and remain a portion of the French nationality. Thiers's answer was not encouraging. The Commune at once interpreted it as a refusal of its demands, and so informed the League. That body, however, did not cease from endeavouring to bring about a compromise, and the armistice of the 25th was owing to its mediation between the almost equally reluctant parties. The Society of Freemasons made an elaborate effort at conciliation at the close of the month, and at one time success seemed very nearly crowning the endeavours of a delegation sent from Lyons. The point upon which M. Thiers proved obdurate was the refusal to accord the full municipal franchises claimed by Paris, claimed also by the other democratic cities of France, of which Lyons was one. He had already given proof of his strong determination on this subject on the 14th of April, when the Assembly at Versailles having, by an unexpectedly liberal vote, conceded the right of every city to choose its own mayor, Thiers had peremptorily interfered, threatening instant resignation unless the decision was revoked with regard to every town having more than 20,000 inhabitants. The Assembly obeyed him, thereby procuring for the disposal of the Central Government all the important mayoralties in the kingdom. M. Thiers now declared to the Lyons delegates that the law ultimately passed on that occasion was sufficiently liberal, and that he could allow no further step whatever in the path of decentralization.

Colonel Rossel, the new War Delegate, began his administration with an attempt to reorganize the National Guards. By several decrees, dated "the 15th Floreal of the year 79," he established different military commands.. Dombrowski, at Neuilly, was to conduct personally the operations on the right bank of the river; La Cecilia, an Italian volunteer, with the title of Commandant of the Centre, was to conduct the military operations between the Seine and the left bank of the Bievre; the Pole Wroblewski, to command the left wing; Bergeret to command one brigade, Eudes the other, of the field-reserve. Rossel then appointed a review for the 9th of May. For the moment he was the popular hero. Men likened him in outward aspect to Napoleon I. His youth, his military talent, his modest bearing, his Spartan simplicity of life, were all themes of admiration. But had this young officer's genius been as great as it was fondly supposed to be, the system of divided powers which the distrust of Government insisted on, would have effectually hampered it. Of the 12,000 National Guards he had summoned to his review, only 7000 made their appearance. All his orders were interfered with. Within a week of his acceptance of office he found the terms intolerable, and sent in his resignation to the Commune.

"Charged by you," he said, "with the provisional title of the Delegation of War, I feel myself incapable of any longer supporting the responsibility of a commandant where every one wishes to deliberate and no one to obey. When it became necessary to organize the artillery, the Central Committee of Artillery deliberated and decided nothing. After two months of revolution the service of your cannon depends

on the energy of a few volunteers insufficient for their work. . My predecessor committed the fault of struggling in the midst of this absurd situation. Enlightened by his example, knowing that the force of a revolutionist only consists in a situation clearly defined, I have two lines to choose between-to break the obstacle which hampers my action, or to withdraw. I shall not break the obstacle, for that obstacle is you and your weakness; I will make no attempt on the public sovereignty. I retire, and have the honour to demand a cell at Mazas. (Signed) ROSSEL."

He was arrested, but managed immediately afterwards to escape, in company with the guard who had been placed to watch him.

True indeed at this time was that which Rochefort had said in his paper the Mot d'Ordre: "It is neither dread of the Prussians nor of the shells of M. Thiers, which enervates Paris and kills our hopes; it is gaunt suspicion that weighs us down. The Hôtel de Ville distrusts the Minister of War, who distrusts the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Fort of Vanves distrusts Montrouge, Montrouge distrusts Bicêtre; Rigault distrusts Rossel, and Rossel distrusts Dombrowski."

In its perplexity the Commune turned for a successor in the War ministry to Delescluze. When the veteran took possession of his new office, he did it with a despairing heart. He saw that the insurrection was doomed to perish; and honest and sincere in his own radical convictions, he had resolved to perish with it. A civilian himself, Delescluze was little acquainted with military matters, but he felt that the one chief requisite of his party was union of its members among themselves, and to this he exhorted them in grave and earnest words.

We now reach the last stage of the siege. Fort Vanves, as has been stated, was taken on the 14th of May. By this capture the s.w. front of the enceinte was deprived of the last of its outlying defences. To the north and east stood the grim barrier of the German forces, ready to bar any attempt at egress on the part of the penned-up inhabitants. A well-drilled army was lying encamped against the city in the Bois de Boulogne. The spirits of the Versaillists rose to a high pitch. Still Marshal M'Mahon was looking forward to at least six days more of sapping and mounting of batteries and actual breaching, when an unexpected occurrence brought matters to a crisis. On the afternoon of Sunday, the 21st of May, a small detachment of troops, with several officers, who were in observation at a very short distance from the gate of St. Cloud, perceived a man standing close to that gate, vehemently waving a white handkerchief. The signal was regarded with suspicion. After a time the handkerchief disappeared, but soon the man returned, waving it more energetically than before. Still the Versaillists lay close, thinking it a snare. At last Captain Trève, of the French Navy, who was one of the party at the advanced post, resolved to make a trial. Directing his companions to remain sheltered, he cautiously advanced, availing himself of all possible cover, until within a very

short distance of Bastion 64. "What is it?" he then cried, in a subdued voice. "Do you surrender!" "There is no one here," was the reply; "collect your men, and come in at once." Having convinced himself that that part of the enceinte was really undefended, Captain Trève hurried back to his friends, telegraphed through the trenches that troops were to be brought up, got together about 300 men, and took possession unopposed of the gate of St. Cloud and the two adjacent bastions. Meanwhile the troops were mustering in his rear, and soon a division was assembled with General Douay in command. The man who had rendered so signal a service to the cause of order was Ducatel, a subordinate employé in the municipal service of Paris, who lived near the Point du Jour, and who, having seen the insurgents dislodged from that part of the fortifications by a heavy artillery fire, had risked his life to enable the Versaillists to enter Paris. The gate of Auteuil having been taken, after a sharp fight, he informed General Douay of the possibility of getting to the Trocadéro, and acted as guide to Colonel Piquemal, who was afterwards killed. Under a heavy fire Ducatel advanced alone to the barricade of the Quai de Grenelle, parleyed with the insurgents, and apparently intimidated them, for they fled, and the barricade was taken. But they dragged him with them in their flight, and were about to shoot him at the Ecole Militaire, when the arrival of the Versaillists saved him.

As soon as General Douay had entered the city he was followed by General L'Admirault leading the left wing of the army, and by General Cissey with the right wing. In the course of Monday, the 22nd, the Versaillists, 80,000 strong, were advancing steadily into the interior. On Tuesday afternoon the Buttes Montmartre and the Northern Railway-Station were in their hands, and Generals Cissey and Vinoy were marching on the Hôtel de Ville and the Tuileries. That night the troops were tired, and rested; and then it was that the insurgents, in their mad despair, seized the occasion to carry out a terrible plan of destruction, which, it would seem, had long haunted the previsions of some of the leaders as a possible termination of their resistance. They set fire to Paris. On Wednesday morning, when the troops of Order were pushing their advance, the Tuileries, the Louvre, the Palais Royal, the Hôtel de Ville, the Rue Royale, the Ministry of Finance, and other public offices, were all sending forth lurid flames to the skies. And still more cruel deeds were being committed. At ten o'clock on Tuesday night Raoul Rigoult, with a party of armed men, repaired to the prison of St. Pélagie, and calling out M. Chaudey, a late writer in the Siècle, who had been incarcerated by the Commune for his disaffection to their rule, had him shot at once. On the following night the convent of the Dominicans at -Arceuil was assaulted by a frenzied troop of Federals, and the wretched monks shot down as they fled into the street. The spirit of massacre was abroad. next wreaked itself on a company of sufferers whose possible fate had long caused the deepest anxiety to the world outside the walls of

It

Paris. Bismarck, and even, it is said, Cluseret, had endeavoured to mediate for the safety of the venerable Darboy, Archbishop of Paris. While the Versailles troops pressed through the flaming streets, it was hoped to the last that he and his fellow hostages might have been rescued. But their hour had come. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday a court-martial was held on the hostages confined at La Roquette, Ferré presiding. The trial was a mock one-many of the victims were not brought up for examination at all. But the same inexorable fate awaited them. The turn of the Archbishop came first. It is said that some of the assassins before firing on him felt an involuntary awe, fell on their knees, and implored his pardon. With him the President Bonjean and four priests met their doom. The rest of the hostages were shot in batches on the succeeding days. A guard consisting of youths and women, drunken and delirious with the fever of revolution, hovered over these dreadful proceedings, and brought in from the streets continually fresh victims for the firing parties. On priests and gensdarmes they particularly delighted to pounce. The murderers played with their captives at times like cats with mice, and raised their hopes of deliverance just to disappoint them again. Ferré having let loose a band of convicted criminals on condition of their slaughtering sixty-six defenceless gensdarmes, finally signalized his doings at La Roquette by sending forth others laden with cans of petroleum to spread the conflagration raging in the city.

But while these deeds of horror were in progress the avenging troops were steadily pressing on; and, fighting desperately from barricade to barricade, the insurgents fell back. On Thursday Thiers telegraphed to the prefects of the departments :-" We are masters of Paris, with the exception of a very small portion, which will be occupied this morning. The Tuileries are in ashes; the Louvre is saved. A portion of the Ministry of Finance along the Rue de Rivoli, the Palais d'Orsay, where the Council of State holds its sittings, and the Court of Accounts have been burnt. Such is the condition in which Paris is delivered to us by the wretches who oppressed it. We have already in our hands 12,000 prisoners, and shall certainly have 18,000 to 20,000. The soil of Paris is strewn with corpses of the insurgents. The frightful spectacle will, it is hoped, serve as a lesson to those insensate men who dared to declare themselves partisans of the Commune. Justice will soon be satisfied. The human conscience is indignant at the monstrous acts which France and the world have now witnessed. The army has behaved admirably. We are happy in the midst of our misfortune to be able to announce that, thanks to the wisdom of our generals, it has suffered very small losses." On Friday the special Red Republican quarter, Belleville, was encircled by the forces of L'Admirault and Vinoy. It was defended by seven barricades; but these proved insufficient to resist the assault; Belleville was captured, and with it large numbers of the insurgents. The last struggle was on Saturday and Sunday, in the Cemetery of Père la

Chaise. It was obstinate, savage; on the part of the Communists, hopeless. Women fought as well as men. No quarter was given. Finally, General Vinoy remained master of the field. Meanwhile L'Admirault had seized the Buttes Chaumont and Ménilmontant. With the surrender of a few National Guards at Vincennes on Monday the last show of resistance was at an end.

Then came the terrible reprisals. Every member of the Commune who fell alive into the hands of the Versaillists was shot at once. Some had found death in the hour of struggle. Of these last were Rigault, Dombrowski, Eudes, Valles, Bergeret, Delescluze. The last moments of Delescluze, a man of moderation and virtue, in comparison with many of his fellows-even a believer in God, as some of them with astonishment averred-were striking. When the troops of Versailles were pressing on Tuesday from point to point, and no hope of a successful resistance remained, he put on his hat and coat, took his stick, and walked quietly up to the barricade of the Château d'Eau, where he speedily met the death he had long desired. Dombrowski was carried, desperately wounded, to a bedroom in the Hôtel de Ville, and perished there.

A fierce vengeance overtook the unhappy multitudes. To be found with weapons was at once a death-warrant, to be found without them was no safeguard to those who at the last moment had thrown them away. The victorious soldiers slaughtered their late foes in batches, and exulted fiercely in the act. The Marquis de Gallifet rode through the streets on Sunday, followed by a column of several thousand prisoners, of whom he selected eighty, formerly soldiers of the Line, and had them shot without form of trial, outside the Arc de Triomphe. Women were executed without mercy as well as men, for stories had got about, with how much of exaggeration it is difficult to say, of female incendiaries having been seen to wander about Paris during the last days of the Commune, feeding the conflagration of the streets and public buildings with petroleum. There can be no doubt that the excessive extent and ferocity of the military executions during the first few days after the suppression of the revolt served to lessen the impression of the horrors that had occasioned them, and roused a feeling of disgust in the outside world against the Government at Versailles.

Millière, who had been a deputy to the National Assembly, fell into the hands of his enemies, and was shot in the Place de Panthéon, while with his last breath he cried, "Vive la Commune!" "Vive l'humanité!" Afterwards indeed, some asserted that he lived still, and that another had fallen. Valles was stabbed, and left miserably to perish in the streets. No recognized leader found mercy at the moment, but in the search which was continued after the struggle, several were dragged off to the prisons of Satory and the Orangérie, which were soon full to repletion of the captive Communists. Among those who were carried there to await their trial by court-martial were Rossel, Ferré, Assi, Lullier, Courbet, Urbain, and Paschal Grousset. Félix Pyat, always clever at escaping from the troubles he had been the