As I continue my road the groups become more numerous.  I lift my head and see a shell burst over the Avenue of the Grande Armee, leaving a puff of white smoke hanging for a few seconds like a cloud-flake detached by the wind.

On I go still.  The height on which the Arc de Triomphe stands is covered with people; a great many women and children among them.  They are mounted on posts, clinging to the projections of the Arch, hanging to the sculpture of the bas-reliefs.  One man has put a plank upon the tops of three chairs, and by paying a few sous the gapers can hoist themselves upon it.  From this position one can perceive a motionless, attentive crowd reaching down the whole length of the Avenue of the Grande Armee, as far as the Porte Maillot, from which a great cloud of white smoke springs up every moment followed by a violent explosion,—­it is the cannon of the ramparts firing on the Rond Point of Courbevoie; and beyond this the Avenue de Neuilly stretching far out in the sunshine, deserted and dusty, a human form crossing it rapidly from time to time; and farthest of all, beyond the Seine, beyond the Avenue de l’Empereur, deserted too, the hill of Courbevoie, where a battery of the Versailles troops is established.  But stretch my eyes as I may I cannot distinguish the guns; but a few men, sentinels doubtless, can be made out.  They are sergents de ville, says my right-hand neighbour; but he on my left says they are Pontifical Zouaves.  They must have good eyes to recognise the uniforms at this distance.  The most contradictory rumours circulate as to the barricade on the bridge; it is impossible for one to ascertain whether it has remained in the possession of the soldiers or the Federals.  There has been but little fighting, moreover, since I came.  A little later, at twelve o’clock, the fusillade ceases entirely.  But the battery on the ramparts continues to fire upon Courbevoie, and Mont Valerien still shells Neuilly at intervals.  Suddenly a flood of dust, coming from Porte Maillot, thrusts back the thick of the crowd, and as it flies, widening, and whirling more madly as it comes, everyone is seized with terror, and rushes away screaming and gesticulating.  A shell has just fallen, it is said, in the Avenue of the Grande Armee.  Not a soul remains about the Triumphal Arch.  The adjoining streets are filled with people who have run to take shelter there.  By little and little, however, the people begin to recover themselves, the flight is stopped in the middle, and, laughing at their momentary panic, they turn back again.  A quarter of an hour afterwards the crowd is everywhere as compact as before.

[Illustration:  PLACE DE LA CONCORDE AND CHAMPS ELYSEES, FROM THE GARDENS OF THE TUILERIES—­FEDERALISTS GOING OUT TO FIGHT THE VERSAILLAIS.