THE COMMUNE AT MARSEILLES, TOULOUSE, AND NARBONNE.
Since the elections of the 8th February, the advent of the reactionists,
the nomination of M. Thiers, the patched-up and shameful peace, the
monarchy in prospect, the defiances and the defeats were as bitterly
resented by the valiant town of Marseilles as by Paris. There the news
of the 18th March fell upon a powder-magazine. Nevertheless, further
details were looked for, when the 22nd brought the famous despatch of
Rouher-Canrobert.
The clubs, playing a great part in the ardent life of Marseilles, were
at once thronged. The prudent and methodical Radicals affected the club
of the National Guard; the popular elements met at the El Dorado. There
they applauded Gaston Cremieux, an elegant and effeminate speaker, now
and then happy at epigrammatic turns, as, for instance, at Bordeaux.
Gambetta owed him his election at Marseilles under the Empire. Cremieux
at once hurried to the club of the National Guard, denounced Versailles,
told them they could not allow the Republic to perish, but ought to act.
The club, though highly indignant at the despatch, cautioned him against
over-hastiness. The proclamations of the Central Committee, they said,
did not announce any clearly defined politics. Signed by unknown names,
they might well proceed from Bonapartists.
This Jacobin argument was ridiculous at Marseilles, where the despatch
of M. Thiers had given the signal for the commotion. Who smacked of
Bonapartism--these unknown men rising against Versailles, or M. Thiers
patronising Rouher and his Ministers, and boasting of Canrobert's
offer?
After a speech of Bouchet, the deputy of the _procureur de la
Republique_, Gaston Cremieux reconsidering his first impulsive step, and
accompanied by the delegates of the club, repaired to the El Dorado.
There he read and made comments upon the _Officiel_ of Paris, which he
had got from the prefect, and calmed the excitement. "The Government of
Versailles have raised their crutch against what they call the
insurrection of Paris; but it has broken in their hands, and their
attempt has brought forth the Commune. Let us swear that we are united
for the defence of the Government of Paris, the only one that we
recognise." They separated, ready for resistance, but resolved to bide
their time.
Thus the excited population still checked itself when the prefect goaded
it by the most stupid of provocations. This Admiral Cosnier, a
distinguished naval officer, but politically a mere cipher, quite out of
his element in these surroundings, where he had only just arrived, was
the passive tool of the reaction, which since the 4th September had
already several times fallen out with the National Guard--the
_civiques_--who had proclaimed the Commune and expulsed the Jesuits. The
Rev. Father Tissier, though absent, was still its leader. The moderation
of the town it mistook for cowardice. Like M. Thiers on the 17th, it
believed itself strong enough to make a brilliant stroke.
In the evening the Admiral held council with the mayor, Bories, an old
wreck of 1848, who had dabbled in all the clerico-liberal coalitions,
the _procureur de la Republique_, Guibert, a timid trimmer, and General
Espivent de la Villeboisnet, one of those cruel caricatures in which the
civil wars of South America abound. An obtuse Legitimist, a besotted
zealot, the Syllabus incarnate, a carpet knight and former member of the
Mixed Commissions of 1851, during the war he had been expelled from
Lille by the people, indignant alike at his utter incapacity and his
antecedents. He brought the council the _mot d'ordre_ of the priests
and reactionists, and proposed convoking the National Guards to make an
armed manifestation in favour of Versailles. He would have asked for
more, no doubt, but the garrison was solely composed of waifs of the
army of the East and of a few disbanded artillerists. Cosnier, quite led
astray, approved of the manifestation, and gave orders to the mayor and
to the colonel of the National Guards to prepare for it.
On the 23rd March, at seven o'clock in the morning, the call to arms
sounded. The ingenious idea of the prefect had spread over the town, and
the popular battalions made ready to do it honour. From ten o'clock they
arrived at the Cours du Chapitre, and the artillery of the National
Guard was drawn up along the St. Louis Cours. At twelve, francs-tireurs,
National Guards, soldiers of all arms mingling, gathered in the Belzunce
Cours. Soon all the battalions of the Belle-de-Mai and of Endourre[105]
mustered in full strength, while the battalions of order remained
invisible.
The municipal council, taking fright, disavowed the manifestation and
placarded a Republican address. The club of the National Guard joined
the council and demanded the return of the Assembly to Paris and the
exclusion from public functions of all the accomplices of the Empire.
The deputy of the procureur Bouchet tendered his resignation.
All this time the battalions were marching up and down crying "Vive
Paris!" Popular orators harangued them, and the club, apprehensive of an
imminent explosion, sent Gaston Cremieux, Bouchet, and Frayssinet, to
ask the prefect to break up the ranks and communicate the despatches
from Paris. The delegates were discussing with Cosnier, when a terrific
clamour rose from without. The prefecture was besieged.
At four o'clock the battalions, on foot for six hours, had moved, headed
by their drums. Twelve or thirteen thousand men having debouched through
the Cannebiere and the Rue St. Ferreol, drew up before the prefecture.
The delegates of the club tried to parley, when a shot was fired, and
the crowd, rushing into the prefecture, arrested the prefect, his two
secretaries, and General Ollivier. Gaston Cremieux appeared on the
balcony, spoke of the rights of Paris, and recommended the maintenance
of order. The crowd cheered, but still continued to enter and ask for
arms. G. Cremieux had two columns formed and sent them to the iron works
of Menpenti, whose guns were surrendered.
During this tumult a Commission of six members was formed: G. Cremieux,
Job, Etienne, a street-porter, Maviel, a shoemaker, Gaillard, a
mechanic, and Allerini, who deliberated in the midst of the crowd. G.
Cremieux proposed setting at liberty the prisoners just made, but from
all sides they cried, "Keep them as sureties." The Admiral was conducted
into a neighbouring room, closely watched, and--strange mania of all
these popular movements--asked for his resignation. Cosnier, quite out
of his latitude, signed what he was asked for.[106]
The Commission placarded that all the powers were concentrated in its
hands, and feeling the necessity of strengthening itself, invited the
municipal council and the club of the National Guard to send three
delegates each. The council named David Bosc, Desservy, and Sidore; the
club, Bouchet, Cartoux, and Fulgeras. The next day they made a moderate
proclamation: "Marseilles has wished to prevent the civil war provoked
by the circulars of Versailles. Marseilles will support a regularly
constituted Republican Government sitting in the capital. The
Departmental Commission, formed with the concourse of all Republican
groups, will watch over the Republic till a new authority emanating from
a regular Government sitting at Paris relieves it."
The names of the municipal council and of the club reassured the
middle-class. The reactionists continued drawing in their horns, and the
army had evacuated the town during the night. Leaving the prefect in the
trap into which he had thrust him, the coward Espivent, on the
investment of the prefecture, went to hide himself at the mistress's of
a commander of the National Guard named Spir, on whom he afterwards
conferred the knighthood of the Legion of Honour for this service to
moral order. At midnight he sneaked off and rejoined the troops, who,
without hindrance from the people, lulled into security by its victory,
reached the village of Aubagne, about seventeen kilometres from
Marseilles.
Thus Marseilles was entirely in the hands of the people. The victory was
even too complete for heads prone to exultation. That "city of the sun"
is not propitious to soft tints; its sky, its fields, its men all affect
crude colours. On the 24th the civil guards hoisted the red flag and
already deemed the Commission too lukewarm. Sidore, Desservy, and
Fulgeras, regardless of their duty, kept aloof from the prefecture;
Cartoux had gone to Paris for information, and so the whole burden
weighed upon Bosc and Bouchet, who, with Gaston Cremieux, strove to
regularise the movement. Having said that the red flag was inopportune,
the detention of the hostages useless, they soon became suspected and
menaced. On the evening of the 24th, Bouchet, quite discouraged, gave in
his resignation, but, on G. Cremieux' complaint to the club of the
National Guard, consented to resume his post.
These disagreements were already bruited about the town, and on the 25th
the Commission was obliged to announce that "the most perfect accord
united it with the municipal council." But the latter on the same day
declared itself the only existing power, and called upon the National
Guard to rouse from apathy. Trimming between the reaction and the
people, it began that miserable play that was to end in ignominy.
While the Liberals were imitating the Tirards and the deputies of the
extreme Left, to whom Dufaure referred in his despatches, Espivent in
every point copied General Thiers. He had rifled all the administrative
departments of Marseilles. The treasury office of the garrison had been
shuffled off to Aubagne. Fifteen hundred Garibaldians of the army of
the Vosges and soldiers who were rejoining their depots in Africa were
left without bread, without pay, without _feuilles-de-routes_, and would
have remained without refuge if Gaston Cremieux and Bouchet had not
caused a provisional quartermaster to be named by the council. Thanks to
the Commission, those who had shed their blood for France received bread
and shelter. Gaston Cremieux said to them in an address, "You will
remember when the time comes, the fraternal hand that we have held out
to you." He was a gentle enthusiast, who beheld the revolution under
rather a bucolic aspect.
On the 26th the isolation of the Commission became more obvious. No one
armed against it, but no one joined it. Almost all the mayors of the
department refused to placard its proclamations, and at Arles a
manifestation in favor of the red flag miscarried. The fiery spirits at
the prefecture did nothing to explain the import of the flag which they
had unfurled, and, in the midst of this dull calm, in view of Marseilles
looking on curiously, it hung from the campanile of the prefecture
motionless and mute as an enigma.
* * * * *
The capital of the south-west also saw its insurrection die out.
Toulouse had vibrated at the thunder-burst of the 18th March. In the
Faubourg St. Cyprien there was an intelligent and valiant workingmen's
population that formed the very sinews of the National Guard, and had
since the 19th relieved the watch to the cries of "Vive Paris!" A few
revolutionists summoned the prefect, Duportal, to pronounce for or
against Paris. For a month the _Emancipation_, which he directed, had
made a campaign against the rurals, and he had even in a public meeting
emphasized his Republican views. But he was not the man to take the
initiative, and refused to break with Versailles. The clubs, however,
beset him, obliging the officers of the National Guard to take an oath
to defend the Republic, and asked for cartridges. M. Thiers, seeing that
Duportal would after all follow their lead, named as prefect De Keratry,
the former prefect of police of the 4th September. He arrived on the
night of the 21st-22nd at the house of the general of the division,
Nansouty, and being told that the garrison consisted of only 600
disbanded men, and that the whole National Guard would declare for
Duportal, he beat his retreat on Agen.
On the 23rd the National Guard prepared a manifestation in order to take
possession of the arsenal, when Duportal and the mayor rushed off to the
Capitol, the Hotel-de-Ville of Toulouse. The mayor declared that the
intended review was not to take place, and Duportal that he would tender
his resignation rather than pronounce for the movement. But the
generals, afraid of this outbreak of the faubourg, took refuge in the
arsenal. The mayor and the municipal council, understanding it would no
longer do to continue their Platonic role, fled in their turn, and hence
Duportal, left alone in his prefecture, shone forth as a great
revolutionist, and therefore all the more worthy of the sympathy of the
National Guard. He exerted himself to reassure the generals, went to the
arsenal, intimated there his firm resolution to maintain order in the
name of the Government of Versailles, the only one he recognised as
legitimate, and was so successful that they advised M. Thiers to keep
him in his post. Keratry, availing himself of his declaration, requested
his aid to take possession of the prefecture, and Duportal gave him a
rendezvous before the officers of the mobiles and of the National Guard,
convoked for the next day, the 24th. Keratry understood and remained at
Agen.
The object of this meeting was to find the volunteers against Paris
asked for by the Assembly. Four officers of mobiles out of sixty offered
their services to Versailles. The officers of the National Guard did not
come to the prefecture, but, on the contrary, prepared at that same
moment a demonstration against Keratry. At one o'clock 2,000 men were
assembled in the Place du Capitole, and, their banner flying, repaired
to the prefecture, where Duportal received their officers. One of them
declared that, far from supporting the Assembly, they were ready to
march against it, and that if M. Thiers did not make peace with Paris
they would proclaim the Commune. At this name cries burst forth from all
corners of the room, "Vive la Commune! Vive Paris!" The officers,
growing hot, decreed the arrest of Keratry, proclaimed the Commune, and
summoned Duportal to place himself at their head. He tried to back out,
and proposed to act only as the officious prompter of the chiefs of the
Commune; but the officers, inveighing against defection, induced him to
come out to the square of the prefecture, where he was acclaimed by the
National Guard, and they proceeded to the Capitol.
Hardly arrived in the large hall, the leaders seemed much embarrassed.
They offered the presidency in turn to the mayor, to other municipal
councillors, who slunk away, and to Duportal, who got off by drawing up
a manifesto, which was read from the large balcony. "The Commune of
Toulouse," it said, "declares for the Republic one and indivisible,
adjures the deputies of Paris to be the intermediaries between the
Government and the great town, and summons M. Thiers to dissolve the
Assembly." The mass cheered this milk-and-water Commune, which believed
in the deputies of the Left and the oppression of M. Thiers by the rural
majority.
In the evening some officers of the National Guard appointed an
Executive Commission, composed, with two or three exceptions, of mere
talkers; in this the principal leaders of the movement did not figure.
It contented itself with placarding the manifesto, and neglected the
smallest precautions, even that of occupying the railway station. The
generals, nevertheless, did not dare to stir from their arsenal, where
they were joined on the 26th by the first president of the court and the
procureur-general, who launched an address calling upon the population
to rally round them. The National Guard wanted to answer by storming the
arsenal, and already the faubourg flocked to the Capitol. But the
Commission preferred to negotiate, sent word to the arsenal that it
would dissolve if the Government appointed a Republican prefect in the
stead of Keratry and entirely abandoned Duportal, who, it is true, had
done nothing. The negotiations lasted all the evening, and the National
Guard, tired out, deceived by their chiefs, and fancying everything
settled, returned to their homes.
Keratry, well informed of all these failures, arrived the next day at
the railway station with three squadrons of cavalry, proceeded to the
arsenal, broke off the negotiations, and gave the order to march. At one
o'clock the Versaillese army, 200 cavalry and 600 ill-assorted soldiers
strong, opened its campaign. One column occupied the St. Cyprien Bridge,
in order to separate the town from the faubourg, another proceeded to
the prefecture, and the third, with Nansouty, Keratry, and the
magistrates, marched on the Capitol.
About 300 men filled the courts, the windows, and the terrace. The
Versaillese deployed their troops and placed six guns in line at about
sixty yards from the edifice, thus recklessly exposing their infantry
and artillerists to the muskets of the insurgents. The first president
of the court and the procureur-general advanced to parley, but obtained
nothing. Keratry made the _sommations_, his voice being drowned by
cries. A single blank-cartridge volley would have scared soldiers and
artillerists, who might besides have been harassed on both flanks. But
the leaders had fled from the Capitol. The courage of a few men might
still have brought about a fight, when the Republican Association
interposed, persuaded the guards to retreat, and saved Keratry. The
prefecture was taken just as easily, and that same evening Keratry
installed himself there. The members of the Executive Commission the
next day published a manifesto of such platitude as to secure them
impunity, and one of them got himself named mayor by Keratry.
Thus the generous workingmen of Toulouse, who had risen to the cry of
"Vive Paris!" were left in the lurch by those who had raised the
insurrection. A disastrous check this for Paris, for the whole south
would have followed the example of Toulouse if victorious.
* * * * *
The man of thought and energy, wanting in all these movements, appeared
in the insurrection of Narbonne. The old city, Gallic in its enthusiasm,
Roman in its tenacity, is the true centre of democracy in the department
of Aude. Nowhere during the war had a more vigorous protest been entered
against the shortcomings of Gambetta. For this very reason the National
Guards of Narbonne had not yet received their muskets, when those of
Carcassonne had long since been armed. At the news of the 18th March,
Narbonne did not hesitate, but declared for Paris. To proclaim the
Commune, an exile of the Empire, a man of strong convictions and firm
character, Digeon, was at once applied to. Digeon, as modest as
resolute, offered the direction of the movement to his comrade in exile,
Marcou, the recognised chief of the democracy in the Aude, one of the
most ardent opponents of Gambetta during the war. Marcou, a crafty
lawyer, afraid of compromising himself, and dreading the energy of
Digeon in the chief town of the department, induced him to leave for
Narbonne. Digeon arrived there on the 23rd, and first thought of
converting the municipal council to the principles of the Commune. But
on the refusal of the mayor, Raynal, to summon the council, the people,
out of all patience, invaded the Hotel-de-Ville on the evening of the
24th, and arming themselves with the muskets detained by the
municipality, installed Digeon and his friends. He appeared on the
balcony, proclaimed the Commune of Narbonne united to that of Paris, and
immediately proceeded to take measures of defence.
The following day Raynal tried to rally the garrison, and some companies
formed before the Hotel-de-Ville; but the people, especially the women,
worthy of their Parisian sisters, disarmed the soldiers. A captain and a
lieutenant were retained as hostages; the rest of the garrison went and
shut itself up in the St. Bernard Barracks. As Raynal still continued
stirring up resistance, the people arrested him on the 26th; and Digeon,
with the three hostages, at the head of a detachment of Federals, went
to take possession of the prefecture, placing pickets at the railway
station and telegraph office. To get arms he forced the arsenal, where,
despite their lieutenant, who commanded them to fire, the soldiers
surrendered their guns. The same day the delegates from the neighbouring
Communes arrived, and Digeon set to work to generalise the movement.
He had clearly understood that the departmental insurrections would soon
founder if not well combined, and he wanted to hold out a helping hand
to the rising of Toulouse and of Marseilles. Beziers and Cette had
already promised him their support, and he was preparing to leave for
Beziers, when, on the 28th, two companies of Turcos arrived, soon
followed by other troops sent from Montpellier, Toulouse, and Perpignan.
From this moment Digeon was obliged to stand on the defensive. He had
barricades thrown up, reinforced the posts, ordering the Federals always
to await the attacks and to aim at the officers.
We shall return to this subject later on. Paris now recalls us. The
other provincial movements were but momentary vibrations. On the 28th,
when Paris was still elated with victory, all the Communes of France
were already swept away save those of Marseilles and Narbonne.
FOOTNOTES:
[105] The popular quarters of Marseilles.
[106] This abdication was revealed before the court-martial by the
advocate of one of the accused. Cosnier, fearing that it might be
interpreted as an act of cowardice, blew out his brains.