Up to the same date, the troops were not in
full possession of Faris, the Chaumont Buttes and Belleville still holding out, and the soldiers were behaving as if they had taken the city by storm. All quarter was refused to the Communists, it is believed that all leading insurgents taken are shot at once ; one English correspond- ent heard an officer boast that he had shot four disarmed prisoners for weariness, and another saw a prisoner's brains beaten in under the eyes of an officer, who smiled approval. Tile soldiers, though fighting with discreditable caution, and using shells wherever pos- sible, seem maddened against the National Guards. The Versail- lese populace insult the prisoners as they pass. M. Ratisbonne, editor of the Debats, has been arrested for recommending modera- tion, and M. Thiers has been compelled,by the Assembly to renounce his own plan of arming the Respectables as National Guards. A Tricolor Terror has, it is clear, been established, which will leave ineffaceable hatred behind it, perhaps end in a military pronun- eiamento in favour of some tyranny. Either, as is possible, the soldiers have broken loose from M. Thiers' hand, or his responsi- bility will be terrible.
