and packages.
The interpreter, after having exchanged several words with an employee
of the ministry, said to me:

"Something serious has happened--an insurrection. The Government is
again obliged to change its capital!"

At that moment a door opened, and M. Jules Favre himself appeared with a
large portfolio under his arm. He explained to the interpreter that I
should have my audience at Versailles in several days, and having made
me a profound bow, which I returned him, he ran away with his large
portfolio.

VERSAILLES, _March 19, 1871_.

I had to leave Paris at twelve o'clock in a great hurry. There really is
a new Government at Paris. This Government is not one of the three
monarchies, nor one of the three republics. It is a seventh arrangement,
which is called the _Commune_. This morning an armed troop of men
surrounded the house where I live. It seems that the new Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Paris of the Commune would have been charmed to
receive a Chinese ambassador. They had come to carry me off. I had time
to escape. It is not the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Paris that I
ought to see, it is the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Versailles.

Good heavens, how complicated it all is! And when shall I be able to put
my hand on this intangible person, who is now blockaded in Paris and now
chased out of Paris?

VERSAILLES, _April 6, 1871_.

At last, yesterday, I had the honor of being received by his Excellency,
and we discussed the events that had occurred in Paris.

"This insurrection," M. Jules Favre said to me, "is the most formidable
and the most extraordinary that has ever broken out."

I could not allow such a great historical error to pass. I answered M.
Jules Favre that we had had in China for millions of years socialists
and socialistic uprisings; that the French Communists were but rough
imitators of our Chinese Taipings; that we had had in 1230 a siege at
Nankin which had lasted seven years, etc. In short, these Europeans are
only beginning again our history with less grandeur and more barbarity.

VERSAILLES, _May 15, 1871_.

My mission is ended; I could return to China; but all that I see here
interests me extremely. This civil war immediately succeeding a foreign
war is a very curious occurrence. There is here, for a Chinaman, an
excellent opportunity of study, on the spot and from life, of European
civilization.

VERSAILLES, _May 24, 1871_.

Paris is burning, and on the ter