Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/353

 sides with great fury, the click of the musket and the roar of the cannon never ceasing for a moment.

The barricade was defended valiantly, and during several hours the troops were unable to make the assault. They first gained possession of all the streets opening on the boulevards, and at the corners of those on the northern side soldiers were posted, who aided the attack in the Rues Auber and Halévy, where it was chiefly conducted.

At about five o'clock the troops penetrated into the New Opera. The doors were forced, and Lieutenant Ziegler, who commanded the first detachment of the attack, entered the building and summoned the insurgents to surrender, under penalty of being instantly shot.

He was answered by shouts of defiance; and an officer, who appeared to be the chief of the band, instantly drew his revolver and aimed it at his head. The lieutenant, however, was too quick for him, and in the act of firing he fell dead upon the ground. The remaining insurgents were thrown into confusion, and soon surrendered their guns.

Several soldiers then mounted to the roof, where one, half enveloped in a huge tricolor, crawled cautiously up the balustrade and planted the flag on an angle of the building. The most difficult part of his task, however, had yet to be accomplished. On the 15th of May, the day on which the first attempt was made to overthrow the Column Vendôme, the red flag of the Commune had been planted above the great bronze statue of Apollo, who stands on the highest pinnacle of the Opera, holding his gilt lyre above his head. The red banner had to be removed from the lyre, by no means an easy task, the figure being thirty feet high, and within direct range of the insurgents below.