A SAD STORY.

Colonist, Volume XVI, Issue 1633, 16 May 1873, Page 4

A SAD STORY.

The following is a portion of a document, written in French, that was found in a bottle on the beach near Melbourne, after the Fronoh ship L'Orne, bound to New Caledonia with Communist prisoner!, had put into Hobion's Bay. The original copy contained (says the Argus) a few lines in English, addressed to " Lord Eedactor of the Daily News," and to the gentlemen of Melbourne and AustraliaThe writer says (after treating on the capitulation oi Paris) :— "From this moment all hope was lost. Under the impulse of a panic, easier to imagine than excuse. France chose representatives cowardly enough to demand peace at any price, eren at the price of honor, Paris, indignant, oould only protest against this. The majority of her representatives withdrew from this assembly of cowards, but Paris had to bow before ihe nation. These representatives, old remnants of all the infamous Governments, chosen for the occasion from the depths of their mouldy retreats, wished for nothing better than to dig a grave for the beatendown Bepublio, and to hang a crown on the bleeding remains of mutilated France. It is thus that, in spite of the written conrention of Versailles, foiled by a secret treaty with the Prussians, they concentrated troops on Paris, which they endeavored to disarm on the nights of the 17th and 18th of March. But Paris rallied, for it knew the treaty of Bordeaux did not recognise the Republic. Che people took up arms, the troops submitted, the Government wasconquereS in a few hours. Generals Clement, Thomas, and Lecomte were shot by/tlmr own soldiers; the Central Committee of tke National Guard, after haying prepared the municipal olectioDS, gave unlimited power to the " Commune" which was freely elected by the Parisians, and the 1 Atruggte T*s tb,ea esUkbliihed between the Goauaua*

and the Assembly, to which the flame t>F •• VersaiU laise " Will be ft " pillar of infamy," to which all Its members will remain firmly bound. Will you judge the Commune by its actions ? Here are pretty nearly the only decrees which are not of merely municipal importance. First, the separation of the church and the state ; second, laical and compulsory education, gratuitous to all grades of society; third, the Buppresiion of permanent armies, and the military defence of the country obligatory on every citizen ; and, lastly, the right to live of all classes of citizens possessing the sole aristocracy of labor, intelligence and virtue. These are our principles for which we have fought, and for whioh we will suffer ; but we are always ready to recommence the struggle. We may ba conquered, but never disheartened. And let no one come and cover our red flag with mud ! I thaa been dyed with blood, it is tcue, but it. is with our blood that it is dyed. We have thrown down the Column Vendsme, a monument of the innumerable crimes of a man unworthy of humanity. We havo destroyed the palace of tyrants, a monument of infamy, and a receptacle of shameful vice ! This is yet; true. But if you wish to know the incendiaries of the general storehouses, of the Treasury, and of private property, ask the bombs, the incendiaries of Versailles, they can doubtless answer you. Ask at the railroad of Lyons who has burnt that small dock, after having pillaged it ? They will throw in your face thelexecution of a score of hostages, and amongst them the Archbishop of Paris. This archbishop, whom they make a standard of, yet they would not exchange him for Blanqui. And do you 1 know how and when he was shot —this man ? On the 27th of May, then, when the army of Versailles had already shot 30,000 men—by combatants exasperated with rage, excited by the enemy's agents, who have not kept; any account of the orders and supplications of a member of the Commune, who made superhuman efforts to oppose the reprisals. Can I now speak to you about what we have suffered ? lam going to try to do bo in a few wordß. At the re-entry of the troops, pillage and massacres inaugurated an era whioh only ended at the beginning of June. The regular army, the Army of Order (?), gorged itself for ten daya with blood and pillage; shooting men for wearing the trousers of the National Guard, and sometimes for a golden watch; killing the women who begged for their husbands' lives, and sending the ohildren to follow the fathers. The Marquis of G-allifet chose, from preference, out of the ranks of the prisoners, old men with white hair, and when he had made a choice, he carried away 93 men. He cried out, at the same time rubbing his hands, " I shall have my 93.' Consequently, a few minutes afterwards the horrible rolling of a mitrailleuse announced that 93 martyrs more had succumbed for the oause of right and justice. Up to the Ist of June, they shot people in masses with mitrailleuses in all the barracks of Paris ; in the irregular quarters of the city the ditches of tho fortifications were turned into hecatombs of flesh, palpitating, and often yet breathing. As a particular instance, I cite the ease of a lad of fifteen (almost a child) named Louis Viglat; who,«having been shot on the 21st of May at Pa?sy, when the ball entered behind his left ear and lodged in his right cheek, was, even after receiving a finishing blow, saved by some neighbors, who cured him of his wounds," and he was afterwards arrested by the agents of this' good Government' when quite convalescent, and was not sent back to his own quarters before the end of July, 1871. After having shot 35,000 men, they arrested some 60,000, whom they heaped on board hulks in the docks of Satory and iv the caves and ditches of the Orangery of Versailles. There these sufferers were made to regret that they had escaped being shot. Fifteen thousand men were flung together in an inclosure of 500 metres in length, and 130 metres in breadth, without food, during three days, having nothing to drink but stagnant water out of a pool, the receptacle of the sewerage water from this place. From the surrounding walls and battlements of this place, the soldiers could fire among the men, and woe to him who stood up during the night, for twenty shots had their victims from among this mass of human flesh. Some of these unfortunates became mad with rage and grief ; others swam in the gutters, for sometimes the rain came down in torrents; a number died of want and fatigue; and those who had been murdered by the balls of the Army of Order, often remained among the living men until they were in a state of putrefioation. It was not until the sth of June that a blank commenced to be felt at Versailles by the removal of tha prisoners upon tho hulks. Only the officers, to the number of 1500, remained in the docks of Satory. At the end of this period the shooting was suspended, and our situation was ameliorated, but so little, that after my trial I passed n month in the company of 300 companions in misfortune in the stable of forty-four horaes, wh'ch had been abandoned on account of disease. We had only a little rotten straw for beds, infested with ra's by thousands, and at this time tha thermometer was 21deg. below zero. This was in the month of December, 1871. As food, we had the following allowance tjrice a day : —250 grammes of bread, 100 grammes of biscuit, and 100 grammes of fat. You will now perceive that it is not surprising that the great number of sick has compelled us to enter this harbor, which, for our part, we deem happy, since it has procured us the pleasure of entering into relations with some of you. i A Communist."