Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/109

 their trunks. The Père Duchene advised the Commune to dissolve the Assembly, which, "after having subscribed to the shame of France, was conspiring for the destruction of the Republic."

The Commune, wishing to take possession of the Post-office, sent word to the director that, considering the disorder that prevailed in the postal service, it was necessary to make a change in the administration, and that Citizen Theisz was charged with the direction.

The postal service was the best managed in France, but the director was obliged to give place to the insurrection. The director, chief clerk, and all the heads of offices, left the next day for Versailles.

Internal dissension had already commenced among the members of the Commune; and M. Lullier was sent to the Conciergerie, whence he wrote a long protest to the journals, complaining of the treatment he had met with from the Central Committee. According to his account, the entire defence of Paris was organized and successfully carried out by him; but that when his colleagues had no further need of him, and he had recommended them to exercise moderation in their conduct, they had thrown him into prison, where he still remained.

It would be necessary to go back some fifteen centuries to find in the celebrated city of Syracuse a case parallel to that of Paris on the first day of April, 1871. The Prussians held the northern and eastern forts, the insurgents were masters of the southern forts, the city, and its walls; and the regular Government was reduced to the possession of Mont Valérien, situated at the west, but the most powerful of all the forts.

The insurgents, emboldened by their success, commenced to make most important preparations, with a view of attacking the Assembly at Versailles. They disarmed all the National Guards suspected of any attachment to