Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/339

 Before advancing, officers and men, heated by the march, took a glass of wine at a café in the avenue.

"The cross was given me a few days ago," said Durrieu, "but I do not wear it, because I have not received the embrace. I feel that if I had it on my breast, it would bring me good fortune," and he drew from his pocket a cross which a friend had given him.

A captain, who was decorated, immediately advanced, fastened on the cross, and gave him the embrace. Tears of joy stood in the eyes of the brave Durrieu, when, suddenly, his face grew clouded, and taking a pencil, he wrote on the shutter of the house these words:

"In case of accident, carry Durrieu, 21 Rue de Torcy."

The assault was commanded, and the height captured. A barricade in the Rue Fontenelle was also carried. Durrieu was left with seven men to guard it, while the plateau of Moulin-de-la-Galette was attacked and taken; when his comrades returned, Durrieu was dead. He was thirty-five years of age.

Meanwhile, another column, skirting the Rue du Rempart, mounted the heights by the Rue Fontaine-du-But, on the opposite side, and took possession of the Chateau Rouge.

The two columns met on the top, where they found the guns still loaded as they were abandoned by the Federals.

During this time all had been confusion at Montmartre. Early in the morning the Federals were informed by their General that they had been betrayed; that ammunition and reinforcements had been refused them, and that the gates of Saint-Ouen and Clignancourt had been opened to the Versailles troops.

The movement executed by the soldiers along the Rue du Rempart had led the insurgents to suppose that they had entered those gates.