inside the
deserted houses it is almost as cold as outside. The windows and the
doors have been converted into firewood, and the wind whistles through
them. The ambulance waggons of the Press alone have brought in nearly
500 men frost-bitten, or taken suddenly ill. From the batteries at Bondy
and Avron there has been some sharp firing, the object of which has been
to oblige the Prussians to keep inside the Forest of Bondy, and to
disquiet them whenever they take to digging anywhere outside it. The
plain of Avron is a very important position as it commands the whole
country round. The end of Le Bourget, towards Paris appears entirely
deserted. An ambulance cart went up to a barricade this morning which
crosses the main street, when a Prussian sentinel emerged and ordered it
to go back immediately. Behind Le Bourget, a little to the right, is a
heavy Prussian battery at Le Blanc Mesnel which entirely commands it.
The Line and the Mobiles bitterly complain that they, and not the
marching battalions, are exposed to every danger. The soldiers, and
particularly those of the Mobiles, say that if they are to go on
fighting for Paris, the Parisians must take their fair share in the
battles. As for the marching battalions, they are, as soldiers, worth
absolutely nothing. The idea of their assaulting, with any prospect of
success, any positions held by artillery, is simply ludicrous. The
system of dividing an army into different categories, is subjected to a
different discipline, is fatal for any united offensive operations. It
is to be hoped that Trochu will at last perceive this, and limit his
efforts to keeping the Prussians out of Paris, and harassing them by
frequent and partial sorties. I hear that General Ducrot wanted to
attempt a second assault of Le Bourget, but this was overruled at a
council of war which was held on Thursday.

_December 26th._

The _Journal Officiel_ announces that military operations are over for
the present, owing to the cold, and that the army is to be brought
inside Paris, leaving outside only those necessary for the defence. This
is a wise measure, although somewhat tardily taken. The Parisians will
no doubt be very indignant; for if they do not like fighting themselves,
they insist that the Line and the Mobiles should have no repose.

M. Felix Pyat gives the following account of Christmas in
England:--"Christmas is the great English fete--the Protestant
Carnival--an Anglo-Saxon gala--a gross