[154] "Committee of Public Safety, No. 98.—Paris, 3rd May 1871.—General Wroblewski,—Please repair immediately to the fort of Issy. It is urgent to make provision for several services, engineering, artillery, &c. The members of the Committee of Public Safety. Félix Pyat, Ant. Arnaud. Enclosed is a despatch from the commander of the fort."
Before the public, ignorant of this despatch, Pyat kept up his lie. He said in the Vengeur: "The only order given directly to the generals by the Committee of Public Safety to defend Issy, which Rossel did not defend, was addressed to General Wroblewski, intrusted with the forts of the south. The Committee of Public Safety, in ordering him to watch over Issy, did not displace him." In point of fact, not Wroblewski was charged with the defence of the fort of Issy, but La Cécilia, who since the reoccupation held the chief post on this side, and commanded Wetzel, intrusted with the defence of the approaches of the fort.
[155] The chefs-de-légion have said 10,000. The truth lies between the two.
[156] P. Vichard, ex-chief of the staff of the Garibaldian General Bossack.
[157] Heard and reported by Lefrançais, whose veracity is above suspicion. Etude sur le Mouvement Communaliste par G. Lefrançais, p. 294. Neuchâtel, 1870.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE CONSPIRACIES AGAINST THE COMMUNE.
The Commune had given rise to the various trades of the plot-monger, the betrayer of gates, the conspiracy-broker. Vulgar sharpers, Jonathan Wilds of the gutter, whom a shadow of police would have scared away, they had no other strength than the weakness of the prefecture and the carelessness of the delegations. The evidence relative to them is to a certain extent still in the keeping of the Versaillese; but they have themselves published a good deal, often borne witness against each other, and what with private information, what with the opportunities offered by our exile, we shall be able to penetrate into this realm of blackguardism.