Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/397



"2d Question.—Why, after the capitulation of January 28, did I not profit by the cessation of the investment to rejoin, if only for a few days, my well-beloved family at Bayeux? This is the reason:

"The capitulation left unsettled a question full of peril—that of the entry of the Prussians into Paris. Had they persisted in traversing the city triumphantly, an attempt against the life of the King of Prussia was to be foreseen. This attempt might lead to a horrible massacre. I did not think it was permissible for the highest representative of French justice (and I was that par interim) to be absent from his post on the eve of such terrible events, in which his rank might furnish him an occasion of being useful, and I resisted the legitimate longing which drew me towards Bayeux.

"3d Question.—Why did I return on the 20th of March?

"It was only when the question of the entry of the Prussians into Paris had been more happily decided than I had at first hoped, that the duties of my charge permitted me to leave, and I started for Bayeux. I was obliged to stop at Orgeville (Eure), to endeavor to organize the cultivation of our domain, which the farmer had abandoned at the invasion of the Germans, leaving the ground uncultivated. I did not become aware of this until February 18th. I was at Orgeville on the 14th of March, and having arranged my affairs was about to continue my route to Bayeux, when late on Sunday the 19th I learned the events of the preceding day: the retreat of the Government to Versailles, and the establishment at the Hotel de Ville of a rival power; the whole with the exaggerations common under such circumstances.

"It was no time for hesitation. I wrote to my dear and worthy wife not to expect me for several days, and very late on the night of the 19th I entered Paris. Monday