to the committee. Only 2,383 tools (or sets of
tools) had been redeemed, representing a lent value of 13,570
francs.]

Meanwhile, Christmas and the New Year were at hand, and not a single
sortie had led to any practical modification of the situation. The cold
was intense. Coal and coke could be obtained for neither money nor love.
The street lamps had not been lighted for nearly a month; up till the
end of October, one had been lighted here and there; then there had been
an attempt to supply the absence of gas by paraffin in the public
thoroughfares, but the stock of mineral oil was also getting lower. Most
of the shops were closed, but, at the advent of the festive season, a
few took down their shutters and made a feeble display of bonbons in
sugar and chocolate, and even of marrons glaces. I doubt whether these
articles found many purchasers. The toy-shops never took the trouble of
exhibiting at all. They were wise in their abstention, for even the most
ignorant Parisian was aware that nine-tenths of the wares in these
establishments hailed from Germany, and he would assuredly have smashed
the windows if they had been offered for sale. Nay, the booths that make
their appearance on the Boulevards at that time of the year displayed
few toys, except of a military kind. It was very touching, in after
years, to hear the lads and lassies refer to the 1st of January, 1871,
as _the New Year's Day without the New Year's gifts_.

Nevertheless, it must not be thought that Paris was given over to
melancholy on these two days. Crowds perambulated the streets and sat in
the cafes. In spite of all that has been said by ultra-patriotic
writers, I am inclined to think that the Parisians no longer cherished
any illusions about the possibility of retrieving their disasters,
though many may have thought that the besiegers would abstain, at the
last moment, from shelling the city. The Government--whether with the
intention of cheering the besieged or for the purpose of exhausting
their stock of provisions as quickly as possible, in order to capitulate
with better grace--had made the city a magnificent New Year's gift of

104,000 kilogrammes of preserved beef,
52,000 " " dried haricot beans,
52,000 " " olive oil,
52,000 " " coffee (not roasted),
52,000 " " chocolate;

which gift elicited the reply of a group of artists and litterateurs
that, though thankful for th