3-028-295 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

French gendarmes and sergents de ville at Meudon, 1871. 'It will be remembered that in the prolonged conflict between the forces of the Versailles National Assembly and those of the Paris Commune which raged outside the walls of Paris nearly two months before an entrance was gained, the corps of Gendarmes and the armed Sergents de Ville, usually employed for police, rendered most valuable service in the field. An Illustration of the figures they made when lounging about the suburban village of Meudon was sketched at the time by one of our Special Artists...The group of three men in the foreground, towards the right hand, consists of rural gendarmes; and several of the mounted force are seen in the rear. To the left hand is a "city sergeant" talking with one of the cavalry and pointing out to him the enemy's positions on the south-west side of Paris. The dome of the Invalides and the bridges over the Seine are plainly discerned from this point of view'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.