CHAPTER XXII

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The siege -- The Parisians convinced that the Germans will not invest Paris -- Paris becomes a vast drill-ground, nevertheless -- The Parisians leave off singing, but listen to itinerant performers, though the latter no longer sing the "Marseillaise" -- The theatres closed -- The Comedie-Francaise and the Opera -- Influx of the Gardes Mobiles -- The Parisian no longer chaffs the provincial, but does the honours of the city to him -- The stolid, gaunt Breton and the astute and cynical Normand -- The gardens of the Tuileries an artillery park -- The mitrailleuse still commands confidence -- The papers try to be comic -- Food may fail, drink will not -- My visit to the wine depot at Bercy -- An official's information -- Cattle in the public squares and on the outer Boulevards -- Fear with regard to them -- Every man carries a rifle -- The woods in the suburbs are set on fire -- The statue of Strasburg on the Place de la Concorde -- M. Prudhomme to his sons -- The men who do not spout -- The French shopkeeper and bourgeois -- A story of his greed -- He reveals the whereabouts of the cable laid on the bed of the Seine -- Obscure heroes -- Would-be Ravaillacs and Balthazar Gerards -- Inventors of schemes for the instant annihilation of all the Germans -- A musical mitrailleuse -- An exhibition and lecture at the Alcazar -- The last train -- Trains converted into dwellings for the suburban poor -- Interior of a railway station -- The spy mania -- Where the Parisians ought to have looked for spies -- I am arrested as a spy -- A chat with the officer in charge -- A terrible-looking knife 414

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