"La plus grande infamie dont l'histoire moderne ait garde la souvenir, s'accomplit a cette heure, Paris est bombarde." --Jules Favre, Jules Simon, E. Picard, Trochu, Jules Ferry, E. Arago, Garnier-Pages, Pelletan. _Proclamation du Gouvernement de la Defense Nationale a propos du bombardement Prussien._ "Nous avons ecrase tout un quartier de Paris."--_M. Thiers a l'Assemblee Nationale, Seance du 5 Aout 1871._ PARIS IS BOMBARDED--THE FORT OF ISSY SUCCUMBS--THE COUNCIL ELECTS A NEW COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY--ROSSEL FLIES. We must leave this heroic atmosphere to return to the quarrels of the Council and of the Central Committee. Why did they not hold their sittings at the Muette or under the eyes of the public?[152] The shells of Montretout, which had just unmasked its powerful battery, the severe attitude of the people, would no doubt have made them unite against the common enemy. He had commenced to batter in breach. On the 8th May, in the morning, seventy marine pieces began to attack the enceinte from the bastion 60 to the Point du Jour. The shells of Clamart already reached the quay of Javelle, and the battery of Breteuil covered the Grenelle quarter with projectiles. In a few hours half Passy had become uninhabitable. M. Thiers accompanied his shells with a proclamation: "Parisians, the Government will not bombard Paris, as the men of the Commune will not fail to tell you. It will discharge its cannon.... It knows, it would have understood, even if you had not said so on all sides, that as soon as the soldiers cross the enceinte you will rally round the national flag." And he invited the Parisians to open the gates to him. What was the action of the Council in reply to this appeal to treason?