CHAPTER EIGHT The Slavs and the Paris Commune

The Government of National Defence had a singularly inappropriate name: there was little left to defend. Metz capitulated on October 27; four days later, a Blanquist insurrection erupted in Paris. The National Guard occupied the Hotel de Ville and Parisians marched through the streets shouting ‘Pas d'armistice! La Commune! La levée en masse!’ Edmond de Goncourt observed in his diary on October 31, ‘We may write down for this date: Finis Franciae.’ ¹