"
It was terrific. It began with the shouts of the crowd urging on
the police, the crack of revolvers and guns from a little house or
garage in the suburbs, the advance and retreat of the gendarmes on
the stronghold. Back and forth the battle waged. One could hear
the sharp orders of the police, the shrill taunts of the bandits,
the sounds of battle.
Then at a point where the bandits seemed to have beaten off the
attack successfully, there came an automobile. From it I could see
the police take an object which I now knew must be a Mathiot gun.
The huge thing was set up and carefully aimed. Then with a dull
roar it was fired.
We could see the bomb hurtling through the air, see it strike the
little house with a cloud of smoke and dust, hear the report of
the explosion, the shouts of dismay of the bandits--then silence.
A cry went up from the crowd as the police now pressed forward in
a mass and rushed into the house, disclosing the last scene--in
which the bandits were suffocated.
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