SOME MEMORIES OF MY SPARE TIME, 1856-1885. BY GENERAL THE RIGHT HON. SIR HENRY BRACKENBURY, G.C.B. IV. THE COMMUNE-A WISE DIPLOMATIST-THE BRIDGE OF NEUILLY not less so. Of the Emperor, SHORTLY after my return to Woolwich at the beginning of February 1871 I received a message from the Empress Eugénie that she would like to see me at Chiselhurst. I went there, and was received by her in a small boudoir. We were alone together. I passed when weeks had scarcely the startling that in Paris the troops who had been sent on on March 18 to bring away from Montmartre the cannon of which the National Guard had possessed itself, had fraternised with the National Guard, that General Thomas and General General Lecomte had been murdered, and that M. Thiers had removed the seat of government to Versailles. That evening the insurrection was master of Paris, talked me of that time abandoned by Government and when the news of the tragedy troops; the entire enceinte of of Sedan had arrived, of the fortifications and all the Trochu and the promises he outer forts on the left bank had made, and of the Paris of the Seine, except Mont mob. "I am only a woman, Valérien, were in its hands; she said, "and I had the fate the Government of Versailles of Marie Antoinette in mind." was holding Mont Valérien She was much moved, and I and the lines thrown up by had last seen her seated be- news arrived the Germans on the left bank of the Seine; while the Germans occupied the forts and suburbs on the right bank. The situation was full of interest for a soldier, and I determined to take advantage of the short Easter vacation to see it with my own eyes. The moment I was at liberty I started with a Swiss courier, and arrived at St Germain on April 4. The following morning I called on Lord Lyons, our Ambassador to France, who was at Versailles, and asked him if he would help me to obtain facilities to see the military operations which must undoubtedly be undertaken for the recapture of Paris. He wrote on my behalf to Comte Clermont Tonnerre, who sent me on to the military authorities. I was most kindly received, and obtained a pass, of which, as I believe it to be a unique document, I append a copy: strength by the return of the prisoners of war from Germany, both officers and men. Marshal Canrobert was at Brussels, anxious to come to Versailles, and we arranged that he should travel by a train which would bring him to St Denis after dark, and that I should meet him there with a carriage and escort him to Versailles. He arrived at the hour appointed, and we made the journey in safety and without any contretemps. There never was a man more completely free from nervousness than he was; but at this time the Communists were holding the bridge at Neuilly; the French army had not been considered strong enough to do more than hold its own; the Maréchal would have had but short shrift if he had fallen into the hands of the Communists, and he consented to my suggestion that our drive should be taken at night, and that our route should lead us as far as possible from the Communists' outposts. I took up my quarters at St Germain, at that famous hotel, the Pavillon Henri IV. Business in Paris being at a standstill, and neither carriages nor horses being safe there from requisitions by the Commune, Versailles and St Germain were overstocked with them, and it was easy to hire cheaply a light waggonette, in which I used to drive myself to points that appeared to be out of the danger zone, and then, leaving the carriage in charge of the courier, walk on to the place selected for my day's point of observation. There was always a good deal of outpost firing going on, and at times a good deal of shell fire. One day Lord Lyons was persuaded to visit Meudon, whence there was an extended view over the level ground on which the outposts were posted. He was looking from the window of an empty house, when a shell fell and burst in the garden below. Then he said quietly, "Perhaps I had better retire. It would be a diplomatic blunder if Her Majesty's Ambassador were to be killed." The one and only offensive effort by the Communists had been made on Sunday, April 2, before my arrival, and had failed. From that time forward they acted strictly on the defensive. The Versailles troops advanced slowly but steadily. Courbevoie was taken after a hard resistance. I visited it the next day, when it was the nearest point to the Communists, who were still holding the bridge of Neuilly, and the bullets were flying fast. The next step was the taking of the bridge of Neuilly. No hint had reached me that this attack was to be made on that day; so I missed my chance of seeing the fight, which was very severe. Twenty-two officers (including two generals killed) were killed or wounded in the attack by the fire from the houses on the Paris bank. Of those two generals, I had seen one the morning after my entry into Metz. I had brought him news of his family and a message from his young wife that she had borne him a child and was well, and I shall never forget his emotion. His regiment (he was only a colonel at Metz) was engaged in the hottest fight at the battles of Rezonville and Gravelotte, and he fell at Neuilly by the hand of his own countrymen. The morning after the action I went to Neuilly. A large force was concealed in the houses on the Versailles side of the river. Having found the headquarters of their commander, I presented my pass, and asked permission to cross the bridge. This was refused, as the bridge was being swept by fire from 8 Communist battery at the Porte Maillot and another at the Arc de Triomphe; but a young staff officer accompanied me across the river in a boat and conducted me to the barricade at the Paris end of the bridge, behind which a battery of field guns was established. There we found the general in command. He bade me welcome, and while he was explaining to me how far his men were advanced in the houses of the Avenue de Neuilly, a shell from the Porte Maillot burst in the sandbags of the barricade, smothering us in sand. He laughed, clapped me the back, and said, "Nous avons reçu nôtre baptême de sable ensemble.” on I remained some time in the battery, watching the small skirmishing which took place when some adventurous spirits on either side would break cover and come out into the open. The shells from the Communist batteries were passing over our heads, and one of them struck and burst in mind the horse. We found a waggon full of biscuit which the staff officer who had had been abandoned in the crossed the river with me the middle of the bridge, sending day before, but he positively up a fountain of biscuit, some though politely refused to of which fell in our battery, allow my friends to cross. and was promptly seized by All we could do was to walk the men. Our battery also down to the river bank, where was in action, and while watch- we leaned upon the stone paring with my field-glasses I saw apet, some three feet high, one of its shells strike the Arc which is, in fact, part of the de Triomphe. I expressed to parapet of the long bridge, the general my hope that they carried for a short distance would be able to spare the along the river bank on either monument which commemor- side. Scarcely had we got ated the valour of their own there when a very heavy fire army, and which the Prussians was opened by the Communist had left intact. But it was batteries, with the evident innot to be, and amongst my tention of bombarding the souvenirs of that time is a houses behind us in which the photograph taken later of the French reserves were sheltered. famous arch, starred and pit- Shells fell in the river in front ted with the marks of French of us, others passed over our shells. heads and struck the buildings behind. We stooped under the cover of the low parapet when we heard a shell coming, and on one occasion as we did so saw two small boys, aged about ten and twelve, come out and play in a street which ran back just behind where we were stationed. Another whizz of a shell, the two boys threw themselves down in the road, and the shell burst, as we thought, right on their heads. They jumped up, unhurt, picked up some fragments of of the shell which had rebounded from the walls, and ran with them to us, offering to sell them. As we talked, they kept tossing the fragments from hand to hand, or throwing them down and picking them up again, as they were too hot to be held continuously in their hands. No better Early on the following morning two great friends, Colonel the Hon. Augustus Anson, M.P., and Colonel Valentine Baker, called on me at my hotel, both anxious to see all that could be seen of the fighting. I ordered my carriage, and told my courier to come with me: he had remained with it in a safe sheltered place on the previous day during my visit across the river, but to-day he flatly refused to come. He said he was not engaged to "go into danger," that he had a wife and family, and that while he would obey me in all else, he would not risk being killed. So we started without him, and on arrival at the place where the carriage had halted on the previous day, fortunately found a man willing to example could be given of the way in which constant exposure to any form of danger deadens the sense of fear of that danger. These urchins had gone through the siege by the Germans, and the previous days' fighting at Neuilly, and they had no fear. Presently Augustus Anson said, "As I have got the Victoria Cross, I move that we retire." On our way home, we agreed that we would endeavour to get into Paris and see its condition with our own eyes. And so on the following morning we boarded one of the small river passenger-steamers (mouches) which continued running, and disembarked at St Denis. There we took tickets at the railway station, and entered a train of the Northern Railway, which deposited us safely at the Gare du Nord. No one interfered with us, or asked us any questions. It need scarcely be said that I had left behind me my Versailles army pass. We took up our abode at the Hôtel Chatham, where we found some English newspaper correspondents. We lunched in the Palais Royal, at that famous restaurant "Les Trois Frères Provençaux," where we had every luxury of the table. We were at first alone, but presently a couple came in, and such a couple. A little sous-officier of the National Guard in uniform, with a woman, evidently one of the lowest of the low. They ordered a sumptuous meal, and the little man produced a produced a handful of gold to show that We wondered he could pay. where it came from. After lunch we walked through the deserted Palais Royal, where almost every shop was closed, into the deserted streets. We went to the Place Vendôme, where we saw the shattered column lying prone on the ground. Then we strolled on till we got to the Place de la Concorde. On arrival there, we found quite a number of people looking up the Champs Elysées watching the bursting of the shells; farther up, towards the Rond Point, there was a smaller number, and farther still a few isolated units. It was like the breaking of a wave-a wave of fear. We walked on, and passed the Rond Point without without being stopped. But when we had got a little farther, we found sentries posted on the pavement at the corners of the side streets. The first of these, evidently an old soldier, asked us where we were going, and told us we could not pass farther. He entered into conversation with us, during which a mounted Communist officer, very much bedizened with embroidery, and followed by a mounted orderly, came cantering up. A shell burst some fifty yards in front of him, when he halted; and our sentry, resting his rifle between his knees, formed a trumpet with his hands and shouted "Don't be afraid, General-go on." But the officer thought the better part of valour was discretion, and turned up a side street. Then our sentry let his tongue loose, and told us what he thought |