[98] It was known by this time at Versailles in what a desperate
condition was the Commune, by the information of persons devoted to
order, but who remained amongst the insurgents to keep watch over and
restrain them as much as possible.
The Versailles authorities know that, thanks to the well-directed
fire of Montretout, the bastions of the Point du Jour were no
longer tenable, and that their defenders had abandoned them and had
organized new works of defence; nevertheless, the operations were
earned on just as systematically as if the fire of the besieged had
not ceased for several days, when, on Sunday, the 21st May, about
midday, an officer on duty in the trenches, in course of formation
in the Bois de Boulogne, perceived a man making signs with a white
handkerchief near the military post of Saint Cloud; the officer
immediately approached near enough to hear the bearer of the flag
of truce, say:—
“My name is Ducatel, and I belong to the service of the Engineers
of Roads and Bridges, and I have been a soldier. I declare that
your entrance into Paris is easy, and as a guarantee of the truth
of what I say, I am about to give myself up;” so saying, he passed
over the fosse by means of one of the supports of the drawbridge,
in spite of several shots fired at him by Federals hidden in the
houses at Auteuil, but none of which reached him.
A few resolute men now passed over the fosse, and arrived without
accident on the other side. A few insurgents, who were still there,
made off without loss of time, leaving the invaders to establish
themselves, and wait for reinforcements.
A short time after a white flag was exhibited in the neighbouring
bastion, which bore the number 62, and the fire from Montretout and
Mont Valérien was stopped, the infantry of the Marine took
possession of the gate, out the telegraphic wires which were
supposed to be in communication with torpedoes, while information
was immediately despatched to Versailles of these important events.
The division of General Vergé, placed for the time under the orders
of General Douay, entered the gate at half-past three in the
afternoon, and took possession of Point du Jour, after having taken
several barricades; at one of these, Ducatel was sent with a flag
of trace towards the insurgents, who offered to surrender, but he
received a bayonet wound, was carried off to the École Militaire,
tried by court-martial and condemned to death, from which he was
fortunately snatched by the arrival of the Versailles troops at the
Trocadéro at two o’clock in the morning.
At the same time, the first corps d’armée (that of General
L’Admirault), made its way into the city by the Portes d’Auteuil
and Passy, and took up a strong position in the streets of Passy.
[99] At ten o’clock at night, the army had taken possession of the
region comprised between the _ceinture_, or circular railway, and the
fortifications, the streets of Auteuil to the viaduct, and the bridge
of Grenelle.
At midnight, the movement which had been suspended for a time to
rest the troops, was recommenced all along the line.
At two o’clock in the morning, General Douay occupied the
Trocadéro; and at about four o’clock his soldiers, after a short
struggle, captured the chateau of La Muette, making about six
hundred prisoners, and then, advancing in the direction of Porte
Maillot, they joined the troops of General Clinchant, who had got
within the ramparts on that side.
At the break of day, the tricolour floated over the Arc de
Triomphe, without the Versailles forces having sustained sensible
loss. All this passed on the right bank of the Seine.
[100] The insurrectionists followed a decided and pre-conceived plan.
The barricades, which intersected the streets of Paris in every
direction, were arranged on a general system which showed considerable
skill. Was this ensemble a conception of Cluseret? or a plan of
Gaillard, or Eudes, or Rossel? No one now could say which, but at any
rate we are able to deduce the plan from the facts and set it out as
follows:—
Within the line of the fortifications the insurgents had formed a
second line of defence, which runs on the right bank of the river,
by the Trocadero, the Triumphal Arch, the Boulevard de Courcelles,
the Boulevard de Batignolles, and the Boulevard de Rochechouart;
and on the left across the bridge of Iéna, the Avenue de la
Bourdonnaye, the École Militaire, the Boulevard des Invalides, the
Boulevard Montparnasse, and the Western Railway Station. Along the
whole extent of this circuit the entrances of the streets were
barricades, and the “Places” turned into redoubts.
From this double _enceinte_ of fortifications the lines of defence
converged along the great boulevards, the Rue Royale, by the
Ministry of Marine, the terrace of the Tuileries Gardens, the Place
de la Concorde, the Palace of the Corps Législatif, the Rue de
Bourgogne, and the Rue de Varenne. This third _enceinte_ of defence
was the pride of the insurgents; they were never tired of admiring
their celebrated barricade of the Rue St. Florentin, and that which
intercepted the quay at the corner of the Tuileries Gardens on the
Place de la Concorde.
This is not all. Supposing that the third line were forced, the
insurgents would not even then be without resource. On the left
bank of the Seine they fell back successively on the Rue de
Grenelle, Rue Saint Dominique, and Rue de Lille, all three closed
by barricades; on the right bank they could carry on the struggle
by the Rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs, the Rue de la Paix, and the
Place Vendôme, and even when beaten back from these last retreats,
they could still defend the Rue St. Honoré and operate a retreat by
the Palace of the Tuileries, the Louvre, and the Hôtel de Ville.
[101] In the following proclamation, published on the 21st May,
Delescluze stimulated the Communist party, which felt its power
melting away on all sides:
“TO THE PEOPLE OF PARIS, TO THE NATIONAL GUARD.
“CITIZENS,—We have had enough of militaryism; let us have no more
stuffs embroidered and gilt at every seam!
“Make room for the people, the real combatants, the bare arms! The
hour of the revolutionary war has struck!
“The people know nothing of scientific manoeuvres, but with a rifle
in hand and the pavement beneath their feet, they fear not all the
strategists of the monarchical school.
“To arms, citizens! To arms! You must conquer, or, as you well
know, fall again into the pitiless hands of the _réactionaires_ and
clericals of Versailles; those wretches who with intention
delivered France up to Prussia, and now make us pay the ransom of
their treason!
“If you desire the generous blood which you have shed like water
during the last six weeks not to have been shed in vain, if you
would see liberty and equality established in France, if you would
spare your children sufferings and misery such as you have endured,
you will rise as one man, and before your formidable bands the
enemy who indulges the idea of bringing you again under his yoke,
will reap nothing but the harvest of the useless crimes with which
he has disgraced himself during the past two months.
“Citizens! your representatives will fight and die with you, if
fall we must; but, in the name of our glorious France, mother of
all the popular revolutions, the permanent source of ideas of
justice and unity, which should be and which will be the laws of
the world, march to the encounter of the enemy, and let your
revolutionary energy prove to him that Paris may he sold, but can
never be delivered up or conquered.
“The Commune confides in you, and you may trust the Commune!
“The civil delegate at the Ministry of War,
“(Signed)
“CH. DELESCLUZE.
“Countersigned by the Committee of Public Safety:—Antoine Arnauld,
Billioray, E. Eudes, F. Gambon, G. Ranvier.”
Such was the despairing cry of the insurrection at bay.
[102] See Appendix, No. 9.
[103] There are no private undertakers and funeral furnishers in
Paris. It is all done by a company, under the supervision of
Government, a very large concern, called the _Pompes Funèbres_.
[104] Jules Vallès was one of the most conspicuous among the men of
the 18th of March. He had been journalist, working printer, a clerk at
the Hôtel de Ville, editor of a newspaper, pamphleteer, and café
orator in turn, but always noisy and boastful. André Gill, the
caricaturist, once drew him as an undertaker’s dog, dragging a
saucepan behind him, and the caricature told Vallès’ story well
enough. In face he was ugly, but energetic in expression, almost to
ferociousness.
He was born at Puy, in 1833, and on leaving the college of Nantes,
came to study law in Paris, but politics occupied him chiefly, and
he soon got himself shut up in Mazas as a political prisoner. After
some time spent in confinement, he obtained his liberty, and
published at Nantes, a pamphlet under the title of “Money: by a
literary man become a journalist;” and the pamphlet, having gained
him some slight popularity, he was engaged, later, on the _Figaro_,
to write the reports of the Bourse, and in the meantime he eked out
his slender salary by working as a clerk at the Hôtel de Ville.
When Ernest Feydeau brought out the _Epoque_, in 1864, Jules Vallès
published a few articles in its columns, and a little later became
a writer on the _Evénement_, with the magnificent salary of
eighteen thousand francs a year. A month afterwards, he was without
occupation again, but he soon re-appeared with a new journal of his
own, _La Rue, La Sue_, in its turn, however, only lived during a
few numbers, and Jules Vallès now took up café politics, and
practised table oratory at the _Estaminet de Madrid_, where he
fostered and expounded the projects which he has since brought to
so fearful a result.
In 1869, he became one of the most inveterate speakers at election
meetings, and presented himself as a candidate for the Corps
Législatif. He was not elected, but the profession of opinions that
he then made was certain to obtain him a seat in the Communal
Assembly. One of the last articles in the _Cri du People_ of Jules
Vallès announced the fatal resolution of defending Paris by all
possible means. An article finishing with this prophetic sentence,
“M. Thiers, if he is chemist enough will understand us.”