There has been no sugar in Paris for six days. The rationing of meat began to-day. We shall get three quarters of a pound per person and per day.
Incidents of the postponed Commune. Feverish unrest in Paris. Nothing to cause uneasiness, however. The deep-toned Prussian cannon thunder continuously. They recommend unity among us.
The Minister of Finance, M. Ernest Picard, through his secretary, asks me to “grant him an audience;” these are the terms he uses. I answer that I will see him on Monday morning, October 10.
October 9.--Five delegates from the Ninth Arrondissement came in the name of the arrondissement to *forbid me to get myself killed*.
October 10.--M. Ernest Picard came to see me. I asked him to issue immediately a decree liberating all articles pawned at the Mont de Piété for less than 15 francs (the present decree making absurd exceptions, linen, for instance). I told him that the poor could not wait. He promised to issue the decree to-morrow.
There is no news of Gambetta. We are beginning to get uneasy. The wind carried him to the north-east, which is occupied by the Prussians.
October 11.--Good news of Gambetta. He descended at Epineuse, near Amiens.
Last night, after the demonstrations in Paris, while passing a group that had assembled under a street lamp, I heard these words: “It appears that Victor Hugo and the others--.” I continued on my way, and did not listen to the rest, as I did not wish to be recognised.
After dinner I read to my friends the verses with which the French edition of _Les Châtiments_ begins (“When about to return to France,” Brussels, August 31, 1870).
October 12.--It is beginning to get cold. Barbieux, who commands a battalion, brought us the helmet of a Prussian soldier who was killed by his men. This helmet greatly astonished little Jeanne. These angels do not yet know anything about earth.
The decree I demanded for the indigent was published this morning in the “Journal Officiel.”
M. Pallain, the Minister’s secretary, whom I met as I came out of the Carrousel, told me that the decree would cost 800,000 francs.
I replied: “Eight hundred thousand francs, all right. Take from the rich. Give to the poor.”
October 13.--I met to-day Théophile Gautier, whom I I had not seen for many years. I embraced him. He was rather nervous. I told him to come and dine with me.