Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/435

 The fall of the position of the insurgents at the Butte-aux-Cailles had hastened that of the Forts Bicêtre and Ivry, both taken by an assault of the cavalry of General du Barrail. A shell having fallen in the powder-magazine of the latter fort caused a terrible explosion. Profiting by the confusion which ensued, the dragoons rushed to the assault, and gained possession of the fort, Wrobleski surrendering himself prisoner with 6,000 insurgents.

Meanwhile another horrible massacre of hostages had taken place; more victims to the insatiable revenge of the Commune had been added to the lists of horrors with which that body intended to startle the world.

On Friday, May 19th, two battalions of Federals, the 101st and 120th, appeared at Arcueil, led by Commandant Quesnot and Citizen Millière. Entering the College of Dominican Friars, they carried off as hostages six of the Fathers who were in the college, together with several professors and domestics, in all twenty-four persons, and conducted them to the Fort Bicêtre.

Twelve sisters of Saint-Marc, charged with the ambulance of Arcueil, who had been employed during the whole of the preceding night in picking up the wounded National Guards, and giving them every care, were also torn away from Arcueil and conducted to the prison of Saint-Lazare. From that day they have not been heard of.

The Father Captier, Superior of the Dominican College, and his twenty-three companions in captivity, were taken to Bicêtre. Here, having been robbed of their money, and thoroughly searched, they were shut up in a casemate, where they remained during eight days, their only bed being a little straw, and their nourishment bread and water, which the Federals neglected to give them during the last two days. They were made to pass through a semblance of an interrogatory, after which they were told