"Nous avons donc fait ce que nous devions faire; rien n'a
provoque l'insurrection de Paris."--_Discours de M. Dufaure
contre l'Amnistie, Seance du 18 Mai 1876._
THE EIGHTEENTH OF MARCH.
The execution was as foolish as the conception. On the 18th of March, at
three o'clock in the morning, several columns dispersed in various
directions to the Buttes Chaumont, Belleville, the Faubourg du Temple,
the Bastille, the Hotel-de-Ville, Place St. Michel, the Luxembourg, the
thirteenth arrondissement and the Invalides. General Susbielle marched
on Montmartre with two brigades about 6,000 men strong. All was silent
and deserted. The brigade Paturel took possession of the Moulin de la
Galette without striking a blow. The brigade Lecomte gained the Tower of
Solferino, only meeting with one sentinel, Turpin, who crossed bayonets
with them and was hewn down by the gendarmes. They then rushed to the
post of the Rue des Rosiers, stormed it, and threw the National Guards
into the caves of the Tower of Solferino. At six o'clock the surprise
was complete. M. Clemenceau hurried to the Buttes to congratulate
General Lecomte. Everywhere else the cannon were surprised in the same
way. The Government triumphed all along the line, and D'Aurelles sent
the papers a proclamation written in the conqueror's vein.
There was only something wanted--teams to convey the spoil. Vinoy had
almost forgotten them. At eight o'clock they began to put some horses to
the pieces. Meanwhile the faubourgs were awaking and the early shops
opening. Around the milkmaids and before the wineshops the people began
talking in a low voice; they pointed to the soldiers, the mitrailleuse
levelled at the streets, the walls covered with the still wet placard
signed by M. Thiers and his Ministers. They spoke of paralyzed commerce,
suspended orders, frightened capitals: "Inhabitants of Paris, in your
interest the Government has resolved to act. Let the good citizens
separate from the bad ones; let them aid public force; they will render
a service to the Republic herself," said MM. Pouyer-Quertier, De Larcy,
Dufaure and other Republicans. The conclusion is borrowed from the
phraseology of December: "The culpable shall be surrendered to justice.
Order, complete, immediate and unalterable, must be re-established."
They spoke of order;--blood was to be shed.
As in our great days, the women were the first to act. Those of the 18th
March, hardened by the siege--they had had a double ration of
misery--did not wait for the men. They surrounded the mitrailleuses,
apostrophized the sergeant in command of the gun, saying, "This is
shameful; what are you doing there?" The soldiers did not answer.
Occasionally a non-commissioned officer spoke to them: "Come, my good
women, get out of the way." At the same time a handful of National
Guards, proceeding to the post of the Rue Doudeauville, there found two
drums that had not been smashed, and beat the _rappel_. At eight o'clock
they numbered 300 officers and guards, who ascended the Boulevard
Ornano. They met a platoon of soldiers of the 88th, and, crying, "Vive
la Republique!" enlisted them. The post of the Rue Dejean also joined
them, and the butt-end of their muskets raised, soldiers and guards
together marched up to the Rue Muller that leads to the Buttes
Montmartre, defended on this side by the men of the 88th. These, seeing
their comrades intermingling with the guards, signed to them to advance,
that they would let them pass. General Lecomte, catching sight of the
signs, had the men replaced by sergents-de-ville, and confined them in
the Tower of Solferino, adding, "You will get your deserts." The
sergents-de-ville discharged a few shots, to which the guards replied.
Suddenly a large number of National Guards, the butt-end of their
muskets up, women and children, debouched on the other flank by the Rue
des Rosiers. General Lecomte, surrounded, three times commanded fire.
His men stood still, their arms ordered. The crowd, advancing,
fraternized with them, and Lecomte and his officers were arrested.
The soldiers whom he had just shut up in the tower wanted to shoot him,
but some National Guards having succeeded in disengaging him with great
difficulty--for the crowd took him for Vinoy--conducted him with his
officers to the Chateau-Rouge, where the staff of the battalions of the
National Guard was seated. There they asked him for an order to evacuate
the Buttes. He signed it without hesitation.[81] The order was
immediately communicated to the officers and soldiers of the Rue des
Rosiers. The gendarmes surrendered their chassepots, and even cried,
"Vive la Republique!" Three discharges from the cannon announced the
recapture of the Buttes.
General Paturel, who wanted to carry away the cannon, surprised at the
Moulin de la Galette, came into collision with a living barricade in the
Rue Lepic. The people stopped the horses, cut the traces, dispersed the
artillerymen, and took back the cannon to their post. In the Place
Pigalle, General Susbielle gave the order to charge the crowd collected
in the Rue Houdon, but the chasseurs, intimidated, spurred back their
horses and were laughed at. A captain, dashing forward, sabre in hand,
wounded a guard, and fell, pierced with balls. The General fled. The
gendarmes, who commenced firing from behind the huts, were soon
dislodged, and the bulk of the soldiers went over to the people.
At Belleville, the Buttes Chaumont, the Luxembourg, the troops
fraternized everywhere with the crowds that had collected at the first
alarm.
By eleven o'clock the people had vanquished the aggressors at all
points, preserved almost all their cannon, of which only ten had been
carried off, and seized thousands of chassepots. All their battalions
were now on foot, and the men of the faubourgs commenced unpaving the
streets.
Since six o'clock in the morning D'Aurelles had had the rappel beaten in
the central quarters, but in vain. Battalions formerly noted for their
devotion to Trochu sent only twenty men to the rendezvous. All Paris, on
reading the placards, said, "This is the _coup-d'etat_." At twelve
o'clock D'Aurelles and Picard sounded the alarm: "The Government call on
you to defend your homes, your families, your property. Some misguided
men, under the lead of some secret chiefs, turn against Paris the cannon
kept back from the Prussians." These reminiscences of June, 1848, this
accusation of indelicacy toward the Prussians, failing to rouse any one,
the whole Ministry came to the rescue: "An absurd rumor is being spread
that the Government is preparing a _coup-d'etat_. It has wished and
wishes to make an end of an insurrectional Committee, whose members only
represent Communist doctrines." These alarms, repeatedly sounded, raised
in all 500 men.[82]
The Government were at the Foreign Office, and, after the first
reverses, M. Thiers had given the order to fall back with all the troops
on the Champ-de-Mars. When he saw the desertion of the National Guards
of the Centre, he declared that it was necessary to evacuate Paris.
Several Ministers objected, wanted a few points to be guarded, the
Hotel-de-Ville, its barracks occupied by the brigade Derroja, the Ecole
Militaire, and that they should take a position on the Trocadero. The
little man, quite distracted, would only hear of extreme measures.
Leflo, who had almost been made a prisoner at the Bastille, vigorously
supported him. It was decided that the whole town should be evacuated,
even the forts on the south, restored by the Prussians a fortnight
before. Towards three o'clock the popular battalions of the Gros Caillou
marched past the Hotel-de-Ville, headed by drums and trumpets. The
Council believed itself surrounded.[83] M. Thiers escaped by a back
stair, and left for Versailles so out of his senses that at the bridge
of Sevres he gave the written order to evacuate Mont-Valerien.
At the self-same hour when M. Thiers ran away, the revolutionary
battalions had not yet attempted any attack or occupied any official
posts.[84] The aggression of the morning had surprised the Central
Committee, as it had all Paris. The evening before they had separated as
usual, giving themselves a rendezvous for the 18th, at eleven o'clock at
night, behind the Bastille, at the school in the Rue Basfroi; the Place
de la Corderie, actively watched by the police, no longer being safe.
Since the 15th new elections had added to their numbers, and they had
appointed a Committee of Defence. On the news of the attack, some ran to
the Rue Basfroi, others applied themselves to raising the battalions of
their quarters: Varlin at the Batignolles, Bergeret, recently named
chef-de-legion, at Montmartre, Duval at the Pantheon, Pindy in the third
arrondissement, Faltot in the Rue de Sevres. Ranvier and Brunel, without
belonging to the Committee, were agitating Belleville and the tenth
arrondissement. At ten o'clock a dozen members met together, overwhelmed
with messages from all sides, and receiving from time to time some
prisoners. Positive intelligence only came in towards two o'clock. They
then drew up a kind of plan by which all the federalist battalions were
to converge upon the Hotel-de-Ville, and then dispersed in all
directions to transmit orders.[85]
The battalions were indeed on the alert, but did not march. The
revolutionary quarters, fearing a resumption of the attack, and ignoring
the plenitude of their victory, were strongly barricading themselves,
and remained where they were. Even Montmartre was only swarming with
guards in search of news, and disbanded soldiers for whom collections
were being made, as they had had nothing to eat since the morning.
Towards half-past three o'clock the Committee of Vigilance of the
eighteenth arrondissement, established in the Rue de Clignancourt, was
informed that General Lecomte was in great danger. A crowd, consisting
chiefly of soldiers, surrounded the Chateau-Rouge and demanded the
General. The members of the Committee of Vigilance, Ferre, Jaclard, and
Bergeret, immediately sent an order to the commander of the
Chateau-Rouge to guard the prisoner, who was to be put on his trial.
When the order arrived Lecomte had just left.
He had long been asking to be taken before the Central Committee. The
chiefs of the post, much perturbed by the cries of the crowd, anxious to
get rid of their responsibility, and believing this Committee was
sitting in the Rue des Rosiers, decided to conduct the General and his
officers there. They arrived at about four o'clock, passing through a
terribly irritated crowd, yet no one raised a hand against them. The
General was closely guarded in a small front room on the ground floor.
There the scenes of the Chateau-Rouge recommenced. The exasperated
soldiers asked for his death. The officers of the National Guard made
desperate efforts to quiet them, crying, "Wait for the Committee." They
succeeded in posting sentinels and appeasing the commotion for a time.
No member of the Committee had arrived when, at half-past four,
formidable cries filled the street, and hunted by a fierce multitude, a
man with a white beard was thrust against the wall of the house. It was
Clement-Thomas, the man of June, 1848, the insulter of the revolutionary
battalions. He had been recognized and arrested at the Chaussee des
Martyrs, where he was examining the barricades. Some officers of the
National Guard, a Garibaldian captain, Herpin-Lacroix, and some
franc-tireurs had tried to stop the deadly mass, repeating a thousand
times, "Wait for the Committee! Constitute a court-martial!" They were
jostled, and Clement-Thomas was again seized and hurled into the little
garden of the house. Twenty muskets levelled at him battered him down.
During this execution the soldiers broke the windows of the room where
General Lecomte was confined, threw themselves upon him, dragging him
towards the garden. This man, who in the morning had three times
commanded fire upon the people, wept, begged for pity, and spoke of his
family. He was forced against the wall and fell under the bullets.
These reprisals over, the wrath of the mass subsided. They allowed the
officers of Lecomte's suite to be taken back to the Chateau-Rouge, and
at nightfall they were set at liberty.
While these executions took place, the people, so long standing on the
defensive, had begun to move. Brunel surrounded the Prince Eugene
Barracks, held by the 120th of the line. The colonel, accompanied by
about a hundred officers, assuming lofty airs, Brunel had them all
locked up. Two thousand chassepots fell into the hands of the people.
Brunel continued his march by the Rue du Temple towards the
Hotel-de-Ville. The Imprimerie Nationale was occupied at five o'clock.
At six the crowd attacked the doors of the Napoleon Barracks with
hatchets. A discharge was made, fired from the opening, and three
persons fell; but the soldiers made signs from the windows of the Rue
de Rivoli, crying, "It is the gendarmes who have fired. Vive la
Republique!" Soon after they opened the doors and allowed their arms to
be carried off.[86]
At half-past seven the Hotel-de-Ville was almost invested. The gendarmes
who occupied it fled by the subterranean passage of the Lobau Barracks.
About half-past eight Jules Ferry and Vabre, entirely abandoned by their
men, left without any order by the Government, also stole away. Shortly
after Brunel's column debouched on the place and took possession of the
Hotel-de-Ville, where Ranvier arrived at the same time by the quays.
The number of the battalions augmented incessantly. Brunel had given
order to raise barricades in the Rue de Rivoli, on the quays, manned all
the approaches, distributed the posts, and sent out strong patrols. One
of these, surrounding the mairie of the Louvre, where the mayors were
deliberating, almost succeeded in catching Ferry, who saved himself by
jumping out of a window. The mayors returned to the mairie of the Place
de la Bourse.
They had already met there during the day together with many adjuncts,
much offended at the senseless governmental attack, waiting for
information and for ideas. Towards four o'clock they sent delegates to
the Government. M. Thiers had already made off. Picard politely showed
them out. D'Aurelles washed his hands of the whole affair, saying the
lawyers had done it. At night, however, it became necessary to take a
resolution. The federal battalions already surrounded the Hotel-de-Ville
and occupied the Place Vendome, whither Varlin, Bergeret, and Arnold had
conducted the battalions of Montmartre and the Batignolles. Vacherot,
Vautrain, and a few reactionists spoke of resisting at any price, as
though they had had an army to back them. Others, more sensible, sought
for some expedient. They thought they could calm down every thing by
naming as prefect of police Ed. Adam, who had distinguished himself
against the insurgents of June, 1848, and as General of the National
Guards the giddy Proudhonist Langlois, a former Internationalist, who
had been for the movement of the 31st of October in the morning, against
it in the evening, and was named deputy, thanks to a scratch received
while gesticulating at Buzenval. The delegates went to propose this
brilliant solution to Jules Favre. He refused outright, saying, "We
cannot treat with assassins." This comedy was only played to justify the
evacuation of Paris, which he concealed from the mayors. During the
conference it was announced that Jules Ferry had abandoned the
Hotel-de-Ville. The other Jules feigned surprise, and engaged the mayors
to call out the battalions of order for the purpose of replacing the
vanished army.
They returned overwhelmed by this raillery, humbled at having been
altogether left in the dark about the intention of the Government. If
possessed of some political courage, they would have gone straight to
the Hotel-de-Ville, instead of commencing to deliberate again in their
mairie. At last, at ten o'clock in the morning, Picard informed them
that they might bring out their Lafayette. They immediately sent
Langlois to the Hotel-de-Ville.
Some of the members of the Central Committee had been there since ten
o'clock, generally very anxious and very hesitating. Not one of them had
dreamt that power would fall so heavily upon their shoulders. Many did
not want to sit at the Hotel-de-Ville. They deliberated. At last it was
decided that they would only stay during the two or three days wanted
for the elections. Meanwhile it was necessary to ward off any attempt at
resistance. Lullier was present, buzzing around the Committee, in one of
his intervals of grave lucidity, promising to ward off all danger and
appealing to the vote of Vauxhall. He had played no part during the
whole day.[87] The Committee committed the blunder of appointing him
commander-in-chief of the National Guard, while Brunel, who had rendered
such service since the morning, was already installed in the
Hotel-de-Ville.
At three o'clock, Langlois, the competitor of Lullier, announced
himself. He was full of confidence in himself, and had already sent his
proclamation to the _Journal Officiel_. "Who are you?" the sentinels
asked him. "General of the National Guard," answered Langlois. Some
deputies of Paris, Lockroy, Cournet, &c., accompanied him. The Committee
consented to receive them. "Who has named you?" said they to Langlois.
"M. Thiers." They smiled at this aplomb of a madman. As he pleaded the
rights of the Assembly they put him to the test; "Do you recognise the
Central Committee?" "No." He decamped to run after his proclamation.
The night was calm, fatally calm for liberty. By the gates of the south
Vinoy marched off his regiments, his artillery, and his baggage to
Versailles. The disbanded troops jogged along peevishly, insulting the
gendarmes.[88] The staff, true to its traditions, had lost its head, and
left in Paris three regiments, six batteries, and all the gunboats,
which it would have sufficed to leave to the current of the river. The
slightest demonstration of the federals would have stopped this exodus.
Far from thinking of closing the gates, the new commander of the
National Guard--he boasted of it before the council of war--left open
all issues to the army.
FOOTNOTES:
[81] This order enjoining the troop to file off in the midst of the
National Guards was drawn up in pencil by a captain. Lecomte copied it
in ink without changing a word. The court-martial has denied this, in
order to glorify this general, who died so pusillanimously.
[82] Five to six hundred, says M. Thiers; fourteen men per battalion,
says Jules Perry. _Enquete sur le 18 Mars._
[83] M. Thiers in the _Enquete sur le 18 Mars_ says, firstly, "We let
them defile," then, twenty lines farther, "We repulsed them." Leflo has
not concealed the fright the Council was in: "The moment seemed critical
to me. And I said, 'I think we are done for; we shall be carried off;'
and indeed the battalions had only to penetrate into the palace and we
were all taken to the last man. But the three battalions marched off
without saying anything."--Vol. ii. p. 80.
[84] The report of the _Enquete sur le 18 Mars_ said that "the Committee
did not hesitate on the afternoon of the 18th March to take possession
of all the administrations." This is if not a lie, intended to palliate
the stampede of M. Thiers,--one of the grossest proofs of the ignorance
of this report, which attributes the manifestation of the 24th of
February to an order of the Central Committee.
[85] See Appendix II., the details of the proceedings of the Central
Committee during this day, told by one of its members.
[86] Vinoy has the impudence to say in his book _L'Armistice et la
Commune_: "The general assembled his men, and _sword in hand_ he bravely
placed himself at the head of his troops."
[87] Ten days after he recounted in a crazy letter written in the
Conciergerie that he had done everything; taken the Hotel-de-Ville, the
Prefecture of Police, the Place Vendome, the Tuileries, &c.; and this
letter is referred to as an authority by the report of the _Enquete sur
le 18 Mars_! For the future, I shall abstain from pointing out the
errors that abound in this report, which is an ignorant and malignant
resume of the lies, inaccuracies, and animosity accumulated in this
_Inquiry_, from which all the vanquished, and even the smallest
adversaries, were excluded. Entirely insufficient as a historical
source, it may well serve to set forth the intelligence and morality of
the French bourgeoisie of the epoch.
[88] _Enquete sur le 18 Mars_, Marreille, vol. ii. p. 200.