workmen out of regular employment, make a circumference of two hundred
kilometers, or about one hundred and twenty-five miles. This line of
defence would protect Paris and also a field army with all its own
resources, and probably make it impossible for the Germans to completely
invest the city, as they did in 1870. Meanwhile the allied armies
outside of Paris would be able to keep the rest of the German armies
"busy," and threaten the long line of German communications. Paris would
thus be able to hold out for a long time. The Germans would obtain food
supplies from the rich country that they occupy, but their supplies of
ammunition, and of men to fill gaps in the fighting units of the first
line, must become precarious. Meanwhile the Russian "steam-roller" is
moving towards Berlin.

At six o'clock this evening the following decree was issued by the
Prefecture of Police:


"By order of the Military Governor of Paris, no civilian automobile
carriage will be allowed to leave Paris from today. This order has
been immediately enforced."

Streams of people from the regions to the north of Paris within the
sphere of the German operations are swarming into Paris, bringing their
belongings with them. I saw a train pull slowly into the Gare du Nord
laden with about fifteen hundred peasants--old men, women,
children--encumbered with bags, boxes, bundles, fowls, and provisions of
various kinds. The station is strewn with straw, on which country folk
fleeing from the Germans are soundly sleeping for the first time in many
days. These refugees are being shunted on to the _chemin de fer de la
ceinture_ and proceed around the city to other stations, from which