The examinations were drawn out with fastidious slowness during seventeen sittings. Always the same public of soldiers, bourgeois, courtesans, hissing the accused; the same witnesses, priests, police agents, and functionaries; the same fury in the accusation, the same cynicism in the tribunal, the same howling of the press. The massacres had not glutted this. It yelled at the accused, demanded their death, and every day dragged them through the mire of its reports.[245] Foreign correspondents were revolted. The Standard, a great reviler of the Commune, said, "Anything more scandalous than the tone of the demi-monde press during this trial it is impossible to imagine." Some of the accused having asked for the protection of the president, Merlin took up the defence of the journals.
Then came the prosecutor's address to the court. Gaveau, to remain true to his instructions, was to demonstrate that Paris had fought for six weeks in order to enable a few individuals to steal the remainder of the public chests, to burn some houses, and to shoot a few gendarmes. This epauletted limb of the law overthrew as a soldier all the arguments he built up as a magistrate. "The Commune," he said, "had acted as a Government," and five minutes after he refused the members of the Council of the Commune the character of political men. Passing in review the different accused, he said of Ferré, "I should be wasting my time and yours by discussing the numerous charges weighing upon him;" of Jourde, "The figures he has given you are quite imaginary. I shall not trespass upon your time by discussing them." During the battle in the streets Jourde had received the order of the Committee of Public Safety to remit a thousand francs to every member of the Council. About thirty only had received this sum. Gaveau said, "They divided millions amongst each other;" and a man of his sort must have believed this. What sovereign has ever abandoned power without carrying off millions? He lengthily accused Grousset of having stolen paper in order to print his journal; another of having lived with a mistress. A coarse lansquenet, incapable of understanding that the more he lowered the men the greater he made this Revolution, so vital despite all defections and incapacities.
The audience emphasised this accusation with frantic applause. At the conclusion there were calls as in a theatre. Merlin gave Ferré's advocate permission to speak, but Ferré declared he wished to defend himself, and commenced reading:—
After the conclusion of the treaty of peace consequent upon the shameful capitulation of Paris, the Republic was in danger, the men who had succeeded the Empire fallen in the midst of mire and blood"——
Merlin. Fallen in the midst of mire and blood! Here I must stop you. Was not your Government in the same situation?
Ferré. "Clung to power, and, though overwhelmed by public contempt, they prepared in the dark a coup-d'état; they persisted in refusing Paris the election of her municipal council"——
Gaveau. This is not true.
Merlin. What you are saying, Ferré, is false. Continue, but at the third time I shall stop you.
Ferré. "The honest and sincere journals were suppressed, the best patriots condemned to death"——
Gaveau. The prisoner cannot go on reading this. I shall ask for the application of the law.