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A SERIES OF TRAGEDIES 79
After Duval, there is little noteworthy
in the terrorist
movement for a period of four years, but with May 1,
1891, there began what is known as La Periode Tragique.
Five notable figures, Decamps, Ravachol, Vaillant,
Henry, and Caserio, within a period of three years, performed
a series of terrorist acts that cannot be forgotten.
Their utter desperation and abandon, the terrible
solemnity of their lives,
to its knees mark the
and the almost superhuman efforts
they made to bring society
most tragic and heroic period in the history of anarchism.
At Levallois-Perret a demonstration was organized by
out their red
the anarchists for May I. They brought
and black flags, and, when the police attempted to interfere
and to take away their banners, they opened fire
upon them. .Several fell injured, while others returned
the fire. The fight continued for some time, until finally
reinforcements arrived and the anarchists were subdued.
Six of the police and three of the anarchists were severely
injured, one of the latter being Decamps, who had
received severe blows from a sword. The trial took
place in August, and, when Decamps attempted to defend
he and
himself, the judge refused to hear him. Finally
his friends were condemned to prison.
The next year, 1892, the avenger of Decamps appeared.
It was the famous Ravachol, who for a time
kept all Paris in a state of terror. In the night of February
14 there was a theft of dynamite from the establishment
of Soisy-sous-Etioles. On March 11 an explosion
shook the house on Boulevard Saint-Germain, in which
lived M. Benoit, the judge who had presided in
August,
1891, at the trial of Decamps at Levallois. On March 15
a bomb was discovered on the window of the Lobau barracks.
On March 27 a bomb was exploded on the first
floor of a house on rue de Clichy, occupied by M. Bulot,