THE REIGN OF TERROR

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 458, 29 June 1871, Page 2

THE REIGN OF TERROR

SCENE 01? TbE ITOBDEB OF GENESIS XKCOMTff

AND CLEMENT THOMAS. A WKHTEB in the Soir give. th,e following graphic account of a visit to *c garden in the Kue,dea Kosiers, which was the scene of the murder of Generals Lecomte and Clement Thomas:

" The street of the Kosebushes! You may in yam' trust to the names of streets and to their peaceful aspect. When, having climbed over barricades and mitrailleurs, I arrived «un there,, among the .mills of Montmartre, and saw this little street, with its pebbly road its gardens and .houses with*but few stories I fancied uiyself in the country, in one of those, quiet suburbs where the town spreads out ' and dwindles to disappear at the edge of the fields. * * As one advances the street widens, becomes more animated. There are tents in lines, cannons, guns in stacks; then to the left a large portico, before which National Guards smoke their pipes. The house stands back, and is not seen from the road; ' After some hesitation1 the sentry allowed me to go in. It is a two-storied house, between a court-yard and a garden, with nothing tragic about it. It belongs to the heirs of M. Scribe. This cut-throat den is born of a vaudeville. The rooms of the ground floor open on the passage which leads from the little pared yard to the garden. They'are light, .airy, papered" with flowery patterhs. : There the late Central Committee held its: meetings; it was there that on the afternoon of the 18th' the two Generals were brought.'and that they felt the anguish of the last Hour, while thecrowd stood in. heaps in the garden, and the. linesmen leant their hideous'heads against the window-panes, scenting blood like wolves; there, at last, the two corpses'riddled with balls were brought, and there they remained exposed for two days. I descend with a heavy heart the three steps which lead to the garden, a true suburban garden, in mhick each, dweller has his corner of gooseberry bushes and clematis separated by green trellis work, with gates to which bells are attached. * * * # The anger of a crowd had been Ahere. The inclosures were down, the borders torn up; nothing was standing bat some tw«nty lime trees, recently lopped, leafless, and raising their hard grey branches like vultures' claws. An iron railing ran behind them as a wall,, and showed the valley in the distance, immense, mournful where the long factory chimneys smoke. Things soften down, as do living beings. Here, I am on the scene of the drama, and I find it difficult to feel its powers. The weather is mild, the sky clear. The soldiers of Montmartre who surround me look kindly enough. They sing, they play at corks. The officers walk up and down laughing. But a great black wall pierced by balls, and the crest of which is crumbling, rises like a witness and relates the crime. It is against this wall that they were-shot. It seeras tnat at the last moment G-eneral Lecomte, till then dignified and resolute, felt his courage fail. -lie. tried to struggle, to fly; he ran several eteps in th& garden; then instantly retaken.shaken,dragged hustled, he fell on his knees and spoke of his children. 'I hare fire,' said he, sobbing; Tho father's heart burst through the soldier's tunic. There were fathers in that crowd, and som»\ voices replied with emotion to this heartstirring appeal, but the implacable linesmen would not hear a word. ' 'If we do not shoot him to-day lie Srill hare us shdt to-morrow/-He was pushed against the wall. Aseargeant. of the line almost immediately advanced towards him. 'General,' said he, 'if you will ' promise——.' Suddenly changing his mind, he stepped two paces back, and discharged his. chassepot full in the General's chest. The others had only to finish; the deed. Clement Thomas never showed a moment's weakness. His back against the same wall as Lecomte,. but two paces from his corpse, he made head against death to the end, and spoke .very harshly. When the guns were < lowered, he, . by an instinctive gesture, placed his left arm before his face ; v arid this old died j in the attitude of Caesar. Above the placewhere they fell against that wall, sad and niked as the mark in a shooting-gallery, somfr ■ branches of peach are still trained, and an early flower blooms in whiteness, which the bullets have spared, and the pow.der failed to blacken." . • r