or a substitute,
which substitute was seldom purchased, the money going into the
pockets of dishonest officials.

The two hundred thousand French were stretched in a thin line from
Belgium to the mountains of Dauphine. A German army corps could break
this line at almost any point; and throughout the whole campaign
the French suffered from the lack of reliable information as to
the movements of the enemy.

On August 6, two days after the defeat at Wissembourg, the battle
of Woerth, or Reichshofen, was fought between the German _corps
d'armee_ under the Prussian Crown Prince and the corps of MacMahon,
which was completely defeated, and only enabled to leave the field
of battle in retreat rather than rout, by brilliant charges of
cavalry. The French lost six mitrailleuses, thirty guns, and four
thousand unwounded prisoners. On the same day the German reserves
retook Saarbrueck, and put to flight General Frossard's division.
After these reverses Napoleon III. proposed to retreat on Paris and
to cover the capital. This also was the counsel of MacMahon; but
the empress-regent opposed it strongly, considering it a movement
that must prove fatal to the dynasty. She even refused to receive
back her son. And indeed it did not seem unlikely that the good
people of Paris, who ten days before had cheered clamorously their
beloved emperor, might have tom him in pieces, had he come back
to them after such a succession of disasters.

On the 7th of August, the very day after the battle of Worth, while
MacMahon was retreating before the victorious army of the Prussian
Crown Prince, the Parisians were made victims of an extraordinary
deception. A great battle was reported, in which the Crown Prince
had been made prisoner, together with twenty-six thousand of his
men.

All Paris turned into the streets to exult over this victory; everyone
rushed in the direction of the Bourse, where details of the great
victory were said to have been posted. In every street, from every
house, people were summoned to hang out flags and banners. An excited
crowd filled up the Bourse, many men clinging to the railings, all
shouting, singing, and embracing each other. No one for a long
time had any clear idea what the rejoicing was about, yet the crowd
went on shouting and singing choruses, waving hats, and reiterating
the "Marseillaise." The carriage of Madame Marie Sasse, the prima
donna, who was on her way to a rehearsal at the Grand Opera House,
was