Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/233

 formidable. One account says that the attacking party had obtained the password of the insurgents, and, causing itself to be preceded by a small drove of bullocks conducted by soldiers disguised as peasants, penetrated into the redoubt, the sentinels allowing the supposed convoy to pass without molestation. Another account says that the redoubt fell into the hands of the Versailles troops by means of treason; that the commandant, Gallien, either gave or sold the password; that his disappearance during the combat, and the presence in the Versailles army of all the necessary material for the transport of the captured guns, proved this treachery. Nothing of the kind is mentioned, however, in the official despatches at Versailles, and the inference is, that the men who belonged to the 55th and 120th battalions, having been on the alert the two preceding nights and greatly fatigued and overcome by sleep and strong drink, could offer little resistance. Before they were thoroughly awake, the troops were masters of the redoubt.

Few of the defendants had even time to take up their arms, and the greater part were made prisoners without firing a shot; others, who attempted to resist, were killed, wounded, or captured, and but few of the eight hundred men succeeded in escaping. The soldiers then seized the flags, seven pounders, and mitrailleuses, all of which were carried off.

As soon as Haute-Bruyère and Ivry had received the alarm they commenced firing heavily, and the troops, finding themselves too much exposed to the fire of those forts in addition to that of Bicêtre, abandoned the position, taking with them their prisoners and their trophies. During the following day great discouragement prevailed in the quarter of the Gobelins, to which the surprised battalions belonged. A number of women and children had assembled around the Mairie, crying "Treason!"