At the trial of the members of the Commune, the advocate of Assi read a
letter which the prisoners in Germany had sent his client:--
"Citizen Assi--So you no longer think, with the Central Committee of the
crapulous, that we are tired of your farces and evolutions without an
aim and without limits.... Woe to you, sink of the people! All possible
reverses will accumulate upon you, and give you, as the whole result of
your acts deprived of common-sense and capacity, the hatred of the
prisoners confined in Germany, and the severe punishment which the
admired representatives of all France will mercilessly inflict upon you.
Once over the frontier, the last of the prisoners will go and plunge
into the heart of the guilty the poniard which is to give back security
to the legal government. Be prepared for the sentence which all the
prisoners in Germany have in store for you.... Death to the insurgents!
Death to the infernal Committee! Tremble, brigands!
"Seen and approved by all the prisoners of Magdebourg, Erfurt, Coblentz,
Mayence, Berlin," &c.
The signatures follow.
XI.--(Page 267.)
One of Laroque's reports concluded thus:
"I send you the names of the friends of order and of the agents who have
rendered the greatest service. Jules Masse, P. Verdier, Sigismond,
Galle, Tarjest, Honobede, Toussaint, Arthur Sellion, Jullia Francisque
Baltead, E. Philips, Salowhicht, Maniel, Dolsand (42d battalion),
Rollin, Verox (seminarist), D'Anthome, Somme, Cremonaty, Tascher de la
Pagerie, Josephine Legros, Jupiter (police agent), the manager of the
Cafe de Suede, the proprietor of the Cafe de Madrid, Lucia, Hermance,
Amelie, little Celestine of the Cafe des Princes, Camille and Laura
(Cafe Peters), Madame du Valdy (Faubourg St. Germain), Leynhass
(brewer).
XII.--(Page 268.)
This is what had passed between the Committee of Public Safety and
Dombrowski:--
"The latter came to us one evening and informed us that through the
instrumentality of one of his officers (Hutzinger), Versailles had made
overtures to him, and asked him to appoint a rendezvous. He demanded of
us whether something could not be got out of this for the Commune. We
resolved to let him try the interview on condition that he should tell
us all that passed. That evening we charged somebody to follow and
arrest him if he yielded. From this time Dombrowski was closely
watched--it is thanks to this surveillance that he was not carried off
by the Versaillese who made use of a woman to allure him to the
neighbourhood of the Luxembourg--and I declare we learnt nothing that
was of a nature to weaken our confidence in him.
"He came the next day, and told us that a million was offered him on
condition that he would betray one of the gates. He gave us the names of
those he had seen; amongst others, there was a confectioner of the Place
de la Bourse, the address of the suborners (8 Rue de la Michaudiere) and
announced another rendezvous for the next day.... He explained to us how
he would entice a few thousand Versaillese into Paris to make them
prisoners. Pyat and I opposed this attempt. He did not insist, but
demanded that the next day 20,000 men and some howitzers should be
provided for him. He had decided on attracting the Versaillese troops by
a surprise within reach of the fortifications.... Of the 20,000 men,
3,000 or 4,000 only could be mustered, and instead of 500 artillerists,
there came only fifty."--_Extract from an account addressed to the
author by a member of the Committee of Public Safety._
XIII.--(Page 274.)
Here is an extract from the report addressed to the Municipal Council of
Toulouse by the delegates sent to Versailles to M. Thiers and the
deputies of the Extreme Left to inquire into the situation:--
"We went then for information to the members of the Extreme Left; Martin
Bernard, the companion and friend of Barbes, Louis Blanc, Schoelcher,
&c.
"M. Louis Blanc gave us the most precise information. It is useless,
said he to us, to again attempt conciliation; there is too much
animosity on both sides. Besides, with whom could one treat in Paris?
These different and hostile forces dispute for power.
"First there is the _Commune_, the result of an election at which only a
small number of electors took part, composed chiefly of unknown men, of
doubtful capacities, and some times even of doubtful honour.
"In the second place, a _Committee of Public Safety_ named by the
Commune, but soon coming to a violent rupture with it because it wanted
to direct dictatorially.
"In the third place, the _Central Committee_, formed during the siege,
and principally composed of agents of the International, solely occupied
with cosmopolitan interests, and caring very little for Parisian or
French interests; it is this Central Committee which disposes of the
cannon and the munitions, in one word, of almost all the material
forces.
"To all this must be added the Bonapartist and Prussian influences,
whose more or less apparent action it is easy to trace in all three
powers.[269]
"The Parisian insurrection," continued M. Louis Blanc, "is legitimate in
its motives and in its first aim--the revindication of the municipal
franchise of Paris. But the intervention of the Central Committee and
the pretension manifested of governing all the other Communes of the
Republic, have quite altered its character. Finally, the insurrection in
the presence of the Prussian army, ready to enter Paris if the Commune
is victorious, is altogether condemnable, and must be condemned by every
true Republican. This is why the mayors of Paris, the Left of the
Assembly, and the Extreme Left, have not hesitated to protest against an
insurrection which the presence of the Prussian army and other
circumstances might render criminal.
"M. Martin Bernard held the same language, and spoke almost in the same
terms. 'If Barbes still lived,' cried he, 'his heart would have been
rent, and he too would have condemned this fatal insurrection.'
"All the other persons whom we have been able to see--MM. Henri Martin,
Barthelemy St. Hilaire, Humbert, Victor Lefranc, &c., have spoken to us
in the same way, and this unanimity could not but make a deep impression
upon us."
XIV.--(Page 290.)
This is the textual copy of a report addressed to the Versaillese
general staff:--
"The _mot d'ordre_ has been tampered with on the 17th, 18th, and 19th.
"We had that of Versailles (General Douai's corps).
"There has been an explosion at the Rapp powder magazine, as I have
already reported to you. There were some dead, and many wounded.
"A commissary of police of the Commission of Safety has made about forty
arrests. Those made on account of the explosion are estimated to be
about 125.
"Sergeant Toussaint (3rd battery, 2nd squadron) has been arrested by the
Commune. It is said that this brave officer is shot.
"The sick, according to our information, had been taken away either the
day before or on the morning of the day of the catastrophe to the Hotel
des Invalides. The workwomen, and not the men, were sent home earlier
that day.
"The official of the Audit Office of the Hospital du Gros-Caillou, M.
Bernard, has behaved very well.
"I recommend to the good-will of M. le Ministre, MM. Janvier, Bertalon
(?), Mauduit, Morelli, and Sigismond, men enjoying an excellent
reputation.
"They desire the cross or an important collectorship.
"Signal services have been rendered by Madame Brosset, and by
Mademoiselle Gigaud. It is at the latter's house that I hid for eight
days when Rigault's people were searching for me.
"This woman is very devoted; she lives in the Quartier du Gros Caillou,
Rue Dominique St. Germain. She is the daughter of an ex-officer. She
would be glad to have a tobacconist's shop."--_Report of Commander
Jerriait, Ex-Chief of Squadron._
XV.--(Page 325.)
This fact was categorically deposed to by M. E. Belgrand, Director of
the Service of Public Roads, before the Commission of Inquiry into the
18th March (vol. iii., p. 352-353).
"The insurgents attempted nothing with the sewers. In short, I may
affirm that from the 18th March up to the entry of the troops into Paris
there was no attempt at all as to the sewers; that no chambers had been
established there; that no incendiary, or explosive matters had been
introduced, nor wires destined to set fire to mines or to incendiary
matters."
XVI.--(Page 329.)
The _Bien Public_, M. Thiers' organ, directed by Vrignault, published in
its number of the 23rd June, 1871:--
"All Paris has preserved the souvenir of that terrible cannonade
directed from Montmartre during the last three days of the civil war
against the Buttes Chaumont, Belleville, and the Pere Lachaise. Here are
some very correct details of what was happening then at the summit of
the Butte, behind the batteries at No. 6 Rue des Rosiers.
"There had been installed in this house, so sadly celebrated, a
provostship, presided over by a captain of Chasseurs. As the inhabitants
of the quarter rivalled each other in zeal in denouncing the insurgents,
the arrests were numerous. As the prisoners arrived they were
questioned.
"They were forced to kneel down, bare-headed, in silence, before the
wall at the foot of which the unfortunate Generals Lecomte and
Clement-Thomas had been assassinated. They remained thus a few hours,
till others came to take their place. Soon, to lessen what might be
cruel in this _amende honorable_, the prisoners were allowed to sit down
in the shade, but always opposite the wall, the aspect of which prepared
them for death, and shortly after the principal culprits amongst them
were shot.
"They were taken a few steps from there to the slope of the hill, at the
spot where during the siege a battery overlooked the St. Denis route. It
is there too that Varlin was conducted, whom they had great trouble in
protecting from the violence of the crowd. Varlin had confessed his
name, and made no efforts to escape the fate that awaited him; he died
game.
V. B."
XVII.--(Page 338.)
The day before, at five o'clock, at the moment when the baggage of the
War Office arrived at the Hotel-de-Ville, in the Avenue Victoria, two
guards, carrying a chest, were assailed with a hatchet, by an individual
dressed in a blouse and wearing a cap. One of the Federals fell dead.
The assassin, immediately seized hold of, cried, 'You are done for! you
are done for! Give me back my hatchet and I shall recommence.' On this
madman the commissary of police of the Hotel-de-Ville found papers and
the _livret_, proving that he had served in the _sergents-de-ville_.
During the evening of Tuesday, an individual, wearing the uniform of an
officer of a free corps, came to ask for orders at the Hotel-de-Ville. A
commandant of the same corps entered the hall and saw this officer, and
not recognising him, asked his name. The latter grew confused: 'But no,
you are not one of my men,' said the commandant. The individual was
arrested, and found to be the bearer of Versaillese instructions and
orders.
Treason assumed all shapes. The same morning at Belleville, Place des
Fetes, Ranvier and Frankel heard a drummer reading the Federal Guards
the order not to leave their arrondissements. Ranvier, interrogating the
drummer, learned that the order emanated from General du Bisson.
XVIII.--(Page 348.)
"Colonel Gaillard, chief of the military prisons, interrogated by the
_Commission d'Enquete_ as to the objects of value found on the
insurgents, answered: 'I can give you no information on this head. There
were valuables which have not been sent to Versailles. A few days ago I
saw a minister of Denmark. He came to inquire what had become of a sum
of 100,000 francs seized on one of his compatriots who had been shot
near the Hotel-de-Ville. His minister told me he had been unable to
obtain any information. Many things happened in Paris of which we know
nothing.'"--_Enquete sur le 18 Mars, Colonel Gaillard_, v. 2, p. 246.
XIX.--(Page 351.)
Shall we ever know of all the spurious speculators, the commercial men
with no resources left, the men at the brink of bankruptcy, who made use
of the conflagrations in order to quit scores? How many cried 'Death!'
who had themselves just set the petroleum on fire.
On the 10th March, 1877, the assize court of the Seine sentenced to ten
years' hard labour a ruined Bonapartist, Prieur de la Comble, found
guilty of having set fire to his house, with the object of getting a
heavy premium from the companies where he was insured. He had prepared
his crime with the greatest _sang froid_, painted the walls, saturated
the hangings with petroleum, made sure of nine different centres of
fire. His father, a former mayor of the first arrondissement, had
failed to the amount of 1,800,000 francs, and at the end of the Empire
there had been proceedings of bankruptcy instituted against him. Now, on
the 24th May, 1871, the house of the accused in the Rue du Louvre, that
of his father in the Rue de Rivoli, that of the assignee of the failure
in the Boulevard Sebastopol, were consumed, and owing to these triple
conflagrations the account-books and vouchers disappeared. This fact was
only mentioned before the assize court, and the president confined
himself to saying that it was odd. He took good care not to interrogate
Prieur; and one knows that the presidents of assize courts are not
usually chary of sifting the antecedents of the accused.
The motive of this extraordinary reticence is that no blame was to be
thrown upon the army and the courts-martial, which had shot or condemned
some _petroleuses_ for the burning of these very houses set on fire by
Prieur de la Comble.
XX.--(Page 368.)
"... A picket of soldiers debouched from the Rue de Vaugirard on our
left. They marched in two ranks. In the midst of them was Milliere.
"He was dressed exactly as I had seen him some months before at Bordeaux
on the tribune of the Assembly and in the Republican Circle--black
trousers, dark-blue overcoat, tight and buttoned up, a high black hat.
"The picket stopped before the door of the Luxembourg. One of the
soldiers, who held his rifle by the end of the barrel, cried, 'It is I
who took him! it is I who am entitled to shoot him!' There were about a
hundred persons there of both sexes and of all ages. Many cried, 'Death
to him! shoot him!'
"A National Guard, wearing a tricolor armlet, seized hold of Milliere by
the wrist, led him into the corner on the right, and placed him against
the wall, then he retired.... Milliere uncovered himself, placed his hat
on the pedestal of the column, crossed his arms on his breast, and calm
and cool looked at the troops. He waited.
"Round us the soldiers were being questioned. 'Who is it?' one of them
was asked, and I heard him answer, 'It is Mayer.'
"A priest came out of the Luxembourg; he wore a straight-cut cassock and
a high hat. Advancing towards Milliere, he spoke a few words to him and
pointed to heaven.
"Without ostentation, but with a very firm and calm attitude, Milliere
appeared to thank him, and shook his head in sign of refusal. The priest
retired.
"Two officers came out from the palace and addressed themselves to the
prisoner. One of them, whom the first seemed to guide, spoke to him for
a minute or two. We heard the sound of voices without understanding the
words exchanged, then I heard this command: 'To the Pantheon!'
"The picket re-formed round Milliere, who put on his hat, and the
cortege remounted the Rue de Vaugirard in the direction of the Pantheon.
"We reached the rails at the same time as the picket. The door opened
and shut upon them. Placing my feet on the stone balustrade, I passed my
two arms round the top of the bars; my head overlooked them, for these
railings are low. By my side a soldier, the sentry of the interior,
answered some prostitutes who were questioning him; his elbow, leaning
against the rails, touched mine.
"The picket of the troop had stopped and almost leant against the closed
door. Milliere was led between the two columns of the centre. Arrived at
the spot where he was to die, and after having ascended the last step of
the stairs, he exchanged a few words with the officer. Searching in the
pocket of his overcoat, which he had just unbuttoned, he took out an
object, which I believed to be a letter, and handed it over to him, as
also a watch and a locket. The officer took them, then seized hold of
Milliere and placed him in such a manner that he should be shot from
behind. The latter turned round with a brusque movement, and, his arms
crossed, faced the troop. This is the only movement of indignation or of
anger that I saw him make.
"Some more words were exchanged; Milliere seemed to be refusing to obey
an order. The officer came down. The instant after, a soldier seized him
who was to be shot by the shoulder and forced him to bend his knee upon
the flagstone.
"Half the rifles of the platoon only were levelled at him; the others
remained in the arms of the soldiers. During this time, believing his
last moment come, Milliere three times uttered the cry, 'Vive la
Republique!'
"The officer approaching the picket of the troop, ordered the rifles,
which had been too hurriedly lowered, to be raised again, and then he
pointed out with his sword how the order to fire would be given.
"'Vive le peuple! Vive l'humanite,' cried Milliere.
"The soldier on sentry, whose elbow touched my arm, answered the last
words by these: 'On va t'en foutre de l'humanite!' I had hardly heard
them when Milliere fell as if thunderstricken.
"A military man, whom I believe to have been a non-commissioned officer,
went up the steps, approached the corpse, lowered his rifle, and fired
point-blank near the left temple. The explosion was so violent that the
head of Milliere bounded, and appeared as if twisted back. The rain for
three-quarters of an hour had beaten against his face; the cloud of
powder fixed itself there.
"Lying on his side, his hands joined, his clothes open and thrown into
disorder by the fall, his head blackened, as if burst open, seeming to
look at the frontispiece of the monument, his corpse was something
terrible...."--_The death of Milliere recounted by M. Louis Mie,
Conseiller-General of the Dordogne, Municipal Counciller of Perigueux,
deputy of Bordeaux to the Chamber._
* * * * *
Madame Milliere having instituted judiciary proceedings against
Staff-Captain Garcin, the murderer of her husband, the trial was cut
short by the following letter:--
"VERSAILLES, _30th June 1873_.
"Captain Garcin of the General Staff attached to the 2d corps, has
during the second siege of Paris only executed the orders given him by
his superiors. He can thus in no way be made responsible for deeds which
were the result of these orders. The responsibility rests exclusively
upon those who have given the orders.
"The Minister at War,
"DE CISSEY."
XXI.--(Page 371.)
To the number of the innocent victims of our civil discords we have the
sorrow to add the name of a young man, twenty-seven years old, M.
Faneau, a doctor of medicine.
"Dr. Faneau had worked from the beginning of the war in the
International ambulances. During the whole siege of Paris he did not
cease tending the wounded with zealous devotion.
"After the revolution of the 18th March he remained in Paris, and
resumed his service in the ambulances.
"On the 25th May he was on duty at the Grand Seminaire de St. Sulpice,
where the Federals had established an ambulance.
"When the army had taken possession of the cross-roads of the Croix
Rouge, it advanced as far as the Place.
"A company of line soldiers came up to the door of the seminary, where
floated the flag of Geneva.
"The officer who commanded asked to speak to the chief of the ambulance.
Dr. Faneau, who filled this function, presented himself.
"'Are there any Federals here?' the officer asked him.
"'I have only wounded,' answered M. Faneau, 'they are Federals, but they
have been in my ambulance for several days.'
"At the moment when he was concluding these words, a shot was fired from
one of the windows of the first storey, and struck a soldier.
"This shot was discharged by one of the wounded Federals, who had
dragged himself from his bed to the window.[270]
"Immediately the officer, exasperated, threw himself upon Dr. Faneau,
crying to him, 'You lie, you have set a snare for us; you are the friend
of these rascals; you are going to be shot.'
"Dr. Faneau understood that it would be in vain to attempt to justify
himself; also, he offered no resistance to the firing-party.
"Some minutes after the unfortunate young man fell, struck by ten
bullets.
"We knew Dr. Faneau, and we can affirm that, far from sympathising with
the members of the Commune, he deplored their fatal errors, and waited
with impatience for the re-establishment of order."--_Le Siecle._
XXII.--(Page 383.)
In the _National_ of the 29th May appeared the following:--
"PARIS, _28th May 1871_.
"Sir,--Last Friday, at the time when corpses were being picked up in the
Boulevard St. Michel, some individuals of nineteen to twenty-five years
old, dressed as well-to-do people, were seated with gay women inside,
and at the doors of certain cafes of this boulevard, indulging with
these in scandalous merrymaking.--Accept, Monsieur le redacteur, &c.,
"DUHAMEL.
55 BOULEVARD D'ENFER."
The facts mentioned above were repeated every day.
The _Journal de Paris_, a Versaillese journal suppressed by the Commune,
wrote:--
"The manner in which the population of Paris manifested its satisfaction
yesterday was rather more than frivolous, and we fear it will grow worse
as time progresses. Paris has now a fete-day appearance, which is sadly
out of place; and unless we are to be called the Parisians of the
decline, this sort of thing must come to an end." Then he quoted the
passage from Tacitus: "Yet on the morrow of that horrible struggle, even
before it was completely over, Rome, degraded and corrupt, began once
more to wallow in the voluptuous slough which was destroying its body
and polluting its soul--_alibi proelia et vulnera, alibi balnea
popinaeque_--'here fights and wounds, there baths and restaurants.'"
XXIII.--(Page 384.)
The Versaillese journals confessed to 1600 prisoners buried in the Pere
Lachaise. The _Opinion Nationale_ of the 10th June said:--
"We do not wish to leave the Pere Lachaise without saluting with a look
of Christian compassion these deep trenches, where lie entombed
pell-mell the insurgents taken under arms, and those who would not
surrender.
"They have expiated their criminal folly by an act of summary justice.
May God pity and have mercy upon them!
"Let us rectify, in passing, the exaggerated rumours which have been
spread on the subject of the executions at the Pere Lachaise and in the
environs.
"It appears from certain information--we might almost venture to say
official statements--that there have only been buried in that cemetery,
_shot_ or killed fighting, _sixteen hundred men in all_."
But the following account of the executions of La Roquette has been
given me by an eye-witness, who barely escaped death:--
"I had returned to my house on the Saturday evening. Sunday morning, on
crossing the Boulevard du Prince Eugene, I was taken in a razzia. We
were conducted to La Roquette. A chief of battalion was standing at the
entrance. He surveyed us; then, with a nod of the head, said, 'To the
right,' or 'To the left.' I was sent to the left. 'Your affair is
settled,' the soldiers said to us; 'you are going to be shot,
_canailles!_' We were ordered to throw away our matches if we had any
about us, and then the signal was given to march on.
"I was the last of the file, and by the side of the sergeant who
conducted us. He looked at me. 'Who are you?' he asked me. 'A professor.
I was taken this morning as I came out of my house.' No doubt my accent,
the elegance of my clothes, struck him, for he added, 'Have you any
papers?' 'Yes.' 'Come!' and he took me back before the chief of
battalion. 'Commander,' said he, 'there is a mistake. This young man
has his papers.' 'All right,' answered the officer, without looking at
me, 'to the right.'
"The sergeant led me off. As we went along, he explained to me that the
prisoners taken to the left were shot. We had already got to a door on
the right, when a soldier ran after us: 'Sergeant, the commandant says
you are to take back this man to the left.'
"Fatigue, despair at the defeat, the enervation caused by so much
anguish, deprived me of all strength to dispute my life. 'Well, shoot
me,' said I to the sergeant, 'for you it will be but a crime the more!
only return these papers to my family,' and I turned to the left.
"I already perceived a long file of men drawn up against a wall, others
lying on the ground. Opposite them three priests read in their
breviaries the prayers of the dying. A few steps more and I was dead,
when suddenly I was seized hold of by the arm. It was my sergeant. He
took me back by force to the officer. 'Commandant,' said he, 'we cannot
shoot this man. He has his papers!' 'Let me see,' said the officer. I
handed over my pocket-book, which contained a card as employe at the
Ministry of Commerce during the first siege. 'To the right,' said the
commandant.
"There were soon more than 3,000 prisoners on the right. All Sunday and
part of the night detonations resounded by the side of us. On Monday
morning a platoon came in. 'Fifty men,' said the sergeant. We thought we
were going to be shot by parties, and no one stirred. The soldiers took
the first fifty they came across. I was of the number. We were taken to
the famous left side.
"On a space which seemed to us endless we saw heaps of corpses. 'Pick up
all this rubbish,' said the sergeants to us, 'and put them into these
carts.' We raised up these corpses covered with blood and mud. The
soldiers made frightful jokes; 'See what grimaces they cut,' and with
their heels crushed some face. It seemed to me that some were still
living. We told the soldiers so, but they answered, 'Come, come! get
on!' Certainly some died under the earth. We put 1,907 corpses into
these carts."
The _Liberte_ of the 4th June said:--
"The governor of La Roquette during the Commune, and his acolytes, were
shot on the very scene of their exploits.
"For the other National Guards arrested in this neighbourhood, and whose
number exceeded 4,000, a provisional court-martial was installed in the
Roquette itself. A commissary of police and police agents of safety were
charged with the first examination. Those appointed to be shot were
sent into the interior; they were killed from behind while they were
walking along, and their bodies were thrown on to the nearest heap. All
these monsters had the faces of bandits; the exceptions were to be
regretted."
XXIV.--(Page 384.)
"At the time of the trial of the members of the Council of the Commune
before the third court-martial sitting at Versailles, a certain M.
Gabriel Ossude came to give evidence as witness against Jourde, in whose
arrest he was concerned, he said, in his quality of provost of the
seventh arrondissement, and as Colonel Merlin, president of the court,
seemed astonished that such a function should have devolved upon a
civilian, M. Ossude entered into very precise explanations, which I
remember perfectly.
"He declared that towards the end of the Commune the prevotal courts had
been instituted by the Government of Versailles in view of the early
entry of the troops into Paris; that the number and the seats of the
exceptional tribunals had been arranged beforehand, as well as the
topographical limits of their jurisdictions; that he (M. Gabriel Ossude)
had received his nomination from the hands of M. Thiers, although he
held no rank in the army, but as captain of the seventeenth battalion of
the National Guard."--_Letter of Ulysse Parent, Rappel, March 19, 1877._
XXV.--(Page 385.)
"Near the Ecole Militaire the scene is at this moment very affecting;
prisoners are continually being led there, and their trial is
_terminated_ beforehand. It consists only in detonations."--_Siecle,
28th May._
"The courts-martial functioned in Paris with unheard-of activity at
several special points. At the Lobau Barracks, at the Ecole Militaire,
the fusillade is permanently heard. It is the settling of accounts with
those wretches who openly took part in the struggle."--_Liberte, 30th
May._
"Since morning (Sunday, 28th May) a strong cordon is being formed round
the theatre (Chatelet), where a court-martial is permanently
established. From time to time one sees a band of fifteen to twenty
individuals coming out, composed of National Guards, civilians, _women
and children fifteen to sixteen years old_.
"These individuals are condemned to death. They march two and two,
escorted by a platoon of chasseurs, who lead and bring up the
procession. This cortege goes up the Quai de Gevres and enters the
Republican Barracks in the Place Lobau. A minute after one hears from
within the fire of platoons and successive musketry discharges; it is
the sentence of the court-martial which has just been executed.
"The detachment of chasseurs returns to the Chatelet to fetch other
prisoners. The crowd seems deeply impressed on hearing the noise of the
fusillades."--_Journal des Debats, 30th May, 1871._
XXVI.--(Page 385.)
A journal of the Belgian bourgeoisie, the _Etoile_, one of the most
violent against the Commune, allowed this avowal to escape it:--
"The majority have met death like the Arabs after battle, with
indifference, with contempt, without hatred, without anger, without
insult to their executioners.
"All the soldiers who took part in these executions, and whom I have
questioned, have been unanimous in their accounts.
"One of them said to me, 'We shot about forty of these _canailles_ at
Passy. They all died like soldiers. Some crossed their arms, and stood
head erect. Others opened their tunics and cried to us 'Fire! we are not
afraid of death.'
"Not one of those whom we have shot trembled. I especially remember an
artillerist, who by himself did us more harm than a whole battalion. He
was alone serving a piece of cannon. During three-quarters of an hour he
peppered us with grape shot, and he killed and wounded not a few of my
comrades. At last he was overwhelmed. We had turned his barricade.
"I still see him. He was a strongly-built man. He was bathed in
perspiration from the service he had done during three-quarters of an
hour. 'Your turn now,' said he to us. 'I have merited shooting, but I
shall die game.'
"Another soldier of General Clinchant's corps told me how his company
had led to the ramparts eighty-four insurgents taken bearing arms.
"They all placed themselves in a line, he said to me, as if they were
going to exercise. Not one faltered. One of them who had a handsome
face, wore trousers in fine cloth tucked into his boots, and a Zouave's
belt round his waist, said to us calmly, 'Try to aim at my chest; be
careful not to touch my head.' We all fired, but the poor fellow had
half of his head carried away."
A functionary of Versailles made me the following recital:--
"During the day, Sunday, I made an excursion to Paris. I went by the
Theatre du Chatelet towards the smoking ruins of the Hotel-de-Ville,
when I was surrounded and carried along by the stream of a crowd which
was following a convoy of prisoners.
"I found among them the same men whom I had seen in the battalions of
the siege of Paris. Almost all seemed to me to be working-men.
"Their faces betrayed neither despair nor despondency nor emotion. They
walked on with a firm, resolute step, and they seemed to me so
indifferent to their fate that I thought they expected to be released. I
was entirely mistaken. These men had been taken in the morning at
Menilmontant, and knew whither they were being led. Arrived at the Lobau
Barracks, the cavalry officers who preceded the escort had a semi-circle
formed, and prevented the curious from advancing."
XXVII.--(Page 385.)
One of the most ignoble barkers of Versailles, Francisque Sarcey, wrote
in the _Gaulois_ of the 13th June:--
"Men who are quite cool, of whose judgment and word I cannot doubt, have
spoken to me with an astonishment mingled with horror of the scenes they
had seen, seen with their own eyes, and which rendered me rather
meditative.
"Young women, pretty of face, and dressed in silk dresses, came down
into the street, and a revolver in their hands, fired at random, and
then said with proud mien, elevated voice, eyes full of hatred, 'Shoot
me at once!' One of them, who had been taken in a house whence they had
fired from the windows, was about to be bound in order to be taken to
Versailles and judged there.
"'Come,' said she, 'save me the trouble of the journey!' And placing
herself against a wall, her arms spread open, her breast bare, she
seemed to solicit--to provoke death.
"All those who have been seen executed thus summarily by furious
soldiers have died, insults on their tongues, with a laugh of contempt,
like martyrs, who in sacrificing themselves accomplish a great duty."
XXVIII.--(Page 386.)
At the time of an action entered against M. Raspail, _fils_, in 1876,
for his pamphlet in favour of an amnesty, the following letter,
addressed to him by M. Hervey de Saisy, senator, was read in court:--
"I cannot, for motives of discretion bearing on divers persons, repeat
in this letter the recital which I made you _viva voce_ on the occasion
of which you remind me. However, I wish to answer your courteous appeal
by repeating here the words which served as a reason for the iniquitous
order by which the life of M. Cernuschi was menaced, during the day on
which the troops took possession of the prison of Ste. Pelagie and the
Jardin des Plantes.
"These are the words pronounced by the general of division who gave the
order of summary execution. Learning that Cernuschi had repaired to the
prison, at the door of which I saw his carriage, he said to some one,
whom I cannot mention, 'Ah! it is Cernuschi, the man of the 100,000
francs of the plebiscite. Return to the prison, and let him be shot
within five minutes.'
"Five minutes represented the time that would be required by the bearer
of the order in going to the prison from the Cedre du Jussieu, whence
the general watched the phases of the combat.
"At first I did not understand this strange phrase, but some moments
after I remembered that it was the expression of a political vengeance
which was about to be exercised against M. Cernuschi for having offered
100,000 francs for the propaganda which the Opposition was to make
during the final plebiscite of the Empire.
"Profoundly indignant at what I had just heard, I was fortunate enough
to bring about a fortuitous incident to which the already condemned
victim owed his salvation.
"Such are the details I am able to furnish you with.
"HERVE DE SAISY."
XXIX.--(Page 386.)
"Some journals of Paris," wrote the _Echo de la Dordogne_, on the 19th
June, 1871, "have repeated that Tony Moilin had been condemned and shot
for having been taken arms in hand on the 27th May. This report is
incorrect.
"One single fact was Tony Moilin reproached with: that of having on the
18th March taken possession of the mairie of his arrondissement, and
having thus had a share in giving the signal for the insurrection. He
was shown a kind of dismissal given by him on that day to M. Herisson,
the mayor whom he had replaced. No witness was heard.
"Moilin admitted the fact; then he added that he had exercised the
function of mayor during hardly two days; that at the end of this time,
little in accord with the men of the Commune, he had voluntarily ceased
to appear at the mairie, where he had been immediately replaced.
"The court-martial asked Moilin to account for his time and his acts
since the day of the entry of the army of Versailles into Paris. He
answered that, known for a long time, especially through the Blois trial
and by his writings, as one of the chiefs of the Socialist party, having
to answer for taking possession of the mairie of the eighth
arrondissement on the 18th March, fearing a too summary justice and the
fury of the first moments, he had sought and found shelter at a
friend's, and that, from the Monday morning till the Saturday night; ...
that on the Saturday evening, the 27th March, this friend had asked his
guest to leave his retreat, and that on leaving this inhospitable house,
discouraged, not seeking any longer to defend his liberty, nor even his
life, he had returned to his home, where, on the denunciation of his
porter and his neighbours, he had been almost directly afterwards
arrested and taken before the court-martial at the Luxembourg.
"To this recital was confined the defence of Tony Moilin, who was
immediately condemned to death. The court-martial _condescended to tell
him that the fact of the mairie, the only one he could be reproached
with, had in itself not much importance, and did not merit death, but
that he was one of the chiefs of the Socialist party, dangerous through
his talents, his character, and his influence over the masses; one of
those men, in short, of whom a prudent and wise Government must rid
itself when it finds a legitimate occasion to do so_.
"Tony Moilin could only be satisfied with the urbanity (_sic_) of the
members of the court. Without any difficulty a respite of twelve hours
was granted him in order that he might make his testament, write a few
words of farewell to his father, and finally give his name to the woman
who had, during the Blois trial and since, shown him the greatest
devotion. These duties fulfilled, on the 28th May, in the morning, Tony
Moilin was led into the garden a few steps from the palace and shot. His
body, which his widow claimed, the surrender of which had been at first
promised, was refused her."
XXX.--(Page 386.)
This assassination also stands to the debit account of Garcin. Let us
again allow him to speak.
"Billioray at first attempted to deny his identity. He wanted to rush
upon a soldier; he was a man of athletic strength.... He defended
himself, he foamed with rage. There was hardly time to interrogate him.
He began some tale about money, whose place of concealment he could
indicate. He spoke of 150,000 francs; then he interrupted himself, in
order to say to me, 'I see you are going to have me shot. It is useless
for me to say any more.' I said to him, 'You persist?' 'Yes.' He was
shot."--_Enquete sur le 18 Mars_, vol. ii. p. 234.
XXXI--(Page 386.)
"The event took place on Thursday, 25th May, at a few minutes past six
in the evening, in the small Rue des Pretres-Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois.
Valles was coming out of the Theatre du Chatelet, led off by the
firing-party charged to shoot him. He wore a black coat, and light
trousers of a yellowish shade. He wore no hat; and his beard, which he
had shaved but lately, was very short, and already getting grey.
"On entering the lane where the ominous sentence was to be carried out,
the sentiment of self-preservation gave him back the energy which seemed
to have abandoned him. He wanted to fly; but, held back by the soldiers,
he got into a horrible fury, crying 'Murder!' writhing, seizing his
executioners by the throat, biting them, offering, in one word, a
desperate resistance.
"The soldiers were beginning to be embarrassed and a little moved at
this horrible struggle, when one of them passing behind gave him such a
furious blow in the loins with the butt-end of his gun that the
unfortunate man fell with a low groan.
"No doubt the spinal column was broken. They then fired some shots with
their revolvers straight into his body, and pierced him with bayonet
thrusts. As he was still breathing, one of the executioners approached
and discharged his chassepot into his ear. Part of the skull burst open;
his body was abandoned in the gutter till some one came to pick it up.
"It is then that the spectators of this scene approached, and despite
the wounds that disfigured him, were able to establish his
identity."--_Account by a Military Surgeon published in the Gaulois._
XXXII.--(Page 392.)
The _Radical_ of the 30th May, 1872, published the following letter from
an employe at St. Thomas d'Acquin, who during the Commune had rendered
the Versaillese the service of preventing the firing of the cannons of 8
cm. breechloaders:--
"_To Monsieur le Comte Daru, President of the Committee of Inquiry into
the Insurrection of the 18th March, Versailles._
"Monsieur le President,--I have just read in a book, which is entitled
_Enquete Parlementaire sur l'Insurrection du 18 Mars_, under the head,
_Evidence of witnesses_, the following evidence by the Staff-Captain
Garcin:--
"'All those who were arrested under arms were shot during the first
moments, that is to say, during the combat. But when we were masters of
the left bank there were no more executions.'
"In the report of Marshal MacMahon on the operations of the army of
Versailles against insurgent Paris, I find the following declaration:--
"'In the evening of the 25th May the whole left bank was in our power,
as also the bridges of the Seine.'
"The evidence of Captain Garcin is unfortunately contrary to the truth.
Four days after the 25th May my son and fourteen other unhappy victims
were killed at the Dupleix Barracks, situated on the left bank, near the
Ecole Militaire.
"On the 31st August I addressed the Minister of Justice a complaint on
this subject, of which I send you a correct copy. After having related
the facts with regard to my son, I demanded that the law should search
for and punish the culprits.
"Up to the present time the law has remained deaf to my claims,
notwithstanding the publicity I have given this complaint, in order to
prove the disappearance of my child.
"If it were true, as Captain Garcin declares, that orders had been given
by the general commander-in-chief of the troops of the left bank to put
an end to these executions after the evening of the 25th May; if again
it were true that Marshal MacMahon had by his despatch of the 28th May
given the order to suspend all executions, as the Colonel presiding over
the court-martial at the trial of the members of the Commune
declared--the officer of the gendarmerie, named Roncol, who ordered the
massacres at the Dupleix Barracks, and his accomplices should have been
prosecuted for having, in contempt of the orders of the chief of the
army, had unfortunate people killed who had taken no part in the
combat.
"Thus, horrible fact, in the morning of the 29th May, while I was giving
up the cannon at St. Thomas d'Acquin, which my son and I had sworn on
our honour to preserve for the state, and for which we had risked our
lives, my son was being massacred at the end of a stable by those who
ought to have protected him.
"In consequence of these facts, which I have just made public, I beg
Monsieur le President to be so obliging as to have the evidence of
Captain Garcin rectified, which is on this point of the executions
entirely contrary to truth.--I have the honour, Monsieur le President,
&c.,
(Signed) "G. LAUDET."
"The correct copy of this was addressed in a registered letter of the
28th March, 1872, under the number 158, to M. le Comte Daru, who has
acknowledged the receipt of it.
"G. LAUDET."
"PARIS, _23rd May 1872_."
XXXIII.--(Page 393.)
"It is in the Bois de Boulogne that those condemned to death by the
court-martial will for the future be executed. Whenever the number of
the condemned shall exceed ten men the execution platoons will be
replaced by a mitrailleuse."--_Paris Journal, 9th June._
"All circulation is forbidden in the Bois de Boulogne.
"One is forbidden to enter there, unless accompanied by a platoon of
soldiers, and still more forbidden to come out again."--_Paris Journal,
15th June._
XXXIV.--(Page 395.)
"One man, a swarthy, burly fellow, with a shock head of black hair, sat
down at the corner of the Rue de la Paix and declined to go any further,
shaking his fist at the people and grinding his teeth. After several
attempts at coercive measures, one of the soldiers lost all patience,
and drove his bayonet twice into his body, telling him to get up and
walk on like the rest. As might have been expected, this method was not
successful, and so he was seized and placed on a horse, from which he
speedily threw himself, and was then tied to its tail, and dragged along
the ground after the manner of Brunhilda. He soon became faint from loss
of blood, and having thus been reduced to a quiescent state, was bundled
into an ambulance waggon, and carried off amid the shouts and
execrations of the populace."--_Times, May 31st._
"Another prisoner, who had also refused to march, was dragged by the
hands and hair of the head along the road."--_Times, May 30th._
"Near the Parc Monceaux a husband and wife were seized, and ordered to
march forward towards the Place Vendome, a distance of a mile and a
half. They were both of them invalids and unable to walk so far. The
woman sat down on the kerbstone, and declined to move a step in spite of
her husband's entreaties that she would try. She persisted in her
refusal, and they both knelt down together, begging the gendarmes who
accompanied them to shoot them at once if shot they were to be. Twenty
revolvers were fired, but they still breathed, and it was only at the
second discharge that they finally sank down dead. The gendarmes then
rode away, leaving the bodies as they had fallen."--_Times, May 29th._
XXXV.--(Page 396.)
The conservative paper, the _Tricolore_, said on the 31st May:--
"Sunday morning, the 24th, out of more than _two thousand_ Federals, one
hundred and eleven of them have been shot in the ditches of Passy, and
that under circumstances which show that the victory [the conclusion of
this nonsensical phrase must be given in the original] _etait entree
dans toute la maturite de la situation_.
"'Let those who have white hairs step out from the ranks!' said General
Gallifet, who presided at the execution, and the number of grey-headed
Federals amounted to one hundred and eleven!
"For these the aggravating circumstance was having been contemporaries
of June, 1848.
"There is here a new _retro-syncopante_ theory which might take us a
long way back."
The _Liberte_ of Brussels published the following declaration, signed by
eve-witnesses, of the facts which had occurred at La Muette on the 26th
May, 1871:--
"On the 26th of last May we formed part of the column of prisoners who
had left the Boulevard Malesherbes at eight o'clock in the morning in
the direction of Versailles. We stopped at the Chateau of La Muette,
where General Gallifet, after having dismounted from his horse, passed
into our ranks, and then making a choice, he pointed out to the troops
eighty-three men and three women. They were taken away along the talus
of the fortifications and shot before us. After this exploit the General
said to us: '_My name is Gallifet. Your journals in Paris have sullied
me enough. I take my revenge._'
"Thence we were directed to Versailles, where during the journey we were
again obliged to assist at frightful executions of two women and three
men, who, falling down exhausted and being unable to keep up with the
column, were killed with bayonet-thrusts by the _sergents de ville_
forming our escort."
The names followed, with the professions and addresses of the signers,
to the number of eleven.
* * * * *
"The column of prisoners halted in the Avenue Uhrich and was drawn up
four or five deep on the footway facing to the road. General the Marquis
de Gallifet and his staff, who had preceded us there, dismounted, and
commenced an inspection from the left of the line and near where I was.
Walking down slowly, and eyeing the ranks as if at an inspection, the
General stopped here and there, tapping a man on the shoulder or
beckoning him out of the rear-ranks. In most cases, without further
parley, the individual thus selected was marched out into the centre of
the road, where a small supplementary column was thus soon formed....
They evidently knew too well that their last hour had come, and it was
fearfully interesting to see their different demeanours. One, already
wounded, his shirt soaked with blood, sat down in the road and howled
with anguish; ... others wept in silence; two soldiers, presumed
deserters, pale but collected, appealed to all the other prisoners as to
whether they had ever seen them amongst their ranks; some smiled
defiantly.... It was an awful thing to see one man thus picking out a
batch of his fellow-creatures to be put to a violent death in a few
minutes without further trial.... A few paces from where I stood, a
mounted officer pointed out to General Gallifet a man and woman for some
particular offence. The woman, rushing out of the ranks, threw herself
on her knees and with outstretched arms implored mercy, and protested
her innocence in passionate terms. The General waited for a pause, and
then, with most impassable face and unmoved demeanour, said: 'Madame, I
have visited every theatre in Paris; your acting will have no effect on
me' (ce n'est pas la peine de jouer la comedie).... I followed the
General closely down the line, still a prisoner, but honoured with a
special escort of two chasseurs-a-cheval, and endeavoured to arrive at
what guided him in his selections. The result of my observations was
that it was not a good thing on that day to be noticeably taller,
dirtier, cleaner, older, or uglier than one's neighbour. One individual
in particular struck me as probably owing his speedy release from the
ills of this world to his having a broken nose on what might have been
otherwise an ordinary face, and being unable from his height to conceal
it. Over a hundred being thus chosen, a firing party told off, and the
column resumed its marching, leaving them behind. In a few minutes
afterwards, a dropping fire in our rear commenced and continued for over
a quarter of an hour. It was the execution of these summarily convicted
wretches."--_The Daily News, June 8, 1871._
"Yesterday (Sunday, 28th), about one o'clock, General Gallifet appeared
at the head of a column of 6,000 prisoners.... Upon their haggard
countenances and in their downcast eyes there was no ray of hope to be
seen. They were evidently prepared for the worst fate, and dragged
listlessly along, as though it were not worth while to walk to
Versailles to be shot when an immediate execution might save them the
trouble. M. de Gallifet seemed to be of the same opinion, and a little
beyond the Arc-de-Triomphe he halted the column, selected eighty-two,
and had them shot there and then. A little after this a band of twenty
Pompiers were marched into the Parc Monceaux and executed."--_The Times,
May 31, 1871._
XXXVI.--(Page 438.)
Here is a copy of a letter addressed to the Versaillese general staff,
and probably still in its possession, and bearing the number 28 ibis:--
"_To the Chief of the General Staff._
"General--I have been mistaken for a M. de Beaufond, and this annoys me
all the more, that negligences committed by him are imputed to me.
"I have certainly not wasted my time during this period of fifteen days.
I have organised quite a legion of combatants. Their order is to run
away on the approach of the troops, and thus to throw the ranks of the
Federals into disorder.
"The means indicated by the Committee of A---- seems to be practicable. I
will make use of it. With only one hundred drunkards one can do many a
thing."
XXXVII.--(Page 444.)
This, according to the, of course, very approximate report of General
Appert, is the contingent furnished by the different professions:--528
jewellers, 124 pasteboard makers, 210 hatters, 328 carpenters, 1,065
clerks, 1,491 shoemakers, 206 dressmakers, 172 gilders, 636
cabinetmakers, 1,598 commercial employes, 98 instrument makers, 227
tin-workers, 224 founders, 182 engravers, 179 watchmakers, 819
compositors, 159 stained paper printers, 106 teachers, 2,901 day
labourers, 2,293 bricklayers, 1,659 joiners, 193 lace-makers, 863
house-painters, 106 bookbinders, 283 sculptors, 2,664 locksmiths and
mechanicians, 681 tailors, 347 tanners, 157 moulders, 766 stone-cutters.
XXXVIII.--(Page 463.)
Notably in the affair of the spy of the Hautes-Bruyeres, for which
several persons had already been condemned. This spy--a young man of
twenty, and not a child, as the reactionists have stated--had attracted
the shells of the enemy to the Federal positions. Brought before a
court-martial, composed of La Cecilia, commander of the army corps, of
Johannard, delegate of the Commune, and of all the chiefs of battalions,
he admitted having taken the Versaillese the plan of the Federal
positions, and having received twenty francs as reward. He was
unanimously condemned to death. At the moment of the execution,
Johannard and Grandier, La Cecilia's aide-de-camp, explained to the
condemned man that he would be pardoned if he would reveal the name of
his accomplice, an inhabitant of Montrouge. He replied, "You are
brigands. _Je vous emm...._" This fact, odiously travestied, has
furnished Victor Hugo, very ill informed as to this civil war, with a
verse for his "Annee Terrible," as unjust to Johannard as to Serizier,
one of the men shot at Satory. The great poet owes himself a disclaimer.
FOOTNOTES:
[269] Thiers and Jules Favre themselves have calumniated Paris less than
Louis Blanc. The first says in the _Enquete sur le 18 Mars_, vol. ii. p.
15: "_It is not true, as has been asserted, that I had great
difficulties with the Prussian Government concerning the Commune, or
that it had any predilection for the latter._" Jules Favre, vol. ii. p.
49; "_I have seen nothing that could authorise me to accuse either the
Bonapartists or Prussia. General Trochu has been mistaken. I have seen
nothing that could authorise me to accuse the Bonapartists of having
fomented the 18th March. After the insurrection of the 18th March, I
spent my time in refusing the offers which were made me by the Prussians
to assist in the overthrow of the Commune._"
[270] The _Siecle_, in search of attenuating circumstances for the army,
had invented this more than phantasmagorial incident.
THE END.
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| Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the |
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| Page xii ANSNIERES changed to ASNIERES |
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| Page 13 phrenzy changed to frenzy |
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| Page 109 oppresion changed to oppression |
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End of Project Gutenberg's History of the Commune of 1871, by P. Lissagary