command to Marshal Bazaine. The Emperor had been present at the camp
of Chalons since the 16th, and all the newspapers were filled with a
grand council that had been held on the 17th, at which Prince Napoleon
and some of the generals were present, but none of them were agreed
upon the decisions that had been arrived at outside of the resultant
facts, which were that General Trochu had been appointed governor of
Paris and Marshal MacMahon given the command of the army of Chalons,
and the inference from this was that the Emperor was to be shorn of
all his authority. Consternation, irresolution, conflicting plans that
were laid aside and replaced by fresh ones hour by hour; these were
the things that everybody felt were in the air. And ever and always
the question: Where were the German armies? Who were in the right,
those who asserted that Bazaine had no force worth mentioning in front
of him and was free to make his retreat through the towns of the north
whenever he chose to do so, or those who declared that he was already
besieged in Metz? There was a constantly recurring rumor of a series
of engagements that had raged during an entire week, from the 14th
until the 20th, but it failed to receive confirmation.

Maurice's legs ached with fatigue; he went and sat down upon a bench.
Around him the life of the city seemed to be going on as usual; there
were nursemaids seated in the shade of the handsome trees watching the
sports of their little charges, small property owners strolled
leisurely about the walks enjoying their daily constitutional. He had
taken up his papers again, when his eyes lighted on an article that
had escaped his notice, the "leader" in a rabid republican sheet; then
everything was made clear to him. The paper stated that at the council
of the 17th at the camp of Chalons the retreat of the army on Paris
had been fully decided on, and that General Trochu's appointment to
the command of the city had no other object than to facilitate the