Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/138



Montaudon, who had been wounded. By some bad management, the insurgents were allowed to regain possession of a barricade on the Neuilly side, but they were driven from it again yesterday morning. It was reported that Porte Maillot was to be taken. I was near the ground from morning till night, but no attempt at storming the insurgent position was made. The artillery combat was renewed early and continued till dark, and the troops succeeded in occupying the houses in the Avenue de Neuilly as far as the church; but the infantry operations were confined to firing from windows and from behind walls. The batteries at Porte Maillot and close to the ramparts on the right of the gate shelled Courbevoie and the other positions of the troops. Valérien, with 48-pound shells, kept up a constant fire on Porte Maillot and its redoubts, and the field batteries of the Grenier Division swept the Avenue up to the Arc de Triomphe. One shell struck the Arc itself. On both sides hundreds of spectators were out to witness the performance. I saw a large body of National Guards prepare to march down from the Arc de Triomphe at about four o'clock. They were arrested by the shelling of the troops."

The following morning a warm fusillade took place in the Bois de Boulogne, and soon extended along the river to Clichy and Asnières. Mont Valérien continued to throw shells from time to time into the wood, and in the direction of the Bois de Colombes and Gennevilliers. The guns on the rampart kept up a continual fire on Courbevoie and the bridge at Neuilly. The insurgents were busily occupied in fortifying Asnières, which place seemed likely to become the base of future operations. The gate of the fortifications in that direction was open, and vehicles laden with ammunition and stores were passing out. The villages of Levallois and Champerret were strongly occu