Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/214

 *ing to Paris, but to remain and guard their flags on the fortifications.

The delegates were received by M. Thiers, who replied: "There will be a few more houses shelled, and a few more men killed, but force must remain to the law." In answer to a communication afterwards sent to him, he declared that he had nothing to add to his previous reply.

They were obliged to return to Paris on foot, owing to the impossibility of procuring fresh horses, and did not reach the gates until six in the morning. After making their report, the Freemasons decided that the banners should remain planted on the ramparts, and, if necessary, that the men who guarded them should fight for the Commune.

On the following day, the Freemasons of all rites were invited to assemble in the Place de la Concorde, at two in the afternoon, in order to go and take away their flags from the ramparts, the fire of the Versailles troops not having shown them any respect.

The army of Versailles followed up its advantage on Fort Issy. At about ten o'clock in the evening of the 29th, the batteries of Meudon, Chatillon and Moulineaux commenced a most terrific converging fire on the fort, with scarcely any reply, as it was then only a mass of ruins. The casemates had been crushed in, and the walls levelled with the ground. Towards one o'clock the Versailles batteries stopped firing, and the regular troops suddenly fell upon the insurgents, who, surprised by the rapidity and fierceness of the attack, immediately fled in wild disorder, abandoning cannon, mitrailleuses and muskets.

The losses on both sides were considerable, according to the insurgents' reports. The 161st battalion was nearly exterminated. At midnight, when the firing had nearly ceased, the Versailles troops were occupying part of the Park of Issy, and the station of Clamart. To the occu