Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/275

 the hull by shells in three places, and went down. The Commune gives the following report of the occurrence:

"On Friday morning early, shells began to fall around our gunboats, which replied with great courage. The fire continued at intervals during the day, and, towards five in the evening, the fort of Issy, the battery on the Isle Saint-Germain, suddenly unmasked, and another of mortars, directed a terrible fire on the boats. These latter, after a horrible cannonade, were obliged, by the precision of the enemy's aim, to abandon the dangerous post which they had occupied for more than a month, but did not move, until one of them, the Estoc, got almost split open by the Versailles shells, and foundered gloriously, to the cry of the sailors, Vive la Commune! All the equipage was received on board a smaller vessel, which was in attendance. We have to deplore one man severely wounded and several contusioned. The citizen delegated to the naval force places on the order of the day all the brave seamen of the flotilla who, during the space of a month, supported at the viaduct of the Point-du-Jour the deadly fire of the adverse party."

The insurgents immediately constructed a strong barricade on the Quay de Passy, at the angle of the Rue Guillon, mounted with guns to command the river.

On the morning of the 14th the Versailles troops attacked simultaneously the insurgents entrenched between the forts of Issy and Vânves. The Communists, surprised by a heavy fire of musketry and mitrailleuses, abandoned their posts, and fled to Paris. Those who occupied the college remained firm. The troops then advanced and took possession of the houses, from which, during the rest of the day, they kept up a constant fire upon the insurgents on the ramparts.

At Montmartre the cannon on the Butte commenced