forcing
me to marry her!"

So, under one pretext and another, almost everyone is going away. As for
me, I am like a hardened Parisian--my boots have a rooted dislike to any
other pavement than that of the boulevards. Who is right, I, or those
who are rushing off? Is there really danger here for those who are not
ardently attached to the principles of the Commune? I try to believe
not. True there have been arrests--domiciliary visits and other illegal
and tyrannical acts--but I do not think it can last.[30] May we not hope
that the dangerous element in the Commune will soon be neutralised by
the more intelligent portion of the Municipal Council, if, indeed, that
portion exists? I cannot believe that a revolution, accomplished by
one-third of the population of Paris, and tolerated by another (the
remaining fraction having taken flight), can be entirely devoid of the
spirit of generosity and usefulness, capable only of appropriating the
funds of others, and unjustly imprisoning innocent citizens. Besides,
even if the Commune, instead of trying to make us forget the bloody
deeds with which it preceded its establishment, or seeking to repair the
faults of which it has been guilty, on the contrary continues to commit
such excesses, thus harrying to its ruin a city which has already
suffered so much, even then I will not leave it. I will cling to it to
the last, as a sailor who has grown to love the ship that has borne him
gallantly in so many voyages, clings to the wreck of his favourite, and
refuses to be saved without it.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 29: The following is a document which completely justifies
these apprehensions:--

"30th March--The Commune of Paris--Orders from the Central Committee to
the officer in command, of the battalion on guard at the station of
Ouest-Ceinture.

"To stop all trains proceeding in the direction of Paris at the
Ouest-Ceinture station.

"To place an energetic man night and day at this post. This man is to
mount guard with a beam, which he is to throw across the rails at the
arrival of each train, so as to cause it to run off the rails, if the
engine-driver refuses to stop.

"HENRI, Chief of a Legion."]

[Footnote 30: Vexatious measures accumulated:

The pacific M. Glais-Bizoin was arrested in a tobacconist's shop, where
he was, doubtless, lighting a reactionary cigar. He fancied at first
that there had been a mistake, but he was taken before the Committee,
which caused him, howeve