Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/268



from the 18th foot-chasseurs, 26th line, 5th provisional regiment (Gandil's brigade, division of General Berthaut), 26th foot-chasseurs, and 37th marching regiment (Daguerre's brigade, division of General Vergé), opened the trenches about ten in the evening and worked all night till daybreak, when they were forced to suspend their labor. Their right is on the Seine and their left at the extremity of Boulogne. By means of their activity and courage they were at four in the morning sheltered from the enemy's fire. They are now at only three hundred yards from the fortifications of Paris, that is to say, at a distance from which they might, if they pleased, already establish a breaching battery.

"We have now every reason to hope that the hard trials of the well-meaning portion of the population of the capital are drawing to a close, and that the odious reign of the infamous faction which has adopted the red flag for its emblem, will soon cease to oppress and dishonor the capital of France. It is also to be desired that what is now taking place will serve as a lesson to the wretched imitators of the Commune, and prevent them from exposing themselves to the legal severities which await them if they dare to carry any further their criminal and ridiculous enterprise."

The new Committee of Public Safety was evidently much enraged at the above and previous despatch, and signalized its entry into military functions by the following most infamous decree published against the "Sieur Thiers," declaring that his house, situated in Place Saint George, should be razed to the ground:

", 21 Floreal, An. 79.

"The Committee of Public Safety, considering the posting-bill of Sieur Thiers calling himself Chief of the Government in the French Republic;