Chapter XLI: Appendix: I.--(Page 29.) (1)

The Central Committee found in the bureau of the War-Office, and the _Officiel_ of the Commune published on the 25th April, the following letter from the supreme commander of the artillery of the army to General Suzanne:--

"PARIS, _12th December 1870_.

"My dear Suzanne--I have not found among the young auxiliaries your protege Hetzel, but only a M. Hessel. Is it he who is meant? "Tell me frankly what you desire, and I will do it. I will attach him to my staff, where he will be bored, having nothing to do, or else I will send him to Mont Valerien, where he will run less risk than at Paris (this for the parents), and where he will have the air of firing the cannons into the air, according to Noel's method.

"Unbutton--your mouth, of course.--Yours,

GUIOD"

The Noel mentioned at that time commanded Mont Valerien.

II.--(Page 83.)

_The role of the Central Committee during the day of the 18th March._

"I would remind you that the members of the Committee had separated at about half-past three in the morning of the 17th to the 18th. Before raising the sitting it had been decided that the meeting of the following day should take place at eleven o'clock in the evening, at a school requisitioned for the purpose in the Rue Basfroi.

"Despite the lateness of the hour, nothing had transpired as to the movements which the Government had decided upon, and the Committee having only just constituted itself for the examination of its powers and the distribution of the commissions, had received no information which might have led it to suppose the imminence of the peril. Its military commission had not yet begun to work; it had taken possession of the documents, notes, and minutes of the former one, and that was all.

"You know how Paris woke up on the morning of the 18th. The members of the Committee heard of the events of the night through public rumours and the official placards. For my own part, aroused at about eight o'clock, I hurried on my clothes, and repaired to the Rue Basfroi, crossing the Place de la Bastille, occupied by the Guard of Paris. I had hardly entered the Rue de la Roquette when I saw that the people were beginning to organise the defence. A barricade was being commenced at the corner of the Rue Neuve de Lappe. A little higher up I was refused passage, in spite of the declaration which I made of my quality of member of the Central Committee. I was obliged to go up the Rue de Charonne, the faubourg, and come back in the direction of the Rue St. Bernard. No work was going on as yet in the Rue du Faubourg St. Antoine, but the excitement there was great. At last, towards half-past ten o'clock, I reached the Rue Basfroi, which was barricaded at both outlets, with the exception of an opening reserved for the cannon drawn up in the open grounds of this street, which were taken away one by one to the different barricades in course of erection.

"I succeeded, not without difficulty, in getting into a schoolroom, where some of my colleagues were gathered. Citizens Assi, Prudhomme, Rousseau, Gouhier, Lavalette, Geresme, Bouit, and Fougeret were there. Just as I entered, a staff sublieutenant, arrested in the Rue St. Maur, was being led in. He was examined. Next a gendarme was brought, but the only papers found in his possession were placards transmitted to one of the mairies. X. looked after this business, and had organised a sort of prison in the courtyard. I also saw defiling about fifteen individuals, military and civil, arrested by the people. In the meantime I learnt that Bergeret had been sent to take the command of Montmartre, where he had been named _chef-de-legion_ the day before. Varlin, who came immediately after me, had set out again in order to organise the defence of the Batignolles. Arnold also put in his appearance for a moment, and then went to place himself at the head of his battalion. The Committee had added Citizens Audoyneau, Ferrat and Billioray to its numbers.

"At mid-day the course events would take was still waited for, and nothing was decided upon. I begged some of my colleagues to leave X. to his useless interrogations, and to come and to deliberate in another room, the one we occupied having by degrees been invaded by persons strangers to the Committee. As soon as we were installed, we asked for some citizens willing to serve as our general staff, and to inform us as to the situation in the different quarters. A great number presented themselves. We sent them in all directions, to tell our colleagues to hurry on as much as possible the construction of the barricades, to muster the National Guard, to take the command of it, and to specify the points whither we were to forward our communications.

"Of our messengers only four returned. He whom we had sent to the twentieth arrondissement informed us that the rallying point was in the Rue de Paris and at Menilmontant, in front of the new mairie. Varlin had great trouble in grouping the National Guards of the Batignolles. One staff had mustered forces at the Place du Trone, and had repaired to the Neuilly Barracks, but the soldiers had closed the gates, and assumed a menacing attitude. Brunel, together with Lisbonne, was preparing to threaten the barracks of the Chateau d'Eau.

"Other accounts apprised us that the orders of the Committee were being waited for. Duval had established himself at the Pantheon, and waited. Faltot sent us a note in these words: 'I have five or six battalions in the Rue de Sevres; what am I to do?' Pindy had taken possession of the Mairie of the third arrondissement, and was mustering the battalions devoted to the Committee. As soon as we had got this intelligence some dispositions for the attack were taken.

"While these resolutions were being discussed Lullier had come to place himself at the disposal of the Committee. The Committee had given him no formal order, and confined itself to telling him that all forces available for the taking of the Hotel-de-Ville were being mustered.

"In order to assure the transmission of the orders, each one of the members then present--others had come up, but I could not say who--undertook to carry them to a designated point. So at three o'clock the Committee broke up, leaving Assi and two other members as a permanent sub-committee at the Rue Basfroi."--Extract from an account addressed to the author by a member of the Central Committee.

III.--(Page 160.)

Here is a letter from one of them, later a most violent enemy of this Revolution, M. Meline, general secretary of the Ministry of Justice, written on the 30th March, to the president of the Council of the Commune:

"VILLE DE PARIS (_First Arrondissement, Mairie of the Louvre_).

"Citizen President--I no longer possess sufficient physical strength after prolonged fatigues to combat in the midst of our Assembly, which is destined to discuss so many grave questions. I beg you then to accept my resignation, and my sincere hopes that the Assembly may consolidate the Republic.--Receive, Citizen President, the expression of my fraternal sentiments,

"JULES MELINE.
"_30th March 1871._"

IV.--(Page 207.)

Here is a letter addressed to the Delegate at War:--

"Citizen--Excuse my addressing you these lines, and be so kind as to take into consideration the request which I address to you.

"I have three sons in the ranks of the National Guard--the eldest in the 197th battalion, the second in the 126th, and the third in the 97th. As to myself, I am in the 177th.

"However, there yet remains to me one son, who is the youngest. He will soon be sixteen years old, and desires with all his heart to be enrolled in no matter what battalion; for he has sworn to his brothers and to me that he will take arms to sustain our young Republic against the hangmen of Versailles.

"We have all agreed, and we have sworn an oath to revenge him who should fall under the fratricidal balls of our enemies.

"Citizen, take then the last of my sons. I offer him with all my heart to the Republican fatherland. Do with him as you wish, place him in a battalion of your choice, and you will make me a thousand times happy.--Accept, citizen, my fraternal salutation,

AUGUSTE JOULON,
"_Guard of the 177th Battalion_.

"18 AVENUE D'ITALIE, PARIS,
_12th May 1871_."

V.--(Page 209.)

Instances of their courage abound in the journals of the time. One quotation taken at hazard from _La Commune_ of the 12th April:--

"On Thursday, the 6th, at the moment when the 26th battalion of St. Ouen defended the barricade of the cross-roads, a child, V. Thiebault, fourteen years old, ran up amidst the balls in order to give the defenders something to drink. The shells having forced the Federals to fall back, they were about to sacrifice the victuals of the battalion, when the child, in spite of the shells, sprang towards a barrel of wine, which he staved in, crying, 'At any rate they shall not drink our wine.' At the same instant, seizing the rifle of a Federal who had just fallen, he charged it, took aim, and killed an officer of gendarmes. Then perceiving a waggon with two horses harnessed to it, whose driver had just been wounded, he mounted the horses and saved the waggon.--Eugene Leon Vanviere, thirteen and a half years old, contrived to save the guns at the outpost of the Porte-Maillot, in spite of his wound."

VI.--(Page 217.)

The prefect of police, Valentin, sent the following circular to the commissaries of the different railway stations:--

"VERSAILLES, _25th April 1871_.

"The chief of the executive power has just decided that, dating from to-day, all victualling trains and all supplies of provisions directed to Paris shall be stopped.

"I beg you to take all measures you may deem needful for the execution of this decree at once. You are to examine with the most vigilant attention all the railway trains, all the carriages destined for Paris, and you will send back to the purveyors all the provisions you may discover.

"You will for this purpose concert with ... &c.

"The delegate to the functions of prefect of police.

"VALENTIN."

VII.--(Page 219.)

"... Accompanied by Frankel and one of my brothers, I proceeded to the General Post-Office, which was still occupied by the National Guards of order. I was immediately received by M. Rampont, surrounded by the Board of Administration. M. Rampont at first declared that he did not recognise the authority of the Central Committee, which had appointed me; but I think this was a merely formal precaution, for he began to parley immediately. I told him that the Government of the 4th September, which had named him, was also born of a revolutionary movement, and that notwithstanding this he had accepted his post. During this discussion he told us that he was a Mutualist-Socialist, a partisan of Proudhon's ideas, and consequently hostile to Communistic ideas, which had just triumphed with the Revolution of the 18th March. I answered that the Revolution of the 18th March was not the triumph of a Socialist school, but the prelude of a social transformation fettered by no particular school, and that I myself belonged to the mutualist school. After a long conversation, in which he declared himself ready to acknowledge the authority of the Commune, which was to be named in two or three days, he proposed to me to submit the following undertaking to the Central Committee. Till the day when the Commune should have decided, he engaged to remain at the head of the Post-Office; he accepted the control of two delegates of the Committee. I communicated this proposal to Vaillant and A. Arnaud (who had made over to me my nomination), in order that they might inform the Committee. I waited in vain for an answer.

"The Commune met. The second day, perhaps, I broached the question of the Post-Office. It was to be comprised in the order of the day, but always in the confused way which one finds in the order of these debates, when, on the 30th March, a workman came to apprise Pindy that the administration of the Post-Office was deserting. The Commune immediately voted my nomination, and gave me the order to have the office occupied. Chardon set out at the head of a battalion, accompanied by Vermorel and myself. It was seven or eight o'clock in the evening. The work was done, and only a small number of employes remained. Some gave us a sympathetic welcome, others seemed indifferent. Chardon left a guard, and I spent the night alone in the office.

"The next day, at three o'clock in the morning, I walked through the rooms and courts where the employes were arriving for the first delivery. A manuscript placard, posted in all the rooms and courts, ordered the employes to abandon their services, and repair to Versailles, under pain of dismissal. I tore down these placards and exhorted the men to remain true to their posts. There was at first some indecision, then a few made up their minds to rally round me.

"At eight o'clock other employes came; at nine o'clock still more. They formed groups in the large court, talked, discussed, some beat a retreat, and their example was about to be followed.

"I had the doors closed, and militarily occupied by guards; and I went from group to group, discussing, menacing. At last I gave the order to each one to return to his respective bureau. Thereupon a precious auxiliary came up, Citizen A----, an employe at the Post-Office, a Socialist, for whom I had a letter from a friend. There was a momentary hesitation. The father of a family, much respected, sure of an early promotion, he was about to risk an advantageous place. But his hesitation lasted only a few seconds. He promised me his assistance, and he gave it me faithfully up to the last day. He brought me into relation with Citizen B----, who soon became my second. Both of them furnished me with information of the greatest utility concerning this department, of which I did not know the most simple details.

"All the chiefs of bureaux had abandoned their posts; so, too, had the second head-clerks, save one, who immediately had himself put on the sick-list. A---- and B---- got together some friends, head-clerks, who for a long time had done all the work of the chiefs of the bureaux. Citizen C---- was placed at the head of the postal service for Paris.

"All the divisional bureaux, save two, had been closed and abandoned. The stock had been carried off, the cash-box emptied, as was proved by the minutes drawn up by a commissary of the Commune, with the assistance of several well-known people of the quarter, amongst whom was M. Brelay, since named deputy of Paris. Postage stamps were wanting. The carts had set off for Versailles.

"A., B., and some others of an indefatigable zeal, had the divisional bureaux opened by locksmiths in the presence of the commissaries of the quarter, and installed well-meaning citizens, whose apprenticeship they superintended. But there was a stoppage of two days in the delivery of letters, which gave rise to public grumbling, and I was obliged to explain the facts in a placard. At the end of forty-eight hours A. and B. had reorganised the collection and delivery of letters.

"All the citizens whose services had been accepted as auxiliaries received provisionally, till their capacities could be judged of, a salary of five francs a day.

"By chance we found some postage-stamps of ten centimes at the bottom of a chest. Camelinat, appointed the director of the Mint, sent for the plates and the stock, and forthwith began manufacturing stamps.

"During the first days bundles of letters from Paris destined for the provinces were taken in by the receiving officer of Sceaux, who no doubt was without precise instructions; then the blockade was completed. The sending of letters to the provinces became the object of a daily struggle. Secret agents went to throw them into the boxes of the offices for ten miles round. The letters of Paris for Paris alone were stamped with date-marks. Those sent to the provinces by our smugglers only had the postage-stamp, which did not permit of their being distinguished from the others. When Versailles found out the manoeuvre, it changed the dotting of the stamps. We were quits at Paris by sending off the letters of importance without prepayment, and procuring stamps from the bureaux of Versailles.

"If the bureaux for the letters to be sent out of Paris could still work, those for the collection of the letters from abroad were at a stand-still. The letters from the provinces accumulated at Versailles. Some men of business set up agencies, where, for a very high fee, the letters which they went to fetch at Versailles might be obtained. These people exploited the population, but we could not supersede them, and we were obliged to shut our eyes. We contented ourselves with reducing the profits somewhat, by deducting from each letter the postage of Paris for Paris, without their being able on that account to raise the sum fixed by their advertisements.

"The efforts of Versailles to disorganise the reconstituted postal services were several times baffled, thanks to the vigilance of our two inspectors. However, we could not prevent the success of all their attempts at subornation.

"From the first days of April we instituted a council at the post-office, composed of the delegate, his secretary, the general secretary, all the heads of services, two inspectors, and two head postmen. The postmen, _gardiens de bureaux_, and sorters had their wages raised, very little, alas! for our receipts, considerably reduced, did not allow us to be very liberal.

"We decided upon the suppression, if not absolute, at least partial, of the time for serving as supernumerary, which was reduced to the strictly necessary time. The aptness of the workmen had henceforth to be proved by tests and examinations, as also the quantity and quality of their labour."--Extract from an account addressed to the author by Theisz.

VIII.--(Page 220.)

The limits of this Appendix oblige me to make a resume of the extremely interesting accounts by Faillet and Louis Debock on the direct taxes and the National Printing Office:--

"In the evening of the 24th March Faillet and Combault (of the International) presented themselves at the administration of the direct taxes. On the written declaration that he yielded to menaces, the director handed them over the keys. Citizen X., who was thoroughly acquainted with the administrative movement, placed himself very promptly at their disposal.

"The original register and other materials for the collection of taxes had disappeared. It was decided that the taxes should be gathered according to the list of 1869. The _personnel_ of the forty collectorships, the valuers, the employes, to make up the list, had fled. The collectors were replaced by forty citizens, some workingmen belonging to the International, the others clerks of commercial houses or government offices. Some of the old officials who had not withdrawn were retained, but under the superintendence of a safe man. The presence of Citizen X. decided a great number of employes to come and work under the new directors.

"The service of the direct taxes was composed--for the _interior_, of a director, a general administrator, a general secretary, two sub-secretaries, one chief of the bureaux of taxes and lists, a head accountant, five other accountants, and two inspectors of the collecting offices; for the _exterior_, of forty tax-gatherers, each one assisted by two or three clerks, a bearer of summonses, and an agent with his accountants at the bonded warehouse for wine.

"Once or twice a week the director made a round in all the collector's offices, which the inspectors visited every day. Each tax-gatherer brought the cashier of the direction the receipts of the day before. The cashier every evening laid the returns before the administration, and made over to the Central Pay-Office of the Finance Department all that was not needed for the general expenses of the service.

"The service ceased on the Saturday evening, 25th May. A hundred clerks, not thinking their whole duty to the Commune done, formed a corps of scouts, whose post was established in the presbytery of the Temple des Billettes."

"On the 18th March, at five o'clock in the evening, Pindy and Louis Debock presented themselves with a battalion at the National Printing-Office, and established themselves there. The director Haureau came down, tried to negotiate, and then went up again to his apartments. During the evening Debock went to ask him for the list of workmen. Haureau took advantage of the occasion to protest his republicanism, said he was a former editor of the _National_, a friend of Marrast, Arago, &c., and that the movement of the 18th March had no _raison d'etre_ whatever. A few days were allowed him for removing.

"The whole _personnel_ was maintained, with the exception of the director, the sub-director, the overseer, and the chief of the works, Felix Derenemesnil, who was cordially detested for his brutality and injustice. These spread abroad that the Central Committee had no money, and that the workmen would not be paid. Debock answered by an order of the day placarded in the workshops, guaranteeing the wages in the name of the Central Committee.

"At the end of March, on the injunction of Versailles, all the employes and heads of the services, with very few exceptions, abandoned the printing-office after having received their salaries. The new director took advantage of this to have the new foremen of the workshops appointed by the workmen themselves. The places of managers of the printing-press were put up for competition. As the administration of the Rue Pagevin threw obstacles into the way of placarding the decrees and proclamations, Debock advised the workmen bill-stickers to associate themselves. They did so; their wages increased by 25 per cent., and the printing-office saved 200 francs a day.

"The bulk of the salaries was greatly reduced; that of the lower clerks and workmen increased. On the 18th March a fortnight's salary was due to the workingmen and women, and a week's to the employes. The Commune discharged these arrears. Versailles, victorious, refused to pay the few days' wages due to the workmen. Yet the Versailles administration found the stock intact and in perfect order.

"The budget of monthly expenses before the 18th March rose to 120,000 francs, of which 23,000 were absorbed by the salaries of the functionaries, employes, &c. After this date the expenses did not reach 20,000 francs a week, the expenses of placarding included.

"After the Commune the Union Republicaine announced in the journals that it had saved the Archives and the National Printing-Office from the flames. This was a lie, as proved by the order sent on the 24th May to the Archives at the request of Debock.

"_Order.--The Archives not to be burnt.--The Colonel
commanding the Hotel-de-Ville, Pindy._

"As to the printing-office, it was occupied by Debock up to the invasion of the quarter. In the night of the 24th he sent to ask the Committee of Public Safety for the documents, papers, and articles necessary for the composition of the _Journal Officiel_. The next day, having received no answer, and the Versaillese pressing forward, he repaired to Belleville, where the three proclamations or placards which appeared on the following days were printed by his order."

IX.--(Page 241.)

"Certainly the Communal principle must have been very strong in itself to have held sixty days against such fools."--_Behind the Scenes at the Commune_, _"Fraser's Magazine,"_ December, 1872.

"To conquer was so easy and simple, that it needed the double dose of vanity and ignorance with which the feeble brains of the majority of the Commune were stuffed to baulk the people of its victory."--_The Paris Commune of 1871, "Fraser's Magazine,"_ March, 1873.

"He (Delescluze) had only once dared to attack me to my face, but it resulted in so much discomfiture to himself, and he came out of the affair so crestfallen, that for the future he confined himself to plotting against us behind my back, while to my face he was as civil as possible."--_Behind the Scenes at the Commune, "Fraser's Magazine,"_ December, 1872.

X.--(Page 250.)

At the trial of the members of the Commune, the advocate of Assi read a letter which the prisoners in Germany had sent his client:--

"Citizen Assi--So you no longer think, with the Central Committee of the crapulous, that we are tired of your farces and evolutions without an aim and without limits.... Woe to you, sink of the people! All possible reverses will accumulate upon you, and give you, as the whole result of your acts deprived of common-sense and capacity, the hatred of the prisoners confined in Germany, and the severe punishment which the admired representatives of all France will mercilessly inflict upon you. Once over the frontier, the last of the prisoners will go and plunge into the heart of the guilty the poniard which is to give back security to the legal government. Be prepared for the sentence which all the prisoners in Germany have in store for you.... Death to the insurgents! Death to the infernal Committee! Tremble, brigands!

"Seen and approved by all the prisoners of Magdebourg, Erfurt, Coblentz, Mayence, Berlin," &c.

The signatures follow.

XI.--(Page 267.)

One of Laroque's reports concluded thus:

"I send you the names of the friends of order and of the agents who have rendered the greatest service. Jules Masse, P. Verdier, Sigismond, Galle, Tarjest, Honobede, Toussaint, Arthur Sellion, Jullia Francisque Baltead, E. Philips, Salowhicht, Maniel, Dolsand (42d battalion), Rollin, Verox (seminarist), D'Anthome, Somme, Cremonaty, Tascher de la Pagerie, Josephine Legros, Jupiter (police agent), the manager of the Cafe de Suede, the proprietor of the Cafe de Madrid, Lucia, Hermance, Amelie, little Celestine of the Cafe des Princes, Camille and Laura (Cafe Peters), Madame du Valdy (Faubourg St. Germain), Leynhass (brewer).

XII.--(Page 268.)

This is what had passed between the Committee of Public Safety and Dombrowski:--

"The latter came to us one evening and informed us that through the instrumentality of one of his officers (Hutzinger), Versailles had made overtures to him, and asked him to appoint a rendezvous. He demanded of us whether something could not be got out of this for the Commune. We resolved to let him try the interview on condition that he should tell us all that passed. That evening we charged somebody to follow and arrest him if he yielded. From this time Dombrowski was closely watched--it is thanks to this surveillance that he was not carried off by the Versaillese who made use of a woman to allure him to the neighbourhood of the Luxembourg--and I declare we learnt nothing that was of a nature to weaken our confidence in him.

"He came the next day, and told us that a million was offered him on condition that he would betray one of the gates. He gave us the names of those he had seen; amongst others, there was a confectioner of the Place de la Bourse, the address of the suborners (8 Rue de la Michaudiere) and announced another rendezvous for the next day.... He explained to us how he would entice a few thousand Versaillese into Paris to make them prisoners. Pyat and I opposed this attempt. He did not insist, but demanded that the next day 20,000 men and some howitzers should be provided for him. He had decided on attracting the Versaillese troops by a surprise within reach of the fortifications.... Of the 20,000 men, 3,000 or 4,000 only could be mustered, and instead of 500 artillerists, there came only fifty."--_Extract from an account addressed to the author by a member of the Committee of Public Safety._

XIII.--(Page 274.)

Here is an extract from the report addressed to the Municipal Council of Toulouse by the delegates sent to Versailles to M. Thiers and the deputies of the Extreme Left to inquire into the situation:--

"We went then for information to the members of the Extreme Left; Martin Bernard, the companion and friend of Barbes, Louis Blanc, Schoelcher, &c.

"M. Louis Blanc gave us the most precise information. It is useless, said he to us, to again attempt conciliation; there is too much animosity on both sides. Besides, with whom could one treat in Paris? These different and hostile forces dispute for power.

"First there is the _Commune_, the result of an election at which only a small number of electors took part, composed chiefly of unknown men, of doubtful capacities, and some times even of doubtful honour.

"In the second place, a _Committee of Public Safety_ named by the Commune, but soon coming to a violent rupture with it because it wanted to direct dictatorially.

"In the third place, the _Central Committee_, formed during the siege, and principally composed of agents of the International, solely occupied with cosmopolitan interests, and caring very little for Parisian or French interests; it is this Central Committee which disposes of the cannon and the munitions, in one word, of almost all the material forces.

"To all this must be added the Bonapartist and Prussian influences, whose more or less apparent action it is easy to trace in all three powers.[269]

"The Parisian insurrection," continued M. Louis Blanc, "is legitimate in its motives and in its first aim--the revindication of the municipal franchise of Paris. But the intervention of the Central Committee and the pretension manifested of governing all the other Communes of the Republic, have quite altered its character. Finally, the insurrection in the presence of the Prussian army, ready to enter Paris if the Commune is victorious, is altogether condemnable, and must be condemned by every true Republican. This is why the mayors of Paris, the Left of the Assembly, and the Extreme Left, have not hesitated to protest against an insurrection which the presence of the Prussian army and other circumstances might render criminal.

"M. Martin Bernard held the same language, and spoke almost in the same terms. 'If Barbes still lived,' cried he, 'his heart would have been rent, and he too would have condemned this fatal insurrection.'

"All the other persons whom we have been able to see--MM. Henri Martin, Barthelemy St. Hilaire, Humbert, Victor Lefranc, &c., have spoken to us in the same way, and this unanimity could not but make a deep impression upon us."

XIV.--(Page 290.)

This is the textual copy of a report addressed to the Versaillese general staff:--

"The _mot d'ordre_ has been tampered with on the 17th, 18th, and 19th.

"We had that of Versailles (General Douai's corps).

"There has been an explosion at the Rapp powder magazine, as I have already reported to you. There were some dead, and many wounded.

"A commissary of police of the Commission of Safety has made about forty arrests. Those made on account of the explosion are estimated to be about 125.

"Sergeant Toussaint (3rd battery, 2nd squadron) has been arrested by the Commune. It is said that this brave officer is shot.

"The sick, according to our information, had been taken away either the day before or on the morning of the day of the catastrophe to the Hotel des Invalides. The workwomen, and not the men, were sent home earlier that day.

"The official of the Audit Office of the Hospital du Gros-Caillou, M. Bernard, has behaved very well.

"I recommend to the good-will of M. le Ministre, MM. Janvier, Bertalon (?), Mauduit, Morelli, and Sigismond, men enjoying an excellent reputation.

"They desire the cross or an important collectorship.

"Signal services have been rendered by Madame Brosset, and by Mademoiselle Gigaud. It is at the latter's house that I hid for eight days when Rigault's people were searching for me.

"This woman is very devoted; she lives in the Quartier du Gros Caillou, Rue Dominique St. Germain. She is the daughter of an ex-officer. She would be glad to have a tobacconist's shop."--_Report of Commander Jerriait, Ex-Chief of Squadron._

XV.--(Page 325.)

This fact was categorically deposed to by M. E. Belgrand, Director of the Service of Public Roads, before the Commission of Inquiry into the 18th March (vol. iii., p. 352-353).

"The insurgents attempted nothing with the sewers. In short, I may affirm that from the 18th March up to the entry of the troops into Paris there was no attempt at all as to the sewers; that no chambers had been established there; that no incendiary, or explosive matters had been introduced, nor wires destined to set fire to mines or to incendiary matters."

XVI.--(Page 329.)

The _Bien Public_, M. Thiers' organ, directed by Vrignault, published in its number of the 23rd June, 1871:--

"All Paris has preserved the souvenir of that terrible cannonade directed from Montmartre during the last three days of the civil war against the Buttes Chaumont, Belleville, and the Pere Lachaise. Here are some very correct details of what was happening then at the summit of the Butte, behind the batteries at No. 6 Rue des Rosiers.

"There had been installed in this house, so sadly celebrated, a provostship, presided over by a captain of Chasseurs. As the inhabitants of the quarter rivalled each other in zeal in denouncing the insurgents, the arrests were numerous. As the prisoners arrived they were questioned.

"They were forced to kneel down, bare-headed, in silence, before the wall at the foot of which the unfortunate Generals Lecomte and Clement-Thomas had been assassinated. They remained thus a few hours, till others came to take their place. Soon, to lessen what might be cruel in this _amende honorable_, the prisoners were allowed to sit down in the shade, but always opposite the wall, the aspect of which prepared them for death, and shortly after the principal culprits amongst them were shot.

"They were taken a few steps from there to the slope of the hill, at the spot where during the siege a battery overlooked the St. Denis route. It is there too that Varlin was conducted, whom they had great trouble in protecting from the violence of the crowd. Varlin had confessed his name, and made no efforts to escape the fate that awaited him; he died game.

V. B."

XVII.--(Page 338.)

The day before, at five o'clock, at the moment when the baggage of the War Office arrived at the Hotel-de-Ville, in the Avenue Victoria, two guards, carrying a chest, were assailed with a hatchet, by an individual dressed in a blouse and wearing a cap. One of the Federals fell dead. The assassin, immediately seized hold of, cried, 'You are done for! you are done for! Give me back my hatchet and I shall recommence.' On this madman the commissary of police of the Hotel-de-Ville found papers and the _livret_, proving that he had served in the _sergents-de-ville_.

During the evening of Tuesday, an individual, wearing the uniform of an officer of a free corps, came to ask for orders at the Hotel-de-Ville. A commandant of the same corps entered the hall and saw this officer, and not recognising him, asked his name. The latter grew confused: 'But no, you are not one of my men,' said the commandant. The individual was arrested, and found to be the bearer of Versaillese instructions and orders.

Treason assumed all shapes. The same morning at Belleville, Place des Fetes, Ranvier and Frankel heard a drummer reading the Federal Guards the order not to leave their arrondissements. Ranvier, interrogating the drummer, learned that the order emanated from General du Bisson.

XVIII.--(Page 348.)

"Colonel Gaillard, chief of the military prisons, interrogated by the _Commission d'Enquete_ as to the objects of value found on the insurgents, answered: 'I can give you no information on this head. There were valuables which have not been sent to Versailles. A few days ago I saw a minister of Denmark. He came to inquire what had become of a sum of 100,000 francs seized on one of his compatriots who had been shot near the Hotel-de-Ville. His minister told me he had been unable to obtain any information. Many things happened in Paris of which we know nothing.'"--_Enquete sur le 18 Mars, Colonel Gaillard_, v. 2, p. 246.

XIX.--(Page 351.)

Shall we ever know of all the spurious speculators, the commercial men with no resources left, the men at the brink of bankruptcy, who made use of the conflagrations in order to quit scores? How many cried 'Death!' who had themselves just set the petroleum on fire.

On the 10th March, 1877, the assize court of the Seine sentenced to ten years' hard labour a ruined Bonapartist, Prieur de la Comble, found guilty of having set fire to his house, with the object of getting a heavy premium from the companies where he was insured. He had prepared his crime with the greatest _sang froid_, painted the walls, saturated the hangings with petroleum, made sure of nine different centres of fire. His father, a former mayor of the first arrondissement, had failed to the amount of 1,800,000 francs, and at the end of the Empire there had been proceedings of bankruptcy instituted against him. Now, on the 24th May, 1871, the house of the accused in the Rue du Louvre, that of his father in the Rue de Rivoli, that of the assignee of the failure in the Boulevard Sebastopol, were consumed, and owing to these triple conflagrations the account-books and vouchers disappeared. This fact was only mentioned before the assize court, and the president confined himself to saying that it was odd. He took good care not to interrogate Prieur; and one knows that the presidents of assize courts are not usually chary of sifting the antecedents of the accused.

The motive of this extraordinary reticence is that no blame was to be thrown upon the army and the courts-martial, which had shot or condemned some _petroleuses_ for the burning of these very houses set on fire by Prieur de la Comble.

XX.--(Page 368.)

"... A picket of soldiers debouched from the Rue de Vaugirard on our left. They marched in two ranks. In the midst of them was Milliere.

"He was dressed exactly as I had seen him some months before at Bordeaux on the tribune of the Assembly and in the Republican Circle--black trousers, dark-blue overcoat, tight and buttoned up, a high black hat.

"The picket stopped before the door of the Luxembourg. One of the soldiers, who held his rifle by the end of the barrel, cried, 'It is I who took him! it is I who am entitled to shoot him!' There were about a hundred persons there of both sexes and of all ages. Many cried, 'Death to him! shoot him!'

"A National Guard, wearing a tricolor armlet, seized hold of Milliere by the wrist, led him into the corner on the right, and placed him against the wall, then he retired.... Milliere uncovered himself, placed his hat on the pedestal of the column, crossed his arms on his breast, and calm and cool looked at the troops. He waited.

"Round us the soldiers were being questioned. 'Who is it?' one of them was asked, and I heard him answer, 'It is Mayer.'

"A priest came out of the Luxembourg; he wore a straight-cut cassock and a high hat. Advancing towards Milliere, he spoke a few words to him and pointed to heaven.

"Without ostentation, but with a very firm and calm attitude, Milliere appeared to thank him, and shook his head in sign of refusal. The priest retired.

"Two officers came out from the palace and addressed themselves to the prisoner. One of them, whom the first seemed to guide, spoke to him for a minute or two. We heard the sound of voices without understanding the words exchanged, then I heard this command: 'To the Pantheon!'

"The picket re-formed round Milliere, who put on his hat, and the cortege remounted the Rue de Vaugirard in the direction of the Pantheon.

"We reached the rails at the same time as the picket. The door opened and shut upon them. Placing my feet on the stone balustrade, I passed my two arms round the top of the bars; my head overlooked them, for these railings are low. By my side a soldier, the sentry of the interior, answered some prostitutes who were questioning him; his elbow, leaning against the rails, touched mine.

"The picket of the troop had stopped and almost leant against the closed door. Milliere was led between the two columns of the centre. Arrived at the spot where he was to die, and after having ascended the last step of the stairs, he exchanged a few words with the officer. Searching in the pocket of his overcoat, which he had just unbuttoned, he took out an object, which I believed to be a letter, and handed it over to him, as also a watch and a locket. The officer took them, then seized hold of Milliere and placed him in such a manner that he should be shot from behind. The latter turned round with a brusque movement, and, his arms crossed, faced the troop. This is the only movement of indignation or of anger that I saw him make.

"Some more words were exchanged; Milliere seemed to be refusing to obey an order. The officer came down. The instant after, a soldier seized him who was to be shot by the shoulder and forced him to bend his knee upon the flagstone.

"Half the rifles of the platoon only were levelled at him; the others remained in the arms of the soldiers. During this time, believing his last moment come, Milliere three times uttered the cry, 'Vive la Republique!'

"The officer approaching the picket of the troop, ordered the rifles, which had been too hurriedly lowered, to be raised again, and then he pointed out with his sword how the order to fire would be given.

"'Vive le peuple! Vive l'humanite,' cried Milliere.

"The soldier on sentry, whose elbow touched my arm, answered the last words by these: 'On va t'en foutre de l'humanite!' I had hardly heard them when Milliere fell as if thunderstricken.

"A military man, whom I believe to have been a non-commissioned officer, went up the steps, approached the corpse, lowered his rifle, and fired point-blank near the left temple. The explosion was so violent that the head of Milliere bounded, and appeared as if twisted back. The rain for three-quarters of an hour had beaten against his face; the cloud of powder fixed itself there.

"Lying on his side, his hands joined, his clothes open and thrown into disorder by the fall, his head blackened, as if burst open, seeming to look at the frontispiece of the monument, his corpse was something terrible...."--_The death of Milliere recounted by M. Louis Mie, Conseiller-General of the Dordogne, Municipal Counciller of Perigueux, deputy of Bordeaux to the Chamber._

* * * * *

Madame Milliere having instituted judiciary proceedings against Staff-Captain Garcin, the murderer of her husband, the trial was cut short by the following letter:--

"VERSAILLES, _30th June 1873_.

"Captain Garcin of the General Staff attached to the 2d corps, has during the second siege of Paris only executed the orders given him by his superiors. He can thus in no way be made responsible for deeds which were the result of these orders. The responsibility rests exclusively upon those who have given the orders.

"The Minister at War,
"DE CISSEY."

XXI.--(Page 371.)

To the number of the innocent victims of our civil discords we have the sorrow to add the name of a young man, twenty-seven years old, M. Faneau, a doctor of medicine.

"Dr. Faneau had worked from the beginning of the war in the International ambulances. During the whole siege of Paris he did not cease tending the wounded with zealous devotion.

"After the revolution of the 18th March he remained in Paris, and resumed his service in the ambulances.

"On the 25th May he was on duty at the Grand Seminaire de St. Sulpice, where the Federals had established an ambulance.

"When the army had taken possession of the cross-roads of the Croix Rouge, it advanced as far as the Place.

"A company of line soldiers came up to the door of the seminary, where floated the flag of Geneva.

"The officer who commanded asked to speak to the chief of the ambulance. Dr. Faneau, who filled this function, presented himself.

"'Are there any Federals here?' the officer asked him.

"'I have only wounded,' answered M. Faneau, 'they are Federals, but they have been in my ambulance for several days.'

"At the moment when he was concluding these words, a shot was fired from one of the windows of the first storey, and struck a soldier.

"This shot was discharged by one of the wounded Federals, who had dragged himself from his bed to the window.[270]

"Immediately the officer, exasperated, threw himself upon Dr. Faneau, crying to him, 'You lie, you have set a snare for us; you are the friend of these rascals; you are going to be shot.'

"Dr. Faneau understood that it would be in vain to attempt to justify himself; also, he offered no resistance to the firing-party.

"Some minutes after the unfortunate young man fell, struck by ten bullets.

"We knew Dr. Faneau, and we can affirm that, far from sympathising with the members of the Commune, he deplored their fatal errors, and waited with impatience for the re-establishment of order."--_Le Siecle._

XXII.--(Page 383.)

In the _National_ of the 29th May appeared the following:--

"PARIS, _28th May 1871_.

"Sir,--Last Friday, at the time when corpses were being picked up in the Boulevard St. Michel, some individuals of nineteen to twenty-five years old, dressed as well-to-do people, were seated with gay women inside, and at the doors of certain cafes of this boulevard, indulging with these in scandalous merrymaking.--Accept, Monsieur le redacteur, &c.,

"DUHAMEL.
55 BOULEVARD D'ENFER."

The facts mentioned above were repeated every day.

The _Journal de Paris_, a Versaillese journal suppressed by the Commune, wrote:--

"The manner in which the population of Paris manifested its satisfaction yesterday was rather more than frivolous, and we fear it will grow worse as time progresses. Paris has now a fete-day appearance, which is sadly out of place; and unless we are to be called the Parisians of the decline, this sort of thing must come to an end." Then he quoted the passage from Tacitus: "Yet on the morrow of that horrible struggle, even before it was completely over, Rome, degraded and corrupt, began once more to wallow in the voluptuous slough which was destroying its body and polluting its soul--_alibi proelia et vulnera, alibi balnea popinaeque_--'here fights and wounds, there baths and restaurants.'"

XXIII.--(Page 384.)

The Versaillese journals confessed to 1600 prisoners buried in the Pere Lachaise. The _Opinion Nationale_ of the 10th June said:--

"We do not wish to leave the Pere Lachaise without saluting with a look of Christian compassion these deep trenches, where lie entombed pell-mell the insurgents taken under arms, and those who would not surrender.

"They have expiated their criminal folly by an act of summary justice. May God pity and have mercy upon them!

"Let us rectify, in passing, the exaggerated rumours which have been spread on the subject of the executions at the Pere Lachaise and in the environs.

"It appears from certain information--we might almost venture to say official statements--that there have only been buried in that cemetery, _shot_ or killed fighting, _sixteen hundred men in all_."

But the following account of the executions of La Roquette has been given me by an eye-witness, who barely escaped death:--

"I had returned to my house on the Saturday evening. Sunday morning, on crossing the Boulevard du Prince Eugene, I was taken in a razzia. We were conducted to La Roquette. A chief of battalion was standing at the entrance. He surveyed us; then, with a nod of the head, said, 'To the right,' or 'To the left.' I was sent to the left. 'Your affair is settled,' the soldiers said to us; 'you are going to be shot, _canailles!_' We were ordered to throw away our matches if we had any about us, and then the signal was given to march on.

"I was the last of the file, and by the side of the sergeant who conducted us. He looked at me. 'Who are you?' he asked me. 'A professor. I was taken this morning as I came out of my house.' No doubt my accent, the elegance of my clothes, struck him, for he added, 'Have you any papers?' 'Yes.' 'Come!' and he took me back before the chief of battalion. 'Commander,' said he, 'there is a mistake. This young man has his papers.' 'All right,' answered the officer, without looking at me, 'to the right.'

"The sergeant led me off. As we went along, he explained to me that the prisoners taken to the left were shot. We had already got to a door on the right, when a soldier ran after us: 'Sergeant, the commandant says you are to take back this man to the left.'

"Fatigue, despair at the defeat, the enervation caused by so much anguish, deprived me of all strength to dispute my life. 'Well, shoot me,' said I to the sergeant, 'for you it will be but a crime the more! only return these papers to my family,' and I turned to the left.

"I already perceived a long file of men drawn up against a wall, others lying on the ground. Opposite them three priests read in their breviaries the prayers of the dying. A few steps more and I was dead, when suddenly I was seized hold of by the arm. It was my sergeant. He took me back by force to the officer. 'Commandant,' said he, 'we cannot shoot this man. He has his papers!' 'Let me see,' said the officer. I handed over my pocket-book, which contained a card as employe at the Ministry of Commerce during the first siege. 'To the right,' said the commandant.

"There were soon more than 3,000 prisoners on the right. All Sunday and part of the night detonations resounded by the side of us. On Monday morning a platoon came in. 'Fifty men,' said the sergeant. We thought we were going to be shot by parties, and no one stirred. The soldiers took the first fifty they came across. I was of the number. We were taken to the famous left side.

"On a space which seemed to us endless we saw heaps of corpses. 'Pick up all this rubbish,' said the sergeants to us, 'and put them into these carts.' We raised up these corpses covered with blood and mud. The soldiers made frightful jokes; 'See what grimaces they cut,' and with their heels crushed some face. It seemed to me that some were still living. We told the soldiers so, but they answered, 'Come, come! get on!' Certainly some died under the earth. We put 1,907 corpses into these carts."

The _Liberte_ of the 4th June said:--

"The governor of La Roquette during the Commune, and his acolytes, were shot on the very scene of their exploits.

"For the other National Guards arrested in this neighbourhood, and whose number exceeded 4,000, a provisional court-martial was installed in the Roquette itself. A commissary of police and police agents of safety were charged with the first examination. Those appointed to be shot were sent into the interior; they were killed from behind while they were walking along, and their bodies were thrown on to the nearest heap. All these monsters had the faces of bandits; the exceptions were to be regretted."

XXIV.--(Page 384.)

"At the time of the trial of the members of the Council of the Commune before the third court-martial sitting at Versailles, a certain M. Gabriel Ossude came to give evidence as witness against Jourde, in whose arrest he was concerned, he said, in his quality of provost of the seventh arrondissement, and as Colonel Merlin, president of the court, seemed astonished that such a function should have devolved upon a civilian, M. Ossude entered into very precise explanations, which I remember perfectly.

"He declared that towards the end of the Commune the prevotal courts had been instituted by the Government of Versailles in view of the early entry of the troops into Paris; that the number and the seats of the exceptional tribunals had been arranged beforehand, as well as the topographical limits of their jurisdictions; that he (M. Gabriel Ossude) had received his nomination from the hands of M. Thiers, although he held no rank in the army, but as captain of the seventeenth battalion of the National Guard."--_Letter of Ulysse Parent, Rappel, March 19, 1877._

XXV.--(Page 385.)

"Near the Ecole Militaire the scene is at this moment very affecting; prisoners are continually being led there, and their trial is _terminated_ beforehand. It consists only in detonations."--_Siecle, 28th May._

"The courts-martial functioned in Paris with unheard-of activity at several special points. At the Lobau Barracks, at the Ecole Militaire, the fusillade is permanently heard. It is the settling of accounts with those wretches who openly took part in the struggle."--_Liberte, 30th May._