Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/182

 In the early part of the day a great movement of troops had taken place between St. Ouen and Gennevilliers. Numerous battalions had been massed within the ramparts of Clichy and Batignolles, the artillery-men were at their guns, and mounted orderlies were hurrying through the streets, and calling on the inhabitants to keep their doors and windows closed, and not to venture into the streets. The insurgents waited thus until eight o'clock, when General Dombrowski arrived, and finding the enemy did not attack, sent two battalions in the direction of the Isle des Ravageurs. But in reaching the Seine they were received by a heavy fusillade from the left bank of the river. The troops were concealed in houses at Asnières, and keeping up a musketry fire; but the Federals continued to advance to the island which was then occupied by a small body of soldiers. These latter, however, were dislodged after a sharp engagement.

About one in the afternoon the army opened a fresh battery, which had been put in position on the Courbevoie side of the Chateau Bécon; the one in the mansion was too much exposed, and had suffered considerably from the fire of the guns below the bridge of Asnières. The troops had in consequence removed their guns behind a small ridge about three hundred yards from the Demi-Lune. The commander of the 207th battalion of the insurgents was killed on the bridge of Asnières, but his body lay two days where it fell, and could not be removed, the spot was so exposed to the fire of both parties; and in the midst of the animosity excited by this horrible civil war, no person had an idea of advancing with a flag of truce to bring in the corpse.

The troops had a slight success near the market place at Neuilly; the insurgents were defending a barricade, and as the attack was made without spirit, they imagined they had little to fear from their adversaries, when a part