Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/385



must be put down completely. At the present moment I have more difficulties before me than prior to the victory, and I shall not now, or for some time to come, have the slightest repose. Do not, therefore, add to the present trouble, but leave us all our calm for action." (Applause and agitation.)

The military operations, meanwhile, were being conducted with the usual vigor.

The barricades in the Rues Lafayette and St. Vincent de Paul were successively forced by the soldiers. The barracks of the Faubourg Poissonière was the scene of a most desperate struggle, as was also the barricade at the Porte St. Denis; but both were finally carried.

A battery was then established on the Boulevard Montmartre, near the Rue Drouot, to bombard the barricades of the Porte St. Martin.

The insurgents had begun to erect these barricades on Monday morning, crossing the boulevard from the Rue de Bondy to the Faubourg Saint Martin. They were not finished until Tuesday, and even then free circulation was allowed, as the attack was yet far distant. The barricades were guarded by the 143d and 131st regiments of the Federals, who chiefly spent their time in eating and drinking. They obtained their supplies from the wine-*shops in the neighborhood, kept open "au nom de la Commune," the owners being paid by bons on that body.

On Wednesday morning the bombardment of the barricades began, and was conducted with great fury, the Federals replying with their muskets and cannon through the entire day.

In the evening the few inhabitants who were not yet in their cellars, saw the first faint glimmers of the fire in the theatre of the Porte Saint Martin, lighted by the insurgents. The flames were spreading fast, when M. An