Assurance of coming victory was expressed everywhere, even among the
hotel servants in the Rue Racine and on the lips of the waiters at every
restaurant. Everybody related how many had already volunteered; the
number grew from day to day; first it was ten thousand, then seventy-
five thousand, then a hundred thousand. In the Quartier Latin, the
students sat in their cafes, many of them in uniform, surrounded by
their comrades, who were bidding them good-bye. It was characteristic
that they no longer had their womenfolk with them; they had flung them
aside, now that the matter was serious. Every afternoon a long stream of
carriages, filled with departing young soldiers, could be seen moving
out towards the Gare du Nord. From every carriage large flags waved.
Women, their old mothers, workwomen, who sat in the carriages with them,
held enormous bouquets on long poles. The dense mass of people through
which one drove were grave; but the soldiers for the most part retained
their gaiety, made grimaces, smoked and drank.
Nevertheless, the Emperor's proclamation had made a very poor
impression. It was with the intention of producing an effect of
sincerity that he foretold the war would be long and grievous,
(_longue et penible_); with a people of the French national
character it would have been better had he been able to write "terrible,
but short.
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