[137] He was arrested on the 20th March in his private room in the Palace of Justice, where he had given the procureur-general a rendezvous.
[138] He was recognised as he asked for his passport at the prefecture of police.
[139] The correspondent of the Times wrote in the number of 9th May: "The superior and her nuns explained that these were orthopædic instruments—a superficial falsehood. The mattress and straps struck me as being easily accounted for; I have seen such things used in French midwifery and in cases of violent delirium; but the rack and its adjuncts are justly objects of grave suspicion, for they imply a use of brutal force which no disease at present known would justify."
[140] The nun who filled the post of superior, a big and bold virago, answered Rigault in an easy-going manner. "Why have you shut up these women?" "To do their families a service; they were mad. See gentlemen, you are young men of good families; you'll understand that sometimes one is glad to conceal the madness of one's relations." "But do you not know the law?" "No, we obey our superiors." "Whose books are these?" "We know nothing about them." Thus affecting simpleness, they sold the simpletons.
[141] This negotiation has in part been recounted in the Officiel of the Commune. We add further details. Soon after his arrest the Archbishop wrote to M. Thiers begging him to stop the execution of the prisoners, on which the lives of the hostages depended. M. Thiers did not answer. An old friend of Blanqui's, Flotte, went to the President to propose an exchange, and said that the Archbishop might incur peril. M. Thiers made a decided gesture: "What does it matter to me?" Flotte again took up the negotiation through Darboy, who named Deguerry as envoy to Versailles. The prefecture, unwilling to give up such a hostage, the Vicar-General Lagarde took Deguerry's place. The Archbishop furnished him with instructions, and on the 12th April Flotte conducted Lagarde to the station and made him swear to return if he failed in his mission. Lagarde swore, "Even if to be shot, I shall return. Can you believe that I could for a single moment harbour the thought of leaving Monseigneur alone here?" At the moment when the train was about to start, Flotte insisted again, "Do not go if you have not the intention of returning." The priest again renewed his oath. He went off, and handed over a letter in which the Archbishop solicited the exchange. M. Thiers, pretending to know nothing of this one, answered the first, which a Communalist journal had just published. His answer is one of his masterpieces of hypocrisy and falsehood: "The facts to which you call my attention are absolutely false, and I am really surprised that so enlightened a prelate as you, Monseigneur.... Our soldiers have never shot prisoners nor sought to kill the wounded. That, in the heat of the combat, they may have turned their arms against men who assassinate their generals, is possible; but, the combat terminated, they resume the natural generosity of the national character. I therefore spurn, Monseigneur, the calumny that has been told you. I affirm that our soldiers have never shot prisoners." On the 17th Flotte received a letter in which Lagarde informed him that his presence was still indispensable at Versailles. Flotte complained to the Archbishop, who could not believe in this desertion. "It is impossible," said he, "that M. Lagarde should remain at Versailles; he will come back; he has sworn it to me myself," and he gave Flotte a note for Lagarde. The latter answered that M. Thiers retained him. On the 23rd Darboy wrote to him again: "On the reception of this letter, M. Lagarde is immediately to retrace his steps to Paris and to re-enter Mazas. This delay compromises us gravely, and may have the saddest results." Lagarde did not answer any more.
Blanqui, transported to the Fort du Taureau, was rigorously kept in solitary confinement. His friends thought of delivering him, and a sum of 50,000 francs was prepared for his release. But much more would have been necessary, and, above all, adroit agents, for the least imprudence would have cost the life of the prisoner. The affair was procrastinated, and part of the funds were still in the coffers of the Committee of Public Safety at the entry of the Versaillese.
[142] Georges Duchêne began examining the commercial transactions of the Government of National Defence, but he published nothing.