Somebody having expressed anxiety about some matter which I was unable to catch, the Chief observed: “A more important question for me--indeed, the most important--is what will be done at Villa Coublay; that is the main point. The Crown Prince said recently, when I mentioned the matter to him, ‘I am ready to give up the command for that purpose.’ I felt like replying, ‘And I am prepared to assume it.’ Give me the post of Commander-in-Chief for twenty-four hours, and I will take it upon myself. I would then give one command only: ‘Commence the bombardment.’” Villa Coublay is a place not far from Versailles, where the siege park has been collected and still remains, instead of being placed in position. Bucher tells me that the Chancellor has appealed directly to the King to hasten the bombardment. The Chief continued: “The assertion of the generals that they have not enough ammunition is untrue. They do not want to begin because the Heir Apparent does not wish it. He does not wish it because his wife and his mother-in-law are against it. “They have brought together three hundred cannon and fifty or sixty mortars, and five hundred rounds of ammunition for each gun. That is certainly enough. I have been speaking to artillerymen, who said that they had not used half as much ammunition at Strassburg as they have collected here; and Strassburg was a Gibraltar compared to Paris. It would be easy to fire the barracks on Mont Valérien, and if the forts of Issy and Vanvres were properly shelled so that the garrisons should be compelled to bolt, the enceinte (of course we know it) would be of little importance. The ditch is not broader than the length of this room. I am convinced that if we poured shells into the city itself for five or six days, and they found out that our guns reached farther than theirs--that is to say, 9,000 yards--Paris would give in. True enough the wealthier quarters are on this side of the city, and it is a matter of indifference to the people at Belleville whether we blow them to pieces or not; indeed, they are pleased when we destroy the houses of the richer classes. As a matter of fact, we ought to have attacked Paris from another direction; or still better, left it altogether alone, and continued our forward march. Now, however, that we have begun, we must set about the affair in earnest. Starving them out may last a long time, perhaps till the spring. At any rate, they have flour enough up to January.... If we had begun the bombardment at the right time, there would have been no question of the Loire army. After the engagement at Orleans, where Von der Tann was obliged to retire, the military authorities (not I) regarded our position in Versailles as critical. Had we begun the bombardment four weeks ago, we should now in all probability be in Paris, and that is the main point. As it is, however, the Parisians imagine that we are forbidden to fire by London, St. Petersburg, and Vienna; while, on the other hand, the neutral