Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/454

 Sunday, the Federals never ceased to oppose to the indefatigable ardor of the soldiers the most furious zeal, which was sustained until the last hour, and which those will understand who have witnessed the great insurrections in France during the last forty years, and who are acquainted with the extreme tenacity of the Parisian workman, once he has taken a gun and entered into revolt for an idea. However false this idea may be, he will defend it with passion, without being even willing to reflect upon its worth.

For the last two months the word Commune had been repeatedly dinned into the ears of the Parisian workmen; they had adopted it, without examination, as the mysterious Sesame which would open a new era of universal happiness, and they could not or would not believe in the crumbling of their bright dreams, although everything, from moment to moment, announced an irremediable defeat.

Moreover, up to the last moment, the chiefs of the Commune did everything in their power to delude their adherents concerning the gravity of the situation. For this they resorted to the most miserable subterfuges. Thus, while the fighting was going on at the Chateau-d'Eau, tri-*colored flags were shown, with cries of victory, to the National Guards assembled in the Mairie of the 11th Arrondissement. These the members of the Commune pretended to have captured from the army of Versailles, and marching in procession to the Place Voltaire, the trophies were solemnly burned at the feet of that writer's statue. These flags, some of which still bore the imperial eagle, had been taken from the store-rooms of the Mairie, where they were kept for public festivals.

On the following day they resorted to another artifice. About a thousand soldiers of the line, who had been imprisoned at La Roquette since the 18th of March, were taken from prison and led to the Mairie of the 20th Ar