Book: The Insurrection in Paris

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Peter's Restaurant was searched last night, and several arrests were
made, among them officers of the National Guard suspected of complicity
in the Tricolour Brassard Plot. The Restaurant is closed.

The heaviest firing to-day has been against the Point du Jour. Large
pieces of Marine Artillery have been placed on the ramparts behind
Montrouge.

A terrific explosion has just (6 o'clock) created general alarm.
Enormous volumes of smoke are visible from a great distance. The
cartridge manufactory near the Ecole Militaire has exploded. Six hundred
_employes_, chiefly women, are said to have been killed. Bullets were
launched in all directions, killing and wounding many passers by.

The Insurgents have constructed a battery of Marine pieces, which much
embarrasses the troops and retards the breaching works. Breaches will be
opened at three points--namely, at Mortemart, opposite Auteuil, at
Bastion 65, opposite the Parc-aux-Princes in the Bois and in the
neighbourhood of Vaugirard.

This afternoon the Insurgents fired from three batteries between the
left bank ending the viaduct at the Point du Jour and Montrouge. One of
these batteries was placed close to the Vaugirard Gate, and its fire was
directed to a point at which the Engineers were supposed to be
constructing a trench.

There were conflagrations this evening in Auteuil, the Point du Jour,
and between the latter place and Vaugirard. The flame and smoke were
distinctly visible. We hear it was the blowing up of a powder factory in
the Rue de Wagram, Paris, or at the Trocadero.

The Committee of Public Safety, in order to save the country from a
military dictatorship, has associated Civil Commissioners with the
various Generals of the Commune. With Dombrowski are joined Burger and
Dereuve, with La Cecilia, Johannard, and with Wrobleski, Leo Meillet.

All passenger and goods trains leaving Paris have to stop outside the
walls for examination. Trains contravening this order will not be
permitted to proceed.

Possessors of petroleum are to declare the amount they hold to the
authorities within 48 hours.

Fort Montrouge is still held, and is strongly supported by the Hautes
Bruyeres.

The Government troops have not yet occupied Vanves; they are pressing
upon Billancourt and La Marette.

A letter of General Cluseret in the _Mot d'ordre_ advises that every
exertion should be made for the erection of barricades at the Barriere
de l'Etoile, the Place Roi de Rome, and the Place Eylau, with a second
line between the Passy Gate and the Grenelle Bridge, and a third line
from the Pont de la Concorde to the Ouen Gate.

The Versailles and Auteuil Gates of Paris have been demolished by the
cannonade. The neighbouring bastions are subjected to a tremendous fire,
but do not reply.

Fort Issy, which is now in the hands of the Versailles troops, is
vigorously bombarding Petit Vanves, Grenelle, and Point du Jour.

The last is utterly untenable by the Insurgent gunners.

A belief obtains that the Versailles Engineers are laying a mine under
the walls of Paris in the direction of the Muette Gate. The disagreement
between the Commune and the Central Committee continues.

The Versailles troops have made good their communications from Montrouge
to Issy, and have established batteries on the glacis before Fort
Vanves. They are vigorously attacking Bicetre and Hautes Bruyeres.

A terrible bombardment of the Maillot Gate and the Arc de Triomphe is
going on.

The Federalists in the village of Malakoff are in danger of being cut
off from Paris, while those stationed in the villages of Petit Vanves
and Montrouge have been compelled to retire into the city.

Ladders for scaling the ramparts have reached the Versaillist outposts
in the Bois de Boulogne.

The Versailles troops are endeavouring to cut a way through the wood to
the Avenue of Neuilly.

The cannonade in the direction of the Arc de Triomphe is increasing in
intensity.


MAY 18th.

To-day was a day of feasting, and National Guards surrounded the
Churches of St. Augustin and La Trinite, and forced the priests to stop
Divine service, and turned out the congregations. The establishment of
the Sisters of Mercy of St. Vincent de Paul was also surrounded. An
inventory was made of the goods, the Sisters being themselves placed
under lock and key until to-morrow, when they will be turned out.

Bodies are being removed from the crypt of the Church of Les Petits
Peres, near the Bank of France, for examination. Rumours are afloat that
people have been recently buried there under false names, and bones
strew the pavement on both sides of the church door.

The Versaillais are at a distance of 200 metres from the ramparts from
the Point du Jour to Vanves. The National Guards in great numbers are
assembled under the cover of the ramparts, and an attack is hourly
expected. Shells have fallen on the bridge of Grenelle, killing several
persons. An attack was made yesterday on the Zoological Gardens of the
Bois de Boulogne, which turned out disastrously for the Federals.

The fire from the Insurgents' batteries on the _enceinte_ has been
stronger to-day than at any time previously since the opening of the new
redoubt at Montretout. They have been throwing shells from La Muette
against the troops in the Bois de Boulogne, but mortars placed in the
Bois near the large lake have been responding vigorously, and a field
battery at Mortemart, the south-eastern extremity of the Bois, has been
protecting, by its fire, the Engineers working at the breaching battery,
and also doing some damage to the Artillery on the bastion.

Between Passy and Auteuil the Insurgents are in considerable force
behind the _enceinte_. Their three batteries on the _enceinte_, between
the Point du Jour and Montrouge, have been firing on the military
position at Bas Meudon and Issy. There has been a return shelling from
these positions between the rival Artillery.

Engineers are engaged in sapping from Issy in the direction of
Vaugirard. They are much exposed to the batteries of the Insurgents, but
neither yesterday nor to-day did I see a single shell fall into the
French lines where they are at work.

The Committee of Public Safety has issued an appeal to the National
Guards calling upon them to secure the triumph of Paris, and describing
the fearful results which would ensue from the victory of the Versailles
troops.

A later attack which was made on Neuilly yesterday was repulsed.

This morning the Federal batteries at Montmartre are bombarding the
Chateau Becon.

The _Journal Officiel_ of the Commune of to-day accuses the agents of
Versailles of having caused the explosion of the cartridge manufactory,
and says that a hundred persons have fallen victims to it. Four arrests
have been made in connexion with this affair. The _Verite_ demonstrates
that the explosion could not have been the result of intention, but was
solely attributable to accident. The same paper states that no shell
fell in the Champ de Mars at the time of the explosion.

The Versailles troops are constructing trenches within 200 yards of the
Auteuil Gate, but the breach is not yet assailable.

Fort Montrouge still holds out, but offers only a feeble resistance.

The Communists claim to-day to have repulsed all attacks.

The bombardment is incessant.

The German troops are taking up imposing positions.

The tribunals of the Commune have decided to-day as to who among the
prisoners in the hands of the Commune are to be regarded as hostages. It
is asserted that three hostages will be executed to-morrow.


MAY 19th.

The firing was heavier last night than it has ever been. There were both
a cannonade and a fusillade. Everybody thought that the Versaillais had
at last made their assault. It appears that the Communists attempted a
sortie, and were repulsed with great loss. Numerous waggons filled with
wounded were taken to Versailles. Various battalions returned to Paris,
apparently much dispirited. Numerous reinforcements, however, were
brought up.

The bullets are falling so thickly about the ramparts that the
Communists with difficulty maintain their position there. The Versailles
shell-practice has improved. The shells burst about the bastions instead
of in the town.

The conscription is carried on with increased rigour, death being
threatened to those who refuse to serve. A Lieutenant-Colonel and a
Commandant have been sentenced, the one to 15 years' and the other to 10
years' imprisonment for cowardice, and their battalion has been
dissolved. The Chief and Staff of the 6th Legion have been dismissed for
not disarming the refractory battalions.

It is said the prisoners accused of firing the cartridge manufactory are
to be shot in 24 hours.

Much fear is entertained for the fate of the hostages, whose execution
has been so strongly advocated in the Commune, in reprisal for the
alleged violation and murder of an _infirmiere_ by the Versaillais.

Some iron cupola-shaped cases, capable of holding each 1,000lb. of
powder, were to-day taken to the barricades near the ramparts for the
purpose of blowing them up if necessary.

It has been proposed in the Commune to abolish all titles of rank, with
the emoluments and advantages appertaining to them; also that all
children now illegitimate shall be for the future legitimate; and that,
instead of the present form of marriage, any man over 18 and woman over
16 may be allowed to go before a municipal magistrate and declare their
wish to marry.

The only breaching battery that has as yet opened fire is that
established in the Parc aux Princes, at 400 metres distance from the
ramparts. It directs its fire against the _enceinte_ at Auteuil, where
the gates and the drawbridge have been destroyed.

The Fort of Montrouge is almost surrounded by the troops, who advance
also by means of trenches towards the Redoubt of Hautes Bruyeres.

Towards the South a series of attacks have been made, with the view of
driving all the Insurgents on that side from their positions outside the
_enceinte_.

Last night, in an affair at Lagrange, the military put 110 Insurgents
_hors de combat_ and made 43 prisoners.

All the breaching works are not yet completed.

To-day the Insurgents have been firing from La Muette, which is on the
_enceinte_ between Passy and Auteuil, and I observed that they had added
to the number of their guns between the Point du Jour and Montrouge.
Yesterday they had three batteries between those points; to-day they
have been firing from five.

Mont Valerien has done very little to-day, and Montretout has not been
so violent as usual, but the military batteries at Bas Meudon, Les
Moulineanx, and Issy have been very active, as have likewise been the
mortars and field guns in the Bois de Boulogne.

Twenty-one members of the Commune no longer attend the sittings of that
body, but remain in their Arrondissements.

Four hundred Versailles Chasseurs are said to have deserted from their
own side into Paris yesterday.

Batteries of 30 guns have been established at the Dauphine Gate.

The _Cri du peuple_ says the Committee have determined rather to blow up
Paris than capitulate.

A requisition has been made of the silver candlesticks at the Church of
Notre Dame des Victoires.

No one without a special pass is allowed to leave the city at night by
the Eastern or Northern gates.

The Commune has ordered that all prostitutes and drunkards shall be
arrested.

A decree of the Committee of Public Safety, published to-day, orders the
suppression of the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, _Avenir National_, _Patrie_,
_Commune_, _Justice_, and five other newspapers.

No new journals will be allowed to appear until the end of the war.

All articles must be signed by the writer.

Attacks on the Government will be dealt with according to martial law.

Officers who hesitate to obey the orders of the Committee of Public
Safety will be tried for high treason by court-martial.

The _Salut Public_ alleges that one of the chief persons implicated in
the explosion of the cartridge manufactory is Count Ladislas Zamoyski,
and that papers have been found upon him proving him to be in
communication with the Government of Versailles.

The same paper announces that the Germans demand that an armistice
should be entered into between the Commune and the Versailles
Government, in order that a _Plebiscite_ of all France may be held to
decide upon the future form of Government.

The Commune has seized the silver ornaments and other valuables of the
Church of the Trinity. All the other churches of Paris will shortly be
treated in a similar manner, and will then be closed.

All arrests and requisitions are being carried out by Flourens's corps
of Avengers.

The demolition of the Expiatory Chapel was commenced to-day.

The gate at Point du Jour is destroyed.

Yesterday evening two battalions of troops carried the Ory Farm and
Plichon House, near Fort Montrouge, at the point of the bayonet. The
Federalists had about 400 killed and wounded, and lost 42 prisoners,
including a Chief of Battalion. The troops also captured a flag, but
subsequently evacuated the conquered positions, as they were too much
exposed to the fire of the enemy. The loss of the Versailles troops was
small.

* * * * *


THE VENDOME COLUMN.

Foul is the bird that soils her own nest! As though they had not
suffered enough of mortification and defeat at the hands of the enemy,
the Parisians have succeeded in emptying the cup of disgrace to the
dregs by dragging down the monument of their military glory, amid hoots
and hisses, and toppling over the effigy of their greatest soldier-hero
on to a bed of mire, at the same time publicly tearing the tricoloured
national flag which has for so many years led their armies to victory.
Upon the official announcement some days back that the Vendome Column
was to be sacrificed as an insult to the principles of fraternity,
everybody laughed and thought it a good joke, never believing that the
plan would be carried out, even in spite of the ominous scaffoldings and
curtains which rose around its base. A few days later we were told that
it had been sawn through, and that a solemn Festival would be held to
commemorate this new display of liberty. We thought the party of Order
would protest; that the veterans of the Invalides would make a movement;
that the mass of the population would insist upon the abandonment of
such a piece of folly. But we forgot the state of coma into which
respectable Paris has fallen, and that those who had allowed themselves
to be ground down by a tyrannical few would scarcely bestir themselves
in defence of their public monuments. It became apparent that the column
was really doomed, and the Rue de la Paix was crowded by an expectant
multitude at about 3 o'clock on Monday afternoon; the balconies were
filled with ladies; all the windows were pasted with paper to neutralize
the expected concussion, while cake and newspaper vendors and _marchands
de coco_ plied a busy trade, and elbowed their way about among the
people down below. Three ropes had been fastened round the top of the
column beneath the statue, communicating with a crazy-looking windlass
and anchor placed in the centre of the road at the entrance of the Rue
Neuve des Capucines, and a long narrow dung heap filled with sand and
branches had been spread in the square to deaden the shock of the
falling mass. Public excitement was at its height, and the strangest
surmises went from mouth to mouth as to how far the statue would be
thrown, whether balconies would fall and slates be shuffled down, and
whether the great weight would or would not crash through the vaulted
arch into the sewers under the road. Still the crowd increased in
numbers, when at about 4 o'clock a cordon of National Guards was formed,
who pushed back the people as far as the Rue des Augustins, leaving an
empty space along the Rue de la Paix, which was duly watered in true
Parisian style, and became the arena for a display of equestrian prowess
on the part of sundry officers and members of the Commune. They rattled
backwards and forwards at full gallop, and made figures of eight, and
turned and twisted in a marvellous manner, suggestive rather of a circus
than a barrack-yard; but their evolutions served to amuse the crowd, who
waited patiently until sunset, when it became evident that the affair
would be put off until the morrow. It turned out that the members of the
artistic federation who, with Courbet at their head, had decided on this
piece of Vandalism, had been playing off a little practical joke upon
the crowd, for their preparations were not complete, and workmen were
still hacking at the stonework from behind their curtain screen until
evening had settled into night. With the easy good nature of a Paris
crowd, everybody quietly went home, a few disappointed at the failure of
a promised excitement, but by far the greater number rejoicing in their
hearts at the reprieve of the bronze pillar which they had been
accustomed from childhood to regard with pride. Tuesday's _Officiel_
positively announced the ceremony for that day at 2, and the concourse
was greater than ever. The Rue de la Paix and the space behind, up to
the steps of the New Opera, was a sea of heads, and the _elite_ of
Communal aristocracy who held passes to the Square itself were forced to
elbow their way and struggle through relays of guards long before the
prescribed hour in order to be certain of getting there at all. So far
all their arrangements were so bad as to suggest misgivings as to the
result of the attempt. Three meagre ropes were to do the deed, while two
beams, applied one on either side the column, were to give it the proper
inclination as it fell. Now, every one knows that, from some fault in
its construction, the Column has always leant a little towards the
Ministere des Cultes, and people moved restlessly about, uncertain where
to station themselves, lest the tottering mass, once set in motion,
should fall in an entirely different direction from the one intended.
The bed, too, which was to receive it seemed strangely small and
narrow, and it appeared a matter of doubt whether the bronze Emperor
might not force his way into one of the adjoining houses, and pay a
visit as little desired as it was expected. Meanwhile, a party of
workmen continued to drive wedges into the space which had been sawn,
while others gave a finishing touch to the dung heaps and cleared away
the curtains and scaffolding that had obscured their operations. At
half-past 3 the Commune arrived on horseback, attended by their Staff,
and placed themselves in front of the crowd in the Rue de la Paix--a
mounted squadron of some 200 persons; while at a given signal a number
of bands stationed at different points began to play a medley of
patriotic airs, regardless of general effect. Trumpets brayed forth
signals, and all strained their eyes into the dazzling sky, not without
having first assured themselves of a safe retreat through some friendly
doorway in case of a disaster, as the ropes were seen to tighten--"See!
It moves!" "No, 'tis the effect of a passing cloud;" and, after a
second's pause of intense anxiety one of the ropes snapped, knocking
down in its whirl several men at the windlass. And now began a murmur
and a shaking of heads, "Ah, I knew it could not succeed; they will be
obliged to blow it up with gunpowder; shame on them for the attempt!"
"Why cannot they leave it alone?" said one man to his neighbour, "it has
cost so much." "Yes, it has," replied the other; "it has cost us
millions of human lives on the plains of Germany and in the Russian
snows." The attempt had failed, and people were preparing to move away,
when news arrived that the Commune were not going to be thus baffled,
but had sent for more ropes and apparatus, and were determined to have
their way at any price. Meanwhile, the great figure looked calmly down
upon his persecutors, seemingly as secure as ever, while the bands
continued to play, and the horsemen galloped about the square. It was
half-past 4 before the two new ropes arrived, and fully 5 o'clock before
they had been hoisted to their places, not being attached to the capstan
like the others, but held, one on either side the road, by 50 sailors
each. Brute force had failed, and so they had determined to try the
effect of a series of swings. People laughed at these renewed
preparations; and could scarcely be kept close under the houses out of
immediate danger. The ropes slackened and tightened again for a final
effort, and a cry burst from the assembled multitude in the horror of a
coming danger which might be incalculable as the great giant swayed for
a few seconds and finally tottered down with an awful crash, separating
into rings in the air, upon the foul bed which had been prepared for
him: a shapeless mass of shattered metal and stone lying in uneven coils
like some mighty serpent. The wooden sentry-boxes in the square reeled
round and fell, while a cloud of filth and dust obscured the fallen
monster, and men looked awe-struck at one another like naughty children
who had broken something which they ought not to have dared to touch.
The moment of compunction was a short one, and a howling throng rushed
with one accord into the noisome cloud, fighting and quarrelling for
bits of bronze and stone, and a man near me drew back, half stifled for
an instant, saying, with disgust, "See what a stench the Empire has!"
The statue had fallen beyond the heap, and, having smashed the pavement
into splinters, lay a wreck, with one arm broken and the head severed
from the body, while women kicked and spat upon it, waving their arms
wildly, and shouting, "_Vive la Republique!_" "_Vive la Commune!_" All
the bands struck on the _Marseillaise_ in different keys, a few people
crowded on the remnants of the pedestal waving red flags and shrieking
in their excitement, and a sergeant who endeavoured to unburden himself
of an oration was speedily gagged and hustled down to make way for the
great "Bergeret _lui-meme_," who, in all the glory of a red scarf and
tassels, waved his hat and struggled to be heard above the general
hubbud of music, voices, and battering of bronze. "Citizens," he said,
"the 26th of Floreal will be memorable in our history. Thus we triumph
over military despotism, that bloody negation of the rights of man. The
First Empire placed the collar of servitude about our necks--it began
and ended in carnage--and left us a legacy of a Second Empire, which was
finally to end in the disgrace of Sedan." Much more he said, but his
voice was drowned in the continued hammering of metal, while our
attention was distracted by peremptory orders to "move on." Such an
order at such a moment was particularly exasperating, and led to many
little tussles with citizens, who refused to consider this a pleasant
opening to the era of liberty, an exasperation very considerably
increased at the different exits from the square by an uncompromising
search into the contents of pockets, and a consequent disgorging of
trophies and remembrances. A fight was going on meantime in the Rue de
la Paix between a company of Marines and the multitude of people
gathered in the street, who struggled and fought with an energy worthy
of a better cause in hopes of gaining a share in the spoils. As I
emerged from the conflict into the comparative peace and coolness of the
Boulevard, I was stopped by a procession--two battalions of National
Guards returning much shorn of numbers, from the Bois de Boulogne,
bringing with them in a furniture waggon a portion of their dead, among
whom was their colonel, whose feet projected from under the flapping
awning of the cart.

An order of the day of Marshal Mac-Mahon has been published in which he
announces the demolition of the Vendome Column. He says:--

"The foreigner respected it; the Commune of Paris has overthrown it. Men
calling themselves Frenchmen have dared to destroy, under the eyes of
the Germans, who saw the deed, this witness of the victories of our
fathers against Europe in coalition. The Commune hopes thus to efface
the memory of the military virtues of which the Column was the glorious
symbol. Soldiers! if the recollections which the Column commemorated are
no longer graven upon brass, they will remain in our hearts. Inspired by
them, we know how to give France another proof of bravery, devotion, and
patriotism."


MAY 20th.

M. ROCHEFORT.

Never have I witnessed a scene of greater excitement than the entry of
Rochefort into Versailles as a prisoner to-day. He was brought in by the
St. Germain road, and was seated in a family omnibus drawn by two
horses. First came a squadron of gendarmes, then the omnibus, surrounded
by Chasseurs D'Afrique, and lastly a squadron of the same corps. In the
vehicle with Rochefort were his secretary, Mouriot, and four police
agents dressed in plain clothes. Outside the omnibus were an officer of
the gendarmerie in uniform and two or three _sergents-de-ville_ not in
uniform. Rochefort's moustache had disappeared. He had himself shaved
closely before setting out from Paris in order to disguise himself, but
there was no mistaking him. It was half-past 1 o'clock in the afternoon
when the _cortege_, arriving at the end of the Boulevard du Roi, entered
the Rue des Reservoirs. Every one ran into the street, and shouts of
execration were raised on all sides. It was no mere demonstration of a
mob. The citizens of all classes joined in it. One man ventured to cry
"Vive Rochefort!" He was kicked by several persons who happened to be
near him, and was saved from further violence only by arrest at the
hands of the _sergents-de-ville_. Along the rue des Reservoirs, the Rue
de la Pompe, the Place Hoche, the Rue de Hoche, and the Avenue St. Cloud
Rochefort was greeted with incessant shouts of "_A bas l'assassin; a
pied le brigand; a mort_!" The people wanted to have him out of the
omnibus, and it was with difficulty the cavalry prevented them from
dragging him out and inflicting summary execution. The cavalcade was
obliged to go at a slow pace, but finally he was safely lodged in gaol.
I believe that but for the precautions taken by the Government he would
have been killed before he had got near it. The demand to have an
example made of him, and the dissatisfaction at seeing him brought to
prison in a carriage, were loud and general.

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