Note 223 — Chapter XXXII
Eleanor Marx Aveling translation
This is the figure given by General Appert in the Enquête sur le 18 Mars. MacMahon has said, "When men surrender their arms they must not be shot; that was admitted. Unhappily, on certain points, the instructions I had given were forgotten. I can, however, affirm that the number of executions has been very restricted." Admire the logic of this reasoning. No doubt a list has been kept of all, oblivious as to the victims of the prevotal courts; the "loyal soldier" ignores them completely.
Some days after the battle the Nationale, a Liberal-conservative paper said, "In official circles it is estimated that 20,000 is the number of Federals killed, shot, or dead in consequence of wounds received during the days of May. We should not have dared to give this figure, which seems to us considerable, if we had not got this information from officers who have declared that this estimate is very probably correct."