s and Italians who have
established ambulances were in all probability Prussian spies. As I took
no notice of these startling generalities, one of them turned to me and
said, "You may look at me, sir, but I assert before you that Dr. Evans,
the ex-dentist of the Emperor, was a spy." I quietly remarked, that not
having the honour to know Dr. Evans, and being myself an Englishman,
whilst the Doctor is an American, I was not responsible for him. "You
are a Greek," observed another; "I heard you talk Greek just now." I
mildly suggested that his knowledge of foreign tongues was, perhaps,
somewhat limited. "Well, if you are not a Greek," he said, "I saw you
the other morning near the Ambulance of the Press, to which I belong,
and so you must be a spy." "If you are an Englishman," cried his friend,
"why do you not go back to your own country, and fight Russia?" I
replied that the idea was an excellent one, but that it might, perhaps,
be difficult to pass through the Prussian lines. "The English Ambassador
is a friend of mine, and he will give you a pass at my request,"
answered the gentleman who had mistaken English for Greek. I thanked
him, and assured him that I should esteem it a favour if he would obtain
from his friend Lord Lyons this pass for me. He said he would do so, as
it would be well to rid Paris of such vermin as myself and my
countrymen. He has not yet, however, fulfilled his promise. Scenes such
as these are of frequent occurrence at restaurants; bully and coward are
generally synonymous terms; any scamp may insult a foreigner now with
perfect impunity, for if the foreigner replies he has only to denounce
him as a spy, when a crowd will assemble, and either set on him or bear
him off to prison. While, as I have already said, nothing can be more
courteous than the conduct of French officers, French gentlemen, and,
unless they are excited, the French poorer classes, nothing can be more
insolent than that of the third-class dandies who reserve their valour
for the interior of the town, or who, if ever they venture outside of
its fortifications, take care to skulk beneath the protection of the
cross of Geneva.

The _Journal Officiel_ contains a decree breaking up the battalion of
Belleville. These warriors, says their own Commander, ran away in the
presence of the enemy, refused the next day to go to the front, and
commenced fighting with their neighbours from La Villette. M. Gustave
Flourens, who is the hero of the