most
the first train that passed the lines.

Delaunay was then director of the Paris Observatory, having succeeded
Leverrier when the emperor petulantly removed the latter from his
position. I had for some time kept up an occasional correspondence
with Delaunay, and while in England, the autumn before, had forwarded
a message to him, through the Prussian lines, by the good offices
of the London legation and Mr. Washburn. He was therefore quite
prepared for our arrival. The evacuation of a country by a hostile
army is rather a slow process, so that the German troops were met
everywhere on the road, even in France. They had left Paris just
before we arrived; but the French national army was not there,
the Communists having taken possession of the city as fast as the
Germans withdrew. As we passed out of the station, the first object
to strike our eyes was a flaming poster addressed to "Citoyens,"
and containing one of the manifestoes which the Communist government
was continually issuing.

Of course we made an early call on Mr. Washburn. His career in
Paris was one of the triumphs of diplomacy; he had cared for the
interests of German subjects in Paris in such a way as to earn the
warm recognition both of the emperor and of Bismarck, and at the
same time had kept on such good terms with the French as to be not
less esteemed by them. He was surprised that we had chosen such a
time to visit Paris; but I told him the situation, the necessity
of my early return home, and my desire to make a careful search
in the records of the Paris Observatory for observations made two
centuries ago. He advised us to take up our quarters as near to
the observatory as convenient, in order that we might not have to
pass through the portions of the city which were likely to be the
scenes of disturbance.

We were received at the observatory with a warmth of welcome that
might be expected to accompany the greeting of the first foreign
visitor, after a siege of six months. Yet a tinge of sadness in
the meeting was unavoidable. Delaunay immediately began lamenting
the condition of his poor ruined country, despoiled of two of its
provinces by a foreign foe, condemned to pay an enormous subsidy
in addition, and now the scene of an internal conflict the end of
which no one could foresee.

While I was mousing among the old records of the Paris Observatory,
the city was under the reign of the Commune and besieged by the
national forces.