dark that I wonder how the men could see to measure it. From the Grand Opéra we were obliged to go to the headquarters of the battalion for the distribution, and away we marched right past the Hôtel de Ville, and then back again to the Grand Opéra to return the handtruck we had borrowed to carry the barrels on. It was eleven at night before I sat down to my dinner, and as I had been on foot since eight in the morning, and had eaten nothing but a handful of biscuit all that time, I was hungry enough. I slept that night on straw as I had never slept before in my life.

The next day it was the same thing, with the exception of the journey to the Grand Opéra, as the wine was distributed at the Place Vendôme, so that, to our great satisfaction, we had finished by four o'clock in the afternoon. There was such a want of organization that one never knew where to go for the rations; one day it was to the Place Vendôme, another to the Manutention, a third to the mairie of the arrondissement to which the battalion belonged, and a fourth to the Grand Opera; one day the orders were to be signed at the Ministry of War, another at the Place Vendôme, and another at the Mairie, so that more time was lost in waiting and running about than would have sufficed to supply the whole of Paris.

We stayed at the Timbre five days in all, and most uncomfortable it was. On the day that we were relieved, Saturday, April 15th, an alarm was raised, at three o'clock in the morning, that the enemy were in Paris. The sentries were immediately doubled, and every preparation made to receive them; but after remaining under arms till six o'clock, we were relieved by another company, and everybody went to their respective homes. The nature of the men composing the National Guard is best shown by the fact that, when we were relieved from guard, of between seventy and eighty men who ought to have answered to their names, not more than thirty-five or forty were present, and on every similar occasion it was the same. They did not

care to sleep on boards or straw, or with their clothes on, as long as they could sleep in their own beds at home; leave enough men to mount the sentries, and it would be all right; as soon as the générale or the rappel was beaten, they would fly to their posts. And yet on one occasion, when the générale was actually beaten throughout the arrondissement at half-past eleven o'clock at night, the number of men of my battalion present at five o'clock in the morning was one hundred and fifty, the effective strength being over nine hundred! This fact shows plainly the chance that Paris had against the Versailles troops, who were regular soldiers, and obliged to be present on every occasion. Hence their victory against enormous odds, for the army of the Commune never numbered less than 300,000 men, and was, or rather should have been, well armed and supplied, while that of Versailles was limited to 180,000 men. When not on duty, the only service required of me was attendance at drill for two hours every day, at 4 P.M., after which the company was paid.

During my stay in the battalion, I was on duty at the Bureau de Police, Quai Napoléon, where I witnessed the finding of the stores of ammunition in the caves of Notre Dame, the reason alleged for the murder of the Archbishop of Paris, as they said that he had no right, as a non-combatant, to connive at the secretion of stores; and a still greater reason, that they wished to deal a decisive blow at the Church (for the hatred of the curés was something beyond belief). The perquisition at the cathedral was made on the 19th of April, and the Archbishop was not assassinated till the very last week of the Commune, so that I think that this can only have been made an excuse for so cruel and wicked an act. I was also on duty at the Mont de Piété, Rue des Blancs Manteaux, and at the Mairie of the th Arrondissement. During all this time, about eighteen days, I can find nothing to record that has not been already published in the letters of the newspaper correspondents.

I had made the acquaintance of one of the members of the Commune, a M. A, and meeting him one day at dinner, he asked me if I could ride. On my replying in the affirmative, he told me that they were in great want of horsemen, and that I must put down my name for the cavalry. I answered that I was very well where I was, and that as I had been forced to serve, I preferred to remain in my present battalion. He laughed, and said, “If you do not go to-morrow, and write down your name at the address I give you, before four o'clock, you will be forced to do so." I protested strongly against this arbitrary measure, but all to no avail, and the next day did as he had instructed me, by one o'clock in the day. Two or three days afterwards I received the following:

66 Secrétaire."1 On my repairing to the rendezvous at the appointed hour, I found about a hundred and fifty men, composing the troop to which I belonged, collected together; we were placed in the ranks, and then marched off to the Caserne des Célestins, Rue du Petit Musc. Here we took possession of two long

corridors and of the rooms, about fiveand-twenty in number; the day was spent in cleaning them out, and in arranging beds, mattresses, rugs, &c. The next day we went to the Magasin d'Habillement, Quai d'Orsay, to find our equipment. Our uniform was a light blue shell jacket, red overalls, and red kepi; we were armed with a sword, pistol, and carbine à piston. The horses were expected every day; but I, as an Englishman, and therefore considered a superior horseman, and also owing to the care of my friend M. A—, was the only man supplied with a charger.

1 I am obliged to write from memory, as all iny papers were afterwards taken from me, but of the accuracy of the above I am confident.

This was, however, a mere dead letter as far as the stable duty was concerned, the horses, as I have already stated, not being there, but the roll-calls, &c. were observed with the utmost rigour. The punishment for the first absence from roll-call without leave was privation of pay; for the second time, twentyfour hours of the black hole in addition, and for the third, eight days' black hole and no pay.

The time passed heavily enough, as all were confined to barracks up to four o'clock in the afternoon, and, with the exception of a couple of hours' drill, there was nothing to do except to clean one's arms, sleep, play picquet or écarté, or lounge about the barrack-square. I am thankful to say I only had about two days of it. I struck up a great acquaintance with the cantinière of the lived in the canteen with her husband battalion, a kind, motherly woman, who and children; I used to talk to her about the past siege, and delighted in hearing her stories of her services in the double capacity of ambulancière and cantinière. She had been décorée, and wore her scrap of red ribbon on her breast. Like all the respectable persons I met with, her only wish was peace and quietness, to enable her to gain her living honestly. She was a good woman, and her sensitive heart could never bear to see a poor fellow, who she knew had had nothing all day, looking in at the door with longing eyes at her cheery array of bottles. Many a time have I seen her call such an one in and give him a glass of wine, or nip of brandy, with a good-natured "Voilà, mon enfant,

tu me paieras quand tu toucheras ta solde." Alas! in too many instances, the only payment she is likely to get is that which I am sure she will receive in heaven.

As soon as I got my horse, I received my orders direct from M. A- and held myself constantly in readiness to carry despatches. I passed my time chiefly between the Ministry of War and the Hôtel de Ville, varied by excursions to the Place Vendôme and the offices of the different battalions, until at last I was in the condition of Master Tom in Ingoldsby's "Nell Cook," and inclined to eschew the saddle, as well as stool or bench or chair! It was during this time that I first saw General Dombrowski. I was in the ante-room at the Ministry of War, waiting for despatches to take to the Hôtel de Ville, when I saw him ride into the court. He soon passed through where I and all the other orderlies were waiting, and as he did so, I stood at attention and saluted him; he stopped and said to me, "Ah, tu es vieux soldat! tu boiras un bon coup à ma santé," giving me as he spoke a five-franc piece. He was a short, bald man, and very pleasant. I had many interviews with him afterwards.

The next time I saw him (two days afterwards), I told him I was English, keeping, however, to myself the fact of my being a "pressed man." This seemed to raise me high in his favour, and he expressed a wish that I should join his own particular regiment of cavalry, the Eclaireurs de la Commune, I believe, and form part of his escort. This compliment would naturally have greatly pleased me, had I been a volunteer, but in my position it had exactly the opposite effect. I answered, however, that I was sensible of his goodness, but was first of all bound to M. A- whose orderly I was. He said he would speak to the citoyen about me, and desired me to ride to the Hôtel de Ville with him. I did so, but never heard anything more of the affair.

It was on the night of Saturday, May 20th, that the panic of the réactionnaires finally reached its height. Who the ré

actionnaires were, I never could make out. Whether they were those adherents of the party of Versailles who had been forced to remain in Paris, or whether they were Ultra-Communists, I am unable to state. I can only be certain that they were more dreaded than the Versaillais. The latter were a known fact, one could say where they were; but who could say where to discover an enemy who fired on you from windows, destroyed churches, took money in the name of the Commune, and added considerably to the great confusion that already reigned in Paris? Whatever they were, they formed the terror of all the Parisians. One had always dreaded them, but on this Saturday night the fear of them had increased tenfold. I was on guard, and on taking my post with my comrade at the gate of the barracks, the most strict orders were given to allow no one to come within at least a hundred yards without challenging them. The usual challenge was "Passez au large, citoyens." It was a very quiet street, and nothing disturbed the usual tranquillity till about midnight, when we heard the sound of horses coming along at full gallop. As soon as they were in sight my comrade cried, "Halte là! Qui vive?" to which there was no answer. I joined him in repeating the challenge three times. As they continued to advance, my comrade fired his pistol at them, but without effect. On this, they hastily turned back and proceeded at a break-neck gallop by small by-streets, until they emerged on the Quai des Célestins, which is at the end of the Rue du Petit Musc-the street in which our barracks were situated. The maréchal des logis (sergeant) of the guard, who had rushed out on hearing the pistol-shot, ordered us to follow him on to the Quai, which we accordingly did, as hard as our legs could carry us. We arrived just in time to see them fly past us, and, following them as best we could, we arrived at the entrance to the second barracks, in the Rue de Sully, just as the guard were turning out to admit them. It was the colonel de casernement (chief

barrack master) and a lieutenant of cavalry!

"Chef des postes, arrêtez-moi ces hommes là !" panted forth our sergeant.

"Arrêtez-moi ces trois hommes là !" shrieked out the colonel.

"Arrêtez-moi ces deux cavaliers et prenez leurs chevaux ; ces sont des réactionnaires!" cried our man.

"Désarmez-moi ces trois imbéciles!" insisted the colonel.

The wretched chef des postes looked first at us and then at the two horsemen ; the latter he knew, but he was evidently in mortal terror of réactionnaires, and for some time could not decide which order to obey. Meanwhile we continued shouting loudly for the arrest of the two officers, and they were as wildly clamouring for our arms to be given up to them, so that the poor man, confused by this Babel-for by this time all the inmates of both parts of the barracks had turned out, and were disputing at the top of their voices-at length made up his mind, and requested us to give up our swords. We obeyed this order. We We were then conducted into the guardroom, where another violent discussion took place as to why les citoyens

colonel and lieutenant had not halted at the challenge. I sat down and laughed till I cried at the absurd scene. There were we three, with the colonel, lieutenant, and the wretched chef des postes, the centre of a crowd of men in all costumes, every one speaking at once, and no one to be either heard or understood. At length, a little silence being established, the colonel informed us that we should certainly be summoned before a court-martial, and probably be shot for our "outrageous conduct." In vain did we attempt to prove that he was in the wrong; he would hear nothing. All this while the chef des postes went about imploring us to be calm-the affair would arrange itself, and no one was to be afraid (what of, I cannot say). Fortunately for us, the colonel of our regiment came to our rescue, and, after a great deal more talking, our swords were given back to us, and we returned to our quarters.

The next morning the colonel de casernement was sent for and severely reprimanded by the Commune, and the day after he disappeared, taking with him a considerable sum of money.

On Sunday, May 21st, at ten o'clock at night, we were summoned to the church of St. Paul, in the Rue St. Antoine. The National Guards of the arrondissement being all occupied either in making or guarding barricades, our regiment was forced to mount all the guards in it, and there were, consequently, only about forty men left in barracks. Ten

of these were necessary to mount the guard, and the rest were marched to the church. We entered by the vestry door, and remained behind the iron gratings as quiet as we could be, as a meeting was going on in the church. An orator, with a prodigious power of lungs, was holding forth about the rights of the people and the beauty of liberty. We, who were all dead tired, sat down on chairs or on the ground. When the orator had concluded, the people were politely requested by our captain to retire, which they at once did. We then made the tour of the church, in order to post sentries, and such an utter wreck I never beheld. The high altar was a mass of ruins candles thrown down, crosses broken, the sanctuary torn open, flowers strewn on the ground and trampled under foot, the statues of the saints, the Madonna, and our blessed Saviour defaced and mutilated; in short, nothing spared. And by whom? Not the people who were there when we arrived, for they had only entered the church after the deed was done. Some said it was the réactionnaires, but the general impression was that it had been done by the sacristans, some even said by the curés themselves; but of course that is absurd. At any rate, the sacristans were arrested.

When the sentries were posted, the place assigned to me was before the high altar. I shall long remember the deep feeling of awe which remained upon me during my two hours' vigil. No sound aroused the echoes of the building, save the measured tread of

my comrades, whose footsteps sounded weird and hollow in the dim ghastly light. I pictured to myself the solemn sight that the building had presented the last time I attended a service there. How well I remembered it! It was on the occasion of the funeral of one of the members of my old company of the National Guard, and I seemed to hear the strains of the "Dies Ira" floating through the church; and then I remembered how we had all presented arms kneeling on one knee, at the elevation of the Host. I was disturbed in my reverie by the patrol, which made its rounds every quarter of an hour.

Four times in the hour was heard the challenge "Halte là! Qui vive?" with the reply "Ami," and " Avancez sur la mot de ralliement," when the monotonous tread was resumed, and the challenge was repeated from sentry to sentry, till lost in murmurs among the distant aisles.

I returned to barracks at nine o'clock (Monday, May 22nd), to find that during my absence some one had possessed himself of my horse. No one, of course, knew who had taken it, and I was obliged to put up with my loss, knowing that I should soon procure another.

I got

At about half-past ten a detachment of fifteen men was ordered to go to the Rue St. Antoine, to construct a barricade. Wishing to avoid as much as possible taking a more active part than that already forced upon me, myself placed as sentry in order to turn all vehicles to the right or to the left, that wanted to pass straight up the street. Hard work it was, indeed; sometimes a driver was obstinate, and would insist on passing, which obliged me to turn the horse by force; another man would want to know the reason why he could not pass; a third would flourish passes and papers of the Commune in my face, and tell me no one had a right to stop him, to which I could only answer by pointing to the barricade, some eight feet high and six feet thick, a serious obstacle to a heavily-laden waggon.

One fat man,

a colonel on the staff, in a carriage and pair, was so persistent that I let him pass, and laughed heartily in my sleeve to see him return two minutes afterwards and ignominiously take the way to the left that I had at first pointed out to him.

But worst of all were the men who came with all sorts of contradictory orders, and papers authorizing them to enforce them. To these gentry, réactionnaires without a doubt, I had but one answer: "Citoyen, je n'ai que ma consigne; si vous voulez trouver le chef des postes et l'amener ici avec vous, il me la changera, si c'est nécessaire." Of twentyseven individuals who thus wrangled and objected, and went off to find the sergeant of the guard, not one returned.

Then there were certain men who refused to place a stone on the barricade. With these I had nothing to do; two of my comrades were told to look after them, and their task was harder than mine. Everyone in plain clothes who went by was pressed to work at the barricade, and those who came from it had to show their hands as evidence of their having done so; if anyone refused to assist, he was escorted by a guard of four men, and compelled to work hard for an hour at least.

It was a burning hot day, and what with running after carriages, carts, and waggons, and shouting till I was hoarse, I felt very tired, and exceedingly glad when the order came at half-past eight P.M., to return to barracks. After a good wash at the pump, and a hearty dinner, I lay down on my bed at eleven utterly exhausted, and was soon fast asleep. But I was not to enjoy a night's rest for a long time to come. At one o'clock in the morning I was roused, and thinking it was some one come home late did not stir. At last a voice exclaimed loudly, "Eh, l'Anglais, lève-toi; vite, vite!" In a great rage at being thus disturbed, I told the speaker to go to the deuce. "Mais tu ne peux pas dormir avec tout ce feu là et l'ennemi tout près de nous; je ne blague pas, lève-toi plutôt et regarde par la fenêtre."