My Paris Diary of 1870 401 



" Strassburg is being besieged. There was a report yesterday that Phals- 

 bourg had been taken. The King of Prussia has appointed Governors of 

 Alsace and Lorraine as Prussian provinces. 



" 2/th Aug. — Rouen. I have been again to Paris. Going up in the 

 train I heard another spy story. The man who told it seemed to be a 

 Rouen merchant and the victim a friend from the country, a Normand, a 

 bel homme of fifty years. He had asked some questions about the mobiles 

 in front of the barracks, had been arrested by a sergent-de-ville, and got 

 his clothes torn by the mob. In Paris a decree has been issued expelling 

 'les bouches inutilcs.' A letter in the 'Figaro' asks whether the ladies 

 of pleasure may be properly so styled. The Government has answered 

 the question seriously by sending 2,000 of these women to the Conciergerie, 

 ready to be packed off at a moment's notice. 



"At the Embassy I found them in little anxiety. Brinquant is not yet 

 ordered off. Webster, the old Queen's messenger and Philip Currie's boon 

 companion, is dead. Lord Hertford has also chosen the moment to die at 

 Bagatelle, his house in the Bois de Boulogne. He also was a type, the 

 original of Thackeray's Lord Steyne. He remained to the day of his 

 death a patron of the half world, and has left illegitimate children and no 

 will they say. He was fond of jokes, a la Regence. The most amusing 

 of them was connected with a young clergyman he had engaged as chap- 

 lain [but I forbear transcribing it]. His Lordship has long been Icgen- 

 daire in Paris, yet such is the disturbance in the public mind, his death is 

 mentioned without special comment in the papers. 



' The Prussians are at Chalons, and in a few days, unless great events 

 happen, must be in front of Paris. The city will be summoned to sur- 

 render and threatened with destruction on refusal. The army is far away 

 and the garrison insufficient for defence. The Prussians will hardly 

 postpone a bombardment, and it is possible Paris may be taken by storm 

 and burnt. The Crown Prince, who is believed to be marching in advance, 

 probably counts on an insurrection as soon as he shall make his appear- 

 ance at the gates, or he would hardly risk so desperate an adventure with 

 two French armies in his rear. The Chamber is in an uproar, Gambetta 

 calling for news of the army, but the town is quiet and cheerful and the 

 Parisians seem ready to do their duty. Trochu has command of the place. 

 Edmond About, in the ' Soir,' croaks ominously. He has been in the jaws 

 of the lion and dreads its teeth. The ' Gaulois ' says that the Emperor is 

 in such a state that a surprising announcement might be any day made. 

 How strange it is to remember the early days of the war a month ago when 

 the Empress told her son ' Va done mon enfant .et sois digne du sang des 

 Bonapartes et des Guzmans,' and when the train was out of sight, ' Sa 

 Majeste redevint femme.' At the first engagement at Saarbruck we were 

 told: ' Le Prince Imperiale ne se laissa nullement impressioner ; les vieux 

 soldats le voyant si calm fondirent en larmes . . . Quand commenca la 

 canonade le Prince demanda a l'Empereur " Dites done papa e'est une balle 

 qui siffle aupres de nous, ou bien un boulet." " On ne peut jamais savior 

 au juste mon fils," repondit l'Empereur. . . . Apres la defaite de l'ennemi 

 le Prince Imperiale presenta au jeune Conneau [his favourite playfellow] 



