1899, La Martinique in 1900, then Longwy, where the officers sealed and celebrated the Franco-Russian alliance by using Russian knouts; finally, in the months of May and June, 1905, there were the events of Villefranche-sur-Saône and particularly Limoges with the cavalry charges and shootings of April 17, 1905. In December, 1905, the drama of Combrée was enacted, and on January 20, 1907, the people demonstrating in favor of Sunday as a day of rest were chased off the streets of Paris by an immense muster of troops. In this recital we must also not forget Dunkirk, Creuset and Montceau-les-Mines where, according to the report made by the Conféderation Générale du Travail (the French Federation of Labor) to the Dublin international conference, the soldiers declared their solidarity with the strikers.
What Meslier exclaimed during the latest great anti-militaristic trial is true: "Since the murder of little Marie Blondeau at Fourmies the working-class of France has passed through a long martyrdom abounding in victims." Nothing shows better the absurdity of the illusion of a peaceful
