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MIDST the events upon which I am able to comment, as having been personally connected with them, there is none that I am more qualified to relate than the occupation of Paris by the Germans. At first, the 16th Arrondissement, where I was living, was the only quarter of the capital which was trodden upon by King William's soldiers. Moreover, being then the chief of one of the two battalions of National Guards recruited in this quarter, I was constantly and thoroughly kept aware of every thing referring to the occupation. I chanced even to be the first person inthe 16th Arrondissement to whom the news was conveyed, and think that the manner in which I heard it deserves to be related.

It was on a Sunday morning, a bright morning of February 1871, at the time when the Parisians were spreading over Passy and Auteuil, which form the 16th Arrondissement, on their way to Point du Jour, where the Prussian shells had created a centre of attraction under the form of ruins, since then completed by the cannon of Versailles, that an officer of the staff of General Lecomte called upon me. A few minutes after, and in compliance with the order sent to me, I repaired to the head-quarters. General Lecomte was the military commander of my arrondissement; he often sent for me, so that my summons on that day did not suggest any apprehensions of the approaching occupation, which was, indeed, reported to have been renounced by the Germans themselves.

As soon as the General saw me, 'I have some very sad news for you,' he said, 'news which will require all your fortitude. To-morrow morning, a corps of German troops will

occupy your arrondissement. The information has just reached me; and at the same time I am ordered to retire to the other side of the Seine with the few battalions of the line encamped here.'-' And with regard to the National Guards belonging to the arrondissement,' I answered, mastering my emotion, 'has any decision been come to ? '

The only orders I have received,' replied the General, 'are those which I have mentioned to you. I know nothing more and cannot incur the responsibility of any measure, as I do not command in the 16th Arrondissement any longer. Well, General,' I objected, but permit me to draw your attention to the irritation which prevails amongst the workmen against the Government, as well in this quarter as elsewhere. They reproach the Government with having capitulated too soon, out of deference to the bourgeoisie; they contend that it was possible to prolong the siege for another week, and then to fight a series of battles, which might have changed the course of events. In short, I am uneasy with regard to the effect that the dreadful news you have announced to me will produce.'

And so am I,' he added. 'I quite perceive the difficulties and dangers you foresee, but I regret that, leaving your quarter as I am bound to do, I cannot give you any order or advice.' Thereupon we parted.

This General Lecomte, who some days later was shot together with General Clément Thomas, was a very kind man. He had nothing of that arrogance in which French generals very often indulge when talking with their subordinates. He spoke in a mild tone, and listened attentively to the objections or observations of his interlocutors, a quality seldom met with among his fellows. He was always inclined to

halted at Passy to see how matters would turn out. From the centre of Paris, where the threatening event was being rumoured, people of every sort were making for the 16th Arrondissement in order to obtain more accurate information or to hear the resolutions which should be arrived at by the inhabitants of this quarter. Before long an enormous crowd was thronging Passy. Tables were being carried into the streets and used as platforms by orators of different opinions who addressed the mob, one trying to prove the absurdity of any attempt to oppose the German occupation, another endeavouring to demonstrate that it was very easy to prevent the Prussian troops from entering Paris.

Among the speakers the agents of the Central Committee (already formed at that time) were conspicuous for the violence and the inIsanity of their declamations. According to these gentlemen, the Germans were not accustomed to fight in the streets; consequently, barricades were to be built at once in all the most important roads leading from the gates to the heart of the 16th Arrondissement; and when, on the next morning, the enemy, coming forward to enter Paris, would find that they had to cut their way through a series of barricades, they would be so afraid to venture amidst such obstacles that they would retire. Now, supposing that the Prussians would not shrink from street-fighting, that they would even be victorious in this kind of struggle, it would be by the bourgeoisie alone that the consequences -taxations, etc.-would be felt.

I need not say that all that was mere nonsense. At an hour when the Germans were in possession of all the forts surrounding Paris, it was absurd to imagine that their entrance into the capital could be successfully opposed. Besides, had such an extravagant attempt been

made, it is childish to suppose that they would have given battle in the streets. Retreating to the forts, they would have covered Paris with shells, until the population had arrived at a better understanding of its position and of the respect due to a truce preliminary to peace.

Of course the other officers of my battalion, as well as myself, did our best to force this reasoning on our men; but, mixed as they were with the crowd, we could not get any serious attention from them. A man who has not himself seen Paris on one of those days when a revolution is contemplated and ready to break out, cannot form an idea of the spectacle which the 16th Arrondissement offered on Sunday evening, February 26, 1871. I am thoroughly convinced that some foolish attempt would have been made next morning against the Prussian troops, if the occupation had not been put off for two days.

It was at ten o'clock in the evening that the news of this postponement was imparted to me. The agitation had just attained its climax, and the agents of the Central Committee had left the 16th Arrondissement, giving out that they were going to Belleville and Montmartre, in order to assemble the battalions of those quarters and to lead them to Passy, where they would be ready to withstand the entrance of the Germans. But the report of the postponement produced the effect of a cooling rain upon all those excited brains. The whole 16th Arrondissement went to bed; and when the battalions from Belleville arrived, they also thought proper to return home, on their being informed that there would be no Germans to fight with in the morning.

Now, what is the natural deduction from the details into which I have thought it well to enter? I am aware that, in English eyes, the

facts of which I complain, i.e. the abandonment to its own inspirations of the 16th Arrondissement under the circumstances stated, may not appear so blameworthy as in mine. In this country a large amount of public business is left in the hands of local bodies. But in France, where the central power is always engaged in curbing individual efforts, it happens that whenever the action of this central power fails to be feit private initiative can scarcely manage to make up for it. Of this truth the Government was well cognizant; and it is for this reason that I so earnestly reproach it with having forsaken Paris at a time when, in all countries, the intervention of the ruling power would have been deemed necessary and justified.

The facts I am about to relate will

conclusively justify and strengthen this reproach.

The two days' reprieve granted to us by the Emperor William was not wasted. A large meeting was held at Passy, where, after a discussion of seven hours, I at length succeeded in inducing the National Guards of this quarter to leave their arrondissement and to encamp somewhere during the occupation. This was the only way to avoid every chance of a collision with the Germans. No doubt the men were sincere when they promised to keep quiet at home whilst the Prussians occupied their neighbourhood. But a couple of bottles of wine would have been sufficient to change the minds of some of them, which would have provoked inconsiderate acts on their part and perhaps serious and general disorders, giving occasion for Prussian retaliation. Besides, I knew that the Central Committee would renounce its idea of opposing the entrance of the Germans, if the National Guards of the 16th Arrondissement decided to retreat beyond the limits of this quarter. Under these circumstances, indeed,

it was difficult for the Central Committee to undertake the defence of an arrondissement which its natural defenders thought proper to abandon. And, to speak plainly, I suppose that this committee was not sorry to find a pretext for not carrying out the absurd threats it had previously uttered of opposing the admission of the Germans into Paris. In short, the resolution already mentioned was, in many respects, extremely important, and was so considered by the whole press of Paris. The fact that it was due to workmen, represented as intractable and unable to follow wise advice, goes far to prove that the intractability of the working classes is less chargeable upon themselves than upon those who deal with them.

The

The departure of the National Guards belonging to the 16th Arrondissement took place, however, at the time appointed by the chiefs of this troop, and was marked by a scene that I wish to relate, because it illustrates the carelessness with which I feel bound to charge the Government. At the very hour of their going away from Passy the National Guards were told that many guns had been forsaken by General Lecomte's soldiers in a road close to the fortifications, a spot which was within the bounds of the German occupation. fact was verified. Perhaps it was not of importance. If the Germans had found these guns, I admit that they would not have taken them away, because it is probable that the number of pieces of ordnance to be surrendered in pursuance of the capitulation had been agreed, and that this article of the Capitulation of Paris had already been carried out. But, on the other hand, it is easily understood that the sight of these batteries of artillery (there were 62 guns) forsaken in a road which was to be lined, in a few hours, by Prussian sentries was quite disgraceful, and likely to provoke the anger and the