" continues this manifesto. Now,
considering that the crossing took place at Joinville, and that the
river at that point is under the fire of three forts and two redoubts,
it appears to me that General Trochu might as well take credit to
himself for crossing the Seine opposite the Place de la Concorde. I will
say for the Government of to-day, that in any attempt to beat its
predecessor in mendacity it had a hard task, but it has worked with a
will, and completely succeeded. The military attaches who are still
here, consider that the French loss during the three days cannot be less
than 10,000 in killed and wounded. It is very unlikely that the
Government will admit a loss of above 2,000 or 3,000. That of the
Prussians is, we are told, far larger than ours. Without accepting this
assertion as gospel, it must have been very heavy. A friend of mine
himself counted 500 dead bodies in one wood. We have a certain number of
prisoners. With respect to the wounded Germans in our hands, I find that
there are about 30 in my hotel, as against above 400 French. In the
American ambulance, out of 130 only two are Germans. Colonel Claremont,
who had put off his departure, witnessed the fight in the redoubt which
General Fave had built opposite Joinville. He was nearly killed several
times by bombs from La Faisanderie, which was behind him, bursting
short.

The Parisians are somewhat taken aback at the victory resulting in a
retreat. They appear, however, to be as ignorant of the environs of
their own capital as they are of foreign countries, and they never
condescend to consult a map. While some of them shake their heads in
despair of success, the majority are under the impression that Villiers
and Champigny are far beyond the range of the guns of our forts, and
that as the ground near them is still occupied by our troops, something
which will lead to the speedy retreat of the Prussians has been done. We
are two millions, they say; we will all die rather than surrender: and
they appear to be under the impression that if they only say this often
enough, Paris never will be taken. The Ultra-Democrats in the clubs have
a new theory to account for their refusal to fight. "We are," observed
an orator, a few nights ago, "the children of Paris, she has need of us;
can we leave her at such a moment?" Some of these heroes, indeed, assert
that the best plan would be to allow the Prussians to enter and then
convert them to the doctrines of Republ