Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/43

 Captain Douradon, of the artillery, had been sent the previous night with a battery to the Boulevard Rochechouart. General Lecomte sent to him in the morning for two pieces to place them nearer to the Butte. The guns were escorted by a company of the line to support them. When the insurgents appeared, these soldiers raised the butts of their muskets in the air, and the cannons were taken by the rioters. The General, who occupied the Tour of Solferino, was arrested by some National Guards, and conducted to the Chateau Rouge, his only crime being that he refused to cry "Vive la Republique!" on compulsion. A short time after General Clement Thomas, lately commander-in-chief of the National Guards of Paris, was also made prisoner. He was passing in an inoffensive manner through the Rue Marie-Antoinette, when one of the insurgents having recognized him by his large white beard, went straight to him, saying,

"You are General Clement Thomas? I don't think I can be mistaken. That beard of yours betrays you."

"Well, supposing I am General Thomas. Have I not always done my duty?"

"You are a traitor and a miserable!" said the insurgent, grasping the old man by the collar. He was immediately assisted by others, who helped to drag the General in the direction of Rue des Rosiers, in No. 6 of which street the Republican Central Committee of Montmartre was holding its sittings. After the parody of a trial, he and General Lecomte were both hauled along the garden, and being tied together, were placed against the wall to be shot. An officer of the Garibaldian Legion implored to have the execution suspended, but his entreaties were drowned in shouts of "A mort!" "A mort!" In this supreme and horrible hour General Thomas exhibited proofs of heroic bravery. He stood facing his murderers, holding his hat in his hand. Instead of firing in a body,