Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/85

 manders of their forces, which said: "Considering that the situation exacts rapid measures; that on all sides the superior commanders, continuing the routine of the past, have by their inaction produced the present state of affairs; that the monarchical reaction has hitherto prevented, by riot and falsehood, the elections which would have constituted the sole legal power in Paris; the Committee decrees that the military powers of the capital are placed in the hands of the Delegates Brunel, Eudes, and Duval. They have the title of General, and will act in concert while waiting the arrival of General Garibaldi, acclaimed as General-in-Chief. Courage now and always, and the traitors will be foiled. Vive la République! The Committee learns that some men wearing the uniform of the National Guards, and who have been recognized as former gendarmes or sergeants-de-ville, have fired on the Prussian lines. Should a similar circumstance again occur, the Committee will itself take the necessary measures for seizing on the culprits, and having them shot immediately. The security of the whole city demands vigorous measures.

"The fugitive government at Versailles has sought to create a void around you, and the provinces are entirely deprived of all news from Paris. But that attempt has not succeeded in preventing a revolutionary sentiment from forcing a passage through all those precautions. The Central Committee has received delegations from the cities of Lyons, Bordeaux, Marseilles, Rouen, &c., which came to know what was the nature of our movement, and which have left in haste to give the signal for an analogous one, already prepared everywhere. Vive la France! Vive la République!"

The Central Committee was perfectly correct in its proclamation that many other cities of France had been prepared, and were acting in concert with Paris. An insurrectionary movement now commenced in Lyons, which