The Insurrection in Paris Part 3

Mortars are being placed on the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

The demolition of the house of M. Thiers has commenced.

The Central Committee have ordered that all the quarters of Paris shall be searched for arms and refractory National Guards. All the young men in Paris are to be armed.

MAY 14th.

A large crowd has been waiting in the Rue de la Paix since 4 o'clock to see the fall of the Vendome 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 princ.i.p.al 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 Pa.s.sy 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 pa.s.sage communicating between Forts Vanves and Montrouge.

Every commander of an Army Corps will henceforward have the command of an Arrondiss.e.m.e.nt, 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 Pet.i.t Vanves.

Torpedoes are to be laid down at exposed parts.

The night has pa.s.sed 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 Elysees.

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 a.s.sembled. 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 s.n.a.t.c.hblock.

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 gla.s.s 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 ma.s.ses, and red flags were hoisted on the pedestal. Immense crowds a.s.sembled in the streets outside, making it almost impossible to leave the Place Vendome. 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 "Comite 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 s.e.x, 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 "Federes"

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 penal" for a repression, and I deliver into the hands of the "Procureur de la Republique" 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 sh.e.l.ls 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.