econd
assault, as had been foreseen, was violent and desperate. It was
repulsed. Twice the soldiers returned to the charge, and twice they
fell back, leaving the street strewn with dead. In the interval between
the assaults, a shell had pierced and dismantled the barricade, and the
cannon began to fire grape-shot.

The situation was hopeless; the cartridges were exhausted. Some began
to throw down their guns and go away. The only means of escape was by
the Rue Saint Sauveur, and to reach the corner of the Rue Saint Sauveur
it was necessary to get over the lower part of the barricade, which
left nearly the whole of the fugitives unprotected. There was a perfect
rain of musketry and grape-shot. Three or four were killed there, one,
like Baudin, by a ball in his eye. The leader of the barricade suddenly
noticed that he was alone with Pierre Tissie, and a boy of fourteen
years old, the same who had rolled so many stones for the barricade. A
third attack was pending, and the soldiers began to advance by the side
of the houses.

"Let us go," said the leader of the barricade.

"I shall remain," said Pierre Tissie.

"And I also," said the boy.

And the boy added,--

"I have neither father nor mother. As well this as anything else."

The leader fired his last shot, and retired like the others over the
lower part of the barricade. A volley knocked off his hat. He stooped
down and picked it up again. The soldiers were not more than
twenty-five paces distant.

He shouted to the two who remained,--

"Come along!"

"No," said Pierre Tissie.

"No," said the boy.

A few moments afterwards the soldiers scaled the barricade already half
in ruins.

Pierre Tissie and the boy were killed with bayonet thrusts.

Some twenty muskets were abandoned in this barricade.

[19] It must not be forgotten that this has been written in exile, and
that to name a hero was to condemn him to exile.

CHAPTER XII.

THE BARRICADE OF THE MAIRIE OF THE FIFTH ARRONDISSEMENT

National Guards in uniform filled the courtyard of the Mairie of the
Fifth Arrondissement. Others came in every moment. An ex-drummer of the
Garde Mobile had taken a drum from a lower room at the side of the
guard-room, and had beaten the call to arms in the surrounding streets.
Towards nine o'clock a group of fourteen or fifteen young men, most of
whom were in white blouses, entered the Mairie, shouting, "Long live
the Republic!" They were armed with guns.