Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/381



"Art. 4. The expiatory monument raised to the memory of Louis XVI. shall be immediately repaired." (Loud applause on the Right.)

On the Place de l'Opera the damage done was considerable, although the Opera itself had escaped almost uninjured, notwithstanding the numerous shells sent against it from Père Lachaise. These fell very thickly during the afternoon, both in the Place and along the boulevards. Several persons were killed in front of the Théatre des Variétés and in the Rue de la Paix, and the crowds that in the morning had filled the streets gradually diminished and finally disappeared altogether.

The fears of explosions and petroleum had become universal. The inhabitants had stopped up every chink into which anything could be thrown; cellar-lights, ventilators, and gratings, had all disappeared from view. Some were covered with sand-bags, others were built up with paving-stones like miniature barricades, while the majority were plastered with sand and mortar.

Every woman walking in the streets was regarded with suspicion by her neighbors, and many innocent persons narrowly escaped becoming the victims of an angry mob whose fury had been roused by some jealous individual who had seen evidences of guilt where none existed.

As an excuse for the mob it may be said that the very persons the least calculated to excite their suspicions were invariably the ones who committed these atrocious crimes; and as discovery followed discovery their terror reached such a height that they distrusted all mankind. In the Rue Royale where the pompiers were energetically employed in extinguishing the fire, it was discovered that several of them, instead of pumping water, were actually throwing petroleum into the flames, and so adding to their fury. The guilty firemen were immediately sur