be carried to a hospital ship moored
near them, to be seen no more.

Our Englishman remained three weeks on board this hulk, and then
escaped; but by what means he did not, in October, 1871, venture
to say.

He concludes his narrative with these words:--

"When I think of those who were with me who still remain in the
same condition, and apparently with no chance of release, my heart
grows sick within me, and I can only be thankful to Almighty God
for my miraculous and providential escape. In conclusion let me say,
as one who lived and suffered among them, that so far from speaking
hardly of the miserable creatures who have been led astray, one ought
rather to pity them. The greater part of those who served the Commune
(for all in Paris, with but few exceptions, did serve) were 'pressed
men' like myself. But those who had wives and children to support
and were without work--nay, even without means of obtaining a crust
of bread (for the siege had exhausted all their little savings)--were
forced by necessity to enroll themselves in the National Guard for
the sake of their daily pay.

"In the regular army of the Commune (if I may so style the National
Guard) there were but few volunteers, and these were in general
orderly and respectable men; but the irregular regiments, such as
the _Enfants Perdus, Chasseurs Federes, Defenseurs de la Colonne de
Juillet_, etc., were nothing but troops of blackguards and ruffians,
who made their uniforms an excuse for robbery and pillage. Such men
deserved the vengeance which overtook the majority of them."

[Illustration: _PRESIDENT ADOLPH THIERS._]

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE FORMATION OF THE THIRD REPUBLIC.

The fall of the Commune took place in the last week of May, 1871.
We must go back to the surrender of Paris, in the last week of
January of the same year, and take up the history of France from
the election of the National Assembly called together at Bordeaux
to conclude terms of peace with the Prussians, to the election
of the first president of the Third Republic, during which time
France was under the dictatorship of M. Thiers.

Adolphe Thiers was born in Marseilles, April 16, 1797. He was a
poor little baby, whose father, an ex-Jacobin, had fled from France
to escape the counter-revolution. The doctor who superintended his
entrance into the world recorded that he was a healthy, active
child, with remarkably short legs. These legs remained short all
his life, but his