Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/414

 At the same time a battalion of chasseurs crossed the garden at a quickstep, and arrived at the gate of the Rue Soufflot, where, under a rain of bullets and shells thrown from the Pantheon, from the Rue Soufflot and its barricades, they broke down the gate, and carried the barricade which stood opposite, gaining possession of two mitrailleuses. They then invaded the Boulevard Saint Michel, and established their guns on the barricades of the Rues Cujas and Mallebranche.

The insurgents who had taken refuge behind the barricades of the Boulevard Saint Michel were able to command these positions, and rendered them very dangerous for the troops who remained, during an hour, exposed to a most terrible fire, which did not however succeed in making them fall back.

At this moment, the General Paturel who directed the attack was struck in the leg by a ball. He had remained with the most remarkable sang-froid at the head of the Boulevard Saint Michel, notwithstanding the terrible fire, giving his orders with the greatest calm, causing the points which seemed to him most important to be occupied, and going from barricade to barricade encouraging the troops by his presence.

At the same time, another column, under the orders of General Bocher, carried, with equal intrepidity, the barricades erected in the Rues Royer-Collard and Gay-Lussac, and advanced on the Pantheon by the Rues du Faubourg-Saint-Jacques and d'Ulm.

The efforts on the side of the Place Saint-Michel were then redoubled. The fire of the National Guards being answered vigorously by the troops, gradually decreased in intensity, when the soldiers, advancing by the Rues Soufflot, Cujas, and Mallebranche, attacked the barricades in front, and finally carried them, rejoining the column which issued from the Rue d'Ulm at the same moment.