filled with the choking smell of
burning goods: on the 28th the citadel was kindled."

[Illustration: BEAUTY'S QUINTESSENCE.]

"And what opposition," I naturally demanded, "were you able to make to
all this? I believe your forces were greatly shortened?"

"We were as short as you can think, sir. Most of the garrison had
been withdrawn by MacMahon. The soldiers still among us were miserably
demoralized by the entrance of the fugitives from Woerth. Our defence
was the strangest of mixtures. The custom-house officers were armed
and mobilized: the naval captain Dupetit-Thouars happened to be in
the walls, with some of the idle marine. Colonel Fievee, with his
pontoneers, hurriedly tore up the bridge of boats leading over to
Kehl, and united himself with the garrison. From the outbreak of the
war we civilians had been invited to form a garde nationale, but never
was there a greater farce. We were asked to choose our own grades, and
when I begged to be made colonel, they inquired if I would not prefer
to be lieutenant or adjutant. Most of us, those at least who had voted
against the imperial candidates, never received a gun. Our artillery,
worthy of the times of Louis XIV., scolded in vain from the ramparts
against the finest cannons in the world, and we were obliged to watch
the Prussian trenches pushing toward the town, and to hear the bullets
beginning to fall where at first were only bombs."

"The capitulation was then imminent."

"There were a few incidents in the mean time. The deputation from
Switzerland, of ever-blessed memory, entered the city on the eleventh
of September. Angels from heaven could not have been more welcome. You
know that a thousand of our inhabitants passed over into Switzerland
under conduct of the delegate from Berne, Colonel Bueren, and that they
were received like brothers. From Colonel Bueren also we learned for
the first time about Sedan, the disasters of Bazaine and MacMahon, and
the hopelessness of the national cause. We learned that, while they
were crowning with flowers the statue of our city in Paris, they had
no assistance but handsome words to send us. Finally, we learned
the proclamation of the French republic--a republic engendered in
desolation, and so powerless to support its distant provinces! We too
had our little republican demonstration, and on the 20th of September
the prefect they had sent us from Paris, M. Valentin, came dashing in
like a harlequin, after running the gau