this commandant, and I
wished him to die by my hands."

Never mind, court-martial, take it coolly; you will have your revenge
before long. At this moment there are at least sixty-three ecclesiastics
in the prisons of Mazas, the Conciergerie, and La Sante. Although they
are not precisely soldiers, they will be sent before you to be judged,
and you may do just what you like with them, without any fear of the
executive commission interposing its veto. The refractory also will give
you work to do, and against them you can exercise your pleasure. As to
the Commandant Girod, his is a different case, you understand. He is the
friend of citizen Delescluze. The members of the Commune have not so
many friends that they can afford to have any of them suppressed. But
don't be downcast; a dozen priests are well worth a major of the
National Guard.

LX.

It is precisely because the men that the Commune sends to the front,
fight and die so gloriously, that we feel exasperated against its
members. A curse upon them, for thus wasting the moral riches of Paris!
Confusion to them, for enlisting into so bad a service, the first-rate
forces which a successful revolt leaves at their disposal. I will tell
you what happened yesterday, the 22nd of April, on the Boulevard Bineau;
and then I think you will agree with me that France, who has lost so
much, still retains some of the bright, dauntless courage which was her.
pride of old.

A trumpeter, a mere lad of seventeen, was marching at the head of his
detachment, which had been ordered to take possession of a barricade
that the Versailles troops were supposed to have abandoned. When I say,
"he marched," I am making a most incorrect statement, for he turned
somersets and executed flying leaps on the road, far in advance of his
comrades, until his progress was arrested by the barricade; this he
greeted with a mocking gesture, and then, with a bound or two, was on
the other side. There had been some mistake, the barricade had not been
abandoned. Our young trumpeter was immediately surrounded by a pretty
large number of troops of the line, who had lain hidden among the sacks
of earth and piles of stones, in the hope of surprising the company
which was advancing towards them. Several rifles were pointed at the
poor boy, and a sergeant said: "If you move a foot, if you utter a
sound, you die!" The lad's reply was to leap to the highest part of the
barricade and cry out, with all the stre