those who follow you; and I can prove to you, if
+you like, that there are at least a hundred thousand men who caught cold
+too, and who, at the present moment, are in exactly the same state of
+mind concerning you "We are aware of having fulfilled our mission."
+
+You are very good to have taken so much trouble, but I have no
+recollection of having given you a mission to fulfil of any kind
+whatever!
+
+    "Assisted by your courage and presence of mind!..."
+
+Ah, gentlemen, this is flattery!
+
+    "We have driven out the government that was betraying you.
+
+    "Our mandate has now expired..."
+
+Always this same mandate which we gave you, eh?
+
+    "We now return it to you, for we do not pretend to take the place of
+    those which the popular breath has overthrown.
+
+    "Prepare yourselves, let the Communal election commence forthwith,
+    and give to us the only reward we have ever hoped for--that of
+    seeing the establishment of a true republic. In the meanwhile we
+    retain the Hotel de Ville in the name of the people.
+
+    "Hotel de Ville, Paris, 19th March, 1871.
+
+    "The Central Committee of the National Guards:
+
+    "Assy, Billioray, and others."
+
+Placarded up also is another proclamation[17] signed by the citizens
+Assy, Billioray, and others, announcing that the Communal elections will
+take place on Wednesday next, 22nd of March, that is to say in three
+days.
+
+This then is the result of yesterday's doings, and the revolution of
+the 18th March can be told in a few words.
+
+There were cannon at Montmartre; the Government wished to take them but
+was not able, thanks to the fraternal feeling and cowardice of the
+soldiers of the Line. A secret society, composed of several delegates of
+several battalions, took advantage of the occasion to assert loudly that
+they represented the entire population, and commanded the people to
+elect the Commune of Paris--whether they wished or not.
+
+What will Paris do now between these dictators, sprung from heaven knows
+where, and the Government fled to Versailles?
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 14: No one may use white placards--they are reserved by the
+government.
+
+The following is an extract from the _Official Journal_ of Versailles,
+bearing the date of the 20th of March, which explains the official form
+of the announcements made by the Central Committee:--
+
+"Yesterday, 19th March, the offices of the _Official Journal_, in Paris,
+were broken into, the employes having escaped to Versailles with the
+documents, to join the Government and the National Assembly. The
+invaders took possession of the printing machines, the materials, and
+even the official and non-official articles which had been set up in
+type, and remained in the composing-rooms. It is thus that they were
+enabled to give an appearance of regularity to the publication of their
+decrees, and to deceive the Parisian public by a false _Official
+Journal_."]
+
+[Footnote 15: Here is an extract from the _Official Journal_ upon the
+subject (numbers of the 29th March and 1st June):--
+
+"In the insurrection, the momentary triumph of which has crushed Paris
+beneath so odious and humiliating a yoke, carried the distresses of
+France to their height, and put civilisation in peril, the International
+Society has borne a part which has suddenly revealed to all the fatal
+power of this dangerous association.
+
+"On the 19th of March, the day after the outbreak of the terrible
+sedition, of which the last horrors will form one of the most frightful
+pages in history, there appeared upon the walls a placard which made
+known to Paris the names of its new masters.
+
+"With the exception of one, alone, (Assy), who had acquired a deplorable
+notoriety, these names were unknown to almost all who read them; they
+had suddenly emerged from utter obscurity, and people asked themselves
+with astonishment, with stupor, what unseen power could have given them
+an influence and a meaning which they did not possess in themselves.
+This power was the International; these names were those of some of its
+members."]
+
+[Footnote 16: _Travailler pour le Roi de Prusse_, "to work for the King
+of Prussia," is an old French saying, which means to work for nothing,
+to no purpose.]
+
+[Footnote 17: "THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL GUARD.
+
+"Inasmuch:--
+
+"That it is most urgent that the Communal administration of the City of
+Paris shall be formed immediately,
+
+"Decrees:--
+
+"1st. The elections for the Communal Council of the City of Paris will
+take place on Wednesday next, the 22nd of March.
+
+"2nd. The electors will vote with lists, and in their own
+arrondissements.
+
+"Each arrondissement will elect a councillor for each twenty thousand of
+inhabitants, and an extra one for a surplus of more than ten thousand.
+
+"3rd. The poll will be open from eight in the morning to six in the
+evening. The result will be made known at once.
+
+"4th. The municipalities of the twenty arrondissements are entrusted with
+the proper execution of the present decree.
+
+"A placard indicating the number of councillors for each arrondissement
+will shortly be posted up.
+
+"Hotel de Ville, Paris, 29th March, 1871."]
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+
+Paris remains inactive, and watches events as one watches running water.
+What does this indifference spring from? Surprise and the disappearance
+of the chiefs might yesterday have excused the inaction of Paris, but
+twenty-four hours have passed over, every man has interrogated his
+conscience, and been able to listen to its answer. There has been time
+to reconnoitre, to concert together; there would have been time to act!
+
+Why is nothing done? Why has nothing been done yet? Generals Clement
+Thomas and Lecomte have been assassinated; this is as incontestable as
+it is odious. Does all Paris wish to partake with the criminals in the
+responsibility of this crime? The regular Government has been expelled.
+Does Paris consent to this expulsion? Men invested with no rights, or,
+at least, with insufficient rights, have usurped the power. Does Paris
+so far forget itself as to submit to this usurpation without resistance?
+
+No, most assuredly no. Paris abominates crime, does not approve of the
+expulsion of the Government, and does not acknowledge the right of the
+members of the Central Committee to impose its wishes upon us. Why then
+does Paris remain passive and patient? Does it not fear that it will be
+said that silence implies consent? How is it that I myself, for example,
+instead of writing my passing impressions on these pages, do not take my
+musket to punish the criminals and resist this despotism? It is that we
+all feel the present situation to be a, singularly complicated one. The
+Government which has withdrawn to Versailles committed so many faults
+that it would be difficult to side with it without reserve. The weakness
+and inability the greater part of those who composed it showed during
+the siege, their obstinacy in remaining deaf to the legitimate wishes of
+the capital, have ill disposed us for depending on a state of things
+which it would have been impossible to approve of entirely. In fine,
+these unknown revolutionists, guilty most certainly, but perhaps
+sincere, claim for Paris rights that almost the whole of Paris is
+inclined to demand. It is impossible not to acknowledge that the
+municipal franchise is wished for and becomes henceforth necessary.
+
+It is for this reason that although aghast at the excesses in
+perspective and those already committed by the dictators of the 18th
+March, though revolted at the thought of all the blood spilled and yet
+to be spilled--this is the reason that we side with no party. The past
+misdeeds of the legitimate Government of Versailles damp our enthusiasm
+for it, while some few laudable ideas put forth by the illegitimate
+government of the Hotel de Ville diminish our horror of its crimes, and
+our apprehensions at its misdoings.
+
+Then--why not dare say it?--Paris, which is so impressionable, so
+excitable, so romantic, in admiration before all that is bold, has but a
+moderate sympathy for that which is prudent. We may smile, as I did just
+now, at the emphatic proclamation of the Central Committee, but that
+does not prevent us from recognizing that its power is real, and the
+ferocious elements that it has so suddenly revealed are not without a
+certain grandeur. It might have been spitefully remarked that more than
+one patriot in his yesterday evening walk on the outer boulevards and in
+the environs of the Hotel de Ville, had taken more _petit vin_ than was
+reasonable in honour of the Republic and of the Commune, but that has
+not prevented our feeling a surprise akin to admiration at the view of
+those battalions hastening from all quarters at some invisible signal,
+and ready at any moment to give up their lives to defend ... what? Their
+guns, and these guns were in their eyes the palpable symbols of their
+rights and liberties. During this time the heroic Assembly was
+pettifogging at Versailles, and the Government was going to join them.
+Paris does not follow those who fly.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+
+The Butte-Montmartre is _en fete_. The weather is charming, and every
+one goes to see the cannon and inspect the barricades, Men, women, and
+children mount the hilly streets, and they all appear joyous ... for
+what, they cannot say themselves, but who can resist the charm of
+sunshine? If it rained, the city would be in mourning. Now the citizens
+have closed their shops and put on their best clothes, and are going to
+dine at the restaurant. These are the very enemies of disorder, the
+small shopkeepers and the humble citizens. Strange contradiction! But
+what would you have? the sun is so bright, the weather is so lovely.
+Yesterday no work was done because of the insurrection; it was like a
+Sunday. To-day therefore is the holiday-Monday of the insurrection.
+
+[Illustration: BEHIND A BARRICADE: THIS MORNING MEAL--THIRTY SOUS A DAY
+AND NOTHING TO DO.]
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+
+In the midst of all these troubles, in which every one is borne along,
+without any knowledge of where he is drifting--with the Central
+Committee making proclamations on one side, and the Versailles
+Government training troops on the other, a few men have arisen who have
+spoken some words of reason. These men may be certain from this moment
+that they are approved of by Paris, and will be obeyed By Paris--by the
+honest and intelligent Paris--by the Paris which is ready to favour that
+side which can prove that it has the most justice in it.
+
+The deputies and maires of Paris have placarded the following
+proclamation:--
+
+    "REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE.
+
+    "LIBERTE, EGALITE, FRATERNITE.
+
+    "Citizens,--Impressed with the absolute necessity of saving Paris
+    and the Republic by the removal of every cause of collision, and
+    convinced that the best means of attaining this grand object is to
+    give satisfaction to the legitimate wishes of the people, we have
+    resolved this very day to demand of the National Assembly the
+    adoption of two measures which we have every hope will contribute to
+    bring back tranquillity to the public mind.
+
+    "These two measures are: The election of all the officers of the
+    National Guard, without exception, and the establishment of a
+    municipal council, elected by the whole of the citizens.
+
+    "What we desire, and what the public welfare requires under all
+    circumstances; and which the present situation renders more
+    indispensable than ever, is, order in liberty and by liberty.
+
+    "_Vive la France!_ Vive la Republique!
+
+    "_The representatives of the Seine_:
+
+    "Louis Blanc, V. Schoelcher, Edmond Adam, Floquet, Martin Bernard,
+    Langlois, Edouard Lockroy, Farcy, Brisson, Greppo, Milliere.
+
+    "_The maires and adjoints of Paris_:
+
+    "1st Arrondissement: Ad. Adam, Meline, adjoints.--2nd
+    Arrondissement: Tirard, maire, representative of the Seine; Ad.
+    Brelay, Cheron, Loiseau-Pinson, adjoints.--3rd Arrondissement;
+    Bonvalet, maire; Ch. Murat, adjoint.--4th Arrondissement: Vautrain,
+    maire; Loiseau, Callon, adjoints.--5th Arrondissement: Jourdan,
+    adjoint.--6th Arrondissement: Herisson, maire; A. Leroy,
+    adjoint.--7th Arrondissement: Arnaud (de l'Ariege), maire,
+    representative of the Seine.--8th Arrondissement: Carnot, maire,
+    representative of the Seine.--9th Arrondissement: Desmaret,
+    maire.--10th Arrondissement: Dubail, maire; A. Murat,
+    Degoyves-Denunques, adjoints.--11th Arrondissement: Motu, maire,
+    representative of the Seine; Blanchon, Poirier, Tolain,
+    representative of the Seine.--12th Arrondissement: Denizot, Dumas,
+    Turillon, adjoints.--18th Arrondissement: Leo Meillet, Combes,
+    adjoints.--14th Arrondissement: Heligon, adjoint.--15th
+    Arrondissement: Jobbe-Duval, adjoint.--16th Arrondissement: Henri
+    Martin, maire and representative of the Seine,--17th.
+    Arrondissement: FRANCOIS FAVRE, maire; MALOU, VILLENEUVE, CACHEUX,
+    adjoints.--18th. Arrondissement: CLEMENCEAU, maire and
+    representative of the people; J.B. LAFONT, DEREURE, JACLARD,
+    adjoints."
+
+This proclamation has now been posted two hours, and I have not yet met
+a single person who does not approve of it entirely. The deputies of the
+Seine and the _maires_ of Paris have, by the flight of the Government to
+Versailles, become the legitimate chiefs. We have elected them, it is
+for them to lead us. To them belongs the duty of reconciling the
+Assembly with the city; and it appears to us that they have taken the
+last means of bringing about that conciliation, by disengaging all that
+is legitimate and practical in its claims from the exaggeration of the
+_emeute_. Let them therefore have all praise for this truly patriotic
+attempt. Let them hasten to obtain from the Assembly a recognition of
+our rights. In acceding to the demands of the deputies and the _maires_,
+the Government will not be treating with insurrection; on the contrary,
+it will effect a radical triumph over it, for it will take away from it
+every pretext of existence, and will separate from it, in a definite
+way, all those men who have been blinded to the illegal and violent
+manner in which this programme is drawn up, by the justice of certain
+parts of it.
+
+If the Assembly consent to this, all that will remain of the 18th of
+March will be the recollection--painful enough, without doubt--of one
+sanguinary day, while out of a great evil will come a great benefit.
+
+Whatever may happen, we are resolute; we--that is to say, all those who,
+without having followed the Government of Versailles, and without having
+taken an active part in the insurrection, equally desire the
+re-establishment of legitimate power and the development of municipal
+liberties--we are resolved to follow where our deputies and the _maires_
+may lead us. They represent at this, moment the only legal authority
+which seems to us to have fairly understood the difficulties of the
+situation, and if, in the case of all hope of conciliation being lost,
+they should tell us to take up arms, we will do so.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+
+Paris has this evening, the 21st of March, an air of extraordinary
+contentment; it has belief in the deputies and the _maires_, it has
+trust even, in the National Assembly. People talk of the manifestation
+of the Friends of Order and approve of it. A foreigner, a Russian,
+Monsieur A---- J----, who has inhabited Paris for ten years, and is
+consequently Parisian, has given me the following information, of which
+I took hasty note:--
+
+    "At half-past one o'clock to-day a group, of which I made one, was
+    formed in the place of the New Opera-house. We numbered scarcely
+    twenty persons, and we had a flag on which was inscribed, 'Meeting
+    of the Friends of Order.' This flag was carried by a soldier of the
+    line, an employe, it is said, of the house of Siraudin, the great
+    confectioners. We marched along the boulevards as far as the Rue de
+    Richelieu; windows were opened as we passed, and the people cried,
+    '_Vive l'Ordre! Vive l'Assemblee Nationale! A bas la Commune!_' Few
+    as we were at starting our numbers soon grew to three hundred, to
+    five hundred, to a thousand. Our troop followed the Rue de
+    Richelieu, increasing as it went. At the Place de la Bourse a
+    captain at the head of his National Guards tried to stop us. We
+    continued our course, the company saluted our flag as, we passed,
+    and the drums beat to arms. After having traversed, still increasing
+    in numbers, the streets which surround the Bourse, we returned to
+    the boulevards, where the most lively enthusiasm burst out around
+    us. We halted opposite the Rue Drouot. The _mairie_ of the Ninth
+    Arrondissement was occupied by a battalion attached to the Central
+    Committee--the 229th, I believe. Although there was some danger of a
+    collision, we made our way into the street, resolved to do our duty,
+    which was to protest against the interference with order and the
+    disregard for established laws; but no resistance was opposed to us.
+    The National Guards came out in front of the door of the _mairie_
+    and presented arms to us, and we were about to continue our way,
+    when some one remarked that our flag, on which, as I have already
+    said, were the woods 'Meeting of the Friends of Order,' might expose
+    us to the danger of being taken for '_reactionnaires_,' and that we
+    ought to add the words '_Vive la Republique!_' Those who headed the
+    manifestation came to a halt, and a few of them went into a cafe,
+    and there wrote the words on the flag with chalk. We then resumed
+    our march, following the widest and most frequented paths, and were
+    received with acclamations everywhere. A quarter of an hour later we
+    arrived at the Rue de la Paix and were marching towards the Place
+    Vendome, where the battalions of the Committee were collected in
+    masses, and where, as is well known, the staff of the National Guard
+    had its head-quarters. There, as in the Rue Drouot, the drums were
+    beaten and arms presented to us; more than that, an officer came and
+    informed the leaders of the manifestation that a delegate of the
+    Central Committee begged them to proceed to the staff quarters. At
+    this moment I was carrying the flag. We advanced in silence. When we
+    arrived beneath the balcony, surrounded by National Guards, whose
+    attitude was generally peaceful; there appeared on the balcony a
+    rather young man, without uniform, but wearing a red scarf, and
+    surrounded by several superior officers; he came forward and
+    said--'Citizens, in the name of the Central Committee....' when he
+    was interrupted by a storm of hisses and by cries of '_Vive l'Ordre!
+    Vive l'Assemblee Nationale! Vive la Republique!_' In spite of these
+    daring interruptions we were not subjected to any violence, nor
+    even to any threats, and without troubling ourselves any more about
+    the delegate, we marched round the column, and having regained the
+    boulevards proceeded towards the Place de la Concorde. There, some
+    one proposed that we should visit Admiral Saisset, who lived in the
+    Rue Pauquet, in the quarter of the Champs Elysees, when a grave
+    looking man with grey hair said that Admiral Saisset was at
+    Versailles. 'But,' he added, 'there are several admirals amongst
+    you.' He gave his own name, it was Admiral de Chaille. From that
+    moment he headed the manifestation, which passed over the Pont de la
+    Concorde to the Faubourg St. Germain. Constantly received with
+    acclamations, and increasing in numbers, we paraded successively all
+    the streets of the quarter, and each time that we passed before a
+    guard-house the men presented arms. On the Place St. Sulpice a
+    battalion drew up to allow us to pass. We afterwards went along the
+    Boulevard St. Michel and the Boulevard de Strasbourg. During this
+    part of our course we were joined by a large group, preceded by a
+    tricolor flag with the inscription, '_Vive l'Assemblee Nationale!_'
+    From this time the two flags floated side by side at the head of the
+    augmented procession. As we were about to turn into the Boulevard
+    Bonne-Nouvelle, a man dressed in a paletot and wearing a grey felt
+    hat, threw himself upon me as I was carrying the standard of the
+    Friends of Order, but a negro, dressed in the uniform of the
+    National Guard, who marched beside me, kept the man off, who
+    thereupon turned against the person that carried the other flag,
+    wrested it from him, and with extraordinary strength broke the
+    staff, which was a strong one, over his knee. This incident caused
+    some confusion; the man was seized and carried off, and I fear he
+    was rather maltreated. We then made our way back to the boulevards.
+    At our appearance the enthusiasm of the passers-by was immense; and
+    certainly, without exaggeration, we numbered between three and four
+    thousand persons by the time we got back to the front of the New
+    Opera-house, where we were to separate. A Zouave climbed up a tree
+    in front of the Grand Hotel, and fixed our flag on the highest
+    branch. It was arranged that we should meet on the following day, in
+    uniform but without arms, at the same place."
+
+This account differs a little from those given in the newspapers, but I
+have the best reason to believe it absolutely true.
+
+What will be the effect of this manifestation? Will those who desire
+"Order through Liberty and in Liberty" succeed in meeting in
+sufficiently large numbers to bring to reason, without having recourse
+to force, the numerous partizans of the Commune? Whatever may happen,
+this manifestation proves that Paris has no intention of being disposed
+of without her own consent. In connection with the action of the
+deputies in the National Assembly, it cannot have been ineffective in
+aiding the coming pacification.
+
+Many hopeful promises of concord and quiet circulate this evening
+amongst the less violent groups.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+
+What is this fusillade? Against whom is it directed? Against the
+Prussians? No! Against Frenchmen, against passers-by, against those who
+cry "_Vive la Republique et vive l'Ordre_." Men are falling dead or
+wounded, women flying, shops closing, amid the whistling of the
+bullets,--all Paris terrified. This is what I have just seen or heard.
+We are done for then at last. We shall see the barricades thrown up in
+our streets; we shall meet the horrid litters, from which hang hands
+black with powder; every woman will weep in the evening when her husband
+is late in returning home, and all mothers will be seized with terror.
+France, alas! France, herself a weeping mother, will fall by the hands
+of her own children.
+
+I had started, in company with a friend, from the Passage Choiseul on my
+way to the Tuileries, which has been occupied since yesterday by a
+battalion devoted to the Central Committee. On arming at the corner of
+the Rue St. Roch and the Rue Neuve des Petits Champs we perceived a
+considerable crowd in the direction of the Rue de la Paix. "What is
+going on now?" said I to my friend. "I think," said he, "that it is an
+unarmed manifestation going to the Place Vendome; it passed along the
+boulevards a short time since, crying "_Vive l'Ordre_."
+
+As we talked we were approaching the Rue de la Paix. All at once a
+horrible noise was heard. It was the report of musketry. A white smoke
+rose along the walls, cries issued from all parts, the crowd fled
+terrified, and a hundred yards before us I saw a woman fall. Is she
+wounded or dead? What is this massacre? What fearful deeds are passing
+in open day, in this glorious sunshine? We had scarcely time to escape
+into one of the cross-streets, followed by the frightened crowd, when
+the shops were closed, hurriedly, and the horrible news spread to all
+parts of terrified Paris.
+
+Reports, varying extremely in form, spread with extraordinary rapidity;
+some were grossly exaggerated, others the reverse. "Two hundred victims
+have fallen," said one. "There were no balls in the guns," said another.
+The opinions regarding the cause of the conflict were strangely various.
+Perhaps we shall never know, with absolute certainty, what passed in the
+Place, Vendome and the Rue de la Paix. For myself, I was at once; too
+far and too near the scene of action; too near, for I had narrowly
+missed being killed; too far, for I saw nothing but the smoke and the
+flight, of the terrified crowd.
+
+One thing certain is that the Friends of Order who, yesterday, succeeded
+in assembling a large number of citizens, had to-day tried to renew its
+attempt at pacification by unarmed numbers. Three or four thousand
+persons entered the Rue de la Paix towards two o'clock in the afternoon,
+crying, "_L'Ordre! L'Ordre! Vive l'Ordre!_" The Central Committee had
+doubtless issued severe orders, for the foremost sentinels of the Place,
+far from presenting arms to the "Friends of Order," as they had done the
+day before, formally refused to let them continue their way. And then
+what happened? Two crowds were face to face; one unarmed, the other
+armed, both under strong excitement, one trying to press forward, the
+other determined to oppose its passage. A pistol-shot was heard. This
+was a signal. Down went the muskets, the armed crowd fired, and the
+unarmed dispersed in mad flight, leaving dead and wounded on their path.
+
+But who fired that first pistol-shot? "One of the citizens of the
+demonstration; and moreover, the sentinels had their muskets torn from
+them;" affirm the partisans of the Central Committee, and they bring
+forward, among other proofs; the evidence of an eye-witness, a foreign
+general, who saw it all from a window of the Rue de la Paix. But these
+assertions are but little to be relied upon. Can it be seriously
+believed that a crowd, to all appearance peaceful, would commit such an
+act of aggression? Who would have been insane enough to expose a mass of
+unarmed people to such dire revenge, by a challenge as criminal as it
+was useless? The account according to which the pistol was fired by an
+officer of the Federal guard from the foot of the Place Vendome, thus
+giving the signal to those under his orders to fire upon the citizens,
+improbable as appears such an excess of cold-blooded barbarity, is much
+the more credible. And now how many women mourn their husbands and son's
+wounded, and perhaps dead? How many victims have fallen? The number is
+not yet known. Monsieur Barle, a lieutenant of the National Guard, was
+shot in the stomach. Monsieur Gaston Jollivet, who some time ago
+committed the offence, grave in our eyes, of publishing a comic ode in
+which he allows himself to ridicule our illustrious and beloved master,
+Victor Hugo, but was certainly guilty of none in desiring a return to
+order, had his arm fractured, it is said. Monsieur Otto Hottinger, one
+of the directors of the French Bank, fell, struck by two balls, while
+raising a wounded man from the ground.
+
+One of my friends assures me that half-an-hour after the fusillade he
+was fired at, as he was coming out from a _porte-cochere_,[18] by
+National Guards in ambuscade.
+
+At four o'clock, at the corner of the Rue de la Paix and the Rue Neuve
+des Petits Champs, an old man, dressed in a blouse, still lay where he
+had fallen across the body of a _cantiniere_, and beside him a soldier
+of the line, the staff of a tricolour flag grasped in his dead hand. Is
+this soldier the same of whom my friend Monsieur A---- J---- speaks in
+his account of the first demonstration, and who was said to be an
+employe at Siraudin's?
+
+There were many other victims--Monsieur de Pene, the editor of
+_Paris-Journal_, dangerously wounded by a ball that penetrated the
+thigh; Monsieur Portel, lieutenant in the Eclaireurs Franchetti, wounded
+in the neck and right foot; Monsieur Bernard, a merchant, killed;
+Monsieur Giraud, a stockbroker, also killed. Fresh names are added to
+the funereal list every moment.
+
+Where will this revolution lead us, which was begun by the murder of two
+Generals and is being carried on by the assassination of passers-by?
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 18: Porte-cochere (carriage gateway).]
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+
+In the midst of all this horror and terror I saw one little incident
+which made me smile, though it was sad too; an idyl which might be an
+elegy. Three hired carriages descended the Rue Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. It
+was a wedding. In the first carriage was the bride, young and pretty, in
+tears; in the second, the bridegroom, looking anything but pleased. As
+the horses were proceeding slowly on account of the hill, I approached
+and inquired the cause of the discontent. A disagreeable circumstance
+had happened, the _garcon d'honneur_ told me. They had been to the
+_mairie_ to be married, but the _mairie_ had been turned into a
+guard-house, and instead of the _mairie_ and his clerks, they found
+soldiers of the Commune. The sergeant had offered to replace the
+municipal functionary, but the grands-parents had not consented to such
+an arrangement, and they were forced to return with the connubial knot
+still to be tied. An unhappy state of things. "Pooh!" said an old woman
+who was passing by, "they can marry to-morrow.--There is always time
+enough to commit suicide."
+
+It is true, they can marry to-morrow; but these young people wished to
+be married to-day. What are revolutions to them? What would it have
+mattered to the Commune had these lovers been united to-day? Is one ever
+sure of recovering happiness that has once escaped? Ah! this
+insurrection, I hate it for the men it has killed, and the widows it has
+made; and also for the sake of those pretty eyes that glistened with
+tears under the bridal wreath.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+
+The _mairie_ of the Second Arrondissement seems destined to be the
+centre of resistance to the Central Committee. The Federals have not
+been able, or have not dared, to occupy it. In the quarter of the Place
+de la Bourse and the Place des Victoires, National Guards have assembled
+and declared themselves Friends of Order. But they are few in number.
+Yesterday morning, the 23rd of March, they were reinforced by battalions
+that joined them, one by one, from all parts of Paris. They obey the
+orders, they say, of Admiral Saisset, raised to the superior command of
+the National Guard. It is believed that there are mitrailleuses within
+the Bourse and in the court of the Messageries. The massacre of the Rue
+de la Paix decided the most timorous. There is a determination to have
+done, by some means or other, with tyrants who represent in fact but a
+small part of the population of Paris, and who wish to dominate over the
+whole city. The preparations for resistance are being made between the
+Hotel de Ville on the one hand, where the members of the Committee are
+sitting, formidably defended, and the Place Vendome, crammed with
+insurgents, on the other. Is it civil war--civil war, with all its
+horrors, that is about to commence? A company of Gardes Mobiles has
+joined the battalions of Order. Pupils of the Ecole Polytechnique come
+and go between the _mairie_ of the Second Arrondissement and the Grand
+Hotel, where Admiral Saisset and his staff are said to be installed.[19]
+A triple line of National Guards closes the entrance of the Rue Vivienne
+against carriages and everybody who does not belong to the quarter.
+Nevertheless, a large number of people, eager for information, manage to
+pass the sentries in spite of the rule. On the Place de la Bourse a
+great crowd discusses, and gesticulates around the piled bayonets which
+glitter in the sun. I notice that the pockets of the National Guards are
+crammed full; a large number of cartridges has been distributed.
+
+The orders are strict: no one is to quit his post. There are men,
+however, who have been standing there, without sleep, for twenty-four
+hours. No one must leave the camp of the Friends of Order even to go and
+dine. Those who have no money either have rations given them or are
+provided at the expense of the _mairie_, from a restaurant of the Rue
+des Filles Saint-Thomas, with a dinner consisting of soup and bouilli, a
+plate of meat, vegetables, and a bottle of wine. I hear one of them
+exclaim,
+
+"If the Federals knew that we not only get our pay, but are also fed
+like princes, they would come over to us, every man of them. As for us,
+we are determined to obey the _maires_ and deputies of Paris." Much
+astonishment is manifested at the absence of Vice-Admiral Saisset; as he
+has accepted the command he ought to show himself. Certain croakers even
+insinuate that the vice-admiral hesitates to organise the resistance,
+but we will not listen to them, and are on the whole full of confidence
+and resolution. "We are numerous, determined; we have right on our side,
+and will triumph."
+
+At about four o'clock an alarm is sounded. We hear cries of "To arms! To
+arms!" The drums beat, the trumpets sound, the ranks are formed. The
+ominous click, click, as the men cock their rifles, is heard on all
+sides. The moment of action has arrived. There are more than ten
+thousand men, well armed and determined. A company of Mobiles and the
+National Guards defend the entrance of the Rue Vivienne. All this tumult
+is caused by one of the battalions from Belleville, passing along the
+boulevards with three pieces of cannon.
+
+What is about to happen? When the insurgents reach the top of the Rue
+Vivienne they seem to hesitate. In a few seconds the boulevards, which
+were just now crowded, are suddenly deserted; and even the cafes are
+closed.
+
+At such a moment as this, a single accidental shot (several such have
+happened this morning; a woman standing at a window at the corner of the
+Rue Saint Marc was nearly killed by the carelessness, of one of the
+Guards),--a single shot, a cry even, or a menacing gesture would suffice
+to kindle the blaze. Nobody. moves or speaks. I feel myself tremble
+before the possibility of an irreparable disaster; it is a solemn and
+terrible moment.
+
+The battalion from Belleville presents arms; we reply, and they pass on.
+The danger is over; we breathe again. In a few seconds the crowd has
+returned to the boulevards.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 19: Lieutenant-Colonel de Beaugrand had improvised
+staff-quarters at the Grand Hotel, and the nomination of Admiral
+Saisset, together with M. Schoelcher and Langlois, had strengthened the
+enmity of the two parties. The Central Committee, seeing the danger
+which threatened, announced that the Communal elections were adjourned
+to Sunday the 26th March.]
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+
+It is two in the morning. Tired of doing nothing I take out my
+note-book, seat myself on a doorstep opposite the Restaurant Catelain,
+and jet down my memoranda by the light of a street lamp.
+
+As soon as night came on, every measure of precaution was taken. We have
+no idea by whom we are commanded, but it would appear that a serious
+defence is contemplated, and is being executed with prudence. Is it
+Admiral Saisset who is at our head? We hope so. Although we have been so
+often disappointed in our chiefs, we have not yet lost the desire to
+place confidence in some one. To-night we believe in the admiral. Ever
+and anon our superior officers retire to the _mairies_, and receive
+strict orders concerning their duty. We are quite an army in ourselves;
+our centre is in the Place de la Bourse, our wings extend into the
+adjoining streets. Lines of Nationals guard all the openings; sentinels
+are posted sixty feet in front to give the alarm. Within the enclosed
+space there is no one to be seen, but the houses are inhabited as usual.
+The doors have been left open by order, and also all the windows on the
+first floors. Each company, divided under the command of sergeants, has
+taken possession of three or four houses. At the first signal of alarm
+the street-doors are to be closed, the men to rush to the windows, and
+from there to fire on the assailants. "Hold yourselves in readiness; it
+is very possible you may be attacked. On the approach of the enemy the
+guards in the streets are to fall back under fire towards the houses,
+and take shelter there. Those posted at the windows are to keep up an
+unceasing fire on the insurgents. In the meantime the bulk of our forces
+will come to our aid, and clear the streets with their mitrailleuses."
+
+So we waited, resolved on obedience, calm, with a silent but fervent
+prayer that we might not be obliged to turn our arms against our
+fellow-townsmen.
+
+The night is beautiful. Some of our men are talking in groups on the
+thresholds of the doors, others, rolled in their blankets, are lying on
+the ground asleep. In the upper storeys of some of the houses lights are
+still twinkling through the muslin curtains; lower down all is darkness.
+Scarcely a sound is to be heard, only now and then the rumble of a heavy
+cart, or perhaps a cannon in the distance; and nearer to us the sudden
+noise of a musket that slips from its resting-place on to the pavement.
+Every hour the dull sound of many feet is heard; it is the patrol of
+Mobiles making its round. We question them as they pass.--"Anything
+fresh?"--"Nothing," is the invariable reply.--"How far have you
+been?"--"As far as the Rue de la Paix," they answer, and pass on.
+Interrupted conversations are resumed, and the sleepers, who had been
+awakened by the noise, close their eyes again. We are watching and
+waiting,--may we watch and wait in vain!
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+
+Never have I seen the dawn break with greater pleasure. Almost everyone
+has some time in his life passed such sleepless nights, when it seems to
+him that the darkness will never disappear, and the desire for light and
+day becomes a fearful longing. Never was dawn more grateful than after
+that wretched night. And yet the fear of a disastrous collision did not
+disappear with the night. It was even likely that the Federals might
+have waited for the morning to begin their attack, just when fatigue is
+greatest, sleep most difficult to fight against, and therefore
+discipline necessarily slackened. Anyhow, the light seemed to reassure
+us; we could scarcely believe that the crime of civil war could be
+perpetrated in the day-time. The night had been full of fears, the
+morning found us bright and happy. Not all of us, however. I smile as I
+remember an incident which occurred a little before daylight. One of our
+comrades, who had been lying near me, got up, went out into the street,
+and paced up and down some time, as if to shake off cramp or cold. My
+eyes followed him mechanically; he was walking in front of the houses,
+the backs of which look out upon the Passage des Panoramas, and as he
+did so he cast furtive glances through the open doorways. He went into
+one, and came out with a disappointed expression on his face. Having
+repeated this strange manoeuvre several times, he reached a
+_porte-cochere_ that was down by the side of the Restaurant Catelain. He
+remained a few minutes, then reappeared with a beaming countenance, and
+made straight for where I was standing, rubbing his hands gleefully.
+
+"Monsieur," said he, in a low voice, so as not to be overheard, "do you
+approve of this plan of action, which consists, in case of attack, of
+shooting from the windows on the assailants?"--"A necessity of street
+fighting," said I. "Let us hope we shall not have to try it."--"Oh! of
+course; but I should have preferred it if they had taken other
+measures."--"Why?" I asked.--"Why, you see, when we are in the houses
+the insurgents will try to force their way in."--I could not see what he
+was driving at, so I said, "Most probably."--"But if they do get in?" he
+insisted:--"I will trust to our being reinforced from the Place de la
+Bourse before they can effect an entrance."--"Doubtless! doubtless!" he
+answered; but I saw he was anything but convinced.--"But you know
+reinforcements often arrive too late, and if the Federals should get in,
+we shall be shot down like dogs in those rooms overhead!"--I
+acknowledged that this would be, to say the least, disagreeable, but
+argued that in time of war one must take one's chance.--"Do you think,
+then, monsieur," he continued, "that, if in the event of the insurgents
+entering we were to look out for a back door to escape by, we should be
+acting the part of cowards?"--"Of cowards? no; but of excessively
+prudent individuals? yes.":--"Well, monsieur, I am prudent, and there is
+an end of it!" exclaimed my comrade, with an air of triumph, "and I
+think I have found----"--"The back door in question?"--"Just go; look
+down that passage in front of us; at the end there is a door which
+leads--where do you think?"--"Into the Passage des Panoramas, does it
+not?"--"Yes, monsieur, and now you see what I mean."--I told him I did
+not think I did.--"Why, you see," he explained, "when the enemy comes we
+must rush into that passage, shut the lower door, and make for our post
+at the windows, where we will do our duty bravely to our last cartridge.
+But suppose, in the meantime, that those devils, succeed in breaking
+open the lower door with the butt end of their muskets--and it is not
+very strong--what shall we do then?"--"Why, of course," I said, "we must
+plant ourselves at the top of the staircase and receive them at the
+point of our bayonets."--"By no means;" he expostulated.--"But we must;
+it is our duty."--"Oh! I fancied we might have gained the door that
+leads into the passage," he went on, looking rather shame-faced.--"What,
+run away!"--"No, not exactly; only find some place of safety!"--"Well,
+if it comes to that," I replied, "you may do just as you like; only I
+warn you that the passage is occupied by a hundred of our men, and that
+all the outlets are barricaded."--"No, not all," he said with
+conviction, "and that is why I appeal to you. You are a journalist, are
+you not?"--"Sometimes."--"Yes, but you are; and you know actors and all
+those sort of people, and you go behind the scenes, I dare say, and know
+where the actors dress themselves, and all that."--I looked at my brave
+comrade in some surprise, but he continued without noticing me, "And,
+you know all the ins and outs of the theatre, the corridors, the
+trapdoors."--"Suppose I do, what good can that do you?"--"All the good
+in the world, monsieur; it will be the saving of me. Why we shall only
+have to find the actors' entrance of the _Varietes_, which is in the
+passage, then ring, at the bell; the porter knows you, and will admit
+us. You can guide us both up the staircase and behind the scenes, and we
+can easily hunt out some hole or corner in which to hide until the fight
+is over."--"Then," said I, feeling rather disgusted with my companion,
+"we can bravely walk out of the front door on the boulevards, and go and
+eat a comfortable breakfast, while the others are busy carrying away our
+dead comrades from the staircase we ought to have helped to defend!"
+
+The poor man looked at me aghast, and then went off. I saw that I had
+hurt his feelings, and I thought perhaps I had been wrong in making him
+feel the cowardice of his proposition. I had known him for some months;
+he lived in the same street as I did, and I remembered that he had a
+wife and children. Perhaps he was right in wishing to protect his life
+at any price. I thought it over for a minute or two, and then it went
+out of my mind altogether.
+
+At four in the morning we had another alarm; in an instant every one was
+on foot and rushing to the windows. The house to which I was ordered was
+the very one that had inspired my ingenious friend with his novel plan
+of evasion. I found him already installed in the room from whence we
+were to fire into the street.--"You do not know what I have done," said
+he, coming up to me.--"No."--"Well, you know the door which opens on to
+the passage; you remember it?"--"Of course I do."--"I found there was a
+key; so what do you think I did? I double-locked the door, and went and
+slipped the key down the nearest drain! Ha! ha! The fellow who tries to
+escape that way will be finely caught!"
+
+I seized him cordially by the hand and shook it many times. He was
+beaming, and I was pleased also. I could not help feeling that however
+low France may have fallen, one must never despair of a country in which
+cowards even can be brave.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+
+On Friday, the 24th of March, at nine in the morning, we are still in
+the quarter of the Bourse. Some of the men have not slept for
+forty-eight hours. We are tired but still resolved. Our numbers are
+increasing every hour. I have just seen three battalions, with
+trumpeters and all complete, come up and join us. They will now be able
+to let the men who have been so long on duty get a little rest. As to
+what is going on, we are but very incompletely informed. The Federals
+are fortifying themselves more strongly than ever at the Place de
+l'Hotel de Ville and the Place Vendome. They are very numerous, and have
+lots of artillery. Why do they not act on the offensive? Or do they
+want, as we do, to avoid a conflict? Certainly our hand shall not be the
+first to spill French blood. These hours of hesitation on both sides
+calm men's minds. The deputies and mayors of Paris are trying to obtain
+from the National Assembly the recognition of the municipal franchise.
+If the Government has the good sense to make these concessions, which
+are both legitimate and urgent, rather than remain doggedly on the
+defensive, with the conviction that it has right on its ride; if, in a
+word, it remembers the well-known maxim, "_Summum jus, summa injuria_,"
+the horrors of civil war may be averted. We are told, and I fancy
+correctly, that the Federal Guards are not without fear concerning the
+issue of the events into which they have hurried. The chiefs must also
+be uneasy. Even those who have declared themselves irreconcileable in
+the hour of triumph would not perhaps be sorry now if a little
+condescension on the part of the Assembly furnished them with a pretext
+of not continuing the rebellion. Just now, several Guards of the 117th
+Battalion, a part of which has declared for the Central Committee, who
+happened to be passing, stopped to chat with our outposts. Civil war to
+the knife did not at all appear to be their most ardent desire. One of
+them said: "We were called to arms, what could we do but obey? They give
+us our pay, and so here we are." Were they sincere in this? Did they
+come with the hope of joining us, or to spy into what we were doing?
+Others, however, either more frank or less clever at deception, declared
+that they wanted the Commune, and would have, it at any price. This,
+however, was by far the smaller number; the majority of the insurgents
+are of the opinion of these men who joined in conversation with us. It
+is quite possible to believe that some understanding might be brought
+about. A fact has just been related to me which confirms me in my
+opinion.
+
+The Comptoir d'Escompte was occupied by a post of Federals. A company of
+Government Guards from the 9th Arrondissement marched up to take
+possession. "You have been here for two whole days; go home and rest,"
+said the officer in command of the latter. But the Federals obstinately
+refused to be sent away. The officer insisted.--"We are in our own
+quarter, you are from Belleville; it is our place to guard the Comptoir
+d'Escompte."--It was all of no avail until the officer said: "Go away
+directly, and we will give you a hundred francs."--They did not wait for
+the offer to be repeated, but accepted the money and marched off. Now
+men who are willing to sell their consciences at two francs a head--for
+there were fifty of them--cannot have any very formidable political
+opinions. I forgot to say that this post of Federals was commanded by
+the Italian Tibaldi, the same who had been arrested in one of the
+passages of the Hotel de Ville during the riots of the 31st October.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+
+The news is excellent, in a few hours perhaps it will be better. We
+rejoice beforehand at the almost certain prospect of pacification. The
+sun shines, the boulevards are crowded with people, the faces of the
+women especially are beaming. What is the cause of all this joy? A
+placard has just been posted up on all the walls in the city. I copy it
+with pleasure.
+
+    "DEAR FELLOW CITIZENS,--I hasten to announce to you that together
+    with the Deputies of the Seine and the Mayors of Paris, we have
+    obtained from the Government of the National Assembly: 1st. The
+    complete recognition of your municipal franchises; 2nd. The right of
+    electing all the officers of the National Guard, as well as the
+    general-in-chief; 3rd. Modifications of the law on bills; 4th. A
+    project for a law on rents, favourable to tenants paying 1,200
+    francs a year, or less than that sum. Until you have confirmed my
+    nomination, or until you name some one else in my stead, I shall
+    continue to remain at my post to watch over the execution of these
+    conciliatory measures that we have succeeded in obtaining, and to
+    contribute to the well-being of the Republic!
+
+    "The Vice-Admiral and
+
+    Provisional Commander,
+
+    SAISSET
+
+    Paris, 23rd March."
+
+Well! this is opportune and to the purpose. The National Assembly has
+understood that, in a town like Paris, a revolution in which a third of
+the population is engaged, cannot be alone actuated by motives of
+robbery and murder;[20] and that if some of the demands of the people
+are illegitimate or premature, there are at least others, which it is
+but right should obtain justice. Paris is never entirely in the wrong.
+Certainly among the authors and leaders of the 18th March, there are
+many who are very guilty. The murderers of General Lecomte and General
+Clement Thomas should be sought out and punished. All honest men must
+demand and expect that a minute inquiry be instituted concerning the
+massacres in the Place Vendome. It must be acknowledged that all the
+Federals, officers and soldiers, are not devils or drunkards. A few
+hundred men getting drunk in the cabarets--(I have perhaps been wrong to
+lay so much stress here upon the prevalence of this vice among the
+insurrectionists)--a few tipsy brutes, ought not to be sufficient to
+authorise us to condemn a hundred thousand men, among whom are certainly
+to be found some right-minded persons who are convinced of the justice
+of their cause. These unknown and suddenly elevated chiefs, whom the
+revolution has singled out, are they all unworthy of our esteem, and
+devoid of capacity? They possess, perhaps, a new and vital force that it
+would be right and perhaps necessary to utilise somehow. The ideas which
+they represent ought to be studied, and if they prove useful, put into
+practice. This is what the Assembly has understood and what it has done.
+By concessions which enlarge rather than diminish its influence, it puts
+all right-minded men, soldiers and officers, under the obligation of
+returning to their allegiance. Those who, having read the proclamation
+of Admiral Saisset, still refuse to recognise the Government, are no
+longer men acting for the sake of Paris and the Republic, but rioters
+guilty of pursuing the most criminal paths, for the gratification of
+their own bad passions. Thus the tares will be separated from the wheat,
+and torn up without mercy. Yesterday and the day before, at the Place de
+la Bourse, at the Place des Victoires and the Bank, we were resolved on
+resistance--resistance, nothing more, for none of us, I am sure, would
+have fired a shot without sufficient provocation--and even this
+resolution cost us much pain and some hesitation. We felt that in the
+event of our being attacked, our shots might strike many an innocent
+breast--and perhaps at the last moment our hearts would have failed us.
+Now, no thoughts of that kind can hinder us. In recognising our demand,
+the Assembly has got right entirely on its side, we shall now consider
+all rebellion against the authority of which it makes so able a use, as
+an act entailing immediate punishment. Until now, fearing to be
+abandoned or misunderstood by the Government, we had determined to obey
+the mayors and deputies elected by the people, but the Assembly, by its
+judicious conduct, has shown itself worthy confidence. Let them command,
+we are ready to obey.
+
+Truly this change in the attitude of the Government is at once strange
+and delightful. No later than yesterday their language was quite
+different. The manner in which the majority received the mayors did not
+lead us to expect a termination so favourable to the wishes of all
+concerned. But this is all past, let us not recriminate. Let us rather
+rejoice in our present good fortune, and try and forget the dangers
+which seemed but now so imminent. I hear from all sides that the
+Deputies of the Seine and the mayors, fully empowered, are busy
+concluding the last arrangements. Municipal elections are talked of, for
+the 2nd April; thus every cause for discontent is about to disappear.
+Capital! Paris is satisfied. Shops re-open. The promenades are crowded
+with people; the Place Vendome alone does not brighten with the rest,
+but it soon will. The weather is lovely, people accost each other in the
+streets with a smile; one almost wonders they do not embrace. Is to-day
+Friday? No, it is Sunday. Bravo! Assembly.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 20: At the same time that the proclamation of Admiral Saisset
+encouraged the partizans of the Assembly, proofs were not wanting of the
+poverty of the Commune in money, as well as men: a new loan obtained
+from the Bank of France, which had already advanced half a million of
+francs, and the military nominations which raised Brunel, Eudes, and
+Duval from absolute obscurity to the rank of general. These were
+indications decidedly favourable to the party of order.]
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+
+On the ground-floor of the house of my neighbour there is an
+upholsterer's workshop. The day before yesterday the master went out to
+fetch some work, and this morning he had not yet returned. In an agony
+of apprehension his wife went everywhere in search of him. His body has
+just been found at the Morgue with a bullet through its head. Some say
+he was walking across the Rue de la Paix on his way home, and was shot
+by accident; but the _Journal Officiel_ announces that this poor man,
+Wahlin, was a national guard, assassinated by the revolvers of the
+manifestation. Whom are we to believe? Anyhow, the man is to be buried
+tomorrow, and his poor wife is a widow.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+
+What is the meaning of all this! Are we deceiving ourselves, or being
+deceived? We await in vain the consummation of Admiral Saisset's
+promises. In officially announcing that the Assembly had acceded to the
+just demands of the mayors and deputies, did he take upon himself to
+pass delusive hopes as accomplished facts? It seems pretty certain now
+that the Government will make no concessions, that the proclamation is
+only waste paper, and that the Provisional Commander of the National
+Guard has been leading us into error--with a laudable intention
+doubtless--or else has himself been deceived likewise. The united
+efforts of the Deputies of the Seine and the Mayors of Paris have been
+unequal to rouse the apathy of the Assembly.[21] In vain did Louis Blanc
+entreat the representatives of France to approve the conciliatory
+conduct of the representatives of Paris. "May the responsibility of what
+may happen be on your own heads!" cried M. Clemenceau. He was right; a
+little condescension might have saved all; such obstinacy is fatal.
+Deprived of the countenance of the Assembly, and left to themselves, the
+Deputies and Mayors of Paris, desirous above all of avoiding civil war,
+have been obliged to accede to the wishes of the Central Committee, and
+insist upon the municipal elections being proceeded with immediately.
+They could not have acted otherwise, and yet it is humiliating for them
+to have to bow before superior force, and their authority is compromised
+by so doing. What the Assembly, representing the whole of France, could
+have done with no loss of dignity, and even with honour to itself, the
+former accomplish only at the risk of losing their influence; what to
+the Assembly would have been an honourable concession is to them
+dangerous although necessary submission. The Committee would have been
+annulled if the Government had consented to the municipal elections, but
+thanks to a tardy consent, rung from the Deputies and Mayors of Paris,
+it triumphs. The result of the humiliation to which the representatives
+of Paris have been forced to submit to prevent the effusion of blood,
+will be the entire abdication of their authority, which will remain
+vested in the Central Committee until the members of the Commune are
+elected. Abandoned by the Government since the departure of the chief of
+the executive power and the ministers, we rallied round the
+representatives, who, unsustained by the Government, are obliged to
+submit to the revolutionists. We must now choose between the Commune and
+anarchy.
+
+Therefore, to-day, Sunday, the 26th March, the male population of Paris
+is hurrying to the poll. It is in vain that the journals have begged the
+people not to vote; the elections were only announced yesterday, and the
+electors have had no time to reconsider the choice they have to make,
+and yet they insist on voting. Those who decline to obey the suggestions
+of the Central Committee, will re-elect the late mayors or choose among
+the deputies, but vote they will. The present attitude of the regular
+Government has done much towards furthering the revolution. The mistakes
+of the Assembly have diminished in the eyes of the public the crime of
+revolt. Everywhere the murder of Generals Clement Thomas and Lecomte is
+openly regretted; but those who repeat that the Central Committee
+declares having had nothing to do with it, are listened to with
+patience. The rumour that they were shot by soldiers gains ground, and
+seems less incredulously received. As to the massacres of the Rue de la
+Paix, we are told that this event is enveloped in mystery, that the
+evidence is most contradictory, etc., etc.[22] There is evidently a
+decided reactionary movement in favour of the partizans of the Commune.
+Without approving their acts their activity is incontestable. They have
+done much in a short time. People exclaim, "There are men for you!"
+This state of things is very alarming to all those who have remained
+faithful to the Assembly, which in spite of its errors has not ceased to
+be the legal representative of the country. It is a cruel position for
+the Parisians who are obliged to choose between a regular Government
+which they would desire to obey, but which by its faults renders such
+obedience impossible, and an illegitimate power, that, although guilty
+in its acts, and stained with crime, still represents the opinions of
+the republican majority. By to-night, therefore, the Commune will have
+been called into existence; an illegal existence it may be argued,
+doubtless, by the partizans of constitutional legality, who would
+consider as null and void elections carried on without the consent of
+the nation, as represented by the Assembly. Legal or not, however, the
+elections have taken place, and the fact alone is of some importance. In
+a few hours the Executive Power of the Republic will have to treat,
+whether it will or no, with a force which has constituted itself with as
+much legality as it had in its power to assume under the circumstances.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 21: The news of the check which the Maires of Paris had
+suffered in the Assembly suddenly loosened the bond which for two days
+had united the friends of order, and profound discouragement seized upon
+the public mind. It was at this moment that the deputies from the
+Committee presented themselves at the Mairie of the first
+arrondissement, preceded by three pieces of artillery, a very warlike
+accompaniment to a deputation. It was arranged that the Communal
+election should be managed by the existing Maires, and that the
+battalions of each quarter of the city, whether federal or not, should
+occupy the voting places of their sections; but this did not prevent the
+Committee on the following morning occupying the Mairie of
+Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, in spite of the arrangement, by their most
+devoted battalions.]
+
+[Footnote 22: The following are the terms in which the Commune spoke of
+the events of the 18th March, and excused the murder of the two
+generals:
+
+"CITIZENS,--The day of the 18th of March, which for interested reasons
+has been travestied in the most odious manner, will be called in
+history, The Day of the People's Justice!
+
+The Government, now subverted--always maladroit--rushed into a conflict
+without considering either its own unpopularity, or the fraternal
+feeling that animates the armies; the entire army, when ordered to
+commit fratricide, replied with cries of "Vive la Republique!" "Vive la
+Garde Nationale!"
+
+Two men alone, who had rendered themselves unpopular by acts which we
+now pronounce as iniquitous, were struck down in a moment of popular
+indignation.
+
+The Committee of the Federation of the National Guard, in order to
+render homage to truth, declare it was a stranger to these two
+executions.
+
+At the present moment the ministries are constituted, the prefect of
+police has assumed his duties, the public offices are again active, and
+we invite all citizens to maintain the utmost calmness and order."]
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+
+Crowds in the streets and promenades. This evening all the theatres will
+be re-opened. In the meantime the voting is going on. The weather is
+delightful, so I take a stroll along the promenades. Under the colonnade
+of the Chatelet there is a long line of electors awaiting their turn. I
+fancy that in this quarter the candidates of the Central Committee will
+be surely elected. Women, in bright-coloured dresses and fresh spring
+bonnets, are walking to and fro. I hear some one say that there are a
+great many cannon at the Hotel de Ville. Two friends meet together in
+the square of the Arts et Metiers.--"Are you alone, madame?" says one
+lady to another.--"Yes, madame; I am waiting for my husband, who is gone
+to vote."
+
+A child, who is skipping, cries out, "Mama, mama, what is the Commune?"
+
+The fiacre drivers make the revolution an excuse for asking extravagant
+fares; this does not prevent their having very decided political
+opinions. One who, drove one would scarcely have been approved of by the
+Central Committee.--"_Cocher_, what is the fare?" I ask.--"Five francs,
+monsieur."--"All right; take me to the mairie Place Saint-Sulpice."
+--"Beg pardon, monsieur, but if you are going to vote, it will be
+ten francs!"
+
+On the Boulevard de Strasbourg there are streams of people dressed in
+holiday attire; itinerant dealers in tops, pamphlets, souvenirs of the
+siege--bits of black bread, made on purpose, and framed and glazed, also
+bits of shells--and scented soap, and coloured pictures; crowds of
+beggars everywhere. In this part of the town the revolution looks very
+much like a fair.
+
+At the mairie of the 6th Arrondissement there are very few people. I
+enter into conversation with one of the officials there. He tells me he
+has never seen voting carried on with greater spirit.
+
+I meet a friend who has just returned from Belleville, and ask him the
+news, of course.--"The voting is progressing in capital order," he tells
+me; "the men go up to the poll as they would mount the breach. They have
+no choice but to obey blindly."--"The Central Committee?" I
+inquire.--"Yes, but the Committee itself only obeys orders."
+--"Whose?"--"Why those of the International, of course."
+
+At a corner near the boulevards, a compact little knot of people is
+stationed in front of a poster. I fancy they are studying the
+proclamation of one of the candidates, but it turns out only to be a
+play-bill. The crowd continues to thicken; the cafes are crammed; gold
+chignons are plentiful enough at every table; here and there a red
+Garibaldi shirt is visible, like poppies amongst the corn. Every now and
+then a horseman gallops wildly past with dispatches from one section to
+another. The results of some of the elections are creeping out. At
+Montrouge, Bercy, Batignolles, and the Marais, they tell us the members
+of the Central Committee are elected by a very large majority. Here the
+hoarse voice of a boy strikes in,--"Buy the account of the grand
+conspiracy of Citoyen Thiers against the Republic!" Then another chimes
+in with wares of a less political and more vulgar nature. The movement
+to and fro and the excitement is extraordinary. While the populace basks
+in the sun the destiny of the city is being decided.--"M. Desmarest is
+elected for the 9th Arrondissement," says some one close to
+me.--"Lesueur is capital in the 'Partie de Piquet,'" says another. Oh!
+people of Paris!
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+
+It is over. We have a "Municipal Council," according to some; a
+"Commune," according to others. Not quite legally elected, but
+sufficiently so. Eighty councillors, sixty of whom are quite unknown
+men. Who can have recommended them, or, rather, imposed them on the
+electors? Can there really be some occult power at work under cover of
+the ex-Central Committee? Is the Commune only a pretext, and are we at
+the debut of a social and political revolution? I overheard a partizan
+of the new doctrines say,--"The Proletariat is vindicating its rights,
+which have been unjustly trampled on by the aristocratic bourgeoisie.
+This is the workman's 1789!"
+
+Another person expresses the same thing in rather a different form.
+"This is the revolt of the _canaille_ against all kind of supremacy, the
+supremacy of fortune, and the supremacy of intellect. The equality of
+man before the law has been acknowledged, now they want to proclaim the
+equality of intellect. Soon universal suffrage will give place to the
+drawing of lots. There was a time in Athens when the names of the
+archontes were taken haphazard out of a bag, like the numbers at loto."
+
+However, the revolution has not yet clearly defined its tendencies, and
+in the meantime what are we to think of the unknown beings who represent
+it? A man in whom I have the greatest confidence, and who has passed his
+life in studying questions of social science, and who therefore has
+mixed in nearly all the revolutionary circles, and is personally
+acquainted with the chiefs, said to me just now, in speaking of the new
+Municipal Council,[23]--"It will be an assemblage of a very motley
+character. There will be much good and much bad in it. We may safely
+divide it into three distinct parts: firstly, ten or twelve men
+belonging to the International, who have both thought and studied and
+may be able to act, mixed with these several foreigners; secondly, a
+number of young men, ardent but inexperienced, some of whom are imbued
+with Jacobin principles; thirdly, and by far the largest portion,
+unsuccessful plotters in former revolutions, journalists, orators, and
+conspirators,--noisy, active, and effervescent, having no particular tie
+amongst themselves except the absence of any common bond of unity with
+the two former divisions, and being confounded now with one, now with
+the other. The members of the International alone have any real
+political value; they are Socialists. The Jacobin element is decidedly
+dangerous."--If in reality the Communal Assembly is thus composed, how
+will it act? Let us wait and see; in the meantime the city is calm.
+Never did so critical a moment wear so calm an exterior. By the bye,
+where are the Prussians?[24]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 23: The _Figaro_ gives the following list of those who held
+service under the Commune:--
+
+    Anys-el-Bittar, Librarian MSS. Department, Bibliotheque Nationale.
+    (Egyptian)
+
+    Biondetti, Surgeon 233rd Battalion. (Italian.)
+
+    Babiok, a Member of the Commune. (Pole.)
+
+    Beoka, Adjutant to the 207th Battalion. (Pole.)
+
+    Cluseret, General, Delegate of War. (American.)
+
+    Cernatesco, Surgeon of Francs Tireurs. (Pole.)
+
+    Crapulinski, Colonel of Staff. (Pole.)
+
+    Carneiro de Cunha, Surgeon 38th Battalion. (Portuguese.)
+
+    Charalambo, Surgeon of the Federal Scouts. (Pole.)
+
+    Dombrowski, General. (Russian.)
+
+    Dombrowski (his brother), Colonel of Staff. (Russian.)
+
+    Durnoff, Commandant of Legion. (Pole.)
+
+    Echenlaub, Colonel. (German.)
+
+    Ferrera Gola, General Manager of Field Hospitals. (Portuguese.)
+
+    Frankel, a Member of the Commune. (Prussian.)
+
+    Giorok, Commandant of the Fort d'Issy. (Valachian.)
+
+    Grejorok, Commandant of the Artillery at Montmartre.(Valachian.)
+
+    Kertzfeld, Chief Manager of Field Hospitals. (German.)
+
+    Iziquerdo, Surgeon of the 88th Battalion. (Pole.)
+
+    Jalowski, Surgeon of the Zouaves de la Republique. (Pole.)
+
+    Kobosko, Despatch Bearer.
+
+    La Cecilia, General. (Italian.)
+
+    Landowski, Aide-de-Camp of General Dombrowski. (Pole.)
+
+    Mizara, Commandant of the 104th Battalion. (Italian.)
+
+    Maratuch, Surgeon's mate of the 72nd Battalion. (Hungarian.)
+
+    Moro, Commandant of the 22nd Battalion. (Italian.)
+
+    Okolowicz and his brothers, General and Staff Officers. (Poles.)
+
+    Ostyn, a Member of the Commune. (Belgian.)
+
+    Olinski, Chief of the 17th Legion. (Pole.)
+
+    Pisani, Aide-de-Camp of Flourens. (Italian.)
+
+    Potampenki, Aide-de-Camp of General Dombrowski. (Pole.)
+
+    Ploubinski, Staff Officer. (Pole.)
+
+    Pazdzierswski, Commandant of the Fort de Vanves. (Pole.)
+
+    Piazza, Chief of Legion. (Italian.)
+
+    Pugno, Music-manager at the Opera-house. (Italian.)
+
+    Romanelli, Manager of the War Offices. (Italian.)
+
+    Rozyski, Surgeon of the 144th Battalion. (Pole.)
+
+    Rubinowicz, Surgeon of the Marines. (Pole.)
+
+    Syneck, Surgeon of the 151st Battalion. (German.)
+
+    Skalski, Surgeon of the 240th Battalion. (Pole.)
+
+    Soteriade, Surgeon. (Spaniard.)
+
+    Thaller, Under Governor of the Fort de Bicetre. (German.)
+
+    Van Ostal, Commandant of the 115th Battalion. (Dutch.)
+
+    Vetzel, Commandant of the Southern Forts. (German.)
+
+    Wroblewski, General Commandant of the Southern Army. (Pole.)
+
+    Witton, Surgeon of the 72nd Battalion. (American.)
+
+    Zengerler, Surgeon of the 74th Battalion, (German.)]
+
+[Footnote 24: The Prussians and the Commune, see Appendix 3.]
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+
+Who can help being carried away by the enthusiasm of a crowd? I am not a
+political man, I am only an observer who sees, hears, and feels.
+
+I was on the Place de l'Hotel de Ville at the moment when the names of
+the successful candidates were proclaimed, and the emotion is still
+fresh upon me.[25] There were perhaps a hundred thousand men there,
+assembled from all quarters of the city. The neighbouring streets were
+also full, and the bayonets glittering in the sun filled the Place with
+brilliant flashes like miniature lightning. In the centre of the facade
+of the building a platform was erected, over which presided a statue of
+the Republic, wearing a Phrygian cap. The bronze basso-relievo of Henry
+IV. had been carefully hidden with clusters of flags. Each window was
+alive with faces. I saw several women on the roof, and the _gamins_ were
+everywhere, hanging on to the sculptured ornaments, or riding fearlessly
+on the shoulders of the marble busts. One by one the battalions had
+taken up their position on the Place with their bands. When they were
+all assembled they struck up the Marseillaise, which was re-echoed by a
+thousand voices. It was grand in the extreme, and the magnificent hymn,
+which late defeats had shorn of its glory, swelled forth again with all
+its old splendour revived. Suddenly the cannon is heard, the voices rise
+louder and louder; a sea of standards, bayonets, and human heads waves
+backwards and forwards in front of the platform. The cannon roars, but
+we only hear it between the intervals of the hymn. Then all the sounds
+are confounded in one universal shout, that shout of the vast multitude
+which seems to have but one heart and one voice. The members of the
+Committee, each with a tricolor scarf across his breast, have taken
+their places on the platform. One of them reads out the names of the
+elected councillors. Then the cannon roars once more, but is almost
+drowned by the deafening huzzas of the crowd. Oh! people of Paris, who
+on the day of the "_Crosse en l'air_"[26] got tipsy in the wine-shops of
+Montmartre, whose ranks furnished the murderers of Thomas and Lecomte,
+who in the Rue de la Paix shot down unconscious passengers, who are
+capable of the wildest extravagance and most execrable deeds, you are
+also in your days of glory, grand and magnificent, when a volcano of
+generous passions rages within, and the hearts even of those who condemn
+you most, are scorched in the flames.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 25: The result of the voting was made known at four o'clock on
+the 28th March. The papers devoted to the Commune asserted, on the
+following day, that _two hundred and fifteen_ battalions were assembled
+on that day, and that the average strength of each corps was one
+thousand men. Who could have believed that the Place de l'Hotel de Ville
+was capable of accommodating so many! This farcical assertion of the two
+hundred and fifteen battalions has passed into a proverb.]
+
+[Footnote 26: When they turned the butt-ends (_crosses_) of their guns
+in the air, as a sign they would not fight.]
+
+
+
+
+XXI.
+
+
+"Citizens," says the _Official Journal_ this morning, "your Commune is
+constituted." Then follows decree upon decree. White posters are being
+stuck up everywhere. Why are they at the Hotel de Ville, if not to
+publish decrees? The conscription is abolished. We shall see no more
+poor young fellows marching through the town with their numbers in their
+caps, and fired with that noble patriotism which is imbibed in the
+cabarets at so much a glass. We shall have no more soldiers, but to make
+up for that we shall all be National Guards. There's a glorious decree,
+as Edgar Poe says. As to the landlords, their vexation is extreme; even
+the tenants do not seem so satisfied as they ought to be. Not to have to
+pay any rent is very delightful, certainly, but they scarcely dare
+believe in such good fortune. Thus when Orpheus, trying to rescue
+Eurydice from "the infernal regions," interrupts with "his harmonious
+strains" the tortures of eternal punishment, Prometheus did not
+doubtless show as much delight as he ought to have done, on discovering
+that the beak of the vulture was no longer gnawing at his vitals,
+"scarcely daring to believe in such good fortune." Orpheus is the
+Commune; Eurydice, Liberty; "the infernal regions," the Government of
+the 4th September; "the harmonious strains," the decrees of the Commune;
+Prometheus, the tenant; and the vulture, the landlord!
+
+In plain terms, however--forgive me for joking on such a subject--the
+decree which annuls the payment of the rents for the quarters ending
+October 1870, January 1871, and April 1871, does not appear to me at all
+extravagant, and really I do not see what there is to object to in the
+following lines which accompany it:--
+
+    "In consideration of the expenses of the war having been chiefly
+    sustained by the industrial, commercial, and working portion of the
+    population, it is but just that the proprietors of houses and land
+    should also bear their part of the burthen...."
+
+Let us talk it over together, Mr. Landlord. You have a house and I live
+in it. It is true that the chimneys smoke, and that you most
+energetically refuse to have them repaired. However, the house is yours,
+and you possess most decidedly the right of making a profit by it.
+Understand, once for all, that I never contest your right. As for me, I
+depend upon my wit, I do not possess much, but I have a tool--it may be
+either a pen, or a pencil, or a hammer--which enables me, in the
+ordinary course of things, to live and to pay with more or less
+regularity my quarter's rent. If I had not possessed this tool, you
+would have taken good care not to let me inhabit your house or any part
+or portion thereof, because you would have considered me in no position
+to pay you your rent. Now, during the war my tool has unquestionably
+rendered me but poor service. It has remained ignobly idle in the
+inkstand, in the folio, or on the bench. Not only have I been unable to
+use it, but I have also in some sort lost the knack of handling it; I
+must have some time to get myself into working order again. While I was
+working but little, and eating less, what were you doing? Oh! I do not
+mean to say that you were as flourishing as in the triumphant days of
+the Empire, but still I have not heard of any considerable number of
+landlords being found begging at the corners of the streets, and I do
+not fancy you made yourselves conspicuous by your assiduous attendance
+at the Municipal Cantines. I have even heard that you or many of your
+brother-landlords took pretty good care not to be in Paris during the
+Prussian siege, and that you contented yourselves with forming the most
+ardent wishes, for the final triumph of French arms, from beneath the
+wide-spreading oaks of your chateaux in Touraine and Beauce, or from the
+safe haven of a Normandy fishing village; while we, accompanied it is
+true by your most fervent prayers, took our turn at mounting guard, on
+the fortifications during the bitter cold nights, or knee-deep in the
+mud of the trenches. However, I do not blame those who sought safety in
+flight; each person is free to do as he pleases; what I object to is
+your coming back and saying, "During seven or eight months you have done
+no work, you have been obliged to pawn your furniture to buy bread for
+your wife and children; I pity you from the bottom of my heart--be so
+kind as to hand me over my three quarters' rent." No, a thousand times
+no; such a demand is absurd, wicked, ridiculous; and I declare that if
+there is no possible compromise between the strict execution of the law
+and his decree of the Commune, I prefer, without the least hesitation,
+to abide by the latter; I prefer to see a little poverty replace for a
+time the long course of prosperity that has been enjoyed by this very
+small class of individuals, than to see the last articles of furniture
+of five hundred thousand suffering wretches, put up to auction and
+knocked down for one-twentieth part of their value. There must, however,
+be some way of conciliating the interests of both landlords and tenants.
+Would it be sufficient to accord delays to the latter, and force the
+former to wait a certain time for their money? I think not; if I were
+allowed three years to pay off my three quarters' rent, I should still
+be embarrassed. The tool of the artisan is not like the peasant's plot
+of ground, which is more productive after having lain fallow. During the
+last few sad months, when I had no work to do, I was obliged to draw
+upon the future, a future heavily mortgaged; when I shall perhaps
+scarcely be able to meet the expenses of each day, will there be any
+possibility of acquitting the debts of the past? You may sell my
+furniture if the law gives you the right to do so, but I shall not pay!
+
+The only possible solution, believe me, is that in favour of the
+tenants, only it ought not to be applied in so wholesale a fashion.
+Inquiries should be instituted, and to those tenants from whom the war
+has taken away all possibility of payment an unconditional receipt
+should be delivered: to those who have suffered less, a proportionate
+reduction should be allowed; but those whom the invasion has not ruined
+or seriously impoverished--and the number is large, among provision
+merchants, cafe keepers, and private residents--let those pay directly.
+In this way the landlords will lose lees than one may imagine, because
+it will be the lowest rents that will be forfeited. The decree of the
+Commune is based on a right principle, but too generally applied.
+
+The new Government--for it is a Government--does not confine itself to
+decrees. It has to install itself in its new quarters and make
+arrangements.[27]
+
+In a few hours it has organized more than ten committees--the executive,
+the financial, the public-service, the educational, the military, the
+legal, and the committee of public safety. No end of committees and
+committeemen: it is to be hoped that the business will be promptly
+despatched!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 27: Organisation of the Commissions on the 31st of March:
+
+    _Executive Commission_.--Citizens Eudes, Tridou, Vaillant,
+    Lefrancais, Duval, Felix Pyat, Bergeret.
+
+    _Commission of Finance_.--Victor Clement, Varlin, Jourde, Beslay,
+    Regere.
+
+    _Military Commission_.--General E. Duval, General Bergeret, General
+    Eudes, Colonel Chardon, Colonel Flourens, Colonel Pindly, Commandant
+    Ranvier.
+
+    _Commission of Public Justice_.--Ranc, Protot, Leo Meillet,
+    Vermorel, Ledroit, Babick.
+
+    _Commission of Public Safety_.--Raoul Rigault, Ferre, Assy, Cournet,
+    Oudet, Chalain, Gerardin.
+
+    _Victualling Commission_.--Dereure, Champy, Ostyn, Clement, Parizel,
+    Emile Clement, Fortune Henry.
+
+    _Commission of Industry and Trade_.--Malon, Frankel, Theiz, Dupont,
+    Avrial, Loiseau-Pinson, Eugene Gerardin, Puget.
+
+    _Commission of Foreign Affairs_.--Delescluze, Ranc, Paschal
+    Grousset, Ulysse Parent, Arthur Arnould, Antoine Arnauld, Charles
+    Gerardin.
+
+    _Commission of Public Service_.--Ostyn, Billioray, Clement (J.B.)
+    Martelet, Mortier, Rastoul.
+
+    _Commission of Education_.--Jules Valles, Doctor Goupil, Lefevre,
+    Urbain,[28] Albert Leroy, Verdure, Demay, Doctor Robinet.]
+
+[Footnote 28: Memoir, see Appendix XIII.]
+
+
+
+
+XXII.
+
+
+Come, let us understand each other. Who are you, members of the
+Commune? Those among you who are in some sort known to the public do not
+possess, however, enough of its confidence to make up for the want of
+knowledge it has of the others. Have a care how you excite our mistrust.
+You have published decrees that certainly are open to criticism, but
+that are not entirely obnoxious, for their object is to uphold the
+interests of that portion of the population, which you most particularly
+represent, and from whom you hold your commission. We will forgive the
+decrees if you do nothing worse. Yesterday, the 30th March, during the
+night (why in the night?) some men wearing a red scarf and followed by
+several others with arms, presented themselves at the Union Insurance
+Company. On the porter refusing to deliver up the keys of the offices he
+was arrested. They then proceeded to break open the doors with the
+butt-end of their muskets, and put seals on the strong box. What can
+this portend? Have you been elected to break open private offices and
+put seals on cash-boxes? That same night, a friend of mine who happened
+to be passing across one of the bridges on his way home, noticed that
+the windows of the Hotel de Ville were brilliantly lighted. Could they
+be having a ball already? he wondered. He made inquiries and discovered
+that it was not a ball, but a banquet; three or four hundred National
+Guards from Belleville had invaded the apartments and had ordered a
+dinner to be served to them. They were accompanied by a corresponding
+number of female companions, and were drinking, talking, and singing to
+their hearts' content. What do you mean by that, members of the Commune?
+Have you been elected to keep open-house, and do you propose to inscribe
+over the entrance of the municipal palace: "Ample accommodation for
+feasts and banquets," as a companion to your motto of "Liberty,
+Equality, and Fraternity?"
+
+
+
+
+XXIII.
+
+
+    "I tell you, you shall not go!"--"But I will."--"Well, you may, but
+    not your furniture."--"And who shall prevent my carrying off my
+    furniture if I choose?"--"I will."--"I defy
+    you!"--"Thief!"--"Robber!"
+
+
+This animated discussion was being carried on at the door of a house, in
+front of which a cart filled with furniture was standing; a crowd of
+street boys was fast assembling, and the heads of curious neighbours
+appeared grinning in all the windows.
+
+A partizan of the Commune had determined to profit by the decree.
+Matters at first had seemed to go on quietly. The concierge, taken aback
+by the sudden apparition of the van, had not summoned up courage to
+prevent the furniture from being stowed away in it. The landlord,
+however, had got scent of the affair, and had hastened to this spot.
+Now, the tenant was a determined character, and as the van-men refused
+to mix themselves up in the fray, he himself shouldered his last article
+of furniture and carried it to the van. He was about to place it within
+cover of the awning, when the landlord, like a miser deprived of his
+treasure, seized it and deposited it on the pavement. The tenant
+re-grasped his spoil and thrust it again into the cart, from whence it
+was instantly drawn forth again by the enraged landlord. This game was
+carried on for some time, each as determined as the other, grasping;
+snatching, and pulling this unfortunate piece of furniture until one
+wrench, stronger than the former, entirely dislocated its component
+parts, and laid it in a ruined heap upon the ground. This was the moment
+for the tenant to show himself a man of spirit. Taking advantage of the
+surprise of the landlord, he swept the broken remains of his property
+deftly into the van, bounded on to the driver's seat, shook the reins,
+cracked his whip, and started off at a thundering gallop, pursued by the
+huzzas of the crowd, the cries of the van-men, and the oaths of the
+disappointed landlord. The van and its team of lean cattle were soon
+lost to view, and the landlord was left alone on his doorstep, shaking
+his fist and muttering "Brigand!"
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.
+
+
+What a quantity of luggage! Even those who had the good fortune of
+witnessing the emigration before the siege would never have supposed
+that there could be so much luggage in Paris. Well-to-do looking trunks
+with brass ornaments, black wooden boxes, hairy trunks, leathern
+hat-boxes, and cardboard bonnet-boxes, portmanteaux and carpet bags are
+piled up on vehicles of every description, of which more than ten
+thousand block up the roads leading to the railway stations. Everybody
+is wild to get away; it is whispered about that the Commune, the horrid
+Commune, is about to issue a decree forbidding the Parisians to quit
+Paris. So all prudent individuals are making off, with their bank-notes
+and shares in their pocket-books. I see a man I know, walking very fast,
+wearing a troubled expression on his face. I ask him where he is
+going.--"you do not know what has happened to me?" he cries. I confess I
+do not.--"The most extraordinary thing: I am condemned to
+death!"--"You!" I exclaim.--"Yes! by the Commune!"--"And wherefore?" I
+ask.--"Because I write on the _Figaro_."--"Why, I never knew
+that!"--"Oh! not very often; but last year I addressed a letter to the
+Editor, to explain to him that my new farce called 'My Aunt's Garters'
+had nothing at all to do with 'My Uncle's Braces,' which is by somebody
+else. You understand that I did not want to change the title, which is
+rather good of its kind, so I wrote to the _Figaro_, and as my letter
+was inserted, and as the Commune condemns all the contributors.... You
+see ...!"--"Perfectly! Why, my dear fellow, you ought to have been off
+before. Of course you go to Versailles?"--"Why, yes."--"By the railway?"
+I cannot help having a joke at his expense.--"Yes, of course."--"Well,
+if I were you, I would not, really; the engine might blow up, or you
+might run into a luggage train. Such things do happen in the best of
+times, and I think the Commune capable of anything to get rid of so
+dangerous an adversary."--"You don't mean to say," says the poor little,
+man in a tremor, "that they would go to such lengths! Well, at any rate
+I will travel by the road."[29]
+
+A little farther up the Boulevard des Italiens I see another
+acquaintance. "What, still in Paris?" I say, shaking hands with him.--"I
+am off this evening," he answers.--"Are you condemned to death?"--"No,
+but I shall be tried to-night."--"The devil! Do you write on the
+_Figaro_!"--"No, no, it is quite a long story. Three years ago, I made
+the acquaintance of a charming blonde, who reciprocated my advances, and
+made herself highly agreeable. In a word, I was smitten. Unfortunately
+there was a husband in the case!"--"The devil there was!"--"He made
+inquiries, and found out who I was, and ..."--"And invited you to mortal
+combat?"--"Oh! no, he is a hosier. But from that day forth he became my
+most bitter enemy."--"Very disagreeable of him, I am sure, but I do not
+see how the enmity of this retail dealer obliges you to quit
+Paris?"--"Why, you see he has a cousin who is elected a member of the
+Commune."--"I understand your uneasiness; you fear the latent revenge of
+this unreasonable hosier."--"I am to be tried to-night, but it is not
+the fear of death which makes me fly. It is worse than that. Those
+Hotel de Ville people are capable of anything, and I hear they are going
+to make a law on divorce. I know the malignity of the lady's
+husband--and I believe he is capable of getting a divorce, and forcing
+me to marry her!"
+
+So, under one pretext and another, almost everyone is going away. As for
+me, I am like a hardened Parisian--my boots have a rooted dislike to any
+other pavement than that of the boulevards. Who is right, I, or those
+who are rushing off? Is there really danger here for those who are not
+ardently attached to the principles of the Commune? I try to believe
+not. True there have been arrests--domiciliary visits and other illegal
+and tyrannical acts--but I do not think it can last.[30] May we not hope
+that the dangerous element in the Commune will soon be neutralised by
+the more intelligent portion of the Municipal Council, if, indeed, that
+portion exists? I cannot believe that a revolution, accomplished by
+one-third of the population of Paris, and tolerated by another (the
+remaining fraction having taken flight), can be entirely devoid of the
+spirit of generosity and usefulness, capable only of appropriating the
+funds of others, and unjustly imprisoning innocent citizens. Besides,
+even if the Commune, instead of trying to make us forget the bloody
+deeds with which it preceded its establishment, or seeking to repair the
+faults of which it has been guilty, on the contrary continues to commit
+such excesses, thus harrying to its ruin a city which has already
+suffered so much, even then I will not leave it. I will cling to it to
+the last, as a sailor who has grown to love the ship that has borne him
+gallantly in so many voyages, clings to the wreck of his favourite, and
+refuses to be saved without it.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 29: The following is a document which completely justifies
+these apprehensions:--
+
+"30th March--The Commune of Paris--Orders from the Central Committee to
+the officer in command, of the battalion on guard at the station of
+Ouest-Ceinture.
+
+"To stop all trains proceeding in the direction of Paris at the
+Ouest-Ceinture station.
+
+"To place an energetic man night and day at this post. This man is to
+mount guard with a beam, which he is to throw across the rails at the
+arrival of each train, so as to cause it to run off the rails, if the
+engine-driver refuses to stop.
+
+"HENRI, Chief of a Legion."]
+
+[Footnote 30: Vexatious measures accumulated:
+
+The pacific M. Glais-Bizoin was arrested in a tobacconist's shop, where
+he was, doubtless, lighting a reactionary cigar. He fancied at first
+that there had been a mistake, but he was taken before the Committee,
+which caused him, however, to be liberated.
+
+M. Maris Proth, a writer in _Charivari_, which is certainly not a
+royalist journal, was arrested on the following day, and detained for a
+longer time.
+
+On the same day a search was made at the house of the publisher
+Lacroix.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Gambon.]
+
+XXV.
+
+
+Garibaldi is expected. Gambon has gone to Corsica to meet him. He is to
+be placed at the head of the National Guard. It is devoutly to be hoped
+that he will not come.[31]
+
+Firstly, because his presence at this moment would create new dangers;
+and secondly, because this admirable and honoured man would compromise
+his glory uselessly in our sorry discords. If I, an obscure citizen, had
+the honour of being one of those to whom the liberator of Naples lends
+an ear, I would go to him without hesitation, and, after having bent
+before him as I would before some ancient hero arisen from his glorious
+sepulchre, say to him,--"General, you have delivered your country. At
+the head of a few hundred men you have won battles and taken towns. Your
+name recalls the name of William Tell. Wherever there were chains to
+rend and yokes to break, you were seen to hasten. Like the warriors Hugo
+exalts in his _Legende des Siecles_, you have been the champion of
+justice, the knight-errant of liberty. You appear to us victorious in a
+distant vision, as in the realm of legend. For the glory of our age in
+which heroes are wanting, it befits you to remain that which you are.
+Continue afar off, so that you may continue great. It is not that your
+glory is such that it can only be seen at a distance, and loses when
+regarded, too nearly. Not so! But you would be hampered amongst us.
+There is not space enough here for you to draw your sword freely. We are
+adroit, strange, and complicated. You are simple, and in that lies your
+greatness. We belong to our time, you have the honour to be an
+anachronism. You would be useless to your friends, destructive to
+yourself. What would you, a giant fighting with the sword, do against
+dwarfs who have cannon? You are courageous, but they are cunning, and
+would conquer you. For the sake of the nineteenth century you must not
+be vanquished. Do not come; in your simplicity you would be caught in
+the spider's web of clever mediocrity, and your grand efforts to tear
+yourself free would only be laughed at. Great man, you would be treated
+like a pigmy."
+
+It is probable, however, that if I held such a discourse to General
+Garibaldi, General Garibaldi would politely show me the door. Other and
+more powerful counsellors have inspired him with different ideas.
+Friendship dangerous indeed! How deeply painful is it that no man,
+however intelligent or great, can clearly distinguish the line, where
+the mission for which Heaven has endowed him ceases, and, disdaining all
+celebrity foreign to his true glory, consent to remain such as future
+ages will admire.[32]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 31: The Citizen Gambon, representative of the Department of
+the Seine, left Paris charged with a mission to seek Garibaldi, but was
+arrested at Bonifacio, in the island of Corsica, just as he was
+embarking for Caprera.
+
+For Memoir, see Appendix 4.]
+
+[Footnote 32: Garibaldi was chosen by the Central Committee for
+Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard, but he refused in the
+following terms, pretending not to be aware of the condition of Paris:--
+
+"Caprera, 28th March, 1871.
+
+"CITIZENS,--
+
+"Thanks for the honour you have conferred upon me by my nomination as
+Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard of Paris, which I love, and
+whose dangers and glory I should be proud to share.
+
+"I owe you, however, the following explanations:--
+
+"A commandant of the National Guard of Paris, a commander of the Army of
+Paris, and a directing committee, whatever they may be, are three powers
+which are not reconcilable with the present situation of France.
+
+"Despotism has the advantage over us, the advantage of the concentration
+of power, and it is this same centralisation which you should oppose to
+your enemies.
+
+"Choose an honest citizen, and such are not wanting: Victor Hugo, Louis
+Blanc, Felix Pyat, Edgar Quinet, or another of the elders of radical
+democracy, would serve the purpose. The generals Oremer and Billot, who,
+I see, have your confidence, may be counted in the number.
+
+"Be assured that one honest man should be charged with the supreme
+command and full powers; such a man would choose other honest men to
+assist him in the difficult task of saving the country.
+
+"If you should have the good fortune to find a Washington, France will
+recover from shipwreck, and in a short time will be grander than ever.
+
+"These conditions are not an excuse for escaping the duty of serving
+republican France. No! I do not despair of fighting by the side of these
+_braves_, and I am,
+
+"Yours devotedly,
+
+(Signed), "G. GARIBALDI."]
+
+
+
+
+XXVI.
+
+
+Monday, the 3rd of April.[33] A fearful day! I have been hurrying this
+way and that, looking, questioning, reading. It is now ten o'clock in
+the evening. And what do I know? Nothing certain; nothing except this,
+which is awful,--they are fighting.
+
+Yes, at the gates of Paris, Frenchmen against Frenchmen, beneath the
+eyes of the Prussians, who are watching the battle-field like ravens:
+they are fighting. I have seen ambulance waggons pass full of National
+Guards. By whom have they been wounded? By Zouaves. Is this thing
+credible, is it possible? Ah! those guns, cannon, and mitrailleuses, why
+were they not all claimed by the enemy--all, every one, from soldiers
+and Parisians alike? But little hindrance would that have proved. It had
+been resolved--by what monstrous will?--that we should be hurled to the
+very bottom of the precipice. These Frenchmen, who would kill Frenchmen,
+would not be checked by lack of arms. If they could not shoot each
+other, they would strangle each other.
+
+[Illustration: THE BARRICADE: EVENING MEAL--SOUP AND CIGARS, AND A
+"PETIT VERRE."]
+
+This, indeed, was unlooked for. An insurrection was feared; men thought
+of the June days; that evening when the battalions devoted to the
+National Assembly camped in the neighbourhood of the Bank, we imagined,
+as a horrible possibility, muskets pointed from between the stones of
+barricades, blood flowing in the streets, men killed, women in tears.
+But who could have foretold that a new species of civil war was
+preparing? That Paris, separated from France, would be blockaded by
+Frenchmen? That it would once more be deprived of communication with the
+provinces; once more starved perhaps? That there would be, not a few men
+struggling to the death in one of the quarters of the town, but two
+armies in presence, each with chiefs, fortifications and cannon? That
+Paris, in a word, would be besieged anew? How abominable a surprise of
+fate!
+
+The cannonading has been heard since morning. Ah! that sound, which,
+during the siege, made our hearts beat with hope,--yes, with hope, for
+it made us believe in a possible deliverance--how horrible it was this
+morning. I went towards the Champs Elysees. Paris was deserted. Had it
+understood at last that its honour, its existence even, were at stake in
+this revolution, or was it only not up yet? Battalions were marching
+along the boulevards, with music playing. They were going towards the
+Place Vendome, and were singing. The _cantinieres_ were carrying guns.
+Some one told me that men had been at work all night in the
+neighbourhood of the Hotel de Ville, and that the streets adjoining it
+were blocked with barricades. But in fact no one knows anything, except
+that there is fighting in Neuilly, that the "Royalists" have attacked,
+and that "our brothers are being slaughtered." A few groups are
+assembled in the Place de la Concorde. I approach, and find them
+discussing the question of the rents,--yes, of the rents! Ah! it is
+certain those who are being killed at this moment will not have to pay
+their landlord. On reaching the Rond Point I can distinctly perceive a
+compact crowd round the Triumphal Arch, and I meet some tired National
+Guards who are returning from the battle. They are ragged, dusty, and
+dreary. "What has happened?"--"We are betrayed!" says one.--"Death to
+the traitors!" cries another.
+
+No certain news from the field of battle. A runaway, seated outside a
+cafe amidst a group of eager questioners, recounts that the barricade at
+the Neuilly bridge has been attacked by _sergents de ville_ dressed as
+soldiers, and Pontifical Zouaves carrying a white flag.--"A
+parliamentary flag?" asks some one.--"No! a royalist flag," answered the
+runaway.--"And the barricade has been taken?"--"We had no cartridges; we
+had not eaten for twenty-four hours; of course we had to decamp."
+
+Farther on a soldier of the line affirms that the barricade has been
+taken again. The cannon roars still. Mont Valerien is firing, it is
+said, on the Courbevoie barracks, where a battalion of Federal guards
+was stationed yesterday.--"But they were off before daybreak," adds the
+soldier.
+
+As I continue my road the groups become more numerous. I lift my head
+and see a shell burst over the Avenue of the Grande Armee, leaving a
+puff of white smoke hanging for a few seconds like a cloud-flake
+detached by the wind.
+
+On I go still. The height on which the Arc de Triomphe stands is covered
+with people; a great many women and children among them. They are
+mounted on posts, clinging to the projections of the Arch, hanging to
+the sculpture of the bas-reliefs. One man has put a plank upon the tops
+of three chairs, and by paying a few _sous_ the gapers can hoist
+themselves upon it. From this position one can perceive a motionless,
+attentive crowd reaching down the whole length of the Avenue of the
+Grande Armee, as far as the Porte Maillot, from which a great cloud of
+white smoke springs up every moment followed by a violent explosion,--it
+is the cannon of the ramparts firing on the Rond Point of Courbevoie;
+and beyond this the Avenue de Neuilly stretching far out in the
+sunshine, deserted and dusty, a human form crossing it rapidly from time
+to time; and farthest of all, beyond the Seine, beyond the Avenue de
+l'Empereur, deserted too, the hill of Courbevoie, where a battery of the
+Versailles troops is established. But stretch my eyes as I may I cannot
+distinguish the guns; but a few men, sentinels doubtless, can be made
+out. They are _sergents de ville_, says my right-hand neighbour; but he
+on my left says they are Pontifical Zouaves. They must have good eyes to
+recognise the uniforms at this distance. The most contradictory rumours
+circulate as to the barricade on the bridge; it is impossible for one to
+ascertain whether it has remained in the possession of the soldiers or
+the Federals. There has been but little fighting, moreover, since I
+came. A little later, at twelve o'clock, the fusillade ceases entirely.
+But the battery on the ramparts continues to fire upon Courbevoie, and
+Mont Valerien still shells Neuilly at intervals. Suddenly a flood of
+dust, coming from Porte Maillot, thrusts back the thick of the crowd,
+and as it flies, widening, and whirling more madly as it comes, everyone
+is seized with terror, and rushes away screaming and gesticulating. A
+shell has just fallen, it is said, in the Avenue of the Grande Armee.
+Not a soul remains about the Triumphal Arch. The adjoining streets are
+filled with people who have run to take shelter there. By little and
+little, however, the people begin to recover themselves, the flight is
+stopped in the middle, and, laughing at their momentary panic, they turn
+back again. A quarter of an hour afterwards the crowd is everywhere as
+compact as before.
+
+[Illustration: PLACE DE LA CONCORDE AND CHAMPS ELYSEES, FROM THE GARDENS
+OF THE TUILERIES--FEDERALISTS GOING OUT TO FIGHT THE VERSAILLAIS.
+
+This panorama gives an idea of the theatre of operations of the Second
+Siege of Paris. The Prussians closed the eastern enceinte, whilst the
+Federals held the southern forts to the last, with the exception of Issy
+and Vanves that were abandoned. Point-du-Jour and Porte Maillot were the
+parts particularly attacked; the former being defended by the Federal
+gunboats on the Seine. Mont Valerien, it will be seen, commands the
+whole of the distant plateau. About one mile and a half beyond the
+Triumphal Arch the river Seine intersects the space from south to north,
+enclosing the Bois de Boulogne and the villages of Neuilly, Villiers,
+and Courcelles, being a sort of outer fortification. The walls of Paris
+follow the same line, falling about half a mile on the other side of the
+Arch, and parallel runs a line of railway within the fortified wall.
+
+This view exhibits the portion the Prussians were permitted to occupy
+for two days: all the outlets, except the west, being barricaded and
+defended.]
+
+This spectacle, however, of combatants and gapers distresses me, and in
+despair of learning anything I return into the city.
+
+At some distance from the scene of events one gets better information,
+or, at any rate, a great deal more of it. Imagination has better play
+when it is farther from the fact. A hundred absurd stories reach me.
+What appears tolerably certain is, that the Federals have received a
+check, not very important in itself, the Versailles troops having made
+but little advance, but at any rate a check which might have some
+influence on the resolution of the National Guards. They have been told
+that the army would not fight, that the soldiers of the line would turn
+the butt-ends of their guns into the air at Neuilly as they had done at
+Montmartre. But now they begin to believe that the army will fight, and
+those who cry the loudest that it was the _sergents de ville_ and
+Charette's Zouaves who led the attack alone, seem as if they said it to
+give themselves courage and keep up their illusions.
+
+But from which side did the first shot come? On this point everyone has
+something to say, and no one knows what to believe. Official reports are
+looked for with the utmost impatience. The walls, generally so
+communicative, are mute up to this hour. The least improbable of the
+versions circulated is the following: At break of day some shots are
+said to have been exchanged between the Federal advanced guard and the
+patrols of the Versailles troops. None dead or wounded; only powder
+wasted, happily. A little later, and a few minutes after the arrival of
+General Vinoy at Mont Valerien, a messenger with a flag of truce,
+preceded by a trumpeter and accompanied by two _sergents de ville_
+(inevitably), is said to have presented himself at the bridge of
+Courbevoie. The name of the messenger has been given,--Monsieur
+Pasquier, surgeon-in-chief to the regiment of mounted _gendarmes_. Two
+of the National Guards go to meet him; after some words exchanged, one
+of the Federals blows out Monsieur Pasquier's brains with his revolver,
+and ten minutes later Mont Valerien opens a formidable fire, which
+continues as fiercely four hours afterwards.
+
+Meanwhile the drams beat to arms, on all sides. A considerable number of
+battalions defile along the Boulevard Montmartre; more than twenty
+thousand men, some say, who pretend to know. On they march, singing and
+shouting "_Vive la Commune! Vive la Republique!_" They are answered by a
+few shouts. These are not the Montmartre and Belleville guards alone;
+peaceful faces of citizens and merchants may be seen under the military
+_kepis_, and many hands are white as no workman's are. They march in
+good order,--they are calm and resolved; one feels that these men are
+ready to die for a cause that they believe to be just. I raise my hat
+as they pass; one must do honour to those who, even if they be guilty,
+push their devotion so far as to expose themselves to death for their
+convictions.
+
+But what are these convictions? What is the Commune? The men who sit at
+the Hotel de Ville have published no programme, yet they kill and are
+killed for the sake of the Commune. Oh, words! words! What power they
+have over you, heroic and most simple people!
+
+In the evening out came a proclamation. There was so great a crowd
+wherever it was posted up that I had not the chance of copying it; but
+it ran somewhat in these terms:--
+
+    "CITIZENS,--This morning the Royalists have ATTACKED.
+
+    "Impatient, before our moderation they have ATTACKED.
+
+    "Unable to bring French bayonets against us, they have opposed us
+    with the Imperial Guard and Pontifical Zouaves.
+
+    "They have bombarded the inoffensive village of Neuilly.
+
+    "Charette's _chouans_, Cathelineau's _Vendeens_, Trochu's _Bretons_,
+    Valentin's _gendarmes_, have rushed upon us.
+
+    "There are dead and wounded.
+
+    "Against this attack, renewed from the Prussians, Paris should rise
+    to a man.
+
+    "Thanks to the support of the National Guard, the victory will be
+    ours!"
+
+Victory! What victory? Oh, the bitter pain! Paris shedding the blood of
+France, France shedding the blood of Paris! From whatever side the
+triumph comes, will it not be accursed?
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 33: On the 1st of April several shots were fired under the
+walls of Fort Issy, but it was not until the next day, the 2nd of April,
+at nine o'clock in the morning, that the action commenced in earnest at
+Courbevoie, by an attack of the Versailles army. The federals, who
+thought themselves masters of the place, were stopped by the steady
+firing of a regiment of gendarmerie and heavy cannonading from Mont
+Valerien. At first the National Guards retreated, then disputed every
+foot of ground with much courage. In the neighbourhood the desolation
+and misery was extreme.
+
+The revolution had now entered a new phase; the military proceedings had
+begun, and it was about to be proved that, the Communist generals had
+even less genius than those of the Defense Nationale, although it must
+be admitted that the latter did not know the extent of the resources
+they had at their disposal. When we remember the small advantage those
+generals managed to derive from the heroism of the Parisian population,
+who, during the second siege showed that they knew how to fight and how
+to die, it is marvellous that many people have gone so far as to regret
+that the emeute of the 31st of October was not successful, believing
+that if the Commune had triumphed at that time, Paris would have been
+saved. All this seems very doubtful now, and opinions have veered round
+considerably, for it is not such men as Duval, Cluseret, La Cecilia,
+Eudes, or Bergeret, who could have protected Paris against the science
+of the Prussian generals.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL BERGERET.]
+
+XXVII.
+
+
+To whom shall we listen? Whom believe? It would take a hundred pages,
+and more, to relate all the different rumours which have circulated
+to-day, the 4th of April, the second day of the horrible straggle. Let
+us hastily note down the most persistent of these assertions; later I
+will put some order into this pell-mell of news.
+
+All through the night the drums beat to arms in every quarter of the
+town. Companies assembled rapidly, and directed their way towards the
+Place Vendome or the Porte Maillot, shouting, "_A Versailles!_" Since
+five this morning, General Bergeret has occupied the Rond-Point of
+Courbevoie. This position has been evacuated by the troops of the
+Assembly. How was this? Were the Federals not beaten yesterday?
+
+(One thing goes against General Bergeret in the opinion of his troops:
+he drives to battle in a carriage.)
+
+He has formed his troops into columns. No less than sixty thousand men
+are under his orders; two batteries of seven guns support the infantry;
+omnibuses follow, filled with provisions. They march towards the Mont
+Valerien; after having taken the fort, they will march on Versailles by
+Rueil and Nanterre.[34] After they have taken the Mont Valerien! there
+is not a moment's doubt about the success of the enterprise. "We were
+assured," said a Federal general to me, "that the fort would open its
+doors at the first sight of us." But they counted without General
+Cholleton, who commands the fortress. The advance-guard of the Federals
+is received by a formidable discharge of shot and shells. Panic! Cries
+of rage! A regular rout to the words, "We are betrayed!"[35] The army of
+the Commune is divided into two fragments: one--scarcely three
+battalions strong--flies in the direction of Versailles, the other
+regains Paris with praiseworthy precipitation. Must the Parisian
+combatants be accused of cowardice for this flight? No! They were
+surprised; had never expected such a reception from Mont Valerien; had
+they been warned, they would have held out better. After all, there was
+more fright than harm done in the affair; the huge fortress could have
+annihilated the Communists, and it was satisfied with dispersing them.
+But what has become of the three battalions that passed Mont Valerien?
+Bravely they went forward.
+
+In the meantime another movement was being made upon Versailles by
+Meudon and Clamart. A small number of battalions had marched out during
+the night, and are massed under cover of the forts of Issy and Vanves.
+They have managed to establish a battery of a few guns on a wooded
+eminence, at the foot of the glacis of Fort. Issy, and their pieces are
+firing upon the batteries of the Versailles troops at Meudon, which are
+answering them furiously. It is a duel of artillery, as in the time--the
+good time, alas!--of the Prussians.
+
+Up to this moment the information is tolerably clear; probable even, and
+one is able to come to some idea of the respective positions of the
+belligerents. But towards two o'clock in the afternoon all the reports
+get confused and contradictory.
+
+An estafette, who has come from the Porte Maillot, cried to a group
+formed on the place of the New Opera-house, "We are victorious! Flourens
+has entered Versailles at the head of forty thousand men. A hundred
+deputies have been taken. Thiers is a prisoner."
+
+Elsewhere it is said that in the rout of that morning, at the foot of
+Mont Valerien, Flourens had disappeared. And where could he have found
+the forty thousand men to lead them to Versailles?
+
+At the same time a rumour spreads that General Bergeret has been
+grievously wounded by a shell. "Pure exaggeration!" some one answers.
+"The General has only had two horses killed under him."
+
+Before him, rather, since he drives to battle. What appears most
+certain of all is that there is furious fighting going on between Sevres
+and Meudon. I hear it said that the 118th of the line have turned the
+butts of their guns into the air, and that the Parisians have taken
+twelve mitrailleuses from the Versailles troops.
+
+There is fighting, too, at Chatillon. The Federals have won great
+advantages. Nevertheless an individual who went out that side to
+investigate, announces that he saw three battalions return with very
+little air of triumph, and that other battalions, forming the reserve,
+had refused to march.
+
+A shower of contradictions, in which the news for the most part has no
+other source than the opinion and desire of the person who brings it. It
+is by the result alone that we can appreciate what is passed. At one
+moment I give up trying to get information as a bad job, but I begin
+questioning again in spite of myself; the desire to know is even
+stronger than the very strong certainty that I shall be able to learn
+nothing.
+
+I turn to the Champs Elysees. The cannon is roaring; ambulance waggons
+descend the Avenue, and stop before the Palais de l'Industrie; over the
+way Punch is making his audience roar with laughter as usual. Oh! the
+miserable times! The horrible fratricidal struggle! May those who were
+its cause be accursed for ever!
+
+While some are killing and others dying, the members of the Commune are
+rendering decrees, and the walls are white with official proclamations.
+
+    "Messieurs Thiers, Favre, Picard, Dufaure, Simon and Pothuan are
+    impeached; their property will be seized and sequestrated until they
+    deliver themselves up to public justice."
+
+This impeachment and sequestration, will it bring back husbands to the
+widows and fathers to the orphans?
+
+    "The Commune of Paris adopts the families of citizens who have
+    fallen or may fall in opposing the criminal aggression of the
+    Royalists, directed against Paris and against the French republic."
+
+Infinitely better than adopting the orphans would be to save the fathers
+from death. Oh, these absurd decrees! You separate the Church from the
+State; you suppress the budget of public worship; you confiscate the
+property of the clergy. A pretty time to think about such acts! What is
+necessary, what is indispensable, is to restore quiet, to avoid
+massacres, and to stifle hatred. That you will not decree. No! no! That
+which is now happening you have desired, and you still desire it; you
+have profited by the provocations you have received to bring about the
+most frightful conflict which the history of unfortunate France records;
+and you will persevere, and in order to revive the fainting courage of
+those whom you have devoted to inevitable defeat and death, you bring
+into action all the hypocrisy with which you have charged your enemies!
+
+    "Bergeret and Flourens have joined their forces; they are marching
+    on Versailles. Success is certain!"
+
+You cause this announcement to be placarded in the street--false news,
+is it not? But men can only be led to their ruin by being deceived. You
+add:
+
+    "The fire of the army of Versailles has not occasioned us any
+    appreciable loss."
+
+Ah! As to this let us ask the women who await at the gates of the city
+the return of your soldiers, and crowd sobbing round the bloody litters!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 34: The combined plan of the three generals of the Commune
+consisted, like the famous plan of General Boum, in proceeding by three
+different roads: the first column, under the orders of Bergeret,
+seconded by Flourens, went by Rueil; the second, commanded by Duval,
+marched upon Versailles by lower Meudon, Chaville, and Viroflay; covered
+by the fire of Fort Issy, and the redoubt of Moulineaux; and lastly, the
+third, with General Eudes at its head, took the Clamart road, protected
+by the fort of Vanves.]
+
+[Footnote 35: Though no fort covered Bergeret's eight battalions with
+its fire, yet Bergeret was so sure that the artillerymen of Mont
+Valerien would do as the line did on the 18th of March, i.e., refuse to
+fire, that he advanced boldly as far as the bridge of Neuilly, and had
+made a halt at the Rond-Point des Bergeres, when a heavy cannonading
+from Mont Valerien separated a part of the column from its main body.]
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII.
+
+
+Every hour that flies by, becomes more sinister than the last. They
+fight at Clamart as they fight at Neuilly, at Meudon and at Courbevoie.
+Everywhere rage the mitrailleuses, the cannon, and the rifle; the
+victories of the Communalists are lyingly proclaimed. The truth of their
+pretended triumphs will soon be known; and unhappily victory will be as
+detestable as defeat.
+
+    General Duval has been made prisoner and put to death. "If you had
+    taken me," asked General Vinoy, "would you not have shot
+    me?"--"Without hesitation," replied Duval. And Vinoy gave the word
+    of command, "Fire!"
+
+But this anecdote, though widely spread, is probably false. It is
+scarcely likely that a Commander-in-Chief of the Versailles troops would
+have consented to hold such a dialogue with an "_insurgent_."
+
+Flourens also is killed. Where and how is not yet known with any
+certainty. Several versions are given. Some speak of a ball in the head,
+or the neck, or the chest; others spread the report that his skull was
+cut open by a sword.
+
+Flourens is thought about and talked of by men of the most opposite
+opinions. This singular man inspires no antipathy even amongst those who
+might hold him in the greatest detestation. I shall one day try to
+account for the partiality of opinion in favour of this young and
+romantic insurgent.
+
+Duval shot, Flourens killed, Bergeret lying in the pangs of death; the
+enthusiasm of the Federals might well be cooled down. Not in the least!
+The battalions that march along the boulevards have the same resolute
+air, as they sing and shout "_Vive la Commune!_" Are they the dupes of
+their chiefs to that extent as to believe the pompous proclamations with
+their hourly announcements of attacks repelled, of redoubts taken, of
+soldiers of the line made prisoners? It is not probable. And besides,
+the guards of the respective quarters must see the return of those who
+have been to the fight, and whose anxious wives are waiting on the steps
+of the doors; must learn from them that the forward marches have in
+reality been routs, and that many dead and wounded have been left on the
+field, when the Commune reports only declare "losses of little
+importance." Whence comes this ardour that the first rush and defeat
+cannot check? Is it nourished by the reports, true or false, of the
+cruelties of the Versaillais which are spread by the hundred? The
+"murder" of Duval, the "assassination" of Flourens, prisoners shot,
+_vivandieres_ violated, all these culpable inventions--can they be
+inventions, or does civil war make such barbarians of us?--are indeed of
+a nature to excite the enthusiasm of hate, and the men march to a
+probable defeat with the same air as they would march to certain
+victory. Ah! whether led astray or not, whether guilty, even, or
+whatever the motive that impels them, they are brave! And when they pass
+thus they are grand. Yes! in spite of the rags that serve the greater
+number of them for uniforms, in spite of the drunken gait of some, as a
+whole they are superb! And the reason of the coldest partisan of order
+at any price, struggles in vain against the admiration which these men
+inspire as they march to their death.
+
+It must be admitted, too, that there is much less disorder in the
+command than might be expected. The battalions all know whom they are to
+obey. Some go to the Hotel de Ville, others to the Place Vendome, many
+to the forts, a few to the advanced posts; marches and counter-marches
+are managed without confusion, and the combatants are in general well
+provided with ammunition, and supplied with provisions. Far as one is
+from esteeming the chiefs of the Federals, one is obliged to admit that
+there is something remarkable in this rapid organisation of a whole army
+in the midst of one of the most complete political convulsions. Who,
+then, directs? Who commands? The members of the Commune, divided as they
+are in opinion, do not appear capable, on account of their number and
+lamentable inexperience, of taking the sole lead in military affairs. Is
+there not some one either amongst them or in the background, who knows
+how to think, direct, and act? Is it Bergeret? Is it Cluseret? The
+future perhaps will unravel the mystery. In the meantime, and in spite
+of the reverses to which the Federals have had to submit during these
+last days, the whole of Paris unites in unanimous surprise at the
+extreme regularity with which the administrative system of the war seems
+to work, the surprise being the greater that, during the siege, the
+"legitimate" chiefs with much more powerful means, and having
+disciplined troops at their command, did not succeed in obtaining the
+same striking results.
+
+But would it not have been better far that that order had never existed?
+Better a thousand times that the command had been less precise than that
+those commanded should have been led to a death without glory? For the
+last few days Neuilly, so joyous in times gone by with its busy shops,
+its frequented _restaurants_ and princely parks; Neuilly, with the
+Versailles batteries on one side and the Paris guns on the other, under
+an incessant rain of shells and _mitraille_ from Mont Valerien; Neuilly,
+with her bridge taken and re-taken, her barricades abandoned and
+re-conquered, has been for the last few days like a vast abyss, into
+which the Federal battalions, seized with mortal giddiness, are
+precipitated one after another. Each house is a fortress. Yesterday, the
+_gendarmes_ had advanced as far as the market of Sablonville; this
+morning they were driven back beyond the church. Upon this church, a
+child; the son of Monsieur Leullier, planted a red flag amidst a shower
+of projectiles. "That child will make a true man," said Cluseret, the
+war delegate. Ah, yes! provided he is not a corpse ere then. Shots are
+fired from window to window. A house is assaulted; there are encounters,
+on the stairs; it is a horrible struggle in which no quarter is given,
+night and day, through all hours. The rage and fury on both sides are
+terrific. Men that were friends a week ago have but one desire--to
+assassinate each other. An inhabitant of Neuilly, who succeeded in
+escaping, related this to me: Two enemies, a soldier of the line and a
+Federal, had an encounter in the bathing establishment of the Avenue de
+Neuilly, a little above the Rue des Huissiers. Now pursuing, now flying
+from each other in their bayonet-fight, they reached the roof of the
+house, and there, flinging down their arms, they closed in a mad
+struggle. On the sloping roof, the tiles of which crush beneath them, at
+a hundred feet from the ground, they struggled without mercy, without
+respite, until at last the soldier felt his strength give way, and
+endeavoured to escape from the gripe of his adversary. Then, the
+Federal--the person from whom I learnt this was at an opposite window
+and lost not a single one of their movements--the Federal drew a knife
+from his pocket and prepared himself to strike his half-prostrate
+antagonist, who, feeling that all hope was lost, threw himself flat on
+the roof, seized his enemy by the leg, and dragging him with him by a
+sudden movement, they rolled over and fell on to the pavement below.
+Neither was killed, but the soldier had his face crimsoned with blood
+and dust, and the Federal, who had fallen across his adversary,
+despatched him by plunging his knife in his chest.
+
+Such is this infamous struggle! Such is this savage strife! Will it not
+cease until there is no more blood to shed? In the meantime, Paris of
+the boulevards, the elegant and fast-living Paris, lounges, strolls, and
+smiles. In spite of the numerous departures there are still enough blase
+dandies and beauties of light locks and lighter reputation to bring the
+blush to an honest man's cheek. The theatres are open; "_La Piece du
+Pape_" is being played. Do you know "The Pope's Money?" It is a suitable
+piece for diverting the thoughts from the horrors of civil war. A year
+ago the Pope was supported by French bayonets, but his light coinage
+would not pass in Paris. Now Papal zouaves are killing the citizens of
+Paris, and we take light silver and lighter paper. The piece is flimsy
+enough. It is not its political significance that makes it diverting,
+but the _double-entendre_ therein. One must laugh a little, you
+understand. Men are dying out yonder, we might as well laugh a little
+here. Low whispers in the _baignoires_, munching of sugared violets in
+the stage boxes--everything's for the best. Mademoiselle Nenuphar (named
+so by antithesis) is said to have the most beautiful eyes in the world.
+I will wager that that handsome man behind her has already compared them
+to mitraille shot, seeing the ravages they commit. It would be
+impossible to be more complimentary,--more witty and to the point. Ah!
+look you, those who are fighting at this moment, who to-day by their
+cannon and chassepots are exposing Paris to a terrible revenge, guilty
+as these men are, I hold them higher than those who roar with laughter
+when the whole city is in despair, who have not even the modesty to hide
+their joys from our distresses, and who amuse themselves openly with
+shameless women, while mothers are weeping for their children!
+
+On the boulevards it is worse still; there, vice exhibits itself and
+triumphs. Is it then true what a young fellow, a poor student and bitter
+philosopher, said to me just now: "When all Paris is destroyed, when its
+houses, its palaces, and its monuments thrown down and crushed, strew
+its accursed soil and form but one vast ruin beneath the sky, then, from
+out of this shapeless mass will rise as from a huge sepulchre, the
+phantom of a woman, a skeleton dressed in a brilliant dress, with
+shoulders bared, and a toquet on its head; and this phantom, running
+from ruin to ruin, turning its head every now and then to see if some
+libertine is following her through the waste--this phantom is the
+leprous soul of Paris!"
+
+When midnight approaches, the _cafes_ are shut. The delegates of the
+Central Committee at the ex-prefecture have the habit of sending patrols
+of National Guards to hasten and overlook the closing of all public
+places. But this precaution, like so many others, is useless. There are
+secret doors which escape the closest investigations. When the shutters
+are put up, light filters through the interstices of the boards. Go
+close up to them, apply your eye to one of those lighted crevices,
+listen to the cannon roaring, the mitrailleuses horribly spitting, the
+musketry cracking, and then look into the interior of the closed rooms.
+People are talking, eating, and smoking; waiters go to and fro. There
+are women too. The men are gay and silly. Champagne bottles are being
+uncorked. "Ah! ah! it's the fusillade!" Lovers and mistresses are in
+common here. This orgie has the most telling effect, I tell you, in the
+midst of the city loaded with maledictions, a few steps from the
+battle-field where the bayonets are dealing their death thrusts, and the
+shells are scattering blood. And later, after the laughter and the songs
+and the drink, they take an open carriage, if the night is fine, and go
+to the Champs Elysees, and there mount upon the box by the coachman to
+try and see the fight--if "those people" knew how to die as well as they
+know how to laugh it would be better for them.
+
+Other _bons viveurs_, more discreet, hide themselves on the first floors
+of some houses and in some of the clubs. But they are betrayed by the
+sparkle of the chandeliers which pierces the heavy curtains. If you walk
+along by the walls you will hear the conversation of the gamesters and
+the joyous clink of the gold pieces.
+
+Ah! the cowardice of the merry ones! Oh, thrice pardonable anger of
+those who starve!
+
+
+
+
+XXIX.
+
+
+At one o'clock this morning, the 5th of April, on my return from one of
+these nightly excursions through Paris, I was following the Rue du Mont
+Thabor so as to gain the boulevards, when on crossing the Rue
+Saint-Honore I perceived a small number of National Guards ranged along
+the pavement. The incident was a common one, and I took no notice of it.
+In the Rue du Mont Thabor not a person was to be seen; all was in
+silence and solitude. Suddenly a door opened a few steps in front of
+me; a man came out and hurried away in the direction opposite to that of
+the church. This departure looked like a flight. I stopped and lent my
+attention. Soon two National Guards rushed out by the same door, ran,
+shouting as they went, after the fugitive, who had had but a short start
+of them, and overtaking him, without difficulty brought him back between
+them, while the National Guards that I had seen in the Rue Saint-Honore
+ran up at the noise. The exclamations and insults of all kinds that were
+vociferated led me to ascertain that the man they had arrested was the
+Abbe Deguerry, _cure_ of the Madeleine. He was dragged into the house,
+the door was shut, and all sank into silence again.
+
+That morning I learned that Monseigneur Darboy, the Archbishop of Paris,
+was taken at the same hour and in almost similar circumstances.
+
+[Illustration: ABBE DEGUERRY, Cure of the Madeleine.]
+
+The arrests of several other ecclesiastics are cited. The _cure_ of St.
+Severin and the _cure_ of St. Eustache have been made prisoners, it is
+said; the first in his own house, the second at the moment when he was
+leaving his church. The _cure_ of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires was to have
+been arrested also, but warned in time, he was able to place himself in
+safety.
+
+Monseigneur Darboy, being conducted to the ex-prefecture (why the
+_ex_-prefecture? It seems to me it works just as well as when it was
+purely and simply a prefecture), was cross-examined there by the citizen
+delegate Rigault. It must be said that Monsieur Rigault had begun to
+make himself talked about during these last few days. He is evidently a
+man who has a natural vocation for the employment he has chosen, for he
+arrests, and arrests, and still arrests. He is young, cold, and cynical.
+But his cynicism does not exclude him from a certain gaiety, as we shall
+see. It was the Citizen Rigault, then, who examined the Archbishop of
+Paris. I am not inordinately curious, but I should very much like to
+know what the cynical member of the Commune could ask of Monseigneur
+Darboy. Having committed apparently but one crime, that of being a
+priest, and having no inclination to disguise it, it is difficult to
+know what the interrogatory could turn upon. Monsieur Rigault's
+imagination furnished him no doubt with ample materials for the
+interview, and he has probably as much vocation for the part of a
+magistrate as for that of a police officer. But however it may be, the
+journals of the Commune record this fragment with ill-disguised
+admiration.
+
+[Illustration: RAOUL RIGAULT[36]]
+
+[Illustration: MONSEIGNEUR DARBOY, Archbishop of Paris.]
+
+"My children"--the white-haired Archbishop of Paris is reported to have
+said at one moment.
+
+"Citizen," interrupted the Citizen Rigault, who is not yet thirty, "you
+are not before children, but before magistrates."
+
+That was smart! And I can conceive the enthusiasm with which Monsieur
+Rigault inspires the members of the Commune. But this excellent citizen
+did not confine himself to this haughty repartee. I am informed (and I
+have reason to believe with truth) that he added: "Moreover, that's too
+old a tale. You have been trying it on these eighteen hundred years."
+
+Now everyone must admit that this is as remarkable for its wit as for
+its elegance, and it is just what might be expected of the amiable
+delegate, who, the other day, in a moment of exaggerated clemency,
+permitted an abbe to visit a prisoner in the Conciergerie, and furnished
+him with a _laisser-passer_ that ran thus: "Admit the bearer, who styles
+himself the servant of one of the name of God." Oh! what graceful,
+charming wit!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 36: Rigault became connected with Rochefort in the year 1869,
+and with him was engaged on the journal called the _Marseillaise_, and
+produced articles which subjected him more than once to fine and
+imprisonment. In the month of September, 1870, he was appointed by the
+Government of the National Defence, Commissaire of Police, but having
+taken part in the insurrection of the 31st of October, he was, on the
+following day, dismissed from office. Shortly after this he made his
+appearance as a writer in Blanqui's paper the _Patrie en Danger_; but,
+presently, he took a military turn, and got himself elected to the
+command of a battalion of the National Guard. He seems to have been born
+an informer or police spy, for we are told when at school, he used to
+amuse himself by filling up lists of proscriptions, with the names of
+his fellow-pupils. With such charming natural instincts, it is not at
+all surprising that he was on the 18th of March, appointed by the
+Commune Government, Prefect of Police.]
+
+
+
+
+XXX.
+
+
+I am beginning to feel decidedly uncomfortable. This new decree of the
+Commune seriously endangers the liberty of all those who are so
+unfortunate as to have incurred the ill-will of their concierge, or
+whose dealings with his next-door neighbour have not been of a strictly
+amicable nature. Let us copy the 1st article of this ferocious decree.
+
+    "All persons accused of complicity with the Government of Versailles
+    shall be immediately taken and incarcerated."[37]
+
+Pest! they do not mince matters! Why, the first good-for-nothing
+rascal--to whom, perhaps, I refused to lend five francs seven years
+ago--may go round to Citizen Rigault and tell him that I am in regular
+communication with Versailles, whereupon I am immediately incarcerated.
+For, I beg it may be observed, it is not necessary that the complicity
+with "the traitors" should be proved. The denunciation is quite
+sufficient for one to be sent to contemplate the blue sky through the
+bars of the Conciergerie.[38] Besides, what do the words "complicity
+with the Government of Versailles" mean? All depends upon the way one
+looks at those things. I am not sure that I am innocent. I remember
+distinctly having several times bowed to a pleasant fellow--I say
+pleasant fellow, hoping that these lines will not fall under the
+observation of any one at the Prefecture of Police--who at this very
+moment is quite capable, the rogue, of eating a comfortable dinner at
+the Hotel des Reservoirs at Versailles in company with one or more of
+the members of the National Assembly. You can understand now why I am
+beginning to feel rather uncomfortable. To know a man who knows a
+deputy, constitutes, I am fully persuaded--otherwise I am unworthy to
+live under the paternal government of the Commune--a most decided
+complicity with the men of Versailles. I really think it would be only
+commonly prudent to steal out of Paris in a coal sack, as a friend of
+mine did the other day, or in some other agreeable fashion.[39] See what
+may come of a bow!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 37: DECREE CONCERNING THE SUSPECTED.
+
+"Commune of Paris:
+
+"Considering that the Government of Versailles has wantonly trampled on
+the rights of humanity, and set at defiance the rights of war; that it
+has perpetrated horrors such as even the invaders of our soil have
+shrunk from committing;
+
+"Considering that the representatives of the Commune of Paris have an
+imperative duty devolving upon them,--that of defending the lives and
+honour of two millions of inhabitants, who have committed their
+destinies to their charge; and that it behoves them at once to take
+measures equal to the gravity of the situation;
+
+"Considering that the politicians and magistrates of the city ought to
+reconcile the general weal with respect for public liberty,
+
+"Decrees:
+
+"Art. 1. All persons charged with complicity with the Government of
+Versailles will be immediately brought to justice and incarcerated.
+
+"Art. 2. A 'jury, of accusation' will be summoned within the twenty-four
+hours to examine the charges brought before it.
+
+"Art. 3. The jury must pass sentence within the forty-eight hours.
+
+"Art. 4. All the accused, convicted by the jury, will be retained as
+hostages by the People of Paris.
+
+"Art. 6. Every execution of a prisoner of war, or of a member of the
+regular Government of the Commune of Paris, will be at once followed by
+the execution of a triple number of hostages, retained by virtue of
+article 4, who will be chosen by lot.
+
+"Art. 6. All prisoners of war will be summoned before the 'jury of
+accusation,' who will decide whether they be immediately set at liberty
+or retained as hostages."]
+
+
+
+
+XXXI.
+
+
+Flourens is dead: we heard that last night for certain. A National Guard
+had previously brought back the colonel's horse from Bougival, but it
+was only a few hours ago that we heard any details. An attempt was made
+to take him prisoner at Rueil. A gendarme called out to him to
+surrender, he replied by a pistol shot; another gendarme advanced, and
+wounded him in the side, a third cleft his skull with a sabre out. Some
+people do not believe in the pistol shot, and talk of assassination. How
+many such events are there, the truth of which will never be clearly
+proved! One thing certain is, that Flourens is dead. His body was
+recognised at Versailles by some one in the service of Garnier freres.
+His mother started this morning to fetch the corpse of her son. It is
+strange that one is so painfully affected by the violent death of this
+man. He has been mixed up in all the revolutionary attempts of the last
+few years, and ought to be particularly obnoxious to all peaceful and
+order-loving citizens; but the truth is, his was a sincerely ardent and
+enthusiastic spirit. He was a thorough believer in the principles he
+maintained. Whatever may be the religion he professes, the apostle
+inspires esteem, and the martyr compassion. This apostle, this martyr,
+was born to affluence; son of an illustrious savant, he may be almost
+said to have been born to hereditary distinction. He was still quite
+young when he threw himself heart and soul into politics. There was
+fighting in Crete, and so off he went. There he revolted against the
+revolt itself, got imprisoned, escaped, outwitted the gendarmes, got
+retaken: his adventures sound like a legend or romance. It is because he
+was so romantic, that he is so interesting. He returned to France full
+of generous impulses. He was as prodigal of his money as he had been of
+his blood. In the bitter cold winters he fed and clothed the poor of
+Belleville, going from attic to attic with money and consolation. You
+remember what Victor Hugo says of the sublime Pauline Roland. The spirit
+of Flourens much resembled hers. The patriot could act the part of a
+sister of charity. At other times, an enthusiast in search of a social
+Eldorado, he would put himself at the service of the most forlorn cause;
+never was anyone so imprudent. He was of a most active and critical
+disposition: it was impossible for him to remain quiet. When he was not
+seemingly employed, he was agitating something in the shade. His
+friendship for Rochefort was great. These two turbulent spirits, one
+with his pen, the other with his physical activity, remind us each of
+the other. Both ran to extremes, Rochefort in his literary invectives,
+Flourens in his hairbreadth adventures. Although they were often allied,
+these two, they were sometimes opposed. Have you never seen two young
+artists in a studio performing the old trick, one making a speech, while
+the other, with his head and body hidden in the folds of a cloak,
+stretches forth his arms and executes the most extravagant gestures?
+Rochefort and Flourens performed this farce in politics, the former
+talking, the latter gesticulating; but on the day of the burial of
+Victor Noir they went different ways. On that day Rochefort, to do him
+justice, saved a large multitude of men from terrible danger. Flourens,
+always the same, wished the body to be carried to Pere Lachaise; on the
+road there must have been a collision; that was what he desired, but he
+was defeated. The tongue prevailed, a hundred thousand cries of
+vengeance filled the air, but they were only cries, and no mischief was
+done, except to a few graves in the Neuilly cemetery. Flourens awaited a
+better occasion, but by no means passively. He was a man of barricades;
+he did not seem to think that paving-stones were made to walk on, he
+only cared to see them heaped up across a street for the protection of
+armed patriots. Although he always wore the dress of a gentleman, he was
+not one of those black-coated individuals who incite the men to
+rebellion and keep out of the way while the fight is going on; he helped
+to defend the barricades he had ordered to be thrown up. Wherever there
+was a chance of being killed, he was sure to be; and in the midst of all
+this he never lost his placid expression, nor the politeness of a
+gentleman, nor the look of extreme youth which beamed from his eyes, and
+must have been on his face even when he fell under the cruel blows of
+the gendarmes. Now he is dead. He is judged harshly, he is condemned,
+but he cannot be hated. He was a madman, but he was a hero. The conduct
+of Flourens at the Hotel de Ville in the night of the 31st October is
+hardly in keeping with so favourable a view. The French forgive and
+forget with facility--let that pass.
+
+[Illustration: COLONEL FLOURENS.[40]]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 38: Prison of Detention.]
+
+[Footnote 39: The following is still more naive:--A man takes a
+return-ticket for the environs, and sometimes finds a guard silly enough
+to allow him to pass on the supposition that such a ticket was
+sufficient proof of his intention of returning to Paris.
+
+Others get into the waiting-room without tickets, under the pretext of
+speaking to some one there.
+
+M. Bergerat, a poet, passed the barrier in a cart-load of charcoal.]
+
+[Footnote 40: Flourens was born in 1838, and was the son of the
+well-known _savant_ and physiologist of this name. He completed his
+studies with brilliancy, and succeeded his father as professor of the
+College de France. His opening lecture on the History of Man made a
+profound impression on the scientific world. However, he retired from
+this post in 1864, and turned his undivided attention to the political
+questions of the day. Deeply compromised by certain pamphlets written by
+him, he left France for Candia, where he espoused the popular cause
+against the Turks. On his return to France he was imprisoned for three
+months for political offences. Rochefort's candidature was hotly
+supported by him. In 1870 he rose against the Government, with a large
+force of the Belleville _faubouriens_. He was prosecuted, and took
+refuge in London. After the fourth of September he was placed at the
+head of five battalions of National Guards. He was again imprisoned for
+having instigated the rising of October, and it was not till the
+twenty-second of March that he was set at liberty. On the second of
+April he set out for Versailles at the head of an insurgent troop. He
+was met midway by a mounted patrol, and in the _melee_ that ensued he
+was killed.]
+
+
+
+
+XXXII.
+
+
+In the midst of so many horrible events, which interest the whole mass
+of the people, ought I to mention an incident which broke but one heart?
+Yes, I think the sad episode is not without importance, even in so vast
+a picture. It was a child's funeral. The little wooden coffin, scantily
+covered with a black pall, was not larger, as Theophile Gautier says,
+"than a violin case." There were few mourners. A woman, the mother
+doubtless, in a black stuff dress and white crimped cap, holding by the
+hand a boy, who had not yet reached the age of sorrowing tears, and
+behind them a little knot of neighbours and friends. The small
+procession crept along the wide street in the bright sunlight.
+
+When it reached the church they found the door closed, and yet the money
+for the mass had been paid the night before, and the hour for the
+ceremony fixed. One of the women went forward towards the door of the
+vestry, where she was met by a National Guard, who told her with a
+superfluity of oaths that she must not go in, that the ---- cure, the
+sacristan, and all the d---- fellows of the church were locked up, and
+that they would no longer have anything to do with patriots. Then the
+mother approached and said, "But who will bury my poor child if the cure
+is in prison?" and then she began to weep bitterly at the thought that
+there would be no prayers put up for the good of the little spirit, and
+that no holy water would be sprinkled on its coffin. Yes, members of the
+Commune, she wept, and she wept longer and more bitterly later at the
+cemetery, when she saw them lower the body of her child into the grave,
+without a prayer or a recommendation to God's mercy. You must not scoff
+at her, you see she was a poor weak woman, with ideas of the narrowest
+sort; but there are other mothers like her, quite unworthy of course to
+bear the children of patriots, who do not want their dear ones to be
+buried like dogs; who cannot understand that to pray is a crime, and to
+kneel down before God an offence to humanity, and who still are weak
+enough to wish to see a cross planted on the tombs of those they have
+loved and lost! Not the cross of the nineteenth century--a red
+flag![41]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 41: Early in April the Commune forbade divine service in the
+Pantheon. They out off the arms of the cross, and replaced it by the red
+flag during a salute of artillery.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: COLONEL ASSY.]
+
+XXXIII.
+
+
+Communal fraternity is decidedly in the ascendant; it is putting into
+practice this admirable precept, "Arrest each other." They say M.
+Delescluze has been sent to the Conciergerie. Yesterday Lullier was
+arrested, to-day Assy. It was not sufficient to change Executive
+Committees--if I may be allowed to say so--with no more ceremony than
+one would change one's boots; the Commune conducts itself, in respect to
+those members that become obnoxious to it, absolutely as if they were no
+more than ordinary archbishops.
+
+[Illustration: PLACING THE RED FLAG
+ON THE PANTHEON. (The hole in the dome was occasioned by a Prussian
+shell.)]
+
+What! Assy--Assy[42] of Creuzot--who signed before all his comrades the
+proclamations of the Central Committee, in virtue, not only of his
+ability, but in obedience to the alphabetical order of the thing--Assy
+no longer reigns at the Hotel de Ville!--publishes no more decrees,
+discusses no longer with F. Cournet, nor with G. Tridon. Wherefore this
+fall after so much glory? It is whispered about that Assy has thought it
+prudent to put aside a few rolls of bank notes found in the drawers of
+the late Government. What, is that all? How long have politicians been
+so scrupulous? Members of the Commune, how very punctilious you have
+grown. Now if the Citizen Assy were accused of having in 1843 been
+intimately acquainted with a lady whose son is now valet to M. Thiers'
+first cousin, or if he had been seen in a church, and it were clearly
+proved that he was there with any other intention than that of
+delicately picking the pockets of the faithful, then I could understand
+your indignation. But the idea of arresting a man because he has
+appropriated the booty of the traitors, is too absurd; if you go on
+acting in that way people will think you are growing conscientious!
+
+As to Citizen Lullier,[43] who was one of the first victims of
+"fraternity," he is imprisoned because he did not succeed in capturing
+Mont Valerien. I think with horror that if I had been in the place of
+Citizen Lullier I should most certainly have had to undergo the same
+punishment, for how in the devil's name I could have managed to
+transport that impregnable fortress on to the council-table at the Hotel
+de Ville I have not the least conception. It is as bad as if you were in
+Switzerland, and asked the first child you met to go and fetch Mont
+Blanc; of course the child would go and have a game of marbles with his
+companions, and come back without the smallest trace of Mont Blanc in
+his arms, thereupon you would whip the youngster within an ace of his
+life. However, it appears that M. Lullier objected to being whipped, or
+rather imprisoned, and being as full of cunning as of valour he managed
+to slip out of his place of confinement, without drum or trumpet. "Dear
+Rochefort," he writes to the editor of _Le Mot d'Ordre_, "you know of
+what infamous machinations I have been the victim." I suppose M.
+Rochefort does, but I am obliged to confess that I have not the least
+idea, unless indeed M. Lullier means by "machinations" the order that
+was given him to bring Mont Valerien in his waistcoat pocket.
+"Imprisoned without motive," he continues, "by order of the Central
+Committee, I was thrown ..." (Oh! you should not have _thrown_ M.
+Lullier) "into the Prefecture of Police," (the ex-Prefecture, if you
+please), "and put in solitary confinement at the very moment when Paris
+was in want of men of action and military experience." Oh, fie! men of
+the Commune, you had at your disposal a man of action--who does not know
+the noble actions of Citizen Lullier? A man of military experience--who
+does not know what profound experience M. Lullier has acquired in his
+numerous campaigns--and yet you put him, or rather throw him, into the
+Prefecture! This is bad, very bad. "The Prefecture is transformed into a
+state prison, and the most rigorous discipline is maintained." It
+appears then that the Communal prison is anything but a fool's paradise.
+"However, in spite of everything, I and my secretary managed to make our
+escape calmly ..."--the calm of the high-minded--"from a cell where I
+was strictly guarded, to pass two court-yards and a dozen or two of
+soldiers, to have three doors opened for me while the sentinels
+presented arms as I passed ..." What a wonderful escape: the adventures
+of Baron Munchausen are nothing to it. What a fine chapter poor old
+Dumas might have made of it. The door of the cell is passed under the
+very nose of the jailer, who has doubtless been drugged with some
+narcotic, of which M. Lullier has learnt the secret during his travels
+in the East Indies; the twelve guards in the court-yards are seized one
+after another by the throat, thrown on the ground, bound with cords, and
+prevented from giving the alarm by twelve gags thrust into their twelve
+mouths; the three doors are opened by three enormous false keys, the
+work of a member of the Commune, locksmith by trade, who has remained
+faithful to the cause of M. Lullier; and last, but not least, the
+sentinels, plunged in ecstasy at the sight of the glorious fugitive,
+present arms. What a scene for a melodrama! The most interesting figure,
+however, in my opinion, is the secretary. I have the greatest respect
+for that secretary, who never dreamt one instant of abandoning his
+master, and I can see him, while Lullier is accomplishing his miracles,
+calmly writing in the midst of the danger, with a firm hand, the
+faithful account of these immortal adventures. "I have now," continues
+the ex-prisoner of the ex-Prefecture, "two hundred determined men, who
+serve me as a guard, and three excellent revolvers, loaded, in my
+pocket. I had foolishly remained too long without arms and without
+friends; now I am resolved to blow the brains out of the first man who
+tries to arrest me!" I heard a bourgeois who had read this exclaim, that
+he wished to Heaven each member of the Commune would come to arrest him
+in turn. Oh! blood-thirsty bourgeois! Then Lullier finishes up by
+declaring that he scorns to hide, but continues to show himself freely
+and openly on the boulevards. What a proud, what a noble nature! Oh, ye
+marionettes, ye fantoccini! Yet let me not be unjust; I will try and
+believe in you once more, in spite of armed requisitions, in spite of
+arrests, of robberies--for there have been robberies in spite of your
+decrees--I will try and believe that you have not only taken possession
+of the Hotel de Ville for the purpose of setting up a Punch and Judy
+show and playing your sinister farces; I want to believe that you had
+and still have honourable and avowable intentions; that it is only your
+natural inexperience joined to the difficulties of the moment which is
+the cause of your faults and your follies; I want to believe that there
+are among you, even after the successive dismissal of so many of your
+members, some honourable men who deplore the evil that has been done,
+who wish to repair it, and who will try to make us forget the crimes and
+forfeits of the civil war by the benefits which revolution sometimes
+brings in its train. Yes, I am naturally full of hope, and will try and
+believe this; but, honestly, what hope can you have of inspiring
+confidence in those who are not prejudiced as I am in favour of
+innovators, when they see you arrest each other in this fashion, and
+know that you have among you such generals as Bergeret, such honest
+citizens as Assy, and such escaped lunatics as Lullier?
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 42: Assy, who first became publicly known as the leader of the
+strike at Messrs. Schneider's works at Creuzot, was an engineer. He was
+born in 1840. He became a member of the International Society, and was
+selected in 1870 to organise the Creuzot strike. Being threatened with
+arrest, he went to Paris, but did not remain there long, and on the 21st
+of March in that year, a few days after his return to Creuzot, the
+strike of the miners commenced. Assy was, finally, arrested and tried
+before the Correctional Tribune of Paris as chief and founder of a
+secret society, but he was acquitted of that charge.
+
+At the siege of Paris, Assy was appointed as an officer in a free
+guerilla corps of the Isle of France. Subsequently he was a lieutenant
+in the 192nd battalion of the National Guard. Getting on the Central
+Committee, he took an active share in the events that occurred.
+Appointed commander of the 67th battalion on the 17th March, we find him
+on the morning of the 18th as Governor of the Hotel de Ville, and
+colonel of the National Guard, organising with the members of the
+committee the means of a serious resistance--giving orders for the
+construction of barricades--stopping the transport of munitions and
+provisions from Paris. Becoming a member of the Commune, he took an
+active part in carrying into effect the decrees which led, among other
+things, to the demolition of the Vendome Column and of the house of M.
+Thiers. He was arrested in April, and was succeeded as Governor of the
+Hotel de Ville by one Pindy, who retained the office till the army
+entered Paris. Assy was held prisoner, _sur parole_, at the Hotel de
+Ville, till the 19th April, when he was liberated. After this Assy was
+engaged in superintending the manufacture of munitions of war. He was
+the sole superintendent of the supply, especially as regards quality.
+Among the warlike stores manufactured were incendiary shells filled with
+petroleum, intended to be thrown into Paris during the insurrection. It
+is certain that these engines of destruction could only have been made
+at the factory superintended by Assi. He was arrested on the 21st May.
+Assy was one of the chiefs of the insurrection; he denied signing the
+decrees for the execution of the hostages, or order for the enrolment of
+the military in the National Guard. Assy was condemned by the tribunal
+of Versailles, Sept. 2, to confinement for life in a French fortress--a
+light penalty for the deeds of this important insurgent.]
+
+[Footnote 43: Memoir, see Appendix 5.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL CLUSERET.]
+
+XXXIV.
+
+
+The fighting still continues, the cannonading is almost
+incessant. However, the damage done is but small. To-day, the 7th April,
+things seem to be in pretty much the same position as they were after
+Bergeret had been beaten back and Flourens killed. The forts of Vanves
+and Issy bombard the Versailles batteries, which in their turn vomit
+shot and shell on Vanves and Issy. Idle spectators, watching from the
+Trocadero, see long lines of white smoke arise in the distance. Every
+morning, Citizen Cluseret,[44] the war delegate, announces that an
+assault of gendarmes has been victoriously repulsed by the garrisons in
+the forts. It is quite certain that if the Versaillais do attack they
+are repulsed, as they make no progress whatever; but do they attack,
+that is the question? I am rather inclined to think that these attacks
+and repulses are mere inventions. It seems evident to me that the
+generals of the National Assembly, who are now busy establishing
+batteries and concentrating their forces, will not make a serious
+attempt until they are certain of victory. In the meantime they are
+satisfied to complete the ruin of the forts which were already so much
+damaged by the Prussians.
+
+Between Courbevoie and the Porte Maillot the fighting is continual.
+Ground is lost and gained, such and such a house that was just now
+occupied by the Versaillais is now in the hands of the Federals, and
+_vice versa_. Neither side is wholly victorious, but the fighting goes
+on. What! is there no one to cry out "Enough! Enough blood, enough
+tears! Enough Frenchmen killed by Frenchmen, Republicans killed by
+Republicans." Men fall on each side with the same war cry on their lips.
+Oh! when will all this dreadful misunderstanding cease?
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 44: The biography of this general of the Commune is very
+imperfect, down to the time when he was elected for the 1st
+Arrondissement of Paris, and was thereupon appointed Minister of War, or
+in Communal phraseology, Delegate at the War Department. He seems to
+have been one of those beings, without country or family, but who are
+blessed, by way of compensation, with a plurality of names; we do not
+know whether Cluseret was really his own, or how many aliases he had
+made use of.
+
+It is said that he was formerly captain in a battalion of Chasseurs
+d'Afrique, but was dismissed the army upon being convicted of
+defalcations, in connection with the purchase of horses, and, that soon
+after his dismissal from the French army, he went to the United States,
+where he served in the revolutionary war, and attained to the rank of
+General. Then we have another story, to the effect that having been
+entrusted with the care of a flock of lambs, the number of the animals
+decreased so rapidly, that nothing but the existence of a large pack of
+wolves near at hand, could possibly have accounted for it in an honest
+way; this affair is said to have occurred at Churchill, Such vague
+charges as these however deserve but little credit.
+
+After closing his career as a shepherd, he became a defender of the
+Pope's flock, enlisting in the brigade against which Garibaldi took the
+field. The next we hear of him is that he joined the Fenians, and made
+an attempt to get possession of Chester Castle, but that he fell under
+suspicion of being a traitor, and was glad to escape to France, where,
+report says, he found refuge with a religious community.
+
+          "When the devil was sick,
+          The devil a monk would be;
+          But when the devil was well,
+          The devil a monk was he!"
+
+]
+
+
+
+
+XXXV.
+
+
+Thirty men carrying muffled drums, thirty more with trumpets draped in
+crape, head a long procession; every now and then the drums roll
+dismally, and the trumpets give a long sad wail.
+
+Numerous detachments of all the battalions come next, marching slowly,
+their arms reversed. A small bunch of red immortelles is on every
+breast. Has the choice of the colour a political signification, or is it
+a symbol of a bloody death?
+
+Next appears an immense funeral car draped with black, and drawn by four
+black horses; the gigantic pall is of velvet, with silver stars. At the
+corners float four great trophies of red flags.
+
+Then another car of the same sort appears, another, and again another;
+in each of them there are thirty-two corpses. Behind the cars march the
+members of the Commune bare-headed, and wearing red scarfs. Alas! always
+that sanguinary colour! Last of all, between a double row of National
+Guards, follows a vast multitude of men, women, and children, all
+sorrowful and dejected, many in tears.
+
+The procession proceeds along the boulevards; it started from the
+Beaujon hospital, and is going to the Pere Lachaise: as it passes all
+heads are bared. One man alone up at a window remains covered; the crowd
+hiss him. Shame on him who will not bow before those who died for a
+cause, whether it may be a worthy one or not! On looking on those
+corpses, do not remember the evil they caused when they were alive. They
+are dead now, and have become sacred. But remember, oh! remember, that
+it is to the crimes of a few that are due the deaths of so many, and let
+us help to hasten the hour when the criminals, whoever they be, and to
+whatever party they belong; will feel the weight of the inexorable
+Nemesis of human destiny.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVI.
+
+
+We are to have no more letters! As in the time of the siege, if you
+desire to obtain news of your mother or your wife, you have no other
+alternative than to consult a somnambulist or a fortune-teller. This is
+not at all a complicated operation; of course you possess a ribbon or a
+look of hair, something appertaining to the absent person. This suffices
+to keep you informed, hour by hour, of what she says, does, and thinks.
+Perhaps you would prefer the ordinary course of things, and that you
+would rather receive a letter than consult a charlatan. But if so, I
+would advise you not to say so. They would accuse you of being, what you
+are doubtless, a reactionist, and you might get into trouble.
+
+Yesterday a young man was walking in the Champs Elysees, a Guard
+National stalked up to him and asked him for a light for his cigar.--"I
+am really very sorry," said he, "but my cigar has gone out."--"Oh! your
+cigar is out, is it? Oh! so you blush to render a service to a patriot!
+Reactionist that you are!" Thereupon a torrent of invectives was poured
+on the poor young man, who was quickly surrounded by a crowd of eager
+faces: One charming young person exclaimed, "Why, he is a disguised
+sergent-de-ville!"--"Yes, yes; he is a gendarme!" is echoed on all
+sides.--"I think he looks like Ernest Picard," says one.--"Throw him
+into the Seine," says another.--"To the Seine, to the Seine, the spy!"
+and the unfortunate victim is pushed, jostled, and hurried off. A dense
+crowd of National Guards, women, and children had by this time
+collected, all crying out at the top of their voices, and without any
+idea of what was the matter, "Shoot him! throw him the water! hang him!"
+Superstitious individuals leaned towards hanging for the sake of the
+cords. As to the original cause of the commotion, no one seemed to
+remember anything about it. I overheard one man say,--"It appears that
+they arrested him just as he was setting fire to the ambulance at the
+Palais de l'Industrie!" As to what became of the young man I do not
+know; I trust he was neither hanged, shot, nor drowned. At any rate, let
+it be a lesson to others not to get embroiled in dangerous adventures of
+that kind; and whatever your anxiety may be concerning your family or
+affairs, you would do well to hide it carefully under a smiling
+exterior. Suppose you meet one of your friends, who says to you, "My
+dear fellow, how anxious you must be?" You must answer, "Anxious! oh,
+not at all. On the contrary, I never felt more free of care in my
+life."--"Oh! I thought your aunt was ill, and as you do not receive any
+letters ..."--"Not receive any letters!" you continue in the same
+strain, "who told you that? Not receive any letters! why, I have more
+than I want! what an idea!"--"Then you must be strangely favoured," says
+your mystified companion; "for since Citizen Theiz[45] has taken
+possession of the Post-office, the communications are stopped."--"Don't
+believe it. It is a rumour set on float by the reactionists. Why, those
+terrible reactionists go so far as to pretend that the Commune has
+imprisoned the priests, arrested journalists, and stopped the
+newspapers!"--"Well, you may say what you please, but a proclamation of
+Citizen Theiz announces that communication with the departments will not
+be re-established for some days."--"Nothing but modesty on his part; he
+has only to show himself at the Post-office, and the service, which has
+been put out of order by those wretched reactionists, will be
+immediately reorganised."--"So I am to understand that you have news
+every day of your aunt."--"Of course."--"Well, I am delighted to hear
+it; for one of my friends, who arrived from Marseilles this morning,
+told me that your aunt was dead."--"Dead, good heavens! what do you
+mean? Now I think of it, I did not get a letter this morning."--"There
+you see!"
+
+You must not, however, allow your sorrow to carry you away, at the risk
+of your personal safety, but answer readily. "I see it all, for a wonder
+I did not get a letter this morning; Citizen Theiz is a kind-hearted
+man, and did not want to make me unhappy."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 45: A working chaser, and one of the most active and
+influential members of the International Society. He was among the
+accused who were tried in July, 1870, and was condemned to two years'
+imprisonment. On the formation of the Central Committee, he was
+appointed Vice-President. It was Theiz who saved the General Post
+Office, Rue J.J. Rousseau, from the total destruction decreed by other
+members of the Commune. His fate is not well known. Director of the
+General Post-office in the Rue J.J. Rousseau, he is said to have saved
+that important establishment, doomed to destruction by the Commune.
+Theiz escaped from Paris to London on the 29th of July; he took an
+active part in the struggle to the last, and was close to Vermorel when
+wounded at the barricade of the Chateau d'Eau.]
+
+
+
+
+XXXVII.
+
+
+The queen of the age is the Press. Lately dethroned and somewhat shorn
+of her majesty, but still a queen. It is in vain that the press has
+sometimes degraded itself in the eyes of honest men by stooping to
+applaud and approve of crimes and excesses, that journalists have done
+what they can to lower it; still the august offspring of the human mind,
+the press, has really lost neither its power nor its fascination.
+Misunderstood, misapplied, it may have done some harm, but no one can
+question the signal service which it has been able to render, or the
+nobility of its mission. If it has sometimes been the organ of false
+prophets, its voice has also been often raised to instruct and
+encourage.
+
+When last night you went secretly, in a manner worthy of the act, to
+seize on the printing presses of the _Journal des Debats_, the _Paris
+Journal_, and the _Constitutionnel_, were you aware of what you were
+doing? You imagined, perhaps, this act would have no other result than
+that of suppressing violently a private concern--which is one kind of
+robbery--and of reducing to a state of beggary--which is a crime--the
+numerous individuals, journalists, printers, compositors, and others who
+are employed on the journal, and who live by its means. You have done
+worse than this. You have stopped, as far as it was in your power, the
+current of human progress. You have suppressed man's noblest.
+right--the right of expressing his opinions to the world; you are no
+better than the pickpocket who appropriates your handkerchief. You have
+taken our freedom of thought by the throat, and said, "It is in my way,
+I will strangle it." Wherefore have you acted thus? To shut the mouths
+of those who contradict you, is to admit that you are not so very sure
+of being in the right. To suppress the journals is to confess your fear
+of them; to avoid the light is to excite our suspicion concerning the
+deeds you are perpetrating in the darkness. We shut our windows when we
+do not desire to be seen. Little confidence is inspired by closed doors.
+Your councils at the Hotel de Ville are secret as the proceedings of
+certain legal cases, the details of which might be hurtful to public
+morality. Again I say, wherefore this mystery? What strange projects
+have you on foot? Do you discuss among you, propositions of a nature
+which your modesty declines to make known to the world? This fear of
+publicity, of opposition, you have proved afresh, by the nocturnal
+visits of your National Guards to the printing offices, wherein they
+forced an entrance like housebreakers. Shall we be reduced to judge of
+your acts, and of the bloody incidents of the civil war, only by your
+own asseverations and those of your accomplices? You must be very
+determined to act guiltily and to be obliged to tell lies, as you take
+so much trouble to get rid of those, who might pass sentence on you, and
+who might convict you of falsehood. Therefore you have not only
+committed a crime in so doing, but made a great mistake as well. No one
+can meddle with the liberty of the press with impunity. The persecution
+of the press always brings with it its own punishment. Look back to the
+many years of the Imperial Government, to the few months of the
+Government of the 4th of September; of all the crimes perpetrated by the
+former, of all the errors committed by the latter, those crimes and
+errors which most particularly hastened the end were those that were
+levelled against the freedom of the press. The most valable excuse in
+favour of the revolt of the 18th of March was certainly the suppression
+of several journals by General Vinoy, with the consent of M. Thiers. How
+can you be so rash as to make the very same mistakes which have been the
+destruction of former governments, and also so unmindful of your own
+honour as to commit the very crime which reduces you to the same level
+as your enemies?
+
+Ah I truly those who were ready to judge you with patience and
+impartiality, those who at first were perhaps, on the whole, favourable
+to you, because it seemed to them that you represented some of the
+legitimate aspirations of Paris, even those, seeing you act like
+thoughtless tyrants, will feel it quite impossible to blind themselves
+any longer to your faults; those who having wished to esteem you for the
+sake of liberty, will for the sake of liberty, be obliged to despise
+you!
+
+
+
+
+XXXVIII.
+
+
+It cannot be true. I will not believe it. It cannot be possible that
+Paris is to be again bombarded: and by whom? By Frenchmen! In spite of
+the danger I was told there was to be apprehended near Neuilly, I wished
+to see with my own eyes what was going on. So this morning, the 8th
+April, I went to the Champs Elysees.
+
+Until I reached the Rond Point there was nothing unusual, only perhaps
+fewer people to be seen about. The omnibus does not go any farther than
+the corner of the Avenue Marigny. An Englishwoman, whom the conductor
+had just helped down, came up to me and asked me the way; she wanted to
+go to the Rue Galilee, but did not like to walk up the wide avenue. I
+pointed out to her a side-street, and continued my way. A little higher
+up a line of National Guards, standing about ten feet distant from each
+other, had orders to stop passengers from going any farther. "You can't
+pass."--"But ...," and I stopped to think of some plausible motive to
+justify my curiosity. However, I was saved the trouble. Although I had
+only uttered a hesitating "but," the sentinel seemed to consider that
+sufficient, and replied, "Oh, very well, you can pass."
+
+The avenue seemed more and more deserted as I advanced. The shutters of
+all the houses were closed. Here and there a passenger slipped along
+close to the walls of the houses, ready to take refuge within the
+street-doors, which had been left open by order, directly they heard the
+whizzing of a shell. In front of the shop of a carriage-builder,
+securely closed, were piled heaps of rifles; most of the National Guards
+were stretched on the pavement fast asleep, while some few were walking
+up and down smoking their pipes, and others playing at the plebeian game
+of "bouchon."[46] I was told that a shell had burst a quarter of an hour
+before at the corner of the Rue de Morny. A captain was seated there on
+the ground beside his wife, who had just brought him his breakfast; the
+poor fellow was literally cut in two, and the woman had been carried
+away to a neighbouring chemist's shop dangerously wounded. I was told
+she was still there, so I turned my steps in that direction. A small
+group of people were assembled before the door. I managed to get near,
+but saw nothing, as the poor thing had been carried into the surgery.
+They told me that she had been wounded in the neck by a bit of the
+shell, and that she was now under the care of one of the surgeons of the
+Press Ambulance. I then continued my walk up the avenue. The
+cannonading, which had seemed to cease for some little time, now began
+again with greater intensity than ever. Clouds of white smoke arose in
+the direction of the Porte Maillot, while bombs from Mont Valerien burst
+over the Arc de Triomphe. On the right and left of me were companies of
+Federals. A little further on a battalion, fully equipped, with blankets
+and saucepans strapped to their knapsacks, and loaves of bread stuck
+aloft on their bayonets, moved in the direction of Porte Maillot. By
+the side of the captain in command of the first company marched a woman
+in a strange costume, the skirt of a vivandiere and the jacket of a
+National Guard, a Phrygian cap on her head, a chassepot in her hand, and
+a revolver stuck in her belt. From the distance at which I was standing
+she looked both young and pretty. I asked some Federals who she was; one
+told me she was the wife of Citizen Eudes,[47] a member of the Commune,
+and another that she was a newspaper seller in the Avenue des Ternes,
+whose child had been killed in the Rue des Acacias the night before by a
+fragment of a shell, and that she had sworn to revenge him. It appeared
+the battalion was on its way to support the combatants at Neuilly, who
+were in want of help. From what I hear the gendarmes and sergents de
+ville had fought their way as far as the Rue des Huissiers. Now I had no
+doubt the Versailles generals had made use of the gendarmes and sergents
+de ville, who were most of them old and tried soldiers, but if in very
+truth they were wherever the imagination of the Federals persisted in
+placing them, they must either have been as numerous as the grains of
+sand on the sea-shore, or else their leaders must have found out a way
+of making them serve in several places at once. Having followed the
+battalion, I found myself a few yards in front of the Arc de Triomphe.
+Suddenly a hissing, whizzing sound is heard in the distance, and rapidly
+approaches us; it sounds very much like the noise of a sky-rocket. "A
+shell!" cried the sergeant, and the whole battalion to a man, threw
+itself on the ground with a load jingling of saucepans and bayonets.
+Indeed there was some danger. The terrible projectile lowered as it
+approached, and then fell with a terrific noise a little way from us, in
+front of the last house on the left-hand side of the avenue. I had never
+seen a shell burst so near me before; a good idea of what it is like may
+be had from those sinister looking paintings, that one sees sometimes
+suspended round the necks of certain blind beggars, supposed to
+represent an explosion in a mine. I think no one was hurt, and the
+mischief done seemed to consist in a Wide hole in the asphalte and a
+door reduced to splinters. The National Guards got up from the ground,
+and several of them proceeded to pick up fragments of the shell. They
+had, however, not gone many yards when another cry of alarm was given,
+and again we heard the ominous Whizzing sound; in an instant we were all
+on our faces. The second shell burst, but we did not see it; we only saw
+at the top of the house that had already been struck, a window open
+suddenly and broken panes fall to the ground. The shell had most likely
+gone through the roof and burst in the attic. Was there anyone in those
+upper stories? However, we were on our legs again and had doubled the
+Arc de Triomphe. I had succeeded in ingratiating myself with the men of
+the rear-guard, and I hoped to be able to go as far with them as I
+pleased. Strange enough, and I confess it with _naif_ delight, I did not
+feel at all afraid. Although half an inch difference in the inclination
+of the cannon might have cost me my life, still I felt inclined to
+proceed on my way. I begin to think that it is not difficult to be brave
+when one is not naturally a coward! Beneath the great arch were
+assembled a hundred or so of persons who seemed to consider themselves
+in safety, and who from time to time ventured a few steps forward, for
+the purpose of examining the damage done to Etex's sculptured group by
+three successive shells. But in the Avenue de la Grande Armee only three
+Federals were to be seen, and I think I was the only man in plain
+clothes they had allowed to go so far. I could distinctly perceive a
+small barricade erected in front of the Porte Maillot on this side of
+the ramparts. The bastion to the right was hard at work cannonading the
+heights of Courbevoie; great columns of smoke, succeeded by terrific
+explosions, testified to the zeal of the Communist artillerymen. Beyond
+the ramparts the Avenue de Neuilly extended, dusty and deserted.
+Unfortunately the sun blinded me, and I could not distinguish well what
+was going on in the distance. By this time the sound of musketry was
+heard distinctly. I was told they were fighting principally at Saint
+James and in the park of Neuilly. I tried to pass out of the gates with
+the battalion, but an officer caught sight of me, and in no measured
+tones ordered me back. I ought not to complain, however, he rendered me
+good service; for although the fire of the Versaillais had somewhat
+diminished, I do not think the place could have been much longer
+tenable, to judge from the quantities of bits of shell that strewed the
+road; from the numerous litters that were being borne away with their
+bloody burthens; from the railway-station in ruins, and the condition of
+the neighbouring houses, which had nearly all of them great black holes
+in their fronts. The Federals did not seem at all impressed by their
+critical position; sounds of laughter reached me from the interior of a
+casemate, from the chimney of which smoke was arising, and guards
+running hither and thither were whistling merrily the _Chant du Depart_,
+with a look of complete satisfaction.
+
+[Illustration: THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE, EAST SIDE (THE FINEST), UNINJURED.
+Damaged on the other side. During the Prussian siege it was defended
+from injury, though no shells reached it. Uncovered before the civil
+war.]
+
+I managed to reach the Rue du Debarcadere, which is situated close to
+the ramparts. An acquaintance of mine lives there. I knew he was away,
+but I thought the porter would recognise and allow me to take up a
+position at one of the windows. Next door, the corner house, I found a
+shell had gone into a wine-merchant's shop there, who could very well
+have dispensed with such a visitor, and had behaved in the most unruly
+fashion, breaking the glass, smashing the tables and counter, but
+neither killing nor wounding anybody. The porter knew me quite well, and
+invited me to walk upstairs to the apartments of my friend, situated on
+the third floor. From the windows I could not see the bastion, which was
+hidden by the station; but to the left, in the distance, beyond the Bois
+de Boulogne, wherein I fancied I perceived troops moving between the
+branches, but whether Versaillais or Parisians I could not tell, arose
+the tremendous Mont Valerien bathed in sunlight. The flashes from the
+cannon, which in daylight have a pale silver tint, succeeded each other
+rapidly; the explosions were formidable, and the fort was crowned with a
+wreath of smoke. They appeared to be firing in the direction of
+Levallois, rather than on the Porte Maillot. The Federals did not seem
+to attempt to reply. Turning myself towards the right I could scan
+nearly the whole length of the Avenue de Neuilly. The bare piece of
+ground which constitutes the military zone was completely deserted;
+several shells fell there that had been aimed doubtless at the Porte
+Maillot or the bastion. The position I had taken up at the window was
+rather a perilous one. I was just behind the bastion. Beyond the
+military zone most of the houses seemed uninhabited, but I saw
+distinctly the National Guards in front of the Restaurant Gilet, making
+their soup on the side-walk. I was too far away to judge of the extent
+of the mischief done by the cannonading, but I was told that several
+roofs had fallen in and many walls had been thrown down in that quarter.
+All that I could see of the market-place was empty; but the sound of
+musketry, and the smoke which issued from the houses on one side of it,
+told me that the Federals were there in sufficient numbers. A little
+further on I saw the barrels of the rifles sticking out of the windows,
+with little wreaths of smoke curling out of them; small knots of armed
+men every now and then marched hurriedly across the avenue, and
+disappeared into the opposite houses. Partly on account of the distance,
+and partly on account of the blinding sun, and partly, perhaps, on
+account of the emotion I experienced, which made me desire and yet fear
+to see, I could distinguish the bridge but indistinctly, with the dark
+line of a barricade in front of it. What surprised me most in the battle
+which I was busily observing, was the extraordinarily small number of
+combatants that were visible, when suddenly--it was about two o'clock in
+the afternoon--the Versailles batteries at Courbevoie, which had been
+silent for some time, began firing furiously. The horrid screech of the
+mitrailleuse drowned the hissing of the shells; the whole breadth of the
+long avenue was covered by a kind of white mist. The bastion in front of
+me replied energetically. It seemed to me as if the interior part of my
+ear was being rent asunder, when suddenly I heard a dull heavy sound,
+such as I had not heard before, and I felt the house tremble beneath me.
+Loud cries arose from the National Guards on the ramparts. I fancied
+that a rain of shot and shell had destroyed the drawbridge of the Porte
+Maillot; but it was not so; in the distance I saw that the clouds of
+smoke were rolling nearer and nearer, and that the roar of the musketry,
+which had greatly increased, sounded close by. I felt sure that a rush
+was being made from Courbevoie--that the Versaillais were advancing. The
+shells were flying over our heads in the direction of the Champs
+Elysees. I began to distinguish that a tumultuous mass of human beings
+were marching on in the smoke, in the dust, in the sun. The guns on the
+bastion now thundered forth incessantly. There was no mistaking by this
+time, there were the Versaillais; I could see the red trowsers of the
+men of the line. The Federals were shooting them down from the windows.
+Then I saw the advanced guard stop, hesitate beneath the balls which
+seemed to rain on them from the Place du Marche, and presently retire.
+Whereupon a large number of Federals poured forth from the houses, and,
+walking close to the walls, to be as much as possible out of the way of
+the projectiles, hurried after the retreating enemy. But suddenly, when
+they had arrived a little too far for me to distinguish anything very
+clearly, they in their turn came to a standstill, and then retraced
+their steps, and returned to their positions within the houses. The fire
+from the Versaillais then sensibly diminished, but that of the bastions
+continued its furious attack. It was thus that I witnessed one of those
+_chasse-croises_ under fire, which have become so frequent since this
+dreadful civil war was concentrated at Neuilly.
+
+[Illustration: HORSE CHASSEUR ACTING AS A COMMUNIST ARTILLERY MAN,
+ATTENDED BY A GAMIN SPONGER.]
+
+As it would have been most imprudent to follow the railway cutting, or
+to have gone back by the Avenue de la Grande Armee, where the Versailles
+shells were still falling, I walked up the Rue du Debarcadere, and then
+turned into the Rue Saint-Ferdinand, and soon found myself in the Place
+des Ternes, in front of the church. There was a most dismal aspect about
+the whole of this quarter. Situated close to the ramparts, it is very
+much exposed, and had suffered greatly. Nearly all the shops were shut;
+some of the doors, however, of those where wine or provisions, are sold,
+were standing open, while on the shutters of others were inscribed in
+chalk, "The entrance is beneath the gateway." I was astonished to see
+that the church was open, a rare sight in these days. Why, is it
+possible that the Commune has committed the unqualifiable imprudence of
+not arresting the cure of Saint-Ferdinand, and that she is weak
+enough--may she not have to regret it!--to permit the inhabitants of
+Ternes to be baptised, married, and buried according to the deplorable
+rites and ceremonies of Catholicism, which has happily fallen into
+disuse in the other quarters of Paris? I can now understand why the
+shells fall so persistently in this poor arrondissement: the anger of
+the goddess of Reason (shall we not soon have a goddess of Reason?) lies
+heavily on this quarter, the shame of the capital, where the inhabitants
+still try to look as if they believed in heaven! In spite of everything,
+however, I entered the church; there were a great many women on their
+knees, and several men too. The prayers of the dead were being said over
+the coffin of a woman who, I was told, was killed yesterday by a ball
+in the chest, whilst crossing the Avenue des Ternes, just a little above
+the railway bridge. A ball, how strange! yet I was assured such was the
+case. It is pretty evident, then, that the Versaillais were considerably
+nearer to Paris, on this side at least, than the official despatches
+lead us to suppose.
+
+On returning to the street I directed my steps in the direction of the
+Place d'Eylau. Two National Guards passed me, bearing a litter between
+them.--"Oh, you can look if you like," said one. So I drew back the
+checked curtain. On the mattress was stretched a woman, decently
+dressed, with a child of two or three years lying on her breast. They
+both looked very pale; one of the woman's arms was hanging down; her
+sleeve was stained with blood; the hand had been carried away.--"Where
+were they wounded?" I asked.--"Wounded! they are dead. It is the wife
+and child of the velocipede-maker in the Avenue de Wagram; if you will
+go and break the news to him you will do us a good service."
+
+It was therefore quite true, certain, incontestable. The balls and
+shells of the Versaillais were not content with killing the combatants
+and knocking down the forts and ramparts. They were also killing women
+and children, ordinary passers-by; not only those who were attracted by
+an imprudent curiosity to go where they had no business, but
+unfortunates who were necessarily obliged to venture into the
+neighbouring streets, for the purpose of buying bread. Not only do the
+shells of the National Assembly reach the buildings situated close to
+the city walls, but they often fall considerably farther in, crushing
+inoffensive houses, and breaking the sculpture on the public monuments.
+No one can deny this. I have seen it with my own eyes. Anyhow, the
+projectiles fall nearer and nearer the centre. Yesterday they fell in
+the Avenue de la Grande Armee; to-day they fly over the Arc de Triomphe,
+and fall in the Place d'Eylau and the Avenue d'Uhrich. Who knows but
+what to-morrow they will have reached the Place de la Concorde, and the
+next day perhaps I may be killed by one on the Boulevard Montmartre?
+Paris bombarded! Take care, gentlemen of the National Assembly! What the
+Prussians did, and what gave rise to such a clamour of indignation on
+the part of the Government of the 4th September, it will be both
+infamous and imprudent for you to attempt. You kill Frenchmen who are in
+arms against their countrymen,--alas! that is a horrible necessity in
+civil war,--but spare the lives and the dwellings of those who are not
+arrayed against you, and who are perhaps your allies. It is all very
+well to argue that guns are not endowed with the gifts of intelligence
+and mercy, and that one cannot make them do exactly what one likes; but
+what have you done with those marvellous marksmen who, during the siege,
+continually threw down the enemy's batteries and interrupted his works
+with such extraordinary precision, and who pretended that at a distance
+of seven thousand metres they could hit the gilded spike of a Prussian
+helmet? Wherefore have they become so clumsy since they changed places
+with their adversaries? Joking apart, in a word, you are doing yourself
+the greatest injury in being so uselessly cruel; every shell overleaping
+the fortifications is not only a crime, but a great mistake. Remember,
+that in this horrible duel which is going on, victory will not really
+remain with that party which shall have triumphed over the other, by the
+force of arms (yours undoubtedly), but to the one who, by his conduct,
+shall have succeeded in proving to the neutral population, which
+observes and judges, that right was on his side. I do not say but what
+your cause is the best; for although we may have to reproach you with an
+imprudent resistance, unnecessary attacks, and a wilful obstinacy not to
+see what was legitimate and honourable in the wishes of the Parisians,
+still we must consider that you represent, legally, the whole of France.
+I do not say, therefore, but what your cause is the best; frankly
+though, can you hope to bring over to your side that large body of
+citizens, whose confidence you had shaken, by massacring innocent people
+in the streets, and destroying their dwellings? If this bombardment
+continues, if it increases in violence as it seems likely to do, you
+will become odious, and then, were you a hundred times in the right,
+you will still be in the wrong. Therefore, it is most urgent that you
+give orders to the artillerymen of Courbevoie and Mont Valerien, to
+moderate their zeal, if you do not desire that Paris--neutral
+Paris--should make dangerous comparisons between the Assembly which
+flings us its shells, and the Commune which launches its decrees, and
+come to the conclusion that decrees are less dangerous missiles than
+cannon-balls. As to the legality of the thing, we do not much care about
+that; we have seen so many governments, more or less legal, that we are
+somewhat _blases_ on that point; and a few millions of votes have
+scarcely power enough to put us in good humour with shot and shell.
+Certainly the Commune, such as the men at the Hotel de Ville have
+constituted it, is not a brilliant prospect. It arrests priests, stops
+newspapers, wishes to incorporate us, in spite of ourselves, in the
+National Guard; robs us--so we are told; lies inveterately--that is
+incontestable, and altogether makes itself a great bore; but what does
+that matter?--human nature is full of weaknesses, and prefers to be
+bored than bombarded.
+
+[Illustration: MARINE GUNNER AND STREET-BOY.
+
+During the Prussian siege the sailors of the French navy played an
+important part, their bravery, activity, and ingenuity being much
+esteemed by the Parisians. Some, of them took the red side, and manned
+the gun-boats on the Seine. Knowing the prestige attached to the brave
+marines, the Communist generals made use of the naval clothes found in
+the marine stores, and dressed therein some of the valliant heroes of
+Belleville and Montmartre.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 46: The game of pitch-halfpenny, in, which, in France, a cork
+(_bouchon_), with halfpence on the top of it, is placed on the ground.]
+
+[Footnote 47: General Eudes was the Alcibiades, or rather the Saint
+Just, of the Commune. He had the face and manners of a fashionable
+_tenorino_, the luxurious taste of the Athenian, the cruel inflexibility
+of Robespierre's protege. He was born at Bonay, in the arrondissement of
+Coutances. His father was a tradesman of the Boulevard des Italians. In
+his examination before the Council of War in August, 1870, Eudes called
+himself a shorthand writer and law student, though his real position was
+said to be that of a linendraper's clerk. His first notable exploit was
+the assassination of a fireman at La Villette. For this crime he was
+brought before the First Council of War at Paris. Here he informed the
+President, in somewhat unparliamentary terms, that "the betrayers of the
+country were not the Republicans, and that to destroy the Imperial
+Government was to annihilate the Prussians." In spite of the eloquent
+appeal of his counsel, he was condemned to death. The events of the
+fourth of September prevented the execution of this sentence, and he
+lived to take an active part in the agitation of the thirty-first of
+October. He was again tried for this conduct and acquitted, together
+with Vermorel, Ribaldi, Lefrancais and others. Eudes' name figures in
+the first decrees of the Commune, and on the last of those of the
+Committee of Public Safety. On the second of April he was appointed
+Delegate for War, and, conjointly with Cluseret, organised ten corps of
+the Enfants Perdus of Belleville. He promised to each of his volunteers
+an annuity of 300 francs and a decoration. Eudes was an atheist of the
+most violent type, and sayings are attributed to him which make one
+shudder.]
+
+
+
+
+XXXIX.
+
+
+Where is Bergeret? What have they done with Bergeret? We miss Bergeret.
+They have no right to suppress Bergeret, who, according to the official
+document, was "himself" at Neuilly; Bergeret, who drove to battle in an
+open carriage; who enlivened our ennui with a little fun. They were
+perfectly at liberty to take away his command and give it to whomsoever
+they chose; I am quite agreeable to that, but they had no right to take
+him away and prevent him amusing us. Alas! we do not have the chance so
+often![48]
+
+Rumours are afloat that he has been taken to the Conciergerie. Poor
+Bergeret! and why is he so treated? Because he got the Federals beaten
+in trying to lead them to Versailles?
+
+[Illustration: CORPS LEGISLATIF.--THE HEAD-QUARTERS OF GENERAL
+BERGERET.]
+
+Citizens, if you will allow me to express my humble opinion on the
+subject, I shall take the opportunity of insinuating that the plan of
+Citizen Bergeret--which has, I acknowledge, been completely
+unsuccessful--was the only possible one capable of transforming into a
+triumphant revolution, the emeute of Montmartre, now the Commune of
+Paris.
+
+Let us look at it from a logical point of view, if you please. Does it
+seem possible to you, that Paris can hold its own against the whole of
+the rest of France? No, most certainly not. Today, especially, after the
+disasters that have occurred to the communal insurrectionists of
+Marseilles, Lyons, and Toulouse--disasters which your lying official
+reports have in vain tried to transform into successes; today, I say,
+you cannot possibly nourish any delusive hopes of help from the
+provinces. In a few days, you will have the whole country in array in
+front of your ramparts and your ruined fortresses, and then you are
+lost; yes, lost, in spite of all the blinded heroism of those whom you
+have beguiled to the slaughter. The only hope you could reasonably have
+conceived was that of profiting by the first moment of surprise and
+disorder, which the victorious revolt had occasioned among the small
+number of hesitating soldiery which then constituted the whole of the
+French army; to surprise Versailles, inadequately defended, and seize,
+if it were possible, on the Assembly and the Government. Your sudden
+revolution wanted to be followed up by a brusque attack, there would
+then have been some hope--a faint one, I confess, but still a hope, and
+this plan of Bergeret, by the very reason of its audacity, should not
+have been condemned by you, who have only succeeded through violence and
+audacity, and can only go on prospering by the same means. Now what do
+you mean to do? To resist the whole of France? To resist your enemies
+inside the walls, besides those enemies outside, who increase in numbers
+and confidence every day? Your defeat is certain, and from this day
+forth is only a question of time. You were decidedly wrong to put
+Bergeret "in the shade" as they say at the Hotel de Ville,--firstly,
+because he amused us; and secondly, because he tried the only thing that
+could possibly have succeeded--an enterprise worthy of a brilliant
+madman.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 48: General Bergeret, Member of the Central Committee,
+Delegate of War, &c., was a bookseller's assistant. He emerged in 1869
+from a printing-office to support the irreconcileable candidates in the
+election meetings.
+
+Events progressed, and on the 18th of March Victor Bergeret reappeared,
+resplendent in gold lace and embroidery, happy to have found at last a
+government, to which Jules Favre did not belong.
+
+When Bergeret, who never had any higher grade than that of sergeant in
+the National Guard, was made general, he believed himself to be a
+soldier. A friend of this pasteboard officer said one day, "If Bergeret
+were to live a hundred years, he would always swear he had been a
+general."
+
+On the 8th April, Victor Bergeret was arrested by order of the Executive
+Commission for having refused obedience to Cluseret, a general too, and
+his superior, and he was incarcerated in the prison of Mazas, where he
+remained for a short time, until the day when Cluseret was shut up there
+himself. In fact, Cluseret went into the very cell which Bergeret had
+just quitted, and found an autograph note written on the wall by his
+predecessor, and addressed to himself. The words ran thus:--
+
+"CITIZEN CLUSERET,--
+
+"You have had me shut up here, and you will be here yourself before
+eight days are over.
+
+"GENERAL BERGERET."
+
+On leaving the prison of Mazas, Bergeret was still kept a prisoner for a
+time in a magnificent apartment of the Hotel de Ville, decorated with
+gilded panneling and cerise-coloured satin. His wife was allowed to join
+him here, and he also obtained permission to keep with him a little
+terrier, of which he was extremely fond. Shortly afterwards he was
+reinstated, took his place again in the Communal Assembly, and was
+attached to the commission of war. The beautiful palace of the president
+of the Corps Legislatif was now his residence, and there he delighted in
+receiving the friends who had known him when he was poor. His invariable
+home-dress in palace as in prison, was red from head to foot: red
+jacket, red trousers, and red Phrygian cap.
+
+One day, a short time after his release from prison, he said to an
+intimate friend:--"Affairs are going well, but the Commune is in need of
+money, I know it, and they are wrong not to confide in me. I would lend
+them ten thousand francs willingly." The generalship had singularly
+enriched the booksellers assistant, Victor Bergeret.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL DOMBROWSKI.]
+
+XL.
+
+
+Who takes Bergeret's place? Dombrowski.[49] Who had the idea of doing
+this? Cluseret. First of all we had the Central Committee, then we had
+the Commune, and now we have Cluseret. It looks as if Cluseret had
+swallowed the Commune, which had previously swallowed and only half
+digested the Central Committee. We are told that Cluseret is a great
+man, that Cluseret is strong, that Cluseret will save Paris. Cluseret
+issues decrees, and sees that they are executed. The Commune says, "_we
+wish_;" but Cluseret says, "_I wish_." It is he who has conceived and
+promulgated the following edict:
+
+    "In consideration of the patriotic demands of a large number of
+    National Guards, who, although they are married men, wish to have
+    the honour of defending their municipal rights, even at the expense
+    of their lives ..."
+
+I should like to know some of those National Guards who attach so little
+importance to their lives! Show me two, and I will myself consent to be
+the third. But I am interrupting Dictator Cluseret.
+
+    "The decree of the fifth of April is therefore modified:"
+
+The decree of the fifth of April was made by the Commune, but Cluseret
+does not care a straw for that.
+
+    "From seventeen to nineteen, service in the marching-companies is
+    voluntary, but from nineteen to forty it is obligatory for the
+    National Guards, married or unmarried.
+
+    "I recommend all good patriots to be their own police, and to see
+    that this edict is carried out in their respective quartern, and to
+    force the refractory to serve."
+
+As to the last paragraph of Cluseret's decree it is impossible to joke
+about it, it is by far too odious. This exhortation in favour of a
+press-gang,--this wish that each man should become a spy upon his
+neighbour (he says it in so many words), fills me with anger and
+disgust. What! I may be passing in the streets, going about my own
+business, and the first Federal who pleases, anybody with dirty hands, a
+wretch you may be sure, for none but a wretch would follow the
+recommendations of Cluseret,--an escaped convict, may take me by the
+collar and say, "Come along and be killed for the sake of my municipal
+independence." Or else I may be in bed at night, quietly asleep, as it
+is clearly my right to be, and four or five fellows, fired with
+patriotic ardour, may break in my door, if I do not hasten to open it on
+the first summons like a willing slave, and, whether I like it or not,
+drag me in night-cap and slippers, in my shirt perhaps, if it so pleases
+the brave _sans-culottes_, to the nearest outpost. Now I swear to you,
+Cluseret, I would not bear this, if I had not, during the last few
+hungry days of the siege, sold to a curiosity dealer--your colleague now
+in the Commune--my revolver, which I had hoped naively might defend me
+against the Prussians! Think, a revolver with six balls, if you please,
+and which, alas! I forgot to discharge!
+
+We can only hope that even at this moment, when the revolution has
+brought out of the darkness into the light, so many rascals and cowards,
+just as the sediment rises to the top when the wine is shaken, we must
+hope, that there will be found in Paris, nobody to undertake the mean
+office of spy and detective; and that the decree of M. Cluseret will
+remain a dead-letter, like so many other decrees of the Commune. I will
+not believe all I am told; I will not believe that last night several
+men, without any precise orders, without any legal character whatever,
+merely National Guards, introduced themselves into peaceful families;
+waking the wife and children, and carrying off the husband as one
+carries off a housebreaker or an escaped convict. I am told that this is
+a fact, that it has happened more than fifty times at Montmartre,
+Batignolles, and Belleville; yet I will not believe it.[50] I prefer to
+believe that these tales are "inventions of Versailles" than to admit
+the possibility of such infamy.
+
+Come now, Cluseret, War Delegate, whatever he likes to call himself.
+Where does he come from, what has he done, and what services has he
+rendered, to give him a right thus to impose his sovereign wishes upon
+us?
+
+He is not a Frenchman; nor is he an American; for the honour of France I
+prefer his being an American. His history is as short as it is
+inglorious. He once served in the French army, and left, one does not
+know why; then went to fight in America during the war. His enemies
+affirm that he fought for the Slave States, his friends the contrary. It
+does not seem very clear which side he was on--both, perhaps. Oh,
+America! you had taken him from us, why did you not keep him? Cluseret
+came back to us with the glory of having forsworn his country.
+Immediately the revolutionists received him with open arms. Only think,
+an American! Do you like America? People want to make an America
+everywhere. Modern Republics have had formidable enemies to contend
+with--America and the revolution of '98. We are sad parodists. We cannot
+be free in our own fashion, but are always obliged to imitate what has
+been or what is. But that which is adapted to one climate or country, is
+it always that which is the fittest thing for another? I will return,
+however, to this subject another time. America, who is so vaunted, and
+whom I should admire as much as could reasonably be wished, if men did
+not try to remodel France after her image, one must be blind not to see
+what she has of weakness and of narrowness, amid much that is truly
+grand. It was said to me once by some one, "The American mind may be
+compared to a compound liqueur, composed of the yeast of Anglo-Saxon
+beer, the foam of Spanish wines, and the dregs of the _petit-bleu_ of
+Suresnes, heated to boiling point by the applause and admiration given
+by the genuine pale ale, the true sherry, and authentic Chateau-Margaux
+to these their deposits. From time to time the caldron seethes with a
+little too much violence, and the bubbling drink pours over upon the old
+world, bringing back to the pure source, to the true vintage, their
+deteriorated products. Oh! The poor wines of France! How many
+adulterations have they been submitted to!" Calumny and exaggeration no
+doubt; but I am angry with America for sending Cluseret back, as I am
+angry with the Commune for having imposed him on Paris. The Commune,
+however, has an admirable excuse: it has not, perhaps, found among true
+Frenchmen one with an ambition criminal enough to direct, according to
+her wishes, the destruction of Paris by Paris, and France by France.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 49: There are two versions of Dombrowski's earlier history. By
+his admirers he was said to have headed the last Polish insurrection:
+the party of order stigmatise him as a Russian adventurer, who had
+fought in Poland, but against the Poles, and in the Caucasus, in Italy,
+and in France--wherever; in fine, blows were to be given and money
+earned. He entered France, like many other adventurous knights, in
+Garibaldi's suite, came to Paris after the siege, and immediately after
+the outbreak of the eighteenth of March was created general by the
+Commune, and gathered round him in guise of staff the most illustrious,
+or least ignoble, of those foreign parasites and vagabonds, who have
+made of Paris a grand occidental Bohemian Babel. These soldiers of
+fortune, most of whom had been "unfortunate" at home, formed the marrow
+of the Commune's military strength.
+
+Dombrowski had gained a name for intrepidity even among these men of
+reckless courage and adventurous lives. He maintained strict discipline,
+albeit to a not very moral purpose. Whoever dared connect his name with
+the word defeat was shot. Like many other Communist generals he took the
+most stringent measures for concealing the truth from his soldiers, and
+thus staved off total demoralisation until the Versailles troops were in
+the heart of Paris. His relations with the Federal authorities were not
+of an uniformly amiable character.]
+
+[Footnote 50: A poor Italian smith told me he had three men seized. They
+had taken a stove near the fortifications of Ternes, when they were
+arrested. "But we are Italians!" they cried. It was no excuse, for the
+Federals replied, "Italians! so much the better; you shall serve as
+Garibaldians!"]
+
+
+
+
+XLI.
+
+
+It was not enough that men should be riddled with balls and torn to
+pieces by shells. The women are also seized with a strange enthusiasm in
+their turn, and they too fall on the battle-field, victims of a terrible
+heroism. What extraordinary beings are these who exchange the needle for
+the needle-gun, the broom for the bayonet, who quit their children that
+they may die by the sides of their husbands or lovers? Amazons of the
+rabble, magnificent and abject, something between Penthesilea and
+Theroigne de Mericourt. There they are seen to pass as cantinieres,
+among those who go forth to fight. The men are furious, the women are
+ferocious,--nothing can appal, nothing discourage them. At Neuilly, a
+vivandiere is wounded in the head; she turns back a moment to staunch
+the blood, then returns to her post of danger. Another, in the 61st
+Battalion, boasts of having killed three _gardiens de la paix_[51] and
+several _gendarmes_. On the plain of Chatillon a woman joins a group of
+National Guards, takes her stand amongst them, loads her gun, fires,
+re-loads and fires again, without the slightest interruption. She is the
+last to retire, and even then turns back again and again to fire. A
+_cantiniere_ of the 68th Battalion was killed by a fragment of shell
+which broke the little spirit-barrel she carried, and sent the splinters
+into her stomach. After the engagement of the 3rd of April, nine bodies
+were brought to the _mairie_ of Vaugirard. The poor women of the quarter
+crowd there, chattering and groaning, to look for husbands, brothers and
+son's. They tear a dingy lantern from each other, and put it close to
+the pale faces of the dead, amongst whom they find the body of a young
+woman literally riddled with shot. What means the wild rage that seizes
+upon these furies? Are they conscious of the crimes they commit; do they
+understand the cause for which they die? Yesterday, in a shop of the Rue
+de Montreuil, a woman entered with her gun on her shoulder and her
+bayonet covered with blood. "Wouldn't you do better to stay at home and
+wash your brats?" said an indignant neighbour. Whereupon arose a furious
+altercation, the virago working herself into such a fury that she sprang
+upon her adversary, and bit her violently in the throat, then withdrew a
+few steps, seized her gun, and was going to fire, when she suddenly
+turned pale, her weapon fell from her hands, and she sank back dead. In
+her wild passion she had broken a blood vessel. Such are the women of
+the people in this terrible year of 1871. It has its _cantinieres_ as
+'93 had its _tricoteuses_,[52] but the cantinieres are preferable, for
+the horrible in them partakes of a savage grandeur. Fighting as they are
+against brothers and kinsfolk, they are revolting, but against a foreign
+enemy, they would have been sublime.
+
+Children, even, do not remain passive in this fearful conflict. The
+children! you cry,--but do not smile; one of my friends has just seen a
+poor boy whose eye has been knocked in with the point of a nail. It
+happened thus. It was on Friday evening in the principal street of
+Neuilly. Two hundred boys--the eldest scarcely twelve years old--had
+assembled there; they carried sticks on their shoulders, with knives and
+nails stuck at the end of them. They had their army roll, and their
+numbers were called over in form, and their chiefs--for they had
+chiefs--gave the order to form into half sections, then to march in the
+direction of Charenton; a mite of a child trudged before, blowing in a
+penny trumpet bought at a toy-shop, and they had a cantiniere, a little
+girl of six. Soon, they met another troop of children of about the same
+numbers. Had the encounter been previously arranged? Had it been decided
+that they should give battle? I cannot tell you this, but at all events
+the battle took place, one party being for the Versailles troops, the
+other for the Federals. Such a battle, that the inhabitants of the
+quarter had the greatest difficulty in separating the combatants, and
+there were killed and wounded, as the official despatches of the
+Commune would give it; Alexis Mercier, a lad of twelve, whom his
+comrades had raised to the dignity of captain, was killed by the blow of
+a knife in the stomach.
+
+Ah! believe it, these women drunk with hate, these children playing at
+murder, are symptoms of the terrible malady of the times. A few days
+hence, and this fury for slaughter will have seized all Paris.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 51: The Gardiens de la Paix replaced the Sergents de Ville.
+They carried no sword, and wore a cap with a tricoloured band and
+cockade; in fact were the policemen of Paris. The Gendarmerie are the
+country police.]
+
+[Footnote 52: Tricoteuses (knitters), women who attended political
+clubs--working whilst they listened--1871 refined upon the idea of 1793.
+The first revolution had its Tricoteuses, that of 1871 its
+Petroleuses!!!]
+
+
+
+
+XLII.
+
+
+May conciliation be hoped for yet? Alas! I can scarcely think so. The
+bloody fight will have a bloody end. It is not alone between the Commune
+of Paris and the Assembly of Versailles that there lies an abyss which
+only corpses can fill. Paris itself, at this moment--I mean the Paris
+sincerely desirous of peace--is no longer understood by France; a few
+days of separation have caused strange divisions in men's minds; the
+capital seems to speak the country's language no longer. Timbuctoo is
+not as far from Pekin, as Versailles is distant from Paris. How can one
+hope under such circumstances, that the misunderstanding, the sole cause
+of our misfortunes, can be cleared away? How can one believe that the
+Government of Monsieur Thiers will lend an ear to the propositions
+carried there by the members of the Republican Union of the rights of
+Paris,[53] by the delegates of Parisian trade and by the emissaries of
+the Freemasons;[54] when the principal object of all these propositions
+is the definitive establishment of the Republic, and the fall and entire
+recognition of our municipal liberties. The National Assembly is at the
+same point as it was on the eve of the 18th of March; it disregards now,
+as it did then, the legitimate wishes of the population, and, moreover,
+it will not perceive the fact that the triumphant insurrection--in spite
+of the excesses that everyone condemns--has naturally added to the
+validity of our just revendications. The "Communists" are wrong, but the
+Commune, the true Commune, is right; this is what Paris believes, and,
+unhappily, this is what Versailles will not understand; it wants to
+remain, as to the form of its government, weakly stationary; it makes a
+municipal law that will be judged insufficient; and, as it obstinately
+persists in errors which were worn out a month ago and are rotten now,
+they will soon consider the "conciliators" whose ideas have progressed
+from day to day, as the veritable agents of the insurrection, and send
+them, purely and simply, about their business.
+
+Nevertheless, the desire of seeing this fratricidal war at an end, is so
+great, so ardent, so general, that convinced as we are of the
+uselessness of their efforts, we admire and encourage those who
+undertake the almost hopeless task of pacification with persistent
+courage. True Paris has now but one flag, which is neither the crimson
+rag nor the tricolour standard, but the white flag of truce.
+
+
+
+
+XLIII.
+
+
+Do you know what the Abbaye de Cinq-Pierres is, or rather what it was?
+Mind, not Saint-Pierre, but Cinq-Pierres (Five Stones). Gavroche,[55]
+who loves puns and is very fond of slang, gave this nickname to a set of
+huge stones which stood before the prison of La Roquette, and on which
+the guillotine used to be erected on the mornings when a capital
+punishment was to take place. The executioner was the Abbe de
+Cinq-Pierres, for Gavroche is as logical as he is ingenious. Well! the
+abbey exists no longer, swept clean away from the front of the Roquette
+prison. This is splendid! and as for the guillotine itself, you know
+what has been done with that. Oh! we had a narrow escape! Would you
+believe that that infamous, that abominable Government of Versailles,
+conceived the idea, at the time it sat in Paris, of having a new and
+exquisitely improved guillotine, constructed by anonymous carpenters? It
+is exactly as I have the honour of telling you. You can easily verify
+the fact by reading the proclamation of the "_sous-comite en exercice._"
+What is the "active under-committee?" I admit that I am in total
+ignorance on the subject; but, what does it matter! In these times when
+committees spring up like mushrooms, it would be absurd to allow oneself
+to be astonished at a committee--and especially a sub-committee--more or
+less. Here is the proclamation:--
+
+"CITIZENS,--Being informed that a guillotine is at this moment in course
+of construction,..." Dear me, yes, while you were fast asleep and
+dreaming, with no other apprehension than that of being sent to prison
+by the members of the Commune, a guillotine was being made. Happily, the
+sub-committee was not asleep. No, not they! "... a guillotine ordered
+and paid for ...". Are you quite sure it was paid for, good
+sub-committee? For that Government, you know, had such a habit of
+cheating poor people out of their rights. "... by the late odious
+government; a portable and rapid guillotine." Ha! What do you say to
+that? Does not that make your blood run cold? Rapid, you understand;
+that is to say, that the guillotining of twelve or fifteen hundred
+patriots in a morning would have been play to the Abbe of Cinq-Pierres.
+And portable, too! A sort of pocket guillotine. When the members of the
+Government had a circuit to make in the provinces, they would have
+carried their guillotine with their seals of office, and if, at Lyons,
+Marseilles, or any other great town, they had met a certain number of
+scoundrels--Snip, snap! In the twinkling of an eye, no more scoundrels
+left. Oh! how cunning! But let us go on reading. "The sub-committee of
+the eleventh arrondissement ..." Oh! so there is a sub-committee for
+each arrondisement, is there? "... has had these infamous instruments of
+monarchical domination ..." One for you, Monsieur Thiers! "... seized,
+and has voted their destruction for ever." Very good intentions,
+sub-committee, but you can't write grammar. "In consequence, they will
+be burnt in front of the _mairie_, for the purification of the
+arrondissement and the preservation of the new liberties." And
+accordingly, a guillotine was burnt on the 7th of April, at ten o'clock
+in the morning, before the statue of Voltaire.
+
+The ceremony was not without a certain weirdness. In the midst of a
+compact crowd of men, women, and children, who shook their fists at the
+odious instrument, some National Guards of the 187th Battalion fed the
+huge flames with broken pieces of the guillotine, which crackled,
+blistered, and blazed, while the statue of the old philosopher, wrapped
+in the smoke, must have sniffed the incense with delight. When nothing
+remained but a heap of glowing ashes, the crowd shouted with joy; and
+for my own part, I fully approved of what had just been done as well as
+of the approbation of the spectators. But, between you and me, do you
+not think that many of the persons there had often stationed themselves
+around the guillotine with rather different intentions than that of
+seeing it burnt? And then, if in reducing this instrument of death to
+ashes, they wished to prove that the time is past when men put men to
+death, it seems to me that they ought not to stop at this. While we are
+at it, let us burn the muskets too,--what say you?
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 53: The citizens, united under the denomination of the League
+of Republican Union of the Rights of Paris, had adopted the following
+programme, which seemed to them to express the wishes of the
+population:--
+
+"Recognition of the Republic.
+
+"Recognition of the rights of Paris to govern itself, to regulate
+its police, its finances, its public charities, its public instruction,
+and the exercise of its religious liberty by a council freely elected
+and all-powerful within the scope of its action.
+
+"The protection of Paris exclusively confided to the National Guard,
+formed of all citizens fit to serve.
+
+"It is to the defence of this programme that the members of the League
+wish to devote their efforts, and they appeal to all citizens to aid
+them in the work, by making known their adhesion, so that the members of
+the League, thereby strengthened and supported, may exercise a powerful
+mediatory influence, tending to bring about the return of peace, and to
+secure the maintenance of the Republic.
+
+"Paris, 6th April, 1871."
+
+Here follow the signatures of former representatives, _maires_, doctors,
+lawyers, literary men, merchants, and others.]
+
+[Footnote 54: MANIFESTO OF THE FREEMASONS.
+
+"In the presence of the fearful events which make all France shudder and
+mourn, in the sight of the precious blood that flows in streams, the
+Freemasons, who represent the sentiments of humanity and have spread
+them through the world, come once more to declare before you, government
+and members of the Assembly, and before you, members of the Commune,
+these great principles which are their law and which ought to be the law
+of every one who has the heart of a man.
+
+"The flag of the Freemasons bears inscribed upon it, the noble
+device--Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Union. The Freemasons uphold
+peace among men, and, in the name of humanity, proclaim the
+inviolability of human life. The Freemasons detest all wars, and cannot
+sufficiently express grief and horror at civil warfare. Their duty and
+their right are to come between you and to say:
+
+"'In the name of humanity, in the name of fraternity, in the name of the
+distracted country, put a stop to this effusion of blood; we ask of you,
+we implore of you, to listen to our appeal.'"]
+
+[Footnote 55: Gavroche is a street boy of Paris, a _gamin_ immortalized
+by Victor Hugo in "Les Miserables," a master of Parisian _argot_
+(slang).]
+
+
+
+
+XLIV.
+
+
+I have just witnessed a horrible scene. Alas! what harrowing spectacles
+meet our eyes on every side, and will still before all this comes to an
+end. I accompanied a poor old woman to a cemetery in the east of Paris.
+Her son, who had engaged himself in a battalion of Federal guards, had
+not been home for five days. He was most likely dead, the neighbours
+said, and one bade her "go and look at the Cimetiere de l'Est, they have
+brought in a load of bodies there." Imagine a deep trench and about
+thirty coffins placed side by side. Numbers of people came there to
+claim their own among the dead. To avoid crowding, the National Guards
+made the people walk in order, two or three abreast, and thus they were
+marshalled among the tombs and crosses. The poor woman and I followed
+the others. From time to time I heard a burst of sobs; some one amongst
+the dead had been recognised. On we go slowly, step by step, as if we
+were at the doors of a theatre. At last we arrive before the first
+coffin. The poor mother I have come with is very weak and very sad; it
+is I who lift up the thin lid of the coffin. A grey-haired corpse is
+lying within it, from the shoulders downwards nothing but a heap of torn
+flesh, and clothes, and congealed blood. We continue on. The second
+coffin also contains the body of an old man; no wounds are to be seen;
+he was probably killed by a ball. Still we advance. I observe that the
+old men are in far greater number than the young. The wounds are often
+fearful. Sometimes the face is entirely mutilated. When I had closed the
+lid of the last coffin the poor mother uttered a cry of relief; her son
+was not there! For myself, I was stupefied with horror, and only
+recovered my senses on being pushed on by the men behind me, who wanted
+to see in their turn. "Well! when will he have done?" said one. "I
+suppose he thinks that it is all for him."
+
+[Illustration: Burning the Guillotine. April]
+
+
+
+
+XLV.
+
+
+What is absolutely stupefying in the midst of all this, is the smiling
+aspect of the streets and the promenades. The constantly increasing
+emigration is only felt by the diminution in the number of depraved
+women and dissipated men; enough, however, remain to fill the cafes and
+give life to the boulevards. It might almost be said that Paris is in
+its normal state.
+
+Every morning, from the Champs Elysees, Les Ternes, and Vaugirard,
+families are seen removing into the town, out of the way of the
+bombardment, as at the time when Jules Favre anathematised the barbarity
+of the Prussians. Some pass in cabs, others on foot, walking sadly, with
+their bedding and household furniture piled on a cart. If you question
+these poor people, they will all tell you of the shells from the
+Versailles batteries, destroying houses and killing women and children.
+What matters it? Paris goes her usual round of business and pleasure.
+The Commune suppresses journals and imprisons journalists. Monsieur
+Richardet, of the _National_, was marched off to prison yesterday, for
+the sole crime of having requested a passport of the savage Monsieur
+Rigault; the Commune thrusts the priests into cells, and turns out the
+young girls from the convents, imprisons Monsieur O'yan, one of the
+directors of the Seminary of St. Sulpice; hurls a warrant of arrest at
+Monsieur Tresca, who escapes; tries to capture Monsieur Henri Vrignault,
+who however, succeeds in reaching a place of safety; the Commune causes
+perquisitions to be made by armed men in the banking houses, seizes upon
+title deeds and money; has strong-boxes burst open by willing
+locksmiths; when the locksmiths are tired, the soldiers of the Commune
+help them with the butt-ends of their muskets. They do worse still,
+these Communists--they do all that the consciousness of supreme power
+can suggest to despots without experience; each day they send honest
+fathers of families to their death, who think they are suffering for the
+good cause, when they are only dying for the good pleasure of Monsieur
+Avrial and Monsieur Billioray. Well! and what is Paris doing all this
+time? Paris reads the papers, lounges, runs after the last news and
+ejaculates: "Ah! ah! they have put Amouroux into prison! The Archbishop
+of Paris has been transferred from the Conciergerie to Mazas! Several
+thousand francs have been stolen from Monsieur Denouille! Diable!
+Diable!" And then Paris begins the same round of newspaper reading,
+lounging, and gossiping again. Nothing seems changed. Nothing seems
+interrupted. Even the proclamation of the famous Cluseret, who
+threatens us all with active service in the marching regiments, has not
+succeeded in troubling the tranquillity and indifference of the greater
+number of Parisians. They look on at what is taking place, as at a
+performance, and only bestow just enough interest upon it to afford them
+amusement. This evening the cannonading has increased; on listening
+attentively, we can distinguish the sounds of platoon-firing; but Paris
+takes its glass of beer tranquilly at the Cafe de Madrid and its
+Mazagran at the Cafe Riche. Sometimes, towards midnight, when the sky is
+clear, Paris goes to the Champs Elysees, to see things a little nearer,
+strolls under the trees, and smoking a cigar exclaims: "Ah! there go the
+shells." Then leisurely compares the roar of the battle of to-day to
+that of yesterday. In strolling about thus in the neighbourhood of the
+shells, Paris exposes itself voluntarily to danger; Paris is
+indifferent, and use is second nature. Then bed-time comes, Paris looks
+over the evening papers, and asks, with a yawn, where the devil all this
+will end? By a conciliation? Or the Prussians perhaps? And then Paris
+falls asleep, and gets up the next morning, just as fresh and lusty as
+if Napoleon the Third were still Emperor by the grace of God and the
+will of the French nation.
+
+
+
+
+XLVI.
+
+
+An insertion in the _Journal Officiel_ of Versailles has justly
+irritated the greater part of the French press. This is the paragraph.
+"False news of the most infamous kind has been spread in Paris where no
+independent journal is allowed to appear." From these few lines it may
+be concluded, that in the eyes of the Government of Versailles the whole
+of the Paris newspapers, whose editors have not deserted their posts,
+have entirely submitted to the Commune, and only think and say what the
+Commune permits them to think and say. This is an egregious calumny. No,
+thank heaven! The Parisian press has not renounced its independence, and
+if no account is taken (as is perfectly justifiable) of a heap of
+miserable little sheets which no sooner appear than they die, and of
+some few others edited by members of the Commune, one would be obliged
+to acknowledge, on the contrary, that since the 18th of March the great
+majority of journals have exhibited proofs of a proud and courageous
+independence. Each day, without allowing themselves to be intimidated,
+either by menaces of forcible suppression or threats of arrest, they
+have fearlessly told the members of the Commune their opinion without
+concealment or circumlocution. The French press has undoubtedly
+committed many offences during the last few years, and is not altogether
+irresponsible for the troubles which have overwhelmed the unhappy
+country; but reparation is being made for these offences in this present
+hour of danger, and the fearless attitude which it has maintained before
+these men of the Hotel de Ville, atones nobly for the past. It has
+constituted itself judge; condemns what is condemnable, resists
+violence, endeavours to enlighten the masses. Sometimes too--and this is
+perhaps its greatest crime in the eyes of the Versailles Government--it
+permits itself to disapprove entirely of the acts of the National
+Assembly; some journals going as far as to insinuate that the Government
+is not altogether innocent of the present calamities. But what does this
+prove? That the press is no more the servant of the Assembly than it is
+the slave of the Commune; in a word, that it is free.
+
+And what false news is this of which the _Journal Officiel_ of
+Versailles complains, and against which it seems to warn us? Does it
+think it likely that we should be silly enough to give credence to the
+shouts of victory that are recorded each morning, on the handbills of
+the Commune? Does it suppose that we look upon the deputies as nothing
+but a race of anthropophagi who dine every day off Communists and
+Federals at the _tables d'hote_ of the Hotel des Reservoirs? Not at
+all. We easily unravel the truth, from the entanglement of exaggerations
+forged by the men of the Hotel de Ville; and it is precisely this just
+appreciation of things that we owe to those papers which the _Journal
+Officiel_ condemns so inconsiderately.
+
+But it is not of fake news alone, probably, that the Versailles Assembly
+is afraid. It would not perhaps be sorry that we should ignore the real
+state of things, and I wager that if it had the power it would willingly
+suppress ill-informed journals--although they are not Communist the
+least in the world--who allow themselves to state that for six days the
+shells of Versailles have fallen upon Les Ternes, the Champs Elysees and
+the Avenue Wagram, and have already cost as many tears and as much
+bloodshed, as the Prussian shells of fearful memory.
+
+
+
+
+XLVII.
+
+
+Wednesday, 12th April.--Another day passed as yesterday was, as
+to-morrow will be. The Versaillais attack the forts of Vanves and Issy
+and are repulsed. There is fighting at Neuilly, at Bagneux, at Asnieres.
+In the town requisitions and arrests are being made. A detachment of
+National Guards arrives before the Northern railway-station. They
+inquire for the director, but director there is none. Embarrassing
+situation this. The National Guards cannot come all this way for
+nothing. Determined on arresting some one, they carry off M. Felix
+Mathias, head of the works, and M. Coutin, chief inspector. An hour
+later other National Guards imprison M. Lucien Dubois, general inspector
+of markets, in the depot of the ex-Prefecture of Police. Here and there
+a few journalists are arrested without cause, to serve as examples; some
+priests are despatched to Mazas, among others M. Lartigues, _cure_ of
+_Saint Leu_. Yesterday the following was placarded on the shut doors of
+the church at Montmartre:
+
+    "Since priests are bandits and churches retreats where they have
+    morally assassinated the masses, causing _France to cower beneath
+    the clutches of the infamous Bonapartes, Favres, and Trochus_, the
+    delegates of the stone masons at the ex-Prefecture of Police give
+    orders that the church of Saint-Pierre (not Cinq-Pierres this time)
+    shall be closed, and decrees the imprisonment of its priests and its
+    _Freres Ignorantins_. Signed by Le Mousau."
+
+To-day it is the turn of the church of Notre Dame de Lorette. A
+considerable number of worshippers had assembled in the holy place. The
+National Guards arrive, headed by men in plain clothes. Under the Empire
+such men were called spies. The women found praying are turned out,
+those who do not obey promptly enough, with blows. This done, the guards
+retire. What they had come there for is not known. But what we are
+certain of is, that they will begin again to-morrow in this same church,
+or in another. The days resemble each other as the children of an
+accursed family. What frightful catastrophe will break this shameful
+monotony?
+
+
+
+
+XLVIII.
+
+
+Eh! What? It is impossible! Are your brains scattered? I speak
+figuratively, awaiting the time when they will be scattered in earnest.
+It must be some miserable jester who has worded, printed, and placarded
+this unconscionable decree. But no, it is in the usual form, the usual
+type. This is rather too much, Gentlemen of the Commune; it outsteps the
+bounds of the ridiculous; you count a little too much this time on the
+complicity of some of the population, and on the patience of others.
+Here is the decree:
+
+[Illustration: THE COLUMN IN THE PLACE VENDOME.
+
+Erected by the first Napoleon to commemorate his German campaign of
+1805.
+
+An imitation of the Column of Trajan, at Rome, slightly taller.
+
+It cost 1,500,000 francs!]
+
+    "THE COMMUNE OF PARIS,
+
+    "Considering that the Imperial column of the Place Vendome is a
+    monument of barbarian, a symbol of brute force, of false glory, an
+    encouragement of military spirit, a denial of international rights,
+    a permanent insult offered by the conquerors to the conquered, a
+    perpetual conspiracy against one of the great principles of the
+    French Republic, namely: Fraternity,
+
+    "Decrees:
+
+    "_Sole article_.--The Colonne Vendome is to be demolished."
+
+Now I must tell you plainly, you are absurd, contemptible, and odious!
+This sorry farce outstrips all one could have imagined, and all that the
+Versailles papers said of you must have been true; for what you are
+doing now is worse than anything they could ever have dared to imagine.
+It was not enough to violate the churches, to suppress the
+liberties,--the liberty of writing, the liberty of speaking, the liberty
+of free circulation, the liberty of risking one's life or not. It was
+not enough that blood should be recklessly spilled, that women should be
+made widows and children orphans, trade stopped and commerce ruined; it
+was not enough that the dignity of defeat--the only glory
+remaining--should be swallowed up in the shameful disaster of civil war;
+in a word, it was not sufficient to have destroyed the present,
+compromised the future; you wish now to obliterate the past! Funereal
+mischief! Why, the Colonne Vendome is France, and a trophy of its past
+greatness,--alas, at present in the shade--is not the monument, but the
+record of a victorious race who strode through the world conquering as
+they went, planting the tricolour everywhere. In destroying the Colonne
+Vendome, do not imagine that you are simply overthrowing a bronze column
+surmounted by the statue of an emperor; you disinter the remains of your
+forefathers to shake their fleshless bones, and say to them, "You were
+wrong in being brave and proud and great; you were wrong to conquer
+towns, to win battles; you were wrong to astound the universe by raising
+the vision of France glorified. It is scattering to the wind the ashes
+of heroes! It is telling those aged soldiers, seen formerly in the
+streets (where are they now? Why do we meet them no longer? Have you
+killed them, or does their glory refuse to come in contact with your
+infamy?) It is telling the maimed soldiers of the Invalides, "You are
+but blockheads and brigands. So you have lost a leg, and you an arm! So
+much the worse for you idle scamps. Look on these rascals crippled for
+their country's honour!" It is like snatching from them the crosses
+they have won, and delivering them into the hands of the shameless
+street urchins, who will cry, "A hero! a hero!" as they cry "Thief!
+thief!" There is certainly purer and less costly grandeur than that
+which results from war and conquests. You are free to dream for your
+country a glory different to the ancient glory; but the heroic past, do
+not overthrow it, do not suppress it, now especially, when you have
+nothing with which to replace it, but the disgraces of the present. Yet,
+no! Complete your work, continue in the same path. The destruction of
+the Colonne Vendome is but a beginning, be logical and continue; I
+propose a few decrees:
+
+    "The Commune of Paris, considering that the Church of Notre Dame de
+    Paris is a monument of superstition, a symbol of divine tyranny, an
+    affirmation of fanaticism, a denial of human rights, a permanent
+    insult offered by believers to atheists, a perpetual conspiracy
+    against one of the great principles of the Commune, namely, the
+    convenience of its members,
+
+    "Decrees:
+
+    "The Church of Notre Dame shall be demolished."
+
+What say you to my proposition? Does it not agree with your dearest
+desire? But you can do better and better: believe me you ought to have
+the courage of your opinions.
+
+    "The Commune of Paris, considering that the Museum of the Louvre
+    contains a great number of pictures, of statues, and other objects
+    of art, which, by the subjects they represent, bring eternally to
+    the mind of the people the actions of gods, and kings, and priests;
+    that these actions indicated by flattering brush or chisel are often
+    delineated in such a way as to diminish the hatred that priests,
+    kings, and gods should inspire to all good citizens; moreover, the
+    admiration excited by the works of human genius is a perpetual
+    assault on one of the great principles of the Commune, namely, its
+    imbecility,
+
+    "Decrees:
+
+    "_Sole article_.--The Museum of the Louvre shall be burned to the
+    ground."
+
+Do not attempt to reply that in spite of the recollections of religion
+and despotism attached to these monuments you would leave Notre Dame and
+the Museum of the Louvre untouched for the sake of their artistic
+importance. Beware of insinuating that you would have respected the
+Colonne Vendome had it possessed some merit as a work of art. You!
+respect the masterpieces of human art! Wherefore? Since when, and by
+what right? No, little as you may have been known before you were
+masters, you were yet known enough for us to assert that one of
+you--whom I will name: M. Lefrancais--wished in 1848 to set fire to the
+_Salon Carre_; there is another of you--whom I will also name: M. Jules
+Valles--asserts that Homer was an old fool. It is true that M. Jules
+Valles is Minister of Public Instruction. If you have spared Notre Dame
+and the Museum of the Louvre up to this moment, it is that you dared not
+touch them, which is a proof, not of respect but of cowardice.
+
+Ah! our eyes are open at last! We are no longer dazzled by the
+chimerical hopes we nourished for a moment, of obtaining, through you
+communal liberties. You did but adopt those opinions for the sake of
+misleading us, as a thief assumes the livery of a house to enter his
+master's room and lay hands on his money. We see you now as you are. We
+had hoped that you were revolutionists, too ardent, too venturous
+perhaps, but on the whole impelled by a noble intention: you are nothing
+but insurgents, insurgents whose aim is to sack and pillage, favoured by
+disturbances and darkness. If a few well-intentioned men were among you,
+they have fled in horror. Count your numbers, you are but a handful. If
+there still remain any among you, who have not lost all power of
+discriminating between justice and injustice, they look towards the
+door, and would fly if they dared. Yet this handful of furious fools
+governs Paris still. Some among us have been ordered to their death,
+and they have gone! How long will this last? Did we not surrender our
+arms? Can we not assemble, as we did a month ago near the Bank, and deal
+justice ourselves without awaiting an army from Versailles? Ah I we must
+acknowledge that the deputies of the Seine and the Maires of Paris,
+misled like ourselves, erred in siding with the insurrectionists. They
+wished to avert street fighting. Is the strife we are witnessing not far
+more horrible than that we have escaped? One day's struggle, and it
+would have ended. Yes, we were wrong to lay down our arms; but who could
+have believed--the excesses of the first few days seemed more like the
+sad consequences of popular effervescence than like premeditated
+crimes--who could have believed that the chiefs of the insurrection lied
+with such impudence as is now only too evident, and that before long the
+Commune would be the first to deprive us of the liberties it was its
+duty to protect and develope? The "Rurals" were right then,--they who
+had been so completely in the wrong in refusing to lend an attentive ear
+to the just prayers of a people eager for liberty, they were right when
+they warned us against the ignorance and wickedness of these men. Ah!
+were the National Assembly but to will it, there would yet be time to
+save Paris. If it really wished to establish a definite Republic, and
+concede to the capital of France the right, free and entire, of electing
+an independent municipality, with what ardour should we not rally round
+the legitimate Government! How soon would the Hotel de Ville be
+delivered from the contemptible men who have planted themselves there.
+If the National Assembly could only comprehend us! If it would only
+consent to give Paris its liberty, and France its tranquillity, by means
+of honourable concessions!
+
+
+
+
+XLIX.
+
+
+The delegates of the League of the Republican Union of the Rights of
+Paris returned from Versailles to-day, the 14th April, and published the
+following reports:--
+
+    "CITIZENS,--The undersigned, chosen by you to present your programme
+    to the Government of Versailles, and to proffer the good offices of
+    the League to aid in the conclusion of an armistice, have the honour
+    of submitting you an account of their mission.
+
+    "The delegates, having made known to Monsieur Thiers the programme
+    of the League, he replied that as chief of the sole legal government
+    existing in France he had not to discuss the basis of a treaty, but
+    notwithstanding he was quite ready to treat with such persons whom
+    he considered as representing Republican principles, and to acquaint
+    them with the intentions of the chief of the executive power.
+
+    "It is in accordance with these observations, which denote, in fact,
+    the true character of our mission, that Monsieur Thiers has made the
+    following declarations on different points of our programme.
+
+    "Respecting the recognition of the Republic, Monsieur Thiers answers
+    for its existence as long as he remains in power. A Republican state
+    was put into his hands, and he stakes his honour on its
+    conservation."
+
+Ay! it is precisely that which will not satisfy Paris--Paris sighing for
+peace and liberty. We have all the most implicit faith in Thiers'
+honour. We are assured that the words, "French Republic" will head the
+white Government placards as long as he remains in power. But when
+Thiers is withdrawn from power--National Assemblies can be capricious
+sometimes--what assures us that we shall not fall victims to a
+monarchical or even an imperial restoration? Ghosts can appear in French
+history as well as in Anne Radcliffe's novels. To attempt to consider
+the elected members who sit at Versailles as sincere Republicans is an
+effort beyond the powers of our credulity. You see that Thiers himself
+dares not speak his thoughts on what might happen were he to withdraw
+from power. Thus we find ourselves, as before, in a state of transition,
+and this state of transition is just what appals us. We address
+ourselves to the Assembly, and ask of it, "We are Republican; are you
+Republican?" And the Assembly pretends to be deaf, and the deputies
+content themselves with humming under their breaths, some the royal tune
+of "The White Cockade," and others the imperial air of "Partant pour la
+Syrie." This does not quite satisfy us. It is true that Thiers says he
+will maintain the form of government established in Paris as long as he
+possibly can; but he only promises for himself, and it results clearly
+from all this that we shall not keep the Republic long, since its
+definite establishment depends in fact on the majority in the Assembly,
+while the Assembly is royalist, with a slight sprinkle of imperialism
+here and there. But let us continue the reading of the reports.
+
+    "Respecting the municipal franchise of Paris, Monsieur Thiers
+    declares that Paris will enjoy its franchise on the same conditions
+    as those of the other towns, according to a common
+    law, such as will be set forth by the Assembly of the representatives
+    of all France. Paris will have the common right,
+    nothing less and nothing more."
+
+This again is little satisfactory. What will this common right be? What
+will the law set forth by the representatives of all France be worth?
+Once more we have the most entire confidence in Thiers. But have we the
+right to expect a law conformable to our wishes from an assembly of men
+who hold opinions radically opposed to ours on the point which is in
+fact the most important in the question--on the form of government?
+
+    "Concerning the protection of Paris, now exclusively confided to the
+    National Guards, Monsieur Thiers declares that he will proceed at
+    once to the organization of the National Guard, but that cannot be
+    to the absolute exclusion of the army."
+
+In my personal opinion, the President is perfectly right here; but from
+the point of view which it was the mission of the delegates of the
+Republican Union to take, is not this third declaration as evasive as
+the preceding?
+
+    "Respecting the actual situation and the means of putting an end to
+    the effusion of blood, Monsieur Thiers declares that not recognising
+    as belligerents the persons engaged in the struggle against the
+    National Assembly, he neither can nor will treat the question of an
+    armistice; but he declares that if the National Guards of Paris make
+    no hostile attack, the troops of Versailles will make none either,
+    until the moment, yet undetermined, when the executive power shall
+    resolve upon action and commence the war."
+
+Oh, words! words! We are perfectly aware that Thiers has the right to
+speak thus, and that all combatants are not belligerents. But what! Is
+it as just as it is legal to argue the point so closely, when the lives
+of so many men are at stake; and is a small grammatical concession so
+serious a thing, that sooner than make it one should expose oneself to
+all the horrible feelings of remorse that the most rightful conqueror
+experiences at the sight of the battle-field?
+
+    "Monsieur Thiers adds: 'Those who abandon the contest, that is to
+    say, who return to their homes and renounce their hostile attitude,
+    will be safe from all pursuit.'"
+
+Is Thiers quite certain that he will not find himself abandoned by the
+Assembly at the moment when he enters upon this path of mercy and
+forgiveness?
+
+    "Monsieur Thiers alone excepts the assassins of General Lecomte and
+    General Clement Thomas, who if taken will be tried for the crime."
+
+And here he is undoubtedly right. We must have been blind indeed the
+day that this double crime failed to open our eyes to the true
+characters of the men who, if they did not commit it or cause it to be
+committed, made at least no attempt to discover the criminals!
+
+    "Monsieur Thiers, recognising the impossibility for a great part of the
+    population, now deprived of work, to live without the allotted pay,
+    will continue to distribute that pay for several weeks longer.
+
+    "Such, citizens, is, etc., etc."
+
+This report is signed by A. Dessonnaz, A. Adam, and Donvallet. Alas! we
+had foreseen what the result of the honourable attempt made by the
+delegates of the Republican Union would be. And this result proves that
+not only is the National Guard at war with the regular troops, but that
+a persistent opposition is also made by the National Assembly of
+Versailles to the most reasonable portion of the people of Paris. And
+yet the Assembly represents France, and speaks and acts only as she is
+commissioned to speak and act. The truth then is this,--Paris is
+republican and France is not republican; there is division between the
+capital and the country. The present convulsion, brought about by a
+group of madmen, has its source in this divergence of feeling. And what
+will happen? Will Paris, once more vanquished by universal suffrage,
+bend her neck and accept the yoke of the provincials and rustics? The
+right of these is incontestable; but will it, by reason of superiority
+of numbers, take precedence of our right, as incontestable as theirs?
+These are dark questions, which hold the minds of men in suspense, and
+which, in spite of our desire to bring the National Assembly over to our
+side, the greater part of whose members could not join us without
+betraying their trust, cause us to bear the intolerable tyranny of the
+men of the Hotel de Ville, even while their sinister lucubrations
+inspire us with disgust.
+
+
+
+
+L.
+
+
+During this time the walls resound with fun. Paris of the street and
+gutter--Paris, Gavroche and blackguard, rolls with laughter before the
+caricatures which ingenious salesmen stick with pins on shutters and
+house doors. Who designed these wild pictures, glaringly coloured and
+common, seldom amusing and often outrageously coarse? They are signed
+with unknown names--pseudonyms doubtless; their authors, amongst whom it
+is sad to think that artists of talent must be counted, are like women,
+high born and depraved, mixing with their faces masked in hideous
+orgies.
+
+These vile pictures with their infamous calumnies keep up and even
+kindle contempt and hatred in ignorant minds. Laughter is often far from
+innocent. But the passers-by think little of this, and are amused enough
+when they see Jules Favre's head represented by a radish, or the
+_embonpoint_ of Monsieur Picard by a pumpkin. Where will all this
+unwholesome stuff be scattered in a few days? Flown away and dispersed.
+Eccentric amateurs will tear their hair at the impossibility of
+obtaining for their collections these frivolous witnesses of troubled
+times. I will make a few notes so as to diminish their despair as far as
+I am able.
+
+A green soil and a red sky--In a black coffin is a half-naked woman,
+with a Phrygian cap on her head, endeavouring to push up the lid with
+all her might. Jules Favre, lean, small, head enormous, under lip thick
+and protruding, hair wildly flying like a willow in a storm, wearing a
+dress coat, and holding a nail in one hand and a hammer in the other,
+with his knee pressed upon the coffin-lid, is trying to nail it down, in
+spite of the very natural protestations of the half-naked woman. In the
+distance, and running towards them, is Monsieur Thiers, with a great
+broad face and spectacles, also armed with a hammer. Below is written:
+"If one were to listen to these accursed Republics, they would never
+die." Signed, Faustin. Same author--Same woman. But this time she lies
+in a bed hung with red flags for curtains. Her shoulders a little too
+bare, perhaps, for a Republic, but she must be made attractive to her
+good friends the Federals. At the head of the bed a portrait of
+Rochefort; Rochefort is the favoured one of this lady, it seems. Were I
+he, I should persuade her to dress a little more decently. Three black
+men, in brigands' hats, their limbs dragging, and their faces distorted,
+approach the bed, singing like the robbers in Fra Diavolo: "Ad.... vance
+... ad ... vance ... with ... pru ... dence ...!" The first, Monsieur
+Thiers, carries a heavy club and a dark lantern; Jules Favre, the
+second, brandishes a knife, and the third, carries nothing, but wears a
+peacock's feather in his hat, and.... I have never seen Monsieur
+Picard, but they tell me that it is he.
+
+The young Republic again, with shoulders bare and the style of face of a
+_petite dame_ of the Rue Bossuet. She comes to beg Monsieur Thiers,
+cobbler and cookshop-keeper, who "finds places for pretenders out of
+employ, and changes their old boots for new at the most reasonable
+prices," to have her shoes mended. "Wait a bit! wait a bit!" says the
+cobbler to himself, "I'll manage 'em so as to put an end to her
+walking."
+
+Here is a green monkey perched on the extreme height of a microscopic
+tribune. At the end of his tail he wears a crown; on his head is a
+Phrygian cap. It is Monsieur Thiers of course. "Gentlemen," says he, "I
+assure you that I am republican, and that I adore the vile multitude."
+But underneath is written: "We'll pluck the Gallic cock!" The author of
+this is also Monsieur Faustin. I have here a special reproach to add to
+what I have already said of these objectionable stupidities. I do not
+like the manner in which the author takes off Monsieur Thiers; he quite
+forgets the old and well-known resemblance of the chief of the executive
+power to Monsieur Prud'homme, or what is the same thing, to Prud'homme's
+inventor, Henri Monnier. One day Gil Perez the actor, met Henri Monnier
+on the Boulevard Montmartre. "Well, old fellow!" cried he, "are you
+back? When are you and I going to get at our practical jokes again?"
+Henri Monnier looked profoundly astonished; it was Monsieur Thiers!
+
+The next one is signed Pilotel. Pilotel, the savage commissioner! He who
+arrested Monsieur Chaudey, and who pocketed eight hundred and fifteen
+francs found in Monsieur Chaudey's drawers. Ah! Pilotel, if by some
+unlucky adventure you were to succumb behind a barricade, you would cry
+like Nero: "Qualis artifex pereo!" But let us leave the author to
+criticise the work. A Gavroche, not the Gavroche of the _Miserables_,
+but the boy of Belleville, chewing tobacco like a Jack-tar, drunk as a
+Federal, in a purple blouse, green trousers, his hands in his pockets,
+his cap on the nape of his neck; squat, violent, and brutish. With an
+impudent jerk of the head he grumbles out: "I don't want any of your
+kings!" This coarse sketch is graphic and not without merit.
+
+Horror of horrors! "Council of Revision of the Amazons of Paris," this
+next is called. Oh! if the brave Amazons are like these formidable
+monstrosities, it would be quite sufficient to place them in the first
+rank, and I am sure that not a soldier of the line, not a guardian of
+the peace, not a _gendarme_ would hesitate a moment at the sight, but
+all would fly without exception, in hot haste and in agonised terror,
+forgetting in their panic even to turn the butt ends of their muskets in
+the air. One of these Amazons--but how has my sympathy for the amateurs
+of collections led me into the description of these creatures of
+ugliness and immodesty?--one of them.... but no, I prefer leaving to
+your imagination those Himalayan masses of flesh, and pyramids of
+bone--these Penthesileas of the Commune of Paris that are before me.
+
+Ah! Here is choleric old "Father Duchesne" in a towering passion, with
+short legs, bare arms, and rubicund face, topped with an immense red
+cap. In one hand he holds a diminutive Monsieur Thiers and stifles him
+as if he were a sparrow. Here, the drawing is not only vile, but stupid
+too.
+
+This time we have the nude, and it is not the Republic, but France that
+is represented. If the Republic can afford to bare her shoulders, France
+may dispense with drapery entirely. She has a dove which she presses to
+her bosom. On one side is a portrait of Monsieur Rochefort. Again! Why
+this unlovely-looking journalist is a regular Lovelace. Finally, two
+cats (M. Jules Favre and M. Thiers) are to be seen outside the garret
+window with their claws ready for pouncing. "Poor dove!" is the tame
+inscription below the sketch.[56]
+
+[Illustration: LITTLE PARIS AND HIS PLAYTHINGS. NURSE. Mais! sacre
+vingt-cinq mille noms d'un moutard! What will you want next?
+
+PETIT PARIS. I'll have the moon!]
+
+Next we find a Holy Family, by Murillo. Jules Favre, as Joseph, leads
+the ass by the reins, and a wet-nurse, who holds the Comte de Paris in
+her arms instead of the infant Jesus, is seated between the two
+panniers, trying to look at once like Monsieur Thiers and the Holy
+Virgin. The sketch is called "The Flight.... to Versailles." Oh! fie!
+fie! Messieurs the Caricaturists, can you not be funny without trenching
+on sacred ground?
+
+We might refer to dozens more. Some date from the day when Paris shook
+off the Empire, and are so infamous that, by a natural reaction of
+feeling, they inspire a sort of esteem for those they try to make you
+despise; others, those which were seen by everyone during the siege, are
+less vile, because, of the patriotic rage which originated them, and
+excused them; but they are as odious as they can be nevertheless. But
+the amateurs of collections who neglected to buy fly-sheets one by one
+as they appeared, must be satisfied with the above.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 56: As a power for the encouragement of virtue and the
+suppression of vice, caricature cannot be too highly estimated, though
+often abused. It is doubtful which exercises the greater influence, poem
+or picture. In England, perhaps, picture wields the greater power; in
+France, song. Yet, "let me write the ballads and you may govern the
+people," is an English axiom which was well known before pictures became
+so plentiful or so popular, or the refined cartoons of Mr. Punch were
+ever dreamt of. In Paris, where art-education is highly developed,
+fugitive designs seems to have, with but few exceptions, descended into
+vile abuse and indecent metaphor, the wildest invective being exhausted
+upon trivial matters--hence the failure.
+
+The art advocates of the Commune, with but few exceptions, seem to have
+been of the most humble sort, inspired with the melodramatic taste of
+our Seven Dials or the New Out, venting itself in ill-drawn heroic
+females, symbols of the Republic, clad in white, wearing either mural
+crowns or Phrygian caps, and waving red flags. They are the work of
+aspiring juvenile artists or uneducated men. I allude to art favourable
+to the Commune, and not that coeval with it, or the vast mass of
+pictorial unpleasantly born of gallic rage during the Franco-Prussian
+war, including such designs as the horrible allegory of Bayard, "Sedan,
+1870," a large work depicting Napoleon III. drawn in a caleche and four,
+over legions of his dying soldiers, in the presence of a victorious
+enemy and the shades of his forefathers', and the well-known subject, so
+popular in photography, of "The Pillory," Napoleon between King William
+and Bismarck, also set in the midst of a mass of dead and dying
+humanity. Paper pillories are always very popular in Paris, and under
+the Commune the heads of Tropmann and Thiers were exhibited in a wooden
+vice, inscribed Pantin and Neuilly underneath. And, again, in another
+print, entitled "The Infamous," we have Thiers, Favre, and MacMahon,
+seen in a heavenly upper storey, fixed to stakes, contemplating a dead
+mother and her child, slain in their happy home, the wounds very
+sanguine and visible, the only remaining relict being a child of very
+tender years in an overturned cradle; beneath is the inscription "Their
+Works." Communal art seems also to have been very severe upon landlords,
+who are depicted with long faces and threadbare garments, seeking alms
+in the street, or flying with empty bags and lean stomachs from a very
+yellow sun, bearing the words "The Commune, 1871." Whilst as a contrast,
+a fat labourer, with a patch on his blouse, luxuriates in the same
+golden sunshine. As a sample of the better kind of French art, we give
+two fac-similes, by Bertal, from _The Grelot_, a courageous journal
+started during the Commune; it existed unmolested, and still continues.
+We here insert a fac-simile of a sketch called "Paris and his
+Playthings."
+
+"What destruction the unhappy, spoiled, and ill-bred child whose name is
+Paris has done, especially of late!
+
+"France, his strapping nurse, put herself in a passion in vain, the
+child would not listen to reason. He broke Trochu's arms, ripped up
+Gambetta, to see what there was inside. He blew out the lantern of
+Rochefort; as to Bergeret himself, he trampled him under foot.
+
+"He has dislocated all his puppets, strewed the ground with the _debris_
+of his fancies, and he is not yet content,--'What do you want, you
+wretched baby?'--'I want the moon!' The old woman called the Assembly
+was right in refusing this demand,--'The moon, you little wretch, and
+what would you do with it if you had it?'--'I would pull it to bits, as
+I did the rest.'"
+
+Further on will be found "Paris eating a General a day" (Chapter
+LXXVIII). Early in June, 1871 there appeared in the same journal "The
+International Centipede," "John Bull and the Blanche Albion." The Queen
+of England, clad in white, holding in her hands a model of the Palace of
+Westminster, and sundry docks, resists the approach of an interminable
+centipede, on which she stamps, vainly endeavouring to impede the
+progress of the coil of fire and blood approaching to soil and fire her
+fair robe; beside her stands John Bull, in a queer mixed costume, half
+sailor, with the smalls and gaiters of a coalheaver. He bears the Habeas
+Corpus Act under his arm, but stands aghast and paralysed, it never
+seeming to have occurred to the artist that this "Monsieur John Boule,
+Esquire," was well adapted by his beetle-crushers to stamp out the
+vermin. Perhaps, it is needless to add, that the snake-like form issues
+from a hole in distant Prussia, meandering through many nations, causing
+great consternation, and that M. Thiers is finishing off the French
+section in admirable style.]
+
+
+
+
+LI.
+
+
+What has Monsieur Courbet to do among these people? He is a painter, not
+a politician. A few beery speeches uttered at the Hautefeuille Cafe
+cannot turn his past into a revolutionary one, and an order refused for
+the simple reason that it is more piquant for a man to have his
+button-hole without ornament than with a slip of red ribbon in it, when
+it is well known that he disdains whatever every one else admires, is
+but a poor title to fame. To your last, Napoleon Gaillard![57] To your
+paint-brushes, Gustave Courbet! And if we say this, it is not only from
+fear that the meagre lights of Monsieur Courbet are insufficient, and
+may draw the Commune into new acts of folly,--(though we scarcely know,
+alas! if there be any folly the Commune has left undone,)--but it is,
+above all, because we fear the odium and ridicule that the false
+politician may throw upon the painter. Yes! whatever may be our horror
+for the nude women and unsightly productions with which Monsieur
+Courbet[58] has honoured the exhibitions of paintings, we remember with
+delight several, admirably true to nature, with sunshine and summer
+breezes playing among the leaves, and streams murmuring refreshingly
+over the pebbles, and rocks whereon climbing plants cling closely; and,
+besides these landscapes, a good picture here and there, executed, if
+not by the hand of an artist--for the word artist possesses a higher
+meaning in our eyes--at least by the hand of a man of some power, and we
+hate that this painter should be at the Hotel de Ville at the moment
+when the spring is awakening in forest and field, and when he would do
+so much better to go into the woods of Meudon or Fontainebleau to study
+the waving of the branches and the eccentric twists and turns of the
+oak-tree's huge trunk, than in making answers to Monsieur
+Lefrancais--iconoclast in theory only as yet--and to Monsieur Jules
+Valles, who has read Homer in Madame Dacier's translation, or has never
+read it at all. That one should try a little of everything, even of
+polities, when one is capable of nothing else, is, if not excusable,
+at any rate comprehensible; but when a man can make excellent boots like
+Napoleon Gaillard, or good paintings like Gustave Courbet, that he
+should deliberately lay himself open to ridicule, and perhaps to
+everlasting execration, is what we cannot admit. To this Monsieur
+Courbet would reply: "It is the artists that I represent; it is the
+rights and claims of modern art that I uphold. There must be a great
+revolution in painting as in politics; we must federate too, I tell you;
+we'll decapitate those aristocrats, the Titians and Paul Veroneses;
+we'll establish, instead of a jury, a revolutionary tribunal, which
+shall condemn to instant death any man who troubles himself about the
+ideal--that king whom we have knocked off his throne; and at this
+tribunal I will be at once complainant, lawyer, and judge. Yes! my
+brother painters, rally around me, and we will die for the Commune of
+Art. As to those who are not of my opinion, I don't care the snap of a
+finger about them." By this last expression the friends of Monsieur
+Gustave Courbet will perceive that we are not without some experience of
+his style of conversation. Courbet, my master, you don't know what you
+are talking about, and all true artists will send you to old Harry, you
+and your federation. Do you know what an artistic association, such as
+you understand it, would result in? In serving the puerile ambition of
+one man--its chief, for there will be a chief, will there not, Monsieur
+Courbet?--and the puerile rancours of a parcel of daubers, without name
+and without talent. Artist in our way we assert, that no matter, what
+painter, even had he composed works superior in their way to Courbet's
+"_Combat de Cerfs_" and "_Femme au Perroquet_," who came and said, "Let
+us federate," we would answer him plainly: "Leave us in peace, messieurs
+of the federation, we are dreamers and workers; when we exhibit or
+publish and are happy enough to meet with a man who will buy or print a
+few thousand copies of our work without reducing himself to beggary, we
+are happy. When that is done, we do not trouble ourselves much about our
+work; the indulgence of a few friends, and the indignation of a few
+fools, is all we ask or hope for. We federate? Why? With whom? If our
+work is bad, will the association with any society in the world make it
+good? Will the works of others gain anything by their association with
+ours? Let us go home, _messieurs les artistes_, let us shut our doors,
+let us say to our servants--if we have any--that we are at home to no
+one, and, after having cut our best pencil, or seized our best pen, let
+us labour in solitude, without relaxation, with no other thought than
+that of doing the best we can, with no higher judge than that of our own
+artistic conscience; and when the work is completed, let us cordially
+shake hands with those of our comrades who love us; let us help them,
+and let them bring help to us, but freely, without obligation, without
+subscriptions, without societies, and without statutes. We have nothing
+to do with these free-masonries, absurd when brought into the domain of
+intelligence, and in which two or three hundred people get together to
+do that, which some new-comer, however unknown his budding fame, would
+accomplish at a blow, in the face of all the associations in the world."
+This is what I should naively reply to Monsieur Courbet if he took it
+into his head to offer me any advice or compact whatsoever to sign.
+
+[Illustration: THE MODERN "EROSTRATE" COURBET.]
+
+[Illustration: IN PROGRESS OF REMOVAL, JUNE 7 1871]
+
+The artists have done still better than we should; they have not
+answered at all, for one cannot call the "General Assembly of all the
+Artists in Design," presided over by Monsieur Gustave Courbet, and held
+on the 13th of April, 1871, in the great amphitheatre of the Ecole de
+Medecine, a real meeting of French artists. We know several celebrated
+painters, and we saw none of them there. The citizens Potier and Boulaix
+had been named secretaries. We congratulate them; for this high
+distinction may, perhaps, aid in founding their reputation, which was in
+great want of a basis of some kind. But there were some sculptors there,
+perhaps? We saw some long beards, beards that were quite unknown to us,
+and their owners may have been sculptors, perhaps. For Paris is a city
+of sculptors. But if artists were wanting, there were talkers enough.
+Have you ever remarked that there are no orators so indefatigable as
+those who have nothing to say? And the interruptions, the clamour, the
+apostrophising, more highly coloured than courteous! Such an
+overwhelming tumult was never heard:--
+
+    "No more jury!"
+
+    "Yes! yes! a jury! a jury!"
+
+    "Out with the reactionist!"
+
+    "Down with Cabanel!"
+
+    "And the women? Are the women to be on the jury?"
+
+    "Neither the women, nor the infirm."
+
+And all the time there is Monsieur Gustave Courbet, the chairman,
+desperately ringing his bell for order, and launching some expressive
+exclamation from time to time. And the result of all this? Absolutely
+nothing at all! No! stop! There were a few statutes proposed--and every
+one amused himself immensely. "Well! so much the better," said
+one. "Every one laughed, and no harm was done to anybody."
+
+We beg your pardon! There was a great deal of harm done--to Monsieur
+Courbet.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 57: Gaillard Senior (a sort of Odger), cobbler of Belleville
+and democratic stump orator. Appointed, April 8, to the Presidency of
+the Commission of Barricades.]
+
+[Footnote 58: As a painter Courbet has been very diversely judged. He
+was the chief of the ultra-realistic school, and therefore a natural
+subject for the contempt and abuse of the admirers of "legitimate art."
+But his later use of the political power entrusted to him has drawn down
+upon him the wrath of an immense majority of the French public, which
+his artistic misdemeanours had scarcely touched. On the sixteenth of
+April he was elected a member of the Commune by the 6th arrondissement
+of Paris, and forthwith appointed Director of the Beaux Arts. Until this
+time his life had been purely professional, and consequently of mediocre
+interest for the general public. He was born at Ornans, department of
+the Doubs, in 1819, and received his primary instructions from the Abbe
+Gousset, afterwards Archbishop of Rheims. He first applied himself to
+the study of mathematics, painting the while, and apparently aiming at a
+fusion of both pursuits. He subsequently read for the bar for a short
+time, and, finally, adopting art as his sole profession, threw himself
+heart and soul into a Renaissance movement as the apostle of a new
+style. The peculiarities of his manner soon brought him into notoriety,
+and a school of imitators grouped itself around him. His pride became a
+proverb. In 1870 he was offered the cross of the Legion of Honour, and
+refused it, arrogantly declaring that he would have none of a
+distinction given to tradesmen and ministers. The part he took in the
+destruction of the Colonne Vendome is familiar to all readers of the
+English press. Three weeks after the fall of the Commune he was
+denounced by a Federal officer, and discovered at the house of a friend
+hiding in a wardrobe, and in September was condemned by the tribunal at
+Versailles to six months' imprisonment and a fine of 600 francs--a
+slight penalty that astonished everyone.]
+
+
+
+
+LII.
+
+
+It is forbidden to cross the Place Vendome, and naturally, walking there
+is prohibited too. I had been prowling about every afternoon for the
+last few days, trying to pass the sentinels of the Rue de la Paix,
+hoping that some lucky chance might enable me to evade the military
+order; all I got for my pains was a sharply articulated "_Passes au
+large!_" and I remained shut out.
+
+To-day, as I was watching for a favourable opportunity, a _petite dame_
+who held up her skirts to show her stockings, which were as red as the
+flag of the Hotel de Ville--out upon you for a female Communist!
+--approached the sentinel and addressed him with her most
+gracious, smile. And oh, these Federals! The man in office forgot his
+duty, and at once began with the lady a conversation of such an intimate
+description, that for discretion's sake I felt myself obliged to take a
+slight turn to the left, and a minute later I had slipped into the
+forbidden Place.
+
+A Place?--no, a camp it might more properly be called. Here and there,
+are seen a crowd of little tents, which would be white if they were
+washed, and littered about with straw. Under the tents lie National
+Guards; they are not seen, but plainly heard, for they are snoring. You
+remember the absurd old bit of chop-logic often repeated in the classes
+of philosophy? One might apply it thus: he sleeps well who has a good
+conscience; the Federals sleep well; ergo, the Federals have a good
+conscience. Guards walk to and fro with their pipes in their mouths. If
+I were to say that these honourable Communists show by their easy
+manner, gentlemanly bearing, and superior conversation, that they belong
+to the cream of Parisian society, you would perhaps be impertinent
+enough not to believe one word of what I said. I think it, therefore,
+preferable in every way to assert the direct contrary. There is a group
+of them flinging away their pay at the usual game of _bouchon_. "The
+Soldier's Pay and the Game of Cork" is the title that might be given by
+those who would write the history of the National Guard from the
+beginning of the siege to the present time. And if to the cork they
+added the bottle, they might pride themselves upon having found a
+perfect one. This is how it comes to pass. The wife is hungry, and the
+children are hungry, but the father is thirsty, and he receives the pay.
+What does he do? He is thirsty, and he must drink; one must think of
+oneself in this world. When he has satisfied his thirst, what remains? A
+few sous, the empty bottle, and the cork. Very good. He plays his last
+sou on the famous game, and in the evening, when he returns home, he
+carries to his family--what?--the empty bottle!
+
+On the Place two barricades have been made, one across the Rue de la
+Paix, and the other before the Rue Castiglione. "Two formidable
+barricades," say the newspapers, which may be read thus: "A heap of
+paving stones to the right, and a heap of paving stones to the left." I
+whisper to myself that two small field-pieces, one on the place of the
+New Opera-house, and the other at the Rue de Rivoli, would not be long
+before they got the better of these two barricades, in spite of the guns
+that here and there display their long, bright cylinders.
+
+The Federals have decidedly a taste for gallantry. About twenty women--I
+say young women, but not pretty women--are selling coffee to the
+National Guards, and add to their change a few ogling smiles meant to be
+engaging.
+
+As to the Column, it has not the least appearance of being frightened by
+the decree of the Commune which threatens it with a speedy fall. There
+it stands like a huge bronze I, and the emperor is the dot upon it. The
+four eagles are still there, at the four corners of the pedestal, with
+their wreaths of immortelles, and the two red flags which wave from the
+top seem but little out of place. The column is like the ancient honour
+of France, that neither decrees nor bayonets can intimidate, and which
+in the midst of threats and tumult, holds itself aloft in serene and
+noble dignity.
+
+
+
+
+LIII.
+
+
+Who would think it? They are voting. When I say "they are voting," I
+mean to say "they might vote;" for as for going to the poll, Paris seems
+to trouble itself but little about it. The Commune, too, seems somewhat
+embarrassed. You remember Victor Hugo's song of the Adventurers of the
+Sea:
+
+        "En partant du golfe d'Otrente
+          Nous etions trente,
+        Mais en arrivant a Cadix
+          Nous n'etions que dix."[59]
+
+The gentlemen of the Hotel de Ville might sing this song with a few
+slight variations. The Gulf of Otranto was not their starting point, but
+the Buttes Montmartre; though to make up for it they were eighty in
+number. On arriving at C----, no, I mean, the decree of the Colonne
+Vendome, they were a few more than ten, but not many. What charming
+stanzas in imitation of Victor Hugo might Theodore de Banville and
+Albert Glatigny write on the successive desertions of the members of the
+Commune. The first to withdraw were the _maires_ of Paris, frightened to
+death at having been sent by the votes of their fellow-citizens into an
+assembly which was not at all, it appears, their ideal of a municipal
+council. And upon this subject Monsieur Desmarest, Monsieur Tirard, and
+their _adjoints_ will perhaps permit me an unimportant question. What
+right had they to persuade their electors and the Friends of Order, to
+vote for the Commune of Paris if they were resolved to decline all
+responsibility when the votes had been given them? Their presence at the
+Hotel de Ville, would it not have infused--as we hoped--a powerful
+spirit of moderation even in the midst of excesses that could even then
+be foretold? When they have done all they can to persuade people to
+vote, have they the right to consider themselves ineligible? In a word,
+why did they propose to us to elect the Commune of Paris if the Commune
+were a bad thing? and if it were a good thing, why did they refuse to
+take their part in it? Whatever the cause, no sooner were they elected
+than they sent in their resignations. Then the hesitating and the timid
+disappeared one after another, not having the courage to continue the
+absurdity to the end. Add to all this the arrests made in its very
+bosom by the Assembly of the Hotel de Ville itself, and you will then
+have an idea of the extent of the dilemma. A few days more and the
+Commune will come to an end for want of Communists, and then we shall
+cry, "Haste to the poll, citizens of Paris!" And the white official
+handbills will announce supplementary elections for Sunday, 16th of
+April.
+
+But here comes the difficulty; there may be elections, but not the
+shadow of an elector. Of candidates there are enough, more than enough,
+even to spare; Toting lists where the electors' names are inscribed;
+ballot-urns-no, ballot-boxes this time-to receive the lists; these are
+all to be found, but voters to put the lists into the ballot-boxes, to
+elect the candidates, we seek them in vain. The voting localities may be
+compared to the desert of Sahara viewed at the moment when not a caravan
+is to be seen on the whole extent of the horizon, so complete is the
+solitude wherever the eager crowd of voters was expected to hasten to
+the poll. Are we then so far from the day when the Commune of Paris, in
+spite of the numerous absentees, was formed--thanks to the strenuous
+efforts of the few electors left to us? Alas! At that time we had still
+some illusions left to us, whilst now.... Have you ever been at the
+second representation of a piece when the first was a failure? The first
+day there was a cram, the second day only the claque remained. People
+had found oat the worth of the piece, you see. Nevertheless, though the
+place is peopled only with silence and solitude, the claque continues to
+do its duty, for it receives its pay. For the same reason one sees a few
+battalions marching to the poll, all together, in step, just as they
+would march to the fighting at the Porte Maillot; and as they return
+they cry, "Oh! citizens, how the people are voting! Never was such
+enthusiasm seen!" But behind the scenes,--I mean in the Hotel de
+Ville,--authors and actors whisper to each other: "There is no doubt
+about it, it is a failure!"
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 59:
+
+        On leaving the gulf of Otranto
+          There were thirty of us there,
+        But on arriving at Cadiz
+          There were no more than ten.
+
+]
+
+
+
+
+LIV.
+
+
+And what has become of the Bourse? What are the brokers and jobbers
+saying and doing now? I ask myself this question for the first time, as
+in ordinary circumstances, the Bourse is of all sublunary things that
+which occupies me the least. I am one of those excessively stupid
+people, who have never yet been able to understand how all those
+black-coated individuals can occupy three mortal hours of every day, in
+coming and going beneath the colonnade of the "temple of Plutus." I know
+perfectly well that stockbrokers and jobbers exist; but if I were asked
+what these stockbrokers and jobbers do, I should be incapable of
+answering a single word. We have all our special ignorances. I have
+heard, it is true, of the _Corbeille_,[60] but I ingeniously imagined,
+in my simple ignorance, that this famous basket was made in wicker work,
+and crammed with sweet-scented leaves and flowers, which the gentlemen
+of the Bourse, with the true gallantry of their nation, made up into
+emblematical bouquets to offer to their lady friends. I was shown,
+however, how much I was deceived by a friend who enlightened me, more or
+less, as to what is really done in the Bourse in usual times, and what
+they are doing there now.
+
+I must begin by acknowledging that in using the worn metaphor of the
+"temple of Plutus" just now, I knew little of what I was talking about.
+
+The Bourse is not a temple; if it were it would necessarily be a church
+or something like one, and consequently would have been closed long ago
+by our most gracious sovereign, the Commune of Paris.
+
+The Bourse, then, is open; but what is the good of that? you will say,
+for all those who haunt it now, could get in just as well through closed
+doors and opposing railings; spectres and other supernatural beings
+never find any difficulty in insinuating themselves through keyholes and
+slipping between bars. 'Poor phantoms! Thanks to the weakness of our
+Government, which has neglected to put seals on the portals of the
+Bourse, they are under the obligation of going in and coming out like
+the most ordinary individuals; and a Parisian, who has not learned, by a
+long intimacy with Hoffmann and Edgar Poe, to distinguish the living
+from the dead, might take these ghosts of the money-market for simple
+_boursiers_. Thank heaven! I am not a man to allow myself to be deceived
+by specious appearances on such a subject, and I saw at once with whom I
+had to do.
+
+On the grand staircase there were four or five of them, spectres lean as
+vampires who have not sucked blood for three months; they were walking
+in silence, with the creeping, furtive step peculiar to apparitions who
+glide among the yew-trees in church-yards. From time to time one of them
+pulled a ghost of a notebook from his ghost of a waistcoat-pocket, and
+wrote appearances of notes with the shadow of a pencil. Others gathered
+together in groups, and one could distinctly hear the rattling of bones
+beneath their shadowy overcoats. They spoke in that peculiar voice which
+is only understood by the _confreres_ of the magi Eliphas Levy, and they
+recall to each other's mind the quotations of former days, Austrian
+funds triumphant, Government stock at 70 (_quantum mutata ab illa_),
+bonds of the city of Paris 1860-1869, and the fugitive apotheosis of the
+Suez shares. They said with sighs: "You remember the premiums? In former
+times there were reports made, in former times there were settling days
+at the end of the month, and huge pocket-book's were so well filled,
+that they nearly burst; but now, we wander amidst the ruins of our
+defunct splendour, as the shade of Diomedes wandered amid the ruins of
+his house at Pompeii. We are of those who were; the imaginary quotations
+of shares that have disappeared, are like vain epitaphs on tombs, and
+we, despairing ghosts, we should die a second time of grief, if we were
+not allowed to appear to each other in this deserted palace, here to
+brood over our past financial glories!" Thus spoke the phantoms of the
+money market, and then added: "Oh! Commune, Commune, give us back our
+settling days?" From time to time a phantom, which still retains its
+haughty air, and in which we recognise a defunct of distinction, passes
+near them. In the days of Napoleon the Third and the Prussians this was
+a stockbroker; it passed along with a mass of documents under its
+arm,--as the father of Hamlet, rising from the grave, still wore his
+helmet and his sword. It enters the building, goes towards the
+_Corbeille_, shouts out once or twice, is answered only by an echo in
+the solitude, and then returns, saluted on his passage by his
+fellow-ghost. And to think that a little bombardment, followed by a
+successful attack, seven or eight houses set on fire by the Versailles
+shells, seven or eight hundred Federals shot, a few women blown to
+pieces, and a few children killed, would suffice to restore these
+desolate spectres to life and joy. But, alas! hope for them is deferred;
+the last circular of Monsieur Thiers announces that the great military
+operations will not commence for several days. They must wait still
+longer yet. The people who cross the Place de la Bourse draw aside with
+a sort of religious terror from the necropolis where sleep the three per
+cents and the shares of the _Credit Foncier_; and if the churches were
+not closed, more than one charitable soul would perhaps burn a candle to
+lay the unquiet spirits of these despairing jobbers.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 60: A circular space in the great hall of the Bourse, enclosed
+with a railing, and in which the stockbrokers stand to take bids. It is
+nicknamed the basket (_corbeille_).]
+
+
+
+
+LV.
+
+
+The game is played, the Commune is _au complet_. In the first
+arrondissement 21260 electors, are inscribed, and there were 9 voters!
+Monsieur Vesinier had 2 votes, and Monsieur Vesinier was elected.
+Monsieur Lacord--more clever still--has no votes at all, and, triumphing
+by the unanimity of his electors, Monsieur Lacord will preside over the
+Commune of Paris in future. A very logical arrangement. It must be
+evident to all serious minds that the legislators of the Hotel de Ville
+have promulgated _in petto_ a law which they did not think it necessary
+to make known, but which exists nevertheless, and most be couched
+somewhat in the following terms:--"Clause 1st. The elections will not be
+considered valid, if the number of voters exceed a thousandth part of
+the electors entered.--Clause 2nd. Every candidate who has less than
+fifteen votes will be elected; if he has sixteen his election will be a
+matter of discussion." The poll is just like the game called, "He who
+loses gains, and he who gains loses!" and the probable advantages of
+such an arrangement are seen at once. Now let us do a bit of Communal
+reasoning. By whom was France led within an inch of destruction? By
+Napoleon the Third. How many votes did Napoleon the Third obtain? Seven
+millions and more. By whom was Paris delivered into the hands of the
+Prussians? By the dictators of the 4th September. How many votes did the
+dictators of the 4th September get for themselves in the city of Paris?
+More than three hundred thousand. _Ergo_, the candidates who obtain the
+greatest number of votes are swindlers and fools. The Commune of Paris
+cannot allow such abuses to exist; the Commune maintains universal
+suffrage--the grand basis of republican institutions--but turns it
+topsy-turvy. Michon has only had half a vote,--then Michon is our
+master!
+
+Ah! you do not only make us tremble and weep, you make us laugh too.
+What is this miserable parody of universal suffrage? What is this farce
+of the will of the people being represented by a half a dozen electors?
+The unknown individual, who owes his triumph to the kindness of his
+concierge and his water-carrier, becomes a member of the Commune. I
+shall be governed by Vesinier, with Briosne and Viard as supporters. Do
+you not see that the few men, with any sense left, who still support
+you, have refused to present themselves as candidates, and that even
+amongst those who were mad enough to declare themselves eligible, there
+are some who dispute the validity of the elections? No; you see nothing
+of all this, or rather it suits you to be blind. What are right and
+justice to you? Let us reign, let us govern, let us decree, let us
+triumph. All is contained in that. Rogeard pleases us, so we'll have
+Rogeard. If the people won't have Rogeard, so much the worse for the
+people. Beautiful! admirable! But why don't you speak out your opinion
+frankly? There were some honest brigands (_par pari refertur_) in the
+Roman States who were perhaps no better than you are, but at least they
+made no pretension of being otherwise than lawless, and followed their
+calling of brigands without hypocrisy. When, by the course of various
+adventures, the band got diminished in numbers, they stuck no handbills
+on the walls to invite people to elect new brigands to fill up the
+vacant places; they simply chose among the vagabonds and such like
+individuals those, who seemed to them, the most capable of dealing a
+blow with a stiletto or stripping a traveller of his valuables, and the
+band, thus properly reinforced, went about its usual occupations. The
+devil! _Messieurs_, one must say what is what, and call things by their
+names. Let us call a cat a cat, and Pilotel a thief. The time of
+illusions is past; you need not be so careful to keep your masks on; we
+have seen your faces. We have had the carnival of the Commune, and now
+Ash-Wednesday is come. You disguised yourselves cunningly, _Messieurs_;
+you routed out from the old cupboards and corners of history the
+cast-off revolutionary rags of the men of '98; and, sticking some
+ornaments of the present fashion upon them,--waistcoats a la Commune and
+hats a la Federation,--you dressed yourselves up in them and then struck
+attitudes. People perceived, it is true, that the clothes that were made
+for giants, were too wide for you pigmies; they hung round your figures
+like collapsed balloons; but you, cunning that you were, you said, "We
+have been wasted by persecution." And when, at the very beginning, some
+stains of blood were seen upon your old disguises; "Pay no attention,"
+said you, "it is only the red flag we have in our pockets that is
+sticking out." And it happened that some few believed you. We ourselves,
+in the very face of all our suspicions, let ourselves be caught by the
+waving of your big Scaramouche sleeves, that were a great deal too long
+for your arms. Then you talked of such beautiful things: liberty,
+emancipation of workmen, association of the working-classes, that we
+listened and thought we would see you at your task before we condemned
+you utterly. And now we have seen you at your task, and knowing how you
+work, we won't give you any more work to do. Down with your mask, I tell
+you! Come, false Danton, be Rigault again, and let Serailler's[61] face
+come out from behind that Saint Just mask he has on. You, Napoleon
+Gaillard, though you are a shoemaker, you are not even a Simon. Drop the
+Robespierre, Rogeard! Off with the trappings borrowed from the dark,
+grand days! Be mean, small, and ridiculous,--be yourselves; we shall all
+be a great deal more at our ease when you are despicable and we are
+despising you again.
+
+Paris said to you yesterday just what I am telling you now. This almost
+general abstention of electors, compared with the eagerness of former
+times, is but the avowal of the error to which your masquerade has given
+rise. And what does it prove but the resolution to mix in your carnival
+no more? We see clearly through it now, I tell you, that the saturnalia
+is wearing to its end. In vain does the orchestra of cannon and
+mitrailleuses, under the direction of the conductor, Cluseret, play
+madly on and invite us to the fete. We will dance no more, and there is
+an end of it!
+
+But it will be fatal to Paris if, after saying this, she sit satisfied.
+Contempt is not enough, there must be abhorrence too, and actual
+measures taken against those we abhor. It is not sufficient to neglect
+the poll, one abstains when one is in doubt, but now that we doubt no
+longer it is time to act. While wrongful work is being done, those that
+stand aside with folded arms become accomplices. Think that for more
+than a fortnight the firing has not ceased; that Neuilly and Asnieres
+have been turned into cemeteries; that husbands are falling, wives
+weeping, children suffering. Think that yesterday, the 18th of April,
+the chapel of Longchamps became a dependance--an extra dead-house--of
+the ambulances of the Press, so numerous were that day's dead. Think of
+the savage decrees passed upon the hostages and the refractory, those
+who shunned the Federates; of the requisitions and robberies; of the
+crowded prisons and the empty workshops, of the possible massacres and
+the certain pillage. Think of our own compromised honour, and let us be
+up and doing, so that those who have remained in Paris during these
+mournful hours, shall not have stood by her only to see her fall and
+die.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 61: Serailler, a member of the International, intrusted with a
+commission to London on behalf of the Central Committee to borrow cash
+for the daily pay of thirty sous to the National Guard.]
+
+
+
+
+LVI.
+
+
+Paris! for once I defy you to remain indifferent. You have had much to
+bear, during these latter days; it has been said to you, that you should
+kneel in your churches no more, and you have not knelt there; that the
+newspapers that pleased you, should be read no more, and you have not
+read them. You have continued to smile--with but the tips of your lips,
+it is true--and to promenade on the boulevards. But now comes stalking
+on that which will make you shudder indeed! Do you know what I have just
+read in the _Independance Belge_? Ah! poor Paris, the days of your glory
+are past, your ancient fame is destroyed, the old nursery rhyme will
+mock you, "_Vous n'irez plus au Bois, vos lauriers sont coupes._"[62]
+This is what has happened; you are supplanted on the throne of fashion.
+The world, uneasy about the form of bonnet to be worn this sorrowful
+year, and seeing you occupied with your internal discords, anxiously
+turned to London for help, and London henceforth dictates to all the
+modistes of the universe. City of desolation, I pity you! No more will
+you impose your sovereign laws, concerning _Suivez-moi-jeune-homme_[63]
+and dog-skin gloves. No more will your boots and shirt-collars reach,
+by the force of their reputation, the sparely-dressed inhabitants of the
+Sandwich Islands. And, deepest of humiliations, it is your old rival, it
+is your tall and angular sister, it is the black city of London, who
+takes your glittering sword and transforms it into a policeman's baton
+of wood! You are destined to see within your walls--if any walls remain
+to you--your own wives and daughters clog their dainty tread with
+encumbrances of English leather, flatten their heads beneath
+mushroom-shaped hats, surround themselves with crinoline and flounces,
+and wear magenta, that abominable mixture of red and blue which always
+filled your soul with horror. Then, to increase the resemblance of your
+Parisian women with the Londoners or Cockneys (for it is time you learnt
+the fashionable language of England), your dentists will sell them new
+sets of teeth, called insular sets, which can be fitted over their
+natural front teeth, and will protrude about a third of an inch beyond
+the upper lip. And they will have corsets offered them whose aim is to
+prolong the waist to the farthest possible limits and compress the
+fairest forms--a fact, for report says they lace in London, whilst here
+we have nearly abandoned the corset. Well, my Paris, do you tremble and
+shiver? Oh! when those days of horror come to pass! when you see that
+not only have you forfeited your pride, but your vanity too; when you
+are convinced that the Commune has not only rendered you odious, but
+ridiculous as well; ah! then, when you wear bonnets that you have not
+invented, how deeply will you regret that you did not rebel on that day,
+when some of the best of your citizens were put _au secret_ in the cells
+of Mazas prison![64]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 62: The refrain of a nursery song,--
+
+        "Go no more to the wood, for all the laurels are cut."
+
+]
+
+[Footnote 63: The long floating ends of the neck ribbons.]
+
+[Footnote 64: The Parisian play-writer's English exhibits all the
+typical peculiarities noted above. We have our ideal, if not typical,
+Frenchman, little less truthful perhaps--taken from refugees and
+excursionists, from the close-cropped, dingy denizen of Leicester
+Square; our tourist suits, heavy pedestrian toots, "wide-awakes," and
+faded fashions, used up in travel--all these things are put down to
+insular peculiarities.]
+
+
+
+
+LVII.
+
+
+I have just heard or read, a touching story; and here it is as I
+remember it. In the Faubourg Saint Antoine lives a community of women
+with whom the aged of the poor find shelter; those who have become
+infirm, or have dropped into helpless childishness, whether men or
+women, are received there without question or payment. There they are
+lodged, fed and clothed, and humbly prayed for.
+
+Last evening, sleep was just beginning to reign in the little community.
+The old people had been put to rest, each Little Sister had done her
+duty and was asleep, when the report of a gun resounded at the
+house-door. You can imagine the startings and the terror. The Little
+Sisters of the poor are not accustomed to have such noises in their
+ears, and there was a tumult and hubbub such as the house had never
+known, while they hurriedly rose, and the old people stared at each
+other from their white beds in the long dormitories. When the house-door
+was got open, a party of men, with a menacing look about them, strode in
+with their guns and swords, making a horrible racket. One of them was
+the chief, and he had a great beard and a terrible voice. All the Little
+Sisters gathered in a trembling crowd about the superior.
+
+"Shut the doors," cried the captain, "and if one of these women attempt
+to escape--one, two, three, fire!" Then the Good Mother--that is the
+Little Sisters' name for their superior--made a step forward and said,
+"What do you wish, messieurs?"
+
+"Citizens, _sacrebleu!_"
+
+The Good Mother crossed herself and, repeated, "What do you wish, my
+brothers?"
+
+[Illustration: Federal Visit to The Little Sisters of The Poor.]
+
+Now, if Citizen Rigault, who put Monseigneur Darboy down so wittily, had
+been there, how briskly he would have told the stupid woman that these
+were National Guards, and not brothers, before her. But even Rigault
+cannot be everywhere at once. "We want to inspect your funds," replied
+the officer. The Good Mother signed to him to follow, opened a cupboard,
+pulled out a drawer, and said, "This is what we have." The box had
+twenty-two francs in it. "Is that all?" asked the captain in a
+suspicious tone.--"Nothing more, monsieur," she said; "besides, you can
+look everywhere for yourselves." So the National Guards spread through
+the house, opened the rooms, searched the cupboards and chests, and came
+at last, without having found anything, to the dormitories, where the
+Little Sisters' old nurselings were lying. Every head was upraised in
+astonishment and fear, and all, stammering and trembling, began
+jabbering out at once, "What are you doing here? You are not going to
+hurt the good Sisters? It's a shame! It's infamous! Go away! It's
+cowardly! My good monsieur, what will become of us if you take them
+away?" The old women were furious, and the old men in lamentations.
+Officer and men scarcely expected such a scene, and began to hesitate in
+their search. "Well, well, my good people," said the officer, who had
+been the most violent, and had now softened down, "we won't take the
+Little Sisters away, and we won't hurt them either. There, there--are
+you satisfied?"--and the men began to go downstairs again.--"My sister,
+you have not shut your drawer," said the captain, as he passed the
+cupboard.--"That is true, monsieur; I am not in the habit of doing it.
+In our house, you see, it is quite useless."--"Never mind, shut it
+to-day at any rate. How can I know all the men I have about me?" And as
+he spoke, the captain turned back, shut the drawer himself, without
+touching the contents, and gave the key to the superior. He seemed quite
+ill at ease, and got out at last, "We didn't know ... if we had known it
+was like this ... you see we had been told ... yes, yes, it is very good
+of you to take care of those poor old folks upstairs." Now that the man
+seemed embarrassed and showed some kindliness in his manner, a Little
+Sister who had quite got over her fear, went up to him and told him how
+frightened they had been for a whole month past; that they had been told
+that the Reds wanted to take their house. Ah! it was horrible! But
+monsieur would protect them, would he not?
+
+"That I will," bravely answered the captain; "give me your hand. And
+now, if any one wants to harm you, he will have me to deal with first."
+
+A few minutes later, the National Guards were gone, the Little Sisters
+and the old nurslings were at rest again, and the house was just as
+silent and peaceful as if it were no abominable resort of plotters and
+conspirators.
+
+But if I had been the Commune of Paris, would I not have shot that
+captain!
+
+
+
+
+LVIII.
+
+
+The people of the Hotel de Ville said to themselves, "All our fine
+doings and talking come to nothing, the delegate Cluseret and the
+commandant Dombrowski send us the most encouraging despatches in vain,
+we shall never succeed in persuading the Parisian population, that our
+struggle against the army of Versailles is a long string of decisive
+victories; whatever we may do, they will finish by finding out that the
+federate battalions gave way strangely in face of the iron-plated
+mitrailleuses the day before yesterday at Asnieres, and it would be
+difficult to make them believe that this village, so celebrated for
+fried fish and Paris Cockneys, is still in our possession, unless we can
+manage to persuade them that although we have evacuated Asnieres, we
+still energetically maintain our position there. The fact is, affairs
+are taking a tolerably bad turn for us. How are we to get over the
+inconvenience of being vanquished? What are we to do to destroy the bad
+impression produced by our doubtful triumphs?" And thereupon the members
+of the Commune fell to musing. "Parbleu!" cried they, after a few
+moments' reflection--the elect of Paris are capable of more in a single
+second than all the deputies of the National Assembly in three
+years--"Let decrees, proclamations, and placards be prepared. By what
+means, did we succeed in imposing on the donkeys of Paris? Why, by
+decrees, by proclamations, by placards. Courage, then, let us persevere.
+Ha! the traitors have taken the chateau of Becon, and have seized upon
+Asnieres. What matters! quick, eighty pens and eighty inkstands. To
+work, men of letters; painters and shoemakers, to work! Franckel, who is
+Hungarian; Napoleon Gaillard, who is a cobbler; Dombrowski, who is a
+Pole; and Billioray, who writes _omelette_ with an h, will make perhaps
+rather a mess of it. But, thank heaven! We have amongst us Felix Pyat,
+the great dramatist; Pierre Denis, who has made such bad verses that he
+must write good prose; and lastly, Vermorel, the author of '_Ces
+Dames_,' a little book illustrated with photographs for the use of
+schools, and '_Desperanza_,' a novel which caused Gustave Flaubert many
+a nightmare. To work, comrades, to work! We have been asked for a long
+time what we understand by the words--La Commune. Tell them, if you
+know. Write it, proclaim it, and we will placard it. Even if you don't
+know, tell them all the same; the great art of a good cook consists in
+making jugged hare without hare of any kind." And this is why there
+appeared this morning on the walls an immense placard, with the
+following words in enormous letters: "Declaration to the French people."
+
+Twenty days ago a long proclamation, which pretended to express and
+define the tendencies of the revolution of the eighteenth of March,
+would perhaps have had some effect. To-day we have awaked from many
+illusions, and the finest phrases in the world will not overcome our
+obstinate indifference. Let us, however, read and note.
+
+[Illustration: VERMOREL,[65] DELEGATE OF PUBLIC SAFETY.]
+
+    "In the painful and terrible conflict which once more imposes upon
+    Paris the horrors of the siege and the bombardment, which makes
+    French blood flow, which causes our brothers, our wives, our
+    children, to perish, crushed by shot and shell, it is urgent that
+    public opinion should not be divided, that the national conscience
+    should not be troubled."
+
+That's right! I entirely agree with you; it is undoubtedly very urgent
+that public opinion should not be divided. But let us see what means you
+are going to take to obtain so desirable a result.
+
+    "Paris and the whole nation must know what is the nature, the
+    reason, the object of the revolution which is now being
+    accomplished."
+
+Doubtless; but if that be indispensable to-day, would it have been less
+useful on the very first day of the revolution; we do not see why you
+have made us wait quite so long for it.
+
+    "The responsibility of the mourning, the suffering, and the
+    misfortunes of which we are the victims should fall upon those who,
+    after having betrayed France and delivered Paris to the foreigner,
+    pursue with blind obstinacy the destruction of the capital, in order
+    to bury under the ruins of the Republic and of Liberty the double
+    evidence of their treason and their crime."
+
+Heigho! what a phrase! These clear and precise expressions, that throw
+so much light on the gloom of the situation, are these yours, Felix
+Pyat? Did the Commune say "_Pyat Lux!_" Or were they yours, Pierre
+Denis? Or yours, Vermorel? I particularly admire the double evidence
+buried under the ruins of the Republic. Happy metaphor!
+
+    "The duty of the Commune is to affirm and determine the aspirations
+    and the views of the population of Paris; to fix precisely the
+    character of the movement of the 18th of March, misunderstood,
+    misinterpreted, and vilified by the men who sit at Versailles."
+
+Ah, yes, that is the duty of the Commune, but for heaven's sake don't
+keep us waiting, you see we are dying with impatience.
+
+    "Once more, Paris labours and suffers for the whole of France, and
+    by her combats and her sacrifices prepares the way for intellectual,
+    moral, administrative and economic regeneration, glory and
+    prosperity."
+
+That is so true that since the Commune existed in Paris, the workshops
+are closed, the factories are idle, and France, for whom the capital
+sacrifices herself, loses something like fifty millions a day. These are
+facts, it seems to me; and I don't see what the traitors of Versailles
+can say in reply.
+
+    "What does Paris demand?"
+
+Ah! yes, what does she ask? Truly we should not be sorry to know. Or
+rather, what do you ask; for in the same way as Louis le Grand had the
+right to say, "The State, I am the State," you may say "Paris, we are
+Paris."
+
+    "Paris demands the recognition and the consolidation of the
+    Republic, the only form of government compatible with the rights of
+    the people, and the regular and free development of society."
+
+This once you are right. Paris demands the Republic, and must yearn for
+it eagerly indeed, since neither your excesses nor your follies have
+succeeded in changing its mind.
+
+    "It demands the absolute entirety of the Commune extended to all the
+    localities of France, ensuring to everyone the integrity of its
+    rights, and to every Frenchman the free exercise of his faculties
+    and abilities as man, citizen, and workman. The rights of the
+    Commune should have no other limit, but the equal rights of all
+    other Communes adhering to the contract, an association which would
+    assure the unity of France."
+
+This is a little obscure. What I understand is something like this. You
+would make France a federation of Communes, but what is the meaning of
+words "adherence to the contract?" You admit then that certain Communes
+might refuse their adhesion. In that case what would be the situation
+of these rebels? Would you leave them free? Or would you force them to
+obey the conventions of the majority? Do you think it would be
+sufficient, in the case of such a town as Pezenas, for example, refusing
+to adhere, that the association would be incomplete? That is to say,
+that French unity would not exist? Are you very sure about Pezenas? Who
+tells you that Pezenas may not have its own idea of independence, and
+that, we may not hear presently that it has elected a duke who raises an
+army and coins money. Duke of Pezenas! that sounds well. Remember, also,
+that many other localities might follow the example of Pezenas, and
+perhaps in order to insure the entirety of the Commune, it might have
+been wise to have asked them if they wanted it. Now, what do you
+understand by "localities?" Marseilles is a locality; an isolated farm
+in the middle of a field is also a locality. So France would be divided
+into an infinite number of Communes. Would they agree amongst
+themselves, these innumerable little states? Supposing they are agreed
+to the contract, it is not impossible that petty rivalries should lead
+to quarrels, or even to blows; an action about a party-wall might lead
+to a civil war. How would you reduce the recalcitrant localities to
+reason? for even supposing that the Communes have the right to subjugate
+a Commune, the disaffected one could always escape you by declaring that
+it no longer adheres to the social compact. So that if this secession
+were produced not only by the vanity of one or more little hamlets, but
+by the pride of one or more great towns, France would find herself all
+at once deprived of her most important cities. Ah! messieurs, this part
+of your programme certainly leaves something to be desired, and I
+recommend you to improve it, unless indeed you prefer to suppress it
+altogether.
+
+    "The inherent rights of the Commune are 'the vote of the Commmunal
+    budget, the levying and the division of taxes, the direction of the
+    local services, the organisation of the magistrature, of the police,
+    and of education, and of the administration of the property
+    belonging to the Commune.'"
+
+This paragraph is cunning. It does not seem so at first sight, but look
+at it closely, and you will see that the most Machiavellic spirit has
+presided over its production. The ability consists in placing side by
+side with the rights which incontestably belong to the Commune, other
+rights which do not belong to it the least in the world, and in not
+appearing to attach more importance to one than to the other, so that
+the reader, carried away by the evident legitimacy of many of your
+claims, may say to himself, "Really all that is very just." Let us
+unravel if you please this skein of red worsted so ingeniously tangled.
+The vote of the Communal budget, receipts and expenses, the levying and
+division of taxes, the administration of the Communal property, are
+rights which certainly belong to the Commune; if it had not got them it
+would not exist. And why do they belong to it? Because it alone could
+know what is good for it in these matters, and could come to such
+decision upon them, as it thought fit, without injuring the whole
+country. But it is not the same as regards measures concerning the
+magistracy, the police, and education. Well, suppose one fine day a
+Commune should say, "Magistrates? I don't want any magistrates; these
+black-robed gentry are no use to me; let others nourish these idlers,
+who send brave thieves and honest assassins to the galleys; I love
+assassins and I honour thieves, and more, I choose that the culprits
+should judge the magistrates of the Republic." Now, if a Commune were to
+say that, or something like that, what could you answer in reply?
+Absolutely nothing; for, according to your system, each locality in
+France has the right to organise its magistracy as it pleases. As
+regards the police and education, it would be easy to make out similar
+hypotheses, and thus to exhibit the absurdity of your Communal
+pretensions. Should a Commune say, "No person shall be arrested in
+future, and it is prohibited under pain of death to learn by heart the
+fable of the wolf and the fox." What could you say to that? Nothing,
+unless you admitted that you were mistaken just now in supposing, that
+the integrity of the Commune ought to have no other limit but the right
+of equal independence of all the other Communes. There exists another
+limit, and that is the general interests of the country, which cannot
+permit one part of it to injure the rest, by bad example or in any other
+way; the central power alone can judge those questions where a single
+absurd measure--of which more than one "locality" may probably be
+guilty--might compromise the honour or the interests of France; the
+magistracy, the police, and education, are evidently questions of that
+nature.
+
+The other rights of the Commune are, always be it understood, according
+to the declaration made to the French people:
+
+    "The choice by election or competition; with the responsibility and
+    the permanent right of control over magistrates and communal
+    functionaries of every class;
+
+    "The absolute guarantee of individual liberty, of liberty of
+    conscience, and of liberty of labour;
+
+    "The permanent participation of the citizens in Communal affairs by
+    the free manifestations of their opinions, and the free defence of
+    their interests: guarantees to this effect to be given by the
+    Commune, the only power charged with the surveillance and the
+    protection of the full and just exercise of the rights of meeting
+    and publicity;
+
+    "The organisation of the city defences and of the National Guard,
+    which elects its own officers, and alone ensures the maintenance of
+    order in the city."
+
+With regard to the affirmation of these rights we may repeat that which
+we have said above, that some of them really belong to the Commune, but
+that the greater part of them do not.
+
+    "Paris desires nothing more in the way of local guarantees, on
+    condition, let it be understood, of finding in the great central
+    administration ..."
+
+    "... In the great central administration appointed by the federated
+    Commune the realisation and the practice of the same principles."
+
+That is to say, in other words, that Paris will consent willingly to be
+of the same opinion as others, if all the world is of the same opinion
+as itself.
+
+    "But, thanks to its independence, and profiting by its liberty of
+    action, Paris reserves to itself the right of effecting, as it
+    pleases, the administrative and economic reforms demanded by the
+    population; to create proper institutions for the development and
+    propagation of instruction, production, commerce, and credit; to
+    universalize power and property,..."
+
+Whew! Universalize property! Pray what does that mean, may I ask?
+Communalism here presents a singular likeness to Communism!
+
+    "... According to the necessities of the moment, the desire of those
+    interested, and the lessons famished by experience:
+
+    "Our enemies deceive themselves or the country when they accuse
+    Paris of wishing to impose its will or its supremacy on the rest of
+    the nation, and to pretend to a dictatorship which would be a
+    positive offence against the independence and the sovereignty of the
+    other Communes:
+
+    "They deceive themselves, or they deceive the country, when they
+    accuse Paris of desiring the destruction of French unity,
+    constituted by the Revolution amid the acclamations of our fathers
+    hurrying to the Festival of the Federation from all points of
+    ancient France:
+
+    "Political unity as imposed upon us up to the present time by the
+    empire, the monarchy, and parliamentarism, is nothing more than
+    despotic centralization, whether intelligent, arbitrary, or onerous.
+
+    "Political unity, such as Paris demands, is the voluntary
+    association of all local initiatives, the spontaneous and free
+    cooperation of individual energies with one single common
+    object--the well-being and the security of all.
+
+    "The Communal revolution, inaugurated by the popular action of the
+    18th of March, ushers in a new era of experimental, positive, and
+    scientific politics."
+
+Do you not think that during the last paragraphs the tone of the
+declaration is somewhat modified? It would seem as though Felix Pyat had
+become tired, and handed the pen to Pierre Denis or to Delescluze,
+--after Communalism comes socialism.
+
+    "Communal revolution is the end of the old governmental and clerical
+    world, of militarism, of officialism (this new editor seems fond of
+    words ending in ism), of exploitation, of commission, of monopolies,
+    and of privileges to which the proletariat owes his thralldom, and
+    the country her misfortunes and disasters."
+
+Of course there is nothing in the world that would please me better; but
+if I were very certain that Citizen Rigault did not possess an improved
+glass enabling him to observe me from a distance of several miles,
+without leaving his study or his armchair, if I were very certain that
+Citizen Rigault could not read over my shoulder what I am writing at
+this moment, I might perhaps venture to insinuate, that the revolution
+of the 18th of March appears to me to be, at the present moment, the
+apotheosis of most of the crimes which it pretends to have suppressed.
+
+    "Let then our grand and beloved country, deceived by falsehood and
+    calumnies, be reassured!"
+
+Well, in order that she may be reassured there is only one thing to be
+done,--be off with you!
+
+    "The struggle going on between Paris and Versailles is one of those
+    which can never be terminated by deceitful compromises. There can be
+    no doubt as to the issue. (Oh, no! there is no doubt about it.)
+    Victory, pursued with indomitable energy by the National Guard, will
+    remain with principle and justice.
+
+    We ask it of France."
+
+Where is the necessity, since you have the indomitable energy of the
+National Guard?".
+
+    "Convinced that Paris under arms possesses as much calmness as
+    bravery ..."
+
+You will find that a very difficult thing to persuade France to believe.
+
+    "... That it maintains order with equal energy and enthusiasm ..."
+
+Order? No doubt, that which reigned at Warsaw; the order that reigned on
+the day after the 2nd of December.
+
+    "... That it sacrifices itself with as much judgment as heroism ..."
+
+Yes; the judgment of a man who throws himself out of a fourth-floor
+window to prove that his head is harder than the paving-stones.
+
+    "... That it is only armed through devotion for the glory and
+    liberty of all--let France cause this bloody conflict to cease!"
+
+She'll cause it to cease, never fear, but not in the way you understand
+it.
+
+    "It is for France to disarm Versailles ..."
+
+Up to the present time she has certainly done precisely the contrary.
+
+    "... by the manifestations of her irresistible will. As she will be
+    partaker in our conquests, let her take part in our efforts, let her
+    be our ally in this conflict, which can only finish by the triumph
+    of the Communal idea, or the ruin of Paris."
+
+The ruin of Paris! That is only, I suppose, a figurative expression.
+
+    "For ourselves, citizens of Paris, it is our mission to accomplish
+    the modern revolution, the grandest and most fruitful of all those
+    that have illuminated history.
+
+    "Our duty is to struggle and to conquer!
+
+    "THE COMMUNE OF PARIS."
+
+Such is this long, emphatic, but often obscure declaration. It is not
+wanting, however, in a certain eloquence; and, although frequently
+disfigured by glaring exaggerations, it contains here and there some
+just ideas, or at least, such as conform to the views of the great
+majority. Will it destroy the bad effect produced by the successive
+defeats of the Federals at Neuilly and at Asnieres? Will it produce any
+good feeling towards the Commune in the minds of those who are daily
+drawing farther and farther from the men of the Commune? No; it is too
+late. Had this proclamation been placarded fifteen or twenty days
+sooner, some parts of it might have been approved and the rest
+discussed. Today we pass it by with a smile. Ah! many things have
+happened during the last three days. The acts of the Commune of Paris no
+longer allow us to take its declarations seriously, and we look upon its
+members as too mad--if not worse--to believe that by any accident they
+can be reasonable. These men have finished by rendering detestable
+whatever good there originally was in their idea.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 65: He was born in 1841, in the department of the Rhone. His
+education was completed very early. At the age of twenty he was engaged
+on two journals of the opposition, _La Jeune France_, and _La Jeunesse_.
+Those papers were soon suppressed, and their young contributor was
+imprisoned for three months. In 1864 he became one of the staff of the
+_Presse_, whence he passed to the _Liberte_ in 1866. Two years later he
+founded the _Courrier Francais_; but from the multiplicity of fines
+imposed upon it, and from the imprisonment of its founder, the new
+journal expired very shortly. After a year's incarceration at
+Sainte-Pelagie, Vermorel was engaged on the _Reforme_, which continued
+to appear until the fall of the Empire. During the siege he served as a
+private in the National Guard. He became a member of the Committee of
+Justice under the Commune, and was one of those who, at its fall,
+neither deserted nor disgraced it. He is reported to have mounted a
+barricade armed only with a cane, crying "I come here to die and not to
+fight." His mother obtained permission to transport his remains to
+Venice.]
+
+
+
+
+LIX.
+
+
+We have a court-martial; it is presided over by the citizen Rossel,
+chief of the grand staff of the army. It has just condemned to death the
+Commandant Girod, who refused to march against the "enemy." The
+Executive Committee, however, has pardoned Commandant Girod. Let us look
+at this matter a little. If the Executive Committee occupies its time in
+undoing what the court-martial has done, I can't quite understand why
+the executive has instituted a court-martial at all. If I were a member
+of the latter I should get angry. "What! I should say, they instal me in
+the hall where the courts-martial are held, they appoint guards to
+attend upon me, and my president has the right to say, 'Guards, remove
+the prisoner.' In a word, they convert me into something which resembles
+a judge as much as a parody can resemble the work burlesqued, and when
+I, a member of the court-martial, desire to take advantage of the rights
+that have been conferred upon me, and order the Commandant Girod to be
+shot, they stand in the way of justice, and save the life of him I have
+condemned. This is absurd! I had a liking for this commandant, and I
+wished him to die by my hands."
+
+Never mind, court-martial, take it coolly; you will have your revenge
+before long. At this moment there are at least sixty-three ecclesiastics
+in the prisons of Mazas, the Conciergerie, and La Sante. Although they
+are not precisely soldiers, they will be sent before you to be judged,
+and you may do just what you like with them, without any fear of the
+executive commission interposing its veto. The refractory also will give
+you work to do, and against them you can exercise your pleasure. As to
+the Commandant Girod, his is a different case, you understand. He is the
+friend of citizen Delescluze. The members of the Commune have not so
+many friends that they can afford to have any of them suppressed. But
+don't be downcast; a dozen priests are well worth a major of the
+National Guard.
+
+
+
+
+LX.
+
+
+It is precisely because the men that the Commune sends to the front,
+fight and die so gloriously, that we feel exasperated against its
+members. A curse upon them, for thus wasting the moral riches of Paris!
+Confusion to them, for enlisting into so bad a service, the first-rate
+forces which a successful revolt leaves at their disposal. I will tell
+you what happened yesterday, the 22nd of April, on the Boulevard Bineau;
+and then I think you will agree with me that France, who has lost so
+much, still retains some of the bright, dauntless courage which was her.
+pride of old.
+
+A trumpeter, a mere lad of seventeen, was marching at the head of his
+detachment, which had been ordered to take possession of a barricade
+that the Versailles troops were supposed to have abandoned. When I say,
+"he marched," I am making a most incorrect statement, for he turned
+somersets and executed flying leaps on the road, far in advance of his
+comrades, until his progress was arrested by the barricade; this he
+greeted with a mocking gesture, and then, with a bound or two, was on
+the other side. There had been some mistake, the barricade had not been
+abandoned. Our young trumpeter was immediately surrounded by a pretty
+large number of troops of the line, who had lain hidden among the sacks
+of earth and piles of stones, in the hope of surprising the company
+which was advancing towards them. Several rifles were pointed at the
+poor boy, and a sergeant said: "If you move a foot, if you utter a
+sound, you die!" The lad's reply was to leap to the highest part of the
+barricade and cry out, with all the strength of his young voice, "Don't
+come on! They are here!" Then he fell backwards, pierced by four balls,
+but his comrades were saved!
+
+
+
+
+LXI.
+
+
+Another, and a sadder scene happened in the Avenue des Ternes. A
+funeral procession was passing along. The coffin, borne by two men, was
+very small, the coffin of a young child. The father, a workman in a
+blouse, walked behind with a little knot of other mourners. A sad sight,
+but the catastrophe was horrible. Suddenly a shell from Mont Valerien
+fell on the tiny coffin, and, bursting, scattered the remains of the
+dead child upon the living father. The corpse was entirely destroyed,
+with the trappings that had surrounded it. Massacring the dead! Truly
+those cannons are a wonderful, a refined invention!
+
+
+
+
+LXII.
+
+
+At last the unhappy inhabitants of Neuilly are able to leave their
+cellars. For three weeks, they have been hourly expecting the roofs of
+their houses to fall in and crush them; and with much difficulty have
+managed during the quieter moments of the day to procure enough to keep
+them from dying of starvation. For three weeks they have endured all the
+terrors, all the dangers of battle and bombardment. Many are dead--they
+all thought themselves sure to die. Horrible details are told. A little
+past Gilet's restaurant, where the omnibus office used to be, lived an
+old couple, man and wife. At the beginning of the civil war, two shells
+burst, one after another, in their poor lodging, destroying every
+article of furniture. Utterly destitute, they took refuge in the cellar,
+where after a few hours of horrible suspense, the old man died. He was
+seventy, and the fright killed him; his wife was younger and stronger,
+and survived. In the rare intervals between the firing she went out and
+spoke to her neighbours through the cellar gratings--"My husband is
+dead. He must be buried; what am I to do?"--Carrying him to the
+cemetery was of course out of the question; no one could have been found
+to render this mournful duty. Besides, the bearers would probably have
+met a shell or a bullet on the way, and then others must have been found
+to carry them. One day, the old woman ventured as far as the Porte
+Maillot, and cried out as loud as she could, "My husband is dead in a
+cellar; come and fetch him, and let us both through the gates!"--The
+sentinel facetiously (let us hope it was nothing worse) took aim at her
+with his rifle, and she fled back to her cellar. At night, she slept by
+the side of the corpse, and when the light of morning filtered into her
+dreary place of refuge, and lighted up the body lying there, she sobbed
+with grief and terror. Her husband had been dead four days, when
+putrefaction set in, and she, able to bear it no longer, rushed out
+screaming to her neighbours: "You must bury him, or I will go into the
+middle of the avenue and await death there!"--They took pity on her, and
+came down into her cellar, dug a hole there and put the corpse in it.
+During three weeks she continued there, resting herself on the
+newly-turned earth. To-day, when they went to fetch her she fainted with
+horror; the grave had been dug too shallow, and one of the legs of the
+corpse was exposed to gaze.
+
+[Illustration: FEMALE CURIOSITY AT PORTE MAILLOT. "Prenez garde,
+Mam'zelle."]
+
+This morning, the 25th of April, at nine o'clock, a dense crowd moved up
+the Champs Elysees: pedestrians of all ages and classes, and vehicles of
+every description. The truce obtained by the members of the _Republican
+Union of the rights of Paris_ was about to begin, and relief was to be
+carried to the sufferers at Neuilly. However, some precautions were
+necessary, for neither the shooting nor the cannonade had ceased yet,
+and every moment one expected to see some projectile or other fall among
+the advancing multitude. In the Avenue de la Grande Armee a shell had
+struck a house, and set fire to it. Gradually the sound of the artillery
+diminished, and then died away entirely; the crowd hastened to the
+ramparts.
+
+[Illustration: PORTE MAILLOT AND CHAPEL OF ST. FERDINAND.
+
+The chapel was erected by Louis Philippe in memory of the Duke of
+Orleans, killed on the spot, July 18th, 1842.]
+
+The Porte Maillot has been entirely destroyed for some time, in spite of
+what the Commune has told us to the contrary; the drawbridge is torn
+from its place, the ruined walls and bastions have fallen into the moat.
+The railway-station is a shapeless mass of blackened bricks, broken
+stones, glass, and iron-work; the cutting where the trains used to pass
+is half filled up with the ruins. It is impossible to get along that
+way. Fancy the hopeless confusion here, arising among this myriad of
+anxious beings, these hundreds of carts and waggons, all crowding to the
+same spot. Each one presses onwards, pushing his neighbour, screaming
+and vociferating; the National Guards try in vain to keep order. To add
+to the difficulties there is some form to be gone through about passes.
+I manage to hang on to a cart which is just going over the bridge; after
+a thousand stoppages and a great deal of pushing and squeezing, I
+succeeded in getting out, my clothes in rags. A desolate scene meets my
+eyes. In front of us, is the open space called the military zone, a
+dusty desert, with but one building remaining, the chapel of Longchamps;
+it has been converted into an ambulance, and the white flag with the red
+cross is waving above it. Truly the wounded there must be in no little
+danger from the shells, as it lies directly in their path. To the left
+is the Bois de Boulogne, or rather what used to be the wood, for from
+where I stand but few trees are visible, the rest is a barren waste. I
+hasten on, besides I am hard pressed from behind. Here we are in
+Neuilly, at last. The desolation is fearful, the reality surpassing all
+I could have imagined. Nearly all the roofs of the houses are battered
+in, rafters stick out of the broken windows; some of the walls, too,
+have fallen, and those that remain standing are riddled with blackened
+holes. It is there that the dreadful shells have entered, breaking,
+grinding furniture, pictures, glasses, and even human beings. We crunch
+broken glass beneath our feet at every step; there is not a whole pane
+in all the windows. Here and there are houses which the bullets seemed
+to have delighted to pound to atoms, and from which dense clouds of red
+and white dust are wafted towards us. Well, Parisians, what do you say
+to that? Do you not think that Citizen Cluseret, although an American,
+is an excellent patriot, and "In consideration of Neuilly being in
+ruins, and of this happy result being chiefly due to the glorious
+resistance organized by the delegate Citizen Cluseret, decrees: That the
+destroyer of Neuilly, Citizen Cluseret, has merited the gratitude of
+France and the Republic."
+
+[Illustration: THE INHABITANTS OF NEUILLY ENTERING PARIS DURING THE
+ARMISTICE OF THE 28TH OF APRIL
+
+The firing ceased from nine in the morning until five in the afternoon,
+when Paris cabs, furniture-vans, ambulance-waggons, band-barrows, and
+all sorts of vehicles were requisitioned to bring in the sad remains and
+dilapidated household goods of the suburban _bombardes_. They entered
+by the gate of Ternes--for that of Porte Maillot was in ruins and
+impassable. Many went to the Palais de l'Industrie, in the Champs
+Elysees, where a commission sat to allot vacant apartments in Paris. On
+this occasion some robberies were committed, and refractories escaped:
+it is even said that hard-hearted landlords wished to prevent their
+lodgers from departing--an object in which the proprietors were not very
+successful. The poor woman perched on the top of her relics, saved from
+the cellar in which she had lived in terror for fourteen days, deplores
+the loss of her husband and the shapeless mass of ruin and rubbish she
+once called her happy home; whilst her boys bring in green stuff from
+the surburban gardens, and a middle-aged neighbour stalks along with his
+pet parrot, the bird all the while amusing himself with elaborate
+imitations of the growl of the mitrailleuse and the hissing of shells
+ending with terrific and oft-repeated explosions.]
+
+Out of all the houses, or rather from what was once the houses, emerge
+the inhabitants carrying different articles of furniture, tables,
+mattresses, boxes. They come out as it were from their graves. Relations
+meet and embrace, after having suffered almost the bitterness of death.
+Thousands run backwards and forwards; the carts are heaped up to
+overflowing, everything that is not destroyed must be carried away. A
+large van filled with orphan children moves on towards the barrier; a
+sister of charity is seated beside the driver. The most impatient of the
+refugees are already through the Porte Maillot; who will give them
+hospitality there? No one seems to think of that. The excitement caused
+by all this movement is almost joyous under the brilliant rays of the
+sun. But time presses, in a few minutes the short truce will have
+expired. Stragglers hurry along with heavy loads. At the gates, the
+crowding and confusion are greater than in the morning. Carts heavily
+laden, move slowly and with difficulty; the contents of several are
+spilled on the highway. More shouting, crowding, and pushing, until the
+gates are passed at last, and the emigrant crowd disperses along the
+different streets and avenues into the heart of Paris. A happy release
+from bondage, but what a dismal promised land!
+
+Then the cannonading and musketry on either side recommences. Destroy,
+kill, this horrible quarrel can only end with the annihilation of one of
+the two parties engaged. Go on killing each other if you will have it
+so, combatants, fellow-countrymen. Some wretched women and children will
+at least sleep in safety to-night, in spite of you!
+
+[Illustration: _Federal Officer_. Pardon, Monsieur, but we cannot allow
+civilians to remain here.
+
+_Monsieur_. I wait for Valerien to open upon us.]
+
+Yes, my good friends and idlers, the sad scene would not have been
+complete without your presence to relieve its sadness. If respect for
+your persons kept you away from danger, it at least gives zest to the
+place, a locality that in a few short minutes will be dangerous again.
+At five the armistice was over, but for all that, the National Guard had
+great difficulty in clearing the ground, until real danger, the
+excitement sought for, arrived, and sent the spectators much further up
+the Avenue de la Grande Armee.
+
+[Illustration: MDLLE, ET SES COUSINES. 5.30. Great guns of Valerien, why
+do you not begin! Know you that tubes charged with bright eyes are
+directed against you!]
+
+
+
+
+LXIII.
+
+
+I had almost made up my mind not to continue these notes. Tired and
+weary, I remained two days at home, wishing to see nothing, hear
+nothing, trying to absorb myself in my books, and to take up the lost
+thread of my interrupted studies, but all to no purpose.
+
+It is ten in the morning, and I am out again in search of news. How many
+things may have happened in two days! Not far from the Hotel de Ville
+excited groups are assembled at the corners of the streets that lead out
+of the Rue de Rivoli. They seem waiting for something--what are they
+waiting for? Vague rumours, principally of a peaceful and conciliatory
+nature, circulate from group to group, where women decidedly
+predominate.
+
+"If _they_ help us we are saved!" says a workwoman, who is holding a
+little boy in the dress of a national guard by the hand.--"Who?" I
+ask.--"Ah! Monsieur, it is the Freemasons who are taking the side of the
+Commune; they are going to cross Paris before our eyes. The Commune must
+be in the right if the Freemasons think so."--"Here they come!" says the
+little boy, pulling his mother along with all his strength.
+
+[Illustration: PROTOT[66], DELEGATE OF JUSTICE.]
+
+The vehicles draw up on one side to make room, the crowd presses to the
+edge of the pavement. The drums beat, a military band strikes up the
+"Marseillaise." First come five staff-officers, and then six members of
+the Commune, wearing their red scarfs, fringed with gold. I fancy I
+recognize Citizens Delescluze and Protot among them. "They are going to
+the Hotel de Ville!" cries an enthusiastic butcher-boy, holding a large
+basket of meat on his head, which he steadies with one hand, while with
+the other he makes wild signs to two companions on the other side of
+the way. "I saw them this morning in the Place du Carrousel," he
+continues in the same strain. "That was fine, I tell you! And then this
+battalion came to fetch them, with the music and all. Now they are going
+to salute the Republic; come along, I say. Double quick time!" So the
+butcher-boy, and the woman with the child, and myself, and all the rest
+of the bystanders, turn and follow the eight or ten thousand members of
+Parisian freemasonry who are crowding along the Rue de Rivoli. In the
+front and rear of the procession I notice a large number of unarmed men,
+dressed in loose Zouave trousers of dark-blue cloth, with white gaiters,
+white bands, and blue jackets. Their heads are mostly bare. I am told
+these are the Communist sharpshooters. Ever so far on in front of us a
+large white banner is floating, bearing an inscription which I cannot
+manage to read on account of the distance. However, the butcher-boy has
+made it out, and informs us that "Love one another" is written there.
+Happy, delusive Freemasons! "Tolerate one another" is scarcely
+practicable! In the meantime we continue to follow at the heels of the
+procession. There is much shouting and noise, here and there a feeble
+"_Vive la Commune!_" But the principal cries are, "Down with the
+murderers! Death to assassins! Down with Versailles!" A Freemason doffs
+his hat and shouts, "_Vive la Paix!_ It is peace we are going to seek!"
+
+I am still sadly confused, and cannot make up my mind what all this is
+about. Patience, however, I shall know all at the Hotel de Ville. Here
+we are. The National Guard keeps the ground, and the whole procession
+files into the Cour d'Honneur. Carried on by the crowd, I find myself
+near the entrance and can see what is going on inside. The whole of the
+Commune is out on the balcony, at the top of the grand staircase, in
+front of the statue of the Republic, which like the Communists wears a
+red scarf. Great trophies of red flags are waving everywhere. Men
+bearing the banners of the society are stationed on every step; on each
+is inscribed, in golden letters, mottos of peace and fraternity. A
+patriarchal Freemason, wearing his collar and badges, has arrived in a
+carriage; they help him to alight with marks of the greatest respect.
+The court is by this time full to overflowing, an enthusiastic cry of
+"Vive la Franc Maconnerie! Vive la Republique Universelle!" is re-echoed
+from mouth to mouth. Citizen Felix Pyat, member of the Commune, who is
+on the balcony, comes forward to speak. I congratulate myself on being
+at last about to hear what all this means. But I am disappointed. The
+pushing and squeezing is unbearable. I have vigorously to defend my hat,
+stick, purse, and cigar-case, and am half stifled besides. I almost
+despair of catching a single word, but at last succeed in hearing a
+few detached sentences:--"Universal nationality.... liberty, equality,
+and fraternity.... manifestos of the heart...." (what is that?) "the
+standard of humanity.... ramparts...." If I could only get a little
+nearer--the words "homicidal balls.... fratricidal bullets.... universal
+peace...." alone reach me. Is it to hear such stuff as this, that the
+Freemasons have come to the Hotel de Ville? I suppose so, for after a
+little more of the same kind the whole is drowned in a stupendous roar
+of "Vive la Commune!" and "Vive la Republique!" I have given up all hope
+of ever understanding.
+
+[Illustration: FELIX PYAT.[67]]
+
+"They have come to draw lots to see who is to go and kill M. Thiers,"
+cries a red-haired gamin.--"Idiot," retorts his comrade, "they have no
+arms!"--"Listen, and you will hear," says the first, which is capital
+advice, if I could but follow it. The pushing becomes intolerable, when
+suddenly the bald head of an unfortunate citizen executes a fatal
+plunge--I can breathe at last--and the following words reach me pretty
+clearly:--"The Commune has decided that we shall choose five members who
+are to have the honour of escorting you, and we are to draw
+lots...."--"There! was I not right?" cries he of the carrotty hair; "I
+knew they were going to draw lots!" A cleverly administered blow,
+however, soon silences his elation, and we hear that the lots have been
+drawn, and that five members are chosen to aid "this glorious, this
+victorious act." There seems more rhyme than reason in this. "An act
+that will be read of in the future history of France and of humanity."
+Here the irrepressible breaks out again:--"Now I am sure they are going
+to kill M. Thiers!" Whereupon his irritated adversary seizes him by the
+collar, gives his head some well-applied blows against the curb-stone,
+and then, pushing through the crowd, carries him off bodily. As for me,
+my curiosity unsatisfied, I grow resigned--may the will of the Commune
+be done--and I give it up. More hopeless mystification from the Citizen
+Beslay, who regrets not having been chosen to aid in this "heroic act."
+He also alludes to the drawing of lots, and I begin after all to fancy
+poor M. Thiers must be at the bottom of it all, but he continues:
+--"Citizens, what can I say after the eloquent discourse of
+Felix Pyat? You are about to interest yourselves in an act of
+fraternity...." (then something horrible is surely contemplated) "in
+hoisting your banner on the walls of our city, and mixing in our ranks
+against our enemies of Versailles." A sudden light breaks upon me. In
+the meantime Citizen Beslay is embracing the nearest Freemason, while
+another begs the honour of being the first to plant his banner, the
+Perseverance, which was unfurled in 1790, on the ramparts. Here a band
+plays the "Marseillaise," horribly out of tune; a red flag is given to
+the Freemasons, with an appropriate harangue; then the Citizen Terifocq
+takes back the flag, with another harangue, and ends by waving it aloft
+and roaring, "Now, citizens, no more words; to action!"
+
+This is clear, the Freemasons are to hoist their banner on to the walls
+of Paris side by side with the standard of the Commune; and who is blind
+enough to imagine, that the shells and bullets, indiscriminately
+homicidal, fratricidal, and infanticidal as they prove, are imbued with
+tact sufficient to steer clear of the Freemasons' banners, and injure in
+their flight only those of the Commune? As the Versailles projectiles
+have only one end in view, that of piercing both the Parisians and their
+standards, as a national consequence if both Parisians and standards are
+pierced, it is likewise most probable that the Masonic banners will not
+remain unscathed in so dangerous a neighbourhood. And if so, what will
+be the result? According to Citizen Terifocq "the Freemasons of Paris
+will call to their aid the direst vengeance; the Masons of all the
+provinces of France will follow their example; everywhere the brothers
+will fraternise with the troops which are marching on to help Paris. On
+the other hand, if the Versailles gunners do not aim at the Masons, but
+only at the National Guards (_sic!_), then the Masons will join the
+battalions in the field, and encourage by their example the gallant
+soldiers, defenders of the city." This is all rather complicated--what
+can come of it? Escorted by an ever-increasing crowd, we reach the Place
+de la Bastille. Several discourses are spouted forth at the foot of the
+column, but the combined effects of noise, dust, and fatigue have
+blunted my senses, and I hear nothing; it seems, however to be about the
+same thing over again, for the same acclamations of the crowd greet the
+same gestures on the part of the orators.
+
+We are off again down the Boulevards; the long procession, with its
+waving banners and glittering signs, is hailed by the populace with
+delight. Having reached the Place de la Concorde, I loiter behind.
+Groups are stationed here and there. I go from one to another, trying to
+gather what these open-air politicians think of all this Masonic parade.
+Shortly fugitives are seen hurrying back from the Champs Elysees,
+shouting, and gesticulating. "Horror! Abomination! They respect nothing!
+Vengeance!" I hear a brother-mason has been killed by a shell opposite
+the Rue du Colysee; that the white flag is riddled with shot; that the
+Versailles rifles have singled out, killed and wounded several masons.
+
+In a very short time the terrible news, increased and exaggerated as it
+spread, filled every quarter of Paris with consternation. I returned
+home in a most perplexed state of mind, from which I could not arouse
+myself until the arrival, towards evening, of a friend, a freemason, and
+consequently well informed. This, it appears, is what took place.
+
+"At the moment when the procession arrived in the Champs Elysees it
+formed itself into several groups, each choosing a separate avenue or
+street. One followed the Faubourg St. Honore and the Avenue Friedland as
+far as the Triumphal Arch, till it reached the Porte Maillot; a second
+proceeded to the Porte des Ternes by the Avenue des Ternes; a third to
+the Porte Dauphine by the Avenue Uehrich. Not a single freemason was
+wounded on the way, though shells fell on their passage from time to
+time. The VV.'.[Transcriber's note: triangular symbol of three dots here]
+of each lodge marched at the head, displaying their masonic banners.
+
+[Illustration: THE FREEMASONS AT THE RAMPARTS. GAMINS COLLECTING
+SHELLS.]
+
+"As soon as the white flag was seen flying from the bastion on the right
+of the Porte Maillot, the Versailles batteries ceased firing. The
+freemasons were then able to pass the ramparts and proceed towards
+Neuilly. There they were received rather coldly by the colonel in
+command of the detachment. The officers, including those in high
+command, were violently indignant against Paris. But the soldiers
+themselves seemed utterly weary of war.
+
+"After some parleying the members of the manifestation obtained leave to
+send a certain number of delegates to Versailles, in order to make a
+second attempt at conciliation with the Government."
+
+Will this new effort be more successful than the preceding one? Will the
+company of freemasons obtain what the Republican Union failed in
+procuring? I would fain believe it, but cannot. The obstinacy of the
+Versailles Assembly has become absolute deafness, though we must admit
+that the freemasons' way of trying to bring about reconciliation was
+rather singular, somewhat like holding a knife at Monsieur Thiers'
+throat and crying out, "Peace or your life!"
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 66: Memoir, see Appendix 6.]
+
+[Footnote 67: Felix Pyat was born in 1810 at Vierzon. He came to
+Paris for the purpose of studying law, but soon abandoned his
+intention for the more genial profession of journalist. He
+contributed to the _Figaro_, the _Charivari_, the _Revue de Paris_,
+and the _National_. In 1848 he was named Commissary-General, and
+subsequently deputy of the department of the Cher. Having signed
+Ledru-Rollin's call to arms, he was obliged after the events of June
+to take refuge in England. Profiting by the amnesty of the fifteenth
+of August, 1869, he returned to France, but made himself so
+obnoxious to the Government by his virulent abuse of the Empire,
+that he was again expelled. The revolution of the fourth of
+September allowed him to re-enter France. He commenced an immediate
+and violent attack on the new government, which he continued until
+his journal, _Le Combat_, was suppressed. Needless to say that he
+was one of the chief actors in the insurrections of the thirty-first
+of October and the twenty-second of January. He was elected deputy,
+but soon resigned, for the purpose of connecting himself with the
+cause of the Commune. He edited the _Vengeur_ and the _Commune_
+newspapers, and obtained a decree suppressing nearly all rival or
+antagonistic publications. At the fall of the Commune he fled no one
+knows where.]
+
+
+
+
+LXIV.
+
+
+No! no! Monsieur Felix Pyat, you must remain, if you please. You have
+been of it, you are of it, and you shall be of it. It is well that you
+should go through all the tenses of the verb, I am not astonished that a
+man as clever as you, finding that things were taking a bad turn, should
+have thought fit to give in your resignation. When the house is burning,
+one jumps out of window. But your cleverness has been so much pure loss,
+for your amiable confederates are waiting in the street to thrust you
+back into the midst of the flames again. It is in vain that you have
+written the following letter, a chef-d'oeuvre in its way, to the
+president of
+
+    "CITIZEN PRESIDENT,--If I had not been detained at the Ministry of
+    War on the day when the election took place, I should have voted
+    with the minority of the Commune. I think that the majority, for
+    this once, is in the wrong."
+
+    "For this once" is polite.
+
+    "I doubt if she will ever retrieve her error."
+
+    If the Commune were to retrace its steps at each error it made, it
+    would advance slowly.
+
+    "I think that the elected have not the right of replacing the
+    electors. I think that the representatives have not the right of
+    taking the place of the sovereign power. I think that the Commune
+    cannot create a single one of its own members, neither make them nor
+    unmake them; and, therefore, that it cannot of itself furnish that
+    which is wanted to legalise their nominations'."
+
+Oh! Monsieur Felix Pyat, legality is strangely out of fashion, and it is
+well for Versailles that it is so.
+
+    "I think also, seeing that the war has changed the population...."
+
+Yes; the war has changed the population, if not in the way you
+understand it, at least in this sense, that a great many reasonable
+people have gone mad, and that many--ah! how many?--are now dead.
+
+    "I think that it was more just to change the law than to violate it.
+    The ballot gave birth to the Commune, and in completing itself
+    without it, the Commune commits suicide. I will not be an accomplice
+    in the fault."
+
+We understand that; it is quite enough to be an accomplice in the crime.
+
+    "I am so convinced of this truth, that if the Commune persist in
+    what I call an usurpation of the elective power, I could not
+    reconcile the respect due to the rote of the majority with the
+    respect due to my own conscience; I shall therefore be obliged, much
+    to my regret, to give in my resignation to the Commune before the
+    victory.
+
+    "_Salut et Fraternite_.
+
+    "FELIX PYAT."
+
+"Before the victory" is exquisitely comic! But, carried away by the
+desire of exhibiting the wit of which he is master, Monsieur Felix Pyat
+fails to perceive that his irony is a little too transparent, that
+"before the victory" evidently meant "before the defeat," and that
+consequently, without taking into account the excellent reasons given in
+his letter to the president of the Commune, we shall only recollect that
+rats run away when the vessel is about to sink. But this time the rats
+must remain at the bottom of the hold. Tour colleagues, Monsieur Pyat,
+will not permit you to be the only one to withdraw from the honours,
+since you have been with them in the strife. Not daring to fly
+themselves, they will make you stay. Vermorel will seize you by the
+collar at the moment you are about to open the door and make your
+escape; and Monsieur Pierre Denis,[68] who used to be a poet as well as
+a cobbler, will murmur in your ear these verses of Victor Hugo[69],
+which, with a few slight modifications, will suit your case exactly:--
+
+     "Maintenant il se dit: 'L'empire est chancelant;
+          La victoire est peu sure.'
+     Il cherche a s'en aller, furtif et reculant.
+          Reste dans la masure!"
+
+     "Tu dis: 'Le plafond croule; ils vont, si l'on me voit,
+          Empecher que je sorte.'
+     N'osant rester ni fuir, tu regardes le toit,
+          Tu regardes la porte.
+
+     "Tu mets timidement la main sur le verrou;
+          Reste en leurs rangs funebres!
+     Reste! La loi qu'ils ont enfouie en un trou
+          Est la dans les tenebres.
+
+     "Reste! Elle est la, le flanc perce de leurs couteaux,
+          Gisante, et sur sa biere
+     Ils ont mis une dalle. Un pan de ton manteau
+          Est pris sous cette pierre.
+
+     "Tu ne t'en iras pas! Quoi! quitter leur maison!
+          Et fuir leur destinee!
+     Quoi! tu voudrais trahir jusqu'a la trahison
+          Elle-meme indignee!
+
+     "Quoi! n'as-tu pas tenu l'echelle a ces fripons
+          En pleine connivence?
+     Le sac de ces voleurs ne fut-il pas, reponds,
+          Cousu par toi d'avance?
+
+     "Les mensonges, la haine au dard froid et visqueux,
+          Habitent ce repaire;
+     Tu t'en vas! De quel droit, etant plus renard qu'eux
+          Et plus qu'elle vipere?"
+
+And Monsieur Felix Pyat will remain, in spite of the thousand and one
+good reasons he would find to make a short tour in Belgium. His
+colleagues will try persuasion, if necessary--"You are good, you are
+great, you are pure; what would become of us without you?" and they will
+hold on to him to the end, like cowards who in the midst of danger cling
+to their companions, shrieking out, "We will die together!" and embrace
+them convulsively to prevent their escape.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 68: A writer in the _Vengeur_.]
+
+[Footnote 69: For translation, see Appendix 7.]
+
+
+
+
+LXV.
+
+
+An anonymous writer, who is no other, it is said, than the citizen
+Delescluze, has just published the following:--
+
+    "The Commune has assured to itself the receipt of a sum of 600,000
+    francs a day--eighteen millions a month."
+
+There was once upon a time a French forger, named Colle, celebrated for
+the extent and importance of his swindling, and who possessed, it was
+said, a very large fortune. When questioned upon the subject, he used to
+answer: "I have assured to myself a receipt of a hundred francs a
+day--three thousand francs a month."
+
+Between Colle and the Commune there exists a difference, however: in the
+first place, Colle affected a particular liking for the clergy, whose
+various garbs he used frequently to assume, and the Commune cannot
+endure _cures_ and secondly, while Colle, in assuring himself a receipt
+of three thousand francs a month, had done all that was possible for him
+to do, the Commune puts up with a miserable eighteen millions, when it
+might have ensured to itself a great deal more. It is astounding, and, I
+may add, little in accordance with its dignity, that it should be
+satisfied with so moderate an allowance. You show too much modesty; it
+is not worth while being victorious for so little. Eighteen millions--a
+mere nothing! Your delicacy might be better understood were you more
+scrupulous as to the choice of your means. Thank Heaven! you do not err
+on that score. Come! a little more energy, if you please. "But!" sighs
+the Commune, "I have done my best, it seems to me. Thanks to Jourde,[70]
+who throws Law into the shade, and to Dereure,[71] the shoemaker
+--Financier and Cobbler of La Fontaine's Fable--I pocket daily
+the gross value of the sale of tobacco, which is a pretty speculation
+enough, since I have had to pay neither the cost of the raw materials
+nor of the manufacture. I have besides this, thanks to what I call the
+'regular income from the public departments,' a good number of little
+revenues which do not cost me much and bring me in a good deal. Now
+there's the Post, for instance. I take good care to despatch none of the
+letters that are confided to me, but I manage to secure the price of the
+postage by an arrangement with my employes. This shows cleverness and
+tact, I think. Finally, in addition to this, I get the railway companies
+to be kind enough to drop into my pockets the sum of two millions of
+francs: the Northern Railway Company will supply me with three hundred
+and ninety-three thousand francs; the Western, with two hundred and
+seventy-five thousand; the Eastern, three hundred and fifty-four
+thousand francs; the Lyons Railway Company, with six hundred and
+ninety-two thousand francs; the Orleans Railway, three hundred and
+seventy-six thousand francs. It is the financial delegate, Monsieur
+Jourde, who has the most brains of the whole band, who planned this
+ingenious arrangement. And, in truth, I consider that I have done all
+that is in my power, and you are wrong in trying to humiliate me by
+drawing comparisons between myself and Colle, who had some good, in him,
+but who was in no way equal to me." My dear, good Commune, I do not deny
+that, you have the most excellent intentions; I approve the tobacco
+speculation and the funds drawn from the public service money, in which
+you include, I suppose, the profits made in your nocturnal visits to the
+public and other coffers, and your fruitful rounds in the churches. As
+to the tax levied on railways, it inspires me with an admiration
+approaching enthusiasm. But, for mercy's sake, do not allow yourself to
+stop there. Nothing is achieved so long as anything remains to be done.
+You waste your time in counting up the present sources of your revenues,
+while so many opportunities remain of increasing them. Are there no
+bankers, no stock-brokers, no notaries, in Paris? Send a few of these
+honest patriots of yours to the houses of the reactionaries. A hundred
+thousand francs from one, two hundred thousand francs from another; it
+is always worth the taking. From small streams come great rivers. In
+your place I would not neglect the shopkeepers' tills either, or the
+money-chests of the rich. They are of the _bourgeoisie_, those people,
+and the _bourgeois_ are your enemies. Tax them, _morbleu!_ Tax them by
+all means. Have you not all your friends and your friends' friends to
+look after? Is it false keys that fail you? But they are easily made,
+and amongst your number you will certainly find one or two locksmiths
+quite ready to help you. Take Pilotel, for instance: a sane man, that!
+There were only eight hundred francs in the escritoire of Monsieur
+Chaudey, and he appropriated the eight hundred francs. Thus, you see,
+how great houses and good governments are founded. And when there is no
+longer any money, you must seize hold of the goods and furniture of your
+fellow-citizens. You will find receivers of stolen goods among you, no
+doubt. They told me yesterday that you had sent the Titiens and Paul
+Veroneses of the Louvre to London, in order to be able to make money out
+of them. A most excellent measure, that I can well explain to myself,
+because I can understand that Monsieur Courbet must have a great desire
+to get rid of these two painters, for whom he feels so legitimate and
+profound a hatred. But, alas! it was but a false report. You confined
+yourselves to putting up for sale the materials composing the Column of
+the Place Vendome; dividing them into four lots, two lots of stone and
+cement, and two lots of metal. Two lots only? Why! you know nothing
+about making the best of your merchandise. There is something better
+than stone and metal in this column. There is that in it which a number
+of silly people used to call in other times the glory of France. What a
+pretty spectacle--when the sale by auction is over--to see the buyers
+carrying away under their arms--one, a bit of Wagram; another, a bit of
+Jena; and some, who had thought to be buying a pound or two of bronze,
+having made the acquisition of the First Consul at Arcole or the Emperor
+at Austerlitz. It is a sad pity that you did not puff up the value and
+importance of your sale to the bidders. Your speculation would then have
+turned out better. You have managed badly, my dear Commune; you have not
+known how to take advantage of your position. Repair your faults, impose
+your taxes, appropriate, confiscate! All may be yours, disdain nothing,
+and have no fear of resistance; everyone is afraid of you. Here! I have
+five francs in my own pocket, will you have them?
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 70: Jourde occupied the position of financial Minister under
+the Commune Government. He is well-educated, and is said to be one of
+the most intellectually distinguished of the Federal functionaries. He
+is a medical student, and said to be twenty-seven years of age. See
+Appendix 8.]
+
+[Footnote 71: A working cobbler, and member of the International
+Society, which he represented at the Congress of Bale. He occupied a
+post on the _Marseillaise_ newspaper, became a Commissary of Police
+after the fourth of September, and took part on the popular side in the
+outbreak of the thirty-first of October. He was deprived of his office
+by General Trochu's government, and appointed one of the delegates for
+justice, by the authorities of the Commune.]
+
+
+
+
+LXVI.
+
+
+    "The social revolution could end but in one great catastrophe, of
+    which the immediate effects would be--
+
+    "To make the land a barren waste:
+
+    "To put a strait jacket upon society:
+
+    "And, if it were possible that such a state of things could be
+    prolonged for several weeks--
+
+    "To cause three or four millions of human beings to perish by
+    horrible famine.
+
+    "When the Government shall be without resources, when the country
+    shall be without produce and without commerce:
+
+    "When starving Paris, blockaded by the departments, will no longer
+    discharge its debts and make payments, no longer export nor import:
+
+    "When workmen, demoralised by the politics taught at the clubs and
+    the closing of the workshops, will have found a means of living, no
+    matter how:
+
+    "When the State appropriates to itself the silver and ornaments of
+    the citizens for the purpose of sending them to the Mint:
+
+    "When perquisitions made in the private houses are the only means of
+    collecting taxes:
+
+    "When hungry bands spread over the country, committing robbery and
+    devastation:
+
+    "When the peasant, armed with loaded gun, has to neglect the
+    cultivation of his crops in order to protect them:
+
+    "When the first sheaf shall have been stolen, the first house
+    forced, the first church profaned, the first torch fired, the first
+    woman violated:
+
+    "When the first blood shall have been spilt:
+
+    "When the first head shall have fallen:
+
+    "When abomination and desolation shall have spread over all France--
+
+    "Oh! then you will know what we mean by a social revolution:
+
+    "A multitude let loose, arms in hand, mad with revenge and fury:
+
+    "Soldiers, pikes, empty homes, knives and crowbars:
+
+    "The city, silent and oppressed; the police in our very homes,
+    opinions suspected, words noted down, tears observed, sighs counted,
+    silence watched; spying and denunciations:
+
+    "Inexorable requisitions, forced and progressive loans, paper money
+    made worthless:
+
+    "Civil war, and the enemy on the frontiers:
+
+    "Pitiless proconsuls, a supreme committee, with hearts of stone--
+
+    "This would be the fruits of what they call democratic and social
+    revolution."
+
+Who wrote this admirable page?--Proudhon.
+
+O all-merciful Providence! Take pity on France, for she has come to
+this.
+
+
+
+
+LXVII.
+
+
+A balloon! A balloon! Quick! A balloon! There is not a moment to be
+lost. The inhabitants of Brive-la-Gaillarde and the mountaineers of
+Savoy are thirsting for news; let us shower manna on them. Write away!
+Pierre Denis! Pump in your gas, emulators of Godard! And may the four
+winds of heaven carry our "Declarations" to the four quarters of France!
+Ah! ah! The Versaillais--band of traitors that they are!--did not
+calculate on this. They raise soldiers, the simpletons; they bombard our
+forts and our houses, the idiots! But we make decrees, and distribute
+our proclamations throughout the country by means of an unlimited number
+of revolutionary aeronauts. May they be guided by the wind which blows
+across the mountains! How the honest labourers, the good farmers, the
+eager workers of the departments will rejoice when they receive,
+dropping, from the sky, the pages on which are inscribed the rights and
+duties of the man of the present day! They will not hesitate one single
+instant. They will leave their fields, their homes, their workshops, and
+cry, "A musket! a musket!" with no thought that they leave behind them
+women without husbands, and children without fathers! They will fly to
+us, happy to conquer or die for the glory of Citizen Delescluze and
+Citizen Vermorel! What ardour! What patriotism! Already they are on
+their way; they are coming, they are come! Those who had no fire-arms
+have seized their pickaxes or pieces of their broken ploughs! Hurrah!
+Forward! March! To arms, citizens, to arms! Hail to France, who comes to
+the rescue of Paris!
+
+All to no purpose. I tell you the people of Brive-la-Gaillarde and the
+mountaineers of Savoy have not once thought of taking up arms. They have
+never been more tranquil or more resolute on remaining in peace and
+quiet than now. When they see one of your balloons--always supposing
+that it has any other end in view than of depositing repentant
+communists in safe, snug corners, pass the lines of the Versailles
+troops--when they see one of your balloons, they simply exclaim,
+"Hulloa! Here's a balloon! Where in the world can it come from?" If
+some printed papers fall from the sky, the peasant picks them up,
+saying, "I shall give them to my son to read, when he returns from
+school." The evening comes, the son spells them out, while the father
+listens. The son cannot understand; the father falls asleep. "Ah! those
+Parisians!" cries the mother. Can you wonder? These people are born to
+live and die without knowing all that is admirable in the men of the
+Hotel de Ville. They are fools enough to cling to their own lives and
+the lives of those near them. They do not go to war amongst themselves;
+they are poor ignorant creatures, and you will never make them believe
+that when once they have paid their taxes, worked, fed their wives and
+children, there still remains to them one duty to fulfil, more holy,
+more imperative than all others,--that of coming to the Porte-Maillot to
+receive a ball or a fragment of shell in their skulls.
+
+But these balloons might be made of some use, nevertheless. Pick out
+one, the best made, the largest in size, the best rigged; put in Citizen
+Felix Pyat--who, you may be sure, will not be the last to sit down--and
+Citizen Delescluze too, nor must we omit Citizen Cluseret, nor any of
+the citizens who at the present moment constitute the happiness of Paris
+and the tranquillity of France! Now inflate this admirable balloon,
+which is to bear off all your hopes, with the lightest gases. Then blow,
+ye winds, terrifically, furiously, and bear it from us! Balloons can be
+capricious at times. Have you read, the story of Hans Pfaal? Good
+Heavens! if the wind could only carry them away, up to the moon, or even
+a great deal further still.
+
+
+
+
+LXVIII.
+
+
+I'm surprised myself, as I re-read the preceding pages, at the strange
+contradictions I meet with. During the first few days I was almost
+favourable to the Commune; I waited, I hoped. To-day all is very
+different. When I write down in the evening what I have seen and thought
+in the day, I allow myself to blame with severity men that inspired me
+formerly with some kind of sympathy. What has taken place? Have my
+opinions changed? I do not think so. Besides, I have in reality but one
+opinion. I receive impressions, describing these impressions without
+reserve, without prejudice. If these stray leaves should ever be
+collected in a volume, they will at least possess the rare merit of
+being thoroughly sincere. Is it then, that my nature is modified? By no
+means. If I were indulgent a month ago, it was that I did not know those
+of whom I spoke, and that I am of a naturally hopeful and benevolent
+disposition: if I now show myself severe, it is that--like the rest of
+Paris--I have learned to know them better.
+
+
+
+
+LXIX.
+
+
+The Commune has naturally brought an infinite number of journals into
+existence. Try, if you will, to count the leaves of the forest, the
+grains of sand on the seashore, the stars in the heavens, but do not, in
+your wildest dreams, attempt to enumerate the newspapers that have seen
+the light since the famous day of the 18th of March. Felix Pyat has a
+journal, _Le Vengeur_; Vermorel has a journal, _Le Cri du People_;
+Delescluze has a journal, _Le Reveil_; there is not a member of the
+Commune but indulges in the luxury of a sheet in which he tells his
+colleagues daily all the evil he thinks of them. It must be acknowledged
+that these gentlemen have an extremely bad opinion one of the other. I
+defy even the _Gaulois_ of Versailles--yes, the _Gaulois_ itself--to
+treat Felix Pyat as Vermorel treats him, and if it be remembered on the
+other hand what Felix Pyat says of Vermorel, the _Gaulois_ will be found
+singularly good-natured. Napoleon cautioned us long ago "to wash our
+dirty linen at home," but good patriots cannot be expected to profit by
+the counsels of a tyrant. So the columns of the Commune papers are
+devoted to the daily and mutual pulling to pieces of the Commune's
+members. But where will these ephemeral sheets be in six months, in one
+month, or in a week's time perhaps? The wind which wafts away the leaves
+of the rose and the laurel, will be no less cruel for the political
+leaves. Let us then, for the sake of posterity, offer a specimen of what
+is--or as we shall soon say, what was--the Communalist press of to-day.
+Be they edited by Marotteau, or Duchesne, or Paschal Grousset, or by any
+other emulator of Paul-Louis Courier, these worthy journals are all much
+alike, and one example will suffice for the whole.
+
+[Illustration: VERMESCH (PERE DUCHESNE).[72]]
+
+First of all, and generally in enormous type, stand the LATEST NEWS, the
+news from the Porte Maillot where the friends of the Commune are
+fighting, and the news from Versailles where the enemies of the country
+are sitting. They usually run somewhat in this style:--
+
+    "It is more and more confirmed that the Assembly of Versailles is
+    surrounded and made prisoner by the troops returned from Germany.
+    The generals of the Empire have newly proclaimed Napoleon: the
+    Third, Emperor. After a violent quarrel about two National Guards
+    whom Marshal MacMahon had had shot, but had omitted to have cooked
+    for his soldiers, Monsieur Thiers sent a challenge to the Marshal,
+    by his two seconds. These seconds were no other than the Comte de
+    Chambord and the Comte de Paris. Marshal MacMahon chose the
+    ex-Emperor and Paul de Cassagnac. The duel took place in the Rue
+    des Reservoirs, in the midst of an immense crowd. The Marshal was
+    killed, and was therefore obliged to renounce the command of the
+    troops. But the Assembly would not accept his resignation.
+
+    "We are in the position to assert that a company of the 132nd
+    Battalion has this morning surrounded fifteen thousand gendarmes and
+    sergents-de-ville, in the park of Neuilly. Seeing that all
+    resistance was useless, the supporters of Monsieur Thiers
+    surrendered without reserve. Among them were seventeen members of
+    the National Assembly, who, not content with ordering the
+    assassination of our brothers, had wished also to be present at the
+    massacre.
+
+    [Illustration: PASCHAL GROUSSET, DELEGATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS.][73]
+
+    "A person worthy of credit has related to us the following fact:--A
+    _cantiniere_ of the 44th Battalion (from the Batignolles quarter),
+    was in the act of pouring out a glass of brandy for an artilleryman
+    of the Fort of Vanves, when suddenly the artilleryman was out in two
+    by a Versailles shell; the brave _cantiniere_ drank off the contents
+    of the glass just poured out for the dead man who lay in bits at her
+    feet, and took his place at the guns. She performed her new part of
+    artilleryman so bravely, that ten minutes later there was not a
+    single gun uninjured in the Meudon battery. As to those who were
+    serving the pieces there, they were all hurled to a distance of
+    several miles, and amongst them were said to have been
+    recognised--we give this news however with great reserve--Monsieur
+    Ollivier, the ex-minister of the ex-Emperor, and Count von Bismarck,
+    who wished to verify for himself the actual range of the guns that
+    he had lent to his good friends of Versailles."
+
+After the LATEST NEWS come the reports of the day, the _bulletin du
+jour_ as it is called now, and it is in this that the editor, a member
+of the Commune, reveals his talent. We trust that the following example
+is not quite unworthy of the pen of Monsieur Felix Pyat, or the
+signature of Monsieur Vermorel:--
+
+    "Paris, 29th April, 1871.
+
+    "They are lying in wait for us, these tigers athirst for blood.
+
+    "They are there, these Vandals, who have sworn that in all Paris not
+    a single man shall be spared, nor a single stone, left standing.
+
+    "But we are not in their power yet. No, nor shall we ever be.
+
+    "The National Guard is on the watch; victorious and sublime, their
+    soldierly breasts are not of flesh and blood, but of bronze, from
+    which the balls rebound as they stand, dauntless, before the enemy.
+
+    "Ah! so these lachrymose Jules Favres, these fat Picards, these
+    hungry Jules Ferrys, said amongst themselves, 'We will take Paris,
+    we will tear it up, and its soil shall be divided after the victory
+    between the wives of the _sergents de ville!_' They are beginning
+    to understand all the insanity of their plan. Why, it is Paris that
+    will take Versailles, that will take all those blear-eyed old men
+    who, because they cannot look steadily at Monsieur Thiers' face,
+    fancy that it is the sun.
+
+    "It is in vain that they gorge with blood and wine their deceived
+    soldiers; the moment is approaching when these men will no longer
+    consent to march against the city which is fighting for them.
+    Already, yesterday, the melee of a battle could be distinguished
+    from the fort of Vanves; the line had come to blows with the
+    _gendarmes_ of Valentin and Charette's Zouaves. Courage, Parisians!
+    A few more days and you will have triumphed over all the infamy that
+    dares to stop the march of the victorious Commune!
+
+    "But it is not enough to vanquish the enemies without, we must get
+    rid also of the enemies that are within.
+
+    "No more pity! no more vacillation! The justice of the people is
+    wearied of formalities, and cries out for vengeance. Death to spies!
+    Death to the _reactionaires_! Death to the priests! Why does the
+    Commune feed this collection of malefactors in your prisons, while
+    the money they cost us daily would be so useful to the women and
+    children of those who are fighting for the cause of Paris? We are
+    assured that one of the prisoners ate half a chicken for his dinner
+    yesterday; how many good patriots might have been saved from
+    suffering with the sum which was taken from the chests of the
+    Republic for this orgie! There is no longer time to hesitate; the
+    Versaillais are shooting and mutilating the prisoners; we must
+    revenge ourselves! We must show them such an example, that in
+    perceiving from afar the heads of their infamous accomplices, the
+    traitors of Versailles, stuck upon our ramparts, confounded by the
+    magnanimity of the Commune, they will lay down their arms at last,
+    and deliver themselves up as prisoners.
+
+    "As to the refractory of Paris, we cannot find words to express the
+    astonishment we experience at the weakness that has been shown with
+    regard to them.
+
+    "What! we permit that there should still be cowards in Paris? I
+    thought they were all at Versailles. We allow still to remain
+    amongst us men who are not of our opinion? This state of things has
+    lasted too long. Let them take their muskets or die. Shoot them
+    down, those who refuse to go forward. They have wives and children,
+    they are fathers of families, they say; a fine reason indeed! The
+    Commune before everything! And, besides, there must be no pity for
+    the wives of _reactionaires_ and the children of spies!"
+
+The _bulletins du jour_ are sometimes set forth in gentler terms; but we
+have chosen a fair average specimen between the lukewarm and the most
+violent.
+
+Then comes the solid, serious article, generally written by a pen
+invested with all due authority, by the man who has the most head in the
+place. The subject varies according to circumstances; but the main point
+of the article is generally to show that Paris has never been so rich,
+so free, nor so happy, as under the government of the Commune; and this
+is a truth that is certainly not difficult to prove. Is not the fact of
+being able to live without working the best possible proof that people
+are well off? Well! look at the National Guards; they have not touched a
+tool for a whole month, and they have such a supply of money that they
+are obliged to make over some of it to the wineshop-keepers in exchange
+for an unlimited number of litres and sealed bottles. Then, who could
+say that we are not free? The journals that allowed themselves to assert
+the contrary have been prudently suppressed. Besides, is it not being
+free to have shaken off the shameful yoke of the men who sold France; to
+be no longer subjected to the oppression of snobs, _reactionaires_, and
+traitors? And as to the most perfect happiness, it stands to reason,
+since we are both free and rich, that we must be in the incontestable
+enjoyment of it. Finally, after the official dispatches edited in the
+style you are acquainted with, and after the accounts of the last
+battles, come the miscellaneous news, the _faits divers_; and here it is
+that the ingenuity of the writers displays itself to the greatest
+advantage.
+
+    "Yesterday evening, towards ten o'clock, the attention of the
+    passers-by in the Rue St. Denis was attracted by cries which seemed
+    to proceed from a four-storied house situated at the corner of the
+    Rue Sainte-Apolline. The cries were evidently cries of despair. Some
+    people went to the nearest guardhouse to make the fact known, and
+    four National Guards, preceded by their corporal, entered the house.
+    Guided by the sound of the cries they arrived at the fourth storey,
+    and broke open the door. A horrible spectacle was then exposed to
+    the view of the Guards and of the persons who had followed them in
+    their quest. Three young children lay stretched on the floor of the
+    room, the disorder of which denoted a recent struggle. The poor
+    little things were without any covering whatever, and there were
+    traces of blows upon their bodies; one of them had a cut across the
+    forehead. The National Guards questioned the children with an almost
+    maternal kindness. They had not eaten for four days, and, in
+    consequence of this prolonged fast, they were in such a state of
+    moral and physical abasement that no precise information could be
+    obtained from them. The corporal then addressed himself to the
+    neighbours, and soon became acquainted with a part of the terrible
+    truth.
+
+    "In this room lived a poor work-girl, young and pretty. One day, as
+    she was carrying back her work to the shop, she observed that she
+    was followed by a well-dressed man, whose physiognomy indicated the
+    lowest passions. He spoke to her, and was at first repulsed; but,
+    like the tempter Faust offering jewels to Marguerite, he tempted her
+    with bright promises, and the poor girl, to whom work did not always
+    come, listened to the base seducer. Blame her not too harshly, pity
+    her rather, and reserve all your indignation for the wretch who
+    betrayed her.
+
+    "After three years, which were but anguish and remorse to the
+    miserable woman, and during which she had no other consolation but
+    the smiles of the children whose very existence was a crime, she was
+    becoming reconciled at last to her life, when the father of her
+    children deserted her.
+
+    "This desertion coincided with the glorious revolution of the 18th
+    of March; and the poor work-girl, who had still room in her heart
+    for patriotism, found some consolation in reflecting that the day,
+    so miserable for her, had at least brought happiness to France.
+
+    "A fortnight passed, the poor abandoned mother had given up all hope
+    of ever seeing the father of her three children again, when one
+    evening--it was last Friday--a man, wrapped in a black cloak,
+    introduced himself into the house, and made inquiries of the
+    _concierge_--a great patriot, and commander of the 114th
+    Battalion--whether Mademoiselle O... were at home? Upon an answer in
+    the affirmative from the heroic defender of Right and Liberties of
+    Paris, the man mounted the stairs to the poor workwoman's rooms. It
+    was he--the seducer; the _concierge_ had recognised him. What passed
+    between the murderer and his victims? That will be known,
+    perhaps--never! But certain it is, that an hour afterwards he went
+    out, still enveloped in his black mantle.
+
+    "The next day, and the days following, the _concierge_ was much
+    astonished not to see his lodger of the fourth floor, who was
+    accustomed to stop and talk with him on her way to fetch her _cafe
+    au lait_. But his deep sense of duty as commander of the 114th
+    Battalion occupied his mind so thoroughly, that he paid but little
+    attention to the incident. Neither did he regard the sighs and sobs
+    which were heard from the upper stories. He can scarcely be blamed
+    for this negligence; he was studying his _vade-mecum_.
+
+    "On the fourth day, however, the cries were so violent that they
+    began to inspire the passers-by with alarm, and we have related how
+    four men, headed by their _caporal_, were sought for to inquire into
+    the cause.
+
+    "We have already told what was seen and heard, but the explanations
+    of the neighbours were not sufficient to clear up the darkest side
+    of the mystery, and perhaps the truth would never have been known if
+    the _caporal_--exhibiting, by a rare proof of intelligence, how far
+    he was worthy of the grade with which his comrades had honoured
+    him--had not been inspired with the idea of lifting up the curtain
+    of the bed.
+
+    "Horror! Upon the bed lay stretched the corpse of the unhappy
+    mother, a dagger plunged into her heart, and in her clutched hand
+    was found a paper upon which the victim, before rendering her last
+    breath, had traced the following lines:--
+
+    "'I die, murdered by him who has betrayed me; he would have murdered
+    also my three children, if a noise in the next room had not caused
+    him to take flight. He had come from Versailles for the express
+    purpose of accomplishing this quadruple crime, and, by this means,
+    obliterate every trace of his past villany. His name is Jules Ferry.
+    You who read this, revenge me!'"
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 72: Vermesch, who was born at Lille, in 1846, though not an
+official member of the Commune, was one of its most powerful champions.
+He was founder and principal editor of the _Pere Duchesne_, a poor
+imitation of the journal, published under the same title, by Hebert, in
+the time of the first Revolution. This paper, one of the most
+characteristic of the Commune, was filled with trivialities, in the
+vilest taste and slang, which cannot be rendered in English. The first
+number of Vermesch's journal was published on the 6th of March, but was
+suppressed by General Vinoy; it re-appeared, however, on the eighteenth
+of the same month, and met with such prodigious success, that even its
+editor himself was astonished. Intoxicated with the result, the writers
+became more and more virulent, and not content with penning the vilest
+personal abuse, Vermesch assumed the _role_ of public informer. For
+instance, he denounced M. Gustave Chaudey, a writer in the _Siecle_, in
+the _Pere Duchesne_ of the 12th of April, and that journalist was
+arrested in consequence on the following day. The journal became, not
+only the medium of all kinds of personal abuse and vengeance, but did
+the duty of inquisitor for the Communal Government, for whom it produced
+a terrible crop of victims. The _Official Journal_ contained a number of
+decrees, the drafts of which at first appeared in _Pere Duchesne_.
+
+Amongst other acts, Vermesch organised what he called the battalion of
+the Enfants of the _Pere Duchesne_, and considering the origin of this
+corps, the character of the rabble which filled its ranks may easily be
+imagined. The children of such a father could only be found amidst the
+lowest dregs of the Parisian population; fit instruments for the
+infamous work which was afterwards to be done.]
+
+[Footnote 73: Paschal Grousset prepared himself for politics by the
+study of medicine; from the anatomy of heads he passed to the dissection
+of ideas. Having turned journalist, he wrote scientific articles in
+_Figaro_, contributed to the _Standard_, and was one of the editors of
+the _Marseillaise_ when the challenge, which gave rise to the death of
+Victor Noir and the famous trial at Tours, was sent to Prince Pierre
+Bonaparte. Immediately after the revolution of the eighteenth of March
+he started the _Nouvelle Republique_, an ephemeral publication which
+only lived a week. On the second of April he commenced the _Affranchi_,
+or journal of free men, as he called it, Vesinier joining him in the
+management of it. The popularity of Grousset caused him to be elected a
+member of the Commune in April, and the Government soon appointed him
+Minister of Foreign Affairs. He communicated circulars to the
+representatives of different nations at Paris, in order to obtain a
+recognition of the Commune; he also sent proclamations to the large
+towns of France, appealing to arms. But his means of communication with
+other governments, and indeed with his own envoys, was very restricted.
+
+He was one of those who took refuge at the _Mairie_ of the Eleventh
+Arrondissement, and who, knowing well that the struggle was really over,
+said to the silly heroes who protected them, "All is well. The
+Versailles mob is turned, and you will soon join your brethren in the
+Champs Elysees." Many of them that night entered the valley of the
+shadow of death! On the third of June the ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs
+was arrested in the Rue Condorcet, dressed as a woman, and marched off
+to Versailles.]
+
+
+
+
+LXX.
+
+
+    "Issy is taken!
+
+    "Issy is not taken!
+
+    "Megy[74] has delivered it up!
+
+    "Eudes holds it still."
+
+
+I have heard nothing but contradictory news since this morning. Is Fort
+Issy in the hands of the Versailles troops--yes or no? Hoping to get
+better information by approaching the scene of conflict, I went to the
+Porte d'Issy, but returned without having succeeded in learning
+anything.
+
+There were but few people in that direction; some National Guards,
+sheltered by a casemate, and a few women, watching for the return of
+their sons and husbands, were all I saw. The cannonading was terrific;
+in less than a quarter of an hour I heard five shells whistle over my
+head.
+
+Towards twelve o'clock the drawbridge was lowered, and I saw a party of
+about sixty soldiers, dusty, tired, and dejected, advancing towards me.
+These were some of the "revengers of the Republic."
+
+"Where do you come from?" I asked them.
+
+"From the trenches. There were four hundred of us, and we are all that
+remain."
+
+But when I asked them whether the Fort of Issy were taken, they made no
+answer.
+
+Following the soldiers came four men, bearing a litter, on which a dead
+body lay stretched; and it was with this sad procession that I
+re-entered Paris. From time to time the men deposited their load on the
+ground, and went into a wine-shop to drink. I took advantage of one of
+these moments when the corpse lay abandoned, to lift the cloak that had
+been spread over it. It was the body of a young man, almost a lad; his
+wound was hidden, but the collar of his shirt was dyed crimson with
+blood. When the men returned for the third time, their gait was so
+unsteady that it was with difficulty they raised the poor boy's bier,
+and then went off staggering. At the turning of a street the corpse
+fell, and I ran up as it was being picked from the ground; one of the
+drunken men was shedding tears, and maudling out, "My poor brother!"
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 74: Megy, the famous governor of the Fort of Issy, was
+implicated in the last, supposed, plot against the life of Napoleon III.
+Having shot one of the police agents charged with his arrest, he was
+tried and condemned to death. He was, however, delivered from prison on
+the fourth of September, and appointed to the command of a battalion of
+National Guards, with which he marched against the Hotel de Ville on the
+thirty-first of October and the twentieth of January. He was named a
+member of the Commune on the eighteenth of March, and set fire to the
+Cour des Comptes and the Palace of the Legion d'Honneur on the
+twenty-third of May, 1871.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXI.
+
+
+We shall see no more of Cluseret! Cluseret is done for, Cluseret is in
+prison![75] What has he done? Is he in disgrace on account of Fort Issy?
+This would scarcely be just, considering that if the fort were evacuated
+yesterday it was reoccupied this morning; by the bye, I cannot explain
+satisfactorily to myself why the Versaillais should have abandoned this
+position, which they seem to have considered of some importance. If it
+is not on account of Fort Issy that Cluseret was politely asked to go
+and keep Monseigneur Darboy company, why was it? I remember hearing
+yesterday and the day before something about a letter of General
+Fabrice, in which that amiable Prussian, it is reported, begged General
+Cluseret to intercede with the Commune in behalf of the imprisoned
+priests. Is it possible that the Communal delegate, at the risk of
+passing for a Jesuit, could have made the required demand? Why, M.
+Cluseret, that was quite enough for you to be put in prison, and shot
+too into the bargain. However, you did not intercede for anybody, for
+the very excellent reason that General Fabrice no more thought of
+writing to you, than of giving back Alsace and Lorraine. So we must
+search somewhere else for the motive of this sudden eclipse. Some say
+there was a quarrel with Dombrowski, that the latter thought fit to
+sign a truce without the authority of Cluseret--a truce, what an idea!
+Has Dombrowski any scruples about slaughter?--that Cluseret flew into a
+great rage; but that his rival got the best of it in the end. You see if
+one is an American and the other a Pole, the Commune must have a hard
+time of it between the two!
+
+No, neither the evacuation of Fort Issy--in spite of what the _Journal
+Officiel_ says--Monseigneur Darboy, nor the quarrel with Dombrowski are
+the real causes of the fall of Cluseret. Cluseret's destiny was to fall;
+Cluseret has fallen because he did not like gold lace and
+embroidery--"that is the question," all the rest are pretexts.
+
+So the noble delegate imagined he could quietly issue a proclamation one
+morning commanding all the officers under his orders to rip off the gold
+and silver bands which luxuriantly ornament their sleeves and caps![76]
+He thought his staff would forego epaulets and other military gewgaws.
+Why, the man must have been mad! What would Cora or Armentine have said
+if they had seen their military heroes stalk into the Cafe de Suede or
+the Cafe de Madrid, shorn of all their brilliant appendages, which made
+them look so wonderfully like the monkey-general at the Neuilly fair, in
+the good old times, when there were such things as fairs, and before
+Neuilly was a ruin. Ask any soldier, Federal or otherwise, if he will
+give up his pay, or his jingling sword, or even his rank; he may perhaps
+consent, but ask him to rip off his embroidery, and he will answer,
+never! How can you imagine a man of sense consenting not to look like a
+mountebank?
+
+Another of these absurd prescriptions has done much to lower Cluseret in
+public estimation. One day he took it into his head to prevent his
+officers from galloping in the streets and boulevards, under the
+miserable pretext that the rapid evolutions of these horsemen had
+occasioned several accidents. Well, and if they had, do you think a
+gallant captain of horse is going to deprive himself of the pleasure of
+curvetting within sight of his lady love, for the pitiful reason, that
+he may perchance upset an old woman or two or three children? Citizen
+Cluseret does not know what he is talking about! It is certain that if
+this valiant general has such a very great horror of accidents, he
+should begin by stopping the firing at Courbevoie, which is a great deal
+more dangerous than the galloping of a horse on the Boulevard
+Montmartre. As you may imagine, the officers went on galloping and
+wearing their finery under the very nose of the general, while he walked
+about stoically in plain clothes. However, although they did not obey
+him, they owed him a grudge for the orders he had given. Opposition was
+being hatched, and was ready to burst forth on the first opportunity,
+which happened to be the evacuation of Fort Issy.[76] Cluseret has
+fallen a victim to his taste for simplicity, but he carries with him the
+regrets of all the illused cab-horses which, in the absence of
+thoroughbreds, have to suffice the gallant staff, and who, poor
+creatures, were only too delighted not to gallop.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 75: General Cluseret was a great personage for a time with the
+Communists, and his military talents were lauded to the skies, but
+suddenly he was committed to prison, and was succeeded in the command of
+the army by Rossel. The cause of his imprisonment is not clear. Some say
+that he was discovered to be in correspondence with the Thiers
+government, others that he was suspected of aiming at the Dictatorship.
+During the confusion that occurred on the first entry of the Versailles
+troops into Paris, when the Archbishop of Paris and the other so-called
+"hostages" had been barbarously assassinated, when the Louvre, the
+Palais Royal, and the Hotel de Ville were in flames, Cluseret escaped
+from prison, and was not heard of again until it was reported that his
+body had been found buried beneath the rubbish of the last barricade.
+Was report correct?]
+
+[Footnote 76: "THE MINISTER OF WAR TO THE NATIONAL GUARD.
+
+"CITOYENS,--I notice with pain that, forgetful of our modest origin, the
+ridiculous mania for trimmings, embroidery, and shoulder-knots has begun
+to take hold upon you.
+
+"To work! You have for the first time accomplished a revolution by, and
+for, labour.
+
+"Let us not forget our origin, and, above all, do not let us be ashamed
+of it, Workmen we were! workmen let us remain!
+
+"In the name of virtue against vice, of duty against abuse, of austerity
+against corruption, we have triumphed; let us not forget the fact.
+
+"Let us be, above all, men of honour and duty; we shall then found an
+austere Republic, the only one that has or can have reason for its
+existence.
+
+"I appeal to the good sense of my fellow-citizens: let us have no more
+tags and lace, no more glitter, no more frippery which costs so little
+at the shops yet is so dear to our responsibility.
+
+"In future, anyone who cannot deduce proof of his right to wear the
+insignia of his nominal rank, or, who shall add to the regular uniform
+of the National Guard, tags, lace, or other vain distinctions, will be
+liable to be punished.
+
+"I profit by this occasion to remind each of you of the necessity of
+absolute obedience to the authorities, for in obeying those whom you
+have elected you are only obeying yourselves.
+
+"The Delegate of War,
+
+"Paris, April 7th, 1871,
+
+(Signed) "E. CLUSERET."]
+
+
+
+
+LXXII.
+
+
+Suppose that a man in disguise goes into the opera ball intoxicated,
+rushes hither and thither, gesticulating, insulting the women, mocking
+the men, turns off the gas, then sets light to some curtains, until such
+a hue and cry is raised that he is turned out of the place. Whereupon
+our mask runs off to the nearest costumier's, changes his clown's dress
+for that of a pantaloon, and returns to the opera to recommence his old
+tricks, saying, "I have changed my dress, no one will recognise me." But
+he is wrong, there is no mistaking his way of doing business.
+
+The crowd surrounds him and cries, "We recognise you, _beau masque!_"
+and if he has had the imprudence to secure the doors, they throw him out
+of window.
+
+We recognise you, Executive Commission;[77] it is in vain that you
+disguise yourself in the bloody rags of the Committee of Public Safety,
+your are still yourself, you are still Felix Pyat, you are still
+Ranvier, you have never ceased to be Gerardin; you hope to make
+yourself obeyed more readily under this lugubrious costume, but you
+mistake. Command us to go and fight, and we will not budge; pursue us,
+and we will hardly run away; put us in prison, and we will only laugh.
+You are no more a Terror, than Gil-Perez the actor is Talma; the knocks
+you receive have pushed aside your false nose; it is in vain that you
+decree, that you rob, that you incarcerate; you are too grotesque to be
+terrible. Even if you carried the parody out to the end, and thought
+fit to erect a guillotine and sharpen the knife, we should even then
+decline to look seriously upon you, and were we to see one by one five
+hundred heads fell into the basket, we should still persist in thinking
+that your axe was of wood, and your guillotine of cardboard!
+
+[Illustration: DUPONT, DELEGATE OF TRADE AND COMMERCE.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 77: The affair of the 30th of April signally disappointed the
+chiefs of the insurrection, who decreed the formation of a Committee of
+Public Safety, and caused Cluseret to disappear. "The incapacity and
+negligence of the Delegate of War having," they said, "almost lost them
+the possession of Fort Issy, the Executive Commission considered it
+their duty to propose the arrest of Citizen Cluseret, which was
+forthwith decreed by the Commune."]
+
+
+
+
+LXXIII.
+
+
+The Parisian _Official Journal_ says: "The members of the Commune are
+not amenable to any other tribunal than their own" (that of the
+Commune). Ah! truly, men of the Hotel de Ville, you imagine that, do
+you? Have you forgotten that there are such tribunals as court-martials
+and assizes?
+
+
+
+
+LXXIV.
+
+
+M. Rossel is really very unfortunate! What is M. Rossel?[78] Why, the
+provisional successor of Citizen Cluseret. It was not a bad idea to put
+in the word _provisional_. The Commune had confided to him the care of
+military matters, which he had accepted, but with an air of
+condescension. This "Communeux" looks to me like an aristocrat. At any
+rate he has not been fortunate. Scarcely had he taken upon himself the
+safety of Paris, when the redoubt of Moulin-Saquet was surprised by the
+Versaillais. This accident was not calculated to enhance the courage of
+the Federals. The whole affair has been kept as dark as possible, but
+the porter of the house where I live, who was there, has told me strange
+things.
+
+"Will you believe, Monsieur, that I had just finished a game of cards
+with the captain, and was preparing to have a bit of sleep, for it was
+near upon eleven o'clock, when I thought I heard something like the
+noise of troops marching. I looked round to see if any one heard it
+besides myself, but the men were already asleep, and a circular line of
+boots was sticking out all round the tents. The captain said: 'I daresay
+it is the patrol from the Rue de Villejuif.'--'Oh, yes,' said I, 'from
+the barricade,' and I fell to sleep without a thought of danger. In
+fact, there seemed nothing to fear, as the Moulin-Saquet overlooks the
+whole of the plain which stretches from Vitry to Choisy-le-Roi, and from
+Villejuif to the Seine. It was impossible for a man to approach the
+redoubt without being seen by the sentinel. I had, therefore, been
+asleep a few minutes when I was awoke by the following dialogue:--'Stop!
+who goes there?'--'The patrol.'--'Corporal, forward!'--Oh! said I to
+myself, it is our comrades come to see us; there will be some healths
+drunk before morning, and I got up to go and give them a welcome. The
+captain was also astir. 'The password!' he cried. The chief of the
+patrol came forward and answered--'Vengeance!' I remember wondering at
+the moment why he spoke so loud in giving the pass-word, when suddenly
+I saw three men rush forward, seize our captain, and throw him down. At
+the same time two or three hundred men, dressed as National Guards,
+threw themselves into the camp, rushed upon the sleeping artillery-men
+with their bayonets, and then fired several volleys into the tents where
+our poor comrades were asleep. What I had taken at first for National
+Guards were only those devils of sergents-de-ville dressed up! So, you
+see, as it was each man for himself, and the high road for everybody, I
+just threw myself down on my face, and let myself drop into the
+trenches. There was no fear of the noise of my fall being heard in the
+riot. I managed to hide myself pretty well in a hole I found there, and
+which had doubtless been made by a shell. I could not see anything, but
+I heard all that was going on. Clic! clac! clic! went the rifles, almost
+like the cracking of a whip, answered by the most dismal cries from the
+wounded. I could hear also the grinding of wheels, and made sure they
+were taking away our guns, the robbers! When all was silent except the
+groans of the dying men, I crept out of my hiding place. Would you
+believe it, Monsieur, I was the only one able to stand up; the
+Versaillais had taken all those who had not run away or were not
+wounded; I saw them, the pilfering thieves, making off towards Vitry, as
+fast as their legs could carry them!"
+
+"You have no idea, lieutenant," I said to the porter, "how the
+Versaillais got to know the pass-word?"--"No, only the captain, who is
+an honest fellow enough, but rather too fond of the bottle, went in the
+evening to the route d'Orleans where there are lots of wine-shops
+..."--"And you think he got tipsy, and let the pass-word out to some spy
+or other?"--"I would not swear he did not; but what I am more sure of,
+is that we are betrayed!"
+
+Alas! yes, unfortunates, you are betrayed, but not in the way you think.
+You are being cheated by these madmen and criminals who are busy
+publishing decrees at the Hotel de Ville, while you are dying by scores
+at Issy, Vanves, Montrouge, Neuilly, and the Moulin-Saquet; they betray
+you when they talk of Royalists and Imperialists; they deceive you when
+they tell you, that victory is certain, and that even defeat would be
+glorious. I tell you, that victory is impossible, and that your defeat
+will be without honour; for when you fell, crying, "Vive la Commune!"
+"Vive la Republique!" the Commune is Felix Pyat, and the Republic,
+Vermorel.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 78: Colonel Rossel was one of the most capable members of the
+Commune Government. He was born in 1844, and was the son of Commandant
+Louis Rossel, an officer who acquired a high reputation in the Chinese
+war. The young Louis Rossel received a sound military education at the
+Prytanee of La Fleche, and subsequently at the Ecole Polytechnique, at
+which latter institution he gained high honours. He served as captain of
+engineers in the army of Metz, and was one of the officers who signed
+the protestation against the surrender of Bazaine. He succeeded in
+eluding the vigilance of the Prussians, and appeared at Tours to offer
+his services to the Government of National Defence. Gambetta, then
+Minister of War, appointed Rossel to the rank of colonel in the
+so-called auxiliary army. After the signature of the peace
+preliminaries, the new government refused to ratify the promotion
+granted by Gambetta, but offered Rossel the rank of major. This
+seriously offended the ex-Dictator's ex-colonel, who shortly after the
+tenth of March, put his sword at the disposition of the Commune. He was
+at first appointed chief of the staff of General Cluseret, whom he
+subsequently replaced as delegate for war. On April 16 he became
+president of the Communist court-martial; he acted with great vigour in
+all military affairs until the 10th of May, when the Commune ordered his
+arrest.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: CHAPELLE EXPIATOIRE.]
+
+LXXV.
+
+
+Malediction on the man who imagined this decree; malediction on the
+assembly that approved it; and cursed be the hand which shall first
+touch a stone of that tomb! Oh I believe me, I am not among those who
+regret the times of royal prerogatives, and who believe that everything
+would have gone well, in the most peaceful country in the world, if
+Louis XVII had only succeeded to the throne after his father, Louis XVI.
+The author of the revolution of 1798 knew what he was about in
+multiplying such terrible catastrophes. The name of that author was
+Infallible Necessity. Indeed I am quite ready to confess that the
+indolent husband of Marie Antoinette had none of those qualities which
+make a great king, and I will even add, if you wish it absolutely, that
+the solitary fact of being a king is a crime worthy a thousand deaths.
+As to Marie Antoinette herself--"the Austrian," _Pere Duchesne_ would
+call her--I allow that in history she is not quite so amiable as she
+appears in the novels of Alexandra Dumas, and that her near relationship
+to the queen Caroline-Marie, whose little suppers at Naples, in company
+with Lady Hamilton, one is well acquainted with, gives some excuse for
+the calumnies of which she has been the object. Have I said enough to
+prevent myself being the recipient, in the event of a Bourbon
+restoration, of the most modest pension that ever came out of a royal
+treasury? Well, in spite of what I have said, and in spite of what I
+think, I repeat, "Do not touch that tomb!" Like the Column Vendome,
+which is the symbol of an heroic and terrible epoch in history, the
+Chapelle Expiatoire[79] is a souvenir of the old monarchical reign, an
+age which was neither devoid of sorrow, nor of honour for France. Can
+you not be republican without suppressing history, which was royalist?
+The last remains of monarchy repose in peace beneath that gloomy
+monument; may it be respected, as we respect the ashes of those who
+respected it; and you, breakers of images, profaners of past glory, do
+you not fear, in executing your decree, to produce an effect
+diametrically opposed to that which you desire? By persecuting kings
+even in their last resting-place, are you not afraid to excite the pity,
+the regret perhaps, of those whose consciences still hesitate? In the
+interest of the Republic, I say, take care! The memory of the dead
+stalks forth from open sepulchres!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 79: This chapel was erected by Louis XVIII. upon the spot
+where, during the Revolution of 1793, the remains of Louis XVI, and his
+Queen had been obscurely interred.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXVI.
+
+
+Rejoice, poor housewives, who, on days of poverty, were obliged to carry
+to the Mont-de-Piete[80] the discoloured remains of your wedding dress,
+or your husband's Sunday coat; rejoice, artisans, who, after a day of
+toil, thought your bed so hard since your last mattress was taken to the
+Rue des Blancs-Manteaux, to rejoin your last pair of sheets. The Commune
+has decreed that "all objects in pawn at the Mont-de-Piete, for a sum
+not exceeding twenty francs, shall be given back gratuitously to all
+persons who shall prove their legitimate right to the said objects."
+Thanks to this benevolent decree, you may now hope that things you have
+pawned will be restored to you before three or four hundred days!
+
+Count on your fingers; the number of articles to which the decree
+applies is at least 1,200,000. As there are only three offices for the
+claimants to apply to, and considering the forms which have to be
+observed, I do not think more than three thousand objects can be given
+back daily; the Commune says four thousand, but the Commune does not
+know what it is talking about. However, even if we calculate four
+thousand a-day, the whole would take up ten or twelve months.
+
+During this time men and women, whom poverty had long ere this taught
+the road to the Mont-de-Piete, would have to get up early, neglect the
+daily work by which they live, and go and stand awaiting their turn at
+the office, frozen in winter, baked in summer, thankful to obtain a
+moment's rest upon one of the wooden benches in the great bare hall; and
+when they have been there a long, weary time, to see their number, drawn
+by lot, put off to the next day or the day after, or the week or the
+month following perhaps.
+
+Still we must not blame the Commune for the sad disappointment of this
+long delay, it would be impossible to shorten it. One thing, which is
+less impossible, is to indemnify the administration of the Mont-de-Piete
+for this gratuitous restitution. Citizen Jourde, delegate of the
+finances, says, "I will give 100,000 francs a-week." Without stopping to
+consider where this able political economist means to get his weekly
+100,000 francs, I will be content with remarking that this sum would in
+no wise cover the loss to the Mont-de-Piete, and that the Commune will
+only be giving alms out of other people's purses. If, however, thanks to
+this decree, some few poor creatures are enabled to get back those goods
+and chattels which they were obliged to dispose of in the hour of need,
+there will not be much cause to complain. The Mont-de-Piete usually does
+a very good business, and there will always be enough misery in Paris
+for it to grow rich upon. Besides, the Commune owes the poor wounded,
+mutilated, dying fellows who have been brought from Neuilly and Issy, at
+least a mattress to die in some little comfort upon.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 80: The governmental pawnbroking establishments. All the
+pawnbroking is carried on by the Government.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXVII.
+
+
+They have put them into the prison of Saint-Lazare. Whom? The nuns of
+the convent of Picpus. They have put them there because they have been
+arrested. But why were they arrested? That is what Monsieur Rigault
+himself could not clearly explain. Some of the nuns are old. They have
+been living long in seclusion, and have only changed cells; having been
+the captives of Heaven, they have become the prisoners of Citizen
+Mouton. In such an abject place too, poor harmless souls! Victor Hugo
+has said, speaking of that wretched prison, "Saint-Lazare! we must crush
+that edifice." Yes, later, when we have the time; we must now pull down
+the Column Vendome and the Chapelle Expiatoire. In the meantime these
+poor ladies are very sad. One of my friends went to see them; they have
+neither their prayer-books nor their crucifix; they have had even the
+amulets they wore round their necks taken from them. This seems nothing
+to you, citizens of the Commune. You are men of advanced opinions. You
+care as much about a crucifix as a fish for an apple; and perhaps you
+are right. You have studied the question, and you say in the evening,
+looking up at the stars, "There is no God." But you must understand that
+with these poor nuns it is quite a different matter. They have not read
+philosophical treatises; they still believe that the Almighty created
+the world in six days, and that the Son died on the cross for the sake
+of the world. When they were free, or rather when they were in a prison
+of their own choosing, they prayed in the morning, they prayed at noon,
+they prayed at night, and only interrupted this most pernicious
+occupation for the purpose of teaching poor little girls that it is good
+to be virtuous, honest, and grateful, and that Heaven rewards those who
+do rightly. That was their occupation, poor simple souls, and you have
+sent them to Saint Lazare for that. You should have chosen another
+prison, for their presence must be disagreeable to the usual female
+denizens of the place. But there, or elsewhere, they do not complain;
+they only ask for a prayer-book and a wooden crucifix. Come, Citizen
+Delegate of the ex-Prefecture, one little concession, and unless the
+future of the Republic is likely to be compromised by so doing, give
+them a cross. A cross is only two pieces of wood placed one on the
+other. I promise you there will be wood enough in the forest the day
+honest men make up their minds to exercise their muscles on your backs,
+you bullying slave-drivers!
+
+
+
+
+LXXVIII.
+
+
+After Bergeret came Cluseret; after Cluseret, Rossel. But Rossel has
+just sent in his resignation. My idea is, that we take back Cluseret,
+that we may have Bergeret, and so on, unless we prefer to throw
+ourselves into the open arms of General Lullier. The choice of another
+general for the defence of Paris is however no business of mine; and the
+Commune, a sultan without a favourite, may throw his handkerchief if he
+pleases, to the tender Delescluze, as some say he has the intention--I
+have not the least objection. Why should not Delescluze[81] be an
+excellent general? He is a journalist, and what journalist does not know
+more about military matters than Napoleon I., or Von Moltke himself? In
+the meantime we are in mourning for our third War Delegate, and we shall
+no longer see Rossel on his dark bay, galloping between the Place
+Vendome and the Fort Montrouge. He has just written the following letter
+to the members of the Commune:--
+
+[Illustration: QUELLE GOURMANDE! Paris at Table
+
+--Waiter--Two or three more stuffed generals!
+
+--We are out of them.
+
+--Very well, then a dozen colonels in caper sauce.
+
+--A Dozen?--Yes! Directly!!]
+
+    "CITIZENS, MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNE,--Having been charged by you with
+    the War Department, I feel myself no longer capable of bearing the
+    responsibility of a command wherein every one deliberates, and no
+    one obeys.
+
+    "When it was necessary to organise the artillery, the Central
+    Committee of Artillery deliberated, but nothing was done.
+    After a month's revolution, that service is only carried on, thanks
+    to the energy of a very small number of volunteers.
+
+    "On my nomination to the Ministry, I wanted to further the search
+    for arms, the requisition of horses, and the pursuit of refractory
+    citizens; I asked help of the Commune.
+
+    "The Commune deliberated, but passed no resolutions.
+
+    "Later, the Central Committee came and offered its services to the
+    War Department; I accepted them in the most decisive manner, and
+    delivered up to its members all the documents I had concerning its
+    organisation. Since then the Central Committee has been
+    deliberating, and has done nothing. During this time the enemy
+    multiplied its venturesome attacks on Fort Issy; had I had the
+    smallest military force at my command, I would have punished them
+    for it.
+
+    "The garrison, badly commanded, took flight; the officers
+    deliberated, and sent away from the fort Captain Dumont, an
+    energetic man, who had been ordered to command them. Still
+    deliberating, they evacuated the fort, after having stupidly talked
+    of blowing it up,--as difficult a thing for them to do as to defend
+    it.
+
+[Illustration: DELESCLUZE, DELEGATE OF WAR.[82]]
+
+    "Even that was not enough. Yesterday, when every one ought to have
+    been at work or fighting, the chiefs were deliberating upon another
+    system of organisation from that which I had adopted, so as to make
+    up for their want of forethought and authority. The results of their
+    council were a project, when we want men, and a declaration of
+    principles, when we wanted acts.
+
+    "My indignation brought them back to other thoughts, and they
+    promised me for to-day the largest force they could possibly muster,
+    --an organised one of not more than 12,000 men. With these I undertook
+    to march on the enemy. These men were to muster at eleven o'clock: it
+    is now one, and they are not ready, and the promised 12,000 has
+    dwindled to about 7,000, which is not at all the same thing.
+
+    "Thus, the utter uselessness of the artillery committee prevented
+    the organization of the artillery; the hesitation of the Central
+    Committee stopped all arrangements; the petty discussions of the
+    officers, paralyses the concentration of the troops.
+
+    "I am not a man to mind having recourse to violence. Yesterday,
+    while the chiefs discussed, a company of men with loaded rifles
+    awaited in the court. But I did not want to take upon myself the
+    initiative of so energetic a measure, or draw upon myself the odium
+    of such executions as would have been necessary to extricate
+    obedience and victory from such a chaos. Even if I had been
+    protected by the publicity of my acts, I need not have given up my
+    position.
+
+    "But the Commune has not had the courage to confront publicity.
+    Twice I wished to give some necessary explanations, and twice, in
+    spite of me, it insisted on a secret council.
+
+    "My predecessor was wrong to remain in so absurd a position.
+
+    "Enlightened by his example, and knowing that the strength of a
+    revolutionary, only consists in the clearness of his position, I
+    have only two alternatives, either to break the chains which impede
+    my actions, or to retire.
+
+    "I will not break the chains, because those chains are you, and your
+    weakness,--I will not touch the sovereignty of the people.
+
+    "I retire; and have the honour to beg for a cell at Mazas.
+
+    "ROSSEL."[83]
+
+Most certainly I do not like the Paris Commune, such as the men of the
+Hotel de Ville understand it. Deceived at first by my own delusive
+hopes, I now am sure that we have nothing to expect from it but follies
+upon follies, crimes upon crimes. I hate it on account of the suppressed
+newspapers, of the imprisoned journalists, of the priests shut up at
+Mazas like assassins, of the nuns shut up at Saint-Lazare like
+courtesans; I hate it because it incites to the crime of civil war those
+who would have been ready to fight against the Prussians, but who do not
+wish to fight against Frenchmen; I hate it on account of the fathers of
+families sent to battle and to death; on account of our ruined ramparts,
+our dismantled forts, each stone of which as it falls wounds or
+destroys; on account of the widowed women and the orphaned children, all
+of whom they can never pension in spite of their decrees; I cannot
+pardon them the robbing of the banks, nor the money extorted from the
+railway companies, nor the loan-shares sold to a money-changer at Liege;
+I hate it on account of Clemence the spy, and Allix the madman. I am
+sorry to think that two or three intelligent men should be mixed up with
+it, and have to share in its fall. I hate it particularly on account of
+the just principles it at one time represented, and of the admirable and
+fruitful ideas of municipal independence, which it, was not able to
+carry out honestly, and which, because of the excesses that have been
+committed in their name, will have lost for ever, perhaps, all chance of
+triumphing. Still, great as is my horror of this parody of a government
+to which we have had to submit for nearly two months, I could not
+forbear a feeling of repulsion on reading the letter of Citizen Rossel.
+It is a capitally written letter, firm, concise, conclusive, differing
+entirely from the bombastic, unintelligible documents to which the
+Commune has accustomed us; and besides, it brings to light several
+details at which I rejoice, because it permits me to hope that the reign
+of our tyrants is nearly at an end. I am glad to hear that the Commune,
+if it possesses artillery, is short of artillerymen. It delights me to
+learn that they can only dispose of seven thousand combatants. I had
+feared that it would be enabled to kill a great many more; and as to
+what Citizen Rossel says of the committees and officers who deliberate
+but do not act, it is most pleasant news, for it convinces me, that the
+Commune has not the power to continue much longer a war, which can but
+result in the death of Paris; and yet I highly disapprove of the letter
+of Citizen Rossel, because it is on his part an act of treachery, and it
+is not for the friends and servants of the Commune to reveal its faults
+and to show up its weaknesses. Who obliged Rossel, commander of the
+staff, to take the place of his general, disgraced and imprisoned? Did
+he not accept willingly a position, the difficulties of which he had
+already recognised? He says himself that his predecessor was wrong to
+have stayed in so absurd a position, and why did he voluntarily put
+himself there, where he blamed another for remaining? If the new
+delegate hoped by his own cleverness to modify the position, he ought
+not, the position remaining the same, accuse anything but his own
+incapacity. In a word, the conclusion at which we arrive is, that he
+only accepted power to be able to throw it off with effect, like Cato,
+who only went to the public theatres for the purpose of fussily leaving
+the place, at the moment when the audience called the actors before the
+curtain. Not being able or perhaps willing to save the Commune, M.
+Rossel desired to save himself at its expense. There is something
+ungentlemanly in this. Do not, however, imagine for a moment that I
+believe in M. Rossel having been bought by M. Thiers. All those
+ridiculous stories of sums of money having been offered to the members
+of the Commune, are merely absurd inventions.[84] What do you think they
+say of Cluseret? That he was in the habit of taking his breakfast at the
+Cafe d'Orsay, and afterwards playing a game of dominoes. One day his
+adversary is reported to have said to him, "If you will deliver the fort
+of Montrouge to the Versaillais, I will give you two millions." What
+fools people must be to believe such absurdities! Rossel has not sold
+himself, for the very good reason that nobody ever thought of buying
+him. It was his own idea to do what he did. For the pleasure of being
+insolent and showing his boldness, he has pulled down from its pedestal
+what he adored, consequently the most criminal among the members of the
+Commune, once a swindler, now a pilferer, is free to say to M. Rossel,
+who is, I am told, a man of intelligence and honesty, "You are worse
+than I am, for you have betrayed us!"
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 81: PARIS AT DINNER.--An ogress, gentleman! A famished
+creature, faring sumptuously; her face flushed with wine, her eyes
+bright, her hands trembling. Madame Lutetia is a strapping woman still,
+with a queenly air about her, in spite of the red patches on her tunic;
+somewhat shorn of her ornaments, it is true, as she has had to pawn the
+greater part of her jewelry, but the orgie once over she will be again
+what she was before.
+
+For the time being she is wholly absorbed in her gastronomic exertions.
+She has already devoured a Bergeret with peas, a Lullier with anchovy
+sauce, an Assy and potatoes, a Cluseret with tomatos, a Rossel with
+capers, besides a large quantity of small fry, and she is not yet
+appeased. The _maitre-d'hotel_ Delescluze waits upon her somewhat in
+trepidation, with a sickly smile on his face. What if, after such a meal
+of generals and colonels, the ogress were to devour the waiter!--_Fac
+simile of design from the "Grelot," 17th May, 1871_.]
+
+[Footnote 82: Delescluze's wild life began at Dreux, in 1809. Driven
+from home on account of his bad conduct, he came to Paris, and obtained
+employment in an attorney's office, from which he was very soon
+afterwards, it is said, discharged for robbery. In 1834, he underwent
+the first of his long list of imprisonments, for the part he took in the
+April revolution, and in the following year, being compromised in a
+conspiracy against the safety of the state, he took refuge in Belgium,
+Where he obtained the editorship of the _Courrier de Charleroi_. In 1840
+he returned to Paris, where he founded a journal called the _Revolution
+Democratique et Sociale_, which brought him fifteen months' imprisonment
+and twenty thousand francs fine. After a long period of liberty of
+nearly eight years, he was condemned to transportation by the High Court
+of Justice, but the condemnation was given in his absence, for he had
+slipped over to England, where he remained until 1853. On his returning
+in that year to France he was immediately imprisoned at Mazas,
+transferred afterwards to Belle-Isle, and then successively to the hulks
+of Corte, Ajaccio, Toulon, Brest, and finally to Cayenne. These sojourns
+lasted until 1868, when the amnesty permitted him to return to France,
+where he made haste to bring out another new journal, _Le Reveil_, which
+of course earned him fines and imprisonments with great rapidity, three
+of each within the twelvemonth.
+
+In the month of February, 1871, he was elected deputy by a large number
+of votes; and later, when the Assembly went to Bordeaux, sat there for
+some time, and then gave in his resignation, in order to take part with
+the Commune.
+
+By the Commune he was made delegate at the Ministry of War, after the
+pretended flight of Rossel, and in a sitting of the 20th of April, in
+which the project of burning Paris was discussed, Delescluze ended his
+speech with the words--"If we must die, we will give to Liberty a pile
+worthy of her."]
+
+[Footnote 83: He was convinced of the hopelessness of any further
+struggle after the capture of Fort Issy; gave in his resignation, and
+hid himself to escape the vengeance of his former colleagues. He was
+supposed to be in England or Switzerland, whereas, in fact, he had fled
+no farther than the Boulevard Saint Germain. He was arrested by the
+police on the ninth of June, disguised as an employe of the Northern
+Railway. He was first interrogated at the Petit Luxembourg, and
+afterwards conducted handcuffed to Versailles, where three mouths after
+he was tried by court-martial and sentenced to military degradation and
+death.]
+
+[Footnote 84: "A plot had just been discovered between Bourget of the
+Internationale, Billioray, member of the Commune, and Cerisier, captain
+of the 101st Battalion of the insurgent National Guard. For a certain
+sum of money they were to deliver Port Issy into the hands of General
+Valentin, of the Versailles army. The succession of Rossel to the
+Ministry of War frustrated the whole project.
+
+"In the night of the 17th of May another attempt of the same kind met
+with failure. The Communists Bourget, Billioray, Mortier, Cerisier, and
+Pilotel, the artist, traitors to their own treacherous cause, were to
+open the gates to the soldiers of Versailles, an hour after midnight, at
+the Point du Jour; the soldiers to be disguised as National Guards. But,
+at the appointed hour, Cerisier took fright, and contented himself with
+the money he had received on account (twenty-five thousand francs) in
+payment for his treachery, and did no more. When the Versailles troops
+presented themselves at the gates, they had to beat a retreat under a
+heavy fire of mitrailleuses." _Guerre des Communeux_.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXIX.
+
+
+I was told the following by an eye-witness of the scene. In a small room
+at the Hotel de Ville five personages were seated round a table at
+dinner. The repast was of the most modest kind, and consisted of soup,
+one dish of meat, one kind of vegetable, cheese, and a bottle of vin
+ordinaire each. One would have thought, oneself in a restaurant at two
+francs a head, if it had not been that the condiments had got musty
+during the siege; besides, there was something solemn and official in
+the very smell of the viands which took away one's appetite. However,
+our five personages swallowed their food as fast as they could. At the
+head of the table sat Citizen Jourde. Jourde looks about eight and
+twenty; he has a delicate looking, mathematical head, with brown curly
+hair and sallow complexion, a kind of Henri Heine of the Finance. Tall
+and thin, with his red scarf tied round his waist, he reminds us of one
+of the old Convention of '89. They sat for some time in silence, as if
+they were observing each other. At the end of the first course, Jourde
+took up a spoon and examined it, saying, "Silver! true there is silver
+at the Hotel de Ville, I will send for it to-morrow!" One of the other
+guests said, "Pardon me, I have to answer for it, and shall not give it
+up."--"Oh, yes you will," answered Jourde, "I will have an order sent to
+you from the Domaine,"[85] and then, as if he were thinking aloud, goes
+on to express his satisfaction at having found an unexpected sum of
+three hundred thousand francs, as it were on the dinner-table. A whole
+day's pay! He will be able to put by four millions at the end of the
+week; he tries to be economical, but the war runs away with everything.
+"You must at least give me three days' notice for the payment of sums
+amounting to more than a hundred thousand francs," says he, with a
+shrug of the shoulders, particularly addressed to Beslay. Then he speaks
+of his hopes of reducing the Prussian debt before the year is out, if
+the Commune lives so long; touches on subjects connected with the taxes,
+patents and duties, "or else bank-notes worth fire hundred francs in the
+morning, will only be worth twenty sous in the evening; money is scarce,
+it is leaving the city. I do not see much copper about, but if you leave
+me alone, I promise to succeed." All this was said in a tone of the most
+sincere conviction. When the dinner was over, he hastily bowed and
+rushed off, without having taken any notice of what was said to him.
+Every now and then cries arose in the streets, and made the members of
+the Commune start as they sat there behind their sombre curtains. "Do
+you think they can come in?" asked some one of Johannard, to which he
+replies, "What a wild idea! Delescluze knows it is impossible, and
+Dombrowski, a cold unexcitable fellow, only laughs when people mention
+it; does he not, Rigault?" Thereupon the personage addressed, who has
+not yet spoken, bows his head in sign of acquiescence. He looks young in
+spite of his thick, black beard; his eyes are weak, his expression is
+sly and disagreeable, and looks as if he might sometimes have his hours
+of coarse joviality. Then a portiere was lowered, or a door shut, and
+the person who had overheard the preceding heard and saw no more.
+
+[Illustration: FONTAINE, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC DOMAINS AND
+REGISTRATION.[86]]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 85: The Commune occupied the Mint, and directed Citizen
+Camelinat, bronze-fitter, to manufacture gold and silver coin to the
+amount of 1,500,000 francs. Of that sum, 76,000 francs only was saved by
+the Versailles troops on their entry. The different articles of gold and
+silver found at the Hotel des Monnaies represented a total weight of
+1,186 lbs., and consisted of objects taken from the churches, religious
+houses, and government offices, Imperial plate, and presents to the city
+of Paris. All these objects have been sent to the repository of the
+Domaine, where they maybe claimed on identification by their owners.]
+
+[Footnote 86: Fontaine was nominated on the 18th of March director of
+the public domains and of registration. His name figures in the history
+of the revolutions, emeutes, and insurrections of Paris from 1848. He
+was a professional insurgent.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXX.
+
+
+I am beginning to regret Cluseret. He was impatient, especially in
+speech. He used to say "Every man a National Guard!" But with Cluseret,
+as with one's conscience, there were possible conciliations. You had
+only to answer the decrees of the war-delegate by an enthusiastic "Why I
+am delighted, indeed I was just going to beg you to send me to the
+Porte-Maillot;" which having done, one was free to go about one's
+business without fear of molestation. As to leaving Paris, in spite of
+the law which condemned every man under forty to remain in the city;
+nothing was easier. You had but to go to the Northern Railway Station,
+and prefer your request to a citizen, seated at a table behind a
+partition in the passport office.[87] When he asked you your age you had
+only to answer "Seventy-eight," passing your hand through your sable
+locks as you spoke--"Only that? I thought you looked older," the
+accommodating individual would answer, at the same time putting into
+your hand a paper on which was written some cabalistic sign. One day I
+had taken it into my head to go and spend two hours at Bougival, and my
+pass bore the strange word "Carnivolus" written on it. Provided with
+this mysterious document, I was enabled to procure a first-class ticket
+and jump into the next train that started. I was free, and nothing could
+have prevented my going, if such had been my wish, to proclaim the
+Commune at Mont Blanc or Monaco.
+
+How the times are changed! The Committee of Public Safety and the
+Central Committee now join together in making the lives of the poor
+_refractaires_[88] a burthen to them. I do not speak of the
+disarmaments, which have nothing particularly disagreeable about them,
+for an unarmed man may clearly nourish the hope that he is not to be
+sent to battle. But there are other things, and I really should not
+object to be a little over eighty for a few days. Domiciliary visits
+have become very frequent. Four National Guards walk into the house of
+the first citizen they please, and politely or otherwise, explain to him
+that it is his strict duty to go into the trenches at Vanves and kill as
+many Frenchmen as he can. If the citizen resists he is carried off, and
+told that on account of his resistance he will have the honour of being
+put at the head of his battalion at the first engagement. These visits
+often end in violence. I am told that in the Rue Oudinot a young man
+received a savage bayonet thrust because he resisted the corporal's
+order; and as these occurrences are not uncommon, the _refractaires_
+cannot be said to live in peace and comfort. They are subject to
+continual terror, the sour visage of their _concierge_ fills them with
+misgivings, he may be one of the Commune. As to going to bed, it must
+not be thought of; it is during the hours of night that the Communal
+agents are particularly active. This necessity of changing domicile has
+lead to certain Amelias and Rosalines and other ladies of that
+description having the words "Hospitality to _Refractaires_" written in
+pencil on their cards. Men who decline to take advantage of such
+opportunities have to go about from hotel to hotel, giving imaginary
+names, suspicious of the waiters, and awaking at the least sound,
+thinking it is the noise of feet ascending the stairs, or the rattle of
+muskets on the landing. The day before yesterday a number of
+_refractaires_, having the courage of despair, walked to the Porte
+Saint-Ouen--"Will you let us out?" asked they of the commanding officer,
+who answered in a decided negative; whereupon the party, which was three
+hundred strong, fell upon the captain and his men, whom they disarmed,
+and five minutes afterwards they were running free across the fields.
+
+Others employ softer means of corruption; resort to the wine-shops of
+Belleville, where they make themselves agreeable in every way, and soon
+succeed in entering into friendly conversation with some of the least
+ferocious among the Federals of the place.
+
+[Illustration: REFRACTAIRES ESCAPING FROM PARIS]
+
+"You are on duty, Tuesday, at the Porte de la Chapelle?"--"Why,
+yes."--"So that you might very easily let a comrade out who wants to go
+and pay a visit at Saint-Denis?"--"Quite out of the question; the others
+would prevent me, or denounce me to the captain."--"You think there is
+nothing to be done with the captain?"--"Oh! no; he is a staunch patriot,
+he is!"--"How very tiresome; and I wanted most particularly to go to
+Saint-Denis on Tuesday evening. I would gladly give twenty francs out of
+my own pocket for the sake of a little walk outside the
+fortifications."--"There is only one way."--"And how is that?"--"You
+don't care much about going out by the door, do you?"--"Well, no; what I
+want is to get outside."--"Oh! then listen to me; come to La-Chapelle
+early on Tuesday evening, and walk up and down the rampart. I will try
+and be on duty at eight o'clock, and look out for you. When I see you I
+will take care not to say _qui vive_."--"That's easy enough; and what
+then?"--"Why, then I will secure around you a thick rope which of course
+you will have with you!"--"The devil!"--"And I will throw you into the
+trench."--"By Jove! That will be a leap."--"Oh! I will do it very
+carefully, without hurting you. I will let you slip softly down the
+wall."--"Humph!"--"When you reach the ground below, in an instant you
+can be up and off into the darkness. Do you accept? Yes or no?"--"I
+should certainly prefer to drive out of the city in a coach and six,
+but nevertheless I accept."
+
+Generally, this plan answers admirably. They say that the Federals of
+Belleville and Montmartre make a nice little income with this kind of
+business. Sometimes, however, the plan only half succeeds, and either
+the rope breaks, or the Federal considers, he may manage capitally to
+reconcile his interest with his duty, by sending a ball after the
+escaped _refractaire_.
+
+Disguises are also the order of the day. A poet, whose verses were
+received at the Comedie Francaise with enthusiasm during the siege,
+managed to get away, thanks to an official on the Northern Railway, who
+lent him his coat and cap. Another poet--they are an ingenious
+race--conceived a plan of greater boldness. One day on the Boulevard he
+called a fiacre, having first taken care to choose a coachman of
+respectable age, "_Cocher_, drive to the Rue Montorgueil, to the best
+restaurant you can find." On the way the poet reasoned thus to himself:
+"This coachman has in his pocket, as they all have, a Communal passport,
+which allows him to go out and come into Paris as he pleases; let me
+remember the fourth act of my last melodrama, and I am saved."
+
+The cab stopped in front of a restaurant of decent exterior not far from
+Philippe's. The young man went in, asked for a private room, and told
+the waiter to send up the coachman, as he had something to say to him,
+and to procure a boy to hold the horse. The coachman walked into the
+room, where the breakfast was ready served.
+
+"Now, coachman, I am going to keep you all day, so do not refuse to
+drink a glass with me to keep up your strength."
+
+An hour after the poet and the coachman had breakfasted like old
+friends; six empty bottles testified that neither one nor the other were
+likely to die of thirst. The poet grumbled internally to himself as he
+thought of the three bottles of Clos-Vougeot, one of Leoville, two of
+Moulin-au-Vent, that had been consumed, and the fellow not drunk yet.
+Then he determined to try surer means, and called to the waiter to
+bring champagne. "It is no use, young fellow," laughed the coachman, who
+was familiar at least, if he was not drunk; "champagne won't make any
+difference; if you counted on that to get my passport, you reckoned
+without your host!"--"The devil I did," cried the poor young man,
+horrified to see his scheme fall through, and to think of the prodigious
+length of the bill he should have to pay for nothing.--"Others, have
+tried it on, but I am too wide awake by half," said the coachman, adding
+as he emptied the last bottle into his glass, "give me two ten-franc
+pieces and I will get you through."--"How can I be grateful enough?"
+cried the poet, although in reality he felt rather humiliated to find
+that the grand scene in his fourth act had not succeeded.--"Call the
+waiter, and pay the bill." The waiter was called, and the bill paid with
+a sigh. "Now give me your jacket."--"My jacket?"--"Yes, this thing in
+velvet you have on your back." The poet did as he was bid. "Now your
+waistcoat and trousers."--"My trousers! Oh, insatiable coachman!"--"Make
+haste will you, or else I shall take you to the nearest guard-room for a
+confounded _refractaire_, as you are." The clothes were immediately
+given up. "Very well; now take mine, dress yourself in them, and let's
+be off." While the young man was putting on with decided distaste the
+garments of the _cocher_, the latter managed to introduce his ponderous
+bulk into those of the poet. This done, out they went. "Get up on the
+box."--"On the box?"--"Yes, idiot," said the coachman, growing more and
+more familiar; "I am going to get into the cab, now drive me wherever
+you please." The plan was a complete success. At the Porte de Chatillon
+the disguised poet exhibited his passport, and the National Guard who
+looked in at the window of the carriage cried out, "Oh, he may pass; he
+might be my grandfather." The cab rolled over the draw-bridge, and it
+was in this way that M ...,--ah! I was just going to let the cat out of
+the bag--it was in this way that our young poet broke the law of the
+Commune, and managed to dine that same evening at the Hotel des
+Reservoirs at Versailles, with a deputy of the right on his left hand,
+and a deputy of the left on his right hand.
+
+Shall I go away? Why not? Do I particularly wish to be shut up one
+morning in some barrack-room, or sent in spite of myself to the
+out-posts? My position of _refractaire_ is sensibly aggravated by the
+fact of my being in rather a dangerous neighbourhood. For the last few
+days, I have felt rather astonished at the searching glances that a
+neighbour always casts upon me, when we met in the street. I told my
+servant to try and find out who this man was. Great heavens! this
+scowling neighbour of mine is Gerardin--Gerardin of the Commune! Add to
+this the perilous fact, that our _concierge_ is lieutenant in a Federal
+battalion, and you will have good reason to consider me the most
+unfortunate of _refractaires_. However, what does it matter? I decide on
+remaining; I will stay and see the end, even should the terrible Pyat
+and the sweet Vermorel both of them be living under the same roof with
+me, even if my _concierge_ be M. Delescluze himself!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 87: The decree which rendered obligatory the service in the
+marching companies of the National Guard, and the establishment of
+courts-martial, spread terror among the population, and thousands of
+people thronged daily to the Prefecture of Police. Sometimes, the queue
+extended from the Place Dauphine to beyond the Pont Neuf. But soon
+afterwards, stratagems of every kind were put into requisition to escape
+from the researches of the Commune, which became more eager and
+determined, from day to day, after the publication of the following
+decree, the chef-d'oeuvre of the too famous Raoul Rigault:--
+
+"EX-PREFECTURE OF POLICE.
+
+"Delivery of Passports.
+
+"Considering that the civil authority cannot favour the non-execution of
+the decrees of the Commune, without failing in its duty, and that it is
+highly necessary that all communications with those who carry on this
+savage war against us should be prevented,
+
+"The member of the Committee of Public Safety, Delegate at the
+Prefecture of Police,
+
+"Decrees:--
+
+"Art. 1. Passports can only be delivered on the production of
+satisfactory documents.
+
+"Art. 2. No passport will be delivered to individuals between the ages
+of seventeen and thirty-five years, as such fall within the military
+law.
+
+"Art. 3. No passport will be issued to any member of the old police, or
+who are in relation with Versailles.
+
+"Art. 4. Any persons who come within the conditions of Articles 2 or 3,
+and apply for passports, will be immediately sent to the depot of the
+ex-Prefecture of Police.
+
+(Signed) "RAOUL RIGAULT,
+
+"Member of the Committee of Public Safety."]
+
+[Footnote 88: Those who decline to join the Commune.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXXI.
+
+
+Glorious news! I have seen Lullier again. We had lost Cluseret, lost
+Rossel; Delescluze does not suffice, and except for Dombrowski and La
+Cecilia with his prima-donna-like name, the company of the Commune would
+be sadly wanting in stars. Happily! Lullier has been restored to us.
+What had become of him? he only wrote seven or eight letters a day to
+Rochefort and Maroteau, that I can find out. How did he manage to employ
+that indomitable activity of his, and that of his two hundred friends,
+who with their red Garibaldis and blue sailor trousers made him the most
+picturesque escort you can imagine? Was he meditating some gigantic
+enterprises the dictatorship that Cluseret had dreamed of and Rossel
+disdained, was he about to assume it for the good of the Republic? I
+have no idea; but whatever he has been doing, I have seen him again at
+the club held in the church of Saint Jacques.
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL LA CECILIA.[89]]
+
+Ha! ha! Worthless hypocrites and inquisitors, who for the last eighteen
+hundred years have crushed, degraded, and tortured the poor; you thought
+our turn was never to come, you monks, priests, and archbishops! Thanks
+to the Commune you now preach in the prisons of the Republic; you may
+confess, if you like, the spiders of your dungeons, and give the holy
+viaticum to the rats which play around your legs! You can no longer do
+any harm to patriots. No more churches, no more convents! Those who
+have not houses in the Champs Elysees shall lodge in your convents; in
+your churches shall be held honest assemblies, which will give the
+people their rights; as to their duties, that is an invention of
+reactionists. No more of your sermons or speeches: after Bossuet,
+Napoleon Gaillard!
+
+[Illustration: THE CHURCH OF SAINT EUSTACHE. Used as a Red Club. Partly
+destroyed by fire.]
+
+On entering the church of Saint Eustache yesterday, I was agreeably
+surprised to find the font full of tobacco instead of holy-water, and to
+see the altar in the distance covered with bottles and glasses. Some one
+informed me that was the counter. In one of the lateral chapels, a
+statue of the Virgin had been dressed out in the uniform of a
+vivandiere, with a pipe in her mouth. I was, however, particularly
+charmed with the amiable faces of the people I saw collected there. The
+sex to which we owe the _tricoteuses_ was decidedly in the majority. It
+was quite delightful not to see any of those elegant dresses and
+frivolous manners, which have for so long disgraced the better half of
+the human race. Thank heaven! my eyes fell with rapture on the heroic
+rags of those ladies who do us the honour of sweeping our streets for
+us. Many of these female patriots were proud to bear in the centre of
+their faces a rubicund nose, that rivalled in colour the Communal flag
+on the Hotel de Ville. Oh, glorious red nose, the distinguished sign of
+Republicanism! As to the men, they seemed to have been chosen among the
+first ranks of the new aristocracy. It was charming to note the military
+elegance with which their caps were slightly inclined over one ear;
+their faces, naturally hideous, were illuminated with the joy of
+freedom, and certainly the thick smoke which emanated from their pipes,
+must have been more agreeable as an offering, than the faint vapours of
+incense that used to arise from the gilded censers. "Marriage,
+citoyennes, is the greatest error of ancient humanity. To be married is
+to be a slave. Will you be slaves?"--"No, no!" cried all the female part
+of the audience, and the orator, a tall gaunt woman with a nose like the
+beak of a hawk, and a jaundice-coloured complexion, flattered by such
+universal applause, continued, "Marriage, therefore, cannot be tolerated
+any longer in a free city. It ought to be considered a crime, and
+suppressed by the most severe measures. Nobody has the right to sell his
+liberty, and thereby to set a bad example to his fellow citizens. The
+matrimonial state is a perpetual crime against morality. Don't tell me
+that marriage may be tolerated, if you institute divorce. Divorce is
+only an expedient, and if I may be allowed to use the word, an Orleanist
+expedient!" (Thunders of applause.) "Therefore, I propose to this
+assembly, that it should get the Commune of Paris to modify the decree,
+which assures pensions to the legitimate or illegitimate companions of
+the National Guards, killed in the defence of our municipal rights. No
+half measures. We, the illegitimate companions, will no longer suffer
+the legitimate wives to usurp rights they no longer possess, and which
+they ought never to have had at all. Let the decree be modified. All for
+the free women, none for the slaves!"
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH OF ST. EUSTACHE--COMMUNIST CLUB.]
+
+The orator descends from the pulpit amidst the most lively
+congratulations. I am told by some one standing near me, that the orator
+is a monthly nurse, who used to be a somnambulist in her youth. But the
+crowd opens now to give place to a male orator, who mounts the spiral
+staircase, passes his hand through his hair, and darts a piercing glance
+on the multitude beneath. It is Citizen Lullier.
+
+This young man has really a very agreeable physiognomy; his forehead is
+intelligent, his eyes pleasant. Looking on M. Lullier's sympathetic
+face, one is sorry to remember his eccentricities. But what is all this
+noise about? What has he said? what has he done? I only heard the words
+"Dombrowski," and "La Cecilia." Every one starts to his feet,
+exasperated, shouting. Several chairs are about to be flung at the
+orator. He is surrounded, hooted. "Down with Lullier! Long live
+Dombrowski!" The tumult increases. Citizen Lullier seems perfectly calm
+in the midst of it all, but refuses to leave the pulpit; he tries in
+vain to speak and explain. Two women, two amiable hags, throw themselves
+upon him; several men rush up also; he is taken up bodily and carried
+away, resisting to the utmost and shouting to the last. The people jump
+up on the chairs, Lullier has disappeared, and I hear him no more; what
+have they done with him!
+
+What do you think of all this, gentlemen and Catholics! Do you still
+regret the priests and choristers who used awhile ago to preach and
+chant in the Parisian churches? Where is the man, who at the very sight
+of this new congregation, so tolerant, so intelligent, listening with
+such gratitude to these noble lessons of politics and morality; where is
+the man, who could any longer blind himself to the admirable influence
+of the present revolution? Innumerable are the benefits that the Paris
+Commune showers upon us! As I leave the church, a little vagabond walks
+up to the font, and taking a pinch of tobacco,--"In the name of the...!"
+says he, then fills his pipe; "In the name of the ...!" proceeding to
+strike a lucifer, adds, "In the name of the ...!"--"Confound the
+blasphemous rascal!" say I, giving him a good box on the ears. After
+having written these lines I felt inclined to erase them; on second
+thoughts I let them remain--they belong to history!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 89: A political refugee, who left his country in 1869 for
+Prussia, where he taught mathematics in the University of Ulm, and
+afterwards accepted service under Garibaldi.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXXII.
+
+
+This morning I took a walk in the most innocent manner, having committed
+no crime that I knew of. It was lovely weather, and the streets looked
+gay, as they generally do when it is very bright, even when the hearts
+of the people are most sad. I passed through the Rue Saint-Honore, the
+Palais Royal, and finally the Rue Richelieu. I beg pardon for these
+details, but I am particularly careful in indicating the road I took, as
+I wish the inhabitants of the places in question, to bear witness that I
+did not steal in passing a single quartern loaf, or appropriate the
+smallest article of jewellery. As I was about to turn on to the
+boulevards, one of the four National Guards who were on duty, I do not
+know what for, at the corner of the street, cried out, "You can't pass!"
+All right, thought I to myself; there is nothing fresh I suppose, only
+the Commune does not want people to pass; of course, it has right on its
+side. Thereupon I began to retrace my steps. "You can't pass," calls out
+another sentinel, by the time I have reached the other side of the
+street.
+
+This is strange, the Commune cannot mean to limit my walk to a
+melancholy pacing up and down between two opposite pavements. A sergeant
+came up to me; I recognised him as a Spaniard, who during the siege
+belonged to my company. "Why are you not in uniform?" he asked me, with
+a roughness that I fancied was somewhat mitigated by the remembrance of
+the many cigars I had given him, the nights we were on guard during the
+siege. I understood in an instant what they wanted with me, and replied
+unhesitatingly, "Because it is not my turn to be on guard,"--"No, of
+course it's not, it never is. You have been taking your ease this long
+time, while others have been getting killed." It was evident this
+Spaniard had not taken the cigars I had given him, in good part, and was
+now revenging himself.--"What do you want with me?" I said; "let's have
+done with this." Instead of answering, he signed to two Federals
+standing near, who immediately placed themselves one on each side of me,
+and cried, "March!" I was perfectly agreeable, although this walk was
+not exactly in the direction I had intended. On the way I heard a woman
+say, "Poor young man I They have taken him in the act." I was conducted
+to the church of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, and marched into the vestry,
+where about fifty _refractaires_ were already assembled.
+
+Behind a deal table, on which were placed a small register, an inkstand
+stuck in a great bung, and two quill pens, sat three young men, almost
+boys, in uniform. You might have imagined them to be Minos, Aeacus, and
+Rhadamanthus, at the age when they played at leap-frog. "Your name?"
+said Rhadamanthus, addressing me. I did not think twice about it, but
+gave them a name which has never been mine. Suddenly some one behind me
+burst out laughing; I turned round and recognised an old friend, whom I
+had not noticed among the other prisoners. "Your profession?" inquired
+Minos.--"Prizefighter," I answered, putting my arms akimbo and looking
+as ferocious as possible, by way of keeping up the character I had
+momentarily assumed. To the rest of the questions that were addressed to
+me, I replied in the same satisfactory manner. When it was over, Minos
+said to me, "That is enough; now go and sit down, and wait until you are
+called."--"Pardon me, my young friend, but I shall not go and sit down,
+nor shall I wait a moment more."--"Are you making fun of us? We are
+transacting most serious business, our lives are at stake. Go and sit
+down."--"I have already had the honour to remark, my dear Rhadamanthus,
+that I did not mean to sit down. Be kind enough to allow me to depart
+instantly."--"You ask _me_ to do this?"--"Yes! you!" I shouted in a
+tremendous voice. The three judges looked at me in great perplexity, and
+began whispering amongst themselves. A prize fighter, by jingo! I
+thought the moment had come to strike a decisive blow, so I pulled out
+of my pocket a little green card, which I desired them to examine.
+Immediately Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanthus got up, bowed to me most
+respectfully, and called out to two National Guards who were at the
+door, "Allow the citizen to pass."--"By-the-bye," said I, pointing, to
+my friend, "this gentleman is with me."--"Allow both the citizens to
+pass," shouted the lads in chorus.--"This is capital," cried my friend
+as soon as we were well outside the door.--"How did you manage?"--"I
+have a pass from the Central Committee."--"In your own name?"--"No, I
+bought it of the widow of a Federal; who was on very good terms with
+Citizen Felix Pyat."--"Why, it is just like a romance."--"Yes, but a
+romance that allows me to live pretty safely in the midst of this
+strange reality. Anyhow, I think we had better look out for other
+lodgings."
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: HOUSE OF M. THIERS, PLACE SAINT-GEORGES.]
+
+LXXXIII.
+
+
+At ten o'clock in the evening I was walking up the Rue
+Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. In these times the streets are quite deserted at
+that hour. Looking on in front I saw that the Place Saint-Georges was
+lighted up by long tongues of flame, that the wind blew hither and
+thither. I hastened on, and was soon standing in front of M. Thiers'
+house.[90] At the open gate stood a sentinel; a large fire had been
+lighted in the court by the National Guards; not that the night was
+cold, they seemed to have lighted it merely for the pleasure of burning
+furniture and pictures, that had been left behind by the Communal
+waggoners. They had already begun to pull down the right side of the
+house; a pickaxe was leaning against a loosened stone; the roof had
+fallen in, and a rafter was sticking out of one of the windows. The fire
+rose higher and higher; would it not be better that the flames should
+reach the house and consume it in an hour or two, than to see it being
+gradually pulled down, stone by stone, for many days to come? In the
+court I perceived several trucks full of books and linen. A National
+Guard picked up a small picture that was lying near the gate; I bent
+forward and saw that it was a painting of a satyr playing on a flute.
+How sad and cruel all this seemed! The men lounging about looked
+demoniacal in the red light of the fire. I turned away, thinking not of
+the political man, but of the house where he had worked, where he had
+thought, of the books that no longer stood on the shelves, of the
+favourite chair that had been burnt on the very hearth by which he had
+sat so long; I thought of all the dumb witnesses of a long life
+destroyed, dispersed, lost, of the relatives, and friends whose traces
+had disappeared from the rooms empty to-day, in ruins to-morrow; I
+thought of all this, and of all the links that would be broken by a
+dispersion, and I trembled at the idea that some day--in these times
+anything seems possible--men may break open the doors of my modest
+habitation, knock about the furniture of which I have grown fond,
+destroy my books which have so long been the companions of my studies,
+tear the pictures from my walls, and burn the verses that I love for the
+sake of the trouble they have given me to make,--kill, in a word, all
+that renders life agreeable to me, more cruelly than if four Federals
+were to take me off and shoot me at the corner of a street. But I am
+not a political man. I belong to no party--who would think of doing me
+any injury? I am perfectly harmless, with my lovesick metaphor. Ah I how
+egotistical one is! It was of my own home that I thought while I stood
+in front of the ruin in the Place Saint-Georges. I confess that I was
+particularly touched by the misfortunes of that house, because it
+awakened in me the fear of my own, misfortune, most improbable, and most
+diminutive, it is true, in comparison with that.
+
+[Illustration: HOUSE OF M. THIERS DURING DEMOLITION AND REMOVAL.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 90: It should be remarked that the destruction of M. Thiers'
+house coincided with the first success of the Versailles army; it was
+the spirit of hatred and mad destructiveness which dictated the
+following decree, issued by the Committee of Public Safety on the 10th
+of May:--
+
+"Art. 1. The goods and property of Thiers (they even denied him the
+appellation of citizen) are seized by order of the administration of
+public domains.
+
+"Art. 2. The house of Thiers, situated at the Place Saint-Georges, to be
+demolished."
+
+On the following day the National Assembly, in presence of the activity
+exhibited by M. Thiers, declared that the proscribed, whose house was
+demolished, had exhibited proofs of an amount of patriotism and
+political ability which inspired every confidence in the future. On the
+12th of the same month works were commenced at Versailles for the
+formation of a railway-station sufficient for all the wants of an
+important army, the initiation of which was due to M. Thiers; a
+conference was opened on the 19th April with the Western Railway
+Company, the plans were approved on the 22nd of the same month, and the
+preliminary works were commenced on the 12th of May. When these are
+terminated, they will consist of thirty-five parallel lines of rails,
+more than a mile in length. But the principal point in the plan is, that
+by means of branches to Pontoise and Chevreuse, this immense station may
+be placed in direct communication with all the lines of railway in
+France. It is easy enough to draw the following conclusion, namely, that
+if the necessity should ever again arise, Paris would cease to be the
+central depot for all commercial movements, and thus the paralysis of
+the affairs of the whole country would be avoided, in case the Parisian
+populace should again be bitten by the barricade mania. At one time it
+was feared that the collections of M. Thiers were destroyed in the
+conflagration at the Tuileries; but M. Courbet reports that on the 12th
+of May he asked what he ought to do about the different things taken at
+the house of M. Thiers, and if they were to be sent to the Louvre or to
+be publicly sold, and he was then appointed a member of the commission
+to examine the case. Regarding his conduct at the time of the
+demolishing of the house of M. Thiers, he arrived too late, he says, to
+make an inventory; the furniture and effects had been already packed by
+the _employes_ of the Garde Meuble; "I made some observations about it,
+and on going through the empty apartments, I noticed two small figures
+that I packed in paper, thinking they might be private _souvenirs_, and
+that I would return them some day to their owner. All the other things
+were already destroyed or gone."]
+
+
+
+
+LXXXIV.
+
+
+An anecdote: Parisian all over; but with such stuff are they amused!
+
+Raoul Rigault, the man who arrests, was breakfasting with Gaston
+Dacosta, the man who destroys. These two friends are worthy of each
+other. Rigault has incarcerated the Archbishop of Paris, but Dacosta
+claims the merit of having loosened the first stone in M. Thiers' house.
+But however, Rigault would destroy if Dacosta were not there to do so;
+and if Rigault did not arrest, Dacosta would arrest for him.
+
+They talked as they ate. Rigault enumerated the list of people he had
+sent to the Conciergerie and to Mazas, and thought with consternation
+that soon there would be no one left for him to arrest. Suddenly he
+stopped his fork on its way to his mouth, and his face assumed a most
+doleful expression.--"What's the matter?" cried Dacosta, alarmed.--"Ah!"
+said Rigault, tears choking his utterance, "Papa is not in
+Paris."--"Well, and what does it matter if your father is not
+here?"--"Alas!" exclaimed Rigault, bursting out crying, "I could have
+had him arrested!"[91]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 91: The illegality of his conduct, however, was too
+glaring even for the Commune, and he was removed from his post on a
+complaint made by Arthur Arnould, to the committee, concerning the
+arbitrary arrest of a number of persons. Cournet was appointed to the
+Prefecture in Rigault's stead, but the amateur policeman and informer
+did not renounce work; he found the greatest pleasure, as he himself
+expressed it, in acting the spy over the official spies. This man was a
+well-known frequenter of the low cafes of the Quartier Latin, and his
+face bore such evidences of his debauched life, that though only
+twenty-eight years of age, he looked nearer forty.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: COURNET, MEMBER OF COMMITTEE OF GENERAL SAFETY.]
+
+LXXXV.
+
+
+The horrible cracking sound that is heard at sea when a vessel splits
+upon a rock, is not a surer sign of peril to the terrified crew, than
+are the vain efforts, contradictions and agitation at the Hotel de
+Ville, the forerunners of disaster to the men of the Commune. Listen!
+the vessel is about to heave asunder. Everybody gives orders, no one
+obeys them. One man looks defiantly at another; this man denounces that,
+and Rigault thinks seriously of arresting them both. There is a majority
+which is not united, and a minority that cannot agree amongst
+themselves. Twenty-one members retire, they do well.[92] I am glad to
+find on the list the names of the few that Paris' still believes in, and
+whom, thanks to this tardy resignation, it will not learn to despise.
+For instance, Arthur Arnould. But why should they take the trouble to
+seek out a pretext? Why did they not say simply: "We have left them
+because we find them full of wickedness; we were blinded as you were at
+first, but now we in our turn see clearly; a good cause has been lost by
+madmen or worse, and we have abandoned it because, if we were to stay a
+moment longer, now that we are no longer blinded, we should be
+committing a criminal act" Such words as these would have opened the
+eyes of so many wretched beings, who are going to their deaths and think
+they do well to die! As to those who remain, they must feel that their
+power is slipping from them. They did not arrest or detain Rossel; it
+would seem as if they dared not touch him because he was right in
+thinking what he said, although he was very wrong to say it as he did.
+While the Commune hesitates, the military plans of the Versaillais are
+being carried out. Vanves taken, Montrouge in ruins, breaches opened at
+the Point-du-Jour, at the Porte-Maillot, at Saint-Ouen; the Communists
+have only to choose now, between flight and the horrors of a terrible
+death struggle! May they fly, far, far away, beyond the reach of
+vengeance, despised, forgotten if that be possible! I am told that the
+Central Committee is trying now to substitute itself for the Commune,
+which was elected by its desire.[94] One born of the other, they will
+die together.
+
+[Illustration: ARTHUR ARNOULD, COMMISSIONER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.][93]
+
+[Illustration: FOUNDERED CRAFT ON THE SEINE]
+
+[Illustration: PORTE MAILLOT & Avenue de la Grande Armee.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 92: An important document has just made the round of the
+Communal press--the manifesto of the minority of the Commune, in which
+twenty-one members declare their refusal to take any farther part in the
+deliberations of the body, which they accuse of having delivered its
+powers into the hands of the Committee of Public Safety, and thus
+rendering itself null. This declaration is signed by:--Arthur Arnould,
+Avrial, Andrieux, Arnold, Clemence, Victor Clement, Courbet, Franckel,
+Eugene Gerardin, Jourde, Lefrancais, Longuet, Malon, Ostyn, Pindy,
+Serailler, Tridon, Theisz, Varlin, Vermorel, Jules Valles.
+
+Adding to these twenty-one secessionists, twenty-one members who have
+resigned:--Adam, Barre, Brelay, Beslay, De Bouteiller, Cheron,
+Desmarest, Ferry, Fruneau, Goupil, Loiseau-Pinson, Leroy, Lefevre,
+Meline, Murat, Marmottan, Nast, Ulysse Parent, Robineat, Rane, Tirard;
+
+Three who have not sat: Briosne, Menotti Garibaldi, Rogeard;
+
+Two dead: Duval, Flourens;
+
+One captured: Blanqui;
+
+One escaped: Charles Gerardin;
+
+Five incarcerated: Allix, Panille dit Blanchet, Brunel, Emile Clement,
+Cluseret;--
+
+Out of 101 members elected to the Commune on the 26th of March and the
+16th of April, only forty-seven now remain:--Amouroux, Ant. Arnaud,
+Assy, Babick, Billioray, Clement, Champy, Chardon, Chalain, Demay,
+Dupont, Decamp, Dereure, Durant, Delescluze, Eudes, Henry Fortune,
+Ferre, Gambon, Geresme, Paschal Grousset, Johannard, Ledroit, Langevin,
+Lonclas, Mortier, Leo Meiller, Martelet, J. Miot, Oudet, Protot, Paget,
+Pilotel, Felix Pyat, Philippe, Parisel, Pottier, Regere, Raoul Rigault,
+Sicard, Triquet, Urbain, Vaillant, Verdure, Vesmier, Viart.]
+
+[Footnote 93: Arnould is a man of about forty-seven years of age, small
+in stature, lively and intelligent. He has written in many of the
+Democratic journals of Paris and the provinces; and his literary talents
+are of a good kind. Being connected with Rochefort's journal, the
+_Marseillaise_, he was sent by the latter to challenge Pierre Bonaparte,
+and was a witness at the trial which followed the murder of Victor Noir.
+
+Although naturally drawn by his connections into the movement of the
+eighteenth of March, he always protested loudly against the arbitrary
+acts of the Commune, and it is surprising that he did not fall under
+accusation, by his colleagues. He opposed particularly the proposals for
+the suppression of newspapers. "It is prodigious to me," he said, in
+full meeting of the committee, "that people will still talk of arresting
+others for expressing their opinions."
+
+He voted against the organisation of the Committee of Public Safety on
+the ground:--
+
+"That such an institution would be directly opposed to the political
+opinions of the electoral body, of which the Commune is the
+representative."
+
+He protested most energetically against secret imprisonment--
+
+"Secret incarceration has something immoral in it; it is moral torture
+substituted for physical.
+
+"I cannot understand men who have passed their life in combating the
+errors of despotism, falling into the same faults when they arrive at
+power. Of two things one: either secret imprisonment is an indispensable
+and good thing; or, it is odious. If it was good it was wrong to oppose
+it, and if it be odious and immoral, we ought not to continue it."
+
+What on earth had he then to do in the Commune?
+
+"Que diable allait-il faire dans cette galere?"]
+
+[Footnote 94: "REPUBLICAN FEDERATION OF THE NATIONAL GUARD.
+
+"Central Committee.
+
+"To the People of Paris! To the National Guard!
+
+"Rumours of dissensions between the majority of the Commune and the
+Central Committee have been spread by our common enemies with a
+persistency which, once for all, must be crushed by public compact.
+
+"The Central Committee, appointed to the administration of military
+affairs by the Committee of Public Safety, will enter upon office from
+this day.
+
+"This Committee, which has upheld the standard of the Communal
+revolution, has undergone no change and no deterioration. It is today
+what it was yesterday, the legitimate defender of the Commune, the basis
+of its power, at the same time as it is the determined enemy of civil
+war; the sentinel placed by the people to protect the rights that they
+have conquered,
+
+    "In the name, then, of the Commune, and of the Central Committee,
+    who sign this pact of good faith, let these gross suspicions and
+    calumnies be swept away. Let hearts beat, let hands be ready to
+    strike in the good cause, and may we triumph in the name of union
+    and fraternity.
+
+    "Long live the Republic!
+
+    "Long live the Commune!
+
+    "Long live the Communal Federation!
+
+    "The Commission of the Commune, BERGERET, CHAMPY, GERESME, LEDROIT,
+    LONGLAS, URBAIN.
+
+    "The Central Committee. "Paris, 18th May, 1871."
+
+]
+
+
+
+
+LXXXVI.
+
+
+It was five o'clock in the afternoon. The day had been splendid and the
+sun shone brilliantly on Caesar still standing on the glorious pedestal
+of his victories. Outside the barricades of the Rue de la Paix and the
+Rue Castiglione, the crowd was standing in a compact mass, as far as the
+Tuileries on one side and the New Opera House on the other. There must
+have been from twenty to twenty-fire thousand people there. Strangers
+accosted each other by the title of Citizen, I heard some talking about
+an eccentric Englishman who had paid three thousand francs for the
+pleasure of being the last to climb to the summit of the column. Nearly
+every one blamed him for not having given the money to the people.
+Others said that Citizen Jourde would not manage to cover his expenses;
+Abadie[95] the engineer had asked thirty-two thousand francs to pull
+down the great trophy, and that the stone and plaster was after all, not
+covered with more than an inch or two of bronze, that it was not so many
+metres high, and would not make a great many two-sous pieces after all.
+These sous seemed to occupy the public mind exceedingly, but the
+principal subjects of conversation, were the fears concerning the
+probable effects of the fall.
+
+[Illustration: BARRICADE OF THE RUE CASTIGLIONE, FROM THE PLACE
+VENDOME.]
+
+The event was slow in accomplishment. The wide Place was thinly
+sprinkled with spectators, not more than three hundred in all,
+privileged beings with tickets, or wearing masonic badges; or officers
+of the staff. Bergeret at one of the windows was coolly smoking a
+cigarette; military bands were assembled at the four angles of the
+Place; the sound of female laughter reached us from the open windows of
+the Ministere de la Justice. The horses of the mounted sentinels
+curvetted with impatience; bayonets glittered in the sun; children gaped
+wearily, seated on the curbstone. The hour of the ceremony was past; a
+rope had broken. Around the piled faggots on which the column was to
+fall, great fascines of flags of the favourite colour were flying.
+
+The crowd did not seem to enjoy being kept in suspense, and proclaimed
+their impatience by stamping with measured tread, and crying "Music!"
+
+At half-past five there was a sudden movement and bustle around the
+barricade of the Rue Castiglione. The members of the Commune appeared
+with their inevitable red scarfs.[96] Then there was a great hush. At
+the same instant the windlass creaked; the ropes which hung from the
+summit of the column tightened; the gaping hole in the masonry below,
+gradually closed; the statue bent forward in the rays of the setting
+sun, and then suddenly describing in the air a gigantic sweep, fell
+among the flags with a dull, heavy thud, scattering a whirlwind of
+blinding dust in the air.
+
+Then the bands struck up the "Marseillaise," and cries of "Vive la
+Commune" were re-echoed on all sides by the terror or the indifference
+of the multitude. In a marvellously short time, however, all was quiet
+again, so quiet, indeed, that I distinctly heard a dog bark as it ran
+frightened across the Place.
+
+I daresay the members of the Commune, who presided over the
+accomplishment of this disgraceful deed, exclaimed in the pride of their
+miserable hearts, "Caesar, those whom you salute shall live!"
+
+Everybody of course wished to get a bit of the ruin, as visitors to
+Paris eagerly bought bits of siege bread framed and glazed, and there
+was a general rush towards the place; but the National Guards crossed,
+their bayonets in front of the barricade, and no one was allowed to
+pass. So that the crowd quickly dispersed to its respective dinners. "It
+is fallen!" said some to those who had not been fortunate enough to see
+the sight. "The head of the statue came off--no one was killed." The
+boys cried out, "Oh, it was a jolly sight all the same!" But the greater
+part of the people were silent as they trudged away.
+
+Then night came on, and next day a land-mark and a finger-post seemed
+missing in our every-day journey. Until we lose a familiar object we
+hardly appreciate its existence.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 95: Abadie arranged to demolish the Colonne Vendome for 32,000
+or 38,000 francs, forfeiting 600 francs for every day's delay after the
+fourth of May. This reduced the sum to be paid to him by 6000 francs.]
+
+[Footnote 96: Regarding Courbet and the destruction of the Column, he
+rejects the accusation on the ground that this decree had been voted
+previously to his admission in the Commune, and on the request he had
+made under the Government of the 4th of May of removing the column to
+the esplanade of the Invalides. He affirms that the official paper has
+altered his own words at the Commune, and he pretends having proposed to
+the Government to rebuild the column at his own expense, if it can be
+proved that he has been the cause of its destruction.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXXVII.
+
+
+On the sixteenth, I received a prospectus through my concierge. There
+was to be a concert, mixed with speeches--a sort of popular fete at the
+Tuileries. The places varied in price from ten sous to five francs. Five
+francs the Salle des Marechaux; ten sous the garden, which was to be
+illuminated with Venetian lamps among the orange-trees; the whole to be
+enlivened by fireworks from the Courbevoie batteries.
+
+I had tact enough not to put on white gloves, and set out for the
+palace.
+
+It was not a fairy-like sight; indeed, it was a most depressing
+spectacle. A crowd of thieves and vagabonds, of dustmen and rag-pickers,
+with four or five gold bands on their sleeves and caps, (the insignia of
+officers of the National Guard), were hurrying along down the grand
+staircase, chewing "imperiales," spitting, and repeating the old jokes
+of '93. As to the women--they were sadly out of place. They simpered,
+and gave themselves airs, and some of them even beat time with their
+fans, as Mademoiselle Caillot was singing, to look as if they knew
+something about music.
+
+[Illustration: THE PALACE OF THE TUILERIES, FROM THE GARDEN. The last
+concert held in the Tuileries by the Commune took place on Sunday, the
+21st of March, when Anteuil and Passy had been in the power of the army
+for several hours. Two days later the old palace was in flames. Citizen
+Felix Pyat had advanced the preservation of the Tuileries in the
+_Vengeur_, proposing to convert it into an asylum for the victims of
+work and the martyrs of the Republic. "This residence," he wrote, "ought
+to be devoted to the people, who had already taken possession of it."]
+
+The concert took place in the Salle des Marechaux: a platform had been
+erected for the performers. The velvet curtains with their golden bees
+still draped the windows. From the gallery above I could see all that
+was going on. The Imperial balcony opens out of it; I went there, and
+leaned on the balustrade with a certain feeling of emotion. Below were
+the illuminated gardens, and far away at the end of the Champs Elysees,
+almost lost in the purple of the sky, rose the Arc de Triomphe de
+l'Etoile.
+
+The roaring of the cannon at Vanves and Montrouge reached me where I
+stood. When the duet of the "_Maitre de Chapelle_" was over, I returned
+into the hall; the distant crashing of the mitrailleuse at Neuilly,
+borne towards us on the fresh spring breeze, in through the open
+windows, joined its voice to the applause of the audience.
+
+Oh! what an audience! The faces in general looked fit subjects for the
+gibbet; others were simply disgusting: surprise, pleasure, and fear of
+Equality were reflected on every physiognomy. The carpenter, Pindy,
+military governor of the Hotel de Ville, was in close conversation with
+a girl from Philippe's. The ex-spy Clemence muttered soft speeches into
+the ear of a retired _chiffonniere_, who smiled awkwardly in reply. The
+cobbler Dereure was intently contemplating his boots; while Brilier,
+late coachman, hissed the singers by way of encouragement, as he would
+have done to his horses. They were going to recite some verses: I only
+waited to hear--
+
+     "PUIS, QUEL AVEUGLEMENT! QUEL NON-SENS POLITIQUE!"
+
+an Alexandrine, doubtless, launched at the National Assembly, and made
+my way to the garden as quickly as I could.
+
+There, in spite of the Venetian lamps, all was very dull and dark. The
+walks were almost deserted, although it was scarcely half-past nine. I
+took a turn beneath the trees: the evening was cold; and I soon left the
+gardens by the Rue de Rivoli gate. A good many people were standing
+there "to see the grand people come from the fete"--a fete given by
+lackeys in a deserted mansion!
+
+
+
+
+LXXXVIII.
+
+
+I was busy writing, when suddenly I heard a fearful detonation, followed
+by report on report. The windows rattled: I thought the house was
+shaking under me. The noise continued: it seemed as if cannon were
+roaring on all sides. I rushed down into the street; frightened people
+were running hither and thither, and asking questions. Some thought that
+the Versaillais were bombarding Paris on all sides. On the Boulevards I
+was told it was the fort of Vanves that had been blown up. At last I
+arrived on the Place de la Concorde: there the consternation was great,
+but nothing was known for certain. Looking up, I saw high up in the sky
+what looked like a dark cloud, but which was not a cloud. I tried again
+and again to obtain information. It appeared pretty certain that an
+explosion had taken place near the Ecole Militaire-doubtless at the
+Grenelle powder-magazine, I then turned into the Champs Elysees. A
+distant cracking was audible, like the noise of a formidable battery of
+mitrailleuses. Puffs of white smoke arose in the air and mingled with
+the dark cloud there. I no longer walked, I ran: I hoped to be able to
+see something from the Rond Point de l'Etoile. Once there, a grand and
+fearful sight met my eyes. Vast columns of smoke rolled over one another
+towards the sky. Every now and then the wind swept them a little on one
+side, and for an instant a portion of the city was visible beneath the
+rolling vapours. Then in an instant a flame burst out--only one, but
+that gigantic, erect, brilliant, as one that might dart forth from a
+Tolcano suddenly opened, up through the smoke which was reddened,
+illumined by the eruption of the fire. At the same moment there were
+explosions as of a hundred waggons of powder blown up one after another.
+All this scene, in its hideous splendour, blinded and deafened me. I
+wanted to get nearer, to feel the heat of the burning, to rush on. I had
+the fire-frenzy!
+
+[Illustration: RAZOUA, GOVERNOR OF THE ECOLE MILITAIRE.[97]]
+
+Going down to the Quai de Passy, I found a dense crowd there. Some one
+screamed out: "Go back! go back! the fire will soon reach the
+cartridge-magazine." The words had scarcely been uttered, when a storm
+of balls fell like hail amongst us. Each person thought himself wounded,
+and many took to their heels. It did not enter into my head to run away.
+From where I was then, the sight was still more terribly beautiful, and
+the crowd that had withdrawn from the spot soon re-assembled again.
+Dreadful details were passed from mouth to mouth. Four five-storied
+houses had fallen; no one dared to think even of the number of the
+victims. Bodies had been seen to fall from the windows, horribly
+mutilated; arms and legs had been picked up in different places. Near
+the powder-magazine is a hospital, which was shaken from foundation to
+roof: for an instant it had trembled violently as if it were going to
+fall. The nurses, dressers, and even the sick had rushed from the wards,
+shrieking in an agony of fear; the frightened horses, too, with blood
+streaming down their sides, pranced madly among the fugitives, or
+galloped away as fast as they could from the awful scene.
+
+As to the cause of the explosion, opinions varied much. Some said it was
+owing to the negligence of the overseers or the imprudence of the
+workwomen; others, that the fire was caused by a shell. A woman rushed
+up to us, screaming out that she had just seen a man arrested in a shed
+in the Champ de Mars, who acknowledged having blown up the
+powder-magazine, by order of the Versailles government. Of course this
+was inevitable. The Commune would not let such a good opportunity pass
+for accusing its enemies. A few innocent people will be arrested, tried
+with more or less form, and shot; when they are so many corpses, the
+Commune will exclaim, "You see they must have been guilty: they have
+been shot!"
+
+As evening came on I turned home, thinking that the cup was now filled
+to overflowing, and that the devoted city had had to suffer defeat,
+civil war, infamy, and death; but that this last disaster seemed almost
+more than divine justice. Ever and anon I turned my head to gaze again.
+In the gathering gloom, the flames looked blood-red, as if the Commune
+had unfurled its sinister banner over that irreparable disaster.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 97: Razoua served in a regiment of Spahis in Africa. Becoming
+acquainted with the journalists who used to frequent the Cafe de Madrid,
+he was a constant attendant there. He took up literature, and in 1867
+published some violent articles in the _Pilori_ of Victor Noir. He
+afterwards went with Delescluze to the _Reveil_, where his revolutionary
+principles were manifested. In the month of February, 1871, he was
+elected a member of the National Assembly by the people of Paris. After
+having sat for some time at Bordeaux, he gave his resignation, and
+became one of the Communal council.
+
+Appointed governor of the Ecole Militaire, he distinguished himself in
+no way in his position, except by the sumptuous dinners and dejeuners
+with which he regaled his friends.]
+
+
+
+
+LXXXIX.
+
+
+I have gazed so long on what was passing around me that my eyes are
+weary. I have watched the slow decline of joy, of comfort and luxury,
+almost without knowing how everything has been dying around me, as a man
+in a ball-room where the candles are put out, one by one, may not
+perceive at first the gathering gloom. To see Paris, as it is at the
+present moment, as the Commune has made it, requires an effort. Let me
+shut my eyes, and evoke the vision of Paris as it was, living, joyous,
+happy even in the midst of sadness. I have done so--I have brought it
+all back to me; now I will open my eyes and look around me.
+
+In the street that I inhabit not a vehicle of any kind is visible. Men
+in the uniform of National Guards pass and repass on the pavement; a
+lady is talking with her _concierge_ on the threshold of one of the
+houses. They talk low. Many of the shops are closed; some have only the
+shutters up; a few are quite open. I see a woman at the bar of the
+wine-shop opposite, drinking.
+
+Some quarters still resist the encroachments of silence and apathy. Some
+arteries continue to beat. Some ribbons here and there brighten up the
+shop-windows: bare-headed shopgirls pass by with a smile on their lips;
+men look after them as they trip along. At the corner of the Boulevards
+a sort of tumult is occasioned by a number of small boys and girls,
+venders of Communal journals, who screech out the name and title of
+their wares at the top of their voices. But even there where the crowd
+is thickest, one feels as if there were a void. The two contrary ideas
+of multitude and solitude seem to present themselves at once in one's
+mind. A weird impression! Imagine a vast desert with a crowd in it.
+
+The Boulevards look interminable. There used to be a hundred obstacles
+between you and the distance; now there is nothing to prevent your
+looking as far as you like. Here and there a cab, an omnibus or two, and
+that is all. The passers-by are no longer promenaders. They have come
+out because they were obliged: without that they would have remained at
+home. The distances seem enormous now, and people who used to saunter
+about from morning till night will tell you now that "the Madeleine is a
+long way off." Very few men in black coats or blouses are to be seen;
+only very old men dare show themselves out of uniform. In front of the
+cafe's are seated officers of the Federal army, sometimes seven or eight
+around a table. When you get near enough, you generally find they are
+talking of the dismissal of their last commander. Here and there a lady
+walks rapidly by, closely veiled, mostly dressed in black, with an
+unpretending bonnet. The gallop of a horse is distinctly audible--in
+other times one would never have noticed such a thing; it is an express
+with despatches, a Garibaldian, or one of the _Vengeurs de Flourens_,
+who is hoisted on a heavy cart-horse that ploughs the earth with its
+ponderous forefeet. Several companies of Federals file up towards the
+Madeleine, their rations of bread stuck on the top of their bayonets.
+Look down the side-streets, to the right or the left, and you will see
+the sidewalks deserted, and not a vehicle from one end to the other of
+the road. Even on the Boulevards there are times when there is no one to
+be seen at all. However, beneath it all there is a longing to awaken,
+which is crushed and kept down by the general apathy.
+
+In the evening one's impulses burst forth; one must move about; one must
+live. Passengers walk backwards and forwards, talking in a loud voice.
+But the crowd condenses itself between the Rue Richelieu and the Rue du
+Faubourg Montmartre. Solitude has something terrible about it just now.
+People congregate together for the pleasure of elbowing each other, of
+trying to believe they are in great force. Quite a crowd collects round
+a little barefooted girl, who is singing at the corner of a street. A
+man seated before a low table is burning _pastilles_; another offers
+barley-sugar for sale; another has portraits of celebrities. Everybody
+tries hard to be gay; but the shops are closed, and the gas is sparingly
+lighted, so that broad shadows lie between the groups.
+
+Some few persons go to the theatres; the playbills, however, are not
+seductive. If you go in, you will find the house nearly empty; the
+actors gabble their parts with as little action as possible. You see
+they are bored, and they bore us. Sometimes when some actor, naturally
+comic, says or does something funny, the audience laughs, and then
+suddenly leaves off and looks more serious than before. Laughter seems
+out of place. One does not know how to bear it; so one walks up and down
+the corridors, then instead of returning to the play, wanders out again
+on to the Boulevard. It is ten o'clock--dreadfully late. Many of the
+cafes are already closed for the night. At Tortoni's and the Cafe
+Anglais, not a glimmer is visible. The crowd has nearly disappeared.
+Only a few officers remain, who have been drinking all the evening in an
+_estaminet_. They call to each other to hurry on; perhaps one of them is
+drunk, but even he is not amusing. Let us go home. Scarcely anyone is
+left in the street. A bell is rung here and there, as the last of us
+reach our respective homes.
+
+That, Commune de Paris, is what you have made of Paris! The Prussians
+came, Paris awaited them quietly with a smile; the shells fell on its
+houses, it ate black bread, it waited hours in the cold to obtain an
+ounce of horse-flesh or thirty pounds of green wood; it fought, but was
+vanquished; it was told to surrender, and "it was given up," as they say
+at the Hotel de Ville; and yet through all, Paris had not ceased to
+smile. And this, they say, constitutes its greatness; it was the last
+protestation against unmerited misfortunes; it was the remembrance of
+having once been proud and happy, and the hope of becoming so again; it
+was, in a word, Paris declaring it was Paris still. Well, what neither
+defeats, nor famine, nor capitulation could do, thou hast done! And
+accursed be thou, O Commune; for, as Macbeth murdered sleep, thou hast
+murdered our smiles!
+
+
+
+
+XC.
+
+
+The roaring of cannon close at hand, the whizzing of shells, volleys of
+musketry! I hear this in my sleep, and awake with a start. I dress and
+go out. I am told the troops have come in. "How? where? when?" I ask of
+the National Guards who come rushing down the street, crying out, "We
+are betrayed!" They, however, know but very little. They have come from
+the Trocadero, and have seen the red trousers of the soldiers in the
+distance. Fighting is going on near the viaduct of Auteuil, at the Champ
+de Mars. Did the assault take place last night or this morning? It is
+quite impossible to obtain any reliable information. Some talk of a
+civil engineer having made signals to the Versaillais; others say a
+captain in the navy was the first to enter Paris.[98] Suddenly about
+thirty men rush into the streets crying, "We must make a barricade." I
+turn back, fearing to be pressed into the service. The cannonading
+appears dreadfully near. A shell whistles over my head. I hear some
+one say, "The batteries of Montmartre are bombarding the Arc de
+Triomphe;" and strange enough, in this moment of horror and uncertainty,
+the thought crosses my mind that now the side of the arch on which is
+the bas-relief of Rude will be exposed to the shells. On the Boulevard
+there is only here and there a passenger hurrying along. The shops are
+closed; even the cafe's are shut up. The harsh screech of the
+mitrailleuse grows louder and nearer. The battle seems to be close at
+hand, all round me. A thousand contradictory suppositions rush through
+my brain and hurry me along, and here on the Boulevard there is no one
+that can tell me anything. I walk in the direction of the Madeleine,
+drawn there by a violent desire to know what is going on, which
+silences the voice of prudence. As I approach the Chaussee d'Antin I
+perceive a multitude of men, women, and children running backwards and
+forwards, carrying paving-stones. A barricade is being thrown up; it is
+already more than three feet high. Suddenly I hear the rolling of heavy
+wheels; I turn, and a strange sight is before me--a mass of women in
+rags, livid, horrible, and yet grand, with the Phrygian cap on their
+heads, and the skirts of their robes tied round their waists, were
+harnessed to a mitrailleuse, which they dragged along at full speed;
+other women pushing vigorously behind. The whole procession, in its
+sombre colours, with dashes of red here and there, thunders past me; I
+follow it as fast as I can. The mitrailleuse draws up a little in front
+of the barricade, and is hailed with wild clamours by the insurgents.
+The Amazons are being unharnessed as I come up. "Now," said a young
+_gamin_, such as one used to see in the gallery of the Theatre Porte St.
+Martin, "don't you be acting the spy here, or I will break your head
+open as if you were a Versaillais."--"Don't waste ammunition," cried an
+old man with a long white beard--a patriarch of civil war--"don't waste
+ammunition; and as for the spy, let him help to carry paving-stones.
+Monsieur," said he, turning to me with much politeness, "will you be so
+kind as to go and fetch those stones from the corner there?"
+
+[Illustration: Cafe Life Under the Commune.]
+
+[Illustration: SPECTACLES DE PARIS.]
+
+I did as I was bid, although I thought, with anything but pleasure, that
+if at that moment the barricade were attacked and taken, I might be shot
+before I had the time to say, "Allow me to explain." But the scene which
+surrounds me interests me in spite of myself. Those grim hags, with
+their red headdresses, passing the stones I give them rapidly from hand
+to hand, the men who are building them up only leaving off for a moment
+now and then to swallow a cup of coffee, which a young girl prepares
+over a small tin stove; the rifles symmetrically piled; the barricade,
+which rises higher and higher; the solitude in which we are
+working--only here and there a head appears at a window, and is quickly
+withdrawn; the ever-increasing noise of the battle; and, over all, the
+brightness of a dazzling morning sun--all this has something sinister
+and yet horribly captivating about it. While we are at work, they talk;
+I listen. The Versaillais have been coming in all night.[99] The Porte
+de la Muette and the Porte Dauphine have been surrendered by the 13th
+and the 113th battalions of the first arrondissement. "Those two numbers
+13 will bring them ill-luck," says a woman. Vinoy is established at the
+Trocadero, and Douai at the Point du Jour: they continue to advance. The
+Champ de Mars has been taken from the Federals after two hours'
+fighting. A battery is erected at the Arc de Triomphe, which sweeps the
+Champs Elysees and bombards the Tuileries. A shell has fallen in the Rue
+du Marche Saint Honore. In the Cours-la-Reine the 188th battalion stood
+bravely. The Tuileries is armed with guns, and shells the Arc de
+Triomphe. In the Avenue de Marigny the gendarmes have shot twelve
+Federals who had surrendered; their bodies are still lying on the
+pavement in front of the tobacconist's. Rue de Sevres, the _Vengeurs de
+Flourens_ have put to flight a whole regiment of the line: the
+_Vengeurs_ have sworn to resist to a man. They are fighting in the
+Champs Elysees, around the Ministere de la Guerre, and on the Boulevard
+Haussman. Dombrowski has been killed at the Chateau de la Muette. The
+Versaillais have attacked the Western Saint Lazare station, and are
+marching towards the Pepiniere barracks. "We have been sold, betrayed,
+and surprised; but what does it matter, we will triumph. We want no more
+chiefs or generals; behind the barricades every man is a marshal!"
+
+[Illustration: _Place de la Concorde_]
+
+[Illustration: _Poor Pradier's Statues. Lille suffers from her friends
+in fight--whilst Strasbourg--in crape--mourns the foe of France._]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Eight or ten men come flying down the Chaussee d'Antin; they join,
+crying out, "The Versaillais have taken the barracks; they are
+establishing a battery. Delescluze has been captured at the Ministere de
+la Guerre."--"It is false!" exclaims a vivandiere; "we have just seen
+him at the Hotel de Ville."--"Yes, yes," cry out other women, "he is at
+the Hotel de Ville. He gave us a mitrailleuse. Jules Valles embraced us,
+one after another; he is a fine man, he is! He told us all was going
+well, that the Versaillais should never have Paris, that we shall
+surround them, and that it will all be over in two days."--"Vive la
+Commune!" is the reply. The barricade is by this time finished. They
+expect to be attacked every second. "You," said a sergeant, "you had
+better be off, if you care for your life." I do not wait for the man to
+repeat his warning. I retrace my steps up the Boulevard, which is less
+solitary than it was. Several groups are standing at the doors. It
+appears quite certain that the troops of the Assembly have been pretty
+successful since they came in. The Federals, surprised by the suddenness
+and number of the attacks, at first lost much ground. But the resistance
+is being organised. They hold their own at the Place de la Concorde; at
+the Place Vendome they are very numerous, and have at their disposal a
+formidable amount of artillery. Montmartre is shelling furiously. I turn
+up the Rue Vivienne, where I meet several people in search of news. They
+tell me that "two battalions of the Faubourg Saint Germain have just
+gone over to the troops, with their muskets reversed. A captain of the
+National Guard has been the first in that quarter to unfurl the
+tricolour. A shell had set fire to the Ministere des Finances, but the
+firemen in the midst of the shot and shell had managed to put it out."
+At the Place de la Bourse I find three of four hundred Federals
+constructing a barricade; having gained some experience, I hurry on to
+escape the trouble of being pressed into the service. The surrounding
+streets are almost deserted; Paris is in hiding. The cannonading is
+becoming more furious every minute. I cross the garden of the Palais
+Royal. There I see a few loiterers, a knot of children are skipping. The
+Rue de Rivoli is all alive with people. A battalion marches hurriedly
+from the Hotel de Ville; at the head rides a young man mounted on a
+superb black horse. It is Dombrowski. I had been told he was dead. He is
+very pale. "A fragment of shell hit him in the chest at La Muette, but
+did not enter the flesh," says some one. The men sing the _Chant du
+Depart_ as they march along. I see a few women carrying arms among the
+insurgents; one who walks just behind Dombrowski has a child in her
+arms. Looking in the direction of the Place de la Concorde, I see smoke
+arising from the terrace of the Tuileries. In front of the Ministere des
+Finances, this side of the barricade is a black mass of something; I
+think I can distinguish wheels; it is either cannon or engines. All
+around is confusion. I can hear the musketry distinctly, but the noise
+seems to come from the Champs Elysees; they are not firing at the
+barricade. I turn and walk towards the Hotel de Ville: mounted expresses
+ride constantly past; companies of Federals are here and there lying on
+the ground around their piled muskets. By the Rue du Louvre there is
+another barricade; a little further there is another and then
+another.[100] Close to Saint Germain l'Auxerrois women are busy pulling
+down the wooden seats; children are rolling empty wine-barrels and
+carrying sacks of earth. As one nears the Hotel de Ville the barricades
+are higher, better armed, and better manned. All the Nationals here
+look ardent, resolved, and fierce. They say little, and do not shout at
+all. Two guards, seated on the pavement, are playing at picquet. I push
+on, and am allowed to pass. The barricades are terminated here, and I
+have nothing to fear from paving-stones. Looking up, I see that all the
+windows are closed, with the exception of one, where two old women are
+busy putting a mattress between the window and the shutter. A sentinel,
+mounting guard in front of the Cafe de la Compagnie du Gaz, cries out to
+me, "You can't pass here!" I therefore seat myself at a table in front
+of the cafe, which has doubtless been left open by order, and where
+several officers are talking in a most animated manner. One of them
+rises and advances towards me. He asks me rudely what I am doing there.
+I will not allow myself to be abashed by his tone, but draw out my pass
+from my pocket and show it him, without saying a word. "All right," says
+he, and then seats himself by my side, and tells me, "I know it already,
+that a part of the left bank of the river is occupied by the troops of
+the Assembly, that fighting is going on everywhere, and that the army
+on this side is gradually retreating.--Street fighting is our affair,
+you see," he continues. "In such battles as that, the merest gamin from
+Belleville knows more about it than MacMahon.... It will be terrible.
+The enemy shoots the prisoners." (For the last two months the Commune
+had been saying the same thing.) "We shall give no quarter."--I ask him,
+"Is it Delescluze who is determined to resist?"--"Yes," he answers.[101]
+"Lean forward a little. Look at those three windows to the left of the
+trophy. That is the Salle de l'Etat-Major. Delescluze is there giving
+orders, signing commissions. He has not slept for three days. Just now I
+scarcely knew him, he was so worn out with fatigue. The Committee of
+Public Safety sits permanently in a room adjoining, making out
+proclamations and decrees."--"Ha, ha!" said I, "decrees!"--"Yes,
+citizen, he has just decreed heroism!"[102] The officer gives me several
+other bits of information. Tells me that "Lullier this very morning has
+had thirty _refractaires_ shot, and that Rigault has gone to Mazas to
+look after the hostages." While he is talking, I try to see what is
+going on in the Place de l'Hotel de Ville. Two or three thousand
+Federals are there, some seated, some lying on the ground. A lively
+discussion is going on. Several little barrels are standing about on
+chairs; the men are continually getting up and crowding round the
+barrels, some have no glasses, but drink in the palms of their hands.
+Women walk up and down in bands, gesticulating wildly. The men shout,
+the women shriek. Mounted expresses gallop out of the Hotel, some in the
+direction of the Bastille, some towards the Place de la Concorde. The
+latter fly past us crying out, "All's well!" A man comes out on the
+balcony of the Hotel de Ville and addresses the crowd. All the Federals
+start to their feet enthusiastically.--"That's Valles," says my
+neighbour to me. I had already recognised him. I frequently saw him in
+the students' quarter in a little _cremerie_ in the Rue Serpente. He was
+given to making verses, rather bad ones by-the-bye; I remember one in
+particular, a panegyric on a green coat. They used to say he had a
+situation in the _pompes funebres_.[103] His face even then wore a
+bitter and violent expression. He left poetry for journalism, and then
+journalism for politics.
+
+[Illustration: JULES VALLES, COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.[104]]
+
+To-day he is spouting forth at a window of the Hotel de Ville. I cannot
+catch a word of what he says; but as he retires he is wildly applauded.
+Such applause pains me sadly. I feel that these men and these women are
+mad for blood, and will know how to die. Alas! how many dead and dying
+already! neither the cannonading nor the musketry has ceased an instant.
+I now see a number of women walk out of the Hotel, the crowd makes room
+for them to pass. They come our way. They are dressed in black, and have
+black crape tied round their arms and a red cockade in their bonnets. My
+friend the officer tells me that they are the governesses who have taken
+the places of the nuns. Then he walks up to them and says, "Have you
+succeeded?"--"Yes," answers one of them, "here is our commission. The
+school children are to be employed in making sacks and filling them with
+earth, the eldest ones to load the rifles behind the barricades. They
+will receive rations like National Guards, and a pension will be given
+to the mothers of those who die for the Republic. They are mad to fight,
+I assure you. We have made them work hard during the last month, this
+will be their holiday!" The woman who says this is young and pretty, and
+speaks with a sweet smile on her lips. I shudder. Suddenly two staff
+officers appear and ride furiously up to the Hotel de Ville; they have
+come from the Place Vendome. An instant later and the trumpets sound.
+The companies form in the Place, and great agitation reigns in the
+Hotel. Men rush in and out. The officers who are in the cafe where I am
+get up instantly, and go to take their places at the head of their men.
+A rumour spreads that the Versaillais have taken the barricades on the
+Place de la Concorde.--"By Jove! I think you had better go home," says
+my neighbour to me, as he clasps his sword belt; "we shall have hot work
+here, and that shortly." I think it prudent to follow this advice. One
+glance at the Place before I go. The companies of Federals have just
+started off by the Rue de Rivoli and the quays at a quick march, crying
+"Vive la Commune!" a ferocious joy beaming in their faces. A young man,
+almost a lad, lags a little behind, a woman rushes up to him, and lays
+hold of his collar, screaming, "Well, and you, are you not going to get
+yourself killed with the others?"
+
+[Illustration: BARRICADE DIVIDING THE RUE DE RIVOLI AND THE PLACE DE LA
+CONCORDE.]
+
+I reach the Rue Vieille-du-Temple, where another barricade is being
+built up. I place a paving-stone upon it and pass on. Soon I see open
+shops and passengers in the streets. This tradesmen's quarter seems to
+have outlived the riot of Paris. Here one might almost forget the
+frightful civil war which wages so near, if the conversation of those
+around did not betray the anguish of the speakers, and if you did not
+hear the cannon roaring out unceasingly, "People of Paris, listen to me!
+I am ruining your houses. Listen to me! I am killing your children."
+
+On the boulevards more barricades; some nearly finished, others scarcely
+commenced. One constructed near the Porte Saint Martin looks formidable.
+That spot seems destined to be the theatre of bloody scenes, of riot and
+revolution. In 1852, corpses laid piled up behind the railing, and all
+the pavement tinged with blood. I return home profoundly sad; I can
+scarcely think.--I feel in a dream, and am tired to death; my eyelids
+droop of themselves; I am like one of those houses there with closed
+shutters.
+
+Near the Gymnase I meet a friend whom I thought was at Versailles. We
+shake hands sadly. "When did you come back?" I ask.--"To-day; I followed
+the troops."--Then turning back with me he tells me what he has seen. He
+had a pass, and walked into Paris behind the artillery and the line, as
+far as the Trocadero, where the soldiers halted to take up their line of
+battle. Not a single man was visible along the whole length of the
+quays. At the Champ de Mars he did not see any insurgents. The musketry
+seemed very violent near Vaugirard on the Pont Royal and around the
+Palais de l'Industrie. Shells from Montmartre repeatedly fell on the
+quays. He could not see much,--however only the smoke in the distance.
+Not a soul did he meet. Such frightful noise in such solitude was
+fearful. He continued his way under shelter of the parapet. In one place
+he saw some gamins cutting huge pieces of flesh off the dead body of a
+horse that was lying in the path. There must have been fighting there.
+Down by the water a man fishing while two shells fell in the river, a
+little higher up, a yard or two from the shore. Then he thought it
+prudent to get nearer to the Palais de l'Industrie. The fighting was
+nearly over then, but not quite. The Champs Elysees was melancholy in
+the extreme; not a soul was there. This was only too literally true; for
+several corpses lay on the ground. He saw a soldier of the line lying
+beneath a tree, his forehead covered with blood. The man opened his
+month as if to speak as he heard the sound of footsteps, the eyelids
+quivered and then there was a shiver, and all was over. My friend walked
+slowly away. He saw trees thrown down and bronze lamp-posts broken;
+glass crackled under his feet as he passed near the ruined kiosques.
+Every now and then turning his head he saw shells from Montmartre fall
+on the Arc de Triomphe and break off large fragments of stone. Near the
+Tuileries was a confused mass of soldiery against a background of smoke.
+Suddenly he heard the whizzing of a ball and saw the branch of a tree
+fall. From one end of the avenue to the other, no one; the road
+glistened white in the sun. Many dead were to be seen lying about as he
+crossed the Champs Elysees. All the streets to the left were full of
+soldiery; there had been fighting there, but it was over now. The
+insurgents had retreated in the direction of the Madeleine. In many
+places tricolor flags were hanging from the windows, and women were
+smiling, and waving their handkerchiefs to the troops. The presence of
+the soldiery seemed to reassure everybody. The concierges were seated
+before their doors with pipes in their mouths, recounting to attentive
+listeners the perils from which they had escaped; how balls pierced the
+mattresses put up at the windows, and how the Federals had got into the
+houses to hide. One said, "I found three of them in my court; I told a
+lieutenant they were there, and he had them shot. But I wish they would
+take them away; I cannot keep dead bodies in the house." Another was
+talking with some soldiers, and pointing out a house to them. Four men
+and a corporal went into the place indicated, and an instant afterwards
+my friend heard the cracking of rifles. The concierge rubbed his hands
+and winked at the bystanders, while another was saying, "They respect
+nothing those Federals; during the battle they came in to steal. They
+wanted to take away my clothes, my linen, everything I have, but I told
+them to leave that, that it was not good enough for them, that they
+ought to go up to the first floor, where they would find clocks and
+plate, and I gave them the key. Well, Messieurs, you would never believe
+what they have done, the rascals! They took the key and went and
+pillaged everything on the first floor!" My friend had heard enough, and
+passed on. The agitation everywhere was very great. The soldiers went
+hither and thither, rang the bells, went into the houses; and brought
+out with them pale-faced prisoners. The inhabitants continued to smile
+politely, but grimly. Here and there dead bodies were lying in the road.
+A man who was pushing a truck allowed one of the wheels to pass over a
+corpse that was lying with its head on the curbstone. "Bah!" said he,
+"it won't do him any harm." The dead and wounded were, however, being
+carried away as quickly as possible.
+
+[Illustration: SHELL HOLE--A CONVENIENT SEAT.]
+
+[Illustration: IN THE RUES.]
+
+[Illustration: SHOT MARKS--EN PROFIL.]
+
+[Illustration: ON THE BOULEVARDS]
+
+[Illustration: PLUS DE LUMIERE!!]
+
+[Illustration: PLUS D'OMBRE!]
+
+[Illustration: BULLET HOLE--EN FACE]
+
+The cannon had now ceased roaring, and the fight was still going on
+close at hand--at the Tuileries doubtless. The townspeople were tranquil
+and the soldiery disdainful. A strange contrast; all these good citizens
+smiling and chatting, and the soldiers, who had come to save them at the
+peril of their lives, looking down upon them with the most careless
+indifference. My friend reached the Boulevard Haussmann; there the
+corpses were in large numbers. He counted thirty in less than a hundred
+yards. Some were lying under the doorways; a dead woman was seated on
+the bottom stair of one of the houses. Near the church of "La Trinite"
+were two guns, the reports from which were deafening; several of the
+shells fell on a bathing establishment in the Rue Taitbout opposite the
+Boulevard. On the Boulevard itself, not a person was to be seen. Here
+and there dark masses, corpses doubtless. However, the moment the noise
+of the report of a gun had died away, and while the gunners were
+reloading, heads were thrust out from doors to see what damage had been
+done--to count the number of trees broken, benches torn up, and kiosques
+overturned. From some of the windows rifles were fired. My friend then
+reached the street he lived in and went home. He was told that during
+the morning they had violently bombarded the College Chaptal, where the
+Zouaves of the Commune had fortified themselves; but the engagement was
+not a long one, they made several prisoners and shot the rest.
+
+My friend shut himself up at home, determined not to go out. But his
+impatience to see and hear what was going on forced him into the streets
+again. The Pepiniere barracks were occupied by troops of the line; he
+was able to get to the New Opera without trouble, leaving the Madeleine,
+where dreadful fighting was going on, to the right. On the way were to
+be seen piled muskets, soldiers sitting and lying about, and corpses
+everywhere. He then managed, without incurring too much danger, to reach
+the Boulevards, where the insurgents, who were then very numerous, had
+not yet been attacked. He worked for some little time at the barricade,
+and then was allowed to pass on. It was thus that we had met. Just as we
+were about to turn up the Faubourg Montmartre a man rushed up saying
+that three hundred Federals had taken refuge in the church of the
+Madeleine, followed by gendarmes, and had gone on fighting for more than
+an hour. "Now," he finished up by saying, "if the _cure_ were to return
+he would find plenty of people to bury!"
+
+I am now at home. Evening has come at last; I am jotting down these
+notes just as they come into my head. I am too much fatigued both in
+mind and body to attempt to put my thoughts into order. The cannonading
+is incessant, and the fusillade also. I pity those that die, and those
+that kill! Oh! poor Paris, when will experience make you wiser?
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 98: It was known by this time at Versailles in what a
+desperate condition was the Commune, by the information of persons
+devoted to order, but who remained amongst the insurgents to keep watch
+over and restrain them as much as possible.
+
+The Versailles authorities know that, thanks to the well-directed fire
+of Montretout, the bastions of the Point du Jour were no longer tenable,
+and that their defenders had abandoned them and had organized new works
+of defence; nevertheless, the operations were earned on just as
+systematically as if the fire of the besieged had not ceased for several
+days, when, on Sunday, the 21st May, about midday, an officer on duty in
+the trenches, in course of formation in the Bois de Boulogne, perceived
+a man making signs with a white handkerchief near the military post of
+Saint Cloud; the officer immediately approached near enough to hear the
+bearer of the flag of truce, say:--
+
+"My name is Ducatel, and I belong to the service of the Engineers of
+Roads and Bridges, and I have been a soldier. I declare that your
+entrance into Paris is easy, and as a guarantee of the truth of what I
+say, I am about to give myself up;" so saying, he passed over the fosse
+by means of one of the supports of the drawbridge, in spite of several
+shots fired at him by Federals hidden in the houses at Auteuil, but none
+of which reached him.
+
+A few resolute men now passed over the fosse, and arrived without
+accident on the other side. A few insurgents, who were still there, made
+off without loss of time, leaving the invaders to establish themselves,
+and wait for reinforcements.
+
+A short time after a white flag was exhibited in the neighbouring
+bastion, which bore the number 62, and the fire from Montretout and Mont
+Valerien was stopped, the infantry of the Marine took possession of the
+gate, out the telegraphic wires which were supposed to be in
+communication with torpedoes, while information was immediately
+despatched to Versailles of these important events.
+
+The division of General Verge, placed for the time under the orders of
+General Douay, entered the gate at half-past three in the afternoon, and
+took possession of Point du Jour, after having taken several barricades;
+at one of these, Ducatel was sent with a flag of trace towards the
+insurgents, who offered to surrender, but he received a bayonet wound,
+was carried off to the Ecole Militaire, tried by court-martial and
+condemned to death, from which he was fortunately snatched by the
+arrival of the Versailles troops at the Trocadero at two o'clock in the
+morning.
+
+At the same time, the first corps d'armee (that of General L'Admirault),
+made its way into the city by the Portes d'Auteuil and Passy, and took
+up a strong position in the streets of Passy.]
+
+[Footnote 99: At ten o'clock at night, the army had taken possession of
+the region comprised between the _ceinture_, or circular railway, and
+the fortifications, the streets of Auteuil to the viaduct, and the
+bridge of Grenelle.
+
+At midnight, the movement which had been suspended for a time to rest
+the troops, was recommenced all along the line.
+
+At two o'clock in the morning, General Douay occupied the Trocadero; and
+at about four o'clock his soldiers, after a short struggle, captured the
+chateau of La Muette, making about six hundred prisoners, and then,
+advancing in the direction of Porte Maillot, they joined the troops of
+General Clinchant, who had got within the ramparts on that side.
+
+At the break of day, the tricolour floated over the Arc de Triomphe,
+without the Versailles forces having sustained sensible loss. All this
+passed on the right bank of the Seine.]
+
+[Footnote 100: The insurrectionists followed a decided and pre-conceived
+plan. The barricades, which intersected the streets of Paris in every
+direction, were arranged on a general system which showed considerable
+skill. Was this ensemble a conception of Cluseret? or a plan of
+Gaillard, or Eudes, or Rossel? No one now could say which, but at any
+rate we are able to deduce the plan from the facts and set it out as
+follows:--
+
+Within the line of the fortifications the insurgents had formed a second
+line of defence, which runs on the right bank of the river, by the
+Trocadero, the Triumphal Arch, the Boulevard de Courcelles, the
+Boulevard de Batignolles, and the Boulevard de Rochechouart; and on the
+left across the bridge of Iena, the Avenue de la Bourdonnaye, the Ecole
+Militaire, the Boulevard des Invalides, the Boulevard Montparnasse, and
+the Western Railway Station. Along the whole extent of this circuit the
+entrances of the streets were barricades, and the "Places" turned into
+redoubts.
+
+From this double _enceinte_ of fortifications the lines of defence
+converged along the great boulevards, the Rue Royale, by the Ministry of
+Marine, the terrace of the Tuileries Gardens, the Place de la Concorde,
+the Palace of the Corps Legislatif, the Rue de Bourgogne, and the Rue de
+Varenne. This third _enceinte_ of defence was the pride of the
+insurgents; they were never tired of admiring their celebrated barricade
+of the Rue St. Florentin, and that which intercepted the quay at the
+corner of the Tuileries Gardens on the Place de la Concorde.
+
+This is not all. Supposing that the third line were forced, the
+insurgents would not even then be without resource. On the left bank of
+the Seine they fell back successively on the Rue de Grenelle, Rue Saint
+Dominique, and Rue de Lille, all three closed by barricades; on the
+right bank they could carry on the struggle by the Rue
+Neuve-des-Petits-Champs, the Rue de la Paix, and the Place Vendome, and
+even when beaten back from these last retreats, they could still defend
+the Rue St. Honore and operate a retreat by the Palace of the Tuileries,
+the Louvre, and the Hotel de Ville.]
+
+[Footnote 101: In the following proclamation, published on the 21st May,
+Delescluze stimulated the Communist party, which felt its power melting
+away on all sides:
+
+"TO THE PEOPLE OF PARIS, TO THE NATIONAL GUARD.
+
+"CITIZENS,--We have had enough of militaryism; let us have no more
+stuffs embroidered and gilt at every seam!
+
+"Make room for the people, the real combatants, the bare arms! The hour
+of the revolutionary war has struck!
+
+"The people know nothing of scientific manoeuvres, but with a rifle in
+hand and the pavement beneath their feet, they fear not all the
+strategists of the monarchical school.
+
+"To arms, citizens! To arms! You must conquer, or, as you well know,
+fall again into the pitiless hands of the _reactionaires_ and clericals
+of Versailles; those wretches who with intention delivered France up to
+Prussia, and now make us pay the ransom of their treason!
+
+"If you desire the generous blood which you have shed like water during
+the last six weeks not to have been shed in vain, if you would see
+liberty and equality established in France, if you would spare your
+children sufferings and misery such as you have endured, you will rise
+as one man, and before your formidable bands the enemy who indulges the
+idea of bringing you again under his yoke, will reap nothing but the
+harvest of the useless crimes with which he has disgraced himself during
+the past two months.
+
+"Citizens! your representatives will fight and die with you, if fall we
+must; but, in the name of our glorious France, mother of all the popular
+revolutions, the permanent source of ideas of justice and unity, which
+should be and which will be the laws of the world, march to the
+encounter of the enemy, and let your revolutionary energy prove to him
+that Paris may he sold, but can never be delivered up or conquered.
+
+"The Commune confides in you, and you may trust the Commune!
+
+"The civil delegate at the Ministry of War,
+
+"(Signed)
+
+"CH. DELESCLUZE.
+
+"Countersigned by the Committee of Public Safety:--Antoine Arnauld,
+Billioray, E. Eudes, F. Gambon, G. Ranvier."
+
+Such was the despairing cry of the insurrection at bay.]
+
+[Footnote 102: See Appendix, No. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 103: There are no private undertakers and funeral furnishers
+in Paris. It is all done by a company, under the supervision of
+Government, a very large concern, called the _Pompes Funebres_.]
+
+[Footnote 104: Jules Valles was one of the most conspicuous among the
+men of the 18th of March. He had been journalist, working printer, a
+clerk at the Hotel de Ville, editor of a newspaper, pamphleteer, and
+cafe orator in turn, but always noisy and boastful. Andre Gill, the
+caricaturist, once drew him as an undertaker's dog, dragging a saucepan
+behind him, and the caricature told Valles' story well enough. In face
+he was ugly, but energetic in expression, almost to ferociousness.
+
+He was born at Puy, in 1833, and on leaving the college of Nantes, came
+to study law in Paris, but politics occupied him chiefly, and he soon
+got himself shut up in Mazas as a political prisoner. After some time
+spent in confinement, he obtained his liberty, and published at Nantes,
+a pamphlet under the title of "Money: by a literary man become a
+journalist;" and the pamphlet, having gained him some slight popularity,
+he was engaged, later, on the _Figaro_, to write the reports of the
+Bourse, and in the meantime he eked out his slender salary by working as
+a clerk at the Hotel de Ville. When Ernest Feydeau brought out the
+_Epoque_, in 1864, Jules Valles published a few articles in its columns,
+and a little later became a writer on the _Evenement_, with the
+magnificent salary of eighteen thousand francs a year. A month
+afterwards, he was without occupation again, but he soon re-appeared
+with a new journal of his own, _La Rue, La Sue_, in its turn, however,
+only lived during a few numbers, and Jules Valles now took up cafe
+politics, and practised table oratory at the _Estaminet de Madrid_,
+where he fostered and expounded the projects which he has since brought
+to so fearful a result.
+
+In 1869, he became one of the most inveterate speakers at election
+meetings, and presented himself as a candidate for the Corps Legislatif.
+He was not elected, but the profession of opinions that he then made was
+certain to obtain him a seat in the Communal Assembly. One of the last
+articles in the _Cri du People_ of Jules Valles announced the fatal
+resolution of defending Paris by all possible means. An article
+finishing with this prophetic sentence, "M. Thiers, if he is chemist
+enough will understand us."]
+
+
+
+
+XCI.
+
+
+It is imprudent to go out; the night was almost peaceable, the morning
+is hideous. The roar of musketry is intense and without interruption. I
+suppose there must be fighting going on in the Rue du Faubourg
+Montmartre. I start back, the noise is so fearful. In the Cour Trevise
+not a person to be seen, the houses are closely shut and barred. On a
+second floor I hear a great moving of furniture, and hear quite
+distinctly the sound of sobbing, of female sobbing. I hear that the
+second floor of the house is inhabited by a member of the Commune and
+his family. I am about to go up and see if I can be of any help to the
+women in case of danger, when I see a man precipitately enter the Court.
+He wears a uniform of lieutenant; I recognise him, it is the porter. He
+stops, looks around him, and seeing that he is alone, takes his rifle in
+both hands and throws it with all his strength over the high wall which
+is on the left hand of the Court. That done, he rushes into the house.
+There I distinctly hear him say to his wife, "The barricade is taken,
+give me a _blouse_, they are at Montmartre. We are done for!" I think,
+the porter must have made a mistake, and that the battery is not taken
+yet, for I hear the whistling of a shell that, seems to come from
+Montmartre. The deafening clamour on all sides redoubles, all the
+separate noises seem to confound themselves in one ceaseless roar, like
+the working of a million of hammers on a million of anvils. I can
+scarcely bear it; my hands clutch the door-posts convulsively. I lean
+out as far as I can, but see nothing but a company of soldiers preceded
+by two gendarmes, who are entering the Court. They stop before the door
+of the house. Several of them go in, and then I hear the sound of a door
+suddenly opened and shut, and heavy steps on the wooden floor. I feel
+myself trembling; this man they have come to arrest--are they going to
+shoot him here, in his own apartment, before his wife? Thank God, no!
+The two gendarmes reappear in the street holding the prisoner between
+them; his hands are bound; the soldiers surround them, and they are
+going to march away, when the man, lifting up his arms, cries fiercely,
+"I have but one regret, that I did not blow up the whole of the
+quarter." At this instant the window above is opened, and a woman with
+grey hair leans out, crying, "Die in peace, I will avenge you!" At these
+words the soldiers arrest their steps, and the two gendarmes re-enter
+the house. They are going to take the wife prisoner after having taken
+the husband. I fall back into a chair horrified; I shut my eyes not to
+see, and I press my hands on my ears, not to hear the dreadful sound of
+the musketry, but the horrible shrill noise is triumphant, and I hear it
+all the same.
+
+
+
+
+XCII.
+
+
+Oh! those that hear it not, how happy they must be; they will never
+understand how fearful this continuous, this dreadful noise is, and to
+feel that each ball is aimed at some breast, and each shell brings ruin
+in its train. Fear and horror wrings one's heart and maddens one's
+brain. Visions pass before one's eyes of corpses, of houses crushing
+sleeping inmates, of men falling and crying out for mercy! and one
+feels quite strange to go on living among the crowds that die!
+
+I have been out a little while, a ball whistled over my shoulder, and
+flattened itself against an iron bar on a shop front. I heard a mass of
+glass shiver into fragments on the pavement. I determined to return
+home.
+
+On my way back, I had to pass in front of a liqueur shop, the door of
+which was open, and several men were talking there. I stopped to learn
+the news. Montmartre is taken; the Federals had not opposed much
+resistance; but a great deal of firing had gone on in the side streets
+and lanes. Seven insurgents were surrounded. "Give yourselves up, and
+your lives will be saved," cried out the soldiers. They replied, "We are
+prisoners;" but one of them drew his revolver and shot an officer in the
+leg. Then the soldiers took the seven men, threw them into a large hole,
+and shot them from above like so many rabbits. Another man told me that
+he had seen a child lying dead at the corner of the Rue de Rome. "A
+pretty little fellow," he said, "his brains were strewed on the pavement
+beside him." A third, that when all the fighting was over at the Place
+Saint-Pierre a rifle shot was heard, and a captain of Chasseurs fell
+dead. The major who was there, looked up and saw a man trying to hide
+himself behind a chimney pot; the soldiers got into the house, seized
+him on the roof, and brought him down into the Place. What did the
+insurgent do, but walked up to the major, smiling, and hit him a blow on
+the cheek. The major set him up against a wall, and blew his brains out
+with a revolver. Another insurgent who was arrested, made an insulting
+grimace at the soldiers; they shot him. On the southern sides of Paris,
+the operations of the army have not been so fortunate as on this. In the
+Faubourg St. Germain it advances very slowly, if it advance at all. The
+Federals fight with heroic courage at the Mont-Parnasse Station, the Rue
+Notre-Dame-des-Champs, and the Croix-Rouge; from the corners of the
+streets, from the windows, from the balconies proceed shots rarely
+ineffective. This sort of warfare fatigues the soldiers, particularly
+as the discipline prevents them from using the same measures. At
+Saint-Quen, likewise, the march of the troops is stayed; the barricade
+of the Rue de Clichy holds out, and will hold out some time. In other
+quarters the advantages gained by the Versaillais are evident. Here and
+there some small show of resistance is offered, but the insurgents are
+flying. I cannot tell whether all these floating rumours are true. As I
+return home, I look round; in the Rue Geoffrey-Marie, near the Faubourg
+Montmartre, I see a National Guard alone in the middle of the street,
+nothing to screen him whatsoever; he loads his rifle and fires, loads
+and fires again; again and again! Thirty-three times! Then the rifle
+slips to the ground, and the man staggers and falls.
+
+
+
+
+XCIII.
+
+
+This morning, the 23rd, after a combat of three hours, the barricade of
+the Place de Clichy has not yet yielded. Yet two battalions of National
+Guards had, at the beginning of the fight, reversed their arms, and were
+fraternising with the soldiers on the Place de la Maine, a hundred and
+fifty yards from the scene of the fray. The cracking of the rifles, the
+explosion of shells, and the sound of mitrailleuses filled the air. The
+smell of powder was stifling. Dreadful cries arose from the poor wounded
+wretches; and the whizzing projectiles from Montmartre rent the air
+above in their fiery course. "Beneath us," said an inhabitant of
+Batignolles who gave me these particulars, "beneath us the city lay like
+a seething caldron."
+
+The beating of drums and the sharp trumpet-calls mixed in this monstrous
+din, and were every now and then lost in the tremendous noise of the
+firing.
+
+About half-past one the sounds grew quieter; the barricade was taken.
+The insurgents were retreating to La Chapelle and Belleville in
+disorder; the soldiers of the line rushed like a torrent into the Avenue
+de Clichy, leaving a tricolour flag hoisted upon the dismantled
+barricade.
+
+Here and there, in the streets, the struggle had not ceased. In the Rue
+Blanche a rifle-shot proceeded from a ground-floor; the man was taken
+and executed outside his own door. The artillery was moving up the Rue
+Chaptal towards Montmartre and La Chapelle. The day was very hot; pails
+of water were thrown over the guns to quench their burning thirst. All
+the young men who were found in the streets were provisionally put under
+arrest, for they feared everyone, even children, and horrible vengeance
+and thirst for blood had seized upon all. Suddenly an isolated shot
+would be heard, followed a minute or two after by five or six others.
+One knew reprisal had been done.
+
+At about four o'clock in the afternoon, when the quarters of Belleville
+and Clichy were pretty well cleared of troops, two insurgents were
+walking, one behind the other, in the Rue Leonie. The one who walked
+last lifted his rifle and fired carelessly in the direction of the
+windows; the report sounded very loudly in the silent street, and a pane
+of glass fell in fragments to the ground. The insurgent who was in front
+did not even turn his head; these men seem to have become quite reckless
+and deaf to everything.
+
+What the troops feared the most were the sharp-shooters hidden in the
+houses, aiming through little holes and cracks; suddenly a snap would be
+heard, and the officers would lift their glassed to their eyes; more
+often nothing was to be seen at all, but if the slightest shadow were
+visible behind a window curtain, the order was, "Search that house!" The
+executions did not take place in the apartments. Now and then an
+inhabitant or two were brought down into the street, and those never
+returned!
+
+
+
+
+XCIV.
+
+
+It is the middle of the night; and I awake with a terrible start. A
+bright red light streams through the panes. I throw open the window; the
+sky to the left is one mass of dark smoke and lurid streaks of light--it
+is a fire, Paris on fire![105] I dress and go out. At the corner of the
+Rue de Trevise a sentinel stops me, "You can't pass." I am so bewildered
+that I do not think of noticing whether he is a Federal or a soldier.
+What am I to do, where am I to go? Although an hour ago balls were
+whistling around, there are now people at every window. "The Ministere
+des Finances is on fire! the Rue Royale! the Louvre!" The Louvre! I can
+scarcely avoid a cry of horror. In a minute the enormity of the disaster
+has broken upon me. Oh! _chefs-d'oeuvre_ without number! I see you
+devoured, consumed, reduced to ashes! I see the walls tottering, the
+canvases fall from the frames and shrivel up; the "Marriage of Canaan"
+is in flames! Raphael is struggling in the burning furnace! Leonardo da
+Vinci is no more! This was, indeed, an unexpected calamity! Fortune had
+reserved this terrible surprise for us! But I will not believe it, these
+rumours are false, doubtless! How should these people who inhabit this
+quarter know what I am ignorant of? Yet over our heads the sky is tinged
+with black and red!
+
+[Illustration: RUINS OF THE RUE ROYALE, LOOKING TOWARDS THE PLACE DE LA
+CONCORDE AND ACROSS THE RUE DU FAUBOURG SAINT-HONORE.]
+
+A strange smell fills the air, like that of a monstrous petroleum lamp
+just lighted. That dreaded word, petroleum, makes me shudder. Once
+distinctly I hear the sound of a vast body falling heavily. Not to be
+able to obtain information is terrible; not to know what is going on,
+while all around seems on fire; the day is beginning to break, the
+musketry and the cannonading commences afresh, it is a hell, with
+death for its girdle! In front of me I see the corner of a building
+lighted up by the fire, on which little spirals of smoke are reflected
+from the distant conflagration. I rush home, I want to hide myself, to
+sleep, to forget. When I am in my room, I see through the white curtains
+of the window a bright light. I tremble and rush to the window! It is
+the gilt letters of a signboard, on the opposite side of the way, that
+are darting forth brilliant flashes, borrowed from the distant flames.
+
+[Illustration: A BAY of the TUILERIES--from the PLACE du CARROUSEL.]
+
+[Illustration: A WARM CORNER APPROACHING THE LOUVRE.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 105: The 24th May the COMMITTEE FOR PUBLIC SAFETY issued these
+cold-blooded decrees:--
+
+    "Citizen Milliere, at the head of one hundred and fifty
+    fuse-bearers, is to set fire to all houses Of suspicious aspect, as
+    well as to the public monuments of the left bank of the Seine.
+
+    "Citizen Dereure, with one hundred and fifty fuse-bearers, is
+    charged with the 1st and 2nd Arrondissement.
+
+    "Citizen Billioray, with one hundred men, is charged with the 9th,
+    10th, and 20th Arrondissements.
+
+    "Citizen Vesinier, with fifty men, has the Boulevards of the
+    Madeleine and of the Bastille especially entrusted to him.
+
+    "These Citizens are to come to an understanding with the officers
+    commanding the barricades, for the execution of these orders.
+
+    "DELESCLUZE, REGERE, RANVINE, JOHANNARD, VESINIER, BRUNEL,
+    DOMBROWSKI.
+
+    "Paris, 3 Prairial, year 79."
+
+]
+
+[Illustration: Milliere[106]]
+
+
+
+
+XCV.
+
+
+Certainly I nursed no vain illusions. What you had done, gentlemen of
+the Commune, had enlightened me as to your value, and as to the purity
+of your intentions. Seeing you lie, steal, and kill, I had said to you,
+"You are liars, robbers, and murderers;" but truly, in spite of Citizen
+Felix Pyat, who is a coward, and Citizen Miot, who is a fool; in spite
+of Milliere, who shot _refractaires_, and Philippe, whose trade shall be
+nameless; in spite of Dacosta, who amused himself with telling the
+Jesuits at the Conciergerie, "Mind, you are to be shot in an hour," and
+then an hour afterwards returning to say, "I have thought about it, and
+it is for tomorrow;" in spite of Johannard, who executed a child of
+fifteen guilty of selling a suppressed newspaper; in spite of Rigault,
+who, chucking the son of Chaudey under the chin, laughingly said to him,
+"Tomorrow, little one, we shall shoot papa;" in spite of all the madmen
+and fools that constituted the Commune de Paris, who after being guilty
+of more extravagances than are necessary to get a man sent to the
+Madhouse of Charenton, and more crimes than are sufficient to shut him
+up in prison at Sainte-Pelagie, had managed, by means of every form, of
+wickedness and excess, to make our beloved Paris a frightened slave,
+crouching to earth under their abominable tyranny; in spite of
+everything, I could not have dreamed that even their demoniac fury could
+have gone so far as to try to burn Paris, after having ruined it! Nero
+of the gutter! Sardanapalus drunk with vitriol! So your vanity wanted
+such a volcano to engulf you, and you wished to die by the light of such
+an _auto-da-fe_. Instead of torches around your funeral car, you wished
+the Tuileries, the library of the Louvre, and the Palace of the Legion
+of Honour burnt to ashes, the Rue Royale one vast conflagration, where
+the walls as they fell buried alive women and children, and the Rue de
+Lille vomiting fire and smoke like the crater of Vesuvius.
+
+[Illustration: PALAIS DE JUSTICE, PARTLY DESTROYED. SAINTE CHAPELLE,
+SAVED.]
+
+It has pleased you that thousands of families should be ruined, their
+savings scattered in the ashes of the vanished papers of the burnt
+Ministere des Finances and the _Caisse des depots_. In seeing that the
+art-galleries of the Louvre had remained intact, only its library burnt,
+you must have been seized with mad rage. How! Notre Dame not yet in
+flames? Sainte-Chapelle not on fire? Have you no more petroleum, no
+more flaming torches? The cry "To Arms!" is not enough, you must shout
+"To Fire!" Would you consume the entire city, and make of its ruins a
+horrible monument to your memory?
+
+Do not say, "We have not done this; it is the people who are working out
+their own revenge, and we stand for nothing, we are as gentle as lambs.
+Ranvier would not hurt a fly." Away with all this pretence; were you not
+on the balcony of the Hotel de Ville with your blood-red scarfs,
+uttering your commands? The populace, deceived and blinded, have but
+obeyed you. Do not all the circumstances leading to this stupendous
+catastrophe, reveal an elaborate and digested plan, determined long
+beforehand? Did we not read this notice, daily, in your official
+journal: "All those who have petroleum are requested immediately to
+declare the quantities in their possession?" Was there not a quick-match
+extinguished in the quarter of the Invalides that was to have
+communicated the flames to barrels of powder placed, long ago, in the
+great sewers? Yes, what has taken place you had decreed. If the
+disasters have not been more terrible, is it not, that, surprised at the
+sudden arrival of the troops, you had not the time to finish your
+preparations? Yes, you are the criminals! It was Eudes who gave out the
+petroleum to the _Petroleuses_; it was Felix Pyat who laid the train of
+gunpowder. It is Tridon who said: "Take care that the phials be not
+uncorked." The public incendiary committee has well performed its duty!
+Wicked criminals! Execrable madmen! May Heaven bear me witness that my
+heart abhors revenge, is always inclined to pardon--but for these! What
+chastisement can be great enough to appease the wrath of justice! What
+vow of repentance could be offered up fervent enough to be received in
+Heaven, even at the moment when, struck down by balls, they offer their
+lives as expiation? Misguided humanity!
+
+[Illustration: MINISTERE DES FINANCES
+
+RUE DE RIVOLI
+
+POLICE OF PARIS
+
+Au Citoyen Lucas,
+
+Faites de suite flamber Finances et venez nous retrouver. 4 prairial, an
+79.
+
+TH: FERRE.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 106: This Milliere, formerly an advocate and writer on the
+_Marseillaise_, was a native of St-Etienne, and fifty-four years of age,
+a cool speaker, and advocate of advanced ideas, that got him several
+imprisonments. In March 1870 he was taken from the prison of
+Sainte-Pelagie to give evidence at Tours against Pierre Bonaparte for
+the murder of Victor Noir, where his lucid depositions told greatly
+against the prisoner. When regaining his liberty he became more
+revolutionary than ever, writing during the siege in the _Patrie en
+Danger_. At the peace he became one of the members for Paris, and sat at
+Bordeaux and Versailles, agitating social subjects and the law of
+lodgers. About the 10th of April he took part with the Commune, and at
+the entrance of the troops was taken at the Luxembourg after having
+fired six rounds from a revolver, was shot on the steps of the Pantheon,
+and died as he opened his shirt front, shouting, "_Vive la Republique!
+Vive la Liberte! Vive l'Humanite!_"]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: FERRE][107]
+
+XCVI.
+
+
+With three friends I stood upon the roof of a house near the new opera,
+watching what was passing around. The spectacle was such, that horror
+paralyses every other sentiment, even that of self-preservation.
+Consternation sits encircled by a blazing atmosphere of terror! The
+Hotel de Ville is in flames; the smoke, at times a deep red, envelops
+all, so that it is impossible to distinguish more than the outlines of
+immense walls; the wind brings, in heavy gusts, a deadly odour--of burnt
+flesh, perhaps--which turns the heart sick and the brain giddy. On the
+other side the Tuileries, the Legion d'Honneur, the Ministere de la
+Guerre, and the Ministere des Finances are flaming still, like five
+great craters of a gigantic volcano! It is the eruption of Paris! Alone,
+a great black mass detaches itself from the universal conflagration, it
+is the Tour Saint-Jacques, standing out like a malediction.
+
+One of the three friends, who are with me on the roof of the house, was
+able, about an hour ago, to get near the Hotel de Ville. He related to
+me what follows:--
+
+    "At the moment of my arrival, the flames burst forth from all the
+    windows of the Hotel de Ville, and the most intense terror seized
+    upon all the inhabitants blocked up in the surrounding quarters, for
+    a terrible rumour is spread; it is said that more than fifty
+    thousand pounds of powder is contained in the subterranean vaults.
+    The incendiaries must have poured the demoniacal liquid in rivers
+    through the great halls, down the great staircases, from the very
+    garrets, to envelop even the Salle du Trone. The great fire throws a
+    blood-red glare over the city, and on the quays of the Institute.
+    Night is so like day that a letter may be read in the street. Is
+    this the end of the famous capital of France? Have the infamous
+    fiends of the committee for public safety ordered, in their cowardly
+    death-agony, that this should be the end? Yes, it is the ruin of all
+    that was grand, generous, radiant, and consolatory for our country
+    that they have decided to consummate, with a chorus of hellish
+    laughter, in which terror and ferocity struggle with brutal
+    degradation.
+
+    "In the midst of this horror, confused rumours are circulated. It is
+    said that the heat will penetrate to the cellars and cause an
+    explosion of whole quarters. Then what will become of the
+    inhabitants, and the riches that they have accumulated? The heat is
+    overwhelming between the Tuileries and the Hotel de Ville--that is,
+    over the space of about a mile. The two barricades of the Rue de
+    Rivoli and of the Rue de la Coutellerie, near which are the offices
+    of the municipal services--the lighting of the city, the octroi,
+    waters, sewers, etc.,--will not be taken until too late, in spite of
+    the energy with which the army attacks them. It is feared that the
+    flame will reach the neighbourhood of the great warehouses, so
+    thickly do the burning flakes fall and scatter destruction. The
+    barricades of the quays are still intact, it will be another hour
+    yet before they are taken. The firemen are there furiously at work,
+    but their efforts are insufficient! It would take tons of ammonia to
+    slake the fury of the petroleum which flows like hot lava upon the
+    place from the Hotel de Ville, and the horrible reflection reddens
+    the waters of the Seine, so that the current of the river seems to
+    flow with blood, which stains the stones as it dashes against the
+    arches of the bridge!"
+
+These scenes are being pictured to me as I gaze upon the terrible
+conflagration, and all that is told me I seem to see. An irresistible
+longing to be near seizes me. I am under the power of an invincible
+attraction. I lean forward, my arms outstretched; I run a great risk of
+falling, but what matters? The sight of these almost sublime horrors has
+burnt itself into my very brain!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 107: Ferre, the friend of Raoul Bigault, and his colleague in
+the Commission of General Safety, like the latter, had inhabited the
+prisons for a considerable time for his political writings, seditious
+proposals, plots against the state, etc. He is a small man about five
+feet high, and very active. He signed with avidity the suppression of
+nearly all the journals of Paris, and the sentence of death of a great
+number of unfortunate prisoners, with the approbation of Raoul Bigault.
+He willingly undertook to announce to the Archbishop of Paris that his
+last hour had arrived. The following order, drawn up by him, was found
+on the body of an insurgent:--"Set fire to the Ministry of Finance
+immediately, and return here.
+
+4 Prairial, An 79.
+
+(Signed) TH. FERRE."
+
+See Appendix, No. 10.]
+
+
+
+
+XCVII.
+
+She walks with a rapid step, near the shadow of the wall; she is poorly
+dressed; her age is between forty and fifty; her forehead is bound with
+a red checkered handkerchief, from which hang meshes of uncombed hair.
+The face is red and the eyes blurred, and she moves with her look bent
+down on the ground. Her right hand is in her pocket, or in the bosom of
+her half-unbuttoned dress; in the other hand she holds one of the
+high, narrow tin cans in which milk is carried in Paris, but which now,
+in the hands of this woman, contains the dreadful petroleum liquid. As
+she passes a _poste_ of regulars, she smiles and nods; when they speak
+to her she answers, "My good Monsieur!" If the street is deserted she
+stops, consults a bit of dirty paper that she holds in her hand, pauses
+a moment before the grated opening to a cellar, then continues her way,
+steadily, without haste. An hour afterwards, a house is on fire in the
+street she has passed. Who is this woman? Paris calls her a
+_Petroleuse_.[109] One of these _petroleuses_, who was caught in the act
+in the Rue Truffault, discharged the six barrels of a revolver and
+killed two men before being passed over to execution. Another was seen
+falling in a doorway of a house in the Rue de Boulogne, pierced with
+balls--but this one was a young girl; a bottle filled with petroleum
+fell from her hand as she dropped. Sometimes one of these wretched
+women, might be seen leading by the hand a little boy or girl; and the
+child probably carrying a bottle of the incendiary liquid in his pocket
+with his top and marbles.
+
+[Illustration: PALACE OF THE LUXEMBOURG (GARDEN FRONT).[108]
+
+Used as a Federal Ambulance Hospital.]
+
+[Illustration: LES PETROLEURS]
+
+[Illustration: PETROLEUSES]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 108: On the Wednesday succeeding the explosion of the
+powder-magazine in the garden of the Luxembourg, which unroofed a
+portion of the palace, and destroyed the windows, and did fearful damage
+to the surrounding houses, all the Communeux disappeared from the
+neighbourhood. The following night four men returned, bringing a
+quantity of petroleum with them. They gave orders that the six hundred
+wounded men who were then lying in the Palace should be taken away
+immediately. They had commenced their sinister project, and were pouring
+the petroleum about in the cellars, when the soldiers of the Brigade
+Paturel were informed of it, and arrived in time to prevent its
+execution. The criminals were taken and shot on the spot.]
+
+[Footnote 109: The incendiaries formed a veritable army, composed of
+returned convicts, the very dregs of the prisons, pale, thin lads, who
+looked like ghosts, and old women, that looked like horrible witches;
+their number amounted to eight thousand! This army had its chiefs, and
+each detachment was charged with the firing of a quarter. The order for
+the conflagration of public edifices bore the stamp of the Commune, and
+of the Central Committee, and the seal of the delegate at the Ministry
+of War. For the private houses more expeditive means were used. Small
+tickets, of the size of postage stamps, were found pasted upon walls of
+houses in different parts of Paris, with the letters B.P.B. (_bon pour
+bruler_), literally, good for burning. Some of the tickets were square,
+others oval, with a bacchante's head in the centre. They were affixed on
+spots designated by the chiefs. Every _petroleuse_ was to receive ten
+francs for each house she fired. Sept. 5,1871. Amongst the insurgents
+tried at Versailles, three petroleuses were condemned to death, and one
+to imprisonment for life, a host of others being transported or
+otherwise punished.]
+
+
+
+
+XCVIII.
+
+
+It is seven in the evening, the circulation has become almost
+impossible. The streets are lined with patrols, and the regiments of the
+Line camp upon the outer boulevards. They dine, smoke, and bivouac, and
+drink with the citizens on the doorsteps of their houses. In the
+distance is heard the storm of sounds which tells of the despairing
+resistance of Belleville, and along the foot of the houses are seen
+square white patches, showing the walled-up cellars, every hole and
+crevice being plastered up to prevent insertion of the diabolical
+liquid--walled up against _petroleurs_ and petroleuses, strings of
+prisoners, among whom are furious women and poor children, their hands
+tied behind their backs, pass along the boulevards towards Neuilly.
+Night comes on, not a lamp is lighted, and the streets become deserted
+as by degrees the sky becomes darker. At nine o'clock the solitude is
+almost absolute. The sound of a musket striking the pavement is heard
+from time to time; a sentinel passes here and there, and the lights in
+the houses grow more and more rare.
+
+
+
+
+XCIX.
+
+
+The hours and the days pass and resemble each other horribly. To write
+the history of the calamities is not yet possible. Each one sees but a
+corner of the picture, and the narratives that are collected are vague
+and contradictory; it appears certain now that the insurrection is
+approaching the end. It is said that the fort of Montrouge is taken; but
+it still hurls its shells upon Paris. Several have just fallen in the
+quarter of the Banque. There is fighting still at the Halles, at the
+Luxembourg, and at the Porte Saint-Martin. Neither the cannonading nor
+the fusillade has ceased, and our ears have become accustomed to the
+continued roar. But, in spite of the barbarous heroism of the Federals,
+the force of their resistance is being exhausted. What has become of the
+chiefs?
+
+We continue to note down the incidents as they reach us.
+
+It is said that Assy has been taken, close to the New Opera House. He
+was going the nightly rounds, almost alone--"Who's there!" cried a
+sentinel. Assy, thinking the man was a Federal, replied, "You should
+have challenged me sooner." In an instant he was surrounded, disarmed,
+and carried off. However, it is a very unlikely tale; it is most
+improbable that Assy should not know that the New Opera was in the hands
+of the Versaillais.
+
+They say that Delescluze has fled, that Dombrowski has died[110] in an
+ambulance, and that Milliere is a prisoner at Saint-Denis. But these are
+merely rumours, and I am utterly ignorant as to their worth. The only
+thing certain is that the search is being carried on with vigour. Close
+by the smoking ruins of what was once the Hotel de Ville they caught
+Citizen Ferraigu, inspector of the barricades; he confessed to having
+received from the Committee of Public Safety particular orders to burn
+down the shop of the Bon-Diable. Had one of these committeemen been an
+assistant there, and did he owe his former master a grudge? Ferraigu had
+a bottle of petroleum in his pocket; he was shot. I am told that at the
+Theatre du Chatelet a court-martial has been established on the stage.
+The Federals are brought up twenty at a time, judged, and condemned,
+they are then marched out on to the Place, with their hands tied behind
+their backs. A mitrailleuse, standing a hundred yards off, mows them
+down like grass. It is an expeditious contrivance. In a yard, in the Rue
+Saint-Denis, is a stable filled with corpses; I have myself seen them
+there. The Porte Saint-Martin Theatre is quite destroyed, a guard is
+stationed near. This morning three _petroleuses_ were shot there, the
+bodies are still lying on the boulevards. I have just seen two
+insurgents walking between four soldiers; one an old man, the other
+almost a lad. I heard the elder one say to the younger, "All our misery
+comes of our having arms. In '48 we had none, so we took those of the
+soldiers, and then they were without. Now there is more killing and less
+business done." A few minutes after the little procession passed up the
+Rue d'Hauteville, and I heard the reports of two rifles. Oh! what
+horrible days! I feel a prey to the deepest dejection--if it were but
+over! The town looks wretched; even where the fighting is not going on,
+the houses are closed and the streets deserted, except here and there: a
+lonely passenger hurrying along, or a wretched prisoner marching between
+four soldiers. It is all very dreadful! In the streets where the battle
+is still raging the shutters are not closed; as soon as the soldiers get
+into a new quarter of the town they cry out, "Shut the windows, open the
+shutters." The reason for this is, that the open barred outer shutters,
+or _persiennes_, form a capital screen through which aim maybe taken
+with a gun. As for me, in the midst of this horror and sadness, I feel
+like a madman in the night. The rumour that the hostages have been shot
+at Mazas gains ground.[111] I am told that the Archbishop, the Abbe
+Degueiry, and Chaudey have all been assassinated. It was Bigault who
+ordered these executions. He has since been taken, and fell, crying
+"Down with murderers!" This reminds one of Dumollard, the assassin,
+calling the jurymen "Canaille!" Milliere is said to have been shot in
+the Place du Pantheon. When they told him to kneel down he drew
+himself up to his full height, his eyes flashing defiance. Strange
+caprice of nature, to make these scoundrels brave.
+
+[Illustration: THEATRE PORTE ST MARTIN.
+
+SENSATION DRAMA OUT SENSATIONED.]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: CELL OF THE ARCHBISHOP IN THE PRISON OF LA ROQUETTE.]
+
+[Illustration: COURT-YARD OF PRISON OF LA ROQUETTE, WHERE THE HOSTAGES
+WERE SHOT.]
+
+In the meantime, the Commune is in its death throes. Like the dragon of
+fairy lore, it dies, vomiting flames. La Villette is on fire, houses are
+burning at Belleville and on the Buttes-Chaumont. The resistance is
+concentrated on one side at Pere la Chaise, and on the other at the
+Mont-Parnasse cemetery. The insurrection was mistress of the whole of
+Paris, and then the army came stretching its long arms from the Arc de
+Triomphe to Belleville, from the Champ-de-Mars to the Pantheon. Trying
+hard to burst these bonds, tightly surrounded, now resisting, now
+flying, the _emeute_ has at last retreated. It is over there now, in two
+cemeteries; it watches from behind tombstones; it rests the barrels of
+its rifles on marble crosses, and erects a battery on a sepulchre. The
+shells of the Versaillais fall in the sacred enclosure, plough up the
+earth, and unbury the dead. Something round rolled along a pathway, the
+combatants thought it was a shell; it was a skull! What must these men
+feel who are killing and being killed in the cemetery! To die among the
+dead seems horrible. But they never give it a thought; the bloody thirst
+for destruction which possesses them allows them only to think of one
+thing, of killing! Some of them are gay, they are brave, these men.
+That makes it only the more dreadful; these wretches are heroic! Behind
+the barricades there have been instances of the most splendid valour. A
+man at the Porte Saint-Martin, holding a red flag in his hand, was
+standing, heedless of danger, on a pile of stones. The balls showered
+around him, while he leant carelessly against an empty barrel which
+stood behind.--"Lazy fellow," cried a comrade--"No," said he, "I am only
+leaning that I may not fall when I die." Such are these men; they are
+robbers, incendiaries, assassins, but they are fearless of death. They
+have only that one good quality. They smile and they die. The
+vivandieres allow themselves to be kissed behind the tombstones; the
+wounded men drink with their comrades, and throw wine on their wounds,
+saying, "Let us drink to the last." And yet, in an hour perhaps, the
+soldiers will fight their way into the cemeteries, which their balls
+reach already, they too mad with rage; then the horrible bayonet
+fighting will commence, man against man among the tombs, flying over the
+mounds, desecrating the monuments, everything that imagination can
+conjure up of most profane and terrible--a battle in a cemetery!
+
+[Illustration: MY NEIGHBOUR 'EN FACE'--BUSINESS CARRIED ON AS USUAL--]
+
+[Illustration: MY NEIGHBOUR NEXT DOOR--WHO THINKS HIMSELF FORTUNATE.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 110: The most reliable account of his death is given by a
+medical student who attended him in his last moments. "Dombrowski was
+passing with several members of the Commune in the Rue Myrrha, near the
+Rue des Poissonniers, when he was struck by a bullet, which traversed
+the lower part of his body. He was carried to a neighbouring chemist's,
+where I bandaged the wound. Before his transportation to the
+Lariboisiere Hospital, he ordered the fire to cease, but the troops
+defending the barricade disobeyed the injunction. His sword was handed
+by me to a captain of the 45th of the Line. His last words were nearly
+identical with those which he uttered as he fell: 'I am no traitor!'"
+His worst enemies have said of him that he was a good soldier in a bad
+cause.]
+
+[Footnote 111: At the prison of Sainte-Pelagie, on Tuesday, the 23rd of
+May, the unfortunate gendarmes, who had been made prisoners on the 18th,
+were shot, together with M. Chaudey, a writer, on the _Siecle_, arrested
+at the office of the journal, and conducted, first to Mazas and
+afterwards to Sainte-Pelagie. (Appendix 11).
+
+According to the _Siecle_, the "Procureur" of the Commune, Raoul
+Rigault, presented himself, at the office at about eleven at night, and
+having sent for M. Chaudey, said to him, without any preamble: "I am
+here to tell you that you have not an hour to live."
+
+"You mean to say that I am to be assassinated," replied Chaudey.
+
+"You are to be shot, and that directly," was the other's rejoinder.
+
+But, on reaching the prison, the National Guards who had been summoned
+refused to do the odious work, and the Procureur went himself to find
+others more docile. Chaudey was led before them, Raoul Rigault drew his
+sword to give the signal, the muskets were levelled and fired, and
+Chaudey fell, but wounded only. A sergeant gave him the death blow by
+discharging his pistol at his head. The next day, a hundred and fifty
+hostages of the Commune, confined at the Prefecture of Police, amongst
+whom were Prince Galitzin and Andreoli, a journalist, were about to be
+shot by an order of Ferre, when the incendiary fires broke out and
+prevented the execution of the order. At eleven o'clock, Raoul Rigault
+commanded the prisoners to be released, and enjoined them to fight for
+the Commune; upon their refusal, a shower of balls was discharged at
+them. The prisoners rushed for refuge into the Rue du Harlay, which was
+in flames, and were afterwards rescued by a detachment of the line.
+
+That same day was fatal to Raoul Rigault. He was perceived by a party of
+infantry at the moment when he was ringing at the door of a house in the
+Rue Gay Lussac. His colonel's uniform instantly made him a mark for the
+soldiers; he had time to enter the house, however, but was soon
+discovered, gave his name, and allowed himself to be taken off towards
+the Luxembourg, but before reaching it, he began to shout, "Vive la
+Commune!" "Down with the assassins!" and made an effort to escape. The
+soldiers thrust him against a wall and shot him down.
+
+The next day, the 24th, marked the fate of the hostages, who, in
+expectation of an attack of the Versaillais, had been transferred from
+Mazas to La Roquette. "Monseigneur Darboy," writes an eye-witness
+(Monsieur Dubutte, miraculously saved by an error of name), "occupied
+cell No. 21 of the 4th division, and I was at a short distance from him,
+in No. 26. The cell in which the venerable prelate was confined had been
+the office of one of the gaolers; it was somewhat larger than the rest,
+and Monseigneur's companions in captivity had succeeded in obtaining for
+him a chair and a table. On Wednesday, the 24th, at half-past seven in
+the evening, the director of the prison--a certain Lefrancais, who had
+been a prisoner in the hulks for the space of six years--went up, at the
+head of fifty Federals, into the gallery, near which the most important
+prisoners were incarcerated. Here they ranged themselves along the
+walls, and a few moments later one of the head-gaolers opened the door
+of the archbishop's cell, and called him out. The prelate answered, "I
+am here!" Then the gaoler passed on to M. le President Bonjean's cell
+(Appendix 12), then to that of Abbe Allard, member of the International
+Society in Aid of the Wounded; of Pere du Coudray, Superior of the
+School of Ste-Genevieve; and Pere Clere, of the Brotherhood of Jesus;
+the last called being the Abbe Deguerry, cure of the Madeleine. As the
+names were called, each prisoner was led out into the gallery and down
+the staircase to the courtyard; each side, as far as I could judge, was
+lined with Federal guards, who insulted the prisoners in language that I
+cannot repeat. Amid the hues and cries of these wretches my unfortunate
+companions were conducted across the courtyard to the infirmary, before
+which a file of soldiers were drawn up for the execution. Monseigneur
+Darboy advanced and addressed his murderers--addressed them words of
+pardon: then two of the men approached the prelate, and falling on their
+knees implored his pardon. The rest of the Federals threw themselves
+upon them, and thrust them aside with oaths, then, turning to the
+prisoners, they heaped fresh insults upon them. The chief officer of the
+detachment, however, imposed silence on the men, and uttering an oath,
+said, 'You are here to shoot these men, not to insult them.' The
+Federals were silenced, and upon the command of their lieutenant, they
+loaded their muskets.
+
+"Pere Allard was placed against the wall, and was the first who was
+struck; then Monseigneur Darboy fell, and the six prisoners were thus
+shot in turn, showing, at this supreme moment, a saintly dignity and a
+noble courage."]
+
+
+
+
+C.
+
+
+Where are these men going with hurried steps, and with lanterns in their
+hands? Their uniform is that of the National Guard, and consequently of
+Federals, but the tricolour band which they wear on the arm would seem
+to indicate that they belong to the Party of Order. They are making
+their way by one of the entries of the sewers, and preceded by an
+officer are disappearing beneath the sombre vaults. Calling to mind the
+sinister expression of a Communal artillery commander--"The reactionary
+quarters will all be blown up; not one shall be spared," it is
+impossible to avoid feeling a shudder of terror. What if the
+incendiaries all wearing the badge of the Party of Order, be about to
+set fire to mines prepared beforehand, or to barrels of petroleum ready
+to be staved in! The wild demons of the Commune are capable of
+everything; an invention of incendiary firemen is quoted as an example
+of the diabolical genius which presided over the work of destruction;
+individuals wearing the fireman's uniform were seen to throw combustible
+liquids by means of pumps and pails on the burning houses, instead of
+aiding to extinguish the flames.
+
+[Illustration: PARIS UNDERGROUND.]
+
+[Illustration: THE ENEMIES OF PROGRESS.]
+
+[Illustration: CORPS DE GARDE DE L'ARMEE DE VERSAILLES.]
+
+Fortunately, the fear is unfounded, the object of these men, on the
+contrary, is to cut the wires which connect all parts with inflammable
+materials, torpedoes, and other atrocious machines. They have already
+passed several nights in destroying this underground telegraphic system.
+The duty is not without danger; for not only are they exposed to the
+terrible consequences of a sudden explosion, but also to the risk of
+being taken and shot without trial, as traitors to the Commune. That is,
+should they chance to fall in with hostile bands, or appear in
+unfriendly quarters. It appears that these determined and devoted
+citizens have already lost two of their companions in the execution of
+this perilous duty. The intention of the Commune was to charge the whole
+of the main sewers and subways with combustibles; but luckily they had
+not time to mature their schemes, the advance of the Versailles troops
+being too quick for them. The Catacombs were included in the
+arrangement; for did not the able Assy direct his agent Fosse to keep
+them open, as a means of escape? Alas! these subterranean passages that
+underlie so large a portion of ancient Paris, what stories could they
+not tell of starved fugitives and maimed culprits dragging their weary
+limbs into the darkness of these gloomy caverns, only that they might
+die there in peace! Men and women, whose forms will in a few short weeks
+be unrecognisable, whose whitened bones will be crushed and kicked aside
+by the future explorer, who may perchance penetrate the labyrinths, and
+whose dust will finally be mixed up and undistinguishable from that of
+the bones and skulls taken from ancient cemeteries and graveyards with
+which this terrible Golgotha is decorated in Mosaic.
+
+
+
+
+CI.
+
+
+The fire is out, let us contemplate the ruins.[112] The Commune is
+vanquished. Look at Paris, sad, motionless, laid waste. This is what we
+have come to! Consternation is in every breast, solitude is in every
+street. We feel no longer either anger or pity; we are resigned, broken
+by emotion; we see processions of prisoners pass on their way to
+Versailles, and we scarcely look at them; no one thinks of saying
+either, "Wretches!" or "Poor fellows!" The soldiers themselves are very
+silent. Although they, are the victors they are sad; they do not drink,
+they do not sing. Paris might be a town that had been assaulted and
+taken by dumb enemies; the irritation has worn itself off, and the tears
+have not yet come. The tricolour flags which float from all the windows
+surprise us; there does not seem any reason for rejoicing. Yet, of late
+especially, the triumph of the Versaillais has been ardently wished for
+by the greater portion of the population; but all are so tired that they
+have not the energy to rejoice. Let us look back for a moment. First the
+siege, with famine, separation and poverty; then the insurrection of
+Montmartre, surprises, hesitations, cannonading night and day, ceaseless
+musketry, mothers in tears, sons pursued, every calamity has fallen on
+this miserable city. It has been like Rome under Tiberius, then like
+Rome after the barbarians had overrun it. The cannon balls have fallen
+upon Sybaris. So much emotion, so many horrors have worn out the city;
+and then all this blood, this dreadful blood. Corpses in the streets,
+corpses within the houses, corpses everywhere! Of course they were
+terribly guilty, these men that were taken, that were killed; they were
+horrible criminals, those women who poured brandy into the glasses and
+petroleum on the houses! But, in the first moment of victory, were there
+no mistakes? Were those that were shot all guilty? Then the sight of
+these executions, however merited, was cruelly painful. The innocent
+shuddered at the doom of justice. True, Paris is quiet now, but it is
+the quiet of the battle-field on the morrow of a victory; quiet as
+night, and as the tomb! An unsupportable uneasiness oppresses us; shall
+we ever be able to shake off this apathy, to pierce through this gloom?
+Paris, rent and bleeding, turns with sadness from the past, and dares
+not yet raise her eyes to the future!
+
+[Illustration: THE NEW MASTERS
+
+PROCLAMATION OVER PROCLAMATION
+
+PUBLIC PROMENADES.
+
+CAMPS IN THE GARDENS OF THE LUXEMBOURG AND THE TUILERIES--THE SOLDIERS
+LOCKED IN, AND THE PUBLIC LOCKED OUT.
+
+The damage done to the pier was by a Prussian shell in Jan. 1871.]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: PALACE OF THE LUXEMBOURG (STREET FRONT). NOW THE SEAT OF
+THE PREFECTURE OF PARIS.]
+
+POOR PARIS!
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    On August 15th, the _Times_ reporter gave the number awaiting trial
+    at Versailles at 30,000. On the 7th September they had reached
+    39,000, daily arrests adding to the number; out of these, 35,000
+    only had their charges made out, of which 13,900 had been examined,
+    2,800 writs of release having been issued, though only a few
+    hundreds have been set at liberty. There are only 94 reporting
+    officers: 20 attached to the Council of War, 6 to the Orangerie, 4
+    to Satory, 3 to the Prison des Femmes, and 16 to the Western Ports:
+    17 more are to be added shortly.
+
+[Illustration: MARSHAL MACMAHON, Duc de Magenta.
+
+Commander-in-chief of the Army of Versailles.]
+
+[Illustration: LIGHT & AIR ONCE MORE]
+
+[Illustration: THE FOSSE COMMUNE--THE END]
+
+[Illustration: PARIS VERSAILLES]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 112: See Appendix 15, 16, 17, and 18.]
+
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+
+CHRONOLOGY OF THE PARISIAN INSURRECTION,
+
+FROM THE 18th OF MARCH TO THE 29th MAY, 1871.
+
+
+The dash (--) in each day after the commencement of military operations
+divides the civil from the military.
+
+_Saturday, 18th March_: Early in the morning troops take possession of
+the Buttes Montmartre and Belleville. The soldiers charged with the
+recovery of the pieces of artillery fraternise with the people and the
+National Guard. Arrest of Generals Lecomte and Clement Thomas: they are
+shot at Montmartre without trial. National Guards take possession of the
+Hotel de Ville, the Prefecture of Police is invaded by Raoul Rigault,
+Duval, and others.
+
+_Sunday, 19th March_: The Central Committee of the National Guard take
+possession of the offices of the _Journal Officiel_. Arrest of General
+Chanzy. Gustave Flourens, imprisoned at Mazas, is set at liberty by the
+new masters of Paris. M. Thiers addresses a circular to the country
+enjoining obedience to the only authority, that of the Assembly.
+
+_Tuesday, 21st March_: Manifestation of the "Friends of Order."
+Procession for public demonstration. Sitting of the Assembly at
+Versailles. M. Jules Favre advises prompt measures. Appeal to the people
+and army.
+
+_Wednesday, 22nd March_: Friends of Order shot in the Rue de la Paix.
+Lullier arrested by order of the Central Committee.
+
+_Thursday, 23rd March_: Vice-Admiral Saisset is appointed by the
+Assembly Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard.
+
+_Friday, 24th March_: The delegates Brunel, Eudes, Duval, are promoted
+to the rank of generals by the Central Committee. Vice-Admiral Saisset's
+proclamation.
+
+_Saturday, 29th March_: Occupation of the Mairie of the 1st
+Arrondissement by the Federals. First placard of the Committee of
+Conciliation. Rumour of the arrest of Lullier reproached for moderation.
+Vice-Admiral Saisset retires to Versailles. _Sunday, 26th March_:
+Municipal elections to constitute the Commune of Paris.
+
+_Tuesday, 28th March_: 4 p.m., names of the elect proclaimed at the
+Hotel de Ville. Arrival of General Chanzy at Versailles.
+
+_Wednesday, 29th March_: Conscription abolished--all citizens to be
+National Guards. Pawnbroking decree. Organisation of commissions:
+executive, financial, military, etc. Ministers to be called delegates.
+
+_Saturday, 1st April_: The Executive Committee issues a decree to
+suppress the rank and functions of General-in-Chief. General Eudes
+appointed Delegate of War; Bergeret to the staff of the National Guard,
+in place of Brunel; Duval to the military command of the ex-Prefecture
+of Police, where Raoul Rigault was civil delegate.
+
+_Sunday, 2nd April_: Military operations commence 9 a.m. Action at
+Courbevoie. Flourens marches his troops to Versailles, _via_ Rueil.
+
+_Monday, 3rd April_: The corps d'armee of General Bergeret at the Rond
+Point near Neuilly, is stopped by the artillery of Mont Valerien.
+Exchange of shot between Fort Issy and Fort Vanves, occupied by
+insurgents, and Meudon.--The separation of Church and State decreed.
+
+_Tuesday, 4th April_: General Duval made prisoner in the engagement at
+Chatillon and shot. Death of Flourens at Rueil.--Delescluze, Cournet,
+and Vermorel succeed Generals Bergeret, Eudes, and Duval on the
+Executive Commission. Cluseret Delegate of War, and Bergeret commandant
+of Paris forces.
+
+_Wednesday, 6th April_: General Cluseret commences active operations.
+Military service compulsory for all citizens under forty. Abbe Deguerry,
+and Archbishop of Paris arrested.
+
+_Thursday, 6th April_: Extension of action to Neuilly and Courbevoie.
+Versailles army decreed by executive authority. Obsequies of Flourens at
+Versailles.--Decree concerning the complicity with Versailles, and
+arrest of hostages. The rank of general suppressed by the Commune.
+Dombrowski succeeds Bergeret as Commandant of Paris.
+
+_Friday, 7th April_: Decree for disarming the Refractaires. The
+guillotine is burnt on the Place Voltaire.
+
+_Saturday, 8th April_: Federals abandon Neuilly.--Commission of
+barricades created and presided over by Gaillard Senior. Military
+occupation of the railway termini by the insurgents.
+
+_Sunday, 9th April_: Insurgents attempt to retake Chatillon, but are
+repulsed. Forts Vanves and Montrouge disabled. Mont Valerien shells the
+Avenue des Ternes.--Assy and Bergeret arrested by order of the Commune.
+
+_Tuesday, 11th April_: Marshal MacMahon, Commander-in-Chief, distributes
+his forces. Commences the investment of fort Issy.
+
+_Wednesday, 12th April_: Versailles batteries established on Chatillon.
+The Orleans railway and telegraph out. Communications of the insurgents
+with the south intercepted.--Decree ordering the fall of the Column
+Vendome. Decree concerning the complementary elections.
+
+_Thursday, 13th April:_ Courbet presides at a meeting of artists at the
+Ecole de Medecine. Publication of the reports of the sittings of the
+Commune.
+
+_Friday, 14th April_: The redoubt of Gennevilliers taken. The troops of
+Versailles make advances to the Chateau de Becon, a post of
+importance.--Lullier takes the command of the flotilla on the Seine.
+
+_Sunday, 16th April_: Complementary elections. Organisation of a
+court-martial under the presidence of Rossel, chief officer of the
+staff.
+
+_Monday, 11th April_: Capture and fortification of the Chateau de Becon.
+
+_Tuesday, 18th April_: Station and houses at Asnieres taken by the army
+of Versailles.
+
+_Thursday, 20th April_: The village of Bagneux is occupied by the
+Versaillais.--Reorganisation of commissions. Eudes appointed
+inspector-general of the southern forts. Transfers his quarters from
+Montrouge to the Palace of the Legion of Honour.
+
+_Saturday, 22nd April_: Deputation from the Freemasons to Versailles.
+
+_Monday, 24th April_: Raoul Rigault takes the office of public
+prosecutor, resigning the Prefecture of Police to Cournet.
+
+_Tuesday, 25th April_: The Versailles batteries at Breteuil, Brimborion,
+Meudon, and Moulin de Pierre trouble the Federal Fort Issy, and battery
+between Bagneux and Chatillon shells Fort Vanves. Truce at Neuilly from
+9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The inhabitants of Neuilly enter Paris by the Porte des
+Ternes.
+
+_Wednesday, 26th April_: Capture of Les Moulineaux, outpost of the
+insurgents, by the troops, who strongly fortify themselves on the 27th
+and 28th.
+
+_Saturday, 29th April_: Cemetery and park of Issy taken by the
+Versaillais in the night.--Freemasons make a new attempt at
+conciliation. The Commune levies a sum of two millions of francs from
+the railway companies.
+
+_Sunday, 30th April_: A flag of truce sent to Fort Issy by the
+Versaillais, calling upon the Federals to surrender. General Eudes puts
+fresh troops in the fort, and takes the command himself.--Cluseret
+imprisoned at Mazas by order of the Commune. Rossel appointed
+provisional Delegate of War.
+
+_Monday, 1st May_: The Versaillais take the station of Clamart and the
+Chateau of Issy.--Creation of the Committee of Public Safety. Members:
+Antoine Arnauld, Leo Meillet, Ranvier, Felix Pyat, Charles Gerardin.
+
+_Wednesday, 3rd May_: The troops of General Lacretelle carry the redoubt
+of Moulin Saquet.
+
+_Friday, 5th May_: Colonel Rossel appointed to the direction of military
+affairs. He defines the military quarters: General Dombrowski, Place
+Vendome; General La Cecilia, at the Ecole Militaire; General Wroblewski,
+at the Elysee; General Bergeret, at the Corps Legislatif; General Eudes
+at the Palace of the Legion of Honour. The Central Committee of the
+National Guard charged with Administration of War under the supervision
+of the military commission. The Chapelle Expiatoire condemned to
+destruction--the materials to be sold by auction.
+
+_Saturday, 6th May_: Concert at the Tuileries in aid of the ambulances.
+Suppression of newspapers.
+
+_Monday, 8th May_: Battery of Montretout (70 marine guns) opens fire.
+
+_Tuesday, 9th May_: Morning, insurgents evacuate the Fort Issy.--The
+Committee of Public Safety renewed. Members: Ranvier, Antoine Arnauld,
+Gambon, Eudes, Delescluze. Rossel resigns; his letter to the Commune.
+
+_Wednesday, 10th May_: Cannon from the Fort Issy taken to
+Versailles.--Decree for the demolition of M. Thiers' house. Delescluze
+appointed Delegate of War.
+
+_Friday, 12th May_: Troops take possession of the Couvent des Oiseaux at
+Issy, and the Lyceum at Vanves.
+
+_Saturday, 13th May_: Triumphal entry of the troops into Versailles with
+flags and cannon taken from the Convent. The evacuation of the village
+of Issy completed. Fort Vanves taken by the troops.
+
+_Sunday, 14th May_: Vigorous cannonade from the batteries of Courbevoie,
+Becon, Asnieres on Levallois and Clichy: both villages evacuated.
+Commencement of the demolition of house of M. Thiers.
+
+_Monday, 15th May_: Report of the rearmament of Montmartre.
+
+_Tuesday, 16th May_: The Column Vendome falls.
+
+_Wednesday, 11th May_: Powder magazine and cartridge factory near the
+Champ de Mars blown up.
+
+_Sunday, 21st May_: 2 p.m. the troops enter Paris.--Rochefort arrives at
+Versailles. Raoul Rigault and Regere charged with the hostage decree.
+
+_Monday, 22nd May_: Noon, explosion of the powder magazine of the Manege
+d'Etat-Major (staff riding-school). The hostages transferred from Mazas
+to La Roquette. Assy arrested in Paris by the Versaillais. The Assembly
+votes the re-erection of the Column Vendome.
+
+_Tuesday, 23rd May_: Montmartre taken. Death of Dombrowski. Morning,
+Assy arrives at Versailles. Execution of gendarmes and Gustave Chaudey
+at the prison of Sainte-Pelagie. Night, the Tuileries are set on fire.
+Delescluze and the Committee of Public Safety hold permanent sittings at
+the Hotel de Ville.
+
+_Wednesday, 24th May_: One p.m., the powder magazine at the Palais du
+Luxembourg blown up. The Committee of Public Safety organise detachments
+of fusee-bearers. Raoul Rigault shot in the afternoon by the soldiers.
+In the evening, execution in the Prison of La Roquette of the
+Archbishop, Abbe Deguerry, etc.
+
+_Thursday, 26th May_: The forts Montrouge, Hautes-Bruyeres, Bicetre
+evacuated by the insurgents. The death of Delescluze is reported to have
+taken place this day. Executions in the Avenue d'Italie of the Peres
+Dominicains of Arcueil.
+
+_Friday, 26th May_: Sixteen priests shot in the Cemetery of Pere
+Lachaise by the insurgents.
+
+_Saturday, 27th May_: The Buttes Chaumont, the heights of Belleville,
+and the Cemetery of Pere Lachaise carried by the troops. Taking of the
+prison La Roquette by the Marines. Deliverance of 169 hostages.
+
+_Sunday, 28th May_: The investment of Belleville complete.
+
+_Monday, 29th May_: Six. p.m., the federal garrison of the fortress of
+Vincennes surrendered at discretion.
+
+
+
+
+I. (Page 2.)
+
+HENRI ROCHEFORT.
+
+
+Henri Rochefort, personal enemy of the Empire, republican humourist of
+the _Marseillaise_, and the lukewarm socialist of the _Mot d'Ordre_, who
+could answer to the judge who demanded his name, "I am Henri Rochefort,
+Comte de Lucey," has been reproached by some with his titles of
+nobility, and with the childish pleasure that he takes in affecting the
+plebeian. It is said of him that he aspires but to descend, but who
+would condemn him for spurning the petrifactions of the Faubourg
+Saint-Germain? A man must march with the times.
+
+Rochefort has distinguished himself among the young men by the
+marvellous tact that he has shown in discovering the way to popular
+favour. If I were allowed to compare a marquis to one of the canine
+species, I should say that he has a keen scent for popularity; but one
+must respect rank in a period like ours, when we may go to sleep to the
+shouts of the _canaille_, and awake to the melodious sounds of "_Vive
+Henri V!_" "Long live the King!"
+
+Born in January, 1830, Henri Rochefort was the son of a marquis,
+although his father, lately dead, was a _vaudevilliste_ and his mother a
+_patissere_. From such a fusion might have emanated odd tastes, such as
+preferring truffles to potatoes, but putting the knife into requisition
+whilst eating green peas. But in his case Mother Nature had intermingled
+elements so cleverly that Rochefort could be republican and royalist,
+catholic and atheist, without being accused for all that of being a
+political weathercock.
+
+As a writer of drollery and scandal in the _Charivari_, would it have
+been well if he had used his title as a badge? Later, when contributing
+to the _Nain Jaune_, the _Soleil_, the _Evenement_, and the _Figaro_,
+when everyone would have been enchanted to call him _mon cher Comte_, he
+never displayed his rank, except when on the ground, face to face with
+the sword or pistol of Prince Achille Murat or Paul de Cassagnac.
+
+A frequenter of _cafes_, living fast, bitter with journalists,
+hail-fellow with comedians, he lavished his wit for the benefit of minor
+theatres, and expended the exuberance of his patrician blood in comic
+odes. Dispensing thus some of his strength in such pieces as the
+_Vieillesse de Brididi_, the _Foire aux Grotesques_, and _Un Monsieur
+Bien-Mis_, in 1868 he founded the _Lanterne_, and thenceforth became
+the most ardent champion of the revolutionary party; and in the
+brilliant articles we all know, he cast its light on the follies of
+others under the pretext that they were his own. This satirical
+production reached the eleventh number, when its author, overstepping
+all bounds, took Napoleon by the horns and the gendarmes by the nose,
+and committed other extravagances, until the Government fined him to the
+amount of ten thousand francs penalties, and ordered him a short repose
+in the prison of Sainte-Pelagie. The notoriety attaching to his name
+dates from that period, and the events which accompanied the violent
+death of Victor Noir tended to augment his popularity and to convert him
+into the leader of a party, or the bearer of a flag, around which
+rallied all the elements of the struggle against established authority.
+He escaped to Belgium, and studied socialism, which he expounded later
+to an admiring audience of seventeen to eighteen thousand electors at
+Belleville. Elected deputy by the 20th Arrondissement, M. de Rochefort
+became, in 1869, a favourite representative of that class of the
+Parisian population whose bad instincts he had flattered and whose
+tendencies to revolt against authority he had encouraged, and in virtue
+of these claims he was chosen to form part of the Government of the
+National Defence. As President of the Commission of Barricades, after
+the 4th of September, during the siege of Paris, in the midst of the
+difficulties of all sorts caused to the Government of the National
+Defence by the investment of the capital, M. De Rochefort, making more
+and more common cause with the revolutionary party, separated himself
+from his colleagues in the Government who refused to permit the
+establishment of a second Government, the Commune, within a besieged
+city. By this act he openly declared himself a partisan of the Commune,
+and immediately after the acceptance of the preliminaries of peace he
+resigned his position as a deputy, alleging that his commission was at
+an end, and retired to Arcachon.
+
+His wildly sanguinary articles in the _Marseillaise_, and the compacts
+sealed with blood, with Flourens and his associates, now had so
+exhausted our poor Rochefort that at the moment of flourishing his
+handkerchief as the standard of the _canaille_, he dropped pale and
+fainting to the ground, attacked by a severe illness. He was hardly
+convalescent when the events of the 18th of March occurred. But early in
+April, he exerted himself to assume the direction of the _Mot d'Ordre_,
+which, after having been suppressed by order of General Vinoy, the
+military commandant of Paris, had reappeared immediately upon the
+establishment of the Commune. He arrived on the scene of contest about
+the 8th or 10th of April. The daily report of military operations states
+the movements of the enemy, and points out what should be done to meet
+and resist him most advantageously (12th, 13th, and 14th of April; 10th;
+16th, and 20th of May). Imaginary successes, the inaccuracy of which
+must in most instances have been known to the chief editor of the _Mot
+d'Ordre_, encouraged the hopes of the insurgents, while the
+announcement of unsuccessful combats was delayed with evident intention;
+the most ridiculous stories, the falsity of which was evident to the
+plainest common sense, and which could not escape the intelligence of M.
+Rochefort, were published in his journal, and kept up the popular
+excitement (12th, 15th, 19th, 26th, 27th, and 28th of April; 6th and 7th
+of May). It was in this manner that the pretended Pontifical Zouaves
+were brought upon the scene, with emblazoned banners, which were seized
+by the soldiers of the Commune (18th and 19th of April, 8th and 10th of
+May); that the Government of Versailles was furnished with war material
+given by, or purchased from the Prussians (27th and 28th of April, 6th
+and 17th of May); that it was again accused of making use of explosive
+bullets (18th and 19th of May), and of petroleum bombs (20th of April,
+and 2nd, 5th, 17th, and 19th of May); and that the best-known and most
+respected generals had been guilty of the grossest acts of cruelty and
+barbarity. Incitement to civil war (2nd and 26th of April and 14th and
+24th of May) followed, as did also the oft-repeated accusation against
+the Government of wishing to reduce Paris by famine; indescribable
+calumnies directed against the Chief of the Executive Power (2nd, 16th,
+20th, and 30th of April, and 8th of May), against the minister, the
+Chambers (16th of April and 14th of May), and the generals (12th, 16th,
+and 26th of April). The director of the _Mot d'Ordre_ then finding that
+men's minds were prepared for all kinds of excesses, started the idea of
+the demolition of M. Thiers's house by way of reprisal (6th of April);
+he mentioned the artistic wealth which it contained. He also referred to
+the dwellings of other ministers. He returned persistently to this idea,
+and on the 17th of May he invited the people, in the name of justice, to
+burn off-hand that other humiliating monument which is styled the
+History of the Consulate and of the Empire--in short, he insists on the
+execution of these acts of Vandalism. He did not call for the
+destruction of the Column Vendome, but approved of the decree. He
+demands the destruction of the Expiatory Chapel of Louis XVI. (20th of
+April), and suggests the seizure of the crown jewels, which were in the
+possession of the bank (14th of April). In short, M. Rochefort, having
+entered upon a road which must naturally lead to extremes, finally
+arrives at a proposition for assassination. In the same way as he
+pointed out to the demolishers the house of M. Thiers, and to the
+bandits released by the Commune the treasures of the Church, so he
+points out to the assassins the unfortunate hostages.
+
+A few days before the end of the reign of the Commune he judged it
+prudent, "seeing the gravity of events," to suspend the publication of
+his journal and to quit Paris.
+
+He was arrested at Meaux. It was the "_Meaux de la fin_,"[113] said a
+friend and fellow-writer.
+
+He arrived at Versailles on the twenty-first of May, at two o'clock,
+the same day on which the troops entered Paris. On Sept. 20 Rochefort
+was tried with the Communists before the military tribunal of
+Versailles. Physically he seemed to have suffered much during his three
+months of incarceration. He is reported to have made anything but a
+brilliant defence, and to have restricted himself to pleading past
+actions and good services. He said that he suppressed _The Marseillaise_
+at a loss of 20,000 francs per month, when he had no other private means
+of support, because he thought the effect of its articles would weaken
+the plan of Trochu for the defence of Paris, and that when he (M.
+Rochefort) held the _forces populaires_, and had an _occasion unique_,
+he chose to play a subordinate part. He stated himself a journalist
+_under_ the reign of the Commune, and not an active power _in_ the
+Commune from which in the end he had to fly. Rochefort owned that his
+articles in the _Mot d'Ordre_ had been more or less violent, but he
+pleaded the cause his "_facon plus ou moins nerveuse a ecrire_" and that
+from illness he did not sometimes see his own journal. When pandering to
+a vulgar audience, Rochefort seemed to have lost his rich vein of
+satire, and to have lost himself in vile abuse. On the 21st he was
+sentenced to transportation for life within the enceinte of a French
+fortress.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 113: "_Le mot de la fin_," the final word--the finale.]
+
+
+
+
+II. (Page 27.)
+
+THE EIGHTEENTH OF MARCH.
+
+
+It was on the day of the 18th of March, exactly six months after the
+appearance of Prussians beneath the walls of Paris, that the Government
+had chosen for the repression of the rebellion. At four o'clock in the
+morning, the troops of the army of Paris received orders to occupy the
+positions that had been assigned to them. All were to take part in the
+action, but it is just to add here that the most arduous and fatiguing
+part fell to the share of the Lustielle division, composed of the
+Paturel brigade (17th battalion of Chasseurs), and of the Lecomte
+brigade (18th battalion of Chasseurs). Three regiments of infantry were
+entrusted with the guard of the Hotel de Ville; another, the 89th,
+mounted guard at the Tuileries. The Place de la Bastille was occupied by
+a battalion of the 64th, and two companies of the 24th. Three other
+battalions remained confined to barracks on the Boulevard du Prince
+Eugene. The Rue de Flandre, the Rue de Puebla, and the Rue de Crimee
+were filled with strong detachments of Infantry; a battalion of the
+Republican Guard and the 35th Regiment of Infantry were drawn up in the
+neighbourhood of the Buttes Chaumont. The whole quarter around the Place
+Clichy was occupied by the Republican Guard, foot Chasseurs, mounted
+gendarmes, Chasseurs d'Afrique, and a half battery of artillery. Other
+troops, starting from this base-line of operation, were led up the
+heights of Montmartre, together with companies of Gardiens de la Paix
+(the former Sergents-de-Ville converted into soldiers). At six o'clock
+in the morning the first orders were executed; the Gardiens de la Paix
+surrounded a hundred and fifty or two hundred insurgents appointed to
+guard the park of artillery, and the troops made themselves masters of
+all the most important points. The success was complete. Nothing
+remained to be done but to carry off the guns. Unhappily, the horses
+which had been ordered for this purpose did not arrive at the right
+moment. The cause of this fatal delay remains still unknown, but it is
+certain that they were still on the Place de la Concorde at the time
+when they ought to have been harnessed to the guns at Montmartre. Before
+they arrived, agitation had broken out and spread all over the quarter.
+The turbulent population, complaining in indignant tones of circulation
+being stopped, insulted the sentinels placed at the entrances of the
+streets, and threatened the artillerymen who were watching them. At the
+same time, the Central Committee caused the rappel to be beaten, and
+towards seven o'clock in the morning ten or twelve thousand National
+Guards from the arrondissements of Batignolles, Montmartre, La Villette,
+and Belleville poured into the streets. Crowds of lookers-on surrounded
+the soldiers who were mounting guard by the recaptured pieces, the women
+and children asking them pleadingly if they would have the heart to fire
+upon their brothers.
+
+Meanwhile, about a dozen tumbrils, with their horses, had arrived on the
+heights of the Buttes, the guns were dragged off, and were quietly
+proceeding down hill, when, at the corner of the Rue Lepic and the Rue
+des Abbesses, they were stopped by a concourse of several hundred people
+of the quarter, principally women and children. The foot soldiers, who
+were escorting the guns, forgetting their duty, allowed themselves to be
+dispersed by the crowd, and giving way to perfidious persuasion, ended
+by throwing up the butt ends of their guns. These soldiers belonged to
+the 88th Battalion of the Lecomte brigade. The immediate effect of their
+disaffection was to abandon the artillerymen to the power of the crowd
+that was increasing every moment, rendering it utterly impossible for
+them either to retreat or to advance. And the result was, that at nine
+o'clock in the morning the pieces fell once more into the hands of the
+National Guards.
+
+Judging that the enterprise had no chance of succeeding by a return to
+the offensive, General Vinoy ordered a retreat, and retired to the
+quarter of Les Ternes. This movement had been, moreover, determined by
+the bad news arriving from other parts of Paris. The operations at
+Belleville had succeeded no better than those at Montmartre. A
+detachment of the 35th had, it is true, attacked and taken the Buttes
+Chaumont, defended only by about twenty National Guards; but as soon as
+the news of the capture had spread in the quarter, the drums beat to
+arms, and in a short time the troops were found fraternising with the
+National Guards of Belleville, who got possession again of the Buttes
+Chaumont, and not only retook their own guns, but also those which the
+artillery had brought up to support the manoeuvre of the infantry of the
+line. At the same time, the 120th shamefully allowed themselves to be
+disarmed by the people, and the insurgents became masters of the
+barracks of the Prince Eugene.
+
+At about four o'clock in the afternoon, two columns of National Guards,
+each composed of three battalions, made their way towards the Hotel de
+Ville, where they were joined by a dozen other battalions from the left
+bank of the river; at the same hour, the insurgent guards of Belleville
+took and occupied the Imprimerie Nationale, the Napoleon Barracks, the
+staff-quarters of the Place Vendome, and the railway stations; the
+arrest of General Chanzy completed the work of the day, which had been
+put to profitable account by the insurgents.--"_Guerre de Comunneux de
+Paris._"
+
+
+
+
+III. (Page 77.)
+
+THE PRUSSIANS AND THE COMMUNE.
+
+
+The enemies of yesterday, the Prussians, did not disdain to enter into
+communication with the Central Committee on the 22nd of March. This was
+an additional reason for the new masters of Paris to regard their
+position as established, and the _Official Journal_ took care to make
+known to the public the following despatch received from Prussian
+head-quarters:--
+
+"To the actual Commandant of Paris, the Commander-in-Chief of the third
+corps d'armee.
+
+"Head-quarters, Compiegne,
+
+"21st March, 1871.
+
+"The undersigned Commander-in-Chief takes the liberty of informing you
+that the German troops that occupy the forts on the north and east of
+Paris, as well as the neighbourhood of the right bank of the Seine, have
+received orders to maintain a pacific and friendly attitude, so long as
+the events of which the interior of Paris is the theatre, do not assume
+towards the German forces a hostile character, or such as to endanger
+them, but keep within the terms settled by the treaty of peace.
+
+"But should these events assume a hostile character, the city of Paris
+will be treated as an enemy.
+
+"For the Commandant of the third corps of the Imperial armies,
+
+"(Signed) Chief of the Staff, VON SCHLOSHEIM,
+
+"Major-General."
+
+Paschal Grousset, the delegate of the Central Committee for Foreign
+Affairs, who had succeeded Monsieur Jules Favre, but who instead of
+minister was called delegate, which was much more democratic, replied as
+follows:--
+
+"Paris, 22nd March, 1871.
+
+"To the Commandant-in-Chief of the Imperial Prussian Armies.
+
+"The undersigned, delegate of the Central Committee for Foreign Affairs,
+in reply to your despatch dated from Compiegne the 21st instant, informs
+you that the revolution, accomplished in Paris by the Central Committee,
+having an essentially municipal character, has no aggressive views
+whatever against the German armies.
+
+"We have no authority to discuss the preliminaries of peace voted by the
+Assembly at Bordeaux.
+
+"The member of the Central Committee, Delegate for Foreign Affairs.
+
+"(Signed) PASCHAL GROUSSET."
+
+It was very logical of you, Monsieur Grousset, to avow that you had no
+authority to discuss the preliminaries of peace voted by the Assembly.
+What right had you then to substitute yourselves for it? He did not,
+however, thus remain midway in his diplomatic career, for after the
+election of the Commune he thought it his duty to address the following
+letter to the German authorities:--
+
+"COMMUNE OF PARIS.
+
+"To the Commander-in-chief of the 3rd Corps.
+
+"GENERAL,
+
+"The delegate of the Commune of Paris for Foreign Affairs has the honour
+to address to you the following observations:--
+
+"The city of Paris, like the rest of France, is interested in the
+observance of the conditions of peace concluded with Prussia; she has
+therefore a right to know how the treaty will be executed. I beg you, in
+consequence, to have the goodness to inform me if the Government of
+Versailles has made the first payment of five hundred millions, and if
+in consequence of such payment, the chiefs of the German army have fixed
+the date for the evacuation of the part of the territory of the
+department of the Seine, and also of the forts which form an integral
+portion of the territory of the Commune of Paris.
+
+"I shall be much obliged, General, if you will be good enough to
+enlighten me in this respect.
+
+"The Delegate for Foreign Affairs,
+
+"(Signed) PASCHAL GROUSSET."
+
+The German general did not think fit, as far as we know, to send any
+answer to the above.
+
+
+
+
+IV. (Page 88.)
+
+GAMBON.
+
+
+There are certain legendary names which when spoken or remembered evoke
+a second image and raise a double personality, Castor implies Pollux;
+Ninos, Euryalus; Damon, Pythias. An inferior species of union connects
+Saint Anthony with his pig, Roland with his mare, and the infinitely
+more modern Gambon with his historic cow. He was "the village Hampden"
+of the Empire. By withstanding the tyranny of Caesar's tax-gatherer and
+refusing to pay the imperial rates, he obtained a popularity upon which
+he existed until the Commune gave him power. His history is brief. About
+a year before the fall of the Second Empire, he declared that he would
+pay no more taxes imposed by the Government. Thereupon, all his
+realizable property, consisting of one cow, was seized by the
+authorities and sold for the benefit of the State. This procured him the
+commiseration of the entire party of _irreconciliables_. A subscription
+was opened in the columns of the _Marseillaise_ to replace the
+sequestrated animal, and "La vache a Gambon"--"Gambon's cow"--became a
+derisive party cry. Gambon had been a deputy in 1848, and when the
+Commune came into power took a constant though not remarkable part in
+its deliberations. He was appointed member of the Delegation of Justice
+on the twentieth of April.
+
+
+
+
+V. (Page 120.).
+
+LULLIER.
+
+
+Charles Ernest Lullier was born in 1838, admitted into the Naval School
+in 1854, and appointed cadet of the second class in 1856. He was
+expelled the Naval School for want of obedience and for his irascible
+character. When on board the Austerlitz he was noted for his quarrelsome
+disposition and his violent behaviour to his superiors as well as his
+equals, which led to his removal from the ship and to his detention for
+a month on board the Admiral's ship at Brest. He was first brought into
+notoriety by his quarrel with Paul de Cassagnac, the editor of the
+_Pays_, whom he challenged, and who refused his cartel. Lullier is
+celebrated for several acts of the most violent audacity. He struck one
+of the Government counsel in the Palais de Justice, and openly
+threatened the Minister of Marine. He was condemned several times for
+political offences and breaches of discipline. On the fourth of
+September he left Sainte-Pelagie at the same time as Rochefort. He
+attacked the new government in every possible way; and when the events
+of the 18th March occurred, M. Lullier--the man of action, the man
+recommended by Flourens--seized the opportunity to justify the hopes
+formed of him by his political associates, who had not lost sight of
+him, and who elected him military chief of the insurrection. As General
+of the National Guard, he has given us the history of his deeds during
+the 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, and 22nd March. He has since complacently
+described the energy with which he executed his command, has explained
+the means he used, and the points occupied by the insurgents; and has
+described in the same style the occupation of the Paris forts by the
+National Guard.
+
+When, on the 18th of March, the Central Committee offered him the
+command in chief of the National Guard, he would only accept it on the
+following conditions:--
+
+1. The raising of the state of siege.
+
+2. The election by the National Guard of all its officers, including the
+general.
+
+3. Municipal franchises for Paris--that is to say, the right of the
+citizens to meet--to appoint magistrates for the city, and to tax
+themselves by their representatives.
+
+On being appointed he made it a condition that the initiative should
+rest with him, and then he began to execute his duties with a zeal which
+never relaxed till his arrest on the 22nd March. By his orders,
+barricades were erected in the Rue de Rivoli, where he massed the
+insurgent forces. He ordered the occupation of the Hotel de Ville and
+the Napoleon Barracks by Brunel, the commander of the insurgents. At
+midnight he took possession of the Prefecture of Police, at one o'clock
+of the Tuileries, at two o'clock of the Place du Palais Royal, and at
+four o'clock he was informed that the Ministry were to meet at the
+Foreign Office.--"I would have surrounded them," he said, "but Jules
+Favre's presence withheld me. I contented myself therefore with
+occupying the Place Vendome, the Hotel de Ville, and ordering
+strategical points on the right bank of the river and four on the left."
+
+He was subsequently accused of having sold Mont Valerien to the
+Versailles authorities, arrested, and thrown into the Conciergerie. He
+reappeared, however, on the 14th April as commander of the flotilla of
+the Commune. Furious with the Central Committee and the Commune he
+opposed them and was arrested, but contrived to escape from Mazas. From
+that moment the general of the Commune put himself in communication with
+Versailles through the mediation of M. Camus and Baron Dathiel de la
+Tuque, who agreed with him to organise a counter revolution. Lullier was
+now busily employed in endeavouring to make people forget the part he
+had taken in the insurrection of the 18th March. He had made it a
+condition that neither he nor his accomplices, Gomez d'Absin and Bisson,
+should be prosecuted. The expenses were calculated at 30,000 francs; of
+which M. Camus gave 2000 francs to Lullier, but the scheme did not
+succeed. Lullier undertook to have all the members of the Commune
+arrested, and to send the hostages to Versailles. Lullier is a man of
+courage, foolhardy even, who never hesitated to fight, and if at the end
+of the Commune he tried to serve the legitimate government, it was from
+a spirit of revenge against the men who had refused his dictation, and
+in his own interest.
+
+
+
+
+VI. (Page 220.)
+
+PROTOT.
+
+
+Citizen Protot, appointed Delegate of Justice by a decree of the
+twentieth of April, 1871, was born in 1839.
+
+As an advocate, he defended Megy, the famous Communist general of the
+fort of Issy, when he was accused of the assassination of a police agent
+on the eleventh of April, 1870. This trial, and the ability he
+displayed, drew public attention for a moment upon him. Compromised as a
+member of secret societies, he managed to escape the police, but was
+condemned in his absence to fines and imprisonment. Having been himself
+a victim of the law, his attention was first given to the drawing up of
+a decree, thus worded:--
+
+"The notaries and public officers in general shall draw up legal
+documents which fall within their duty without charge."
+
+In the discussion on the subject of the confiscation of the property of
+M. Thiers, he proposed that all the plate and other objects in his
+possession bearing the image of the Orleans family should be sent to the
+mint.
+
+
+
+
+VII. (Page 229.)
+
+
+"And now he thinks: 'The Empire is tottering,
+        There's little chance of victory.'
+Then, creeping furtively backwards, he tries to slink away.
+        Remain, renegade, in the building!
+
+"'The ceiling falls,' you say! 'if they see me
+        They will seize and stop me as I go,'
+Daring neither to rest nor fly, you miserably watch the roof
+        And then the door,
+
+"And shiveringly you put your hand upon the bolt.
+        Back into the dismal ranks!
+Back! Justice, whom they have thrust into a pit,
+        Is there in the darkness.
+
+"Back! She is there, her sides bleeding from their knives,
+        Prostrate; and on her grave
+They have placed a slab. The skirt of your cloak
+        Is caught beneath the stone.
+
+"Thou shalt not go! What! Quit their house!
+  And fly from their fate!
+What! Would you betray even treachery itself,
+  And make even it indignant?
+
+"What! Did you not hold the ladder to these tricksters
+  In open daylight?
+Say, was the sack for these robbers' booty
+  Not made by you beforehand?
+
+"Falsehood, Hate, with its cold and venomous fang,
+  Crouch in this den.
+And thou wouldst leave it! Thou! more cunning than Falsehood,
+  More viperous than Hate."
+
+
+
+
+VIII. (Page 231.)
+
+JOURDE.
+
+
+Jourde certainly occupied one of the most difficult offices of the
+Commune, for he had to find the means to maintain the situation, but as
+the Ministry of Finances is burnt, no documents can be found to show the
+employment he made of the funds which passed through his hands. On the
+30th of May, when he was arrested, disguised as an artizan, with his
+friend Dubois, he had about him a sum of 8070 francs in bank notes, and
+Dubois 3100 francs; making a total sum of 11,170 francs between the two.
+A part of Jourde's cash was hidden in the lining of his waistcoat; he
+declared that it was the only sum taken by him out of the moneys
+belonging to the state, thus clearly proving that he had been guilty of
+embezzlement.
+
+The amounts declared to have been received by Jourde form a total of
+43,891,000 francs, but as the expenses amount to 47,000,000 francs, it
+is clear there is a deficiency of 3,309,000. Notwithstanding this fact,
+all the payments were made up to the 29th of May. It is, then, certain
+that other moneys were received by Jourde, and as he says that cash has
+been refused from some unknown persons who offered to lend 50,000,000
+francs on the guarantee of the picture gallery of the Louvre, the
+suggestion comes naturally to the mind that the 3,309,000 francs may
+have been produced by the sale of valuables in the Tuileries. Jourde was
+sentenced by the tribunal of Versailles to transportation beyond the
+seas.
+
+
+
+
+IX. (Page 316.)
+
+
+These are the last proclamations from the Hotel de Ville. They refer
+immediately to the burning of the capital.
+
+In the evening of the thirty-first of May, when Delescluze denied with
+vehemence that the regular army had made its entry, he wrote to
+Dombrowski:--
+
+    "CITIZEN--I learn that the orders given for the construction of
+    barricades are contradictory.
+
+    "See that this be not repeated.
+
+    "Blow up or burn the houses which interfere with your plans for the
+    defence. The barricades ought to be unattackable from the houses.
+
+    "The defenders of the Commune must be removed above want: give to
+    the necessitous that which is contained in the houses about to be
+    destroyed.
+
+    "Moreover, make all necessary requisitions,
+
+    "DELESCLUZE, A. BILLICRAY."
+
+
+    "Paris, 2nd Prairial, an 79."
+
+On the 22nd appeared the following proclamation:--
+
+    "CITIZENS,--The gate of Saint-Cloud, attacked from four directions
+    at once, was forcibly taken by the Versaillais, who have become
+    masters of a considerable portion of Paris.
+
+    "This reverse, far from discouraging us, should prove a stimulus to
+    our exertions. A people who have dethroned kings, destroyed
+    Bastilles, and established a Republic, can not lose in a day the
+    fruits of the emancipation of the 18th of March.
+
+    "Parisians, the struggle we have commenced cannot be abandoned, for
+    it is a struggle between the past and the future, between liberty
+    and despotism, equality and monopoly, fraternity and servitude, the
+    unity of nations and the egotism of oppressors.
+
+    "AUX ARMES!
+
+    "Yes,--to arms! Let Paris bristle with barricades, and from behind
+    these improvised ramparts let her shout to her enemies the cry of
+    war, its cry of fierce pride of defiance, and of victory; for Paris
+    with her barricades is invincible.
+
+    "Let the pavement of the streets be torn up; firstly, because the
+    projectiles coming from the enemy are less dangerous falling on soft
+    ground; secondly, because these paving-stones, serving as a new
+    means of defence, can be carried to the higher floors where there
+    are balconies.
+
+    "Let revolutionary Paris, the Paris of great deeds, do her duty; the
+    Commune and the Committee for Public Safety will do theirs.
+
+    "Hotel de Ville, 2nd Prairial, an 79,
+
+    "The Committee for Public Safety,
+
+    "ANTOINE ARNAULT, E. EUDES, F. GAMBON, G. RANVIER."
+
+These are the commentaries made by Citizen Delescluze:--
+
+    "Citoyen Jacquet is authorised to find men and materials for the
+    construction of barricades in the Rue du Chateau d'Eau and in the
+    Rue d'Albany.
+
+    "The citoyens and citoyennes who refuse their aid will be shot on
+    the spot.
+
+    "The citoyens, chiefs of barricades, are entrusted with the care of
+    assuring tranquillity each in his own quarter.
+
+    "They are to inspect all houses bearing a suspicious appearance &c.,
+    &c.
+
+    "The houses suspected are to be set light to at the first signal
+    given.
+
+    "DELESCLUZE."
+
+
+
+
+X. (Page 335.)
+
+FERRE.
+
+
+At half-past nine on the morning of the 18th of March Ferre was at No.
+6, Rue des Rosiers, opposing the departure of the prisoners of the
+Republican Guard, by obtaining from the Commander Bardelle the
+revocation of the order for their dismissal, which was known to have
+been issued. He went to the council of the Chateau Rouge, whither
+General Lecomte was about to be taken, and made himself conspicuous by
+the persistency with which he called for the death of that general. On
+the morning of Monday, the 24th May, a witness residing at the
+Prefecture of Police saw Ferre and five others going up the stairs of
+the Prefecture of Police. Ferre said to him, "Be off as quick as you
+can. We are going to set fire to the place. In a quarter of an hour it
+will be in flames." Half an hear afterwards the witness saw the flames
+burst forth from two windows of the office of the Procureur-General.
+When Raoul Rigault was installed during the insurrection, a woman saw
+some persons washing the walls of the Prefecture of Police with
+petroleum. Seeing them going out by the court of the St. Chapelle, she
+noticed among them one smaller than the rest, wearing a grey paletot
+with a black velvet collar, and black striped trousers. On the same day
+a police agent went to La Roquette to order the shooting of Mgr. Darboy
+and the other prisoners--the President Bonjean, the Abbe Allard, the
+Pere Ducoudray, and the Abbe Deguerry. On Saturday, the 27th, Ferre
+installed himself in the clerk's office of the prison, and ordered the
+release of certain of the criminals and gave them arms and ammunition.
+Upon this they proceeded to massacre a great number of the prisoners,
+among whom were 66 gendarmes. Several witnesses saw Ferre that day at
+the prison.
+
+
+
+
+XI. (Page 342.)
+
+
+At the trial of Ferre, August 10, Dr. Puymoyen, physician to the prison
+for juvenile offenders, opposite La Roquette, gave the following graphic
+evidence:--
+
+"Immediately after the insurgents, driven back by the troops, had
+occupied La Roquette, they installed a court-martial at the children's
+prison opposite, where I live. It was from thence I saw the poor
+wretches whom they feigned to release, ushered in to the square, where
+they encountered an ignoble mob, that ill-treated them in the most
+brutal manner. I was told that Ferre presided over this court-martial.
+Its proceedings were singular. I saw an unfortunate gendarme taken to
+the prison; he had been arrested near the Grenier d'Abondance, on a
+denunciation. He wore a blouse, blue trousers, and an apron, and was
+charged with having stolen them. The mob wanted to enter the prison
+along with him, but the keepers, who behaved very well, prevented the
+invasion of the courtyard. The escort was commanded by a young woman
+carrying a Chassepot, and wearing a chignon. I entered the registrar's
+office with this unfortunate gendarme. One Briand, who was charged to
+question the prisoners summarily, asked him where his clothes came from.
+The man was very cool and courageous, and his perfect self-possession
+disconcerted this _juge d'instruction._ He was asked if he were married,
+and had a family. He replied, 'Yes, I have a wife and eight children.'
+He was then shown into the back office, where the 'judges' were. These
+judges were mere boys, who seemed quite proud of the part they were
+playing, and gave themselves no end of airs, I asked the governor of the
+gaol soon afterwards what had been done with the gendarme. He told me
+that they were going to shoot him. I replied, 'Surely it can't be true.
+I must see the president--we can't allow a married man with eight
+children to be murdered in this way.' I tried to get into the room where
+the court-martial was sitting, but was prevented. One of the National
+Guards on duty at the door told me 'Don't go in there, or you're done
+for (_N'y entrez pas, ou vous etes f--_).' I made immediately further
+inquiries about M. Grudnemel, and was told he was in 'a provisional
+cell.' I trembled for him, for I knew that meant he would be given up to
+the mob, which would tear him to pieces. When they said, 'This man is to
+be taken to a cell,' that meant that he was to be shot. When they said,
+'Put him in a provisional cell,' it meant that he should be delivered
+over to the mob for butchery, I continued to plead the gendarme's cause
+with the National Guard, dwelling on the fact of his having eight
+children. Thereon, the Woman above referred to, who appeared to be in
+command of the detachment, exclaimed, 'Why does this fellow go in for
+the gendarme?' One of her acolytes replied, 'Smash his jaw.' This woman
+seemed to understand her business. She minutely inspected the men's
+pouches to ascertain that they had plenty of ammunition. She would not
+hear of the gendarme being reprieved, and she had her way. I understood
+that I had better follow the governor's advice and keep quiet. A mere
+boy was placed as sentry at the door of the court-martial. He told
+me, 'You know I sha'n't let you in.' When I saw the poor gendarme leave
+the room he looked at me imploringly; he had probably detected in my
+eyes a look of sympathy. And when he was told that he might go
+out--hearing the yells of the mob--he turned towards me and said, 'But I
+shall be stoned to death;' and, in fact, it was perfectly fearful to
+hear the shouts of the crowd outside. I could not withstand the impulse,
+and I took my place by his side, and tried to address the crowd. 'Think
+on what you are going to do--surely you won't murder the father of
+eight children.' The words were hardly out of my mouth when a kind of
+signal was given. I was shoved back against the wall, and one National
+Guard, clapping his hand on his musket, ejaculated, 'You know, you old
+rascal, there is something for you here,' and he drove his bayonet
+through my whiskers. The unfortunate gendarme was taken across the
+place, close to the shop where they sell funeral wreaths, but there was
+no firing party in attendance. He then took to his heels, but was
+pursued, captured, and put to death. I began to feel rather bewildered,
+and some one urged me to return to the prison, which I did. A young
+linesman was then brought in. He was quite a young fellow, barely
+twenty; his hands were tied behind his back. They decided to kill him
+within the prison. They set upon him, beat him, tore his clothes, so
+that he had hardly a shred of covering left; they made him kneel, then
+made him stand up, blindfolded him then uncovered his eyes; finally they
+put an end to his long agony by shooting him, and flung the body into a
+costermonger's cart close to the gate. Several priests had got out of
+the prison of La Roquette. The Abbe Surat, on passing over a barricade,
+was so imprudent as to state who he was, and showed some articles of
+value he had about him. He had got as far as about the middle of the
+Boulevard du Prince Eugene, when he was arrested and taken back to the
+prison, where they prepared to shoot him. But the young woman whom I
+have before mentioned, with a revolver in one hand and a dagger in the
+other, rushed at him exclaiming, 'I must have the honour of giving him
+the first blow.' The abbe instinctively put his hands out to protect
+himself, crying, '_Grace! grace!_' Whereon this fury shouted, '_Grace!
+grace! en voila un maigre_,' and she discharged her revolver at him. His
+body was not searched, but his shoes were removed. Afterwards his
+pastoral cross and 300 francs were found about him. The boys detained in
+the prison were set at liberty. The smaller ones were made to carry
+pails of petroleum, the others had muskets given them, and were sent to
+fight. Six of them were killed; the remainder came back that night, and
+on the following day. About a hundred boys were taken to Belleville by a
+member of the Commune, quite a young man; they were wanted to make
+sand-bags, to be filled with earth to form barricades."
+
+
+
+
+XII. (Page 345.)
+
+
+Regarding the death of President Bonjean, the Abbe de Marsay said--"That
+gentleman carried his scruples so far that he would not avail himself of
+forty-eight hours' leave on _parole_, fearing he could not get back in
+time; thus did not see his family."
+
+The Abbe Perni, a venerable man with a white beard, who had been a
+missionary said:
+
+    "On Wednesday, the 24th of May, we were ordered back to our cells at
+    La Roquette at an earlier hour than usual, and at about four o'clock
+    in the afternoon a battalion of federates noisily occupied the
+    passage into which our cells opened. They spoke at the topmost pitch
+    of their voices. One of them said, 'We must get rid of these
+    Versailles banditti.' Another replied, 'Yes; let us bowl them over,
+    put them to bed.' I understood what this meant, and prepared for
+    death. Soon after the door next mine was opened, and I heard a man
+    asking if M. Darboy was there. The prisoner replied in the negative.
+    The man passed before my door without stopping, and I soon heard the
+    mild voice of the archbishop answering to his name. The hostages
+    were then dragged put of the lobby; ten minutes later I saw the
+    mournful _cortege_ pass in front of my windows; the federates were
+    walking along in a confused way, making a noise to cover the voice
+    of their victims, but I could hear Father Allard exhorting his
+    companions to prepare for death. A little after I heard the report
+    of the muskets, and understood that all was over. On Thursday (the
+    25th) the day passed off quietly, but on Friday shells began to fall
+    on the prison, and at about half-past four in the afternoon a
+    corporal, named Romain. came up, and with a joyful face told us we
+    would soon be free. He said answer to your names; I must have 15. He
+    had a list in his hand, and I must confess a feeling of terror came
+    over us all. Ten hostages answered to their names. One of them, a
+    father of the order of Picpus, asked if he could take his hat.
+    Romain replied, 'Oh, it's no use; you are only going to the
+    registrar's.' None of these unfortunate men ever returned. On
+    Saturday (the 27th) we learnt that several of the prisoners had been
+    armed with hammers, files, &c. They threw us some of these in at the
+    windows. We were then informed that several members of the Commune
+    had arrived at La Roquette. I cannot say whether Ferre was among
+    them. We were taken back to our cellars, where we expected to be put
+    to death every minute. At about four o'clock the cells of the common
+    prisoners were opened, and they escaped, shouting 'Vive la Commune!'
+    Our keeper himself had disappeared, and a turnkey presently opened
+    our cells, and recommended us to run away. We were afraid this was a
+    trap, but as it might afford a chance we determined to avail
+    ourselves of it. Those amongst us who had plain clothes hurried them
+    on, and I must say the gaolers behaved admirably in this emergency;
+    they lent clothes to such of us as had none, and we were thus all
+    enabled to escape. As for myself, after wandering for about an hour
+    in the streets about the prison, and being unable to find shelter
+    anywhere, and afraid of being murdered in the streets, I determined
+    to return to La Roquette. As I reached it I met the archbishop's
+    secretary, two priests, and two gendarmes, who, like myself, had
+    been driven to return to the prison. One of the keepers told us that
+    the safest for us was the sick ward. We dressed up in the hospital
+    uniform and hid in bed. At eight in the evening the federates, who
+    were not aware that we had escaped, came back and called on the
+    gaolers to produce us. They were told we had gone; fortunately they
+    believed it. On Sunday the troops came in, and I left La Roquette
+    for good this time. In reply to a further question the witness said
+    that as the hostages marched past his windows, on their way to
+    execution, he saw President Bonjean raising his hands, and heard him
+    say, '_Mon Dieu, mon Dieu!_'"
+
+
+
+
+XIII. (Page 82.)
+
+URBAIN.
+
+
+Urbain, formerly head master of an academy, was elected to the Commune,
+and became, in virtue of his former office of teacher, a member of the
+Committee of Instruction, retaining at the same time his office of
+mayor. He finally installed himself in his mayoralty about the middle of
+April, with his sister and young son, and gave protection there to his
+mistress, Leroy, who had great influence over him, and who used to
+frequent the committees and clubs. At the mayoralty of the 7th
+Arrondissement this woman, in the absence of the mayor, took the
+direction and management of affairs. During the administration of Urbain
+searches were made in private and in religious houses, this woman,
+Leroy, sometimes taking part in the proceedings; on these occasions
+seizures were made of letters and articles of value, which were sent to
+the mayoralty and from thence to the police-office. Urbain and the woman
+Leroy are accused of having appropriated to themselves money and
+jewellery. At the mayoralty of the 7th Arrondissement there were
+deposits for public instruction to the amount of 8000 francs, which had
+dwindled down to 2900 francs. Urbain confesses having employed this
+money in helping persons compromised like himself. It is certain that
+during the residence of the woman Leroy at the mayoralty the expenses
+exceeded the sum allowed to Urbain. According to the evidence of a
+domestic everybody tad recourse to this unfortunate deposit, and it is
+stated in the instructions that the accused had left by will to his son
+a sum of 4000 francs in bank notes and gold, deposited in the hands of
+his aunt, Madame Danelair, while there is clear proof that before the
+days of the Commune he did not possess a sou. Madame Leroy herself, who
+came to the mayoralty without a penny, was found in possession of 1000
+francs, which she said were the results of her savings. It appears from
+the statement of M. Laudon, inspector of police, that the search made at
+his house resulted in the subtraction of a sum of 6000 francs, and that
+he has seen a ring which belonged to his wife on the finger of the woman
+Leroy. Though not taking a conspicuous share in the military operations,
+Urbain played an important part. His duty was to visit the military
+stations and to take possession of the Fort d'Issy, which had been
+abandoned. He admits that he thus visited the barracks and the
+ramparts. He ordered the construction of barricades, and says that, on
+the occasion of the repulse of the 22nd May, he resisted the entreaties
+of the woman Leroy, who wished him to give up the struggle and to betake
+himself to the Hotel de Ville, with the view of remaining at his post.
+As a politician, Urbain, in the discussions of the Commune, was very
+zealous and spoke frequently. By his vote he gave his sanction to all
+the violent decrees relating to the hostages, the demolition of the
+Column, the destruction of M. Thiers' house, and the Committee of Public
+Safety, of which he was one of the most ardent supporters. To him is to
+be attributed in particular the demand for the carrying into execution
+the decree relating to the hostages. On this point here is Urbain's
+proposal, copied from the _Official Journal_ of the 18th May:--"I demand
+that either the Commune or the Committee of Public Safety should decree
+that the ten hostages in our custody should be shot within twenty-four
+hours, in retaliation for the murders of our cantiniere and of the
+bearer of our flag of truce, who were shot in defiance of the law of
+nations. I demand that five of the hostages should be executed solemnly
+in the centre of Paris, in presence of deputations from all the
+battalions, and that the rest should be shot at the advanced posts in
+presence of the soldiers who witnessed the murders. I trust my proposal
+will be agreed to." By this proposal Urbain has linked his name to the
+horrible crime committed on the hostages. Latterly he was a member of
+the military committee, and his ability served well the cause of the
+insurgents. He was condemned by the court-martial of Versailles to hard
+labour for life, September 2, 1871.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+THE DEVASTATIONS OF PARIS.
+
+
+The following is the way in which the fires were prepared:--In some
+instances a number of men, acting as _avant-courriers_, went first,
+telling the inhabitants that the Quarter was about to be delivered to
+the flames, and urging them to fly for their lives; in other oases, the
+unfortunate people were told that the whole city would be burnt, and
+that they might as well meet death where they were as run to seek it
+elsewhere. In some places--in the Rue de Vaugirard, for instance--it is
+asserted that sentinels were placed in the streets and ordered to fire
+upon everyone who attempted to escape. One incendiary, who was arrested
+in the Rue de Poitiers, declared that he received ten francs for each
+house which he set on fire. Another system consisted in throwing through
+the cellar doors or traps tin cans or bottles filled with petroleum,
+phosphorus, nitro-glycerine, or other combustibles, with a long sulphur
+match attached to the neck of the vessel, the match being lighted at the
+moment of throwing the explosives into the cellar. Finally, the
+batteries at Belleville and the cemetery of Pere la Chaise sent
+destruction into many quarters by means of petroleum shells.
+
+Eudes, a general of the Commune, sent the following order to one of his
+officers:--
+
+"Fire on the Bourse, the Bank, the Post Office, the Place des Victoires,
+the Place Vendome, the Garden of the Tuileries, the Babylone Barracks;
+leave the Hotel de Ville to Commandant Pindy and the Delegate of War,
+and the Committee of Public Safety and of the Commune will assemble at
+the _mairie_ of the eleventh Arrondissement, where you are established;
+there we will organize the defence of the popular quarters of the city.
+We will send you cannon and ammunitions from the Parc Basfroi. We will
+hold out to the last, happen what may.
+
+"(Signed) E. EUDES."
+
+The insurgents had collected a considerable quantity of powder in the
+Pantheon, and when the Versailles troops obtained possession of the
+building the officer in command at once searched for the slow match, and
+cut it off when it had not more than a yard to burn!
+
+Instructions were given to the firemen not to extinguish the fires, but
+to retire to the Champ de Mars with the pumps and other apparatus.
+Whenever a man attempted to do anything to arrest the conflagration he
+was fired at. The firemen, who had arrived from all parts, even from
+Belgium, and honest citizens who joined them, worked to extinguish the
+fires amid showers of bullets. At the Treasury the labours of these men
+were four times interrupted by the violent cannonading of the
+insurgents.
+
+The fire broke out at the TUILERIES on Tuesday evening. When the
+battalions at the Arc de Triomphe and at the Corps Legislatif had
+silenced the guns ranged before the Palace, the insurgents set fire to
+it, and threw out men _en tirailleur_ to prevent anyone from approaching
+to subdue the flames.
+
+At the same moment an attempt was made to set fire to the MINISTRY OF
+MARINE, in obedience to an order given to Commandant Brunel, which was
+thus worded:--"In a quarter of an hour the Tuileries will be in flames;
+as soon as our wounded are removed, you will cause the explosion of the
+Ministry." It was Admiral Pothuau, the minister himself, who, at the
+head of a handful of sailors, set the incendiaries to flight, Brunel
+along with them. They also arrived in time to prevent any damage being
+done to the BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE.
+
+The struggle was terrific during the night; the insurgents, who had
+sought refuge in the Ministry of Finance, after the taking of the
+barricade in the Rue Saint-Florentin, increased the fury of the flames
+by firing from the windows, and discharging jets of petroleum at the
+soldiers.
+
+On Wednesday morning the battle had become fearful. Towards ten o'clock
+columns of smoke rose above Paris, forming a thick cloud, which the
+sun's rays could not penetrate. Then, simultaneously, all the fires
+burst forth: at the CONSEIL D'ETAT, at the LEGION OF HONOUR, at the
+CAISSE DES DEPOTS ET CONSIGNATIONS. at the HOTEL DE VILLE, at the PALAIS
+ROYAL, at the MINISTRY OF FINANCE, at the PREFECTURE DE POLICE, at the
+PALAIS DE JUSTICE, at the THEATRE LYRIQUE, in the Rue du Bac, the Rue de
+Lille, the Rue de la Croix-Rouge, Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, in a great
+number of houses in the Faubourgs Saint-Germain and Saint-Honore, in the
+Rue Royale, and in the Rue Boissy d'Anglas. Not many hours later, flames
+were seen to arise from the Avenue Victoria, Boulevard Sebastopol, Rue
+Saint-Martin, at the Chateau d'Eau, in the Rue Saint-Antoine, and the
+Rue de Rivoli.
+
+During the night of Friday, the docks of LA VILLETTE, and the warehouses
+of the DOUANE, the GRENIER D'ABONDANCE and the GOBELINS were all
+burning! So great was the glare that small print could be read as far
+off as Versailles, even on that side of the town towards Meudon and
+Ville d'Avray.
+
+THE DOME OF THE INVALIDES.--This was placed in imminent danger. Mines
+were laid on all sides, but their positions were discovered, and the
+electric wires out which were to have communicated the spark.
+
+THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE.--When the noise of the fusillade and
+cannonading ceased, the Place de la Concorde was a scene of absolute
+desolation. On all sides lay broken pieces of candelabra, balustrades,
+paving-stones, asphalte, and heaps of earth. The water-nymphs and
+Tritons of the fountains were much mutilated, and the statue of the town
+of Lille--one of the eight gigantic, seated figures of the principal
+towns of France, which form a prominent ornament to the Place, the work
+of Pradier, and a likeness of one of the Orleans princesses-lay shivered
+on the ground.
+
+THE ARC DE L'ETOILE.--The triumphal arch bears many scars, but none of
+them of much importance. On the facade looking towards Courbevoie, the
+great bas-relief by Etex, representing "War," was struck by three
+shells; the group of "Peace" received only the fragment of one. Here and
+there, in the bas-relief representing the "Passage of the Bridge of
+Areole," and the "Taking of Alexandra," some traces of balls are
+visible. On the whole, no irremediable hum is done here. Rude's
+masterpiece, "The Marseillaise," is untouched.
+
+THE PALACE OF INDUSTRY.--Rumour says Courbet had, among other projects,
+formed an idea of demolishing the Palace of Industry. The painted
+windows of the great nave have received no serious injury. The
+bas-relief of the main facade, picturing Industry and the Arts offering
+their products to the universal exhibitions, has several of its figures
+mutilated. The same has happened to the colossal group by
+Diebolt--France offering laurel crowns to Art and Industry.
+
+THE TUILERIES.--Felix Pyat, in the _Vengeur_, proposed converting the
+Palace of the Tuileries into a school for the children of soldiers. He
+says:--"They have taken possession by the work and activity that reign
+there; a whole floor is filled with tools and activity, and converted
+into workshops for the construction of messenger balloons. King Labour
+is enthroned there. I recognised there among the workmen an exile of the
+revolutionary Commune of London. The workmen and the proscribed at the
+Tuileries! From the prison of London to the palace of the Tuileries. It
+is well!" But in the heart of the Commune the soul of the _Vengeur_
+underwent a change, and insisted on the complete destruction of the
+"infamous pile."
+
+The portion of the building overlooking the river was alone preserved.
+The roofing is destroyed, but the facade is but little injured, the only
+work of art damaged here being a pediment by M. Carrier-Belleuse,
+representing "Agriculture." Fortunately the Government of the Fourth of
+September had sent all the most precious things to the Garde-Meuble
+(Stores); but how can the magnificent Gobelins tapestry, the fine
+ceilings, the works of Charles Lebrun, of Pierre Mignard, of Coypel, of
+Francisque Meillet, of Coysevox, of Girardon, and of many others, and
+the exquisite Salon des Roses be replaced?
+
+The Tuileries burnt for three days, and ten days afterwards the ruins
+blazed forth anew near the Pavillon de Flore. Not only did the devouring
+fire threaten to destroy inestimable treasures, but on Monday a number
+of men carrying slow matches, and led by a man named Napias-Piquet, made
+all their preparations to set fire to several points of the museum of
+the Louvre, and two of the guardians were shot. This Napias-Piquet
+threatened to make of the whole quarter of the Louvre one great
+conflagration. He was taken and shot, and in his pocket was found a note
+of his breakfast of the preceding day, amounting to 57 francs 80
+centimes.
+
+THE LOUVRE.--The preservation of the museum was due to the strong
+masonry, and the thick walls of the new portion of the building, on
+which the raging flames could make no impression. But it ran other
+risks: when the troops entered the building, they planted the tricolour
+on the clock pavilion, which served as an object for the insurgents'
+aim. It was immediately removed, however, when this was perceived. It
+was generally believed that the galleries of the Louvre contained all
+their art treasures. This was not the case; prior to the first siege the
+most precious of the contents had been carefully packed and conveyed to
+the arsenal of Brest, where they safely reposed, but many very admirable
+works remained.
+
+MINISTRY OF FINANCE (Treasury).--On the 22nd of May, the official
+journal of the Commune published a note declaring that the certificates
+of stock and the stock books (_grand livre_) would be burnt within
+forty-eight hours. The Commune was annoyed at the publicity given to
+this note, and a violent debate took place in its council in
+consequence. On this occasion Paschal Grousset uttered the following:--
+
+"I blame those who inserted the note in question, but I demand that
+measures may be taken for the destruction of all such documents
+belonging to those at Versailles, the day that they shall enter Paris."
+
+[Illustration: COURT OF THE LOUVRE, FROM PLACE DU CARROUSEL
+
+The Library is completely destroyed. More than 90,000 volumes are burnt.
+Rare editions, Elzevirs, precious MSS., coins, and unique collections,
+priceless treasures, are irrevocably lost.]
+
+The building forms one of the most striking ruins in Paris. Citizen
+Lucas, appointed by Ferre to set the Ministry on fire, did his task
+well. The conflagration, which lasted several days, began in the night
+of the 23rd of May. Not only was every part soaked with petroleum, but
+shells had also been placed about the building, and burst successively
+as the fire extended. Scarcely anything remains of the huge pile but the
+offices of the Administration of Forest Lands, which are almost intact.
+A considerable number of valuable documents were saved, but the quantity
+was very small in comparison with the immense collection accumulated
+since the beginning of the century. Four times was the work of salvage
+interrupted by the insurgents. Not a single book in the library has
+escaped; and this library contained almost the whole of the enormous
+correspondence of Colbert, the minister, forming no less than two
+thousand volumes.
+
+[Illustration: PALAIS ROYAL.]
+
+The PALAIS ROYAL.--The palace itself alone is destroyed; the galleries
+of the THEATRE FRANCAIS are preserved. The _Constitutionnel_ published
+the following account of the conflagration;--
+
+"It was at three o'clock that this fearful fire burst forth. A
+shopkeeper of the PALAIS ROYAL, M. Emile Le Sache, came forward in all
+haste to offer his services. A Communist captain, or lieutenant,
+threatened to fire on him if he did not retire on the instant; he added
+that the whole quarter was going to be blown up and burned. In the teeth
+of this threat, however, two fire-engines were brought to the Place, and
+were worked by the people of the neighbourhood. It was four o'clock. No
+water in the Cour des Fontaines. But some was procured by a line of
+people being placed along the passage leading from the Cour d'Honneur,
+who passed full buckets of water from hand to hand.
+
+"A ladder was placed against the wall for the purpose of reaching the
+terrace of the Rue de Valois. The insurgents proved so true to their
+word that the people were forced to renounce the attempt at saving the
+entire pavilion. Fire and smoke burst forth from three windows just
+above the terrace. In the midst of the balls showered from the barricade
+at the corner of the Rue de Rivoli, they succeeded in extinguishing the
+fire on that side. At five o'clock M. O. Sauve, captain in the
+commercial service, with a handful of brave workmen, got a fire engine
+into the Cour d'Honneur, and thus saved a great quantity of pictures,
+precious marbles, furniture, hangings, etc. Here another line of people
+was formed for the carrying of buckets, but unfortunately water ran
+short: the pipes had been cut, the wretches had planned that the
+destruction should be complete. At seven o'clock M. Bessignet, jun.,
+hastened there with four Paris firemen, but already the Pavilion, where
+the flames were first apparent, was entirely consumed.
+
+"On the arrival of the firemen they used every effort to prevent the fire
+communicating itself to the apartments of the Princess Clothilde; it had
+already reached the facade on the side of the Place. Here, too, all the
+fittings and ornaments of the chapel were saved.
+
+"At last, at seven o'clock, the soldiers of the line arrive. 'Long live
+the line!' is shouted on all sides. 'Long live France!' Signals are made
+with the ambulance flags. Help is come at last!
+
+"Those present now regard their position with more coolness, and use
+every effort to combat the fire, pumping from the roofs and upper
+storeys of the neighbouring houses. The fire continues, however,
+increasing and spreading on the theatre side. Here is the greatest
+danger. If the theatre catch light, all the quarter will most probably
+be destroyed. They then determine to avail themselves of the water
+appliances of the theatre to stay the progress of the flames. This is.
+rendered more difficult and dangerous by the continuous firing from the
+Communists installed in the upper story of the Hotel du Louvre. M. Le
+Sache mounts on the roofs, with the principal engineer, to conduct this
+movement. They are compelled to hide out of the way of the shower of
+balls coming from the Communists.
+
+"At ten o'clock the companies from the quarter of the Banque, the 12th
+battalion of National Guards, arrive. The Federals are put to flight.
+Thereupon thirty _sapeurs-pompiers_ of Paris came at full speed and
+succeed in mastering the remaining fire. An hour sooner and all could
+have been saved."
+
+[Illustration: Hotel de Ville.]
+
+THE HOTEL DE VILLE.--The Hotel de Ville was set on fire by order of the
+Committee of Public Safety at the moment when the entry of the troops
+caused them to fly to the Ecole des Chartes, which was thus saved, and
+whence they fled to the Mairie of Belleville. Five battalions of
+National Guards--the 57th, 156th, 178th, 184th, and the 187th--remained
+to prevent any attempt being made to extinguish the fire. Petroleum had
+been poured about the _Salle du Trone_, and the _Salle du Zodiaque_,
+which were decorated by Jean Goujon and Cogniet; in the _Galerie de
+Pierre_, in which were paintings by Lecomte, Baudin, Desgoffes, Hedouin,
+and Bellel; in the _Salon des Arcades_, in the _Salon Napoleon_, in the
+_Galerie des Fetes_, and in the _Salon de la Paix_, which contained
+works of Schopin, Picot, Vanchelet, Jadin, Girard, Ingres, Delacroix,
+Landelle, Riesener, Lehmann, Gosse, Benouville and Cabanel. It is not
+only as a fine specimen of architecture that the Hotel de Ville is to
+be regretted, but as the cradle of the municipal and revolutionary
+history of Paris, as well as for the vast collection of archives of the
+city, duplicates of which were at the same moment a prey to the flames
+at the Palais de Justice.
+
+[Illustration: FOREIGN OFFICE.]
+
+THE PREFECTURE OF POLICE was set fire to by the Communal delegate Ferre
+and a band of drunken National Guards.
+
+THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE, thanks to the prompt arrival of the soldiers, has
+been partially spared. The damage done, however, is very great. In the
+SALLE DES PAS-PERDUS several of the grand arches that support the roof
+have fallen in, and many of the columns are lying in ruins on the
+pavement. The Cour de Cassation and the Cour d'Assises are entirely
+destroyed. The conflagration was stopped, when it reached the Cour
+d'Appel and the Tribunal de Premiere Instance.
+
+PALACE OF THE QUAI D'ORSAY.--This vast building, in which the Conseil
+d'Etat and the Cour des Comptes held their sittings, has suffered
+seriously, though the walls are not destroyed; but what is irreparable
+is the loss of the many precious documents belonging to the financial
+and legislative history of France. The most famous artists of our time
+have contributed to the decoration of the interior. Jeanron painted the
+twelve allegorical subjects for the vaulted ceiling of the _Salle des
+Pas-Perdus_; Isabey, the Port of Marseilles in the Committee-room. The
+Death of President de Renty, in the _Salle du Contentieux_, was by Paul
+Delaroche; the fine portrait of Napoleon I., as legislator, in the great
+Council Chamber, by Flandrin; and in another apartment the portrait of
+Justinien by Delacroix. These, and many other treasures, are lost; for
+the work of destruction was complete.
+
+MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.--The facade has been seriously injured. It
+was fired upon from the terrace of the Tuileries, and from a gunboat
+lying under cover of the Pont-Royal. The Doric and Ionic columns are
+partly broken, as well as the fifteen medallions in white marble, which
+bore the arms of the principal powers. The apartments in front have been
+greatly damaged, and especially the _salon_ of the ambassadors, where
+the Congress of Paris was held in 1856.
+
+THE PALACE OF THE LEGION OF HONOUR.--This is a specimen of French
+architecture, unique of its kind. Happily, drawings and plans have been
+preserved, and the members of the Legion of Honour have offered a
+subscription for its re-instatement.
+
+THE GOBELINS.--The public gallery, the school of tapestry, and the
+painters' studios have been destroyed. The incendiaries would have
+burned all, works, frames and materials, if the people of the quarter,
+with the Gobelins weavers, had not defended them at the peril of their
+lives. An irreparable loss is that of a valuable collection of tapestry
+dating from the time of Louis XIV.
+
+The military hospital of the VAL DE GRACE, the ASYLUM FOR THE DEAF AND
+DUMB, the MINT, the facade of the annex of the ECOLE-DES-BEAUX-ARTS,
+have been riddled with balls. At the LUXEMBOURG the magnificent
+camellia-house and conservatories exist no longer, and the graceful
+Medici fountain has been injured.
+
+THE BANK had most fortunately been placed in charge of the delegate
+Beslay, who, during the whole time he was there, made every effort to
+prevent the pillage of the valuables. He was ably seconded by all the
+officials and _employes_, who had before been armed and incorporated
+into a battalion.
+
+[Illustration: PALACE OF THE LEGION D'HONNEUR.]
+
+POST OFFICE.--The Communal delegate, Theiz, prevented the incendiaries
+from setting fire to this important establishment. THE TRIUMPHAL ARCH OF
+THE PORTE-ST-DENIS.--The bas-relief containing an emblematical figure of
+the Rhine resting on a rudder has been mutilated, a shell having carried
+the arm and its support entirely away. The other bas-relief of Holland
+vanquished and in tears, has been struck by balls, as have also the
+figures of Fame in the tympans of the arcades.
+
+THE TRIUMPHAL ARCH OF THE PORTE-ST-MARTIN.--The sculptures, which
+represent the taking of Limbourg and the defeat of the Germans, have
+suffered considerably. They are the works of Le Hongre and the elder
+Legros.
+
+A tragic incident marked the burning of the THEATRE OF THE PORTE ST.
+MARTIN (see sketch). After laving massacred the proprietor and people of
+the _restaurant_ Ronceray, the Federals set fire to the house and the
+theatre which is adjoining. At eight o'clock in the evening, on
+beholding the first flames arise, the inhabitants of the quarter united
+in endeavouring to extinguish the fire, notwithstanding that the
+projectiles fell thickly in the Boulevard Saint-Martin and in the Rue de
+Bondy. The Federals from behind their barricades at the corner of the
+Rue Bouchardon, fired upon everyone who attempted to enter the theatre.
+
+The ARCHIVES (Record Office), the IMPRIMERIE NATIONALE, and the
+BIBLIOTHEQUE MAZARINE were all preserved through the strenuous
+endeavours of MM. Alfred Maury, Haureau, and Charles Asselineau, who had
+all managed to keep their places in spite of the Commune.
+
+At the DOCKS OF LA VILLETTE, and at the warehouses of the DOUANE, the
+destruction of property has been enormous. Many millions' worth of goods
+were consumed there.
+
+In the great buildings belonging to the MAGASINS REUNIS (Cooperative
+Stores) an ambulance had been established, and this was in the utmost
+danger during two days. It was only owing to the wonderful energy of M.
+Jahyer that the fire was mastered while the poor wounded men were
+transported to a place of safety.
+
+THE CHURCHES.
+
+NOTRE-DAME.--In the interior of Notre-Dame the insurgents set fire to
+three huge piles of chairs and wood-work. Fortunately the fact was
+discovered before much mischief had happened.
+
+THE SAINTE-CHAPELLE.--This incomparable gem of Gothic art, by some
+marvellous good fortune was neither touched by fire nor shells. It will
+still be an object for the pilgrimages of the erudite and the curious.
+
+THE MADELEINE.--The balls have somewhat damaged the double colonnade of
+the peristyle, but the sculptured pediment by Lemaire is all but
+untouched.
+
+THE TRINITE.--The facade has been seriously injured. The Federals, from
+their barricades at the entrance of the Chaussee-d'Antin, bombarded it
+for several hours. The painted windows by Ondinot had been removed
+before the siege--like those of the ancient Cathedral of St. Denis, and
+the Chapel of St. Ferdinand, by Ingres, they repose in safety.
+
+Of all the churches of Paris ST. EUSTACHE has suffered the most. At one
+time the fire had reached the roof, but it was fortunately discovered in
+time.
+
+The paintings at NOTRE-DAME-DE-LORETTE, at SAINT-GERMAIN-L'AUXERROIS,
+and at SAINT-GERMAIN-DES-PRES have been spared.
+
+It is curious that the churches suffered so little, whilst several
+theatres were burned, including the Porte St. Martin, Theatre du
+Chatelet, Lyrique, Delassements Comiques, etc.
+
+The windows of the church of SAINT-JACQUES-DU-HAUT-PAS are destroyed.
+
+It has been estimated that the value of the houses and other property
+destroyed in Paris amounts to twenty millions sterling. In addition to
+this, it is said that twelve millions' worth of works of art, furniture,
+&c., have disappeared, and that more than two and a half millions' worth
+of merchandise was burnt, making a total of nearly thirty-five millions.
+It has been said that the value of the window-glass alone destroyed
+during the reign of the Commune approaches a million sterling. The
+demand for glass was at one time so great that the supply was quite
+insufficient, and at the present moment the price is 20 per cent. higher
+than usual.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+
+The following order of the day of General de Ladmirault, commanding the
+first army corps of Versailles, sums up the principal episodes of this
+eight days battle:--
+
+"Officers and soldiers of the First Corps d'Armee,--
+
+The defences of the lines of Neuilly, Courbevoie, Becon and Asnieres
+served you by way of apprenticeship. Your energy and courage were formed
+amid the greatest works and perils. Every one in his grade has given an
+example of the most complete abnegation and devotion. Artillery,
+engineers, troops of the line, cavalry, volunteers of the Seine-et-Oise,
+you rivalled each other in zeal and ardour. Thus prepared, on the 22nd
+of the month you attacked the insurgents, whose guilty designs and
+criminal undertakings you knew and despised. You devoted yourselves
+nobly to save from destruction the monuments of our old national glory,
+as well as the property of the citizens menaced by savage rage.
+
+On the 23rd of the month, the formidable position of the Buttes
+Montmartre could no longer resist your efforts, in spite of all the
+forces with which they were covered.
+
+This task was confided to the first and second division and the
+volunteers of the Seine and Seine-et-Oise, and the heads of the various
+columns arrived simultaneously at the summit of the position.
+
+On the 24th, the third division, which alone had been charged with the
+task of driving the insurgents out of Neuilly, Levallois-Perret, and
+Saint-Ouen, joined the other divisions, and took possession of the
+terminus of the Eastern Railway, while the first division seized that
+of the Northern line by force of arms.
+
+On the 26th, the third division occupied the _rotonde_--circular place
+--of La Villette.
+
+On the 27th, the first and second division, with the volunteers of the
+Seine-et-Oise, by means of a combined movement, took the Buttes Chaumont
+and the heights of Belleville by assault, the artillery having by its
+able firing prepared the way for the occupation.
+
+Finally, on the 28th, the defences of Belleville yielded, and the first
+corps achieved brilliantly the task which had been confided to them.
+
+During the days of the struggle and fighting you rendered the greatest
+service to civilization, and have acquired a claim to the gratitude of
+the country. Accept then all the praise which is due to you.
+
+Paris, 29th May, 1871.
+
+The General commanding the First Corps d'Armee,
+
+(Signed) "LADMIRAULT."
+
+During the day of the 28th of Kay Marshal MacMahon caused the following
+proclamation to be posted in the streets of Paris:--
+
+"Inhabitants of Paris,--
+
+The army of France is come to save you. Paris is relieved. The last
+positions of the insurgents were taken by our soldiers at four o'clock.
+Today the struggle is at an end; order, labour, and security are
+springing up again.
+
+Paris, Quartier General, the 28th May, 1871.
+
+(Signed) "MACMAHON, Due de Magenta, Marshal of France,
+Commander-in-Chief."
+
+On the 28th of May the war of the Communists was at an end, but the fort
+of Vincennes was still occupied by three hundred National Guards, with
+eighteen of their superior officers and fifteen of the high
+functionaries of the Commune; They made an appeal to the commander of
+the Prussian forces in front of the fort, in the hope of obtaining
+passports for Switzerland. General Vinoy, hearing of this, took at once
+the most energetic measures, and at six o'clock on the 29th of May the
+last defenders of Vincennes surrendered at discretion.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+
+The amount of the extraordinary expenses of the Versailles
+was, at the rate of three millions of francs a day, 216 millions from
+the 18th March to the 28th May. The list of artillery implements
+removed from the arsenals of Douai, Lyon, Besancon, Toulon, and
+Cherbourg, and forwarded to Versailles from the 18th March to the
+21st May, comprise--
+
+     80 cannons of 0.16m (6 in. 299/1000 diameter) from the War Arsenal
+     60    "        "                "             from the Marine Arsenal
+     10    "    of 0.22m (8 in. 661/1000 diameter) Marine.
+    110 Rifled long  24-pounders.
+     30 Rifled short 24-pounders.
+     80 Rifled siege 12-pounders.
+      3 Mortars of 0.32m (12 in. 598/1000 diameter).
+     15 Mortars of 0.27m (10 in. 629/1000 diameter).
+     15 Mortars of 0.22m (8  in. 661/1000 diameter).
+     40 Mortars of 0.15m (5  in. 905/1000 diameter).
+     ---
+Total 393 artillery siege pieces.
+
+Ammunition received at Versailles--
+
+Shells of    0.16m (marine). . . .  73,000
+  "          0.22m    "  . . . . .  10,000
+  "          0.24m (rifled). . . . 140,000
+  "        for 12-pounder (rifled)  80,000
+Bombs of     0.32m . . . . . . . .   1,000
+  "          0.27m . . . . . . . .   7,000
+  "          0.22m . . . . . . . .   7,000
+  "          0.15m . . . . . . . .  30,000
+                                   -------
+                          Total    348,000
+
+The stock of gunpowder amounted to 400 tons.
+
+Up to the 21st of May, the artillery received 20 tons a day, and on that
+day 50 tons were forwarded to the besieging army.
+
+Up to the 21st of May, the field ordnance consisted of--
+
+      36 batteries of 4-pounders.
+      18   "         12-pounders.
+       4   "          7-pounders (breech-loaders).
+      12   "       of mitrailleuses.
+      --
+
+Total 70 batteries, 63 of which were provided with horses (7 being in
+store).
+
+The ammunition service consisted of--
+
+  80 tumbrels (calibre 12), each containing  54 charges.
+  30   "      (calibre 7),       "           90   "
+ 120   "      (calibre 4)        "          120   "
+  55   "      of mitrailleuses   "          243   "
+5000 cases of ammunition  (for calibre 12), containing 49,000 charges.
+ 600         "            (for calibre 4),    "        12,000   "
+2000         "            (for calibre 7),    "        20,000   "
+1000         "            for mitrailleuses   "        30,000   "
+  16 millions of Chassepot cartridges, and
+   2 millions of Remington cartridges.
+
+On the evening of the 23rd of May the army of Versailles expended--
+
+        26,000 discharges (calibre 0.16m), marine guns.
+          2000     "          "    0.22m),     "
+        60,000     "          "    0.24m), rifled guns.
+        30,000     "          "    0.12m), rifled siege guns.
+        12,000     "      (calibre of 7), used as a siege gun.
+           150 bombs of 0.32m
+           360   "      0.27m
+          2500   "      0.22m
+          5500   "      0.16m
+       -------
+Total  138,800 discharges of siege guns and mortars.--"_Guerre
+des Communeux_," p. 321.
+
+The great feature of the second siege of Paris was the prudence
+exercised in manoeuvring the men so as to protect them from needless
+exposure, practical experience in German encounters having taught the
+line a severe lesson. From the report of Marshal MacMahon we learn that
+the lost amounted to 83 officers killed, and 430 wounded; 794 soldiers
+killed, and 6,024 wounded, and 183 missing in all.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+LIST OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS, MONUMENTS, CHURCHES, AND HOUSES,
+
+DAMAGED OR DESTROYED BY THE COMMUNISTS OF PARIS,
+
+MAY 24-29, 1871.
+
+
+Fire commenced in the houses marked thus (*).
+
+  Palais des Tuileries (Emperor's Paris residence). _Burnt_.
+  Musee du Louvre. _Library totally destroyed_.
+  Palais Royal (Prince Napoleon's Paris residence). _Burnt_.
+  Palais de la Legion d'Honneur (records all gone). _Burnt_.
+  Conseil d'Etat. _Burnt_.
+  Corps Legislatif. _Damaged_.
+  Cour des Comptes (Exchequer). _Burnt_.
+  Ministere d'Etat (Minister of State). _Fired, but saved_.
+  Ministere des Finances (Treasury). _Burnt_.
+  Hotel de Ville. (Town Hall of Paris). _Burnt_.
+  Palais de Justice (Law courts). _Burnt_.
+  Prefecture de Police. _Burnt_.
+  The Conciergerie (House of Detention). _Partly burnt_.
+  Mairie of the 1st Arrondissement. _Dam_.
+  Mairie of the 4th Arrondissement. _Partially burnt_.
+  Mairie of the 11th Arrondissement. _Partially_.
+  Mairie of the 12th Arrondissement. _Burnt_.
+  Mairie of the 13th Arrondissement. _Damaged_.
+  Imprimerie Nationale. (National Printing office). _Damaged_.
+  Polytechnic School. _Damaged_.
+  Manufacture des Gobelins (National tapestry manufactory).
+     _Partially burnt_.
+  Grenier d'Abondance (Enormous corn and other stores). _Burnt_.
+  Colonne Vendome. _Overthrown on the 16th of May_.
+  Colonne de Juillet, on the Place de la Bastille. _Greatly damaged_.
+  Porte Saint-Denis. _Damaged_.
+  Porte Saint-Martin. _Damaged_.
+  Cathedral of Notre Dame. _Very slightly damaged_.
+  Pantheon. _Very slightly damaged_.
+  Church of Belleville. _Damaged_.
+  Church of Bercy. _Burnt_.
+  Church of La Madeleine. _Slightly dam_.
+  Church of St. Augustin. _Damaged_.
+  Church of Saint Eustache (used as a club). _Fired and much damaged_.
+  Church of Saint Gervais (used as a club). _Damaged_.
+  Church of St. Laurent. _Damaged_.
+  Church of Saint Leu. _Damaged_.
+  Church of Reuilly. _Fired but not burnt_.
+  Church of the Trinite. _Damaged_.
+  Church of La Villette. _Damaged_.
+  Sainte-Chapelle. _Slightly, if at all, dam_.
+  Theatre du Chatelet. _Fired, but saved_.
+  Theatre Lyrique. _Burnt_.
+  Ba-ta-clan Music Hall. _Fired, but not burnt_.
+  Theatre des Delassements-Comiques. _Burnt_.
+  Theatre de la Porte Saint-Martin. _Totally destroyed_.
+  Theatre Cluny. _Only damaged_.
+  Theatre Odeon. _Damaged_.
+  Abattoir de Grenelle. _Damaged_.
+  Assistance Publique (offices of public charity). _Burnt_.
+  Caisse des Depots et Consignations (Bank of Deposit). _Burnt_.
+  Caisse de Poissy (Bank of Deposit). _Burnt_.
+  Service des Ponts et Chaussees of the 13th Arrondissement (Civil
+     engineer's office). _Partially_.
+  Arsenal. _Partly burnt_.
+  Caserne du Chateau-d'Eau (barracks). _Damaged_.
+  Caserne Mouffetard. _Damaged_.
+  Caserne Napoleon. _Damaged_.
+  Caserne Quai d'Orsay. _Burnt_.
+  Caserne de Reuilly. _Burnt_.
+  Docks, Bonded Warehouses and Storehouses at La Villette. _Burnt_.
+  Les Halles Centrales (Great general market). _Damaged_.
+  Marche du Temple (General market). _Damaged_.
+  Marche Voltaire (General market). _Dam_.
+  Bridge over the Canal de l'Ourcq. _Dam_.
+  Passerelle de la Villette (Foot-bridge). _Burnt_.
+  Pont d'Austerlitz, with restaurant Trousseau and sluice-keeper's
+     house. _All burnt_.
+  Rotonde de la Villette. _Damaged_.
+  Hospice de l'Enfant Jesus. _Damaged_.
+  Hospital Lariboisiere. _Damaged_.
+  Hospital Salpetriere: (House of refuge and lunatic-asylum for
+     women). _Burnt_.
+  Prison of la Roquette. _Damaged_.
+  Gare de Lyon (Lyons railway terminus). _Fired and damaged_.
+  Gare d'Orleans (Orleans railway terminus.) _Damaged_.
+  Gare Montparnasse (Western railway terminus). _Damaged_.
+  Gare de Strasbourg (Eastern railway terminus). _Damaged_.
+  Gare de Vincennes (Vincennes railway terminus). _Damaged_.
+  House of M. Thiers (Place St. Georges). _Pulled down (previously)_.
+  Cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise (cemetery). _Damaged_.
+  Barriere Charenton. _Damaged_.
+  Luxembourg: Powder Magazine in rear
+    of Palace _blown up_, some subsidiary
+    buildings _burnt_, and whole quarter
+    _damaged_.
+
+
+
+  Avenue des Amandiers: Nos. 1, 2, 4, _Burnt_.
+    No. 69. _Damaged_.
+  Avenue de Choisy: Nos. 202, 221. _Dam._
+  Avenue de Clichy: Nos. 2, 4, 22. _Dam._
+  Avenue d'Italie: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 78, 88. _Damaged._
+  Avenue d'Orleans: Nos. 79, 81, 83. _Dam._
+  Avenue Victoria: Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5. _Burnt._
+    No. 6. _Damaged._
+  Avenue de Vincennes: Nos. 2, 4, 10. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard Beaumarchais: No. 1. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 2, 13, 15, 26, 28, 30, 109. _Dam._
+  Boulevard de Bercy: No. 4, 8. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle: Nos. 11, 15. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard Bourdon: Nos. 7, 17. _Dam._
+  Boulevard des Capucines: No. 11;
+      Maison Giroux, Nos. 43, 58, 60. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard de la Chapelle: Nos. 10, 12,
+      14, 18, 20, coach houses and stables,
+      22, 30, 34, 40, 62, 86, 90, 94,
+      100, 122, 141, 143, 145, 147, "Aux
+      Buttes Chaumont," 157, 163, 165,
+      169, 208, "Au Cadran Bleu," 216,
+      218. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard de Charonne: Nos. 50, 52, 74. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard de Clichy: No. 77; Convent and
+      Church; Nos. 79, 81, 84, 86. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Contrescarpe: Nos. 2, 4. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 42, 46. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard de la Gare: No. 131. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Hausmann: Nos. 23, 72. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard d'Italie: Nos. 7, 69. _Dam._
+  Boulevard de la Madeleine: No. 1. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Magenta: Nos. 1, 3, 5, 6, 15,
+      48, 70, 78, 98, 114, "Au Meridien,"
+      118, 143, 151, 153, 156. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard Malesherbes: Nos. 9, 33. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard Mazas: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 22, 26, 28 bis, 30, 60. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Montmartre: No, 1. _Dam._
+  Boulevard du Montparnasse: Nos. 9 bis,
+      41, 70, 100, 120, 150. _Damaged._
+    Nos. 25, three shops, 110, 112. _Burnt._
+  Boulevard Ornano: No. 56. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 1, 4, 7, 9, 22, 27, 32. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Poissonniere: No. 15. _Dam._
+  Boulevard du Port-Royal: Nos. 16, 18, 20. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard du Prince Eugene: Magazins-Reunis
+      (co-operative store). _Dam._
+  Boulevard Richard-Lenoir: Nos. 20, 82. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 1, 5, 7, 9, 31, 36, 50, 69, 76,
+      87, 93, 107, 109, 116, 118, 136, 140. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard Saint-Denis: Nos. 6, 13, Cafe Magny. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard St. Jacques: Nos*. 69. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Saint-Marcel: No. 21. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Saint Martin: Nos. 14, 16, 18, 20. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard Saint Michel: No. 20; Cafe du Musee, 25;
+      Cafe Miller, 65;
+      Restaurant Moliere, 73; Dreher Beer House, 99;
+      School of Mines. _Dam._
+  Boulevard Sebastopol: Nos. 9, 11, 13, 15. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 42, *65, 83. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard du Temple: Nos. 52, 54. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 2, 19, 20, 22, 24, 26, 30, 32, 34,
+      35, 38, 40, 44, 50. _Damaged._
+  Boulevard de la Villette: Nos. 85, 87, 117, Usine Falk. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 97, 128, 134, 136, 138, 140, 162. _Damaged_.
+  Boulevard Voltaire: Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 20, 22, 28, 60. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 38, 63, 55, 60, 78, 94, 97, 98, 141, 166. _Damaged_.
+  Carrefour de l'Observatoire; No. 11. _Damaged_.
+  Chaussee Clignancourt: "Chateau-Rouge" (a public dancing-room). _Damaged_.
+  Chaussee du Maine: No. 164. _Dam_.
+  Chaussee de Menilmontant: Nos. 56, 58, 81, 98. _Damaged_.
+  Croix-Rouge (cross way): Nos. 2, 4. _Burnt_.
+  Faubourg Montmartre: No. 50,64. _Dam_.
+  Faubourg Poissonniere: Nos. 39, 168. _Damaged_.
+  Faubourg Saint-Antoine: No. 2. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 1, 8, 4, 6, 6, 7, 22, 141, 164, 156, 158, 162. _Damaged_.
+  Faubourg Saint-Denis: Nos. 68, 77,114, 208 bis, 214. _Damaged_.
+  Faubourg Saint-Honore: Nos. 1, 2, 3. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 4, 29, 30, 33, 85. _Damaged_.
+  Faubourg Saint-Martin: Nos. *55, 66, 67, 69, 71, "Tapis Rouge." _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 147, 184, 221, 234, 267. _Dam_.
+  Faubourg du Temple: No. 30. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 9, 16, 17, 19, 20, 26, 29, 32, 33, 36, 41, 47, 48, 49, 53, 64,
+    66, 73, 81, 82, 98, 94, 106, 117. _Dam_.
+  Impasse Constantine: No. 2. _Damaged_.
+  Impasse Saint-Sauveur: No. 2. _Dam_.
+  Passage du Sauinon. _Damaged_.
+  Place de la Bastille: Nos. 8, 10, 12, Poste de l'Ecluse. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 4, 5, 6, 14. _Damaged_.
+  Place Blanche: Nos. 2, 3. _Damaged_.
+  Place Cambronne: No. 8. _Damaged_.
+  Place du Chateau-d'Eau: Nos. 7, 15. _Burnt_.
+    *9,13, "Pauvres Jacques;" Nos. 17, 19, 21, 23, Cafe du
+  Chateau-d'Eau. _Damaged_.
+  Place de la Concorde (Fountain). _Dam_.
+  Place de la Concorde (Statue of Lille). _Destroyed_.
+  Place de l'Hotel de Ville: Nos. 1, 3, 7, 9, 11. _Burnt_.
+  Place de Jessaint: No. 4. _Damaged_.
+  Place du Louvre: No. 1. _Burnt_.
+  Place de la Madeleine: No. 31. _Dam_.
+  Place de l'Odeon: No. 8; Cafe de Bruxelles. _Damaged_.
+  Place de l'Opera: No. 3. _Damaged_.
+  Place Pigalle: No. 1. _Damaged_.
+  Place de la Sorbonne: No. 8. _Dam_.
+  Place Valhubert: "Chalet du Jardin." _Damaged_.
+  Place des Victoires: No. 2. _Damaged_.
+  Place de Vintimille: Nos. 1, 27. _Dam_.
+  Place Voltaire: No. 7. _Burnt_.
+    No. 9. _Damaged_.
+  Quai d'Anjou: Nos. 5, 11, 19, 23, 27, 43; "Au Petit Matelot." _Damaged_.
+  Quai de Bercy: No. 12, 13. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 3, 5, 10. _Damaged_.
+  Quai de Bethune: Nos. 12, 20. _Dam_.
+  Quai Bourbon: No. 3. _Damaged_.
+  Quai des Celestins: No. 6. _Damaged_.
+  Quai de Gevres: No. 2. _Burnt_.
+  Quai de l'Hotel-de-Ville: Nos. 28, 68, 72, 78, 82. _Damaged_.
+  Quai de Jemappes: Nos. 18, 80, 34, 42. _Damaged_.
+    No. 32. _Burnt_.
+  Quai de la Loire: Nos. 10, 84, 86, 88. _Burnt_.
+    No. 60. _Damaged_.
+  Quai du Louvre: Nos. 2, 4, 6. _Dam_.
+  Quai de la Megisserie: No. 22; "Belle Jardiniere." _Damaged_.
+  Quai d'Orsay (a Club). _Damaged._
+  Quai de la Rapee: No. 92, 94, 96, 98, 100, _Burnt_.
+  Quai de Valmy: Nos. 27, 29. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 31, 39, 48, 71, 73, 79. _Dam._
+  Quai Voltaire: No. 9, 13, 17. _Dam._
+  Rue d'Alibert: Nos. 1, 2; _Damaged._
+  Rue d'Allemagne: Nos. 2, 10. _Dam._
+  Rue d'Alsace: Nos. 31, 33, 39. _Dam._
+  Rue des Amandiers: Nos. 3, 4, 20, 65,86, 87. _Damaged._
+  Rue Amelot: Nos. 2, 21, 25, 104, 106,139. _Damaged._
+  Rue de l'Ancienne Comedie: No. 2: "A Mazarin" (drapers). _Damaged._
+  Rue d'Angouleme: Nos. 2, 28, 31, 43, 72bis. _Damaged._
+  Rue d'Anjou: No. 23. _Damaged._
+  Rue de l'Arcade: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue de l'Arsenal: No. 3. _Burnt._
+  Rue d'Assas: Nos. 80, *78, 86, 90, 96, 98, 106, 112, 118, 124. _Dam._
+  Rue d'Aubervilliers: No. 138. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 2, 24, 88, 92, 96. _Damaged._
+  Rue Audran: No. 1. _Damaged._
+  Rue d'Aval: No. 11. _Damaged._
+    No. 17. _Burnt._
+  Rue du Bac: Nos. 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 54, 55, 56, Leborgne House, 58, 62, 64. _Damaged._
+  Rue Barrault: Nos. 3, 31. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Belleville: Nos. 1, 2, 66, 70, 89, 91, 133. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Bercy: No. 257. _Damaged._
+  Rue Bichat: No. 67. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Bisson: No. 49. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Blanche: Nos. 97, 99. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Boissy-d'Anglas: No. 31. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 33, 35, 37. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Bondy: Nos. 16, 17, 19, 21. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. *22, *32; 24, 26, Grand Cafe Parisien, 28, 30, 40, 44. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Brea: Nos; 1. _Burnt_.
+    No. 3. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Bruxelles: No. 29. _Damaged_
+  Rue de Buffon: Nos. 1, 3. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Butte-aux-Cailles: Nos. 1, 16. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Butte-Chaumont: No. 1. _Burnt_.
+  Rue Cail: No. 25. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Castex: No. 20. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Cerisaie: Nos. 20, 41, 45, 47. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Chapelle: Nos. 6, 16, 19, 35, 37, 75, 77. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Charbonniere: Nos. 32, 42. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Charenton: No. 1. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 100, 102, 187, 214, 230. _Dam._.
+  Rue de Charonne: Nos. 61,79,155. _Dam._.
+  Rue du Chateau: Nos. 169,180. _Dam._
+  Rue du Chateau-d'Eau: Nos. 1, 3, 73. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 32, 55, 71, 75, 79, 81, _Dam._
+  Rue de la Chaussee-d'Antin: Nos. 58, 64, 68. _Damaged_.
+  Rue du Chemin-Vert: Nos. 46,54. _Dam._
+  Rue Clavel: No. 3. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Clignancourt: Nos. 9, 39, 43, 45, 49, 59. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Conti: No. 2. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Cotte: No. 8. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Coutellerie: No. 2. _Burnt_.
+  Rue de Crimee: Nos. 156, 158. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 81, 83, 155, 163. _Damaged_.
+  Rue du Croissant: (Saint Joseph's Market). _Damaged_.
+  Rue Curial: No. 134. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Damesne: No. 1. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Delambre: Nos. 2, 4, _Burnt_.
+  Rue Descartes: No. 6. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Domat: No. 24. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Dombasle: No. 61. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Durantin: No. 7. _Damaged_.
+  Rue des Ecoles: No. 25. _Damaged_.
+  Rue d'Elzevir: Nos. 4,7, ll, 12; "Auberge de la Bouteille" (inn). _Dam._
+  Rue de l'Esperance: Nos. 7, 11. _Dam._
+  Rue Flechier: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue Folies-Mericourt: Nos. 51, 64, 75. _Damaged._
+    No. 115. _Burnt._
+  Rue des Francs-Bourgeois: No. 33, Hotel Carnavalet. _Damaged._
+  Rue Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire: No. 18. _Dam._
+  Rue de la Glaciere: Nos. 36, 75. _Dam._
+  Rue Grange-aux-Belles: No. 20. _Dam._
+  Rue de Grenelle: Nos. 1, 3. _Burnt._
+    No. 34. _Damaged._
+  Rue Guy-Patin: No. 3. _Damaged._
+  Rue des Halles: No. 28. _Damaged._
+  Rue Jacques-Coeur: No. 31. _Dam._
+  Rue Joquelet: No. 12. _Damaged._
+  Rue Julien-Lacroix: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Jussieu: No. 41. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Lafayette: No. 107, 127. _Dam._
+    Nos. 196, Aubin (fireworks), 208, 213, 215. _Damaged._
+  Rue Lacuee: Nos. 2, 4, 6. _Burnt._
+  Rue de Lappe: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue Lepelletier: No. 26. _Damaged._
+  Rue Lesdiguieres: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue Levert: No. 12. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Lille: Nos. 27, 37, 39, 43, 45,
+      *47, 48, 49, 50, 51, Museum of M. Gatteaux, bequeathed to nation,
+      53, 55, 57, 61, 63, 65, 67, 69, 81, 83. _Burnt._
+  Rue Louis-le-Qrand: Nos. 32, 34. _Dam._
+  Rue du Louvre: Nos. 6, 8. _Burnt._
+  Rue de la Lune: No. 1. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Lyon: No. 16. _Damaged._
+  Rue des Marais: No. 68. _Damaged._
+  Rue du Maroc: No. 38. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Meaux: Nos. 2, 14. _Damaged._
+  Rue Menars: No. 8. _Damaged._
+  Rue Meslay: No. 2. _Burnt._
+  Rue Montmartre: Nos. 49, 53, 55. _Dam._
+  Rue Montorgueil: Nos. 1, 29, 31, 33, 65. _Damaged._
+  Rue Mouffetard: Nos. 132, 134, 136,
+      138, 139, 150; Church of St. Medard. _Damaged._
+  Rue du Moulin-des-Pres: Nos. 83, 85. _Damaged._
+  Rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs: No. 105, Piver's. _Damaged._
+  Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs: Nos. 52, 54.
+    Studio of M. John Leighton. _Burnt._
+    Nos. 55, 57. _Damaged._
+  Rue Notre-Dame-de-Nazareth: Nos. 16, 31. _Damaged._
+  Rue Oberkampf: No. 4; A la Ville
+      d'Alencon, No. 11, 12, 13, 15, 25,
+      36, 37, 41, 49, 50, 53, 57, 60, 67. _Damaged._
+  Rue aux Ours: Nos. 47, 48, 49, 55. _Dam._
+  Rue des Petites-Ecuries: Nos. 2, 4. _Damaged._
+  Rue du Petit-Muse: No. 21. _Damaged._
+  Rue Pierre Lescot: No. 16. _Damaged._
+  Rue Popincourt: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue du Pressoir: No. 54. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Provence: No. *20. No. 23. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Puebla: Nos. 2, 3, 4, 17, 30, 292. _Damaged._
+  Rue Racine: No. 2. _Damaged._
+  Rue Rambuteau: Nos. 32, 58, 60, 102.
+      "Aux Fabriques de France:" No. 124. _Damaged._
+    No. 16, "Colosse de Rhodes;" No. 19,
+      Cafe du Marais; Nos. 26, 28, 30,
+      34, 62, 65, 72; Mr. Leforestier's
+      house, "A l'Alliance," Nos. 49, 61,
+      63, 66, 69, 71. _Damaged._
+  Rue Ramey: Nos. 41, 43. _Damaged._
+  Rue Rampon: No. 18. _Damaged._
+  Rue Reaumur: Nos. 14, 25, 43. _Dam._
+  Rue de Rennes: No. 2; Cafe de Rennes, 161. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Reuilly: No. 68. _Damaged._
+  Rue du Rhin: No. 6. _Damaged._
+  Rue Riquet: Nos. 63, 64. _Damaged._
+  Rue de Rivoli: Nos. 33, 35, 37, 39, 79,
+      80, 82, 84, 86, 91, 98, 100; "A Pygmalion." _Burnt._
+    Nos. 41, 88, 128, 210, 226, 236, 238. _Damaged._
+  Rue Rollin; No. 18. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Roquette: Nos. 1, 3, 6, 7, 9, 11 13, 18, 19, 20, 22,
+    24, 26. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 4, 8, 15, 17, 34, 87, 38, 78. _Dam_.
+  Rue Royale: Nos. 15, 18, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 24, 27. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint Andre-des-Arts: Nos. 26, 42. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint-Antoine: Nos. 3, 7, 9, 114, 142, 150, 152, 160, 176,
+    178, 182,192, 194, 198, 199, 201, 202, 203, 204, 206, 207, 212;
+    "A la Fiancee," No. 213; "Phares de la Bastille," 214, 216, 218,
+    220, 222, 224, 226, 228, 232, 234, 236; Protestant Church. _Dam_.
+  Petite rue Saint Antoine: Nos, 3, 7, 9. _Damaged_.
+    Nos. 11, 18. _Burnt_.
+  Rue Saint-Denis: No. 223; Eglise Saint Leu. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint-Fiacre: No. 15. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint-Honore: No. 422. _Burnt_.
+    No. 132. _Dam_.
+  Rue Saint-Jacques: Nos. 26, 146, 164, Cafe de l'Ecole de Droit,1
+    36, 195, 198, 216. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint-Lazare: No. 46. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Sainte-Marguerite: No. 22. _Dam_.
+  Rue Saint-Martin: Nos. 8, 10; "The Bon-Diable." Nos. 12, 14. _Burnt_
+    Nos. *16, 248. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint-Maur: Nos. 151, 184, 225, 227. _Damaged_.
+  Rue des Saints-Peres: Nos. 46, 48. _Dam_.
+  Rue Saint-Sabin: Nos. 2, 4, 6. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 3, 10, 12, 14. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Saint Sebastien: Nos. 42, 43, 44. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Sauval: No. 13. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Sante: No. 63. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Sedaine: No. 1. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20. _Damaged_.
+  Rue du Sentier: No. 22. _Damaged_.
+  Rue du 4 Septembre: No. 13. _Dam_.
+  Rue de Sevres: No. 2. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 14, 16 (reservoir); Nos. 91, 92, 141. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Sully: No. 11. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Suresnes: Nos. 1, 9, 15, 17, 19. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Tacherie: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4. _Burnt_.
+  Rue Taitbout: Nos. 22, 26. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Taranne*: No. 10. _Damaged_.
+  Rue du Temple: Nos. 7, 10, 39, 201. _Damaged_.
+    No. 207. _Burnt_.
+  Rue Toquelet: No. 12. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Traversiere: No. 53. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Turbigo; Nos. 1, 3; "Au Grand Parisien," Nos. 5, 8, 11, 19,
+    21, 47; Church of Saint-Nicholas-des-Champs, Nos. 51, 53, 56, 63,
+    74. _Damaged_.
+  Rue De Vaugirard: Nos. 60, 68, 69, 70, Convent des Carmes, 82, School
+    for Girls, 92, School for Boys. _Dam_.
+  Rue Vavin: Nos. 2, *18, 20, 22. _Burnt_.
+    Nos. 16, 34, 36, 39. _Damaged_.
+    54 (Collection of M. Reiber, Architect). _Destroyed_.
+  Rue de la Victoire: No. 61. _Damaged_.
+  Rue du Vieux-Colombier: No. 31. _Dam_.
+  Rue Vilin: No. 2. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Villette: Nos. 20, 25, 26, 70. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de la Ville l'Eveque: Nos. 7, 18. _Damaged_.
+  Rue Volta: No. 38. _Damaged_.
+  Rue de Wiarmes: No. 1. _Damaged_.
+
+The barricades of Paris numbered about 600--from a slight breast-work to
+a veritable fortress.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+INDEX TO PLAN.
+
+    B. Burnt. P.B. Partly Burnt. D. Damaged. S. Damaged by Shot and
+    Shell.
+
+
+NORTH OF THE RIVER SEINE.
+
+                                     Div. of Map.
+   1 Palace of the Tuileries, B.          8
+   2 Museum of the Louvre, P.B.           8
+   3 Palais Royal, B.                     8
+   4 The Bourse (Exchange)                8
+   5 The New Opera-House                  8
+   6 The Church of the Madeleine, D.      8
+   7 The Column Vendome (overthrown)      8
+   8 The Palace of the Elysee             7
+   9 The Triumphal Arch, D.               7
+  10 Palais de l'Industrie, B.            7
+  11 Church of St. Augustin, D.           8
+  12    "   of the Trinity, B.            8
+  13    "   Notre Dame de Lorette         8
+  14 Ministere of Marine                  8
+  15 Bibliotheque Nationale               8
+  16 Halles Centrales, S.                 8
+  17 Church of Saint Eustache, D.         8
+  18 Opera Comique                        8
+  19 Church of St. Vincent de Paul        8
+  20 Hospital of Lariboisiere, D.         3
+  21 Barracks of Prince Eugene, D.        9
+  22 Hospital of St. Louis                9
+  23 Prison of La Roquette, D.           14
+  24 Statue of Prince Eugene (removed)   14
+  25 Hotel de Ville, B.                  13
+  26 Tower of St. Jacques, D.            13
+  27 Prison of Mazas                     14
+  28 Barracks Napoleon, B.               14
+  29 Conservatoire of Arts and Metiers    9
+  30 Hospital of St. Eugenie             15
+  31 Cattle Market and Slaughter H.       5
+  32 Magasins of Bercy (sacked)          20
+  33 Ministere des Finances, B.           8
+  34 Place de la Concorde, D.             8
+  86 Porte St. Denis, D.                  8
+  36 Porte St. Martin, D.                 9
+  37 Theatre of Porte St. Martin, B.      9
+  38 Church of St. Laurent, D.            9
+  39 Mairie 1st Arrondissement, D.        8
+  40 Theatre du Chatelet, P.B.           13
+  41 Theatre Lyrique, B.                 13
+  42 Caisse Municipale, B.               13
+  43 Assistance Publique, B.             13
+  44 Mairie IVth Arrondissement, P.B.    14
+  45 Magasins-Reunis, D.                  9
+  46 Theatre des Del. Comiques, B.        9
+  47 Mairie XIth Arrondissement, P.B.    14
+  48 Column of July, D.                  14
+  49 The Arsenal, B.                     14
+  50 Hospital of Salpetriere, B.         19
+  51 Granary of Abundance, B.            14
+  52 Lyons Railway Station, P.B.         14
+  53 Mairie of XIIth Arrondissement
+     and Church of Bercy, B.             14
+
+SOUTH OF THE RIVER SEINE.
+
+   1 Foreign Office, D.                   7
+   2 Military School                     12
+   3 Les Invalides and Tomb of
+     Napoleon I.                         12
+   4 Corps Legislatif                     7
+   5 Barracks d'Orsay, P.B.               8
+   6 Palace of the Institute             13
+   7 The Mint                            13
+   8 Church of St. Sulpice               13
+   9 Palace of the Luxembourg, D.        13
+  10 Odeon Theatre, D.                   13
+  11 Museum of Cluny                     13
+  12 Palais de Justice, B.               13
+  13 Cathedral of Notre Dame             13
+  14 Church of the Pantheon, D.          13
+  15 Church of Val de Grace              13
+  16 The Observatory                     18
+  17 Wine Market (sacked)                14
+  18 Palace of Legion d'Honneur, B.       8
+  19 Conseil d'Etat and Exchequer, B.     8
+  20 Bank of Deposit, B.                  8
+  21 Western Railway Station, B.         13
+  22 Gobelins Tapestry Manufactory, P.B. 18
+  23 Orleans Railway Station, P.B.       14
+
+
+See western side of Plan for the fire and devastation caused by shot and
+shell during the engagements between the Federal troops and the army of
+Versailles:--Point du Jour, Auteuil, Passy, Porte Maillot, Avenue de la
+Grande Armee (Arc de Triomphe, much injured), Neuilly, Villiers,
+Lavallois, &c.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: PLAN OF PARIS ILLUSTRATIVE OF MR. LEIGHTON'S "PARIS
+UNDER THE COMMUNE."]
+
+[Illustration: PARTS DESTROYED OR DAMAGED DURING THE REIGN OF THE
+COMMUNE 18. MARCH TO 29. MAY 1871.]
+
+[Illustration: Map of Paris]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Paris under the Commune, by John Leighton
+
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