A rope attached to the summit of the column was twisted round a capstan fixed at the entrance of the street. The place was crowded with National Guards; the windows, the roofs were filled with curious spectators. In default of MM. Jules Simon and Ferry, erewhile warm partisans of the operation, M. Glais-Bizoin felicitated the new prefect of police, Ferre, who had just taken the place of Cournet, and confided to him that for forty years it had been his ardent desire to see the expiatory monument demolished. The bands played the "Marseillaise," the capstan turned about, the pulley broke, and a man was wounded. Already rumours of treason circulated among the crowd; but a second pulley was soon supplied. At a quarter past five an officer appeared on the balustrade for some time, waved a tricolor flag, then fixed it on the rails. At half-past five the capstan again turned, and a few minutes after the extremity of the column slowly displaced itself; the shaft little by little gave way, then, suddenly reeling to and fro, broke and fell with a low moan. The head of Bonaparte rolled on the ground, and his parricidal arm lay detached from the trunk. An immense acclamation, as that of a people freed from a yoke, burst forth. The ruins were climbed upon and saluted by enthusiastic cries, and the red flag floated from the purified pedestal, which on that day had become the altar of the human race. The people wanted to divide among themselves the fragments of the column, but were prevented by the inopportune interference of the Council members present. A week afterwards, the Versaillese picked them up. One of the first acts of the victorious bourgeoisie was to again raise this enormous block, the symbol of their sovereignty. To lift up Caesar on his pedestal they needed a scaffolding of 30,000 corpses. Like the mothers under the First Empire, may those of our days never look upon this bronze without weeping. FOOTNOTES: [172] These were what General Appert calls the Brunel brigade. 7882 strong. [173] Appendix XIV. [174] During the first siege, the _Journal Officiel_ of the mairie of Paris had inserted a letter from Courbet demanding the overthrow of the column. [175] Thus Courbet was not as yet a member of the Council. Nevertheless he was considered as the principal author of the fall of the column, and condemned in the costs of its re-erection. CHAPTER XXV. PARIS ON THE EVE OF DEATH. The Paris of the Commune has but three days more to live; let us engrave upon our memory her luminous physiognomy.