FOOTNOTE:
[178] The original of this document has been lost, but we have been able to re-establish the text with the evidence of Dombrowski's brother and of a great number of members of the Council present at this sitting.
CHAPTER XXVII.
"Les généraux qui ont conduit l'entree à Paris sont de grands hommes de guerre."—M. Thiers à l'Assemblée Nationale, 22 Mai 1871.
MONDAY 22ND—THE VERSAILLESE INVADE THE QUARTERS OF THE EAST—PARIS RISES.
At two o'clock Dombrowski arrived at the Hôtel-de-Ville, pale, dejected, his chest bruised with stones ploughed up by shot. He told the Committee of Public Safety of the entry of the Versaillese, the surprise of Passy, his useless efforts to rally the men. As he was pressed for news, as they appeared astonished at such a rapid invasion, so little did the Committee know of the military situation, Dombrowski, who misunderstood them, exclaimed, "What! the Committee of Public Safety takes me for a traitor! My life belongs to the Commune." His gesture, his voice, testified to his bitter despair.
The morn was warm and bright, as the day before. The call to arms, the tocsin, set three or four thousand men on foot, who hurried towards the Tuileries, the Hôtel-de-Ville, and the War Office; but hundreds of others at that moment had abandoned their posts, left Passy, and emptied the fifteenth arrondissement. The Federals of Petit-Vanves came back to Paris at five o'clock, and seeing the Trocadéro occupied by the Versaillese, refused to hold out. On the left bank, at the St. Clothilde Square, some officers attempted to stay them, but were repulsed by the guards. "It is now a war of barricades," said they; "every one to his quarter." At the Légion d'Honneur they forced their way; the proclamation of Delescluze had released them.
Thus began that fatal proclamation placarded on all the walls:—