s his eyes,
clenches his fists, and swears that if ever Badinguet returns to Paris
he (the Gaul) will himself shoot him.

An American, who took an active part in the Confederate defence of
Richmond, has just been in to see me. He does not believe that the town
will hold out long, and scoffs at the mode in which it is being
defended. I reserve my opinion until I have seen it under fire.
Certainly they "do protest too much." The papers contain lists of
citizens who have sworn to die rather than surrender. The bourgeois,
when he goes off to the ramparts, embraces his wife in public, and
assumes a martial strut as though he were a very Curtius on the way to
the pit. Jules is perpetually hugging Jacques, and talking about the
altar of his country on which he means to mount. I verily believe that
the people walking on the Boulevards, and the assistants of the shops
who deal out their wares, in uniform, are under the impression that they
are heroes already, perilling life and limb for their country. Every
girl who trips along thinks that she is a Maid of Saragossa. It is
almost impossible for an Englishman to realise the intense delight which
a Frenchman has in donning a uniform, strutting about with a martial
swagger, and listening to a distant cannonade. As yet the only real
hardships we have suffered have been that our fish is a little stale,
and that we are put on short allowance of milk. The National Guards on
the ramparts, I hear, grumble very much at having to spend the night in
the open air. The only men I think I can answer for are the working men
of the outer faubourgs and a portion of the Provincial Gardes Mobiles.
They do mean to fight. Some of the battalions of the National Guards
will fight too, but I should be afraid to trust the greater portion of
them, even behind earthworks. "Remember," says the _Figaro_ to them
to-day, "that you have wives and children; do not be too venturesome."
This advice, I think, was hardly needed. As for the regular troops, they
are not to be trusted, and I am not sorry to think that there are 10,000
sailors in the forts to man the guns.

We have been manifesting again to-day. I was in hopes that this nonsense
was over. On the Place de la Concorde there was a crowd all the
afternoon, applauding orators, and companies of National Guards were
bringing bouquets to the statue of Strasburg. At the Hotel de Ville a
deputation of officers of the National Guards came to urge the
Government