[77] Some Bourse speculators, in the belief that a campaign of six weeks would give a fresh impulse to the speculations they were living upon, said, "It is a disagreeable moment to pass through, some 50,000 men to be sacrificed, after which the horizon will clear and commerce revive."--_M. Thiers, Enquete sur le 4 Septembre_, vol. i. p. 9. [78] _Enquete sur le 18 Mars_, M. Thiers, vol. ii. p. 11. [79] In the evening D'Aurelles assembled forty of the most reliable, and asked them if their battalions would march. They all said their men were not to be counted upon. _Enquete sur le 18 Mars_, vol. ii. p. 435, 456. [80] This is the number of pieces given by M. Thiers in the _Enquete sur le 18 Mars_. CHAPTER III. "Nous avons donc fait ce que nous devions faire; rien n'a provoque l'insurrection de Paris."--_Discours de M. Dufaure contre l'Amnistie, Seance du 18 Mai 1876._ THE EIGHTEENTH OF MARCH. The execution was as foolish as the conception. On the 18th of March, at three o'clock in the morning, several columns dispersed in various directions to the Buttes Chaumont, Belleville, the Faubourg du Temple, the Bastille, the Hotel-de-Ville, Place St. Michel, the Luxembourg, the thirteenth arrondissement and the Invalides. General Susbielle marched on Montmartre with two brigades about 6,000 men strong. All was silent and deserted. The brigade Paturel took possession of the Moulin de la Galette without striking a blow. The brigade Lecomte gained the Tower of Solferino, only meeting with one sentinel, Turpin, who crossed bayonets with them and was hewn down by the gendarmes. They then rushed to the post of the Rue des Rosiers, stormed it, and threw the National Guards into the caves of the Tower of Solferino. At six o'clock the surprise was complete. M. Clemenceau hurried to the Buttes to congratulate General Lecomte. Everywhere else the cannon were surprised in the same way. The Government triumphed all along the line, and D'Aurelles sent the papers a proclamation written in the conqueror's vein.