My Days of Adventure: The Fall of France, 1870-71Vizetelly, Ernest Alfred
History
My Days of Adventure: The Fall of France, 1870-71
Vizetelly, Ernest Alfred
Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871 -- Personal narratives
While gazing on the scene from an upper window of the Cafe de la Garde
Nationale, at one corner of the square, I suddenly saw Trochu ride out
of the Government building, as it then was, followed by a couple of
aides-de-camp, His appearance was attended by a fresh uproar. The yells of
"La Commune! La Commune!" rose more loudly than ever, but were now
answered by determined shouts of "Vive la Republique! Vive Trochu! Vive le
Gouvernement!" whilst the drums beat, the trumpets sounded, and all the
Government forces presented arms. The general rode up and down the lines,
returning the salute, amidst prolonged acclamations, and presently his
colleagues, Jules Favre and the others--excepting, of course, Gambetta,
who had already left Paris--also came out of the Hotel-de-Ville and
received an enthusiastic greeting from their supporters. For the time, the
Reds were absolutely defeated, and in order to prevent similar
disturbances in future, Keratry, the Prefect of Police, wished to arrest
Flourens, Blanqui, Milliere, and others, which suggestion was countenanced
by Trochu, but opposed by Rochefort and Etienne Arago. A few days later,
Rochefort patched up a brief outward reconciliation between the contending
parties. Nevertheless, it was evident that Paris was already sharply
divided, both on the question of its defence and on that of its internal
government.
On October 23, some of the National Guards were at last allowed to join in
a sortie. They were men from Montmartre, and the action, or rather
skirmish, in which they participated took place at Villemomble, east of
Paris, the guards behaving fairly well under fire, and having five of
their number wounded. Patriotism was now taking another form in the city.
There was a loud cry for cannons, more and more cannons. The Government
replied that 227 mitrailleuses with over 800,000 cartridges, 50 mortars,
400 carriages for siege guns, several of the latter ordnance, and 300
seven-centimetre guns carrying 8600 yards, together with half a million
shells of different sizes, had already been ordered, and in part
delivered. Nevertheless, public subscriptions were started in order to
provide another 1500 cannon, large sums being contributed to the fund by
public bodies and business firms. Not only did the newspapers offer to
collect small subscriptions, but stalls were set up for that purpose in
different parts of Paris, as in the time of the first Revolution, and
people there tendered their contributions, the women often offering
jewelry in lieu of money. Trochu, however, deprecated the movement. There
were already plenty of guns, said he; what he required was gunners to
serve them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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