Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/261

 "I shall not do the former, for the obstruction is you and your feebleness; and I am unwilling to make an attack on the public sovereignty.

"I therefore retire, and I have the honor to ask you for a cell at Mazas.

""

Citizen Rossel, ex-Delegate of War, was arrested the following morning by order of the Committee of Public Safety, and being brought to the Hotel de Ville, was confided to the safe-keeping of Citizen Gérardin, a member of the Commune. At five in the afternoon, Citizen Avriel announced to the Commune that the prisoner had fled, and, strange to say, in company with the citizen appointed to guard him. Warrants were at once issued for the arrest of both fugitives. Citizen Gérardin was, two days back, one of the five members of the Committee of Public Safety. Many were astonished that, after having so proudly demanded "a cell in Mazas," M. Rossel should have fled precisely at the moment when his request was about to be complied with. The ex-Delegate evidently knew wherein his safety lay.

The official journal published the next day, at the head of its columns, an address to the people of Paris from the Committee of Public Safety:

", May 12, 1871.

"To the People of Paris:

": The Commune and the Republic have escaped a mortal peril.

"Treason has glided into our ranks. The reaction, despairing to triumph over Paris by force of arms, has attempted to disorganize the defending body of the capital by corruption and gold. This has been flung about in handfuls, and has found amongst us consciences to purchase.