ne. A basketful of toys for Georges.

Shells have begun to demolish the Fort of Rosny. The first shell has
fallen in the city itself. The Prussians to-day fired 6,000 shells at
us.

In the Fort of Rosny a sailor working at the gabions was carrying a sack
of earth. A shell knocked it off his shoulder. "Much obliged," commented
the sailor, "but I wasn't tired."

Alexandre Dumas died on December 5. On looking over my notebook I see
that it was on December 5 that a large hearse with an "H" on it passed
before me in the Rue Frochot.

We have no longer even horse to eat. *Perhaps* it is dog? *Maybe* it is
rat? I am beginning to suffer from pains in the stomach. We are eating
the unknown!

M. Valois, representing the Societe des Gens de Lettres, came to ask me
what was to be done with the 3,000 francs remaining from the proceeds of
the three readings of Les Chatiments, the guns having been delivered and
paid for. I told him that I wanted the whole amount turned over to Mme.
Jules Simon for the fund for the victims of the war.

January 1, 1871.--Louis Blanc has addressed to me through the newspapers
a letter upon the situation.

Stupor and amazement of little Georges and little Jeanne at their
basketful of New Year presents. The toys, when unpacked from the basket,
covered a large table. The children touched all of them and did not know
which to take. Georges was nearly furious with joy. Charles remarked:
"It is the despair of joy!"

I am hungry. I am cold. So much the better. I suffer what the people are
suffering.

Decidedly horse is not good for me. Yet I ate some. It gives me the
gripes. I avenged myself at dessert with the following distich:

_Mon diner m'inquiete et meme me harcele,
J'ai mange du cheval et je songe a la selle_.

The Prussians are bombarding Saint Denis.

January 2.--Daumier and Louis Blanc lunched with us.

Louis Koch gave to his aunt as a New Year gift a couple of cabbages and
a brace of living partridges!

This morning we lunched on wine soup. The elephant at the Jardin des
Plantes has been slaughtered. He wept. He will be eaten..

The Prussians continue to send us 6,000 bombs a day.

January 3.--The heating of two rooms at the Pavillon de Rohan now costs
10 francs a day.

The Mountaineers' club again demands that Louis Blanc and I be added to
the Government in order to direct it. I continue to refuse.

There are at present twelve members of