Chapter XXII

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