, and who owns a carriage, has promised to call
for me when next the ambulances are sent for; but, as I have already
said, all my energy oozes out of me when the thermometer is below zero;
and unless the next battle is fought on a warm day, I shall not witness
it. As a matter of fact, unless one is riding with the staff of the
general who commands, one cannot form an idea of what is going on by
hanging about, and it is a horrible sight to look with an opera-glass at
men and horses being massacred. When knights charged each other with
lances there was a certain chivalry in war; but there is nothing either
noble or inspiriting in watching a quantity of unfortunate Breton
peasants, who cannot even speak French, and an equal number of Berlin
grocers, who probably ask for nothing better than to be back in their
shops, destroying each other at a distance of two or three miles with
balls of lead and iron, many of them filled with explosive materials. I
confess that I pity the horses almost as much as the men. It seems a
monstrous thing that in order that the Alsacians should be forced into
becoming subjects of King William of Prussia, an omnibus horse, who has
honestly done his work in the streets of Paris, should be taken outside
the walls of the town to have his head blown off or to stump about on
three legs until he dies of cold and hunger. Horses have a way when they
are wounded of making desperate efforts to get up, and then letting
their heads fall with a bang on the soil which is very horrible to
witness.

Everybody in authority and out of it seems to have a different opinion
as to when the siege will end. I cannot think that when a town with two
million inhabitants is reduced to such expedients as this is now, it can
hold out very long. The rations, consisting alternately of horse and
salt fish, are still distributed, but they are hardly sufficient to keep
body and soul together. Unless we make up our minds to kill our
artillery horses, we shall soon come to the end of our supply. The
rumour to-day is that the Prussians have evacuated Versailles, and that
Frederick Charles has been beaten in a battle on the Loire, but I cannot
say that I attach great credit to either story. No pigeon has arrived
for the last three days, owing, it is supposed, to the cold; and until
we know for certain what d'Aurelles de Paladine is doing, we are unable
to form an accurate opinion of the chances of the siege being raised.
All that can b