Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/360

 The first took place at the Dépôt Montparnasse. The insurgents, repulsed the previous evening, profited by the darkness to arm with cannon the barricade in the Rue de Rennes at its intersection with the Rues Cassette and Du Vieux-Colombier. From this position they bombarded, at a distance of 860 yards, the depôt which stood opposite. Shot and shell rained upon the building, rendering it soon a mass of ruins, while the surrounding houses were horribly maltreated.

While the battery of the barricade was thus bombarding the depôt, six battalions of Federals advanced to attack. The firing of musketry and the rattling of the mitrailleuse was then added to the already horrible din, and for five hours the troops within sustained this violent attack with energy and sang-froid.

Two detachments of the Chasseurs d'Afrique then advanced, one to the right and one to the left of the Rue de Rennes, turning the insurgents, who, assailed in front and on two sides, beat a retreat and rapidly disbanded. They were furiously pursued by the troops, and obliged to abandon their dead and wounded by hundreds.

An attack had been made meanwhile on the formidable barricades at the Croix Rouge. This place is formed by the intersection of six roads—Rues du Dragon, Du Four, Du Vieux-Colombier, Du Cherche-Midi, De Sèvres, and De Grenelle, and had been formed into a veritable entrenched camp.

The barricade of the Rue de Grenelle being forced, the troops by whom they were carried divided into two columns—-one leaning towards the left continued to operate in the Rue du Bac, while the other pushed directly forward. They were received near the Rue des Saints-Pères by a violent fire of musketry from the Croix Rouge, and turned to shelter themselves in that street; but hardly had they appeared, when they were