. In vain the zealot endeavoured
to excite his ire against me. The Commandant and I got into conversation
and became excellent friends. He, too, knew nothing of what had
occurred. He had been bombarding Chatillon, he said, and he supposed he
should soon receive orders to recommence. What seemed to surprise him
was that the Prussians during the whole night had not replied either
from Chatillon, Sevres, or Meudon to the French guns. From Vanves I went
to Villejuif, where a temporary ambulance had been erected, and the
surgeons were busy with the wounded. As soon as their wounds were
dressed, they were taken in ambulance carts inside the town. The
officers and soldiers, who had not yet learnt that General Ducrot had
failed to cross the Marne, were in a very bad humour at having been
ordered to withdraw at the very moment when they were carrying
everything before them. They represented the Prussians as having fought
like devils, and declared that they appeared to take a fiendish pleasure
in killing even the wounded. Within the town the excitement to know what
had passed is intense. The Government has posted up a notice saying that
everything is happening as General Trochu wished it. Not a word is said
about Ducrot's failure. The _Liberte_, which gives a guarded account of
what really took place, has been torn to pieces on the Boulevards. I
have just been talking with an officer on the headquarters staff. He
tells me that Trochu is still outside, very much cast down, but
determined to make a desperate effort to retrieve matters to-morrow.

We have received to-day some English newspapers, and you may imagine how
far behind the age we are from the fact that we learn for the first time
that Prince Gortschakoff has put his finger into the pie. Good heavens!
I have invested my savings in Turkish Five per cents., and it gives me a
cold shiver to think at what figure I shall find these Oriental
securities quoted on the Stock Exchange when I emerge from my enforced
seclusion and again find myself in communication with the outer
world.[1]

_December 2nd._

For the last three days the public within the walls of Paris has been
kept in profound ignorance of what has been passing outside. General
Trochu has once or twice each day published a despatch saying that
everything is happening as he anticipated, and the majority of those
who read these oracular utterances religiously believe in them as though
they had never been deceived. O