ied the houses, and
fired from the corridors. All the fronts of the houses were disfigured
by rifle balls, the corridors were broken, and the handsome stone
cornices very much battered. The beautiful columns of the Madeleine are
sadly injured, the fluted edges having been in many places shot away.
The two houses in the Rue Royale, at the corner of the Rue Faubourg St.
Honore, were blazing still, and the smoke and ashes that flew from them
were stifling the pompiers, who were working energetically there and at
other points; some of their corps were shot. It had been discovered that
they, instead of throwing water on the fires they were called upon to
extinguish, were actually pumping petroleum into the flames, and so
adding to their fury. When this was detected the guilty firemen were
surrounded by a body of cavalry, conducted into the Parc de Monceaux,
and there shot. I could count the number of people I met along the
Boulevards, so few were those who ventured to walk about. The fears of
petroleum and explosions are universal. The inhabitants had either
stopped up, or were engaged in stopping up, every chink through which
petroleum might be thrown into their houses. Their cellar lights, their
ventilators, and their gratings were being made impervious by sand,
mortar, and other materials. This precaution was taken because women
and children partisans of the Commune, have in numerous instances been
detected throwing petroleum into houses. Not a shop was entirely open,
and those that opened only doors were inferior restaurants and wine
houses. Around the railing in the Place Vendome troopers' horses were
tied. The bronze figure of the Emperor was on its back, the shattered
and prostrate Column lay about in fragments. On visiting the
neighbourhood of Montmartre, and ascending an Observatory there I found
there was a cannon and musketry fire going on in the district of
Belleville and the Buttes de Chaumont. The Insurgents had not been
dislodged, and as the troops have undergone much fatigue since Monday a
regular attack on Belleville will not be made till to-morrow morning.
General Clinchant will bring his forces against it in the rear, and
General Vinoy's soldiers will advance upon it from the Boulevards. On
coming round by the quay to the Place de la Concorde I found that all
the statues of the French cities are injured, and some very
considerably. Of several the arms and heads are off. The splendid
fountains in the centre