s? Not at
all. We easily unravel the truth, from the entanglement of exaggerations
forged by the men of the Hotel de Ville; and it is precisely this just
appreciation of things that we owe to those papers which the _Journal
Officiel_ condemns so inconsiderately.

But it is not of fake news alone, probably, that the Versailles Assembly
is afraid. It would not perhaps be sorry that we should ignore the real
state of things, and I wager that if it had the power it would willingly
suppress ill-informed journals--although they are not Communist the
least in the world--who allow themselves to state that for six days the
shells of Versailles have fallen upon Les Ternes, the Champs Elysees and
the Avenue Wagram, and have already cost as many tears and as much
bloodshed, as the Prussian shells of fearful memory.

XLVII.

Wednesday, 12th April.--Another day passed as yesterday was, as
to-morrow will be. The Versaillais attack the forts of Vanves and Issy
and are repulsed. There is fighting at Neuilly, at Bagneux, at Asnieres.
In the town requisitions and arrests are being made. A detachment of
National Guards arrives before the Northern railway-station. They
inquire for the director, but director there is none. Embarrassing
situation this. The National Guards cannot come all this way for
nothing. Determined on arresting some one, they carry off M. Felix
Mathias, head of the works, and M. Coutin, chief inspector. An hour
later other National Guards imprison M. Lucien Dubois, general inspector
of markets, in the depot of the ex-Prefecture of Police. Here and there
a few journalists are arrested without cause, to serve as examples; some
priests are despatched to Mazas, among others M. Lartigues, _cure_ of
_Saint Leu_. Yesterday the following was placarded on the shut doors of
the church at Montmartre:

"Since priests are bandits and churches retreats where they have
morally assassinated the masses, causing _France to cower beneath
the clutches of the infamous Bonapartes, Favres, and Trochus_, the
delegates of the stone masons at the ex-Prefecture of Police give
orders that the church of Saint-Pierre (not Cinq-Pierres this time)
shall be closed, and decrees the imprisonment of its priests and its
_Freres Ignorantins_. Signed by Le Mousau."

To-day it is the turn of the church of Notre Dame de Lorette. A
considerable number of worshippers had assembled in the holy place. The
National Guards ar