Before the public, ignorant of this despatch, Pyat kept up his lie. He said in the _Vengeur_: "The only order given directly to the generals by the Committee of Public Safety to defend Issy, which Rossel did not defend, was addressed to General Wroblewski, intrusted with the forts of the south. The Committee of Public Safety, in ordering him to watch over Issy, did not displace him." In point of fact, not Wroblewski was charged with the defence of the fort of Issy, but La Cecilia, who since the reoccupation held the chief post on this side, and commanded Wetzel, intrusted with the defence of the approaches of the fort. [155] The _chefs-de-legion_ have said 10,000. The truth lies between the two. [156] P. Vichard, ex-chief of the staff of the Garibaldian General Bossack. [157] Heard and reported by Lefrancais, whose veracity is above suspicion. _Etude sur le Mouvement Communaliste par G. Lefrancais_, p. 294. Neuchatel, 1870. CHAPTER XXII. THE CONSPIRACIES AGAINST THE COMMUNE. The Commune had given rise to the various trades of the plot-monger, the betrayer of gates, the conspiracy-broker. Vulgar sharpers, Jonathan Wilds of the gutter, whom a shadow of police would have scared away, they had no other strength than the weakness of the prefecture and the carelessness of the delegations. The evidence relative to them is to a certain extent still in the keeping of the Versaillese; but they have themselves published a good deal, often borne witness against each other, and what with private information, what with the opportunities offered by our exile, we shall be able to penetrate into this realm of blackguardism. From the end of March they levied contributions upon all the Ministries of Versailles, offering for a few sous to surrender some of the gates of Paris or to kidnap the members of the Council. By degrees they were more or less classed. The colonel of the staff, Corbin, was charged with the organisation of the faithful National Guards still at Paris. The commander of a reactionary battalion, Charpentier, a former drill officer of St. Cyr, offered him his services, was accepted, and presented a few of his cronies, Durouchoux, Demay, and Gallimard. Their instructions were to recruit clandestine battalions, who were to occupy the strategic points of the town on the day when the general attack would summons all the Federals to the ramparts. A naval officer, Domalain, offered at that moment to surprise Montmartre, the Hotel-de-Ville, the Place Vendome, and the commissariat, with a few thousand volunteers, whom he professed to have at hand. He entered into partnership with Charpentier.