Chapter 3

A large crowd has been waiting in the Rue de la Paix since 4 o'clock to see the fall of the Vendôme Column. Its fall had been officially promised at that hour, but up to half-past 6 it was still standing. It will probably fall to-day. The tricolour flag has just been attached to the statue, amid faint cheers from the crowd.

An Armistice has been arranged for next Wednesday, to enable the inhabitants of Vanves and the neighbourhood to remove.

Cluseret, Megy, and Schoelcher have been released.

The 8th and 11th Battalions have been disarmed on suspicion of being reactionary.

Paschal Grousset has sent a circular to the principal towns of France, inviting them to join the Communal movement.

The approaches are now within 150 metres of the _enceinte_, and a breaching battery is being constructed. The Montretout batteries have already made a considerable breach in the _enceinte_ by the side of the Auteuil Gate, which has been demolished.

There was a very lively fusillade this afternoon between troops in the Bois de Boulogne and the Insurgents, who fired from houses and other shelter behind the _enceinte_ between Passy and Auteuil. Mortars were also used by the military.

The Insurgents have shot a captain of Engineers who imprudently advanced beyond the Versailles lines.

In the Fort of Vanves a soldier of the Line has been found; his feet were tied together, and there are numbers of bayonet wounds in different parts of his body. The Insurgents had made him prisoner.

Of the 60 pieces of cannon left in the Fort, the greater number had been rendered useless by the fire of the troops.

It is believed that the garrison escaped by a subterranean passage communicating between Forts Vanves and Montrouge.

Every commander of an Army Corps will henceforward have the command of an Arrondissement, and will be answerable for the defensive measures undertaken in his zone.

All persons in the possession of sulphur and phosphorus must declare to the Commune the amount of each within three days.

La Cecilia has again undertaken the command at Petit Vanves.

Torpedoes are to be laid down at exposed parts.

The night has passed off quietly, and nothing of any importance has transpired.

The Versailles troops are under the walls of Paris, and are exchanging shots with the Insurgents on the ramparts from the Muette Gate to the Issy Gate.

The Federalists have been driven out of their entrenchments between Forts Vanves and Issy.

A battery is being erected in the garden of the Tuileries, from which the Communists will be able to keep up a flank fire upon the Champs Elysées.

There is no doubt of the existence of a serious conspiracy, possessing wide ramifications, in Paris to effect the overthrow of the Commune.

The Garden of the Luxembourg has been closed, and is occupied by four battalions of National Guards, as a precaution against the rising which is apprehended.

MAY 15th.

The _Journal Officiel_ announced that the Column would positively fall to-day at 2. A great concourse assembled. Bands played. The Commune and their Staff, amounting to 200, attended on horseback. At 3.45 p.m. an attempt was made, which failed owing to the breaking of a snatchblock. The ropes slackened suddenly, injuring two men. Another attempt was made, fresh ropes having been added, and the Column fell at about 10 minutes to 6. It broke up in the air as it fell. The concussion was nothing like what had been expected. No glass was broken or injury done to the Square, excepting that the Column forced itself into the ground. The excitement was intense. The crowd rushed with loud cheers to scramble for fragments, while speeches were made by members of the Commune, mounted on fallen masses, and red flags were hoisted on the pedestal. Immense crowds assembled in the streets outside, making it almost impossible to leave the Place Vendôme. It was forbidden to take away any fragments, and people were searched before leaving the Square.

MAY THE 16th.

Two hundred National Guards entered the Grand Hotel last night. After having searched every room, under the pretence of looking for arms, they retired with a good deal of plunder.

This is on that subject a letter forwarded by Mister van Henbeck to the _Figaro Journal_.

It has been spoken in different ways of the frequent searches made in the Grand Hotel, since the occupation by the admiral Saisset and his Staff, which had rendered the Hotel suspected by the "Commune" and the "Comité Central."

The last visit of these _Gentlemen_, has been marked by many strange proceedings:

In the night of may 15th a band of about 300 armed men, pseudo-sailors of the "Commune" and Belgian volunteers of both sex, rushed into the Hotel. During five hours these mad men, several of them being intoxicated, had to make in every part of the Hotel fantastic searches, they went breaking the doors and menacing the administrator, the clerks and servants.

They had no mandamus to do that, but the pretext was the arrestation of a battalion of "Gendarmes" and the discovery of a subterranean vault leading to Versailles.

The search for "Gendarmes" was not long to make, but the one for the vault was stopped only when they had found the wine cellar. The door was knocked out:

The great attention they paid to those investigations can be evaluated by a consummation of 1764 francs of wine.

That operation began at 4 a.m. and was out at 6.

The whistles of those supposed sailors and the trumpets of the "Fédérés" ordered the end of that small festival. The cellar was left a-side, and the servants of the Hotel were obliged to bring up in the court-yard those of the band who could not walk any more; at last, the troop went out carrying away a good supply of provisions as wine, cigars, watches, jewels and purses stolen in the servants' rooms, and also clocks and about a hundred table-plates belonging to the Hotel.

They went with empty hands, but the pockets were full. Two of the servants were obliged to go with them, and they said they would come back the next day to arrest many others.

These wicked orgies having no political character, I will address myself to the "Code pénal" for a repression, and I deliver into the hands of the "Procureur de la République" a complaint justified by the deposings of all my servants, and indicating the names of the chiefs of that curious performance.

Be good enough, Sir, to believe me yours most respectfully: V.....

_Administrator of the Grand Hotel_.

The Insurgents have evacuated all their positions between Fort Vanves and the _enceinte_.

The only gunboats now beneath the Viaduct at the Point du Jour are mere wrecks, and their guns have completely disappeared.

The Insurgents' battery on a bastion between Vaugirard and Montrouge has been firing frequently to-day. One of its shells came as far as Bas Meudon.

Fort Issy has been directing its fire upon the Point du Jour. About noon there were two conflagrations at the Point du Jour and one at Auteuil.

The soldiers working at the parallels and the breaching batteries are suffering from the musketry of Insurgents behind the _enceinte_. As many as 30 of them have been killed during one night, but the sap has been carried to within less than 400 metres of the ramparts.

The Insurgents are raising additional barricades in the Rue de Vaugirard, and also at Passy and Auteuil. Pontoon bridges and fascines in great numbers are being sent forward to the military foreposts.

The Committee of Public Safety has appointed a military Commission to replace the existing Commission; it is composed of Arnold, Avrial, Johannard, Tridon, and Varein.

Henri has been appointed Chief of the Staff of the War Ministry, and Mathieu commander of the troops posted between the Point du Jour and the Wagram Gate.

All mechanics over 40 years of age have been called out to work at the city defences. They will receive 3f. 75c. as daily pay.

Important resolutions are expected to be taken at the sitting of the Commune to-day, and the serious division will be terminated by the dissolution of the Central Committee, or by the absorption of the Committee of Public Safety in the Central Committee.

The Commune announces that the Versailles troops were repulsed in several attacks made by them last night upon the barricades at Châtillon, Moulin de Pierre, and Moulin Saquet.

There was a vigorous engagement yesterday evening at the Dauphine and Maillot Gates, and the Versailles troops were driven back with considerable loss.

It is rumoured that Fort Montrouge has been evacuated.

The Commune declares that it has a reserve force of 20,000 men.

Of M. Thiers' house little more, it is feared, than the outer walls remain standing.

MAY 17th

The "Majority of the Commune"--as the Commune is now spoken of in consequence of the secession of 22 of its members--has resolved to form a Central Club like that of the Jacobins, composed of delegates from various clubs of Paris, in order to keep itself _en rapport_ with public opinion.

The 12th Legion has formed a battalion of women, who in addition to their other military duties are to disarm publicly all runaways.

The Communal Delegation of the 2d Arrondissement, considering that slavery was considered immoral even before the American War, and that a standing army has been suppressed by the Commune, decrees that all houses of ill fame in their quarter shall be immediately closed, as involving traffic in human beings.

Peter's Restaurant was searched last night, and several arrests were made, among them officers of the National Guard suspected of complicity in the Tricolour Brassard Plot. The Restaurant is closed.

The heaviest firing to-day has been against the Point du Jour. Large pieces of Marine Artillery have been placed on the ramparts behind Montrouge.

A terrific explosion has just (6 o'clock) created general alarm. Enormous volumes of smoke are visible from a great distance. The cartridge manufactory near the École Militaire has exploded. Six hundred _employés_, chiefly women, are said to have been killed. Bullets were launched in all directions, killing and wounding many passers by.

The Insurgents have constructed a battery of Marine pieces, which much embarrasses the troops and retards the breaching works. Breaches will be opened at three points--namely, at Mortemart, opposite Auteuil, at Bastion 65, opposite the Parc-aux-Princes in the Bois and in the neighbourhood of Vaugirard.

This afternoon the Insurgents fired from three batteries between the left bank ending the viaduct at the Point du Jour and Montrouge. One of these batteries was placed close to the Vaugirard Gate, and its fire was directed to a point at which the Engineers were supposed to be constructing a trench.

There were conflagrations this evening in Auteuil, the Point du Jour, and between the latter place and Vaugirard. The flame and smoke were distinctly visible. We hear it was the blowing up of a powder factory in the Rue de Wagram, Paris, or at the Trocadéro.

The Committee of Public Safety, in order to save the country from a military dictatorship, has associated Civil Commissioners with the various Generals of the Commune. With Dombrowski are joined Burger and Dereuve, with La Cecilia, Johannard, and with Wrobleski, Leo Meillet.

All passenger and goods trains leaving Paris have to stop outside the walls for examination. Trains contravening this order will not be permitted to proceed.

Possessors of petroleum are to declare the amount they hold to the authorities within 48 hours.

Fort Montrouge is still held, and is strongly supported by the Hautes Bruyères.

The Government troops have not yet occupied Vanves; they are pressing upon Billancourt and La Marette.

A letter of General Cluseret in the _Mot d'ordre_ advises that every exertion should be made for the erection of barricades at the Barrière de l'Etoile, the Place Roi de Rome, and the Place Eylau, with a second line between the Passy Gate and the Grenelle Bridge, and a third line from the Pont de la Concorde to the Ouen Gate.

The Versailles and Auteuil Gates of Paris have been demolished by the cannonade. The neighbouring bastions are subjected to a tremendous fire, but do not reply.

Fort Issy, which is now in the hands of the Versailles troops, is vigorously bombarding Petit Vanves, Grenelle, and Point du Jour.

The last is utterly untenable by the Insurgent gunners.

A belief obtains that the Versailles Engineers are laying a mine under the walls of Paris in the direction of the Muette Gate. The disagreement between the Commune and the Central Committee continues.

The Versailles troops have made good their communications from Montrouge to Issy, and have established batteries on the glacis before Fort Vanves. They are vigorously attacking Bicêtre and Hautes Bruyères.

A terrible bombardment of the Maillot Gate and the Arc de Triomphe is going on.

The Federalists in the village of Malakoff are in danger of being cut off from Paris, while those stationed in the villages of Petit Vanves and Montrouge have been compelled to retire into the city.

Ladders for scaling the ramparts have reached the Versaillist outposts in the Bois de Boulogne.

The Versailles troops are endeavouring to cut a way through the wood to the Avenue of Neuilly.

The cannonade in the direction of the Arc de Triomphe is increasing in intensity.

MAY 18th.

To-day was a day of feasting, and National Guards surrounded the Churches of St. Augustin and La Trinité, and forced the priests to stop Divine service, and turned out the congregations. The establishment of the Sisters of Mercy of St. Vincent de Paul was also surrounded. An inventory was made of the goods, the Sisters being themselves placed under lock and key until to-morrow, when they will be turned out.

Bodies are being removed from the crypt of the Church of Les Petits Pères, near the Bank of France, for examination. Rumours are afloat that people have been recently buried there under false names, and bones strew the pavement on both sides of the church door.

The Versaillais are at a distance of 200 metres from the ramparts from the Point du Jour to Vanves. The National Guards in great numbers are assembled under the cover of the ramparts, and an attack is hourly expected. Shells have fallen on the bridge of Grenelle, killing several persons. An attack was made yesterday on the Zoological Gardens of the Bois de Boulogne, which turned out disastrously for the Federals.

The fire from the Insurgents' batteries on the _enceinte_ has been stronger to-day than at any time previously since the opening of the new redoubt at Montretout. They have been throwing shells from La Muette against the troops in the Bois de Boulogne, but mortars placed in the Bois near the large lake have been responding vigorously, and a field battery at Mortemart, the south-eastern extremity of the Bois, has been protecting, by its fire, the Engineers working at the breaching battery, and also doing some damage to the Artillery on the bastion.

Between Passy and Auteuil the Insurgents are in considerable force behind the _enceinte_. Their three batteries on the _enceinte_, between the Point du Jour and Montrouge, have been firing on the military position at Bas Meudon and Issy. There has been a return shelling from these positions between the rival Artillery.

Engineers are engaged in sapping from Issy in the direction of Vaugirard. They are much exposed to the batteries of the Insurgents, but neither yesterday nor to-day did I see a single shell fall into the French lines where they are at work.

The Committee of Public Safety has issued an appeal to the National Guards calling upon them to secure the triumph of Paris, and describing the fearful results which would ensue from the victory of the Versailles troops.

A later attack which was made on Neuilly yesterday was repulsed.

This morning the Federal batteries at Montmartre are bombarding the Château Bécon.

The _Journal Officiel_ of the Commune of to-day accuses the agents of Versailles of having caused the explosion of the cartridge manufactory, and says that a hundred persons have fallen victims to it. Four arrests have been made in connexion with this affair. The _Vérité_ demonstrates that the explosion could not have been the result of intention, but was solely attributable to accident. The same paper states that no shell fell in the Champ de Mars at the time of the explosion.

The Versailles troops are constructing trenches within 200 yards of the Auteuil Gate, but the breach is not yet assailable.

Fort Montrouge still holds out, but offers only a feeble resistance.

The Communists claim to-day to have repulsed all attacks.

The bombardment is incessant.

The German troops are taking up imposing positions.

The tribunals of the Commune have decided to-day as to who among the prisoners in the hands of the Commune are to be regarded as hostages. It is asserted that three hostages will be executed to-morrow.

MAY 19th.

The firing was heavier last night than it has ever been. There were both a cannonade and a fusillade. Everybody thought that the Versaillais had at last made their assault. It appears that the Communists attempted a sortie, and were repulsed with great loss. Numerous waggons filled with wounded were taken to Versailles. Various battalions returned to Paris, apparently much dispirited. Numerous reinforcements, however, were brought up.

The bullets are falling so thickly about the ramparts that the Communists with difficulty maintain their position there. The Versailles shell-practice has improved. The shells burst about the bastions instead of in the town.

The conscription is carried on with increased rigour, death being threatened to those who refuse to serve. A Lieutenant-Colonel and a Commandant have been sentenced, the one to 15 years' and the other to 10 years' imprisonment for cowardice, and their battalion has been dissolved. The Chief and Staff of the 6th Legion have been dismissed for not disarming the refractory battalions.

It is said the prisoners accused of firing the cartridge manufactory are to be shot in 24 hours.

Much fear is entertained for the fate of the hostages, whose execution has been so strongly advocated in the Commune, in reprisal for the alleged violation and murder of an _infirmière_ by the Versaillais.

Some iron cupola-shaped cases, capable of holding each 1,000lb. of powder, were to-day taken to the barricades near the ramparts for the purpose of blowing them up if necessary.

It has been proposed in the Commune to abolish all titles of rank, with the emoluments and advantages appertaining to them; also that all children now illegitimate shall be for the future legitimate; and that, instead of the present form of marriage, any man over 18 and woman over 16 may be allowed to go before a municipal magistrate and declare their wish to marry.

The only breaching battery that has as yet opened fire is that established in the Parc aux Princes, at 400 metres distance from the ramparts. It directs its fire against the _enceinte_ at Auteuil, where the gates and the drawbridge have been destroyed.

The Fort of Montrouge is almost surrounded by the troops, who advance also by means of trenches towards the Redoubt of Hautes Bruyères.

Towards the South a series of attacks have been made, with the view of driving all the Insurgents on that side from their positions outside the _enceinte_.

Last night, in an affair at Lagrange, the military put 110 Insurgents _hors de combat_ and made 43 prisoners.

All the breaching works are not yet completed.

To-day the Insurgents have been firing from La Muette, which is on the _enceinte_ between Passy and Auteuil, and I observed that they had added to the number of their guns between the Point du Jour and Montrouge. Yesterday they had three batteries between those points; to-day they have been firing from five.

Mont Valérien has done very little to-day, and Montretout has not been so violent as usual, but the military batteries at Bas Meudon, Les Moulineanx, and Issy have been very active, as have likewise been the mortars and field guns in the Bois de Boulogne.

Twenty-one members of the Commune no longer attend the sittings of that body, but remain in their Arrondissements.

Four hundred Versailles Chasseurs are said to have deserted from their own side into Paris yesterday.

Batteries of 30 guns have been established at the Dauphine Gate.

The _Cri du peuple_ says the Committee have determined rather to blow up Paris than capitulate.

A requisition has been made of the silver candlesticks at the Church of Notre Dame des Victoires.

No one without a special pass is allowed to leave the city at night by the Eastern or Northern gates.

The Commune has ordered that all prostitutes and drunkards shall be arrested.

A decree of the Committee of Public Safety, published to-day, orders the suppression of the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, _Avenir National_, _Patrie_, _Commune_, _Justice_, and five other newspapers.

No new journals will be allowed to appear until the end of the war.

All articles must be signed by the writer.

Attacks on the Government will be dealt with according to martial law.

Officers who hesitate to obey the orders of the Committee of Public Safety will be tried for high treason by court-martial.

The _Salut Public_ alleges that one of the chief persons implicated in the explosion of the cartridge manufactory is Count Ladislas Zamoyski, and that papers have been found upon him proving him to be in communication with the Government of Versailles.

The same paper announces that the Germans demand that an armistice should be entered into between the Commune and the Versailles Government, in order that a _Plebiscite_ of all France may be held to decide upon the future form of Government.

The Commune has seized the silver ornaments and other valuables of the Church of the Trinity. All the other churches of Paris will shortly be treated in a similar manner, and will then be closed.

All arrests and requisitions are being carried out by Flourens's corps of Avengers.

The demolition of the Expiatory Chapel was commenced to-day.

The gate at Point du Jour is destroyed.

Yesterday evening two battalions of troops carried the Ory Farm and Plichon House, near Fort Montrouge, at the point of the bayonet. The Federalists had about 400 killed and wounded, and lost 42 prisoners, including a Chief of Battalion. The troops also captured a flag, but subsequently evacuated the conquered positions, as they were too much exposed to the fire of the enemy. The loss of the Versailles troops was small.

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THE VENDÔME COLUMN.