calling itself the Ministry of National Defence. Its head was Count
Montauban, a man seventy-five years old, who had gained the title
of Count Palikao by his notorious campaign in China in 1860, when
he sacked the summer palace at Pekin. M. Thiers had pronounced him
far more of a soldier than a statesman. He was in command of the
fourth army corps at Lyons when summoned by the empress-regent to
take up the reins of government; but in the course of the unvaried
succession of misfortunes which made up the history of the French
arms during the month of August, the public statements of Palikao
proved as unreliable as those of his predecessor. His favorite way
of meeting inquiries was to say oracularly: "If Paris knew what
I know, the city would be illuminated."

Confidence increased after the empress-regent had proclaimed a
_levée en masse_. There were no arms for those who responded to
the call, and most of them had to be sent back to their homes; but
it was considered certain that the mere idea of a general call to
arms would intimidate the Prussians. Indeed, there was a popular
delusion, shared even by foreigners, that the Prussian soldiery, on
their march to Paris, would be cut to pieces by the peasantry. The
conduct of the peasantry proved exactly the reverse of belligerent.
The penalties inflicted by the invaders for irregular warfare,
and the profits made by individuals who remained neutral, were
cleverly calculated to render the peasantry, not only harmless,
but actually useful to the enemy.

Meantime the French were rapidly evacuating Alsace, and preparing
to make their stand on the Moselle. General Failly's corps of thirty
thousand men, which had failed to come up in time to help MacMahon
at Wörth, were in full retreat, without exchanging a shot with