which was pursued by their predecessors;
and I hope that the grandiloquent boasts and brave words that one hears
from morning to night will be followed by brave deeds.

This morning Messenger Johnson was sent off with despatches to England
from the British Embassy. He was provided with a safe-conduct, signed by
General Trochu, and a letter to the Commandant of the Fort of Vanves,
enjoining him to forward Mr. Johnson under a flag of truce to the
Prussian lines. At half-past nine Messenger Johnson, arrayed in a pair
of high boots with clanking spurs, the belongings, I presume, of a
Queen's messenger, stepped into his carriage, with that "I should like
to see any one touch me" air which is the badge of his tribe. His
coachman being already drunk, he was accompanied by a second man, who
undertook to drive until Jehu had got over the effect of his potations.
I myself have always regarded Queen's messengers as superior beings, to
be addressed with awe, and whose progress no one would venture to
arrest. Such, however, was not the opinion of the National Guards who
were on duty at the gate through which Messenger Johnson sought to leave
this beleagured town. In vain Messenger Johnson showed his pass; in vain
he stated that he was a free-born Briton and a Queen's messenger. These
suspicious patriots ignored the pass, and scoffed at the _Civis
Romanus_. In fact, I tremble as I write it, several of them said they
felt somewhat inclined to shoot any Briton, and more particularly a
Queen's Messenger, whilst others proposed to prod Messenger Johnson with
their bayonets in his tenderest parts. Exit under these circumstances
was impossible. For some time Messenger Johnson sat calm, dignified, and
imperturbable in the midst of this uproar, and then made a strategical
retreat to the Ministry of War. He was there given an officer to
accompany him; he again set forth, and this time he was more fortunate,
for he got through the gate, and vanished from our horizon. I called at
the Embassy this afternoon, and found our representative, Mr.
Wodehouse, confident that Messenger Johnson would arrive at his
destination. Mr. Wodehouse when I left him was engaged in pacifying a
lunatic, who had forced his way into the Embassy, and who insisted that
he was the British Ambassador. I was surprised to learn that there are
still at least 3000 of our countrymen and women in Paris. Most of them
are in a state of absolute destitution, some because they have