"Leave these people to form their own plans. They understand
street fighting better than any one in the world." At La Villette,
Crenelle, and other faubourgs inhabited by the blouses, there is no lack
of patriotism, and they will blow themselves and their homes up rather
than yield.

The bold Britons started again in their Derby turn-out yesterday.
Nothing has been heard of them since. We do not know whether they have
been imprisoned or what has become of them. I have already entrusted my
letters to balloons, boatmen, peasants, and Americans, but I do not know
whether they have reached you or not. The last balloon was pursued by a
Prussian one, the newspapers say!

Yesterday the Nuncio called together all the diplomatists still here,
and they determined to try to communicate with Bismarck. They seem to
imagine that a twenty-four hours' notice will be given before a
bombardment commences, when they will have time to get out. I send this
letter by a Government balloon. I shall send a copy to-morrow by a
private balloon, if it really does start as announced.

The _Gazette Officielle_ "unites with many citizens in asking Louis
Blanc to go to England, to obtain the sympathies of the English nation
for the Republic." This is all very well, but how is he to get there?

_September 25th._

No news of any importance from the front. It is a fete day, but there
are few holiday makers. The presence of the Prussians at the gates, and
the sound of the cannon, have at last sobered this frivolous people.
Frenchmen, indeed, cannot live without exaggeration, and for the last
twenty-four hours they have taken to walking about as if they were
guests at their own funerals. It is hardly in their line to play the
_justum et tenacem_ of Horace. Always acting, they are now acting the
part of Spartans. It is somewhat amusing to see the stern gloom on the
face of patriots one meets, who were singing and shouting a few days
ago--more particularly as it is by no means difficult to distinguish
beneath this outward gloom a certain keen relish, founded upon the
feeling that the part is well played. One thing, however, is certain,
order has at length been evolved from disorder. Except in the morning,
hardly any armed men are to be seen in the streets, and even in the
central Boulevards, except when there is a report of some success or
during an hour in the evening, there are no crowds. In the fighting
faubourgs there is a real genuine determinati