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They turned and went out but, as they reached the steps, a number of officers rode up. "There is General Trochu himself, with Vinoy and Ducrot," Ralph said. The generals dismounted, and came up the steps. As they did so their eyes fell upon the boys, who both saluted. They paused, in surprise. "What masquerade is this, young gentlemen?" General Trochu asked, sternly.
"And your men, captain, deserve credit for the way they have worked," he observed; "they could not have done so more willingly had they been performing the task for their own advantage. For my part, I am pretty well worn out you may be sure that I shall sleep soundly during my watch below." "Do you generally sleep soundly, Lieutenant Vinoy?" asked Gerald.
The latter, in the course of the dispute, said to the former, "If your sword were as long as your tongue, you would be a wonderful warrior indeed." Ducrot and Trochu are the literary Generals; Vinoy and Blanchard the fighting Generals. It is reported also that General Favé is to be superseded, though why I cannot learn, as his redoubt may be said to have saved the army from a greater disaster.
"Do you know what is going on, sir?" she asked, breathlessly, as she came up to him. "I believe that the first firing you heard was the advance of Vinoy, who moved out under cover of the guns of the southern forts. From all I hear he has advanced a considerable distance across the plain. I believe that the firing that has just begun away to the west, is the real battle.
The most notable of these was that made by General Vinoy against the heights of Clamart, the result being a disastrous repulse by the besiegers.
So indignant is General Vinoy at being placed under the orders of General Ducrot, that he threatens to give in his resignation on the ground that by military law no officer can be called to serve under a general who has capitulated, and who has not been tried before a court-martial. The dispute will, I imagine, in some way or other, be arranged, without its coming before the public.
General Vinoy had established himself in his new Head-Quarters, and the 70,000 or 80,000 men already in the heart of the city are believed to be quite sufficient to dispose of the last desperadoes of the Commune. The sounds of battle we heard from more than one point, and yet every one spoke of the Insurrection as in its last agonies.
I have a pass en règle from General Vinoy; but even with this, the last time I went out of the town I was turned back at two gates before I got through at the third. A good deal of discussion has taken place among the foreign correspondents respecting the fairness of going out with an ambulance under guise of the Geneva flag.
General Vinoy has to-day issued a proclamation to the troops, which in its plain, simple, modest language contrasts very favourably with the inflated bombast in which his predecessor was so great an adept. The newspapers are already commencing to prove to their own satisfaction that the battle of last Thursday was not a defeat, but an "incomplete victory."
Does the Gaulois really imagine that the German generals would have raised the siege in despair had they not learnt that, as a rule, the Parisians do not study the map of the environs of the city? Old Vinoy has issued an order of the day denouncing the conduct of the soldiers and officers who ran away when the Prussians issued from the cellars at Villa Evrard.
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