Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/349

 *bulance in the Faubourg St. Honoré. He called so incessantly for his parents that they were finally sent for.

They set out immediately to join him, accompanied by their daughter, a young girl of twenty. The bullets were falling like rain. The young girl was shot through the heart, and the agonized parents were obliged to hasten on, leaving the dead body of their daughter in the streets. At the Rue Royale, it seemed madness to proceed, and the poor people took refuge in the cellar of No. 1, until the firing should have somewhat abated. Here Death overtook his prey, while the son called wildly for the parents who would never answer.

Among the victims were three young men who had hidden here to prevent being forced to join the forces of the Commune.

The design of the insurgents had been to fire the whole quarter, but time was wanting; and when the troops forced the barricades near the church, the incendiaries were obliged to take flight.

It is not to be doubted that the immense building on the Place de la Concorde, the Ministry of Marine, had also been doomed by the insurgents to destruction. The following order was addressed to the Commandant Brunel, who was lodged in the Ministry:

''In a quarter of an hour the Tuileries will be on fire. Remove the wounded from the Ministry and blow it up.''

"I like that," said Brunel.

The inner court was filled with materials to aid in the defence of the adjoining barricades, large cases filled with cartridges and shells, together with eight barrels of gunpowder and two large carboys of petroleum.

The barricades on the Place de la Concorde and the Rue de Rivoli having been defended to the last extremity, the Federals began their retreat and the Marine was evacuated.