Juliette Adam had from an early age cultivated the excellent habit of keeping a diary, and making notes of the interesting conversations she heard while they were fresh in her memory.[394] Sometimes, in order to make sure of their accuracy, she would revise these notes with friends present on the same occasions. One of her volumes of _Souvenirs_, _Mes Illusions et nos Souffrances pendant le siège de Paris_, had appeared earlier, in 1871, first as a serial in the newspaper _Le Rappel_, and later in volume, with the title _Journal du Siège_. This part of her diary, originally intended for her daughter, had a great success. When it was appearing in _Le Rappel_, Mme. Adam’s life-long friend, Henri de Rochefort, was undergoing imprisonment for the part he had played in the Commune. He wrote to her from his prison:[395] “The success of your _Siège de Paris_ here is insupportable. Every one tries to steal my newspaper, and I do nothing but endeavour to recover it. Some of our convicts are actually copying the serial. After the next amnesty you will have the greatest difficulty in the world in escaping nomination as candidate for the chamber of deputies. So exactly have you photographed the physiognomy of Paris that every day, as I read you, I discover things which I had entirely forgotten, and which I see again as I did when they were happening.” Mme. Adam had distinguished herself among her fellow-countrywomen by the foundation and brilliant editing of _La Nouvelle Revue_. Now in these seven volumes of recollections, written in a forcible and dramatic style, stamped each one with the hall-mark of sincerity, virility and passionate patriotism, she stood out above all other Frenchwomen. That such striking volumes should create a sensation, that they should cause antagonism as well as admiration, was inevitable. Ardent republicans of the Gambettist school accused Mme. Adam of injustice towards one who had once been her idol and her friend. A fellow-nationalist, M. Henri Galli, wrote a book, _Gambetta et Alsace Lorraine_, with the set purpose of proving that Gambetta had not, as Mme. Adam declared, abandoned the policy of _la Revanche_. The only answer to such a contention is that Gambetta was an opportunist, and that passages from his speeches may be quoted to prove the correctness of both Mme. Adam’s and M. Galli’s points of view. To those who accuse Mme. Adam of having vilified and belittled the Great Tribune, we may reply that she passed over many things, revealing only those matters of his private life which were intimately connected with his public career. Against the attacks made upon her, the author of _Mes Souvenirs_ defended herself ably in the columns of the _Figaro_ and the _Gaulois_.