Though the Communists have since then shown bravery, and sometimes
heroism, in their struggle against the Versailles troops, we are very
doubtful, now that we have seen their chiefs in action, whether the
efforts they talked of would have been crowned with success. Their
object was power, and, having nothing to risk and all to gain, they
would have forthwith disposed of public property in order to procure
themselves enjoyment and honours. The few right-minded men who at first
committed themselves, proved this by the fact of their giving in their
resignation a few days after the Commune had established itself.

Tranquillity had returned. In the morning of the 25th, guards patrolled
the Place de la Bastille, the Place du Château d'Eau, the Boulevard
Magenta, and the outer boulevards. Paris started as if she had been
aroused from some fearful dream, and the waking thought of the enemy at
her gates stirred up all her energies once more.

The Communists had been defeated for the second time; but they were soon
to take a terrible revenge.

The vow made by the Governor of Paris had been repeated by the majority
of the Parisians, and all parties seemed to have rallied round him under
the same device: vanquish or die. After the forts, the barricades, and
as a last resource, the burning of the city. Who knows? Perhaps the
fanatics of resistance had already made out the plan of destruction
which served later for the Commune. It has been proved that nothing in
this work of ruin was impromptu.

The news of the convention of the 28th of January, the preliminary of
the capitulation of Paris, was thus very badly received, and M.