s hidden and mute, while ostensibly it obeys the Pyats,
Delescluzes, and Rocheforts, politicians, who not being generals, never
condescend to fight.

In the first days of March all was prepared for a coming explosion, and
in spite of the departure of the Prussians, the Socialist party
determined that it should take place. (_Guerre des Communeux_, p. 61.)]

[Footnote 9: A sign that they refused to fight.]

[Footnote 10: A smooth-bore musket arranged as breech-loader, and called
a snuff-box, from the manner of opening the breech to adjust the
charge.]

II.

At three o'clock in the afternoon there was a dense group of linesmen
and Nationals in one of the streets bordering on the Elysee-Montmartre.
The person who told us this did not recollect the name of the street,
but men were eagerly haranguing the crowd, talking of General Lecomte,
and his having twice ordered the troops to fire upon the citizen
militia.

"And what he did was right," said an old gentleman who was listening.

Words that were no sooner uttered than they provoked a torrent of curses
and imprecations from the by-standers. But he continued observing that
General Lecomte had only acted under the orders of his superiors; being
commanded to take the guns and to disperse the crowd, his only duty was
to obey.

These remarks being received in no friendly spirit, hostility to the
stranger increased, when a vivandiere approached, and looking the
gentleman who had exposed himself to the fury of the mob full in the
face, exclaimed, "It is Clement Thomas!" And in truth it was General
Clement Thomas; he was not in uniform. A torrent of abuse was poured
forth by a hundred voices at once, and the anger of the crowd seemed
about to extend itself to violence, when a ruffian cried out: "You
defend the rascal Lecomte! Well, we'll put you both together, and a
pretty pair you'll be!" and this project being approved of, the General
was hurried, not without having to submit to fresh insults, to where
General Lecomte had been imprisoned since the morning.

From this moment the narrative I have collected differs but little from
that circulated through Paris.

At about four o'clock in the afternoon the two generals were conducted
from their prison by a hundred National Guards, the hands of General
Lecomte being bound together, whilst those of Clement Thomas were free.
In this manner they were escorted to the top of the hill of Montmartre,
where they stopped bef