Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/41



Elation of the National Guards—Erection of new barricades—Battery surrendered by its escort to the insurgents—Arrest of Generals Lecomte and Thomas—Their assassination—Brave attitude of the murdered officers—Two aides-de-camp of General Lecomte narrowly escape the same fate—The Central Committee assume the direction of affairs—Excitement at Montrouge—Barricades erected in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine—Gendarmes dismounted and disarmed—Proclamation of the Government—Events at the Hotel de Ville—All access to the Buttes Chaumont forbidden by the National Guards—Two regiments of the line surrounded and disarmed—The insurgents take possession of the Place Vendome—Evacuation of the 11th Arrondissement—Meeting of Paris Deputies, Mayors and Adjoints—Concessions proposed to the Government and accepted, but withdrawn after news received of the murder of Generals Lecomte and Thomas—The Central Committee take possession of the Hotel de Ville—Arrest of General Chanzy—Official journal seized by the insurgents—Proclamation of the Central Committee—City entirely abandoned by the troops—Public buildings occupied by the insurrection—Decree for the elections—Communication cut off with the provinces—The Government officials summoned to Versailles—The Prussians return to St. Denis—Their despatch to M. Jules Favre—His reply—Great military preparations—Sitting of the Assembly—The department of the Seine declared in a state of siege—Children of General Lecomte adopted by the country—Prussian communication to the Central Committee—Reply of Paschal Grousset.

Place Pigalle, the centre of the Montmartre insurrection, had now commenced to assume its ordinary movement. The corpse of the brave but unfortunate officer of chasseurs had been deposited in one of the wooden huts constructed for the lodgement of soldiers, and a crowd of idlers passed in to see the victim. Some women cried "Vive la ligne!" to soldiers of the 88th who had fired on the staff and the chasseurs, to which one of them responded that he would sooner shoot himself than shoot his countrymen; and what cowards and canaille his officers were.

What a change since the morning. The streets so deserted, except an occasional red-trousered soldier of the