me that if Paris submits to a blockade for another month,
she will have done her duty by France; but I cannot for the life of me
see that as yet she has done anything to entitle her to boast of having
set the world an example of valour.

Yesterday, it appears by the official report, there was a reconnaissance
in force under General Ducrot in the direction of Bougival and Rucil.
The Mobiles, we are told, behaved well, but the loss on either side was
insignificant. Our amateur strategists are divided as to the expediency
of taking Versailles, with the whole Prussian quartier-general, or
reopening communications with the provinces by the way of Orleans. The
relative advantages of these two schemes is hotly debated in the
newspapers and the pothouses. A more practical suggestion to form
mobilised regiments of National Guards by taking the most active men
from the existing battalions is being seriously considered by the
Government. This is all the news, except that a battalion of Amazons is
in course of formation. They are to wear trousers, kepis, and blouses,
and to be armed like the National Guard. The walls are covered with
large placards inviting enlistments. It is reported that the Government
are in possession of evidence to show that many of those female
ornaments of the Imperial Court who were called cocodettes, and who
spent in dress every year three times the annual income of their
husbands, were in the pay of Bismarck. This intelligent and unscrupulous
gentleman also, it is said, has a corps of spies recruited from all
nations, consisting of good-looking men of pleasant address and of a
certain social standing, whose business it was to insinuate themselves
into the good graces of the beauties of Parisian society, and then
endeavour to pick up the secrets of their husbands and friends. I am
inclined to think that there is a good deal of truth in this latter
allegation, because for several years I have known fascinating
foreigners who used to frequent the clubs, the Bois, and the salons of
the great world, and lead a joyous life without having any recognised
means of existence. I have been struck more than once with the anxiety
of these gentry to hook themselves on to the train of any lady who was
either the relative of a man in power or who was supposed to be on
intimate terms with a minister or a courtier. Every man, said Sir Robert
Walpole, has his price, and Bismarck might be justified in making the
same reflect