Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/555

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indignant at his unfilial conduct, to remember that he had a father dying of hunger in one of the Faubourgs of Paris. He made him a pension of $20 a month; although the gains of the editor of the Marseillaise and Mot d'Ordre during the last two years are estimated at $60,000. The old man, however, was so happy at the receipt of this sum that he almost lost his head.

Henri Rochefort never but once entered the sad abode of his father, and that was a few hours before his death, when he came and embraced him. On the morrow he returned with five or six persons, and followed the corpse to the cemetery of Bercy.

Our readers will probably remember the part taken by M. Libbmann under the Commune, and his success in saving from ruin the Chapelle Expiatoire of Louis XVI. Immediately after the entrance of the troops, a subscription was raised to repay M. Libbmann the sums he had expended. The amount raised, however, far exceeded the necessary sum, and the surplus was devoted to charitable purposes. M. Libbmann has lately received the following letter of thanks and congratulation from Henry V, Comte de Chambord:


"Chambord, July 3d, 1871.

"I was much moved, Monsieur, by the feelings which you expressed in your letter, and by the thought, so Christian and so French, which inspired you. I already knew of the admirable zeal and courage which you had displayed in the crisis through which we have just passed. I am happy to be able to express here, myself, all my gratitude to you. Thanks to you, France will not have had the grief of seeing disappear in the revolutionary turmoil the chapel consecrated to the memory of the martyr-king. Saint Louis has, by his intercession, saved the Holy Chapel, which stands alone to-day in the midst of the