provided your officers with maps of Germany, when they utterly lacked
the means of studying the geography of their own country, seeing that
you had no maps of your own territory." I could not help thinking of the
bookseller, and wondering how many dictionaries he sold during those
first few days.

I did not get very far that night, only as far as the Maison d'Or, where
I was perforce obliged to stop and look on. I stood for nearly an hour
and a half, for there was no possibility of getting a seat, and during
that time I only heard one opinion adverse to the war. It was that of a
justly celebrated dramatist, who is by no means hostile to either the
Emperor or the Empire, albeit that he had declined several years ago to
be presented to Napoleon when Princess Mathilde offered him to do so. He
positively hates the Germans, but his hatred did not blind him to their
great intellectual qualities and to their powers of organization. "It is
all very fine to shout 'A Berlin!'" he said; "and it is very probable
that some of these bellowers (braillards) will get there, though not in
the order of procession they expect; they will be in front, and the
Germans at their backs." He spoke very low, and begged me not to repeat
what he had said. "If I am mistaken, I do not want to be twitted with
having thrown cold water on the martial ardour of my countrymen; if I am
right, I will willingly forego the honour of having prophesied the
humiliation of my countrymen." That is why I suppress his name here, but
I have often thought of his words since; and when people, Englishmen
especially, have accused him of having contributed to the corruption of
the Second Empire by his stage works, I have smiled to myself. With the
exception of one, he has never written a play that did not teach a
valuable moral lesson; but he is an excellent husband, father, and son,
though he is perhaps not over generous with his money.

I am bound to say that, though the noise on the Boulevards was terrific,
and the crowds the densest I have ever seen in Paris or anywhere, they
refrained from that horse-play so objectionable in England under similar
circumstances. Of course there were exceptions; such as, for instance,
the demonstration at the Prussian Embassy: but, in the main, the
behaviour was orderly throughout. I do not know what might have been the
result of any foreigners--German or otherwise--showing themselves
conspicuously, but they were either altogether abse