[190] Sarcey, _Le Siège de Paris_, Eng. trans., 250. [191] _Souvenirs_, IV. 143. [192] _Souvenirs_, IV. 150. [193] The Government usually met in the evening at nine o’clock, and the sessions always continued until after midnight, sometimes till two or three in the morning. “From the 4th of September till the 8th of February we never missed a day, and often we had additional meetings,” writes Jules Favre (_Gouvernement de la Défense Nationale_, I. 215). [194] _Souvenirs_, IV. 89. [195] _Souvenirs_, IV. 161. [196] Labouchère, _A Resident besieged in Paris_, 161. [197] See de Goncourt, _Journal_ under October 31, 1870. [198] A vivid description of the proceedings inside the Hôtel de Ville is given by Labouchère, _op. cit._ [199] _Souvenirs_, IV. 167-87. [200] The Revolutionists were discontented with the Provisional Government’s regulation of municipal affairs. After the 4th of September the twenty mayors of Paris had been appointed by the Minister of the Interior, Gambetta, and the Chief Mayor, Etienne Arago. [201] See Jules Favre, _Gouvernement de la Défense Nationale_, I. 300. “_M. Dorian déploya la plus louable activité pour obtenir de prompts résultats. Cet excellent et digne citoyen ... était à ce moment entouré d’une immense popularité.... Il semblait personnifier la défense._” [202] _Souvenirs_, IV. 193. [203] De Goncourt, _Journal_, December 1870. [204] _souvenirs_, IV. 273. [205] _Ibid._, 129. [206] _Souvenirs_, IV. 119. [207] _Souvenirs_, IV. 210. [208] _Ibid._, 303. [209] _Ibid._, 306. [210] _Souvenirs_, IV. 315. [211] _Ibid._, 324. [212] Favre, _op. cit._, III. 342. [213] _Ibid._, 345. [214] Favre, _op. cit._, III. 347. [215] _Souvenirs_, IV. 324. [216] Minister of Finance. See _ante_, 140. [217] Trochu, who had resigned after Buzenval, had been succeeded as Governor of Paris by General Vinoy. [218] Mme. Adam dates the signing of the armistice on the 26th, the day when firing ceased. But by an arrangement between Favre and Bismarck the bombardment closed two days before the signing of the capitulation. See Jules Favre, _Gouvernement de la Défense Nationale_, II. 403. CHAPTER XII THE COMMUNE 1871 “_Cette Commune qui venait de faire sombrer le Paris héroique dans le Paris sanglant et incendiaire._”—Mme. Adam, _Souvenirs_. “In each human heart terror survives The ravin it has gorged.”—Shelley, _Prometheus_. For five months France had been ruled by an oligarchy. The ministers who took office on the 4th of September were responsible to no parliament. No legislative body had succeeded the Corps Legislatif, the members of which, as we have seen, had unceremoniously quitted the Palais Bourbon on that autumn Sunday which saw the birth of the Government of National Defence.