their council chamber, and threatened by armed men. Jules Favre sat
quietly in his chair; Jules Simon sketched upon his blotting-paper;
rifles were pointed at General Trochu. "Escape, General!" cried
some one in the crowd. "I am a soldier, Citizen," he answered,
"and my duty is to die at my post." One member of the Committee
managed, however to escape, and summoned the National Guard to
the assistance of his colleagues.

It was eight o'clock in the evening when the troops arrived. At
sight of their guns and bayonets the populace, grown weary of its
day's excitement, melted away. Before daylight, order was restored.
"Thus," says an American then in Paris, "in twelve hours Paris
had one Republican Government taken prisoner, another set up, and
the first restored."

So peace, after a fashion, returned; but Count Bismarck, learning
of these events, was strengthened in his determination to keep
Paris shut up within her gates till the factions in the city, in
the coming days of famine and distress, should destroy one another.

M. Thiers had almost concluded an agreement for an armistice of
thirty days, during which Paris was to be fed, while an election
should be held all over France for a National Assembly; but after
the disorders of October 31, Count Bismarck refused to hear of
any food being supplied to Paris, negotiations were broken off,
and the war went on.

Up to this time bread in Paris had been sufficient for its needs,
and not too dear. Wine was plenty, but meat was growing scarce.
Horses were requisitioned for food. It was the upper classes who