3-043-760 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Taking down the Red Flag from the Grand Opera House, Paris, 1871. 'The Grand Opera-House...was occupied by the soldiers of the regular army, on Tuesday, the 22nd May, without much difficulty..."we could see the vast roof...sloping down on each side of the great bronze Apollo, who holds his gilt lyre above his head, and over which has floated for six weeks an immense red flag...the opera-house had already slipped out of the hands of the insurgents...A man crawled cautiously up the balustrade, half enveloped in a huge tricolour, which he succeeded in planting on the angle of the building. A subdued clapping of hands...might be heard; but the whole work was not yet complete - the red banner had to be got down from the lyre of Apollo on the front, a by no means easy task, considering that the figure is upwards of 30 ft. high, and within direct range of the Federal troops below. Several men endeavoured to shoot it down with chassepot bullets, but this attempt, although reiterated, proving a failure, one young fellow, more daring than the rest, actually climbed from limb to limb of the gigantic bronze, and tore it down with his hands, while bullets whistled around him...He accomplished his task in safety and disappeared with his trophy".' From "Illustrated London News", 1871.