Towards ten o'clock on the right bank the Versaillese reached the
barricade of the Faubourg St. Denis, near the St. Lazare prison,
outflanked and shot seventeen Federals.[193] Thence they went to occupy
the St. Laurent barricade at the junction of the Boulevard Sebastopol,
erected batteries against the Chateau d'Eau, and by the Rue des
Recollets gained the Quay Valmy. On the night, their debouching on the
Boulevard St. Martin was retarded by the Rue de Lanery, against which
they fired from the Ambigu-Comique Theatre. In the third arrondissement
they were stopped in the Rue Meslay, Rue Nazareth, Rue du Vert-Bois, Rue
Charlot, Rue de Saintonge. The second arrondissement, invaded from all
sides, was still disputing its Rue Montorgueuil Nearer the Seine, Vinoy
succeeded in entering the Grenier d'Abondance by circuitous streets, and
in order to dislodge him the Federals set fire to this building, which
overlooks the Bastille.
_Three o'clock._--The Versaillese invaded the thirteenth arrondissement
more and more. Their shells falling upon the prison of the Avenue
d'Italie, the Federals evacuated it, at the same time taking out the
prisoners, amongst whom were the Dominicans of Arcueil, who had been
brought back to Paris with the garrison of Bicetre. The sight of these
men, doubly odious, exasperated the combatants, whose guns, so to say,
spontaneously went off, and a dozen of the apostles of the Inquisition
fell under the bullets at the moment they were running away by the
Avenue. All the other prisoners were respected.
Since the morning Wroblewski had received the order to fall back upon
the eleventh arrondissement. He persisted in holding out, and had
shifted the centre of his resistance a little further to the rear, to
the Place Jeanne d'Arc. But the Versaillese, masters of the Avenue des
Gobelins, made their junction with the columns of the Avenues d'Italie
and Choisy in the thirteenth arrondissement. One of their detachments
continuing to file along the rampart, reached the embankment of the
Orleans Railway, and the red-coats were already showing themselves on
the Boulevard St. Marcel. Wroblewski, almost hemmed in on all sides, was
at last forced to consent to a retreat. Moreover, the subaltern chiefs
had, like their general, received the order to fall back; and so,
protected by the fire of the Austerlitz Bridge, the able defender of the
Butte aux Cailles passed the Seine in good order with his cannon and a
thousand men. A certain number of Federals, who obstinately remained
behind in the thirteenth arrondissement, were surrounded and taken
prisoners.
The Versaillese did not dare to disturb Wroblewski's retreat, although
they held part of the Boulevard St. Marcel, the Orleans Station, and
their gunboats were ascending the Seine. The latter were delayed for a
moment at the entrance of the St. Martin's Canal, but putting on full
steam, they overcame the obstacle, and in the evening lent assistance in
the attack on the eleventh arrondissement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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