fighting and taking
off their uniforms. The General is above seventy--a hale and hearty old
man; sticks to his profession, and utterly ignores politics. He has a
most unsurrendering face, but I do not think that he would either hold
out vain hopes to the Parisians, or flatter their vanity. He would tell
them the truth, and with perfect indifference as to the consequences. He
is a favourite both with the soldiers and the officers, and hardly
conceals his contempt for the military capacity of Trochu, or the
military qualities of Trochu's civic heroes.

_December 28th._

The proverbial obstinacy of the donkey has been introduced into our
systems, owing to the number of these long-eared quadrupeds which we
have eaten. We "don't care" for anything. We don't care if the armies of
the provinces have been beaten, we don't care if we have been forced to
suspend offensive operations, we don't care if the Prussians bombard us,
we don't care if eventually we have to capitulate. We have ceased to
reason or to calculate. We are in the don't-care mood. How long this
will last with so impulsive a people it is impossible to say. Our
stomachs have become omnivorous; they digest anything now; and even if
in the end they be invited to digest the leek, as we shall not be called
upon to eat this vegetable either to-morrow or the next day, we don't
care. The cold is terrible, and the absence of firewood causes great
suffering. The Government is cutting down trees as fast as possible, and
by the time it thaws there will be an abundance of fuel. In the meantime
it denounces in the _Official Journal_ the bands of marauders who issue
forth and cut down trees, park benches, and garden palings. I must say
that I don't blame them. When the thermometer is as low as it is now,
and when there is no fire in the grate, the sanctity of property as
regards fuel becomes a mere abstraction. Yesterday the Prussians
unmasked several batteries, and opened fire against the plateau of Avron
and the eastern forts. They fired above 3000 shells, but little damage
was done. We had only thirty-eight killed and wounded. One shell fell
into a house where eight people were dining and killed six of them. The
firing is going on to-day, but not so heavily. The newspapers seem to be
under the impression that we ought to rejoice greatly over this
cannonade. Some say that it proves that the Prussians have given up in
despair the idea of reducing us by famine; others that it