The march against Versailles did not
take place on the first of April, although the Communists
had every reason to believe that they would meet with
no opposition, as on the previous night two regiments
of the army, forming the advanced guard between Versailles
and Paris, came in, together with a battery of artillery,
and declared for the Commune. The next morning
Cuthbert went up at nine o’clock, as he had arranged
to take Mary out early, and to work in the afternoon.
Just as he reached the house he heard a cannon-shot.
“Hurry on your things,”
he said as he met her, “a gun has just fired;
it is the first in the Civil War; perhaps the National
Guard are starting against Versailles; at any rate
it will be worth seeing.”
The girl was ready in two or three
minutes, and they walked briskly to the Arc de
Triomphe. As they did so they could hear
not only the boom of cannon, but the distant firing
of musketry. Around the Arch a number of people
were gathered, looking down the long broad avenue running
from it through the Porte Maillot, and then over the
Bridge of Neuilly to the column of Courbeil.
Heavy firing was going on near the bridge, upon the
banks of the river, and away beyond it to the right.
“That firing means that France
is saved from the horrors of another red Revolution,
Mary,” Cuthbert said. “It shows that
some of the troops at least are loyal, and in these
matters example is everything. There was a report
that Charrette’s Zouaves and the gendarmes
have been placed at the outposts, and if the report
is true, it was a wise step, indeed, for McMahon to
take, for both could be relied upon; and now fighting
has begun, there is hope that the troops behind will
stand firm.”
“Why should they, Cuthbert?”
“Some of the shots from this
side are sure to fall among them, and if a few are
killed and wounded the rest will get angry, and all
idea of fraternizing with the men who are firing on
them will be at an end. I should like to see
how that crowd of National Guards are behaving.”
“Shall we go down and look,
Cuthbert. See, there is an omnibus going down
the hill, so I don’t suppose there can be much
danger.”
“I don’t think that there
is any danger at present, Mary; the balls will hardly
come so far, but if the troops open fire with cannon,
they will send shell right up this avenue.”
“Would you go by yourself if I were not here,
Cuthbert?”
“Well, I certainly should, but
that is no reason why I should go with you.”
“I can see women looking out
of the windows,” she said, “so we will
go down together, Cuthbert. We had the German
shell falling near us while the siege was going on,
and things went on just as usual.”
“Come on then, dear; at any
rate it will be only field-guns and not heavy siege
artillery, and I dare say we can get into one of the
houses and look out from them; a twelve-pounder would
scarcely do much harm to one of these solid stone
buildings.”
They went quietly down the road.
No whiz of bullet or crash of shell was heard, and
without interruption they continued their course until
they arrived near the gate. Near it were two
battalions of the National Guard, who were in a state
of utter disorder. Some of the men were quietly
walking away with their rifles slung behind them, in
spite of a line of sentries placed across the road
and the efforts of their officers. Cuthbert questioned
some of the men, as they came along, as to what had
happened, but the most contradictory answers were given.
They had been fired upon from Fort Valérien; they
had been attacked from Courbevoie; they had been betrayed;
they had been sent out without any cannon: ammunition
was short; they were not going to stay to be shot
down; they were going to the Hotel de Ville to turn
out the traitors who had sent them out without a proper
supply of ammunition. That they had some ammunition
was evident from the fact that several muskets went
off accidentally, the result of nervousness on the
part of those that held them.
“We won’t stay here to
risk being shot by these cowardly fools,” Cuthbert
said, “let us get into one of the houses.”
They went back a short distance, and
Cuthbert spoke to a man standing at his door.
“This lady and myself are English,” he
said, “would you allow us to go up and stand
at one of the windows to see what is going on?”
The request was at once acceded to,
and they were soon posted at a window on the fifth
floor.
“Look at them,” Cuthbert
said in disgust, “these are the heroes who clamored
to go out and destroy the Germans.”
The scene below was certainly singular-the
bugles and drums sounded the assembly and beat the
rappel alternately, but the men paid not the slightest
attention to the call, but continued to slink away
until the drummers and buglers remained alone.
Of the two battalions, some fifty men posted at the
loop-holes of the crenelated wall by the gate remained;
the rest had melted away. From the balcony at
the window a fine view was obtained across the country.
A heavy musket-fire was still maintained along the
river-side, and there was a continuous roll of musketry
at Courbevoie, where, as one of the National Guard
had told them, a battalion which occupied the barracks
there had been cut off by the advance of the troops.
Artillery and musketry were both at work there, but
elsewhere there was no artillery fire.
Close to the bridge at Neuilly the
struggle was maintained for a time, and presently
a column of troops were seen advancing against the
bridge. As it did so the firing there ceased
at once, and it was soon evident that the troops had
gained the position. Numbers of National Guards
soon came trooping in at the gate. A very few
remained there; the rest, without waiting for orders,
hurried on into Paris. A dark group now appeared
on the road leading up to Courbeil; there was a white
puff of smoke and a shell exploded a hundred yards
on the other side of the gate. A steady fire
was now kept up by two guns, the greater part of the
shells exploded beyond the outer works; but several
came up the avenue, two of them striking houses, and
others exploding in the roadway. Each time when
the whistle of a shell was heard approaching, Cuthbert
drew Mary back from the balcony into the room.
“I fancy,” he said, “the
troops have an idea that there are masses of the Communists
assembled near the gates in readiness for a sortie,
and they are firing to prevent their coming out, until
they have fortified the bridge and the other points
they have occupied.”
The firing continued for some time.
At other windows the inhabitants were watching the
conflict, and Cuthbert pointed out, to Mary’s
great amusement, the precautions that some of them
were taking to ensure their personal safety.
One woman had drawn down the Venetian blinds, and was
looking between them, another was peering out with
a pillow held over her head. The few National
Guards who remained at their post were men of courage,
for they showed no signs of flinching even when shells
exploded within a few yards of the position they occupied.
Presently there was a sound of wheels, and two four-pounder
guns were brought up and placed one on each side of
the gate to sweep the approaches.
Between one and two o’clock
several battalions of National Guards came leisurely
up, piled their arms and sat down under shelter of
the wall. It was evident they had no idea of
making a sortie, but had been brought up to defend
the gate in case it was attacked. Soon after their
arrival, a party that had remained near the river
returned and it was clear that at least a portion
of the troops had proved faithless, for with them
were forty or fifty soldiers, who had come over during
the fight. They were disarmed and then escorted
into the town, where, as Cuthbert afterwards learned,
they were received with enthusiasm by the mob.
“It is evident that there is
no idea of any attempt being made to recapture the
bridge at present, Mary; I don’t know how you
feel but I am getting desperately hungry, so I think
we may as well be going back. I should like to
see what is going on in the city. Will you come
with me? I have no doubt we shall be able to
get a voiture up at the arch, and we can have
lunch there.”
Mary was as anxious to see what is
going on as he was, and in a quarter of an hour they
alighted in the Rue Rivoli. As yet the population
had heard but vague reports that fighting was going
on, and matters were comparatively quiet, for so many
rumors had pervaded the town during the last few days,
that they were not generally believed. Accordingly,
after lunch, Cuthbert took Mary home in a fiacre.
“I have been quite alarmed about
you, my dear, where have you been?” Madame Michaud
said as they entered.
“We have been seeing the fighting,
madame, and the Reds have been beaten.”
“I have heard all sorts of stories
about it, but most of them say that the Versailles
people got the worst of it.”
“Then the stories were not true,”
Mary said, “most of the National Guard wouldn’t
fight at all, and the regiments all broke away and
went into Paris without firing a shot, the troops
have taken the bridge of Neuilly.”
“The good God be thanked,”
Madame Michaud said piously, “my husband was
afraid the troops would not fight, and that we were
going to have terrible times; but there is a hope
now, that the Commune will be put down.”
“Every hope, madame,”
Cuthbert said. “I was sure this scum of
Paris would not fight if the troops would do so.
They have too much regard for their worthless skins.
It may be some time before McMahon can get a force
together sufficient to take Paris, but sooner or later
he will do so, though it will be a serious business
with the forts all in the hands of the Communists.
If they had but handed over one or two of the forts
to the gendarmes, or kept a company or two of
sailors there, there would have been a line by which
the troops could have approached the town, as it is
they will have to bring up siege-guns and silence Issy
and Vanves before much can be done.”
An hour later Monsieur Michaud arrived;
he too had been in the city and was in ignorance of
what had taken place during the morning.
“That accounts for it,”
he said, “we are all ordered to be under arms
at eight o’clock this evening.”
“But you will not go?” his wife exclaimed
anxiously.
“But I must go, my dear.
I have no desire to be shot, and I think there is
much more fear of my being shot, if I don’t answer
to the call of my name than there will be if I do.
In the first place, we may not go out beyond the wall,
in the second place, if there is I may see a chance
of running away, for mind you, though I hope I should
have fought as bravely as others if the Germans had
come, I do not feel myself called upon to fight against
Frenchmen and in a cause I hate.”
“You will find yourself in good
company anyhow, Monsieur Michaud,” Cuthbert
laughed. “We have seen nineteen hundred
and fifty men out of two thousand march off without
firing a shot to-day.”
“So much the better, monsieur,
four out of five of the National Guards hate it all
as much as I do. Will you dine with us to-day,
monsieur, and then we can go down together afterwards.”
Cuthbert accepted the invitation willingly.
“Yes, you can come down with us, Mary,”
he went on, in answer to a look of appeal from her.
“I will bring her back safely, Madame Michaud,
the sight will be well worth seeing. Before I
go I will have a look round and see if I can get a
bed for the night, it is a long way out from my lodgings
and I should like to be out here by daylight, for
if they mean to march on Versailles they are sure
to start as soon as it is light.”
“We have a spare room,”
Madame Michaud said, “and it is quite at your
disposal. It will be doing us a kindness if you
will accept it, for when my husband is away I always
feel nervous without a man in the house, and as it
is but ten minutes’ walk from here to the Arc
de Triomphe, you will be on the spot, and
indeed from the roof of this house you can obtain
a view all over the country.”
A great change had taken place in
the appearance of Paris when they went down in the
evening, the town was in a state of the wildest excitement,
everywhere drums were beating and trumpets sounding,
everywhere National Guards mustering. The streets
were crowded, the most violent language uttered by
the lower classes, and threats of all kinds poured
out against the ‘butchers of Versailles.’
On the walls were red placards issued by the Commune
and headed “Men of Paris. The butchers of
Versailles are slaughtering your brethren!!!”
“As a rule the brethren decline
to be slaughtered, Mary,” Cuthbert said as they
read the proclamation. “You see, if the
troops fire they are butchers, if the National Guards
fire they are heroes. Considering that Paris
has ten armed men to every one McMahon has got, even
if all the troops could be relied upon, the Parisians
must indeed be of a mild temper if they submit to
be butchered.”
Monsieur Michaud now left them to
take his place in the ranks of his battalion.
It was not long before the National Guards were in
motion, and for hours columns of troops moved up the
Champs Elysees. The Rue Rivoli was actually choked
with the men; the mob shouted “Vive la Commune”
until they were hoarse, and the battalions from the
working quarters lustily sang the chorus of the Marseillaise.
At ten o’clock Cuthbert and
Mary arrived at the Arc de Triomphe
on their way back. Along the whole line from
the Tuileries the National Guard were bivouacked.
The arms were piled down the centre of the road, and
many of the men had already wrapped themselves in their
blankets and lain down to sleep with their heads on
their knapsacks. The wine-shops in the neighborhood
were all crowded, and it was evident that many of
the men had determined to keep it up all night.
Madame Michaud had coffee ready for
them on their return, and after drinking it they went
to their rooms, Mary being completely tired out with
the fatigue and excitement of the day. At five
o’clock Cuthbert was up; he had told Mary the
night before that he would return for her at eight.
On arriving at the Arc de Triomphe he
found the National Guards pouring down the avenue
to the Fort Maillot. Three heavy columns were
marching along the roads which converged at the Bridge
of Neuilly. Here Cuthbert expected a desperate
struggle, but a few shots only were fired, and then
a small body of troops covered by a party of skirmishers,
retired up the hill, and then turning off made their
way towards Fort Valérien.
The force was evidently insufficient
to hold the bridge against the masses of revolutionists
advancing against it, and the real resistance to the
forces of the Commune would commence further back.
Crossing the bridge the National Guard spread out
to the right and left and mounted the hill, as they
did so some eighteen-pounder guns which had been the
day before mounted on the Fort, opened fire on the
bridge, and for a time the forward movement ceased,
and the regiment on their way down towards the gate
were halted. Cuthbert chatted for some time with
one of the officers and learnt from him that this
was not the real point of attack.
“It is from the other side of
the river that the great stroke against the Versaillaise
will be struck,” he said, “a hundred and
fifty thousand National Guards advanced on that side;
they will cross the heights of Meudon, and move straight
to Versailles. We have but some twenty-five thousand
here, and shall advance as soon as the others have
attacked Meudon.”
In an hour the forward movement had
again commenced, a heavy column poured across the
bridge, the firing from Valérien having now ceased.
Cuthbert watched the black mass advancing up the slope
towards Courbeil. It was not until they reached
the top of the slope that Valérien suddenly opened
fire. Puff after puff of white smoke darted out
from its crest in quick succession, the shells bursting
in and around the heavy column. In a moment its
character changed; it had been literally cut in half
by the iron shower. Those in front of the point
where the storm had struck it, broke off and fled
to the village of Nanterre on the left, where they
took shelter among the houses. The other portion
of the column broke up as suddenly, and became at
once a disorganized mob, who at the top of their speed
rushed down to the slope again to the bridge at Neuilly.
Across this they poured in wild confusion and made
no halt until they had passed the Fort Maillot.
There the officers attempted to rally them, but in
vain; many had thrown their muskets away in their
flight, the rest slung them behind them, and continued
their way to Paris, all vowing that they had been
betrayed, and that they would have vengeance on the
Commune. Seeing that there was no more probability
of fighting on his side, Cuthbert returned to Madame
Michaud’s.
“Madame is on the roof,”
Margot said as he entered; “everyone is up there:
she said I was to give you breakfast when you came
in; the coffee is ready, and I have an omelette prepared,
it will be cooked in three minutes; Madame said that
you would be sure to be hungry after being out so
long.” In a quarter of an hour he ascended
to the roof. The resident on the ground-floor
had an astronomical telescope with which he was in
the habit of reconnoitring the skies from the garden.
This he had taken up to the roof, where some twenty
persons were gathered. A magnificent view was
obtained here of the circle of hills from Valérien
round by Meudon, and the whole of the left bank of
the river. It needed but a glance to see that
the army of the Commune had made but little progress.
Although the fighting began soon after two o’clock
in the morning, and it was now nearly mid-day, the
heights of Meudon were still in the hands of the troops.
From among the trees by the chateau
white puffs of smoke shot out, many of the shells
bursting in and around the fort of Issy, which replied
briskly. The guns of Vanves joined in the combat,
their fire being directed towards the plateau of Chatillon,
which was held by the troops. Round Issy a force
of the National Guard was assembled, but the main
body was in the deep valley between the forts and Meudon,
and on the slopes nearly up to the chateau; the rattle
of musketry here was continuous, a light smoke drifting
up through the trees. After a time it was evident
that the line of musketry fire was lower down the hill,
descending, showing that the troops were pressing the
Communists backwards, and presently one of the batteries
near the chateau shifted its position, and took ground
some distance down the hill, and this and a battery
near the end of the viaduct by the chateau, opened
a heavy fire on the forts.
A look through the telescope showed
that the Communists were crouching behind walls and
houses, occasionally, when the fire of the guns was
silent, a few of them would get up and advance into
the open, but only to scamper back into shelter as
soon as they reopened fire.
“That settles it, monsieur,”
Cuthbert said, to the owner of the telescope, after
taking a long look through it, “hitherto, the
Communists have believed that Versailles was at their
mercy, and they had but to march out to capture it.
They have failed, and failure means their final defeat.
They say that the prisoners of war are arriving in
Versailles at the rate of two or three thousand a day,
and in another fortnight, Thiers will have a force
sufficient to take the offensive, and by that time,
will doubtless have siege-guns in position. I
don’t say that Paris may not hold out for a
considerable time, but it must fall in the long run,
and I fear, that all who have got anything to lose
will have a very bad time of it.”
“I fear so, monsieur; as these
wretches become more desperate, they will proceed
to greater lengths. You see they have already
insisted that all the National Guard-whatever
their opinions-shall join in the defence
of the city. They have declared the confiscation
of the goods of any member of the Guard who shall
leave the town. I hear a decree is likely to
be published to-morrow or next day confiscating all
Church property; already they have taken possession
of the churches, and turned them into clubs.
If they do such things now, there is no saying to what
lengths they may go as they see their chances of success
diminishing daily.”
Although the artillery fire was maintained
for some time longer, it was by three o’clock
evident that the battle was virtually over. The
party therefore descended from the roof, and Cuthbert
strolled back to the centre of Paris. The streets,
that evening, presented a very strong contrast to
the scene of excitement that had reigned twenty-four
hours before. There was no shouting and singing;
no marching of great bodies of troops. An air
of gloom pervaded the lower classes, while the bourgeois
remained for the most part in their houses, afraid
that the deep satisfaction the events of the day had
caused them, might betray itself in their faces.
For the next few days Cuthbert worked
steadily, going up late in the afternoon to Passy.
The Commune had, on the day after the failure against
Versailles, issued a decree that all unmarried men
from seventeen to thirty-five, should join the ranks,
and a house-to-house visitation was ordered to see
that none escaped the operation of the decree.
One of these parties visited Cuthbert: it consisted
of a man with a red sash, and two others in the uniform
of the National Guard. As soon as they were satisfied
of Cuthbert’s nationality, they left, having
been much more civil than he had expected. He
thought it advisable, however, to go at once to the
Hotel de Ville, where, on producing his passport,
he was furnished with a document bearing the seal of
the Commune, certifying that being a British subject,
Cuthbert Hartington was exempt from service, and was
allowed to pass anywhere without molestation.
Equal good luck did not attend the
other students, all of whom were, to their intense
indignation, enrolled upon the list of the National
Guard of their quarter. Cuthbert had difficulty
in retaining a perfectly serious countenance, as Rene,
Pierre, and two or three others came in to tell him
what had occurred.
“And there is no getting away
from it,” Rene said. “If we had thought
that it would come to this, of course we would have
left Paris directly this affair began, but now it
is impossible: no tickets are issued by the railways
except to old men, women and children, no one is allowed
to pass through the gates without a permit from the
Commune, and even if one could manage to get on to
the wall and drop down by a rope one might be taken
and shot by the Communist troops outside, or, if one
got through them, by the sentries of the army of Versailles.
What would you advise us to do, Cuthbert?”
“I am afraid I can’t give
you any advice whatever, Rene, it is certainly horribly
unpleasant being obliged to fight in a cause you detest,
but I don’t think there will be a very great
deal of fighting till an assault is made on the city,
and when that begins, I should say the Communists
will be too busy to look for absentees from the ranks.”
“We shall be in double danger
then,” Pierre Leroux put in. “We run
the risk of being shot by the Communists for not fighting
at the barricades, and if we escape that, we have
a chance of being shot by the Versaillais as Communists.
It is a horrible position to be placed in.”
“Well, I should say, Pierre,
keep your eyes open and escape if you possibly can
before the assault takes place. I should think
some might manage to get out as women, but, of course
you would have to sacrifice your mustaches. But
if you did that, and borrowed the papers of some young
woman or other, you might manage it. No doubt
it would be awkward if you were found out, but it
might be worth trying. If I cannot leave before
the assault takes place I mean to go to one of the
English hotels here, Meurice’s or the Dover,
and establish myself there. During such fighting
as there may be in the streets, there will be very
few questions asked, and one might be shot before
one could explain one was a foreigner, but the hotels
are not likely to be disturbed. Seriously I should
say that the best thing you can all do when the fighting
begins in the streets, is to keep out of the way until
your battalion is engaged, then burn anything in the
way of uniform, get rid of your rifle somehow, and
gather at Goude’s. He could vouch for you
all as being his pupils, and as being wholly opposed
to the Commune. His name should be sufficiently
well known, if not to the first officer who may arrive,
at least, to many officers, for his testimony to be
accepted. Still, I do think that the best plan
of all will be to get out of the place when you get
a chance.”
Some of the students did succeed in
getting out. Pierre and two others made their
way down through the drains, came out on the river
at night, and swam across. One of the youngest
went out by train dressed as a woman, but the rest
were forced to don the uniform and take their places
in the ranks of the National Guard. The question
of leaving Paris was frequently discussed by Cuthbert
and Mary Brander, but they finally determined to stay.
It was morally certain that the troops would enter
Paris either at the Port Maillot or at the gate of
Pont du Jour; or at any rate, somewhere on that side
of Paris. Once inside the walls they would meet
with no resistance there-the fighting would
only commence when they entered the city itself.
Passy was to a large extent inhabited by well-to-do
people, and it was not here that the search for Communists
would begin. The troops would here be greeted
as benefactors.
“I do not think there is the
smallest risk, Mary; if there were, I should say at
once that we had better be off, and I would escort
you down to Cornwall, but as there seems to me no
danger whatever, I should say let us stick to our
original plan. I own I should like to see the
end of it all. You might amuse yourself at present
by making a good-sized Union Jack, which you can hang
out of your window when the troops enter. When
I see the time approaching, I intend to make an arrangement
with the Michauds to establish myself here, so as to
undertake the task of explaining, if necessary, but
I don’t think any explanation will be asked.
It is likely enough that as soon as the troops enter
they will establish themselves in this quarter before
making any further advance; they will know that they
have hard fighting before them, and until they have
overcome all opposition, will have plenty to think
about, and will have no time to spare in making domiciliary
visits.”