rwards, that the excellent grocer had a son at
the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. I need not point out the logical
deduction.

I am equally certain that there were large quantities of horseflesh,
salted or fresh, hidden somewhere; for, as I have already noted, it was
officially, or at any rate semi-officially stated, that, on the day of
the conclusion of the armistice, there were thirty thousand live horses
in Paris, and the greater part of these would have been slaughtered by
order of the Government, if the measure had been thought expedient, for
there is scarcely any need to say that the pretext of their being wanted
for military purposes would not hold water. A sixth part of them, or
less, would have been amply sufficient for that. In reality, M. Favre
and his colleagues were, by this time, fully convinced that all further
resistance was useless, but they had not the courage to say so frankly,
and they wished to convert the advocates of "resistance to death" to
their side by aggravating the scarcity of the food supply, as if it were
not bad enough already. The horses confiscated by the Government for
food were paid for by them at the rate of between one and two francs per
pound, yet there was no possibility of buying a single pound of
horseflesh, beyond what was distributed at the municipal canteens, for
less than seven or eight francs. Whence this difference?

Butter could be bought for thirty to thirty-five francs per pound, but
such butter! Anything worth eating commanded sixty francs. There was a
kind of grease that fetched two francs per pound, but even the poorest
shrank from it, and preferred to eat dry bread, which was composed as
follows:--

(FOR A LOAF OF 300 GRAMMES.)

75 grammes of wheat.
15 " rye, barley, or peas.
60 " rice.
90 " oats.
30 " chopped straw mixed with starch.
30 " bran.

As for the rest, here are some of the prices--at which, however, things
were not always to be had:--

frs.
A dog or a cat 20
A rat, crow, or sparrow 3 or 4
1 lb. of bear's flesh 12
1 lb. of venison 14
1 lb. of wolf's flesh, or porcupine's 8
A rabbit 40
A fowl 40
A pigeon 25
A goose