e were a few planks which had served to close a stall, and
which the stall-keeper was in the habit of putting there. They hid
themselves beneath these planks.

The soldiers who had taken the barricade, after having searched the
streets, bethought themselves of searching the Passage. They also
climbed over the grated gateway, looked about everywhere with lanterns,
and found nothing They were going away, when one of them perceived the
foot of one of these three unfortunate men which was projecting from
beneath the planks.

They killed all three of them on the spot with bayonet-thrusts. They
cried out, "Kill us at once! Shoot us! Do not prolong our misery."

The neighboring shop-keepers heard these cries, but dared not open their
doors or their windows, for fear, as one of them said the next day,
"that they should do the same to them."

The execution at an end, the executioners left the three victims lying
in a pool of blood on the pavement of the Passage. One of those
unfortunate men did not die until eight o'clock next morning.

No one had dared to ask for mercy; no one had dared to bring any help.
They left them to die there.

One of the combatants of the Rue Beaubourg was more fortunate. They were
pursuing him. He rushed up a staircase, reached a roof, and from there a
passage, which proved to be the top corridor of an hotel. A key was in
the door. He opened it boldly, and found himself face to face with a man
who was going to bed. It was a tired-out traveller who had arrived at
the hotel that very evening. The fugitive said to the traveller, "I am
lost, save me!" and explained him the situation in three words.

The traveller said to him, "Undress yourself, and get into my bed." And
then he lit a cigar, and began quietly to smoke. Just as the man of the
barricade had got into bed a knock came at the door. It was the solders
who were searching the house. To the questions which they asked him the
traveller answered, pointing to the bed, "We are only two here. We have
just arrived here. I am smoking my cigar, and my brother is asleep." The
waiter was questioned, and confirmed the traveller's statement. The
soldiers went away, and no one was shot.

We will say this, that the victorious soldiers killed less than on the
preceding day. They did not massacre in all the captured barricades. The
order had been given on that day to make prisoners. It might also be
believed that a certain humanity existed. What was this hu