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CHAPTER XVII.
THE APPOINTMENT MADE WITH THE WORKMEN'S SOCIETIES
What had become of our Committee during these tragic events, and what
was it doing? It is necessary to relate what took place.
Let us go back a few hours.
At the moment when this strange butchery began, the seat of the
Committee was still in the Rue Richelieu. I had gone back to it after
the exploration which I had thought it proper to make at several of the
quarters in insurrection, and I gave an account of what I had seen to my
colleagues. Madier de Montjau, who also arrived from the barricades,
added to my report details of what he had seen. For some time we heard
terrible explosions, which appeared to be close by, and which mingled
themselves with our conversation. Suddenly Versigny came in. He told us
that horrible events were taking place on the Boulevards; that the
meaning of the conflict could not yet be ascertained, but that they were
cannonading, and firing volleys of musket-balls, and that the corpses
bestrewed the pavement; that, according to all appearances, it was a
massacre,--a sort of Saint Bartholomew improvised by the coup d'état;
that they were ransacking the houses at a few steps from us, and that
they were killing every one. The murderers were going from door to door,
and were drawing near. He urged us to leave Grévy's house without delay.
It was manifest that the Insurrectionary Committee would be a "find" for
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