Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/464

 Ten or twelve bandits had first mounted on the pedestal of the column which supports the statue of Philip-Augustus, had broken with hammers the figures with which the pedestal was ornamented, and then began to cut away a portion of the base of the monument, thinking probably that it would fall by its own weight.

But this mode of proceeding appearing either too long or too dangerous, they soon renounced it and had recourse to mining, after having cut an opening of ten centimètres in one side.

They then dug on the opposite side several holes, which were to receive enormous charges of powder, and had almost reached the required depth, when the inhabitants of the neighborhood, encouraged by the successes of the regular troops, who had already occupied a portion of Paris, informed these wretches that the fall of a column could do their cause no good, and finally succeeded in driving them away.

The Place du Trône being occupied by the soldiers of the line, a portion remained to watch the elements of disorder which might still exist in the upper streets of the Faubourg between the Place and Bercy, while by the remainder the insurgents were thrown back on Charonne and Ménilmontant.

By an almost simultaneous movement, the forces which had so intrepidly gained the position of the Chateau-d'Eau, having assured its possession, and that of the boulevards, as far as the Bastille, divided into two columns. One mounted the Boulevards Voltaire and Richard-Lenoir, enveloping the prison of La Roquette, of which the troops gained possession on Saturday morning, and approaching at the same time the cemetery of Père-Lachaise; the other column, by the Rue de la Douane and the borders of the canal, approached the Buttes Chaumont to complete their investment.