the following order of the day in regard to the Vendôme Column:
"Soldiers:—The Vendôme Column has just fallen;
the foreigner had respected it. Persons who call themselves
Frenchmen have dared to throw down before the
eyes of the Germans, who are watching us, that testimony
of the victories of our fathers over combined Europe.
"Did they hope, the miserable authors of the outrage on the nation's glory, to efface the memory of the military virtues of which that monument was the glorious symbol?
"Soldiers! if the recollections which the Column brought to mind are no longer engraven on bronze, they will nevertheless remain living in your hearts; and taking our inspiration from them, we shall know how to give to France a fresh pledge of bravery, devotedness, and patriotism.
"Marshal de MacMahon,
"Duke de Magenta."
M. Thiers was exceedingly moved when he heard of the
fall of the Column, and exclaimed in the Assembly,
"Now I am ashamed of being a Frenchman!" but his
cry of grief was soon drowned in a concert of patriotic
outcries; and on the 22d of May the National Assembly,
by a unanimous vote, decreed the following law:
"The Column of Place Vendôme shall be rebuilt at the
expense of the State, and surmounted by a statue of
France."
The following day, and as if to punish Paris for its
crime, a horrible explosion was heard about six o'clock in
the evening, which struck terror and dismay into the
hearts of the inhabitants. Several hundreds of women
and children were victims to this terrible calamity.
