with tolerable steadiness until their
officers are bowled over, when they break. The National Guards were not
engaged. General Trochu and General Pisani tried to get some of their
battalions over the Marne, but found it impossible. After a long speech
from Trochu, Pisani shouted, "Vive la France!" To this they responded;
but when he added, "Vive Trochu!" they remained silent, and their
commanders declared that this involved political considerations with
regard to which they and their men "make certain reservations." They
are, however, very proud of having been within two miles of a battle
field, and Trochu congratulates them, in an order of the day, upon
giving a "moral support" to the army. This is precisely what every one
is willing to do. Moral support will not, however, get the Prussians
away from Paris.

Food is becoming more scarce every day. Yesterday all our sausages were
requisitioned. We have still got the cows to fall back on, but they are
kept to the last for the sake of their milk. They are fed on oats, as
hay is scarce. So you see the mother of a calf has many advantages over
its uncle. All the animals in the Zoological Gardens have been killed
except the monkeys; these are kept alive from a vague and Darwinian
notion that they are our relatives, or at least the relatives of some of
the members of the Government, to whom in the matter of beauty nature
has not been bountiful. In the cellar of the English Embassy there are
three sheep. Never did the rich man lust more after the poor man's ewe
lamb than I lust after these sheep. I go and look at them frequently,
much as a London Arab goes to have a smell at a cookshop. They console
me for the absence of my ambassador. Some one has discovered that an
excellent jelly can be made out of old bones, and we are called upon by
the mayors to give up all our bones, in order that they may be submitted
to the process. Mr. Powell is, I believe, a contractor in London. I do
not know him; but yesterday I dined with a friend who produced from a
tin some Australian mutton, which he had bought of Mr. Powell before the
commencement of the siege. Better I never tasted, and out of gratitude I
give the worthy Powell the benefit of a gratis advertisement. If we only
had a stock of his meat here, we could defy the Prussians. As it is, I
am very much afraid that in a very few weeks William will date his
telegrams to Augusta from the Tuileries.

_December 3rd._

I wrote to you i