justice, to burn off-hand that other humiliating monument which is styled the History of the Consulate and of the Empire—in short, he insists on the execution of these acts of Vandalism. He did not call for the destruction of the Column Vendôme, but approved of the decree. He demands the destruction of the Expiatory Chapel of Louis XVI. (20th of April), and suggests the seizure of the crown jewels, which were in the possession of the bank (14th of April). In short, M. Rochefort, having entered upon a road which must naturally lead to extremes, finally arrives at a proposition for assassination. In the same way as he pointed out to the demolishers the house of M. Thiers, and to the bandits released by the Commune the treasures of the Church, so he points out to the assassins the unfortunate hostages. A few days before the end of the reign of the Commune he judged it prudent, “seeing the gravity of events,” to suspend the publication of his journal and to quit Paris. He was arrested at Meaux. It was the “_Meaux de la fin_,”[113] said a friend and fellow-writer. He arrived at Versailles on the twenty-first of May, at two o’clock, the same day on which the troops entered Paris. On Sept. 20 Rochefort was tried with the Communists before the military tribunal of Versailles. Physically he seemed to have suffered much during his three months of incarceration. He is reported to have made anything but a brilliant defence, and to have restricted himself to pleading past actions and good services. He said that he suppressed _The Marseillaise_ at a loss of 20,000 francs per month, when he had no other private means of support, because he thought the effect of its articles would weaken the plan of Trochu for the defence of Paris, and that when he (M. Rochefort) held the _forces populaires_, and had an _occasion unique_, he chose to play a subordinate part. He stated himself a journalist _under_ the reign of the Commune, and not an active power _in_ the Commune from which in the end he had to fly. Rochefort owned that his articles in the _Mot d’Ordre_ had been more or less violent, but he pleaded the cause his “_façon plus ou moins nerveuse à écrire_” and that from illness he did not sometimes see his own journal. When pandering to a vulgar audience, Rochefort seemed to have lost his rich vein of satire, and to have lost himself in vile abuse. On the 21st he was sentenced to transportation for life within the enceinte of a French fortress. NOTES: [113] “_Le mot de la fin_,” the final word—the finale. II. (Page 27.) THE EIGHTEENTH OF MARCH.