ne,
to be decided by the lawyers who are his colleagues. They, on their
side, complain that the General never quits the Louvre, has surrounded
himself with a number of clerical dandies as his aides-de-camp, whose
religious principles may be sound, but whose knowledge of war is nil;
and that if he wished to make a sortie, he should not have waited until
the Prussians had rendered its success impossible by completing their
lines of investment. It is said that the attempt will be made along the
post road to Orleans, it being now considered impossible, as was at
first intended, to open communications by the Havre railroad. The
general impression is either that the troops engaged in it will be
driven back under the forts in confusion, or that some 50,000 will be
allowed to get too far to return, and then will be netted like sparrows.
It is not, however, beyond the bounds of possibility that the Prussians
will not wait until our great administrator has completed his
preparations for attack, but will be beforehand with him, and open fire
upon the southern posts from their batteries, which many think would
effectually reduce to silence the guns of Vanves, Issy, and of the
advanced redoubts. These Prussian batteries are viewed with a mysterious
awe. We fire on them, we walk about within less than a mile of them, and
they maintain an ominous silence. On the heights of Chatillon it is said
at the advanced posts that there are 108 siege guns in position; some of
them we can actually distinguish without a glass, and yet not a shot
comes from them. Yesterday, the gates of the Bois de Boulogne were
opened, and a crowd of several thousand persons walked and drove round
the lake. Over their heads one of the bastions was throwing shells into
Montretout, but it seemed to occur to no one that Montretout might
return the compliment, and throw a few shells, not over their heads, but
into their midst. One of the most curious phases in this remarkable
siege is, that the women seem to consider the whole question a political
one, which in no way regards them--they neither urge the men to resist,
nor clamour for peace. _Tros Tyriusque_ seems much the same to them; a
few hundreds have dressed themselves up as vivandieres, the others
appear to regret the rise in the price of provisions, but to trouble
their heads about nothing else. If they thought that the cession of
Alsace and Lorraine would reduce the price of butchers' meat, they would
in a sort