22 2               A  REVIEW OF LEADERS AND EVENTS.
" Citizen Millière, at the head of one hundred and
fifty fuse-bearers, is to set fire to all houses of suspicious
aspect, as well as to the public monuments, on the left
bank of the Seine. Citizen Dereure, with one hundred
and fifty fuse-bearers, is charged with the first and second
arrondissements. Citizen Billioray, with one hundred
men, is charged with the ninth, tenth, and twentieth ar-
rondissements. Citizen Vesinier, with fifty men, has the
boulevards of the Madeleine and of the Bastille espe-
cially entrusted to him. These citizens are to come to an
understanding with the officers commanding the barri-
cades, for the execution of these orders." This decree is
signed by seven of the worst men in the Commune.
All this was in pursuance of the plan already laid out
to burn the city. For this purpose all the petroleum
and other inflammable substances in the city had been " re-
quisitioned," and in this way was incendiarism organized.
Even women were regularly organized to set fire to the
city. In numbers it was a real army, which was com-
posed of convicts and prison birds ; of men of the vilest
and most infamous character ; thin, small boys, women
old and young, aggregating, in number, it is said, no less
than eight thousand ; a force organized into detachments
with its chiefs and officers. The final order for the gen-
eral conflagration of public edifices and private buildings
bore the stamp of the Commune, of the Central Com-
mittee, and the seal of the Delegate to the Ministry of
War. Of all this army of burners, the women were the
worst. They were a separate force, and called pétro-
leuses. Here is a description of a pétroleuse : " She walks
with rapid step near the shadow of the wall. She is
poorly dressed ; her age is between forty and fifty ; her
forehead is bound up with a red checkered handkerchief,
from which hang meshes of uncombed hair.    Her face is