Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/337

 very difficult to put many of them hors de combat. It was necessary that a ball should just graze the top of the barricade in order to strike one of them. Their bodies being protected by a thick wall of stone, they were only to be touched on the forehead or the hands, which they were obliged to leave unprotected.

The cannonade and musketry fire lasted from nine o'clock till twelve, when four soldiers of the line, crawling across the boulevard, in spite of the bullets and the menacing mouths of the cannon, rose suddenly in front of the barricade, and fired upon the terrified insurgents, who, believing themselves assailed by an entire regiment, fled in every direction. At the same time two columns advanced from the Rue Blanche and the Rue de Bruxelles, and the tricolor was planted on the barricade.

The red flag of the Commune, pierced with balls, had been transported by one of the insurgents to the barricade in the Place Pigalle, the attack of which was immediately begun.

The rôles were now changed. The troops entrenched behind the barricade of the Rue Lepic opened fire on the insurgents, but the contest was very unequal. Although the Federals had been unable to carry with them but one of their guns, those remaining were rendered useless by the want of artillerymen and ammunition, the attacking column being entirely composed of soldiers of the line. The combat had lasted two hours, when a body of troops suddenly appeared in the Rue Houdon, opposite the barricade, and the Federals hastily retreated.

Amongst the number of their dead, the body of a poor baker-boy was found, who had been forced by them to aid in the defence of the barricade.

The quarter being thus entirely conquered, a search for arms was immediately instituted, when a woman, leading an officer into a cellar—where, she said, several guns were