In the evening the Versaillese line extended from the station of the Batignolles to the extremity of the Railway of the West on the left bank, passing by the St. Lazare Station, the Pépinière Barracks, the English Embassy, the Palais de l'Industrie, the Corps Législatif, the Rue de Bourgogne, the Boulevard des Invalides, and the Mont-Parnasse Station. To face the invader there were but embryo barricades. If with one effort he were to break through this line still so weak, he would surprise the centre quite disarmed. But these 130,000 men did not dare to. Soldiers and chiefs were afraid of Paris. They fancied the streets would open, the houses fall upon them; as witness the fable of the torpedoes, of the mines under the sewers, invented later on to justify their indecision.[184] On the Monday evening, masters of several arrondissements, they still trembled, fearful of some terrible surprise. They needed all the tranquility of the night to recover from their conquest, and convince themselves that the Committee of Defence, despite their boasting, had neither foreseen nor prepared anything.
FOOTNOTES:
[179] "Seventeen hours were required to get in 130,000 men and our numerous artillery."—M. Thiers, Enquête sur le 18 Mars.
[180] "From this unexpected obstruction there resulted a confusion that lasted till after the passage of the troops, and might have had serious consequences. If the insurgents had then opened fire upon the Trocadéro, from the batteries of Montmartre, their shells would have harassed us a great deal. But the cannon of Montmartre still kept silent. It was only a little after nine o'clock that they commenced firing; the passage was then already cleared."—Vinoy, La Commune, p. 130.
[181] The first conflagration of the days of May, and the Versaillese have admitted that they themselves kindled it.—Vinoy, L'Armistice et la Commune, p. 809.
[182] No deputy protested either on this day or after, or declared he had abstained from voting, neither those of the extreme Left nor those of the extreme Right. They are then, all of them equally answerable for this vote.
[183] "At the Place Blanche," wrote G. Maroteau in the Salut Public of the next day, "there was a barricade perfectly constructed and defended by a battalion of women, about 120. At the moment when I arrived, a dark form detached itself from the recess of a courtyard. It was a young girl with a Phrygian cap on her head, a chassepot in her hand, a cartridge-box by her side. 'Stand, citizen! no one passes here!' I stopped astonished, showed my safe-conduct, and the citoyenne allowed me to go to the foot of the barricade."
[184] Appendix XV.