ecruiting bureau, and it was said that the
anarchists intended to blow up the huge statue of the Virgin which
stands on one of the hills of Lyons."[14] A panic seized the wealthier
classes of the city, and some sixty anarchists were arrested, including
Kropotkin. A great trial, known as the _Proces des Anarchistes de
Lyons_, ensued, which lasted many weeks. At the conclusion only three
out of the entire number were acquitted. Although nearly all the
anarchists were condemned, the police of Lyons were still searching for
the author of the explosion. At last, Cyvoct, a militant anarchist of
Lyons, was identified as the one who had thrown the bomb. Cyvoct had
first gone to Switzerland, then to Brussels, in the suburbs of which
city he was finally arrested. He was given over to the French police,
appeared before the court of assizes of the Rhone, and was condemned to
death. His sentence was afterward commuted to that of enforced labor,
and in 1897 he was pardoned.

On March 29, 1883, the carpenters' union of Paris called the unemployed
to a meeting to be held on the _Esplanade des Invalides_. Two groups of
anarchists formed. One started toward the _Elysee_ and was scattered on
its way by the police. The second went toward the suburb of
Saint-Antoine. On the march many bakeries were robbed by the
manifestants. Arrived at _Place Maubert_, they clashed with a large
force of police. As a result, many arrests were made. Accused of
inciting to pillage, Louise Michel and Emile Pouget were condemned to
several years' imprisonment. The same month, at Monceau-les-Mines and in
Paris, great demonstrations of the "unemployed" took place in the
streets, combined with robbery and dynamite outrages, while in July
there were sanguinary encounters with the armed forces in Roubaix and
elsewhere. Again and again the populace was incited to rise against the
bourgeoisie, "who (it was said) were indulging in festivities while they
had condemned Louise Michel, the champion of the proletariat, to a cruel
imprisonment."[15]

These are but a few instances of the activity of the anarchists at the
end of the seventies and at the beginning of the eighties. They are
perhaps sufficient to show that the Propaganda of the Deed was making
headway in Western Europe. Certainly in Germany and Austria its course
was soon run, but in France, Italy, Spain, and even in Belgium every
strike was attended with violence. Insurrections, dynamite outrages,
assassinatio