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The first point of attack was the bridge of Austerlitz. The Canal St. Martin, which could only be crossed by one narrow bridge, close to the river, swept by the fire from the barricades at the Pont d'Austerlitz, detained the troops a considerable time. To facilitate a forward movement, batteries were established at the Jardin des Plantes, and on the quay, so as to play on the barricades of the bridge of Austerlitz, and also on the houses forming the salient made by the Seine and the canal. The gun-boats on the river actively co-operated in shelling the barricades, though sustaining themselves considerable loss. The large barricade in the Place Walhubert, on the south side of the bridge, was first evacuated by the Federals; a battery was then placed there by the troops, and after a time an attempt was made by the 109th Regiment to cross the bridge, but it was repulsed. The fight raged all day, and the troops made no farther progress till towards evening, when the brigade La Mariouze-the narrow crossing over the sluice-gate of the canal under the parapet, where it joins the Seine, having been repaired-threw forward a detachment, which, getting over the canal one by one, crept forward under the shelter of the parapet till it reached the bridge of Austerlitz. There, waiting till a considerable force was mustered, the soldiers suddenly swarmed upon the quays on either side of the bridgehead, and took the barricades with a rush. The defenders fled, and were pursued by the troops up the boulevard as far as the prison Mazas. But the hostages of the Commune, as has been already mentioned, were no longer there; about this time, on the previous evening, the Archbishop and five priests had been shot down at La Roquette.

The division Vergé was slowly winning its way throughout the day towards the Place de la Bastille, carrying the sap through the houses of the Rue de Cerisaie. In the evening it succeeded in gaining possession of the barricade in the Rue St. Antoine, which defended the approach to the Place. The attack on the Place itself was deferred to the following morning. A fierce struggle was going on all day in the neighbourhood of the Château d'Eau. A band of miscreants entered the houses between the Ambigu and Porte St. Martin theatres, and having plundered what they pleased, commenced a massacre of the inhabitants, one of whom had given a blow to one of the band. The Porte St. Martin theatre was set on fire and destroyed; the Ambigu was also set on fire, but saved by the rapid approach of the troops of the 5th Corps. The little Théâtre des Delassements was well known to the chiefs of the Commune; one of the actresses had been Raoul Rigault's mistress. It was burnt to the ground, the insurgents, by a refinement of cruelty, having forced the unfortunate proprietor and manager to kindle the fire himself. Formidable entrenchments had been made by the Commune round the Château d'Eau, which the troops of Clinchant had to batter with cannon, and carried with great difficulty.

On Friday the advance was continued, and the Place

On Saturday, May 27th, measures were concerted for surrounding the Federals who still resisted, and trampling out the insurrection; but, on account of the great fatigue of the troops, it was arranged that the operation should extend over two days. The 5th Corps was to remain stationary on the Boulevard Richard Lenoir; on the left Ladmirault was to advance along the fortifications from the Abattoir of Villette, while on the right the Army of Reserve, pushing forward along the enceinte, was to join the 1st Corps somewhere about the reservoir of Menilmontant. Uniting their forces, the 1st Corps and the Army of Reserve were then to capture the heights of Belleville, and the cemetery of Père la Chaise, and press the insurgents westward towards the Boulevard Richard Lenoir, where they would be stopped by Clinchant's troops. In pursuance of this programme, the division Faron, advancing from the Place Daumesnil by the Rue Picpus, carried the Place du Trône after an obstinate resistance. To this point, which was favourably placed for superintending the attack on Belleville, MacMahon immediately removed his head-quarters. The Commune was believed still to be installed at the Mairie of the 11th Arrondissement; barricades armed with cannon were upon the Boulevard du Prince Eugène, and swept with their fire even a portion of the Place du Trône. But the position was rapidly becoming unsafe for these model regenerators of society. The 1st Corps in the course of this day attacked and carried the park and Buttes of Chaumont. The division Bruat occupied the Boulevard and quarter of Charonne. An incident then occurred, which, being promptly taken advantage of, accelerated the accomplishment of the plan of operations. Some marines attached to the Army of Reserve, pursuing the Federals from Charonne, came upon the cemetery of Père la Chaise, which they found strongly occupied by the insurgents, who opened upon them a murderous fire. But the marines, attacking boldly, forced their way into i the cemetery; and Marshal MacMahon, on hearing of it, sent up strong reinforcements to the aid of the marines, with orders to push on as far as possible. The cemetery was then cleared by the troops, foot by foot, and its occupants driven out of it and pursued to the gate of Bagnolet. In the park of Chaumont the 1st Corps took a large number of guns.

Here the general movement paused for a few hours; but the Marshal, filled with anxiety concerning the fate

of the Archbishop and the other hostages, ordered the division Bruat to press on from Père la Chaise, very early on the morning of the 28th, to the prison of La Roquette. In obedience to this order, the division Bruat advanced on the prison down the street of the same name, arriving there about three o'clock in the morning of Sunday, May 28th. There they first received certain intelligence of the death of the Archbishop, the President Bonjean, and other leading hostages. But there still remained a large number of prisoners in one wing of the building, who, following the suggestion of a turnkey more humane than his employers, had risen in revolt against the authorities, barricaded with mattresses and chairs the door giving admission to the wing in which they were confined, and after baffling an attempt to burn their barricade, were still holding out when the longexpected succour arrived. It is not surprising that after the dreadful trials through which they had passed, and after experience of the cruelty, mendacity, and treachery of the Commune, the nerves of the unhappy prisoners were so unstrung that they refused at first to trust to the assurances of their deliverers. They feared," says General Vinoy, "under the uniform of our soldiers a new snare invented by their executioners, in order the better to repossess themselves of their victims. It was only after the day had dawned that they recognised their error, and then they testified to the troops in the most expressive manner the liveliness of their joy and gratitude." The persons thus saved were 169 in number.

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At La Roquette, the troops learned that most of the members of the insurgent Government had come there from the Mairie of the 11th Arrondissement on the morning of the 27th instant. There, it was said, they had shared among them the funds which the Commune still had at its disposal, and had afterwards left for Belleville, where they finally separated.

Very early on this same Sunday morning, the division Faron advanced in a northerly direction from the Place du Trône and the Cours de Vincennes, and fell in with the advance of Ladmirault's corps at eight o'clock, near the reservoir of Menilmontant. Combining their forces, they now turned westward, and attacked the heights of Belleville. Scenes of terrible carnage, it is to be feared, took place here; for the troops were rendered savage by the long resistance, and by the massacres and burnings of which the insurgents had been guilty, and the slightest resistance doubtless brought down summary execution. The accounts of what took place, given by the generals in command, seem not altogether consistent with each other. In his evidence before the Parliamentary Commission, Marshal MacMahon said that whereas, in the first days of the struggle, the insurgents seemed to be possessed by a strange feverish excitement, so that they fought with extraordinary energy, and appeared sincerely to believe that they were defending a sacred cause, towards the close of it they were evidently seized with despondency, declaring, when made prisoners, that they had taken up arms because they could not help it, that they were forced to march, and fired on from behind if they quitted the ranks; or else that it was merely in

order to gain a living. On the other hand, General Vinoy, speaking of the fighting at Belleville on this last day, says that although the insurgents had despaired of success since the capture of the Place de la Bastille, yet they were buoyed up in their useless resistance by an unreasoning sentiment of furious rage, which desires to injure at the very time that it is forced to acknowledge its own impotence. "Under these conditions," he adds, the struggle became far more terrible and murderous for the insurgents than for our troops. Driven into their last entrenchments, and with their retreat completely cut off, they resisted with a constancy worthy of a better cause." The capture of one barricade in the Rue Haxo caused two thousand insurgents to lay down their arms. Unhappily this did not always save their lives. Marshal MacMahon, in his evidence, said with soldierly brevity, "When men lay down their arms, they ought not to be shot. That was generally agreed. Unfortunately, at certain points, the instructions which I had given were forgotten." The Marquis Gallifet in particular, who commanded a brigade of cavalry forming part of the 3rd Corps, was said to have shown a lamentable propensity for ordering summary executions. From the heights of Belleville, where many guns were taken, the 1st Corps and the division Faron marched down the Rue Menilmontant and parallel streets, taking in rear and capturing many barricades, collecting arms and ammunition, and taking prisoners. The Commune had an immense stock of arms and military stores at its disposal; never before, probably, was an insurrection so highly favoured in this respect. To recover these for the State, as well as to disarm the population of a turbulent quarter, a rigorous house-to-house search was ordered; and in the course of a few days 97,000 muskets were brought in.

About midday the division Faron, with the 1st Corps, reached the Boulevard Richard Lenoir, and joined hands with the troops of Clinchant and Douay. For some time longer a smouldering combat went on in remote streets and isolated localities, but after four o'clock all was over. Long lines of prisoners, guarded by bodies of cavalry, were seen proceeding along the Rue La Fayette to the Champ de Mars, from whence they were taken to Versailles.

The Mairie of the 11th Arrondissement was taken by the division Bruat about the same time that the junction was effected on the Boulevard Richard Lenoir. Delescluze, an old man, and labouring under a mortal disease, seems to have resolved not to survive the extinction of the Commune, the advent of which he had sincerely hailed as the commencement of a brighter and happier era. He was killed on the barricade which defended the last official residence and refuge of the Commune.

The fort of Vincennes was now the only point remaining in the hands of the insurgents. But it was occupied only by a feeble garrison of some 400 men, under the command of a Colonel Faltot; these men had borne no part in the assassinations and burnings of the last few days, and it was not likely, therefore, that they would imperil their lives by a useless resistance when

A.D. 1871.]

they had no cause to fear that they would be hardly dealt with. Nevertheless, they attempted to make terms, chiefly with a view to the escape of certain adherents of the Commune who had taken refuge in the fort. They were, of course, compelled to surrender unconditionally; and when the fort was occupied, ten individuals, more or less compromised by the events of the last week, fell into the hands of the troops. One of them named Merlet, formerly a sergeant of engineers, whom the Commune had sent into the fort with instructions to blow it up if it was likely to fall into the hands of the army, "anticipated the severe sentence which military justice would not have failed to pronounce against him, by blowing out his brains.”*

The city of Paris, with its fortifications, being thus entirely recovered for the legitimate Government of France, Marshal MacMahon addressed the following proclamation to the citizens :

"Inhabitants of Paris,―The army of France has come to save you. Paris is delivered. Our soldiers carried at four o'clock the last positions occupied by the insurgents. To-day the strife is over; order, labour, and security are about to revive."

The total loss of the Army of Versailles in this murderous struggle of eight days for the possession of Paris was less than might have been expected. It was stated by Marshal MacMahon in his evidence to have amounted to about 600 killed and 7,000 wounded. That of the insurgents was far heavier, but its exact amount will probably never be accurately known. During the examination of the Marshal, it was stated by one of the members of the Commission that he had it on the authority of a general that 17,000 soldiers of the Commune had fallen from first to last. MacMahon replied that he did not know upon what materials the general had based his calculation, but he was sure the number was exaggerated.

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The deaths of those whom the Commune called its hostages must now be considered. An excellent letter of intercession was addressed to the Commune on their behalf (May 20th) by the Protestant ministers of Paris, in which the writers entreated the insurgent Government "not to add, to so much blood spilt on battle-fields, blood which will not be shed in fight." "To punish," they added, "a hostage by death, because another man is accused of having committed a murder-to strike, for the crime committed by another, even if the crime be proved, a man who has committed no fault condemned by ordinary laws-would this be an act of justice? We ask of the conscience of every member of the Commune, I would it not be rather a return to barbarism ?" The intention and spirit of this language are admirable, but the reasoning does not appear conclusive. If the persons detained had been really hostages, their individual innocence would have been no reason why the Commune should not proceed to extremities against them; in fact the very notion of a hostage is that of a person who has done his possessor no harm himself, but who is liable to suffer for the acts of the friends who delivered him up. If the

* Vinoy.

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Government of Versailles had given over to the Commune a certain number of bishops and other notabilities, as a guarantee of its peaceable behaviour towards Paris, those persons would have been hostages; and if after that the forces of the said Government had attacked Paris, the lives of those hostages would have been forfeited by the law of nations; nor could the Commune, shocking as the execution would have been, have been justly charged with iniquitous or wanton cruelty. But in the case of the Archbishop of Paris and the others who suffered as hostages, since no understanding of this kind had ever been come to between the Versailles Government and the Commune, it is evident that they were not hostages at all, but merely political prisoners, whom the insurgent Government put to death, not as guilty either of overt act or treasonable intention against themselves, but as persons whose death would be peculiarly painful and afflicting to the hated power which was putting them down.

The two immediate predecessors of Mgr. Darboy in the archi-episcopal see of Paris had both met with violent deaths. Mgr. Affre was shot on one of the barricades during the three days of June, 1848, while endeavouring to persuade its defenders to submit to the lawful Government. Mgr. Sibour, his successor, was assassinated in 1857, in the church of St. Etienne du Mont, by a suspended priest named Verger. These two may be said to have died martyrs, the one to charity, the other to ecclesiastical discipline; Mgr. Darboy died a martyr to faith. It was as the chief representative in France of those who worship and pray, and believe in the supernatural guidance of human life, that the Archbishop of Paris was peculiarly obnoxious to the atheistic chiefs of the Commune. He was arrested, as we have seen, under the decree of the 6th April, and imprisoned in Mazas, where he was allowed to live in tolerable comfort. On the 22nd May he was removed to La Roquette for greater security; and here, on the ground that some of the National Guards who had been made prisoners had been shot, and that they were but fulfilling the intention announced in the decree of the 17th May, the Commune ordered his execution on the 24th inst. It is said that Raoul Rigault, Ranvier, and Ferré were present as spectators. We subjoin the narrative given by an eye-witness* of the scene that ensued :

"Mgr. Darboy occupied the cell No. 21 of the fourth division, and I was at some distance from him, in the cell No. 26. . . . His companions in captivity had succeeded in procuring à table and chair for him. The cell was itself larger than the others. On Wednesday, May 24th, at half-past seven in the evening, the director of the prison, a person named Lefrançais-of the same name as the member of the Commune-and a man who had been six years in the hulks, mounted the prison stairs at the head of fifty Federals, among whom was a fireman, and occupied the gallery in which the principal prisoners

M. Evrard, sergeant-major of the 106th Battalion, quoted in "L'Histoire de la Commune de Paris," by Sempronius. Brussels,

1871.