n the fort, they will march on Versailles by
Rueil and Nanterre.[34] After they have taken the Mont Valerien! there
is not a moment's doubt about the success of the enterprise. "We were
assured," said a Federal general to me, "that the fort would open its
doors at the first sight of us." But they counted without General
Cholleton, who commands the fortress. The advance-guard of the Federals
is received by a formidable discharge of shot and shells. Panic! Cries
of rage! A regular rout to the words, "We are betrayed!"[35] The army of
the Commune is divided into two fragments: one--scarcely three
battalions strong--flies in the direction of Versailles, the other
regains Paris with praiseworthy precipitation. Must the Parisian
combatants be accused of cowardice for this flight? No! They were
surprised; had never expected such a reception from Mont Valerien; had
they been warned, they would have held out better. After all, there was
more fright than harm done in the affair; the huge fortress could have
annihilated the Communists, and it was satisfied with dispersing them.
But what has become of the three battalions that passed Mont Valerien?
Bravely they went forward.

In the meantime another movement was being made upon Versailles by
Meudon and Clamart. A small number of battalions had marched out during
the night, and are massed under cover of the forts of Issy and Vanves.
They have managed to establish a battery of a few guns on a wooded
eminence, at the foot of the glacis of Fort. Issy, and their pieces are
firing upon the batteries of the Versailles troops at Meudon, which are
answering them furiously. It is a duel of artillery, as in the time--the
good time, alas!--of the Prussians.

Up to this moment the information is tolerably clear; probable even, and
one is able to come to some idea of the respective positions of the
belligerents. But towards two o'clock in the afternoon all the reports
get confused and contradictory.

An estafette, who has come from the Porte Maillot, cried to a group
formed on the place of the New Opera-house, "We are victorious! Flourens
has entered Versailles at the head of forty thousand men. A hundred
deputies have been taken. Thiers is a prisoner."

Elsewhere it is said that in the rout of that morning, at the foot of
Mont Valerien, Flourens had disappeared. And where could he have found
the forty thousand men to lead them to Versailles?

At the same time a rumour spreads that General