Part 6

Difficulties have arisen in the Quartier Val de Grace, consequent upon the heavy tax recently levied on meat.

The Versaillais gunboats at the Asnieres Bridge forced the Federal troops to recoil several hundred yards towards the city walls.

Felix Pyat announces his opinion publicly that the fall of the Commune is imminent.

Mortars are being placed on the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

The demolition of the house of M. Thiers has commenced.

The Central Committee have ordered that all the quarters of Paris shall be searched for arms and refractory National Guards. All the young men in Paris are to be armed.

MAY 14th.

A large crowd has been waiting in the Rue de la Paix since 4 o'clock to see the fall of the Vendome Column. 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.

The 8th and 11th Battalions have been disarmed on suspicion of being reactionary.

Paschal Grousset has sent a circular to the principal towns of France, inviting them to join the Communal movement.

The approaches are now within 150 metres of the enceinte, and a breaching battery is being constructed. The Montretout batteries have already made a considerable breach in the enceinte by the side of the Auteuil Gate, which has been demolished.

There was a very lively fusillade this afternoon between troops in the Bois de Boulogne and the Insurgents, who fired from houses and other shelter behind the enceinte between Passy and Auteuil. Mortars were also used by the military.

The Insurgents have shot a captain of Engineers who imprudently advanced beyond the Versailles lines.

In the Fort of Vanves a soldier of the Line has been found; his feet were tied together, and there are numbers of bayonet wounds in different parts of his body. The Insurgents had made him prisoner.

Of the 60 pieces of cannon left in the Fort, the greater number had been rendered useless by the fire of the troops.

It is believed that the garrison escaped by a subterranean passage communicating between Forts Vanves and Montrouge.

Every commander of an Army Corps will henceforward have the command of an Arrondissement, and will be answerable for the defensive measures undertaken in his zone.

All persons in the possession of sulphur and phosphorus must declare to the Commune the amount of each within three days.

La Cecilia has again undertaken the command at Petit Vanves.

Torpedoes are to be laid down at exposed parts.

The night has passed off quietly, and nothing of any importance has transpired.

The Versailles troops are under the walls of Paris, and are exchanging shots with the Insurgents on the ramparts from the Muette Gate to the Issy Gate.

The Federalists have been driven out of their entrenchments between Forts Vanves and Issy.

A battery is being erected in the garden of the Tuileries, from which the Communists will be able to keep up a flank fire upon the Champs Elysees.

There is no doubt of the existence of a serious conspiracy, possessing wide ramifications, in Paris to effect the overthrow of the Commune.

The Garden of the Luxembourg has been closed, and is occupied by four battalions of National Guards, as a precaution against the rising which is apprehended.