Therefore the Commission inferred this, that no one would dare to attack them, and thus took no measures of defence. They might easily have armed the heights of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde, which commanded the town, and enlisted a great number of Garibaldians, some officers of the last campaign having offered to organise everything. The Commission thanked them, said that the troops would not come, and that even if they did, they would fraternise with the people. They contented themselves with hoisting the black flag, addressing a proclamation to the soldiers, and accumulating at the prefecture arms and cannon without projectiles of corresponding calibre. Landeck, for his part, wanting to distinguish himself, declared Espivent's grade forfeited, and in his place nominated a former cavalry sergeant named Pelissier. "Until the assumption of his functions," said the decree, "the troops will remain under the orders of General Espivent." This gross farce dated from the 1st April. Before the court-martial which tried him, Pelissier hit the mark. When asked, "Of what armies were you general?" "I was general of the situation," was his reply; and indeed he never did lead any troops. On the morning of the 24th the workmen had returned to their work, for the National Guards, save the guardians of the prefecture, were not paid. Men to garrison the posts were found with difficulty, and at midnight the prefecture had but a hundred defenders.
A coup-de-main would have been easy, and some rich bourgeois wanted to try it. The men were there and the manœuvres agreed upon. At midnight the Commission was to be carried off and the prefecture taken possession of, while Espivent was to march on the town so as to get there by daybreak. An officer was despatched to Aubagne. The general refused under the pretext of prudence, but his retinue revealed the true motive of the refusal. "We," they told the messenger, "have stolen away from Marseilles like thieves; we want to re-enter it as conquerors."
Such a performance seemed rather difficult with the army of Aubagne, 600 or 700 men, without cadres and without discipline. One single regiment, the 6th Chasseurs, showed a more martial carriage. But Espivent relied upon the sailors of La Couronne, the National Guards of order, in continual relations with him, and above all, on the well-known supineness of the Commission.
The latter tried to strengthen itself by the adjunction of delegates from the National Guard. They voted the dissolution of the municipal council, and the Commission convoked the electors for the 3rd April. This measure, if taken on the 24th March, might perhaps have settled everything, but on the 2nd April it was only a stroke in the air.
On the 3rd, at the news from Versailles, Espivent sent an order to the chiefs of the reactionary battalions to hold themselves in readiness. In the evening, at eleven o'clock, Garibaldian officers came to inform the prefecture that the troops at Aubagne were moving. The Commission recommenced its old refrain: "Let them come; we are ready to receive them." At half-past one they decided to beat the retreat, and towards four o'clock some men mustered at the prefecture. About a hundred franc-tireurs established themselves at the station, where the Commission had not even thought of placing a battery.
At five o'clock Marseilles was on the alert. Some reactionary companies appeared at the Place du Palais de Justice and in the Cours Bonaparte; the sailors of La Couronne were drawn up before the Bourse; the first shots were fired at the station.
Espivent's troops presented themselves at three points—the station, the Place Castellane, and La Plaine. The franc-tireurs, notwithstanding a fine defence, were soon surrounded and obliged to retreat. The Versaillese shot the Federalist stationmaster under the eyes of his son, a child of sixteen, who threw himself at the feet of the officer, offering his life for his father's. The second stationmaster, Funel, was able to escape with only a broken arm. The columns of La Plaine and L'Esplanade pushed their advanced posts as far as 300 yards from the prefecture.
The Commission, always in the clouds, sent an embassy to Espivent. G. Crémieux and Pélissier set out, followed by an immense mass of men and children, crying "Vive Paris!" At the outposts of the Place Castellane, the seat of the staff, the chief of the 6th Chasseurs, Villeneuve, came forward towards the delegates. "What are your intentions?" asked G. Crémieux. "We want to re-establish order." "What! you would dare fire on the people?" cried G. Crémieux, and commenced haranguing, when the Versaillese threatened to order his chasseurs to march on. The delegates then had themselves conducted to Espivent. He first spoke of putting them under arrest, but then would allow them five minutes for the evacuation of the prefecture. G. Crémieux on his return found the chasseurs struggling with the crowd, who sought to disarm them. A new current of people, preceded by a black flag, arrived, making a vigorous push against the soldiers. A German officer of Espivent's staff arrested Pelissier, but the Versaillese chiefs, seeing their men waver, ordered a retreat.
The mass applauded, believing they would disband. Two infantry corps had already refused to march, and the Place de la Prefecture was filled with groups certain of success. Suddenly, towards ten o'clock, the chasseurs debouched by the Rues de Rome and De l'Armény. The people shouted and surrounded them, when many raised the butt-end of their muskets. One officer who, urging on his company, made them cross bayonets, fell, his head pierced by a bullet. His men charged the Federals, who took refuge and were taken prisoners in the prefecture, whither the chasseurs followed. The volleys of the National Guards of order and the chasseurs from the Cours Bonaparte and from the house of the Frères Ignorantins, keeping up a running fire, were replied to by the Federals from the windows of the prefecture.
The fusillade had lasted two hours, and no reinforcement arrived in support of the Federals. Inexpugnable in the prefecture, a solid square building, they were none the less vanquished, having neither provisions nor sufficient munition, and it would have sufficed to wait with arms ordered till they had exhausted their cartridges. But the general of the Sacré Cœur would not put up with such a half-triumph. This was his first campaign; he wanted blood, and, above all, noise. Since eleven o'clock he had had the prefecture bombarded from the top of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde, a distance of about 500 yards. The Fort St. Nicolas also opened its fire, but its shells, less far-seeing than those of our Lady-de-la-Garde, dashed down upon the aristocratic houses of the Cours Bonaparte, killing one of those heroic guards of order who fired from behind the soldiers. At three o'clock the prefecture hoisted a flag of truce. Espivent continued to fire. An envoy was sent to him, but he insisted upon their surrender at discretion. At five o'clock more than 300 shells had traversed the edifice, wounding many Federals. Little by little, the defenders, seeing that they were not supported, left the place. The prefecture had long ceased firing when Espivent was still bombarding it. The fright of this brute was so great that he continued throwing shells till nightfall. At half past seven the sailors of La Couronne and Le Magnanime courageously stormed the prefecture, void of all its defenders.