se still when one goes out on the Boulevards and sees them sitting at
the cafes drinking their absinthe as if there was no enemy within a
hundred yards of the place. I have never liked them, sir, but I am
downright sickened by them now. I shall sell out as soon as this is
over."

"I don't think they are as bad as they seem, Phipson. If the Prussians
ever do force a way into Paris, I think you will see that these fellows
can fight and fight desperately."

"So will a rat, Mr. Hartington, if you corner him, but he will run as
long as he gets the chance. I think it will do them a world of good, and
take down some of their cockyness, if the Prussians did come in. I could
not stand it, and as you see I have put my shutters up, and only let in
English customers I know. I tell you I can't bring myself to serving
horseflesh. I have got a few first-rate hams still hanging in the
cellar. As long as they last and I can pick up anything fit for a human
being to sit down to, I shall go on, but I ain't going to give my
customers grub that is only fit for hounds. I have not come down to be
a cat's-meat man yet. As to drink, I have got as you know a goodish
supply of as fine whisky as ever was brewed, but it won't be long before
that will be the only thing I shall have to sell. I see you still stick
to your soldiering, Mr. Hartington."

"Oh, yes, now I have begun, I shall go through with it, though it is not
so pleasant as it was a month ago, for the nights are getting cold;
still there is plenty of excitement about it, and we manage to keep the
Prussians awake as well as ourselves. Whatever it may be with the
National Guard there is plenty of pluck among the students. I could not
wish to have better comrades."

"Well, there is one advantage, sir, in that uniform. You can go about
without being suspected of, for being a foreigner is just the same in
the eyes of these chaps as being a spy. It is rum now that while this
place is pretty nigh kept up by the money the English and Americans
spend here, they don't like us not one bit."

"How do you make that out, Phipson?"

"I don't know that I can make it out at all. I take it it is because we
have always licked them, sir, and always shall do. There was the old
days when the Black Prince thrashed them. I am a Canterbury boy and have
seen his armor hanging up in the Cathedral many a time; that is how I
came to know about him, and then I have heard that Marlborough used to
crumple them u