The last act of the Commune was an outrage even
more inhu- eman, though hardly so barbarous, as the attempt to burn the 'public buildings of Paris,—namely, the order for the massacre of Archbishop Darboy and some threescore or upwards of his 'brother hostages, all of whom,—including the Archbishop, the Abbe Deguerry (cure of the Madeleine), President Bonjean, Pere
• Olivain, and other distinguished personages, really fell beneath the bullets of these vindictive men who had missed their spring, and were incensed at their own failure. A good many more would 'have been slaughtered but for the timely arrival of the troops, and their own pluck in organizing a defence against their jailors. Of course the conduct of the Versailles troops, which -throughout the siege has been but too ferocious, was rendered still more brutal by this cruel and savage act of retaliation, and the 'horrors of Sunday and Monday seem to have been fearful. One correspondent estimates the " summary " executions, after fighting had ceased, as not less than 5,000 up to Monday even- ing; and even on Tuesday we are told that these summary execu- tions,—in which it is impossible to distinguish between the innocent and the guilty,—were considerable in number at Pere la Chaise. Corpses lay so thick about the streets, as well as half-buried under -ruins, that an epidemic was apprehended. Numbers of women -were among the files of prisoners, and shot down directly, like 'the men, if they attempted to escape. The Marquis de Gallifet earned for himself an evil notoriety as one of the most bloody of the avenging Generals. The "White Terror" is the legitimate heir of the Red.
