Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/75

 fired first on the crowd. The official journal of the Committee published an account of the unhappy affair after an inquiry into the matter, the translation of which is the following:

"The Central Committee at once ordered an inquiry into the events which occurred on the Place Vendome on the 22d. It was unwilling to publish an immediate recital, which might have been accused of being influenced by foregone conclusions. The following are the facts as they result from the evidence taken on the investigation:

"At half-past one the manifestation, which had been collecting since noon on the Place du Nouvel Opera, descended the Rue de la Paix. In the first ranks an excited group, amongst whom the National Guards assert that they recognized MM. de Heeckeren, De Cœtlegon, and H. de Pène, former supporters of the Empire, was violently agitating a flag, bearing no inscription. On arriving at the Rue Neuve-Saint-Augustin, the demonstrators surrounded, disarmed, and maltreated two men detached as advanced sentinels. Those citizens only owed their safety to retreat to the Place Vendome, and without their muskets, their clothes torn. Immediately the National Guards seized their arms and advanced as far as the Rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs.

"The first rank had received orders to raise the butt-ends of their muskets in the air if it was broken, and to fall back behind the third; the same for the second; whilst the last of all was to cross bayonets, but expressly recommended not to fire.

"The foremost amongst the crowd, which amounted to about 800 or 1,000 persons, were soon face to face with the defenders. The character of the demonstration was then clearly defined. Cries were raised of A bas les Assassins! A bas le Comité! and the nationals were grossly in