“Assisted by your courage and presence of mind!...”
Ah, gentlemen, this is flattery!
“We have driven out the government that was betraying you.
“Our mandate has now expired...”
Always this same mandate which we gave you, eh?
“We now return it to you, for we do not pretend to take the place of those which the popular breath has overthrown.
“Prepare yourselves, let the Communal election commence forthwith, and give to us the only reward we have ever hoped for—that of seeing the establishment of a true republic. In the meanwhile we retain the Hôtel de Ville in the name of the people.
“Hôtel de Ville, Paris, 19th March, 1871.
“The Central Committee of the National Guards:
“Assy, Billioray, and others.”
Placarded up also is another proclamation[[17]] signed by the citizens Assy, Billioray, and others, announcing that the Communal elections will take place on Wednesday next, 22nd of March, that is to say in three days.
This then is the result of yesterday’s doings, and the revolution of the 18th March can be told in a few words.
There were cannon at Montmartre; the Government wished to take them but was not able, thanks to the fraternal feeling and cowardice of the soldiers of the Line. A secret society, composed of several delegates of several battalions, took advantage of the occasion to assert loudly that they represented the entire population, and commanded the people to elect the Commune of Paris—whether they wished or not.
What will Paris do now between these dictators, sprung from heaven knows where, and the Government fled to Versailles?
NOTES: