Diary of the Besieged Resident in Paris | Page 8

said that no shameful peace should
be concluded; but whether, as some assert, he assured the officers that
no portion of French soil should be ceded is not equally certain. Shortly
after this deputation had left, another arrived from the Republican clubs.
It is stated that M. Jules Ferry's answer was considered satisfactory.
The walls have been placarded with a proclamation of Trochu to the

armed force. He tells them that some regiments behaved badly at
Clamart; but the assertion that they had no cartridges is false. He
recommends all citizens to arrest soldiers who are drunk or who
propagate false news, and threatens them with the vigorous application
of the Articles of War. Another proclamation from Kératry warns every
one against treating soldiers or selling them liquor when they already
have had too much. I went to dine this evening in an estaminet in the
Faubourg St. Antoine. It was full of men of the people, and from the
tone of their observations I am certain that if M. Jules Favre concludes
an armistice involving any cession of territory, there will be a rising at
once. The cafés are closed now at 10 o'clock. At about 11 I walked
home. One would have supposed oneself in some dull great provincial
town at 3 in the morning. Everything was closed. No one, except here
and there a citizen on his way home, or a patrol of the National Guard,
was to be seen.
September 21st.
I suppose that you in England know a good deal more of what is
passing at the Prussian headquarters than we do here. M. Jules Favre's
departure was kept so close a secret, that it did not ooze out until
yesterday. The "ultras" in the Government were, I understand on good
authority, opposed to it, but M. Jules Favre was supported by Picard,
Gambetta, and Kératry, who, as everything is comparative, represent
the moderate section of our rulers. We are as belligerent and cheery
to-day as we were despondent on Monday evening. When any disaster
occurs it takes a Frenchman about twenty-four hours to accustom
himself to it. During this time he is capable of any act of folly or
despair. Then follows the reaction, and he becomes again a brave man.
When it was heard that the heights at Meudon had been taken, we
immediately entered into a phase of despair. It is over now, and we
crow as lustily as ever. We shall have another phase of despondency
when the first fort is taken, and another when the first shells fall into
the town; but if we get through them, I really have hopes that Paris will
not disgrace herself. Nothing of any importance appears to have taken
place at the front yesterday. The commanders of several forts sent to
Trochu to say that they have fired on the Prussians, and that there have

been small outpost engagements. During the day the bridges of St.
Cloud, Sèvres, and Billancourt were blown up. I attempted this
morning to obtain a pass from General Trochu. Announcing myself as a
"Journaliste Anglais," I got, after some difficulty, into a room in which
several of his staff were seated. But there my progress was stopped. I
was told that aides-de-camp had been fired on, and that General Trochu
had himself been arrested, and had been within an inch of being shot
because he had had the impudence to say that he was the Governor of
Paris. I suggested that he might take me with him the next time he went
out, and pointed out that correspondents rode with the Prussian staffs,
but it was of no use. From Trochu I went to make a few calls. I found
every one engaged in measuring the distance from the Prussian
batteries to his particular house. One friend I found seated in a cellar
with a quantity of mattresses over it, to make it bomb-proof. He
emerged from his subterraneous Patmos to talk to me, ordered his
servant to pile on a few more mattresses, and then retreated. Anything
so dull as existence here it is difficult to imagine. Before the day is out
one gets sick and tired of the one single topic of conversation. We are
like the people at Cremorne waiting for the fireworks to begin; and I
really do believe that if this continues much longer, the most cowardly
will welcome the bombs as a relief from the oppressive ennui. Few
regiments are seen now during the day marching through the
streets--they are most of them either on the ramparts or outside them.
From 8 to 9 in the morning there is a military movement, as regiments
come and go, on and off duty. In the courtyard of the Louvre several
regiments of Mobiles are kept under arms