for the performance of any promise. They
were persons seized for purposes of intimidation and retaliation,
as in 1826 the Turks seized the most prominent Christians in Scio.

During the last five days of the Commune, Dombrowski, its only
general with military capacity, was killed,--it is supposed, by
one of his own men. The Tuileries, the Hotel-de-Ville, and numerous
other buildings were fired, the Dominican Brothers were massacred,
and the executions in the Rue Haxo took place, besides others in
other parts of Belleville and at the Prefecture. One of the most
diabolical pieces of destruction attempted was that of the Grand
Livre.

The Grand Livre is the book kept in the French Treasury in which
are inscribed the names and accounts of all those who hold Government
securities; and as the French Government is the proprietor of all
railroads, telegraph systems, and many other things that in England
and the United States are left to private enterprise, the loss of
the Grand Livre would have involved thousands upon thousands of
families in ruin. For a man to have his name on the Grand Livre
is to constitute him what is called a _rentier_, _rentes_ being
the French word for dividends from the public funds.

The Grand Livre is kept at the Ministry of Finance; that building
Ferre ordered to be summarily destroyed, uttering the words, "Flambez
Finances." The building was accordingly set on fire the day before
the Commune fell; and for some days after, it was thought throughout
all France that the Grand Livre had perished. By heroic exertions
some of it was saved, the officials in charge of it rushing into
the flames and rescuing that portion of it which contained the
names of living property-holders, I while they let the records of
past generations burn.

There was in existence a duplicate copy of the Grand Livre, though
this was known only to the higher officials of the Treasury. It was
kept in a sort of register's office not far from the Tuileries,
and was in the care of a M. Chazal. When the Tuileries and the
Treasury were on fire, the object of M. Chazal and of all who knew
of the precious duplicate was to save it, in case the building
in which it was deposited should share in the conflagration.

Of course the Grand Livre is of vast bulk. This copy was contained
in great bundles of loose sheets. Luckily these papers were in stout
oaken boxes on the ground-floor of a detached building opening
on a courtyard. The Versa