[3] The Emperor's plan of campaign was to mass 150,000 men at Metz; 100,000 at Strassburg, and 50,000 at the Camp at Châlons. It was then his intention to unite the armies at Metz and Strassburg, and to cross the Rhine at Maxau, to force the States of South Germany to observe neutrality. He would then have pushed on to encounter the Prussians. But the army at Metz, instead of 150,000 men, only mustered 100,000; that of Strassburg only 40,000 instead of 100,000; whilst the corps of Marshal Canrobert had still one division at Paris, and another at Soissons; his artillery as well as his cavalry were not ready. Further no army corps was even yet completely furnished with the equipments necessary for taking the field.--_Campagne de 1870; des Causes qui ont amené la Capitulation de Sedan_. Par un Officier attaché à l'État Major-Général. Bruxelles. [4] Quotations in this chapter not otherwise specified have been taken from the columns of the _Daily News_, August, 1870-January, 1871. [5] He had been undergoing a term of imprisonment for certain articles written in the _Marseillaise_. [6] I quote a few lines--the only legible ones--from a letter, addressed to his mother, which Labouchere sent out of Paris, fastened between the double sole of a man's boot. It looks as if the bearer must have waded through water, and the marks of the cobbler's nails are visible all over it. "November 6, 1870. This goes out in a citizen's boot. If he is caught, he will be shot, which is his affair--only you will not get it. The position is utterly hopeless. We shall be bombarded in a week. This hotel has two hundred wounded in it. I got into the Hôtel de Ville on Monday with the mob. Such a scene. I have got a pass from General Vinoy, so I get a good view of all the military operations.... I do not know if my letters to the D. N. arrive...." [7] J. M'Carthy and Sir J. Robinson, The Daily News Jubilee. _A Retrospect of Fifty Years of the Queen's Reign_. [8] Mrs. Labouchere had been a widow since 1863, and was now living at Oakdene, near Dorking. [9] Robinson. _Fifty Years of Fleet Street_. [10] Secretary of War in Mr. Gladstone's first Ministry. [11] This letter did not reach London, E. C., from whence it was posted to Dorking, until Jan. 19. [12] Captain Bingham notes in his diary for Dec. 4 that Henry Labouchere, Frank Lawley, Lewis Wingfield, and Quested Lynch dined with him, and that they partook of moufflon, a kind of wild sheep which inhabits Corsica.--_Recollections of Paris_, Capt. Hon. D. Bingham. [13] "As soon as the armistice was signed, several of the English correspondents managed to get to Versailles. The first thing that Labouchere did on arriving there was to plunge his head into a pail of milk, and he was with difficulty weaned."--_Recollections of Paris_, Capt. Hon. D. Bingham. [14] Capt. Hon. D. Bingham. _Recollections of Paris_.