Paris under the Commune Part 15

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 38: Prison of Detention.]

[Footnote 39: The following is still more nave:--A man takes a return-ticket for the environs, and sometimes finds a guard silly enough to allow him to pa.s.s on the supposition that such a ticket was sufficient proof of his intention of returning to Paris.

Others get into the waiting-room without tickets, under the pretext of speaking to some one there.

M. Bergerat, a poet, pa.s.sed the barrier in a cart-load of charcoal.]

[Footnote 40: Flourens was born in 1838, and was the son of the well-known _savant_ and physiologist of this name. He completed his studies with brilliancy, and succeeded his father as professor of the College de France. His opening lecture on the History of Man made a profound impression on the scientific world. However, he retired from this post in 1864, and turned his undivided attention to the political questions of the day. Deeply compromised by certain pamphlets written by him, he left France for Candia, where he espoused the popular cause against the Turks. On his return to France he was imprisoned for three months for political offences. Rochefort's candidature was hotly supported by him. In 1870 he rose against the Government, with a large force of the Belleville _faubouriens_. He was prosecuted, and took refuge in London. After the fourth of September he was placed at the head of five battalions of National Guards. He was again imprisoned for having instigated the rising of October, and it was not till the twenty-second of March that he was set at liberty. On the second of April he set out for Versailles at the head of an insurgent troop. He was met midway by a mounted patrol, and in the _melee_ that ensued he was killed.]

x.x.xII.

In the midst of so many horrible events, which interest the whole ma.s.s of the people, ought I to mention an incident which broke but one heart?

Yes, I think the sad episode is not without importance, even in so vast a picture. It was a child's funeral. The little wooden coffin, scantily covered with a black pall, was not larger, as Theophile Gautier says, "than a violin case." There were few mourners. A woman, the mother doubtless, in a black stuff dress and white crimped cap, holding by the hand a boy, who had not yet reached the age of sorrowing tears, and behind them a little knot of neighbours and friends. The small procession crept along the wide street in the bright sunlight.

When it reached the church they found the door closed, and yet the money for the ma.s.s had been paid the night before, and the hour for the ceremony fixed. One of the women went forward towards the door of the vestry, where she was met by a National Guard, who told her with a superfluity of oaths that she must not go in, that the ---- cure, the sacristan, and all the d---- fellows of the church were locked up, and that they would no longer have anything to do with patriots. Then the mother approached and said, "But who will bury my poor child if the cure is in prison?" and then she began to weep bitterly at the thought that there would be no prayers put up for the good of the little spirit, and that no holy water would be sprinkled on its coffin. Yes, members of the Commune, she wept, and she wept longer and more bitterly later at the cemetery, when she saw them lower the body of her child into the grave, without a prayer or a recommendation to G.o.d's mercy. You must not scoff at her, you see she was a poor weak woman, with ideas of the narrowest sort; but there are other mothers like her, quite unworthy of course to bear the children of patriots, who do not want their dear ones to be buried like dogs; who cannot understand that to pray is a crime, and to kneel down before G.o.d an offence to humanity, and who still are weak enough to wish to see a cross planted on the tombs of those they have loved and lost! Not the cross of the nineteenth century--a red flag![41]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 41: Early in April the Commune forbade divine service in the Pantheon. They out off the arms of the cross, and replaced it by the red flag during a salute of artillery.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: COLONEL a.s.sY.]

x.x.xIII.

Communal fraternity is decidedly in the ascendant; it is putting into practice this admirable precept, "Arrest each other." They say M.

Delescluze has been sent to the Conciergerie. Yesterday Lullier was arrested, to-day a.s.sy. It was not sufficient to change Executive Committees--if I may be allowed to say so--with no more ceremony than one would change one's boots; the Commune conducts itself, in respect to those members that become obnoxious to it, absolutely as if they were no more than ordinary archbishops.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLACING THE RED FLAG ON THE PANTHEON. (The hole in the dome was occasioned by a Prussian sh.e.l.l.)]

What! a.s.sy--a.s.sy[42] of Creuzot--who signed before all his comrades the proclamations of the Central Committee, in virtue, not only of his ability, but in obedience to the alphabetical order of the thing--a.s.sy no longer reigns at the Hotel de Ville!--publishes no more decrees, discusses no longer with F. Cournet, nor with G. Tridon. Wherefore this fall after so much glory? It is whispered about that a.s.sy has thought it prudent to put aside a few rolls of bank notes found in the drawers of the late Government. What, is that all? How long have politicians been so scrupulous? Members of the Commune, how very punctilious you have grown. Now if the Citizen a.s.sy were accused of having in 1843 been intimately acquainted with a lady whose son is now valet to M. Thiers'

first cousin, or if he had been seen in a church, and it were clearly proved that he was there with any other intention than that of delicately picking the pockets of the faithful, then I could understand your indignation. But the idea of arresting a man because he has appropriated the booty of the traitors, is too absurd; if you go on acting in that way people will think you are growing conscientious!

As to Citizen Lullier,[43] who was one of the first victims of "fraternity," he is imprisoned because he did not succeed in capturing Mont Valerien. I think with horror that if I had been in the place of Citizen Lullier I should most certainly have had to undergo the same punishment, for how in the devil's name I could have managed to transport that impregnable fortress on to the council-table at the Hotel de Ville I have not the least conception. It is as bad as if you were in Switzerland, and asked the first child you met to go and fetch Mont Blanc; of course the child would go and have a game of marbles with his companions, and come back without the smallest trace of Mont Blanc in his arms, thereupon you would whip the youngster within an ace of his life. However, it appears that M. Lullier objected to being whipped, or rather imprisoned, and being as full of cunning as of valour he managed to slip out of his place of confinement, without drum or trumpet. "Dear Rochefort," he writes to the editor of _Le Mot d'Ordre_, "you know of what infamous machinations I have been the victim." I suppose M.

Rochefort does, but I am obliged to confess that I have not the least idea, unless indeed M. Lullier means by "machinations" the order that was given him to bring Mont Valerien in his waistcoat pocket.

"Imprisoned without motive," he continues, "by order of the Central Committee, I was thrown ..." (Oh! you should not have _thrown_ M.

Lullier) "into the Prefecture of Police," (the ex-Prefecture, if you please), "and put in solitary confinement at the very moment when Paris was in want of men of action and military experience." Oh, fie! men of the Commune, you had at your disposal a man of action--who does not know the n.o.ble actions of Citizen Lullier? A man of military experience--who does not know what profound experience M. Lullier has acquired in his numerous campaigns--and yet you put him, or rather throw him, into the Prefecture! This is bad, very bad. "The Prefecture is transformed into a state prison, and the most rigorous discipline is maintained." It appears then that the Communal prison is anything but a fool's paradise.

"However, in spite of everything, I and my secretary managed to make our escape calmly ..."--the calm of the high-minded--"from a cell where I was strictly guarded, to pa.s.s two court-yards and a dozen or two of soldiers, to have three doors opened for me while the sentinels presented arms as I pa.s.sed ..." What a wonderful escape: the adventures of Baron Munchausen are nothing to it. What a fine chapter poor old Dumas might have made of it. The door of the cell is pa.s.sed under the very nose of the jailer, who has doubtless been drugged with some narcotic, of which M. Lullier has learnt the secret during his travels in the East Indies; the twelve guards in the court-yards are seized one after another by the throat, thrown on the ground, bound with cords, and prevented from giving the alarm by twelve gags thrust into their twelve mouths; the three doors are opened by three enormous false keys, the work of a member of the Commune, locksmith by trade, who has remained faithful to the cause of M. Lullier; and last, but not least, the sentinels, plunged in ecstasy at the sight of the glorious fugitive, present arms. What a scene for a melodrama! The most interesting figure, however, in my opinion, is the secretary. I have the greatest respect for that secretary, who never dreamt one instant of abandoning his master, and I can see him, while Lullier is accomplishing his miracles, calmly writing in the midst of the danger, with a firm hand, the faithful account of these immortal adventures. "I have now," continues the ex-prisoner of the ex-Prefecture, "two hundred determined men, who serve me as a guard, and three excellent revolvers, loaded, in my pocket. I had foolishly remained too long without arms and without friends; now I am resolved to blow the brains out of the first man who tries to arrest me!" I heard a bourgeois who had read this exclaim, that he wished to Heaven each member of the Commune would come to arrest him in turn. Oh! blood-thirsty bourgeois! Then Lullier finishes up by declaring that he scorns to hide, but continues to show himself freely and openly on the boulevards. What a proud, what a n.o.ble nature! Oh, ye marionettes, ye fantoccini! Yet let me not be unjust; I will try and believe in you once more, in spite of armed requisitions, in spite of arrests, of robberies--for there have been robberies in spite of your decrees--I will try and believe that you have not only taken possession of the Hotel de Ville for the purpose of setting up a Punch and Judy show and playing your sinister farces; I want to believe that you had and still have honourable and avowable intentions; that it is only your natural inexperience joined to the difficulties of the moment which is the cause of your faults and your follies; I want to believe that there are among you, even after the successive dismissal of so many of your members, some honourable men who deplore the evil that has been done, who wish to repair it, and who will try to make us forget the crimes and forfeits of the civil war by the benefits which revolution sometimes brings in its train. Yes, I am naturally full of hope, and will try and believe this; but, honestly, what hope can you have of inspiring confidence in those who are not prejudiced as I am in favour of innovators, when they see you arrest each other in this fashion, and know that you have among you such generals as Bergeret, such honest citizens as a.s.sy, and such escaped lunatics as Lullier?

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 42: a.s.sy, who first became publicly known as the leader of the strike at Messrs. Schneider's works at Creuzot, was an engineer. He was born in 1840. He became a member of the International Society, and was selected in 1870 to organise the Creuzot strike. Being threatened with arrest, he went to Paris, but did not remain there long, and on the 21st of March in that year, a few days after his return to Creuzot, the strike of the miners commenced. a.s.sy was, finally, arrested and tried before the Correctional Tribune of Paris as chief and founder of a secret society, but he was acquitted of that charge.

At the siege of Paris, a.s.sy was appointed as an officer in a free guerilla corps of the Isle of France. Subsequently he was a lieutenant in the 192nd battalion of the National Guard. Getting on the Central Committee, he took an active share in the events that occurred.

Appointed commander of the 67th battalion on the 17th March, we find him on the morning of the 18th as Governor of the Hotel de Ville, and colonel of the National Guard, organising with the members of the committee the means of a serious resistance--giving orders for the construction of barricades--stopping the transport of munitions and provisions from Paris. Becoming a member of the Commune, he took an active part in carrying into effect the decrees which led, among other things, to the demolition of the Vendome Column and of the house of M.

Thiers. He was arrested in April, and was succeeded as Governor of the Hotel de Ville by one Pindy, who retained the office till the army entered Paris. a.s.sy was held prisoner, _sur parole_, at the Hotel de Ville, till the 19th April, when he was liberated. After this a.s.sy was engaged in superintending the manufacture of munitions of war. He was the sole superintendent of the supply, especially as regards quality.

Among the warlike stores manufactured were incendiary sh.e.l.ls filled with petroleum, intended to be thrown into Paris during the insurrection. It is certain that these engines of destruction could only have been made at the factory superintended by a.s.si. He was arrested on the 21st May.

a.s.sy was one of the chiefs of the insurrection; he denied signing the decrees for the execution of the hostages, or order for the enrolment of the military in the National Guard. a.s.sy was condemned by the tribunal of Versailles, Sept. 2, to confinement for life in a French fortress--a light penalty for the deeds of this important insurgent.]

[Footnote 43: Memoir, see Appendix 5.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: GENERAL CLUSERET.]

x.x.xIV.

The fighting still continues, the cannonading is almost incessant. However, the damage done is but small. To-day, the 7th April, things seem to be in pretty much the same position as they were after Bergeret had been beaten back and Flourens killed. The forts of Vanves and Issy bombard the Versailles batteries, which in their turn vomit shot and sh.e.l.l on Vanves and Issy. Idle spectators, watching from the Trocadero, see long lines of white smoke arise in the distance. Every morning, Citizen Cluseret,[44] the war delegate, announces that an a.s.sault of gendarmes has been victoriously repulsed by the garrisons in the forts. It is quite certain that if the Versaillais do attack they are repulsed, as they make no progress whatever; but do they attack, that is the question? I am rather inclined to think that these attacks and repulses are mere inventions. It seems evident to me that the generals of the National a.s.sembly, who are now busy establishing batteries and concentrating their forces, will not make a serious attempt until they are certain of victory. In the meantime they are satisfied to complete the ruin of the forts which were already so much damaged by the Prussians.

Between Courbevoie and the Porte Maillot the fighting is continual.

Ground is lost and gained, such and such a house that was just now occupied by the Versaillais is now in the hands of the Federals, and _vice versa_. Neither side is wholly victorious, but the fighting goes on. What! is there no one to cry out "Enough! Enough blood, enough tears! Enough Frenchmen killed by Frenchmen, Republicans killed by Republicans." Men fall on each side with the same war cry on their lips.

Oh! when will all this dreadful misunderstanding cease?

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 44: The biography of this general of the Commune is very imperfect, down to the time when he was elected for the 1st Arrondiss.e.m.e.nt of Paris, and was thereupon appointed Minister of War, or in Communal phraseology, Delegate at the War Department. He seems to have been one of those beings, without country or family, but who are blessed, by way of compensation, with a plurality of names; we do not know whether Cluseret was really his own, or how many aliases he had made use of.

It is said that he was formerly captain in a battalion of Cha.s.seurs d'Afrique, but was dismissed the army upon being convicted of defalcations, in connection with the purchase of horses, and, that soon after his dismissal from the French army, he went to the United States, where he served in the revolutionary war, and attained to the rank of General. Then we have another story, to the effect that having been entrusted with the care of a flock of lambs, the number of the animals decreased so rapidly, that nothing but the existence of a large pack of wolves near at hand, could possibly have accounted for it in an honest way; this affair is said to have occurred at Churchill, Such vague charges as these however deserve but little credit.

After closing his career as a shepherd, he became a defender of the Pope's flock, enlisting in the brigade against which Garibaldi took the field. The next we hear of him is that he joined the Fenians, and made an attempt to get possession of Chester Castle, but that he fell under suspicion of being a traitor, and was glad to escape to France, where, report says, he found refuge with a religious community.

"When the devil was sick, The devil a monk would be; But when the devil was well, The devil a monk was he!"

x.x.xV.

Thirty men carrying m.u.f.fled drums, thirty more with trumpets draped in c.r.a.pe, head a long procession; every now and then the drums roll dismally, and the trumpets give a long sad wail.

Numerous detachments of all the battalions come next, marching slowly, their arms reversed. A small bunch of red immortelles is on every breast. Has the choice of the colour a political signification, or is it a symbol of a b.l.o.o.d.y death?

Next appears an immense funeral car draped with black, and drawn by four black horses; the gigantic pall is of velvet, with silver stars. At the corners float four great trophies of red flags.