THE COMMUNE IS VANQUISHED AT MARSEILLES AND NARBONNE.
The same sun that saw the scale turn against Paris looked also on the
defeat of the people of Marseilles.
The paralytic Commission still continued to dose, when, on the 26th,
Espivent beat the reveille, placed the department in a state of siege,
and issued a proclamation _a la_ Thiers. The municipal council began to
tremble, and on the 27th withdrew their delegates from the prefecture.
Gaston Cremieux and Bouchet were at once sent to the Mairie to announce
that the Commission was ready to withdraw before the council. The
council asked for time to consider.
The evening was passing away, and the Commission searching for a
loophole by which to escape from a position become untenable, when
Bouchet proposed to telegraph to Versailles that they would resign their
powers into the hands of a Republican prefect. Poor issue of a great
movement! They knew what the Republican prefects of M. Thiers were. The
Commission, jaded, discouraged, let Bouchet draw up the telegram, when
Landeck, Amouroux, and May arrived, sent, they said, by Paris. They
spoke in the name of the great town. Bouchet wanted to verify their
powers and contested their validity, which were indeed more than
contestable, whereat the members of the Commission grew indignant. The
magic name of victorious Paris resuscitated the enthusiasm of the first
hours, and Bouchet left the place. At midnight the municipal council
decided to maintain its resolution, and communicated this to the club of
the National Guard, who immediately followed their example. At half-past
one in the morning the delegates of the club informed the Commission
that their powers were at an end. The Liberal bourgeoisie, coward-like,
stole away, the Radicals backed out, and the people remained alone to
face the reaction.
This was the second phase of the movement. The most exalted of the three
delegates, Landeck, became an authority paramount to the Commission. The
cold-blooded Republicans who heard him and knew of his past dealings
with the Imperialist police, suspected a Bonapartist under the grossly
ignorant bully. He was indeed but a juggler, meant for the itinerant
stage, of grotesque vanity, and shrinking from nothing, because ignorant
of everything. The situation waxed tragic with this mountebank for a
leader. G. Cremieux, unable to find another issue, was still for the
solution of the evening before. On the 28th he wrote to the municipal
council that the Commission was ready to retire, leaving them the
responsibility of events, and urged his colleagues to release the
hostages; this only rendered him the more suspected of moderatism.
Closely watched, threatened, he lost heart at these disputes, and that
same evening left the prefecture. His secession divested the Commission
of all authority. It succeeded in discovering his retreat, made an
appeal to his devotion to the cause, and led him back to the prefecture,
there to resume his strange part of a chief at once captive and
responsible.
The municipal council did not answer G. Cremieux' letter and on the 29th
the Commission renewed its proposal. The council still remained silent.
In the evening 400 delegates of the National Guard, met at the museum,
decided to federate the battalions, and appointed a commission charged
to negotiate between the Hotel-de-Ville and the prefecture. But these
delegates represented only the revolutionary element of the battalions,
and the Hotel-de-Ville plunged more and more into a slough of despond.
A war of proclamations now ensued between the two powers. On the 30th
the council answered the deliberations of the museum meeting by a
proclamation of the chiefs of the reactionary battalions. The Commission
launched a manifesto demanding the autonomy of the Commune and the
abolition of prefectures; immediately after, the council declared the
general secretary of the prefect the legal representative of the
Government, and invited him to retake his post. The secretary turned a
deaf ear and took refuge aboard _La Couronne_, many councillors also
betaking themselves to the frigate--gratuitous cowardice, since the most
notorious reactionists went to and fro without being in the least
interfered with. The energy of the Commission was mere show; it arrested
only two or three functionaries, the procureur Guibert, the deputy, and
for a short time the director of the customhouse, and the son of the
mayor. General Ollivier was set free as soon as it became known that he
had refused to form part of the Mixed Commissions of 1851. They even
were so facile as to leave a post close to the prefecture in the hands
of chasseurs forgotten by Espivent. The flight of the council,
therefore, appeared only the more shameful. The town continued to be
calm, gay, facetious. One day the advice-boat _Le Renard_ coming to show
its cannon at the Cannebiere, the crowd thronging on the quay hooted so
much that it was obliged to slip its cable and rejoin the frigate in the
new harbour.
Therefore the Commission inferred this, that no one would dare to attack
them, and thus took no measures of defence. They might easily have armed
the heights of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde, which commanded the town, and
enlisted a great number of Garibaldians, some officers of the last
campaign having offered to organise everything. The Commission thanked
them, said that the troops would not come, and that even if they did,
they would fraternise with the people. They contented themselves with
hoisting the black flag, addressing a proclamation to the soldiers, and
accumulating at the prefecture arms and cannon without projectiles of
corresponding calibre. Landeck, for his part, wanting to distinguish
himself, declared Espivent's grade forfeited, and in his place nominated
a former cavalry sergeant named Pelissier. "Until the assumption of his
functions," said the decree, "the troops will remain under the orders of
General Espivent." This gross farce dated from the 1st April. Before
the court-martial which tried him, Pelissier hit the mark. When asked,
"Of what armies were you general?" "I was general of the situation," was
his reply; and indeed he never did lead any troops. On the morning of
the 24th the workmen had returned to their work, for the National
Guards, save the guardians of the prefecture, were not paid. Men to
garrison the posts were found with difficulty, and at midnight the
prefecture had but a hundred defenders.
A _coup-de-main_ would have been easy, and some rich bourgeois wanted to
try it. The men were there and the manoeuvres agreed upon. At midnight
the Commission was to be carried off and the prefecture taken possession
of, while Espivent was to march on the town so as to get there by
daybreak. An officer was despatched to Aubagne. The general refused
under the pretext of prudence, but his retinue revealed the true motive
of the refusal. "We," they told the messenger, "have stolen away from
Marseilles like thieves; we want to re-enter it as conquerors."
Such a performance seemed rather difficult with the army of Aubagne, 600
or 700 men, without _cadres_ and without discipline. One single
regiment, the 6th Chasseurs, showed a more martial carriage. But
Espivent relied upon the sailors of _La Couronne_, the National Guards
of order, in continual relations with him, and above all, on the
well-known supineness of the Commission.
The latter tried to strengthen itself by the adjunction of delegates
from the National Guard. They voted the dissolution of the municipal
council, and the Commission convoked the electors for the 3rd April.
This measure, if taken on the 24th March, might perhaps have settled
everything, but on the 2nd April it was only a stroke in the air.
On the 3rd, at the news from Versailles, Espivent sent an order to the
chiefs of the reactionary battalions to hold themselves in readiness. In
the evening, at eleven o'clock, Garibaldian officers came to inform the
prefecture that the troops at Aubagne were moving. The Commission
recommenced its old refrain: "Let them come; we are ready to receive
them." At half-past one they decided to beat the retreat, and towards
four o'clock some men mustered at the prefecture. About a hundred
franc-tireurs established themselves at the station, where the
Commission had not even thought of placing a battery.
At five o'clock Marseilles was on the alert. Some reactionary companies
appeared at the Place du Palais de Justice and in the Cours Bonaparte;
the sailors of _La Couronne_ were drawn up before the Bourse; the first
shots were fired at the station.
Espivent's troops presented themselves at three points--the station, the
Place Castellane, and La Plaine. The franc-tireurs, notwithstanding a
fine defence, were soon surrounded and obliged to retreat. The
Versaillese shot the Federalist stationmaster under the eyes of his son,
a child of sixteen, who threw himself at the feet of the officer,
offering his life for his father's. The second stationmaster, Funel, was
able to escape with only a broken arm. The columns of La Plaine and
L'Esplanade pushed their advanced posts as far as 300 yards from the
prefecture.
The Commission, always in the clouds, sent an embassy to Espivent. G.
Cremieux and Pelissier set out, followed by an immense mass of men and
children, crying "Vive Paris!" At the outposts of the Place Castellane,
the seat of the staff, the chief of the 6th Chasseurs, Villeneuve, came
forward towards the delegates. "What are your intentions?" asked G.
Cremieux. "We want to re-establish order." "What! you would dare fire on
the people?" cried G. Cremieux, and commenced haranguing, when the
Versaillese threatened to order his chasseurs to march on. The delegates
then had themselves conducted to Espivent. He first spoke of putting
them under arrest, but then would allow them five minutes for the
evacuation of the prefecture. G. Cremieux on his return found the
chasseurs struggling with the crowd, who sought to disarm them. A new
current of people, preceded by a black flag, arrived, making a vigorous
push against the soldiers. A German officer of Espivent's staff arrested
Pelissier, but the Versaillese chiefs, seeing their men waver, ordered
a retreat.
The mass applauded, believing they would disband. Two infantry corps had
already refused to march, and the Place de la Prefecture was filled with
groups certain of success. Suddenly, towards ten o'clock, the chasseurs
debouched by the Rues de Rome and De l'Armeny. The people shouted and
surrounded them, when many raised the butt-end of their muskets. One
officer who, urging on his company, made them cross bayonets, fell, his
head pierced by a bullet. His men charged the Federals, who took refuge
and were taken prisoners in the prefecture, whither the chasseurs
followed. The volleys of the National Guards of order and the chasseurs
from the Cours Bonaparte and from the house of the Freres Ignorantins,
keeping up a running fire, were replied to by the Federals from the
windows of the prefecture.
The fusillade had lasted two hours, and no reinforcement arrived in
support of the Federals. Inexpugnable in the prefecture, a solid square
building, they were none the less vanquished, having neither provisions
nor sufficient munition, and it would have sufficed to wait with arms
ordered till they had exhausted their cartridges. But the general of the
Sacre Coeur would not put up with such a half-triumph. This was his
first campaign; he wanted blood, and, above all, noise. Since eleven
o'clock he had had the prefecture bombarded from the top of
Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde, a distance of about 500 yards. The Fort St.
Nicolas also opened its fire, but its shells, less far-seeing than those
of our Lady-de-la-Garde, dashed down upon the aristocratic houses of the
Cours Bonaparte, killing one of those heroic guards of order who fired
from behind the soldiers. At three o'clock the prefecture hoisted a flag
of truce. Espivent continued to fire. An envoy was sent to him, but he
insisted upon their surrender at discretion. At five o'clock more than
300 shells had traversed the edifice, wounding many Federals. Little by
little, the defenders, seeing that they were not supported, left the
place. The prefecture had long ceased firing when Espivent was still
bombarding it. The fright of this brute was so great that he continued
throwing shells till nightfall. At half past seven the sailors of _La
Couronne_ and _Le Magnanime_ courageously stormed the prefecture, void
of all its defenders.
They found the hostages safe and sound, as were the chasseurs taken
prisoner in the morning. Yet the Jesuitic repression was atrocious. The
men of order arrested at hazard, and dragged their victims into the
lamp-stores of the station. There an officer scrutinised the prisoners,
made a sign to one or the other of them to step out, and blew out his
brains. The following days there were rumours of summary executions in
the barracks, the forts and the prisons. The number of dead the people
lost is unknown, but it exceeded 150, besides many wounded who concealed
themselves. The Versaillese had thirty killed and fifty wounded. More
than 900 persons were thrown into the casemates of the Chateau d'If and
of the Fort St. Nicolas. G. Cremieux was arrested at the porter's of the
Israelite Cemetery. He voluntarily discovered himself to those who
sought him, strong in his good faith, and still believing in the judges.
The brave Etienne was also taken. Landeck, of course, had made his exit
in good time.
On the 5th Espivent entered triumphantly, acclaimed with savage frenzy
by the reactionists. But from the further ranks of the crowd cries and
hisses rose against the murderers. At the Place St. Ferreol a captain
was fired at, and the people stoned the windows of a house from which
the sailors had been cheered.
Two days after the struggle, on its return from _La Couronne_, the
municipal council recovered its voice to strike the vanquished.
The National Guard was disarmed, a fierce reaction raged, the Jesuits
again lorded it, and Espivent paraded about, receiving ovations to the
cries of "Vive Jesus! Vive le Sacre Coeur!" The club of the National
Guard was closed, Bouchet arrested, and the Radicals, insulted,
persecuted, once more saw what it costs to desert the people.
Narbonne, too, was subdued. On the 30th March the prefect and the
procureur-general issued a proclamation in which they spoke of "the
handful of factious men," presented themselves as upholders of the true
Republic, and telegraphed everywhere the failure of the provincial
movements. "Is this a reason," Digeon answered in a placard, "to lower
before force this red flag dyed in the blood of our martyrs? Let others
consent to live eternally oppressed." Whereupon he prepared for battle,
and barricaded the streets leading to the Hotel-de-Ville. The women,
always to the fore, pulled up pavements and piled up furniture. The
authorities, afraid of a serious resistance, sent M. Marcou to his
friend Digeon. The Brutus of Carcassonne bestrode the Hotel-de-Ville,
accompanied by two Republicans of Limoux, to offer in the name of the
procureur-general a full and complete amnesty to those who would
evacuate the edifice. They offered Digeon twenty-four hours to gain the
frontier. Digeon assembled his council, and all refused to fly. M.
Marcou hastened to inform the military authorities that they might now
act.[114] General Zentz was at once sent to Narbonne.
At three o'clock in the morning a detachment of Turcos reconnoitred the
barricades of the Rue du Pont. The Federals, anxious to fraternise,
cleared it, and were received with a volley, killing two men and
wounding three. On the 31st, at seven o'clock, Zentz in a proclamation
announced that the bombardment was about to recommence. Digeon at once
wrote to him, "I have the right to reply to such a savage menace in the
same style. I warn you that if you bombard the town, I shall have the
three prisoners who are in my power shot." Zentz for all answer arrested
the envoy, and had brandy distributed to the Turcos, the only troops who
would march. These brutes arrived at Narbonne eager to loot, and had
already pillaged three cafes. The fight was about to begin, when the
procureur-general again sent two envoys, offering amnesty to all those
who would evacuate the Hotel-de-Ville before the opening of the fire,
but the execution of the hostages would be punished by the massacre of
all its occupants. Digeon wrote out these conditions under the dictation
of one of the envoys, read them to the Federals, and left every one free
to withdraw. At this moment the procureur-general presented himself with
the Turcos before the terrace of the garden. Digeon rushed thither. The
procureur harangued the multitude, and as he spoke of indulgence, Digeon
protested that an amnesty had just been promised. The procureur drowned
the discussion in a roll of drums, read the legal _sommation_ in front
of the Hotel-de-Ville, and asked for the hostages, whom the soldiers who
had deserted delivered over to him.
All these parleys had profoundly enervated the defence. Besides, the
Hotel-de-Ville could do nothing against a bombardment that would have
battered the town. Digeon had the edifice evacuated, and shut himself up
alone in the cabinet of the mayor, resolved to sell his life dearly; but
the people, in spite of his resistance, carried him off. The
Hotel-de-Ville was empty when the Turcos arrived. They plundered in all
its corners, and officers were seen to deck themselves with stolen
valuables.
Notwithstanding the formal promises of amnesty, numerous warrants of
arrest were issued. Digeon refused to fly, and wrote to the
procureur-general that he might arrest him. Such a man at Toulouse would
have saved the movement and raised the whole South.
* * * * *
Limoges had one glimpse of hope on the fatal day of the 4th April. That
revolutionary capital of the Centre could not look on the efforts of
Paris unmoved. On the 23rd March the Societe Populaire, centralised all
the democratic forces and passed a vote of thanks to the army of Paris
for its conduct on the 18th. When Versailles called for volunteers, the
Society enjoined the municipal council to prevent such an incitement to
civil war. The workingmen's societies despatched a delegate to Paris
soon after the proclamation of the Commune, there to inquire into its
principles, and to request the sending of a commissary to Limoges. The
members of the Commune replied that this was impossible for the present,
that they would consider it by and by; and never sent anybody. The
Societe Populaire was thus obliged to act alone. It urged the municipal
council to hold a review of the National Guards, certain that it would
result in a demonstration against Versailles. The council composed, with
few exceptions, of timid men, tried to gain time, when the news of the
3rd April became known. On the morning of the 4th, on reading on the
walls the triumphant telegram from Versailles, the workmen revolted. A
detachment of five hundred soldiers was about to leave for Versailles;
the crowd followed them to the station, and the workmen urged them to
join the people. The soldiers, surrounded, much excited, fraternised,
surrendered their arms, many of which were taken to the Societe
Populaire, and hidden there.
The rappel was at once beaten. The colonel of cuirassiers, Billet, who,
accompanied by orderlies, rode through the town, was hemmed in by the
people, and constrained to cry, "Vive la Republique!" At five o'clock
the whole National Guard was in arms on the Place de la Mairie. The
officers met in the Hotel-de-Ville, where a councillor proposed to
proclaim the Commune. The mayor objected, but the cry resounded on all
sides. Captain Coissac took upon himself to go to the station in order
to stop the train ready for the departure of the troops. The other
officers consulted their companies, which answered with one unanimous
cry, "Vive Paris! A bas Versailles!" Soon after, the battalions, filing
off before the Hotel-de-Ville, preceded by two municipal councillors in
their official costume, went to ask the general for the release of the
soldiers arrested during the course of the day. The general gave the
order to set them free, and at the same time sent word to Colonel Billet
to prepare against the insurrection. From the Place Tourny the Federals
repaired to the prefecture, occupying it in spite of the resistance of
the Conservative National Guards, and commenced throwing up some
barricades. A few soldiers arriving from the Rue des Prisons, several
citizens adjured the officers not to commence a civil war. These
hesitated, retired, when Colonel Billet, at the head of about fifty
cuirassiers, debouched on the Place de l'Eglise St. Michel, and ordered
his men to advance and draw swords. They fired their pistols, the
Federals answered, and the colonel was mortally wounded. His horse
turning about, carried its rider as far as the Place St. Pierre, the
other horses following, and the Federals thus remained masters of the
field. But lacking organisation, they disbanded in the night and left
the prefecture. The next day the company that occupied the station
seeing themselves abandoned withdrew. The arrests began, and many were
obliged to hide.
* * * * *
Thus the revolts of the great towns died out one by one like the lateral
craters of an exhausted volcano. The revolutionists of the provinces
showed themselves everywhere completely disorganised, without any
faculty to wield power. Everywhere victorious at the outset, the workmen
had only known how to pronounce for Paris. But at least they showed some
vitality, generosity, and pride. Eighty years of bourgeois domination
had not been able to transform them into a nation of mercenaries; while
the Radicals, who either combated or held aloof from them, once more
attested the decrepitude, the egotism of the middle-class, always ready
to betray the workingmen to the "upper" classes.
FOOTNOTES:
[114] "The general commanding the department and the procureur-general,
aware that I had for thirty years been the friend of the man who
commanded the Commune at Narbonne, came to solicit my intervention to
induce him to submit. It was arranged that if I did not succeed I should
immediately send a telegram to General Robinet, in order that the
military authorities might act in consequence. At midnight I sent the
telegram.... You do not know me; it is thanks to my personal influence
that order was maintained at Carcassonne."--_Speech of M. Marcou to the
Assembly in answer to M. de Gavardie, Sitting of the 27th January
1874._