At a later hour, when we reached the Boulevards, we found the wildest rumours in circulation there. Nobody knew exactly what had happened, but there was talk of 20,000 French troops having been annihilated by five times that number of Germans. At last a proclamation emanating from Gambetta was posted up and eagerly perused. It supplied no details of the fighting, but urged the Parisians to give way neither to excitement nor to despondency, and reminded them that a court-martial had been instituted to deal with cowards and deserters. Thereupon the excitement seemed to subside, and people went to dinner. An hour afterwards the Boulevards were as gay as ever, thronged once more with promenaders, among whom were many officers of the Garde Mobile and the usual regiment of painted women. Cynicism and frivolity were once more the order of the day. But in the midst of it there came an unexpected incident. Some of the National Guards of the district were not unnaturally disgusted by the spectacle which the Boulevards presented only a few hours after misfortune had fallen on the French arms. Forming, therefore, into a body, they marched along, loudly calling upon the cafes to close. Particularly were they indignant when, on reaching Brebant's Restaurant at the corner of the Faubourg Montmartre, they heard somebody playing a lively Offenbachian air on a piano there. A party of heedless _viveurs_ and _demoiselles_ of the half-world were enjoying themselves together as in the palmy imperial days. But the piano was soon silenced, the cafes and restaurants were compelled to close, and the Boulevardian world went home in a slightly chastened mood. The Siege of Paris had begun. V BESIEGED The Surrender of Versailles--Captain Johnson, Queen's Messenger--No more Paris Fashions!--Prussians versus Germans--Bismarck's Hard Terms for Peace--Attempts to pass through the German Lines--Chartreuse Verte as an Explosive!--Tommy Webb's Party and the Germans--Couriers and Early Balloons--Our Arrangements with Nadar--Gambetta's Departure and Balloon Journey--The Amusing Verses of Albert Millaud--Siege Jokes and Satire--The Spy and Signal Craze--Amazons to the Rescue!