INTRODUCTION V

venirs de Jeunesse^ such notes as make up Le Siège de Paris ^ are ail that can claîm greater permanency than his weekly criticisms or his popular public lectures. Such men as Francisque Sarcey meurent tout entiers. But while they live it is difi&cult to overestimate the influence that they wield.

An increasing demand is being made by Collège Entrance Ëxaminations, and consequently, by Preparatory Schools, for reading-matter in the modem languages that shall not be fiction. This demand Francisque Sarcey 's story of the Siège of Paris is particularly adapted to supply. It is history, being a truthf ul record of an eventful time set down by an observant eye-witness. And yet it is more attractive than pure history, being a picture of the effect produced by the events of that time upon a highly impressionable people. As, moreover, it is a picture drawn by a very graphie and lively pen, it should commend itself specially to the recitation-room.

Written from day to day during the siège itself, this little book gives the picturesque, and more especially the moral, aspect of Paris during that mémorable period. With the utmost faithfulness it lays before the reader the alternating phases of enthusiasm and despondency, joy and sorrow, hope and despair, through which the Parisians passed during those six mémorable months. The moral strength of the city, and also its weakness, are set forth without fear or favor. Francisque Sarcey paints a realistic picture of its life from day to day, in order that the rest of France may know exactly the throes through which its beleaguered capital passed. He writes for his brother Frenchmen, who will admire the cheerfulness with which Paris bore the misfortunes of each hour, and marvel at the irrépressible good-humor with