Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/59



Paris, and which appear no longer to ensure the execution of the conventions as regards the future, the commander-in-chief of the army before Paris interdicts all approach to our lines in front of the forts occupied by us, demands the re-establishment, within twenty four hours, of the telegraphs destroyed at Pantin, and declares that he will treat the city of Paris as an enemy if it shall still adopt any measures in contradiction to the negotiations engaged, and the preliminaries of peace, which circumstance would lead to an opening of the fire from the forts in question.

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To which Jules Favre, Minister of Foreign Affairs, returned the following answer:

", March 21.

"I received only very late this evening the telegram which your Excellency does me the honor to address to me this day at 12 h. 20 m. The insurrectional movement triumphant in Paris has been only a surprise, before which the Government has momentarily retired to avoid a civil war. It is the work of a handful of factious men disavowed by the great majority of the population, and energetically combated by the mayors, who resist with courage. The departments are unanimous in condemning the movement and in promising their support to the Assembly. The government will make itself master of the situation; and if it does not do so to-morrow, the reason is that it desires to spare the effusion of blood. Your Excellency can therefore be assured that our engagements shall be kept, and you will doubtless be unwilling, in presence of these facts and of our formal declaration, to inflict on the city of Paris, protected by the preliminaries of peace, the calamity of a military