October 17.--To-morrow a postal balloon named the “Victor Hugo” is to be sent up in the Place de la Concorde. I am sending a letter to London by this balloon. October 18.--I have paid a visit to Les Feuillantines. The house and garden of my boyhood have disappeared. A street now passes over the site. October 19.--Louis Blanc came to dine with me. He brought a declaration by ex-Representatives for me to sign. I said that I would not sign it unless it were drawn up in a different manner. October 20.--Visit from the Gens de Lettres committee. To-day the first postage stamps of the Republic of 1870 were put in circulation. _Les Châtiments_ (French edition) appeared in Paris this morning. The papers announce that the balloon “Victor Hugo” descended in Belgium. It is the first postal balloon to cross the frontier. October 21.-They say that Alexandre Dumas died on October 13 at the home of his son at Havre. He was a large-hearted man of great talent. His death grieves me greatly. Louis Blanc and Brives came to speak to me again about the Declaration of Representatives. My opinion is that it would be better to postpone it. Nothing is more charming than the sounding of the reveille in Paris. It is dawn. One hears first, nearby, a roll of drums, followed by the blast of a bugle, exquisite melody, winged and warlike. Then all is still. In twenty seconds the drums roll again, then the bugle rings out, but further off. Then silence once more. An instant later, further off still, the same song of bugle and drum falls more faintly but still distinctly upon the ear. Then after a pause the roll and blast are repeated, very far away. Then they are heard again, at the extremity of the horizon, but indistinctly and like an echo. Day breaks and the shout “To arms!” is heard. The sun rises and Paris awakes. October 22.--The edition of 5,000 copies of _Les Châtiments_ has been sold in two days. I have authorised the printing of another 3,000. Little Jeanne has imagined a way of puffing out her cheeks and raising her arms in the air that is adorable. The first 5,000 copies of the Parisian edition of _Les Chatiments_ has brought me in 500 francs, which I am sending to the “Siècle” as a subscription to the national fund for the cannon that Paris needs. Mathe and Gambon, the ex-Representatives, called to ask me to take part in a meeting of which former representatives are to form the nucleus. The meeting would be impossible without me, they said. But I see more disadvantages than advantages in such a meeting. I thought I ought to refuse. We are eating horsemeat in every style. I saw the following in the window of a cook-shop: “Saucisson chevaleresque.” October 23.--The 17th Battalion asked me to be the first subscriber of “one sou” to a fund for purchasing a cannon. They will collect 300,000 sous. This will make 15,000 francs, which will purchase a 24-centimetre gun, carrying 8,500 metres--equal to the Krupp guns.