Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/497



bodies of the four priests served to crown a neighboring barricade.

"During the night a strict watch was established in the two stories; the menacing cries which rose outside frightened no one; at last, on Sunday, the 28th, at dawn of day, the musketry fire of the Versailles troops, to which we listened with an emotion more easily to be understood than described, announced their approach; at a quarter past five the barricade opposite La Roquette was carried by a vigorous attack, and the soldiers of the Infantry of Marine took possession of the prison.

"We were thus unexpectedly restored to life after four days of the most cruel agony which can possibly be imagined.

"Receive, sir, etc.,

", "Vicar of the Madeleine."

It was indispensable that the disarming of Paris should be effected as rapidly as possible, and for that purpose the Chief of the Executive Power caused the following decree to be published:

", May 29, 1871.

"The Chief of the Executive Power of the French Republic,

"Considering that arms distributed throughout Paris in profusion and without control, have fallen into the hands of rioters and malefactors, and that a general disarming can alone guarantee, at this moment, the public security,

"DECREES:

"Art. I. Under the orders of the military authorities, all warlike weapons are to be carried to each Mairie, to be afterwards placed in the arsenals of the State.

"Art II. The National Guards of Paris and of the Department of the Seine are dissolved. Until the Na