Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/37

 General Susbielle, of the 2d army corps; another by General Faron, on Belleville; a third by General Wolff, of the 1st army corps, on the Place de la Bastille; and a fourth, under General Hanrion, of the same corps, on the cité. At 4 o'clock the Buttes of Montmartre were completely surrounded by the 88th, 137th and 122d regiments of the line, a battalion of the 17th chasseurs à pied, and a few guardians of the peace. Mitrailleuses were in battery in Rue Houdon, Rue Durantin, Rue des Martyrs, and Rue Virginie, seven-pounder guns were planted in all streets leading up to Montmartre, and soldiers of the line were posted in the streets as sentinels to prevent pedestrians from going towards the Buttes. The windows were crowded with spectators, and groups of women and children were formed in the streets discussing, some with frightened and others with angry looks, the events which were transpiring.

A regiment of the army of Faidherbe, the 88th of the line (since disbanded for fraternizing with the insurgents, and never more to exist in the French army), which had only arrived the day before in Paris, made its appearance at the base of Montmartre, and separating into different columns, arrived by the Rue Lepic, Chaussée Clignancourt, and Boulevard Ornano, forming their junction at the Tour of Solferino, the culminating point of the Buttes, which was occupied by some fifty National Guards, who were disarmed before they had time to give the understood signal.

This signal consisted in three discharges of cannon, fired in quick succession. From this moment the heights were occupied in a military point of view.

The women of the neighborhood were loud in their denunciations against the National Guards who had surrendered, declaring, if they had been left in charge, the canaille of Versailles would have met with some resist