3-039-239 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Late Events in Paris: a woman shot at the Louvre for spreading petroleum, 1871. 'The shocking scene...is thus described by a correspondent: "at the corner of the Rue Castiglione I became aware of...a great crowd of people yelling and shaking their fists...two artillerymen [were] dragging between them a soiled bundle of rags that tottered and struggled, and fell down under the blows that were showered upon it...It was a woman, who had been caught in the act of spreading petroleum [for the purpose of arson]. Her face was bleeding, and her hair streaming down her back, from which her clothing had been torn...they propped her up against a wall, already half dead from the treatment she had received. The crowd ranged itself in a circle, and I have never seen a picture more perfect and complete in its details than was presented by that scene. The gasping, shrinking figure in the centre, surrounded by a crowd who could scarce be kept from tearing her in pieces...Presently two revolvers were discharged, and the bundle of rags fell forward in a pool of blood. The popular thirst for vengeance was satisfied, and so the crowd dispersed in search of further excitement elsewhere".' From "Illustrated London News", 1871.