Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/242

 "Thus it is seen that not a day is being lost; each hour brings us nearer to the moment when the main attack will terminate the anxieties of Paris and of all France.

"We have had several distinguished officers placed hors de combat in these operations. Colonel Leperche, Lieutenants Panet and De Broglie have been severely but not dangerously wounded. It is hoped that they will soon be restored.

""

The first notice the Parisians had of the above combat was at six o'clock on the morning of the 6th of May. About two hundred insurgents, bareheaded, and without arms or equipment, entered Paris in disorder by the gate of Italy, crying out: "The fort of Vanves is taken!" They were in such a state of excitement that for some time no explanation of their panic could be obtained from them. From their confused accounts, the following cause of their retreat was gathered: For three days the fort had been under a constant fire from the batteries of the Tour-aux-Anglais and from the redoubts of Chatillon and Moulin-de-Pierre. Both artillerymen and National Guards were almost worn out with fatigue. They were, moreover, exposed to a fire of riflemen, from trenches constructed by the enemy at a distance of only five hundred yards, and many gunners had been killed or wounded at their pieces. The troops had also obtained possession of the barricade at the point where the railway intersects the military road, and the insurgents were consequently in danger every moment of finding themselves completely isolated.

The evening of the 5th had been comparatively quiet, when about midnight the troops issued from the trenches and made the first sentinels prisoners before these latter could raise the alarm. What followed was not very clear.