AN EPISODE OF THE PARIS COMMUNE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 133, 19 November 1875, Page 16

AN EPISODE OF THE PARIS COMMUNE.

In a book just published on the Commune of 1871, the Abbe Riche relates the manner in which the cathedral of Notre-Danie was saved from destruction. On the 35th May he had been charged by the court-martial with the painful task of preparing for death the insurgents ordered to be shot. Amongst them was a young workman, who on learning the fatal news, was so overcome that he fell to the ground, He then struck his head with his hand and exclaimed, " Ah, I knew that it would bring me ill-luck !" Surprised at that remark, made with an air of poignant sincerity, the abbe begged him to relieve his mind by stating what he knew. The man hesitated a few minutes, and then said, " I will confess all to you, but make haste, in an hour it will be too late. Yesterday evening I myself carried to Notre-Dame two barrels of gunpowder and two car-boys of petroleum. I placed the powder in the pipes of the warming apparatus, one above and the other below ; the petroleum I put, one jar in the large pulpit, not where they preach, but near where they sit (meaning the archiopiscopal throne) and the other in the left under the organ. But lose no time," he added, "in hastening to Notre-Dame to have them removed ! What hour is it ?" he asked. " Half -past nine," replied the abbe, looking at his watch. "It was between nine and ten that the place was to be set on fire." Not a moment was to be lost. The almoner at once informed the Prev6t-Martial of the revelation so made. A body of sergents-de-ville left immediately for the cathedral, taking with them the condemned man as a guide. What he said proved exactly true, and some of the chairs and carved woodwork were already burning ; but the danger was averted. The abbe had then a really Christian inspiration. Taking aside the prev6t, he so/id, " You cannot now shoot a man to whose disclosures we owe the preservation of Notre-Dame. Think that only a few paces off is the H6tel Dieu, filled with patients. If the church had blown up, what a terrible catastrophe might have occurred ! You must spare this man." A council was held, and the abbe gained bis point. The man was not executed.