The generals have no faith in their troops, and the troops have no faith in their generals.
Go outside the walls and talk to the officers and the soldiers who are doing the real fighting, and who pass the day dodging shells, and the night freezing in their tents.

They tell you that they are prepared to do their duty, but that they are doubtful of ultimate success.

Come inside, and talk to some hero who has never yet got beyond the ramparts, Cato at Utica is a joke to him, Palafox at Saragossa a whining coward.
Since the forts have been bombarded, he has persuaded himself that he is eating, drinking, and sleeping under the fire of the enemy.

"Human nature is a rum 'un," said Mr.Richard Swiveller; and most assuredly this is true of French nature.

That real civil courage and spirit of self-sacrifice which the Parisians have shown, in submitting to hardship and ruin rather than consent to the dismemberment of their country, they regard as no title to respect.