but the Federals closed up and drowned his words, one saying "Get on! This is no time for talk. Tyrants don't give us such indulgences." They passed by, and Father Ducoudray, glancing up at the window where his friend was, opened his soutane, and significantly pointed to his heart. All were calm, gentle, resigned, and met their end with true dignity.

his gold cross, chain, &c., were gone even the gold cord on his hat. Such is the history of their sufferings; and, however calamitous the story, their unostentatious dignity and courage furnish a welcome contribution to the nobility of human nature.

Then followed the massacre of some poor Dominicans, who had been carried An avenue ran round the prison between off about a week before from their contwo high walls. The night was dark, and vent and schools. They were not classed the sky was even more darkened by clouds as hostages, though the title made no difof black smoke, for Paris had already be- ference in their fate. The fathers, profesgun to burn. Some of the Federals car- sors, servants, all were taken away en ried flaming torches; the rest walked in masse. On the morning after the Archloose order round about the prisoners. bishop's execution, about eight o'clock, an They arrived at a spot where the wall officer entered and announced to them makes a bend; there they halted. It that they were free. "But we can't leave must have been a strange procession. As you in the hands of the Versaillists, so you it tramped by a prisoner in his cell heard must follow us to the Gobelins; from thence one of the priests utter, "O my God! my you can go wherever you please." This God!" while the Abbé Allard exhorted would seem to have been one of the cruel his companions to be firm. The six were "jests" of which the Revolutionists were placed against the wall in a line. The fond: for the ecclesiastics were led through Archbishop then advanced and addressed an infuriated mob, all threatening them the assassins in a few words, saying that with death. When they got to the Gobelins he heartily forgave them, which seems to they were told they could not be allowed have produced a strange scene. For two to go, as they would be torn to pieces in of the men advanced, and, dropping on the streets. The shells were falling on the their knees, begged for his blessing. Their buildings, and they were purposely thrust comrades rushed at them and loaded them out into the open court. They were then with abuse. A cruel, meagre-looking taken to a new prison in the Rue d'Italie. man, about thirty-five years old, dressed As they waited, the door was often thrown in a blouse, advanced to give the word. open, and a sort of Garibaldian announced His name was Virigg. Two discharges to them: "Cassocks! get up. We are immediately followed, and the victims fell. going to put you on the barricades." Some were cruelly wounded, and the pris- They were accordingly conducted into a onors far off in the cells counted with sink- perfect rain of balls, but escaped being ing hearts the dropping shots that suc- struck. When the insurgents were driven ceeded. Virigg advanced, and with his from the barricades they took their prispistol gave the coup de grace to the Arch- oners with them, and sent them back to bishop. The President, writhing on the the prison. There they prepared for ground, strove to raise himself, and was death, confessed each other, and received shot down. One of the assassins was their Prior's exhortation. At half-past heard joking on it as they went away. four came Colonel Cerisier with a new "You saw how the old fellow tried to get order; they were all to set out — fathers, up! It was time to finish him off." They professors, and domestics. When they got suffered cruelly. The skull of Father to the gate of the prison the command was Ducoudray was literally broken in, and given: "Pass out, one by one, into the M. Bonjean's legs were broken in many street." They obeyed. The Prior said: places. "Let us go, my friends, in the name of our At eleven o'clock that night, Lamotte, good God." As each came out a terrible one of the warders, was told to go on fire was directed on them by the mob duty in place of one of the Communists, waiting for them. Twelve were shot who was drunk, and to fetch a cart. The down; one miraculously escaped to tell bodies were then searched, the articles the story, his coat pierced with bullets. found on them were brought to the Director; then they were driven off to Père la Chaise. When they were disinterred some days later, they were found placed in simple shells. The violet cassock of the Archbishop was all tattered with balls;

He was able to slip unobserved into an open doorway, where a good woman hurried him into her husband's clothes, and sheltered him till all danger was over. Yet these were all good and holy men, whose lives were devoted to attending the

poor, educating children, and serving indian said, roughly: "Twenty minutes their church. It is fatal to the cause of won't do. I must have them at once." the Revolution that such should be made the objects of its fury.

They were then taken away on one of those dreadful progresses through the streets to the notorious quarter of Belleville. How they got there, or where they passed that night or the following morning, is not known; but on Friday evening, at about six o'clock, they were seen walking in terrible procession through the Rue de Paris.

We now return to the hostages remaining in La Roquette. Among them were three Jesuits Olivain, de Beugy, and Caubert; the Director of a charitable orphan-house; Père Planchat, a young seminarist; the good Abbé Sabbatier, of Notre Dame de Lorette, whose life, like that of the Abbé Deguerry, was given up to the It was composed of the Federals chiefly poor and more especially to teaching belonging to battalions of the 5th and poor children of his parish, who wor- 11th quarters, some men of a body called shipped him. There were fourteen priests" Bergeret's Forlorn Hope," and a band in all, and thirty-six gendarmes who were of vile and unsexed women, who are adspecially obnoxious to the people. On the mitted to have been the most ferocious of twenty-sixth, two days after the first mas- the whole. After these came some of the sacre, the Versailles troops were in pos- unfortunate gendarmes; then the foursession of a large portion of Paris; yet teen priests; and then the remaining solterrible scenes were going on. Ferré diers. There were fifty prisoners in all. came in the morning to the prison, and Drums and trumpets played a sort of a held a sort of court for the trial of the furious march; while the yells and execrasoldiers. Some were hurriedly dealt with; tions of the crowd that rushed on either a raging mob waiting at the gate for their side must have made the whole seem someprey. A member of the court would ap- thing infernal. They turned into the Rue pear at the door with a prisoner, hand out Haxo, a little behind which was an open a scrap of paper with his condemnation space, which had been cleared just before written on it. The victim would be thrust the war broke out in order to build a ballout, under the pretext of being conducted room. The ground had been dug out at to execution, but in reality to be de- one side for the foundations, so that the spatched by the mob. In their despair whole presented the appearance of a sort some would try and run for their lives, of circus with a deep trench at one end. only to be shot down, as a witness described it, "like wild animals." The priests were dealt with after the same fashion.

a

On Thursday, about four o'clock, when the shells were falling on the prison Brigadier Romain arrived, and with a joyful air announced to them that they were to be set free. "We want fifteen," said the Brigadier; "so answer to your names." They were not deceived by this pretence, and knew that their hour was come. When he came to one of the names which was written illegibly, a religious stepped forward and calmly said it was his. Another asked might he take his hat, but the Brigadier said it was not worth while, as they were only going to the office. In the court below was waiting a band of armed men, some of whom seemed to be the same who had assisted at the Archbishop's execution. The leader was a Garibaldian, with very red hair, a huge sabre, and a revolver, which he flourished. An apothecary was watching all this from the window of his cell, and heard snatches of an angry conversation between this man and the governor of the prison, the cidevant convict Le Français. The Garibal

Here, and in all the streets that gave upon this place, was waiting a surging, roaring crowd, which eddied still in unclean waves as the head of the procession passed in. A man was riding among this mass who was greeted with shouts of approbation, and when the prisoners approached he called out, "Here's a good take, my men! Now, let me see you finish them!"

A young man, fair, pale, handsomely dressed, and evidently of superior station, was also seen with them, and was heard to say: "Shoot them down, my friends; shoot them down!

The whole place where the future ballroom was to be erected was now one mass of human beings. The fifty unfortunate men were dragged forward and thrust into the trench. The priests were already wounded, but were perfectly resigned and patient. Then commenced a slaughter with revolvers that could only be compared to a battue. Shot after shot was poured into the fatal trench until it became a mass of lifeless, bleeding remains. For a time all was like an orgie from the mixed sounds of yells, imprecations, and shots. Then came a sudden stillness. A

man in a grey hat and blouse, with a gun owing to the general confusion now prevailslung on his back, came out of the trenching, for the soldiers were closing in. The and was received with delight and con- hostages the priests especially — so gratulations young and pretty women often deluded by such invitations, were at patting him on the back, and saying, a loss what to do. Four of the priests, "Well done; bravo, my friend!" The including Fathers Surat and Chaulieu, unfortunate Abbé Sabbatier was pierced timorously found their way to the gate. with eight balls, his brain blown out, his They had got as far as the Place Prince jaw shot away, Eugene, when they were stopped and searched. The Federals were about to shoot them on the spot when some women interposed and begged that they should not be executed there. They were taken back to the prison, when M. Surat made an attempt to escape. He was caught, and dragged along under the prison wall. At this moment a woman burst out of the crowd, and, flinging herself on him, tried to stab him. With one hand he tried to ward off her blows, and with the other made the sign of the cross. Shrieking, "Let me have the priest. I must have him!" she levelled her revolver, and as the unfortunate priest said "Mercy, mademoiselle; have mercy!" shot him through the head. A mere child then shot him in the chest. The other three perished in the same way.

We go back again to La Roquette, where there were still left a few hostages, among whom were half a dozen priests. It was evident that the Commune were economizing their victims, using them in batches to stimulate the already whetted appetites of their followers. The old Chinese Missionary had somehow been passed over, though he often thought his last moment had come. There were also Fathers Surat, Chaulieu, and about sixty laymen.

It was now Saturday, the 27th. The end was at hand, and it was to be the last day of the Commune. About evening news spread through the prison that the terrible Ferré had arrived. He had come to carry off a fresh batch to execution. A brave Superintendent or Brigadier of the prison named Binet, was shocked at this The Chinese Missionary, who had been fresh demand, and came down to Ferré, ready for death, took things very quietly. whom he found flourishing a revolver, and At the general sauve qui peut, the warder, surrounded by half a dozen of his men, who behaved admirably all through, gave their guns slung on their backs. The them lay dresses. The old Missionary went Brigadier began to plot with a companion out, and wandering about the streets for how he was to save them, and for a mo- more than an hour trying to obtain shelter, ment thought of snatching Ferré's pistol at last came to the resolution of returning and shooting him, but that was found too to his prison - where he found the servants risky. He was forced to bring them down. with some gendarmes, who had done preThere were of course in the prison the cisely the same thing. The Abbé De Marregular malefactors, and as he went up say was more fortunate. He found a Fedstairs it occurred to him that it would be eral who threatened him with his gun. a good idea to release and arm these men, The Abbé waited till he saw the man's aton condition of their fighting in defence tention engaged by some unfortunate solof the place. Accordingly all sorts of rude diers who were being hurried by, and fled. weapons, hammers, bars, &c., were fur- The fellow fired after him, but missed him. nished to them, and according to other No romance of the late Dumas could be accounts the Communists handed in arms more full of exciting scenes, succeeding through the gratings. Binet presently each other like a dreadful series of dissolvsaw one of the criminals who was under ing views. Even this last incident is a sentence of death, aiming at him with a little picture. But everywhere, through musket. Cries of "Hurrah for the Com-the smoke and crowd, the dark cassock of mune!" echoed through the building. the baited priest is in the centre. But the courageous officer went and It seems the prison was divided into warned the hostages not to be seduced down by any cries that the gates were open, and then barricaded himself and them. He was seen at a window, and an infurated Communist called upon him to come down. The whole place was now in confusion. All the cells were thrown open, and every one was told he might go where and when he pleased. No doubt this was

several quarters, and in two of these the hostages had successfully barricaded themselves. One of the hostages bade the priests to keep out of the way, saying "that their gown did not oblige them to fight." A priest answered them, "But we can at least give you our blessing," which they did. The Federals came again and again, threatening and cursing, and at last

tried to set the place on fire. They then attempted their old ruse, announcing that the prisoners were free and the doors open, and that the place was about to be burnt. But they were not to be taken in.

The Missionary and his friends were too few to think of defence, and a clever warder took them to the infirmary, and put them in bed in the sick wards, dressing them in the hospital clothes. This idea was the suggestion of a convict who was employed in the prison. His name, which should be preserved, was Cieszanski. Again the Federals came, and were told that the hostages had all gone

away.

attrocities should be at large; ready, perhaps, to repeat them should the occasion offer. The blood of those murdered men, who met their sufferings and death so nobly, cries to Heaven for vengeance.

From The Spectator.

THE QUAKERS AND THE INTERNATIONAL. THE International will not make much of the Ipswich Engineers. The "tyranny of capital" seems to be felt in that rather out-of-the-way town as a very beneficent influence, a kind of constitutional authority not to be attacked or upset without By this time, however, the Versailles very grave reflection. The accounts of troops had made great head, and the in- the movement there to secure the Nine surgents were falling back in all direc- Hours' Day published in the local papers tions. Two of the leaders came to take are very interesting, not only on account refuge that evening at the prison, with of the relation revealed as existing besome horses and a mysterious chest, of tween masters and men — a relation quite which they took great care, and which of the antique sort, manifested in ways was supposed to contain money. They that would have delighted Dickens, - but brought a supply of wigs and chignons, on account of their couleur locale, the and a hair-dresser, who spent some time in shaving and dressing them as women. One of these was believed in the prison to have been Ferré. Both fled before night.

At last Sunday morning came round, and the Missionary and his companions in the infirmary heard fresh confusion below. There was a tramping on the stairs, and the doors flew open. An officer in the uniform of the French Army, his sword raised in the air, strode in and called

almost religious tone which seems to have penetrated the proceedings. In Ipswich they quote the Bible in favour of short hours, and take as their song of triumph a hymn from Dr. Watts. Most of our readers have heard, we imagine, of Messrs. Ransome, Sims, and Head, the great Quaker firm on the Orwell, which turns out so large a proportion of the agricultural machinery used throughout England, and is always coming to the front with new inventions and appliances, like the road steamer now being so largely ordered "Who cries, France for ever!'" for India. This firm, now ninety years old, A shout, says the old Chinese Mission- is remarkable in industrial history for the ary, echoed him back his challenge of de-amity and long continuance of its relations liverance. His next question was "Where is the Archbishop?" It was Colonel Desplat. Rescue had come at last, and the true soldiers of France were below and filling the building. The Reign of Terror was at an end. It must have seemed like some horrid nightmare to these survivors as they looked back.

out:

There had been another act of the tragedy at the Mazas Prison. When the soldiers were drawing near, the rebels had opened the doors, and bidding them go, the inmates rushed out. But all round the prison were the barricades lined with the insurgents, and as the wretched prisoners scattered and hurried by, they were shot down nearly to a man.

Such is the "Story of the Hostages." It is to be lamented that many of the wretches who perpetrated these hideous

with its employés. The founder Mr. Ransome, a Quaker, in spite of a hard head and a somewhat despotic temper, had the Quaker habit of consideration for his men, and his little foundry grew amidst difficulties such as one reads of in novels-in one case Mr. Ransome had to pay away his children's bright pennies and little silver to meet the wages of the week-till it grew into one of the first establishments in England, able to turn out at need a regiment of well-drilled, full-grown men. Aided, no doubt, by local circumstances, such as the absence of similar factories in the district and its general poverty poverty long since removed-but mainly by their men's sense of the governing tone of the firm, the Ransomes were able on one occasion to tide over a period which was fatal to more than one of their rivals

a

in the trade. Some thirty-five years ago | granted with pleasure, as a partial repaywork was slack, money was scarce, and the ment of the ancient obligation conferred firm was compelled to take the men into by the hands upon the firm. So touched council, and ask for concessions which in were the men by this reception and the inmany places would have been the signal stant concession of their demand, that for a determined strike. The masters, they could not be content without some however, explained their situation frankly, public exhibition of their feeling, and acthe men entirely believed them, and after cordingly resolved to present their employa single meeting the whole body agreed ers with an address at a public soirée. to work three-quarters time at reduced The address, a most simple, straightforwages, that is, in fact, to put up with 12s. ward affair, remarkable only for its clear or 13s. in the pound of their usual receipts assertion that prosperity is a blessing to till better times came round. "That mat-be prayed for instead of a snare to be ter rested in my mind," says the present avoided, was accordingly presented, and head of the firm, speaking so many years received by the partners in speeches which after the occurrence, and doubtless tended are really an echo of the men's, a distinct to deepen an amity so remarkable that the avowal that a short stint of daily labour firm, though noted for the strictness of its is a good thing, good for the masters as discipline, has now 456 hands in its employ well as the men, and one that in the end whose services average 20 years, 328 who will cost nothing. There was none of average 25 years, 51 who average 36 years, that reticence and caution with which most and 14 who exceed 46 years. In fact, de- employers think it expedient to temper parture has become among the more ex- any concession whatever. We do not obperienced hands as unusual as dismissal, a serve in the very minute report of the fact all the more remarkable, because simi- speeches before us a single regret over the lar works are now in existence all over good old times when men worked from England, and Messrs. Ransome's men ex- sunrise till they were too tired for anypress in their speeches about the Nine thing but bed, while the manager of the Hours' movement complete sympathy with Orwell Works, not a partner, repudiated their order throughout the country, and in the strongest language the idea of makare evidently not disposed to surrender ing up the lost time by driving. He any of the advantages generally enjoyed. wanted more brain-oil put into their Immediately after the termination of the work, and not more elbow-grease;" to see Newcastle Strike, the men, more than 900 them all become workmen, instead of in number, decided that it would be "dis- merely working-men. Nobody made the creditable to Ipswich to remain behind- blunder of hinting that the men would hand" in such a reform; but instead of misspend the new leisure; and the partstriking or threatening to strike they held ners, with a touch of the true courtesy so a meeting in the Lecture Hall, at which often wanting in these struggles, insisted doctrines were propounded that would that the head of the workmen's Committee have made a Communist white with rage. -the "leader of the revolt," as they One, which would, we fear, be received would say in Belgium or France - should with little approval even in Northern Eng-take precedence of the gentlemen, and be land, was that it was to the workman's ad- Chairman of the occasion. vantage that his master should get rich, a statement not indeed made by a workman, but received by them with unanimous applause; another, that "workmen had duties as well as rights; " and a third, that if they were "courteous and reasonable," their employers would in all probability be so too. There was a bit of a fight as to the best hours for beginning and leaving off, but it ended in a unanimous decision to ask for a full half-holiday on Satday, that is, from noon instead of 2 p. m., and such reduction on other days as would bring the weekly stint of labour down to fifty-four hours. A deputation accordingly waited on Messrs. Ransome with the men's request, and were, it seems, not only told that it would be granted, but that it was

66

We have given this little incident a prominent place in our columns for two reasons. One is that we gravely believe this Nine Hours' movement to be one of the most important that has ever occurred in the long strife of Labour and Capital, and its success of the brightest omen for the future adjustment of their relations. Masters and men have shown more common-sense than they have displayed for a century, and the effect of the reform in removing bitterness will be immense, for although some of the men still argue that wages are more important than leisure, and some of the masters still allege the reduction of hours is only a phrase for increase of pay, there can be no doubt that the old hours, the long monotony of toil,