heads at home." "In the end,
however, you must treat," I said. "Never," he replied. "Germany may
occupy Alsace and Lorraine, but we will never recognise the fact that
they are no longer French." "I hardly see," I said, "that this will
profit you." "Materially, perhaps not," he answered, "but at least we
shall save our honour." "And what, pray, will happen after the
capitulation of Paris?" "Practically," he replied, "there is no
Government in France, there will not be for about two years, and then,
probably, we shall have the Orleans princes." The opinions enunciated by
this gentleman are those of most of the _doctrinaires_. They appear to
be without hope, without a policy, and without any very definite idea
how France is to get out of the singularly false position in which the
loss of her army, and the difficulty of her people to accept the
inevitable consequences, have placed her. My own impression is, that the
provinces will in the end insist upon peace at any cost, as a
preliminary step towards some regular form of government, and the
withdrawal of the German troops, whose prolonged occupation of
department after department must exhaust the entire recuperative
resources of the country.

_October 27th._

At an early hour yesterday morning, about 100 English congregated at the
gate of Charenton _en route_ for London. There were with them about 60
Americans, and 20 Russians, who also were going to leave us. Imagine the
indignation of these "Cives Romani," when they were informed that, while
the Russians and the Americans would be allowed to pass the Prussian
outposts, owing to the list of the English wishing to go not having
reached Count Bismarck in time, they would have to put off their journey
to another day. The guard had literally to be turned out to prevent them
from endeavouring to force their way through the whole German army. I
spoke this morning to an English butler who had made one of the party.
This worthy man evidently was of opinion that the end of the world is
near at hand, when a butler, and a most respectable person, is treated
in this manner. "Pray, sir, may I ask," he said, with bitter scorn,
"whether her Majesty is still on the throne in England?" I replied, "I
believed that she was." "Then," he went on, "has this Count Bismarck, as
they call him, driven the British nobles out of the House of Lords?
Nothing which this feller does would surprise me now." Butler, Charge
d'Affaires, and the other _c