Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/190

 for a serious attack. One important point which they occupied was the Moulin-de-Pierre, where they had put heavy guns in position, within five hundred yards of fort Vanves.

To the west of Paris, the firing became quite sharp during the afternoon, especially between the insurgent batteries at Clichy and the redoubt of Gennevilliers. The troops of the Commune evidently appeared to fear a turning movement towards Argenteuil, and occupied the banks of the Seine opposite the island of St. Ouen.

A most amusing incident occurred on the Boulevard Bineau, while the insurgents were employed in making the reconnaissance of a barricade. A young bugler, fifteen years of age, marched some fifty feet in advance of a company of insurgents. He was full of life and fun, and as he marched would often turn somersets, still playing his fantastic airs. Thinking the barricade deserted, he leaped upon the top, continuing to play, when suddenly he felt himself dragged down by the legs on the other side. He had fallen into an ambuscade of regular soldiers. They immediately wrenched from him his clarion to prevent his giving the alarm to the approaching insurgents; but quick as lightning the young athlete was on top of the barricade, leaving everything but his shirt in the hands of his captors.

"Halt!" he cried to the approaching soldiers, "I am a prisoner!" The troops, finding themselves discovered, opened fire on the advancing victims. The captain, who marched at the head, fell mortally wounded. Several others met with the same relentless fate, while the balls rattled like hail around the young scamp, who sometimes with his head in the air and sometimes his feet, reached an open door in the neighborhood, and disappeared. They had hardly arrived at the door of the house, which was six stories high, when they heard a voice from the roof: