ince Pierre
Bonaparte. Immediately after the revolution of the eighteenth of March
he started the _Nouvelle Republique_, an ephemeral publication which
only lived a week. On the second of April he commenced the _Affranchi_,
or journal of free men, as he called it, Vesinier joining him in the
management of it. The popularity of Grousset caused him to be elected a
member of the Commune in April, and the Government soon appointed him
Minister of Foreign Affairs. He communicated circulars to the
representatives of different nations at Paris, in order to obtain a
recognition of the Commune; he also sent proclamations to the large
towns of France, appealing to arms. But his means of communication with
other governments, and indeed with his own envoys, was very restricted.

He was one of those who took refuge at the _Mairie_ of the Eleventh
Arrondissement, and who, knowing well that the struggle was really over,
said to the silly heroes who protected them, "All is well. The
Versailles mob is turned, and you will soon join your brethren in the
Champs Elysees." Many of them that night entered the valley of the
shadow of death! On the third of June the ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs
was arrested in the Rue Condorcet, dressed as a woman, and marched off
to Versailles.]

LXX.

"Issy is taken!

"Issy is not taken!

"Megy[74] has delivered it up!

"Eudes holds it still."

I have heard nothing but contradictory news since this morning. Is Fort
Issy in the hands of the Versailles troops--yes or no? Hoping to get
better information by approaching the scene of conflict, I went to the
Porte d'Issy, but returned without having succeeded in learning
anything.

There were but few people in that direction; some National Guards,
sheltered by a casemate, and a few women, watching for the return of
their sons and husbands, were all I saw. The cannonading was terrific;
in less than a quarter of an hour I heard five shells whistle over my
head.

Towards twelve o'clock the drawbridge was lowered, and I saw a party of
about sixty soldiers, dusty, tired, and dejected, advancing towards me.
These were some of the "revengers of the Republic."

"Where do you come from?" I asked them.

"From the trenches. There were four hundred of us, and we are all that
remain."

But when I asked them whether the Fort of Issy were taken, they made no
answer.

Following the soldiers came four men, bearing a litter, on which a