Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/155



Prussians. As to their infantry, it is not numerous, and without much consistence. When the critical moment arrives, I have every reason to believe that the resistance of the Versaillaise will not be found superior to our efforts."

General Cluseret in his reports did not deem it necessary to be controlled in any measure by the facts in question. A proposition had been made in the Commune to abolish the French Grammar, leaving to citizens the privilege of spelling as they pleased; also expunging from the dictionary such words as king, duke, sir, servant, equipage, conscription, etc.; it would have been as well to have included truth, veracity, etc.

The large guns in position on the Trocadero (the heights above Passy at the extreme west of the city), and pointed at Mont Valérien, commenced firing during the afternoon of the 13th. The fort replied feebly; and, not being able to discover the exact position of this new battery, which was concealed behind the wall of the Passy Cemetery, threw a few shells on the neighboring houses. A crowd of idlers, who had collected in the rear of this battery, immediately dispersed. About half-past four the guns there ceased firing, probably because none of the shot had reached high enough up the mountain to touch the fort at the top. Of the eighteen shells, the flight of which was observed, some fell in the Bois de Boulogne, one at Suresnes, some in the vineyards at the foot of Valérien, and four were not followed by any explosion, and probably dropped into the river. The fort, being at a higher elevation, had the neighborhood of the Trocadéro within range, and its projectiles damaged houses in the Rues Scheffer, Pétrarque, and Vineuse.

The military operations being about to assume a new and more important phase, to assure their success, M. Thiers, by an official decree, appointed Marshal de