Prussians prepare for the march in the Tuileries gardens, photographer unknown / zoom
German Troops in Paris, 1871 (cut) by Adolf Göhder / zoom
The guards want to fight but when their wives say that will lead to a bloodbath and to losing the Republic as in '48, they react in another way.
A proclamation bordered in black states that barricades will isolate the enemy and that the Guard will act "in concert with the army" — which remains on the other side of the river.
Bells toll. Black cloths hang from windows. The streets are deserted:
- "That night gave an impression of grandeur."
-- Louise Michel
- "So Moscow must have seemed to the Grand Army. Parked between the Seine, the Louvre [...] and a cordon of barricades [...] bordering faubourg Saint-Honoré, the Germans seemed caught in a trap."
-- Lissagary
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"Calmly and dutifully, the guards broke everything in a café that had served the Prussians [...] and without pity or anger, whipped the unfortunate women who had slipped through the barricades in festive dress, to view the invaders."
-- Louise Michel (underlining added)
the Prussians leave without incident.After two days and two nights camping out in the cold,
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