Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/229

 and fifty prisoners. They also prepared to attack a battery situated between the Château of Issy and the fort. The insurgents, with a considerable number of guns, immediately began to shell the station at Clamart and the Château of Issy. In consequence of this movement, which was calculated to inflict much damage on the troops, no time was lost in giving orders that all those batteries which were engaged against the Point du Jour should direct their fire in such a manner as to embarrass the insurgents in their attempt on the station and the Château. General Faron sent forward the engineers, and he was soon able to announce to Marshal de MacMahon that all the new positions were in a state of defence.

On the following morning, at daybreak, a column of three battalions issued from their intrenchments, and advanced against the Versailles outposts. The soldiers being in small numbers, fell back, and the insurgents continued to push forward in the direction of Clamart, turning all the obstacles, and avoiding the mitrailleuses. Reinforcements of the regular troops at length came up, and the insurgents, finding themselves in danger, commenced a retreat, in which they were much hurried by the Government troops. Many of them tried to enter Paris by the Vaugirard gate, but the guard there refused to admit them, as the instructions given were not to allow any National Guard to pass. The fugitives outside threatened to fire on the insurgents at the gate, but did not carry out their menace, and were obliged to disperse in different directions.

The news of this defeat soon becoming known at headquarters, a much more powerful force was directed towards this point, where the resistance shown was truly remarkable, and of incomparable energy. The defenders of the fort used mattresses made of seaweed to resist the bullets which now had become more annoying than the