Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/58

 *ments were posted on the Quais des Lunettes and De l'Horloge, the Rue Sainte Chapelle, the Boulevard Sevastopol, and the Rue de Jerusalem. In the interior, sentinels were placed at every door, and in all directions National Guards were to be seen armed, many with two muskets.

The Etat-Major and Ministry of Justice in Place Vendome were occupied by the 91st battalion from Montmartre and the 174th from Belleville. The sentinels were doubled, and a duplicate supply of cartridges distributed to the men.

All the members of the government had left on Sunday, the 20th, for Versailles. M. Thiers left about noon. One of the first acts of the government installed at Versailles was to interrupt, by cutting the telegraph wires, all communication between Paris and the departments. The prefects in the provinces were also informed that any one of them who should publish the acts emanating from the Central Committee would be immediately arrested. The Ministers met in council under the presidency of M. Thiers, at the Hotel of the Prefecture, and decided that Paris must be left to itself until further orders, and that the government would remain on the defensive until the well-disposed National Guards made an energetic manifestation against the new power installed by the revolt at the Hotel de Ville and the Ministries.

M. Thiers telegraphed to all the different staffs at the Ministries to go and resume their posts at Versailles.

The Prussians, on hearing of the revolt in Paris, advanced nearer to the capital, and re-occupied St. Denis, which they had evacuated. They also telegraphed Jules Favre from Rouen the following despatch:

"Rouen, March 21, 1871.

"I have the honor to inform your Excellency that, in in presence of the events which have just taken place in