[33] On the 1st of April several shots were fired under the walls of
Fort Issy, but it was not until the next day, the 2nd of April, at
nine o’clock in the morning, that the action commenced in earnest at
Courbevoie, by an attack of the Versailles army. The federals, who
thought themselves masters of the place, were stopped by the steady
firing of a regiment of gendarmerie and heavy cannonading from Mont
Valérien. At first the National Guards retreated, then disputed every
foot of ground with much courage. In the neighbourhood the desolation
and misery was extreme.
The revolution had now entered a new phase; the military
proceedings had begun, and it was about to be proved that, the
Communist generals had even less genius than those of the Défense
Nationale, although it must be admitted that the latter did not
know the extent of the resources they had at their disposal. When
we remember the small advantage those generals managed to derive
from the heroism of the Parisian population, who, during the second
siege showed that they knew how to fight and how to die, it is
marvellous that many people have gone so far as to regret that the
émeute of the 31st of October was not successful, believing that if
the Commune had triumphed at that time, Paris would have been
saved. All this seems very doubtful now, and opinions have veered
round considerably, for it is not such men as Duval, Cluseret, La
Cécilia, Eudes, or Bergeret, who could have protected Paris against
the science of the Prussian generals.
[Illustration: General Bergeret.]