bread in the city.

On January 27 the Parisians learned their fate. The following
announcement appeared in the official journal:

"So long as the Government could count on an army of relief, it was
their duty to neglect nothing that could conduce to the prolongation
of the defence of Paris. At present our armies, though still in
existence, have been driven back by the fortune of war.... Under
these circumstances the Government has been absolutely compelled to
negotiate. We have reason to believe that the principle of national
sovereignty will be kept intact by the speedy calling of an Assembly;
that during the armistice the German army will occupy our forts;
that we shall preserve intact our National Guards and one division
of our army; and that none of our soldiers will be conveyed beyond
our frontier as prisoners of war."

The result was so inevitable that it did not spread the grief and
consternation we have known in many modern cases of surrender.
Those who suffered most from the sorrow of defeat were not the
Red brawlers of Belleville, who cried loudest that they had been
betrayed, but the honest, steady-going _bourgeoisie_, who for love
of their country had for four months borne the burden and distress
of resistance.

During the four months of siege sixty-five thousand persons perished
in Paris: ten thousand died in hospitals, three thousand were killed
in battle, sixty-six hundred were destroyed by small-pox, and as
many by bronchitis and pneumonia. The babies, who died chiefly
for want of proper food, numbered three thousand,--just as many
as the soldiers who fell in battle.

Two sad weeks passed, the Parisians meanwhile waiting for the meeting
of a National Assembly. During those weeks the blockade of Paris
continued, and the arrival of provisions was frequently retarded
at the Prussian outposts; nor were provision-carts safe when they
had passed beyond the Prussian lines, for there were many turbulent
Parisians lying in wait to rob them. All Paris was eager for fresh
fish and for white bread. The moment the gates were opened, twenty-five
thousand persons poured out of the city, most of whom were in a
state of anxiety and uncertainty where to find their families.

At last peace was made. One of its conditions was that the Germans
were to occupy two of the forts that commanded Paris until that city
paid two hundred millions of francs ($40,000,000) as its ransom. It
was also stipulated that the Prussian a