Flourens had begun life with every prospect of being a distinguished scientist.  His father had been perpetual secretary of the Academy of Sciences and a professor in the College de France, in which his son succeeded him when he was barely twenty-one.  His first lecture, on the “History of Man,” created a great impression; but in 1864 he resigned his professorship, and thenceforward devoted all his energies to the cause of the oppressed.  In Crete he fought against the Turks.  He was always conspiring when at home in Paris; even when the Prussians were at its gates, he could not refrain.  He was the darling of the Belleville population, whom in times of distress and trial he fed, clothed, and comforted.  Sometimes he was in prison, sometimes in exile.  “He was a madman, but a hero, and towards the poor and the afflicted as gentle as a sister of charity,” said one who knew him.

Of the three generals who led the attack on Mont Valerien, Duval was captured and shot; Eudes and Bergeret got back to Paris in safety.  But the latter, in company with Lullier, was at once sent to prison by the Central Committee, and a decree was issued that Paris should be covered with barricades.  As the insurgents had plenty of leisure, these barricades were strong and symmetrical, though many of them were injudiciously placed.

Whilst the fight of the 4th of April was going on without the gates, the Central Committee was occupied in issuing decrees, by which Thiers, Favre, Simon,—­in short, all the legitimate ministers,—­were summoned to give themselves up to the Commune to be tried for their offences, or else all their property in Paris would be confiscated or destroyed.

The failure of the expedition under Bergeret made the Parisians furiously angry.  In less than a week some of the best-known priests in Paris were arrested as hostages.  The churches were all closed after the morning services on Easter Day; the arms were cut off from the crosses, and red flags were hung up in their stead.  No one could be buried with Christian decency, or married with the Church’s blessing.

“The motto of the Commune soon became fraternity of that sort,” said a resident in Paris, “which means arrest each other.”  Before the Commune had been established two weeks, many of its leading members, besides Lullier and Bergeret, had found their way to prison.

A personage who rose to great importance at this period was General Cluseret.  He called himself an American, but he had had many aliases, and it is not known in what country he was born.  At one time he had been a captain in the Chasseurs d’Afrique, but was convicted of dishonesty in the purchase of horses, and dismissed from the army.  Then he came to the United States, and entered the service of the Union, by which he became a naturalized citizen.  He got into trouble, however, over a flock of sheep which mysteriously disappeared while he had charge of them.  Next he enlisted in the Papal Zouaves.