A Girl of the Commune

by G. A. Henty

  CHAPTER XXIV.

  Mary was greatly shocked upon hearing the tragic circumstances that hadoccurred at the wedding.

  "Who is the man that fired, Cuthbert?"

  "His name is Jean Diantre. I heard from Dufaure that he has been a loverof Minette's; he said she had never given him any encouragement, butacknowledged that he himself believed she might have taken him at lastif she had not met Dampierre. He said that he had been uneasy for sometime, for the man had become so moody and savage that he had feared illwould come of it. He was the same man who nearly stabbed me three monthsago, taking me for Dampierre."

  "It is shocking to think that you have killed a man, Cuthbert."

  "It may be shocking to you, Mary, but the matter does not weigh on myconscience at all. In the first place I had no idea of killing him, andin the second, if I had not hit hard and quickly he would have firedagain and killed Arnold; lastly, I regard these Communists as no betterthan mad dogs, and the chances are ten to one that he would have beenshot at the barricades, or afterwards, if he had not died when he did."

  "It is all very terrible," Mary sighed.

  "It has all been terrible from beginning to end, Mary, but as hundredsof men are killed every day, and there will probably be thousands shotwhen the troops enter Paris, I cannot regard the death of a would-bemurderer as a matter that will weigh on my mind for a moment. And nowwhat has been going on here? I hardly had time to notice whether thefiring was heavy."

  "It has been tremendous," she said. "Several houses have been struck andset on fire lower down but no shells have come this way."

  "I have no doubt the troops imagine that all the houses down near Pontdu Jour, are crowded with Communists in readiness to repel any assaultthat might be made. The army is doubtless furious at the destruction ofthe Column of Vendome, which was in commemoration, not only of Napoleon,but of the victories won by French armies. Moreover, I know fromnewspapers that have been brought in from outside, and which I have seenat the cafe, that they are incensed to the last degree by being detainedhere, when but for this insurrection, they would have been given afurlough to visit their families when they returned from the Germanprisons. So that I can quite understand the artillerymen taking a shotoccasionally at houses they believe to be occupied by the insurgents.

  "You may be sure of one thing, and that is that very little quarterwill be shown to the Communists by the troops. Even now, I cannot buthope, that seeing the impossibility of resisting many days longer, andthe certainty of a terrible revenge if the troops have to fight theirway through the streets, the Communists will try to surrender on thebest terms they can get. Thiers has all along shown such extremeunwillingness to force the fighting, that I am sure he would give farbetter terms than they could have any right to expect, rather than thatParis should be the scene of a desperate struggle, and, if theCommunists fulfil their threats, of wholesale destruction and ruin."

  Two more days passed. Cuthbert went down each day to his old lodging andfound that Arnold was doing well. On the second day, indeed, he was outof bed with his arm in a sling and sitting partly dressed in aneasy-chair. Martin Dufaure had left that morning for his own lodging,having slept for the last two nights on the sofa. Minette had madeeverything about the rooms tidy and fresh, the windows were open, andthe distant roar of the bombardment could be plainly heard. She had awhite handkerchief tied over her head, a neat, quiet dress, and wasplaying the role of nurse to perfection. Cuthbert had been round toMonsieur Goude and had told him what had happened, and he had theevening before dropped in for a talk with Arnold.

  "I am getting on wonderfully, Cuthbert," Arnold said, on the latter'ssecond visit. "Of course it is trying to be sitting here incapable oftaking a part in what is going on."

  "You have taken quite enough part, Arnold, and I own I think your woundat the present moment is a fortunate one, for it will keep you out ofmischief. When the surgeon comes next I should strongly advise you toget him to write you a certificate certifying that you have been woundedby a pistol ball, so that if, as is probable, there will sooner or laterbe a general search for Communists, you can prove that your injury wasnot received in the fighting outside the walls, and you can refer toGoude and me as to the fact that you are an art student here. Bothdocuments had better be made out in another name than your own, for,unfortunately, yours has been rendered familiar to them by the frequentnotices of your doings and speeches in the papers here."

  "I will see about it," Arnold said; "I do not know that I can bringmyself to that."

  "You will be very foolish and wrong not to do so, Arnold. You are amarried man now, and have your wife to think about as well as yourself.You may be sure that there is not a single leader of the insurrectionhere who will not endeavor to escape under a false name; besides, evengranting that, as you believe, the cause is a righteous one, youcertainly cannot benefit it in the slightest by sacrificing your life.Your wife was a Communist Vivandiere a few days ago, now she is a quietlittle wife nursing a sick husband." Glancing at Minette he saw an angryflush on her face, and a look of dogged determination; he made noremark, however, and after chatting with Arnold for some time returnedto Passy.

  "That woman will bring destruction on them both or I am mistaken," hesaid to Mary; "fond as she may be of Dampierre, her enthusiasm for theCommune will take her from his side when the last struggle begins. Doyou know, Mary, my presentiments about her have turned out marvellouslycorrect." He opened his sketch-book. "Look at that," he said; "at thetime I sketched it she was poised as a Spanish dancer, and had castanetsin her hand; the attitude is precisely that in which she stood as amodel, but it struck me at the moment that a knife would be moreappropriate to her than a castanet, and you see I drew her so, and thatis the precise attitude she stood in, dagger in hand, when I caught herwrist and prevented her from stabbing the man at her feet."

  "Don't show them to me, Cuthbert, it frightens me when you talk of her."

  "You must remember that she is a mixture, Mary; she is like a panther,as graceful, and as supple; a charming beast when it purrs and rubsitself against the legs of its keeper, terrible when, in passion, ithurls itself upon him. In the early days the students were, to a man,fascinated with her. I stood quite alone in my disapproval. Seeing heras I saw her to-day, I admit that she is charming, but I cannot forgether fury as she bounded, knife in hand, upon the man I had knocked down.Listen! do your hear that rattle of musketry down by Pont du Jour? Thetroops must be working their way up towards the gate. Possibly, it isthe beginning of the end."

  Presently a Communist, with a red sash, rode furiously past, and in aquarter of an hour returned with a battalion of National Guards who hadbeen stationed near the Arc de Triomphe.

  "Evidently, there is a some sharp business going on, Mary. It is hardlylikely the troops can be attacking at this time of day, they would besure to choose early morning, mass their forces under cover of darkness,and go at the gate at daybreak; still, there is no doubt from thatmusketry firing, they must be trying to establish themselves nearer thegate than before."

  The batteries that had all day been playing upon Pont du Jour, hadsuddenly ceased firing, but the rattle of musketry in that directioncontinued as hotly as ever for another two hours, and a number offield-guns joined in the conflict on the side of the Communists.

  "I really must go and find out what it is all about," Cuthbert said; "ifI could get up near the Viaduct, I should be able to look down into thebastions at Pont du Jour."

  "Don't be away long," Mary urged, "I shall be feeling very nervous tillyou get back."

  "I won't be long; I shan't stay to watch the affair, but only just tofind out what the situation is. The fact that the Communists havebrought up Field Artillery, shows that it is something more thanordinary, although, why the batteries opposite should have ceased toplay I cannot make out; they are hard at work everywhere else."

  Cuthbert made his way towards the Viaduct, and as he approached it sawthat some of the field-guns he had heard had been placed
there, and thatthe parapet was lined with National Guards who were keeping up anincessant fire. Shells from Meudon and Fort Issy were bursting thicklyover and near the bridge, and Cuthbert, seeing that he could not getfurther without being exposed to the fire, and might, moreover, getinto trouble with the Communists, made his way down towards Pont duJour. Several people were standing in shelter behind the wall of one ofthe villas.

  "You had better not go farther," one of them said, "a shell burst twentyyards lower down a few minutes ago. Several of the villas are in flames,and bullets are flying about everywhere."

  "What is going on, gentlemen?" Cuthbert asked, as he joined them.

  "The troops have entered Pont du Jour."

  "Impossible!" Cuthbert exclaimed, "the firing has been heavy, but noheavier than usual, and although the village is knocked to pieces, as Isaw for myself yesterday, no great harm was done to the bastions."

  "They have entered for all that," one of the gentlemen said. "Severalwounded Communists have come along here, and they have all told the samestory. Of course, they put it down to the treachery of their leaders,but at any rate, owing to the tremendous fire from the upper batteriesand Issy, it was absolutely impossible to keep men in the bastions, andthey were all withdrawn. A few were left in the houses and gardens, butthe greater part fell back behind the Viaduct, which afforded themshelter. Somehow or other, the troops in the sap that had been pushedforward to within fifty yards of the gate must have come to theconclusion that the bastion was not tenanted, and trying the experiment,found themselves inside the wall without a shot having been fired. Moremust have followed them, at any rate a considerable force must havegathered there before the Communists found out they had entered. Therecan be no doubt that it was a surprise, and not a preconcerted movement,for the batteries continue to fire on the place for some time after theyhad entered.

  "In a short time, small bodies of soldiers ran across the open where theshells were still bursting thickly, established themselves in the ruinsof the village, and, as they received reinforcements, gradually workedtheir way forwards. The Communists have brought up strong forces, but sofar, they have been unable to drive back the troops, and, of course,their chance of doing so grows less and less. We can hear heavy firingall along to the right, and it seems as if the troops were pushingforward all along the line from here to Neuilly. Thank God, the end ofthis terrible business is approaching, and by to-morrow morning we maysee the troops in Passy, where there is scarce a soul but will welcomethem with open arms. Our battalion of National Guards was one of thelast to accept the orders of the Commune, and as it must be known inVersailles as well as in Paris, that this quarter is thoroughly loyal,we need fear no trouble. We are going back there with the news, for wecan see nothing here, and if a battalion of Communists came alongbeaten, they would be as likely as not to vent their fury on all whomthey see by their appearance and dress are likely to sympathize with thetroops."

  Cuthbert walked back with them to Passy.

  "Good news," he exclaimed, as he entered the room, where Mary and theMichauds were standing at the open window; "the troops are masters ofPoint du Jour, and the Communists have tried in vain to drive them back.No doubt, at present, the whole French army is being brought up, inreadiness to enter as soon as it is dark, and by to-morrow morning thispart of the town at any rate may be clear of the Communists."

  Exclamations of delight burst from the others. "I will run up to theroof," Cuthbert said, "there is heavy musketry fire going on all alongthis side, and one may get an idea how matters are going, but we may besure that the Communists will all fall back upon the city as soon asthey know the troops have entered here."

  Mary went up with him, and they found the astronomer had already histelescope in position.

  "I have good news for you, Monsieur," Cuthbert said; "the troops haveentered Pont du Jour, and although the Communists are opposing them ingreat force, they are making their way forward. It has evidently been asurprise all round, and so far no great body of troops have been broughtup, but no doubt they will soon be ready to advance in force."

  "That is good news indeed. I have been watching Asnieres, and as far asI can make out a large body of troops have crossed the bridge there, andare skirmishing towards the enciente, and gradually driving back theCommunists. They have advanced too from Neuilly and are pressing forwardtowards Porte Maillot. Mount Valerien seems to be firing at Montmartre."

  Nightfall brought no cessation of the roar of cannon, and the roll ofmusketry seemed to be continuous, both from the left and right. Everywindow at Passy was lit up; there was a crowd of women at every shopwhere colored materials could be obtained, and in every house thefemales were engaged in sewing red, white, and blue stuff of everydescription to make the National tri-colored flags, in readiness to hangout when the troops came along. Occasionally adventurous boys and youngmen came in with scraps of news; the Viaduct had been carried beforedarkness set in, a heavy column of troops had captured a strongbarricade across the road, and, following the bank of the river, hadtaken possession of the bridge of Grenelle. Another division turning tothe left had carried the gas works, while a third had captured theAsylum of St. Perrine.

  It was at the Trocadero that the insurgents were expected to make astand in earnest. Here they had erected formidable works, and werereported to be hard at work mounting guns and mitrailleuses there. Thetroops, however, gave them no time to complete their preparations. Acolumn entered a little before midnight by the gate of Passy, pushed onto the bridge of Jena, carried it after a sharp fight, and then chargedat the double towards the heights of the Trocadero, where theCommunists, taken completely by surprise, fled precipitously after aslight resistance, and at one o'clock in the morning the loyalists werein possession of this important position. At midnight another divisionentered at the Porte Maillot, and advancing took possession of the Arcde Triomphe.

  At two o'clock the head of the French column came down the street. In aninstant candles were placed at every window, flags were hung out, andthe inhabitants poured into the street and welcomed their delivererswith shouts of joy. The troops piled their arms and fell out, and assoon as they did so, men and women brought out jugs of wine andprovisions of all kinds. In half an hour the inhabitants were ordered toreturn to their houses, and the troops wrapping themselves in theirblankets laid down in the roadway to get two or three hours, sleepbefore the heavy work expected in the morning. At five they were ontheir feet again. Already the din of battle had recommenced. At daybreakBruat's division crossed the Seine by the Viaduct, kept along the leftbank, drove the insurgents from the great iron foundry of Cail, andentered the Champs de Mars.

  The Communists fought stubbornly here, but a corps was sent round toturn their position, and seeing their retreat threatened, they broke andfled, and the Ecole Militaire was taken possession of without furtherresistance. General Cissey's division entered by the gate of Mont Rouge,where the Communists, threatened in the rear by Bruat's advance, fellback at their approach. Moving along the Boulevard Mont Rouge they cameupon very strong and formidable barricades, defended by six cannon andmitrailleuses, supported by musketry fire from the houses. The positionwas so strong that even with the assistance of the artillery Cissey wasunable to advance farther in this direction.

  Bruat's division met with strong opposition at the Cartridge Factory inthe Avenue Rapp, and the Reds were only driven out at last by artillerybeing brought up, and shelling them out. After this Bruat pushed on,captured and occupied without resistance the Invalides, and the PalaisLegislatif, opposite the Place de la Concorde.

  On the right bank the troops advanced from the Arc de Triomphe at thedouble and carried the Palais de L'Industrie after a short resistance.By mid-day the whole of the Champs Elysees as far as the barrier of thePlace de la Concorde were in possession of the troops.

  Late in the afternoon the division of General Clinchamp marched down onthe Rue Faubourg St. Honore, came out upon the Boulevard and tookpossession of the Madeleine and the Gr
and Opera House. While theseoperations had been carried on the Communists, batteries on Montmartrehad thrown shells over the whole area occupied by the troops, while MontValerien and the other batteries facing the western side maintained aheavy fire upon those of Montmartre.

  Early in the morning all the members of the National Guard of Passy andAuteuil were summoned to arms and ordered to assist the troops, and werespecially enjoined to maintain order in their rear as they advanced.Numbers of Communist prisoners were taken by the troops as they workedtheir way forward, and upwards of 8,000 were despatched under a strongescort to Versailles. The order for the National Guard to assemble wasreceived with intense satisfaction, the younger and unmarried men hadbeen forced into the ranks of the Communists, but many had during thelast day or two slipped away and remained in hiding, and all wereanxious to prove that it was loyalty and not cowardice that had causedthem to desert.

  Cuthbert was out all day watching, from points where he could obtainshelter from the flying bullets, the advance of the troops. When hereturned he told Mary that everything was going on well so far, but headded, "The work is really only beginning; the barrier at the Place dela Concorde and the batteries on the terrace of the Tuileries are reallyformidable positions, and I hear that on the south side the advance hasbeen entirely arrested by one of the barricades there. The Insurgentsnever intended to hold the outlying suburbs, and even the batteries onthe Trocadero were built to aid the Forts and not for fighting insidethe walls. You see every yard the troops gain now drives the Communistscloser and closer together, and renders the defence more easy. It may bea week yet before the Commune is finally crushed. I should think thatbefore the troops advance much further on this side they will stormMontmartre, whose batteries would otherwise take them in rear."

  The next day three divisions marched against Montmartre, and attacked itsimultaneously on three sides. The Communists here who had throughoutthe siege been the loudest and most vehement in their warlikedemonstrations, now showed that at heart they were cowards. Althoughtheir batteries were armed with over a hundred guns, they offered but amomentary resistance and fled, panic-stricken, in every direction, somethousands being taken prisoners by the troops. On the other hand,throughout the rest of Paris, the fighting became more and more severeand desperate. The Northern Railway Station was defended successfullythroughout the day. On the south side of the river but little progresswas made by the troops, and they remained stationary also in the ChampsElysees, the barriers in front being too strong to be stormed withoutfrightful loss. These, however, would be turned by the divisions who hadcaptured Montmartre, and the troops descending by different routes tothe Boulevard des Italiennes, worked their way along as far as the PorteSt. Denis, and this threatened the flank of the defenders of the Placede la Concorde and the Tuileries.

  The roar of fire was unbroken all day, the Forts, that had not yetfallen into the hands of the troops, bombarded all the quarters that hadbeen captured, and were aided by powerful batteries at Belleville, atVilette, and above all by those on the Buttes du Chaumont, where theCemetery of Pere la Chaise had been converted into an entrenched camp,the positions here being defended by 20,000 of the best troops of Paris.In the western quarters things had resumed their normal state; the shopswere opened, children played in the streets, and women gossipped at thedoors, there were men about too, for the order for the reassembling ofthe National Guard of this quarter had been cancelled, having met withthe strongest opposition in the Assembly at Versailles.

  The astronomer downstairs turned out a very useful acquaintance, forhearing from Cuthbert, that he was extremely anxious to obtain a passthat would permit him to move about near the scenes of fighting withoutthe risk of being seized and shot as a Communist, he said that he was anintimate friend of Marshal McMahon and should be glad to obtain a passfor him. On going to the quarters where the Marshal had establishedhimself, he brought back an order authorizing Cuthbert Hartington, aBritish subject, to circulate everywhere in quarters occupied by thetroops.

  "It is too late to go down this evening, Mary," he said, "but I expectthat to-morrow a great attack upon the positions round the Tuilerieswill take place, and I shall try and get somewhere where I can seewithout being in the line of fire. I will take care to run no risk,dear; you see my life is more precious to me now than it was when Ijoined the Franc tireurs des Ecoles."

  It was difficult to stop quietly indoors when so mighty a struggle wasgoing on almost within sight, and at ten o'clock in the evening he andMary went out to the Trocadero. The flashes of fire from the Loyal andCommunist batteries were incessant. Away on the south side was aconstant flicker of musketry as Cissey's troops struggled with thedefender of the barricades. An incessant fire played along the end ofthe Champs Elysees, flashed from the windows of the Tuileries andfringed the parapet of the south side of the river facing the Palais.Fires were blazing in various parts of Paris, the result of thebombardment. The city looked strangely dark, for the men at the gasworks were for the most part fighting in the ranks of the insurgents.The sky was lined with sparks of fire moving in arcs and marking thecourse of the shell as they traversed to and fro from battery tobattery, or fell on the city.

  "It is a wonderful sight, Mary."

  "Wonderful, but very terrible," she replied; "it is all very well tolook at from here, but only think what it must be for those within thatcircle of fire."

  "I have no pity for the Communists," Cuthbert said, "not one spark. Theywould not pull a trigger or risk a scratch for the defence of Parisagainst the Germans, now they are fighting like wild-cats against theircountrymen. Look there," he exclaimed, suddenly, "there is a fire brokenout close to the Place de la Concorde, a shell must have fallen there. Ifancy it must be within the barricades, but none of the batteries oneither side would have been likely to send a shell there at night, asit is so close to the line of division that the missile would be aslikely to strike friend as foe."

  Higher and higher mounted the flames, spreading as they went till a hugemass of fire lighted up all that part of Paris.

  "It must be a great public building of some sort," Cuthbert said.

  "See, another building is on fire a short distance away from it; look,Cuthbert, look is that the reflection of the flames in the windows ofthe Tuileries or is it on fire?

  "It is fire," Cuthbert exclaimed after a minute's pause; "see the flameshave burst through that window on the first floor. Good heavens, theCommunists are carrying out their threat to lay Paris in ashes beforethey yield."

  In five minutes all doubt was at an end, the flames were pouring outfrom every window on the first floor of the Palais, and it was evidentthe fire must have been lighted in a dozen places simultaneously.

  By this time the Trocadero was thronged with spectators attracted by thelight in the sky, and by the report that one of the public buildings wason fire; exclamations of fury and grief, and execrations upon theCommunists rose everywhere, when it was seen that the Tuileries were inflames. From points at considerable distances from each other freshoutbreaks of fire took place. Most of those standing round were able tolocate them, and it was declared that the Palace of the Court ofAccounts, the Ministries of War and Finance, the palaces of the Legionof Honor and of the Council of State, the Prefecture of Police thePalace de Justice, the Hotel de Ville and the Palais Royale were all onfire. As the night went on the scene became more and more terrible.Paris was blazing in at least twenty places, and most of theconflagrations were upon an enormous scale. The scene was toofascinating and terrible to be abandoned, and it was not until themorning began to break that the spectators on the Trocadero returned totheir homes.