Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/363

 the portion of the left bank bounded by the Seine, the Boulevard Saint Michel, as far as the School of Medicine, and back of this by the Rue Bonaparte, including the Place Saint-Sulpice and the Rue de Rennes, to the Depôt Montparnasse.

All the quarters in the centre of this large zone had suffered severe damage from heavy projectiles, but this did not satisfy the fury of the insurgents. While their accomplices on the right bank were setting fire to the Tuileries and the Palais-Royal, they, from a pure spirit of vengeance, lighted a conflagration in the streets of Lille, Verneuil, Du Bac, and on the Quai d'Orsay.

Many private hotels, and the vast and beautiful edifices of the Legion of Honor, the Conseil d'Etat, and the Caisse des Depôts et Consignations, became during the evening a prey to the flames. The second great scene of battle on the left bank was at Montrouge, before the church of St. Pierre, and in the Avenue d'Orléans, before the barricade at the corner of the Rue Brézin. A frightful struggle of four hours took place at each of these barricades before they were captured.

At the barricade in front of the church, cannon were at first used to make a breach. This was followed by a rapid musketry fire, which lasted two hours. Finally, it was charged with the bayonet.

Entrenched behind the houses, and even in the steeple of the church, the insurgents made frightful ravages in the ranks of the troops, who stood entirely unprotected in the centre of the square formed by the intersection of the Avenues d'Orléans and Du Maine. Their attack was truly heroic, and their impassibility under the balls which rained upon them from the steeple, the barricade, and the surrounding houses, was more heroic still.

After three hours combat, the colonel of the 114th regiment, placing himself at the head of his men, called: