CHAPTER X.
THE COMMUNE AT MARSEILLES, TOULOUSE, AND NARBONNE.
Since the elections of the 8th February, the advent of the reactionists, the nomination of M. Thiers, the patched-up and shameful peace, the monarchy in prospect, the defiances and the defeats were as bitterly resented by the valiant town of Marseilles as by Paris. There the news of the 18th March fell upon a powder-magazine. Nevertheless, further details were looked for, when the 22nd brought the famous despatch of Rouher-Canrobert.
The clubs, playing a great part in the ardent life of Marseilles, were at once thronged. The prudent and methodical Radicals affected the club of the National Guard; the popular elements met at the El Dorado. There they applauded Gaston Crémieux, an elegant and effeminate speaker, now and then happy at epigrammatic turns, as, for instance, at Bordeaux. Gambetta owed him his election at Marseilles under the Empire. Crémieux at once hurried to the club of the National Guard, denounced Versailles, told them they could not allow the Republic to perish, but ought to act. The club, though highly indignant at the despatch, cautioned him against over-hastiness. The proclamations of the Central Committee, they said, did not announce any clearly defined politics. Signed by unknown names, they might well proceed from Bonapartists.
This Jacobin argument was ridiculous at Marseilles, where the despatch of M. Thiers had given the signal for the commotion. Who smacked of Bonapartism—these unknown men rising against Versailles, or M. Thiers patronising Rouher and his Ministers, and boasting of Canrobert's offer?
After a speech of Bouchet, the deputy of the procureur de la République, Gaston Crémieux reconsidering his first impulsive step, and accompanied by the delegates of the club, repaired to the El Dorado. There he read and made comments upon the Officiel of Paris, which he had got from the prefect, and calmed the excitement. "The Government of Versailles have raised their crutch against what they call the insurrection of Paris; but it has broken in their hands, and their attempt has brought forth the Commune. Let us swear that we are united for the defence of the Government of Paris, the only one that we recognise." They separated, ready for resistance, but resolved to bide their time.
Thus the excited population still checked itself when the prefect goaded it by the most stupid of provocations. This Admiral Cosnier, a distinguished naval officer, but politically a mere cipher, quite out of his element in these surroundings, where he had only just arrived, was the passive tool of the reaction, which since the 4th September had already several times fallen out with the National Guard—the civiques—who had proclaimed the Commune and expulsed the Jesuits. The Rev. Father Tissier, though absent, was still its leader. The moderation of the town it mistook for cowardice. Like M. Thiers on the 17th, it believed itself strong enough to make a brilliant stroke.
In the evening the Admiral held council with the mayor, Bories, an old wreck of 1848, who had dabbled in all the clerico-liberal coalitions, the procureur de la République, Guibert, a timid trimmer, and General Espivent de la Villeboisnet, one of those cruel caricatures in which the civil wars of South America abound. An obtuse Legitimist, a besotted zealot, the Syllabus incarnate, a carpet knight and former member of the Mixed Commissions of 1851, during the war he had been expelled from Lille by the people, indignant alike at his utter incapacity and his antecedents. He brought the council the mot d'ordre of the priests and reactionists, and proposed convoking the National Guards to make an armed manifestation in favour of Versailles. He would have asked for more, no doubt, but the garrison was solely composed of waifs of the army of the East and of a few disbanded artillerists. Cosnier, quite led astray, approved of the manifestation, and gave orders to the mayor and to the colonel of the National Guards to prepare for it.
On the 23rd March, at seven o'clock in the morning, the call to arms sounded. The ingenious idea of the prefect had spread over the town, and the popular battalions made ready to do it honour. From ten o'clock they arrived at the Cours du Chapitre, and the artillery of the National Guard was drawn up along the St. Louis Cours. At twelve, francs-tireurs, National Guards, soldiers of all arms mingling, gathered in the Belzunce Cours. Soon all the battalions of the Belle-de-Mai and of Endourre[105] mustered in full strength, while the battalions of order remained invisible.
The municipal council, taking fright, disavowed the manifestation and placarded a Republican address. The club of the National Guard joined the council and demanded the return of the Assembly to Paris and the exclusion from public functions of all the accomplices of the Empire. The deputy of the procureur Bouchet tendered his resignation.