n his corridor to a
yelling crowd, he had shut the doors on the third story behind
him, and was advising us, at the risk of his own life, to organize
resistance."

The abbe joined him with, "Don't let us be shot, my friends; let
us defend ourselves. Trust in God; he is on our side!"

But many hesitated. "Resistance is mere madness," they said; and
a soldier shouted, "They don't want to kill _us_; they want the
priests! Don't let us lose our lives defending _them_!"

"The _sergents de ville_ in the story below you," cried Poiret,
"are going to defend themselves, They are making a barricade across
the door of their corridor. We have no arms, but we have courage.
Don't let us be shot down by the rabble."

It was proposed to make a hole in the floor, and so to communicate
with the _sergents de ville_. The prisoners armed themselves with
boards and iron torn from their bedsteads, and in five minutes
had made an opening through the floor. A non-commissioned officer
from below climbed through it, and arranged with Poiret the plan
of defence.

By this time the inner courtyard of the prison was invaded by a
rough and squalid crowd, come to take a hand in whatever murder or
mischief might be done. The besieged put mattresses before their
windows for protection. The man who led the mob was one Pasquier,
a murderer who had been in a condemned cell in La Roquette till
let out by the general jail-delivery of the Commune.

Two barricades were built like that on the floor below. Pasquier
and some of his followers had burst open the outer door, and were
endeavoring to burn both the prison and the prisoners. "Never fear,"
cried a corporal who had superintended the hasty erection of the
barricades; "I put nothing combustible into them. They can't burn
floor tiles and wire mattresses. Bring all the water you can."

The crowd continued to shout threats. The battery from Pere la
Chaise, they cried, was coming; and often a voice would shout,
"Soldiers of the Loire, surrender! We will not hurt you. We will
set you at liberty!" A few soldiers trusted this promise, and as
soon as they got into the crowd were massacred.

In the midst of the tumult came a sudden lull; the besieged could see
that something strange had taken place. The crowd had been informed
that the Government, alarmed by the advance of the Versailles troops,
had abandoned its headquarters at the _mairie_ of the Eleventh
Arrondissement, and had gone to Belleville. Amaze