The Central Committee found in the bureau of the War-Office, and the Officiel of the Commune published on the 25th April, the following letter from the supreme commander of the artillery of the army to General Suzanne:—
"Paris, 12th December 1870.
"My dear Suzanne—I have not found among the young auxiliaries your protégé Hetzel, but only a M. Hessel. Is it he who is meant? "Tell me frankly what you desire, and I will do it. I will attach him to my staff, where he will be bored, having nothing to do, or else I will send him to Mont Valérien, where he will run less risk than at Paris (this for the parents), and where he will have the air of firing the cannons into the air, according to Noël's method.
"Unbutton—your mouth, of course.—Yours,
Guiod"
The Noël mentioned at that time commanded Mont Valérien.
II.—(Page 83.)
The rôle of the Central Committee during the day of the 18th March.
"I would remind you that the members of the Committee had separated at about half-past three in the morning of the 17th to the 18th. Before raising the sitting it had been decided that the meeting of the following day should take place at eleven o'clock in the evening, at a school requisitioned for the purpose in the Rue Basfroi.
"Despite the lateness of the hour, nothing had transpired as to the movements which the Government had decided upon, and the Committee having only just constituted itself for the examination of its powers and the distribution of the commissions, had received no information which might have led it to suppose the imminence of the peril. Its military commission had not yet begun to work; it had taken possession of the documents, notes, and minutes of the former one, and that was all.