Rubber, Revolutionaries, Republicans, and a Young Man Named Bonaparte.

Louis A. Blanqui & his comrades decide to withdraw all funds from the French Treasury to secreted locations throughout Paris...the result...The Commune does not fall!

This AH is a tale of a world where Modern French history takes a few bloody turns & major fractures that did not happened in our world. The POD for this is that the Communards decide to empty the French treasury of billions of francs. Thereby denying the cash reserves that the Republican Gov't would/did use to finance its' military in destroying the Paris Commune along with other Socialist uprisings in 1871.

By confiscating this money, the Commune now had sufficient means to pay its troops & finance its' revolutionary government & programs. Other aspects of this timeline: In 1859, Glasgow, Scotland two businessmen; (I'm calling them the Fraser brothers because....Fraser sounds like it may be a Scottish surname that doesn't have 'Mac' or 'Mc' in front of it; sorry if I'm wrong but I'm an American :D) Walter & Daniel Fraser have a rubber belt manufactory & they discover a process & invent a machine to mass produce pneumatic tires and more importantly, they invent an air valve for putting air into a tire they name it the: Fraser Valve. IOTL it is called the "Schrader Valve". I am not sure if it was in fact invented prior to my AH timeline, if it was c'est la vie.

In any case, in 1862 the Fraser Brothers Rubber Company move their operations to Nottingham, England. Second divergence: The Penny Farthing bicycle is invented in 1850, by 1859 improvements and further refinements lead to the 1860 invention of the Safety Bicycle.

Third divergence: Fraser Brothers Rubber Co. become Fraser Tire Company in 1863, and as a result the bicycle mania begins in Great Britain in 1864-65 & lasts until late 1890's with intro of the Automobile.

Fourth Divergence (A BIG one) The Brazilian Rubber Boom begins in 1866-67 & because of this, Brazilian coffee, sugar, & tobacco planters transfer tens of thousands of their slaves to the Amazon to tap wild rubber trees to satisfy the demands of the Rubber Barons of Nottingham.

Fifth Divergence (Another HUGE one) Prince Albert recovers from his bout of typhoid fever, (I've also read where he may have been suffering from cancer yet it was diagnosed as typhoid by the physicians of the day, in this AH of mine it will be typhoid not cancer) and not only lives a long life, he will also outlive Queen Victoria by 4-5 yrs, she will continue as normal OTL until 1901.

Sixth divergence: Since Prince Albert lives; expect to see HUGE changes in the division of Africa at the Berlin Conference. Small hint: Island nations with big navies are not well suited to hold large pieces of territory even though they believe they can as per India.


Better that they hold onto coastal islands and small fortified ports; even better still, it's far better to let traditional land based powers who've recently had their "feelings hurt" and have been humiliated & embarrassed in a recent war to let them get distracted in large overseas territories that they can barely afford or administer ;)


That concludes (so far) all the smallish PODs prior to the seizure of the French treasury by the Communards. The Austro-Prussian War, The American Civil War, death of Maximillian etc are unchanged as are all other historical events throughout the 1860's & up until 1871.

Although I have mentioned things about Great Britain, Brazil, slavery, the future of Africa etc, this is mostly involving France from 1871 up until possibly (if I get that far) the 1970's? I welcome all comments & critiques if I make an ahistorical mistake, please let me know so I can make changes to this story.:)
 
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spacing

A bit better layout in terms of paragraphs would make this easier to read. Other than that sounds interesting
 
Chapter 1

Paris, France

February 18, 1871

Time: 3:00 AM


The Chairman sat and waited nervously. How long has it been? They should have returned by now. He glanced at his pocket watch, 3:13 am. More than 9 hours, it should not have taken this long.

What could have happened he wondered? Were they stopped? Are they under arrest? Did they flee with the "packages"? He looked at the clock on the far wall. 3:21 am. He put his hands to his forehead and closed his eyes. When he lifted his head out of his hands he glanced at the clock on his desk: 3:39 am; the tension was almost too unbearable for him now.

He took a deep breath and then began to smile. He mused silently to himself: "How difficult can it be to rob a bank when you have the all the keys to the bank and access to all of the vaults therein"? The Chairman looked pensively, longingly out the window for any sign of them. "3:57 am, nearly ten hours, something must have gone wrong, terribly wrong". All he could do is sit back down and wait and wait and wait.

***

He awoke abruptly to the sound of the heavy footfalls crashing down in rapid succession on the oak floorboards in the hallway. He instinctively knew it was the tall, heavyset young man with the heavy Alsatian accent. What was his name? Henri? Armand? Well it didn't matter, what mattered was what news he brought.

He focused on the clock on the wall, it read 4:10 am. The door flew open and in an instant the Chairman remembered his name at once. "Alfred! What news do you have for me"? The young Alsatian was all at once startled, surprised, and delighted that the Chairman of the Commune should remember his name.

"Comrade Chairman, I am pleased to be the first to inform you that it is done! We have emptied the 'bakery' without leaving as much as a bagette crumb behind for any of the Capitalist rats to even sniff at." Chairman Blanqui looked at him quizzically and then inquired: "Where are the ah, "bread wagons" now"? Alfred then replied; "Comrade Chairman, they are all down in the courtyard and in the rear of the hotel".

Blanqui looked at him & said "Lets go to them then." As they walked down the hallway, Blanqui asked the young man what had taken so long. "Ahh, Comrade Chairman, when we left earlier this evening we had 33 wagons....."Yes I know that go on!" Blanqui impatiently replied.

"Well Comrade Chairman, we found to our surprise that there was far more bread in the bakery than we had anticipated". Surprised now himself, Blanqui asked him directly; "What do you mean Comrade?" "Well, Comrade Chairman, we had to find more wagons and more teams of horses & get them without arousing too much attention."

At this, Blanqui stopped and grabbed young Alfred by the elbow and exclaimed. "How many more wagons?" "14 Comrade Chairman!" the young man proudly replied. Blanqui looked at him in near awe. "47 wagons!" "47 wagons! All full?" "Oui! Comrade Chairman, 47 full wagons". Blanqui let this fortunate news wash over him as they continued down the stairs and to the exit.

He thought to himself; "47 wagons,.....full of francs!" There had to be billions of francs in coin, specie, and paper less than 200 yards from where he now stood. A big broad smile arose on his face and he absentmindedly spoke aloud when he thought he was thinking to himself: "Le republique est morte." He was stunned & surprised when he heard his young stocky comrades voice agreeing out loud with him; "Ja, Genosse Vorsitzender, die Republik ist tot!"

As the Chairman stepped outside, he saw the hastily assembled wagons before him. Four rows with eight wagons in each line. "Where are the other 15 wagons?" asked the Chairman out loud to no one in particular.

"Comrade Chairman,..." a familiar voice sounded out in the near darkness; Blanqui recognized it at once. " Well Emil, it appears you have a special delivery for me." Emil Pleiseau approached Chairman Blanqui and replied to the Chairman. " Oui, Comrade Chairman indeed we have a delivery with many extras as well."

"As for the other wagons Comrade Chairman, they are in the front of the hotel in the courtyard." Blanqui approached the line of wagons & looked into the back of one to see its contents. As far as he could ascertain, there appeared to be around 30 money sacks piled up 3 feet high.

On the sides of the wagons interior walls, he saw small wooden crates all along the interior sides of the wagon. In the faint moonlight, he could see on the floorboard of the wagon a metallic glint. As he got closer, he could see the reflection of the Moon in bars of silver which appeared to cover the floorboard.....


***

Blanqui was pleased & happy. With this potential amount of cash & bullion on hand in each of these wagons, the success of the Commune was much more likely than without it.

Moreover, without access to all of this treasure, the Republican forces would be hard pressed to finance their government or any of its' potential endeavors. "Comrade Pleiseau," called out Blanqui, "Yes, Comrade Chairman what is it?"

"Comrade Pleiseau what I am wondering is did you manage to locate the ledgers?" "Most certainly Comrade Chairman, I kept them with me at all times." replied Pleiseau. With that Pleiseau motioned to two of his deputies. The two deputies began walking toward both Pleiseau & Blanqui, each man carrying a heavy leather valise.

Several yards away, Alfred Fishkin stood watching & realizing that not only was he an eyewitness to history, but he was an active participant in changing the World. He began to reflect soberly on what he learned in the past few years.

All of the lectures, his reading of Marx, the all night discussions, they finally began to make sense. Nations throughout history have many things that make them exist yet it always comes down to financial resources. Without access to money, governments simply grind to a halt. More importantly, without money, armies cease to function.

He felt somewhat omniscient. The theories of Marx were so enlightening & liberating. At the same time, Fishkin allowed himself a prideful indulgence. He felt a small sense of kinship with Karl Marx. After all, they were both Germans who did not live in a German state, they were both Socialists, and coincidentally, they were both agnostic Jews.

Yet Alfred thought of himself more as a Communard & an Internationalist more than he considered himself as either a German, a Frenchman, or even as a Jew. He stood there then quite satisfied with himself.

As Fishkin stood there deep in his thoughts, Chairman Blanqui received the two valises from Pleiseau's deputies. He opened the valises at once & began to search for one ledger in particular. He held each volume up in the moonlight in order to read its cover.

Finally, he located the ledger he was searching for. He began to look through it holding it up into the dimming moonlight. "Incroyable, absolument incroyable" gasped Blanqui. After a few minutes he said out loud: "Excellent, most excellent, this is just what we needed Emil, I believe these ledgers are perhaps more valuable in their own way than the contents of all those wagons; for these ledgers have," he paused. "....ah, true.....gold....within their covers."

At this, Alfred Fishkin could not help himself and blurted out: "Comrade Chairman, are you saying that there are gold certificates within those ledgers?" Blanqui & Pleiseau looked over at the young Alsatian and began to quietly laugh at the young mans' ignorance.

The Chairman thought & then replied to Fishkin: "The intrinsic value in these ledgers young Comrade Fishkin is that they will save us the most valuable resource of all: Time. For time is the one thing that cannot be repossessed."

Blanqui could see Fishkins confusion. He continued; "..you see Comrade Fishkin, without these ledgers, it could take us 5 years to count the contents of all of those wagons; with these ledgers, we will know within the week of how much money we now have in our possession. You understand?" "Ja, ich verstehe Genosse Vorsitzende", replied Fishkin.

Blanqui then turned his full attention to Pleiseau. "Comrade Pleiseau we need to implement phase 2 of this operation, we need, & I demand, in the name of the Commune, that all of these wagons be driven to their destinations, I want them to move out immediately so they can get to their destinations before the sun comes up. We can't afford to lose any of those wagons, is that clear Comrade?"

"Absolutely Comrade Chairman, it will be done at once; yet Comrade Chairman I do have 1 question in regards to the 14 additional wagons and that is, where will these extra wagons be taken to?" Blanqui instantly replied to Pleiseau, "Have the extra 14 wagons pair up with 1 of another wagons, so that 14 of our storage sites will simply have two wagons instead of just 1, that is all I can think of since we are not going to abandon them or..." Blanqui grinned, "...return them to the Treasury."

Pleiseau laughed at that and began the evacuation of the treasure wagons. Blanqui then looked towards the young Alsatian. "Comrade Fishkin!" Alfred Fishkin ran up towards the Chairman & before he could speak the Chairman simply pointed to the two oversize valises and stated to him; "Put these in my carriage."

As soon as he said it, Blanqui turned on his heel and climbed into his waiting carriage. After Fishkin loaded the two valises he went to the carriage door as he had rehearsed during the past 4 days. As he looked into the carriage, Chairman Blanqui handed him a folded piece of paper and then he said to him:

"You do remember the route don't you Alfred?" Alfred quickly nodded in agreement. The Chairman then added; "You think you can remember the route even in the dark Alfred?" "Ja, ja, Genosse Vorsitzender, Ich Habe nicht vergessen." Blanqui smiled and then remarked to the young Alsatian:

"Really Alfred, you must learn to speak the French at all times, not in that barbarian tongue of yours." Embarrassed, Fishkin looked down and nodded, "Oui, oui, I will be working on it Comrade Chairman." Blanqui looked at him with a devilish grin and said: "Sehr gut, lets go mein Fahrer."


******


 
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Chapter 2

The Palace of Versailles, Versailles, France

March 11, 1871

Time: 6:25 PM



The President sat and waited impatiently. How long had it been? They should have been back by now. He took out his pocket watch and saw that it read 6:25 PM. Over five hours had passed since they left; it should not have taken this long. Were the rumors true he wondered? Were his men afraid to return with bad news?

He paced around the drawing room, he looked over at the clock on the far wall, it read 6:40 PM. The tension was becoming hard to bear. If the rumors were true, what would he do? What would he tell the members of the National Assembly? What would he say to his generals? By God! What would he say to the Prussians?!

He paced harder and breathed heavily, he walked over to the window & looked out pensively, longingly, & hopefully for any sign of his men. In frustration he walked over to the clock on the far wall & looking up saw that the time was now only 6:55 PM.

At that moment a young aide slowly entered the room. "Pardon Mr. President would you care for some coffee?" The President looked over at him and smiled: "That would be most welcome at this time, thank you Robert." The young man quickly exited the room. As he sat down at his desk, Adolphe Thiers wondered to himself how difficult could it be for 30 heavily armed men to travel to the Treasury Building and back to Versailles. He quickly reminded himself that now, Paris was a very dangerous place to be even for 30 heavily armed men.


A gentle knock on the door; "Entre" replied Thiers. Robert, his aide wheeled in a small cart with a coffee pot, a small pitcher of milk, sugar bowl, several cups, and utensils. "Merci, Robert, that will be all for now." said Thiers; after pouring a cup for the President, Robert quickly & silently exited the room.

Thiers slowly took a sip from the hot cup of coffee. He glanced at the small clock on his desk, it read 7:25 PM. As he sat slowly sipping his coffee Thiers slowly drifted into a light sleep, his last glance at the clock before he slipped into a deeper sleep told him it was now 7:50 PM; and still, no sign of his men.

***


He awoke abruptly to the sound of hooves on the cobblestones outside. Adolphe Thiers stood quickly & walked toward the window. Looking outside in the dark night he could see 30 "centaur" like creatures. He counted them quickly. "Thank goodness they've all returned." He turned and began to walk toward the door to go downstairs to meet them. At once, he froze. "No, no it would not be appropriate for him to go to them he thought." He did not want too look to anxious, better for his officers to come to him. He instead went over to a wash basin & cleaned his face. He then sat back down at his desk and noted the time, it was 9:25 PM.


He didn't have to wait long. Thiers could hear the muffled sound of footsteps on the carpet outside his office. A light, gentle knock on the door indicated to Thiers that it must be his young aide Robert; any of his generals would have knocked hard & loud on the door. Thiers sat up straight and said: "Entrez, s'il vous plait". Robert entered the room and said; "Mr. President, General Gaston Alexandre Auguste, the Marquis de Galliffet to see you sir." President Thiers then said; "Send him in Robert, send him in."

General Gaston A. Auguste, the Marquis de Galliffet was a tall thin man, about 40 years old with a thin handle-bar mustache. He entered the room, walked quickly to the President's desk and executed a quick, sharp salute. President Thiers returned the salute. The President spoke first: "Well, General Auguste, what news do you have for me?"

General Auguste cleared his throat. "Mr. President..." he cleared his throat again, "...Mr President let me begin by stating to you that I have no doubts that the Republic will overcome any difficulty in the days to come since we now have a steady, experienced, and seasoned hand at the helm of our ship of state and furthermore let me also state that...." Thiers quickly put up his hand to stop General Auguste in mid sentence. "General Auguste, please spare me the dramatics and tell me the situation without all the excess verbiage."

General Auguste took a deep breath and then spoke. "Mr. President, the anarchists have looted & ransacked the Treasury. Every vault has been emptied. They overturned desks, opened every drawer, went through every closet and even stole writing paper and all of the bottles of ink." Thiers drew a heavy breath and turned away from General Auguste and looked out the window into the cold black night, made even blacker by the catastrophic news conveyed by General Auguste.


Thiers stood, staring out the window. His mind was racing now. Things looked truly black by what General Auguste had just said. Yet, there was still one small, shining glimmer of hope that could, in effect, make this catastrophe less bleak than it actually was. As Thiers turned back to look at General Auguste, he was clinging with all his hope & might that this small glimmer of light may in fact become a beacon of hope for the Republic rather than just a weak figment of his hopeful imagination. As Thiers approached General Auguste he motioned for him to sit down.

After the General sat down, Thiers looked him directly in the eyes & said to him: "General, did you & your men search the entire building?" General Auguste replied; "Oui, Mr. President most certainly we did." Thiers continued, "Did you encounter any resistance? Any guards or, for that matter, any corpses? Any signs of a struggle? Any, broken glass, shell casings lying about?" General Auguste then replied; "No Mr. President, we encountered no resistance at all, and there were no bodies, no shattered glass or even any dried blood anywhere at all."

Thiers bored into him, "General, you say that you & your men searched the entire building...anyplace else?" Auguste thought for a moment & then slowly answered, "Oui, Mr. President we also searched the stables as well as the armory. There was no sign of any fighting, no persons living or dead and in the stable, there were no horses or any of their harnesses either."

He continued, "As for the Armory, Mr. President, we searched it & noted that all weapons had been removed yet it seemed that the anarchists did not enter there at all & if they did Mr. President, they must have scrupulously cleaned up after themselves for nothing was out of place in the Armory."

Thiers thought on that for a moment. He knew that the weapons and ammunition stored at the armory was removed back in November to help in fighting the Prussians, so that did not surprise him. What made him wonder was, how did the anarchists know not to bother with the Armory? Surely, they would have at least tried to enter it in hopes of finding weapons. Unless, of course, they knew beforehand that there was nothing of value in the Armory building. Someone or some group was giving them inside information.


President Thiers looked hard at General Auguste. He then said to him; "General, what I need to know is of a great importance, the survival of the Republic may be at stake. Do you understand me General?" General Auguste looked directly at Thiers, "Most definitely, Mr. President, what do you need to know?"

Thiers looked at him & took a deep heavy breath, for he did not know if General Auguste was one of the small circle of Generals who would know of this information; after all, General Auguste had only recently escaped from Prussian captivity & he may not have been privy to certain knowledge. Thiers took the chance. "General Auguste," began Thiers, "..General Auguste, you said that you & your men searched the entire Treasury Building, is that correct?" "Oui! Mr. President!" answered Auguste. Thiers continued on '...you mean you searched the entire building,...including....?" General Auguste looked non-pulsed and replied: "...Including....what are you driving at Mr. President?" Thiers began to lose his patience, "General! You know what I am talking about! I ask you again! Did your men, or did they not, search the entire building? Stop playing this cat & mouse game with me!"

General Auguste took a long deep breath and said; "Mr. President, my men and I did search the entire Treasury building,..including...." Thiers angrily interjected "Including what, General!" General Auguste then knew that President Thiers had in fact been informed. He then resolved to answer his President; "Including, Mr. President, the secret sub-basement and the 4 oversize vaults therein; the anarchists were there Mr. President & they emptied them of all their contents. They did not leave as much as a single bread crumb for a mouse to find Mr. President."

President Thiers felt like he had been hit with a sledgehammer right in his abdomen. He immediately spun away from General Auguste, looked at the ceiling and shouted; "MERDE, Merde, Merde! N'est pas possible!" Thiers shook his head and exclaimed; "This cannot be! It's just not......POSSIBLE!"

This was just not a catastrophe, it was the beginning of a tragedy, and Thiers knew it. Thiers mind was now racing in 5 different directions. He knew that less than 16 men even knew of the existence of the sub-basement.

He tried to think of which of them, if any, would acknowledge the existence of the secret basement and give orders to let it be emptied. Of his 7 Generals who knew of the sub-basement, 4 of them were at the moment, "guests'' of the King of Prussia now, the German Kaiser. Of his other 3 generals, 1 was sitting in his office right now & the other 2 were & had been in contact with the enemy forces for several weeks.

That left 8 politicians, he couldn't fathom that anyone of them would commit treason no, they all had too much to lose if the Republic fell. Moreover, 6 of those 8 men were still in Bordeaux.

That left 1 man. A posturing; Thiers thought of a good description, an old fool, actually, a posturing, sick, old fool. Thiers thought perhaps the old fool could be capable of it. Yet, this posturing, sick, old fool was also a temporary "guest" of the Kaiser of the brand new German Empire.

As foolish as he was, even he would not want to see the rise of this thing called the "Commune". On the other hand, Thiers swallowed hard, the posturing old fools calculating, scheming, and often unpredictable wife was capable of doing anything,...anything. Thiers even managed to make a small grin as he thought that she was probably worse than the even the Prussians were.

As he stood there shaking in anger & frustration, Thiers reflected that he only found out about the existence of the sub-basement during his Presidential briefing a week after his inauguration. Also, he recalled, there were the guards in the basement, they were always at the rank of Colonel but, they did not have keys to the door that was carefully hidden from view in the arms storage room in their guard post.

As he thought, he began to recall the briefing given to him. There were 5 sets of keys, 1 set for the door in the arms room, then there were 4 sets of keys, 1 set for every door leading down to the secret vaults. Then each vault had its own specially designed dual keys. A grand total of 18 keys, two men had to simultaneously turn their keys in order for the doors & vaults to open. He was never briefed on either where or whom, had those keys.

But he knew, if he could find out who had access to all of those keys & was able to hand them over to the Communards, he would then know who the traitor(s) were to the French Republic. Perhaps the one man who may know who or whom could have had access to those keys was his predecessor General Louis Jules Trochu. He resolved to speak to him as soon as possible.


Thiers looked back at General Auguste and inquired of him: "General, when you found the vaults, all of them, in both the basement & sub-basement, were the, doors to the vaults, that is, were the key holes damaged in any way?"

General Auguste promptly replied; "No Mr. President, all of the vaults as well as the doors leading down to into the sub-basement appeared to have no damage to them, they appeared to have been opened by keys & not by any sort of force whatsoever."

Thiers walked over to his desk and sat down in his chair. He continued to think to himself & to consider the implications of this theft of the Treasury.

He recalled that the contents of the vault included between 985-990 million francs in gold & silver bullion, additionally there was also approximately 60-70 million francs in banknotes. This was the emergency fund to continue the Government of France in times of crisis and more importantly, to pay his armies. If ever there was a crisis for France, this was it

Now without these funds...things would be...difficult. Worse still, a group of self-styled revolutionaries now had total possession of all this money plus all the cash that was in the normal vaults in the basement. They had to have, billions or even tens of billions of francs in their hands.

Even worse still, thought Thiers, was the documents contained in the vault. State secrets, things that should remain secret, things that probably should have been burned years ago. Thiers thought deeply about the ramifications if the Communards decided to release these secrets of French History to the World at large. He recalled from his briefing the important & interesting documents that it reportedly contained.

There were the somewhat, "messy'' details about the events back in '48 & the July Monarchy some of which could implicate himself, he winced at the thought. He thought about the documents relating to the rather untimely & unexpected death of Napoleon II. He himself was extremely interested in the supposedly 26 page report relating to what really happened to Marshal Ney. And to who was really buried in Marshal Ney's grave at Pere Lachaise Cemetery. He was looking forward to reading that report, now.........

There were the papers going back to the time of The Directory and to the time of the "Terror". There were the documents from the days of the Ancien Regime as well. Reports of actions taken to solve, "problems", in St. Dominigue & the repercussions of those actions. Unbelievable reports of strange sightings in Quebec.

There were things relating to the days of the "Sun King'' himself, to Richelieu, Mazarin, even, supposedly back to Hugh Capet himself & how he really got himself elected King. Truly, things that the Communards could showcase to the people of France in order to discredit all that came before & all those who supported the old ways; and to make themselves look better in the eyes of the people.

He cursed the thought of that stupid, posturing, sick, old fool for having had the sub-basement built back in the late 50's but even more for placing every single document & report in the same place! Didn't the old fool ever hear of the danger of having all of ones eggs in one basket! Now that basket had been overturned & Thiers was the one who had to clean up the mess.

Thiers looked over to General Auguste and said to him; "General, I need some time to collect my thoughts on the information you have brought me. I thank you for confirming the rumors of the disposition of the Treasury." "Of course, Mr. President." replied General Auguste. Thiers continued, "What I will need General, is a comprehensive report on how long & above all, why the Treasury was left unattended. We need to know the parties responsible for this & also, to find out how these anarchists were able to get duplicate sets of these vault & door keys."

General Auguste nodded & then asked the President; "Mr. President, how do you know they used duplicate keys & not originals?" Thiers looked at him & simply replied that he knew for a fact that some of these keys were in specific areas of the country right now & the men physically responsible for them had not been in Paris for several weeks or even months. Duplicates had to have been made & the originals returned to their holders without, (or possibly with!) them even knowing that they had been taken from them. Thiers stood up from his chair & General Auguste immediately rose up & saluted the President.


"General Auguste," said Thiers, "I need that report within the week, I have 16 days before I meet with the Prussian representatives; I need...I have,..." he stopped for a moment, ...."I bid you good night General." General Auguste bowed & nodded and quickly exited the room. Thiers picked up the small bell on his desk & rang it. In less than 30 seconds, Robert entered the office. "Robert, I need you to send a messenger to General Trochu's office, I need to confer with him as soon as possible." "Yes Mr. President, I will send it out at once." replied Robert. Thiers smiled and said; "Excellent, excellent, Robert and good night to you." Robert then wished him a good night, then bowed & left the room. Thiers wondered if he would ever have a good night ever again, he truly, wondered.

******

 
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Grey Wolf

Gone Fishin'
Donor
The first post was very interesting - not had time to read the rest yet.

When it was suggested you use a better layout in terms of paragraphs, it was meant that you use double line-breaks (as above, that put empty space between paragraphs).

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Hello Grey Wolf. Thank you for reading my timeline. I appreciate you telling me what corrections to make since I want people to be comfortable reading this story without getting a headache. As this is my first attempt at writing a post, I am still learning how to type this thing out properly. If I understand you correctly you say that I should double space my lines. I'm not sure how to do that; I have enough difficulty keeping the sizes at "3" because every now & then it returns back to a "1", so I am still learning. If you can explain to me how to make this double spaced Grey Wolf, I would greatly appreciate your assistance. By the way, are you a moderator? I know I have seen your name on other timelines I have read. Thanks in advance Grey Wolf, joho:).

What Grey Wolf means is not changing the size of your font. He means inserting an empty line between blocks of text so that it's easier to read in general. His "double-line space means this gap:

...between these lines of text. IMO you could do with breaking down all your previous posts into different paragraphs for each section. So for example, where you've written:

As the Chairman stepped outside, he saw the hastily assembled wagons before him. Four rows with eight wagons in each line. "Where are the other 15 wagons?" asked the Chairman out loud to no one in particular. "Comrade Chairman,..." a familiar voice sounded out in the near darkness; Blanqui recognized it at once. " Well Emil, it appears you have a special delivery for me." Emil Pleiseau approached Chairman Blanqui and replied to the Chairman. " Oui, Comrade Chairman indeed we have a delivery with many extras as well." "As for the other wagons Comrade Chairman, they are in the front of the hotel in the courtyard." Blanqui approached the line of wagons & looked into the back of one to see its contents. As far as he could ascertain, there appeared to be around 30 money sacks piled up 3 feet high. On the sides of the wagons interior walls, he saw small wooden crates all along the interior sides of the wagon. In the faint moonlight, he could see on the floorboard of the wagon a metallic glint. As he got closer, he could see the reflection of the Moon in bars of silver which appeared to cover the floorboard.....
It might look better presented thusly:

As the Chairman stepped outside, he saw the hastily assembled wagons before him. Four rows with eight wagons in each line. "Where are the other 15 wagons?" asked the Chairman out loud to no one in particular. "Comrade Chairman,..." a familiar voice sounded out in the near darkness; Blanqui recognized it at once.

" Well Emil, it appears you have a special delivery for me." Emil Pleiseau approached Chairman Blanqui and replied to the Chairman. " Oui, Comrade Chairman indeed we have a delivery with many extras as well." "As for the other wagons Comrade Chairman, they are in the front of the hotel in the courtyard."

Blanqui approached the line of wagons & looked into the back of one to see its contents. As far as he could ascertain, there appeared to be around 30 money sacks piled up 3 feet high. On the sides of the wagons interior walls, he saw small wooden crates all along the interior sides of the wagon. In the faint moonlight, he could see on the floorboard of the wagon a metallic glint. As he got closer, he could see the reflection of the Moon in bars of silver which appeared to cover the floorboard.....

As you yourself identified, it just makes it a bit easier to read, and makes the block of text less intimidating to casual readers.
 
Chapter 3


Numbre 17 entrepot militaire* (Near the Bois De La Tour Du Lay)

March 12, 1871

Time: 8:50 AM


The Major was expecting them. He had been contacted over a week ago & the offer was hard to resist. 36,000 francs would go a long way. He knew it was treason, yet, for himself & his family, with 36,000 francs they could have a brand new life. They could go to Great Britain; London the Greatest City in the World, perhaps of all time. Or perhaps somewhere within the British Empire. He and his family could have a brand new beginning in America. With 36,000 francs, a man could go far. From the window on the second floor of his office, Major Lemoyne saw 4 figures approaching from the distance. 4 men, only 4 men! How could they pull it off? He began to worry and sweat. Was he set up? Was it just 4 locals wandering the back roads of Ile de-France? No, today was the appointment & it was near the appointed hour. He decided to go downstairs and out to the gate & wait for them. The 4 men walked towards the storage depot. The tall man was the leader, the short squat man his adjutant, he carried the small wooden box about the size of a hatbox. The other two men each carried two separate batons, each baton either had a green flag or a red flag attached to it.

As per the agreement they carried no firearms. The short man looked to the taller man & said: "What if they still have not evacuated the garrison troops here?" The tall man answered: "If that is the case, the man at the gate will tell us he has no food to spare & to be on our way; but for 36,000 francs, I am certain he has convinced the men of his garrison to go far and.... make themselves useful elsewhere." The short mans only reply was; "I hope so, I surely do."

Major Lemoyne took notice as the men approached. He quickly took special notice of one of the men, the short fat one who seemed to have the face of a frog & a monkey mixed together, he appeared to be carrying what appeared to be a ladies hatbox. He noted the tall man as well as the other two men. He put on his spectacles and opened the the small identification slot in the heavy gate to speak to them. He had to be extremely careful as he was the only man inside the depot at this time. He had sent his entire garrison of 184 men & officers about 6 miles to the North the day before yesterday to keep watch on any potential..."enemies", they would not be returning until tomorrow afternoon. His officers would not question him, after all, he was the Commandant of the Depot. And his orders were issued from the Area Commander, they wouldn't question a thing.

The 4 men approached the gate of the depot. The tall man could see the small slot opened and a mans face looking out at them. The man behind the gate said simply; "What do you want?" The tall man answered; "Sir we have been walking for quite a while, do you have any food that you can spare?" The man behind the gate replied; "Of course! I have plenty for you & your...''fellow travelers''; however, I fear that there is much more food here than you four men could possibly take with you." The tall man quickly replied; "Do not fear Sir, we will take any & all food that you may have." The man behind the gate looked at him knowingly & then added; "Did someone give you a key to open the gate? Since I have no such key to open it up with." The tall man looked to his short, squat subaltern. The short man walked up to the small opening in the gate & took out a small key and opened up the heavy wooden box he was holding. As he opened the hinged lid, he could see a golden light glowing upon the gatekeepers face. He could also see the reflection of gold coins and banknotes in the gatekeepers glasses.

Major Lemoyne looked into the the wooden box being held by the ugly, frog faced monkey looking man & was delighted by what he saw. He could hardly believe it or his good fortune. After all, with 36,000 francs, a man could go far. As the man behind the gate gazed into the box, the tall man knew he was pleased. The man finally said; "Very good, very good, it appears that you have been furnished with the correct key, one moment gentlemen." They listened as the gate began to slowly move and the hinges squeaked & groaned and then it opened. The four men walked inside & saw the man behind the gate. He was, the tall man noted, a man about 45 years old, medium height, dark hair,glasses, and a mustache & goatee. He fit the description of the man he had been briefed about. The man bid them all welcome and waited for the tall man to make his next move. The tall man motioned to the short, fat man. On cue, he handed the heavy wooden box to the waiting arms of the Depot Commander. The Major felt the heaviness of the box & knew it had to be the full amount. He would count it all later to make sure. The Major then began to say; "Gentlemen, let me explain to you the floor plan of my...."

All at once, the two other men each pulled out a baton, unfurled a small green flag from their respective batons & immediately began running down the road away from the depot. They began to frantically wave the batons in the air. Major Lemoyne was flabbergasted & alarmed. He looked at the tall man with his mouth agape. The tall man smiled at him & said; "One moment Major, one moment." In a matter of seconds, Major Lemoyne saw about 100 or so men, a company sized formation, walk out of the tree line about 60 yards down the road. About, 6 seconds after that, he saw, in the distance, around 200 yards or so, horse drawn wagons, dozens of them, coming out of the forest & onto the road. The tall man smiled at the Major & said; "You see Major, we have more than enough hands to carry away all of your food from here."

Major Lemoyne shook his head & looked at the tall man. He caught his breath & said to him; "Sir are you ready to see the interior of the depot?" The tall man nodded affirmatively then the 3 men began to walk down the large corridor to the right. The exterior outer walls of the depot were hexagonal in shape, the interior second set of walls were shaped like a large capital "D". Where Lemoyne, the tall man & his short assistant were standing was in the lower left corner of the "D" shaped building. As they walked down the corridor, Major Lemoyne pointed to the the two stairways on either side of the lower left corner of the "D". These stairs led to the upstairs floor. He also mentioned that the corridor would begin to curve to the left, eventually making a semi-circle, then straightening out again before coming to a corner. At the corner, the corridor would make a sharp left and continue down a long way until it ended up at the point where they had not only started but where the gate leading out was.

The tall man noticed that the corridors were very wide. Wide enough in fact for his horse drawn wagons to drive down 3 abreast. This was crucial since they could empty the depot much quicker than he had earlier envisaged. Major Lemoyne then mentioned that it was only the first 8 cages & vaults on the left that would be of any interest to them since all the others were empty. As they looked at the cages, the tall man was taken by the fact that these cages appeared to be like large holding cells in a jail or prison. Yet these cages held far more valuable things than prisoners. When they approached the 7th & 8th cages, the tall man was impressed by the sight he saw. From floor to ceiling, crates of paper cartridges and crates of rounds, this is why they came here. The previous 6 cages had contained a mixture of cartridges, rounds, and of course, rifles, Chassepot rifles to be exact. With these modern tools of war, the Commune would be able to stand up against the forces of reaction and in due time overcome them as well.

As the tall man was deep in thought, a voice came out; "Sir, sir...?" It was the Major speaking to him. He looked at him and said; "Yes, Major, what were you just saying?" Major Lemoyne continued, "..I was asking you Sir, if you & your assistant wanted to continue on to see all the other cages & vaults? They are all empty, but you can see for yourselves & not just take my word for it." The tall man quickly answered; "No Major, it is not necessary to walk the entire circuit. We will inspect the remnant of the depot at our leisure if it is convenient for us." The Major smiled and replied to him; "But of course, you will see that all the other cages on this side of the building are empty, but I invite you & your men to inspect them to alleviate any questions or doubts that you may in fact have." The tall man then said; "Thank you Major..." as they began to retrace their steps back to where they started from the tall man continued, "....I do have a question about the interior of this building, that is, what is in the inside if I may ask?" The Major quickly answered; "In the center is an open parade ground where our men practice their maneuvers also, along the the long corridor there is an awning which covers our stables. If you & your men want to inspect that part you are more than welcome." The tall man indicated that it wasn't necessary. What was necessary & what he did ask for was the manifest of all the equipment & ammunition that was stored here. The Major said he would get it at once. As they returned to where they started, the short frog faced monkey finally spoke.

"Pardon, Major, but what is on the second level?" The Major was at first stunned by the frog faced monkeys nasal high pitched voice but he politely answered to him. "On that floor there is the soldiers quarters,3 medium sized barracks rooms for about 200 men, 6 private quarters for officers, 12 small offices, 4 large offices, a Chapel, 2 mess halls, 1 for enlisted & 1 for Officers, the kitchen is there & there are 4 additional rooms which are used as classrooms and as temporary storage. You may of course inspect the entire upper floor as you wish." As the 3 men turned the corner to the right and proceeded up the very long straight corridor, the tall man inquired about the rooms & cages to the right side. "Those..." began Major Lemoyne "..are the saddlers shops, the armorers repair shop, the equine officers veterinarian office and 6 supply rooms; you can of course inspect them as well." The tall man's attention was now focused on the cages & vaults that they were approaching. Major Lemoyne indicated that the only vaults & cages for them were once again on the left. He also mentioned that there were 14 of them in this corridor. His tall guest then said; "So, you have 22 cages & vaults for us, is that correct Major?" To which Major Lemoyne nodded affirmatively. After they had reached the last available cages on the left, the 3 men turned around and began heading to their starting point once again. As they began the walk back, the tall man & his short assistant noticed that the Major was starting to struggle with his heavy "gift box". The tall man pretended not to see the Major struggling but he kept a mental note of it, just as he kept mental notes of everything he saw & heard. His assistant, also seemed not to pay much attention to it either.

As the 3 men exited the "D" shaped building, Major Lemoyne was dumbstruck by what was now happening in the open area between the "D" shaped building & the hexagonal walls of his depot. The other 2 men who had been waving the batons, had brought in dozens of wagons.
They had lined up the wagons in 2 uniform lines. As the Major & the 2 other men came out, the last few wagons were getting into lines in the rear. Major Lemoyne attempted to count them all. All he could say was; "Chers ciel, 50 wagons!" The tall man looked at him & replied; '' Yes Major, dear heaven, dear heaven indeed." In fact, there were 58 wagons in total; the good Major had miscounted. The Major also quickly noticed that there were about 200 or so men walking in and around the opening of the depot. All of a sudden, the Frog croaked again; "Pardon, Major, but what are those buildings over there?" Major Lemoyne turned & looked to see what the frog faced monkey was pointing to.

He could see that he was pointing to the buildings that were lying between the inner & outer walls of his depot. The Major then answered; "From the rear & towards us, the farthest buildings are 2 supply & 2 storage buildings; the next building coming towards us is the blacksmiths shop & the exterior stable, next is the carpenters shop, then the Infirmary, after that, is the hay loft. The next building, the small one, is the latrine." Then he motioned with his shoulder; "The brick building behind me is the Office of the Commandant, that is my office." He said with a proud grin. The tall man kept his own counsel and absorbed all this extra information given freely & unwittingly by the Major; he also sensed something else about the Major, hubris & an exaggerated sense of self pride. Of course, this was endemic among the petty bourgeoise. He motioned to his short assistant. The smaller man began to move expeditiously towards the waiting wagon trains. The Major then said out loud; "You are free to inspect all of the outer buildings however, I cannot be held responsible for the stench emanating from the latrine." He brayed laughter at his own joke. The tall man then reminded the Major about the weapon & ammo manifest lists. Major Lemoyne nodded & said; "Come this way Sir, come this way." As they re-entered the "D" shaped building, they entered into a small guard room. The Major put his heavy box down on a wooden table & sighed out loud in relief. He then looked to the tall man and said; "If this box did not contain what it contains..." he smiled, "..I would gladly dispose of it since it is so bulky & difficult to carry."

The tall man smiled & thought to himself; "Soft." He continued to think that he was ashamed that this man was a soldier of France; an officer no less. With his attitude it was no wonder the Prussians were able to conquer France so easily. Perhaps if France was a box that contained gold that he could take for himself, he would defend it, but since it was not, it was easier to: "gladly dispose of it." The Major went through a few drawers & quickly produced 3 clipboards each with 4-5 pages on each clipboard. He handed them to the tall man who then thanked him for them. Major Lemoyne then looked at his pocket watch. He then said to his counterpart, "Sir it is now 9:30, I need you & your men to be gone from here no later than 3:30 PM today. My troops will be returning before sundown so you have no more than 6 hours to complete your extraction of the equipment here." The tall man assured him that they would proceed at once to complete the mission. Relief shown all over the Majors face at that. He began to grin at the the tall man & then said to him; "I am so happy right now, I feel like celebrating my good fortune. I have a bottle of Cognac in my office, would you care to have a celebratory drink with me Sir?" The tall man beamed at the Majors invitation.

As he smiled broadly, his smile masked his true thoughts. He thought to himself; "Soft, petit, bourgeoise, how typical! Prancing about in military uniform with shiny little buttons, putting on airs of superiority; yet still your petty little habits & greed still show through, like manure in a white stocking." He instantly thought of Marx. Marx himself wrote that the greed of the Capitalists & the bourgeoise was so encompassing, that they would happily sell the weapons & ammunition to the proletarians & peasants with which they would overthrow the Capitalistic order & set up the order of the Proletariat. Here was a true life example, the tall man was pleased to see Marx's theories proven correct. It strengthened his resolve & conviction in the righteousness of his cause. He then answered the Major; "I greatly thank you sir for the hospitable invitation, however, I think perhaps, it may be safer for all of us if I complete my mission first so that your troopers don't surprise us pre-maturely. In addition, I would heartily accept so long as you have enough for my assistant. I would not see him denied something that I enjoy."

Major Lemoyne smiled broadly now, he picked up his heavy box & replied; "But of course! Certainly! I will set up 3 glasses for us to celebrate our endeavor together. My office is in the brick building, on the second floor, last door on the left at the end of the hallway, I will be looking forward to entertaining you both!" With that, Major Lemoyne left the guard room and headed for his office. The tall man had made a solemn vow to himself several weeks earlier; he would not celebrate until the Commune was in full control & in power in France, and he promised himself that he would not partake of spiritous drink until,...until, he tried to think of something really worthy & important. Until, until Karl Marx himself made a speech before the Commune of France! Yes! That's when he promised himself a celebratory drink. He would drink with Marx but never with a "petit bourgeoise!"




* Number 17 Military Storage Depot
 
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Wow. Apologies for the late reply, but I didn't catch your updates to this thread. I really love what you've written so far. This forum sorely lacks actual prose TLs and this one is great - very well-written indeed. I'm very curious as to your plans, because with the POD I'm truly not sure where you are planning to go exactly - I have only the vaguest ideas (this period isn't my strongest, however). I'm fascinated to see what will happen when the plot gets to the actual implications of this theft, and to the stuff you alluded to in the first post, mentioning the Scramble for Africa being changed. Eagerly following this.

Incidentally, this thread is 100 times more readable now it has line spacings. Thanks very much :)
 
Hello Falastur, no need for any apologies. I am thankful that you have enjoyed my story so far. I'm thinking that prose, means it is written in story form?

Actually, prose was entirely the wrong word. Prose just means flowing text. What I really meant to say was a character-based TL, as opposed to one that centres on events happening in the long-term to entire countries.

Perhaps as an indicator, I will have his statement of what is going to be happening written in color & in bold instead of black and normal size fonts so this way readers will have a clue of the bloody mess that awaits France. Give me your opinion if you want that or not.


That would work well, especially in a TL that is long on text. Indicators to draw readers in work well in such cases.

Also, to any reader, do you want me to keep having the "German" characters occasionally say something in German or not. Also for the French characters, should I continue with occasional lines in French or not?


I like that style personally, but do what you think is best.

Now as to my plans, I don't want to give away too much Falastur since it may take a way from the interest of reading it yet, I would say it's sort of like building a bridge over a river. I know where I'm starting and I know where I want to end up (I already have the ending set up in detail in the late 1970's), yet its the suspension part of the bridge in the center.


You shouldn't give away too much of your plot just because I got enquisitive ;) Just the story you have written so far is enough to entice me, at least, and probably a few readers who haven't commented, too. I like to entertain my own ideas anyway by speculating as to what will happen. TLs where I can't guess just make it that bit more interesting as it is guaranteed to surprise me.


The British will still have, Sierra Leone, the Cape Colony, Cecil Rhodes will be around as well, just not in Africa instead, he'll be ''down undah, Mate!"......the Germans will have their places in the hot tropical Sun as well. 1 final hint for now. The French will conquer, gain, & hold their very own "India".

Now that's interesting. Not Indochina I guess, as they had that OTL. I've got a few ideas, but I'll keep my hands close to my chest for a while.

As for the British Empire having far less of Africa, I guess that will have the side-product of making the Empire far more profitable, without the money-drain African territories...although your original post suggested to me that your idea was that Britain was going to be "not well suited to hold large pieces of territory" because of their own failings as opposed to simple logistical problems - i.e. proving themselves inept, or failing to hold the territories militarily (possibly against a resurgent France). I wonder whether this will all prove beneficial or problematic for the Empire.

Looking forward to seeing where this goes.
 
Guards Office, Interior of "D" Shaped Building, Military Storage Depot #17.

March 12, 1871

Time: 12:00 PM

The tall man took notice as the wagons exited the building & headed out to the marshaling fields about a half mile away. He looked down the short corridor straight ahead of him. All wagons in that corridor were now gone, soldiers were doing a "sweep" to see if anything had been overlooked. He looked to his left down the long corridor, about 6-7 wagons still being loaded; that meant over 50 wagons gone already! He saw that there was still some activity going on down there; they would still be a while before completing their mission.

He decided to walk down there to see how much longer they would be. He looked at the manifests he had in his hands. So far, over 300,000 paper cartridges & rounds had been "liberated" from the reactionaries along with some, he checked again, 9,648 Chassepot rifles. A good days work indeed for he & his men. He went over in his head what had gone on so far.

He had earlier instructed his assistant to organize the unloading of the depot and the marshaling of the wagons. That had gone smoothly & without incident. He had ordered 1 platoon of men to perform a recon of the entire upstairs & report back if anything was out of order, nothing was. He then ordered 4 men from that platoon to remain & guard each stairwell so nobody could go upstairs again. The remaining 21 soldiers began at once to assist the teamsters in loading their wagons.

A second platoon was ordered to go out & North of the Depot about 1 mile to scout & keep a lookout for any early returning garrison troops. So far, he had heard nothing back from them nor had he heard of any gunfire from that direction, a very good sign.

The third platoon was broken in half; 1 half was put up as sentry & skirmishers around the depot in case the 2nd platoon came back with bad news. The other 2 squads were sent to reconnoiter the buildings inside the depots perimeter. They noted nothing special or out of order in any of the structures, after completing their scouting, they also went to assist in loading the wagons. Of his remaining 3 platoons, 1 platoon went back to the marshaling area with the first wagons to stand as guards.

The other 2 platoons were put on fatigue details in loading the ammo & weapons into the awaiting wagons. Things were indeed, going smoothly and rapidly. As he approached the wagons in the long corridor, he noted that they only had 1 more cage to empty & still had 4 wagons still awaiting their first load. He glanced down at his assistant and inquired of him; "How much longer Comrade?"

His short stocky assistant turned & replied; " Ah, Comrade.." he stopped, he remembered the strict order: "Do Not Use Names Under Any Circumstances!" He then continued, "...comrade, I would say about another hour & a half maybe two at the most. This vault is nearly empty & as you can see, & the last cage only has about 20 or so boxes of rifles & about 100-150 crates of ammunition."

The tall man smiled to hear that. He then decided to speak to the men who were working quite diligently. "Very good, very good, we are are ahead of schedule Comrades! All of you soldiers, comrades all, are a testament to the spirit of the Proletariat! You work together toward a worthy goal & as a result, the survival and success of the Commune is made a reality! You all learn that it is by your communal labors & actions that that is how things are created. And not by the prayers of a frightened, superstitious flock to an anthropomorphic deity led by a cynical, selfish, corrupt, & lazy clergy!"

The men all began to chant rhythmically; "Comrade, Comrade, Comrade, Comrade!" The tall man felt strong as a result of his speech & the resulting adulation from the men. Still, he felt a bit uneasy, since they sounded somewhat like a Christian choir in a cathedral. The echos in the corridor made it impossible to not notice the similarity. He was sure his assistant took notice of the incongruity. As usual, he made it a point not to point out the obvious.


He turned on his heel & began walking back to the guard post, he took out the pocket watch given to him by Comrade Pleiseau, the architect of this mission, & read the face of the watch. It read 12:22. He reckoned about in another hour or so he would order the scouting platoon that was a mile North from here to return; then, he would then order the evacuation of the depot. He wanted to be far away well before the garrison troops returned back.

As he reached the guard post he walked towards the 4 guards at the closest stairwell. He inquired of them; "Any changes while I was absent?" The man in charge replied in the negative & said nobody had entered or left the building in the last 20 minutes. He then walked over to the other 4 men at the adjacent stairwell & asked the same question.

The soldiers there also reported to him that there was no changes. He then spoke aloud so that all 8 men could hear him. "Comrades,.." he said, "..Comrades remember if any of you need to relieve yourselves there is a latrine outside, just be certain to keep 2 men here at all times & let nobody up or down the stairs without my explicit approval."

One of the soldiers, a bold & brash lad about 30 years old spoke up: "Comrade you should be made aware that here, there is a latrine on the upper floor as well, including a bathing room complete with running water." The tall man looked at him incredulously and said; "Is there? Well I will remember that in case I have need to relieve myself. Thank you, Comrade for that extra information." The brash man quickly added; "Comrade I would like to have the opportunity to go to the Infirmary & examine what, if any medicines they may have there, we could use all we can get."

The tall man was taken with this mans' straight forwardness & motivation. He motioned for him to come speak to him privately in the guard room. Once the two men were in the room, the bold young man, who was actually older than the tall commander of the mission, informed him that he had been trained as a physician.

The tall man then quietly inquired the mans name. The brash man replied; "My name is Clemenceau, Georges, & I have been to medical school Comrade Commander." The tall man thought for a moment & then said to Comrade Clemenceau; "Comrade, take 1 man with you & if you find anything of medicinal value, you have my permission to confiscate it. Work quickly Comrade, & be mindful of the time, we expect to be leaving within 1 hour." Comrade Clemenceau nodded & quickly left the building along with one other soldier.

The tall man thought to himself; "It is a good thing we have a physician among the ranks, it clearly illustrates Marx's theories that even the educated bourgeoise, properly enlightened that is, can work towards the goal of a Proletarian community." The tall man also reluctantly thought that he might have to use the services of Comrade Doctor Clemenceau before the mission was completed this very day. He and his short, stocky, assistant had one more part of the mission to complete before they left the depot. He was not looking forward to it, not one bit.







 
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2nd Floor, Commandants Office. Military Storage Depot #17

March 12, 1871

Time: 12:00 Noon


Major Lemoyne, was besides himself with glee. And why not? With 36,000 francs a man could go far. He had counted it again now twice. Both times, same amount, 36,000 francs.

Over 12,000 francs in silver coins, 8,000 francs in gold coins & he giggled to himself, 16,000, 16,000! 16,000 francs in banknotes. How fortunate he was! It was so good to be alive! It was, he thought, good to be alive & be rich as well. That was even better! He had his three glasses lined up on his desk along with a bottle of unopened cognac. He also found 2 bottles of wine as well. He looked at the bottle of cognac. It would be a grand celebration. He looked forward to the 2 men who would be coming up to his office to help him celebrate. His eyes gazed at the bottle of cognac.

He wanted them to see how happy he was. He also wanted to see the expressions on their faces when they arrived. He glanced at the bottle of cognac. He then thought, how would the little frog faced monkey look after he had drunk a few glasses of cognac & some wine too! Probably just as ugly, but no matter. He smiled at the bottle of cognac. He laughed giddily to himself. He was so full of joy & nervous anticipation. And why not? After all, with 36,000 francs a man could go far. He stared at the bottle of cognac. His face beaming with a joyful smile, he decided to open the bottle & pour himself a small bit of cognac. He convinced himself, after all, that, just 1 little drink wouldn't affect him at all; how could it possibly? He sniffed its aroma, took a small sip & instantly felt relaxed. He thought then of how his 2 guests would be spending their evening tonight, most likely thinking of him, the Major of the depot.

He also thought of how, where, & with whom he would spending his evening tonight with as well. The two separate thoughts made him smile broadly again. He was besides himself in happiness. He poured more cognac, most of it splashed onto his desk and flowed onto the floor. He heard wagons rolling again, so he glanced out of his window down onto the roadway. He counted them, 5 more wagons heading out. So far, he reckoned they had only removed about 30 wagons, unless he had miscounted! They were more than half done now. He looked at the clock on the wall, it read 12:15. He still had plenty of time before his guests would arrive. He poured some more cognac. He closed the heavy wooden box making sure to lock it securely with the small key the ugly little man had given him. He then put the small key in his left breast pocket & securely buttoned the pocket closed. He finished his glass of cognac & stood up. He had to prepare for his party with these men. He did not want to disappoint them & of course, he did not want to disappoint himself either. He wanted the tall man & the ugly little frog faced monkey to remember him as not only a generous host but, as an intelligent man as well.

He picked up one of the bottles of wine and began to head out of his office. He glanced back, and lovingly gazed at the heavy wooden box sitting on his desk which contained his fortune. "Do not worry Cheri," he cooed to the box, "....I will not leave you unattended for long, but I must get you some appropriate clothing to wear, a man cannot have his love standing in front of other men so exposed."





 
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Outside of Main Gate Military Storage Depot #17

March 12, 1871

Time: 2:00 PM


The tall man watched as the last 4 wagons along with a detail of guards behind them headed towards the marshaling area. To his left, in the distance, the platoon he had sent to keep watch for the garrison troops were hurriedly walking back in route step. A final last sweep of the inner building along with the inner parade ground was being undertaken right now by the remaining troops. His short, stocky assistant was seeing to that. Everything was going according to plan & he noted confidently, with time to spare before the deadline.


He realized that he would now have enough time to get the entire wagon convoy heading back to Paris before night fell. He watched a platoon of his men return from their sweep of the entire interior perimeter between the hexagonal outer wall & the "D" shaped building. He noted among them number, Comrade Doctor Clemenceau. He called out to him; "Comrade Doctor! Comrade Doctor!" The tall man began to trot over to him.

"Yes Comrade Commander", he replied. "Did you find any thing of medicinal value Comrade Doctor?" The doctor answered him; "No, I'm afraid Comrade Commander, it seems the medical staff here must have brought all of their supplies with them, so we returned empty handed, sorry Comrade Commander."

The tall man replied to him; "Nothing to be sorry for comrade, at least you had the initiative to think of the welfare of your comrades & to render them medical services if the need should have arisen. The communal spirits of Socialism & Fraternity are recognized to be in abundance in your thoughts comrade."

Comrade Clemenceau, nodded his head & quickly returned to his platoon. At that moment, the Frog croaked again; "Comrade, are you ready?" The tall man took a deep breath, nodded & began to walk back inside the depot. He then ordered the Lieutenant of the platoon still in the area to put 2 of his squads in a perimeter around the outside of the brick building & not to let anyone exit the building.

He then instructed the platoon leader to have 1 squad accompany himself & his short assistant into the building. The last squad was to remain outside on standby. His short assistant then handed him a pistol, a LeMat. He noticed that his assistant had armed himself with a revolver. He swallowed & then said to the squad leader; "Leave 2 of your men at the door & have them keep watch, the remainder are to follow us up the stairs." The young man replied; "Oui, Comrade Commander!"

As they began climbing the stairs, the Frog pointed to pieces of broken glass scattered on the steps. The tall man noticed the broken bottom of a wine bottle on one of the steps. As they made it to the top landing, they saw more broken glass. As they peered down the hallway, they noticed 3 doors on the left & 1 on the right.

He looked to the squad leader & indicated to him through hand & arm signals to search the 2 rooms to the left & the 1 on the right. He looked over to his short assistant, the short man nodded to him to proceed forward. As he began walking towards the 3rd door on the left, he noticed more broken glass.

"A Cognac bottle, comrade," hissed the Frog. He looked down & saw the cognac bottle was broken into around 6 pieces. He made his way to the door & to his small surprise it was ajar. He slowly pushed the door open & stepped inside. He saw papers all over the floor, books had fallen off of a shelf, a uniform jacket was lying on the floor and, the Majors chair was turned away from him. Also, another broken wine bottle as well as the remains of 2 broken drinking glasses were strewn all over the carpet.

He turned to his short assistant & they both smirked at each other. "He's as drunk as a nobleman." sneered the smiling Frog. The tall man smiled & nodded in agreement, then he walked over to "solve" all of the Majors problems.




The Lieutenant awaiting outside the Commandants building cleaned out his tobacco pipe. He wished he had some tobacco now, it was a good time for a smoke. After all, the Comrade Commander & his short Adjutant would be a while. He knew that some of the "true believers", as he silently referred to them, strongly disapproved of the use of tobacco. Goodness! They even disapproved of Wine!

They reminded him of those English..., what were they called? Those English sects what were they called; "Rottens", "poor" something. He thought & thought, "Rotten" something, "rotten'', what was it? Poor somethings, then he remembered. "Poor rottens!" Yes! That's it! The English "Poor-rottens". The "Poor-rottens" disapproved of both drink & gaiety. What a wretched life they must have led, to not know the pleasures of dancing or, he shuddered, of the grape! Well, he reasoned, that meant more wine for him & more wine for France, "Vive le France, vive le vin!"

He looked at his pocket watch, it read 2:19. He was waiting for the gunshot, what were they doing? Negotiating with him? All of a sudden, a window on the 2nd floor opened up. At once someone began shouting; "Alarm! Alarm! Alarm!" He told his squads on the outside of the building to watch the windows. As he raced to the front door of the building, he was met by both the tall commander & his short adjutant.

He said, "What is it Comrade Commander?" His tall commander said to him; "Lieutenant Brouchard, have your last squad search the first floor of this building at once! Have them tear open every closet look under furniture, see if there is a cellar & search it! I have already directed your first squad to search the entire second floor & even to see if there is an attic. I want this building torn apart! We don't have much time."

Lt. Brouchard looked at his tall Commander & said to him; "Comrade Commander, what are we looking for exactly?" His commander turned to him and bellowed; "We are searching for a drunken Major who has stolen property belonging to the citizens of France!"

At the sound of the verbal "Alarm", 2 platoons worth of Communard soldiers, nearly, 60 soldiers, began converging at the 2 storey brick building. Their tall, enraged Commander began ordering their platoon leaders & platoon sergeants to begin a search of man in a military uniform, rank of Major, he was medium height & build, mustache & goatee, dark hair, possibly wearing glasses, and above all, he was probably very drunk.

The short stocky man, also indicated that there was a good possibility that he could be passed out lying on the ground anywhere so they should check the tall grass outside of the depot as well as under beds, in short they should check everywhere a man could go. He reminded them to pay special attention in the Infirmary, the supply buildings & storage rooms and especially the veterinarians office. Since these were all places where someone could stash more than a few bottles of wine. The Commander then quickly gave out 1 additional order.

"Under no circumstances at all is this man to be shot at or harmed! If anyone shoots at this man or renders him unable to speak I will personally see to your execution Comrades! Do you all understand that! This Major has important information regarding this depot that we only just discovered minutes ago. If he dies, then we will never find this crucial, I say again, CRUCIAL information that may in fact bring about the destruction of the Commune before it even begins!" He then bellowed; "Move out, find him, & bring him back to me!"

Immediately, the platoons began to search the depot & all of its adjacent area. The Frog walked up to the tall man & said to him; "Comrade, he had enough difficulty walking with the box earlier today before he was under the influence, now, he would undoubtedly drop the box before long. With a box that size, he can't go far."

The tall man nodded & said; "Exactly, Charles that is the problem! He could have dropped it anywhere & not know where it is! It is up to us to find it now! And now, we haven't much time, the garrison troops could be on their way back at this moment & we only have skirmishers out there. We could never stop them long enough to make our escape." He then stated out loud & in disdainful disgust; "This is why we do not approve of alcohol! It creates unintended consequences that cannot be planned ahead for in advance! Damn him & his cognac! Damn him & his greed! Capitalistic, bourgeois pig!"

His adjutant looked at him & said; "Comrade, what was our mission here today?" The tall man answered; "Our mission here today Comrade Le Porche,'' he made a conscientious effort to pronounce his name as [Lay-Por-shay] for he knew that if he mispronounced his short adjutants name it could cause severe problems for him later, since if it is was mispronounced, his name meant "Pig"; he did not want to call his adjutant Comrade "Pig" the results would be too much to risk; he continued, "..our mission was to secure, first all the ammunition, second, all weapons & if possible, secure & return all the money given as an inducement to this petit bourgeois Major."

Le Porche then replied; "Well Comrade, we have succeeded in most of the mission, although it is not a total success, we do have possession of all the weapons & ammunition. These items are a far greater import to the Commune than this money, no?" The tall man nodded slowly.

The short man reminded his comrade of the special order; "Comrade, may I remind you that you not only referred to me by my first name, but you called me by my surname as well. We were not to use names if you recall." The tall man then replied; ''Comrade Le Porche, that was when the Major was present so that he could not identify any of us & perhaps write down our names to be found & used against us at a later time, so you may now use any & all names from this moment onwards." The short man nodded & replied; "That is all you needed to tell me Comrade Fishkin, that's all I needed to hear."

"Lets continue supervising this search shall we Comrade Le Porche?" said Fishkin. "Yes, Comrade Fishkin, I will go & see if anything has been discovered yet." With that, Le Porche walked into the "D" building with the intent of going directly to the veterinarians office & all the supply rooms in that area. Fishkin then went to the Commandants office to see what if anything was found in there.

After some time had passed without any good news, Fishkin asked 1 of his soldiers for the time. "It is now 3:05 Comrade Commander." Fishkin frowned, "That's it, time to bring it in." He began to call in all the troops & began to prepare for the order to march back to the marshaling area. He ordered a sergeant to get the skirmishers to return at once.

In less than 25 minutes, all of Fishkins remaining men, around 120 or so, were assembled in front of the Commandants office; the remainder were already at the marshaling area guarding the wagons. He had Comrade Le Porche lead them out & down to the marshaling area. As he walked down the road himself some 15 minutes later, he turned back to look at the depot. He shook his head and said to himself; "Damned petit, bourgeois! Your own greed & selfishness saved you....this time! We will meet again & next time, you, you, fat lazy swine! You won't get away from me!" He looked down at the ground, turned, then looked up & began to follow behind his men.












 
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Numbre 17 entrepot Militaire

March 12, 1871

Time: 6:30 PM


He looked out of the hole. All he saw was darkness. He listened, nothing but the wind blew. He sat & contemplated for a moment. He made his decision he would venture out, now was the time to act. The first thing to rise out of the dark foetid opening was a hand. Then the arm attached to the hand rose up behind it. Slowly a shoulder emerged out of the dank, dark, blackness. He then raised his head up. He looked around. It was a nearly a totally dark night. The Moon was obscured behind heavy clouds. He struggled to pull his other shoulder out now. It was a tight fit but he got it out. The ropes were digging into his shoulders now. It was uncomfortable but there would be no way, no way he would loosen those bonds. Attached to those ropes was his fortune & he was not about to abandon it now especially after the great lengths he had gone to obtaining it. And, he wasn't going to leave it in here of all places. He struggled to pull himself up. It was not easy. He let out a gasp of air. He breathed deeply. He tried again. This time his feet slipped. He did not want to fall back in the hole. He thought that if he fell, he might be trapped in here & eventually they would find his corpse, he stopped thinking & determined to extricate himself now! He positioned both hands at the holes opening & began to slowly push downward. He tried to get his leg out & put his knee on the outer part of the hole. He pulled & pulled up while the heavy wooden box inexorably pulled downward. He wished he had brought a ladder with him, ah, live & learn.He finally got his right knee on the lip of the opening. Success! He was almost out. He pulled his other knee up & sat back on the opening of this hole exhausted from the exertion. He held in an exhausted gasp of laughter. This was a story to tell his children when they were grown. Provided of course he made it back home. No time to think about far off places yet or tales he would spin in coming years. He still had to get home, he still had to leave the depot. He pulled on the rope & the heavy, valuable object it surrounded slowly came out of the hole. He placed it beside him & felt a small sense of achievement. He came out on top, so he thought, he came out smelling like a rose.


He laughed to himself; smelling like a rose indeed! He smelled much more like human feces! After all, what would one expect to smell like after they had spent an entire afternoon hiding in the underground cesspit of a stinking latrine!

__________


He stood up. It was good to finally be able to stand after all that time down there. He did not know how long he was down there or even what time it was now. All he knew was that it was nighttime & the Communards had left his depot. He was lucky that while he was down there in the bowels of the latrine that it was only knee deep in human waste. He thought himself even more more fortunate that there was a wooden beam that he could sit upon & use as a,..........stool? It was, he recollected a hard stool. Nonetheless, he let it pass, it was all behind him now. He laughed hard at that thought. He peered out the door & began at once to hurriedly walk to the supply building where he had made his preparations yesterday after the last of his garrison troops had left to go on patrol. As he headed to the supply building, he reflected on how easy it was to "disappear" into the latrine earlier that day.

He smiled as he thought of his earlier actions that day. He took the wine & cognac bottles & purposely dropped them on the floor & kicked some of the glass down the stairs. He then went downstairs & retrieved the 12 foot section of rope to cover the heavy box. On return to his office, he knocked some books off a shelf, scattered some worthless papers around the office, threw down an officers tunic, (not his own though), & then tossed the drinking glasses up in the air. He also retrieved a folder with important documents, his own personal files & placed them in his treasure box.

He then put on an ordinary privates uniform, tied up his box with the rope, put his glasses in his top pocket & then quickly took out one of those brand new English manufactured "Sheffield Safety Razors" & shaved off his mustache & goatee. With that, he grabbed his rope encased box & exited his former office & made his way to the latrine. He walked directly behind about 6 Communard soldiers, keeping about 10 paces behind them. He had, in fact, escaped in plain sight. As he neared the latrine, he simply walked right in, made sure nobody was in there, sat on the rear of the hole & slowly lowered himself in. It was the safest place to hide. Nobody would think to look there; in fact, nobody did, the place reeked so bad, hardly anymore than 5 men even relieved themselves while he was sitting "on duty" there. As he entered the supply building, Major Lemoyne walked cautiously & slowly, it was extremely dark in there. He wouldn't chance lighting a lantern, too dangerous. He walked towards the supply office. He gambled that his his Supply Sgt., Sergeant Du Bois, would have a bottle or 2 still in his office & that he would not have had time to bring them along on the hastily assembled patrol.

He made it into Sgt. Du Bois office & looked into the deep shelf behind his manuals. Sure enough, there were 2 bottles of Kentucky bourbon, American made whiskey. Disgusting stuff to be sure but he had no intention of imbibing it. He was going to use it to wash himself off.
He reached around in the dark & found a burlap bag. He would take all his filthy clothes off & drop them in the burlap sack. He opened up the bottle of bourbon and began to clean himself. He found a cloth & then dried himself off. He went over to another shelf & found the civilian clothes that he had placed there the day before. He took the key of his treasure box and put in his pocket of the new shirt he had put on. New socks, gray pants, new undergarments, heavy woolen hat, scarf, pair of gloves, warm winter boots, gray overcoat, he had a complete civilian wardrobe now. He went & got the saddle bag that he had placed on the shelf the night before as well. He opened the heavy wooden box & began to transfer all of its contents into the leather saddle bags. His ensemble was nearly complete. He had one more item to secure.
He went over to the trash bin by Sgt. Du Bois' desk. He reached down into it & he found what he was searching for. In the bottom of the trash can, a piece of cloth which was rolled into a neat ball. He brought it out and opened it up. He could feel from its weight that it was still completely intact. As he opened up the ball of rags, he gently held up what it contained. "Good evening, Claudine," he said, "I am happy to have you accompany me on my flight from poverty to wealth." Claudine was in fact, his LeMat pistol. He put the LeMat in his belt, picked up the saddle bags, (they were much more easier than the bulky box was.) and the burlap sack. He then exited the supply building & headed directly for the latrine.



As soon as Major Lemoyne entered the latrine, he began to empty the contents of the burlap sack into the cesspit. As soon as he had gotten the last boot into the pit, he tossed in the wooden box & burlap bag for good measure. He exited the latrine & began to briskly walk to the main gate. After he exited his former post, he started to the North. He had a rendezvous scheduled in a barn on an abandoned farm about 2 miles from the depots location.

He had left the barn early that morning in order to be back in time for the Communards when they arrived. When he left, he left Josephine waiting there; she was probably nervously anticipating his return so he had to hurry back. He held his pocket watch up to the fading moonlight & read it. It was around 8:15 pm. He finally made his way back to the barn just after 10:00 pm. He peered through the boards of the walls. Josephine was there! He saw her, her long blond hair against her naked body. He slowly approached her & spoke to her; "I brought back a small present for you." She tossed her head back & looked at him as to if to say; "You are late!"

He handed her the present, it was a juicy red apple. She looked at it & then took a bite. He smiled & stared at her. She was beautiful indeed. And so young! She was a 3 year old filly. She would carry him home, back to Desvres. Once he returned home, he would collect his wife & 2 children, then, in a few weeks perhaps, they would go to Boulogne-Sur-Mer. Once there, they would hire a fisherman to bring them to Great Britain. That was the plan. He went to sleep. He awoke about 3:30 am. He got dressed, put the saddle on Josephine as well the very valuable saddle-bags & then began to set out for home. He wanted to leave while it was still dark. He wanted to be well beyond the town of Beauvais before 7 am. He had a long journey ahead of him and he was looking forward to starting a new life for himself & his family. He smiled to himself and why shouldn't he? After all, with 36,000 francs a man could go far.

******









 
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Chapter 4
The Palace of Versailles

March 14, 1871

Time: 8:30 AM


President Thiers waited anxiously for his first visitor of the day. He had an important meeting scheduled for the afternoon as well. He heard a knock on the door, "Entrez." His secretary Jules Barthelemy-St.-Hillaire entered the room. "Mr. President, General Louis Jules Trochu to see you." "Send him in at once, Jules." replied Thiers. General Trochu entered President Thiers office & walked straight to his desk & saluted the President. President Thiers returned the salute & said, "Do sit down General, I have much to ask of you."


General Trochu replied, "How may I be of assistance to you Mr. President?" Thiers got to the point immediately. He told General Trochu of the seizure of the Treasury, & also, of all of the contents of the secret sub-basement. Trochu gasped at the news and remarked that, ''Less than 20 men even knew of the existence of the sub-basement!"

Thiers nodded his head & then continued, "General Trochu, what I need to know is all of the information you may have in regards to who exactly & perhaps most importantly where would the keys to the sub-basement & the 4 vaults therein be found? I need to know what you may know General about this since I am trying to find out who may have had access to them & how they were able to obtain them."

General Trochu smiled & answered President Thiers. "I would say Mr. President, that they were able to either find a list of the places where the keys are stored or, they took the keys from those few individuals who actually have personal possession of them. So either they stole them & made copies of them, which, would not be easy, or they bribed the holders of the keys & then gained them that way."

President Thiers then said to him, "General, where I may I find one of these lists?" General Trochu grinned, "Mr. President I will tell you 2 things that will surprise you. First, your secretary has one list with all names & locations as of December 3, 1870. Second," he stood up, "May I show you something Mr. President?" Thiers nodded. General Trochu walked to Thiers side of the desk & pulled out the bottom drawer.

He placed the drawer on President Thiers desk & took out all of its contents. Thiers looked at him suspiciously. General Trochu turned the drawer over to expose its bottom. As he looked at the bottom of the drawer, Thiers saw two heavy, bulky looking pieces of metal. They were unusually shaped cast iron keys set into a recess in the wood of the drawer. President Thiers then said; "If these were here then," he thought for a moment, "then they made duplicates of not only these keys then perhaps all of them!"

General Trochu then said; "Mr. President, I would venture to say that the Communards must have opened the sub-basement vaults as well as the entrance way with duplicate keys. There is no other way since this desk was only transported to Versailles the week before Christmas & prior to that, it was locked & sealed in a secure location."

Thiers looked at him quizzically. Trochu continued, ''However, Mr. President, any time before the 30th of November last, anyone could have had access to this desk & taken the keys & made duplicates. Since this desk was then located in the Tuilleries in the recently deposed Emperors study. For all we know Mr. President, these may be the duplicate keys." Thiers nodded soberly at that idea.

"Mr. President, forgive me for saying this but I feel I must." Thiers said, "Go ahead General, please speak freely." Trochu continued, "Mr. President, I think it is time & energy wasted on trying to find out who stole these keys, it is how you may say, water under the bridge, so to speak. Why concern yourself with who & when the keys were stolen, what matters now is trying to stop the Communards now; however, once after we have defeated them, we can....question them in any manner we feel necessary on who, when & how they received these keys."

President Thiers nodded in agreement. "General Trochu, I must say that I agree with that line of reasoning. I was focusing too much on the theft of the keys & losing focus on the more important goal of stopping this ''Commune'', it was my own ego getting in the way, thank you for re-directing my thoughts on this subject."

Thiers thought for a moment, "General, you said my secretary has the list of the men & locations where the keys were stored?" General Trochu replied, "Yes Mr. President, but don't blame Mr. St. Hillaire, he would not have known; you see there is a dossier in his files that is in a code of sorts, not in everyday French, so if he or anyone else glanced upon it, it wouldn't make sense. It would appear as a simple mundane report of agricultural production from the Region of Brittany."

Thiers looked at him, "General, who would know? Who would come & direct me or Mr. St. Hillaire, or even young Robert, if he was here at the time, &, not only that, but tell me of the keys hidden in my own desk?" General Trochu said to him, " It would be 1 of 2 ministers, either Minister of Finance, Mr. Louis Buffet or Minister of War, General Le Flo. The files would be the purview of General Le Flo since he has the cipher to decode the various numerical codes contained in that book & the keys in your desk would be Mr. Buffets' knowledge."

President Thiers sat quiet for a minute then he instructed General Trochu to keep the knowledge of the theft of the Treasury absolutely secret, the fewer who knew the better. He then asked General Trochu if he would be present at his meeting this afternoon. General Trochu agreed to stay for the meeting. President Thiers then told him that only a few of his ministers knew of the theft and more importantly, none of the members of the National Assembly down in Bordeaux were made aware it. If they found out, there were would be even more panic, more than France could bear.

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The Palace of Versailles

March 17, 1871

Time: 4:30 PM



President Thiers sat at his desk going over reports. Few contained good news. He glanced at the clock on the wall, it read 4:35. He smiled, young Robert would be coming on duty soon & Mr. St. Hillaire would be leaving shortly.


There was a loud knock on the door, it had to be Mr. St. Hillaire. "Entrez," replied Thiers. Mr. St. Hillaire entered & said; "Mr. President a report was delivered here, it is from General Auguste."

"Merci, Jules, I will read this in private." Mr. St. Hillaire then turned & exited the room. Thiers opened the envelope and began to look at the report. It was the report of what had happened at the Treasury the previous month before.

Mr. President a comprehensive report with eyewitness testimony on the days prior to the discovery of the theft of the Treasury of France.

According to several survivors who were acting as guards of the Treasury:

On approximately 13, February 1871, the Command under the leadership of Captain Eugene Bonnet was approached by a General Staff Officer, a General Rougerie along with four adjutants. He had ordered Captain Bonnet to transfer his entire Company to the 11e Arrondissement to assist in fighting the anarchists & other rioters. Capt. Bonnet informed the General that his orders were to guard the Treasury building & its compound, he was told not to leave this area except under direct orders from the area commander and those orders must be signed by both the Minister of War and General Trochu. The General had one of his staff officers produce a document that had orders with both of those signatures written upon it. At this juncture, Capt. Bonnet began to gather his Lieutenants: Lt. Fauvan, Henri & myself Lt. Brunette, Jerome. We were ordered to assemble our platoons & march to the 11e Arrondissement to confront the rioters & contain them in that area. We remained in this area combating rioters for the 10 days. We returned to our post at the Treasury on February 23, 1871. I became acting commander in the wake of the deaths of both Captain Bonnet & Lt. Fauvan. On our return, we found the main doors to the Treasury Building were still locked and sealed as when we had left them on the 13th. We were shocked when the Treasury staff alerted us on the 27th, that the Treasury had been ransacked. I SWEAR MY TESTIMONY IS TRUE AND CONTAINS NO OMISSIONS OR DELETIONS: LT. Jerome A. Brunette.


*****

On February 13, 1871 my Company was in charge of guarding the National Treasury Building of France. Approximately at 3:00pm, my Commander, Captain Bonnet informed me that under orders from a ranking General, Gen. Rougerie, we were to leave our post & go assist in putting down the riots in an adjacent arrondissement. I began to call all the soldiers to fall in for formation & instructed my Platoon Sgts. to make necessary arrangements for the company to move to a new location & for the men to bring all their gear since we would be gone for a few days. Lieutenant Brunette was left to organize the evacuation of the stables which was being used as a temporary barracks for the men. Around 3:45pm, Capt. Bonnet ,myself, Lt. Fauvan, Sgt. Houllion, and General Rougerie along with with his staff entered the Treasury Building. We went into the basement of the building in order to tell the 2 soldiers in the sealed guardpost there, that they would have to evacuate their post, since with our leaving the building, there would be no one to relieve them or let them out of the sealed guard room. One of the guards, a Master Sergeant Lemieux was willing to leave, yet the other soldier was a Major Joule & he refused stating that they fell under special orders. Captain Bonnet tried to explain to the Major that they would be locked in this building for an unspecified amount of time without food & no relief since the building was to be sealed & locked. General Rougerie then approached the guard post & ordered the Major to leave the post & assist in combating the Communards. At this juncture, Master Sergeant Lemieux opened the door to the guard post & stated that he did not want to be trapped in here. Major Joule insisted that a special report be made & signed by Gen. Rougerie. Gen. Rougerie agreed to this demand. Before leaving the basement, Master Sergeant Lemieux pushed a heavy wooden table between the guard post door and the wall so that the room would be accessible upon return since the door was designed to be opened only from the inside,without this, the door would have to have been chiseled or hammered off to reopen it. Major Joule also demanded that Gen. Rougerie indicate in his special report that he ordered the door to be kept open in this manner. The General stated he would put that in his written order. This seemed to placate Major Joule. When we reached the 11e Arrondissement, we were faced with rioters & armed resistance. I recall something unusual at this time. Master Sgt. Lemieux claimed to know of an alley between several buildings that could lead us around & then behind some of the rioters & keep us from being fired upon. He claimed to have lived here for most of his life. I thought it a bit unusual since Master Sgt. Lemieux spoke with a Provencal accent which would be unusual for a man claiming to have lived in Paris most of his life. It only struck me later that it was Master Sgt. Lemieux who led the way with Lt. Fauvans Platoon, Captain Bonnet and Major Joule. I was with Lt. Brunettes platoon and our remnant of 3rd Platoon which only had 11 soldiers. When the rioters finally left the area on the 16th of February we went into the buildings to recover the dead. We lost 26 of 31 men of 1st Platoon along with the Commander as well as Major Joule & Lt. Fauvan. We never found Master Sergeant Lemieux's remains. Additionally, General Rougerie dismissed us on the 23rd & told us to return to our post. It was not until a few days later that Lt. Brunette told me that the Treasury had been looted during our absence. I SWEAR THIS TESTIMONY IS TRUE AND CONTAINS NO OMISSIONS OR DELETIONS: FIRST SERGEANT HENRI P. OULETTE

Thiers put the report down & sighed, "Merde, now they are impersonating officers as well, have access to military stationery & can forge signatures with great expertise, Merde!" Thiers wondered when he would get to open a letter that had good news.

 
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Chapter 5

Hotel Arbre Vert 11e Arrondissement, Paris

March 18, 1871

Time: 7:00 PM


Blanqui looked at the files & reports coming across his desk in his temporary office. It was comfortable, roomy & had good lighting. He reflected that he ought not get too comfortable here.

Comrade Pleiseau insisted upon having him staying no more than one night in the same place. Too dangerous, Pleiseau had told him, better to find a new abode every night. Harder for them to capture him. Blanqui knew that Thiers had agents who were on the lookout for him & would try to capture him, so he followed what Emil Pleiseau told him to do.

It was after all, for the safety of the Commune that he not be captured. He continued working on his speech to be made in only a few hours before members of the Peoples Assembly. He had about 3 hours before he was to be taken to the hall where he would address the assembly.

He let his mind wander for a few minutes. He wondered, as he looked at his comfortable surroundings, how much more comfortable he would be in if he was right now in one of those brand new hotels being built in London. They were magnificent structures, some nearing 10 floors! Amazing, dizzying heights!

He imagined being taken up in one of those amazing safety lifts! A small movable room of sorts that moved up & down from floor to floor. Absolutely incredible! Not only that, he imagined having in his room, one or maybe even two of Mr. Smythes' amazing electric lamps that gave off bright light & turned night into day! He wouldn't have to spend as much time writing during the daylight hours.

The gas lamps were sufficient of course, but the new electrical light bulbs gave off much more light. The only negative thing he had heard, from several people, was that Mr. Smythes' light-bulbs gave off tremendous heat & could cause fires if placed too close to flammables such as drapes & curtains.

Those English! They were so inventive, they had so many great things that made life easier & better. If only France could have a tithe of what they had! He felt a bit of jealousy towards them. He quickly re-focused his attention on the papers on his desk.

________________



As he looked through the reports, Blanqui came to one of the ones he knew was of great import. Its' information would have great significance for what he would be proposing in front of the assembly later toady.

So far, through the aid & ingenuity of Comrade Pleiseau and many other Comrades, they had achieved great victories in only the past few weeks. They, the Commune that is, had successfully confiscated & secreted away over 34 billion francs from the Treasury.

That was a strategic victory against the reactionaries who fancy themselves "Republicans", had they not, in their last election voted in a majority of men who were unabashedly in favor of returning France to a Monarchy?

In only the last 2 1/2 weeks, Blanqui noted happily, his forces had also spirited away just over 75,000 rifles. He looked to his notes, some 18,000 or so were the Tabatiere Rifle, but the remaining 57,000 were Chassepots. In addition, his forces had also liberated around 20,000 pistols of various makes & designs. His forces also had at their disposal some 300 muzzle loading cannon.

The greatest feat of all was in the amount of ammunition his comrades had taken from the Reactionaries' corrupt & lazy custodians. The forces of the People now had over 9,500,000 rounds of ammunition & paper cartridges along with some 2,350,000 rounds of pistol ammunition. This was of course according to the records of the armorers from whence these weapons were confiscated from.

Moreover, his people were still in the process, and would be for some time, of "liberating" more weapons & munitions from depots & armories throughout France.

This was perhaps the greatest event because, for every round or rifle that the forces of the Commune had, was 1 less that could be used against them. Without appropriate funding, the "Versailles" Government would be hard pressed to acquire sufficient supplies of any kind for their forces.



As Blanqui sat there reading these reports, he had a moment of genius. He would mention in his speech today to the Peoples Assembly the recent acquisition of the necessary sinews of war taken from the forces of the reactionaries. He would not tell them the exact amount of weapons or munitions that were confiscated due to no wanting to let his opponent know what cards he held in his hands.

Better for old Adolphe to find out from his Generals when they find out from the Ordnance officers that: "offensive operations cannot be conducted due to the fact that.....". He smiled broadly at the thought. The real masterstroke of Political genius was different though. He would tell the assembled before him today of the seizure of the Treasury of France.

In the audience today, no doubt, would be reporters from many foreign newspapers. The most important would be those men representing British newspapers & possibly more important would be those men representing the dailies that get read everyday in Zurich! Once the bankers in London & Zurich find out that the Versailles government is broke, they won't be as likely to grant any more loans to it.


Blanqui tried to predict what would happen beyond Thiers' government denying the "rumor" of missing treasure from the Treasury. Undoubtedly, Thiers, his fool of a Foreign Minister, Jules Favre, & likely his Finance Minister, Louis Buffet would beg, cajole, & assure the international bankers in both Switzerland & Great Britain that the banks & treasury are full. The International Bankers then would want to do an audit or an in person inspection of the French Treasury.

Once they see for themselves that the vaults are indeed empty......Thiers will have an apoplexy! That was it then, he would tell the World about the seizure of the French Treasury. This revelation would have another positive aspect for the Commune. Once the Prussians heard of the "Versailles cliques" financial insolvency, it would make the Thiers government extremely vulnerable in the peace negotiations that were to begin in about a week or so.

The implications of this were grave for Thiers' government & great for The Commune. Since the "Thiers' Gang" is unable to dislodge the Germans from France by force due to the recently signed Armistice, their only alternative was the negotiating table. The brutal Germans would exact an expensive indemnity from the "Versailles Clique". Since the Germans will be aware that their demands cannot be paid by Thiers' government it will show to all of France how impotent the Versailles government truly is.

Moreover, if Thiers' government cannot make peace with the Germans it could cause even more people to riot all over France. Some of those people could come under the Red Banner of the Commune even if at first they disagreed with its principles. If the Germans attempt to break off negotiations with Thiers' representatives perhaps then they would negotiate with those who have, access to large amounts of cash.

*****


 
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St. Charles Theatre 10e Arrondissement Paris, France

March 18, 1871

Time: 2:40 PM

Alfred Fishkin stood looking around at the large number of people sitting and standing throughout the theater. His tall height enabled him to see above most people, it gave him a unique perspective most people could not enjoy.

He had arrived well over an hour ago, roughly around 1:00 PM. He had been directed by Comrade Pleiseau the night before instructing him that he would be driving Comrade Chairman Blanqui to his house for the night. He would not get the actual address until just before the Comrade Chairman came out to the carriage. This was for security reasons, Fishkin understood that without having to be told.

He also knew that the Comrade Chairman usually had at least two and sometimes three or four different drivers per day. That meant during the course of a week, he could have twenty different men driving him each week. Fishkin thought maybe that could be dangerous too. With only one or two drivers, it was harder to put in an assassin, yet with only two drivers, potential assassins would recognize the drivers & know that their intended target, the Comrade Chairman in this case, had to be close by.

He had put his early arrival to good use. He had checked all of the lavatories, the cellar, closets, anyplace an individual could place a weapon or hide himself in. He completed his security check about twenty minutes ago. There were other Comrades around, to be sure, who were conducting searches as well. Undoubtedly, they were in various forms of disguise & appearance.

Fishkin knew he stood out due to his height of 6'2, 235 pounds & his Alsatian accent. So despite his best efforts, he could never be a discreet spy simply because he was just so much larger than his contemporaries. His mission in investigating the theater was to intimidate suspicious people & maybe make them think twice about what they were going to do. Also, he could possibly overpower someone by just his physical strength. To be on the safe side, he had a Colt revolver with him, just in case.

As he stood there he noticed a few familiar faces but most of the faces were brand new people that he had never seen or worked with before. He recognized several men who had been with him on his mission to the Ammunition Depot out by the Bois De La Tour Du Lay. He looked for Comrade Le Porche but did not see him. He saw the old man named Rene. He remembered him from the night back in February when they seized the Treasury.

He recalled & was surprised by the strength of the old man. He remembered as they hauled crates & later bars of gold & silver up the stairs and out into the awaiting wagons that when most men (including himself) were carrying either a crate at a time or one or two sacks of paper money, this old man was carrying two crates at a time with two bags of money on top of those heavy crates!

He also recalled that how this man, Rene had kept several of the teamsters from making a wrong turn on the way back to the hotel where the Comrade Chairman was waiting. He perhaps saved nine wagons from getting lost & possibly aided in keeping the "Liberation" of the Treasury being found out prematurely. The millions of francs he saved for the Commune by doing that was perhaps immeasurable.

Fishkin was pleased to see that this good old man had a close seat to the stage, this way he could hear Comrade Chairman Blanqui without any problems. As he sat down in his seat in the upper balcony, he overheard someone say behind him; "It is 2:55! He's almost an hour late!"

Fishkin smiled, he knew that many times politicians & other celebrities arrive late in order to build up suspense in their crowds, but also, it was also a security tactic. If a torpedo was placed & set to explode at the time the expected target showed & he was late by an hour well, the target would be missed & the assassins would have to try again. It also gave the security detail more time to discover something potentially harmful and dangerous.

All of a sudden Fishkin heard a loud applause & immediately looked down to the stage. Everyone began standing and applauding as the Comrade Chairman approached the lectern. He paused as all the people took their seats.

He began slowly & quietly and began building up. For the first fifteen minutes or so the Chairman was amiable & friendly. He spoke gently to the crowd and discussed different facets of Socialism. He soothed them with his speech then began to raise the crescendo.

With each pause, people began to stand & applaud which only meant that his speech would be all the much longer than originally intended. To his surprise & relief, the Comrade Chairman politely asked everyone to please remain seated & hold any applause until the end.

Fishkin listened as the Comrade Chairman spoke and made history:

"Comrades, when we got together back in December & you voted for me to be the Chairman of this Commune I promised you action. Up until now, perhaps many of you thought, 'well, what action has he done?' You may have said,

'Where was Blanqui when the soldiers fired upon us? Where was his leadership then? Where was Blanqui when the breakout was being attempted? Where were Blanqui & his men when the soldiers shot at us with impunity? What has he done for us? What has he done for Paris? What has he done to make this Commune successful? What has he done to spread socialism beyond Paris? What will Blanqui do to drive the Germans out of France?'

Well Comrades, I will tell you what we have been doing in detail. For we have not been sitting around discussing the philosophies of Socialism & Fraternity. We have been taking action! Many of our Comrades have been working throughout the past month seizing arms from the corrupt bourgeoise custodians who were supposed to be guarding those weapons!


On cue, twenty-four men came out on stage carrying twelve crates & after setting them down, they opened them. The Chairman reached into one of them & retrieved a Chassepot rifle. He held it up & at once gave the signal to the two dozen men to begin handing out weapons. Fishkin smiled as the crowed roared its approval.

Fishkins' smile was more than just from pride. He then realized that all of the people in the audience being handed a rifle were men who had already proven themselves loyal by having driven the wagons back when they "Liberated" the Treasury. He noted, that Rene, the old man, was one of the first men to be handed a rifle. Chairman Blanqui then continued:

"As we hand you these weapons Comrades. Be mindful, these weapons are keys. They are the keys to open the doors of Fraternity & Socialism. The same doors that are locked & blocked by the forces of reaction. The pawns of the reactionaries gave them up without a fight. For if they fought back you would have heard of the Reactionaries crowing about it in any and all of the newspapers on how "they suppressed the rebellious masses".

The reason they don't put it in the papers is that they are embarrassed and frightened. They are frightened because they know that their "pawns" happily handed these keys of liberty freely over to us with smiles on their faces and joy in their hearts! Because now they have been enlightened by what Socialism & Fraternity really means. The Reactionaries are embarrassed because their servants no longer serve them but we the people!

Look among yourselves Comrades. How many of you were only a few months ago soldiers serving in an "Imperial" army? Now you serve the people of France; And it is up to all of us to go & enlighten the People of France. The time has come Comrades: To arms! To arms! We have arms for all of you & then some! Comrades we struck an even bigger blow to the forces of the Reaction than just liberating these keys of freedom.

On the Night of February 17 & 18 of this year, we inflicted a defeat on this illegitimate government that seems to have, for some reason, two Capital cities, one down in Bordeaux, safe from the Prussian invader while we go hungry & consume animals in the zoo; and another that sits in regal splendor in the Palace of Versailles while you sit here in the cold, without coal for your stoves nor food for your children.

Yet that defeat my fellow Comrades is such a total defeat & humiliation for them, they have not even deemed it important to tell it to those safe members down in Bordeaux. You see Comrades, they don't trust their own deputies in the so-called National Assembly down in Bordeaux, because if they did tell them what I am about to tell you, they would then have to leave their comfortable setting & lifestyle in Versailles.

But I, Louis Auguste Blanqui, Chairman of the Paris Commune will state the truth of what we did in our attempt to liberate all of France from this corrupt clique who like to call themselves Republicans. On the 17th & 18th of February, we entered the Treasury of France, went into the basement & into the sub-basement where State Secrets & ancient documents were kept and confiscated, in the name of the Commune & Citizens of France an amount of money totaling just over 6.5 billion francs.

Not only is the 'Republic' bankrupt in ideas and in the concept of liberty, they are financially bankrupt as well. They now have no way to finance their armies or their futile attempts at governing the People of France. We have the money, we have the People, we have the arms, and we have destiny on our side! VIVE LE FRATERNITY! VIVE LE SOCIALISM! VIVE LE FRANCE! VIVE LE FRAAAANCE!"


The eruption of voices was so loud, Fishkin could not hear anything it was so deafening. But he knew he had just heard an historic speech. An event that was being played out on a canvas called France. But one eventually he hoped would spread throughout the entire World. It was the first bold steps into the New World of Socialism. And he was an eyewitness to it.

He hurriedly moved to get downstairs as quickly as possible since he had to find out from Comrade Pleiseau where the Comrade Chairman would be staying this evening. People moved to get out of his way, he did not want to knock over anyone but if he had to....... He beamed as he thought of the New World of Socialism & all that it entailed. If he had known the blood that would come in attendance with its birth, he might not have smiled as broadly.

***

As Fishkin made his way outside he asked another waiting driver; "Pardon, Comrade can you tell me what time it is?" The man looked at him and sardonically replied; "I think it is time for you to get yourself a pocket watch 'Kamerad'." Fishkin glared at him he knew the man was making reference to his Alsatian accent.

The man grinned and said; "The time is now 4:25." Fishkin nodded & said; "Merci, Comrade." The man looked at him and replied; "Bitte, Kamerad." Fishkin wanted to slug the man in the face but thought better of it. In the Spirit of Fraternity & considering the event that had just happened, he decided to let it go. He went over to where the other drivers were congregating & as he arrived he saw that Comrade Pleiseau was talking to some other men.

Pleiseau saw him and motioned him to come over. He handed him an envelope, Fishkin looked at the writing on the envelope, it had a number. It was number 7. This meant he was to go to the 7th carriage that had been already lined up and he was to wait there until he received further instructions.

As he leaned up against his carriage he tried to absorb all that he had heard in the theater. It was a wonderful speech. He enjoyed the beginning portion when the Comrade Chairman began to discuss the Internationalist viewpoints & its core convictions. Fishkin knew, that although many Socialists like himself were "International Socialists" who wanted to spread Marxist-Socialism throughout the World that, unfortunately, they were in the minority position here in France.

All at once he realized Comrade Pleiseau was speaking to him. "So, Comrade Fishkin, that is the route I need you to take. And that is the address where the Comrade Chairman will be dropped off at. Do you have any questions?" Fishkin looked at him aghast & replied to him; "Comrade Pleiseau , forgive me but my hearing, my ears are still ringing from the speech, could you please repeat it for me?"

Pleiseau smiled at him and said; "No Comrade, I cannot repeat it, but I don't need to....", he said smiling. "It is all written on this piece of paper here; you can look it over while you wait. The Comrade Chairman will be a few minutes yet. He is still talking to many well-wishers as well as newspaper men too, so you have some time."

Pleiseau then ordered him to do something odd. He told him to get in his drivers seat & wait for the carriage ahead of him to move. When that carriage moved he was to go & once out of the alley way to proceed to his destination point.

Fishkin then asked; "But Comrade Pleiseau, should I not be holding the door open for the Comrade Chairman when he arrives?" Pleiseau explained to him that the Chairman would let himself in, he was not a member of the National Assembly who needed to be waited on like a helpless bourgeoise dandy.

Fishkin smiled at that little joke. But then Comrade Pleiseau had to tell him something else. "Comrade Fishkin, we will be liberating another armory, day after tomorrow & I want you to be a part of this. You will be working with Comrade Le Porche again. He has already told me the details of what happened & we are very pleased with your performance up at depot 17."

Before Fishkin could speak, Pleiseau put up a hand. He then spoke; "We are pleased that your detail was able to confiscate so many weapons & munitions. Well done young man, well done indeed. This time however, we find it to be of necessity that you recover the money this time, can't afford to keep letting these little pigs get away with their loot; especially since it is our loot they are absconding with."

Pleiseau continued, "Comrade Fishkin, may I ask, how old are you?" Fishkin replied; "Comrade, I am 24 years old, my birthday is January 24, 1847." Pleiseau thought for a moment & then commented to Fishkin; "For such a young man you have distinguished yourself rather well for the Commune. This will be noted & not forgotten Comrade I assure you."

Fishkin smiled & nodded. Then Pleiseau asked him a direct question. "What have you learned from the mistake that you made up at Depot 17? And what did you learn that should not be repeated on your next mission?" Fishkin looked directly into Comrade Pleiseau eyes & said to him; "Comrade the mistake I made was that I did not post a guard at the Majors office. On this next mission, I will have guards posted at the commandants office and to be aware of his location at all times."

"Good, good, Comrade Fishkin, very good, that is the lesson & the rectification that needed to be implemented. Do not neglect to do that Comrade Fishkin, we cannot afford mistakes like that to happen again, for there will be no reprieve the next time, even for one as young as you Comrade. Do your duty, and do not forget the details." Fishkin nodded his head & said; "Yes Comrade Pleiseau, I will not forget, I swear on it."

As soon as he said that, Fishkin knew he had said too much. Pleiseau looked at him like a cat looks at a mouse that it has in its paws. Pleiseau smiled and said; "You swear on....it? It? What is it? It,....what? What do you swear on Comrade? The Holy Bible?" Fishkin gulped & thought; "How do I extricate myself from this hole I just stumbled into?"

The tension was broken when Pleiseau began to laugh out loud at the young man. He looked at him & said; "Comrade Fishkin, be careful of what you say & whom you say it in front of." Fishkin nodded slowly, he was relieved when Pleiseau told him that he would give him the details of the next mission tomorrow afternoon. He was more relieved when he saw Pleiseau walk away from him & to another carriage driver. He looked at his instructions to where he would be bringing the Comrade Chairman; that was far less dangerous than speaking.

***


Fishkin was sitting comfortably when he heard the door of his coach open & then quickly close. Before he could turn around to look, he saw the carriage in front of him begin to move forward. He began at once to drive his carriage away as well.

He began his ride to the 18th Arrondissement. His instructions were to take the Comrade Chairman to the Montmarte section & to a specific address there. As he drove the horses onwards towards the heights he noticed a few other carriages & coaches that had been at the theater as well. He thought they must be carrying other important Comrades.

As they began the ascent up the steep hills of Montmarte, Fishkin began to feel about the struggle that the horses were enduring. He knew that there were some among the Communards who felt a special fellowship for animals. Fishkin although not a cruel man when it came to animals, could not see how animals should be given rights since they were not after all men.

There were some among his fellow Comrades who wanted to extend rights towards animals. They were going so far as to stop eating meat and any product that comes from an animal. He smiled when he thought that many of his fellow Comrades would have to get used to wooden shoes in that case or, walk about barefoot.

Perhaps it was also because Fishkin had grown up in a butchers house. His father, Samuel, was a butcher in Haguenau. Although a successful butcher, he did not operate a kosher establishment since most of the clientele, were non-Jews. Had things gone different, Fishkin realized that he would have followed in his father's trade & become a successful "metzger" in his own right.

He made it up the hill and began traveling back down when he realized he was about to pass the street he had to turn on. He looked for the address, it was easy actually since there were four men standing out in front of a particular doorway. He stopped the carriage in front of the building where these men were standing & looking up, saw the number of the building and knew that this was his destination.

As he stopped the carriage & got out, he noticed the Comrade Chairman opening the door already. Also, the four men were quickly approaching the carriage. As he quickly climbed down, he saw the Chairman, his white beard a giveaway even in fading twilight. As he approached the Chairman, the "Chairman" looked at him & said to him; "Grazie giovane e buona notte a te."*

Fishkin was stunned, he was transporting a double of the Comrade Chairman! The man looked very similar to Chairman Blanqui & anyone unfamiliar with the Comrade Chairman would be fooled into thinking this man was Comrade Chairman Blanqui. Of course, as far as he knew, Comrade Chairman Blanqui did not even speak Italian.

This "double" of the Chairman had a much thinner face & he walked different than the Chairman did. One of the 4 waiting men approached him & presented him with a piece of paper. On it was directions on where he was to deliver the carriage that night. As Fishkin read it, he realized he would be heading down to the 12th Arrondissement. Schiese! He'd be on this carriage for three more hours! Schiese!





*Thank you young man and good night to you.












 
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Ammunition Annex "Jacqueline" Fortress Issy South of Paris

March 20, 1871:

Time: 11:30 am


Fishkin was impressed. This evacuation of ammunition was going so much more rapidly and smoother than the previous mission he had undertaken the week & a half before. The situation although similar was very different. They had been here since 8:40 am and it seemed that they'd be gone within 1 hour from now.

First of all, the only items that they were there to confiscate were only small arms ammunition. When Fishkin & his group arrived earlier this morning the first noticeable difference was that there were already 22 full wagons already waiting for him and his men. Most of these wagons had been filled up the day before in anticipation of the arrival of the Communards.

The second difference was that the commander of this ammo annex had 2 platoons of his men aiding Fishkins men in loading the additional wagons. There were an additional 34 wagons; so in total, Fishkin was responsible for the delivery of 56 wagons of ammunition to a pre-arranged storage site back in the 11th Arrondissement in Paris.

Thirdly, Fishkin only had 2 platoons worth of soldiers with him today. Including Comrade Le Porche, two other "Lieutenants" & himself there were 64 Communard soldiers inside this annex. Also today, Comrade Le Porche was acting as the ranking officer since he was in disguise as a Major. Fishkin was disguised as a Captain, they were impersonating Ordnance Officers who were transporting ammunition to General Ducrot's 6th Corps.

Comrade Pleiseau had mentioned to Fishkin that due to his age & youthful facial appearance, he could not make a convincing Major, but Comrade Le Porche could since he was at least 12-13 years older than Fishkin. As per Le Porche's description to Comrade Pleiseau of what had happened at Depot 17, Fishkin was reminded: "DO NOT under any circumstances give any speeches that proclaimed the strength & power of Communal effort or to employ any type of Marxist slogans."

Doing that could alert some of the soldiers that were working with them that something was not right about this young Captain. So Fishkin was keeping himself in check & keeping somewhat more of a lower profile than he had back at Depot 17.

The final difference from the last mission was that Fishkin had his two "Lieutenants" standing near the Commandants office. Not in such a way to make it seem like the were guarding him, which was in fact what they were doing, but close enough to notice if he left his office.

In this place, the Commandants office was inside the underground bunker area where the ammo was stored. His office was nothing more than an older ammo storage bunker that was made into his office complete with carpeting, heavy wooden furniture, etc.

For his part, "Captain Moreau" which was Fishkins nom de plume, stayed in the utility room/supply room which was directly across from the Commandants office. He did not want to trust his life to these two ersatz "Lieutenants". He was keeping a vigilant watch on this Colonel Terrault himself. "Major Tardieu", Le Porches' alias, was observing the loading of ammo & lining up of the wagons.

For his part, Colonel Terrault seemed to be busy in his office counting all of his money that he had just earned for his part in opening up this ammunition annex to the Communards. It would take him a while to count it all, since he had about 48,000 francs to count, much of which was in silver coins & would be extremely difficult to walk out of here with. Fishkin kept his eyes on that door and his hand near his Colt revolver, he was determined to survive.








 
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