at is just as to venture
to struggle against the dismemberment of their country, and do not
understand how meet and right it is that their fellow-countrymen in
Alsace should be converted into German subjects.

General Vinoy, who was in the Crimea, and who takes a somewhat larger
view of things than the sententious Trochu, has been good enough to
furnish me with a pass, which allows me to wander unmolested anywhere
within the French outposts. "If you attempt to pass them," observes the
General, "you will be shot by the sentinels, in obedience to my orders."
A general order also permits anyone to go as far as the line of the
forts. Yesterday I chartered a cab and went to Boulogne, a village on
the Seine, close by the wood of the same name. We drove through a
portion of the Bois; it contained more soldiers than trees. Line and
artillerymen were camped everywhere, and every fifty yards a group was
engaged in skinning or cutting up a dead horse. The village of Boulogne
had been deserted by almost all the inhabitants. Across some of the
streets leading to the river there were barricades, others were open. In
most of the houses there were soldiers, and others were in rifle-pits
and trenches. A brisk exchange of shots was going on with the Prussians,
who were concealed in the opposite houses of St. Cloud. I cannot
congratulate the enemy upon the accuracy of their aim, for although
several evilly disposed Prussians took a shot at my cab, their bullets
whistled far above our heads, and after one preliminary kick, the old
cab-horse did not even condescend to notice them. As for the cabman, he
was slightly in liquor, and at one of the cross-streets leading to the
river he got off his box, and performed a war-dance to show his contempt
for the skill of the enemies of his nation. In the Grand Place there was
a long barricade, and behind it men, women, and children were crouching
watching the opposite houses, from which every now and then a puff of
smoke issued, followed by a sharp report. The soldiers were very orderly
and good-natured; as I had a glass, some of them took me up into the
garrets of a deserted house, from the windows of which we tried in vain
to espy our assailants. My friends fired into several of the houses from
which smoke issued, but with what effect I do not know. The amusement of
the place seemed to be to watch soldiers running along an open road
which was exposed to fire for about thirty yards. Two had been kille