Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/395



a moment before had been disfigured with fury, now regarding us with stupefaction.

"We advanced several steps, and the front rank of insurgents stopped. I then said: 'What do you wish with me, my children?'

"Not one replied. A sort of retrograde movement made itself manifest, and one of the deluded men who stood near to me said: 'It is well, Monsieur le Curé—it is well; we will defend your church,'

"Then the crowd retired peaceably, and seemingly rather ashamed. Those who had entered the building bowed to me and went out. The church was saved."

Unfortunately, in 1871 there were more free-thinkers than in 1848, and consequently they understood better how to go to work to kill an old man and a priest.

It would be impossible to give at length the history of all the worthy men murdered by the Commune. They were mostly persons of eminence, well chosen, in view of their exalted positions and the irreparable loss inflicted on the country by their deaths, to satisfy amply the lust for vengeance of which that body gave evidence throughout. The following letter, written by President Bonjean from the Mazas prison, is a touching example of the writer's self-sacrifice in the path of duty:

", April 30th, 1871.

"You ask me, my dear Guasco, why twice, on the 8th of September and 20th of March, I returned to Paris, when dwelling in that city presented such serious dangers. You are, above all, astonished that I did not profit by the armistice of the 28th of January to go to Bayeux and embrace my wife and children, for whom you know my extreme tenderness, and from whom I have been separated so long.