Chapter 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!