In fact, the news had just come, that the Western Railroad, the lastone that had remained open, was now cut off.

Paris was invested; and so rapid had been the investment, that itcould hardly be believed.

People went in crowds on all the culminating points, the hills ofMontmartre, and the heights of the Trocadero. Telescopes had beenerected there; and every one was anxious to scan the horizon, andlook for the Prussians.

But nothing could be discovered. The distant fields retained theirquiet and smiling aspect under the mild rays of the autumn sun.

So that it really required quite an effort of imagination to realizethe sinister fact, to understand that Paris, with its two millionsof inhabitants, was indeed cut off from the world and separated fromthe rest of France, by an insurmountable circle of steel.

Doubt, and something like a vague hope, could be traced in the toneof the people who met on the streets, saying,"Well, it's all over: we can't leave any more. Letters, even,cannot pass. No more news, eh?"But the next day, which was the 19th of September, the mostincredulous were convinced.

For the first time Paris shuddered at the hoarse voice of the cannon,thundering on the heights of Chatillon. The siege of Paris, thatsiege without example in history, had commenced.

The life of the Favorals during these interminable days of anguishand suffering, was that of a hundred thousand other families.

Incorporated in the battalion of his ward, the cashier of the MutualCredit went off two or three times a week, as well as all hisneighbors, to mount guard on the ramparts, - a useless serviceperhaps, but which those that performed it did not look upon as such,- a very arduous service, at any rate, for poor merchants, accustomedto the comforts of their shops, or the quiet of their offices.

To be sure, there was nothing heroic in tramping through the mud,in receiving the rain or the snow upon the back, in sleeping on theground or on dirty straw, in remaining on guard with the thermometertwenty degrees below the freezing-point. But people die of pleurisyquite as certainly as of a Prussian bullet; and many died of it.

Maxence showed himself but rarely at Rue St. Gilles: enlisted in abattalion of sharpshooters, he did duty at the advanced posts. And,as to Mme. Favoral and Mlle. Gilberte, they spent the day trying toget something to live on. Rising before daylight, through rain orsnow, they took their stand before the butcher's stall, and, afterwaiting for hours, received a small slice of horse-meat.

Alone in the evening, by the side of the hearth where a few piecesof green wood smoked without burning, they started at each of thedistant reports of the cannon. At each detonation that shook thewindow-panes, Mme. Favoral thought that it was, perhaps, the onethat had killed her son.

And Mlle. Gilberte was thinking of Marius de Tregars. The accurseddays of November and December had come. There were constant rumorsof bloody battles around Orleans. She imagined Marius, mortallywounded, expiring on the snow, alone, without help, and without afriend to receive his supreme will and his last breath.

One evening the vision was so clear, and the impression so strong,that she started up with a loud cry.

"What is it?" asked Mme. Favoral, alarmed. "What is the matter?"With a little perspicacity, the worthy woman could easily haveobtained her daughter's secret; for Mlle. Gilberte was not incondition to deny anything. But she contented herself with anexplanation which meant nothing, and had not a suspicion, whenthe girl answered with a forced smile,"It's nothing, dear mother, nothing but an absurd idea that crossedmy mind."Strange to say, never had the cashier of the Mutual Credit been forhis family what he was during these months of trials.

During the first weeks of the siege he had been anxious, agitated,nervous; he wandered through the house like a soul in trouble; hehad moments of inconceivable prostration, during which tears couldbe seen rolling down upon his cheeks, and then fits of angerwithout motive.

But each day that elapsed had seemed to bring calm to ............