empt has been made to oblige those persons left in charge of houses
occupied by foreigners here, to pay the tax upon absents. An energetic
protest, however, of Mr. Washburne, has saved Americans from this
extortion.

CHAPTER XI.

_Wednesday, November 9th._

I bought a dozen newspapers this morning. Every one of them, with the
exception of the _Gaulois_, in more or less covert language, insists
upon peace upon any terms. Our "mainspring" not only has run down, but
is broken. The complaints, too, against the Government for concealing
all news it has received from the provinces, and for giving no details
respecting the negotiations with respect to the armistice, are most
outspoken. M. Edmond About, in the _Soir_ of last night, insists that we
ought to have agreed to the armistice, even without a revictualment; and
such appears to be the opinion of almost everyone. Poor M. Jules Favre,
who a few weeks ago was lauded to the skies for having so nobly
expressed the ideas of his countrymen, when he said that rather than
yield one foot of territory, one stone of a fortress, they would all
perish, is now abused for having compromised the situation, and made it
difficult to treat, by his mania for oratorical claptrap. In the
_Figaro_, Villemessant blunders through three columns over being again
disappointed in his expectations of embracing his wife, and plaintively
tells "William" that though he may not be anxious to see "his Augusta,"
this is no reason why he, Villemessant, should not be absolutely wild to
see Madame. A more utter and complete collapse of all "heroism" I never
did witness.

General Trochu has, with his usual intelligence, seized this moment to
issue a decree, mobilizing 400 men from each battalion of the National
Guard. First, volunteers; secondly, unmarried men, between 25 and 35
years; thirdly, unmarried men, between 35 and 45; fourthly, married men
between 25 and 35; fifthly, married men, between 35 and 45, are
successively to be called upon to fill up the contingent. The Vinoy
affair has been settled by the appointment of the General to the command
of the Third Army. The following statistics of the annual consumption of
meat by Paris will give some idea of the difficulty of revictualling
it:--oxen, 156,680; bulls, 66,028; cows, 31,095; calves, 120,275; sheep,
916,388. Meat is now distributed every three days. I hear that on the
present scale of rationing there is enough for five more distributions