ne intersects the space from south to north,
enclosing the Bois de Boulogne and the villages of Neuilly, Villiers,
and Courcelles, being a sort of outer fortification. The walls of Paris
follow the same line, falling about half a mile on the other side of the
Arch, and parallel runs a line of railway within the fortified wall.

This view exhibits the portion the Prussians were permitted to occupy
for two days: all the outlets, except the west, being barricaded and
defended.]

This spectacle, however, of combatants and gapers distresses me, and in
despair of learning anything I return into the city.

At some distance from the scene of events one gets better information,
or, at any rate, a great deal more of it. Imagination has better play
when it is farther from the fact. A hundred absurd stories reach me.
What appears tolerably certain is, that the Federals have received a
check, not very important in itself, the Versailles troops having made
but little advance, but at any rate a check which might have some
influence on the resolution of the National Guards. They have been told
that the army would not fight, that the soldiers of the line would turn
the butt-ends of their guns into the air at Neuilly as they had done at
Montmartre. But now they begin to believe that the army will fight, and
those who cry the loudest that it was the _sergents de ville_ and
Charette's Zouaves who led the attack alone, seem as if they said it to
give themselves courage and keep up their illusions.

But from which side did the first shot come? On this point everyone has
something to say, and no one knows what to believe. Official reports are
looked for with the utmost impatience. The walls, generally so
communicative, are mute up to this hour. The least improbable of the
versions circulated is the following: At break of day some shots are
said to have been exchanged between the Federal advanced guard and the
patrols of the Versailles troops. None dead or wounded; only powder
wasted, happily. A little later, and a few minutes after the arrival of
General Vinoy at Mont Valerien, a messenger with a flag of truce,
preceded by a trumpeter and accompanied by two _sergents de ville_
(inevitably), is said to have presented himself at the bridge of
Courbevoie. The name of the messenger has been given,--Monsieur
Pasquier, surgeon-in-chief to the regiment of mounted _gendarmes_. Two
of the National Guards go to meet him; after some words exchanged,