d the proceeds of the spoil. This is so true that, even
after many years of lording it, the successors of, and co-founders with,
the firm of Favre, Gambetta, & Co. have been obliged, not only to grant
an amnesty to those whom they cheated at the beginning, but to admit
them to some of the benefits of the undertaking; Meline, Tirard, Ranc,
Alphonse Humbert, Camille Barrere, and a hundred others more or less
implicated in the Commune, are all occupying fat posts at the hour I
write.

A friend of ours, whose impartiality was beyond suspicion, and who had
more strength and inclination to battle with crowds than any of us,
offered to go and see how the land lay at the Palais-Bourbon. He
returned in about an hour, and told us that Gambetta, perched on a
chair, had been addressing the crowd from behind the railings, exhorting
them to patience and moderation. "Clever trick that," said our
informant; "it's the confidence-trick of housebreakers when two separate
gangs have designs upon the same 'crib;' while the first arrivals
'crack' it, they send one endowed with the 'gift of the gab' to pacify
the others."

One thing is certain--Gambetta and his crew did not want to pursue the
war, they wanted a Constituent Assembly which would have left them to
enjoy in peace the fruits of their usurpation; for theirs was as much
usurpation as was the Coup d'Etat. Their subsequent "Not an inch of our
territory, not a stone of our fortresses," was an afterthought, when
they found that Bismarck would not grant them as good a peace as he
would have granted Napoleon at Donchery the morning after Sedan.

At about ten on Saturday night everybody knew that there would be a
night sitting, and I doubt whether one-fourth of the adult male
population of Paris went to bed at all, even if they retired to their
own homes.

Our friend returned to the Palais-Bourbon, but failed to get a
trustworthy account of what had happened during the twenty-five minutes
the deputies had been assembled. All he knew was that nominally the
Empire was still standing, though virtually it had ceased to exist; a
bill for its deposition having been laid on the table. On his way back
to the Boulevards he saw the carriage of Thiers surrounded, and an
attempt to take out the horses. He called Thiers "le receleur des vols
commis au prejudice des monarchies."[80]

[Footnote 80: "The receiver of the goods stolen from
monarchies."--EDITOR.]

Let me look for a