The news that he brought was of the gravest. The Prefect of the Police placed no reliance whatever on the repeated assurances of the Governor of Paris that he would maintain order. Juliette had long since lost all faith in that polished, placid person, of whom every one said, _c’est un homme très distingué_. She would have preferred an energetic corporal.[194] She had no faith in the famous “plan.” It had never been confided to any one; but already it was being ridiculed by the besieged in the following couplets, sung up and down Paris streets— “Je sais le plan de Trochu, Plan, plan, plan, plan, plan. Mon Dieu! quel beau plan! Je sais le plan de Trochu; Grâce à lui rien n’est perdu! Quand sur du beau papier blanc, Il eut écrit son affaire, Il alla porter son plan Chez maître Ducloux, notaire— C’est là, qu’est l’plan de Trochu, Plan, plan, plan, plan, plan. Mon Dieu! quel beau plan! C’est là, qu’est l’plan de Trochu; Grâce à lui rien n’est perdu!” Most happily, as it turned out, Adam had resolved on taking his own measures in order to guard peaceful citizens from the forces of violence and disorder. He depended on the Gardes Mobiles, recruited in the provinces. The Garde Nationale could not be trusted. It would probably side with the populace. And a parade of regular troops would only irritate the malcontents. M. Thiers, after the Cabinet meeting, had taken Adam apart and confided to him his fear that the mob, furious against Thiers for his attempt to negotiate an armistice, might attack his house on the Place St. Georges and endanger the lives of his old, faithful servants. Adam promised to have the house guarded. And he now requested Juliette in case of danger to bring his friend’s servants into the Préfecture. Neither sleep nor rest was possible for the Préfet de Police that night: reports from various parts of Paris were coming in every moment. Between seven and eight in the morning Adam brought his wife the official newspaper _L’Officiel_. It contained three items of news, as little calculated as might be to calm the effervescence of the Parisian populace. It announced the capitulation of Metz and the possibility of an armistice, and it confirmed what had only been rumoured the day before, the Prussian capture of Le Bourget.