their dismissal, which was known to have
been issued. He went to the council of the Chateau Rouge, whither
General Lecomte was about to be taken, and made himself conspicuous by
the persistency with which he called for the death of that general. On
the morning of Monday, the 24th May, a witness residing at the
Prefecture of Police saw Ferre and five others going up the stairs of
the Prefecture of Police. Ferre said to him, "Be off as quick as you
can. We are going to set fire to the place. In a quarter of an hour it
will be in flames." Half an hear afterwards the witness saw the flames
burst forth from two windows of the office of the Procureur-General.
When Raoul Rigault was installed during the insurrection, a woman saw
some persons washing the walls of the Prefecture of Police with
petroleum. Seeing them going out by the court of the St. Chapelle, she
noticed among them one smaller than the rest, wearing a grey paletot
with a black velvet collar, and black striped trousers. On the same day
a police agent went to La Roquette to order the shooting of Mgr. Darboy
and the other prisoners--the President Bonjean, the Abbe Allard, the
Pere Ducoudray, and the Abbe Deguerry. On Saturday, the 27th, Ferre
installed himself in the clerk's office of the prison, and ordered the
release of certain of the criminals and gave them arms and ammunition.
Upon this they proceeded to massacre a great number of the prisoners,
among whom were 66 gendarmes. Several witnesses saw Ferre that day at
the prison.

XI. (Page 342.)

At the trial of Ferre, August 10, Dr. Puymoyen, physician to the prison
for juvenile offenders, opposite La Roquette, gave the following graphic
evidence:--

"Immediately after the insurgents, driven back by the troops, had
occupied La Roquette, they installed a court-martial at the children's
prison opposite, where I live. It was from thence I saw the poor
wretches whom they feigned to release, ushered in to the square, where
they encountered an ignoble mob, that ill-treated them in the most
brutal manner. I was told that Ferre presided over this court-martial.
Its proceedings were singular. I saw an unfortunate gendarme taken to
the prison; he had been arrested near the Grenier d'Abondance, on a
denunciation. He wore a blouse, blue trousers, and an apron, and was
charged with having stolen them. The mob wanted to enter the prison
along with him, but the keepers, who behaved very well, prevented the
invasion