CANNONS THE ARMY NEGLECTS

GUARDS SEIZE 371 CANNONS THAT THE ARMY HAS LEFT

WITHIN THE PRUSSIAN GRASP

Legally they belong to the army, but public subscription financed them in part and the population considers them theirs, while official preparations for the Prussian march are merely cosmetic.

• The army moves displays at a Champs-Élysées exhibit across the river.

-- Lissagary

• It blocks the space between the columns of the Arc de Triomphe to keep the Prussians from marching between them, and covers its patriotic sculptures to keep them from witnessing the humiliation:

"Prussian Troops Parade Down the Champs Élysées in Paris" by Adolf Göhde, no date / zoom

Yet it leaves the cannons 20 minutes from the Arc of Triumph where the 30,000 Prussians will pass, to grab them if they wish.

Before that march,"Each battalion took back its cannons; men, women and children pulled them along the boulevard, banners waving:"  

-- Louise Michel

 Claretie

The illustration in a conservative account omits the flag-waving residents.

• Sites where guards from low-income neighborhoods deposit cannons:

Adapted from an RATP map

• Guards from prosperous areas do the same:

Adapted from an RATP map

Twenty-one cannons are parked

 in the Ranelagh gardens... 

on the way to a race track where the Prussian king will address his troops before the march. Guards from the well-heeled 16th district  take them to deposit at parc Monceau, the easternmost area that the wealthy control.  

-- Prussian king's address, Claretie
-- Transfer, Lissagary

The soldiers protecting the cannons

let the guards take them.

*    *    *
Next,
Prussians have their victory march but guards steal the show