Chapter XLII: Appendix: I.--(Page 29.) (2)

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"Since morning (Sunday, 28th May) a strong cordon is being formed round the theatre (Chatelet), where a court-martial is permanently established. From time to time one sees a band of fifteen to twenty individuals coming out, composed of National Guards, civilians, _women and children fifteen to sixteen years old_.

"These individuals are condemned to death. They march two and two, escorted by a platoon of chasseurs, who lead and bring up the procession. This cortege goes up the Quai de Gevres and enters the Republican Barracks in the Place Lobau. A minute after one hears from within the fire of platoons and successive musketry discharges; it is the sentence of the court-martial which has just been executed.

"The detachment of chasseurs returns to the Chatelet to fetch other prisoners. The crowd seems deeply impressed on hearing the noise of the fusillades."--_Journal des Debats, 30th May, 1871._

XXVI.--(Page 385.)

A journal of the Belgian bourgeoisie, the _Etoile_, one of the most violent against the Commune, allowed this avowal to escape it:--

"The majority have met death like the Arabs after battle, with indifference, with contempt, without hatred, without anger, without insult to their executioners.

"All the soldiers who took part in these executions, and whom I have questioned, have been unanimous in their accounts.

"One of them said to me, 'We shot about forty of these _canailles_ at Passy. They all died like soldiers. Some crossed their arms, and stood head erect. Others opened their tunics and cried to us 'Fire! we are not afraid of death.'

"Not one of those whom we have shot trembled. I especially remember an artillerist, who by himself did us more harm than a whole battalion. He was alone serving a piece of cannon. During three-quarters of an hour he peppered us with grape shot, and he killed and wounded not a few of my comrades. At last he was overwhelmed. We had turned his barricade.

"I still see him. He was a strongly-built man. He was bathed in perspiration from the service he had done during three-quarters of an hour. 'Your turn now,' said he to us. 'I have merited shooting, but I shall die game.'

"Another soldier of General Clinchant's corps told me how his company had led to the ramparts eighty-four insurgents taken bearing arms.

"They all placed themselves in a line, he said to me, as if they were going to exercise. Not one faltered. One of them who had a handsome face, wore trousers in fine cloth tucked into his boots, and a Zouave's belt round his waist, said to us calmly, 'Try to aim at my chest; be careful not to touch my head.' We all fired, but the poor fellow had half of his head carried away."

A functionary of Versailles made me the following recital:--

"During the day, Sunday, I made an excursion to Paris. I went by the Theatre du Chatelet towards the smoking ruins of the Hotel-de-Ville, when I was surrounded and carried along by the stream of a crowd which was following a convoy of prisoners.

"I found among them the same men whom I had seen in the battalions of the siege of Paris. Almost all seemed to me to be working-men.

"Their faces betrayed neither despair nor despondency nor emotion. They walked on with a firm, resolute step, and they seemed to me so indifferent to their fate that I thought they expected to be released. I was entirely mistaken. These men had been taken in the morning at Menilmontant, and knew whither they were being led. Arrived at the Lobau Barracks, the cavalry officers who preceded the escort had a semi-circle formed, and prevented the curious from advancing."

XXVII.--(Page 385.)

One of the most ignoble barkers of Versailles, Francisque Sarcey, wrote in the _Gaulois_ of the 13th June:--

"Men who are quite cool, of whose judgment and word I cannot doubt, have spoken to me with an astonishment mingled with horror of the scenes they had seen, seen with their own eyes, and which rendered me rather meditative.

"Young women, pretty of face, and dressed in silk dresses, came down into the street, and a revolver in their hands, fired at random, and then said with proud mien, elevated voice, eyes full of hatred, 'Shoot me at once!' One of them, who had been taken in a house whence they had fired from the windows, was about to be bound in order to be taken to Versailles and judged there.

"'Come,' said she, 'save me the trouble of the journey!' And placing herself against a wall, her arms spread open, her breast bare, she seemed to solicit--to provoke death.

"All those who have been seen executed thus summarily by furious soldiers have died, insults on their tongues, with a laugh of contempt, like martyrs, who in sacrificing themselves accomplish a great duty."

XXVIII.--(Page 386.)

At the time of an action entered against M. Raspail, _fils_, in 1876, for his pamphlet in favour of an amnesty, the following letter, addressed to him by M. Hervey de Saisy, senator, was read in court:--

"I cannot, for motives of discretion bearing on divers persons, repeat in this letter the recital which I made you _viva voce_ on the occasion of which you remind me. However, I wish to answer your courteous appeal by repeating here the words which served as a reason for the iniquitous order by which the life of M. Cernuschi was menaced, during the day on which the troops took possession of the prison of Ste. Pelagie and the Jardin des Plantes.

"These are the words pronounced by the general of division who gave the order of summary execution. Learning that Cernuschi had repaired to the prison, at the door of which I saw his carriage, he said to some one, whom I cannot mention, 'Ah! it is Cernuschi, the man of the 100,000 francs of the plebiscite. Return to the prison, and let him be shot within five minutes.'

"Five minutes represented the time that would be required by the bearer of the order in going to the prison from the Cedre du Jussieu, whence the general watched the phases of the combat.

"At first I did not understand this strange phrase, but some moments after I remembered that it was the expression of a political vengeance which was about to be exercised against M. Cernuschi for having offered 100,000 francs for the propaganda which the Opposition was to make during the final plebiscite of the Empire.

"Profoundly indignant at what I had just heard, I was fortunate enough to bring about a fortuitous incident to which the already condemned victim owed his salvation.

"Such are the details I am able to furnish you with.

"HERVE DE SAISY."

XXIX.--(Page 386.)

"Some journals of Paris," wrote the _Echo de la Dordogne_, on the 19th June, 1871, "have repeated that Tony Moilin had been condemned and shot for having been taken arms in hand on the 27th May. This report is incorrect.

"One single fact was Tony Moilin reproached with: that of having on the 18th March taken possession of the mairie of his arrondissement, and having thus had a share in giving the signal for the insurrection. He was shown a kind of dismissal given by him on that day to M. Herisson, the mayor whom he had replaced. No witness was heard.

"Moilin admitted the fact; then he added that he had exercised the function of mayor during hardly two days; that at the end of this time, little in accord with the men of the Commune, he had voluntarily ceased to appear at the mairie, where he had been immediately replaced.

"The court-martial asked Moilin to account for his time and his acts since the day of the entry of the army of Versailles into Paris. He answered that, known for a long time, especially through the Blois trial and by his writings, as one of the chiefs of the Socialist party, having to answer for taking possession of the mairie of the eighth arrondissement on the 18th March, fearing a too summary justice and the fury of the first moments, he had sought and found shelter at a friend's, and that, from the Monday morning till the Saturday night; ... that on the Saturday evening, the 27th March, this friend had asked his guest to leave his retreat, and that on leaving this inhospitable house, discouraged, not seeking any longer to defend his liberty, nor even his life, he had returned to his home, where, on the denunciation of his porter and his neighbours, he had been almost directly afterwards arrested and taken before the court-martial at the Luxembourg.

"To this recital was confined the defence of Tony Moilin, who was immediately condemned to death. The court-martial _condescended to tell him that the fact of the mairie, the only one he could be reproached with, had in itself not much importance, and did not merit death, but that he was one of the chiefs of the Socialist party, dangerous through his talents, his character, and his influence over the masses; one of those men, in short, of whom a prudent and wise Government must rid itself when it finds a legitimate occasion to do so_.

"Tony Moilin could only be satisfied with the urbanity (_sic_) of the members of the court. Without any difficulty a respite of twelve hours was granted him in order that he might make his testament, write a few words of farewell to his father, and finally give his name to the woman who had, during the Blois trial and since, shown him the greatest devotion. These duties fulfilled, on the 28th May, in the morning, Tony Moilin was led into the garden a few steps from the palace and shot. His body, which his widow claimed, the surrender of which had been at first promised, was refused her."

XXX.--(Page 386.)

This assassination also stands to the debit account of Garcin. Let us again allow him to speak.

"Billioray at first attempted to deny his identity. He wanted to rush upon a soldier; he was a man of athletic strength.... He defended himself, he foamed with rage. There was hardly time to interrogate him. He began some tale about money, whose place of concealment he could indicate. He spoke of 150,000 francs; then he interrupted himself, in order to say to me, 'I see you are going to have me shot. It is useless for me to say any more.' I said to him, 'You persist?' 'Yes.' He was shot."--_Enquete sur le 18 Mars_, vol. ii. p. 234.

XXXI--(Page 386.)

"The event took place on Thursday, 25th May, at a few minutes past six in the evening, in the small Rue des Pretres-Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois. Valles was coming out of the Theatre du Chatelet, led off by the firing-party charged to shoot him. He wore a black coat, and light trousers of a yellowish shade. He wore no hat; and his beard, which he had shaved but lately, was very short, and already getting grey.

"On entering the lane where the ominous sentence was to be carried out, the sentiment of self-preservation gave him back the energy which seemed to have abandoned him. He wanted to fly; but, held back by the soldiers, he got into a horrible fury, crying 'Murder!' writhing, seizing his executioners by the throat, biting them, offering, in one word, a desperate resistance.

"The soldiers were beginning to be embarrassed and a little moved at this horrible struggle, when one of them passing behind gave him such a furious blow in the loins with the butt-end of his gun that the unfortunate man fell with a low groan.

"No doubt the spinal column was broken. They then fired some shots with their revolvers straight into his body, and pierced him with bayonet thrusts. As he was still breathing, one of the executioners approached and discharged his chassepot into his ear. Part of the skull burst open; his body was abandoned in the gutter till some one came to pick it up.

"It is then that the spectators of this scene approached, and despite the wounds that disfigured him, were able to establish his identity."--_Account by a Military Surgeon published in the Gaulois._

XXXII.--(Page 392.)

The _Radical_ of the 30th May, 1872, published the following letter from an employe at St. Thomas d'Acquin, who during the Commune had rendered the Versaillese the service of preventing the firing of the cannons of 8 cm. breechloaders:--

"_To Monsieur le Comte Daru, President of the Committee of Inquiry into the Insurrection of the 18th March, Versailles._

"Monsieur le President,--I have just read in a book, which is entitled _Enquete Parlementaire sur l'Insurrection du 18 Mars_, under the head, _Evidence of witnesses_, the following evidence by the Staff-Captain Garcin:--

"'All those who were arrested under arms were shot during the first moments, that is to say, during the combat. But when we were masters of the left bank there were no more executions.'

"In the report of Marshal MacMahon on the operations of the army of Versailles against insurgent Paris, I find the following declaration:--

"'In the evening of the 25th May the whole left bank was in our power, as also the bridges of the Seine.'

"The evidence of Captain Garcin is unfortunately contrary to the truth. Four days after the 25th May my son and fourteen other unhappy victims were killed at the Dupleix Barracks, situated on the left bank, near the Ecole Militaire.

"On the 31st August I addressed the Minister of Justice a complaint on this subject, of which I send you a correct copy. After having related the facts with regard to my son, I demanded that the law should search for and punish the culprits.

"Up to the present time the law has remained deaf to my claims, notwithstanding the publicity I have given this complaint, in order to prove the disappearance of my child.

"If it were true, as Captain Garcin declares, that orders had been given by the general commander-in-chief of the troops of the left bank to put an end to these executions after the evening of the 25th May; if again it were true that Marshal MacMahon had by his despatch of the 28th May given the order to suspend all executions, as the Colonel presiding over the court-martial at the trial of the members of the Commune declared--the officer of the gendarmerie, named Roncol, who ordered the massacres at the Dupleix Barracks, and his accomplices should have been prosecuted for having, in contempt of the orders of the chief of the army, had unfortunate people killed who had taken no part in the combat.

"Thus, horrible fact, in the morning of the 29th May, while I was giving up the cannon at St. Thomas d'Acquin, which my son and I had sworn on our honour to preserve for the state, and for which we had risked our lives, my son was being massacred at the end of a stable by those who ought to have protected him.

"In consequence of these facts, which I have just made public, I beg Monsieur le President to be so obliging as to have the evidence of Captain Garcin rectified, which is on this point of the executions entirely contrary to truth.--I have the honour, Monsieur le President, &c.,

(Signed) "G. LAUDET."

"The correct copy of this was addressed in a registered letter of the 28th March, 1872, under the number 158, to M. le Comte Daru, who has acknowledged the receipt of it.

"G. LAUDET."
"PARIS, _23rd May 1872_."

XXXIII.--(Page 393.)

"It is in the Bois de Boulogne that those condemned to death by the court-martial will for the future be executed. Whenever the number of the condemned shall exceed ten men the execution platoons will be replaced by a mitrailleuse."--_Paris Journal, 9th June._

"All circulation is forbidden in the Bois de Boulogne.

"One is forbidden to enter there, unless accompanied by a platoon of soldiers, and still more forbidden to come out again."--_Paris Journal, 15th June._

XXXIV.--(Page 395.)

"One man, a swarthy, burly fellow, with a shock head of black hair, sat down at the corner of the Rue de la Paix and declined to go any further, shaking his fist at the people and grinding his teeth. After several attempts at coercive measures, one of the soldiers lost all patience, and drove his bayonet twice into his body, telling him to get up and walk on like the rest. As might have been expected, this method was not successful, and so he was seized and placed on a horse, from which he speedily threw himself, and was then tied to its tail, and dragged along the ground after the manner of Brunhilda. He soon became faint from loss of blood, and having thus been reduced to a quiescent state, was bundled into an ambulance waggon, and carried off amid the shouts and execrations of the populace."--_Times, May 31st._

"Another prisoner, who had also refused to march, was dragged by the hands and hair of the head along the road."--_Times, May 30th._

"Near the Parc Monceaux a husband and wife were seized, and ordered to march forward towards the Place Vendome, a distance of a mile and a half. They were both of them invalids and unable to walk so far. The woman sat down on the kerbstone, and declined to move a step in spite of her husband's entreaties that she would try. She persisted in her refusal, and they both knelt down together, begging the gendarmes who accompanied them to shoot them at once if shot they were to be. Twenty revolvers were fired, but they still breathed, and it was only at the second discharge that they finally sank down dead. The gendarmes then rode away, leaving the bodies as they had fallen."--_Times, May 29th._

XXXV.--(Page 396.)

The conservative paper, the _Tricolore_, said on the 31st May:--

"Sunday morning, the 24th, out of more than _two thousand_ Federals, one hundred and eleven of them have been shot in the ditches of Passy, and that under circumstances which show that the victory [the conclusion of this nonsensical phrase must be given in the original] _etait entree dans toute la maturite de la situation_.

"'Let those who have white hairs step out from the ranks!' said General Gallifet, who presided at the execution, and the number of grey-headed Federals amounted to one hundred and eleven!

"For these the aggravating circumstance was having been contemporaries of June, 1848.

"There is here a new _retro-syncopante_ theory which might take us a long way back."

The _Liberte_ of Brussels published the following declaration, signed by eve-witnesses, of the facts which had occurred at La Muette on the 26th May, 1871:--

"On the 26th of last May we formed part of the column of prisoners who had left the Boulevard Malesherbes at eight o'clock in the morning in the direction of Versailles. We stopped at the Chateau of La Muette, where General Gallifet, after having dismounted from his horse, passed into our ranks, and then making a choice, he pointed out to the troops eighty-three men and three women. They were taken away along the talus of the fortifications and shot before us. After this exploit the General said to us: '_My name is Gallifet. Your journals in Paris have sullied me enough. I take my revenge._'

"Thence we were directed to Versailles, where during the journey we were again obliged to assist at frightful executions of two women and three men, who, falling down exhausted and being unable to keep up with the column, were killed with bayonet-thrusts by the _sergents de ville_ forming our escort."

The names followed, with the professions and addresses of the signers, to the number of eleven.

* * * * *

"The column of prisoners halted in the Avenue Uhrich and was drawn up four or five deep on the footway facing to the road. General the Marquis de Gallifet and his staff, who had preceded us there, dismounted, and commenced an inspection from the left of the line and near where I was. Walking down slowly, and eyeing the ranks as if at an inspection, the General stopped here and there, tapping a man on the shoulder or beckoning him out of the rear-ranks. In most cases, without further parley, the individual thus selected was marched out into the centre of the road, where a small supplementary column was thus soon formed.... They evidently knew too well that their last hour had come, and it was fearfully interesting to see their different demeanours. One, already wounded, his shirt soaked with blood, sat down in the road and howled with anguish; ... others wept in silence; two soldiers, presumed deserters, pale but collected, appealed to all the other prisoners as to whether they had ever seen them amongst their ranks; some smiled defiantly.... It was an awful thing to see one man thus picking out a batch of his fellow-creatures to be put to a violent death in a few minutes without further trial.... A few paces from where I stood, a mounted officer pointed out to General Gallifet a man and woman for some particular offence. The woman, rushing out of the ranks, threw herself on her knees and with outstretched arms implored mercy, and protested her innocence in passionate terms. The General waited for a pause, and then, with most impassable face and unmoved demeanour, said: 'Madame, I have visited every theatre in Paris; your acting will have no effect on me' (ce n'est pas la peine de jouer la comedie).... I followed the General closely down the line, still a prisoner, but honoured with a special escort of two chasseurs-a-cheval, and endeavoured to arrive at what guided him in his selections. The result of my observations was that it was not a good thing on that day to be noticeably taller, dirtier, cleaner, older, or uglier than one's neighbour. One individual in particular struck me as probably owing his speedy release from the ills of this world to his having a broken nose on what might have been otherwise an ordinary face, and being unable from his height to conceal it. Over a hundred being thus chosen, a firing party told off, and the column resumed its marching, leaving them behind. In a few minutes afterwards, a dropping fire in our rear commenced and continued for over a quarter of an hour. It was the execution of these summarily convicted wretches."--_The Daily News, June 8, 1871._

"Yesterday (Sunday, 28th), about one o'clock, General Gallifet appeared at the head of a column of 6,000 prisoners.... Upon their haggard countenances and in their downcast eyes there was no ray of hope to be seen. They were evidently prepared for the worst fate, and dragged listlessly along, as though it were not worth while to walk to Versailles to be shot when an immediate execution might save them the trouble. M. de Gallifet seemed to be of the same opinion, and a little beyond the Arc-de-Triomphe he halted the column, selected eighty-two, and had them shot there and then. A little after this a band of twenty Pompiers were marched into the Parc Monceaux and executed."--_The Times, May 31, 1871._

XXXVI.--(Page 438.)

Here is a copy of a letter addressed to the Versaillese general staff, and probably still in its possession, and bearing the number 28 ibis:--

"_To the Chief of the General Staff._

"General--I have been mistaken for a M. de Beaufond, and this annoys me all the more, that negligences committed by him are imputed to me.

"I have certainly not wasted my time during this period of fifteen days. I have organised quite a legion of combatants. Their order is to run away on the approach of the troops, and thus to throw the ranks of the Federals into disorder.

"The means indicated by the Committee of A---- seems to be practicable. I will make use of it. With only one hundred drunkards one can do many a thing."

XXXVII.--(Page 444.)

This, according to the, of course, very approximate report of General Appert, is the contingent furnished by the different professions:--528 jewellers, 124 pasteboard makers, 210 hatters, 328 carpenters, 1,065 clerks, 1,491 shoemakers, 206 dressmakers, 172 gilders, 636 cabinetmakers, 1,598 commercial employes, 98 instrument makers, 227 tin-workers, 224 founders, 182 engravers, 179 watchmakers, 819 compositors, 159 stained paper printers, 106 teachers, 2,901 day labourers, 2,293 bricklayers, 1,659 joiners, 193 lace-makers, 863 house-painters, 106 bookbinders, 283 sculptors, 2,664 locksmiths and mechanicians, 681 tailors, 347 tanners, 157 moulders, 766 stone-cutters.

XXXVIII.--(Page 463.)

Notably in the affair of the spy of the Hautes-Bruyeres, for which several persons had already been condemned. This spy--a young man of twenty, and not a child, as the reactionists have stated--had attracted the shells of the enemy to the Federal positions. Brought before a court-martial, composed of La Cecilia, commander of the army corps, of Johannard, delegate of the Commune, and of all the chiefs of battalions, he admitted having taken the Versaillese the plan of the Federal positions, and having received twenty francs as reward. He was unanimously condemned to death. At the moment of the execution, Johannard and Grandier, La Cecilia's aide-de-camp, explained to the condemned man that he would be pardoned if he would reveal the name of his accomplice, an inhabitant of Montrouge. He replied, "You are brigands. _Je vous emm...._" This fact, odiously travestied, has furnished Victor Hugo, very ill informed as to this civil war, with a verse for his "Annee Terrible," as unjust to Johannard as to Serizier, one of the men shot at Satory. The great poet owes himself a disclaimer.

FOOTNOTES:

[269] Thiers and Jules Favre themselves have calumniated Paris less than Louis Blanc. The first says in the _Enquete sur le 18 Mars_, vol. ii. p. 15: "_It is not true, as has been asserted, that I had great difficulties with the Prussian Government concerning the Commune, or that it had any predilection for the latter._" Jules Favre, vol. ii. p. 49; "_I have seen nothing that could authorise me to accuse either the Bonapartists or Prussia. General Trochu has been mistaken. I have seen nothing that could authorise me to accuse the Bonapartists of having fomented the 18th March. After the insurrection of the 18th March, I spent my time in refusing the offers which were made me by the Prussians to assist in the overthrow of the Commune._"

[270] The _Siecle_, in search of attenuating circumstances for the army, had invented this more than phantasmagorial incident.

THE END.

End of Project Gutenberg's History of the Commune of 1871, by P. Lissagary

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History of the Commune of 1871Chapter XLII: Appendix: I.--(Page 29.) (2)

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