but affairs
were conducted with such recklessness and disorder that the live-stock
suffered terribly, and half the hay was wasted. As to troops, General
Vinoy arrived with twenty thousand soldiers, who had been stationed
between Belgium and Sedan. They had never fought the Pussians, but
were impatient of discipline and utterly demoralized. Stragglers
and fugitives from Sedan came in also, but these were still less
to be depended on. The National Guard had never enjoyed the favor
of the emperor, and had been suffered to fall to pieces. It was now
reorganized and armed as well as the Government was able. There was
a body of Mobiles who had been sent away from the army by Marshal
MacMahon because they were so insubordinate that he did not know
what to do with them. Ninety thousand Mobiles came up from the
Provinces before the gates of Paris closed,--excellent material for
soldiers but wholly uninstructed,--and finally about ten thousand
sailors arrived from Brest, who were kept in strict line by their
officers, and were the most reliable part garrison.

The male population of Paris remained in the city, almost to a
man, except those known to the police as thieves or ex-convicts,
who were all sent away. Women and children also were removed, if
their husbands and fathers could afford places of safety.

Around the city was a wall twelve yards high, forming a polygonal
inclosure. At each corner of the polygon was a bastion, in which
were stationed the big guns. The wall connecting the bastions is
called a curtain. The bastions protected the curtains, and were
themselves protected by sixteen detached forts, built on all the
eminences around Paris. The most celebrated of these forts lies to
the west of Paris, between it and Versailles, and is called Fort
Valerien It is erected on a steep hill long called Mont Calvaire,
from which is a magnificent view of the city. This and stony hill
for several centuries used to be ascended by pilgrims on their
knees; the mount, where once stood an altar of the Druids, became
a consecrated place before the Revolution.

Louis Philippe, in 1841, had planned the fortifications of Paris,
but in his time they had been only partially constructed. Even
in 1870, as I have said, they were not complete. When the siege
became imminent, the first thing to be done was to put them in good
order; but for a week the working-men in Paris were so intoxicated
with the idea of having a republic that they could