The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1892-11-26

E F INA ii [! B IN CriNEN.
lsyyens IN the He eat & sf battle They 10
rhinss with ! Flourish. s 4;


3D. rhisss with : Flourish s 5s 4;
For another hour 81 more nv neigh
sso9rs, the comm nists, who had been
enforced, gave pause to the Versail-
LIST effort to descend the Boulevard
haussmaan, and were holding their own
against the Versaillist fire from the
church Of the Trinity, and the barricade
on: the rise Of the Rue LAFAYETTE.
writes Archibald Forbes in the Oxntury.
The house at the right hand corner Of
the Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin and the
Rue Lafay ette-tke house whose pro-
jecting gable was my shelter-had
caught fire, to my disquietude and dis
comfort; but before the fire should seri-
ously trouble me the impending crisis
would probably be over. Furious and
more furious waxed the firing all
around. About the opera house it was
especially fierce. had gli1npses of
lighting, at close quarters in the open
space before its rear front, and could
discern men shutting along behind the
low parapet of its roof. They carried
packs, but could not see their
paeeches and was not therefore wholly
certain that they were Versaillists. A
woman had Joined me in my position
behind the gable - a woman who
seemed to have a charmed life. Over
and over again she walked out into the
fire, looked deliberately about her, and
came back to recount to me with ex-
cited volubility the particulars of what
she had seen. She was convinced the
soldiers on the roof were Versaillists:
get, as pointed out to her, the drapeau
rouge still waved above the statue on
the summit of the lofty building. The
people of the hotel in our rear clearly
shared her belief. Gathered timidly in
the porte cochere, they were crying
"'s}ravo!:' and clapping their hands, be-
s;pillists were winning.
The woman was right; they were
Versaillist inesmen whom we saw on
ilse parapet Of the opera house. There
was a cheer; the people Of the hotel ran
sat into the fire. waving handkerchiefs
and clapping their hands. The tri-
color was waving above the hither
portico. The red flag waved still on
she farther elevation. "A ladder!
ladder to reach it," was the excited cry
from the group behind me; but for the
moment no ladder was procurable. AS
we waited, there darted down the
boulevard to the corner of the Rue
Halevy little grig of fellow in red
breeches-one of the old French lines
nen breed. He was all alone, and APP
ycared to enjoy the loneliness as he
cook up his post behind a tree and fired
hiss first shot at communard lodging
about the intersection of the Rue TAFT
bout. When is a Frenchman not
dramatic? He fired with an air; he
fixed again with flourish, and was
greeted with cheering and handicap
ping from the gallery behind me, to
which the little fellow was playing.
Then he beckoned us back dramatically,
foY his next shot was to be sped ZIP the
Rue Lafayette at a little knot of com
Glzlnists who, from a fragment Of shell
5e1' at the intersection Of the Rue La
ye, were taking him for their target
l>laen he faced about and waved his
comrades on with exaggerated gestures
s~I,ich recalled those one sees in
&,;ood-and-thunder melodrama, the COM
axtunist bullets all the while cutting the
bank and branches of the tree which
was his cover. All! he was down!
Well, he had enjoyed his flash of reck-
iessness The woman by my side and |
tiarted across and carried him in We
might have spared ourselves the trouble
sgld risk; he was dead, with a bullet
through his head