ptember.

DEAR MADAME:--I burned the answer I had written to you under
the shameful government now fallen, and whose crimes and
treasons extorted from me cries of despair for the ruin they
have brought on our country.

I thank you for the generous sympathy you express toward us
in our great woe. Your honored names have been blessed for
this by our French hearts. We are now relieved, and though
our actual peril is none the less, we are in possession of
our own force. We are rid of the despicable robbers of our
honor, our fortune and our lives; and in the most terrible
energy, is a consolation and support. Better is it to die
with honor than live dishonored. How happy you are to be
born on a soil not infested by monarchical roots. They are
like dog-grass, which springs up again and again, nurtured
by the ignorance of our rural population. When the Prussians
shall have been driven away, we may have civil struggles to
fear from the emissaries of this detested monarchy. What
avails experience to the blind.

I forwarded immediately your letter to George Sand. Accept
my heartfelt thanks for your fraternal invitation to me.

Yes, you say right, our hearts are wholly absorbed, and no
place is ours but Paris in this hour of supreme struggle and
sacrifice. We shall be with you in thought only, dear
sisters--you, the pioneers in woman's emancipation--your
names are enshrined in our hearts; but this crisis here will
not be useless for the cause. The women of Paris are noble
and courageous; one may hear them in every group encouraging
the men to desperate resistance. Everywhere they form
societies for the relief of the distressed and the wounded.
Many have petitioned for this revolution, and have
instigated men to the accomplishment of it. Many will take
arms in defense and fight; yea, fight with all the strength
which desperation lends, should the struggle reach our
streets.... They have already proved this sort of courage.
Men feel now how very necessary their co-operation is, and
after the crisis I hope they will not forget it. But it is
better that woman herself