and then
withdrew. General Tamisier then made a speech, which of course no one
could hear. Shortly afterwards there was a cry of "Voila Flourens--Voila
nos amis," and an ouvrier battalion with its band playing the
Marseillaise marched by. They did not halt, notwithstanding the
entreaties of the manifesters, for they were bound, their officers
explained, on a sacred mission, to deposit a crown before the statue of
Strasburg. When I left the Place the crowd was, I think, increasing, and
as I drove along the Rue Rivoli I met several bourgeois battalions
marching towards the Hotel de Ville. I presume, therefore, that General
Trochu had thought it expedient to send reinforcements. "We will come
back again with arms," was the general cry among the ouvriers, and
unless things mend for the better I imagine that they will keep their
word. The line of demarcation between the bourgeois and the ouvrier
battalions is clearly marked, and they differ as much in their opinions
as in their appearance. The sleek, well-fed shopkeeper of the Rue
Vivienne, although patriotic, dreads disorder, and does not absolutely
contemplate with pleasure an encounter with the Prussians. The wild,
impulsive working man from Belleville or La Villette dreads neither
Prussians without, nor anarchy within. If he could only find a leader he
would blow up himself and half Paris rather than submit to the
humiliation of a capitulation. Anything he thinks is better than this
"masterly inactivity." Above the din of the crowd the cannon could be
heard sullenly firing from the forts; but even this warning of how near
the foe is, seemed to convey no lesson to avoid civil strife. Unless
General Trochu is a man of more energy than I take him to be, if ever
the Prussians do get into the town they will find us in the condition of
the Kilkenny cats.

_October 9th._

The representative of the Republic of Columbia, to whom I had given my
letter of yesterday, has returned it to me, as he was afraid to cross
the lines with it. The Briton who has paid for a place in a balloon is
still here, and he imagines that he will start to-morrow, so I shall
give him my Columbian letter and this one. I understand that any one who
is ready to give assurances that he will praise everything and every one
belonging to the Government, is afforded facilities for sending out
letters by the Post-office balloons, but I am not prepared to give any
other pledge except that I shall tell the truth