[4] My first observations with regard to the art of impressing crowds and touching the slight assistance to be derived in this connection from the rules of logic date back to the seige of Paris, to the day when I saw conducted to the Louvre, where the Government was then sitting, Marshal V——, whom a furious crowd asserted they had surprised in the act of taking the plans of the fortifications to sell them to the Prussians.A member of the Government (G. P——), a very celebrated orator, came out to harangue the crowd, which was demanding the immediate execution of the prisoner. I had expected that the speaker would point out the absurdity of the accusation by remarking that the accused Marshal was positively one of those who had constructed the fortifications, the plan of which,moreover, was on sale at every booksellers. To my immense stupefaction—I was very young then—the speech was on quite different lines. 'Justice shall be done,' exclaimed the orator,advancing towards the prisoner, 'and pitiless justice. Let the Government of the National Defence conclude your inquiry.In the meantime we will keep the prisoner in custody.' At once calmed by this apparent concession, the crowd broke up, and a quarter of an hour later the Marshal was able to return home.He would infallibly have been torn in pieces had the speaker treated the infuriated crowd to the logical arguments that my extreme youth induced me to consider as very convincing.