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The wretches in the house, who never cared to show themselves so long as it might only be the dog killing a boy, all came tumbling out by crowds when it became clear that a boy had killed the dog. 'A la lanterne! they yelled out; valiantly charged en masse: and among them they managed to kill the boy. But there was a reckoning to pay for this.
Further, many upholders of the Imperial authority shook their heads in deprecation of this scheme of enrolling and arming so many young men, who might suddenly blossom into revolutionaries and turn their weapons against the powers of the day. There was great unrest in Paris in 1868, the year of Henri Rochefort's famous journal La Lanterne.
The eye-witnesses of these memorable events have declared that, at a given moment, he looked up suddenly with a curious, eager expression in his eyes, and then raised himself in the cart and seemed to be trying to penetrate the gloom round him, as if in search of a face, or perhaps a voice. "A la lanterne! A la lanterne!" was the continual hoarse cry of the mob.
I submitted a number of names which I thought suitable for the paper, but all were rejected, and he finally wrote that he had decided to call the new journal The Lantern. This decision elicited from me another energetic protest. The title was not original, but obviously borrowed from M. Rochefort's famous journal, La Lanterne.
During the whole time of the proceedings the populace never ceased threatening the judges and shouting, "A la lanterne!" It was even necessary to keep numerous troops and artillery constantly ready to act in the courtyard of the Chatelet. The judges, who had just acquitted M. de Besenval in an affair nearly similar, doubtless dreaded the effects of this fury.
Those of our batteries which were in the best position to reply to this fire, were located near the breakwater on a big bastion in the form of a tower, known as the Lanterne. The general ordered me to take a message to the officer in charge of this battery, instructing him to direct all his efforts on an English brig, which had insolently anchored a short distance from the Lanterne.
"A la lanterne!" stammered and hiccupped others of the group; but they did not stir to execute their threat.
That first step we take together; I want to go a step further; you retreat, you say, 'No: I reply you are committed; that further step you must take, or I cry 'Traitre! au la lanterne! You talk of 'superior experience: bah! what does experience really tell you?
It was equipped with twelve cannons on enormous wooden mountings. Although it may be very difficult for ship at sea to aim its fire with sufficient accuracy to hit such a small target as was the platform of the Lanterne, the English managed to land several bombs there. As these bombs descended, the gunners took shelter behind or underneath the massive timbers of the gun mountings.
And Deroulede, holding Juliette by the hand, shouted lustily with them: "Ca ira!" Sir Andrew Ffoulkes turned, and laughed. It was rare sport for these young bucks, and they all entered into the spirit of the situation. They all shouted "A la lanterne!" egging and encouraging those around them. Deroulede and Juliette felt the intoxication of the adventure.
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