[85] See Appendix II., the details of the proceedings of the Central Committee during this day, told by one of its members.
[86] Vinoy has the impudence to say in his book L'Armistice et la Commune: "The general assembled his men, and sword in hand he bravely placed himself at the head of his troops."
[87] Ten days after he recounted in a crazy letter written in the Conciergerie that he had done everything; taken the Hôtel-de-Ville, the Prefecture of Police, the Place Vendôme, the Tuileries, &c.; and this letter is referred to as an authority by the report of the Enquête sur le 18 Mars! For the future, I shall abstain from pointing out the errors that abound in this report, which is an ignorant and malignant résumé of the lies, inaccuracies, and animosity accumulated in this Inquiry, from which all the vanquished, and even the smallest adversaries, were excluded. Entirely insufficient as a historical source, it may well serve to set forth the intelligence and morality of the French bourgeoisie of the epoch.
[88] Enquête sur le 18 Mars, Marreille, vol. ii. p. 200.
CHAPTER IV.
"Nos cœurs brisés font appel aux vôtres."—Les Maires et Adjoints de Paris et les Députés de la Seine à la Garde Nationale et à tous les Citoyens.
THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE CONVOKES THE ELECTORS—THE MAYORS OF PARIS AND DEPUTIES OF THE SEINE TURN AGAINST IT
Paris only became aware of her victory on the morning of the 19th of March. What a change in the scene, even after all the scene-shifting in the drama enacted during these last seven months! The red flag floated above the Hôtel-de-Ville. With the early morning mists the army, the Government, the Administration had evaporated. From the depths of the Bastille, from the obscure Rue Basfroi, the Central Committee was lifted to the summits of Paris in the sight of all the world. Thus on the 4th September the Empire had vanished; thus the deputies of the Left had picked up a derelict power.