These gentlemen are to return, for they have only done half their work; time has not permitted them to take all.
Such then is the end of the promises and protestations of gentlemen, members of the commune, who declare aloud that probity is their ruling virtue.
These gentlemen propose, moreover, it is said, to rake up, so to speak, the very ground; that is to say, to upset every thing in the church, cellars and calorifères. They insist on finding there arms and ammunition.
It is true that, during the siege, the gunners of the national guard, who occupied the park of artillery established round the basilic, demanded of the chapter's steward the authorisation to put in the cellars and calorifères their ammunition which was exposed to the shells of the Prussians, and that this authorisation was granted them without the 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.