ness, and mourning. The authorities on their part took all possible precautions to prevent a collision between the conquerors and the vanquished. A cordon of troops was to be posted around the whole quarter of occupation. German soldiers wishing to visit the Louvre were to pass through the interior of the Tuileries. No omnibuses or cabs were to run within the guarded precincts; no shops to be open. Calmness and forbearance were earnestly counselled.

On the Tuesday Thiers and his colleagues arrived at Bordeaux, and met the Assembly in the afternoon. In the midst of the most profound silence Thiers rose and spoke as follows:

"We have accepted a painful mission; and, after having used all possible endeavours, we come with regret to submit for your approval a Bill, for which we ask urgency. Art. I. The National Assembly, forced by necessity, is not responsible, and adopts the Preliminaries of Peace signed at Versailles on the 26th of February.""

At this point M. Thiers was overpowered by his feelings, and obliged to leave the room.

M. Barthélemy St. Hilaire continued to read the Preliminaries, interrupted only by occasional exclamations of grief from his auditors; after which, having referred the Bill to a Committee consisting of the fifteen delegates just returned from Paris, the Assembly adjourned the debates to the next day.

id

At noon on Wednesday, the 1st of March, the deputies met again in the Great Theatre, in which the Sessions of the Assembly, while at Bordeaux, were held. Deep emotion seemed to prevail. Many ladies clothed in mourning took their seats in the galleries. The proceedings began with the presentation of various protests against the cession of territory. Then M. Victor Lefranc read the Report which had been drawn up by the members of the Pace Commission lately sent to Paris; having finished which, he that the Commission did not propose any alteration in the the tiations; that they had done every thing that was possib. to ameliorate the conditions, and to avoid the grievous cession of territory; but they had to think of the situation of Paris, and the threats of the enemy, who had so cruelly forgotten the rights of the peoples. The occupation of Paris was also very grievous; but it was an inevitable calamity. He added, "The actual misfortunes we are suffering are the result of causes for which we are not answerable, but the honour of France is safe. . . If you refuse to accept these Preliminaries, Paris is occupied, and the whole of France will be invaded, and God only knows what disasters will ensue. We do not then counsel you to abandon yourselves to despair. Whatever may happen, France will retain her right of fulfilling her mission in the world. The Commission considers that in the present circumstances abstention from voting on part of the members will be a desertion of duty, and an abdica of responsibility."

The Assembly was much agitated.

M. Edgar Quinet and M. Bamberger then rose, and successiv

The voice of the veteran Changarnier was among those that counselled acquiescence. He said, "Verging to the end of a long life, and more infirm than I perhaps seem to be, I have preserved one strong passion-the love of my country. I shall be able once more to serve her by coming respectfully before this Assembly to advise the conclusion of peace."

دو

The Ratifications of the Treaty of Peace were exchanged on Thursday, the 2nd, at Versailles.

A few days after, there was heard a protest from Wilhelmshöhe against the formal sentence of exclusion on the late ruler of France and his house. "In the presence of those mournful events, which impose upon all of us self-abnegation and disinterestedness, I would fain have kept silence," so wrote the captive Napoleon,-"but the declaration of the Assembly forces me to protest in the name of truth outraged, and the nation's rights abused." His protest fell

on careless ears.

The entry of the German troops into Paris took place, as arranged, at ten o'clock on the morning of March 1st, some battalions having come in earlier by two hours to occupy the Palais de l'Industrie in the Champs Elysées. The bridge from the Place de la Concorde to the Palais Législatif was barricaded and occupied by French Gensdarmes; so were the ends of the Rue Rivoli and the Rue Royale, and the line of the Rue St. Honoré. The Tuileries was shut up; but the Elysée was put at the disposal of General Kamecke, who commanded the in-coming forces. Crape veils covered the allegorical statues of French cities on the Place de la Concorde.

The morning dawned grey and cheerless; but early in the forenoon the sun broke through the mist and shone on the long lines of brass-pointed helmets, bayonets, and sabres, which advanced, skirting the Arc de Triomphe, up to the Place de la Concorde. The German Emperor stayed outside, at the Longchamps race-course, and inspected the troops previous to their entry. Bismarck, it was said, rode as far as the Arc de Triomphe, smoked his cigar contemplatively for a few minutes, then cantered back to Versailles to finish off business with the Bordeaux Assembly. Some of the Germans bivouacked that night in the gardens adjacent to the Place de la Concorde; some around the Arc de Triomphe. Among the surrounding populace a morose silence prevailed.

The following morning some excitement was manifest when the German soldiers, outstepping, as was said, their prescribed bounds, visited the Courts of the Louvre and the Carrousel, and the French soldiers on guard had to force back the angry people from the gratings. But the afternoon was bright; and when the intruders, returning to the "Quartier Prussien," began to dance and make music in the merriment of their spirits, the irresistible sight-seeing proclivities of the Parisian multitude drew them to the Place de la Concorde, to look on in sympathetic amusement. It was a great relief to the anxious authorities on both sides when Friday morning

beheld the invaders marching back,-this time through instead of round the Arc de Triomphe,-no mischief done, no collision brought to pass. The discipline and forbearance of the German troops on this occasion were indeed beyond all praise. As they left the Arch, and felt that all the labours of the war were really over, and that their next march was to be homewards, a ringing cheer burst from their lips, and all their helmets waved in the air. "It was the only occasion," says an eye-witness, "on which I have seen the Germans indulge in military glorification. They fairly revelled in their triumph. At exactly ten o'clock the procession came to an end. The last cheer had been given, the last helmet waved." On the 7th of March the Prussian head-quarters at Versailles finally broke up. The Emperor William stopped for a few days at Baron Rothschild's chateau at Ferrières; Count Bismarck returned straight to Germany. The Imperial Crown Prince reviewed the Northern Army at Rouen on the 12th. The Crown Prince of Saxony was to be left in France at the head of the German army of occupation until a certain portion of the indemnity should be paid up.

CHAPTER II.

FRANCE.-Red Republican Party in Paris-Appropriation of the Cannon-Assembly at Bordeaux removes to Versailles-Revolution of March 18-Assassination of Generals Le Comte and Thomas-Central Committee and International Society -Origin of Communal Notions-Attitude of M. Thiers and the National Assembly -Massacre of the Place Vendôme-Communal Elections-Installation of the Paris Commune-Siege of Paris-Great Sortie-Death of Flourens-General Cluseret -Progress of the Siege-Internal Dissensions and Changes.-" Programme" of April 19-Finance of the Commune-Attempts at Mediation-Colonel RosselDelescluze-Entrance of Versailles Troops-Conquest of Paris-Conflagrations -Massacre of Hostages-Reprisals-End of the Commune.

AND now the affairs of this distracted country entered upon a new phase. The foreign enemy pacified, Government became aware that an enemy more formidable, because more fatal to all patriotic bonds of sympathy, existed in the heart of Paris. The Red Republican party, under the orders of a mysterious so-called "Central Committee," had been organizing itself with alarming method and success in the quarters of Belleville, La Villette, and Montmartre. While the Prussian detachments remained within the walls of the capital they had preserved a prudent stillness, barricading their own precincts, and awaiting the course of events; but under pretext of placing the artillery in security from the national enemy,

they had laid hold of a large quantity of cannon and mitrailleuses, and removed them to positions of their own choosing. On the Place St. Pierre, at Montmartre, a formidable array was already parked, with the mouths of the pieces directed towards Paris.

On Monday, the 6th, great agitation was excited in the revolutionary quarter by the news that General d'Aurelle des Paladines had been appointed by Government to the command of the National Guard; but the first open outbreak was on the 9th, when an attempt was made by the Party of Order to replace the red flag on the top of the column in the Place de la Bastille by the tricolor. A party of sailors who attempted this feat were attacked by some of the disaffected National Guard, and thrown into prison. By this time the number of guns and of armed men on the side of the insurgents had vastly increased. Of the former they had more than 400 in their hands, of the National Guard not less than 100,000. The regular troops of the Government had by the last convention with the Germans, been raised to 40,000 men, but the authorities were very anxious to prevent a collision; and instead of the "vigorous steps" announced by General d'Aurelle des Paladines in his first proclamation, a negotiation was set on foot, and it was promised that if the cannon were given up, the National Guard should be continued on its present footing, with the payment of a franc and a half to each man till such time as ordinary work should be resumed. Then the forty-six cannon which were in the Place Royale were brought to the Place Wagram, and delivered over to the authorities. Not so the cannon on Montmartre. There a section of the National Guard, under the orders of its Committee, resolutely refused to comply unless the further demands for which they held out were granted-namely, the dismissal of Des Paladines, the unconditional right of the National Guard to choose its own officers, and the subordination of all military authority within the city to its municipal authorities. An ill-judged order of General Vinoy's on the 12th, suppressing the six foremost Radical journals, only served to exasperate the disaffection instead of intimidating it.

In view of the inflammatory state of feeling in the capital, it now became a question much debated in the Assembly at Bordeaux whether the centre of government and legislation should be transferred thither or not. Various places were proposed as preferable, on account of the greater freedom with which deliberations could be conducted. Blois, Tours, Fontainebleau, Orleans, were suggested. The Paris deputies did their utmost to maintain what they called the "rights of Paris, the only possible capital of France." However, on Friday, the 10th, it was voted by a majority of 461 to 104, that Versailles should be the selected spot, a previous motion in favour of Paris having been negatived by 427 to 154. M. Thiers, in the speech which he made on this occasion, appealed to the representatives of the two great parties to act