Page:Ernest Belfort Bax - A Short History of the Paris Commune (1895).djvu/86

 80 execution of the hostages would be advantageous as a stalking horse to cover their bloodthirsty designs, and hence purposely refrained from rescue is strongly evidenced by the fact, that although masters of nearly all the approaches to the prison of La Roquette for twelve hours before the execution took place, they made no attempt to penetrate into the building.

The Versaillese vengeance, as already stated, lasted, uninterruptedly, till the end of the year. Ferré, abused, bespattered, and caluminated by the press-lackeys of Capitalism, died on the 28th of November like a Communist, an Atheist, and a hero. Rossel, be slavered by the same press-lackeys, who recognised in him one of themselves, a hopeful middle-class young man on the make, was shot together with him, after having first betrayed and then calumniated the Commune in the hope of favour from high quarters. He died like a Bourgeois, a Christian, and a poltroon. But though the constant stream of judicial murders slacked off at the end of 1871, it must not be supposed that they ceased. There were several "executions" on the plain of Satory during the year 1872, the last three persons shot for participation in the Commune having met their deaths so late as the 22nd of January, 1873. these unhappy victims perished after a farcical trial on "evidence" which would be laughed out of any English court, in most cases convicted of participation in events which they had no more to do with than the readers of this history. The statements of suborned witnesses, every calumny, however absurd on the face of it, was eagerly accepted and gloated over by the courts martial and the press. Not content with murder the vile French bourgeoisie had the dastardly meanness in more than one case to