 Furthermore, besides public buildings, the National Guard also started fires at the homes of a number of residents associated with the regime of Napoleon III, such as that of the historian and playwright Prosper Merimee, the author of "Carmen".At two in the morning on 24 May, Brunel and his men went to the Hotel de Ville, which was still the headquarters of the Commune and of its chief executive, Delescluze.Wounded men were being tended in the halls, and some of the National Guard officers and Commune members were changing from their uniforms into civilian clothes and shaving their beards, preparing to escape from the city.