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After these executions a large number of so-called "hostages," ecclesiastics, soldiers of the line, sergents de ville, and police agents remained shut up in La Roquette. It was Saturday, May 27, the day before Whit Sunday. Says the Abbé Lamazou, "It was a few minutes past three, and I was kneeling in my cell saying my prayers for the day, when I heard bolts rattling in the corridor.
Then came another danger: soldiers of the Commune, fleeing from the vengeance of the Versaillais, might seek refuge in the prison. With much difficulty the Abbé Lamazou persuaded Poiret and some other warders who had stood with him, to close the gates till the arrival of troops from Versailles.
It was still more difficult, now that a way was open to escape, to persuade his fellow-captives to remain in prison. Some priests would not take his advice, among them Monseigneur Surat, the vicar-general. He had secured a suit of citizen's clothes, and hoped to escape in safety. In vain the Abbé Lamazou called out to him, "To go is certain death; to stay is possible safety."
It was the Abbé Duguerry, curé of the Madeleine, the first of the so-called hostages arrested in retaliation for the summary execution of General Duval, who had commanded one of the three columns that marched out of Paris the day before to attack the Versaillais. Both the curé of the Madeleine and his vicaire, the Abbé Lamazou, were that night arrested.
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