"La porte de St. Cloud vient de s'abatre. Le general Douai
s'y est precipite."--_M. Thiers aux Prefets, le 21 Mai._
THE VERSAILLESE ENTER PARIS ON SUNDAY, 21ST MAY. AT THREE
O'CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON--THE COUNCIL OF THE COMMUNE
DISSOLVES.
The great attack approached; the Assembly drew up in battle-array. On
the 16th May it refused to recognise the Republic as the Government of
France, and voted public prayers by 417 voices out of 420. On the 17th
the army established its breach batteries against the gates of La
Muette, Auteuil, St. Cloud, Point du Jour, Issy. The batteries in the
rear continued to pound the enceinte of the Point du Jour and to
confound Passy. The pieces of the Chateau de Brecon ruined the
Montmartre cemetery, and reached as far as the Place St. Pierre. We had
five arrondissements under shell.
On the 18th, in the evening, the Versaillese surprised the Federals of
Cachan by approaching them with the cry of "Vive la Commune!" However,
we succeeded in preventing their movement towards the Hautes-Bruyeres.
The Dominican monks who from their convent gave signals to the enemy
were arrested and taken to the Fort de Bicetre.
_19th._--Despite the Versaillese approaches, our defence did not become
more vigorous. The bastions 72 and 73 threw a few occasional shells upon
the village and the fort of Issy. From the Point du Jour to the
Porte-Maillot we had only the cannon of the Dauphine gate to answer the
hundred Versaillese pieces and check their works in the Bois de
Boulogne. A few barricades at the Bineau and Asnieres gates and the
Boulevard d'Italie, two redoubts at the Place de la Concorde and Rue
Castiglione, a moat in the Rue Royale and another at the Trocadero; this
was all that the Council had done in seven weeks for the defence of the
interior. There were no works at the Mont-Parnasse Station, the
Pantheon, the Buttes Montmartre, where two or three pieces had been
fired off on the 14th, only to kill our own men at Laval's. At the
terrace of the Tuileries about twelve navvies sadly dug away at a
useless fosse. The Committee of Public Safety could not, they said, find
workmen, when they had 1,500 idlers at the Prince-Eugene Barracks,
100,000 sedentary guards, and millions of francs to hand. An iron will
and firm direction might still have saved everything; and we were now in
the period of coma, of immense lassitude. The competitions, quarrels,
and intrigues had relaxed all energy. The Council occupied itself with
details, with trifles. The Committee of Public Safety multiplied its
romantic proclamations, which moved nobody. The Central Committee
thought only of seizing upon a power it was unable to wield, and on the
19th announced itself administrator of the War Office. Its members had
made so sure of their sway, that one of them by a decree inserted in the
_Officiel_ ordered all the inhabitants of Paris to "present themselves
at their homes within forty-eight hours," on pain of "having their
rent-titles on the grand livre burnt." This was the pendant of the civic
card.
Our best battalions, decimated, abandoned to themselves, were but
wrecks. Since the beginning of April we had lost 4,000 men, killed or
wounded, and 3,500 prisoners. There now remained to us 2,000 men from
Asnieres to Neuilly, 4,000 perhaps from La Muette to Petit-Vanves. The
battalions designated for the posts of Passy were not there, or stayed
in the houses far from the ramparts; many of their officers had
disappeared. At the bastions 36 to 70, precisely at the point of attack,
there were not twenty artillerists; the sentinels were absent.
Was it treason? The conspirators boasted a few days after of having
dismantled these ramparts; but the terrible bombardment would suffice to
explain this dereliction. Still there was a culpable heedlessness.
Dombrowski, weary of struggling against the inertness of the War Office,
was discouraged, went too often to his quarters at the Place Vendome,
while the Committee of Public Safety, informed of the abandonment of the
ramparts, contented itself with warning the War Office instead of
hurrying to the rescue and taking the situation in hand.
On Saturday, the 20th May, the breach batteries were unmasked; 300 naval
guns and siege-pieces blending together their detonations announced the
beginning of the end.
The same day De Beaufond, whom Lasnier's arrest had not discouraged,
sent his habitual emissary to warn the chief of the Versaillese general
staff that the gates of Montrouge, Vanves, Vaugirard, Point du Jour, and
Dauphine were entirely deserted. Orders for concentrating the troops
were immediately issued. On the 21st the Versaillese found themselves in
readiness, as on the 3rd and 12th, but this time success seemed certain;
the gate of St. Cloud was dashed to pieces.
For several days some members of the Council had pointed out this breach
to the chief of the general staff, Henry Prodhomme. He answered a la
Cluseret that his measures were taken; that he was even going to throw
up a terrible iron-clad barricade before this gate; but he did not stir.
On the Sunday morning, Lefrancais, traversing the moat on the ruins of
the drawbridge, at about fifteen yards distance, ran up against the
Versaillese trenches. Struck by the imminence of the peril, he sent
Delescluze a note, which was lost.
At half-past two, under the shade of the Tuileries, a monster concert
was being given for the benefit of the widows and orphans of the
Commune. Thousands of people had come; the bright spring dresses of the
women lit up the green alleys; people eagerly inhaled the fresh air sent
forth from the great trees. Two hundred yards off, on the Place de la
Concorde, the Versaillese shells burst, uttering their discordant note
amidst the joyous sounds of the bands and the invigorating breath of
spring.
At the end of the concert a staff officer ascended the platform of the
conductor of the orchestra. "Citizens," said he, "M. Thiers promised to
enter Paris yesterday. M. Thiers has not entered; he will not enter. I
invite you to come here next Sunday, to the same place, to our second
concert for the benefit of the widows and orphans."
At that very hour, at that very minute, almost within gunshot, the
vanguard of the Versaillese was making its entry into Paris.
The expected signal had at last been given from the St. Cloud gate, but
did not come from the licensed conspirators. An amateur spy, Ducatel,
was crossing these quarters, when he saw everything, gates and ramparts,
quite deserted. He thereupon climbed the bastion 64, waving a white
handkerchief, and cried to the soldiers of the trenches, "You can enter;
there is no one here." A naval officer came forward, interrogated
Ducatel, crossed over the ruins of the drawbridge, and was able to
assure himself that the bastions and neighbouring houses were entirely
abandoned. Returning immediately to the trenches, the officer
telegraphed the news to the nearest generals. The breach batteries
ceased firing, and the soldiers of the trenches near penetrated by small
platoons into the enceinte. M. Thiers, MacMahon, and Admiral Pothuan,
who were just then at Mont-Valerien, telegraphed to Versailles to have
all the divisions put in motion.
Dombrowski, absent from his headquarters of La Muette for several hours,
arrived at four o'clock. A commander met him, and informed him of the
entry of the Versaillese. Dombrowski let the officer terminate his
report, then, turning to one of his aides-de-camp, with that coolness
that he exaggerated in critical circumstances, said, "Send to the
Ministry of Marine for a battery of seven cannon; warn such and such
battalions. I shall take the command myself." He also addressed a
despatch to the Committee of Public Safety and the War Office, and sent
the battalion of volunteers to occupy the gate of Auteuil.
At five o'clock, National Guards, without kepis, without arms, uttered a
cry of alarm in the streets of Passy; some officers unsheathing their
swords tried to stop them; the Federals left their houses, some loading
their guns, others maintaining that it was a false alarm. The commander
of the volunteers picked up and led off as many men as he could get to
follow him.
These volunteers were troops inured to fire. Near the railway station
they saw the red-coats, and received them with a volley. A Versaillese
officer on horseback, who hurried up trying to urge on his men with
drawn sabre, fell beneath our balls, and his soldiers retreated. The
Federals established themselves solidly on the viaduct and at the
opening of the Murat Boulevard, while, at the same time, the quay
abreast of the Jena Bridge was being barricaded.
Dombrowski's despatch had reached the Committee of Public Safety.
Billioray, on duty at this moment, at once proceeded to the Council. The
Assembly was just putting Cluseret on his trial, and Vermorel was
speaking. The ex-delegate, seated on a chair, listened to the orator
with that vain nonchalance which the naive took for talent. Billioray,
very pale, entered, and for a moment sat down; then, as Vermorel went
on, cried to him, "Conclude! conclude! I have to make a communication of
the greatest importance to the Assembly; I demand a secret sitting."
Vermorel: "Let citizen Billioray speak."
Billioray rose and read a paper that trembled slightly in his hand.
"Dombrowski to War and Committee of Public Safety. The Versaillese have
entered by the Porte de St. Cloud. I take measures to drive them back.
If you can send me reinforcements, I answer for everything."[178]
There was first a silence of anguish, soon broken by interpellations.
"Some battalions have marched off," answered Billioray; "the Committee
of Public Safety watches."
The discussion was again taken up, and naturally cut short. The Council
acquitted Cluseret; the ridiculous impeachment brought forward by Miot,
made up only of gossip, neglected the only incriminating fact--the
inactivity of Cluseret during his delegation. They then formed into
groups and commented on the despatch. The confidence of Dombrowski, the
assurance of Billioray, proved quite sufficient to the romanticists.
What with faith in the general, the solidity of the ramparts, the
immortality of the cause; what with the responsibility of the Committee
of Public Safety, the question at issue was slurred over; let every one
go about in search of information, and in case of need betake himself to
his own arrondissement.
The time was wasted in small-talk; there were neither motion nor debate;
eight o'clock struck, and the president raised the sitting. The last
sitting of the Council! And there was no one to demand a permanent
committee; no one to call on his colleague to wait here for news, to
summon the Committee of Public Safety to the bar of the Council. There
was no one to insist that at this critical moment of uncertainty, when
perhaps it might be necessary to improvise a plan of defence at a
moment's notice or take a great resolution in case of disaster, the post
of the guardians of Paris was in the centre, at the Hotel-de-Ville, and
not in their respective arrondissements.
Thus the Council of the Commune disappeared from history and the
Hotel-de-Ville at the moment of supreme danger, when the Versaillese
penetrated into Paris.
The same prostration reigned at the War Office, where they had received
the news at five o'clock. The Central Committee went to Delescluze, who
seemed very calm, and said, what many indeed believed, that the fight in
the streets would be favourable to the Commune. The commander of the
section of the Point du Jour having just come to report that nothing
serious had happened, the delegate accepted his statements without
corroboration. The chief of the general staff did not even think it
worth while to go and make a personal recognisance, and towards eight
o'clock he had this incredible despatch placarded: "The observatory of
the Arc de Triomphe denies the entry of the Versaillese; at least, it
sees nothing that looks like it. The commander (Renaud) of the section
has just left my cabinet, and declares that there has only been a panic,
and that the gate of Auteuil has not been forced; that if a few
Versaillese have entered, they have been repulsed. I have sent for
eleven battalions of reinforcements, by as many officers of the general
staff, who are not to leave them till they have led them to the posts
which they are to occupy."
At the same hour M. Thiers telegraphed to his prefects, "The gate of St.
Cloud has fallen under the fire of our cannon. General Douai has dashed
into the town." A two-fold lie. The gate of St. Cloud had been wide open
for three days without the Versaillese daring to pass it, and General
Douai had crept in very modestly, man by man, introduced by treason.
At night the Ministry seemed to wake up a little. Officers flocked
thither asking for orders. The general staff would not allow the tocsin
to be sounded, on the pretext that the population must not be alarmed.
Some members of the Council pored over the plan of Paris at last,
studying those strategical points that had been forgotten for six weeks.
When it was necessary at once to find an idea, a method, and give
precise instructions, the delegate shut himself in his cabinet in order
to frame a proclamation.
While in the midst of Paris, confident in her trustees, a few men,
without soldiers, without information, prepared the first resistance,
the Versaillese continued to slip in through the breaches of the
ramparts. Wave on wave their flood grew silent, veiled by the dusk. By
degrees they massed themselves between the railway line and the
fortifications. At eight o'clock they were numerous enough to divide
into two columns, one of which, turning to the left, crowned the
bastions 66 and 67, while the other filed off to the right on the route
to Versailles. The first lodged itself in the centre of Passy, occupying
the St. Perine asylum, the church, and the place of Auteuil; the other,
having swept away the rudimentary barricade constructed on the quay at
the top of the Rue Guillon, towards one o'clock in the morning, by the
Rue Raynouard, scaled the Trocadero, neither fortified nor manned on
this side, and at once took possession of it.
At the Hotel-de-Ville the members of the Committee of Public Safety had
at last assembled. Billioray alone had vanished not to appear again.
They knew nothing of the number and position of the troops, but knew
that under the cover of night the enemy had entered Passy. Staff
officers sent to the Muette to reconnoitre came back with the most
reassuring news. Thereupon, at eleven o'clock, a member of the Council,
Assi, entered the Rue Beethoven, where the lights had been put out. Soon
his horse refused to advance; it had slipped down in large pools of
blood, and National Guards seemed to lie asleep along the walls.
Suddenly men sprang forward. They were the Versaillese waiting in
ambush; these sleepers were murdered Federals.
The Versaillese were slaughtering within the walls of Paris, and Paris
knew it not. The night was clear, starlit, mild, fragrant; the theatres
were crowded, the boulevards sparkling with life and gaiety, the bright
cafes swarming with visitors, and the cannon were everywhere hushed--a
silence unknown for three weeks. If "the finest army that France ever
had" were to push straight on by the quays and boulevards, entirely free
of barricades, with one bound, without firing a shot, it would crush the
Commune of Paris.
The volunteers held out on the railway line till midnight; then,
exhausted, left without any reinforcements, they fell back upon La
Muette. General Clinchant followed them, occupied the Auteuil gate,
passed by that of Passy, and marched on the headquarters of Dombrowski.
Fifty volunteers for some time still kept up a skirmish in the chateau,
but outflanked on the east, about to be closed in from the Trocadero, at
half-past one in the morning they beat a retreat on the Champs-Elysees.
On the left bank General Cissey had the whole evening massed his forces
at about 200 yards from the enceinte. At midnight his sappers crossed
the moat, scaled the ramparts, without even falling in with a sentinel,
and opened the gates of Sevres and Versailles.
At three o'clock in the morning the Versaillese inundated Paris through
the five gaping wounds of the gates of Passy, Auteuil, St. Cloud,
Sevres, and Versailles. The greater part of the fifteenth arrondissement
was occupied, the Muette taken; taken all Passy and the heights of the
Trocadero, taken too the powder-magazine of the Rue Beethoven, immense
catacombs running underneath the sixteenth arrondissement, crammed with
3,000 barrels of powder, millions of cartridges, thousands of shells. At
five o'clock the first Versaillese shell fell upon the Legion d'Honneur.
As on the morning of the 2nd December, Paris was asleep.
FOOTNOTES:
[178] The original of this document has been lost, but we have been able
to re-establish the text with the evidence of Dombrowski's brother and
of a great number of members of the Council present at this sitting.