Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/112

 murderer in the service of the Commune), numbering some 35,000 men, passed by Fontenay-au-Roses and Plessis-Piquet, and entered the road from Sceaux to Versailles. They arrived without difficulty at Le Petit Bicêtre, where the road is joined by that of Choisy-le-Roi. Here they were met by some other battalions coming from La Croix de Berney. They were about to proceed, as they thought, in an uninterrupted manner to Versailles, when they were suddenly attacked by the regular troops from the woods of Verrières on the left, and Meudon on the right. The road was well guarded, and it was impossible to proceed further. They immediately began a precipitate retreat, and at four o'clock had arrived at the plateau of Chatillon in a complete state of disorder. During the whole of that evening and night a stream of tired, dusty and desperate men passed the different draw-bridges, many without arms and with torn clothes, and all demoralized, declaring that they had been betrayed—that their leaders were cowards or traitors, and ought to be shot.

Early on Tuesday morning the whole plateau of Chatillon was evacuated by the insurgents, and later in the day occupied by the regular troops without a blow being struck; and on that prominent position the batteries were planted which, with the help of Meudon, eventually silenced the forts of Vanves and Issy.

The column commanded by General Bergeret, a master mason, with Gustave Flourens, a hot-brained traitor, originator and stirrer-up of revolutions, second in command, left Porte Maillot on the night of the 2d of April, intending to pass through Neuilly, Nanterre and Rueil, and attack Versailles in the rear. It was thought by some that it intended to take Mont Valérien on its route, the men having been informed that the commandant of that fort was more anxious to deliver it up to the insurgents than they were to take it. This column had made itself most