ys of separation have caused strange divisions in men's minds; the
capital seems to speak the country's language no longer. Timbuctoo is
not as far from Pekin, as Versailles is distant from Paris. How can one
hope under such circumstances, that the misunderstanding, the sole cause
of our misfortunes, can be cleared away? How can one believe that the
Government of Monsieur Thiers will lend an ear to the propositions
carried there by the members of the Republican Union of the rights of
Paris,[53] by the delegates of Parisian trade and by the emissaries of
the Freemasons;[54] when the principal object of all these propositions
is the definitive establishment of the Republic, and the fall and entire
recognition of our municipal liberties. The National Assembly is at the
same point as it was on the eve of the 18th of March; it disregards now,
as it did then, the legitimate wishes of the population, and, moreover,
it will not perceive the fact that the triumphant insurrection--in spite
of the excesses that everyone condemns--has naturally added to the
validity of our just revendications. The "Communists" are wrong, but the
Commune, the true Commune, is right; this is what Paris believes, and,
unhappily, this is what Versailles will not understand; it wants to
remain, as to the form of its government, weakly stationary; it makes a
municipal law that will be judged insufficient; and, as it obstinately
persists in errors which were worn out a month ago and are rotten now,
they will soon consider the "conciliators" whose ideas have progressed
from day to day, as the veritable agents of the insurrection, and send
them, purely and simply, about their business.

Nevertheless, the desire of seeing this fratricidal war at an end, is so
great, so ardent, so general, that convinced as we are of the
uselessness of their efforts, we admire and encourage those who
undertake the almost hopeless task of pacification with persistent
courage. True Paris has now but one flag, which is neither the crimson
rag nor the tricolour standard, but the white flag of truce.

XLIII.

Do you know what the Abbaye de Cinq-Pierres is, or rather what it was?
Mind, not Saint-Pierre, but Cinq-Pierres (Five Stones). Gavroche,[55]
who loves puns and is very fond of slang, gave this nickname to a set of
huge stones which stood before the prison of La Roquette, and on which
the guillotine used to be erected on the mornings when a capital
punishment was to