The only event of the week within the lines of
the besiegers at Paris has not been favourable for the Parisians. The attempt to defend the slopes of Sceaux (near Versailles) against the Germans on Monday the 19th, —entrusted, says the Daily News' correspondent, the only one who has yet succeeded in forwarding a letter from within Paris since the investment, to General Ducrot who escaped from Sedan in disguise,—did not succeed. A redoubt, with seven guns and two
thousand prisoners, was taken, and the same day the Crown
Prince fixed his head-quarters at Versailles. As a result of this affair, it is asserted from Berlin that the southern part of Paris becomes indefensible, being commanded by the Prussian guns on the heights of Sceaux ; but this hardly means, we suppose, that the forts of Issy and Vauvres are indefensible. The French troops who behaved worst in this affair were regulars,—Zouaves,— who fled like deer. The Gardes Mobiles stood their ground, and the young Parisian " exquisites " fought like heroes. Worse still for Paris, the Reds were already crying out for an equal division of food, and this though food was still cheap ; and the Siècle gasps out in big print, "Milk runs short. It is the commencement of the horrors of war !"' The Government, which fixes the price of meat, does not dare to fix it high, and altogether it looks as if the difficulties of defending Paris would be more internal than military.
