Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/478

 *men, few in number, on account of the shells which rained upon the Butte, were in their shirt-sleeves. Just below the heights, on the declining ground, could be seen the church of Belleville, with its high and pointed steeples. Still further down is the quarter of Ménilmontant, distinguished by the steeple of Saint Ambroise. From this point the ground rises rapidly, and to the right appears a vast line of verdure; this is the cemetery of Père-Lachaise. The detonations of artillery sounded here frequently, from the foot of a long obelisk, monumental ornament of a tomb.

The line of the Federals bordered the canal by La Roquette, the Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, and the Boulevard de la Villette, but they fell back incessantly as the attack progressed.

General Douay, master of the barracks of the Chateau-d'Eau, advanced by the Faubourg du Temple, which resisted with fury. The barricade established beyond the canal, at the corner of the Rue Fontaine-au-Roi, fired without interruption upon the barracks. But the troops advanced on the left, and, carrying the barricade of the Rue Grange-aux-Belles, occupied the hospital of Saint Louis.

Towards the east, General Clinchant attacked by the Boulevard Prince-Eugène, by the Rue d'Angoulême, and by the extremity of the Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, the barricades which defended the approaches of the canal. The resistance in the Rue des Trois-Bornes was particularly vigorous, the fire from the barricade being aided by that of insurgents in the surrounding houses, the windows of which had been stuffed with mattresses for their protection.

At the intersection of the Boulevard Richard-Lenoir and the Boulevard du Prince-Eugène, stood a barricade sixty yards in length, with ditches and embrasures; the ex