X.
THE LAST DAYS OF PARIS.
In addition to their military operations, the Versaillese were not indisposed to rely on the work of spies in endeavouring to affect an entry into the city by means of treachery. These gentlemen, however, quarrelled among themselves, mutually denounced each other to their employers, and, in spite of the big promises which each made in turn, they effected nothing beyond consuming some few hundred thousand francs of governmental money. They were most of them "old soldiers," including one or two naval officers, reactionary National Guards, and Chevaliers d'Industrie. Some of them having attempted to corrupt Drombrowski, they were denounced by him to the Committee of Public Safety. This was about the last attempt made by Thiers to gain over Paris by treachery. He saw it was no use.
Meanwhile the discussions in the council-room between the "majority" and "minority" in the Commune were, unhappily, going on more acrimoniously than ever. Rossel, in spite of his demand for a "cell at Mazas," and of his parole not to escape, slunk off and hid himself in a safe retreat, whence he was to be fetched out some three weeks later by the Versaillese, by that time masters of Paris. His arrest was decreed, however, almost unani-
