Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/300



without science or knowledge, are in a majority. And that result is in no way extraordinary. Considering the state of our early instruction, education, and prejudices, and our infatuation especially, for every one intelligent man to be found, there are a hundred idiots."

The devout and religious portion of Paris attributed the fearful explosion on the Avenue Rapp to a judgment on the insurgents for their sacrilegious violation of the Church of Notre-Dame des Victoires. This church, situated in the Place des Petits Pères, was founded in 1629 by Louis XIII. It was used during the Revolution of 1789 as an exchange, and was, on the 17th of May, about five o'clock, or one hour before the explosion, entered by a Commissaire de Police by the name of Le Moussu, at the head of the 159th battalion of National Guards (insurgents), belonging to the Belleville Quarter. The priests were about finishing the service of the "Mois de Marie" when they were expelled in the most brutal manner, and with much difficulty, the worshippers protesting in the loudest manner; the women fled to the Chapel of the Virgin. The Abbé Delacroix saved the consecrated articles, which he conveyed to the Church of St. Roch. The Citizen Le Moussu, after having arrested two vicars of the parish, the Abbés du Courroy and Amodru, and two members of the Council, gave the order to sack the church. A rage truly infernal was exhibited in this Communal orgie. The tabernacles were torn up, the altars demolished, the confessionals overturned, the marble slabs of the temple broken. The body of Saint Aurelia, which reposed under the altar of the Virgin, and that of the venerable Des Genettes, former curate of the parish, and founder of the Archi-Confrerie, buried at the foot of the same altar, were profaned. The vaults enclosing the dried remains of the Augustines, who died in the old convent, were violated.