The most popular man at that moment in Paris seemed to be Admiral Seisset, who had commanded the brigade of sailors which did good service in the siege.  He went out to Versailles to unite his efforts to those of the maires and the deputies in favor of giving Paris municipal rights; but M. Thiers and his ministers were firm in their refusal.

When this was known in Paris, great was the fury and indignation of the people.  In vain had Louis Blanc entreated the Assembly at Versailles to approve conciliatory measures; and when that body utterly refused to make terms with a Parisian mob, M. Clemenceau said, as he quitted their chamber:  “May the responsibility for what may happen, rest upon your heads.”

The mission to Versailles having been productive of no results, the election for a commune was held.  The extremest men were chosen in every quarter of the city, and formed what was called the Council of the Commune.  It held its sittings in the Hotel-de-Ville, and consisted at first of eighty members, seventy of whom had never been heard of in Paris before.  Its numbers dwindled rapidly, from various causes, especially in the latter days of the Commune.  Among them were Poles, Italians, and even Germans; two of the eighty claimed to be Americans.

The first act of the Council of the Commune was to take possession of the Hotel-de-Ville and to celebrate the inauguration of the new government by a brilliant banquet; its first decree was that no tenant need pay any back rent from October, 1870, to April, 1871,—­the time during which the siege had lasted.  It lost no time in inviting Garibaldi to assume the command of the National Guard.  This Garibaldi declined at once, saying that a commandant of the National Guard, a commander-in-chief of Paris, and an executive committee could not act together.  “What Paris needs,” he said, “is an honest dictator, who will choose honest men to act under him.  If you should have the good fortune to find a Washington, France will recover from shipwreck, and in a short time be grander than ever.”

On April 3 the civil war broke out,—­Paris against Versailles; the army under the National Assembly against the National Guard under the Commune.  The Prussians from the two forts which they still held, looked grimly on.

At the bridge of Courbevoie, near Neuilly, where the body of Napoleon had been landed thirty years before, a flag of truce was met by two National Guards.  Its bearer was a distinguished surgeon, Dr. Pasquier.  After a brief parley, one of the National Guards blew out the doctor’s brains.  When news of this outrage was brought to General Vinoy, he commanded the guns of Fort Valerien to be turned upon the city.

At five A. M. the next morning five columns of Federals marched out to take the fort.  They were under the command of three generals, Bergeret, Duval, and Eudes.  With Bergeret rode Lullier, who had been a naval officer, and Flourens, the popular favorite among the members of the Commune.  The three divisions marched in full confidence that the soldiers under Vinoy would fraternize with them.  They were wholly mistaken; the guns of Fort Valerien crashed into the midst of their columns, and almost at the same time Flourens, in a hand-to-hand struggle, was slain.