"You will for this purpose concert with ... &c.
"The delegate to the functions of prefect of police.
"Valentin."
VII.—(Page 219.)
" ... Accompanied by Frankel and one of my brothers, I proceeded to the General Post-Office, which was still occupied by the National Guards of order. I was immediately received by M. Rampont, surrounded by the Board of Administration. M. Rampont at first declared that he did not recognise the authority of the Central Committee, which had appointed me; but I think this was a merely formal precaution, for he began to parley immediately. I told him that the Government of the 4th September, which had named him, was also born of a revolutionary movement, and that notwithstanding this he had accepted his post. During this discussion he told us that he was a Mutualist-Socialist, a partisan of Proudhon's ideas, and consequently hostile to Communistic ideas, which had just triumphed with the Revolution of the 18th March. I answered that the Revolution of the 18th March was not the triumph of a Socialist school, but the prelude of a social transformation fettered by no particular school, and that I myself belonged to the mutualist school. After a long conversation, in which he declared himself ready to acknowledge the authority of the Commune, which was to be named in two or three days, he proposed to me to submit the following undertaking to the Central Committee. Till the day when the Commune should have decided, he engaged to remain at the head of the Post-Office; he accepted the control of two delegates of the Committee. I communicated this proposal to Vaillant and A. Arnaud (who had made over to me my nomination), in order that they might inform the Committee. I waited in vain for an answer.
"The Commune met. The second day, perhaps, I broached the question of the Post-Office. It was to be comprised in the order of the day, but always in the confused way which one finds in the order of these debates, when, on the 30th March, a workman came to apprise Pindy that the administration of the Post-Office was deserting. The Commune immediately voted my nomination, and gave me the order to have the office occupied. Chardon set out at the head of a battalion, accompanied by Vermorel and myself. It was seven or eight o'clock in the evening. The work was done, and only a small number of employés remained. Some gave us a sympathetic welcome, others seemed indifferent. Chardon left a guard, and I spent the night alone in the office.
"The next day, at three o'clock in the morning, I walked through the rooms and courts where the employés were arriving for the first delivery. A manuscript placard, posted in all the rooms and courts, ordered the employés to abandon their services, and repair to Versailles, under pain of dismissal. I tore down these placards and exhorted the men to remain true to their posts. There was at first some indecision, then a few made up their minds to rally round me.
"At eight o'clock other employés came; at nine o'clock still more. They formed groups in the large court, talked, discussed, some beat a retreat, and their example was about to be followed.
"I had the doors closed, and militarily occupied by guards; and I went from group to group, discussing, menacing. At last I gave the order to each one to return to his respective bureau. Thereupon a precious auxiliary came up, Citizen A——, an employé at the Post-Office, a Socialist, for whom I had a letter from a friend. There was a momentary hesitation. The father of a family, much respected, sure of an early promotion, he was about to risk an advantageous place. But his hesitation lasted only a few seconds. He promised me his assistance, and he gave it me faithfully up to the last day. He brought me into relation with Citizen B——, who soon became my second. Both of them furnished me with information of the greatest utility concerning this department, of which I did not know the most simple details.
"All the chiefs of bureaux had abandoned their posts; so, too, had the second head-clerks, save one, who immediately had himself put on the sick-list. A—— and B—— got together some friends, head-clerks, who for a long time had done all the work of the chiefs of the bureaux. Citizen C—— was placed at the head of the postal service for Paris.