“You will see from the post-mark where we are now stationed--in one of the most priest-ridden towns of France. It is the centre of monarchical reaction. It looks less like a town than an enormous monastery, huge black walls and barred windows, behind which monks of all colours intrigue and pray in darkness and silence for the success of the good cause. In the streets our red shirts are constantly brushing against the black cassock of the priest. The whole population, from the tradespeople downwards, present a mystic aspect, and appear as if they had been all drenched in holy water. We are regarded here as if we had been inscribed upon the Index, and the calumnies that are rained upon us rival the deluge. A breach of discipline (which is unavoidable in the case of a volunteer army) is immediately exaggerated into a great crime. Trifles are transformed into outrages that deserve to be punished by death. The mountain frequently gives birth to a mere mouse, but the bad impression produced upon the public mind remains. “Would you believe it? The officials themselves put difficulties in our way! They echo, I hope unwittingly, the calumnies that are circulated against us, and regard us with evident ill will. Indeed, our fellow citizens are almost inclined to look upon our army as a band of brigands. Can you imagine that the monarchists have not in the least renounced their mischievous endeavours, and hate us because we have sworn never to permit the re-erection of those mountebank stages from which kings and emperors have ordered nations as the humour took them? Yes, we proclaim the fact aloud that we are soldiers of the Revolution, and I would add not of the French Revolution alone, but of the cosmopolitan revolution. Italians, Spaniards, Poles, and Hungarians, in gathering under the French flag, clearly understand that they are defending the Universal Republic. The real nature of the struggle is now evident. It is a war between the principle of the divine right of kings and of force, and that of popular sovereignty, civilisation, and freedom. The fatherland disappears before the Republic. “We are citizens of the world, and whatever may happen we will fight to the death for the realisation of that noble ideal of the United States of Europe, that is to say, the fraternisation of all free peoples. The monarchical reactionaries know that, and so they reinforce the Prussian forces with their own legions. We have the enemies’ bayonets in front, and treason behind us. Why is not every old official sent about his business? Why are not all the old generals of the Empire ruthlessly cashiered? Cannot the Government of National Defence see that they are being betrayed, and that these people, with their hypocritical manœuvres, shameful capitulations, and inexplicable retreats are preparing for a Bonapartist restoration, or, at least, for the accession of an Orleans or a Bourbon?