Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/413

 and to reach the Orleans Railway Station by taking possession of the quays, concurring on the way in the occupation of the Cité and the Hotel de Ville.

Early on the morning of the 24th, the troops took possession of the barricade at the Barrière d'Enfer, after a violent combat. A large number of prisoners were taken. Among them was a staff captain, his breast covered with medals—the Crimean, Italian, Chinese, and Mexican, together with three medals of salvage. This man, with a large face, full chest and bull neck, was dragged along pale and trembling, begging for mercy, telling of his devotion to his fellow-creatures, of his wife and child who were expecting him at Charenton, and swearing that he had been taken by force to the barricades—which was sufficiently disproved by the grade he bore.

The chasseur who had taken him prisoner, and torn from his hand the flag of the Commune, had been twice fired upon by this wretch. In direct contrast with this cowardice was the attitude of an old sergeant, at least sixty years of age, who stood firm and impassible amidst the shouts and execrations of the populace.

The 24th, in the morning, the occupation of the Faubourg Saint Germain was assured; and at about eleven o'clock a portion of the troops of General de Cissey began the attack of the Pantheon, in combining a double movement of approach by the Place Medicis and the Rue Soufflot, and by the Rues Gay-Lussac, Royer-Collard, and Ulm. At all these points the combat was exceedingly violent.

A brigade, formed in three columns, opened the action by rushing on the Luxembourg through the gates of the garden, which open on the Rue d'Assas and the Rue de Vaugirard, while the column on the right carried the Ecole des Mines, and extended its sharp-shooters the length of the railing in the Rue de Médicis.