pening to know an officer, I was present at the examination of some
prisoners who were brought in, as every soldier who thinks he has good
ground for suspicion can arrest men or women, and drag them to the
divisional tribunal. They are captured in shoals. One lame man with a
villanous countenance, who was brought in while I was there, was accused
of being a _chef de barricade_, and having been taken in the act. He was
put through a short sharp fire of cross-examination, his pockets emptied
and his clothes felt, and he was then hurried off to take his place in
the ranks of the condemned ones that are forwarded to Versailles.
Instant execution is only ordered in the more extreme cases, excepting
where the fighting is actually going on, and then the troops give very
little quarter. The bitterness of the belligerents against each other is
of a far more intense and sanguinary kind than that which ordinarily
exists between combatants. The soldiery, looking at the pedestal on the
Place Vendome and at the numerous public buildings which in some form or
other are associated with their military history, now all smoking ruins,
can scarcely contain their rage, and not unnaturally vent it with
ferocity on an enemy which deliberately planned the destruction of Paris
as the price of victory to the conquerors, and who are even yet
endeavouring to carry out their diabolical design of destroying the
houses still uninjured by secretly introducing petroleum balls and
fusees into the cellars. I saw a soldier suddenly seize a man as he was
apparently harmlessly walking along the street; his pockets were emptied
and found to contain cartridges and combustible balls of various sizes.
Another soldier and a sailor rushed to the spot; the latter drew his
revolver, and I expected would have shot the man then and there, but he
was satisfied on seeing his comrade prick him sharply with his bayonet.
The two soldiers then hurried the culprit off in front of them cuffing
him occasionally on the head, and accelerating his progress with the
points of their bayonets while they cursed him heartily. A small crowd
eagerly followed to see his fate, which they loudly hoped would be
instant execution; and, looking at the detestable nature of the contents
of his pockets and of his intentions, one could scarcely blame either
his captors or their sympathizers if they called for vengeance, and long
ere this, he has probably ceased to exist. One woman was caught with