These Prussian batteries are viewed with a mysterious awe.

We fire on them, we walk about within less than a mile of them, and they maintain an ominous silence.

On the heights of Chatillon it is said at the advanced posts that there are 108 siege guns in position; some of them we can actually distinguish without a glass, and yet not a shot comes from them.

Yesterday, the gates of the Bois de Boulogne were opened, and a crowd of several thousand persons walked and drove round the lake.

Over their heads one of the bastions was throwing shells into Montretout, but it seemed to occur to no one that Montretout might return the compliment, and throw a few shells, not over their heads, but into their midst.