could compel
the raising of the siege; but they thought, that by holding out,
and keeping the Prussians under its walls, Paris would give to
France time to rise, to organize armies, and to rush upon the enemy.
There was the duty of Paris; and Paris was toiling to fulfil it to
the utmost limits of possibility, reckoning as a victory each day
that it gained.

Unfortunately, all this suffering was to be in vain. The fatal
hour struck, when, supplies being exhausted, it became necessary
to surrender. During three days the Prussians camped in the Champs
Elysees, gazing with longing eyes upon that city, object of their
most eager desires,--that Paris within which, victorious though
they were, they had not dared to venture. Then, soon after,
communications were reopened; and one morning, as he received a
letter from Switzerland,

"It is from the Baron de Thaller!" exclaimed M. Favoral.

Exactly so. The manager of the Mutual Credit was a prudent man.
Pleasantly situated in Switzerland, he was in nowise anxious to
return to Paris before being quite certain that he had no risks
to run.

Upon receiving M. Favoral's assurances to that effect, he started;
and, almost at the same time the elder Jottras and M. Costeclar
made their appearance.

XIX

It was a curious spectacle, the return of those braves for whom
Parisian slang had invented the new and significant expression of
_franc-fileur_.

They were not so proud then as they have been since. Feeling rather
embarrassed in the midst of a population still quivering with the
emotions of the siege, they had at least the good taste to try and
find pretexts for their absence.

"I was cut off," affirmed the Baron de Thaller. "I had gone to
Switzerland to place my wife and daughter in safety. When I came
back, good-by! the Prussians had closed the doors. For more than
a week, I wandered around Paris, trying to find an opening. I
became suspected of being a spy. I was arrested. A little more,
and I was shot dead!"

"As to myself," declared M. Costeclar, "I foresaw exactly what has
happened. I knew that it was outside, to organize armies of relief,
that men would be wanted. I went to offer my services to the
government of defence; and everybody in Bordeaux saw me booted and
spurred, and ready to leave."

He was consequently soliciting the Cross of the Legion of Honor,
and was not without hopes of obtaining it through the all-powerful
influence of his financi