FRANCE. 



325 



desire, at the head of u the whole house of 

 France," to establish the prosperity of the 

 country, greatly strengthened the belief in the 

 report. When, however, the Eight made a 

 feigned attack upon Thiers, on account of his 

 conduct toward the insurgents, Thiers made 

 his continuance in office dependent upon a vote 

 of confidence ; and, as the Right did not dare 

 to bring on a change in the Government before 

 the insurrection was overpowered, the vote of 

 confidence was given by 495 against 10 votes. 

 The insurrection now seemed to approach its 

 end. A few days after the occupation of Issy, 

 the Forty-sixth Regiment, after a terrible mas- 

 sacre, took the Convent of Oiseaux. In con- 

 sequence of this victory, the insurgents had 

 also to evacuate Fort Vanvres. From this 

 place at once a new trench was opened against 

 the walls of Paris. The batteries of the insur- 

 gents from Point du Jour to Porte Vaurigard 

 had nearly been silenced (May 14th), but from 

 Porte Maillot to Saint-Ouen they still dis- 

 played great vigor. On May 19th a new bat- 

 tery in the Chateau des Paces near Courbe- 

 voie opened an effective fire against the bridge 

 of Asnie'res, the Porte Maillot, and the Porte 

 des Tames. The reconnoissances were ex- 

 tended as far as the island of Genevilliers, and 

 on the south side Arceuil and Cachan were 

 taken. Lagrange-Ory and la Maison Plichon 

 fell likewise, after a violent battle, into the 

 hands of the troops of the Government. Be- 

 tween Porte Maillot and Point du Jour the 

 insurgents withdrew from the wall, but under 

 the protection of stone parapets they continued 

 to maintain an effective fire. On May 21st it 

 was ascertained that Porte St.-Cloud had been 

 almost wholly abandoned by the insurgents. 

 A sudden attack made upon this point by Lieu- 

 tenant Treves was completely successful. After 

 the first surprise, the insurgents endeavored to 

 continue their resistance in the houses of Au- 

 teuil, and behind the large barricades which ob- 

 structed the bridge ; but they were soon over- 

 powered by the troops of the Government, 

 which were with remarkable rapidity reen- 

 forced. This victory was followed up with great 

 energy, and soon other parts of the city were in 

 the hands of the Government. General 1' Admi- 

 rault took the gate of Passy, and, by a skilful 

 turn of his operations, brought the Arc de Vic- 

 toire into his power. General Vinoy entered 

 at the Point du Jour, crossed the Seine, and 

 at the same time opened the gate of Sevres to 

 General Cissey, who took possession of the 

 Faubourg St.-Germain. The troops at first 

 met with but little resistance ; but the farther 

 they advanced, the more desperately every 

 barricade and every street was disputed by 

 the insurgents. Delescluze, who now acted as 

 Minister of War of the Commune, issued a 

 last appeal, in which he declared the mili- 

 tary rule to have passed, and the hour of revo- 

 lution to have come. The Committee of Public 

 Safety, which had been radically reorganized, 

 issued proclamations of the same tenor. Arch- 



bishop Darboy, with sixty-four priests, and a 

 number of other hostages, was shot. Powder 

 and petroleum were put into the most impor- 

 tant buildings, in order to prepare them for 

 sudden destruction. The Tuileries, the Library 

 of the Louvre, the Ministry of Finance, the 

 H6tel-de-Ville, the palaces of the Council of 

 State, the Legion of Honor, the Theatre de la 

 Porte St. -Martin, the Entrep6t, the Grenier 

 d'Abondance, the Salpetridre, the Convent of 

 the Magdalenes, and many other buildings, 

 soon were actually destroyed. The women in 

 large numbers took part in the fight, and 

 seemed to exceed the men in fury ; many of 

 them were seen busy in feeding the flames with 

 petroleum. The troops of the Government, on 

 their part, were inflamed to the utmost rigor. 

 All who were caught in incendiary work, or 

 with arms in their hands, were shot on the 

 spot and without trial. Thus the combat as- 

 sumed a more and more terrible character, in 

 particular on the right bank of the Seine ; the 

 left bank had to suffer severely from the bat- 

 teries of the insurgents in the forts of Ivry and 

 Bicetre. At first, the. fighting centred in the 

 region near the Tuileries, the Louvre, the 

 H6tel-de-Ville, and the Prefecture of Police. 

 The insurgents defended themselves so obsti- 

 nately that the troops of the Government 

 employed artillery before they dared to storm 

 the positions. The Quartier Montmartre had 

 likewise to be attacked by heavy pieces of ord- 

 nance before the infantry could advance against 

 it ; and, although the attack was skilfully ex- 

 ecuted, the insurgents maintained themselves 

 some time in a part of it. With extraordinary 

 severity the battle raged all night around the 

 barricade in the garden of the Tuileries, and, 

 when the insurgents in the morning retired 

 through the Rue St.-Honore to the halls, the 

 fight was resumed there with undiminished 

 fury. With equal bravery the insurgents de- 

 fended the barricades of the Rue Auber, and 

 the neighborhood of the Madeleine. Here 

 the insurgents were finally driven back into 

 the church itself, where they were massacred 

 to the last man. The generals of the Govern- 

 ment operated with great caution, turning those 

 positions of the insurgents where they met 

 with a vigorous resistance. They steadily 

 gained ground, until at last the adherents of 

 the Commune were confined to the suburb St.- 

 Antoine, the Buttes Chaumont, one part of 

 Belleville, the Quartier Mouffetard, and the 

 Forts of Bicetre and Ivry. But even here they 

 could not maintain themselves. On May 29th 

 the insurrection was entirely put down, the 

 last two bands of insurgents having been over- 

 powered in Vincennes and in the Pdre la 

 Chaise. The leaders of the Commune, with 

 only a few exceptions, had either been killed 

 like Delescluze, or taken prisoners ; a number of 

 the latter class were at once shot. The number 

 of prisoners who were immediately executed 

 was considerable ; in the Theatre du Chatelet, 

 a council of war was in session ; on one side, 



