The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-04-07
THE ESCAPED COMMUNISTS.
ROCHEFORT AND GROUSSET.

72O miles f. n. f. of Anstrala-to whicl
they were expatriated for acts committed
under the Commune, while it is of no i'm
portance in itself, carries with it sntfcen
interest, perhaps, to induce a brief notice OF
the men.
Henri Rochefort belongs to class Of
writers, who, for the last twenty-five years
have passed their time in pulling down gov
ernments, growing through the bars of a
prison, and fighting rival editors under the
pleasant shades of the Bots de Boulogne.
Rochefort is the viscount de Lucay, of an
aristOcratic family by BIRTH but blood red
Republican of the Faubourg St. Antoine
stripe by choice. For years he was MEM
Der of the editorial corps of Figaro. Then
he edited La Lanterne, avowedly established
to destroy the empire, and then he founded
the paper known as Mot d'Or.lre For the
publication of articles in the second of these,
he twice suffered imprisonment. From one
of these incarceratiOns between the first and
second plebicites, he was liberated by cleo
ton to the Chamber of Deputies. He fought
a duel with Paul de Cassagnac, editor of Du
Pays, in which he was wounded, and when
Victor Noir attended by Gnstave Flourens,
visited Prince Pierre Napoleon, to call him
to account for what he had written or
caused to be written, and the prince shot
Noir down dead ROchefort was in his glory
| To stab men with the pen or sword was
the peculiar privilege of the Scarlet Reds,
and was a rich joke for the cafes of the
boulevards and the clubs, but to be stabbed
to death themselves, and that by an Impe-
rialist was quite another thing. One hun
dred thousand men met at the Champs Ely
sees to talk about it, and RochefOrt addressed
them. 1t is claimed by his friends that he
held the fate of Paris in his hands that day.
and that a word from him would have built
the barrcades and flooded the streets of
Paris with blood Others say he was wise
not to utter it, because grim old Canrobert
held the fuse, and the example of the Little
Corscan was not wanting when he planted
his cannon in front of the assembly and
plowed through the sans culottes with grape
that was exceedingly sour.
Some are fOunO to say that ROchefOrls
hatred of Imperialism was to be found in
the fact that Louis refused to confer upon
him the cross of the Legion of Honor; but
that can scarcely be credited in one so pro-.
nounced Before the Franco-German war
he fled TO the neutral ground of Brussels,
beyond the reach of the "nephew of his
uncle from whence he continued to pub
fish La Lanterne, in defacce, and to pour
literary hot shot into the Tuileries from a
safe distance. After the gr,lesome day of
Sedan, ROchefort returned to Paris and
published the Mot d'Onlre. He took no
part in the fighting, but he advocated the
order for burning the residence of NJ. Theirs
in the Place ST. George. In the last days of
the Commune. when MacMahon's guns were
laundering against the gates of Paris, and
his shells were falling uncomfortably
enough among the residences fringing
the Champ Elysees, Rochefort decided
discretion to be the better part of
valor, and he fled. He had no idea of being
cooped up with the desperate diaboIism of
the petrDl"us+s whom he had assisted to
madden with his "Ordel of the Day." and
he ran away. He has been charged with {,
too delicate care of his person for this, but
he did not go far. A gendarme halted him.
and he gave the name of the VscOunt de
Lncay but the man recognized him and re-
TUNED him to Paris, and again he became
intimate with the inside of prison, but
this time under more serious aspects He
was sentenced to expatriation for life ; bu,
NJ. Theirs, the burning of whose house he
had SO earnestly advocated, .nagnanimously
endeavored to procure communication of
his sentence. So long as NJ Theirs was
President, this intercessiOn was successful. |
but when Gen. MacMahon succeeded him.
the sentence was enforced, and Henri |
Rochefort, in precarous health, was
shipped off to New Caledonia, in the Pa
cific Ocean, along with the rest.
Pascal Grousset has not been so prominent
in his turbulent spirit as Rochefort, and he
years. and IA native Of the South of France,
where, in the vicinity of Marseilles, he pub
llshed Republican paper. He first flashed
into political prominence by fighting duel
with his brother-in-law, who was an editor
of an imperialist journal in the same town,
or ne..r it. At the outbreak of tie Com
mnne, Grousset became associated with the /
leaders of the party and received the APP
pointment of Minister of Foreign Affairs. He !
endeavOred to restrain the blind fury of the I
Communists, and had more than one inter
view with our minister, Washburne, in rela-
ton to the fate of the good old Archbishop
Darb"ys. He promised to exert his influence
in saving the life o. the old eclesastic,
and probably did what he could, for Mr..
Washburne expressed confidence in him,
but the fury of the Paris populace
was SD great against all that illustrated law
and order and religion, that nothing but fire
and blood could satisfy the savage madness
of the hour When the Commune fell
Grousset fell, but so different had been his
o ficial course, to many who had exercised
power in that brief but extraordinary Sec
OnJ reign of terror, that sympathy went
with him to his prison. He had preserved
order where it was possible he had protect
ed the public funds so tar as he could, and
he had enjoyed the confidence, and to a
great degree the respect, of all shades of
opinions, and OF all conditions of men in his
own country. All conceded that in such a
chaos it was most fortunate to have found
SO conservative a man in position of such
prominence.
The rabble of Paris were the masters of
the situation, as they were in 1898, and the
bonnet rouge Of liberty was to them simply
the emblem of raDine and revenge upon
their betters. The plain of Sartory was
soaked with the Likelihood Of the viIest of
the leaders and the French island in the
Pacific garnered the rest. This escape of
Grousset and ROchefort, with two others
whose names are misspelled Gaude and
Bouillierre, in an open boat, three days at
sea, and then picked up by an Australian
vessel, is a dashing affair, but has slight |
look Of cOnniyance about 1t ON the part of
the French authorities.
Without having reason to be glad or sorry |
about these chronic avitatOrs obtaining their |