Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/48

 At the junction of the Boulevards Voltaire (formerly Prince Eugene) and Richard Lenoir, women and children were at work constructing a barricade. All circulation was stopped, and about one hundred soldiers who were stationed here withdrew to the Bataclan café-concert. The entire district comprised between the Faubourg St. Martin, Rue Lafayette, the outer boulevards and Rues de Flandres, d'Allemagne and de Puebla, was entirely closed by double barricades, constructed of omnibuses and artillery-wagons filled with paving-stones. All access to the Buttes Chaumont was forbidden by the National Guards, to whom the protection of the guns there was confided.

The regiments of the line, among others the 35th, which had occupied the outer boulevards in the morning, were surrounded and confined between the barricades until they had given up their arms, when they were set at liberty. On the other hand, bodies of well-affected National Guards held various posts of importance. At 5 o'clock the 6th battalion guarded the Rue Drouot; the 10th and 227th the Place de la Bourse; the 149th the Mairie of the Bank Quarter; the 1st and 5th the Place Vendome; the 13th on the Rue de la Paix, on the side of the Rue Rivoli; the 12th the Rue de Marengo. Toward six o'clock a considerable affluence was to be seen on the Place de la Concorde; several battalions arrived there in succession, and among them the 81st, 82d, 131st, 156th, 165th and 178th; the reason for their presence was not clearly explained, and most of the men were themselves ignorant of what they were about to do.

During the whole day the gates of the Louvre, those of the Pavilion de Rohan looking on the Palais Royal as well as those of the Tuileries, were completely closed. The 89th of the line guarded the Place du Carrousel and the Tuileries. During the evening, among the groups formed at different points, the principal topic of conversation