litary service. The ambulance which
is considered the best is the American. The wounded are under canvas,
the tents are not cold, and yet the ventilation is admirable. The
American surgeons are far more skilful in the treatment of gun-shot
wounds than their French colleagues. Instead of amputation they practise
resection of the bone. It is the dream of every French soldier, if he is
wounded, to be taken to this ambulance. They seem to be under the
impression that, even if their legs are shot off, the skill of the
AEsculapii of the United States will make them grow again. Be this as it
may, a person might be worse off than stretched on a bed with a slight
wound under the tents of the Far West.

The French have a notion that, go where you may, to the top of a pyramid
or to the top of Mont Blanc, you are sure to meet an Englishman reading
a newspaper; in my experience of the world, the American girl is far
more inevitable than the Britisher; and, of course, under the Stars and
Stripes which wave over the American tents she is to be found, tending
the sick, and, when there is nothing more to be got for them, patiently
reading to them or playing at cards with them. I have a great weakness
for the American girl, she always puts her heart in what she is about.
When she flirts she does it conscientiously, and when she nurses a most
uninviting-looking Zouave, or Franc-tireur, she does it equally
conscientiously; besides, as a rule, she is pretty, a gift of nature
which I am very far from undervaluing.

_November 16th._

It is reported in "official circles" that a second pigeon has arrived
with intelligence from the French Consul at Bale, that the Baden troops
have been defeated, and that some of them have been obliged to seek
refuge in Switzerland. The evident object of Trochu now is to get up the
courage of our warriors to the sticking point for the grand sortie which
is put off from day to day. The newspapers contain extracts from the
English journals which came in the day before yesterday. By a process,
in which we are adepts at believing everything which tells for us, and
regarding everything which tells against us as a fabrication of
perfidious Albion, we have consoled ourselves with the idea that "the
situation is far better than we supposed." As for Bazaine, we cannot
make up our minds whether we ought to call him a traitor or a hero. We
therefore say as little about him as possible.

I have just come back from the