tterly
worthless, come what may we shall not lack bread for many a day.

The Rump of the Corps Diplomatique has held a second meeting, and a
messenger has been sent to Bismarck to know--1st, whether he means to
bombard the city; 2nd, whether, if he does, he intends to give the usual
twenty-four hours' notice. Diplomates are little better than old women
when they have to act on an emergency. Were it not for Mr. Washburne,
who was brought up in the rough-and-ready life of the Far West, instead
of serving an apprenticeship in Courts and Government offices, those who
are still here would be perfectly helpless. They come to him at all
moments, and although he cannot speak French, for all practical purposes
he is worth more than all his colleagues put together. Lord Lyons would,
I believe, have remained, had he not been over persuaded by timid
colleagues, who were ordered to do as he did. It is a great pity that he
did not act according to his own judgment; but Republics, we know, are
not in good odour with courtiers. As for that poor creature Metternich,
he was utterly demoralized. He was more of a Chamberlain of Badinguet
than an Ambassador, and, of course, when his friend disappeared, he
took the earliest opportunity to follow his example.

_September 29th._

We still are cut off from the outer world, but neither "the world
forgetting," nor, we imagine, "by the world forgot." The inhabitants of
the "Mecca of civilization" are still, like Sister Anne, looking out for
some one to come to their assistance. I am utterly sick and tired of the
eternal brag and bombast around me. Let the Parisians gain some success,
and then celebrate it as loudly as they please: but why, in the name of
common sense, will they rejoice over victories yet to come? "We are
preserving," they say, "a dignified expectative attitude." Mr. Micawber
put the thing in more simple vernacular when, he said that he was
waiting for something to turn up. "First catch your hare" is a piece of
advice which our patriots here would scoff at. They have not yet caught
the Prussians, but they have already, by a flight of imagination, cooked
and eaten them. Count Moltke may as well--if I am to believe one quarter
of what I hear--like the American coon, come down. In a question of
military strategy between the grocers of Paris and the Prussian generals
I should have thought that the odds were considerably in favour of the
latter, but I am told that this is not so, an