What men this handful of combatants, who, without chiefs, without hope, without retreat, disputed their last pavements as though they implied victory! The hypocritical reaction has charged them with the crime of incendiarism, as if in war fire were not a legitimate arm; as if the Versaillese shells had not set fire to at least as many edifices as those of the Federals; as if the private speculation of certain men of order had not its share in the ruins.[190] And that same bourgeois who spoke of "burning everything"[191] before the Prussians, calls this people scoundrels because they preferred to bury themselves in the ruins rather than abandon their faith, their property, their families, to a coalition of despots a thousand times more cruel and more lasting than the foreigner. At eleven o'clock two officers entered Delescluze's room and informed him of the execution of the hostages. He listened to the recital without ceasing to write, and then only asked, "How did they die?" When the officers were gone, Delescluze turned to the friend who was working with him, and, hiding his face in his hands, "What a war!" cried he, "what a war!" But he knew revolutions too well to lose himself in bootless reflections, and, mastering his emotion, he exclaimed, "We shall know how to die!" During the whole night despatches succeeded each other without intermission, all demanding cannon and men under the threat of abandoning such or such a position. But where to find cannon? And men began to be as rare as the bronze. FOOTNOTES: [187] One of the commanders of the German troops. [188] Appendix XVIII. [189] At half-past eight o'clock in the Mairie of the eleventh arrondissement the delegate Genton made this recital, which we heard, and reproduce verbatim. [190] Appendix XIX. [191] "Burn everything! I have heard these words from the most wise, the most virtuous men."--_Jules Favre, Enquete sur le 18 Mars_, vol. ii. p. 42. "Rather Moscow than Sedan," wrote during the first siege one of these wise and virtuous men--M. Jules Simon. CHAPTER XXX. THURSDAY 25TH--THE WHOLE LEFT BANK FALLS INTO THE HANDS OF THE TROOPS--DELESCLUZE DIES--THE BRASSARDIERS[192] STIMULATE THE MASSACRE--THE MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL EVACUATE THE MAIRIE OF THE ELEVENTH ARRONDISSEMENT. A few thousand men could not indefinitely hold a line of battle several miles long. When night had set in, many Federals abandoned their barricades in order to snatch a little rest. The Versaillese, who were on the look-out, took possession of their defences, and the glimmering of dawn saw the tricolor where on the eve had floated the red flag. In the darkness the Federals evacuated the greater part of the tenth arrondissement, whose artillery pieces were transported to the Chateau d'Eau. Brunel and the brave _pupilles de la Commune_ still stood their ground in the Rue Magnan and on the Quay Jemappes, the troops holding the top of the Boulevard Magenta.