bread is all but uneatable. If you put it in
water, straw and bits of hay float about. A man, who ought to know,
solemnly assured me this morning that we had only food for six days; but
then men who ought to know are precisely those who know nothing. I do
not think that we are so badly off as this; but the end is a question no
longer of months, but of days, and very soon it will be of hours. Those
who desire a speedy capitulation are called _les capitulards_, and they
are in a majority of nine to one. There are still many who clamour for a
grand sortie, but most of those who do so, are persons who, by no
possibility, can themselves share in the operation. The street orators
are still at poor Jonah Trochu, and their hearers seem to agree with
them. These sages, however, do not explain who is to replace him. Some
of the members of the Government, I hear, suggest an admiral; but what
admiral would accept this _damnosa haereditas_? Among the generals, each
has his partisans, and each seems to be of opinion that he himself is a
mighty man of war, and all the others fools. Both Vinoy and Ducrot
declined to attend the Council of War which sat before the late sortie.
They were generals of division, they said, and they would obey orders,
but they would accept no further responsibilities. Ducrot, who was the
_fidus Achates_ of Trochu, is no longer in his good graces. The _Reveil_
of this afternoon, which is usually well-informed on all matters which
concern our Mayors, gives the following account of the meeting of
yesterday: "At three o'clock the meeting took place in the presence of
all the members of the Government. M. Trochu declared formally that he
would fight no more. M. Favre said that the Government was
'disappearing.' M. Favre proposed that the Government should give up its
power to the Mayors. The Mayors refused. The discussion was very
violent. Several propositions, one more absurd than another, were
brought forward by some of the members of the Government. They were not
discussed. As usual, the meeting broke up without any result." The best
man they have is Vinoy; he is honest, disinterested, and determined. It
is to be hoped that if Trochu resigns, he will take his place.

_January 22nd._

So poor Jonah has gone over, and been swallowed up by the whale. He
still remains the head of the civil government, but it only is as a
figure-head. He is an upright man; but as a military chief he has proved
himself a complete