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A reporter connected with the New York "World" called upon Mégy, and here is his account of the interview: "'I was born in Paris, in 1844, said the ex-member of the Commune, lighting a cigar; 'I went through a primary school, and learned but little. I was apprenticed to a machinist. When I was twenty I found work on the Suez Canal.
Before the reporter left him, he chanced to pronounce the name of Mr. Washburne. "Washburne is a liar and a cur," cried Mégy, angrily. "Before the Commune ended, some of our people asked him what the Versailles Government would do with us if we surrendered or were conquered. 'I assure you, he said, 'you would be shot. During the siege of Paris, Washburne was a German spy.
Martin theatre, and the hall of the College de France, were mostly frequented by moderate Republicans, and attempts were often made there to discuss the situation in a sensible manner. But folly, even insanity, reigned at many of the other clubs, where men like Felix Pyat, Auguste Blanqui, Charles Delescluze, Gustave Flourens, and the three Ms Megy, Mottu, and Milliere raved and ranted.
Its fall had been officially promised at that hour, but up to half-past 6 it was still standing. It will probably fall to-day. The tricolour flag has just been attached to the statue, amid faint cheers from the crowd. An Armistice has been arranged for next Wednesday, to enable the inhabitants of Vanves and the neighbourhood to remove. Cluseret, Megy, and Schoelcher have been released.
Rochefort was the son of a marquis who had been forced to write for bread. Deleschuze was an ex-convict. Blanqui had spent two thirds of his life in prison, having been engaged from his youth up in conspiracy. He was also at one period a Government spy. Raoul Rigault also had been a spy and an informer from his boyhood. Mégy and Assy were under sentence for murder.
Meantime another bunch of keys was found, and the executioners, led by Ferré, Lolive, and Mégy, that member of the Commune whom none of them seemed to know, hurried upstairs. In the crowd were gamins and women, National Guards, Garibaldians, and others, but chiefly the Vengeurs de Flourens, a corps of which an Englishman who served the Commune said: "They were to a man all blackguards."
He went on to affirm that there was a large colony of Communists in that city; that America needed revolutionizing as much as France; that Cardinal McCloskey might find himself in the same position as Monseigneur Darboy; and so on. I have quoted this interview with Mégy at some length, because it shows the Communists painted by one of their own number.
We called out the men we came to shoot, and we shot them as that kind of thing is generally done. We took them down into a courtyard, put them against a wall, and gave the order to fire; that was all. "After a minute's silence, Mégy added: 'It was all M. Thiers' fault. We offered to give him up the hostages if he would give us Blanqui; but he refused, and so we shot them.
Innumerable other anecdotes have found their way into print concerning the last hours of the Commune; but I will rather tell of Mégy, the member of the Council who, in his scarf of office, animated the party that slew the archbishop and his, five companions. He reached New York in 1878, and, as I said, was received with an ovation by a colony of escaped Communists who had settled on our shores.
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