"Vive l'humanite!" The word implies two causes. "I care as much for the liberty of other people as for that of France," said a Federal to a reactionist.[198] In 1871, as in 1793, Paris combats for all the oppressed. The Bastille succumbed about two o'clock. La Villette still struggled on. In the morning the barricade at the corner of the boulevard and of the Rue de Flandre had been surrendered by its commander. The Federals concentrated in the rear along the line of the canal, and barricaded the Rue de Crimee. The Rotonde, destined to support the principal shock, was reinforced by a barricade on the quay of the Loire. The 269th, which for two days had withstood the enemy, recommenced the struggle behind the new positions. This line from La Villette being of great extent, Ranvier and Passedouet went to fetch reinforcements in the twentieth arrondissement, where the remnants of all the battalions took refuge. They crowded round the Mairie, that distributed lodgings and orders for food. Near the church the waggons and horses were noisily put up. The headquarters and different services were established in the Rue Haxo at the Cite Vincennes, a series of constructions intersected by gardens. The very numerous barricades in the inextricable streets of Menilmontant were almost all turned against the boulevard. The strategical route, which on this point overlooks the Pere Lachaise, the Buttes Chaumont, and the exterior boulevard, was not even guarded. From the heights of the ramparts the Prussians were discernible in arms. According to the terms of a convention previously concluded between Versailles and the Prince of Saxony, the German army since Monday invested Paris on the north and east. It had cut off the Railway of the North, manned the canal line from St. Denis, posted sentinels from St. Denis to Charenton, erected barricades on all the routes. From five o'clock in the evening of Thursday 5,000 Bavarians marched down from Fontenay, Nogent, and Charenton, forming an impenetrable cordon from the Marne to Montreuil; and during the evening another corps of 5,000 men occupied Vincennes, with eighty artillery pieces. At nine o'clock he invested the fort and disarmed the Federals, who wanted to return to Paris. He did still better--trapped the game for Versailles. Already during the siege the Prussians had given an indirect support to the Versaillese army; their cynical collusion with the French conservatives showed itself undisguised during the eight days of May. Of all M. Thiers' crimes, one of the most odious will certainly be his introducing the conquerors of France into our civil discords, and begging their help in order to crush Paris.