CHAPTER IV.

WHAT WAS DONE DURING THE NIGHT—­THE PASSAGE DU SAUMON

When those on the barricade of the Petit Carreau saw Dussoubs fall, so gloriously for his friends, so shamefully for his murderers, a moment of stupor ensued.  Was it possible?  Did they really see this before them?  Such a crime committed by our soldiers?  Horror filled every soul.

This moment of surprise did not last long.  “Long live the Republic!” shouted the barricade with one voice, and it replied to the ambuscade by a formidable fire.

The conflict began.  A mad conflict on the part of the coup d’etat, a struggle of despair on the side of the Republic.  On the side of the soldiers an appalling and cold blooded resolution, a passive and ferocious obedience, numbers, good arms, absolute chiefs, pouches filled with cartridges.  On the side of the People no ammunition, disorder, weariness, exhaustion, no discipline, indignation serving for a leader.

It appears that while Dussoubs was speaking, fifteen grenadiers, commanded by a sergeant named Pitrois, had succeeded in gliding in the darkness along the houses, and, unperceived and unheard, had taken up their position close to the barricade.  These fifteen men suddenly formed themselves together with lowered bayonets at twenty paces from the barricade ready to scale it.  A volley received them.  They fell back, leaving several corpses in the gutter.  Major Jeannin cried out, “Finish them off.”  The entire battalion which occupied the Mauconseil barricade, then appeared with raised bayonets upon the uneven crest of this barricade, and from there without breaking their line, with a sudden, but regulated and inexorable movement, sprang into the street.  The four companies, in close order, and as though mingled and hardly visible, seemed like a wave precipitating itself with a great noise from the height of the barricade.

At the barricade of the Petit Carreau they noted the manoeuvre, and had paused in their fire.  “Present,” cried Jeanty Sarre, “but do not fire; wait for the order.”

Each put his gun to his shoulder, then placed the barrels between the paving-stones, ready to fire, and waited.

As soon as it had quitted the Mauconseil redoubt, the battalion rapidly formed itself into an attacking column, and a moment afterwards they heard the intermittent sound of an advance at the double.  It was the battalion which was coming upon them.

“Charpentier,” said Jeanty Sarre, “you have good eyes.  Are they midway?”

“Yes,” said Charpentier.

“Fire,” said Jeanty Sarre.

The barricade fired.  The whole street was filled with smoke.  Several soldiers fell.  They could hear the cries of the wounded.  The battalion, riddled with balls, halted and replied by platoon firing.

Seven or eight combatants whose bodies reached above the barricade, which had been made hastily and was too low were hit.  Three were killed on the spot.  One fell wounded by a ball in his stomach, between Jeanty Sarre and Charpentier.  He shrieked out with pain.