ght of their inevitable defeat.

When Maurice at last understood the condition of affairs his first
thought was that the end had come, that all left him was to go forth and
meet his death. But the tocsin was pealing, drums were beating, women
and children, even, were working on the barricades, the streets were
alive with the stir and bustle of the battalions hurrying to assume the
positions assigned them in the coming conflict. By midday it was seen
that the Versaillese were remaining quiet in their new positions,
and then fresh courage returned to the hearts of the soldiers of the
Commune, who were resolved to conquer or die. The enemy's army, which
they had feared to see in possession of the Tuileries by that time,
profiting by the stern lessons of experience and imitating the prudent
tactics of the Prussians, conducted its operations with the utmost
caution. The Committee of Public Safety and Delescluze, Delegate at War,
directed the defense from their quarters in the Hotel de Ville. It
was reported that a last proposal for a peaceable arrangement had been
rejected by them with disdain. That served to inspire the men with still
more courage, the triumph of Paris was assured, the resistance would
be as unyielding as the attack was vindictive, in the implacable hate,
swollen by lies and cruelties, that inflamed the heart of either army.
And that day was spent by Maurice in the quarters of the Champ de Mars
and the Invalides, firing and falling back slowly from street to street.
He had not been able to find his battalion; he fought in the ranks with
comrades who were strangers to him, accompanying them in their march to
the left bank without taking heed whither they were going. About four
o'clock they had a furious conflict behind a barricade that had been
thrown across the Rue de l'Universite, where it comes out on the
Esplanade, and it was not until twilight that they abandoned it on
learning that Bruat's division, stealing up along the _quai_, had seized
the Corps Legislatif. They had a narrow escape from capture, and it was
with great difficulty that they managed to reach the Rue de Lille after
a long circuit through the Rue Saint-Dominique and the Rue Bellechasse.
At the close of that day the army of Versailles occupied a line which,
beginning at the Vanves gate, led past the Corps Legislatif, the Palace
of the Elysee, St. Augustine's Church, the Lazare station, and ended at
the Asnieres gate.

The next day, Tuesd