busts carried in mock procession to the parapets of the Pont Neuf and thrown into the Seine, clapping of hands and hearty laughter greeting the splash which the graven image of the mighty monarch made in the water. I went as far as the Hôtel de Ville, and found it in possession of his Majesty the Sovereign People. Blouses were in every one of M. Haussmann's balconies. How they got there I do not know. I presume that M. Chevreau did not invite them. But they got in somehow without violence. The great square in front of the Hôtel de Ville was full of the National Guards, {127} most of them without uniform. They carried the butts of their muskets in the air, in token that they were fraternising with the people. The most perfect good humour prevailed. Portraits of the Emperor and Empress, which many of your readers must have seen in the Hôtel de Ville ballrooms, were thrown out of the window and the people trod and danced on the canvas. On leaving the Hôtel de Ville I saw, in the Avenue Victoria, M. Henri Rochefort,[5] let out of prison as a logical sequence of events but half-an-hour before. He was on a triumphal car, and wore a scarlet scarf. He was escorted by an immense mob, crying, '_Vive Rochefort_!' He looked in far better health than I expected to see him after his long imprisonment, and his countenance beamed with delight. He had seen his desire on his enemy." [Illustration: Facsimile of a "Pigeon-post" letter sent by Henry Labouchere to his mother during the siege of Paris.] At four o'clock on the same day the Republic was proclaimed at the Hôtel de Ville, with a provisional Government composed of the following members: MM. Gambetta, Jules Favre, Pelletan, Rochefort, Jules Ferry, Jules Simon, and Ernest Picard. Kératry was appointed Prefect of the Police and Arago the Mayor of Paris.