pay to National Guards
till trade and order should be restored; but no persuasions would
induce him to confer on Paris municipal rights that were not given
to other cities. On the 12th of May the Commune issued the following
decree:--

"_Whereas_, the imperial column in the Place Vendome is a monument
of barbarism, a symbol of brute force and of false glory, an
encouragement to the military spirit, a denial of international
rights, a permanent insult offered to the conquered by the conquerors,
a perpetual conspiracy against one of the great principles of the
French Republic,--namely, Fraternity,--the Commune decrees thus:
The column of the Place Vendome shall be destroyed."

Four days later, this decree was carried into effect. Its execution
was intrusted to the painter Courbet, who was one of the members of
the Commune. He was a man who, up to the age of fifty, had taken
no part in politics, but had been wholly devoted to art. His most
celebrated pictures are the "Combat des Cerfs" and the "Dame au
Perroquet." He was a delightful companion, beloved by artists,
and a personal friend of Cluseret, who had caused his name to be
put upon the list of the members of the Commune.

The column of the Place Vendome was one hundred and thirty-five
feet high. It was on the model of Trajan's column at Rome, but
one twelfth larger. It was erected by Napoleon I. to celebrate
the victories of the Grand Army in the campaign of 1805. He had
caused it to be cast from cannon taken from the enemy. When erected,
it was surmounted by a statue of Napoleon in his imperial robes;
this, at the Restoration, gave place to a white flag. Under Louis
Philippe, Napoleon was replaced, but in his cocked hat and his
_redingote_, but Louis Napoleon restored the imperial statue.

"On May 16," says Count Orsi, "a crowd collected at the barricades
which separated the Place Vendome from the Rue de la Paix and the
Rue Castiglione. To the Place Vendome itself only a few persons
had been admitted by tickets. At the four corners of the square
were placed military bands. Ropes were fastened to the upper part
of the column, and worked by capstans. The monument fell with a
tremendous crash, causing everything for a few moments to disappear
in a blinding cloud of dust. To complete the disgrace of this savage
act, the Commune advertised for tenders for the purchase of the
column, which was to be sold in four separate lots. This injudicious
and anti-national measu