CHAPTER V.
THE   FIRST   WEEKS   OF   THE   SIEGE.
Closing of the Gates on September i8th, 1870—Street Scenes—Victor Hugo's
Return from Exile—Panic of the French Troops—Favre's Interview with
Bismarck—The Spy Episode—Scarcity of Fresh Meat and Abundance
of Bread—General Burnside's Visit—Bismarck's Special Favor to the
United States Minister—A Diplomatic Correspondence.
THE gates of Paris were practically closed on Sunday,
September 18th, though, on the subsequent Mon-
day, a telegraph despatch from the United States got
through to me. exactly how I never understood. It was
indeed, a lonely feeling that came over the Parisians when
they reflected that they were shut out from the wide, wide
world. No letters, no mails, no news from the outside.
No one believed that the siege would endure more than
a few weeks, and people went along quite as usual. The
great feature was the immense military force, all to be
fed. Provisions had been laid in for a reasonable time,
and that man would have been deemed insane who would
have predicted that the gates of the besieged city would
not be open until the last day of February—four and a
half dreary and mortal months. That great and beau-
tiful city, the pride of France, with nearly two millions
of people, surrounded, besieged, cut off from all com-
munication with the world ! The contemplation of all
the incidents of that siege of all the patient suffering of
the people, of all the anxiety and terror, of all the hunger,
cold, starvation, sickness, and hope deferred, the  bom-