The Insurrection in Paris | Page 3

least difficulty.
After the Armistice, they took away all these arms; but could they have had the indelicacy to leave some behind in order to be able to justify the impious and sacrilegious robbery they were meditating. This would be odious but not impossible in such times as these.
A few days before two men employed in guarding the church were arrested. They were kept 3 or 4 days, and, before being set at liberty, the keys of the church were taken from them. What took place is however unknown, for the poor fellows are afraid to utter a word.
A commissary came, in the name of the commune, to sequester the objects belonging to the church Sainte-Marguerite, in the little borough of St. Antoine. A picket of 10 national guards is in permanence in the church to keep sight of the clergy.
The church Saint-Merry has also been ransacked by the sicaires of the Commune.
The vicar, fortunately, had stolen away from their fraternal visit.
The church Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs is transformed into a club-house.
The parishioners are robbed, plundered, driven from their temples, and the preaching of the Gospel is replaced in the pulpit by the declamations of epileptic tribunes.
At Plaisance they have sequestered a chalice and a sum of 175 franks, the personal property of M. l'abb�� Orse, first vicar.
The curate, M. Blondeau, is in the prisons of the Commune.
MAY 3d.
A manifestation, provoked by the Freemasons, took place in the afternoon. A body of several thousands of people crossed the Champs-��lys��es, carrying green branches and white flags. Arrived at the gate Maillot, the firing ceased, but the manifestation was warned not to approach and that only two parliamentarians would be received. They accordingly presented themselves and will be this evening at Versailles. It is reported that yesterday 200 soldiers, wearing the uniform of troops of the Line, went down the Champs-��lys��es. It was said they were deserters from Versailles. We can positively state as a certain fact, that from the first week of april no deserter has been counted in the army of Versailles.
MAY 4th.
Two brigades carried off last night the park, the castle and cemetery of Issy, taking 8 guns, ammunition and a hundred prisoners. They had a few dead and 20 wounded. The cemetery is about 210 yards from the fort. The capture of this fort appears imminent.
Yesterday, Mr. Thiers received two parliamentarians, freemasons, who declared, however, they had no mandate. Mr. Thiers gave them an answer similar to those already known; that he desired more than any body the end of the civil war, but that France could not capitulate before a few insurgents; that they must apply for peace to the commune who had troubled it.
Yesterday evening, a parliamentarian summoned the fort of Issy to capitulate.
The insurgents answered that they were going to deliberate about it, that they would give a reply in half an hour; then they asked for a prolongation of the delay.--The parliamentarian returned.
The negociations for the capitulation, resumed in the morning, will probably succeed.
The coup de main on the farm of Bonamy, in front of Chatillon, was executed by a company of the 70th. and by that of the scouts of 71st.
Two officers of the insurgents were killed, and 30 insurgents killed or wounded. They made 75 prisoners and among them 4 officers.
The last military facts of the day took place in the quarries and park of Issy which were vigorously carried by the battalions of the brigades Derocha, Paturel and Berthe, with the assistance of the marine musketeers.
The insurgents, in very large numbers, retired precipitately, leaving numerous dead and wounded, as well as a hundred prisoners, 8 pieces of artillery, much ammunition and 8 horses.
Nothing particular this afternoon. The insurgents are busy about mining Paris, and the Versailles troops have silenced the firing of the fort of Issy which is now completely invested.
The fort of Issy is summoned to surrender, but Rossel, previously colonel, who has replaced General Cluseret, gives the parliamentarian a most arrogant answer of refusal threatening to have shot any other messenger of the army of Versailles, the bearer of such a demand.
MAY 5, 6th.
Such was the remark I heard made yesterday by a poor and very old peasant woman as she stopped work for a moment in a field above Montretout to look at the Fort firing. She followed up this admirable summary of recent military operations by asking me whether it was not amazing that somebody could not "invent" a means to put a stop to this Civil War. I think the whole world must concur with this poor old woman. It is always the same repetition that is certain, and it is so to even a greater degree than she was aware of. Not only is the cannonading the same repetition, but the game of taking positions, giving them up and