"_5th._--The fire of the enemy does not cease for a moment. Our embrasures no longer exist; the pieces of the front still answer. At two o'clock we receive ten waggons of shells of seven centimetres. Rossel has come. He looked at the works of the Versaillese for a long time. The _enfants-perdus_ who serve the pieces of bastion 5 are losing many men; they remain steadfast. There are now in the dungeons two yards deep of corpses. All our trenches, riddled by artillery, have been evacuated. The trench of the Versaillese is sixty yards from the counterscarp. They push on more and more. The necessary precautions are taken in case of an attack to-night. All the flank pieces are loaded with grapeshot. We have two mitrailleuses above the _terre-plein_ to sweep at once the moat and the glacis. "_6th._--The battery of Fleury regularly discharges its six rounds on us every five minutes. A cantiniere has just been brought to the ambulance, wounded in the left side of the groin. For four days past three women have gone into the thickest of the fire to tend the wounded. This one is dying and bids us remember her two little children. No more food. We eat only horse-flesh. Evening: the rampart is untenable. "_7th._--We are receiving as many as ten shells a minute. The ramparts are totally uncovered. All the pieces, save two or three, are dismounted. The Versaillese works almost touch us. There are thirty more dead. We are about to be surrounded." FOOTNOTES: [147] _La Guerre des Communeux_ by a superior officer of the Versaillese army. [148] On the 12th May, at the barricade of Petit-Vanves, an officer of engineers of the Lacretelle division, second corps, Captain Rozhem, was taken prisoner. When brought before the commander of the trenches, "I know what is in store for me," said he; "shoot me." The commander shrugged his shoulders and took him to Delescluze. "Captain," said the delegate, "promise that you will not fight against the Commune and you are free." The officer promised, and, deeply moved, asked Delescluze for permission to shake hands with him. This is one fact among a hundred such. Is it necessary to add that from the 3rd April to the 23rd May the Federals did not shoot _one single_ prisoner, officer or soldier? [149] Appendix X. [150] This fact was established through the minute inquiry which the Council charged three of its members to make. Two of these, Gambon and Langevin, are by their characters above all suspicion. They received the declaration of the wounded man and saw one of the bodies, the two others not having been found. [151] It never appeared in the _Officiel_, but was announced in the _Vengeur_; for Felix Pyat abused his functions in order to give his journal the first news of the official decisions. This time he was a little too quick. CHAPTER XXI.