of apathetic way be in favour of the cession; but they are so
utterly ignorant of everything except matters connected with their
toilettes and M. Paul de Kock's novels, that they confine themselves to
shrugging their shoulders and hoping for the best, and they support all
the privations to which they are exposed owing to the siege without
complaint and without enthusiasm. The word armistice being beyond the
range of their vocabulary, they call it "l'amnistie," and imagine that
the question is whether or not King William is ready to grant Paris an
amnesty. As AEneas and Dido took refuge in a cave to avoid a shower, so I
for the same reason found myself with a young lady this morning under a
porte cochere. Dido was a lively and intelligent young person, but I
discovered in the course of our chance conversation that she was under
the impression that the Russians as well as the Prussians were outside
Paris, and that both were waging war for the King of Spain. Sedan, I
also learnt, was in the neighbourhood of Berlin.

The _Temps_ gives the following details of our provisions--Beef will
fail in a week, horse will then last a fortnight; salt meat a further
week; vegetables, dried fruits, flour, &c., about three weeks more. In
this calculation I think that the stock of flour is understated, and
that if we are contented to live on bread and wine we shall not be
starved out until the middle of January. The ration of fresh meat is now
reduced in almost all the arrondissements to thirty grammes a head.
There is no difficulty, however, in obtaining for money any quantity of
it in the restaurants. In the bouillons only one portion is served to
each customer. Cats have risen in the market--a good fat one now costs
twenty francs. Those that remain are exceedingly wild. This morning I
had a salmis of rats--it was excellent--something between frog and
rabbit. I breakfasted with the correspondents of two of your
contemporaries. One of them, after a certain amount of hesitation,
allowed me to help him to a leg of a rat; after eating it he was as
anxious as a terrier for more. The latter, however, scornfully refused
to share in the repast. As he got through his portion of salted horse,
which rejoiced in the name of beef, he regarded us with horror and
disgust. I remember when I was in Egypt that my feelings towards the
natives were of a somewhat similar nature when I saw them eating rat.
The older one grows the more tolerant one becomes. If