Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/38

 *ance. One immense virago was gesticulating in a most fearful manner, calling the regular officers of the line scoundrels, assassins, and dogs.

There seems to have been some mismanagement in the organization of the plan of attack, as it is evident that many of the cannon seized at Montmartre as early as 5 o'clock were still guarded by the troops at 8 ; no horses, or not sufficient in number, had arrived to remove them all. At this hour the National Guards began to show themselves, one at a time, crawling out of all sorts of places, to mix with a crowd of other guards and soldiers of the line coming up the hill with their muskets la crosse en l'air (reversed), shouting "Vive la Ligne," and "Vive la Garde Nationale," while others, who had captured a lieutenant-colonel of the line, were shouting "à mort! à mort!" and not a soldier came to succor him. Seeing matters were assuming a serious aspect, the regulars in charge of the cannon commenced harnessing the horses to the gun-carriages, and some twelve pieces began moving down toward the city by the Rue Lepic, but at the corner of the Rue des Abbesses another crowd opposed the passage of the guns. Men, women and children caught hold of the bridles of the horses, and the artillerymen, not wishing to run over them, desisted in their attempt to make a passage. A moment after, a company of sixty infantry arrived to protect the artillerymen and force a passage. They had hardly commenced to move when a heavy column of the National Guards of Belleville arrived to help their friends of Montmartre. At the same moment General Susbielle, appearing with an escort of gendarmerie and Chasseurs d'Afrique, gave them an order to form in sections and occupy Place Pigalle. The National Guards commenced now to arrive in great numbers, fraternizing with troops of the line who had either reversed their muskets or abandoned them altogether.