very sensible, though it was a little surprising that it was signed by such utterly unknown names. In this first fine flush of the Commune Paris was hostile to Versailles because of the resentment it felt for what it had suffered and its haunting suspicions. In any case there was absolute anarchy, a struggle between the local mayors and the Central Committee, the former making fruitless efforts at conciliation while the latter, still unsure of having all the federal National Guards on its side, was still modestly campaigning only for municipal liberty. The shots fired against the peaceful demonstration in the Place Vendôme and the handful of victims whose blood stained the roadway sent the first shudder of horror through the city. While the insurrection was triumphantly and definitely taking over all the ministries and public administration, anger and fear were mounting at Versailles and the government was hastening to assemble sufficient military strength to repulse an attack it felt must be imminent. The best troops from the armies of the north and the Loire were hurriedly brought in and ten days sufficed for concentrating nearly eighty thousand men. Confidence was so rapidly restored that by 2 April two divisions opened hostilities and recaptured Puteaux and Courbevoie from the Federals. It was not until the next day that Maurice, off with his battalion to conquer Versailles, once again saw rising out of the jumble of his memories the sad face of Jean saying good-bye. The attack by the Versailles forces had stunned and enraged the National Guard. Three columns of them, some fifty thousand men, had stormed out early in the morning via Bougival and Meudon to seize the monarchist Assembly and the murderer Thiers. This was the all-conquering sortie that had been so fiercely demanded during the siege, and Maurice wondered where he would ever see Jean again unless it were out there among the dead on the battlefield. But the rout came too quickly – his battalion had hardly reached the Plateau des Bergères, on the road to Rueil, when suddenly shells from the Mont-Valérien fort fell into their ranks. There was a moment of stupor, for some thought that the fort was occupied by their comrades and others said that the commanding officer had solemnly sworn not to fire. A mad terror seized the men, battalions went to pieces and rushed wildly back into Paris, while the head of the column, caught by a turning movement effected by General Vinoy, went on and was massacred at Rueil.
Maurice escaped from the slaughter, and, all elated at having been in the fighting, had nothing but hatred left for this so-called government of law and order which, crushed at every encounter with the Prussians, only recovered courage to conquer the Parisians. And the German armies were still there, from Saint-Denis to Charenton, watching the edifying spectacle of the collapse of a people! So in the evil fever of destruction that took hold of him Maurice approved of the first violent measures, the throwing up of barricades across streets and squares, the taking of hostages, the archbishop, priests and former officials. On both sides atrocities were already being committed: Versailles shot prisoners, Paris decreed that for every one of its fighters killed the heads of three of its hostages would fall, and what common sense Maurice had left after so much shock and ruin was blown away by the wind of fury
coming from all directions. The Commune now seemed to him to be the avenger of the shameful things they had endured, a kind of liberator bringing the knife to amputate and the fire to purify. None of this was very clear in his mind, and the educated man within him simply called up classical memories of free triumphant city-states or federations of rich provinces imposing their will on the world. If Paris won he visualized it in glory, reconstituting a France of justice and liberty, reorganizing a new society after sweeping away the rotten debris of the old. True, after the elections he had been somewhat surprised by the names of the members of the Commune, with