he Freres Chretiens are the foremost in picking up
the wounded; going forward long before the firing is over. The Bishop
prances about on his horse, dressed in a soutane and long boots, the
Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour on his breast, a golden crucifix
hanging from his neck, and a huge episcopal ring on his finger, outside
his gloves. Sometimes he appears in a red cloak, which, I presume, is a
part of his sacerdotal gear. I am told, by those who know him, that
"Monseigneur" is a consummate humbug, but he is very popular with the
soldiers, as he talks to them in their own language, and there certainly
is no humbug about his pluck. He is as steady under fire as if he were
in a pulpit. He was by the side of Ducrot when the general's horse was
killed under him.

The events of the past week prove that General Trochu's sole available
force for resisting the enemy consists of the Line and the Mobiles. As
for the population of Paris, they are more than useless. They eat up the
provisions; they are endowed with a mixture of obstinacy and conceit,
which will very probably enable them to endure considerable hardships
rather than surrender; fight, however, they will not, although I am
convinced that, to the end of their lives, they will boast of their
heroic valour, and in the legend which will pass muster as history of
the siege of Paris, our grandchildren will be taught that in 1870, when
the French troops were all prisoners of war, the citizens of the French
capital "covered themselves with honour," and for nearly three months
held their town against the furious onslaughts of the victorious German
armies. The poor soldiers and the Mobiles, who do all the real fighting,
will experience the eternal truth of Virgil's _Sic vos non vobis_. But
there is no use being angry at what will happen in one hundred years,
for what does it signify to any who are now alive either in Paris or out
of Paris?

_December 5th._

A proclamation has been issued by the Government, announcing that the
troops have retired across the Marne, as the enemy has had time to
collect such a force in front of Villiers and Champigny, that further
efforts in this direction would be sterile. "The loss of the enemy
during the glorious days of the 29th and 30th November, and December
2nd, has been so great that, struck down in its pride of power, it has
allowed an army which it attacked the day before, to cross a river under
its eyes, and in the light of day,