The Debacle - Emile Zola [255]
Since the failure at Champigny there had been only one more unfortunate attempt, in the direction of Le Bourget, and on the evening when the plateau of Avron had to be evacuated under heavy artillery fire directed at the forts, Maurice shared the growing and violent irritation that possessed the whole city. The tide of unpopularity threatening to bring down Trochu and the Government of National Defence reached such a height that they were forced to make one supreme but unavailing effort. Why were they refusing to lead into the holocaust the three hundred thousand National Guards who were continually offering themselves and clamouring for their share in the danger? This was to be the torrential sortie everybody had been demanding since the first day, Paris bursting its dams and drowning the Prussians in the colossal flood of its people. The authorities were obliged to yield to this need for bravado, although a fresh defeat was inevitable, but in effect, to keep the massacre within limits, they only used the fifty-nine battalions of the National Guard already mobilized in addition to the regular army. The day before 19 January was like a public
holiday: a vast crowd on the boulevards and in the Champs Elysées watched the regiments go by, led by bands and singing patriotic songs. Women and children marched along with them, men stood on seats and shouted emotional good wishes for victory. And then on the next day the whole population made for the Arc de Triomphe and was filled with wild hopes when the news of the occupation of Montretout came in during the morning. Epic stories were bandied about concerning the irresistible impetus of the National Guard, the Prussians were hurled back, Versailles would be taken before nightfall. And so what utter despair when evening came and the inevitable failure was known! While the left wing was occupying Montretout, the centre, which had got past the wall of Buzenval park, broke against a second inner wall. The thaw had set in and a persistent drizzle had turned the roads into slush and the guns, those guns cast with the help of public subscriptions, into which Paris had put its very soul, could not be moved up. On the right General Ducrot’s column began moving too late and
remained too far in the rear. That was the end of the effort, and General Trochu had to give the order for a general retreat. Montretout was abandoned, Saint-Cloud was abandoned and the Prussians set fire to it. By the time it was dark the horizon of Paris was a sheet of flame.
This time Maurice himself felt it was the end. For four hours he had stayed in the Buzenval park with some National Guards under the withering fire from the Prussian positions, and for days after, when he got back, he praised their valour. The National Guard had indeed behaved splendidly, which meant, didn’t it, that the defeat must be due to the imbecility and treachery of their leaders? In the rue de Rivoli he ran into groups shouting ‘Trochu out! Up with the Commune!’ It was a re-awakening of revolutionary passion and a new upsurge of public opinion so disturbing that the Government of National Defence, as an act of self-preservation, felt it had to force General Trochu to resign and replaced him by General Vinoy. That same day Maurice went into a public meeting at Belleville and heard yet another clamour for a mass attack.