Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/39

 The General gave the order to the troops of the line to advance and open a passage for the guns; the soldiers refused to move, shouting "Vive la Garde Nationale!" The Chasseurs d'Afrique received the order to "draw sabres," but the line refused to open for them, and several shots were fired from the body of insurgents, when the captain gave the order "En avant!" and all the swords issued from their scabbards. "Vive la République!" cried the crowd, "La Ligne et la Garde Nationale!" The chasseurs hesitated, as before them were many men of the regular army, and in the end they sheathed their swords. "En avant!" repeated the captain, when several balls whistled past his head. Five or six men only followed him, but they were received with blows from the soldiers' muskets; one of the insurgents seized the reins of the captain's horse, but he fell, his head cleft in two; another grasped the reins on the other side, and in an instant the arm was severed from the body, and for a moment still hung quivering to the reins; two others shared the fate of the first, when the rider and horse both fell pierced by a shot at the same time, the insurgents discharging their pieces in the midst of the chasseurs and gendarmes, killing and wounding great numbers. The attack of the regular troops on the crowd was repulsed, the fraternizing soldiers firing on the former without hesitation, the crowd shouting "Vive la République!"

The excitement of the masses was now extreme. The 152d battalion of the National Guards arrived, having forced a post of the line and captured a mitrailleuse. Two other posts in that vicinity were also forced, and the crowd received the insurgents with "Vive la République!" The 88th regiment of the line, which was stationed at the corner of Boulevard Ornano and Rochechouart, withdrew their bayonets from their muskets, shouting "Vive la Garde Nationale!" The officers endeavored to resist,