ard the close of the month M. de Gartlauben was in position to render
some further trifling services. The Prussian authorities, in the course
of sundry administrative reforms inaugurated by them, had appointed a
German Sous-Prefect, and although this step did not put an end to the
exactions to which the city was subjected, the new official showed
himself to be comparatively reasonable. One of the most frequent among
the causes of difference that were constantly springing up between the
officers of the post and the municipal council was that which arose from
the custom of requisitioning carriages for the use of the staff, and
there was a great hullaballoo raised one morning that Delaherche failed
to send his caleche and pair to the Sous-Prefecture: the mayor was
arrested and the manufacturer would have gone to keep him company up in
the citadel had it not been for M. de Gartlauben, who promptly quelled
the rising storm. Another day he secured a stay of proceedings for the
city, which had been mulcted in the sum of thirty thousand francs to
punish it for its alleged dilatoriness in rebuilding the bridge of
Villette, a bridge that the Prussians themselves had destroyed: a
disastrous piece of business that was near being the ruin of Sedan. It
was after the surrender at Metz, however, that Delaherche contracted
his main debt of gratitude to his guest. The terrible news burst on the
citizens like a thunderclap, dashing to the ground all their remaining
hopes, and early in the ensuing week the streets again began to be
encumbered with the countless hosts of the German forces, streaming down
from the conquered fortress: the army of Prince Frederick Charles moving
on the Loire, that of General Manteuffel, whose destination was Amiens
and Rouen, and other corps on the march to reinforce the besiegers
before Paris. For several days the houses were full to overflowing with
soldiers, the butchers' and bakers' shops were swept clean, to the last
bone, to the last crumb; the streets were pervaded by a greasy, tallowy
odor, as after the passage of the great migratory bands of olden times.
The buildings in the Rue Maqua, protected by a friendly influence,
escaped the devastating irruption, and were only called on to give
shelter to a few of the leaders, men of education and refinement.

Owing to these circumstances, Delaherche at last began to lay aside his
frostiness of manner. As a general thing the bourgeois families shut
themselves i