a good cause has been lost by madmen or worse, and we have abandoned it because, if we were to stay a moment longer, now that we are no longer blinded, we should be committing a criminal act” Such words as these would have opened the eyes of so many wretched beings, who are going to their deaths and think they do well to die!  As to those who remain, they must feel that their power is slipping from them.  They did not arrest or detain Rossel; it would seem as if they dared not touch him because he was right in thinking what he said, although he was very wrong to say it as he did.  While the Commune hesitates, the military plans of the Versaillais are being carried out.  Vanves taken, Montrouge in ruins, breaches opened at the Point-du-Jour, at the Porte-Maillot, at Saint-Ouen; the Communists have only to choose now, between flight and the horrors of a terrible death struggle!  May they fly, far, far away, beyond the reach of vengeance, despised, forgotten if that be possible!  I am told that the Central Committee is trying now to substitute itself for the Commune, which was elected by its desire.[94] One born of the other, they will die together.

[Illustration:  ARTHUR ARNOULD, COMMISSIONER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.][93]

[Illustration:  FOUNDERED CRAFT ON THE SEINE]

[Illustration:  PORTE MAILLOT & Avenue de la Grande Armee.]

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 92:  An important document has just made the round of the Communal press—­the manifesto of the minority of the Commune, in which twenty-one members declare their refusal to take any farther part in the deliberations of the body, which they accuse of having delivered its powers into the hands of the Committee of Public Safety, and thus rendering itself null.  This declaration is signed by:—­Arthur Arnould, Avrial, Andrieux, Arnold, Clemence, Victor Clement, Courbet, Franckel, Eugene Gerardin, Jourde, Lefrancais, Longuet, Malon, Ostyn, Pindy, Serailler, Tridon, Theisz, Varlin, Vermorel, Jules Valles.

Adding to these twenty-one secessionists, twenty-one members who have resigned:—­Adam, Barre, Brelay, Beslay, De Bouteiller, Cheron, Desmarest, Ferry, Fruneau, Goupil, Loiseau-Pinson, Leroy, Lefevre, Meline, Murat, Marmottan, Nast, Ulysse Parent, Robineat, Rane, Tirard;

Three who have not sat:  Briosne, Menotti Garibaldi, Rogeard;

Two dead:  Duval, Flourens;

One captured:  Blanqui;

One escaped:  Charles Gerardin;

Five incarcerated:  Allix, Panille dit Blanchet, Brunel, Emile Clement,
Cluseret;—­

Out of 101 members elected to the Commune on the 26th of March and the 16th of April, only forty-seven now remain:—­Amouroux, Ant.  Arnaud, Assy, Babick, Billioray, Clement, Champy, Chardon, Chalain, Demay, Dupont, Decamp, Dereure, Durant, Delescluze, Eudes, Henry Fortune, Ferre, Gambon, Geresme, Paschal Grousset, Johannard, Ledroit, Langevin, Lonclas, Mortier, Leo Meiller, Martelet, J. Miot, Oudet, Protot, Paget, Pilotel, Felix Pyat, Philippe, Parisel, Pottier, Regere, Raoul Rigault, Sicard, Triquet, Urbain, Vaillant, Verdure, Vesmier, Viart.]