Note 47 — PROLOGUE.

Cluseret, an ex-officer, decorated in 1848 for his spirited conduct. "I unfortunately displayed too much energy in that disastrous battle," he wrote in Fraser's Magazine of March 1878. Attached to the Arabian Bureaux, he threw up his commission after the Crimean war, and not being able to play a part in Europe, engaged in the American civil war for a short time, then withdrew to New York, where he campaigned with his pen. Misunderstood by the bourgeoisie of the two worlds, he again took to politics, but from the opposite side; offered himself to the Irish insurgents; landed in Ireland urging them to rise, and one fine night abandoned them. The nascent International also saw this powerful general come and offer his services. He did a good deal in the way of pamphleteering; tried to impress upon the workmen that he was the sword and buckler of Socialism. "We or nothing," said he to the sons of the massacred of June. The Government of the 4th September having also failed to appreciate his genius, he called Gambetta Prussian, and got himself sent as delegate to Lyons by the Corderie, where Varlin, whom he deceived for a long time, had introduced him. He offered the Lyons council to organise an army of volunteers which was to operate on the flank of the enemy.