Paris under the Commune - John Leighton
Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31
"We are in the position to assert that a company of the 132nd
Battalion has this morning surrounded fifteen thousand gendarmes and
sergents-de-ville, in the park of Neuilly. Seeing that all
resistance was useless, the supporters of Monsieur Thiers
surrendered without reserve. Among them were seventeen members of
the National Assembly, who, not content with ordering the
assassination of our brothers, had wished also to be present at the
massacre.
[Illustration: PASCHAL GROUSSET, DELEGATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS.][73]
"A person worthy of credit has related to us the following fact:--A
_cantiniere_ of the 44th Battalion (from the Batignolles quarter),
was in the act of pouring out a glass of brandy for an artilleryman
of the Fort of Vanves, when suddenly the artilleryman was out in two
by a Versailles shell; the brave _cantiniere_ drank off the contents
of the glass just poured out for the dead man who lay in bits at her
feet, and took his place at the guns. She performed her new part of
artilleryman so bravely, that ten minutes later there was not a
single gun uninjured in the Meudon battery. As to those who were
serving the pieces there, they were all hurled to a distance of
several miles, and amongst them were said to have been
recognised--we give this news however with great reserve--Monsieur
Ollivier, the ex-minister of the ex-Emperor, and Count von Bismarck,
who wished to verify for himself the actual range of the guns that
he had lent to his good friends of Versailles."
After the LATEST NEWS come the reports of the day, the _bulletin du
jour_ as it is called now, and it is in this that the editor, a member
of the Commune, reveals his talent. We trust that the following example
is not quite unworthy of the pen of Monsieur Felix Pyat, or the
signature of Monsieur Vermorel:--
"Paris, 29th April, 1871.
"They are lying in wait for us, these tigers athirst for blood.
"They are there, these Vandals, who have sworn that in all Paris not
a single man shall be spared, nor a single stone, left standing.
"But we are not in their power yet. No, nor shall we ever be.
"The National Guard is on the watch; victorious and sublime, their
soldierly breasts are not of flesh and blood, but of bronze, from
which the balls rebound as they stand, dauntless, before the enemy.
"Ah! so these lachrymose Jules Favres, these fat Picards, these
hungry Jules Ferrys, said amongst themselves, 'We will take Paris,
we will tear it up, and its soil shall be divided after the victory
between the wives of the _sergents de ville!_' They are beginning
to understand all the insanity of their plan. Why, it is Paris that
will take Versailles, that will take all those blear-eyed old men
who, because they cannot look steadily at Monsieur Thiers' face,
fancy that it is the sun.
"It is in vain that they gorge with blood and wine their deceived
soldiers; the moment is approaching when these men will no longer
consent to march against the city which is fighting for them.
Already, yesterday, the melee of a battle could be distinguished
from the fort of Vanves; the line had come to blows with the
_gendarmes_ of Valentin and Charette's Zouaves. Courage, Parisians!
A few more days and you will have triumphed over all the infamy that
dares to stop the march of the victorious Commune!
"But it is not enough to vanquish the enemies without, we must get
rid also of the enemies that are within.
"No more pity! no more vacillation! The justice of the people is
wearied of formalities, and cries out for vengeance. Death to spies!
Death to the _reactionaires_! Death to the priests! Why does the
Commune feed this collection of malefactors in your prisons, while
the money they cost us daily would be so useful to the women and
children of those who are fighting for the cause of Paris? We are
assured that one of the prisoners ate half a chicken for his dinner
yesterday; how many good patriots might have been saved from
suffering with the sum which was taken from the chests of the
Republic for this orgie! There is no longer time to hesitate; the
Versaillais are shooting and mutilating the prisoners; we must
revenge ourselves! We must show them such an example, that in
perceiving from afar the heads of their infamous accomplices, the
traitors of Versailles, stuck upon our ramparts, confounded by the
magnanimity of the Commune, they will lay down their arms at last,
and deliver themselves up as prisoners.
"As to the refractory of Paris, we cannot find words to express the
astonishment we experience at the weakness that has been shown with
regard to them.
"What! we permit that there should still be cowards in Paris? I
thought they were all at Versailles. We allow still to remain
amongst us men who are not of our opinion? This state of things has
lasted too long. Let them take their muskets or die. Shoot them
down, those who refuse to go forward. They have wives and children,
they are fathers of families, they say; a fine reason indeed! The
Commune before everything! And, besides, there must be no pity for
the wives of _reactionaires_ and the children of spies!"
The _bulletins du jour_ are sometimes set forth in gentler terms; but we
have chosen a fair average specimen between the lukewarm and the most
violent.
Then comes the solid, serious article, generally written by a pen
invested with all due authority, by the man who has the most head in the
place. The subject varies according to circumstances; but the main point
of the article is generally to show that Paris has never been so rich,
so free, nor so happy, as under the government of the Commune; and this
is a truth that is certainly not difficult to prove. Is not the fact of
being able to live without working the best possible proof that people
are well off? Well! look at the National Guards; they have not touched a
tool for a whole month, and they have such a supply of money that they
are obliged to make over some of it to the wineshop-keepers in exchange
for an unlimited number of litres and sealed bottles. Then, who could
say that we are not free? The journals that allowed themselves to assert
the contrary have been prudently suppressed. Besides, is it not being
free to have shaken off the shameful yoke of the men who sold France; to
be no longer subjected to the oppression of snobs, _reactionaires_, and
traitors? And as to the most perfect happiness, it stands to reason,
since we are both free and rich, that we must be in the incontestable
enjoyment of it. Finally, after the official dispatches edited in the
style you are acquainted with, and after the accounts of the last
battles, come the miscellaneous news, the _faits divers_; and here it is
that the ingenuity of the writers displays itself to the greatest
advantage.
"Yesterday evening, towards ten o'clock, the attention of the
passers-by in the Rue St. Denis was attracted by cries which seemed
to proceed from a four-storied house situated at the corner of the
Rue Sainte-Apolline. The cries were evidently cries of despair. Some
people went to the nearest guardhouse to make the fact known, and
four National Guards, preceded by their corporal, entered the house.
Guided by the sound of the cries they arrived at the fourth storey,
and broke open the door. A horrible spectacle was then exposed to
the view of the Guards and of the persons who had followed them in
their quest. Three young children lay stretched on the floor of the
room, the disorder of which denoted a recent struggle. The poor
little things were without any covering whatever, and there were
traces of blows upon their bodies; one of them had a cut across the
forehead. The National Guards questioned the children with an almost
maternal kindness. They had not eaten for four days, and, in
consequence of this prolonged fast, they were in such a state of
moral and physical abasement that no precise information could be
obtained from them. The corporal then addressed himself to the
neighbours, and soon became acquainted with a part of the terrible
truth.
"In this room lived a poor work-girl, young and pretty. One day, as
she was carrying back her work to the shop, she observed that she
was followed by a well-dressed man, whose physiognomy indicated the
lowest passions. He spoke to her, and was at first repulsed; but,
like the tempter Faust offering jewels to Marguerite, he tempted her
with bright promises, and the poor girl, to whom work did not always
come, listened to the base seducer. Blame her not too harshly, pity
her rather, and reserve all your indignation for the wretch who
betrayed her.
"After three years, which were but anguish and remorse to the
miserable woman, and during which she had no other consolation but
the smiles of the children whose very existence was a crime, she was
becoming reconciled at last to her life, when the father of her
children deserted her.
"This desertion coincided with the glorious revolution of the 18th
of March; and the poor work-girl, who had still room in her heart
for patriotism, found some consolation in reflecting that the day,
so miserable for her, had at least brought happiness to France.
"A fortnight passed, the poor abandoned mother had given up all hope
of ever seeing the father of her three children again, when one
evening--it was last Friday--a man, wrapped in a black cloak,
introduced himself into the house, and made inquiries of the
_concierge_--a great patriot, and commander of the 114th
Battalion--whether Mademoiselle O... were at home? Upon an answer in
the affirmative from the heroic defender of Right and Liberties of
Paris, the man mounted the stairs to the poor workwoman's rooms. It
was he--the seducer; the _concierge_ had recognised him. What passed
between the murderer and his victims? That will be known,
perhaps--never! But certain it is, that an hour afterwards he went
out, still enveloped in his black mantle.
"The next day, and the days following, the _concierge_ was much
astonished not to see his lodger of the fourth floor, who was
accustomed to stop and talk with him on her way to fetch her _cafe
au lait_. But his deep sense of duty as commander of the 114th
Battalion occupied his mind so thoroughly, that he paid but little
attention to the incident. Neither did he regard the sighs and sobs
which were heard from the upper stories. He can scarcely be blamed
for this negligence; he was studying his _vade-mecum_.
"On the fourth day, however, the cries were so violent that they
began to inspire the passers-by with alarm, and we have related how
four men, headed by their _caporal_, were sought for to inquire into
the cause.
"We have already told what was seen and heard, but the explanations
of the neighbours were not sufficient to clear up the darkest side
of the mystery, and perhaps the truth would never have been known if
the _caporal_--exhibiting, by a rare proof of intelligence, how far
he was worthy of the grade with which his comrades had honoured
him--had not been inspired with the idea of lifting up the curtain
of the bed.
"Horror! Upon the bed lay stretched the corpse of the unhappy
mother, a dagger plunged into her heart, and in her clutched hand
was found a paper upon which the victim, before rendering her last
breath, had traced the following lines:--
"'I die, murdered by him who has betrayed me; he would have murdered
also my three children, if a noise in the next room had not caused
him to take flight. He had come from Versailles for the express
purpose of accomplishing this quadruple crime, and, by this means,
obliterate every trace of his past villany. His name is Jules Ferry.
You who read this, revenge me!'"
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 72: Vermesch, who was born at Lille, in 1846, though not an
official member of the Commune, was one of its most powerful champions.
He was founder and principal editor of the _Pere Duchesne_, a poor
imitation of the journal, published under the same title, by Hebert, in
the time of the first Revolution. This paper, one of the most
characteristic of the Commune, was filled with trivialities, in the
vilest taste and slang, which cannot be rendered in English. The first
number of Vermesch's journal was published on the 6th of March, but was
suppressed by General Vinoy; it re-appeared, however, on the eighteenth
of the same month, and met with such prodigious success, that even its
editor himself was astonished. Intoxicated with the result, the writers
became more and more virulent, and not content with penning the vilest
personal abuse, Vermesch assumed the _role_ of public informer. For
instance, he denounced M. Gustave Chaudey, a writer in the _Siecle_, in
the _Pere Duchesne_ of the 12th of April, and that journalist was
arrested in consequence on the following day. The journal became, not
only the medium of all kinds of personal abuse and vengeance, but did
the duty of inquisitor for the Communal Government, for whom it produced
a terrible crop of victims. The _Official Journal_ contained a number of
decrees, the drafts of which at first appeared in _Pere Duchesne_.
Amongst other acts, Vermesch organised what he called the battalion of
the Enfants of the _Pere Duchesne_, and considering the origin of this
corps, the character of the rabble which filled its ranks may easily be
imagined. The children of such a father could only be found amidst the
lowest dregs of the Parisian population; fit instruments for the
infamous work which was afterwards to be done.]
[Footnote 73: Paschal Grousset prepared himself for politics by the
study of medicine; from the anatomy of heads he passed to the dissection
of ideas. Having turned journalist, he wrote scientific articles in
_Figaro_, contributed to the _Standard_, and was one of the editors of
the _Marseillaise_ when the challenge, which gave rise to the death of
Victor Noir and the famous trial at Tours, was sent to Prince Pierre
Bonaparte. Immediately after the revolution of the eighteenth of March
he started the _Nouvelle Republique_, an ephemeral publication which
only lived a week. On the second of April he commenced the _Affranchi_,
or journal of free men, as he called it, Vesinier joining him in the
management of it. The popularity of Grousset caused him to be elected a
member of the Commune in April, and the Government soon appointed him
Minister of Foreign Affairs. He communicated circulars to the
representatives of different nations at Paris, in order to obtain a
recognition of the Commune; he also sent proclamations to the large
towns of France, appealing to arms. But his means of communication with
other governments, and indeed with his own envoys, was very restricted.
He was one of those who took refuge at the _Mairie_ of the Eleventh
Arrondissement, and who, knowing well that the struggle was really over,
said to the silly heroes who protected them, "All is well. The
Versailles mob is turned, and you will soon join your brethren in the
Champs Elysees." Many of them that night entered the valley of the
shadow of death! On the third of June the ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs
was arrested in the Rue Condorcet, dressed as a woman, and marched off
to Versailles.]
LXX.
"Issy is taken!
"Issy is not taken!
"Megy[74] has delivered it up!
"Eudes holds it still."
I have heard nothing but contradictory news since this morning. Is Fort
Issy in the hands of the Versailles troops--yes or no? Hoping to get
better information by approaching the scene of conflict, I went to the
Porte d'Issy, but returned without having succeeded in learning
anything.
There were but few people in that direction; some National Guards,
sheltered by a casemate, and a few women, watching for the return of
their sons and husbands, were all I saw. The cannonading was terrific;
in less than a quarter of an hour I heard five shells whistle over my
head.
Towards twelve o'clock the drawbridge was lowered, and I saw a party of
about sixty soldiers, dusty, tired, and dejected, advancing towards me.
These were some of the "revengers of the Republic."
"Where do you come from?" I asked them.
"From the trenches. There were four hundred of us, and we are all that
remain."
But when I asked them whether the Fort of Issy were taken, they made no
answer.
Following the soldiers came four men, bearing a litter, on which a dead
body lay stretched; and it was with this sad procession that I
re-entered Paris. From time to time the men deposited their load on the
ground, and went into a wine-shop to drink. I took advantage of one of
these moments when the corpse lay abandoned, to lift the cloak that had
been spread over it. It was the body of a young man, almost a lad; his
wound was hidden, but the collar of his shirt was dyed crimson with
blood. When the men returned for the third time, their gait was so
unsteady that it was with difficulty they raised the poor boy's bier,
and then went off staggering. At the turning of a street the corpse
fell, and I ran up as it was being picked from the ground; one of the
drunken men was shedding tears, and maudling out, "My poor brother!"
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 74: Megy, the famous governor of the Fort of Issy, was
implicated in the last, supposed, plot against the life of Napoleon III.
Having shot one of the police agents charged with his arrest, he was
tried and condemned to death. He was, however, delivered from prison on
the fourth of September, and appointed to the command of a battalion of
National Guards, with which he marched against the Hotel de Ville on the
thirty-first of October and the twentieth of January. He was named a
member of the Commune on the eighteenth of March, and set fire to the
Cour des Comptes and the Palace of the Legion d'Honneur on the
twenty-third of May, 1871.]
LXXI.
We shall see no more of Cluseret! Cluseret is done for, Cluseret is in
prison![75] What has he done? Is he in disgrace on account of Fort Issy?
This would scarcely be just, considering that if the fort were evacuated
yesterday it was reoccupied this morning; by the bye, I cannot explain
satisfactorily to myself why the Versaillais should have abandoned this
position, which they seem to have considered of some importance. If it
is not on account of Fort Issy that Cluseret was politely asked to go
and keep Monseigneur Darboy company, why was it? I remember hearing
yesterday and the day before something about a letter of General
Fabrice, in which that amiable Prussian, it is reported, begged General
Cluseret to intercede with the Commune in behalf of the imprisoned
priests. Is it possible that the Communal delegate, at the risk of
passing for a Jesuit, could have made the required demand? Why, M.
Cluseret, that was quite enough for you to be put in prison, and shot
too into the bargain. However, you did not intercede for anybody, for
the very excellent reason that General Fabrice no more thought of
writing to you, than of giving back Alsace and Lorraine. So we must
search somewhere else for the motive of this sudden eclipse. Some say
there was a quarrel with Dombrowski, that the latter thought fit to
sign a truce without the authority of Cluseret--a truce, what an idea!
Has Dombrowski any scruples about slaughter?--that Cluseret flew into a
great rage; but that his rival got the best of it in the end. You see if
one is an American and the other a Pole, the Commune must have a hard
time of it between the two!
No, neither the evacuation of Fort Issy--in spite of what the _Journal
Officiel_ says--Monseigneur Darboy, nor the quarrel with Dombrowski are
the real causes of the fall of Cluseret. Cluseret's destiny was to fall;
Cluseret has fallen because he did not like gold lace and
embroidery--"that is the question," all the rest are pretexts.
So the noble delegate imagined he could quietly issue a proclamation one
morning commanding all the officers under his orders to rip off the gold
and silver bands which luxuriantly ornament their sleeves and caps![76]
He thought his staff would forego epaulets and other military gewgaws.
Why, the man must have been mad! What would Cora or Armentine have said
if they had seen their military heroes stalk into the Cafe de Suede or
the Cafe de Madrid, shorn of all their brilliant appendages, which made
them look so wonderfully like the monkey-general at the Neuilly fair, in
the good old times, when there were such things as fairs, and before
Neuilly was a ruin. Ask any soldier, Federal or otherwise, if he will
give up his pay, or his jingling sword, or even his rank; he may perhaps
consent, but ask him to rip off his embroidery, and he will answer,
never! How can you imagine a man of sense consenting not to look like a
mountebank?
Another of these absurd prescriptions has done much to lower Cluseret in
public estimation. One day he took it into his head to prevent his
officers from galloping in the streets and boulevards, under the
miserable pretext that the rapid evolutions of these horsemen had
occasioned several accidents. Well, and if they had, do you think a
gallant captain of horse is going to deprive himself of the pleasure of
curvetting within sight of his lady love, for the pitiful reason, that
he may perchance upset an old woman or two or three children? Citizen
Cluseret does not know what he is talking about! It is certain that if
this valiant general has such a very great horror of accidents, he
should begin by stopping the firing at Courbevoie, which is a great deal
more dangerous than the galloping of a horse on the Boulevard
Montmartre. As you may imagine, the officers went on galloping and
wearing their finery under the very nose of the general, while he walked
about stoically in plain clothes. However, although they did not obey
him, they owed him a grudge for the orders he had given. Opposition was
being hatched, and was ready to burst forth on the first opportunity,
which happened to be the evacuation of Fort Issy.[76] Cluseret has
fallen a victim to his taste for simplicity, but he carries with him the
regrets of all the illused cab-horses which, in the absence of
thoroughbreds, have to suffice the gallant staff, and who, poor
creatures, were only too delighted not to gallop.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 75: General Cluseret was a great personage for a time with the
Communists, and his military talents were lauded to the skies, but
suddenly he was committed to prison, and was succeeded in the command of
the army by Rossel. The cause of his imprisonment is not clear. Some say
that he was discovered to be in correspondence with the Thiers
government, others that he was suspected of aiming at the Dictatorship.
During the confusion that occurred on the first entry of the Versailles
troops into Paris, when the Archbishop of Paris and the other so-called
"hostages" had been barbarously assassinated, when the Louvre, the
Palais Royal, and the Hotel de Ville were in flames, Cluseret escaped
from prison, and was not heard of again until it was reported that his
body had been found buried beneath the rubbish of the last barricade.
Was report correct?]
[Footnote 76: "THE MINISTER OF WAR TO THE NATIONAL GUARD.
"CITOYENS,--I notice with pain that, forgetful of our modest origin, the
ridiculous mania for trimmings, embroidery, and shoulder-knots has begun
to take hold upon you.
"To work! You have for the first time accomplished a revolution by, and
for, labour.
"Let us not forget our origin, and, above all, do not let us be ashamed
of it, Workmen we were! workmen let us remain!
"In the name of virtue against vice, of duty against abuse, of austerity
against corruption, we have triumphed; let us not forget the fact.
"Let us be, above all, men of honour and duty; we shall then found an
austere Republic, the only one that has or can have reason for its
existence.
"I appeal to the good sense of my fellow-citizens: let us have no more
tags and lace, no more glitter, no more frippery which costs so little
at the shops yet is so dear to our responsibility.
"In future, anyone who cannot deduce proof of his right to wear the
insignia of his nominal rank, or, who shall add to the regular uniform
of the National Guard, tags, lace, or other vain distinctions, will be
liable to be punished.
"I profit by this occasion to remind each of you of the necessity of
absolute obedience to the authorities, for in obeying those whom you
have elected you are only obeying yourselves.
"The Delegate of War,