Between 1 and 2 o’clock the firing seemed to have approached the woods to the north of the town. The artillery fire was severe, the reports following each other in rapid succession, while the rattle of the mitrailleuse could also be recognised. It gave the impression that a regular battle had developed, and was drawing nearer to us. The Chief ordered his horse to be saddled, and rode off. The rest of us also followed in the direction in which the fight seemed to be raging. We saw the familiar white clouds that accompany shell fire rise and burst in the air to the left, over the wood through which the road to Jardy and Vaucresson leads. Orderlies were galloping along the road thither, and a battalion was marching towards the point where the engagement was taking place. The fight continued until after 4 o’clock, and then one only heard isolated discharges from the large fort on Mont Valérien, and finally they too ceased. As was only natural, great excitement prevailed during the afternoon amongst the French in the town, and the groups who stood before the houses probably expected every moment, as the noise of the firing came nearer and nearer, to see our troops in full flight before the red breeches. They afterwards drew long faces and shrugged their shoulders. In the evening the Chief said we ought not to permit groups of people to collect in the streets on the occasion of an engagement, and that the inhabitants should be ordered in such circumstances to remain within doors, the patrols being instructed to fire upon those refusing obedience. _Sunday, October 22nd._--This has now been done, Voigts-Rhetz, the Commandant of Versailles, having issued an order to the effect that on the alarm signal being given, all the inhabitants must immediately return to their houses, failing which the troops had received instructions to fire upon them. The Parisian Prefect of Police, Keratry, has appeared in Madrid with the object of submitting two proposals to General Prim. The first is that France and Spain should enter into an offensive and defensive alliance, under which the latter country should send an army of fifty thousand men to the assistance of the French. The object of the alliance would be the common defence of the nations of the Latin race against the supremacy of the Germanic race. On Prim declining this strange offer (strange inasmuch as the Spanish support of France, which but three months before had in the most arrogant manner forced its own policy upon Spain, would be an unexampled piece of self-renunciation and a misconception of the clearest interests of the Spanish people), the French intermediary asked that at least a decree should be issued permitting the import of arms into France. This suggestion was also rejected by Prim.