Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/9



As accuracy is the principal merit in a work of this description, the author, who remained in Paris from March 6th until after the capture of the city by the Government troops, which was completed May 29th, 1871, has diligently examined and carefully sifted all reports published by the different writers in the Paris journals, as well as those of foreign correspondents, with whom he was brought in hourly contact. Naturally, there was much discrepancy in the various accounts given, as the scene of action covered so large a space of territory. Each succeeding day corrections were made in the original reports, of which readers in the United States could never be thoroughly informed through the newspapers. Three days in succession three different first-class Paris journals gave the last dying words of General Dombrowski, one of the chiefs of the insurrection, all entirely different. So it was in every instance connected with the arrest or execution of