“On May 31 our door was opened again.  Twelve soldiers were drawn up before it.  We were all ordered out.  We thought we were going to be shot en masse, to make quicker work of us.  To my amazement, we saw a large column of about four hundred prisoners, four abreast, between two lines of grenadiers.  Evidently we were intended to form the last contingent to it.  The soldiers having been drawn up in two long lines on both sides of the column, an officer drew his sword, and standing up on a wine-hogshead, shouted:  ’Soldiers, load arms.’  This being done, he added:  ’Fire on any prisoner who attempts to revolt or escape.’

“We then took the road to the Western Railroad, where we were put into cattle vans and goods vans, with scarcely room to breathe, and reached Versailles about six P. M. A detachment of soldiers escorted us to Satory.  The column marched in to the artillery depot, and the gates were closed.  I happened to be the right-hand man of the four last prisoners in the column, so that I stood only three or four yards from the officer in command of the place, who stood looking at the prisoners, with his arms folded and his officers beside him.  I saw him staring at me, which I attributed to my being the best-dressed man of the party.  Presently he walked slowly up to me, and measuring me from head to foot with what I took to be a diabolical sneer, cried, ’Ho!  Ho! the ribbon of the Legion of Honor!  You got it, I suppose, on the barricades!’ With that I felt a sharp pull at my coat.  Quick as thought, I brought my hand down, and caught his firmly as he was trying to tear the ribbon from my breast.  In my agitated state of mind I had not been aware I was wearing a coat that had it on.  ‘You may shoot me, Captain,’ I said, ‘but you shall not wrest that ribbon from me.’  ’Where did you get it?’ ’The prince president of the Republic, Louis Napoleon, gave it me.’  ‘When?’ ‘On September 23, 1853.’  ’How is it, then, that you were arrested?  Was it on a barricade?’ ’No, Captain, in my own apartment.  It is not likely I should fight for the Commune after having been a devoted friend of the emperor for forty years.’  ‘Your name?’ ‘Count Joseph Orsi.’  He looked at me again, and having joined his officers, to whom he related what had taken place, he turned round and in a loud voice said to me:  ‘Come out of the ranks.’  Then, seeing a gendarme close by, he said:  ’Do not lose sight of this prisoner.’”

For two days the captain kept Count Orsi in his office and encouraged him to write to any friends he might have in Versailles.  Count Orsi named M. Grevy (afterwards president) as having been for years his legal adviser, and he wrote a few lines to various other persons.  But there were no posts, and in the confusion of Versailles at that moment there seemed little chance that his notes would reach their destination.  Two days later an order came to Satory to send all prisoners to Versailles, and the kind-hearted captain was forced to return Count Orsi to the column of his fellow-prisoners.