p the thin lid of the coffin. A grey-haired corpse is
lying within it, from the shoulders downwards nothing but a heap of torn
flesh, and clothes, and congealed blood. We continue on. The second
coffin also contains the body of an old man; no wounds are to be seen;
he was probably killed by a ball. Still we advance. I observe that the
old men are in far greater number than the young. The wounds are often
fearful. Sometimes the face is entirely mutilated. When I had closed the
lid of the last coffin the poor mother uttered a cry of relief; her son
was not there! For myself, I was stupefied with horror, and only
recovered my senses on being pushed on by the men behind me, who wanted
to see in their turn. "Well! when will he have done?" said one. "I
suppose he thinks that it is all for him."

[Illustration: Burning the Guillotine. April]

XLV.

What is absolutely stupefying in the midst of all this, is the smiling
aspect of the streets and the promenades. The constantly increasing
emigration is only felt by the diminution in the number of depraved
women and dissipated men; enough, however, remain to fill the cafes and
give life to the boulevards. It might almost be said that Paris is in
its normal state.

Every morning, from the Champs Elysees, Les Ternes, and Vaugirard,
families are seen removing into the town, out of the way of the
bombardment, as at the time when Jules Favre anathematised the barbarity
of the Prussians. Some pass in cabs, others on foot, walking sadly, with
their bedding and household furniture piled on a cart. If you question
these poor people, they will all tell you of the shells from the
Versailles batteries, destroying houses and killing women and children.
What matters it? Paris goes her usual round of business and pleasure.
The Commune suppresses journals and imprisons journalists. Monsieur
Richardet, of the _National_, was marched off to prison yesterday, for
the sole crime of having requested a passport of the savage Monsieur
Rigault; the Commune thrusts the priests into cells, and turns out the
young girls from the convents, imprisons Monsieur O'yan, one of the
directors of the Seminary of St. Sulpice; hurls a warrant of arrest at
Monsieur Tresca, who escapes; tries to capture Monsieur Henri Vrignault,
who however, succeeds in reaching a place of safety; the Commune causes
perquisitions to be made by armed men in the banking houses, seizes upon
title deeds and money; has strong-boxe