the
musketry and the cannonading commences afresh, it is a hell, with
death for its girdle! In front of me I see the corner of a building
lighted up by the fire, on which little spirals of smoke are reflected
from the distant conflagration. I rush home, I want to hide myself, to
sleep, to forget. When I am in my room, I see through the white curtains
of the window a bright light. I tremble and rush to the window! It is
the gilt letters of a signboard, on the opposite side of the way, that
are darting forth brilliant flashes, borrowed from the distant flames.

[Illustration: A BAY of the TUILERIES--from the PLACE du CARROUSEL.]

[Illustration: A WARM CORNER APPROACHING THE LOUVRE.]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 105: The 24th May the COMMITTEE FOR PUBLIC SAFETY issued these
cold-blooded decrees:--

"Citizen Milliere, at the head of one hundred and fifty
fuse-bearers, is to set fire to all houses Of suspicious aspect, as
well as to the public monuments of the left bank of the Seine.

"Citizen Dereure, with one hundred and fifty fuse-bearers, is
charged with the 1st and 2nd Arrondissement.

"Citizen Billioray, with one hundred men, is charged with the 9th,
10th, and 20th Arrondissements.

"Citizen Vesinier, with fifty men, has the Boulevards of the
Madeleine and of the Bastille especially entrusted to him.

"These Citizens are to come to an understanding with the officers
commanding the barricades, for the execution of these orders.

"DELESCLUZE, REGERE, RANVINE, JOHANNARD, VESINIER, BRUNEL,
DOMBROWSKI.

"Paris, 3 Prairial, year 79."

]

[Illustration: Milliere[106]]

XCV.

Certainly I nursed no vain illusions. What you had done, gentlemen of
the Commune, had enlightened me as to your value, and as to the purity
of your intentions. Seeing you lie, steal, and kill, I had said to you,
"You are liars, robbers, and murderers;" but truly, in spite of Citizen
Felix Pyat, who is a coward, and Citizen Miot, who is a fool; in spite
of Milliere, who shot _refractaires_, and Philippe, whose trade shall be
nameless; in spite of Dacosta, who amused himself with telling the
Jesuits at the Conciergerie, "Mind, you are to be shot in an hour," and
then an hour afterwards returning to say, "I have thought about it, and
it is for tomorrow;" in spite of Johannard, who executed a child of
fifteen guilty of selling a suppressed newspaper; in spite of Rigault,
who, chuc