During the evening a Commission constituted itself, chosen from amongst the officers of the National Guards and the habitual orators of the Club de la Vierge. It had the station occupied, took possession of the telegraph, seized the cartridges of the powder-magazine, and convoked the electors for the 29th. "The Commune," it said, "does not mean incendiarism, nor theft, nor pillage, as so many are pleased to give out, but the conquest of the franchises and the independence ravished from us by imperial and monarchical legislation; it is the true basis of the Republic." This was the whole preamble. In this industrial hive, by the side of the thousands of miners of La Ricamarie and Firminy, they found not a word to say on the social question. The Commission only knew how to beat the _rappel_, which, as at Lyons, was not responded to.
The next day, Sunday, the town, calm and curious, read the proclamation of the Commune, placarded side by side with the appeals of the general and of the procureur. While this latter, as became a good Radical, spoke of a Bonapartist plot, the general invited the Council to withdraw its resignation. He went to the councillors, who had taken refuge in the barracks, and said to them, "My soldiers won't fight, but I have a thousand chassepots. If you will make use of them, forward!" The councillors protested their unfitness for military exploits; but at the same time, as at Lyons, refused to communicate with the Hôtel-de-Ville, considering "that one can only treat with honest men."
On the 27th the Alliance and _L'Eclaireur_ altogether withdrew, and the Commission gradually dwindled down. In the evening, the few faithful still holding out received two young men, whom the delegates from the Central Committee at Lyons had sent. They urged resistance; but the Hôtel-de-Ville was being deserted, and on the morning of the 28th there were only about a hundred left. At six o'clock General Lavoye presented himself with the francs-tireurs of the Vosges and some troops come from Montbrison. The National Guards, on his appeal to lay down their arms in order to avoid bloodshed, consented to evacuate the mairie.
Numerous arrests were made. The Conservatives overwhelmed the Commune with the customary insults, and recounted that cannibals had been seen amongst the murderers of the prefect.[104] _L'Eclaireur_ did not fail to demonstrate that the movement was purely Bonapartist. The workingmen felt themselves vanquished, and at the solemn funeral of M. De l'Espée not loud but deep curses were uttered.