not to
mention Brussels, the Hague, Amsterdam, Munich, and Dresden. The
"Monsieur Prudhomme" of Charles Monnier shows but one facet of the Paris
badaud's character. The nearest approach to him is the middle-class
English tourist on the Continent, who endeavours to explain to his wife
and companions things he does not know himself, and blesses his stars
aloud for having made him an Englishman.

But even the Paris badaud, who is not unlike his Roman predecessor in
his craving for circuses, must have bread; and when the cry arises, a
fortnight later, that "there is no more bread," the siege is virtually
at an end.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Some men of the Commune -- Cluseret -- His opinion of Rossel --
His opinion of Bergeret -- What Cluseret was fighting for --
Thiers and Abraham Lincoln -- Raoul Rigault on horseback --
Theophile Ferre -- Ferre and Gil-Peres, the actor -- The comic
men of the Commune -- Gambon -- Jourde, one of the most valuable
of the lot -- His financial abilities -- His endeavours to save
-- Jourde at Godillot's -- Colonel Maxime Lisbonne -- The
Editor's recollections of him -- General Dombrowski and General
la Cecilia -- A soiree at the Tuileries -- A gala-performance at
the Opera Comique -- The death-knell of the Commune.

I have before now spoken of a young medical student in whose company I
spent several evenings at a cafe on the Boulevard St. Michel, during the
Empire. He, like myself, remained in Paris during the siege, and refused
to stir at the advent of the Commune. As a matter of course, whenever we
met, while the latter lasted, we rarely spoke of anything else. He
sympathized, to a certain extent, with the principle, though not with
the would-be expounders of it. I knew few, if any, of the leaders even
by sight, though I had heard of some, such as, for instance, Jules
Valles, in connection with their literary work. My admiration was
strictly confined to those performances, and I often said so to my
friend. "You are mistaken in your estimate of them," he invariably
replied. "There are men of undoubted talent among them, for instance,
Cluseret; but most of them are like square pegs in round holes. Come
with me to-night, and you will be able to judge for yourself; for he is
sure to be at the Brasserie Saint-Severin."

I had never been to the Brasserie Saint-Severin, though I had paid two
or three visits several years before to the cafe de l