Then I saw the advanced guard stop, hesitate beneath the balls which
seemed to rain on them from the Place du Marche, and presently retire.
Whereupon a large number of Federals poured forth from the houses, and,
walking close to the walls, to be as much as possible out of the way of
the projectiles, hurried after the retreating enemy. But suddenly, when
they had arrived a little too far for me to distinguish anything very
clearly, they in their turn came to a standstill, and then retraced
their steps, and returned to their positions within the houses. The fire
from the Versaillais then sensibly diminished, but that of the bastions
continued its furious attack. It was thus that I witnessed one of those
_chasse-croises_ under fire, which have become so frequent since this
dreadful civil war was concentrated at Neuilly.

[Illustration: HORSE CHASSEUR ACTING AS A COMMUNIST ARTILLERY MAN,
ATTENDED BY A GAMIN SPONGER.]

As it would have been most imprudent to follow the railway cutting, or
to have gone back by the Avenue de la Grande Armee, where the Versailles
shells were still falling, I walked up the Rue du Debarcadere, and then
turned into the Rue Saint-Ferdinand, and soon found myself in the Place
des Ternes, in front of the church. There was a most dismal aspect about
the whole of this quarter. Situated close to the ramparts, it is very
much exposed, and had suffered greatly. Nearly all the shops were shut;
some of the doors, however, of those where wine or provisions, are sold,
were standing open, while on the shutters of others were inscribed in
chalk, "The entrance is beneath the gateway." I was astonished to see
that the church was open, a rare sight in these days. Why, is it
possible that the Commune has committed the unqualifiable imprudence of
not arresting the cure of Saint-Ferdinand, and that she is weak
enough--may she not have to regret it!--to permit the inhabitants of
Ternes to be baptised, married, and buried according to the deplorable
rites and ceremonies of Catholicism, which has happily fallen into
disuse in the other quarters of Paris? I can now understand why the
shells fall so persistently in this poor arrondissement: the anger of
the goddess of Reason (shall we not soon have a goddess of Reason?) lies
heavily on this quarter, the shame of the capital, where the inhabitants
still try to look as if they believed in heaven! In spite of everything,
however, I entered the church; there were a great many