, pagan, monstrous orgie--a Roman
feast, in which the vomitorium is not wanting. And the eaters of 'bif'
laugh at us for eating frogs! Singular nation! the most Biblical and the
most material of Europe--the best Christians and the greatest gluttons.
They cannot celebrate a religious fete without eating. On Holy Friday
they eat buns, and for this reason they call it Good Friday. Good,
indeed, for them, if not for God. They pronounce messe mass, and boudin
pudding. Their pudding is made of suet, sugar, currants, and tea. The
mess is boiled for fifteen days, sometimes for six months; then it is
considered delicious. No pudding, no Christmas. The repast is sacred,
and the English meditate over it for six months in advance--they are the
only people who put money in a savings'-bank for a dinner. Poor families
economise for months, and take a shilling to a publican every Saturday
of the year, in return for which on Christmas Day they gorge themselves,
and are sick for a week after. This is their religion--thus they adore
their God." M. Pyat goes on to describe the butchers' shops before
Christmas; one of them, he says, is kept by a butcher clergyman, and
over his door is a text.

The _Gaulois_ gives an extract of a letter of mine from a German paper,
in which I venture to assert that the Parisians do not know that
Champigny is within the range of the guns of their forts, and
accompanies it with the following note:--"The journal which has fallen
into our hands has been torn, and consequently we are unable to give the
remainder of this letter. What we have given is sufficient to prove
that our Government is tolerating within our walls correspondents who
furnish the enemy with daily information. What they say is absurd,
perhaps, but it ought not to be allowed." Does the _Gaulois_ really
imagine that the German generals would have raised the siege in despair
had they not learnt that, as a rule, the Parisians do not study the map
of the environs of the city?

Old Vinoy has issued an order of the day denouncing the conduct of the
soldiers and officers who ran away when the Prussians issued from the
cellars at Villa Evrard. It requires a great deal of courage just now to
praise the Line, and to find fault with the National Guard. But General
Vinoy is a thorough soldier, and stands no nonsense. If anything happens
to Trochu, and he assumes the command-in-chief, I suspect the waverers
of the National Guard will have to choose between