Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/463

 The streets surrounding the Place de la Bastille were all obstructed by barricades, which were successively carried by the troops. At the corner of the Rues Rampon and Valmy, where Canal Saint-Martin opens, a number of insurgents were found drowned.

On the 24th, the Federals had conducted under the vaults of the canal to the middle of the Boulevard Richard Lenoir, almost opposite the Rues du Chemin-Vert and Des Amandiers, several barges which had been moored at the quay of the Boulevard Bourdon. One of these was filled with barrels of powder and casks of petroleum; the others were filled with inflammable materials, planks, and shavings, over which petroleum had been scattered.

All the gratings and air-openings communicating with the canal had been stopped up.

The barges charged with powder and petroleum had been first conducted to the spot where it was intended to commit the crime. The boat which was to be used for firing the others was taken last. It was set on fire under the Place de la Bastille. From there the incendiaries evidently intended to drag it towards the others; but the smoke occasioned by the fire was so thick that, being unable to escape through the air-openings, it prevented the flames from rising. The matter all burned away without flaming, which rendered the smoke denser and denser, and which ended by smothering the Federals—victims to the very act which was intended to bring so much misery and ruin upon others.

It is only too evident that the charming revolutionaries of the Commune had the intention of destroying all the public monuments of Paris. Time only failed them.

On the Place du Trône works had been commenced to overthrow the stone columns which have decorated this place since 1788, and which the devastators of '93 had subsequently respected.