Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/557



the Commune, and thrust into prison, to be held as a hostage. Such treatment of that most devout and excellent man could not but have created a great sensation, particularly in the Catholic world.

"On Thursday night last I received a letter from Monseigneur Chigi, Archbishop of Myre and Nuncio Apostolic of the Saint-Siège, and also a communication from M. Louvrier, chanoine of the Diocese of Paris. M. Lagard, the Vicar-General of Paris, and Messrs. Bousset and Allain, chanoines and members of the Metropolitan Chapter of the Church of Paris, all making a strong appeal to me, in the name of the right of nations, humanity, and sympathy, to interpose my good offices in behalf of the imprisoned Archbishop. I have thought that I should have been only conforming to what I believed to be the policy of our Government, and carrying out what I conceived to be your wishes under the circumstances, by complying with the request of the gentlemen who have addressed me. I, therefore, early this morning, put myself in communication with General Cluseret, who seems at the present time to be the directing man in affairs here. I told him that I applied to him not in my diplomatic capacity, but simply in the interest of good-feeling and humanity, to see if it were not possible to have the Archbishop relieved from arrest and confinement. He answered that it was not a matter within his jurisdiction, and however much he might like to see the Archbishop released, he thought, in consideration of the state of affairs, it would be impossible. He said that he was not arrested for crime, but simply to be held as a hostage, as many others had been. Under the existing circumstances, he thought it would be useless to take any steps in that direction. I myself thought that the Commune would not dare, in the present excited state of public feeling in Paris, to release the Archbishop. I told General Cluseret, however, that I must