Auguste Joulon,
"Guard of the 177th Battalion.
"18 Avenue d'Italie, Paris,
12th May 1871."
V.—(Page 209.)
Instances of their courage abound in the journals of the time. One quotation taken at hazard from La Commune of the 12th April:—
"On Thursday, the 6th, at the moment when the 26th battalion of St. Ouen defended the barricade of the cross-roads, a child, V. Thiebault, fourteen years old, ran up amidst the balls in order to give the defenders something to drink. The shells having forced the Federals to fall back, they were about to sacrifice the victuals of the battalion, when the child, in spite of the shells, sprang towards a barrel of wine, which he staved in, crying, 'At any rate they shall not drink our wine.' At the same instant, seizing the rifle of a Federal who had just fallen, he charged it, took aim, and killed an officer of gendarmes. Then perceiving a waggon with two horses harnessed to it, whose driver had just been wounded, he mounted the horses and saved the waggon.—Eugène Léon Vanvière, thirteen and a half years old, contrived to save the guns at the outpost of the Porte-Maillot, in spite of his wound."
VI.—(Page 217.)
The prefect of police, Valentin, sent the following circular to the commissaries of the different railway stations:—
"Versailles, 25th April 1871.
"The chief of the executive power has just decided that, dating from to-day, all victualling trains and all supplies of provisions directed to Paris shall be stopped.
"I beg you to take all measures you may deem needful for the execution of this decree at once. You are to examine with the most vigilant attention all the railway trains, all the carriages destined for Paris, and you will send back to the purveyors all the provisions you may discover.