ccupy the Champs
Elysees, from the Seine to the Faubourg St. Honore, and as far as
the Place de la Concorde.

"Be it so! The greater the injury, the more terrible the revenge.

"But, if some panderer dare to pass the circle of our shame, let him
be instantly declared traitor, let him become a target for our
balls, an object for our petroleum, a mark for our Orsini bombs,[2]
an aim for our daggers!

"Let this be told to all.

"By decision of the Horatii,

"(Signed) POPULUS."

The effervescence in the minds of the people was so great, that the
entry of the Prussians was delayed for forty-eight hours, but on the
first of March, at ten in the morning, they had come into the city, and
the smoke of their bivouac fires was seen in the Champs Elysees. On the
evening of the same day, a telegram from Bordeaux announced that the
National Assembly had ratified the preliminaries of peace by a majority
of 546 voices against 107. On the following day the ex-Minister of
Foreign Affairs left for Versailles, and by nine o'clock in the evening,
everything was prepared for the evacuation of the troops, which was
effected by eleven, on the third of March. During the short period of
their stay, the city was in veritable mourning; the public edifices
(even the Bourse) were closed, as were the shops, the warehouses, and
the greater part of the cafes. At the windows hung black flags, or the
tricolour covered with black crape, and veils of the same material
concealed the faces of the statues[3] on the Place de la Concorde.

All these demonstrations had, however, a pacific character, and the
presence of the enemy in Paris gave rise to no serious incident.

Nevertheless, the agitation of the public mind was not allayed; some
attributed this to a plot the Socialists had formed, and which had
arrived at maturity. Others believed that the Prussians had left
emissaries, creators of disorder, behind them, in revenge for their
reception on the Place de la Concorde. In truth, their entry was
anything but triumphal; their national airs were received with hisses;
their officers were hooted as they promenaded in the Tuileries, and
those who attempted to visit the Louvre were compelled to retreat
without having satisfied their curiosity. On the evening of the 3rd of
March, a note emanating from the Ministry of the Interior, pointed out
in the following terms the danger to be feared from the Central
Committee: