FOOTNOTES:
[115] Such is the text of the decree.
[116] M. Barthélemy St. Hilaire, M. Thiers' secretary, answered Barral de Montaut, who spoke of the possibility of a massacre in the prisons: "The hostages! the hostages! But we can do nothing. What should we do? So much the worse for them."—Enquête sur le 18 Mars, vol. ii. p. 271.
[117] M. Beslay, in his book Mes Souvenirs, Paris, 1873, says: "The cash in hand was forty and some odd millions." These "some odd" were no less than 203 millions. They presented the good man fictitious statements, with which they gulled him. In his evidence and the annexes (Enquête sur le 18 Mars, vol. iii. errata, p. 488), M. de Plœuc has given the true statements.
[118] These were all the reasons he could ever allege, even in his book written in Switzerland, whither M. de Plœuc himself went to deposit him after the fall of the Commune. Besides his life being saved, he, later on, received a judicial ordinance to the effect that no further judicial proceedings were to be taken against him.
CHAPTER XV.
THE FIRST COMBATS OF NEUILLY AND ASNIÈRES—ORGANISATION AND DEFEAT OF THE CONCILIATORS.
The rout of the 3rd April daunted the timorous but exalted the fervent. Battalions inert until then rose; the armament of the forts no longer lagged. Save Issy and Vanves, rather damaged, the forts were intact. All Paris soon heard these fine cannon of seven, which Trochu had disdained,[119] firing so lustily and with such correct aim, that on the evening of the 4th the Versaillese were obliged to evacuate the plateau of Châtillon. The trenches that protected the forts were manned. Les Moulineaux, Clamart, Le Val-Fleury resounded with the fusillade. To the right we reoccupied Courbevoie, and the bridge of Neuilly was barricaded.