Paris under the Commune Part 4

[Footnote 9: A sign that they refused to fight.]

[Footnote 10: A smooth-bore musket arranged as breech-loader, and called a snuff-box, from the manner of opening the breech to adjust the charge.]

II.

At three o'clock in the afternoon there was a dense group of linesmen and Nationals in one of the streets bordering on the Elysee-Montmartre.

The person who told us this did not recollect the name of the street, but men were eagerly haranguing the crowd, talking of General Lecomte, and his having twice ordered the troops to fire upon the citizen militia.

"And what he did was right," said an old gentleman who was listening.

Words that were no sooner uttered than they provoked a torrent of curses and imprecations from the by-standers. But he continued observing that General Lecomte had only acted under the orders of his superiors; being commanded to take the guns and to disperse the crowd, his only duty was to obey.

These remarks being received in no friendly spirit, hostility to the stranger increased, when a vivandiere approached, and looking the gentleman who had exposed himself to the fury of the mob full in the face, exclaimed, "It is Clement Thomas!" And in truth it was General Clement Thomas; he was not in uniform. A torrent of abuse was poured forth by a hundred voices at once, and the anger of the crowd seemed about to extend itself to violence, when a ruffian cried out: "You defend the rascal Lecomte! Well, we'll put you both together, and a pretty pair you'll be!" and this project being approved of, the General was hurried, not without having to submit to fresh insults, to where General Lecomte had been imprisoned since the morning.

From this moment the narrative I have collected differs but little from that circulated through Paris.

At about four o'clock in the afternoon the two generals were conducted from their prison by a hundred National Guards, the hands of General Lecomte being bound together, whilst those of Clement Thomas were free.

In this manner they were escorted to the top of the hill of Montmartre, where they stopped before No. 6 of the Rue des Rosiers: it is a little house I had often seen, a peaceful and comfortable habitation, with a garden in front. What pa.s.sed within it perhaps will never be known. Was it there that the Central Committee of the National Guard held their sittings in full conclave? or were they represented by a few of its members? Many persons think that the house was not occupied, and that the National Guards conducted their prisoners within its walls to make the crowd believe they were proceeding to a trial, or at least to give the appearance of legality to the execution of premeditated acts. Of one thing there remains little doubt, namely, that soldiers of the line stood round about at the time, and that the trial, if any took place, was not long, the condemned being conducted to a walled enclosure at the end of the street.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HOTEL DE VILLE, AS FORTIFIED BY THE NATIONAL GUARD, MARCH, 1871. The Hotel de Ville of Paris, which witnessed so many national ceremonies and republican triumphs, was commenced in 1533, and it was finished in 1628. Here the first Bourbon, Henry IV., celebrated his entry into Paris after the siege of 1589, and Bailly the _maire_, on the 17th July, 1789, presented Louis XVI. to the people, wearing a tricolor c.o.c.kade. Henry IV. became a Catholic in order to enter "his good city of Paris" whilst Louis XVI. wore the democratic insignia in order to keep it. A few days later the 172 commissioners of sections, representing the munic.i.p.ality of Paris, established the Commune. The Hotel de Ville was the seat of the First Committee of Public Safety, and from the green chamber, Robespierre governed the Convention and France till his fall on the 9th Thermidor. From 1800 to 1830 fetes held the place of political manifestations. In 1810 Bonaparte received Marie-Louise here; in 1821, the baptism of the Duke of Bordeaux was celebrated here; in 1825 fetes were given to the Duc d'Angouleme on his return from Spain, and to Charles X., arriving from Rheims. Five years later, from the same balcony where Bailly presented Louis XVI. to the people, Lafayette, standing by the side of Louis Philippe, said, "This is the best of Republics!" It was here, in 1848, that De Lamartine courageously declared to an infuriated mob that, as long as _he_ lived, the red flag should not be the flag of France. During the fatal days of June, 1848, the Hotel de Ville was only saved from destruction by the intrepidity of a few brave men. The Queen of England was received here in 1865, and the sovereigns who visited Paris since have been feted therein. On the 4th of September the bloodless revolution was proclaimed; and on the 31st of October, 1870, and the 22nd of January, 1871, Flourens and Blanqui made a fruitless attempt to subst.i.tute the red flag for the tricolor; but their partisans succeeded on the 18th of March, when it was fortified, and became the head-quarters of the Commune of 1871.]

As soon as they had halted, an officer of the National Guard seized General Clement Thomas by the collar of his coat and shook him violently several times, exclaiming, whilst he held the muzzle of a revolver close to his throat,--"Confess that you have betrayed the Republic." To this Monsieur Clement Thomas only replied by a shrug of his shoulders; upon this the officer retired, leaving the General standing alone in the front of the wall, with a line of soldiers opposite.

Who gave the signal to fire is unknown, but a report of twenty muskets rent the air, and General Clement Thomas fell with his face to the earth.

"It is your turn now," said one of the a.s.sa.s.sins, addressing General Lecomte, who immediately advanced from the crowd, stepping over the body of Clement Thomas to take his place, awaiting with his back to the wall the fatal moment.

"Fire!" cried the officer, and all was over.

Half an hour after, in the Rue des Acacias, I came across an old woman who wanted three francs for a bullet--a bullet she had extracted from the plaster of a wall at the end of the Rue des Rosiers.

III.

It is ten o'clock in the evening, and if I were not so tired I would go to the Hotel de Ville, which, I am told, has been taken possession of by the National Guards; the 18th of March is continuing the 31st of October. But the events of this day have made me so weary that I can hardly write all I have seen and heard. On the outer boulevards the wine shops are crowded with tipsy people, the drunken braggarts who boast they have made a revolution. When a stroke succeeds there are plenty of rascals ready to say: I did it. Drinking, singing, and talking are the order of the day. At every step you come upon "piled arms." At the corner of the Pa.s.sage de l'Elysee-des-Beaux-Arts I met crowds of people, some lying on the ground; here a battalion standing at ease but ready to march; and at the entrance of the Rue Blanche and the Rue Fontaine were some stones, ominously posed one on the other, indicating symptoms of a barricade. In the Rue des Abbesses I counted three cannons and a mitrailleuse, menacing the Rue des Martyrs. In the Rue des Acacias, a man had been arrested, and was being conducted by National Guards to the guard-house: I heard he was a thief. Such arrests are characteristic features in a Parisian emeute. Notwithstanding these little scenes the disorder is not excessive, and but for the mult.i.tude of men in uniform one might believe it the evening of a popular fete; the victors are amusing themselves.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sentinels, Rue Du Val De Grace and Boulevard St. Michel.]

Among the Federals this evening there are very few linesmen; perhaps they have gone to their barracks to enjoy their meal of soup and bread.

Upon the main boulevards noisy groups are commenting upon the events of the day. At the corner of the Rue Drouot an officer of the 117th Battalion is reading in a loud voice, or rather reciting, for he knows it all by heart, the proclamation of M. Picard, the official poster of the afternoon.

"The Government appeals to you to defend your city, your home, your children, and your property.

"Some frenzied men, commanded by unknown chiefs, direct against Paris the guns defended from, the Prussians.

"They oppose force to the National Guard and the army.

"Will you suffer it?

"Will you, under the eyes of the strangers ready to profit by our discord, abandon Paris to sedition?

"If you do not extinguish it in the germ, the Republic and France will be ruined for ever.

"Their destiny is in your hands.

"The Government desires that you should hold your arms energetically to maintain the law and preserve the Republic from anarchy. Gather round your leaders; it is the only means of escaping ruin and the domination of the foreigner.

"The Minister of the Interior,

"ERNEST PICARD."

The crowd listened with attention, shouted two or three times "To arms!" and then dispersed--I thought for an instant, to arm themselves, though in reality it was only to reinforce another group forming on the other side of the way.

This day the Friends of Order have been very apathetic, so much so that Paris is divided between two parties: the one active and the other pa.s.sive.

To speak truly, I do not know what the population of Paris could have done to resist the insurrection. "Gather round your chiefs," says the proclamation. This is more easily said than done, when we do not know what has become of them. The division caused in the National Guard by the Coup d'Etat of the Central Committee had for its consequence the disorganisation of all command. Who was to distinguish, and where was one to find the officers that had remained faithful to the cause of order?

It is true they sounded the "rappel"[11] and beat the "generale";[12]

but who commanded it? Was it the regular Government or the revolutionary Committee?

More than one good citizen was ready to do his duty; but, after having put on his uniform and buckled his belt, he felt very puzzled, afraid of aiding the entente instead of strengthening the defenders of the law.

Therefore the peaceful citizen soldiers regarded not the call of the trumpet and the drum.

It is wise to stay at home when one knows not where to go. Besides, the line has not replied, and bad examples are contagious; moreover, is it fair to demand of fathers of families, of merchants and tradesmen, in fact of soldiers of necessity, an effort before which professional soldiers withdraw? The fact is the Government had fled. Perhaps a few ministers still remained in Paris, but the main body had gone to join the a.s.sembly at Versailles.

I do not blame their somewhat precipitate departure,[13] perhaps it was necessary; nevertheless it seems to me that their presence would have put an end to irresolution on the part of timid people.

Meanwhile, from the Madeleine to the Gymnase, the cafes overflowed with swells and idlers of both s.e.xes. On the outer boulevards they got drunk, and on the inner tipsy, the only difference being in the quality of the liquors imbibed.

What an extraordinary people are the French!

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 11: The roll call.]

[Footnote 12: Muster call in time of danger, which is beaten only by a superior order emanating from the Commander-in-chief in a stronghold or garrison town.]

[Footnote 13: The army of Paris was drawn off to Versailles in the night of the 18th of March, and on the 19th, the employes of all the ministries and public offices left Paris for the same destination.

On the 19th of March, as early as eight in the morning, Monsieur Thiers addressed the following circular to the authorities of all the departments:--