Part 49 (1/2)

The majority had only one cartridge.

The firing began about ten o'clock. Two companies of the line appeared and fired several volleys. The attack was only a feint. The barricade replied, and made the mistake of foolishly exhausting its ammunition.

The troops retired. Then the attack began in earnest. Some Cha.s.seurs de Vincennes emerged from the corner of the boulevard.

Following out the African mode of warfare, they glided along the side of the walls, and then, with a run, they threw themselves upon the barricade.

No more ammunition in the barricade. No quarter to be expected.

Those who had no more powder or b.a.l.l.s threw down their guns. Some wished to reoccupy their position in the Mairie, but it was impossible for them to maintain any defence there, the Mairie being open and commanded from every side; they scaled the walls and scattered themselves about in the neighboring houses; others escaped by the narrow pa.s.sage of the boulevard which led into the Rue Saint Jean; most of the combatants reached the opposite side of the boulevard, while those who had a cartridge left fired a last volley upon the troops from the height of the paving-stones. Then they awaited their death. All were killed.

One of those who succeeded in slipping into the Rue Saint Jean, where moreover they ran the gauntlet of a volley from their a.s.sailants, was M.H. Coste, Editor of the _Evenement_ and of the _Avenement du Peuple_.

M. Coste had been a captain in the Garde Mobile. At a bend in the street, which placed him out of reach of the b.a.l.l.s, M. Conte noticed in front of him the drummer of the Garde Mobile, who, like him, had escaped by the Rue Saint Jean, and who was profiting by the loneliness of the street to get rid of his drum.

”Keep your drum,” cried he to him.

”For what purpose?”

”To beat the call to arms.”

”Where?”

”At Batignolles.”

”I will keep it,” said the drummer.

These two men came out from the jaws of death, and at once consented to re-enter them.

But how should they cross all Paris with this drum? The first patrol which met them would shoot them. A porter of an adjoining house, who noticed their predicament, gave them a packing-cloth. They enveloped the drum in it, and reached Batignolles by the lonely streets which skirt the walls.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE BARRICADE OF THE RUE THEVENOT

Georges Biscarrat was the man who had given the signal for the looting in the Rue de l'Ech.e.l.le.

I had known Georges Biscarrat ever since June, 1848. He had taken part in that disastrous insurrection. I had had an opportunity of being useful to him. He had been captured, and was kneeling before the firing-party; I interfered, and I saved his life, together with that of some others, M., D., D., B., and that brave-hearted architect Rolland, who when an exile, later on, so ably restored the Brussels Palace of Justice.

This took place on the 24th June, 1848, in the underground floor of No.

93, Boulevard Beaumarchais, a house then in course of construction.

Georges Biscarrat became attached to me. It appeared that he was the nephew of one of the oldest and best friends of my childhood, Felix Biscarrat, who died in 1828. Georges Biscarrat came to see me from time to time, and on occasions he asked my advice or gave me information.

Wis.h.i.+ng to preserve him from evil influences, I had given him, and he had accepted, this guiding maxim, ”No insurrection except for Duty and for Right.”

What was this hooting in the Rue de l'Ech.e.l.le? Let us relate the incident.

On the 2d of December, Bonaparte had made an attempt to go out. He had ventured to go and look at Paris. Paris does not like being looked at by certain eyes; it considers it an insult, and it resents an insult more than a wound. It submits to a.s.sa.s.sination, but not to the leering gaze of the a.s.sa.s.sin. It took offence at Louis Bonaparte.

At nine o'clock in the morning, at the moment when the Courbevoie garrison was descending upon Paris, the placards of the _coup d'etat_ being still fresh upon the walls, Louis Bonaparte had left the Elysee, had crossed the Place de la Concorde, the Garden of the Tuileries, and the railed courtyard of the Carrousel, and had been seen to go out, by the gate of the Rue de l'Ech.e.l.le. A crowd a.s.sembled at once. Louis Bonaparte was in a general's uniform; his uncle, the ex-King Jerome, accompanied him, together with Flahaut, who kept in the near. Jerome wore the full uniform of a Marshal of France, with a hat with a white feather; Louis Bonaparte's horse was a head before Jerome's horse.