MONOTONOUS DAYS IN THE BESIEGED  CITY.   189
the streets, much parading of the military and a little
cannonading. Being on a committee with the Nuncio,
Mr. Kern and Baron Zuylen, the Holland Minister, to
draw up a paper to Bismarck, went to the residence of the
Nuncio at two p.m. After that, at 3.30 p.m., went to the
Préfecture of the Police with one of my countrymen who
had been badly treated."
October 6th, 18th day of the siege.
" For the first time for weeks we have had a dull,
foggy morning. The servant comes in and says the
streets are vacant and sombre. My feelings are in ac-
cord with the appearance of the streets. This being shut
off from all intercourse with the world, when you are on
dry land, is becoming tedious.
" (Evening). The day has run out without any incident
of importance. Some little glimmer of news has come
in from the Prussians and the Parisians are a little more
cheerful. But it all amounts to nothing, in my judgment.
Nothing is being done. The days go and the provisions
go. Speaking of provisions, I saw day before yesterday
in the street a barrel of flour made at Waverly, Iowa,
some seventy or eighty miles west of Galena.
" Made a visit to the Prefect of Police, Count de Ké-
ratry, now ' Citizen ' de Kératry. He formerly belonged
to the French army, and is regarded as a man of courage
and ability. He spoke quite hopefully about affairs, but
I do not see it. Curious place is that old, dismal, dilapi-
dated, gloomy, sombre, dirty Préfecture of Police, the
theatre of so many crimes and so many punishments.
If those frowning walls could speak, what tales of horror
they might tell ! Here were the head-quarters of Pietri,
that Prefect of Police who had become so odious under
the Empire. And what may be esteemed a little curi-
ous under this new deal, I have learned that the same