Chapter 6 · 1871 to 1871
Seventy-Two Days
The roles flip. The Revolution governs a starving city and must pay for it every turn, while the Law besieges Paris from Versailles and fights its way back in, street by street.
- Map
- 20 districts
- Newspaper
- The Official Journal of the Commune
- Street lighting
- Gas lamps
The levels
- The Cannons of Montmartre18 March 1871
- The Vote19 March 1871
- Running a City2 April 1871
- The Column Falls9 May 1871
- The Western Gate10 May 1871
- The Bloody Week21 May 1871
- Interlude 6
After the finale of chapter 6: Seventy-Two DaysBreak the seal
Chapter 6: Seventy-Two DaysSealed so it does not spoil the story for you.Break the seal
The booklet opens
Prologue
One way “Sedan” can end
The Republic proclaimed in September had lost the war in January. Paris, which had held out through the siege, saw the peace signed over its head.
Otherwise
The regency had made peace with the Prussians. Paris, which had held out through the siege, had never accepted it.
The new Assembly was full of country notables who wanted a king. They sat at Versailles, and their government decided to disarm the capital.
If the interlude ended this way: The minister flew to the provinces.
The minister who had left by balloon had raised an army in the provinces, and that army was now the government's.
If the interlude ended this way: The delegate flew with the workers' appeal.
The delegate who had left by balloon had carried the city's appeal across Europe, and the workers of other countries were watching.
Otherwise
Nobody had left by balloon that winter, and nobody outside knew much about Paris.
The factions
The Revolution
- Council minority
- Republicans and socialists of the council who want elections, accounts and no reprisals.
- Federation
- The National Guard battalions and their Central Committee: the armed city.
- Old insurrectionists
- The disciples of the Prisoner, who believe in committees of public safety and in nothing else.
- Clubs and committees
- Red posters, clubs in the churches and the women's committees that run the ambulances.
The Law
- Versailles
- Thibert's government and the rural Assembly, sitting in the old royal palace.
- Versailles army
- Marshal MacMorne's regiments, filled with prisoners the Prussians have sent home.
- Gendarmerie
- Gendarmes and provosts who hold the districts the army takes back. Their restraint is not unlimited.
- Agents inside
- Informers in the battalions, bribed commanders and men who know which gate is unguarded.
- Bank
- The Bank of France, its vaults untouched in the middle of the Commune, and its friends.
Neutral factions
- The Church
- Shopkeepers
- The press
- Ragpickers and smugglers
- Foreign Powers
- The Prussian army in the northern and eastern forts. Neutral, but it can let the Versailles army through.
- The faubourgs
Characters
- Eugène Varlant, member of the council
- Héloïse Marchand, schoolteacher
- The Prisoner, the old insurrectionist
- Adolphe Thibert, head of the government at Versailles
- Marshal MacMorne
- Raoul, mechanic
The booklet closes
After the finale of chapter 6: Seventy-Two DaysSealed so it does not spoil the story for you.Break the seal
Epilogue
One way “The Bloody Week” can end
Héloïse Marchand reached Switzerland by the end of the summer and taught there for twenty years.
Otherwise
Héloïse Marchand was tried and transported to New Caledonia, where she opened a school.
In the burnt-out streets the gas lamps were relit one by one, and the city was very quiet.