IV.
THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE AND THE REACTION.
The 19th of March saw the red flag waving over the Hôtel de Ville and all the public buildings of the city. The Revolution had triumphed, but it had made its first mistake: it had allowed the heads of the Government to escape with the elements of an army. The Central Committee was supreme, but stupefied by its sudden accession to absolute power. Two of the members alone had the presence of mind to suggest the only course to retrieve the previous day's mistake, viz., to march at once on Versailles, then virtually at their mercy, disperse the Assembly, and arrest the ringleaders of the Reaction. The others hung on legal technicalities. Meanwhile the clearing of the Government offices and the transference of yet more military to Versailles still went on. But the Committee (to its honour in one sense) was too eager to abdicate its functions and proceed to the elections for the Commune, to think of shutting the gates, or indeed of anything else. In order to legalise the situation and put the Revolution right with the rest of France, the co-operation of the deputies for Paris and of the mayors was resolved to be sought, in concert with whom the Committee wished to proclaim the elections.
The Thiers crew now played out their last card, in the final number which they issued of the Journal Officiel, alleging the Committee to have "assassinated" in cold blood the Generals Lecomte and Clément-Thomas, and asking whether the National Guard would take upon itself
