Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/286

 *will, which was to date from the victory of Communal doctrines. As though France had not need of all her souvenirs of military glory; as though her humiliation and defeat of the preceding months had not been complete; as though the remembrance of former victories did not raise a Frenchman's hopes, proving what his country might yet be, by comparison with what she had been; as though the very Communists themselves were not proving, each moment, by arbitrary arrests, cruel executions, and fratricidal war, their utter want of anything resembling fraternity or good-will—proving, in fact, the utter falsehood of their lying doctrine—the column was condemned.

On Monday, May 15th, a large crowd assembled in the Rue de la Paix and Place de l'Opera, to see, some their hopes, others their fears, realized. Faint protests had been raised in several of the Parisian journals against this act of vandalism, but the Commune had established too firmly its iron yoke upon the neck of the people to fear much opposition in carrying out its projects. For many days men had been working hard, sawing through the base of the column, and loosening the bronze that coiled around it. The grand ceremony of its overthrow was announced for Monday. The crowd in the streets was dense; one could have walked upon the heads of the multitude, so close did they stand; the balconies of the Rue de la Paix were filled with ladies, and all the windows, mirrors, etc., of the houses, were pasted with paper to neutralize the expected concussion. A long, narrow bed of dung, sand, and branches, had been spread on the square to deaden the shock of the falling mass. Three ropes were fastened around the top of the column, just beneath the statue, which communicated with a windlass and anchor placed in the centre of the road at the entrance of the Rue Neuve des Capucines. The excitement was intense. Fears were entertained that old houses in the neighbor