Paris under the Commune: The Seventy-Three Days of the Second Siege; with Numerous Illustrations, Sketches Taken on the Spot, and Portraits (from the Original Photographs)Leighton, John
History
Paris under the Commune: The Seventy-Three Days of the Second Siege; with Numerous Illustrations, Sketches Taken on the Spot, and Portraits (from the Original Photographs)
Leighton, John
Paris (France) -- History -- Commune, 1871
carried off, and I fear he was rather maltreated. We then made our way
back to the boulevards. At our appearance the enthusiasm of the
passers-by was immense; and certainly, without exaggeration, we
numbered between three and four thousand persons by the time we got
back to the front of the New Opera-house, where we were to separate. A
Zouave climbed up a tree in front of the Grand Hôtel, and fixed our
flag on the highest branch. It was arranged that we should meet on the
following day, in uniform but without arms, at the same place.”
This account differs a little from those given in the newspapers, but I
have the best reason to believe it absolutely true.
What will be the effect of this manifestation? Will those who desire
“Order through Liberty and in Liberty” succeed in meeting in
sufficiently large numbers to bring to reason, without having recourse
to force, the numerous partizans of the Commune? Whatever may happen,
this manifestation proves that Paris has no intention of being disposed
of without her own consent. In connection with the action of the
deputies in the National Assembly, it cannot have been ineffective in
aiding the coming pacification.
Many hopeful promises of concord and quiet circulate this evening
amongst the less violent groups.
IX.
What is this fusillade? Against whom is it directed? Against the
Prussians? No! Against Frenchmen, against passers-by, against those who
cry “_Vive la République et vive l’Ordre_.” Men are falling dead or
wounded, women flying, shops closing, amid the whistling of the
bullets,—all Paris terrified. This is what I have just seen or heard.
We are done for then at last. We shall see the barricades thrown up in
our streets; we shall meet the horrid litters, from which hang hands
black with powder; every woman will weep in the evening when her
husband is late in returning home, and all mothers will be seized with
terror. France, alas! France, herself a weeping mother, will fall by
the hands of her own children.
I had started, in company with a friend, from the Passage Choiseul on
my way to the Tuileries, which has been occupied since yesterday by a
battalion devoted to the Central Committee. On arming at the corner of
the Rue St. Roch and the Rue Neuve des Petits Champs we perceived a
considerable crowd in the direction of the Rue de la Paix. “What is
going on now?” said I to my friend. “I think,” said he, “that it is an
unarmed manifestation going to the Place Vendôme; it passed along the
boulevards a short time since, crying “_Vive l’Ordre_.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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