John Leighton

At three o’clock in the afternoon there was a dense group of linesmen and Nationals in one of the streets bordering on the ElysÉe-Montmartre. The person who told us this did not recollect the name of the street, but men were eagerly haranguing the crowd, talking of General Lecomte, and his having twice ordered the troops to fire upon the citizen militia.

“And what he did was right,” said an old gentleman who was listening.

Words that were no sooner uttered than they provoked a torrent of curses and imprecations from the by-standers. But he continued observing that General Lecomte had only acted under the orders of his superiors; being commanded to take the guns and to disperse the crowd, his only duty was to obey.

These remarks being received in no friendly spirit, hostility to the stranger increased, when a vivandiÈre approached, and looking the gentleman who had exposed himself to the fury of the mob full in the face, exclaimed, “It is ClÉment Thomas!” And in truth it was General ClÉment Thomas; he was not in uniform. A torrent of abuse was poured forth by a hundred voices at once, and the anger of the crowd seemed about to extend itself to violence, when a ruffian cried out: “You defend the rascal Lecomte! Well, we’ll put you both together, and a pretty pair you’ll be!” and this project being approved of, the General was hurried, not without having to submit to fresh insults, to where General Lecomte had been imprisoned since the morning.

From this moment the narrative I have collected differs but little from that circulated through Paris.

At about four o’clock in the afternoon the two generals were conducted from their prison by a hundred National Guards, the hands of General Lecomte being bound together, whilst those of ClÉment Thomas were free. In this manner they were escorted to the top of the hill of Montmartre, where they stopped before No. 6 of the Rue des Rosiers: it is a little house I had often seen, a peaceful and comfortable habitation, with a garden in front. What passed within it perhaps will never be known. Was it there that the Central Committee of the National Guard held their sittings in full conclave? or were they represented by a few of its members? Many persons think that the house was not occupied, and that the National Guards conducted their prisoners within its walls to make the crowd believe they were proceeding to a trial, or at least to give the appearance of legality to the execution of premeditated acts. Of one thing there remains little doubt, namely, that soldiers of the line stood round about at the time, and that the trial, if any took place, was not long, the condemned being conducted to a walled enclosure at the end of the street.

Hotel de Ville, As Fortified by the National Guard, March, 1871.

The HÔtel de Ville of Paris, Which Witnessed So Many National Ceremonies and Republican Triumphs, Was Commenced in 1533, And It Was Finished in 1628. Here the First Bourbon, Henry Iv., Celebrated His Entry Into Paris After the Siege of 1589, and Bailly The maire, On The 17th July, 1789, Presented Louis Xvi. To the People, Wearing A Tricolor Cockade. Henry Iv. Became a Catholic in Order to Enter “his Good City of Paris” Whilst Louis Xvi. Wore the Democratic Insignia In Order to Keep It. A Few Days Later the 172 Commissioners of Sections, Representing the Municipality of Paris, Established The Commune. The HÔtel de Ville Was the Seat of The First Committee Of Public Safety, And From the Green Chamber, Robespierre Governed The Convention and France Till his Fall on the 9th Thermidor. From 1800 to 1830 FÊtes Held The Place of Political Manifestations. In 1810 Bonaparte Received Marie-Louise Here; in 1821, the Baptism of The Duke Of Bordeaux Was Celebrated Here; in 1825 FÊtes Were Given to the Duc D’angouleme on His Return from Spain, and to Charles X., Arriving From Rheims. Five Years Later, from the Same Balcony Where Bailly Presented Louis Xvi. To The People, Lafayette, Standing by the Side of Louis Philippe, Said, “this Is the Best of Republics!” It Was Here, in 1848, That de Lamartine Courageously Declared to an Infuriated Mob That, As Long As he Lived, The Red Flag Should Not Be the Flag of France. During The Fatal Days Of June, 1848, the HÔtel de Ville Was Only Saved from Destruction by The Intrepidity of a Few Brave Men. The Queen Of England Was Received Here In 1865, and the Sovereigns Who Visited Paris Since Have Been FÊted Therein. On the 4th of September The Bloodless Revolution Was Proclaimed; and on the 31st of October, 1870, And The 22nd Of January, 1871, Flourens and Blanqui Made a Fruitless Attempt to Substitute The Red Flag for the Tricolor; But Their Partisans Succeeded on The 18th Of March, when It Was Fortified, and Became the Head-quarters of The Commune of 1871.

As soon as they had halted, an officer of the National Guard seized General ClÉment Thomas by the collar of his coat and shook him violently several times, exclaiming, whilst he held the muzzle of a revolver close to his throat,—“Confess that you have betrayed the Republic.” To this Monsieur ClÉment Thomas only replied by a shrug of his shoulders; upon this the officer retired, leaving the General standing alone in the front of the wall, with a line of soldiers opposite.

Who gave the signal to fire is unknown, but a report of twenty muskets rent the air, and General ClÉment Thomas fell with his face to the earth.

“It is your turn now,” said one of the assassins, addressing General Lecomte, who immediately advanced from the crowd, stepping over the body of ClÉment Thomas to take his place, awaiting with his back to the wall the fatal moment.

“Fire!” cried the officer, and all was over.

Half an hour after, in the Rue des Acacias, I came across an old woman who wanted three francs for a bullet—a bullet she had extracted from the plaster of a wall at the end of the Rue des Rosiers.