ts be patriotic fictions, it seems strange to
publish them in the newspapers, as they must inevitably fall into the
hands of the Prussians. Be this as it may, I do not feel at liberty to
quote from them. General Ducrot publishes a letter protesting against a
statement of the German journals that he escaped from Pont-a-Mousson
when on parole. He asserts that his safe-conduct had been given up, and
that he consequently was free to get away if he could. His evasion is
very similar to that of F. Meagher from Australia. M. Jules Favre
publishes a circular to the French Diplomatic Agents abroad, in reply to
Count Bismarck's report of the meeting at Ferrieres. You will probably
have received it before you get this letter. It is more rhetorical than
logical--goes over the old ground of the war having been declared
against Napoleon rather than against the French nation, and complains
that "the European Cabinets, instead of inaugurating the doctrine of
mediation, recommended by justice and their own interests, by their
inertness authorise the continuation of a barbarous struggle, which is a
disaster for all and an outrage on civilization." M. Jules Favre cannot
emancipate himself from the popular delusions of his country, that
France can go to war without, if vanquished, submitting to the
consequences, and that Paris can take refuge behind her ramparts without
being treated as a fortified town; at the same time he very rightly
protests against the Prussian theory of the right of conquest implying a
moral right to annex provinces against the wishes of their inhabitants.

Few have been in Paris without having driven through the Avenue de
l'Imperatrice. What has been done there to render it impregnable to
attack will consequently give an idea what has been done everywhere. At
the Bois de Boulogne end of the avenue the gate has been closed up by a
wall and a moat; behind them there is a redoubt. Between this and the
Arc de Triomphe there are three barricades made of masonry and earth,
and three ditches. Along the grass on each side of the roadway, the
ground has been honey-combed, and in each hole there are pointed stakes.
In every house Nationaux are billeted; in two of them there are
artillerymen. In the Avenue de Neuilly, and in many other parts of the
town, the preparations against an assault are still more formidable.
Bagatelles, the villa of the late Lord Hertford, has been almost gutted
by 2,000 Mobiles, who make it their headq