3-039-056 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mob of Paris rioters drowning a police agent, 1871. Franco-Prussian War: '...a band of 200 people, yelling at the heels of a respectably-dressed individual, whom two chasseurs-a-pied were holding by the collar. Shouts of his being a police spy, and demanding his death, were raised on all sides, as he was dragged in the direction of the canal, where his captors proposed to drown him...the mob...assailed him with kicks and blows...Already half murdered, he entreated that he might be permitted to blow his brains out...this request was denied him, and he was hurried along to the Quai Henri IV., when, having his legs and arms bound with cords, he was thrown into the Seine...Drifting with the current, the unhappy victim was carried beneath the stockade at the Pont St. Louis, and speedily drowned. This act of savagery was prompted, it is said, by the unfortunate man having been observed taking down the numbers of the battalions of National Guards arriving on the place. On being asked by the two chasseurs what he was doing, he replied it was no business of theirs...Finding in his possession documents proving that he belonged to the police, their rage knew no bounds, and resulted in the horrible murder above described'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.