Where is Bergeret? What have they done with Bergeret? We miss Bergeret.
They have no right to suppress Bergeret, who, according to the official
document, was “himself” at Neuilly; Bergeret, who drove to battle in an
open carriage; who enlivened our ennui with a little fun. They were
perfectly at liberty to take away his command and give it to whomsoever
they chose; I am quite agreeable to that, but they had no right to take
him away and prevent him amusing us. Alas! we do not have the chance so
often![48]
Rumours are afloat that he has been taken to the Conciergerie. Poor
Bergeret! and why is he so treated? Because he got the Federals beaten
in trying to lead them to Versailles?
[Illustration: CORPS LEGISLATIF.—THE HEAD-QUARTERS OF GENERAL BERGERET]
Citizens, if you will allow me to express my humble opinion on the
subject, I shall take the opportunity of insinuating that the plan of
Citizen Bergeret—which has, I acknowledge, been completely
unsuccessful—was the only possible one capable of transforming into a
triumphant revolution, the émeute of Montmartre, now the Commune of
Paris.
Let us look at it from a logical point of view, if you please. Does it
seem possible to you, that Paris can hold its own against the whole of
the rest of France? No, most certainly not. Today, especially, after
the disasters that have occurred to the communal insurrectionists of
Marseilles, Lyons, and Toulouse—disasters which your lying official
reports have in vain tried to transform into successes; today, I say,
you cannot possibly nourish any delusive hopes of help from the
provinces. In a few days, you will have the whole country in array in
front of your ramparts and your ruined fortresses, and then you are
lost; yes, lost, in spite of all the blinded heroism of those whom you
have beguiled to the slaughter. The only hope you could reasonably have
conceived was that of profiting by the first moment of surprise and
disorder, which the victorious revolt had occasioned among the small
number of hesitating soldiery which then constituted the whole of the
French army; to surprise Versailles, inadequately defended, and seize,
if it were possible, on the Assembly and the Government. Your sudden
revolution wanted to be followed up by a brusque attack, there would
then have been some hope—a faint one, I confess, but still a hope, and
this plan of Bergeret, by the very reason of its audacity, should not
have been condemned by you, who have only succeeded through violence
and audacity, and can only go on prospering by the same means. Now what
do you mean to do? To resist the whole of France? To resist your
enemies inside the walls, besides those enemies outside, who increase
in numbers and confidence every day? Your defeat is certain, and from
this day forth is only a question of time. You were decidedly wrong to
put Bergeret “in the shade” as they say at the Hôtel de Ville,—firstly,
because he amused us; and secondly, because he tried the only thing
that could possibly have succeeded—an enterprise worthy of a brilliant
madman.