laim that its gun has dismounted the Prussian
batteries on the terrace of Meudon, and that it successfully engaged
several field batteries which fired upon it from the Park of St. Cloud.
This may or may not be true. We are also called upon to believe that
five shots from Fort Ivry destroyed the Prussian batteries at Choisy le
Roi.

The latest proclamation issued is one from General Trochu, in which he
says that it was the fault of no one that the redoubts which were in
course of construction when the Prussians arrived before the town were
not finished, and that they were abandoned for strategical reasons.

The latest Ultra paper publishes the account of a meeting which was
remarkable, it observes, for the "excellent spirit which animated it,
and the serious character of the speeches which were delivered at it."
This is one of these serious orations--"The Citizen Arthur de Fonvielle
recommends all citizens to exercise the greatest vigilance as regards
the manoeuvres of the police, and more especially those of the Prefet of
the Police. This Ministry has passed from the hands of a Corsican into
those of one of the assassins of the Mexican Republic." I derive
considerable amusement from the perusal of the articles which are daily
published reviling the world in general for not coming to the aid of
Paris. I translate the opening paragraphs of one of them which I have
just read:--"In the midst of events which are overwhelming us, there is
something still more melancholy than our defeat: it is our isolation.
For a month the world has looked on with an impassibility, mingled with
shame and cynicism, at the ruin of a capital which possesses the most
exquisite gifts of sociability, the principal jewel of Europe, and the
eternal ornament of civilisation." Nothing like having a good opinion of
oneself.

_Evening._

I hear of some one going to try to-morrow to get through the lines, so I
give him a copy of this letter. My last letter went off--or rather did
not go off--by a private balloon. The speculator rushed in, just as I
expected him to be off, and said, "Celestine has burst." To my horror I
discovered that he was speaking of the balloon. He then added,
"Ernestine remains to us," and to Ernestine I confided my letter. I have
not seen the speculator since; it may be that Ernestine has burst too.

The latest _canard_ is that 10,000 Prussians are in a wood near
Villejuif, where they have been driven by the French. As they i