Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/232

 M. Thiers. Unfortunately, and for reasons not yet fully known, the National Guards of Passy and Auteuil, 38th and 72d battalions, did not make the signals agreed upon, and the affair fell through. This was the second time in ten days that an enterprise of this kind had failed. The non-success of this undertaking was counterbalanced by a great success on the evening of the 3d. The commandant of the 2d corps telegraphed to the Chief of the Executive Power as follows:

"Complete success of our attack on the right.

"The redoubt of Moulin-Saquet has been taken by assault with great gallantry by the troops of General Lacretelle.

"Two hundred dead insurgents remained on the ground. We have carried off three hundred prisoners, eight cannon, and several fanions.

"Two of the enemy's cannon, overthrown in the fossé, have been abandoned."

M. Thiers, in his report, said, "This is the victory that the Commune will celebrate to-morrow in its bulletins."

About seven o'clock in the evening of the 3d of May, four companies of the 39th Regiment de Marche, supported by the éclaireurs of the 41st and 71st Regiments, left the environs of Plessis-Picquet and arrived at the upper Seine by Hay, Chevilly, and Thiasis. There meeting the advanced posts of the 3d cavalry corps, they followed the route from Choisy-le-Roi to Vitry. Then traversing that village in haste, they advanced in silence on the enemy's outposts.

Moulin-Saquet was a position of the utmost importance to take and to hold; it was one of those redoubts that, during the former siege, held head against the batteries of Hay and Thiasis, and was situated a little in advance of Bicêtre. Its new works had rendered it very