Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/495



Mazas to La Roquette on the morning of the entrance of the Versailles troops into Paris, were destined to undergo the same fate.
 * ary, and that the hostages who had been conducted from

"On Friday, May 26th, thirty-eight gendarmes and sixteen priests were conducted to Père-Lachaise, and there shot. On the following day, as the army of Versailles approached the heights of Père-Lachaise—where the infernal battery had been erected which was to reduce to ashes the finest monuments of Paris—an order was given to shoot all the priests, soldiers, and sergents-de-ville who still remained in the prison. The members of the Commune who persisted in their horrible designs had installed themselves in the register office of La Roquette. I was able, from my cell, to follow their deliberations, and I affirm that there cannot be a public house of the worst reputation where the behavior would not be more exemplary.

"At half-past three the purveyor of these executions ordered the inhabitants of the second and third stories to descend. One of the keepers of La Roquette, whose name ought to be known to the public, M. Pinet, yielding to a generous inspiration of humanity, opened rapidly the doors of all the cells, declaring that it was frightful to see honest people shot by such ignoble bandits, and that he would sacrifice his life for ours if we would aid in opposing them by an energetic resistance.

"This proposition was received with enthusiasm; each person improvised an arm in iron or in wood, and two solid barricades were established at the entrance of the doors on the third story; an opening was made in the floor to communicate our resolution to the lower story, where the sergents-de-ville already meditated the same design. Under the direction of the keeper, Pinet, and of